This is a very difficult goal to achieve, because to see God formlessly is not a simple task. So Shankara Bhagavadpada, in his wisdom promoted the concept of giving God a form before worshipping. Dwaitham as it was called was meant to make the path to God simple. When the human mind cannot concentrate on a formless God, make it concentrate on a form like us would make meditation simpler.

It is strange and almost supernatural that Shankara has put forward a great branding concept too.

Dwaitham in the branding world is common and many times very helpful in making the essential connect with the consumer.

One of the first examples of Dwaitham in branding that I learnt about was Gattu. The mascot for Asian Paints. I can still remember the character created by R K Laxman though Gattu has ‘retired’. Naughty, colourful and ever ready to take on the challenge of painting a house, Gattu resonated a vibrancy that no other paint brand of that time. The brand still stands for all that, but doesn’t carry Gattu anymore.

The Maharaja of Air India is another character that has now been retired but can never be forgotten. Curiously, the character was created to be used in notepads by Mr. Umesh Rao of JWT, but became the official mascot of the brand.

Nipper of HMV, Bibendum of Michellin, Tux of Linux, Ronald McDonald of McDonalds, Fido-Dido of 7-Up and the Onida Devil are all characters that have brought the brand live in front of our eyes. While many points of view float around about the longevity of these characters, to me they would live forever.

A few examples. Fido-Dido was once retired about 10-12 years ago. I remember from my school days, this cute little line drawing character jumping out of the notepad and gulping down 7-Up like a cool dude would! But unfortunately, they retired him once and the brand was almost lost in the mélange of aerated drinks markets that we live in. After a hiatus of about 10 years, Fido re-appeared. And the brand was visible again. People started remembering the brand and the sales numbers reflected it. However, the brand managers confused it by featuring Mallika Sherawat, whose value systems does not match with the ‘cool dude’ attitude of 7-Up. Pity they retired both Fido and Mallika and brand is somewhere in the oblivion again.

Another classic example of brand connect through an imaginary character is ‘Chintamani’. I am broaching a topic in Financial Services, which is against my policy. But am giving a special mention to Chintamani because through this character, the brand was able to connect with the consumer and his problems beautifully.

But another R K Laxman classic is ‘The Common Man’ of Times of India. It is almost impossible for any of us to imagine the newspaper without the common man and the way in which the brand mascot connects with the consumer – by living the problems that a common man faces and shown with satire. The brand Times of India at one point used to stand for that satire, that questioning mind and challenging the authority. Today, it has morphed into much more both on the positive and negative side, however, the common man has and will always stand tall in my mind. For it was the common man that gave a ‘physical shape and size’ to Times of India as a brand.

I would like to end this post with another great mascot. Mickey Mouse. Perhaps Disney and Mickey Mouse have merged because the mouse brought out everything that Disney as a brand wanted to and still stands for. The brand was brought to life by Mickey Mouse and perhaps would remain to be amongst the greatest examples of Dwaitham in the Brand World.

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I used to live in a place called Mambalam Road, which was once an integral part of a thriving industry. Film Hoardings.

There used to be two large players in this market with the largest being J P Krishna. Almost every single hoarding in the state for all large banners Tamil Film banners including AVM, Satya and Devar used J P Krishna’s services. The speciality? These hoardings were hand painted and will look so real and beautiful. And it used to be a sight to watch these painters at work because being a film fan I used to get to see the posters / photographs before many others. Also, the size used to amaze me. 40ft hoarding will be actually hand painted. WOW!

Come to think of it, that was all they did for promoting a film other than PR. Those were not the days of TV promos because there were only 2 channels. DD local and DD National . Moreover, the film industry wasn’t run by professionals. They were just the creative kind and all they could think of, was film making. So the rest of the departments including marketing weren’t their greatest strength.

I am amazed at the speed with which the Movie Marketing Industry has taken over the Movie Making Industry in current times.

