Management Research Project

Submitted To
Prof. Dr. Dhananjay Keskar

By Prerna Malik Enroll No. 07bs2995 (Email ID: malikp28@gmail.com) IBS, Pune

A REPORT ON ADVERTISING
SUBMITTED TO Dr. Dhananjay Keskar IBS, Pune

By Prerna Malik Enrollment No. 07bs2995 IBS, Pune Batch 2009

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of MBA Program of IBS, Pune

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I extend my sincere thanks to IBS, Pune for providing me with a wonderful opportunity to learn through this project. I am highly indebted to Prof. Dhananjay Keskar for his excellent guidance and support at every stage of this project. Working under his guidance has indeed been a very fruitful experience for me.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Abstract Creativity in Advertising.. 5
2.

Emotions and Brand value 6 Innovations in Advertising. 9 Survey for Creative advertisements 34 Analysis .. 41 Conclusion 47 References . 48

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING
Creativity is seeing something new when you look at something old; it is all heart of civilization and is the driving force of revolution. - David
Ogilvy. It is an accepted fact that there should be an element of creativity in an advertisement. This creativity is something new, unique, extreme attractive and appealing to the consumers. In fact, advertising itself is a creative process. It is the outcome of long term planning and hard work on the part of the copy writer or artist who prepares the final copy of the advertisement. This is natural as creative ideas do not come over night. They are required to be developed through systematic thinking process.

Creative advertising needs to imaginative, intelligent, sharp, to the point, and extremely catchy. It must motivate people to purchase the advertised product. The message and appeal made should be able to make positive impact on the consumers. According to Albert Wesley, Creativity is the

ability to develop new useful ideas that produce desired results.

Creativity should focus the attention of the reader on the product and he must feel the urge to have that product for the same benefit. This suggests that creative advertising should be able to create demand for the product when it is introduced for the first time.

Emotions and Brand Value

Emotional advertising improves a brands impression, personality and value by instilling feelings in the advertisement. Here are some examples in the Indian scenario. The Josh machine campaign gave a young-at-heart image for a high brand recall to Ford Ikon. Youthful Individuality is the soul of the Levis brand which defines universal values like originality, self-confidence, and integrity. Titan has launched a range of watches most suited to the individuals personality and attitude. For example: Fastrack, Timex, Raga, etc. In a Titan advertisement a father and his younger daughter gift a Titan watch to the elder daughter on the occasion of her marriage. Raymond is uniquely positioned as a brand that addresses the innate need of men to look good and at the same time possess strength of character. This emphasis on human values creates a warm emotional link with consumers- the essence of 'The Complete Man'.

THE ICICI Prudential Advertisement brings out the emotional appeal of the husband and wife and therefore is able to move consumers into considering the Brand seriously. Such emotions help an advertiser to create brands. Brands are built in the minds and hearts of the customers and it is important to understand that consumers like the consumer brands rationally as well as emotionally. In countries like India, emotions are definitely a critical factor for consumers, in accepting and loving brands. Promotions like small offers & reduction in prices or buy & win offers leave a short term impact on customers mind

where as emotional appeal helps an advertiser to create a long lasting impact.

MARKETING

EMOTIONS A MUST TO WOO CUSTOMERS

Indians are very emotional. The Bollywood movies only prove this point. There may also be a lot of demand for the K serials. But do we need a forced dosage of emotions in the ads too? On TV the viewers (much to the advantage of the advertisers) do not have much choice. One might just not be in the same mood, as being expressed by the advertisement, worse still, nowhere close. Imagine one watching Monday night laughs & then see the emotional ad of HDFC. The advertising campaigns of things like life insurance, beauty products, baby products, retirement solutions, healthcare products, tour operators & social messages can never separate themselves from the emotional content. A viewer even expects an emotional connect. What, however, is not easily conceivable is why some companies practice emotional advertising even though there is no need for it? In particular, advertisements of products like electrical switches, salt, telecom companies, hawai chappals, newspaper & paint to name a few. One cannot forget surfs daag ache hain campaign. It is not only connected to the mothers desires & their plight of keeping the clothes white, but also with those of the kids, who despite all the efforts not to dirty their clothes, just do it! The Chintamani campaign for ICICI bank was a good break from the boring ads of the other banks. It was an innovative way to convey the emotional connect and with short term Chintamani coming in the second part of the ad, they assured a special mention for their efforts. A few advertisements from the automobile sector. The Make your own road campaign with the racy music, and the rustic and adventurous imagery captures the inherent desire for an SUV amongst men. The josh machine campaign did very well to sell the Ford Ikon. With the sport variant coming into the market the tag line fitted perfectly with the youth connect. In another category, thinking about ads for milk products like chocolates, butter, condensed milk, two brands occupy most mind space-Amul and Cadburys. Both shamelessly attempt to make us indulge in sinful pleasures. The splashing milk, melting butter on parathas, condensed milk on sweets, the low cholesterol oils survive on an emotional connect.

EMOTIONAL ADVERTISING BRAND

AS A

POINT OF DIFFERENCE

FOR A

Emotional advertising can become a Point Of Difference (POD) for a brand as today the competition is very fierce so emotional advertising can make a lot of difference in creating a unique image. These days product features can very easily be copied by competitors. Many companies these days use emotional advertising to appeal to the customers. For example when Apple launched iPod it tried to portray an image that possessing an iPod is really something cool rather than just focusing on the product features. Emotional advertising is especially used by jewellery companies to showcase emotions. For example De Beers ad which shows heera hai sadaa ke liye. It shows that a diamond is forever.

Similarly with many luxury/status goods like Mercedes car or Cartier watches emotional advertising helps in attracting a wider audience. These are basically high end items and people take feelings or emotions into consideration before buying these goods.

TECHNIQUES

USED IN EMOTIONAL ADVERTISEMENTS

Advertisers strive to engage consumers through their choice of message tone. Some of the most common emotional appeals focus on fear, humor and self-idealization. The use of fear as a motivation in advertising places emphasis on the severity of the threat. Zeitlin and Westwood (1986) found that fear appeals range in intensity from mild to severe. Their research suggests that in order to be most effective (not just attention getting), fearbased messages should present a mild to moderate threat and provide a doable solution. If the fear instilled is either too severe or not followed up with a reasonable solution, the viewer will not be able to surmount his/her sense of dread and process the advertising message. In a similar vein, negative ads (ads in which the viewer is exposed to annoying or unpleasant creative content) can also be effective if the negative technique is used to promote a product benefit. This situation is often referred to as the "love that product, hate that ad" syndrome (Zeitlin and

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Westwood, 1986) and has been used to describe Charmin's Mr. Whipple and Wisk's Ring around the Collar campaigns. Humor is another frequently used emotional technique which must be employed with caution. Some advertisers view humor as a can't lose method for enticing viewers into paying attention to the message. However, it is important that the humorous creative technique does not result in a loss of product message. Research by Kover, Goldberg and James (1995) indicates that in most cases, humor has little on viewers' interpretations of advertising effectiveness.

