Super Bowl XLIV Bonanza

Super Bowl 2010

Another Super bowl concluded with the New Orleans Saints defeating the Indianapolis Colts’, 31 to 17. And we saw almost 60 ads aired by different corporations to vie for 106 million people who saw the bout on T.V and hence becoming the worlds most watched programme ever.

This years Super Bowl too saw Humor as a common strategy to gain the viewer attention.

U.S.A Todays Ad Meter ranked the first three ads in the following manner

1. Snickers
2. Doritos
3. Bud Light

We need to take into concern that these ratings are derived out of an instant rating system from a focus group. USA TODAY’s Ad Meter tracks the second-by-second responses of a panel of viewers to ads during the Super Bowl and ranks them from best to worst. Hence, it might be too shortsighted to hail an ad as the best of the Super Bowl.

Snickers ad was neither funny nor serious but somehow people could connect to their message of ‘You’re not you, When you are Hungry’. Plus, the element of unpredictability made it a good ad. Although, I wouldn’t call it as the best ad.

Doritos ran four spots this year, which were all placed in the top 20. The peoples favorite was the anti-bark collar ad. It was funny but I dont think it was better than the Samurai ad. It certainly did make Joshua Svoboda be an envy to investment bankers! He created the ad for a mere $300 and is entitled to win $600000 from Doritos for being the second best rated ad this year.

Bud Light as usual was quirky and funny and memorable. Witty lines and an amusing storyboard made sure that people noted it and were involved in it. I even liked the ‘Not light, not heavy‘ campaign that they ran. But again it could have been better for a beer that did not have ‘Light’ mentioned in its name. You can not have ‘Light’ mentioned in your brand and communicate that the beer is neither Light nor strong, it is Bud Light.

I liked the Hyundai (Also the biggest advertiser for this years Super Bowl) paint ad as well but after the recent recalls in the car industry from the Japanese car makers, the South Korean car maker would have had to suffer. However, like the last super bowl ads Hyundai was smart and short and even attacked the competitors, in this case, the Mercedes CLS550, to showcase their product as superior.

A special mention for Google that flirted with TV advertising with a beautiful ad (the best ad according to me). The ad was powerful enough to evoke an emotion on the faces of the viewer and hence, undoubtedly, distinct. Something, that we could all relate.

Go Daddy slipped down the popularity, probably due to a repeated theme line. However, I feel it created enough memorability and reinforcement. Especially, with its imagery continuing on sexy and affordable to all. Women as usual were a major part in all the ads.

Coca cola played its sleep walker ad. It was visually nice but not exactly a memorable one. It somehow did not gel with the ‘Open Happiness’ positioning.

Then there was Cars.com advertisement that again started off brilliantly introducing Timothy Richman but somehow you just wished there was some more to it. An average ad. It did not have humor nor was too serious and fell in the same genre of the Coca Cola ad. A little more of work and it could have been a above average ad.

What’s in a name? Ask Pepsi.

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention.

Pepsi to Pecsi

Just read that Pepsi changed its name to ‘Pesi’ in Spain, following the name change  to ‘Pecsi’ in another Argentina around July 2009. (Article) Reason: Locals pronounce the brand that way. I followed the comments to the article and there were people ‘For’ and ‘Against’ it. I was wondering what should take preference, so I thought of the following points:

Pros

• Easier pronunciation
• Coke or other competitors wouldn’t benefit from the shift of people to them due to the difficulty in pronunciation
• More localized; more attentive about the consumer preferences

Cons

• Would not make much of a difference
• Dilute the brand image; especially if there are some duplicate brands who would sell their beverage as Pepsi or similar name (assumption)
• The absence of uniformity in a global brand
• The constraint of localizing a successful global communication that could have been used otherwise
• Create apprehension in the mind of the customer who has always been purchasing ‘Pepsi’

I think the name change was not necessary. Not because the cons are exceeding the pros but the cons seem to be much more specific and the pros are either vague or an assumption of a situation that has equal probability of happening and not happening.

