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| Admen try gentle persuasion |
| Pritam P Hans & Suvi Dogra / New Delhi Sep 08, 2008, 00:14 IST |
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ADVERTISING: Move to make ads clutter-free, simpler and entertaining.
Even as most advertisements scream about the qualities of their products, some brave admen have decided to no longer tell the qualities of their brands. They will, instead, sell the ideas behind the brands.
“BMW is a brand known for ultimate engineering and the consumer no longer wants to know that,” says JWT India Chief Executive Colvyn Harris. “One needs to go beyond features as they can be cloned. Promise lies in experiences which go a long way in building brands through a better connect with the consumer.”
“In an age where a consumer is machine-gunned with thousands of commercials every day, there is little chance that he will be able to retain all the information given in each commercial,” adds TBWA Vice-president (creative) Anirban Sen. “In this clutter, all that sticks is the idea. And that idea will drive him to test the product along with the others at the point of purchase.”
Sen has come up with a new television commercial for Moser Baer LCD TV (it will soon be aired), which doesn’t utter a single word about the product. Instead, it allows the viewer to get a sneak peak into the ultra modern life of an android, where the product fits in snugly.
The commercial shows a youthful android on a couch, watching TV. Not challenging the common perception about a young man’s room, the floor of his sitting room is littered with traces of chips and cola (or beer). After celebrating the victory of the player he is supporting, a robot indulging in a fighting bout, he tosses his shoes carelessly off his metallic feet. And finally, lulled by a robotic romance on TV, he goes into slumber on his couch itself.
The audience is made to imbibe subconsciously that to get a taste of the futuristic life, they have to have the same TV that the android has in his living room. “It’s more of a challenge thrown to the consumer to enter this world of the future, the LCD TV being the gateway to it,” says Sen.
The recent ad novellas put out by Hindustan Unilever for its beauty and skin care brand, Pond's, is another such example. The commercial tells a chapter-by-chapter Cinderella-like story of a girl (Priyanka Chopra) who uses the product that ultimately leads her to winning back her love (Saif Ali Khan).
This is not the first time that an ad has refrained from screaming about the qualities of the brand. Sony Bravia has also relied on the same strategy of conveying the message in a very subtle way, focusing on the rich colours of life that the ad says the product is able to render. The famous Fevicol ads are another example where the commercials avoid the beaten path of “hard sell” advertising.
Thus, advertisements are now evolving to become clutter-free, simpler and most importantly entertaining. Some industry experts refer to it as cinematisation of the advertising industry.
A commercial is now being viewed as a 30-second relationship with the audience during which he has not to be bombarded with product specifications but has to be entertained, which enthralls as well as communicates the idea behind the brand in a way that is not effervescent.
“One must look at the entertainment quotient these days, where consumption of the ad must be enjoyable and the brand itself may take a back seat,” says Mudra Max President Chandradeep Mitra.The days for on-your-face advertisements could soon be over.
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