“Today technology is no longer a means to save costs because companies are willing to pay more to get the right look and feel for the ad.” _ Vinod P. Vijay, Prime Focus Studios

Those must have been early days, but today Chintamani has company — Pandu Mangal of Amaron Batteries, Boomer Man, Cheetos Cheetah and the Kellogg’s team of animated characters, to name a few.

Why are advertising agencies today liberally using visual effects (VFX) and animation in television commercials (TVCs)? Because new technologies are available, accessible, affordable and obtain the desired results faster than what was possible a few years ago.

“An advertising creative can be created on many media — real life (shoot), animation, computer graphics and claymation. You use what is best to bring to life the story idea. It could be a real-life shoot or animation or graphics or a combination of them all,” says Madhukar Sabnavis, Regional Director - Thought Leadership and Country Head - Discovery & Planning, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M). His agency created the Amaron claymation campaign as well as the relatively-low-on-VFX ad for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

For Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, O&M used two ad formats — a real-life shoot with actor Amitabh Bachchan for the ‘Kuch meetha ho jaye’ campaign and an animated film for kids for the ‘Kitna ma zaa aye re’ campaign. Why? Because the ads targeted different consumer groups.

For Hutch too, O&M used different formats. The ‘boy and pug’ campaign focused on network coverage, the ‘boy-girl’ animation promoted value-added services and claymation was used to sell the mobile TV concept.

“The Amaron campaign was fully animated because the idea was based on lesser-known folk stories and we felt claymation was the best way to deliver this idea,” says Sabnavis.

RK Swamy BBDO used animation to describe the working of client Hawkins’ Ventura pressure cooker because “it could not be captured through live action,” says Sangeetha N., President, RK Swamy BBDO, Mumbai.

The agency has used technology to demonstrate products such as ICI Dulux, Brylcreem, Gillette Vector Plus and Orient Fans. The use of VFX and animation in these cases is clearly to communicate a specific message, otherwise impossible through direct shooting.

In 1998, Fountainhead Communications used animation for client CavinKare’s Nyle shampoo, where a wood nymph with silky shiny hair was created to prance around the shampoo bottle.

TVCs are becoming increasingly animated affairs. Shots from a Kellogg’s commercial.

More recently, it created an ad for client ‘Fairever’ fairness cream, where a model going through a “milkfall” (waterfall made of milk) would become fairer as she came out on the other side. Could they have got these results in a live shoot? Unlikely, says Venu Gopal, formerly with Fountainhead and now Co-founder & Creative Head, Brand Portrait.

For the same reason, Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison Communications Pvt Ltd, decided to create kangaroos using technology instead of heading to Australia for a live shoot.

“After seeing the Godrej Jumpin ad with kangaroos, people told me we were lucky to have shot such well-behaved kangaroos in Australia. They were shocked when I said we had created them (the kangaroos) in the studio,” he recalls.

In the process, Balsara also realised that certain technical aspects such as lighting, camera angle, time and location could be controlled better than in a live shoot. “Studio creation of background locales saves money because a crew does not have to travel and physically shoot at a destination. All associated travel costs are also cut and that is a huge saving,” he says. Efficient use of technology can ensure savings of up to 85 per cent on budgets, say industry sources.

However, with ad budgets growing manifold (the TVC market size is estimated at about Rs 5,500 crore) in the last few years indicates that companies are willing to splurge on ads. Amit Gupta, Director of Corporate Development, Prime Focus Studios, says budgets for ads today range between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 2 crore. In a high budget ad, up to Rs 50 lakh can be set aside for packaging (VFX, animation), he says.

Prime Focus has worked on TVCs such as Happydent, Fevicol, Toyota Innova, Bajaj Discover, Hero Honda CBZ, Nike, Pepsi and more recently, Sony Vaio. Vinod P. Vijay, Creative Director who directed the Sony Vaio ad, has seen the duration of VFX in ads rise from 10 seconds a few years ago to about 90 seconds now.

“Today technology is no longer a means to save costs because companies are willing to pay more to get the right look and feel for the ad,” he says.

Has this dependence on technology resulted in roles shifting — from the ad agency to the post-production houses — as in who calls the shots while making TVCs? No, say agencies.

“How can the role of the creatives have lessened if there is more emphasis on look and feel? The partnership between creators and executors only gets deeper,” says Bobby Pawar, National Creative Director, Mudra Communications. This could means using a combination of film stars, animation characters and VFX in a TVC. Actor Shah Rukh Khan in the Sunfeast ad is one example.

Josy Paul, National Creative Director, JWT, back recently from the Cannes Ad film festival, says young directors internationally are using a lot more technology and music in their TVCs. “I see future ad films looking like a fusion between high-end computer games and music videos.”

However, too much of VFX in ads could dilute a brand’s impact on consumers. “Film-makers and advertisers see their ads in isolation and deploy special effects to ‘stick’ them in consumers’ minds. However, when seen on TV as part of a cluster of ads, they often fail to create the desired impact,” cautions U. Jayraj Rau, Vice-President and General Manager, JWT.

Agrees Venu Gopal of Brand Portrait, “At present animation is used to make ads stand apart from the clutter. But if the number of animation and VFX-laden ads increase (creating clutter), one will see the return of emotional, family values-based TVCs.” As always, the cycle only repeats itself.

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