Nowadays, a movie budget includes the marketing budget and the number is substantial enough to ensure that enough visibility is garnered in the first weekend itself. Considering that 50% or more collections for a movie happens in the first weekend (or maybe the first 2 weekends), it is important to have a very high intensity burst and the marketing functions for these film houses do the job brilliantly.

Icing on the cake? They actually employ advertising agencies and they get really creative in promoting a movie. With many aces up their sleeve, I thought it would be worth discussing a few here.

PR – This is something that goes on an overdrive before a movie release. We Indians are suckers for celebrity secrets and the problem is that the movie marketers know it. So before the release of a film, you would end up knowing almost every dirty secret (of which I would assume that more than 60% would be fabricated) will be shared with the publications with enough pictures. Sometimes, not sharing any detail of the film will be the PR activity itself. And many times, it would be some controversy. Take the case of Raavan. The film was mired with enough controversies to ensure that enough people spoke about it. Starting from Junior AB claiming to have done a stunt and some swimmer from Bangalore claiming to have performed the stunt to Senior AB launching a desperate attack on Mani to say that the Hindi edit wasn’t great, PR was on an overdrive. Maybe it is this overdrive that cost the film dear, but the function did its job beautifully. Unfortunate that the strategy didn’t work.

Trailors – With the idiot box taking over as one of the largest modes of promoting a product / service, it meant that the 30 second cut of the film must be so slick that you would want to endure 3 hours of the same thing. So the idiot box edits are nothing short of awesome to make you want to watch the film.

Reality Shows – The world today is nothing short of The Truman Show. With reality shows garnering more TRPs and GRPs than your favorite serials movie houses started connecting with these shows to promote their films. After all, this would mean that they get to promote the film for half hour (or one hour in some cases) in the given channel. So you can find the key cast of a film participating in a reality show just to ensure that their film gets talked about.

Online – Starting from a full fledged website for a film (example: www.idiotsacademy.com) to taking over the twitter accounts of key members of the cast, the online promotions side of the movie house has its hands full. Sonam Kapoor just before the launch of Aisha started sharing images from the film in the pretext of finding out how she looks with everyone. The good looker that she was, the film did get a positive opening owing to her strategy of sharing images through Twitter. Every film today has a Facebook page too. Social media today forms a key part of every film’s marketing strategy.

Just to be sure that we don’t leave out… Print happens too!

However, it is refreshing to see that movie marketing has taken a leaf out of advertising for products and indulge in creative and innovative ways to promote. Furthermore, these campaigns get considered for Advertising awards. The campaigns for Paa & 3 Idiots won accolades at Emvies for innovative usage of the media.

Film stars go to any length (figuratively and literally) to promote their movies. One of the Emvie winner ‘3 Idiots’ got it for Aamir travelling the length and breadth of the country many times in disguise and the competition was to identify him. This kind of made the character blend with the masses, thus ensuring larger audience for the film.

This certainly is a category where the bar is always high and is raised further with each large project. The film making business is creative and to advertise that you would again get creative. Sounds like the second level dream of Fischer in Inception.

Would certainly be fun…

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Two of the largest telecom companies moved their creative agency.

Airtel moves from Rediffusion to JWT

Reliance moves to Grey

Is there a signal? Some observations:

Problem 1: Both brands have not had a great ‘last few campaigns’. Personally, I think it is because Airtel & Reliance have been trying to say too many things and somewhere down the line, barring the signature tune, there was nothing that connected the many communication pieces that was coming out of these behemoths.

Airtel had a campaign with SRK based on his life story and how he is connected with his friends. Loosely made TV based campaign, which was doing nothing to the brand. Their earlier messages were clear and crisp in terms of communicating the brand objectives / values to the consumer. The SRK commercial didn’t connect well.

Reliance on the other hand brought in Hrithik. I am still unable to make sense out of the TVCs made by Reliance using Hrithik. This proved to be a classic case of lazy communication by bringing in a celebrity. The opening up of the GSM platform for Reliance was a tremendous opportunity, which I think was not utilized properly by the brand team.

