MAY 23, 2004
 Cover Story
 Editorial
 Features
 Trends
 Bookend
 Personal Finance
 Managing
 BT Special
 Back of the Book
 Columns
 Careers
 People

Competition As Ad Adrenalin
There is nothing like the adrenalin shot of a competitor you can't take your eyes off, according to many a marketer. Competition is just what every brand needs. Has competition from Joyco's PimPom lollipops, for instance, helped Alpenliebe turn in the advertising performance that makes it so popular?


Choice Contest
'Thanda matlab' Coca-Cola owes some of its success to the very very of Pepsi as an archrival.

More Net Specials
Business Today,  May 9, 2004
 
 
BT SPECIAL
The Real Thing
Advertising succeeds best when it is made and consumed as entertainment, not as a sales pitch. That's the message from the BT-TNS India Survey of the top 10 television and print ads for 2003..
THE TOP 10
TV CAMPAIGNS OF 2003
1 ALPENLIEBE: LAGEY RAHO
RMG DAVID, MUMBAI
2 COCA-COLA: AAMIR KHAN AS A GURKHA
McCANN ERICKSON, MUMBAI
3 BRITANNIA GOOD DAY: RAHUL DRAVID AND VIRENDER SEHWAG
LOWE, BANGALORE
4 HUTCH: YOU AND I
O&M, MUMBAI
5 BAJAJ CALIBER: HOODIBABAA!
LOWE, MUMBAI
6 VIP LUGGAGE: BYE BYE
LOWE, MUMBAI
7 PEPSI: TENDULKAR, HOOPER AND WARNE
JWT, DELHI
8 VIDEOCON: SHAH RUKH KHAN
SSC&B, MUMBAI
9 TVS VICTOR: SACHIN TENDULKAR
SAATCHI & SAATCHI, BANGALORE
10 BRITANNIA LITTLE HEARTS: PARTHIV PATEL
LOWE, BANGALORE
THE TOP 10
PRINT ADS OF 2003

1 HUTCH: WHEREVER YOU GO
O&M, MUMBAI
2 SET: JASSI JAISI KOI NAHIN
EURO RSCG, MUMBAI
3 AIRTEL: ARE YOU WITH ME?
REDIFFUSION DY&R, MUMBAI
4 BAJAJ PULSAR: PUT LESS IN THE TANK
O&M, MUMBAI
5 BAJAJ CALIBER: HOODIBABAA!
LOWE, MUMBAI
6 NOKIA: FREE LOGOS, GAMES, AND RINGTONES
BATES, DELHI
7 TANISHQ: CHAINS
LOWE, BANGALORE
8 COCA-COLA: QUALITY...TRUST
COCA-COLA INDIA
9 NESCAFE: THE ESSENTIAL DIYA DIARY
MCCANN ERICKSON, DELHI
10 MARUTI ZEN: CONFIDENT & COOL
HAKUHODO PERCEPT, DELHI

THE TOP 10 TV AD CAMPAIGNS OF 2003
THE TOP 10 TV AD CAMPAIGNS OF 2003
The Methodology

Walk into the office of Ogilvy & Mather India Chairman and National Creative Director Piyush Pandey, in Lower Parel, a Mumbai suburb, and you'll find Walt Disney's famous words staring you in the face from one of the nicely done up walls: "I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained."

That, incidentally, is the common thread that runs through most of the ads that emerged winners in the BT-TNS survey of the top 10 television campaigns and the top 10 print ads of 2003 (See The Methodology, Page 107).

Would you watch, let alone believe, an ad that simply extols a mobile network's omnipresent reach? But the idea of a pug as Hutch's network (No. 1 in our print list and No. 4 in TV) following a reluctant kid everywhere, is pure entertainment and, therefore, consumed easily.

The necessity to sell to an increasingly ad-wary consumer has resulted in a clutch of ads, across TV and print, which are more stories that reflect everyday mood of ordinary people, in a light, humourous way and less sales pitches.