Innovation in advertising
In AXN the show 30 seconds of fame which is the reality show of America where the amateur performer got the stage for 30 seconds to performs what they wanted. The half hour program was an endless and almost uninterrupted series of 30 second, solo and group performance ranging from dance to singing to any activity. They have to show all their possible creativity to impress the audiences; otherwise they are out of the show. The voting right is given to the audience for selecting or rejecting them. This is similar to todays day to day advertisements, which also have limited time to impress their target consumers and their success or failure is in the hands of the customers. Therefore to attract the customers towards the product it is necessary that the advertisement should be creative. Today advertising is not restricted to heavy television campaigns alone. Notice how spaces from taxis to school bags, painted trains, sweat-shirts, glasses at bars, lunch-boxes, credit card bills, cutlery, back-lit vans etc are being decorated with colorful advertising messages these days? Venues like malls, multiplexes, campuses, railways stations, restaurants, etc. are also offering a host of creative advertising hang-outs. This is the rapid world of innovative media vehicles, which is long on imagination and sure to grab eyeballs. Take motor-bike brand Royal Enfield.

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It cornered elevators on the public places and flanked each lift with pictures of rival bikes. As people leave the lift, they see larger than life Royal Enfield cut-out before them. The message conveyed is that the Roadside Romeos should make way for the divine one.

It is just a part of the innovative media vehicles. For example, the Fa Fresh Zone which targeted multiplexes. Fa dispensers let scented air flow through the air-conditioning pipe in the cooling areas. Meanwhile, a rival Rexona has put up painted people on sliding doors move, we get the illusion that people are actually turning away from us, thanks to the body odour. The trick to building a fun brand is to devise fun ways of speaking to the consumer. The Rexona deodorant sliding doors innovation was a truly creative exercise.

Cellular operator Airtel has branded charging booths in metros, where people can go and charge their handsets. Smirnoff brands itself around glasses at bars, while Lipton took up its own special place on credit card bills. When everyones at it, why should Pepsi or Coke be far behind? Both the brands offer plenty of free merchandise like sweat shirts, bags,

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wristbands, etc. at their sponsored events, concerts, and certain fast food outlets where they also brand everything from foot mats to tablemats. We can call these advertising vehicles fantastic or imaginative. Point is everyone is doing it. More and more marketing budgets are being moved from mass media to targeted, direct response media such as creativity in advertising or interactive marketing. The more integrated the customers get, the more integrated the brands need to become. Also, media fragmentation makes it more and more difficult to effectively deliver mass message, so brands have no other logical choice than to get interactive. Nerolac had run the touch and feel counter at various malls and multiplexes, which also gave free Nerolac merchandise like mugs, bags and cutlery. McDonalds advertising on the attractive and branded glasses, with a string attached, For home delivery call the McDonalds number. Interestingly, so-called staid categories like bank can also get some zing with innovative branding. Shoe boxes branded with SBI logos and the pitch line: Car loans from SBI- No more battered shoes. Creativity in advertising generates activity and results quickly. Ads can be hung on trees or in rural setting too. Idea cellular has been branding dhabas on the Delhi-Agra and DelhiChandigarh highways and allowing passerby to charge their mobile phones via charging outlets. The brand has also imprinted its logo on articles such as diaries, bags, coffee mugs, cutlery, trolleys and key-chains. Besides this logic is that the consumers reach a point, where they get tired of regular every day advertising, something thats clich and predictable. Conventional media starts getting on their nerves. Again, expect mirrors in market places where people can catch their reflection..courtesy Asahi mirrors. These efforts come at a soft price, but add a lot of life and fizz to the brand. Ultimately all of advertising and brand building is about passion and it should fall in unique ways and it can be shown in the following cases:

KIT KAT THE LAUGH-O-METER

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Increasingly, advertisers are looking for alternate ways to create saliency for their brands apart from the regular 30 second television commercials they put on air. One clear reason for this is the increasing fragmentation of the audience and with that the compounding challenges of getting the brand target audience to notice your brand. This is why there is a perpetual quest for platforms that will not augment the brand communication but be in synergy with the brand essence. They were sure that most of the people watch the programme-The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. There were comedians, judges and the audience who also gives its judgment. Depending on how successful the participants have been in tickling the funny bone, the audience evaluates the laughter quotient of the participants on a laughter meter named as Laugh- o-meter. Kit Kat appropriates the laugh-o-meter properly. And when the winner is announced, the happy moment is captured with Kitkats tag line, Happy ho ja on screen. Thus, in the process, making Kitkat the indication of good times. Most importantly, the brand integration happens within the programming content when the audience attention is focused on the screen. Hence, the branding of Laugh-o-meter on laughter challenge on STAR One looked the most appropriate forum to reinforce the Happy ho ja proposition with Kitkat and that too in the most conducive environment, the Laughter Challenge. Kitkat was associated with moments to cherish in the programme.

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Secondly, there was a complete value for money for the client through the integration. Introducing Kitkat at an integral moment in the programme, the exposure time for the brand totals to 1500 seconds, only on the original episode. The programme got repeated four times in a week on STAR One and each time Kitkat enjoyed additional exposure. If they had to advertise during the commercial break of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge show, they would have managed, as sponsors, just about 60-secs of airtime and the cost of one 10-second spoof for the show is Rs 1.2 lakh. If we calculate money for the exposure time for 1,500 seconds, the cost would be exorbitant. Therefore, Kitkat in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge not only reinforces the brand proposition in the perfect environment but also cost effective.

AIRTEL PLAYS STREET SMART

A busy crowd going about its daily business in a provincial town. Suddenly, someone on the mobile phone goes hallo aloo ka aloo ka is laaloo ka nahin aaloo ka daam kya hai idhar ka bhav? Kya paavyeh signal bakwaas hai. Now, someone else from the crowd begins to talk to his girlfriend about his marriage. Loud enough for others to hear. Another call the doctors for help. Then these people start to walk to an unspecified spot and make a circle. When the group gets together, and each enacts its part, the chorus concludes the play with a song about the benefit of a having an Airtel mobile. This play was organized by Airtel in three rural towns situated close to hugli, lucknow

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and pune. Though VSNL is already popular with the rural elite, Airtel has exposed the weakness of the competitor and its benefit.

ART OF PLACING CUSTOMER THRILL OVER PRODUCT

Bajaj Auto test-marketed its pro-biking centre in Pune last year. Neoteric infomatique has launched Xplore, the first digital experience lounge in the country. It does not sell products but only lets consumers experience product of its clients.

HEY,

MONSTER !

LEAVE

THE KIDS ALONE

Creating a connect between Pepsodent and hygiene among kids, Mudras Kidstuff Promo & Events held a school-contact programme for the Hindustan Levers toothpaste brand, Pepsodent. Germs were referred to as bhoot (monster). The promo was organized across 25 cities and 1565 school in the country.