Problem 2:  The relationships have either gone sour between the agency and the marketers. With Airtel, the relationship is since inception of the brand. This kind of long relationship would obviously bring some moments where one takes another for granted. It could be from the client’s side or the agency’s side. Either ways, the relationship would obviously suffer. Having been the agency since the beginning is a tremendous advantage for Rediffusion, but alas, it is not meant to continue.

With Reliance the account was with Mudra for a long time (again since inception if I am right) although the brand seems to have flirted with Cartwheel for a short while. But it is better for them to settle down with an agency properly with a long term view else the sufferer will be the brand.

Familiarity breeds contempt seems to have happened in either cases.

Problem 3: I also believe that there has been a churn at the client’s end in both these cases. Chandru alias Chandrasekhar of Airtel quit the telco very recently. And there is very little clarity (at least in media) about the person who has taken over the mandate.

Reliance marketing team also seems to have gone through a churn. I know for a fact that they are in the process of getting their marketing head on board. Internally there has been a churn which seems to have ailed these brands.

Problem 4: Intense competition. Tata Docomo, Idea, Uninor, Videocon, Virgin and many more have started digging deep into their pockets to start communicating. New regulations including Number Portability is not helping the cause and is building immense pressure on all the brands to maintain market share.

Problem 5: Highly fragmented customers. Starting from a Rs.10/- recharge to a VAS customer with an average billing of about INR4000-5000 per month makes it difficult to maintain the consistency. Also, both these brands have tried to communicate more than one message at the same time. Typically the brand ambassadors or the messaging style / guideline for each message is very different thus creating dichotomy. On the other hand, though the brand communicates different kinds of services Vodafone has at least managed to create a property which could be milked for 3 years in a row. And all their messages followed the same route, thus bringing in some consistency with respect to the different kind of customers and the kind of messages sent across.

I sincerely hope that both these brands will correct themselves on these parameters and many more that I may have left out. It is important to get the act right here because continuous errors on this front will expedite the brand’s demise. I wouldn’t want to see either of these brands in the twilight zone. Probably the change of guard is just the first result of a wake-up call.

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My first brush with Rural Marketing was when I was working with Lintas. A colleague of mine used to handle a brand called TAFE (Tractors and Farm Equipments). And as part of the job, this guy used to travel across the country for at least 8 months in a year. His job? Conducting events across the country called Krishi Ratna. I am not sure if TAFE still does these events, but it used to be a brilliant learning experience for my colleague. And in the four months that he was back in Chennai, he used to document the whole event. I happened to learn a lot from him. It was amazing. I just want to share a small run-down on the event.

Krishi Ratna – is a farmers event which was conceived by Lintas for TAFE. The event constituted a three day fair in villages of varying sizes. The fair will have events like Tractor Race, seed sowing competition, harvesting competition etc., which would basically use all equipments manufactured by TAFE. Of course, there will be fun events like astrology, puppet show etc, which would keep the interest for other folks. To me this event was a complete rural activity which bridged the gap between the product and the consumer beautifully.

My early experiences of rural marketing and advertising used to be predominantly outdoor. Painting of walls was the first thing that people would do to promote a product or offering. This actually is a spillover from the painting of walls in cities. Political parties use this well! However, innovation in even such small activities was evident from the stable of HUL many years back.

Painting the walls was a regular affair. But the importance of community building was felt even 15 years back. HUL went around villages and connected with the village heads just to ensure that their rural connect was complete. They offered to lay tiles on the stairs leading to the village pond. The village pond is a community place and having tiles there would make the place look good and clean, hence permissions were never a problem. The only rider is the fact that the tiles will always have some HUL brand or the other featured prominently. Mostly ‘Lifebuoy’. Brilliant strategy and very workable as a rural marketing initiative.

