'Un'conventionalizing Advertising

Advertising is story-telling. Just like the movies, some are conventional, beaten to death, seen-before, 'typical ads'. While there are others, that break norms and social taboos, break the stereotype and challenge traditional behaviour. In the process, they create milestones for a fraternity and role models for society.

Here are representations of these two views:

1) The Conventional India Ad

2) A Moment of Truth

1) The Conventional India Ad (courtesy: a viral forward on mail / messaging)

What Indian Advertisements taught me.???

1. Kareena has dandruff problem, Katrina has dry hair problem, Shilpa has hairfall problem and Priyanka has chip-chip.
2. If you've a hot wife, make sure your neighbor doesn't use a deodorant in your absence.
3. Your complexion is more important than your qualifications.
4. If there is no salt in your kitchen you can use Toothpaste.
5. Every second oral care brand is No. 1 and recommended by every dentist in India!!!
6. If your daughter is not Ready to Get married, take her to a jewelry/textile shop.
7. Only reason why men use deodorant is to get girls.
8. Most colas cure all kinds of phobias. You will be close to a superman, if you drink these regularly!!
9. All superstars are so poor that they prefer to risk life for a cool drink than to purchase it for Rs:10
10. The special effects in shampoo ads are greater than special effects in Avatar.
11. Fruit content in shampoo and soap is more than fruit content in 99% of juices.
12. Amul has better satirical cartoonists than people who make better milk products
13. Most people buy vehicles to travel in bad roads but complain about roads in India.
14. You can't eat Dairy Milk Silk without spreading it all over you face.
15. Nobody uses motorbikes for commuting, its only to pick up girls.
16. All soaps kill 99.9% of germs.
17. People believe that Bacardi makes music CD's and Directors special/Kingfisher make mineral water.
18. The only time mothers and daughters talk to each other, it's usually about hair oil.
19. No matter what kind of expert one is, he'll always wear a white laboratory coat.
20. And, finally this:  Mutualfundinvestmentsaresubjecttomarketriskspleasereadtheofferdocumentcarefullybeforeinvesting

2) A Moment of Truth

This is a piece timed around the new Tanishq ad. It looks at life-stage very differently and doesn't shy away from breaking stereotypes.

http://www.firstpost.com/brands/new-tanishq-ad-a-magical-moment-in-indian-advertising-1197835.html

Somewhere, it gives confidence that in whatever that we do, we can look beyond conventional definitions and spot opportunities in alternate TGs.

Water spreads viral. Again!

If your boss isn't around or if you're down with a viral, you've probably seen the video clipping called 'Jennifer Aniston goes viral' or 'Jennifer Aniston Sex Tape'. Don't just hit 'Alt+Tab' out of embarrassment. It's only an ad. For a packaged water brand called SmartWater. It shows Jenni Aniston sharing how and why they made the video like it is.

It has been viewed 2,897,953 times in three 3 days it has been on YouTube. My guess is that by now at least a few Social Media Experts would have written about it and maybe even made it part of their New Biz pitches. Since i am not such an expert, i can take the risk of putting forth some simple thoughts.

Three things. First, the guy who is seen lip-syncing at the start, is 'Lip Sync Kid' a.k.a. Keenan Cahill, who already has 338,774 subscribers to his YouTube channel in which he lip syncs famous tracks. His YouTube channel has almost 2 million views and has over ten times more views combined for all videos on his channel. Tapping into an existing viral like his, it seems, was definitely a smart thing to do.

Second is the animals and children parody. The context: the popular belief is that the presence of animals and children in an ad, makes it more enjoyable. What makes it a learning is a Millward Brown perspective...

The Link™ database tells us that the most enjoyable ads are more likely to involve animals, nostalgia, children and well-known music. Celebrities also have their place. However, these are all patterns; there is no magic formula — we have plenty of examples of ads that involved animals and children that were not enjoyed!

The parody is on marketers and advertisers who go by this blindly and force-fit such elements into the communication, sacrificing any intended story. I'm sure ad agencies and clients would have interesting incidents of requests to use animals and kids as props - just to this effect.

Search for the 'Best viral ads' you will come across the third point i want to make: Evian's Roller Coaster Babies. Another ad with babies (and also one that SmartWater takes a dig at). More importantly, it is the second-best viral till date, with 103,867,704 views (since June '09. Source: adage.com) and belongs to the same category - bottled water.

Just makes me curious are the bottled water brands. It is a category you may not expect great virals on. Not that it is lesser as a category or has less respectful brands, but instead of two cola, telecom, technology or durable brands, we have two bottled water brands. Yes, i have assumed that 'Jen Aniston's Sex Tape' will become one of the biggest virals. (So what if she is looking older?!)

Nobody expects water to induce virals. But then, doesn't every brand on the internet need to act like water - shapeless and free-flowing.

