The Good, The Bad and The Ad

If you Google “How to advertise”, one of the first results that shows up on the screen is the wikihow link that has a list of what it takes to make a good advertisement. The advertisement has to be creative and funny while telling the audience what they need and want to know at the same time avoiding what they don’t want to hear, and keeping the location and the target audience in mind and directed to. It was quite the read, but all the while I had a question echoing through the top floor.

Do I want to be an advertiser?

If one asking this of themselves finds the answer as a yes, then the obvious question that follows would be, Why? And if the answer now is creativity, I’d ask you to think again. Being smart, intelligent beings we have the ability, and should use it too, to learn from others, their mistakes. And there is an example we can learn from close to home, to us all. Living in India, a favorite example of mine is Sanjay F Gupta, a remarkable video maker for songs, who was miles from the mark in the longer, movies. I wonder what must have been going through his mind when he decided to make a movie. Probably,
a movie is just a longer song, with greater room and length for the story and creativity. He wasn’t entirely wrong though. I do love his movies, they have that voice about them, differentiating them from the rest in the clutter, the Sanjay touch. And though I love his movies, I must accept, they are essentially unsuccessful, for I feel he is struck by his restraint in expressing his ideas (which are mostly ripped off movies from beyond borders which he must have enjoyed in the comfort and luxury of his home).

How right he is, and yet how far from right. Yet, creativity is sufficient. There are numerous examples to resonate this. Once again, closer home, Nirma did it with its jingle years ago, “Doodh si safedi” and Surf Excel did it more recently with its wonderful line, “Daag achche hain”. Who hasn’t heard of the success of these campaigns (The enlightenment doorway - Google, with all the answers, look it up if you haven’t already got the answer).

Self contradiction rides high.

Years ago when we were buying our new house I remember my dad listing the requirements for the house to have if it is to pass to the buyable check, “It should be a little way in from the main road so there wouldn’t be too much noise, it should be easily accessible and easy to point out the address to visitors and auto …” Not many more follow, such as light, wind, but what I want to direct the attention to is the accessibility. I had never thought in that direction, reachability and closeness to the railway station etc, but in my defense I was barely new to my teens. The location holds prime gravitas not only in the selection of the house but the advertisement too; after all we spend on the advertisement to bring in more.

The beauty of malls, who better understand than women. It is a common nightmare for the men throughout the world now, shopping with the girlfriend and the spouse. The trend is changing, but the underlying logic remains unbeaten. It’s all about fun. Come February it is mall trip at home. We celebrate our birthdays with gusto, and the best thing for me is the shopping for my birthday clothes. The 15 years that I remember, the range has been huge and varied. It’s a day to celebrate and the effort that goes in is sweet, the hours that we all spend in the mall looking for clothes that I like. And the hundreds of me’s across are the favorite target for the advertisers as they have their fun which flows into the me’s too.

But it is important to remember, tell not what the audience doesn’t want to hear. So the fun must be aligned with the audience. And who doesn’t know how much fun it is changing our fun to the preferences of others. As prefects in school, we were sometimes required to monitor the classes when the teachers were busy in a meeting or in any other work. Personally I enjoyed it a lot, mainly because I would choose to monitor the smaller classes, my favorites being the class 3a, 3b and class 5c. And the very idea of not having the choice of the class to monitor was rejected by us all. If only such freedom extended beyond.

Leaping over the huge obstacle that self deprecation presents, its green pastures.

In my younger days, I especially remember reading, among the many, two beautiful books: one was Enid Blyton’s Come to the Circus and the second Johanna Spyri’s Heidi. These two books are more dear to me than the most others because these two inspired me most, fueling the desire to enter the world of the story as the protagonist. The big difference between these two is that while Heidi was an accident, Come to the circus was a deliberate choice, it being an Enid Blyton book. The same I believe extends into the real world too. People mostly choose to buy what they have heard of and know of. And as advertisers it becomes our responsibility to make sure what ever it is we advertise is heard. So, spread the word.

And don’t we all know what spreads the fastest. I was meeting my friend after a long while. We were at McDonald and talking when he got a message on his phone. There was huge smile on his face as he read the message and immediately hit a few keys and made a call. He smiled at me and put the phone on loud speaker. “Hello” said a girl on the other end and my friend starts off, “Congrats ___, so he finally proposed.” “How do you know?” she asked and he replied, “____ just messaged”. (Names have been hidden as I don’t have the owners’ permission to use their names). But it was quite a scene, the power and speed of information. Most of us have experienced this at some time or other in some way or the other.

And again, care is essential. When Nokia batteries burst when put in charge, the world had heard of it remarkably fast. It is the spicy bad news that travels many times faster. And so as advertisers, the complexity is so much more.

And thus creep in the self doubts.

It is a wonderful, fun thing to do, advertising. After all, it is the funny advertisements that remain in the minds of the audience longest and anyone who has ever made anything fun would know for sure, making something fun is a lot of fun in itself. How else can the fun element be breathed into the advertisement. Advertising is truly green pastures, like we see in the movies and read in the books, but it is only for those who make it big, who cross the obstacles and beat the doubts, who understand how to have fun while making what the audience would like and enjoy too, who understand the where and the how of the advertisement and who understand creativity and grasp the knack.

And so, once again, at the end I ask, Do you want to be an Advertiser?

Bharadwaj Battaram

Marque

IIM Rohtak