Opinion BY Armin

Flubber-based Logo

Offering televisions (conventional, flat and LCD), washing machines, air-conditioners, refrigerators, audio products, home theatre systems and microwave ovens, produced through eighteen manufacturing facilities globally, India-based Videocon is one of the largest consumer products in its country and has its aim on global expansion. This past July Videcon unveiled its new identity in San Francisco with the help of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

While the venue chosen stands testament to the current reach and also the future ambitions of Videocon’s large Consumer Durables division, brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan embodies the very spirit of the new, hardworking and youthful Global Indian — aware, in sync and winning recognition and accolades across the world today.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Khan said, “I am extremely proud to stand before you today in San Francisco, to unveil Videocon’s new brand identity and logo — to me, this moment is yet another reminder of how far India has come since winning her Independence sixty three years ago.
— Press Release

If you can’t make head or tails from the video above and question the green muppets, there is an explanation:

The clip being unveiled today is representative of Chouw and Mouw’s activities — today, they’ve taken a journey to the US from India to visit Videocon’s brand ambassador, Shah Rukh Khan at his film set in the US. They encounter some difficulty in meeting him, but eventually manage to do so. Following this meeting, Mr. Khan gets to magically view the new Videocon Logo morph into existence in the sky over the Golden Gate Bridge. Together, they spend the day with a meal out, some time for exercise and a good read together, and get to meet with Karan Johar and even dance with the choreographer Farah Khan… before it’s time to say farewell and head back to India.

As I was poking around for this post, this was the first video I saw and, to put it mildly, I thought it was lame and wondered if the green blobs was just a case of something lost in (cultural) translation. But small in the bottom corner of Videocon’s web site was an animation that further established these two personalities — Chouw and Mouw — and gave life to the logo. Here they are:

The ‘V’ in the new Videocon logo is representative of the new identity of this leading consumer durables brand - an identity that is fresh, dynamic, and has been provided a life of its own. The new ‘V’ is composed of two animated green, lava-like shapes — called Chouw and Mouw, with distinct identities of their own.

Chouw and Mouw are ‘live’ characters, and will be used through a series of short videos to tell simple stories, each depicting a positive dimension of Videocon’s new tagline, “Experience Change.” Both have certain personality traits, based on their physical attributes. The bigger one, Chouw, is slow but earnest; strong and silent; he is patient, good natured, kind, and maybe a little romantic too. The smaller one, Mouw, is quick witted, energetic — bordering on restless, curious, and funny. Physically, they can coerce their bodies into rudimentary shapes that help them to get on with tasks at hand.

It’s amazing how these animations really give the logo a story and it becomes quite endearing once you know that this logo for a corporate behemoth is actually two friendly flubbers that do good things — an extremely welcome change from the old logo, which might as well be for the evil empire of a James Bond villain. On its own and without a back story the V icon is cool enough and has the potential to become an instantly recognizable shape since it’s so simple. The typography, on the other hand, is sadly too out of date and clashes with the fluidity of the icon; even something more contemporary like the type in the tagline, “Experience Change,” would have felt better. Nonetheless, this has to be one of my favorite identities all year, not so much for the final logo but for the story it tells and the emotional connection it can create with customers.

Update: Animations should now be playing for everyone.

\n\n

Offering televisions (conventional, flat and LCD), washing machines, air-conditioners, refrigerators, audio products, home theatre systems and microwave ovens, produced through eighteen manufacturing facilities globally, India-based Videocon is one of the largest consumer products in its country and has its aim on global expansion. This past July Videcon unveiled its new identity in San Francisco with the help of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners