“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future” — Niels Bohr How often have we seen forecasting go so pathetically wrong that people often venture not to make it? My task is easier as I am only talking about what will happen during 2016.

Video has been a powerful medium of communication from the days of Liril. Lintas, as the agency used to be called in those days, did the path-breaking “girl in the waterfall” commercial. But from the 30-second commercial that was their bread and butter for three decades, agencies are making commercials for much longer durations and creating them for social media.

The first that comes readily to mind is the one for cancer patients who are battling to lead normal lives, as done for Dabur Vatika. It is one of the most circulated videos on YouTube as brands are realising the value of social media. Another recent long-duration commercial that made waves in the shadow of terrorism was the Tata Sky commercial too, done around Christmas which made the social media rounds. Let’s not forget too the trend of the sequel or a series of commercials that Airtel recently launched with its 4G campaign — although I felt that these commercials were not as interesting as the “youth” commercials done earlier.

The year of the big idea? Sadly, the year that was did not see any Yeh Dil Maange More or “What an Idea, Sirjee!” or the Cadbury’s cricket match sort of commercial. Nor too did the Zoozoos surface to capture our imagination. I will, however, keep hoping and hope too that the third-rate advertising for e-commerce brands built on sales will improve. Or am I asking for too much?

Ramanujam Sridhar is the Founder-CEO of brand-comm. He runs an Online Brand Management program for business schools.

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