actually completing their courses.

This
shows a lot of growth potential, and
UpGrad’s humourous ad film tends to create
a mind recall in consumer’s mind as a place
to go to for worthwhile degrees.

The commercial shows employees kissing a

donkey is a quirky uptake on how
MBA FT- 7202 employees often tend to lick their boss’ ass
in order to get a promotion. UpGrad ad film
Advertising Management focuses on upskilling oneself through means
of useful degrees (instead of saying
Ad-Analysis “courses”) to get a promotion rather than
resorting to sycophancy as is common in the
corporate setup. Saying “degrees” is a point
of differentiation from various other
MOOCs available because of the emotional
attachment with degrees.

Submitted By:
GROUP – 9
166 Aayush Goyal
201 Aakash Agarwal
216 Ayesh Kanta Padhi
243 Rijul Rastogi
330 N Sai Shankar
I. Objective
The objective of UpGrad’s new mass media
commercial is to create a space for itself in
the ever growing Indian Ed-tech industry.
With the recent upsurge in Ed-tech in the
country due to lockdowns caused by Covid-
19, UpGrad realised it's a potentially huge
market despite so many huge players like
Byjus and Unacademy taking the centre
stage. Of the Total Addressable Market
(TAM) of 100 million, only about 1% are
II. Imagery
The imagery used to send across the
message of the advertisement is very strong.
The colloquial metaphor used in India to
indicate getting one’s work done without
actually working hard, is portrayed literally
in the advertisement. The primary objective
of the advertisement is to focus on the value
derived from actual learning. The word
“degree” is used in the advertisement
because of its social and emotional heft in
Indian context. However, the actual learning
is the goal of UpGrad which is portrayed in
the advertisement by focusing on the
negative aspects of a degree with no
learning. By stressing on the negative
aspects, the importance of “kaam is degree”
is highlighted.
III. Laddering of the Advertisement:
Terminal Value: Getting work done by
utilizing the learning.
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Instrumental Value: Getting quality
education.
Psychological Consequences: Self Esteem
linked to knowing your work, derogatory
sentiments towards sycophancy.
Functional Consequences: Good education
which can be used.
Abstract Attribute: Self-respect associated
with getting your own work done.
Concrete Attribute: A degree that can be
put to use.
IV. Tone
The advertisement has a humorous tone,
highlighting the negative aspects of getting a
degree for namesake. The advertisement
featuring a donkey draws from the cultural
aspects of the weight associated with getting
a degree rather than getting real education.
V. Target Consumer
The target audience for the advertisement
are both working professionals and students.
The primary aim of UpGrad was to focus on
the huge plethora of courses available and
tie ups with some of the premier universities
in India. The advertisement focuses on the
importance of developing skill sets rather
than getting a degree for namesake.
VI. Functional Benefit
The ad has a core focus on the functional
benefit of using Upgrad which is beautifully
captured in the message “Sirf naam ki nahi,
kaam ki degree”
With the rising number of courses/degrees
that are available Upgrad wants to bring to
light its differentiated proposition of being
able to “use” its degree.
VII. Emotional Benefit
The ad has a strong emotional impact on its
viewers. Many workplaces conversations are
about someone receiving benefits because of
sycophancy versus merit.
The ad uses this emotional hook to bring to
light that if someone excels at work they
need not have to resort to sycophancy like
“others”. The emotional expressions of the
characters add flavour to the situation and
make the ad a memorable one for its
viewers.
VIII. Consumer Insight
Following are the major insights which
found the basis of the above mentioned
advertisement:
a. UpGrad’s TG are primarily working
professionals and its previous
campaigns ‘Raho Ambitious’ and
‘Aage ki Soch’ focused on mirroring
the TGs sentiments which is to get
ahead in career. However it was
found that the TG did not lack the
ambition or the drive to achieve their
goals but lacked the means to
materialize them.
b. All employees want to climb up the
corporate hierarchy and one common
way is by being obsequious to the
boss. This campaign is a jibe at this
practice.
c. The concept of “degree” holds both
emotional and practical heft across
all socio-economic classes.
d. There is a massive rush towards
“upskilling” as companies are
rationalising their workforce.
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 e. Most choices of upskilling for the
TG are generic, outdated and from
not so prestigious institutions which
are not valued by employers. Hence
they want something that could be a
differentiating factor.
f. Working professionals
