AdStand: Fall to win the battle

Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner and Chief Strategy Officer, Bang in the Middle, talks about brands that find a range of narratives, from funny to emotional, but not with a serious focus on brand benefit. Yet they win

Delhi | June 1, 2015

Brands take their communication process very seriously. From defining the context to unearthing the insight to testing the insight, it is a serious business. The seriousness then gets transferred to the creative process; the ads have a serious tonality. If the categories are high involvement or if they have a long purchase process, the ads have to get serious in their persuasion game.

There are two ends to this continuum. One end of this belongs to the likes of Dettol, who create ads with Dettol as the centre of the universe. In the late 70s, Lifebuoy created “Tandurasti ki raksha”, Rexona did “Sona Sona Rexona”. That was the time when the brand's benefit was central to the stimulus. In the era of no clutter, this approach worked well, and researched even better. The same approach is not delivering optimally, Dettol discovered recently.

The other end of the continuum is brands that do not make the brand central to the conversation. There is a host of brands who find a range of narratives, from funny to emotional but not with a serious focus on brand benefit.

Take Emami Hair Oil's new TVC: Hair oil as a category will have shots of long luscious hair, some complex graphic representation of how oil coats the hair, and a complex babble of how the formulation will overcome problems. The ad has people falling all over, tripping and falling, skidding and falling, accidental falling, even a hint of moral falling, all to tell the audience that the brand can't stop you from falling, but can stop hair fall. This they say with the aid of a celebrity. This is a surprising departure from what the category does, or even from what Emami did. A winner in my books.

Durables is the other category where the tech demo is critical to how the brand is perceived, possibly more by the brand and less by the consumer. At one end of the spectrum are Panasonic and Katrina Kaif telling us about 'Life Conditioners'; the other end has Haier with its take on 'Jhukna Mat'.

Haier is in many ways very similar to the Emami Hair Oil commercial. Emami wins on many fronts, Haier loses on those very. Emami has an irreverent and humourous take on falling, Haier somehow has a serious take on bending. In Emami's case, the linkage to the brand is seamless and memorable; in Haier case it's a bit trite and forced. Yet in many ways the Haier ad breaks the monotony of brand babble that durables force upon us. Haier was a bit early in this game, the original Jhukna Mat TVC done 10 years back was funnier.

The third ad that breaks the mold and tells a really heartwarming story is Fortune Oil's Mother Exchange. The entire plot could have been lot more centric, with far more 'branded bits' to create persuasion. Instead, the brand shuns all reference to itself. Mothers are worried about what their child eats every day, every time. The category called cooking oil is built on this context. When the child stays away from home, the mothers will worry more. This simple truth is brilliantly told. By connecting moms across the city that share the same concern, they have created a textured mosaic of emotions.

Not being serious does not mean that the brands have to be necessarily humourous. By not being serious, all the brands need to do is believe that stories can be told without being centered on the brand.

Emami fell to win!

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com