The Hindu Business Line : Looking back, with an eye on tomorrow

IN March 2003, I sneaked a trip to South Africa to watch the cricket World Cup. It was a special package organised by Airtel for its privileged customers, or so they said. It turned out to be mostly for Airtel's sales and marketing team with a few odd customers like me.

I was slumming (read on a shoe-string budget). I was sharing a hotel room with Airtel's Regional Manager from Hubli, a 30-odd gentleman of `wheatish complexion', as a matrimonial ad in The Hindu would say. I nearly dropped my toothpaste when I saw a tube of Fair & Lovely in the bathroom. Clearly I had no use for it, my complexion being beyond redemption. Conditioned as I was to air-hostesses using Fair & Lovely and buying their sheepish fathers coffee in five-star hotels, this usage was a revelation to me. Evidently my roommate was not isolated. And Emami recognised this by launching Fair and Handsome. Maybe the ad would not feature in my `Best of 2005', but nevertheless, to me it represents the power of observation of a marketer in spotting an age-old need in a country that has a fair share of men who suddenly want to become more handsome - an interesting trend.

Have money will spend

The large spending categories, such as colas, mobile services, shampoos and detergents, have come to us from every possible channel. Pepsi, which normally serves as a benchmark for what should be cheeky and yet interesting advertising, was a bit of a let-down this year. And yet, the Pepsi international football commercial, even if it has not been created here, clearly connected with us.

Coke missed a trick, in my opinion at least, with its much publicised, much aired Piyo Sar Uthake. There is an interesting trend, though not necessarily new: Advertising agencies are making their ads look better than they actually are, by smart public relations. This reminds me of the golf shots that some of my friends play, which sound and look better than they actually are. Whilst as campaigns go, the new Coke campaign had its merits, I feel that Thanda Matlab still had juice in it and could have been given a fresh twist.

Sadly enough, clients and agencies get tired of their own campaigns (however good they are) long before customers do. Among the bewildering array of shampoo brands, I remember Garnier Fructis not so much for the creative as for the complexity of the name. Will Indian consumers have the courage to pronounce names like these and actually ask for these brands aloud? The company might well ask, how about Alpenliebe?

In detergents, Rin started well with Amitabh but seems to have slipped just a little in its latest execution. And what on earth is going to happen to all our `lazy scriptwriters' in 2006 if Amitabh were to actually take it a little easier and do fewer commercials! Heaven forbid, they actually may have to think!

Back to 2005 and, detergents ... Surf Excel's "kids in the mud" to my mind was a stand-out. Detergents as we do know are an ongoing challenge and Surf Excel has moved from "Two buckets of water" to the next level quite easily. One saw a lot of mobile advertising - much of which was scheme-driven. Airtel had interesting commercials on the price platform. And yet I have strong reservations about a brand that has so many high-profile users identifying itself with chaiwallahs and panwallahs. Tata Indicom had a few commercials that were noticeable but not entirely up there. Significantly, more and more brands are recognising the North-South divide, the South Indian ones featured Trisha as against Kajol for the rest of India. Lays too, changed its commercial with Saif, for the southern audiences. Looks like Madrasis are finally being recognised for their wallets at least!

Be quick, be friendly, be gone

Research suggests that the average duration of the commercial in India is 16 seconds. Air Deccan, one feels, wanted to improve the average as it came up with a 150-second commercial! The duration of the commercial to my mind is its greatest differentiator. It certainly has an `Indianness' about it. And this commercial, and a few others done this year, demonstrate the desire of Indian ad agencies to create more and more for the vast Indian subcontinent and less and less for the few `wise men and women' who judge at Cannes. The Air Deccan commercial was propagated quite well - tied in as it was with an `India Times' promo. Extensive marketing was done by electronic direct mail and through SMS messages. Although one must be careful of the hazards of intruding into people's privacy, one still believes that greater opportunities exist in `one-on-one' marketing that are relatively untapped.

While still on the subject of longer commercials, the Bajaj Avenger DTS `Feel like God' truly stands out in a category that is crowded and cluttered; and where every other commercial tries hard to confuse the customers, so similar are they in look, feel and treatment to its competitors. Interesting too, was the commercial for Hanes underwear. Interesting not to show the product in usage, and striking too, in terms of benefits. How does one differentiate in today's crowded world? Mentos too had a different commercial of a student entering, or is it exiting, a class. The latest commercial set in a hairdressing saloon is of the same genre too. Mentos is clearly a `stand-out'.

More than "in-film" advertising

Using films as a backdrop for selling one's product is not a terribly new concept. And yet Tanishq has gone a bit further by designing jewellery for the film Paheli (which one hears has been nominated for the Oscars). Most significant is the fit between what the jewellery attempts to stand for in terms of design and the consumer's aspiration. From the big screen to the small screen was just a logical step for the brand, which recently introduced the Tanishq Star Dopahar Contest. Other than Tanishq, there were a few large brands with well-recognised continuing campaigns such as Titan, Fevicol and Asian Paints. Titan continued to use Aamir Khan with gusto. And the Asian Paints commercial demonstrates the increasing histrionic ability of our child models. The Maruti Suzuki ad demonstrated this too, though its positioning as " a big car" is debatable. What is not debatable, though, is the clear positioning of Supreme Sunflower oil, which to my mind is an amazing commercial. The Greenply commercial with the Sardar barging his way into an agraharam house is not far behind.

SBI: Surprising, changing

SBI's interesting and yet surprisingly diffident commercials have now become five - extending to a girl eating chillies, a guy waxing his legs and a third making papads under the watchful eyes of his preening wife. But I was really surprised to see an ad in the newspaper last week that read, "Which bank has more customers than the population of Australia? Which Indian bank is among the top 100 banks in the world?" The answer is always SBI. Is SBI hearing? Looks like it has heard or read the Catalyst .

Yes, we had an interesting year. The newspaper reader too had a lot of choice. Newspapers galore. The Hindu, which is not merely a newspaper but a way of life, changed its layout. Change is inevitable. And the year too will change. Here is an old wish for the New Year for the advertising industry — May the best of your past be the worst of your future.

(The writer is CEO of Brand-comm.)