News, Videos February 25, 2009

Rafael’s innovative video marketing for India

Israeli arms firm Rafael displayed a Bollywood-style dance number featuring Israeli artists in full Bollywood costume singing in English about the potential for the Indo-Israeli defense trade relationship on large screen televisions at their stall at Aero India 2009 recently.


That the international defense industry is keen on getting a piece of the enormous Indian defense market is not surprising, considering the expenditure the Indian government is planning on defense equipment. The government plans to acquire a whole range of materiel from fighter aircraft, battle tanks, artillery howitzers, missiles of all ranges, naval vessels etc. Arms vendors all over the world are keenly interested in orders from India, as has been seen in the keenly watched race for the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) order.

But another measure of this eagerness to do business with India is also the innovative video marketing which an Israeli arms company, Rafael displayed on large screen televisions at their stall at Aero India 2009 recently.

The video is a Bollywood-style dance number featuring Israeli artists in full Bollywood costume singing in English about the potential for the Indo-Israeli defense trade relationship and dancing around mock-ups of Rafael’s products. It is significant that recent reports have indicated Israel to have overtaken Russia as India’s single-largest defense materiel supplier.

StratPost spoke to Assy Josephy the Director of Exhibitions for Rafael about how this video came about. “In Israel we have Jewish people from India, so we know about Bollywood and the song and dance numbers. Israelis are generally aware of Indian culture. This video is to help build familiarity between India and Israel and Rafael,” he says.

But this is not the first time Rafael has exhibited something of the sort. Josephy says Rafael has displayed such videos in many countries with various themes customized to the culture of the locations. “In Brazil we did a video of football. Football is very big there. In Paris the video had a theme that included Napoleon and the Renaissance. In Poland our video had themes of Chopin and Copernicus. In England it was about Shakespeare,” says Josephy.

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About Saurabh Joshi

View all posts by Saurabh Joshi
Follow Saurabh Joshi on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/saurabhjoshi Saurabh is a journalist based in New Delhi, India who has worked in print, television as well as internet news media. Besides defense and strategy, his past assignments have included reporting from Kashmir, coverage of terror strikes as well as election coverage from all over India. He has a Bachelors degree in Journalism (Honors) as well as a law degree (LLB), both from the University of Delhi.

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  • akramkhan2010

    The video is nice to watch and I think it would appeal to Indians though to a westerner it might sound a little different. The
    israeli artists semed to have overlayed their performances quite nicely on top of the Indian background and Indian styled music.

    Well so much for the artists and the marketing people. yes indeed music carries a lot more weight in the Indian culture as compared to so many others.

    However I discuss this from a different point of view. we in Pakistan are absolutely amazed at how come israel , which has been returned
    to the Judean nation after 1900 or so years…..why do Israel has to create more enemies………The obvious aim of Israel seems to try to neutralize the Pakistan Nuclear deterrent towards India by selling
    AWACs and AMDs….we are amazed to see a monotheist nation of israel trying to form an alliance with a polytheiest nation of India
    (with no biblical roots) against monotheist Pakistan which interestingly is currently involved in 2 conflicts…Kashmir and North
    West Pakistan (Area of Pathans)….both Pathans and Kashmiris are not Indian Aryans but in all likelihood Israellite Hebrews from
    the lost kingdom of Israel (700 BC)…..Israel is forming an alliance with Indian polytheists against Pakistan (protector of the Kashmiris and Pathans)…….Is it not like the Southern Kingdom of Judea of ancient times allying itself with some pagan polytheistic nation of Middle east in ancient times against its own cousins…the Northern Kingdom; just a similie to show you what it amounts to…Please ponder.

  • akramkhan2010

    The video is nice to watch and I think it would appeal to Indians though to a westerner it might sound a little different. The
    israeli artists semed to have overlayed their performances quite nicely on top of the Indian background and Indian styled music.

    Well so much for the artists and the marketing people. yes indeed music carries a lot more weight in the Indian culture as compared to so many others.

    However I discuss this from a different point of view. we in Pakistan are absolutely amazed at how come israel , which has been returned
    to the Judean nation after 1900 or so years…..why do Israel has to create more enemies………The obvious aim of Israel seems to try to neutralize the Pakistan Nuclear deterrent towards India by selling
    AWACs and AMDs….we are amazed to see a monotheist nation of israel trying to form an alliance with a polytheiest nation of India
    (with no biblical roots) against monotheist Pakistan which interestingly is currently involved in 2 conflicts…Kashmir and North
    West Pakistan (Area of Pathans)….both Pathans and Kashmiris are not Indian Aryans but in all likelihood Israellite Hebrews from
    the lost kingdom of Israel (700 BC)…..Israel is forming an alliance with Indian polytheists against Pakistan (protector of the Kashmiris and Pathans)…….Is it not like the Southern Kingdom of Judea of ancient times allying itself with some pagan polytheistic nation of Middle east in ancient times against its own cousins…the Northern Kingdom; just a similie to show you what it amounts to…Please ponder.

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  • GallagherEli

    Consider also the social benefits of the Internet, harder to quantify but including the power of access to information as well as greater flexibility in balancing work and family obligations through telecommuting.

  • http://www.stratpost.com Saurabh Joshi

    There were actually many deals closed, although I doubt the video had much to do with it. And one thing's for sure. A lot more people now know of a company called Rafael than before.

  • http://www.musclebuildingplans.org/best-muscle-building-supplement Muscle Building supplement

    Sounds like good marketing to me. If it was aimed towards the general public the scepticism would make it untenable. But it’s certainly not out of place at a trade show.

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  • kuldeep singh chauhan

    akramkhan2010 has lost his balance… what is the paki dumbo terrorist talking about??? poly mono all gibberish…..pakistan is a terrorist state!!

  • kuldeep singh chauhan

    akramkhan2010 has lost his balance… what is the paki dumbo terrorist talking about??? poly mono all gibberish…..pakistan is a terrorist state!!

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