Iconic Ads: Vimal Suitings – Only Vimal

It is very interesting how the “Only Vimal” brand emerged. In a meeting between Dhirubhai Ambani, Frank Simoes and AG Krishnamurthy, Dhirubhai kept mentioning that in many aspects only Vimal and Reliance had the capabilities to do. And so Frank got his cue arrived at the obvious – Only Vimal!

Though Frank had coined the brand name, it was Mudra who took it to the next level and a haunting jingle was set to music by Leslie Lewis.

The strategy here was to first position Vimal Suitings as a fashion brand to look up to.

Only Vimal was a brand that used celebrities from many areas. It was the first to use cricketers, both national and international, as brand ambassadors.

The first to introduce double-spread colour ads in Indian print advertising became a household name. Kabir Bedi, Blitz Editor R K Karanjia, Michael Ferreira and cricket players like Ravi Shastri, Allan Border and Viv Richards were endorsers.

The most memorable campaign was when Reliance sponsored the Cricket World Cup in 1987. New commercials were to be shot. The theme being ‘the looks of a winner’. Three cricketers — Ravi Shastri, Viv Richards and Alan Border (nobody gave Australia a chance though).

Ace creative director Adrian Mendonza was the brains behind this campaign.

Each one of the cricketers was paid a princely sum of Rs 50,000 for endorsing the brand.
The one featuring Viv Richards set to Reggae music was by far the most popular, but not before he had ditched filmmaker Shantanu Shorey four times and took him to many cities and towns. And finally thanks to the Nawab of Pataudi, he could shoot at Maharani’s Gayatri Devi’s palace in Jaipur.

As luck would have it, Alan Border won the cup and had ‘looks of a winner’

Only Vimal…Vimal