Chhotaverse, bias banking – How Urban Company is protecting dignity of labour

Urban Company, which offers expert professional services at the doorstep, has always been on a mission to bridge the respect gap between the white-collar and blue-collar workers in India over the last one year. Workplaces are often defined in a manner that is limited to cubicles and ‘glass cabin view’, whereas the homes of people are the workplaces of millions of blue-collar workers that include UC Professionals.

With its powerful storytelling and thought-provoking campaigns, Urban Company has consistently championed the cause of empathy, respect, and protecting dignity of labour, offering much support to workers from all sections of the society. They have recently launched a new film under their ‘Dignity of Labour’ series after ‘Chhota Kaam’, and ‘Chhoti Soch’, which challenged the societal taboos.

The third film in the series by Urban Company, titled ‘Chhoti Baat’, expresses this existing bias through a meaningful and deep conversation between a father and daughter. In the ad film, a daughter is seen sharing with her father on a video call how her boss does not let anyone work in peace, and that even if she is doing something right, it becomes wrong, which shatters her willingness to go to office. In turn, her father is shown to advise her that if her boss has no trust in her, he should do the work himself. Ironically at that time, a plumber was working at her place and her father says with concern that a plumber has come to her place and she is sitting there, suggesting that she should be around him so that he knows that somebody is watching him. Her father further states that if she is not chasing the workers constantly, no work will get done in the end. The daughter is then seen arguing that the plumber is doing his work and she does not like keeping a watch on them. The father says that her likes or dislikes do not matter as it is important to extract work out of these people, which leads the daughter to pose the question ‘Which people?’, referring to what her father just said. The daughter herself then asks her father since he is a surgeon, would he like it if the patient’s relatives keep checking on him in the operation theatre, asking whether everything is going fine or not. The father then responds suggesting that she is making an unnatural comparison to which she answers that she is comparing work with work. She then says that in the office her boss sits on her head and now she will sit on the plumber’s head, then what will be the difference between both of them, as she does not wish to be like her boss. Further, she states that her father only told her that if she has no trust in the plumber, she can do the work herself and that it is something to think about. She then goes to see off the plumber who completes his work and receives a message from her father on the phone that it is truly something to think about. The ad ‘Chhoti Baat’ then concludes that the biggest reward of all work is respect.

Watch the ad films:

https://youtu.be/bffSW7obMiY?si=2vf59uTAL1kwcZlu

https://youtu.be/W4n3A0OLBtU?si=WiYUgQBJEzerCRcu

https://youtu.be/kU3y54ybZqA?si=ZlE8-3syZUnpTUFd

In conversation with Adgully, Leena Gupta, Founding Member and Creative, Talented, speaks about the concept and creative thought behind the newly launched campaign ‘Chhoti Baat’ in the ‘Dignity of Labour’ series, the creative brief given to Talented, the message that it is trying to convey, the expectations out of it, marketing/ media mix strategy of the campaign, what forms the core of the creative communication process at Urban Company, and more.

What is the concept and thought behind the newly launched campaign in the 'Dignity of Labour' series – ‘Chhoti Baat’?

The ‘Dignity of Labour’ series by Talented and Urban Company is three films old. With each narrative, we aim to bridge the gap between the country’s blue and white-collar workers by tackling biases that sit at the intersection of caste, class, gender, and other aspects of a person’s identity. With our third film, Chhoti Baat, in the series, which we lovingly call ‘Chhotaverse’ internally, we wanted to challenge the traditional perception of a “workplace” held by corporate India. With this film, we have also had the opportunity to move the needle towards allyship. After the last two installments, where we had the UC Professionals countering the bias head-on, in front of consumers and their families, in this film, we see the consumer taking up the responsibility and becoming an ally to our cause of dignity of labour.

What was the creative brief that was given to Talented by Urban Company?

