I am just unable to think of any advertisements apart from milk products from Aavin or Amul, uniforms by S Kumars or shoes by Bata. Maybe there were more, but can’t think of any more. Even Horlicks and Complan used to advertise to the mother with the message being good health for children.

Somewhere down the line the ‘line’ actually disappeared. Today every product can be targeted at children and they are!

I believe that it started with the retail revolution. We all would have seen the following even unfold in front of our eyes some time or the other.

Dad, mom and a young kid of about 4 to 5 years old visit the supermarket for buying provisions for the month. Generally kids are very inquisitive. But today’s kids are even more because the parents are genuinely unable to spend too much time with the child since both work! The little brat who is in control of neither parent runs around the store and pulls the store down for the big bar of chocolate. He is seen running away from the clutches of the mother and making enough noise to attract the attention of the fellow shoppers and the store attendants. Embarrassed, the mom hands him the chocolate from the counter just to keep the brat quiet.

What the parent calls ‘embarrassment’ is euphemistically referred to by the marketer as ‘Pester Power’.

Recently seven marketing companies (Hindustan Unilever, Coca-Cola India Inc, General Mills India, Kellogg India, Nestle India, Mars International India and PepsiCo India Holdings) have taken a conscious decision to promote a healthy and active lifestyle for children. Cadbury’s India has also committed to join the gang soon. These marketers have gone forward in signing a self regulation in which the main commitment is to not advertise any food and beverage products to children under the age of 12.

It is common sense that advertising unhealthy food products purely on its taste unmindful of the harmful effects that it may have on the child during its later years is not done. For instance excessive chocolate with high caffeine content results in an unhealthy child. So does that change the way these products get consumed going forward?

Children will be children and will continue to be adamant. They will still fight for that chocolate, but by not advertising such products during programmes targeted at children, one would expect that the kid wouldn’t know of it. So far so good! It is true that today’s children have much more opportunities to learn about a lot of things which we as children wouldn’t have heard about. Internet for instance, is a wealthy resource for children to learn anything under the sun.

So is this regulation going to change the world? Maybe not! But I am sure it is a step in the right direction. Few points that come to my mind:

For Kids & Parents

• By not exposing kids below the age of 12 (at least by these seven marketers) to advertising which doesn’t cater to them, it would help in reducing their role as ‘influencers’ in unrelated categories.
• I know of children who would ask for products where the advertisement is more appealing to them, irrespective of their worth. By stopping exposure of such ads to these children, we may reduce these instances
• The ads may not target the children, but even exposure otherwise can be harmful. For instance, it is very unhealthy for kids to get used to soda / Pepsi / Coke. But featuring children in these ads and exposing children to these products at young age would mean lack of health during later years. This may go down in numbers now.

For Marketers

• Products like ‘Happy Meal’ by McDonalds targeted at children may have to stop. However, McDonalds is yet to sign any such self-regulation.
• I am wondering what some product categories like Toothpastes for instance will do. They may have to change some product lines, some brand extensions may go out of the window, and a whole lot of advertising will change.
• Will this force (on a moral front) other marketers to do get into a self regulation? I am just being a devil’s advocate here. These marketers have done all they could to spoil the health of the kid and are now professing self-regulation. At one end it does sound like the USA imposing emission control on countries like India & China.

In any case, pester power may lose its power but will continue to stay.

Incoming search terms:

• pester power marketing

Related posts:

1. Beware – Your competitor is from your category. NOT! A few years back, while at B-School, I was introduced...
2. Soft Porn – Bring it on I remember ‘Advertising’ classes by Santosh Sood during my IMT...
3. Featured in 4Ps magazine Over the weekend the latest issue of 4Ps would have...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

Incoming search terms:

• anchor toothpaste ad review

Related posts:

1. Unlikely Heroes Disclaimer: I have oft repeated that I don’t write about...
2. Tit for Tat Warning: Long post. Very close to my heart and hence…...
3. A hard look at my media habits Many a times when we marketers are in the process...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Just a few days back, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) started a teaser campaign for its leading Shampoo brand Pantene. Dubbed ‘the mystery shampoo’, it claimed that 80% of women preferred this mystery shampoo over any other shampoo according to some study. Here is the Mystery Shampoo Launch Video.

