Stories unfold in ad breaks

Long ads are in vogue such as Google's reunion TVC. But there're definite ways to pull them off

You may have caught the poignant commercial on television, of two friends from Lahore, separated at the time of India's partition, who are reunited decades later by their grandchildren, thanks to internet giant Google.

Narrating this tale has cost the brand three minutes and 33 seconds (3.55 min) of airtime - a massively expensive TV spot to air. The internet search major is not the only one to have released such a long ad - in the recent past, brands like Airtel, Hero and Tata Sky (please refer box) have had ads that ran well over the standard 30- and 60-sec duration.

While Google refused to discuss its media spends, back-of-the-envelope calculations show that it could have ranged from Rs 1.5-2.5 crore, going by the rate of airtime on TV, which is sold at a per-10-sec rate. This would be for a 3.5 min ad, played for one-two weeks during prime-time on leading general entertainment channels (GECs) with a frequency of two-three spots a day.

"The best strategy would be quick bursts of such spots over a short duration, instead of spreading it over months and risking fatigue and mounting costs," says a media buyer.

It would also help to run such spots for sharply targeted content. For Google, an attempt will be made to target high-impact reality shows to rope in both men and women.

But then amid the fickle attention span of TV audience, even the 30-sec ads jostle with each other to get noticed. It is an obvious challenge for longer ads to hold its interest, not once but each time they are aired. "A relevant storyline is important. India is a cornerstone of Google's strategy and the brand has a host of features it would like to advertise, which requires such a narrative," says Kiran Khalap, co-founder, Chlorophyll Brand & Communication Consultancy. "Besides, Google isn't advertising itself with the kind of frequency that say, a Vodafone does. Such entertaining, long ads also stand the chance of being shared as videos on digital media."

The international trend of first releasing a video virally and depending on its success, releasing it on television is in India now. Releasing it digitally allows for instant feedback, while making experimentation relatively cheaper. Google had released the ad created by O&M on YouTube, which fetched 6 million views and several raving comments.

O&M's national creative director Abhijit Avasthi and group creative director Sukesh Nayak are the brains behind the ad. Says Nayak, "The Google story is an emotional one and to land the narrative correctly, we had to keep to this duration. It isn't as though we started off with the intention creating a long ad."

Sandeep Menon, head, marketing, Google India, stresses that 80 per cent of the company's ad spends have been allotted to digital media and the remaining 20 is split between cinema (including releases like Krrish 3 and Ram Leela) and television.

The ad had its TV premiere on the default channels of DTH platforms like Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV a week ago. It played through a roadblock on Star Plus for a day (November 25) during prime-time, where the ad was aired once every hour and was the only one aired during that particular commercial break.

There will not be edited versions of the same ad. Its next appearance will be on select reality shows on GECs and movie channels in the first half of December. Google will have 30-second ads with the same theme to highlight some of its features.

Eeshita Ghosh, client leader on Google at Maxus, says, "Our research predicts that there won't be too many dropouts, ie. people opting out of the 'reunion' commercial, due to its high emotional impact which isn't preachy."

In the case of Airtel's 'Har ek friend zaruri hota hai' ad, its peppy tune and youth factor had made it sticky.

To cement stickiness, some of these long-format ads resort to creating entertaining 'anthems' which bear a music-video look and feel.

Two years ago, it was two-wheeler brand Hero that took the approach to announce its split with Honda (the 'Hum mein hai hero' spot) and more recently, around a month ago, Philips launched a music video, featuring brand ambassador Ranbir Kapoor dancing to 'Saara zamaana haseeno ka deewana' wearing an outfit akin to Amitabh Bachchan's in the original video, with light bulbs, to showcase its LED lighting solutions.

But given the monies spent, the nature of the brand that decides to go in for a long-format ad matters. Google could afford to do so as it is primarily leveraged its own digital network (YouTube) with some short bursts on TV.

Tata Sky could afford it as it used airtime on its default channel 100. Zee Entertainment's corporate film aired on its own network channels. "These things lead to an advantage, otherwise such airtime can cost a bomb," says Manish Bhatt, founder and director, Scarecrow Communications, the agency behind the Zee corporate film.

Kanika Mathur, managing director, Digitas, Razorfish India, says, "If an exciting storyline comes from even a smaller brand, it can lead to a multiplier effect in digital." Digital, then, is the wind beneath the wings of long-format ads.