I was in Mumbai over the weekend on official work. The biggest news of the previous day was all over the papers – Michael Jackson’s untimely demise.
As expected, it hogged the headlines everywhere nationally and internationally. Two newspapers though caught my attention for a different reason. Times of India and DNA had a Navi bar (strip ad) running below their masthead and above the headline. (This is one of the new premium positions apart from the Front page solus (FPS) that attracts a lot of eyeballs because of their clutter-less positions.)
The ad in question is of Nokia. I had blogged about them a couple of days ago on the good stuff that they had done with the battery fiasco.
Unfortunately, the ad tries to capitalise on a topical story with poor results for the following three reasons.
1. It tried to cash in on a emotional and tragic story 2. Though they did not advertise a product of theirs, the words in the headline clearly brought in the recall for their N series brands 3. The position of the ad above a editorial was too much to digest.
Unfortunately, you cannot blame Nokia alone for this. The culprits in this case are also the agency who suggested the idea, the media agency who bargained with the publication for space and also finally the two newspapers in question who greedily agreed to place this ad above the editorial thereby trying to link the tragic story with the ad!
One of my early memories of college was the tuitions that I had to drag myself to every morning. While the majority of boys use to come either on their bikes/scooters, the girls invariably used to have a designated driver in the form of brother or father dropping them and picking them up dutifully on their scooters. A rare case would be a girl on a kinetic Honda, whom everybody saw her as be the ‘fast’ girl! (The term ‘liberated’ wasn’t in vogue then!) Cut to today, you find girls zipping past on their scooterette like nobody’s business. Let’s look at the women buyers and their needs. Primarily (applying the rule of three): 1. The Young girls going out to college 2. The working Woman to her office 3. The housewife moving around for errands and picking up children from school types. I will primarily look at two brands which have been successful at wooing the above segments. TVS Scooty and Hero Honda Pleasure. TVS Scooty was an early entrant in the market and it quickly established a niche for itself with the women segment. Simple to use, light weight and trendy, it had all that women were looking for. It suddenly ‘rescued’ them from three things: 1. Depending on their father/brother to drop them 2. Harrowing bus rides 3. Scary Auto rickshaws In short giving them the ‘wings’ to fly!
One of the key decisions that TVS would have had to make was the choice was a brand ambassador. In Preity Zinta, they found the perfect match. She was a fresh face, had made a mark in bollywood and was somebody who spoke her mind. Coming from a Army background and getting into bollywood, thereby doing her own thing/taking her own decisions. The TVC clearly established the key point of getting ahead of others (read not depending on others) and calling the shots.
After a long hiatus, TVS Scooty launched another campaign, this time taking Minisha Lamba, young face, very new to Bollywood.
Just a film old and having done a fair bit of modelling, she was more of an ‘aspirer’ than a ‘struggler’ in real life. The TVC explores a story of a small time girl somewhere in Banaras who along with her friend look at the ‘what if’ scenario in life if she hadn’t got her independence (read Scooty). It beautifully drives home the point that parents would have been happy either ways but are now proud of their daughter’s achievements.
Hero Honda entered the market much later with a powerful variant (pleasure) and a even powerful proposition.
By roping in Priyanka Chopra, who had established herself with hits to her credit, Hero Honda Pleasure took the discussion one step forward. From independence factor to the equal rights factor. In a society where a girl child is looked as ‘paraya dhan’, boys are the favoured/pampered lot. They get to stay late, have all fun and seldom questioned. The campaign literally questioned – why should boys have all the fun? The TVC literally showed Priyanka not only having fun but took the boy for a ride! Now that the girls are firmly in the front seat, when will we see them graduate to the four wheels in ads? Any car maker around, listening?
Nokia has been ranked No1 in the Brand Equity Most trusted brands of the year 2009. Nothing alarming, given the immense popularity that it enjoys among people. But what’s surprising and heart warming is this has happened in less than one year of its battery recall fiasco in India.
On 13th August 2008, Nokia issued a product advisory (not a recall) on its BL-5C battery. It stated that the battery could potentially experience “overheating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge”.