ERAS

OF WASHING POWDER ADVERTISEMENTS

Now, seeing how the washing powder advertising has changed from the previous to the current period. A signal of washing powder ads was flashed when the Surf Lalitaji campaign was started and it was too famous. It built a real, middle-class housewife figure, who was price sensitive but also

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conscious of value for money when it came to choosing Surf over Nirma. Nirma at that time was giving a simple ad with the symbol of the girl, who is happy with her colorful & neat dress. But in the Surf campaign, Lalitaji was street smart, as she understood the difference between buying cheap and buying value. Lalitaji was perhaps Indias first advertising, created icon reflecting the real consumer. Real emotions soon became the stock-in-trade. Rin built on envy as a real human emotion with Bhala uski kameez mere kameez se safed kaise? theme which connected with consumers in the early 1980s to create an iconic brand. Wheel detergent built on this theme by re-positioning Nirma and its type as destroyers with door ho ja meri najaron se; mien ne maangi safai aur tu ne di haathon ki jalan! Then Nirma had come with jingle advertising, which creates a boom in sale of the product. Surf also started to give its product a different name, Surf excel, with a new punch line Surf excel hain na. A range of new products in this category was present in the market like Sasa, Ghadi, Eco-friendly Ariel etc. but because of lack of competitive advertising they failed to succeed in the market.

Introduction of Tide in the advertising market created a fear for all other detergents. Nirma had also renewed its advertising but with the same jingle. Surf tried to compare its product with Tide but failed. Tide had used Shekhar Suman for endorsing because of his popularity at that time because of his TV show Movers and Shakers which had high TRP ratings at that time. The campaign of door to door challenge proved successful. Thereafter Surf Excel used the Indian psyche in the ads with punch lines sirf do bucket paani, paani ki bachat, etc. Tide then used the interactive medium of film, e.g. Baghban, Prem (south Indian film), etc. Now Surf excel and Rin are using kids in their advertising, and are also successful. Tide is using bets formula in the advertising. These modes are gaining popularity because of the flexibility & innovation aspects.

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ENERGIZER
Talk about going on and on. Energizers drum-beating rabbit has been the brands icon, on and off, for 17 years (since 1989). Question asked: how long will this battery last? Answer: so long that one commercial cant show it. It was one of the longest running and most recognized campaign. The fuzzy icon for Energizer Batteries has been banging his drum and twirling his stick through over 115 commercials since 1989. This sunglass-wearing pink bunny has been ranked among the top 5 advertising icons of all time and can still be seen, 13 year later.

TOM & JERRY

As the Tom & Jerry show is one of the popular shows on the Cartoon network, it was a great idea to use the characters in advertising. All Out had done the same, but was ineffective to produce it in a right manner. The beginning was good but not so was the ending of the advertisement. Children always had the habit to see Jerry winning in the end or Tom & Jerry becoming friends, but this was also not shown. In spite of all these negative points its sales shoot up after the advertisement.

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Online advertising
Online advertising blazes a new trail. It has fast made deep inroads into India. Online advertising already accounts for some 40% of total advertising worldwide. Looking at some creative online advertising by different companies:

MR. LATE

LATIF

It is a human tendency to delay and we Indians are habitual of that trait. No wonder, nothing happens at the right time. Municipal Corporation gets into action after Mumbai is flooded, and many realize the value of the life insurance when it is too late. So, Aviva Life Insurance thought why not warn people of the cost of postponing a crucial decision. To that end, Aviva Life Insurance launched an internet adverting-gaming campaign-Mr. Late Latif, a character which helps people see wisdom in attending to matters on time. This campaign was designed not just to promote Aviva Life Insurance products but also to create awareness about the fact that the more an individual delays in buying life insurance, the higher the cost of buying it. The fact is people do tend to delay simple but important things such as paying a bill or buying a house, which result in paying an additional cost, and Mr Late Latif was born from this basic insight of delaying things. The interactive game was devised by Contests2win.com and it looks close to a month to finally host the adver-game on the website. The game takes the surfer through many of Mr Late Latifs such postponement and the price he had to pay for it. Aviva had first launched a pilot of this promotion on Contest2win.com and got more than 30000 game-plays.

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ADIDAS ONLINE
The alternate reality offered by Adidas comes in the form of The Impossible Team, a free online soccer game styled after the popular new generation of multiplayer games that have millions of real people around the world simultaneously competing against one another across the Internet. For advertisers, a major attraction of the massive multiplayer online game, in which interaction among players is integral to winning, is that it holds the full attention of players over a long period of time. Ticket to the final World Cup games would be awarded to top players of the game in some countries. The cost of investing in the game is much cheaper than a television adespecially during the World Cup-and it has other unique advantages.

TATA

INDICA V2

TATA Indica V2 was looking at media ideas that would persuade people to take test-drive of their car; creating a buzz about the product through a hands-on experience. Using the most popular television platform available at that time, Kaun Banega Crorepati, Lodestar joined up with indya.com to design a contest which would engage viewers with the product while also giving visibility to KBC on the internet. To accomplish maximum interaction with the public, Lodestar used both KBC and indya.com as contest access points. On the website, they had scrollers at the bottom of the page describing the contests, giving phone numbers where people would call in and a voice-over would encourage people to test drive the Indica. While a 30 seconds advertising spot on KBC costs around Rs.2.5 lakh, this cost the company 1.2 lakh, deriving interaction not just for Indica but also KBC through net on indya.com. The key aspect of the innovation was to get people to the Indica showroom and to use the car. Thus, to actually take part in the contest and have a chance to win the car, the consumer had to first

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test drive the Indica. He would then receive an identification number which would be used to participate in the contest. After, creating the buzz about the contest, this was the most important move that resulted in close to 4000 test drives, 30 percent of which actualized into sales. On KBC, where there were special phones lines set up for people to call in and take part in the contest, they had close to 1.7 lakh phone calls, creating a huge interaction among the consumer, KBC and of course, the Indica

Cinema as a tool for advertising

An year ago when one entered a movie hall, one simply strolled past movie posters and headed straight to the food counter. Now when we step into hall, we literally have to watch every step. There is a DHL cutout here; a Hero Honda bike parked there, a promotion for Brylcreem, hall seats sporting the Signature whisky brand, poster of Airtel advertising telling viewers to download the movie songs, etc. Whether it is the hall premises, interval during films, or the film itself, advertisers see merit in the medium. Compared with TV, advertisings on the big screen escape the clutter and the TV remote that dishonestly jumps to another programme the minute a TV serial breaks for a commercial. Cinema is an opportunity to grab attention of the captive audience. Though, the cinemas reach is lower than TV, in terms of impact it is around five times higher. And with the multiplex experience emerging as a form of entertainment which is gaining popularity, the reach is going to get better. Currently, there are 100-120 Cineplexes. In fact, Indias largest cinema company, PVR Cinemas, opened the biggest multiplex in the Mumbai with 6 screens and 1851 seats.

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Besides, the moviegoer population is on the rise. Most frequent cinemagoers belong to the age group of 15 to 34. The urban population belonging to this age group is estimated to increase by 30% and the money they are expected to spend on films is likely to be Rs 138 million in 2011. Also, with the emergence of multiplex culture, cinema is going to be the key medium to reach out to the youth. While Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge is estimated to have collected Rs 20 crores abroad in 1994-95, Rang de basanti collected Rs 24 crore abroad in just six weeks. Marketers are viewing movies as a great merchandise opportunity. Raymond has just tied-up with Warner Bros. to market the complete range of Superman merchandise in India. Pantaloon had an arrangement with Krrish. Aamir khan productions and indiatimes.com had tied up with Archies to market products associated with the movie Lagaan. Marutis Swift was shown in Bunty Aur Babli when it had just launched. Clearly, with the popularity of cinema as a promotional medium, soon it would become a fairground for brands.

