Category: Advertising

There is huge amount of data around us and it keeps growing each nano-second. There is a digital trail of each online activity. That adds to this pool. At the same time, powerful tools employing complex algorithms are used to plough through this data. It would not have been possible to do so through traditional research methods. The mining of this data is called Big Data. It includes searching, capturing, storing, analysing and eventually sharing relevant information with target audience.

Big Data drives the business decisions and may eventually shape the way the world functions. Big Data alters the way we process and perceive things. Big Data sample size is large and diverse. It cannot give the ‘margin of error’ which traditional surveys give with their limited sample size.

However, such exactness is not necessary. Insights obtained through Big Data could be far more useful. What are to be emphasised are the correlations rather than causality. However, there should not be over-reliance on Big Data, especially while looking at sensitive issues such as crime. it is also not necessary to follow blindly what Big Data throws up. India’s Aadhar card project is a Big Data project. It links an identification number to the demographic and biometric information.

In any industry, we come across disruptive events. In advertising, the first disruptive event was the advent of TV in the 1940s. Thereafter, we had just incremental changes  — print to video. It was all an era of mass advertising. Another disruptive event is the advent of digital advertising. It is a far bigger shift than the previous three shifts –print to radio to TV — put together. It is not just a change in the media — but a change from the mass media to personalised media. It is the beginning of customised ads — a different phase of creativity and distribution. The ads are tailored to user needs. Thus shaving gel ads will be shown to men only and diaper ads to new mothers. The old media will continue to co-exist with the new media but most innovations will happen in digital space. A search engine may figure out an individual’s personality and preferences and may project the relevant ads to him.

Traditionally, an Agency has the creative, production and media departments. Media buying is related to radio, TV, print or a mix of them. Digital buying is not so simple. There are display ads, search or campaigns on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. Each has a different social graph. Creative and media will work together, along with the techies. There will be emphasis on user data. It will influence the structure of the agencies.

Nissan Mexico’s launch of the Pathfinder was done in digital space. In India, there was YouTube campaign around Lifebuoy.

The chase for the ‘holy grail for advertising’ has just begun — one ad for every individual. The surface has just been scratched. The next ten years are important.

Sex and sexy both sell here. Deo commercials are based on the theme of being desirable and desiring someone. In deo ad, a man becomes an object of desire for a girl. So far, such an open expression of desire by a woman for man was not acceptable. The innerwear ads showed boys fighting the bad guys to save women. That was acceptable. Today, both men and women react openly and equally to each other. The product sells. It also promotes hygiene.

Tux, a chubby penguin who looks content and satiated, is the mascot for Linux and is designed by Larry Ewing in 1996 using free graphics software GIMP. Tux is derived from Tovalds Unix. Linus Tovalds is the creator of Linux kernel.

According to Al Ries, the use of sex in advertising is more a question of fashion. As fashion, it rises and falls. Advertisers want to be new and different. If during a period, there is little sexual symbolism, there is an incentive to use it. But an excess of sexual ads make advertisers look elsewhere to arrest attention. To be effective, sex works when the product as such involves sexual attraction, e.g. perfume and clothing. Successful advertising is about the power of ideas.

Sexuality can brand a moment. Haagen Dazs is an adult ice-cream with sensual ads like body and texture, feel me, intense fresh, lose control and dedicated to pleasure. Sex is here an analogy to sexual indulgence. It is the best selling premium ice-cream in Britain.

Many companies splash their ads on front pages of the print media. It is a big bang approach. During a down-turn actually small size ads are expected. However, many think that the company should curtail the frequency and duration of the campaigns and instead should run big ads for select periods. Some of these ads can be attributed to private treaty agreements. A publisher under such a treaty picks up equity stake in companies in return for romoting these partners through ad deals. Another reason for such big ads is the price discounts being offered by the media to the tune of 30-50 per cent. Some media houses also offer frrbies and value add-ons.