The most important point here is that of imagery. For Pepsi, the symbol, the logo, is its major brand identity; people identify Pepsi with its logo, unlike coca cola, whose brand image is calligraphic writing of the brand name. Hence, the name as far as the ‘P’ of Pepsi was concerned was the least common differentiator that was not necessary to tamper with.

Somewhere, it creates a certain lacunae within the minds of the consumer. Especially, in this globalized world where people are much more exposed to global campaigns and happenings , it might just be a tad difficult for a local to associate Pepsi endorsed by giants like Beckham and other endorsers and immediately register with Pesi or Pecsi.

A better solution would have been to continue branding as ‘Pepsi’ in their communication in the ‘local slang’. So, that after a period of time with repeated exposure to the same communication whenever the word Pepsi is seen the mind equates it to the sound of ‘Pesi’ or ‘Pecsi’. So, you could have showed a bottle with ‘Pepsi’ written on it but stress on the factor that it would be called ‘Pesi’ or ‘Pecsi’ from now on. In that way you still respect the local needs and give/sell them a global brand. A win-win for both sides.

So you do not have a differentiator. Now what?

Got an Idea?

When do you do when you do not have an idea. You badly want one..  ever been in such a situation? I am sure you would have been. Never be depressed in such a situation. Let things happen around you and watch them closely. This is something that has always worked for me. Whenever I have sat to think about an ad and I get nothing that is brilliant, I just go under a shower and just let myself free and wander and think about whatever comes to my mind and guess what ? I always do find n answer. And I say always. Sometimes I just doodle around and voila I get an idea out of nowhere. Simply because my accidental stroke of the pencil actually gave rise to a good idea.

I know this is not much like any of the other posts but today I am just happy and hence want to share it with you all. In fact I got so crazy that I thought of lovely ads for Volkswagen, Surf Excel, MaxFresh and a good one for my college and I am proud of that.

Positioning: The battle for your mind

Often I notice that I get stuck when the product or the entity I am thinking of advertising does not have any differentiation because according to me that is what enables a good ad. The presence of a creneau in the head of your prospect where you can put your differentiator and see it grow and occupy a ladder in the mind of your prospect and eventually see your brand build and gain identity. But what if you do not have a differentiator or the fact that you do have a good differentiator but the prospects or the target do not perceive it to be present. Advertising is all about perception. It is not the better product that wins the race but the better ‘perceived’ product. So no matter how good and solid GM cars are they will not be perceived as good as Volvo because they own the differentiator of being safe and solid.

So what do you do when you do not have a differentiator?

You look for what I put as, soft factors. Go through the irrational route, capture emotion in your ad. Human brain is a sucker for emotion and is hardwired to be emotional. And sometimes it is the most powerful way to capture the mind of your prospect. Be the prospect and think what he/she would like to listen, in fact love to listen. You cannot bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them said David Ogilvy. Especially in a print ad make sure that you are not in the zone of indifference, either the prospect should love your ad or hate it. The former obviously being the most ideal situation but the latter at least gives you a chance to learn and impress your prospect next time, when he/she is least expecting it to be. Print ad gives you a marvelous opportunity to talk to the prospect, alone. If you can make the prospect read what you want to say then you have done a good job for sure. What’s the big deal in making them read, you might say? But hold on. “The Average readership of a body in magazine ads are 5%” and this figure is of yesteryears, it’s surely come down now. So, that means if you don’t treat the print ad with respect and thought you waste 95% of your resources and with sky rocketing print media charges that is really high figure.

Now since you have decided to take the soft route of persuasion what all are the factors that you can incorporate in you communication?  Use humor- It always has above average recall. Put a slice of life in your ads and make them realistic and hence charming. Add emotion and always back it up with a rational excuse to justify the emotional content. Be honest and genuine. Honesty shows up in an ad. Well these are just some of the ways.