Today, there are companies which specialize in Rural Marketing. One such example (I just stumbled upon them and do not vouch for them in any way) is RC&M. Almost every large agency worth its salt today has a Rural Marketing Division. Linterland, Ogilvy Activation, Anugrah Madison, Mart being a few known names. Starting from launching of a brand to market development, such agencies offer all kinds of marketing services. When it comes to Rural Marketing now, varied tools like digital screens, animation etc are also used. With professional script writers and film makers working on each of these projects, marketing here is a very different ball game.

These agencies work on lead generation, market expansion, sampling, research and many other activities which help promoting a product / service in the hinterlands.

I was surprised to learn that the clientele included some illustrious names like Citi, ICICI, HDFC amongst financial services. Schneider Electric – an organization which I thought would probably not bother with rural India has also conducted events and lead generation programmes. Some usual suspects include all telecom companies including Airtel, Reliance, Tata Indicom and Idea. Another key area of work for Rural Marketing companies is in creating a distribution chain. It is very possible that many firms do not possess the prowess to set up a distribution network for their products. These companies which have operated in these markets for a while, by virtue of knowing them outside in, help set up a distribution network including building a demand for the product by sampling, C&F strength and retail presence.

RMAI stands for Rural Marketing Association of India. The association offers list of events in immediate future, resources like local magicians, script writers, books and reference guides etc. They also provide training programs and offer career guidance in rural marketing initiatives. RMAI Corporate Awards 2010 incidentally would be conducted on November 26, 2010 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. It is very impressive that they have a very resourceful site. There is a lot more to Rural Marketing than I thought and knew about before embarking on this post. Certainly, there is a lot more that one gets to learn when one attempts to write.

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Anil Nair (Senior)

Mr. Anil Nair,  CEO & Managing Partner at Law & Kenneth India. Little introduction needed for people in the advertising and marketing industry. About 6 years back, Law & Kenneth (L&K) was considered to be a boutique agency. Today they are considered to be amongst the largest! A good part of that credit must go to this gent who was kind enough to answer a few questions for this blogathon. In fact, he is one of the inspirations for me to have started this writing attempt. Thanks Senior (as we all call him) for both pushing me to write again and for answering these questions!

1. With more and more clients looking towards the online medium, how do you think the amalgamation will happen between offline campaigns and online campaigns?
   It will happen simply because the effectiveness of separate campaigns for offline and online will stop yielding results. The only way ahead is media neutral conversations with consumers and this needs a total rethinking among marketing practitioners. Putting the TVC on Youtube or making a banner of the press ads are not what I mean by amalgamation here.
2. In this world of instant gratification, how do you think brands should mould themselves to be relevant? Especially in mainstream media.
   Move away from disruption to dialogue. Be ready to build relationships. Be honest and be brave.
3. How have brands been reacting to the sudden influx of online tools? Do they change their strategy or do you see a gap?
   I really can’t generalize this but very few brands have understood the role or opportunity of personal digital media like mobile internet. So they are currently being led by techno minded online experts who confuse the hell out of brand custodians by techno jargons and irrelevant applications. Many of them follow the herd and get lost in the virtual space. I have met few marketers who are really excited by the results that these online campaigns delivered.
4. How has Rural Marketing and advertising for the rural consumers changed? Is it still required to have specific campaigns for them or have they – in your opinion – been able to consume the campaigns which happen nationally with specific targets towards cities. Your views would be highly relevant in the telecom and FMCG sectors for example.
   Advertising guys always had this holier than thou approach when it comes to our brethren from hinterlands. Look at Bollywood! Do they make rural cinema and urban cinema? Brands have to make a choice about who they wish to have a relationship with. And once they do that they need to speak to the consumer in a tone and manner which is relevant irrespective of where they come from.  Am sure brands like Micromax and Bingo has managed to do that. The real problem is that most creative guys are creating communication to prove a point/impress the fellow creative crowd. The only thing marketers need to keep in mind is that they use the correct media to reach the rural consumers.
5. We have recently seen a large advertising organization group all its services under a roof (like the good old days!). Have we already come a full circle? Do you think the agency business will be re-cast again with being 360-degree approach rather than have specialists like we currently do?
   The future belongs to ‘media neutral, idea driven, fearlessly innovative, conversation creators’. The so called integrated or specialist groups have no clue on the Tsunami which is headed their way. The days of 360 degree big idea roll outs are over. The future is about participative, culturally relevant conversations at real time. Tell many how many brands or agencies are ready for a feedback from the consumer 2 hours from the time they have launched it. How open are they to listen to feedback and respond. It’s the end of the marketing as we knew it and thank god for that!