Gorgeous v/s Beautiful

The last few months have seen some hair-softening advertising. One was Marico's 'Gorgeous Hamesha' campaign for Parachute Advansed Hair Oil. The other, Unilever's 'Beautiful Hair' campaign for its Zero Damage range of shampoos, conditioners and treatments.

'Gorgeous Hamesha' is about this jingle / song with simple vocals and soft strumming that resulted in a CD of the song. The slice-of-women's-life TVC / video shows women in different situations and essentially uses Deepika Padukone, the feminine beauty and emotional strength of women as a support for showing good-looking hair. Subtly, it gives the message that women go through a lot of emotions - happy and not; light and heavy - and it is their hair that makes them look gorgeous in whatever situation they maybe.

'Beautiful' is about the hoarding / print ad with ladies' hairstyles arranged in a way that spell out the alphabets B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. It is a lot cleverer and classier than most ads and is a brilliant combination of idea and execution.

What i like more, is the Dove website that allows sharing of notes on hair-care, information on products, activities, etc. Parachute Advansed's website, though, has much less 'community stuff'.

Both these brands may not competing directly, but are defnitely fighting for Share-of-Hair (sounds quite scary). I feel they have both managed to hit bulls-eye in making a connect with their TGs, which i think, are different too.

But where i think Beautiful loses and Gorgeous wins, is the word 'Zero Damage'. It automatically triggers a theraupatic mindset - which may work instantly for those facing hair problems, but may be repelled by those with normal hair.

Either ways, Gorgeous or Beautiful - i love both!

Advertising's 'Evolution'

To see something breaking rules, going against empirical evidence and challenging the present, makes me feel good. The Dove 'Evolution' commercial made me feel good.

In case you've been too busy - or too ignorant - to watch the best television commercial made last year, you can catch it http://youtube.com/watch?v=MFPGa0pKyTg or http://www.canneslionslive.com/film/win_1_1_02120.htm or http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/flat4.asp?id=6909

It shows a model been made up and metamorphosed (with help from post-production studio-work) into a face for the billboard. "How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?" it leads you to ponder.

The film was created to expose the manipulation of the female image in the media. The objective was to encourage discussion around the subject of real beauty and lead people to the http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ website.

This is marketing that touches the heart, strikes a cord, makes you connect with millions and makes millions buy what you're saying. And selling.

No doubt, it is a feel good piece of commercial communication. But my feeling good comes from more than this direct effect.

The ad was actually a viral video to bring leads on the brand's web-site.

With not a penny of paid media and in less than a month, "Dove Evolution," a 75-second viral film created by Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, for the Unilever brand has reaped more than 1.7 million views on YouTube and has gotten significant play on TV talk shows "Ellen" and "The View" as well as on "Entertainment Tonight." It's also brought the biggest-ever traffic spike to CampaignForRealBeauty.com, three times more than Dove's Super Bowl ad and resulting publicity last year, according to Alexa.com.

By those measures, "Evolution" is the biggest online-buzz generator in the U.S. personal-care and beauty industries, topping this year's effort from Omnicom Group's Tribal DDB on behalf of the Philips Norelco Bodygroom shaver. And that's before the campaign began rolling out to 10 additional countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America last week.

Could redefine the category
Mr. Scarpelli also suggested that awarding Dove the top honor could possibly lay down the groundwork for redefinition of the film category itself. "It's interesting that this particular piece of film actually started out as a viral video on the internet," he said. "It didn't sway the jury one way or the other, but we thought it is indicative of the way our industry is changing. It's up to Terry but someday viral films, mobile phone films, should be in this category, because it's not the television category, it's the film category. Maybe that would be more reflective of reality today and in the future."

Film entries down

Overall, entries in the film category were down about 8%, 4,470 compared to 4,860 last year, continuing a three-year decline.

That should explain why it makes me feel good.

How hungry you, Johnny May?

For reasons best not known to my employers, i'm into radio. Not listening, but more than that. And soaking into the advertising fest at Cannes is a dream since some time. Somehow these got together and i found myself checking out the best advertising on radio the world has heard in the last year. Online, of course!

The Indian entries / winners, you've probably read about (Yes, read; not heard. Try telling a scam from genuine work.)

Anyways, the Grand Prix is the highest honour and in the category Radio Advertising, it went to an agency from Melbourne, Australia called Clevenger BBDO. The ad for which it won, was a 2-minute spot titled "Hoedown" for Snickers.

The idea was simple - eating a Snickers bar is like eating a horse.
The execution was funny, catchy, luxurious (2 minutes?), attention grabbing and attention holding. And i believe it must have been a great viral - with men of all ages and genders singing it as a alternative to a country folk-song.
The relevance - brilliant. Research suggests that 'filling ability' is a primary driver for preference among chocolate bars.

