The indiscriminate use of celebrities, poor scripts give the category a poor name
Last time around, we spoke about how actors, in particular, have the
great ability to bring a script to life. Yet, one of the major reasons
for the appeal of the actor is also the tremendous following he or she
has. Sadly, the diversity in this country poses a challenge too. An
actor like Aamir Khan, who has a tremendous following in other parts of
India, is barely recognised in the South. Yes, people know him and have
probably even seen the dubbed version of Satyamev Jayate but do
not follow him as passionately or actively as in other parts of India.
So even in the hey days of Aamir Khan and Coke, the brand was looking at
an actor like Vijay for Tamil Nadu and here is a commercial that is essentially like a Tamil movie script.
Move away from the tried and tested
The problem with something like this is the cost, as you may end up
doing multiple versions if you are a national brand. Cricketers,
thankfully, are universally recognised and you could score higher with a
cricketer on this parameter, if you will forgive the pun. You could
also use the cricketers smartly as Timex did with Brett Lee. In the
height of IPLs success, Brett Lee was an icon in India and yet charged a
fraction of what an Indian cricketer with less ability might charge. An
interesting strategy could be to use sportsmen from other sports. Here
too, cost would be a significant reason and the reality too is that
sadly India is still a one sport country and people seem to be obsessed
with cricket only. Whilst backing other sports and sportsmen is an
interesting strategy, it is also bound to have less appeal than cricket.
But for a focussed targeted effort it is worth it.
It’s about the script, silly!
While we do see a lot of celebrity advertising, most of it is pretty
mundane and predictable. The scripts are what we call as “lazy” scripts,
which ride on the belief that the mere presence of the celebrity will
ensure success. But scripts like this are only promoting awareness and
don’t make a difference, particularly if the celebrity is endorsing
twenty different products. How does one remember the diverse brands that
MS Dhoni promotes? I wonder if he does himself!
In fact this is one of the biggest problems with celebrity advertising
as one cannot control the number of brands that the celebrity will
endorse. While they do not promote conflicting brands they certainly
endorse diverse brands creating confusion in the minds of consumers. The
way out of this is to have a script that cuts through the clutter so
that consumers remember the ad, the brand and the celebrity too. Because
he is just an actor or an entertainer in the commercial. Here is an
interesting ad featuring celebrities as human beings, but you get the
picture because of who they are. André Agassi, Steffi Graf and the kid all have a role to play as does GE.
What about a continuing character?
A more difficult and perhaps even more expensive route is to actually
create a continuing character that best represents your brand. The Air
India Maharaja comes to mind. Forget the often complained about service
but you certainly can’t complain about the ads. There have been others
like Lalithaji who ruled the roost for a few years as the hardnosed,
discerning Indian consumer who was willing to pay a premium for better
quality as the commercial depicts. And how can we forget the Hutch and later Vodafone pug dog?
Utterly, butterly, Amul!
However, no discussion on continuing characters would be complete
without the Amul moppet, created years ago with a campaign that is
always topical, always engaging and one that is so long lasting that it
has entered the Guinness book of records. Here are a few ads that made
people chuckle and think of the brand too. The style of advertising and
the hoarding sites chosen were so unique that people waited for the ads
to appear and they did with great regularity.
To sum up
Merely writing about celebrities and cautioning people sadly may not
make people rethink about the genre. Nor am I saying it should be
abandoned. It has great value when used sensibly. It is the
indiscriminate use of it, with poor scripts that is giving the whole
category a poor name. When it is your turn to think of this, do so
calmly, without emotion, like any other strategy and don’t let your
admiration for a cricketer or a film star sway your decision making.
And even if you do use one, ensure that your script rocks!
No comments:
Post a Comment