The sucker emotional brain

If you love your ad then others would like it. But if you only like your ad, others won’t be that impressed. Make ads that mean something to people, so that they can connect the dots. Pat wolfe, author of Brain matters: Translating Research into classroom practice , explains, “Neural networks ‘check out’  sensory stimuli as soon as they enter the brain to see if they form a familiar pattern, If they do, a match occurs, and the brain determines that the new stimuli are familiar. In this case, we could say that the new information makes sense or has meaning. What happens if there is no match? The brain may attend to the meaningless information for a short period of time because it is novel; but if it can make no sense out of the incoming stimuli, the brain will probably not process them further……An idea will be meaningful only if it relates to the listeners experience”

Why Yahoo is not Y!OU or Me. It is still Yahoo.

 Ok, so Yahoo revamped their website and promise you the best of experiences. The have a 100 million dollar budget and are splashing all across the world with Yahoo its Y!OU campaign. And India alone is supposed to be exposed to 10 million dollar worth of that promotion and a good chunk of the video has India in it.

Yahoo- Its You campaign - India

So is Yahoo going to all set to be ‘You’? Well honestly it is not. I have been seeing the communication for quite a lot of time but I haven’t been persuaded to go and check Yahoo as to what is new about it and if I have been lazy to be stuck with Google then I think there are a lot of people who are.

Well I did check yahoo and there seems to be some change around the corners. The content looks the same but there is a section to your left about favorites from which one can access FaceBook, and other websites that one wants to keep a tab upon. The changes are good and utilitarian but the contention here is about their communication. I did like the campaign and I must say that it has pretty high recall in my mind, I have seen imposing posters on malls and roads showing a normal person whom we might know in our daily life saying “ Internet is under new management, yours!” . But listen! I like the ad and I don’t hate the hoardings either and I agree that Yahoo has become more interactive but what is the use if it can not force me to go to the website to try out the change

I think there was a little bit of self indulgence by OnM and Yahoo when they made the ad. It just speaks about Yahoo and is shot through slick frames and a lot of style. But what they forgot to mention was why you should try Yahoo. Putting several people in a frame dancing, kissing, playing and celebrating does not tell me why I should go to Yahoo. Ok, fine, the internet is under my management and Yahoo is me or infact Y!OU but what more? I don’t understand what Yahoo wants to tell me when it says that you can manage your internet. Too generic. It’s like someone telling you that there is a good product in the market but you don’t know what it exactly is good at. What is Google? It is a search engine. What is Yahoo? Uh..uhmm..well..it has a search engine and shows news also and there is music also and..and..and..IT IS JUST VAGUE! And IT IS NOT ME!

The most important part of any advertisement is that it should sell the product. In today’s world, especially in the internet services segment, none is going to switch to your service until and unless you show them ‘The Reasons’ why they should shift to you. Some proposition where you clearly have an edge over your competitor, either you create it or you create a perception about it, so that people believe that there is a difference as Pablo Picasso remarked ‘Art is the lie that tells the truth’. Create a perception and make people believe that the perception is true.

Why you dont want to be Yahoo. Is it You?

They should have been direct. They should have spoken about the user interface, and the ability to access various apps and accounts through one page. ‘A one page destination to your internet’ should have been the framework for their positioning.

We know what it takes to be a Tiger. Yeah?

We know it too

Ask Accenture said my last blog and they have spoken, albeit, silently. Search for Tiger Woods in their website and it comes as page not found (on Sunday). Accenture dropped the contract with Tiger Woods on Dec 13. According to me one of the best celebrity branding episodes draws curtains now. With due respect to the supporters of celebrity branding- My deep condolences. Gillette has dropped tiger from any further promotions. AT&T is evaluating further move to keep him or not. Gatorade had dropped him prior to the scandal. Nike and TagHeuer are still backing him or at least not reacting in an adverse manner. So from now on you won’t see Accenture telling that ‘We know what it takes to be a Tiger’. Instead its website now reads – Accenture wishes only the best for Tiger Woods and his family.

 There was a time when he was called “The world’s most marketable athlete.” By many marketing research firms. Wonder what they would say now. This just makes me again and again reiterate my clichéd point that celebrity endorsements is a worthless risk that whose cost benefit analysis is clearly unfavorable. There are too many uncontrollable elements in there. And as a marketer, you don’t want too many uncontrollable factors.

But then what are the implications for Accenture? And why is EA and Nike still making sense by supporting him?