subconsciously believe that they
need a “specialized/professional
degree” to move further in their
career.
IX. Key Message
The tagline “Sirf naam ki nahi, kaam ki
degree”, takes a jibe at multiple degrees
which have no standing in the industry. Also
the commercial targets multiple cases of
online courses which claim to be affiliated
with certain foreign universities but are
potentially useless in the corporate set-up.
The ad film sends out a message that
employees will have a better chance at
promotion if they were more skilled and
knowledgeable, rather than being the boss’
favorite by means of flattery. And for that,
UpGrad is the place to go.
X. Rating the advertisement
Parameters for rating the advertisement:
a. Insight: The advertisement has been
developed as a humorous take on the
cultural insight that in the corporate
world, everyone wants to climb the
ladder and choose various ways to
get ahead, some of which are looked
down upon but are nonetheless
prevalent. One such practice is
sycophancy or being obsequious to
the boss, in order to get ahead. To
talk about this practice is almost a
taboo in corporate culture but people
do acknowledge it internally that it
does happen. Thus, the
advertisement is very bold and
engaging to TG on how it goes about
to bring this topic to light.
b. Representation on screen: The
advertisement uses ‘donkey’ to
represent the boss of the employees,
which adds a humorous element and
is based on the prevalent culture of
people thinking low of their bosses
in the office. This representation may
not be apt but is certainly engaging
for the target audience.
c. Appeal to TG: The advertisement
and the whole campaign has a clever
choice of words. The word ‘degree’
holds practical and emotional heft
across all socio-economic classes in
India. While degrees are available
everywhere in India, they may come
from not-so credible institutions,
which ultimately are not valued by
the employer. Hence, the genesis of
the tagline, “Sirf naam ki nahi,
Kaam ki degree”. It also establishes
the fact that upGrad is focussed upon
outcome-oriented specialisations that
can help learners to achieve ROI on
education via job or profile switch,
increment or promotion, etc.
d. Point of Differentiation: There are
several options available for
upskilling, but why should a
customer choose you? It was
important to present other options as
generic, outdated and not so credible,
and create a point of differentiation
that cannot be contested, which was
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 established via “Sirf naam ki nahi,
Kaam ki degree”.
e. Advertisement Placement: The
advertisement is being strategically
placed across platforms, with high
youth traffic. The performance-
driven media planning is being
executed by agency DCMN and
OTTs and Google platform by Tatvic
Analytics. The advertisement is also
being strategically placed on social
media to the target customers.
f. Traffic and Revenue: The upGrad
donkey advertisement owing to its
bold messaging was well received by
users. Arjun Mohan, CEO of upGrad
said, “We have also been able to
translate the traffic into revenue,
especially our management vertical
which has seen an uptake for MBA
programs. Therefore, with an overall
intent to reach out to a wider set of
audience, who look at pursuing an
MBA as a viable career proposition,
we have come up with a brand-new
narrative that is designed to strike a
chord with our consumers”.
Overall the advertisement is built
around bold insight, uses good
representation, establishes a point of
differentiation not only from the
direct competitors but also from
indirect competitors appeals to the
target audience well and most
importantly brought in the traffic and
the revenue. Thus, we find it
appropriate to give it a rating of 7/10.
XI. Accounting for the difference &
Conclusion
While the advertisement did well in aligning
itself with the consumer insight and TG
appeal, it wasn’t exactly being socially
responsible. The advertisement could come
off indecent and demeaning towards
working women. It is 2021 and casual
sexism is still rampant in the workplace,
especially in male dominated industries.
Women find it very difficult to be taken
seriously in the workplace. The
advertisement depicts a woman being
sycophant to her boss, in a suggestive
manner in order to rise in her career,
whereas a man is shown as someone who
progresses in his career because he
undertook a course on upGrad. The
expression of the woman before she drops
the paper and expression thereafter shows
her willingness to the overtures of the boss,
and this would normally be condemned in
the workplace. This could have serious
repercussions on the advertisement. This ad
could also be inappropriate for children to
watch. Thus, the possible shortcomings of
the advertisement must be analysed before
its execution.
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