Fuelled by the media, panic gripped the nation. I remember, the Hindi News Channels – Aaj Tak and Star News were competing with each other to show people ‘affected’ by this. The reporters fanned out across India especially in the hinterland and ‘broke’ the news of people flocking to Nokia Store centre to get their battery checked.
What will the company do in such a situation? How will it react to the media bombardment?
Nokia was geared up and armed to its teeth. The web and toll free number were used effectively to inform and interact with the customers. An interesting point was the use of the toll free number. Among the phones affected by the battery included the low range and immensely popular 1100, 1108, 1110, 1112, etc right up to the N series (N70, N72, etc)
Given the fact that they broke new ground with the low end phones, most of the customers were not the net savvy crowd. It ensured that the call centers were beefed up and could handle any number of calls in all the possible languages.
Nokia Care and Nokia Priority dealers were told to handle customers with utmost care. Most of them were open till late night and were only doing this job.
What’s interesting to note and something that needs to be applauded is the fact that Nokia did not come out with a corporate campaign (with their CEO as brand ambassador) to talk to the customers (nation in our case!). This reminds of the classic case where in after the pesticide controversy, Pepsi and Coke came with their own versions to assure the people that their products are safe. Cadbury’s went one step further and roped in Amitabh Bachchan to do the talking in their corporate ad after the worm controversy!
Nokia believed in connecting with people on ground. It strongly believed in rolling up their sleeves and taking the issue head on and on ground. And the result paid off. And it’s there for everyone to see. Indeed the public memory is short and they do give you a second chance to prove your worth.
One of the very rare and I really mean a very rare case of a brand truly believing and living its brand promise of Connecting People
Retirement in the pre liberalisation era meant spending time with the grand kids, going on a pilgrimage, spending the afternoon on a rocking chair and followed by an evening walk.
Life insurance advertising in India has come a long way from the days of LIC using the ‘loss of a partner and the life thereafter’ as an emotional trigger to push people to buy into a plan. As I see, the top 3 reasons for fresh wave in the communication are as follows:
1. Entry of private players with the ULIP plans 2. Life expectancy has gone up and so have expectations from life 3. Younger generation looking at pension plans as investments
I am going to share and discuss five brands that are active and aggressive players in the market atleast with their media spend.
Max New York life pension plan The latest ones to be currently on air, Max New York Life takes the cake and the bakery for their refreshing take on what one can actually do post retirement. The ad actually made me look forward to my retirement!
HDFC Pension plan HDFC ad actually plays out all the things, which you would have to do, when you don’t save for your retirement which includes depending on your children to support you. It works because the script is fantastic and is so beautifully woven into their brand promise – SAR UTHA KE JIYO
AEGON Religare Pension Plan Religare ad is a simple play up on inflation and its effects. Would have fallen flat if not for Irfan Khan screen presence. They somehow could not replicate the huge build up that they achieved with the teaser outdoors which said “Kya aapko KILKB hai? (KILKB standing for Kya aapko kam insurance lene ki bimaari hai) One of the very rare ads which actually had a strong call for action, it invited the viewer to relook and recheck how much he would require post retirement.
ICICI Retirement solution One of the early movers into this segment. This ad was a watershed in its category. It drove home the point of retiring from work and not from life. Retirement planning till then was something which the younger generation would not relate to instantly. By turning the problem on its head, the ad looks at all the things that one should keep doing no matter what stage of their life they are in.
SBI Plan Brilliant script. Perfect casting. Great emotions. Need I say more
In perhaps one of the most memorable ads of this decade, Hutch (now Vodafone) created the memorable network campaign featuring the dog (pug) and a boy. It was loved by one and all for its simplicity and a melodious track. Without showing any of the run of the mill stuff, it instantly established the network superiority of the brand. (Though personally for me it was a pain in Hyderabad during those days to be on their network).
