Fever FM off, Fever FM on: Unravelling the case of marketing gimmicks

Two days. Two videos. Two announcements. This is how HT Media’s Fever FM pulled off a marketing gimmick, reigniting the debate around how far is too far when it comes to drawing attention.

On Wednesday, a day after he appeared in a video posted on LinkedIn to say that Fever FM was shutting down, Ramesh Menon, chief executive officer of audio business for HT Media’s Fever FM, Radio One and Radio Nasha, appeared in another video on LinkedIn. This time round, in a play of words, he said Fever FM was in for a revamp, not a shutdown. 

“When we said we are shutting down, we meant that <puraana radio ab khatam>,” he said. “Our promise to remain relevant to the evolving media landscape has led us to completely overhaul our programming.” He then went on to explain the features of the new avatar.

The gimmick did create the intended buzz, but it also triggered a debate on whether all publicity is indeed good publicity.

“The era of brand gimmicky is over,” said Harish Bijoor, founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, a Bengaluru-based business strategy firm. “Never denigrate your brand. That is all you have.”

What also raised questions was that HT Media Ltd, which owns Fever FM, is a listed company. Would a stunt such as this one invite the attention of the market regulator?

Legal experts are of the opinion that such marketing gimmicks would come under the scanner of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) <only> if they influence trades or dealings by investors.

Although, in this case, no negative impact was witnessed on the HT Media Ltd stock, which is up 18 per cent since January 23, Shiju PV, senior partner, IndiaLaw LLP said, “Dissemination of misleading or false information, which are likely to influence the decision of investors, is considered as fraudulent and unfair trade practice, according to the Sebi fraudulent or unfair trade practice regulations.”

On Wednesday, HT Media Ltd stock closed at Rs 32.75 – up 3.75 per cent.

“An advertisement campaign will come under Sebi scanner only if it is misleading or false and likely to influence the decision of the investor dealing in securities,” Shiju PV said.

Experts said that all material announcements — or any such update that can impact the stock price movement — are to be disseminated through stock exchange filings by the listed company.

Further, in case of other rumours or media reports, the exchanges may seek clarification from the company.

Overall, radio as a business in India hasn’t been doing great.

During the analysts’ call on January 19, HT Media Group's Chief Financial Officer Piyush Gupta spoke about the challenges radio has been facing despite best efforts. “Radio revenue has not come up to speed as much as we would have liked to," he said at the call. "There is a marginal decline of 4 per cent with revenues tracking to Rs 40 crore, and operating EBITDA at Rs 3 crore with a 7 per cent margin as against 17 per cent margin last year. Sequentially, of course, they were up 12 per cent," Gupta added.

Trick or treat

Extreme marketing tactics for grabbing eyeballs are not new to the advertising landscape. 

In December 2022, Puma collaborated with actor Anushka Sharma to pull off one such stunt. Sharma posted multiple stories on Instagram purportedly accusing Puma for using her photos without any contract only to reveal a few days later that she had come on board as its official brand ambassador.

A month later, a video of actor Ranbir Kapoor throwing away a fan’s mobile phone was widely circulated on the internet. The actor was called out for foul behaviour. Later, smartphone brand Oppo released the full video showing Kapoor gifting an Oppo phone to the fan.

“Such cases also impact the image of the celebrities involved, but not as much as the brand’s,” said Samit Sinha, founder and managing partner at Alchemist Brand Consulting.

Claiming that the ultimate goal of any brand is to remain relevant, Sandeep Goyal, chairman of Rediffusion, said, “Deepfakes to deadly sackings, everything is fair for public relations these days. And brands don’t fight shy of anything that will become viral because of the shock value.”

Brand experts maintain that in the age of artificial intelligence and deepfakes, it has become even more important not to pull off such misleading stunts. 

The Advertising Standards Council of India (Asci), the sector’s self-regulatory body, keeps a close watch on marketing gimmicks. “When collaborations involve frequent staged gimmicks, there's a risk of loss of consumer trust in both celebrities and brands,” said Asci CEO Manisha Kapoor. “While short-term attention may be gained, repeated instances compromise the credibility of the entire ecosystem. Consumers become sceptical of what to believe in advertising…. Crying wolf is not necessarily a sustainable brand-building strategy.”

“Brands should never move away from their core values, which define how they communicate just because an agency is selling them a gimmicky idea that can potentially go ‘viral’,” added Samit Datar, chief strategy officer, Crayons Advertising. “Unfortunately, what we witness increasingly is that a lot of marketing has become about moving from one gimmick to another. More often than not, each idea is completely different and over a period of time, will represent a very confused image of the brand.”