WHEN SCRAT CLUTCHED A GLASS OF HORLICK

The co-branded advertising for Horlicks and the movie Ice Age targeted children. The central idea of the promotion was this summer get your hands on the Chilled Chocolate Horlicks before anyone else does. The promo showed innocent -yet-fruitless struggle of Scrat (an animation character of Ice age) and other characters for getting their hands on Chocolate Horlicks. The campaign and media plan were focused on television and a huge ground promotion was done in five metros, where displays were put up.

MARKETER +

FILM MAKER

=A

WINNING UNION

The moment a brand is placed in a movie, both stand to benefit-much more than ever before. The director of the movie Krrish, Rakesh Roshan, was able to recover 20% of the cost of the movie through in-film brand placements

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and through Krrish merchandise. Animation characters are a popular group that marketers could gain from in the future as viewers tune out during usual commercial breaks.

BRYLCREEM FRAME
Recently there was a promotion for Brylcreem in several parts of the country. The idea was to show how people could do remarkable hairstyling with Brylcreem. So a five- translite show, was set up which staged the evolution of a nerd to a modern, stylish man. Besides, stickers and posters were placed in the mens restrooms with hairstyling tips. People eager to explore their new look were photographed and their images morphed with various hairstyles. Right from the baldy look to the rock star hairdo, the soft ware had it all. In fact the best hairdo was projected onto a screen, which others in cinema halls could see and even give approving nods. A print out of the best hairdo was taken and framed in a branded Brylcreem frame. This activity got an overwhelming response. The promotion was organized in a cinema hall because cinema halls are places that get people in great numbers. It allows for interaction. And their instant feedback facilitates a qualitative analysis of the impact of the promotion.

GIVING

THAT FILMY GLINT TO

TANISHQ

JEWELLERY COLLECTION

The range of jewellery was promoted as the Tanishq-Paheli collection. The idea was to use the association with the movie to the Tanishq brand. The movie turned to be a hit; the cash registers at Tanishq outlets kept pace with the box office collection of Paheli.

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TATA SAFARI

VROOMED THROUGH

ROAD

Tatas new car was getting launched and they were looking for the right time for promotion. At the same time Ram Gopal Verma was directing the movie ROAD. A majority of the scenes in the film had to include a car because of its storyline. The advertising agency had taken the advantage of the story because Tata Safari had to be introduced positioning it for its strong built, ruggedness, power, energy and the rough & tough image and in the film the car had to run in the desert areas, in the water, on the stones, etc. There was similarity in the concepts so the impression in the mind of the viewers was that they are watching Road-The Tata Safari. Tata Safari vroomed ahead through the movie, thanks to an in-film placement of the brand.

Influence Of Family In Advertising

The Indian family is changing in the real and the advertising settings. The patriarchal order is shifting. The emphasis now is on youth, and there is freedom from old family ties and rituals. The standard family advertising may have husband, wife, two children (always a boy and a girl) and usually the happy grandpa on a swing alongside a prancing dog, things are changing. We see nuclear families, more single women and men, and even within families, there are younger childless working couples.

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Lets see how Advertising agencies have used different people in the family in the advertisings

CHANGING

ROLE OF WOMEN IN ADVERTISING

There was a time when ladies in advertisings were being shown as props and objects. They were shown ironing shirts, cooking delicious food or soothing her childs forehead. They were always shown as ideal, and dutiful. But now they are portrayed as assertive and arrogant. Also, the importance of ladies in the advertising field is increasing day by day. Ladies are even shown in advertisments where they are not required at all like in the advertisments of shaving cream, mens clothings, gents watches, etc. All this is because of the change in the perceptions and beliefs of the audience. In fact in advertisments nowadays women are given more importance. Aishwarya giving it back to the guys, and in fact, whistling better than them. A boy chased out of a girls hostel and wanting to be fair and handsome. There are girls out there in a marriage market who treat a man like a dog on a leash. Her husband talks when she says talk and walks when she says walk. The ad says Dont marry the biggest mistake of your life, do register at jeevansaathi.com. The Ariel husband obliged us by washing the sheet. The advertisments of Prestige cooker with a punch line jo biwi se kare pyaar woh prestige se kaise kare inkaar. At last it can be said that why should boys have all fun?

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KIDS

ROCK THE ADVERTISING WORLD

Kids had played a great role in the advertising world right from the time of Polio advertisements on the Doordarshan. Their naughty antics and lack of respectful interaction with the elders in the advertisements show their growing influence and changing role within the family circle. Their dirty clothes are shown with the captions like Daag Achche Hain. The Alpenlibe cream fills advertisment has a child making people laugh by imitating his fathers antics in public as also the Holi ad showing a kids naughty gimmicks. The Lifebouy ads show how they are safe even after playing in the mud. They play hide and seek with Amitabh and it is shown that their clothes are whiter than him because of Rin. They show that at such an age also they are saving their money in the piggy bank and for more security they deposit it in the Bank of India. They can even throw your mobile if their photo is captured without permission. If they are sad then they might leave the house and then only Jalebi made in Dhara oil can make them happy. They know how to tell their taste with the help of the color of a wall.

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MENS

ROLE IN ADVERTISING

Men are getting more different roles in the advertisings. The origin of men in Indian advertising was as a hardworking man with hardworking brand. Clad in his banyaan the Indian man ploughed the fields and then washed himself with his Lifebuoy soap and didnt care about how he really looked. Now, we often see a softer, metrosexual-boy within the family fold. Now, Men are in a Lux bath tub with rose petals (Shah Rukh Khan in a Lux ad). However, there are some advertisements in which men are compulsorily required, like bike, shaving cream, creams for men, matrimonial advertisings, etc.

Degree of difference of Advertising in Regions & markets

Some years ago, Coca Cola had shown superhero, Hrithik Roshan, in an advertisement where he dances on a wooden pier and makes the coke bottle jump up. It fared reasonably well in the north region in India. In the south it was a flop. People in the south didnt know who Hrithik Roshan was. When Orchard advertising set about correcting the situation, it showed the coke in a Gaana situation, with the Tamil superhero Vijay. Gaana is an improvised poem recited to a tune, a popular recreation in the colleges. It worked wonders for the coke in the South. The North and South advertising divide can be seen in the jingles, the songs, compositions, dialogues, mannerisms, and the detailing. If habits, cultures, thinking of the two parts of the same country are different, wouldnt their advertising be, as cinema is? As a result, the above makeover has happened with various brands through time.