EA sports support Tiger

Let’s say there are two factors- the Hard (core) factors and the Soft (complementing) factors. In Tiger Woods case the hard factor is simply his Golf. Any brand he endorses strictly due to his game and nothing else, would have hired him because of his hard factors and any brand hiring him for his qualities like humility, personality and other qualitative aspects would hire him because of soft factors.

So it’s clear to see that Accenture was more of a soft factor decision as compared to EA (Tiger Woods golf game) and Nike (Nike golf). This means as for the hard factors, Tiger Woods still remains the one of the best in the history of golf, even if he becomes gay but as for his soft factors, he is not exactly the ideal idol anymore. So it makes sense for Accenture and Gillette to drop him. So according to this AT&T should be dropping Tiger as I don’t see any mutual benefit the association can deliver. Even TagHeuer makes sense as they and woods collaborated closely to develop the world’s first professional golf watch, released in April 2005. The lightweight, titanium-construction watch was designed to be worn while playing the game. However, TagHeuer won’t rush for a renewed contract for sure.

Tiger woods Cadillac Escalade crash

Funny thing was he had an accident in GMs Cadillac Escalade, the brand that he endorsed earlier. As if GM had lesser woes already.

Copenhagen all the way

Copenhagen 2009 climate change summit

Copenhagen is hot these days with talks of climate change. But as most of us might have seen, there are a series of OOHs that is getting immense publicity these days. The ads present a futuristic picture of world leaders including aged versions of Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy among others in 2020 and feature them saying, “I’m sorry. We could have stopped catastrophic climate change…we didn’t.” Copy reads ‘Copenhagen 2009 Act Now – Change The Future.’

The placing could not have been more perfect. They were there bang on outside the airport. None could miss it.

The things that are spot on are

1. The picture entices you to read the copy and hence draws you into it
2. The copy talks to you and not the mass, you relate with it better

Greenpeace has generated far more PR for the issue than it could have had it issued press statements. It is being talked about by everyone. The journalists landing at the airport are eager to snap it and mention it in their articles.

There has always been talk of how Publicity is better than advertising. I beg to differ. Publicity is better than advertisement but when both can be combined to result in one another, there cant be a deadly combination. An advertisement that creates publicity is two birds at a shot. Its like, sometimes you just know that your idea is going to get people talk and think. That is the best idea. This was not any top notch advertising agencies idea but an inhouse idea.

Generating an idea for an ad

So are generating ideas easy? Absolutely I think. You just need to know whom you are targeting. If you know that then you definitely know what they would like from your communication. And if your communication entices some emotion out of the target then I would say it was a good effort. Just be sure that you do not lie on the zone of indifference in the mind of your audience.

The OOmpH factor

The rise of the OOmpH factor

There are ads and there are better ads, the better ads sell and the ads don’t. it has become so much more important to connect with the consumer. And that is why it is important to set foot on the OOH segment as soon as possible. Out-of-home advertising (or outdoor advertising) is made up of more than 100 different formats.  Outdoor advertising is essentially any type of advertising that reaches the consumer while he or she is outside the home and this is best thing about OOH, you see them while you are on the move and hence more scope for the impulse to act. It gives more meaning to the two way process. It is no longer what you want to communicate. It is a conversation and the conversation is becoming more active than passive. OOH cost less than what your traditional mass media would cost you and can be regionalized and can be tweaked around to find the ideal communication layout.

There is this recent phenomenon of flash mobs being used. It is a normal method in the west but the Indian public is just getting used to it. It involves a group of people who all of a sudden enact or showcase something in between crowded areas. A very cost effective method. Allen Solly had used this method of hummanequins of live models suddenly freezing in between a mall and having the latest Allen Solly merchandise on them. Novel way indeed. Although the concept is restricted to metro cities as of now it wont be long till we see this concept spread further to other tier cities.

 What OOH solves is your problem of getting to the target audience. You know where to reach them out but if you don’t know if your marketing effort is going to impact them or catch their attention then OOH is the way. It has all of a sudden led to another branch of marketing professionals who concentrate in that niche alone and do a pretty good job for the buck passed to them.

