The Hindu Business Line : For consumer connect

A news channel brands a plane, deodorant is dispersed through a movie theatre's AC ducts - advertisers are finding unconventional media a good and cheap way to cut through the clutter.

A RADIO jockey talking to you about the easy home loan scheme being offered by a leading housing finance company; a news channel trying to capture your attention on the tarmac with its logo prominently displayed on the exterior of an aircraft or a car company talking about its brand new launch through your credit card statement — advertising today is all about reaching the target audience at various touch-points. It is all about getting high visibility at low cost.

And, the medium and method could be as unconventional as advertising on an airline's boarding pass to buying out the floor of a mall to advertise one's products. The Air Deccan boarding cards, for instance, have the Airtel logo on them, while you can find VIP advertising on its food trays, and companies such as Sun Microsystems and NDTV painting the aircraft with their logos.

John Kuruvilla, Revenue Officer, Air Deccan, says these branding exercises are beneficial not only for the airline but also for the brands advertising on it. "As an airline I get extra revenue which helps me to offer concessional fares, and for the brands advertising on my airbus, they are able to catch the undisrupted attention of their target audience (TA) at a low cost. Passengers on board have no choice but to read our in-flight magazines, look at the seat covers or the food trays. The biggest challenge for most marketers advertising on mass media today is to get the undivided attention of their TA. By advertising on the exterior of the airbus, they are also able to catch the attention of the passengers of other airlines on the tarmac."

Airtel, for instance, has set up branded charging booths in the metros, where users can go and charge their handsets. These mobile charging units are available at places with many people, such as movie halls, airports and hotels. Similarly, Airtel also has branded helpdesks at airports, Airtel PCOs, SMS and MMS booths and so on. All these activities, says the Airtel spokesperson, go a long way in creating top-of-the-mind recall for the brand.

Yet another example of a non-conventional advertising medium is the Fa Fresh Zone created by Henkel Spic India around the movie ticket counter of a multiplex in Chennai, to promote its deodorant brand. It is an air-conditioned area where the Fa fragrance dispensers are incorporated through the air-conditioning ducts. Says Vijay Subramanian, General Manager, Henkel Spic India, "Experimenting with alternative media offer certain specific advantages. These can not only be more interactive than TV but can also culminate in the trial of the product. They could also be `experiential' in nature and strengthen the connect between the brand and the target audience. The Fa Fresh Zone is not only an innovation in itself but has also resulted in strengthening the brand connect as our post studies showed us."

Cola major Pepsi has also been spending huge sums of money on non-conventional media in addition to its regular print and TV campaigns, which, according to the company's spokesperson, has met with a lot of success. "One such initiative is the Dew Mobile promotion which we have been doing since the last two years. We recently also ran a promotion with Spice Telecom in Bangalore where consumers received a refreshing Mountain Dew every time they purchased a recharge card for their mobile phones. In fact, the pre-paid card was specially designed in the shape of a Mountain Dew bottle."

Brand-fit not an issue

With brands constantly trying to catch the attention of their TA at various touch-points, industry experts say the marketer is no longer bothered about brand fits. "Brand-fit is a term of yesteryear. The issue no longer is whether the media will fit my brand. In fact, the concern today is whether the media will give the brand high visibility. The buzzword is to get high visibility at low cost," says Kaushik Tiwari, Branch Head, Grey Worldwide, Chennai.

Tiwari says marketers are willing to advertise even in places where they don't sell. "Maruti for instance, had kept a car on display at various outlets of FoodWorld in the South. Similarly, several credit card companies set up kiosks in malls which generate a lot of footfalls."

In fact, letting out advertising space, according to an eminent retail analyst, has become a major revenue generator for retailers. "Malls have started letting out their ceilings as well as their floors to advertisers," he says.

Advent of non-conventional media

S. Subramanian, Business Director, MindShare, says that escalating mass media costs made a number of brands look at alternative media. "Though the cost per reach is the cheapest in mass media, marketers also began to feel the need for establishing direct contact with the consumers."

Unconventional advertising media, according to Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, are but a natural development in the world of advertising. "In any evolved brand society, consumers get tired and jaded with advertising that is traditional, typical and predictable. Consumers tire of old media and literally notice efforts in such conventional media less and less. Television gets less and less noticeability and people flick channels in their urge to escape from the onslaught of advertising, and marketers therefore, go in quest of newer and newer mediums."

"In my working life I have used four-colour printing on eggs to percolate a brand message, the humble papad at a South Indian wedding to announce a brand launch and many such alternative media invented specifically for the purpose of breaking through mass media clutter," he adds.

Jayraj Rau, Vice-President and Client Services Director, JWT, says that with mass media becoming fragmented with more and more channels cropping up, brand managers realised that the returns were also getting lesser by the day. "They felt below-the-line advertising was like sniper attacks. It was sharp, focused, effective and didn't cost too much."

Rau says that the brand managers also felt the need to communicate with their TA. They felt that radio and TV only generated one-way communication, when brand gurus propagated the need to retain customers rather than woo new ones. "The brand managers became keen to win the goodwill of their TA. By associating itself with a fashion show, a lifestyle brand, for instance, can interact with its TA in a more focused way. Similarly, a brand, by doing up parks in various localities of a city, can create a feel-good image for itself. The consumers will not only have top-of-the-mind recall of the brand, but will also strongly consider buying that brand."

Major spenders

While brands across all categories seem to be investing a lot of money in non-conventional advertising, industry experts say that categories such as white goods, automobiles and telecom have been concentrating a lot on below-the-line activities. These are categories which cater to a limited target audience.

However, FMCG companies, says Rau of JWT, have to concentrate on carpet-bombing - use the mass media route. "The FMCG companies cater to the masses and it would make sense for these companies to use the mass media as the cost per contact is much lower."

The future

Non-conventional media, say experts, definitely have a great future. Though brands today spend only a fraction of their advertising budget on them, Subramanian of MindShare says brands would gradually begin to set aside a considerable amount of money for these kind of exercises.

However, industry experts feel the strategy will succeed only if brands continuously innovate with new media. "The coming years will definitely see a shift in balance between mass media and non-conventional media, but marketers have to constantly come up with new ideas. If the same medium is used again and again, its novelty would be lost," says an industry observer.

As marketers are on the lookout for new gimmicks to retain their target audience, you may soon find the ring tones of your mobile phone being replaced by ad jingles. Watch out for what's in store for you!

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