HUMOUR

VERSUS DANCE

Advertisements down south have a signature style. In the youth brands category, especially, advertisements have high- decibel song and dance

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expressions, with energy explosions everywhere. In comparison, youth brands in the north rely more on witty banter, leg pulling and philosophical musings. At times, songs and dance too, but definitely several notches shy of the energy thrusts of the Southern kind. However, advertisings in the North are now using popular South symbols. The embellished elephant in the new 7UP gave the advertising a distinctive south touch. And the house boat in the Clinic All Clear shampoo advertising featuring Bipasha Basu & John Abraham reminds one of Kerala. In the South, people like dialogue driven and word powered communication. So, slogans and hard selling rational appeals succeed. South Indian advertisings are loud and in-your-face. Fascination with bright colours is another characteristic of advertisings down south. Every region has its unique translation of ordinary things. For example, in the south red chillies are meant to make the food hot and spicy. In the north, as the advertisings show, chillies are for giving a rich red colour to the food. These differences are the derivatives of cultural contrast. When Orchard had to get cracking on the Coke-Roshan remake, the agency toured the state, spending time in the college campuses and hostels. The average son of the soil in Tamil Nadu was someone who was fiercely conscious of his identity. To them the Westernized, convent educated guy was not a role model. They had their own way of passing time. In this case it was gaana.

ADAPTING

TO CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

To adapt a North advertising in the south, the execution or the form may change, but the central thought or the idea would remain unchanged. The idea of the two-bucket Surf Excel Quick Wash advertisement was relevant everywhere, since the water crisis is a national reality. So, while the idea remained the same and, the narration too, Shabana Azmi was replaced by actress-director and activist Revathy in the Southern version. Simply because, no one in the south knew Azmi.

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A lip sync used to be the standard fare, but the sharper the characterization, the sillier the lip-sync version. Imagine a sardar family in their very Punjabi home conversation in flawless Tamil. Therefore replacing northern celebrities with Southern ones, changing the look of the house, the tune of the jingle, are adaptations that make the advertising feel at home down South. Handling the cultural differences within the South is a bigger challenge. Every state has its own story. Language difference is the main barrier to having uniform communication across the Southern states.

CULTURAL

GAP NARROWING

However the gap between the North and South has begun to narrow down. And that is perhaps because people in these two different parts of the country are faced with similar challenges in life. Even Hindi is becoming popular in the south. Chennais culture is on the crossroads of modernity and tradition. Women in Chennai want to wear the traditional sari, but they also wanted to look modern. Recently, Mudra South did a campaign on the new line of sarees from RMKV. These traditional silk sarees had western Zodiac signs instead of the traditional motifs and the collection sold like hot cakes. The cultural transition in Chennai can be best captured in the RMKVs tag line Tradition made trendy. Talking of the North versus South divide, eventually its the language of great ideas that binds us all. The Air Deccan advertisment is a perfect example. Its setting is South, the language is Hindi, its appeal pan-India. On this, it seems, the North and the South sensibilities are in total agreement in advertising.

Creativity in rural advertising

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The advertising agencies have to adapt different strategies to advertise the products in rural areas. Because the people in the rural areas have different languages, values, cultures, traditions, etc. many companies failed in rural market because they had adopted the same strategy in the rural market as in the urban. Villages are too scattered. A single communication to target the rural rich scattered all over is impractical. With every district, languages and cultures change and so does the challenge of connecting with them. There are many advertisements which are created keeping in mind the rural people. Like the one that shows a truck driver and his assistant Rajpal Yadav. Or, eSys laptop advertising where a farmers assistant uses a laptop to find out the international rates of chillies, or the Voltas advertising, where an air conditioner cools off the sweat of a farmer. Targeting the rural market makes perfect sense since 70% of Indias population resides in rural areas. The communication should touch the heart of the consumer, thats it. The language and the emotion is understood and felt by everyone. Here are the examples of the different companies which had advertised products in a special way in rural areas.

MORTEIN

KILLS THE

RAVANA

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Bihar has a very low mass media reach which is around 42%. Local player Maxo dominated the mosquito repellant market with 51.3% whereas Mortein, the number 1 national brand had only managed to grab 28% share in the beginning. Mortein had to grab the market share of Maxo by connecting with the consumers using an appeal which would attract the locals. The route was to break traditional media formats making use of the most traditional part of peoples lives The Sonepur Mela. In a market dominated by low priced, unorganized local players, Mortein strategically chose its higher end ten hours variant to demonstrate its powerful protection platform. Sonepur Fair is the largest cattle fair in Asia. More than 1 million people visit the mela every year. The month long fair also coincides with Dussehra. They chose an adaptation of the great Indian epic- Ramayana, which is enacted at the Dussehra Fair. Ramayan is a classic story of the victory of god (Lord Ram) over evil (Ravana). This fitted in well with brand platform of the strength of Mortein (the savior) over Mosquitoes (the evil). A 50 feet high image of Louie (the king of pests) was created. For the entire month, a huge publicity stunt was done in the form of a Rath Yatra (chariot procession) taken through the mela. On the D-day (Dussehra), Mortein hexagonal coil (the protector against the menace of pests) shot lasers to burn down the effigy of Louie, in the same way in which the image of Ravana was burnt by the arrows of Rama in Ramayana. In place of the traditional Ravana, Louis was the cynosure of all eyes. An emotional chord was established through the use of an epic legend with more than one million people who visited the fair. The support media of radio, poster, cinema and Rath Yatra kept the momentum going, paving the way for the grand finale of the burning of the Louie Ravana image. The value share of Mortein 10-hour coil in Bihar showed a huge jump post the activity. The usage of this innovation targeted medium ensured a growth of 49%, moving its share from 28% in September2005 to average 46% during

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December 2005-2006. Maxo dropped to 40% in the same period. The halo effect also resulted in 8% increase in share value of other Mortein variant.

The positive brand connect generated among the audience was, of course, immense, and continued to reap a benefit for the brand in the long - term.

MOBILE MARICO
Marico introduced Shanti Badaam Amla hair oil in the upcountry markets of Uttar Pradesh to fight Daburs Amla oil. The objective behind the campaign, targeted at women in the age bracket of 18 to 35 years, was to strengthen the association of the oil with nourishing properties of almond and amla. The challenge invited women to get their hair checked by hair care experts at specially designed mobile clinics. Through the hair-scope, a device to assess hair density, natural blackness, length, and dandruff indications, participants were scored on the quality of their hair. Those with a good score received redeemable coupons and a lucky draw coupon that gave them the chance to meet actress, Bhumika Chawla. RC&M had tied-up with the top beauty parlours in each town where women could redeem their coupons worth Rs 75. This ensured sampling at the parlours as well. Keeping in mind that women in small towns rarely venture out alone, since theres always a male escort, RC&M offered entertainment for the family. Since the challenge campaign required women to step out of their homes, RC&M got men and children involved in the Strong hair challenge campaign through games.

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GLUCON-D

JOINS THE

OLYMPIC

The challenge with this innovation was to reach out to key markets of Bihar and Punjab, areas that are media-dark and Hindi speaking, where the best way to relate to the consumer is on the ground. They tapped the consumer in the summer, a time when their body needs glucose most. Since the aerated soft drink market is growing, encouraging people to drink glucose was the main aim of their innovation.