The campaign that topped our TV list, Alpenliebe lollipop's Lagey Raho, is an entertaining use of situational comedy and street lingo to build a brand connection. And it did not even need big bucks-it just spent Rs 3-crore on media- to create a big bang with consumers.

Or take the endearing Aamir Khan as the gurkha in Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola ad (No. 2 in the TV list). With strong emphasis on storytelling that consumers savour, the brand has managed to usurp the colloquial genre of thanda for itself.

Given all the noise about audiences becoming tired of celebrities, our list throws up quite a few surprises. Almost half of all the ads in the honours club, 9 out of the 20 in the list, have celebrities in them. And it is not just Coke and Pepsi, but brands and categories of all manner, from coffee, cars, mobiles, TVS and motor bikes that seem to ride on them, quite successfully. Even biscuit advertising, from Britannia, uses as many as four Indian cricketers!

Hutch and Bajaj Caliber have pride of place across the TV and print lists, proving once again the multiplier effect of a well-thought-out multi-media campaign. It's a pity that there are no more examples here, a sad reflection on the mindset of most advertisers who still think in silos as far as media is concerned!

The Top Ten
TV AD CAMPAIGNS OF 2003

Simplicity pays: Josy Paul (with cap) and Vishal Mittal have made Alpenliebe lollipops cool even in college canteens

No. 1
Alpenliebe: Lagey Raho!

Call it the triumph of a simple idea over modest means. "Perfetti wanted to appropriate Lagey Raho (keep going) as the brand's promise," explains Josy Paul, Country Manager and National Creative Director, RMG David. A strategic brand need to extend lollipops to young adults meant continuing on the young adult-driven Lagey Raho theme (introduced in the preceding, thumb-sucking, campaign). The ad had to address a wider age group, even while appealing to kids. "We thought of many situations for the film, but finally went with the one that introduced the product in a very indirect manner," says Vishal Mittal, Creative Group Head, RMG David. A lollipop hawker inadvertently and unintentionally gets into people's everyday lives, whether it is a young couple on the beach, a tea-vendor urinating on a street corner or a beggar pretending to be blind. The three-ad campaign, backed by a Rs 3-crore media spend, uses everyday situational humour to drive home the brand-LageyRaho has almost become a brand proxy. "Alpenliebe lollipop is now available even in college canteens," says Sameer Suneja, Head of Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India. Lagey Raho!

BRAND: Alpenliebe Lollipop
CLIENT: Perfetti Van Melle India
AGENCY: RMG David, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Josy Paul (National Creative Director) and Vishal Mittal (Creative Group Head)
PROD. house/producer: Corcoise/Prasoon Pandey, Prashant Issar, and Cyrus Pagriwala

 

Heil Creativity!: Prasoon JOshi (second from left, sitting) with his crack troops

No. 2
Coca-Cola: Thanda Matlab...

Encouraged by the success of the Aamir Khan Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola ads, Coca-Cola India wanted McCann Erickson to create something new and captivating. "Any campaign dies when it becomes predictable and that's a mistake I consciously tried to avoid," says Prasoon Joshi, National Creative Director and the copywriter of this campaign.

To reach out to the mass consumer, the campaign obviously had to feature characters people were familiar with. "The frame of reference was the Gurkhas and Bahadurs, essentially Nepalis who work in India and with whom all of us are acquainted," adds Joshi. The script was crafted in two days, and cleared virtually over the phone by Coca-Cola India's marketing head Shripad Nadkarni, who was in South Africa.

Shot in Manali over a week, the idea was brilliantly executed thanks to Aamir Khan, who not just worked on the dance steps, but also did his own extremely 'real' makeup to look like a Gorhka. The ads haunting melody, Beru Pako, is based on a folk tune from Kumaon region of Uttaranchal. Incidentally, it's also the wake-up tune for the Indian Army's Kumaon Regiment.