The boy and dog were repeated a couple of more times. 1. To communicate the transition from orange hutch to Pink hutch 2. Brand transition from Hutch to Vodafone. The latter part was a master stroke by the brand to showcase the switch in name. And to back it, the client and the agency came up with a equally good media innovation. They blocked the air time on the entire STAR TV network for a period of 24 hours to announce the name change. In fact the ad break was interesting woven in the story line of the prime time serial (Kasauti Zingadi Ki, if i am not wrong!). From Star Plus to Channel V, from Star News to Star Gold, the pug ran amok for 24 hours. After a long and a series of uninspiring ads on magic box and the likes, Vodafone broke new ground and spoke a new language with Zoo Zoos. A campaign of 25 ads promoting VAS, they were specifically designed to cash in the IPL season. Gibberish became the in thing. Majority of the ads were used to promote VAS services. Everyone was hooked on. Most of them loved the commercials. With over 3 lakh fans on face book in no time, Zoo Zoo’s have enjoyed success like nobody’s business.
So what next? With the number portability launch round the corner, the biggest pull for any telecom brand will be their network. Vodafone for better or worse enjoys a better perception with the boy and dog story. The competition especially Airtel is already up and running with sugary commercials from the last one year. Sooner, Tata Indicom followed with its superior network and Idea with their own take on the same. Can the pug co-exist with the Zoo Zoos or will the Zoo Zoos shoo away the pug? The biggest advantage of the Zoo Zoos is its adaptability to any service or a product offering. You already have the handset bundling offer (Magic Box) as an ad already. So the exclusivity to promote only VAS services is out. The million dollar question is: will Vodafone bring the pug back or will they bank on the Zoo Zoos to drive the message home? Will the pug mark fade away?
Fast track watches changed its tag line from 'how many you have?' to 'move on' some time back. The ad campaign for the 'how many you have?' was more on the lines of showcasing the range and affordability in a funny manner.
so were the ads (clichéd though) showcased the girls chasing a boy who sports a new one every time (I suppose) and the song goes on the lines of how many you have. what made the ads enjoyable was the quirky treatment and fresh college faces. the ads worked. sales zoomed. the brand established.
so far so good. Then the itch for a new theme started. Presumably agency initiated. Research team would have got down to business and focus groups initiated. What came out was the 'move on' campaign.
The campaign was a huge hit. Strongly connected with the college going kid. And more importantly gave a positive spin to how kids today look at relationships when you compare it with the older generations. When a relationship fails, you had a Devdas out of a nobody, today you have a Dev D out of him. It tried to say that there is no point in 'hanging on' but to 'move on' in life.
The key to the success was again the treatment.
you had a boy and girl what looks initially like exchanging gifts later turning out to be returning the gifts given by each other. no hard feelings. no sob story. brilliant!
The campaign worked. Brand strengthened. The client and the agency decided its time to push the bar even more. but this time, the standards fell. And how!
The move on campaign moved into the dangerous territory of putting a spin on 'one night stand'. The ad (unfortunately, I couldn't get a link for this one) showed a girl and a boy getting close or rather too close for comfort. till the girl decides it’s high time and decides to dump him by getting 'too close' to him. before one could comprehend it, there was a boy version on air just to showcase that dumpings are gender insensitive!
What fails me and intrigues me is the thought behind this ad? Did the research gave pointers that one night stand is in or is it the in thing? If so, wouldn't it have been better for the client to exercise his own judgement before allowing the agency to run away with a 'new twist' to the 'move on' route.
Today, when the world is looking up advertising and its gurus to promote the concept of safe sex, the idea of multiple partners which the ad so explicitly promotes leaves a very bad taste. And come to think of this, it is a TATA brand; known for its honesty and integrity among many others.
The jury is still out on this one. but I think, it’s time for fast track to slow down and move on from here.
This blog is an amalgamation of my experiences, observations and insights collected over the last eight years in advertising. I have named this blog as 'wisdom in hindsight' something which every client servicing person experiences after every campaign that goes wrong and a few which hits the bulls eye!
I had my own share of the both. Hopefully, i will be able to share as we go along.