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To begin with… watch the ad. Then you will know the reason for my first statement.

Here’s what I think about the TVC.

Simple thought which has been executed with absolute finesse. The TVC has humor in abundance and leaves you with a smile if not a laughter. And in the process the TVC’s take away is very simple. Anchor Toothpaste keeps your dental combination strong. Period!

The casting is awesome. Though I don’t know if the couple look good together. I mean, I am not sure if they look cute as a couple etc. But they are brilliant actors. And the guy is just amazing. The tinkling smile even when he is walking towards a grave danger – which is expressed beautifully by the wife – is just damn funny.

The TVC is a creative exaggeration to show the strength that the product gives to your teeth.

Just a look back on what could have happened behind the scene!

Afaqs state that the brief for the campaign was:

Anchor provides consumers with a relatable benefit, namely the proposition that one’s life is a whole lot more convenient and enjoyable, if one’s teeth are taken care of. Evidently, it emphasises the benefits of having good teeth in the context of one’s overall life.

I am sure the discussions between Marketing & the Agency would have revolved around humor as a tool. While the brand has dabbled many other platforms viz., targeting kids, 100% vegetarian and even celebrity endorsement (Kajol, again targeting kids), this time they have decided to ‘grow up’. They claim that their TG is ‘the family’.

In any case, the discussions could have been based on the following factors:

TG: The family (OKAY… This is plagiarism! )
Product: A dental care toothpaste for the entire family
USP: 100% vegetarian
Take away: Anchor Toothpaste gives you strong teeth that it can help you bite into anything without getting hurt. (Sounds very familiar? I have seen a Vicco Vajradanti TVC conveying the same message but in a boring fashion. If you don’t trust me, go to the nearest multiplex. They all play the Vicco Vajradanti ads still… Yes. The same old ones).
Creative thought: The tagline for the campaign is ‘Daant fit toh life fit’.
Potential route: Humor.

Though the pointers above do not constitute the brief for the campaign, I have attempted to just understand the thought process behind the storyline. While many tooth pastes have claimed to result in strong teeth (and many will continue to), it is the story telling that has made the difference thus bringing some kind of freshness to this category.

The TVC shows a good looking new wife trying to get to the man’s heart through his stomach. Another cliché, of the woman of the house trying to woo the man and shows the dependence that she carries with her always. The man – the typical tired hardworking gent who gets back to the house to be with his wife. Importance of family – another cliché. But what makes it memorable is the coming together of all these clichés to make a unforgettable story and that’s where they have scored.

The creative agency is Ogilvy. And they have done what they have done almost for every large and successful brand. They are the specialists of stating the obvious! Some examples: Fevicol Sticks, Sumo is large etc. They have stuck to the formula and have come out tops with a very memorable campaign. The creative mind behind this is Abhijit Avasthi. Mr. Avasthi is walking his predecessor’s footsteps and walking well. Good on you mate! And good one Ogilvy.

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‘Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about strike
You know it’s thriller, thriller night
You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight

These above lines were immortalized by the King of Pop – Michael Jackson. I would attribute the success of MJ to an external factor. Agreed he was awesome with his music and moves, but what brought him to light and reached him to a larger audience was something he had no control on.

