The other day LoveMe suddenly said, "I absolutely love these new
SBI ads. They are so much on target and so inviting". I was kind of
amused. Because, atleast in the blogdom lot of people didnt like SBI
ads.
We talked about ads for a little then. We agreed that we love those
new 'mint' ads. As a matter of fact, mint ads are the funniest ads
with catchiest phrases.
Dubaraa mat poochna.
Dimak ka batti jalade.
Funny part is neither of us remembered the name of mints. I dont
know if its Mint-O-Plus or hey what is that other mint?
But hey, A mint with a hole, a Polo is something we would never
forget. I must say, Polo is the most successful of all, when it comes
to 'Product Differentiation'. Someone designed the product so well,
it doesnt really harm Polo if their ad people screw up the campaign.
Polo ads suck. But can you ever forget Polo.
Dimak ka Batti Jalade is funny, but which mint is it for? This also
brings us to pay attention to mint economics. Mint atleast in India
is 'small currency'. Every time an Indian buys a cigerette in all likely
hood he gets a mint back.
The success of a mint lies in its distribution strategies and its margins
to retailers. So it makes sense to spend money at retailer level and
not on national TV. (Around 97% of Indian mint sales happen at
'unorganized' retail).
This points us to an important factor of all. What is the job of an ad?
Is it to show the creativity of the ad agency or to sell the product?
The answer is quiet obvious. Right?
But, not the practice.
It is surprising how everyone from Brand Equity of Economic Times to
Cannes Lion, discusses and awards, 'How Good An Ad Is' rather
than how successfully an ad sold a product.
There are million different awards for 'Good Ads', what I call the AdMan's
Ads. But none, I repeat, none to award an ad that increases the sales.
Now let us scrutinize the mother of all cute ads, Hutch.
Continued..
4 comments:
Wrong. There's something called the Effies (short for Effectiveness in Advertising).
http://www.effie.org/about/index.html
I am glad to know. I never heard an effie before. Honestly I am glad to know that atleast someone is 'thinking'.
You make a good point. But I reckon that ad's which don't directly sell a product/service are probably intended to sell the brand - which might result to higher sales in the long run.
As for the mint manufacturers, I get the feeling their marketing people believe the only way you can get a customers attention is to hit him with such ridiculous advertising, he won't ever forget the product. Orbit White is a fine example - every time you see that product you will remember how stupid the ad was. But will people actually go out and buy Orbit White?
I think Indian adwalla's tend to forget that the primary job of an ad is to sell the product being advertised, and not itself. Take the new Tata Indica ad .. where you have four bimbos who see a guy and go: "I want a sizzling hottie who'd like to get naugty..." Need I say more :)
Blue dude: Nothing wrong with building a brand. Actually Hutch did a fantastic job of building a brand. But if Hutch was selling Denim to Teenagers that would have been great. Unfortunately for hutch, its in a high tech arena where brand loyality is zero, just like in computers industry (barring apple).
:-) Yeah, looks like these days everyone is trying too hard to be funny. :-) Good for us. Bad for the corporates. :-)
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