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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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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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.

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A few weeks back, we had LinkedIn opening an office in India. And close on its heels, we find Facebook opening its Hyderabad center. And by trending topics like #awesomeindianthings, #nithyananda etc, we are making @twitter hear us too. I won’t be surprised if they open shop here soon!

China Vs India

India may not have as many internet users. China surely beats us on this statistic. India doesn’t match up to the telecom infrastructure of China either. Certainly not. But what was always touted to be out weakness, could well turn out to be our strength. The slow but open environment for business. The battle between India and China (literally and metaphorically) is just hotting up. And news like this at the wake of internet giants like Google looking to divorcing the dragon should hopefully put India higher up on the investment map.

It has been a while since the Indian internet user has loitered around waiting to be recognized. We have had way too many stalwarts in the internet space, who have done some pathbreaking work whether it is on the technical side or on the user experience space. But the elephant was always ignored owing to the Government apathy to promote business in this space and provide a conducive environment for foreign investments. Notwithstanding all this, India’s internet population has been ever growing, ever hungry and has provided a platform / rationale for larger organisations to start operations in India.

What’s in it for us users?

Awesomeness! We will have local presence of LinkedIn, Facebook and hopefully Twitter reducing the gap between our needs (which are very different from the average American) and the offerings by the site.

• I won’t be surprised if a linkedin.in would provide India specific networking opportunities, jobs etc
• There is a huge scope for offline events (at least from LinkedIn) to promote job searches, corporate networking etc.
• I also see an opportunity for Naukri / Monster India / Shine and other job search brands to tie-up with LinkedIn
• Facebook applications will be Indianised. Think Farmville with ‘verkadalai’ and Mafia Wars with ‘Varadaraja Mudaliar’.
• Local companies will tie up with FB to peddle their wares / services through facebook (FB can see revenues from India sooner)
• You won’t be served with “Anglicised looking Lose 15 pounds in 4 weeks ads. They would now read Lose 30 kilos in 3 weeks instead. This would mean a huge opportunity for Indian SEM, third party market and will be available at Indian rates.
• Offline advertising by these organisations would further propel the burgeoning OOH media apart from the traditional media spaces.
• And many more!

Having said that, a lot more can be done to promote business entities in the Internet space in India. The government should take these cues to help (if not overtly, at least by providing a conducive business atmosphere) such organisations to start shop in India. This should help open up more business verticals, employment and in a small but significant way the economy.

What should the Government do?

• Not to belittle what has already been done, telecom infrastructure (thanks to Rajeev Gandhi & Sam Pitroda) has grown leaps and bounds. But there is still a lot more ground to be covered. And with technology know-how in access, leap frogging should not be a problem
• Simplify the process of setting up a business. I know of a brilliant entrepreuner, who is yet to get his company’s bank account opened because the Registrar of Companies (ROC) is delaying the registration of his internet based education company www.ivarsity.net. Without a bank account, the company’s time to market will get extended and business plans go awry. Finding an angel investor or a PE fund to grow the business will become that much a bigger challenge.
• And for heaven’s sake (and for the sake of business), get the 3G auction off the ground

There could probably be a lot more, but I think that addressing some of these fundamental issues would go a long way in making the elephant tackle the dragon by its tail. Do you agree? Drop in a comment and we can discuss it!

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I witnessed the chopper flying over the (maxi)Mumbai city with a HUGE (I really mean it kind of huge) banner of the Volkswagen (pronounced Folks Wagon) Beetle. Cute car! Meant to be a small car! Big pricing! And a BIG banner! It was a pleasant surprise when a few colleagues yelled out to me just to show this banner carrying chopper!

I took some pictures and also tweeted about it. Here’s proof:

Tweets on VW Beetle

Since the above is a print screen image, you can access the pictures I took from here. I wanted to write about it the same day and become the ‘first person’ to break this news to the blogosphere, but work kept me away. What could have been a coup of sorts for this very rare occurance in India, was broken by traditional online magazines. Read here.

Though this may be a small event, I believe that there are some lessons from this incident:

1. Waiting for the right moment most of the times don’t work. I have experienced this many times with clients belaboring for the ‘best’ output, while the competition is having a field day killing the very ideas that we had carefully hidden till then!
2. This is a slightly controversial lesson. But lesson none-the-less. “Quality is a mind thing“. What we believe is sub-standard quality may be good enough for the receiver of the communication. Just take any of the family planning communication by the Government for instance. The quality of the production is actually abysmal. But the target audience would certainly be able to relate to it. No point in adding jazz when the user is not expecting it!
3. Quick decision making: Many times we may not have all the inputs that are required to take a decision. But as professionals, it is important to exercise our judgement and ensure quick decision and availability in the market. This is a problem which many PSUs and large process-oriented organisations suffer from. HLL vs P&G is a classic example. However, that would require a separate post for itself.
4. Once a decision is taken, it is important to stick to it. I could have posted the article and reached the market using Twitter, Facebook and other such social media. But I didn’t. Well, the blog post has now taken a differnt angle and is not a coup anymore

Some of these may sound very generic, but I believe that these are lessons which are very relevant for most Marketing Professionals. And these are skills that are not available in many Marketing Professionals too.

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