I recently saw the re-run of Tata Indigo commercial (first released in Jan 2008) which was strikingly similar to the Hari Sadu ad of Naukri but with a twist. But what really set me of thinking was that the Twist clearly mirrors the sign of different times and the changing mindset of the working class.
Boss employee situation have been exploited to the hilt in advertising. One of the all time classics which won numerous awards was the ‘Hari Sadu’ ad for Naukri portal. The ad worked big time for a variety of reasons. 1. Every employee has/had a Hari Sadu as boss in their life 2. Instead of using fear/anger, it uses humour to drive home the point 3. Every disgruntled worker likes to pay back this boss once. Big time!
Now what’s interesting to know is the time when this ad hit the market. The year was 2006. The economy was on the upward swing. The job market was thriving. People were spoilt for choices when it came to their careers. The whole IT and BPO fever was taking the tier 1 and II cites by storm. Naukri and the incumbent agency (Draft FCB Ulka) caught the pulse bang on and created this award winning creative.
The Tata Indigo CS commercial has a similar story line of a boss who cares a @#$% about you. But instead of quitting the guy gets back at this boss in style without giving up his job!
If I have to trace the story of the protagonist across the two phases – 2006 and 2008, through these commercials, what has really changed? Well, our man just got smarter. He will no longer switch a job at the drop of hat but prefers hitting back where it hurts the most – ego.
Now comes the most interesting part of this blog post.
Both the ads – Naukri and Tata Indigo have been created by the same agency – Draft FCB Ulka.
After months of research (and procrastination) I picked up a wireless broadband connection for my laptop. The final trigger was in the hope that it will help me put my insomnia bouts to good use. So last week, I was handed a complimentary piece of Reliance to broadband Netconnect + It’s small. Fits snugly in your hand And packs in speed not experienced before (equivalent with high speed access you get at office)
But that’s not what got me hooked to write this post. It’s rather a peculiar challenge which advertisers face in a category like this where the product differentiation is not there. In this case, the selling point is the speed of access. And it’s interesting to see how the players have had different renditions of speed for the same audience.
The wireless broadband market saw three high profile launches in the last few months back to back. 1. Reliance Broadband Netconnect 2. Airtel Broadband 3. Tata Indicom Photon
Reliance and Airtel have TVCs running for their brands. Haven’t seen Tata Indicom’s TVC yet.
Both the ads focus on the same target audience who is 1. upwardly mobile professional 2. Always on the move
Both the campaigns emphasise the same product promise – Speed. But what is remarkably different is the way it is pitched. Let’s look at Airtel first.
The ad turns a negative virtue (Impatience) found in today’s generation into a positive one. The TVC accepts the fact that the youth of today are in a hurry, can’t wait for their turn to come and wants everything at a click of a button. They want the world to keep pace with them and the other way round. And Airtel promises to deliver that speed with their broadband.
How many times have you been in a situation where you wanted to experience/check out something while on the do the move? You wanted to listen to your favourite Kishore kumar Song while you experience the rains but could not do so while watching the rain on the move?
Reliance promise to deliver the same, right here and right now. It explores situations which we always want to do the right things at the right time in the wrong place. It takes out the time factor out and also promises to deliver it at great speed.
So there you have. Two different brands in the same category. Same product promise with no differentiation. But different executions. Personally for me both worked.
Universal Truth No#1: Majority of the kids hate milk. Universal Truth No#2: Making kids drink is every mother’s nightmare. Universal Truth No#3: Helping the mothers in this is a billion dollar business
The malted drinks category in India is estimated around 1800 – 2000 crores. The top players include: 1. GSK’s Horlicks, Maltova, Viva and Boost. 2. Cadbury’s Bournvita 3. Nestlé’s Milo 4. Heinz’s Complan
GSK dominates the market not only by the number of the brands but also in terms of the market share (around 70%) with Horlicks leading from the front. And as market leader, Horlicks has always stayed ahead of the curve with some smart line extensions. For the uninitiated Line extensions happen when the brand launches the new product in the same category targeting a new segment through new flavours, added ingredients, package sizes etc.
Horlicks started out with their basic bread and butter brand targeted at the Kids segment where the action is the hottest.
Released couple of years back, The Taller, Stronger Sharper campaign had a series of TVC running. An interesting facet of this TVC was the focus shifting from the ‘problem-solution’ format advertising that such category follows. The mother is absent is conspicuously absent. And instead the campaign talks to the kid directly. One of the reasons perhaps is the amount of exposure a kid has today that you no longer can take him for granted or not talk to him directly. Horlicks understood this early and spoke to him like a friend. It wanted him to change the world around him by being taller, stronger and sharper.
Horlicks also has a variant for preschool children – Junior Horlicks. Specially formulated to work as a nutritional supplement.
Another variant which was launched was Horlicks Lite. Targeted at the father of the house, its key selling points are that it has no added sugar and helps in cholesterol control. Horlicks slowly, but surely started moving together towards the brand promise – The Great Family Nourisher.
The TVC explores the tried and tested clichéd route of how stress and fatigue ca n take a toll on relationships and how to circumvent (if not avoid) them. I have a theory on clichéd advertising. Clichés works in certain categories. For three reasons (I still swear by the rule of three!) 1. They ‘mirror’ the consumer’s life to the T 2. They have an uncanny knack of ‘romancing’ the problem 3. They make you feel ‘this is me’ and I need it. The caution here is you may get an entry in a category but sooner or later the consumer or the competition will sort you out. One of the best and smart extensions to come out of Horlicks has been Women’s Horlicks. All through the category over its existence, all brands have spoken to the mother at a subtle level on the fact that it’s good for them. It’s not uncommon in an Indian Household to see parents (especially mothers) drink up left over milk of their children. But I assume this is out of compulsion and not out of choice. Though I must say, I have seen many actually enjoy a glass of it too. Keeping this insight in mind, Horlicks used another cliché to launch a new variant for women in general. Any guess on the cliché? Yes, the multi tasking angle!. In fact the Horlicks website confirms this: it says something to his effect. “...For centuries, women have been taking care of the family. You realize now that you need to take care of yourself...”
Smartly executed and roping in an ‘intelligent’ actress – Konkana Sen, Horlicks launched Women’s Horlicks.What worked in this campaign were its interesting cuts between the numerous roles a women plays in her life. From running the kitchen, taking care of kids, office pressure, etc the TVC hits the bulls eye by beautifully capturing the cliché no 1 (They mirror the consumer’s life to a T); moves to the cliché point number 2 (They have an uncanny knack of romancing the problem) and logically moves you to cliché no 3 (This makes you fell ‘this is me’ and I need it)
Clichéd hai par bikta hai!
Btw, Horlicks is sold in UK as a brand targeted at adults. The brand tag line says: unwind for a good night’s sleep
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
