MUMBAI: Zoho, a global technology company headquartered in Chennai, launched a new ad campaign, ‘It Takes Time’. The campaign emphasises the time and dedication it takes to build anything lasting. Through the use of various metaphors, the campaign also highlights Zoho’s own journey over three decades to become a global brand trusted by 130+ million users.
The campaign’s core message is: ‘To build anything that truly lasts, it takes time’. It brings to light Zoho’s commitment to building not just software, but also a sustainable way of running a business.
“The general ethos of technology companies has always been to move fast and break things. But we asked, how do you stay the course and build business software for the long term? At Zoho, we chose an unconventional path by taking our time to validate our convictions and building a suite of world-class products. None of this could have happened overnight—it has been a journey of patience and perseverance, and one that required staying true to our beliefs, through all the highs and lows. This campaign is a reflection of our approach towards sustainable growth,” said Praval Singh, VP Marketing and Customer Experience, Zoho.
The campaign was developed by Zoho along with Bombay Locale, an advertising agency. As part of the campaign, Zoho launched a video and website. The campaign will also get a 360 degree adaptation in various mediums, including OOH, print, radio, and digital.
The central motif of the campaign is a banyan tree—a symbol of longevity. It takes decades for a banyan tree to develop its aerial roots fully. Similarly, it took Zoho three decades to grow its breadth of product diversity and depth of domain expertise. Incidentally, there is a banyan tree in Zoho’s Estancia campus in Chennai.
Voiced by scriptwriter, lyricist, and radio storyteller Neelesh Misra, the campaign video makes use of three vehicles to convey its core message of longevity: the city of Varanasi to symbolise the evolution of civilisation and culture, Brihadeeswara temple to highlight toils of craftsmanship over a decade, and telephone and the internet to showcase the evolution of technology over decades.
The campaign reveals that the not-so-secret ingredient behind Zoho’s success is time. Over decades it has consistently invested in R&D efforts, building its entire tech stack from ground up. Being bootstrapped has enabled Zoho to experiment and choose its own path, like setting up a product company in India when service companies were booming, opening offices in Indian villages to build software instead of congregating in metros, creating a training programme as an alternative to college for countering credentialism, and more.
For Zoho, people and their skills are a part of its capital, far more valuable than tangible assets. As a testament, there are over 170 employees who have been with Zoho for over 20 years, and 1900+ employees who have been with Zoho for over 10 years. All these form the strong foundations on which Zoho stands today. ‘And we are just getting started,’ the campaign claims, underlining the long-term vision of the company.