To do this, in Punjab they tied with the annual kila Raipur rural Olympics. Glucon D came in as a co-sponsor of the event and participated by refreshing the 4500 athletes and 400000 viewers. Relay, the sport and CEM practice of SMG (Stardoms Media Vest Group) handled the entire project. The insight was simple-People of Punjab enjoy sports and love to sweat it out, so with Glucon D, they tried to show them that they too understood the value of their energy. Also, co-sponsorship of kila Raipur games is relatively

33

unexplored by other brands, this created a singular connect with the rural folk to whom the games are very important. In Bihar, apart from creating awareness about the goodness of the Glucose, the main issue was an increase in sale of a poor look-alike of Glucon D in the market that was being bought by people. Thus, they tied up with the Rotary International to provide mobile pyaoos (drinking water stations) that not only serves water to the passers-by, but also Glucon D. This helped to show the difference between the real and the fakes, while also giving them a taste of glucose. Initiated in four towns and based on the success in the first month, the pyaoos were extended to others as well. With a trusted organization like Rotary International, They had more credibility then any marketing organization could have given them onground. Through these innovations, in both Punjab and Bihar, more than 4 lakh people had sampled the genuine Glucon D. Finally, to make people aware of the summer heat and the importance of glucose, they had used soap-actress Smiti Irani who, in a non-commercial way encouraged people to drink glucose. Since people tend to trust soapactors more and advertising less, she had tout the message without emphasizing the brand name. An effort that had begun during April/May, had created awareness about the importance of glucose in the summer, while also creating a connect with Glucon D.

Other Aspects Of Advertising

There are many other aspects of advertising which enhance its creativity which includes brand icon, colors, creativity on a particular occasion, modes of advertising the agency uses, its audio, etc.

CREATIVE

AUDIO ADVERTISING

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There are many advertisements in media like TV, internet, etc which are the combination of the visual + audio or only visuals. Visual advertising has a superior impact on our mind because we can see the overall procedure and can understand it better and faster than the audio advertisements. But there are such advertisements on the radio as well as on the television which were successful due to the effective audio work i.e. jingles or signature tunes. For example:1. Bajaj Two Wheelers- Buland Bharat Ki Buland TasveerHamaara Bajaj 2. National Integration- Mile Sur Mera Tumhara 3. Zandu Balm- Zandu Balm, Zandu Balm, Pida Haari Balm. 4. Pan Parag- Pan Parag, Pan Masala, Pan Parag. 5. Lijjat Papad- Karram Kurram, Majedar Lijjatar, Saat Swaad Mein Lijjat, Lijjat Papad. 6. Nerolac- Jab Ghar Ki Raunak Badhani Ho 7. Nirma- Doodh Si Safedi Nirma se Aye, Washing Powder Nirma, Nirma. 8. Titan- Signature tune 9. Airtel- Signature tune. 10.Cadburys Dairy Milk-Kya Swaad Hai Zindagi Mein 11.Operation flood- Doodh Doodh DoodhPiyo Glass a full doodh And many more.

The Close-up ad with the Sehgal voice gave a huge feedback to the company. After the success of the Airtel signature tune Reliance Communications Ltd. also advertised its products with the signature tune. Normally in rural areas people remember the ads with jingles and hence buy the same. Because of the increasing importance of jingles and signature tunes many companies had not changed their jingles and signature tunes for many years.

COLORS

IN ADVERTISING

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The advertising agencies also focus on the color aspect in advertisements which has a psychological effect on the minds of the viewers. Every color has its own meaning in itself and viewers too agree with it. It is known that white is the color of peace, saffron is the color of sacrifice, red is the color of violence or anger, etc. Nowadays, advertisements are also using the color aspect in the theme of the ad. Pepsi had come with the campaign of blue and it had associated it with the Indian cricket team, because the Indian cricket teams official jersey color is also blue. Pepsi had also launched its product in blue color- the Blue Pepsi. It was to symbolize Pepsi as the Cool Guys drink and with a tag line Men in blue just keep looking cute. Blue is a color which is liked by most young boys and girls. Pink is the color symbolic of females, therefore Scooty Pep Pink the ladies scooty had come with the theme of pink se panga nahin lene ka. Lets talk about the color black which is more popular in the advertising market. In the west, black is the most elegant way to present beauty products. Products that thrive on their Black advertising and positioning in India include the Bajaj Pulsar Black (fear the black), and the HSBC Advantage Fund- which strides on Man in Black. Shoppers Stop and the ICICI Prudential have both used black in branding and advertising. Then, there are brands that use dark-overtones in their advertisings, whether its Samsonite, Mont Blanc or the truly mysterious Nakshatra. Products like anti-dandruff shampoos (Head & Shoulders) and shoe polish (Cherry Blossom) intrinsically need black. The Onida Devil wears black clothes, in order to add that rare mix of mystery and poise. Bajaj used Fear the Black positioning, in order to convey personality and an adventurous spirit. The liquor clients that have truly embraced the hue in branding be Old Black Orange, Vintage Black Label Beer, Johnny Walker Black label, AC Black, etc. Therefore it can be said, yes, Black rules on the advertising highway.

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Creativity using occasions

India is at number one position for having the most number of festivals because of its culture. There are other occasions too like Friendship day, April Fools day, World aids day, Fathers day, Mothers day, etc. celebrated all over India. These occasions are also being commercialized by promoting products and services making use of these occasions.

FOR

EXAMPLE

GO AIR airlines advertisement on 1st April 2006, wishing April fools day to all those still flying in other airlines and continuing its explanation that, why not fly an airline with a 96% on-time record, state-of-the-art A320aircraft and impeccable services. So much so that, we at GoAir, challenge you to find a better flight at a better fare. And if you are still flying any other airline, dont be a fool. Just fly smart. Fly Go Air.

FEVICOLs advertisement during the Independence Day (2006): The brand which always stood for strong adhesive power released a new hoarding to celebrate the countrys Independence Day by talking about the partition. The brand, which was launched in 1959, took its idea of bonding and sticking together by looking at the event, giving a new tagline unfortunately launched post partition ,which conveyed that if fevicol would have been launched pre partition then partition wouldnt be possible.

CITI FINANCIALs advertisement during the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi: Citifinancial promotions through pamphlets of providing loan up to Rs 1 lakh to customers during ganesh chaturthi was creative because of the following reasons

The tag line Khusiyon Ka Shree Ganesh.

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Behind the pamphlet the aarti of ganesh was written. The color used was red, green and yellow which are the colors of festivity. The icon of Lord Ganesha was printed at the top and at the bottom was printed ise fek ke ganeshji ka apman na kare, ise apne saathi ko de i.e. dont disrespect lord Ganesh by throwing this pamphlet, give it to your friend.

Survey on Creative Ads

A survey conducted using 50 people of different age groups, showed the following results for some creative advertisements based on the ranks given by the respondents (i.e. 1st rank is the advertising which is most liked by the people, 2nd rank is less liked as compare to the 1st rank advertising, and so on.) SURF EXCEL (Daag acche hain) - 10 votes BANK OF INDIA -8 votes NAUKRI.COM (Hari Sado- a character used in its ad) - 7 votes

38

RELIANCE INSURANCE (Saat aasaan sawaal) - 5 votes DNA (speak up, it is in your DNA) - 4 votes CHLORMINT (log chlormint kyon khate hain) - 4 votes AIRTEL - 3 votes JANA GANA MANA (respect the nation as well as the national anthem) 2 votes

MONSTER.COM - 2 votes INNOVA CAR (Aamir khans advertising) - 1 vote SONY MAX (deewana bana de) - 1 vote STANDARD CHARTERED MUTUAL FUND (childrens are like) - 1 vote OPERATIONAL FLOOD (piyo glass full Doodh) - 1 vote RNA BUILDER (billboard) - 1 vote ECLAIR (two ways, two types) - 1 vote

It was found that maximum number of votes was given to the Surf Excel advertisement and therefore I am trying to give some important parts of this advertisement.