Pantene - Mystery? ((C) Raza Sayed)

I view this as a consumer.

I have been seeing these teaser hoardings for the past few days. There was a report in Bombay Times that Neha Dhupia was attending a promotional event for P&G and one of the images carried there clearly had the mystery shampoo creative as the backdrop. Putting two and two together, I could figure that it was Pantene.

Being so far away from the FMCG world, I could figure that the mystery shampoo was Pantene at least 4 days back. I am sure HUL would have done it the day the first set of vinyls went up for the teaser. After all, that’s their business!

Me as a consumer drove past the hoarding. I did nothing.

But HUL didn’t rest. And as the clichéd term goes… ‘Rest’ is history. Just that ‘rest’ here has a different meaning. I am sure none of the employees of HUL handling shampoo brands would have slept post the first teaser. Their minds would have been on an overdrive trying to figure out how to kill competition. And ‘pop’ came the idea in someone’s mind. Just that as a consumer I can’t figure whether the idea was generated at HUL or at Ogilvy. But wherever it came from, I think it was a gem.

From what I can deduce purely from experience this would have been the sequence of events:

Day 1: Emergency meeting – HUL internal
Presentation (however crude format) on all facts gathered about who is running the campaign. Data collation on what study was being used to make a claim that 80% of women prefer Shampoo X over any brand in the HUL stable.

Brainstorming session (however long) to put together facts / finding chinks in the competition’s claim. A parallel session on briefing the Agency.

Day 1 – Part 2: Emergency meeting – HUL marketing + Ogilvy servicing + Media buying agency servicing team
Urgent brief explaining the teaser campaign by P&G and the need to kill the campaign! The session would impress upon Ogilvy why the campaign should be out in the open within the next two days. The session would also include briefing the creative team on the key message. The message here is:

Kill the mystery. Claim it to be ‘Dove’.

(Why would they have chosen Dove as against say, a Sunsilk? Dove is a premium brand and fits the sensibilities of this event. Also, Dove being a large brand internationally, the claim to be ‘No.1’ can be substantiated through some study or the other. Sunsilk probably doesn’t fit the bill here.)

The media agency is in parallel put on an emergency job to get all hoardings across all cities where P&G has taken the teaser campaign live and is asked to revert with options before the same night to approve sites.

Day 1 – Part 3: Ogilvy Mumbai office – Dove servicing team + Dove Creative Team
War Room feel – That’s what it would have been at the Ogilvy offices. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from the HUL team would’ve been at the Ogilvy office to take decisions if necessary so that precious time is not wasted. High energy, high voltage, raging tempers and some alcohol. That is precisely what the room would smell and feel like.

The Ogilvy creative team (copy + art) is sitting together and creating layouts. A few options, which will fall within the overall Dove brand guidelines are being churned out. A very happy chic looking almost 30 year old lady with beautiful, flowing, silky smooth hair (obviously). Simple two line message to drive the point home. And the glorious pack-shot with a sign-off!

The same campaign is also conceived as a TV Commercial. A simple few slide story board is made with existing images so that this can be executed in a single day with stock shots and music.

Images & video courtesy: HULs old shoots. Existing images which were shot (read ‘mass produced’) during the past and not used for whatever reason.

The HUL executive in all probabilities slept at the Ogilvy office till the final layout is approved. The final layout is also sent to the senior brand manager who would have approved it from his Blackberry smart phone.

Day 1 – Part 4: HUL + Media Agency
The outdoor team reverts with all possible available sites (which are as close to the P&G sites as possible) with photographs, costings etc. A quick TV plan is also put up with a focus on garnering high GRPs. The job for the media agency is easy considering that HUL would have existing inventory which would already be committed and all they have to do is a bit of rescheduling. The decision process on the media plan is completed. The same is communicated to Ogilvy so that they can make the artworks in the specified sizes.

