Indian advertising turns to causes

Besides going multi-platform, longer ads that are high on emotion and empathy and often speak through an issue or cause are making a mark

Advertising legend Bill Bernbach, founder of the international ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), once said that creativity is the most practical thing a businessman can employ. In markets like India, where advertising is seeing steady growth, companies and their ad agency partners appear to be taking this message very seriously. A look at the work that won at the recently concluded Cannes Ad Fest in France suggests that conventional advertising tropes such as 30-second commercials that worked on the premise that an advertising message should be communicated quickly have made way for long-format ads, basically, ads that have a story.

So today, it is not uncommon to have ads that extend beyond a minute, are high on emotion and empathy and quite often speak through an issue or cause. The world's largest consumer goods company Procter & Gamble, for instance, chose the issue of gender equality at home to market its detergent Arial Matic. Its arch-rival and the world's second-largest consumer goods company Unilever saw merit in fostering brotherhood by giving voice to the third gender through a transgender band popularly called the '6 pack band'. Both were big winners at Cannes this year.

 
To be sure, advertisers and their agency partners have been doing this for a few years now. Examples here include Ogilvy's work for Google where two friends - an Indian and a Pakistani - separated by partition were reunited by their grand-children (this was in 2013) or the heart-rending story of a single father bringing up his autistic son by Birla Sun Life Insurance (agency was Taproot) or Dabur's Brave and Beautiful campaign for its Vatika hair oil that looks at the life of a female cancer survivor and how she attempts to reclaim it post surgery.
 

"The trend has been there for the last two to three years," says Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India. "In this age of digital and social media where two-way communication is the norm plus there is already an information overload, the challenge before agencies and brands is how do you stand out. How do you get the attention of the consumer and keep him engaged enough to stay with you. Cause marketing is one aspect of this," he says.

The other is to find ideas that can resonate across media - print, digital, television, outdoor et al. With advertising expected to continue growing in double-digits for the next few years in India, this challenge of keeping consumers engaged enough across platforms is only expected to grow. Indian advertising's new chapter has only just begun.