SURF EXCEL DAAG ACHHE HAIN

39

A boy with his younger sister is Unhappy with the outcome, the on his way back from school. little girl starts crying and calls for her bhaiya.

As they continue walking To please her, the brother the girl falls and her attacks the puddle declaring uniform gets dirty. tujhe abhi dekhta hoon.

40

As both of them smile, the ad As he kicks and punches the puddle, adds: Daag lagne se kuch the girl encourages him maaro, aur achcha hota hai, toh daag maaro. achche hai na? Surf Excel...

Daag achche hain. Closing shot of Getting the fight to a for future the boy warning the puddlefinish now the brother consoles his sister sorry bol as the little girl looks on smiling. raha hai.

WHY SURF EXCEL

ADVERTISEMENT WAS THE MOST POPULAR ?

As in the survey I came to know that advertisements which show small kids are liked more by most people as compared to the other age groups. In the survey, out of the four top advertisements three advertisements have kids in them. Common guys give the little kids their fair share of appreciation for a brilliant performance. The agency had worked on each and every aspect.

THE STRATEGY
The strategy was to launch Surf Excel with a new tag line. To combat the growing competition from Nirma, Tide and Rin the advertising agency had to try something creative. They wanted to target their main customers i.e. children because they create the major demand in households.

THE IDEA
The advertising agency knows that surf excel is used for cleaning dirty clothes and majority of the clothes are mucked up mainly by the kids during

41

the rainy season due to dirty stagnant water. So they had taken a small girl and her brother and created the same situation, which turned out to be very natural and cute. Kids come from school. The small girl is walking in a carefree manner. The girl falls down in the muddy water and mucked up with it and calls out to her brother, crying. Her brother tries to impress his sister by hitting in the mud as if he is really hitting some person, to bring back the smile on his little sisters face. The idea was simple and cute.

THE

EXECUTION

The commercial highlights the general protective behavior of elder brothers and the extent to which he goes to bring the smile back on his sisters face. Overall the emotions and psyche of small kids is very well depicted in this advertisement. There is an unspoken creativity in this advertisement which adds another dimension to the product qualities without overtly saying it. The visuals were good and impressive.

OVERALL

IMPACT

The overall impact on the people was positive. The people who were buying the other brands of washing powder also liked this ad very much. The advertising impact was so much that people did not jump to other channels when this ad was introduced. The way the kids brought out the best to promote the product as well as added a personal touch, had created a good brand image of Surf Excel. Well, the creativity of people can easily be viewed in this advertisement. It is a very good example of repositioning of the "Daags" (spots).

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What was so special in the DNAs outdoor advertising?

In the summer of 2005 there was strict competition in the newspaper industry. There were three more newspapers (Hindustan Times, Mumbai Mirror And DNA) being launched in the same period. Times of India had launched Mumbai Mirror to maintain its share in Mumbai. Hindustan Times was next to come. To beat the competition DNA mainly focused on the promotional strategies. DNAs campaign moved in two phases.

First, images of people were shown with tapes across their mouth; next with no tapes, with a tagline, Speak Up. Coming up with the speak up slogan seemed the most natural brand fit with the paper. It was all about creating a buzz. They used every possible medium to push the message; every entry and exit area within the city had DNA plastered across it, the promoters moved across cities with the tapes on their faces and following them people wearing speak up written on T-shirts.

The entire campaign used 150 billboards, 100 bus shelters, 500 stalls, 8 mobile vans, 30 double-decker busses, 5 railway stations, a unique mobile media projection unit and a giant glow ball outside the airport to spread the DNA message across the city. For this, O & M won the gold in the media plan of the year during the Outdoor Advertising Awards (OAA) 2006, held in Mumbai on 10th June. They won silver in the entertainment and media category in the Rediffusion DY&R. The award winning advertisement was an outdoor hoarding advertising the crime news coverage in DNA. It featured a hoarding with a close-up of a mans face where the eyes were actually moving. The advertisement had to focus on the crime coverage in the city; so the billboard really looked like a man scanning the neighbourhood, thus went

43

very well with the product. As a technical accomplishment, this single strategically placed billboard generated a lot of buzz for the brand.

The above creativity, great team effort of the O&M, good use of new technologies in the advertising, good relative factor of advertising with the product, etc. made the DNA advertisement as the best outdoor advertising.

Ads which failed badly

Swami Muktananda has said that one should consciously try to look for good in everything. Even in the worst of things, something good can be found only if we take the trouble to look at them. But, the following were an example of such ads that one would give up trying to find something good in them.

PEPSI TV
It leaves the viewers dissatisfied, disappointed and overtly critical. The advertisement had the kind of stuff which wasnt that funny in the first place and very kiddish. Pepsi is a young brand, but advertising of this kind looks plain and unprofessional. It was terribly immature. The first part of the campaign built up the expectation a mile long, and then fell from grace.

The advertising agency created a lot of hype about the Pepsi channel, until viewers actually believed that there is another channel coming up, but after blowing the bubble they actually burst it by saying Pepsi ke saath jo bhi channel dekho thats Pepsi TV. The joke fell flat. And the second part of the campaign, with Priyanka and the three guys, took silliness to the extreme

44

level. And also the new advertising of Pepsi with the slogan hoo haa India was far from the expectations of the audience because people had liked the Pepsi advertisement of yeh dil maange more and compared it with the current one. Pepsi failed in giving these ads a good punch line, which the Coca Cola ads did effectively.

Pepsis next advertisements were about celebrating larger than life moments at home. Clearly, their focus was on households. Though they went overboard with the Pepsi TV ad, they did build up peoples expectations with the Pepsi TV. They may have disappointed some but they surely got people taking about it because of its big image.

They again came back with a new advertisement with the punch line Ooh Aah India which showed cheering up the Indian cricket team for the ICC Championship, not dropping the hope on the Indian team, in spite of its defeat in the ICC Championship. This advertisement used brand ambassadors like Shahrukh Khan, Saurav Ganguly, Shreyas Talpade (the actor of the film Iqbal) etc. which made it quite successful, and more popular than the Pepsi TV campaign.

ANALYSIS
It can be clearly seen what wonders a creative advertisement can do to the promotion of any product or service. Creativity plays a vital role in modeling, manipulation and creation of great advertising. Recent examples are the

45

Hindustan Lever Limited and Coco-Cola that spent more than 50% of their budget towards advertisements. Below are the big spenders on the advertisements which shows the importance of advertising.