The genesis of the ‘Dignity of Labour’ series was a problem of brand perception. People didn’t feel safe calling unknown UC Professionals to their houses for blue-collar jobs. Our research revealed that homeowners are caretakers first and homeowners second. They are fiercely protective of the status quo in their personal space. The brand needed to address their apprehensions strategically and more purposefully. We realized that this perception of being unsafe was born directly from an inherent respect gap between the country’s blue and white-collar workers. Thus, the idea of ‘dignity of labor’ forms the bedrock of each film in this series, where we demonstrate that UC Professionals bring their best selves to every home; through their skill, deep training, and the inherent pride they feel towards it.

What are the expectations out of the campaign ‘Chhoti Baat’ by Urban Company and what is the message it is trying to convey?

Around this time each year, LinkedIn is flooded with chatter about leadership in workplaces – good managers, bad managers, handing-out-peanuts-in-the-name-of-increment managers. However, the very same employees who engage in discourse around leadership styles, work-life balance, and mental health, often don’t make the best employers, at home.

With the film ‘Chhoti Baat’, we wanted to highlight this limited ‘glass-cabin’ view of workplaces. Our homes are workplaces for millions of blue-collar workers, including UC Professionals. Thus, it is our collective responsibility to make sure that our expansive vocabulary around what a “toxic” workplace constitutes, trickles down to our backyard, and in the way we treat our house help and support staff. Everyone deserves an environment in which they can do their life's best work, and it’s up to us to create one, in our own homes.

Even though Urban Company is a service sector brand, where the ‘customer always is king’, we have had the wonderful opportunity of not subscribing to this motto. With every film, we have pointed out the biases and prejudices that our customers harbour, and rallied to close the respect gap between blue and white-collar workers.

What is the marketing/ media mix strategy of the campaign ‘Chhoti Baat’ by Urban Company and Talented?

Considering the length of this film and optimizing for the best viewing experience; YouTube (including CTV) and OTT platforms lead media distribution for the Chhoti Baat campaign.

However, most of our reach is built organically through influencer collaborations across LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

What forms the core of the creative communication process at Urban Company?

At the heart of any good creative communication is a deep understanding of our consumers, derived from gathering insights from their app behavior, brand health measures, and most importantly, in-depth consumer immersions.

Depending on the business objective, communication can differ. When optimizing for growth, the creatives focus on persuasion, based on an insight into consumers' challenges in the category that we can credibly solve. For perception shifts, we lean heavily on mirroring behaviour, language and everyday observations, to disarm unconscious biases, as has been our attempt with the ‘Chhotaverse’ films. Once we have built a strong, shared understanding of the objective and insight with our creative partners, it’s about enabling them to deliver work that truly resonates.

Could you take us through the creative conceptualization process behind the filming of the ‘Chhoti Baat’ campaign by Urban Company?

Every narrative that we put out as a part of the ‘Dignity of Labour’ series comes from real, lived experiences. Through hours of interviewing UC Professionals, the teams at Talented and Urban Company derive insights into the various ways in which the respect gap between blue and white-collar workers exists. Headed by strategist Sai Karthik, we invest in a process called ‘bias banking’ – an almost anthropological survey that looks at the biases UC Professionals face, at the intersection of caste, class, gender, region, and so on. Lived experiences of these biases are then developed into scripts, in collaboration with subject matter experts. For instance, for ‘Chhoti Baat’ we partnered with Balram Vishwakarma, a Bahujan storyteller who helped us tell this story with the sensitivity it deserves.

How is Urban Company bridging the gap between blue-collar and white-collar employees through its Dignity of Labour campaign series?

Over the last 10 years, Urban Company has been instrumental in reshaping India’s access to blue-collared services. To create a mutually beneficial platform for our two constituents, customers and service professionals, the Dignity of labour campaign series isn’t just a communication platform for us, but a precondition for a sustainable business that ensures consistent year-on-year earnings growth for our partners, safety nets in the form of insurance and medical cover. Over 57,000 Urban Company Professionals have benefitted from skill training programs and accreditations, climbing the ladder to upward social mobility. With this series, we intend to create the conditions for social progress for our blue-collared partners and nudge society to see them the way we do — as professionals. And with that intent, we have made progress in partner earnings, partner welfare, and their social mobility, with more details here.