Axe is becoming my favorite brand when it is coming to OOHs and catching their target group off guard. Axe Inxtinct carries the trend forward for them.

What OOH let you do is carry a conversation. The brand tries to communicate something to you. You notice it and react to it instantly and follow it up.

Advertising agencies are trying to separate OOH from its included activities and hive it into another unit simply to focus on it better. So that the clients get a better deal and execution. Like Group M for WPP.

OOH has certainly come a long way from just hoardings and banners.

Save the Tiger

There is something about Tiger Woods. It is the same thing that Barack Obama has too. It transcends money and fame. It transcends the power they confer to whatever they associate their name to.
They connect. No matter how much they earn in a year and if it is more than what all your earlier generations may have earnt till now, still you have a feeling that they are like you only. I don’t know if its got something to do with the brown skin but I get more motivated by the stories of the woods, the obamas, the Williams and so on. They connect because they represent a much larger minority voice. The voice of the underdog.
For tiger woods it had reached a point from which he could not do anything wrong in his career or more so with his brand. Tiger woods stood for something. It stood for honesty, straightforwardness, humility, reliability and other synonyms. Tiger woods was much more than a perfect golf swing. People need not understand the sport to marvel at the iconic legend. Even if you did not know what a birdie, bogie or a bunker is. You did not know how he was playing but you just knew that he was always trying his best. You just knew that he could not do anything wrong.
So what went wrong with woods? All I knew was there was an accident and after that the press slaughtered his image with juicy rumours of his mistresses. An image bomb as similar and as big as bill Clinton affair. And there is something that tiger could very well learn from that scandal. Accept the mistake and move on. Public memory is, as always, short. There is no denying the fact that the damage has been done but the damage control to the brand tiger woods has been really off course. It is surprising to see how badly celebrities get managed sometimes. They bask in all the glory and are willing to talk and write books on how they made it to that level but when something nasty hits them they run without caring for their shadows. There are reports of him quitting golf and trying to revive their marriage. GREAT. But the sad part of being so public and having been so public in the past is that, it is exactly what the public expects you to be now. Be public.
Again we learn from this that celebrity endorsements should always been looked at extremely critically. Because you can not control their events but they can control yours. And that is not a great leverage for your brand. Ask Accenture.

The power of Publicity

Maruti Suzuki Corporate

Everyone for sure remembers the corporate ad that was made for Maruti Suzuki by Rajeev Menon which ended with the tagline – “India comes home in a Maruti Suzuki”. Moreover it had a brilliant emotional connect, when you saw the youngster asking for a lift after his bus broke down and in his HELP signcard, it was written -  Need to be home for Diwali.

Brilliant ad. Hats off to Rajeev Menon and the people involved in it.

I don’t know how many of us know that today there was a news in which it was reported how around 50 passengers were stranded in the Vizag airport due to technical snag in the plane and were suffering from an emotional snag by the lack of empathy of the Air India officials too who didnt even bother to serve a glass of water and were passing on the buck.

What does Maruti Suzuki have to with Air India?

Air India - Going down..coming?

Imagine this hypothetical condition: If Maruti Suzuki officials had  came to know about it and arranged a private jet or a chartered flight to transport them to Delhi. And while they were on flight they advertise their corporate ad that they had made. Imagine the news spreading like wildfire among the news channels and you have Maruti Suzuki’s ads being shown. Imagine how many people would be in awe of the company. Imagine how many people would spread the news through word of mouth. Imagine the number of blogs written and a few awards in its name too. Imagine the magazine articles written on it and the chat room talks about it. Imagine the coverage on advertising websites. Imagine the whole range of possibilities. How they could have leveraged this to tailor future communications. Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant!

creating happy customers

The cost would have been far lesser to promote you brand in a cricket match that people would just skip as soon as the ads came in. What a chance to increase their brand awareness and brand recall and etch themselves permanently in the minds of the people. What an opportunity to leverage yourself on your competitors service failure. The same thing could have been done by other brands like Deccan or jet or kingfisher too. Imagine the image that would have been made. That is the power of what Competitive Service Recovery (Hey I just made a word. Sounds good too. How do you trademark that?) would have done. Maruti Suzuki still has time . Approximately three to four hours, but unfortunately my blog is not that famous as Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki to spread like wildfire even if they are irrelevant.