BIG SPENDERS

Top advertisers in 2005

Hindustan Lever Procter & Gamble Paras Pharmaceuticals Dabur India Reckitt Benckiser Pepsi Co Nokia Co Johnson & Johnson Colgate Palmolive India Tata Teleservices

Rs. (in crores)

666 179 144 143 143 108 105 104 89 85

TOP 10 ADVERTISERS U.S. SPENDING - TRADITIONAL MEDIA

Rank
1

Parent Company
Procter & Gamble Co

Ad Dollars Spent (US $)

$2,342,319,397

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

General Motors Corp AT&T Inc Verizon Communications Inc Johnson & Johnson Time Warner Inc Toyota Motor Corp General Electric Co Ford Motor Co Pepsico Inc

$1,441,747,399 $1,317,893,377 $1,125,700,512 $1,059,109,138 $878,355,332 $819,377,026 $807,869,688 $742,708,529 $730,503,931

Source: The Nielsen Company (January 1 - September 30, 2008)

TOP 10 BEST-LIKED TV COMMERCIALS

Ra nk Brand Ad Description (Seconds) Likeabi lity Index
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

NFL Budweise r Geico AMP Energy M&Ms Bridgesto ne Lowes Slim Jim Bud Light Macys

Ephraim Salaam describes how Chester Pitts became an NFL player (60) Dalmatian trains Hank the Clydesdale for hitch team (60) Gecko on subway train with older man (30) Dale Earnhardt Jr. knocks out a gorilla in different places (30) Pink peanut M&M is attacked by squirrels in park (15) Squirrel and other forest animals scream as car approaches (30) Jimmie Johnson fixes things, including school bus, using Kobalt tools (30) Couple at wedding is attacked by mans mini evil twin (15) Bud Light is brewed to give you the ability to breath fire (30) Celebrities read Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (30)

216 208 192 191 186 185 185 181 175 170

Source: The Nielsen Company (January 1 - November 30, 2008).

Creative advertising plays a significant role in creating great ads, which in turn bring huge returns in the form of profits and increased market share to Industry houses. It influences the customers by providing true and updated information about the latest products and services available to them. Creative advertising also creates awareness among the consumers through advertisements on societal issues like environment conservation, health and safety, etc.

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Many companies allot their advertising contracts to external advertising agencies which put in the best of their expertise and knowledge in bringing out a great advertisement. The effective use of punch lines, the words, the colors, the endorsers, the cultural themes, the sounds, etc. are the essential parameters that decide the success of a creative ad.

The use of appropriate form of media also decides the success of creative ads. Where products are small in size and advertising budgets are low then radio can be used. Where the target segment is larger, print media may be most appropriate. Where the budgets are high and the target segment is big and of high income group then the use of TV as a medium would be a better option as it creates excitement and a demonstration of the product/ service is possible. In the current scenario various new mediums are becoming popular such as e-commerce, mobile commerce, internet, etc. which give more access to the target consumers.

What does a perfect advertisement need?

A perfect advertisement is made with the effective use of one of/ a blend of the following elements, which may be incorporated after studying consumer preferences and the psyche of the target segment.

JINGLES

AND SIGNATURE TUNES

Jingles are like a song therefore it is more likeable by Indians. It is easy to remember the product which has a jingle in its advertisement and it also sounds good. It has been observed that most of the advertisements that have signature tunes in them are successful in the market. Now days, signature

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tunes are also used as ring tones which make the callers also aware of the product. (the Cadbury jingle and the signature tune of Airtel)

DIFFERENT MODES OF ADVERTISING

Using different modes of advertising increases product awareness in the market. Modes like online advertising, TV serials and shows, billboards, standard newspapers, magazines, word of mouth, etc give a desired publicity to a product. A mix of use of different modes may increase the initial cost of promotion but it gives good returns and popularity to new products.

SPONSORING EVENTS
The soccer (FIFA) and the Cricket are mediums which may be used to connect with millions of people as they are the most popular sports all over the world watched by millions of people. Taking the case of India people are crazy over cricket matches and it is the most watched sports in India.

BRAND

AMBASSADORS

Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Aamir Khan, Sachin , Dravid, Sania Mirza, Dhoni and John Abraham are brand ambassadors who are most popular and make the product sales shoot up through their advertisements. Their personalities create a magic for most of the brands that they endorse. In the Promo Survey 2006, which analyzed buying behavior, it was observed that 52% of respondents or consumers think that celebrities make brands more popular. 40% changed their buying behaviour based on the celebrity endorsements. 52% customers believed that a brand should always have a brand ambassador.

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INNOVATION

IN ADVERTISING

Innovative media may be used such as placing in popular TV soaps and shows (Kit Kat Laugh-o-meter in the show the Great Indian Laughter Challenge), use of the product in a movie (Virudh-Calcium Sandoz, BournvitaKoi mil gaya, Motorola-Don, etc), street plays (Airtel), advertising your product on the other products (Rang De Basanti printed on the coke bottles), advertising through SMS or Free Promos, neon, etc because can attract more people at lower costs.

DIFFERENT

ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES FOR RURAL AREAS

Rural people are more attentive towards the advertisements which are nontraditional. The word of mouth publicity through the heads in that particular area is one of the best methods in rural markets. Many company have used different strategies for expanding their market in rural areas (Mortein, Asian paints, Fevicol, Cadbury, etc).

ANIMATION

OR ICON

Use of animation in advertisements has given a positive response to the advertising industry. Many ads have been successful in creating a buzz because of the animation characters or icons used in them (Eveready- billi chaap, Energizer-bunny, Scrat in Horlicks etc.).

COLOR

THEME

A particular color may be used as a theme for the product being promoted so that whenever a person sees that color again the product feature clicks his mind (scooty - pink, bike-black fear, etc.).

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DIFFERENT

ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES FOR DIFFERENT REGIONS

The advertisement being shown in a particular region should be in tandem with the culture and values of the people of that region.

CONCLUSION
Emotions play different roles in making advertising effective. Different emotions and emotional-stimulators like happiness, curiosity, sorrow, humor, fear, beauty, etc., have been portrayed in advertisements. A punch line in an advertisement accompanied with a strong emotional appeal, touches a customers psychological needs and influences the perception about the brand image. In many advertisements, without actually conveying the product qualities celebrities are used as endorsers to connect with the audience at an emotional level. The audience then associates the brand with a specific emotion. Thus, human feelings are transferred towards a product or brand. In the advertising world, this is termed emotional transfer. It is important to note that not all emotional appeals and emotional brands are successful. For advertisers, it is a matter of research to find the correlation between lifestyle-trends and emotional attachments and to answer questions, like why the audiences notice some advertisements and tend to forget the others. There are many perceptions in the advertisers as well as the audience about emotional appeals in advertising. Particularly varied perceptions are observed in people regarding the use of fear or the use of sex appeals in advertising. With the changing lifestyles, emotional appeals used in the advertisements have also been changed. In todays highly competitive world, emotional appeal to the customer is very critical and needs a thorough study of the lifestyle of the target audience, as the emotional preferences of customers make a difference in decision making.

SHARE OF THE HEART IS A KEY TO SHARE OF THE WALLET

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REFERENCES
http://products.jimtrade.com/2/care_products_treatment.htm www.adwiseindia.com www.advertising-in-india.com www.economist.com www.agencyfags.com www.indiainfo.com www.dnaindia.com www.mouthshut.com www.Youtube.com http://www.indianpad.com http://sawaal.ibibo.com/trivia/pl-name-creative-ads-that-you-thinkreally-touched-you-guyseg-gmr-kurkure-etc-331124.html http://www.trak.in

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