Many ads used animals in yester years. With rise of animal rights groups and concern for ethical treatment to animals, India has set up Animal Welfare Board of India ( AWBI )  which prescribes a procedure for filming with live animals. Their permission is necessary to shoot with a live animal. Vodafone ad featuring a pug took Nirvana more than six weeks to secure the permission. SBI’s ad of a hen laying golden eggs was objected to by PETA India ( People for Ethical Treatment to Animals ). Johnson’s commercial for Savlon used a dog, sparrows and cockatoos, and faced problem with the Board. Hutch Essar’s fortune teller bird, a parakeet was withdrawn. Animations films now create animals to avoid such problems, e.g. Alpenliebe candy with Kajol and crocodile has an animated crocodile. Animation, though expensive, gives a lot of creative freedom. The cow used in Orbit White commercial is an animated cow. Film makers sometimes prefer to shoot abroad where there are animation protection rules but the whole thing is time bound. Alternatively, footage from stock libraries can be used. Tata Safari ad with several wild animals popping out eyes when it drove by had stock shots. Pepsi’s cricketers morphed into tigers using stock footage. Stock footage is cheaper as compared to animation or shooting abroad. Some film makers edit out animals totally.

He is a UK-born person in a Jewish family. He runs the world’s largest communication network WPP Plc, operating in 107 countries with a revenue of 9.3 billion pounds. His network has taken over JWT, O&M, Young and Rubicam and Grey Worldwide under its fold. He also owns media buying agencies such as Mindshare, Maxus, Mediaedge and Mediacom. He also owns several PR agencies, digital promotion companies and branding agencies. In India, WPP accounts for 40 per cent of the total revenue generated by the ad industry.

Amritanjan balm is perceived as out-dated grandma’s therapy for pain relief. It was to be connected to youth. The love and affection route was used. A young man and his companion board a train, and he complains of a head-ache. A young woman follows him in the corridor, and offers to apply balm. As they retire for the night, the man assures that his wife is asleep on the upper berth while he reaches out to the young woman across the berth.The Agency is Shining Consulting.And the creative director Shombit Sengupta.

In Mirinda ad, a chief guest arrives at a college function. He notices people panting and breathless. The next day’s newspapers feature him and a teacher heaving and panting.The headline is ‘caught in the act.’ Created by Swati Bhattacharya of JWT. It is a tasteful but provocative ad. It has naughty tonality but it highlights the breathlessness concept of the campaign.

Lowe Lintas Aru Iyer Fasttrack ad shows an air-hostess entering cock-pit. As the pilot puts the plane on auto-pilot, the hands can be free for other activities — rather pleasurable activities. It was a little funny ad with innuendo, although in a classy manner. According to Piyush Pandey, innuendo is creativity, provided that it is culturally accepted.

As we know, unique selling proposition was relevant when a product could be differentiated on the basis of some technological advantage. Since then we have an era of product parity on account of shortening of time between the introduction of an innovation and a me -too copycat product. Consequently, USP does not work. In the absence of meaningful differences, all brands tend to get commoditised, and the only differentiator the marketer uses is the price. The lower the prices, the greater are the chances of being preferred by the consumer. This affects profitability and long term prospects of the business.

Instead of USP, we now talk in terms of UBP — Unique Benefit Proposition. USP was the marketer’s say about the the product. UBP is what the consumer wants to hear from the marketers. In this approach, the consumer research is carried out to get insight — what the consumer really want and how our product can be connected to that primal need. A luxury car as an asset may be bought to flaunt wealth. But explicitly, the consumer may not say so. If safety is emphasised, it becomes more acceptable. It gives the consumer a permission to buy the luxury product. Later, the asset becomes an object of envy for the neighbours. Of course, even the competitors may try to find out what the consumers actually need. If our understanding of the consumers is better than that of the competitors, we shall win, and vice versa. This understanding is the basis for Unique Buying Proposition.