The Hindu Business Line : The test of teasers

BUT tell me, who is he? And what is all this about him getting AIDS?" was the question on everyone's lips. At work, at home, in the car, on the bus, at the supermarket till, at kirana stores, in the media, Pulli Raja consumed the imagination of two Southern States as teasers about the dreaded disease hanging over him like the sword of Damocles recently ran for weeks.

Even as the suspense was being lifted, came another campaign, though limited to Chennai, full of ads which boldly highlighted the words breasts, thighs and legs, but only of chicken, and a new restaurant (Prime Roaster) which served it, as it turned out later.

To quote Sanjay R. Chaganti, Programme Director (HIV/AIDS Prevention), Population Services International (PSI), the NGO behind the Pulli Rajavukku AIDS varumaa? campaign now on in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh: "It has sunk into popular culture and managed to penetrate every sphere of society. Several articles have been written on the public's angst to discover who Pulli Raja is. It has been very successful in achieving its objective — to initiate curiosity and interest in the subject of AIDS." There have been several jokes, cartoons and caricatures about this mysterious anti-hero, if you could call him that.

Pulli Raja is a fictitious character that serves as a behavioural model to an often-misinformed high-risk group. While this was an adaptation of the Balbir Pasha campaign the NGO ran in Mumbai last year, the Prime Roaster teaser "was not a very logical decision or anything — the teaser idea came later, actually", says C. S. Amudhan of Winds of Change, a Chennai-based advertising agency he set up three years ago. "The hype we created elicited tremendous response. The store has been crammed with people from day one, and throughout the day, " he says, on the reaction his agency's campaign for its launch has elicited. "This is rare for a start-up, because it takes a little time for word to spread," he adds.

Says Suguna Swamy, former creative director, O&M, "Teaser campaigns work well with a captive audience and in a restricted period; outdoors is an effective mode of delivery; they tend to get lost in the press." However, not many go in for teasers as they are an expensive affair: the ads have to be run twice — first to create the suspense and then to clear it. And if it's an outdoors campaign, the vinyl makes it even costlier. "Print," says Swamy, "is rather old-fashioned," but that is the more popular option for obvious reasons. "There are fewer teaser campaigns now," says a marketing executive who sells space for publications. Also, in print, the teasers are now restricted to a single issue with the suspense being busted in subsequent pages of the magazine or the newspaper. Of late, it has been the automobile and insurance companies that have taken to teaser advertising in this way, he adds.

How effective are they? And when can they be most successful? Says Swamy, "They have a very short life. They work to raise awareness rapidly in a short time, which means they work well with launches, relaunches and to convey news of significant import." And this is where Pulli Raja fails, and Prime Roaster works, in her opinion. "Pulli Raja had a great opportunity, but it was lost in the long lines that answered the suspense it produced. They did not tell us anything new — everyone in Chennai knows about safe sex, maybe they should have restricted it to the very mofussil areas," she explains.

Quite a few people that Catalyst spoke to felt that the Pulli Raja follow-up ads were somewhat of a letdown, while the Prime Roaster ads evoked different reactions ranging from complimentary to angry to giggly. Everyone knew "it had to be something else" ("No, I don't think it's anything to do with women, too obvious") and many had a fair inkling it concerned chicken. Amudhan says he did, however, get a few indignant calls protesting the ads ("few only because not many knew who was behind them"). Says Swamy of the campaign, "It had the courage and the vision. Even though people guessed, it worked because there was a market for that product."

The Digen Verma campaign for Frooti made a mark in recent times. Though it had its share of "anti-climactic" and "confusing" reactions, brand domain specialist Harish Bijoor says it was "memorable, for sure". Swamy calls it a "wonderful" campaign which had just the right tone and spoke to a young audience in their voice and succeeded in acquiring for the product an image that it was hip to drink Frooti too.

Bijoor, who is the CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults, says teaser campaigns will work only if they maintain a very close synergy with the brand in question and the teaser so devised. "With media costs escalating, teasers are difficult to run. If it can contribute in terms of arrest value significantly, such a campaign can be justified. A good teaser campaign is one that can make such a big impact that one can compromise and have fewer exposures."

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