Ad-sense: The people next-door : The Tribune India

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Ad-sense: The people next-door

It’s a subtle trend. Celebrities are slowly vacating space in Indian advertising. And filling that space are common faces, people next-door, even those with disability, visible or otherwise. Social realism or inclusive advertising is making headway into the marketing plans of most brand marketers.

Ad-sense: The people next-door


Bhanu Pande

It’s a subtle trend. Celebrities are slowly vacating space in Indian advertising. And filling that space are common faces, people next-door, even those with disability, visible or otherwise. Social realism or inclusive advertising is making headway into the marketing plans of most brand marketers. 

Horlicks maker, GSK, which has used Bollywood stars like Darsheel Safary, Taapsee Pannu, and R. Madhavan, in the past as brand ambassadors has now discovered the merit of social realism. The health beverage marketers have hit upon a different insight. In February, this year the company decided to target Kota, the coaching capital of India for IIT aspirants. Every year more than 1.5 lakh IIT aspirants arrive in Kota with high hopes and aspirations. When GSK interacted with the students, they uncovered the sad side of this narrative. High-peer pressure, unrealistic expectations from parents who have spent lakhs on coaching and the fear of failure make them prone to anxiety and even depression. There have been many reports of a growing number of students committing suicide, unable to cope with the pressure. “In many cases, parents’ anxiety and expectations, rubs off on their children,” says Vikram Bahl, Area Marketing Head, GSK Consumer Healthcare India. That led to the campaign #Fearless Kota by FCB Ulka. The campaign features a bus filled to capacity with ordinary mothers, on a surprise visit to Kota to surprise their children and reassure them that even if they don’t make it to the IITs is not the end of the world. The joy on the faces of both the mothers and their children, when they see each other, says it all. 

According to Rohit Ohri, chairman & CEO, FCB Ulka, which created the ad, it focused on the physical and the emotional aspects. “While Horlicks provides physical nutrition, emotional nutrition can come only from the parents. And that’s precisely what we attempted to do as mothers share a common concern about their children.” 

According to Bahl, this is possibly the most successful Horlicks campaign on television and online (it got 33 million views, 4 lakh likes and thousands of shares). This clearly displays the power of authentic people and insights rooted in reality.

The Lenovo ad series is equally interesting and captures slice-of-life moments featuring a common man. Take the case of Lenovo 720 #GiftThemDreams commercial. The setting is a typical lower middle-class home in a small town in Rewari. A guest asks the young daughter of the house ‘what would she want to become when she grows up?’ She replies that she wants to be an astronaut and fly to Mars. The guest is quick to dismiss her rather sarcastically, and instead suggests that she should first try to reach Delhi for higher studies and then dream of going to Mars. Her visibly miffed mother scolds the daughter to study hard and not indulge in such utopian dreams. She then complains to her husband to talk the daughter to study hard lest she scores poorly. “Uska bachpana roka nahi to kabhi top nahi kar payegi” (if we don’t control her childish thoughts, she won’t do well in class). The father retorts “Uska bachpana bhi to uska sapna ho sakta hai, agar ham ne hi usse tod diya toh woh hamari haar hogi (her seemingly childish idea also can be her actual dream, if we try to break that, we would fail as parents).

Such heart-warming stories in Indian advertising are slowly replacing flashy models, affluent households and exotic locations. According to Ohri, much of this trend is emanating from the trust deficit with the celebrities, who seem to have a disconnect from the brand they endorse. “People now know these people are paid to recite a script and this is a worldwide trend.”

In fact this culture, promoted by Gogglebox, a British entertainment brand, is catching on across the world. Brands that once spent mega bucks on global celebrities, special effects and fantasy scenarios are now increasingly featuring real people being filmed in real situations. Brands such as TalkTalk, McCain, Iceland and Aviva are all tapping into this growing trend to depict social realism in their ads.

According to Harish Bijoor, CEO & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consult Inc., the advertising society keeps the ads and situations fluid. In the beginning, the celebrity is a point of preference, after the brand is somewhat established, it is the ordinary people, even animals, that are featured. “When there has been too much use of a celeb in a particular category, consumers get tired of seeing a famous face telling them what to do and what to buy. At these times in the journey of a brand, the common man and real situations make an appearance.”

In 1998, when Hyundai entered India, Maruti ruled the passenger car market. People couldn’t even pronounce the brand name correctly. The then sales & marketing head, BVR Subbu, once confided the actual reason to use Shah Rukh Khan as their first brand ambassdor. “He’s one of the stars who has changed the rules of the game in Bollywood.” He started as a villain, an underdog, and went on to become a star. “That’s what we wanted for Hyundai ... to be a star,” he had said. In a systematic manner, Shah Rukh told the Indian audience about each feature, the rich Korean lineage of the brand and also how to pronounce (it’s Hyun-Day, not Hyun-Daai). Today, Shah Rukh is hardly seen in ‘Hyun-Day’ commercials, which now have common car buyers and product features. 

Next, marketers need to build affinity with the consumers in an age where the buying experience is moving online leaving fewer opportunities for emotional connect points. So if brands are talking to millennials, these are the issues that are important to them. “We are seeing an explosive increase in conversations on social media in which brands and consumers are talking to each other rather than only the brand talking to the consumers,” says Suparna Mitra, CMO, Watches & Accessories Division, Titan Limited. “This has changed the job of marketers to make the marketing messages more relevant and realistic.” 

So brands are putting out ads which reflect real slices of life rather than an artificially constructed advertisement. “This necessarily means that real people in real situations are depicted in the brand communication rather than a hugely aspirational but often, unrelatable star brand ambassador,” adds Mitra. 

The current spate of such users has had different reasons though. Trivago uses its promoter in its campaign. Yet, it passes the bill. While few business journalists may know him as a promoter of Trivago, the mass audience doesn’t. He also doesn’t looks like a conventional model. His company saves money and gives it a human face as well. “Both are important aspects, when you consider the money and the run behind it,” Bijoor adds.

With these changing trends it didn’t come as a surprise when, in February, Brooke Bond Red Label commercial from the HUL, featured an elderly woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s. She is looked after by her neighbour, whom she mistakes for her son as the young man often drops by to share a cup of tea with her. Titled “Forgotten”, the heart-warming ad shows how people with a neurological disorder like Alzheimer’s face social alienation. Even earlier, HUL has aired several such socially inclusive ads. 

Similarly, cough and cold brand Vicks (from Procter and Gamble) documents a transgender mother and her young daughter, in one of the campaigns which has been a tremendous success. The commercial titled “Touch of Care” takes an inclusive approach and deals with the sensitive subject of transgender rights in India.

Interestingly, in recent times, advertising is taking a high moral ground — becoming more socially realistic and inclusive, using next-door single mothers, differently-abled people, transgenders, children with special ability et al. It has started highlighting never-before issues and themes featuring regular people. Who can forget the campaign featuring transgenders on the streets of Mumbai exhorting people to use safety belts and giving tips on safe driving!

Advertising in India is no longer conformist. Remember, how dental care brands once used good-looking models in white coats posing as doctors to endorse a particular brand. Sensodyne has brought in a touch of realism by using actual dentists highlighting their credentials. 

Clearly, the brand communication is moving beyond good-looking images and perfect and/or affluent families. So if brands want to connect with their consumers it is clear that they also need to have a purpose. Just having a set of competitive features and benefits extolled by pretty faces, bodies and names do not appeal to the savvy millennials. 

Through social realism brands are discovering authentic stories and causes to associate with. This is giving them a reason to exist and play a role in the lives of its target group. This trend raises hopes about a better and a more inclusive world.

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