Day 1 – Part 5: Ogilvy Mumbai + Media Agency offices
Late night! Studio and the creative teams are working together in finishing the images and getting the artworks completed for the media agency to execute. You must note that not all the hoardings have the same woman. They have chosen deliberately to feature different women for different artworks. All artworks made to the specific sizes are saved in the FTP server Ogilvy which is downloaded by the Media agency. The media agency then sends it to the various cities electronically so that the Vinyl printing can be done locally and executed the next day itself.

Day 1 – Part 6: Ogilvy Mumbai + A swanky studio (like Prime Focus)
A quick edit of existing footage of these beautiful girls endorsing Dove is put together using complex video editing softwares. The HUL executive is doubling up between the agency office for layouts and the studio for the final edit. An mp4 of the video is uploaded so that the senior brand manager can approve it from wherever he can download it. If need be he/she makes a trip to the studio to approve the final edit.

Day 2 – Part 1: HUL Marketing meeting
Briefing session to the in-house PR team with facts on all chinks in the competition campaign is conducted. Also the in-house team is briefed on the speed with which the HUL marketing team along with the creative and media agency executed a perfect campaign to kill the teaser by competition. The PR team puts together a press release and also contacts key journalists (Times group in this case) to break this news a day before. ET is chosen since it is the largest circulating business paper. Relevant pictures of the campaigns are also provided with enough information so that the publication can carry a photograph if required.

Day 2 – Part 2: Recording and Editing Studio + Media Agency
The final digitized version of the TV commercial (TVC) is reached to the channel offices and given a special request to air the TVC starting the first available slot in the HUL inventory. Executed with finesse, the TVC can go on air starting the next day afternoon (and if lucky the morning itself).

Day 2 – Part 3: Media Agency offices across the various cities chosen
Printing of vinyls and installation of the vinyls in the various sites chosen by HUL late into the night so that the campaign breaks the next morning.

Day 3: Campaign day
Campaign is out on the outdoor medium. Campaign is out on TV.
A press report is carried on the front page of Economic Times stating the HUL has broken the P&G campaign.

Two high-adrenaline days leading to a perfect spoil. And this is the result:

No Mystery - Dove ((C) Raza Sayed)

Day 4: P&G retorts saying HUL is maligning P&G products. HUL snaps back saying P&G is using a research conducted in Thailand which has no relevance to India. P&G pulls back usage of the Thailand research and uses another AC Nielson report with a similar result.

Who wouldn’t want to work with HUL if this is how interesting life would be?!

Note:  The sequence of events are purely from my imagination, based on what ‘could’ have happened based on my experience. The actual sequence of events may be very different (and probably more efficient). This post is to try and share how this whole event could have unfolded for the benefit of people who don’t work in the marketing function. I am willing to stand corrected should there be anyone from HUL or Ogilvy shares their experience on this campaign.

NOTE: I FEEL COMPLETE AS A BLOGGER TODAY. A DEAR READER RAZA SAYED HAS BOTHERED TO TAKE PICTURES AND SEND THEM TO ME. THANKS RAZA. I FEEL HONORED.

Incoming search terms:

• why HUL
• working at hul
• hul products promotion
• innovative hoardings
• pantene hoarding
• hoardings of iphone
• dove shampoo brand position
• whats the mystery shampoo
• pantene mystery shampoo
• neha sayed

Related posts:

1. A hard look at my media habits Many a times when we marketers are in the process...
2. Steve Jobs – I respect, love, adore and miss you Do I write a customary RIP? Do I write an...
3. Tit for Tat Warning: Long post. Very close to my heart and hence…...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Related posts:

1. The War of the Wallet on Afaqs! My article The War of the Wallet on Afaqs! Incoming...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.