MTV

I think MTV was a game changer of the 1980 thus opening up many new avenues of livelihood apart from being a trendsetter concept in itself. Some of the many firsts which can be attributed to MTV include:

• Music Videos
• VJ a.k.a Video Jockeys
• Music Awards
• Musics News
• Music Promotion

MTV changed the way people viewed many things, including life. MTV became a rage and its influence on the young is a still debated topic. With the advent of MTV, new and specialized genres started getting its place under the sun. Not just on TV, but on every other medium. It would be fair to say that MTV has influenced every one of us in a very strong way. I must admit that I am!

There is another concept which is silently doing what MTV did in the 1980s. We are about to see the world operate very differently owing to this phenomenon. People will think differently, communicate differently and operate very differently. And that is…

WEB 2.0

Though there is no difference in the technology between ‘World Wide Web as it existed before’ and Web 2.0, the difference is in the interactivity. The power of the internet has become manifold owing to its interactivity and its omnipresence. We now have the web with all its interactive features in almost every single carrier and medium you can think of.

Interactivity, which forms the core of Web 2.0 can now be seen everywhere. An example of interactivity and Web 2.0 at its best is something that you and I use everyday. It is called Facebook. I am just attempting to explain how Web 2.0 will change the way we function with Facebook as an example here.

Communication
Facebook has just changed the way people communicate. With the advent of e-mail, we lost the Postman (at least a large section of the population did). With the advent of Facebook, we now have a communication tool, which is many-to-many and is available at the comfort of your desk. So if I have good news to share, I just put it up on ‘FB’ and I have communicated it to many people. And all my ‘friends’ on FB would congratulate me right there! Many-to-many communication platform right in front of you!

Connect: I know of friends from the fifth grade with whom I connected through FB. If not for FB, I would probably have not gotten in touch with him ever. Especially since he lives in faraway Athens now!

Play: With online interactive games like Farmville and Mafia Wars and many others that I have never bothered to find out about, one has a very different way of connecting with his / her friends and make new ones. Farmville for instance is so addictive (apparently!) that I know of people who have spent eight hours a day just to ensure that they reach the next level faster. I am sure they would have learnt a thing or two about farming, but I think the intention was to make friends, spend time (euphemistic way of putting it) and have a bit of fun. Today, games have taken a very different plane and connect people very differently.

Those were just a couple of examples of how Web2.0 can change the world. But I am going to delve a little deeper on how Web 2.0 can change the way marketing would be affected in days to come. So here goes…

FB has a very active market place. I once wanted to sell something away and I had put it up in FB marketplace. I would have received as many as 15 calls in less than a week. And I am not the most active on FB. If I can get to have as many responses, then an active marketer can milk FB to its hilt. Here’s an imaginary situation:

Sabyasachi Mukherjee (SM) has just launched his new Winter collection (is it winter collection now?) and has decided to launch it online. So you now have videos of the entire collection shot in the cozy comfort of his home draped on a few friends (read: top models) and uploaded on Youtube and has been FBed (well, that’s the term dudes) at 10.30 am on 28-July-2010. Guess when he can get the result for his collection?

1 month later?
15 days later?
1 week later?

All of the above is wrong. He would get the result real time. Same day, same moment! Because there is a ‘like’ button in Facebook which has changed the way people express themselves. So SM would know the marketability of his collection real-time and would also get comments on why the collection is good or bad. What needs to be considered is his readiness to change the collection according to the tastes of the larger audience and ensure that the collection is a success. It will also help him understand the niches which he needs to cater to with his designing.

For instance, there might a few hundred people who might like the collection and would also be willing to pay a premium because it appeals to their sensitivities. But there might be a thousand others who would believe that they would not take a particular outfit because it costs more than what they are willing to pay.

Going by the above imaginary example, Facebook is now the source and soul of the Marketing Mix. Product, Price, Place, Promotion.