Probably this is what Al Ries called as the power of PR. Publicity creates brands and advertising maintains it – The 22 immutable laws of branding.

Why India needs David and not a Goliath approach

Indiaa..Incredible India

What is India? Why is it Incredible?

“We were all so sad when you ran away from home. Your parents were disappointed and worried when you ran away to Bangalore, but they are happy to see you fine now. “

“I had to aunty. Or else I would have been like my brother and couldn’t have escaped from there. There was so much of trouble at home and they wouldn’t allow me to go to Bangalore for sure. So I had to run. But now that I have got my salary I am sure they are relieved. Please order whatever you want. Waiter! Bring a cup of coffee and two teas.” Said a family of three next to my table when I was having my tea.

This has been the story of India pretty much. The story of India that is eager to earn and consume. That does not want to be tied to boring chores but wants to explore the world that he/she sees. This is not the story of two India’s- India and Bharat, but that of layers of several India’s. Not a monolith but a multi- layered cake according to Rama Bijapurkar. It is a country that has made multi-national corporations kneel according to their whims. It is a country that has embarrassed the foreign companies thought process. A country deserving a different treatment altogether. “A treatment where it won’t be the best policy but the next policy that will succeed”, according to C.K Prahlad.

Indian markets need a David not Goliath

A place where the Goliaths of the world’s largest selling shampoo (Sunsilk)were left wondering how to compete against a David (Chik)who was selling shampoos in one time packs (probably used twice or thrice). A place where the lever brothers found that they couldn’t sell Surf against a small time Gujarati player whose name they couldn’t spell nor pronounce. A place where the worlds cult brand Coca cola, has sweetened its drink a little bit to suit Indian taste who generally prefer sweet but finds hard to replace a local brand Thums up, which is anything but sweet, whom they ended up buying and is still the most consumed aerated beverage in India. The irrational exuberance of a global brand flattening the world just hit a big wall when it came to the mother of all diversities.

It has forced globals to reckon that it is a different world altogether. It is a country where the world’s largest toothpaste brand Crest is taking a step forward and three steps back to even think about launching. A country that stops not because of a terrorist attack but of 22 people on the cricket field.

We are like that only

A country where drops certainly form an ocean. Where the bottom percentage of people (Strivers), around 106 million households, have just 2% of the higher household incomes (Prosperous, 2.2 million) but just due to its sheer size of being 48 times bigger, its consumption almost equals that of the prosperous.(Source: IRS Consumption pyramid, IRS 2008). A country where you can’t ignore ‘this’ (prosperous) nor ‘that’ (strivers) but a country of “this as well as that” (Read ‘We are like that only’ by Rama Bijapurkar).

Where it is not the needs and wants that are important as Kotler puts, but hopes and aspirations that dictate consumer behavior. A place which has made Theodore Levitt’s prophecy of a global brand that serves the customers with standard products worldwide, has fallen flat on its face. Where the consumer instead of being dumbstruck by western cults and emulating it, is watching and mixing it with his/her own culture and demanding something that the marketer could not fathom about. A country where the tastes and preferences are so distinct that you cannot predict the sales pattern of two adjacent districts separated by a few miles let alone a state. A place where technology penetration is as high as 63% in one state (Kerala) and just 14% in another state (Bihar). A country where the rural areas are almost ten years behind urban but still demand firms to make a tailored “right-value-right-benefit” product. Those who do that succeed in ways that shifts their economic centres. Ask Nokia. A country that has contributed to a lot of red ink in the firm’s balance sheet but still can’t be ignored for obvious reasons.

A country where consumers don’t upgrade according to your plan but you downgrade to their wishes. A country where focus is hard to maintain (Wonder what Jack trout and the Ries have to tell about this). This is India …Incredible India.. A country that might even see “marketing tourism” like medical tourism.. Where the West can learn about the emerging centre of gravity and how to woo the nasty unsparing consumer.