Listen to it at http://www.canneslionslive.com/radio/
Here is the script:

SFX: music
MVO1: Well, I'm so hungry…
MVO2: How hungry you, Johnny May?
MVO1: Well, I tell ya. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.
MVO2: A horse?
MVO1: But not just any old horse. This is a special horse. 'Cause this old horse, well… He ate a chicken, and the chicken ate a cat, and the cat ate a dog, and the dog ate a frog.
MVO2: Go on now! Eat them furry critters!
MVO1: And the frog ate an eel, and the eel ate a panda.
MVO2: A panda. That's some endangered eatin'.
MVO1: And a panda ate a mule, and the mule ate a chimp, and the chimp ate a tapir.
MVO2: What in the hell is a tapir?
MVO1: A tapir's a nocturnal, mammalian quadruped that dwells in Central and South American jungles. Yee-haaaaaaaw.
MVO2: Well, what's it eat?
MVO1: This ol' tapir? Well he ate a moose, and the moose ate a rhino, and the rhino ate a rare- crested macaw. And I was so hungry, boy I ate 'em all.
MVO2: Yee-haaaaaaaw.
MVO1: But hold on now, there's more! I ate L to Z in the encyclopaedia. Then I ate Werribee and Micronesia. I ate 33 tons of Chicken Madras and 2 full canisters of VX nerve gas. I ate an Emperor penguin and the Great Wall of China. 26 steaks in a California diner. Two Beluga whales stuffed with bratwurst. A rusty old anchor and a pickled chirst.
MVO2: What the hell is a chirst?
MVO1: I don't know, I just made it up and ate it. Don't bother going to the Maldives these days, I polished 'em off with some herbed mayonnaise.
MVO2: So long, Maldives!
MVO1: I ate a Swedish futon and a queen size doona. Then Gary Busey and Lou Gosset Junior. A light sea-plane and a Dutch wooden shoe, the Big Brother house, and the gay guy too.
MVO2: You even ate the cameras? Well that's just greedy!
MVO1: I was hungry, so yes indeedy! Yeeee-haaaaaaaw!
SFX: Fiddles and banjos
MVO1: Now you go, Aussie Bill. Come on boy.
MVO3: Ok, here I go now!
MVO1: Sing it. Lay it on me! Yeeee-haaaaaaaw.
MVO3: Well… I was so hungry I ate a Snickers.
MVO2: I hate it when you do dat, Bill.
MV01: That's cheating, Aussie Bill.
MVO1: Play the game, Bill. Play the game.


Popular opinion, though, doesn't seem to be in favour of the ad winning the Grand Prix. Feedback on blogs and sites calls it "undeserving", "too long...and perhaps that is why it won!", "too stupid", etc.

I want to agree with the popular opinion. But instead, i'll just go have a Snickers.

Breaking Records

Below is a SET Max e-mail that landed in my inbox on 28th March - days after our fiasco at the Cricket World Cup 2007.

Now that India is out of the tournament (was it ever in?) the channel still wants to give viewers a reason to be glued to TV. And the reason is - records. The point seems to be "So what if India's out. There is still great cricket being played, runs being scored, wickets being taken and records being broken!"

Great 'pitch'! In fact the question in the copy makes me discover some records that the mailer seems to have missed listing.

And ofcourse not! There were more records broken than are given in the ad:

* Advertisers backing out inspite of commitments. ("It’s a different ballgame now" FE, 25th March 2007)
* Brands holding back adverts with cricketers - which they spent millions on to make.
* Marketers re-visiting their dependance on cricket and its stars.
* Cricketers replaced by movie stars in ads during a Cricket World Cup.
* Cricketers being dropped more by advertisers than BCCI selectors.

As the copy reads..."This is just the beginning. With about a month of high quality cricket still remaining, many records, both on-field as well as for for television viewership will tumble."

Amen.

A TVC like.no.other

Was forced to watch cricket at a night over with 14 cricket fanatics / jerks. It happened to be ...ahem... India-Bangladesh at World Cup '07. Much to others' displeasure, I was in a good mood irrespective of whether it was a wicket falling or a boundary scored. Apart from beer and "good cricket" there was one reason for my sitting through the ordeal of six deliveries between the commercial breaks - the hope that i would see the complete Sony Bravia TVC.

I should have realised that the original version of 'bouncy balls' is 180 minutes long and would perhaps outlast our batsmen at the crease. Sadly, the one shown was stripped of it's creative appeal (music and visual) and execution excellence to a mere 10-seconds that failed to make the point in the stylish, charming and powerful way made by the original. Created by Danish director Nicolai Fuglsig who sent 250,000 multi-coloured balls bouncing down the streets of San Fransisco, the ad is a Cannes winner (and was a frontrunner for the Grand Prix in 2006).

...To announce the arrival of the BRAVIA LCD and 3LCD range, we wanted to get across a simple message - that the colour you'll see on these screens will be 'like no other'. reads the website made especially to showcase the ad. It also gives trivia and allows sneak-peaks at the new TVC with massive paint explosions all over town.

...a "really simple, visual celebration of colour". More fun than even a Billion Blues.

Anyday!