When Pink Ball Test match cracked open a digital feast of humour for brands

For marketers reading the tea leaves, the recent Pink Ball cricket league that opened with an inaugural match between India and Bangladesh in Kolkata earlier this week, ought to foretell the future. For a match that came bearing all the hoopla one associates with T20 or one-day cricket and was backed by all the big names in the game, the attendant advertising buzz was largely online.

From big traditional brands such as Britannia, ITC’s Bingo, Good Knight (Godrej Consumer Products), Vodafone, Berger Paints, Dunkin Donuts to new ones Swiggy, Dunzo and others, everyone used a hashtag, a meme and the colour pink to get to cricket’s legendary legion of fans. 

“Today’s consumer is evolving and we know that we must  dwell on topics that matter to our audience,” Meghna Apparao, chief marketing officer at GCPL said.

 

All the brands Business Standard spoke to said they try to stay relevant by creating posts around trending topics. #IndvsBan was a trending hashtag and the only way to leverage this was to tag on to a conversation thread around the trend. “By participating in such associations, consumers perceive us as a relevant and up-to-date brand,” said Abhijit Roy, managing director and CEO at Berger Paints. Like Berger, most brands are chasing topicality and relevance, but more importantly they all want a foot into the millennial world. 

Sandeep Goyal, founder Mogae Media believes that such posts ensure that brands are part of the conversation and helps build a contemporary identity. This is particularly useful for large, traditional brands whose identity is often at variance with what young consumers are looking for. 

Senco Gold & Diamond, which has Ganguly as its brand ambassador also went in for a burst of pink in its communication. “It was a historical match, happening in India in Kolkata, which is known for its sports-loving attitude and was initiated by our brand ambassador Sourav Ganguly,” Suvankar Sen, executive director at Senco Gold & Diamonds explains their pink stance.

Given the notoriously short attention span that memes and tweets command, is such advertising worth the effort? There are few clear answers here, except the understanding that not being a part of the conversation is akin to a lost marketing opportunity.

Hence one sees a flurry of posts and tweets around themes that are far from the brand’s function and at times, even the context. Brands have taken to humour, comic banter and even played around with their logos and colours, just to hitch a ride on a trending hashtag. For instance, a recent trending meme #GonnaTellMyKids that had people posting funny/sentimental observations about a futuristic look at the present had many brands jumping in. HDFC Bank, for instance used an image of its credit card with the line, ‘Gonna tell my kids this is cash’. RP-Sanjiv Goenka group’s Saregama used a photograph of Bappi Lahiri and said ‘Gonna tell my kids Dhanteras is celebrated because of him’.

Not every digital intervention hits the mark, it works only if the messaging is consistent and relevant. Roy said that since Berger’s post was not a promoted or advertised, he did not have any KPIs for performance mapped. For Godrej, Apparao added, “Since these trends are capitalised in real time and cannot be planned we use our in-house digital command centre to identify key social media trends on a real time basis. And therefore, leverage them in the initial 3-4 hours of them becoming a trend.”

 

For Goyal, the message going out is, ‘I am also there in the conversation’. Such topicality is neither sustainable, nor does it translate into effective gains is his view. “It will not translate into effective sales,” he added.

Even so, brands have no option, but to tag on to viral tweets or much-liked posts and hashtags. Brand consultant, Ramesh Thomas compares the phenomenon to putting up one’s store in a high street. “It gives one visibility and people notice the brand,” he said. Besides topicality is worth chasing as a brand attribute. Consider Amul, for instance. Thomas said, “Over a period of time, if a brand continues to centre its campaign on topicality, then it also has the potential become another Amul.”