BRAND: Coca-Cola
CLIENT: Coca-Cola India
AGENCY: McCann Erickson, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Prasoon Joshi (National Creative Director) and Akshay Kapdanak (Art Director)
PRODUCTION HOUSE/ PRODUCER: Aamir Khan Productions/Ashutosh Gowarikar

 

Taking aim: R. Balakrishnan (left) and Ashit Desai offer biscuits as kheer

No. 3
Britannia Good Day: Kheer Anyone?

A biscuit with almonds, cashews, pistachios, and butter in it. "It's special, yet an inexpensive biscuit meant for everyday consumption. The challenge was how to communicate that," says R. Balakrishnan (aka Balki), National Creative Director, Lowe India. It helped that the client, Britannia Industries, had a number of Indian cricketers as brand endorsers. For in a cricket-crazed country such as India, any ad with Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag in it has already won half the battle even before the first creative is penned! The apt analogy of kheer-rich in content and yet an everyday, affordable dessert -helped communicate the brand's benefits.

BRAND: Britannia Good Day
CLIENT: Britannia Industries
AGENCY: Lowe India, Bangalore
CREATIVE TEAM: R. Balakrishnan (National Creative Director), Ashit Desai (Group Creative Director), and Abhijit Ghosh (Creative Director)
PRODUCTION HOUSE/PRODUCER & DIRECTOR: MAD/Sunil Manchanda and Priyadarshan

 

Creating pug marks: (From left) Piyush Pandey, Mahesh V., and Rajeev Rao (not in picture) have made history for Hutch

No. 4
HUTCH: You & I in this beautiful world

The dog (its name is cheeka) wasn't supposed to be. For when Mahesh V. and Rajeev Rao, Senior Creative Directors at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, got thinking on Hutch's brief of communicating a robust and serious mobile network, the first idea straight from the gut was a little sister following her brother. "On second thoughts, we concluded that a dog would be much less mushy," says Mahesh.

"To me the magic of this campaign is its simplicity," says Piyush Pandey, National Creative Director. And the guts of a client to accept a dog as the symbol of its network. The rest, as they say, is history. Many copycat ads, using a boy and a dog, have already hit TV. And apparently, prices of pug pups, have gone up from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 after this Hutch campaign. "Hutch (the client) saw the ad. Spoke nothing and just hugged our team," adds Pandey. Need we say more.

BRAND: Hutch
CLIENT: Hutch
AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Mahesh V. (Senior Creative Director) and Rajeev Rao (Senior Creative Director)
PRODUCTION HOUSE: Nirvana Films/Prakash Varma & Sneha Varma

 

Creating pug marks: (From left) Piyush Pandey, Mahesh V., and Rajeev Rao (not in picture) have made history for Hutch

No. 5
Bajaj Caliber 115: Hoodibabaa!

Initially a fluke called Hoodibabaa happened," says R. Balakrishnan (aka Balki), National Creative Director, Lowe India. For Balki and his team were trying to find a word to describe Bajaj Auto's revamped motorcycle in Bajaj Caliber 115, with more power and mileage, without saying wow. "Suddenly this completely meaningless word, Hoodibabaa, came to me, and we knew we are on to something big." One thing led to another, the father-son relationship and the 'Hodibabaa Dad'.The ad, a new account for Lowe (moved from Leo Burnett), kicked in instantly with the client and quickly seeped in popular street culture. "The most touching thing I heard was about this autistic kid, who was unable to speak, uttered his first word. Hoodibabaa," adds Balki. Who says ads just help sell products?

BRAND: Bajaj Caliber
CLIENT: Bajaj Auto
AGENCY: Lowe India, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: R. Balakrishnan (National Creative Director), Rahul Sengupta (Group Creative Director), Narendra Yadav (Unit Creative Director), Manisha Khandelwal and Parikshit Bhattacharya
PRODUCTION HOUSE/PRODUCER-DIRECTOR: MAD/
Sunil Manchanda & Lalli

 

Tripmaster Redux!: (From left) R. Balakrishnan and Aimer Jaleel have made travelling with VIP a memorable experience

No. 6
VIP Luggage: Bye Bye, Bye Bye...