Here you have Facebook, which helps you in taking a product decision. SM has created a collection and has tested his line using FB (consumer research) and has tweaked his collection a bit to cater to the larger audience and has also got ideas for his new niche line owing to a few people specifically giving comments on what they would want.

Price decision has also been arrived at using FB. He now has a section of people who are willing to pay a premium because they like some items in the collection and with a little tweaks they would get what they want. So SM tweaks the collection both ways to cater to a niche and to also to a larger audience and prices the two collections differently. He makes his money and retains his elite client base. Best of both worlds!

Place – Obviously all this has happened in an imaginary market place which was created using Web 2.0. Today, web based sales enabled by Web 2.0 tools like FB, Amazon, eBay etc form almost 20% of physical retail sales. My sincere apologies to calling FB, Amazon & eBay as ‘tools’, but honestly that’s what they are! These Web 2.0 tools are amongst the largest market places in the world today. With instant results!

Promotion – Less said about this the better. We have almost every product or service peddled on the internet. From books to insurance policies availability of these offerings on the internet has opened up the requirement of promoting them using these same tools.

Web 2.0 being the core of your marketing mix is not far off and is already a reality with many products / offerings. And Web 2.0 is changing the marketing world in the same way the MTV of the 80s did to culture. I am sure there is more to discuss here, but for now that’s that!

Note 1: One of the regular (!!!!) readers of this blog Mr. Vasudevan had suggested that I delve deep into one of the topics rather than discuss many points as bullets. I am planning to take his advice and will probably attempt to provide my views on Web 2.0 as a marketing tool in my subsequent posts.
Note 2: Some parts of this post were inspired and influenced by a discussion which I had with “Senior”. Yes! We refer to him as Senior and he also goes by the name Anil Nair. He is a founder member of a leading communications, advertising and marketing firm Law & Kenneth.

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All agencies have the following departments:

• Client servicing / Account servicing
• Account Planning
• Creative copy
• Creative art
• Print Production
• Films Production
• Media Planning
• Media Buying
• Finance
• HR
• Admin

Some have specialized teams for:

• Events & activation
• Online and digital marketing
• PR (Though this has now become a separate industry in itself)
• Media Planning & Buying (Though part of the ‘Agency’ in traditional days, this has become a huge industry in itself)

Update: A good friend Ravi chose to correct me (see comment)! The past few years have seen Media houses spun out as separate entities and within media, Outdoor advertising (Out-of-home advertising) has become a specialised business.

Client Servicing: Simply, any individual in this department is the bridge between the agency and the client. So in front of the agency, the servicing person is the client and in front of the client, (s)he is the agency. Typically, this is the department in which most freshers from B-Schools join. These guys also are the ‘brand custodians’ for all the brands they handle. The servicing executive has to understand a bit of everything including media, art, print production, films, finances etc. So this series is focused on servicing executives to be the jack of all functions in advertising. And with fresh perspectives and lots of uncommon thinking with respect to branding, the servicing executive is bound to be a great communication professional. Good understanding of these basics, will help servicing executives manage every other department within the agency to provide the best results to the client. After all, happy client’s lead to great relationships and successful career! So watch this space…

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The campaign I am talking about is a cause that is close to my heart – Blood donation.

It is actually weird that we don’t see as many public service campaigns in mainstream media. Reasons:

1. Almost all marketers think “What’s in it for me?”. I still remember from my advertising days in Lintas (now Lowe) the internal competition that used to happen for the sole hoarding in Bangalore sponsored by ‘The Hindu’. They used to carry only public service messages. I am not sure if it is still on. Anyone from Lowe Chennai can confirm it for me please!
2. Public Service departments of the government do not believe in advertising and even if they do, they do a shoddy job of it. Exception being the “Pulli Raja a.k.a. Balbir Pasha campaign which created a storm of sorts and was recently followed up with an equally good campaign on ‘condomania’. In fact, the second campaign was so complete in their approach, that they had a very successful jingle, which became a ringtone with record number of downloads!
3. To hand it to the public services department of the government, they operate with pathetically low budgets and believe that the processes are ‘one-size-fits-all’. You can’t have three agencies pitching for the account through a tender. C’mon, give advertising a break.

