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Mom Knows Best

Google?s ad campaign to promote its website for women is ably supported by some interesting insights. Light and yet loaded.

Campaign: Internet Moms

Brand: http://www.hwgo.com (Helping Women Get Online)

Company : Google India

Agency: Ogilvy India

The Campaign

The campaign which comprises three ads is to promote Google?s new initiative?Helping Women Get Online. The first ad opens on a young girl in a hostel chatting over the net with her mom and asking her advice on whether to choose the yellow or the red dress. Her mom in a dead-serious voice gives all the right reasons why she should go for red, but the daughter isn?t too convinced. Then comes the clincher as her mom very nonchalantly mentions that Varun (her daughter?s boyfriend) too loves red. The girl is taken aback as she realises that her mother knows whom she has been dating, but relaxes noticing the twinkle in her mom?s eyes. She signs off saying ?Thanks, bye, mom?. Then comes the voice-over: ?Internet moms ki baat hi kuch aur hai. Aap bhi internet ka pura faayda uthaiye. Aapne laptop ya mobile pe http://www.hwgo.com type kariye aur Helping Women Get Online website par jaiiye.? The ad ends with the HWGO logo.

The second ad?homework – shows a mother trying to make her teenager son study history. As the boy struggles to gets the answers correct, the mother ticks him off. The now angry son replies back that if it is so simple, she should know all the answers. The mother, who was just waiting for that, surreptitiously looks at her mobile screen hidden in her lap and immediately reels off the full name of Emperor Akbar and then recites the names of the nine gems in his court, and ends with a full account on Akbar?s life. Her son gapes at her and then quietly picks up his book. The film ends with the voice-over. The third ad depicts a young mother waiting to pick up her little son from school who is surprised to see four little girls fawning over him. The reason becomes clear when he asks what she will be packing for lunch the following day. She checks her mobile and announces ?spinach and corn pasta?.

Our Take

Three moms. Three stories. All delightfully told. Light and yet loaded. Interesting insights supported by clean execution. There are times when a mother needs to prove to her child that she is smarter than her kid. And the internet helps her do so. These are all new-age moms who use the latest technology to keep up with their children. The three women straddle three different age groups ?the smart young mother, the harried mother of a rebellious teenager and the middle-aged portly mother knitting at home? their trials and tribulations are varied, but it is the internet that comes to their rescue. Among the three ads, the advice ad is perhaps most subtle. Here is this middle-aged mom who gives not only practical advice but also mentions the most clinching reason?her boyfriend?s likes and dislikes. The underlying message: The internet can help keep the communication channels open with your growing child living in another city. So important in today?s times. The other two ads are also good, though a little predictable.

What?s more important is that the campaign highlights how the internet is relevant for stay-at-home moms and not just working women. While most of us think that the internet is ubiquitous, when it comes to women it seems internet darkness still prevails. India is on its way to become the second largest internet market in the world overtaking US, but only one-third of India?s online users are women. It is to correct that anomaly that Google has launched this initiative?Helping Women Get Online?which will focus on creating awareness about the benefits of Internet for women, educate women to use the internet to improve their lives and work with partners to enable easy internet access points for women in the country. And it starts with moms.

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First published on: 10-12-2013 at 02:46 IST
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