Why such an obviously international look and feel campaign? Is that the question you're also asking about this foot-tapping number by Lowe for VIP luggage? "The need for this campaign was to give VIP a world imagery and make it more strongly associated with international travel," explains R. Balakrishnan, Lowe's National Creative Director. Luggage is strongly linked to travel, and yet it is the most cumbersome and forgettable part of the experience. "We thought the only moment VIP can own is the time when people leave (for travel). It can own wishing 'Happy Journey'," adds Balki. And so the brand has bravely made a play for the term bye bye, hoping that it will become a signature theme. VIP Industries' research, post campaign, shows the brand in a much more contemporary light. Well, bye bye old imagery.

BRAND: VIP Suitcase
CLIENT: VIP Industries
AGENCY: Lowe India, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: R. Balakrishnan (National Creative Director), Aimer Jaleel (Unit Creative Director), and Vasudha Narayanan (Unit Creative Director)

 

Inki to gayi!: (From left) Rohit Ohri, Anuja Chauhan, and Alok Lal

No. 7
Pepsi: Iski To Gayi

How do you take one of the most celebrated sporting rivalries in recent times and make it work for your brand? Ask Anuja Chauhan, VP (Creative), J Walter Thompson. She took Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne (remember, he admitted to having nightmares about Tendulkar giving him a tough time on the field), added Carl Hooper and created Pepsi's yet another memorable 'Yeh Dil Maange More' campaign around the World Cup Cricket 2003. For any rival team in the World Cup 2003, the common fear factor was master blaster Tendulkar. The campaign highlighted this in a manner only Pepsi can-Tendulkar losing his memory and Warne calling him a chef, a veiled reference to the opening of the restaurant, Tendulkar's. And Hindi lines such as Iski To Gayi (he's had it) mouthed by Warne just added to the ad's appeal, as did ad director Prahalad Kakar in the role of the turbaned pilot. And did you know that Warne came for this shoot to India without a visa? He didn't think you needed one for India!

BRAND: Pepsi
CLIENT: PepsiCo India
AGENCY: J Walter Thompson
CREATIVE TEAM: Anuja Chauhan (Vice President, Creative), Rohit Ohri (Senior Vice President), and Alok Lal (Vice President)
PRODUCTION HOUSE/DIRECTOR: Genesis Films/Prahalad Kakar

 

Warm as melons: (From left) Satish Ambiwadekar, Ajay Chandwani, and Sandeep Sawant

No. 8
Videocon: Technology For Health...

The client wanted us to create a single unified image for all its products," says Ajay Chandwani, President, SSC&B Lintas. And highlight the technology edge over the competitors. The agency's creative team came up with the 'Technology for Health and Pleasure' theme. Instead of extolling the virtues of the products, the four 20-second TV ads focus on Shah Rukh Khan as a person and how Videocon appliances make life easy for him. Ideated and executed over two months, the visuals have a warm feel to them with Khan eating a watermelon or fooling around with a kid. "The campaign was very subtle and un-ad like. The idea was not to push products," adds Chandwani. It did.

BRAND: Videocon, Appliances
CLIENT: Videocon
AGENCY: SSC&B Lintas, Mumbaii
CREATIVE TEAM: Ajay Chandwani (President), Vikram Divecha (Senior Copy Writer), Satish Ambiwadekar (Creative Director), and Sandeep Sawant (Senior Art Director)
PRODUCTION HOUSE/DIRECTOR: ArcLights/Santosh Sivan

No. 9
TVS Victor: More Smiles Per Hour!

Our challenge was to use Sachin Tendulkar as a metaphor for TVS Victor," says Arijit Ghosh, Head of Saatchi & Saatchi, Bangalore. Visuals of Tendulkar, in the first of the three-ad campaign, checking for the right kind of bat were, in a way an effort to convince the audience that the man chooses everything with care, including his bike. The 'More Smiles Per Hour' slogan was an instant hit as it suited the brand theme of showing the other side of Tendulkar, and the bike. The second and third ads, therefore, moved the communication away from a mere functional plank to a warmer touch-and-feel one with Tendulkar cooking for a family gathering and riding the bike on the beach. "This campaign has been one of our most successful ones, given the need to match the attributes of the product with that of the brand ambassador," adds Ghosh.

BRAND: TVS Victor
CLIENT: TVS Motor
AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi, Bangalore
CREATIVE TEAM: Shanta Kumar (CEO), S. Ghosh (COO), Ramesh Ramanathan (National Creative Director; left the agency for Mudra), and Rajiv Ravindranath (Creative Supervisor)
PROD. HOUSE/PRODUCER: Genesis Films/Prahalad Kakar

 

Winning hearts: (From left) Ashit Desai and R. Balakrishnan

No. 10
Britannia Little Hearts
A Little Sweetness In All Of Us

It's a sweet biscuit. The core of the brand is slight sweetness inside everybody," says R. Balakrishnan, National Creative Director, Lowe. Earlier campaigns on the brand had explored themes such as 'Straight from the Heart' with people speaking the truth on everyday issues. The idea this time was to communicate, in a light, non-mushy manner, the core of the brand. So you have teenaged Indian wicket keeper Parthiv Patel emerging on top of various situations, thanks to the benevolence that grips people after eating Little Hearts. Little unbelievable, but then its merely biscuit advertising!

BRAND: Britannia Little Hearts
CLIENT: Britannia Industries
AGENCY: Lowe India, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: R. Balakrishnan (National Creative Director), Ashit Desai (Group Creative Director), and Abhijit Ghosh (Creative Director)
PRODUCTION HOUSE: Genesis Films/Prahlad Kakar

The Top Ten
PRINT ADS OF 2003

Follow me: Piyush Pandey (left) and Mahesh V.

No. 1
Hutch: Wherever You Go

Well, I had seen blood by then and got involved in the print campaign," jokes Piyush Pandey, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. But clearly, the success of Hutch's boy and the dog 'You & I' TV campaign (See Television Top 10, Number 4), gave the agency the drive and the rope to do something outside mere film-stills for print. The print ad, the boy and the dog in the barber's shop, dovetailed seamlessly into the brand's multi-media effort at communicating an omnipresent mobile network (the dog is the symbol of it), wherever you go. "We even worked on pugmarks leading to lifts in buildings," adds Pandey. Speak of multiplier effect of a well-thought out multi-media campaign!

BRAND: Hutch
CLIENT: Hutch
AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Piyush Pandey
(National Creative Director), Mahesh V.
(Senior Creative Director), and Rajeev Rao
(Senior Creative Director)

Humsa koi nahin: (Clockwise from left) Devraj Tripathi, Kapil Sawant, Ashok Karnik, and Surendra Gohey

No. 2
Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (SET)
Are You Ready For Sony?

Sony entertainment Television (SET) had a successful Spanish serial, which they wanted to Indianise. The brief from the client was to create a buzz around the serial before its launch. Then came the rub, recalls Ashok Karnik, Vice President (Creative), Euro RSCG: "Jassi, the star of the show, could not be shown." The agency hit upon the idea of using blurbs to create an aura of intrigue around the serial. " By using adjectives, such as calling her intelligent and beautiful, we were able to get people interested in this 'mysterious' person," says Sunil Lulla, Executive VP, SET. The serial has become one of set's biggest hits.

BRAND: Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (Television serial)
CLIENT: Sony Entertainment Television
AGENCY: Euro RSCG, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Ashok Karnik (Vice President, Creative), Devraj Tripathi (Copy Writer), Surendra Gohey (Visualiser), and Kapil Sawant (Art Director), Devan Sansare (VP, Creative)

Are you with us?: (From left) Manish Sharma, Nidhi Arya, Adrian Mendonza, and Prashant Sawant

No. 3
Airtel: Are You With Me? Are You On Airtel?

For long-time Sachin Tendulkar fan, Adrian Mendonza, this assignment was extremely personal. "He's such a super achiever-moving a billion people with a five-pound bat-it was difficult to zero in on what to focus on," recalls Mendonza, Rediffusion DY&R's Executive Creative Director. Doing yet another clichéd ad that showed Sachin as a sweet, nice guy was a strict no-no. Shot in black and white, with a gritty feel, this ad showed an un-smiling and focussed Tendulkar issuing an invitation few Indians could resist: "Are you with me?"

BRAND: Airtel Mobile
CLIENT: Bharti Tele-Ventures
AGENCY: Rediffusion Dentsu Young & Rubicam, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Adrian Mendonza (Executive Creative Director), Manish Sharma (Creative Supervisor), Prashant Sawant (Art Director), and Nidhi Arya (Senior Visualiser)

Gaining mileage: (From left) Rajneesh Ramakrishnan, Abhijit Avasthi, Piyush Pandey (sitting) and Vijay Sawant

No. 4
Bajaj Pulsar: Put Less In The Tank...

A 150 CC mobike that still delivers a high 77 kilometres per litre. Anyone can say that in so many words, but then advertising is all about stating the obvious in an interesting, preferably a very unique manner for it to be noticed. "We had to give the mileage statement a brand attitude," says Rajneesh Ramakrishnan of Ogilvy & Mather, who penned the ad's punchline, 'Put less in the tank and more in the bank'. And since this was a power bike ad, all shots were taken in motion (didn't you notice the girl's windblown hair?) and outdoors, unlike most motorcycle print advertising that takes stills of the bike parked inside the studio. Now that shouldn't be much of an effort for other brands or agencies to copy!

BRAND: Bajaj Pulsar
CLIENT: Bajaj Auto
AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Abhijit Avasthi (Senior Creative Director), Rajneesh Ramakrishnan, and Vijay Sawant

Our caliber: (From left) Narendra Yadav, R. Balakrishnan, Parikshit Bhattacharya, Manisha Khandelwal, and Rahul Sengupta

No. 5
Bajaj Caliber: 115 Hoodibabaa!

In the hierarchy of advertising consumption and, therefore, logically, message creation, print merely follows, and often just mirrors television. Hoodibabaa was a line penned primarily for Bajaj Caliber 115's TV ad, and yet finds compelling audience even in print as evident from the ad's #5 position. With familiarity already built up with the TV campaign, print doubles up perfectly as the promotional medium, with product detailing and a purchase sweetener, the three-digit equated monthly instalments.

BRAND: Bajaj Caliber 115
CLIENT: Bajaj Auto
AGENCY: Lowe India, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: R. Balakrishnan (National Creative Director), Rahul Sengupta (Group Creative Director), Narendra Yadav (Unit Creative Director), Manisha Khandelwal, and Parikshit Bhattacharya

Stark success: (From left) Rupesh Sahay, Anshumani Khanna, Sachin Das Verma, Anup Sharma, and Anil A.J.

No. 6
Nokia: Download Success

Would a stark, black and white ad, sans visuals and colours, and with hazy images work for any festive offer? Would it, for a Diwali-time, promotional one? Well, it did for Nokia. Its brief to the agency, to maximise downloads-on this direct response ad-couldn't have been met with a better response, with 76,000 downloads, Nokia's highest for any promotion in India till then. The minimalism of the ad was in a way a clutter-breaker amidst a sea of me-too colour advertising during Diwali. To be sure, even the client was initially surprised with Creative Director V. Sunil's bold approach. But as they say, you can't argue with success.

BRAND: Nokia
CLIENT: Nokia India
AGENCY: Bates India, New Delhi
CREATIVE TEAM: V. Sunil (Creative Director), Sachin Das Verma (Associate Creative Director), Rupesh Sahay & Anup Sharma (Art Directors), Anil A.J. (Mac Operator), and Anshumani Khanna (Trainee Copywriter)

Tanishq shining: The Sharon Nayak-designed ad helped pull in customers to the company's jewellery stores

No. 7
Tanishq: Cleopatra In Chains!

Quickly make an ad that will drive people to its stores, where the company was holding a limited period exhibition-cum-sale of its jewellery, primarily chains. That was the cryptic, no-nonsense brief from Tanishq to its ad agency, Lowe, Bangalore. "Since it was mainly chains, I thought of Cleopatra and Queen Nefertiti instantly, what with their long necks and high cheek bones," says Sharon Nayak, Group Creative Director, Lowe. It was just a day's work to find a dark toned model with high cheek bones and embellish the look with heavy eye make up. The ad was ready in no time, with the shot of a face of the girl, with her head covered in Tanishq chains. It worked.

BRAND: Tanishq
CLIENT: Titan Industries
AGENCY: Lowe India, Bangalore
CREATIVE TEAM: Sharon Nayak (Group Creative Director), and Sharad Haksar (Photographer)

No. 8
Coca-Cola: Can't Pin It On The Real Thing

Literally pushed against the wall, coca-cola's top management and its agency's (McCann Erickson) creative resources went into creating a response to what could have been a business-crippling controversy. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based non-government organisation, has alleged, in July 2003 that most soft-drink brands, including Coca-Cola's and arch rival PepsiCo India's had pesticide levels far in excess of safe potable limits. "The whole idea behind placing the ad was to present the correct picture, backed with scientific data, for the benefit of the consumers," says Sunil Gupta, VP, CCI. It is surprising that amidst a barrage of adverse publicity following CSE's allegations, consumers did notice this simple, very text-heavy colour print ad. Need more proof of the power of the printed word?

BRAND: Coca-Cola Corporate
CLIENT: Coca-Cola India
AGENCY: Released through McCann Erickson, Mumbai
CREATIVE TEAM: Coca-Cola India and McCann Erickson team

The coffee club: (From left) Nima Namchu, Kaushik Saha, Rahul Mukherjee, and Rajesh Bhardwaj

No. 9
Nescafe: Kick-Starting Careers

For once, Nescafe gave its mushy-feely slice-of-life advertising a miss. So models stretching-out with a mug of coffee or lovers in a coffee bar were a no-no. Instead, the ads featured former Miss India and filmstar Diya Mirza talking about her life and career. So where's the coffee here, did you say? "It (the association with Diya) is, in a way, what coffee stands for-achievement and performance," says Nima Namchu, Creative Director, McCann Erickson. Dovetailing this ad was a series with other celebrity writers, actors, sportsmen, even techies, all talking about moves that 'kick-started' their careers. Call it what you will, basking in reflected glory or brand building through indirect association.

BRAND:Nescafe
CLIENT: Nestle India
AGENCY: McCann Erickson India, New Delhi
CREATIVE TEAM: Shankar Nair (Creative Director, left the agency), Anandroop Ghosh (Creative Group Head; left the agency), and Rahul Mukherjee (Art Director)

No. 10
Maruti Suzuki Zen: Confident And Cool...

Why would Ami Vashi, Sunsilk Femina Miss India World 2003, in flaming orange dress appear in the Zen car ad? And that too in Femina magazine, the host of the pageant? Stylish, "a performer", and intelligent is how Femina describes the modern Indian 'Woman of Substance'. And with 15-18 per cent of the drivers behind the Zen's wheel being women, it makes sense for Maruti to reinforce Zen's young 'confident & cool' imagery with the Femina brand. Not surprisingly, it has picked up the rights to shoot each year's pageant winner with the car.

BRAND: Maruti Suzuki Zen
CLIENT: Maruti Udyog
AGENCY: Hakuhodo Percept, New Delhi
CREATIVE TEAM: Sangeeta Sen (Creative Director), Ajay Kant Pathak (Creative Supervisor), and Jhulan Sengupta (Art Director)

The Methodology
HOW WE DID IT
» Thirty-five TV campaigns and 50 print ads were shortlisted, and checked on familiarity, perceptual ranking, and scores on three other parameters
» Survey sample was made up of 240 consumers, divided equally across six cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Kolkata
» Respondents were asked to rank top 10 TV and top 10 print ads, on overall opinion and three other parameters, on a 10-point scale
Business today commissioned multinational research firm TNS India to conduct a survey to evaluate India's top 10 television advertising campaigns and top 10 print ads for the year 2003. This is the second survey of this nature undertaken by BT, the first was done in 2002 (BT, March 17, 2002), conducted by NFO-MBL (which has since morphed into TNS India).

We had the option of going to a panel of marketing or advertising professionals. Instead, we decided to go to people who matter, consumers. Tapping consumers meant that we faced the issue of target group (TG) definition. All ads are geared towards a specific TG. Ideally, the real test of the ad would be to see how it fares amongst its intended TG. Going to each brand-specific TG, however, had a problem, as there were too many TG definitions.

We, therefore, decided to go to a group cutting across demographics to ensure inclusion of all kinds of campaigns and ads geared towards all kinds of TGs.

The entire evaluation process involved the following phases:

  • Sourcing of a comprehensive list of ads, for both TV and print, from New Delhi-based advertising monitoring company, TV/Print AD Index, vetted by TNS India and BT. The scope of the study was limited to national TV campaigns and print ads (defined as one that ran across more than one zonal boundary). Also, for any TV campaign the constituent ads should have had the same underlying theme and should have run simultaneously or within a reasonable time period to be considered a campaign. Only campaigns/ads in Hindi and English were chosen for the evaluation.
  • This list (around 100 TV campaigns and 350 print ads) was further pruned by interviewing middle-level advertising professionals across large advertising agencies, the criteria being familiarity and how well, in their opinion, the campaign/ad was received in the marketplace.
  • The final short-list (35 TV campaigns and 50 print ads) was then taken to consumers in six cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Forty consumer interviews were done in each city. The TG was 15-40 years of age, SEC A & B, and equally split between men and women. Quotas were across occupational categories.
  • Respondents were shown the short-listed TV campaigns and print ads. They were first checked for familiarity of the campaigns/ads. Then they were asked to evaluate all the campaigns/ads they were familiar with, on overall opinion and other parameters such as credibility, uniqueness and, brand fit on a 10-point scale. Post this, respondents were asked to rank the 10 campaigns/ads for TV and print.
  • Familiarity and not just awareness of the campaigns was used as an eligibility criterion for a respondent to be able to judge the campaigns/ads. The extent of familiarity was captured on a 10-point scale and only people familiar with the campaign were asked to judge that campaign.
  • To identify the top 10 ranked campaigns/ads, we wanted to use a combination of parameters, which would help us evaluate the campaigns or ads in a holistic manner. An approach focus on the top rank or top three or five ranks did not help much as some campaigns had a skewed response (few liked them very much vis-à-vis others who liked them to a much lesser extent). Therefore, the rankings of the best campaigns were changing somewhat from the top rank list to the top five list. Moreover, the evaluation procedure also had to take care of the base, that is the percentage of people familiar with the campaign/ad.
  • We, therefore, adopted the following approach to arrive at the top 10 television campaigns and the top 10 print ads. First, we ensured a minimum familiarity level in order to have a sufficient base for all campaigns, while at the same time ensuring that campaigns or ads with a more focussed audience did not lose out. Thereafter, in order to remove bias due to the skewed rank responses, a minimum percentage ranking was ensured for the top 10 ranks. And lastly, the highly liked campaigns were segregated using mean ranking (of the first top 10 ranks) on the familiarity base-the lower the rank the better. A tie in mean ranks was resolved in favour of that campaign, which fared better in the top three approaches followed by the top ranking one.

 

 

    HOME | EDITORIAL | COVER STORY | FEATURES | TRENDS | BOOKEND | PERSONAL FINANCE
MANAGING | BT SPECIAL | BOOKS | COLUMN | JOBS TODAY | PEOPLE


 
   

Partners: BT-Mercer-TNS—The Best Companies To Work For In India

INDIA TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS
ARCHIVESCARE TODAY | MUSIC TODAY | ART TODAY | SYNDICATIONS TODAY