But what was interesting about the Blood Donation campaign was the execution. It looks a little tacky and I think the look suits the cause. Because, the bulk of the population, which is from the strata that is shown in the commercial are the ones that have the volumes to achieve blood donation ‘targets’ if there is one. The storyline is simple, lucid and has a ‘twist’, with the interviewer’s chela (the odd looking woman) suddenly stepping away from the table and making the ‘respect’ obvious.

The TVC does the basics right. Informs the viewer about blood donation, adds a cause for your birthday, safety aspects are thrown in liberally and makes the ‘boy next door’ look as much a hero for his noble act.

I also heard the radio spot. It seems a straight lift from the TVC. I believe that the TVC is great because the radio spot could actually be stand alone and still is able to communicate the tentativeness of the birthday boy, the message and the interviewer losing his comfort on hearing that the guy who is up for a job is ’nobler than me’. All this without any visual help!

Good job guys! Keep it up! Wish to see more public service campaigns like this come up!

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UPS is a big business with a very big problem to tackle,” JWT Chairman-CEO Bob Jeffrey wrote in an e-mail to colleagues. “They need to treat us or any agency as a partner, and it doesn’t seem that is in their culture. We’ve invested significant time and energy in pitching this business, so we are not taking this decision lightly.

One of the client types has commented,

Advertising needs to do what it was meant to do – increase sales (not just awareness). Getting back to those basics just might be a good exercise.

Since this is a notion that many of my friends in India would also share, I thought I would point out some obvious fallacies in the argument propounded above and weigh in with my own two-bits worth!

1. Sales is a behaviour that is dependent on the brand being available at the time the consumers want the product, at the price they are willing to pay for the incremental value they associate with the brand of the product, made by the manufacturer who is the agency’s client.
2. The incremental value associated with the brand stems from manufacturers offering something incremental (tangible or intangible, but perceived) with the product they make and making known to consumers the availability of the bundle, ie the brand. Depending on the incremental product, the brand can be a banal me-too, a superior offering or a spectacular game changer …
3. Advertising can announce the brand to the market and set the stage for consumers to be willing to give their client’s brand a chance, ie it can provide the justification to consumers to pay more for the bundled brand than just the manufacturing cost … in other words it can soften the consumers’ resistance to  manufacturers’ products.
4. But, all this is to no avail if manufacturers are not available when consumers are willing to give their brands a chance. Obviously, out of sight = out of mind = no sale … so why blame the poor fellow who created the advertising.
5. Moreover, advertising can only augment the manufacturer’s incremental efforts … if your advertising runs ahead of your brand, you can rest assured that your brand will reach an early end … there are many graves that mark this, but, if the incremental effort is specatcular, spectacular advertising can provide exponential results… there are many flags that fly as a result. In either case, advertising has only gilded the lily, and it can’t help if the lily is tarnished or lustrous! No point in shooting the messenger.

It is high time advertiser’s understand this and start heeding the partnership an advertising agency brings to the table.

Nonetheless some more last words …

To my advertiser friends going after the agency to cut costs is an oxymoron. Have you realised that 80% + of your advertising cost is in media. Just look at the math a 10% reduction in the cost of media will yield significantly higher than than even a 30% reduction in the cost of compensation of the agency. While the former (8% of your advertising cost), will give you real savings, the latter (5% of your advertising cost) will only lead to an early demise of your brand!

To my advertising friends … moaning about cost cutting by advertisers isn’t going to help unless you arm your marketing counterparts with strong weapons to allow them to justify the value you are bringing to the table. If we cannot prove that we have created a brand that adds sustainable value to our clients, then, I am afraid all of us will be treated like vendors rather than valued partners!

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