Nike holds the flag up high for celebrity advertising

It is okay to splurge on a celebrity ambassador, but keep a few things in mind while doing it

 

 

The 2016 Wimbledon Women’s champion was, hold your breath, Serena Williams! She equalled Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slams and beat her own record of being the oldest women’s player to win the record. I guess most people were happy as they admire her tenacity, fitness and will to win. None more than Nike the brand that she is endorsing. Let’s for the moment ignore my disappointed friends who for some unknown reason were supporting Maria Sharapova who too was an earlier Nike model. But let me come back to Serena and invite you to view the Nike commercial if you haven’t already seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5G3No4Kwfo

Having been in advertising for two long, I can’t rate it as an all time classic but it brings out an important feature of the brand and that is “attitude”. Nike is all about champions who hate to lose and Serena certainly is a champion and as her record demonstrates, the one thing she hates is losing, even to her distinguished sister.

Catch them young

Nike has not always been the dominant brand that it is today. In the early days Phil Knight would roam the colleges of the US with shoes in his car, find budding athletes and exhort them to wear his shoes. Some of them obliged and few of them graduated to being champions and they remembered the brand that had supported them before they were stars. The brand’s essence though was clear - it was for athletes who had the grit, desire and attitude to put in the hard miles. People who hated to lose whether it was Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Shane Warne or our own Serena Williams.

Match the celebrity with your brand’s personality

While signing on a champion athlete for your brand per se is no big deal, Nike’s best ambassadors have been those who were at times at the edge in behaviour. People who didn’t always conform. They have had their brushes with authority and often controversy. They don’t hold back. A bit like Serena who spoke about the disparity in prize money between men and women or wore clothes that made people raise their eyebrows. Two such earlier champions were Andre Agassi and our Shane Warne. 

Since I am assuming you are cricket mad like me, let me wax eloquent on the greatest spinner of my lifetime. One of the best commercials of Nike featured the classic spinner. The script is worth recalling though the commercial has been pulled off YouTube.

When would you give up asks the voice over. When the wickets refuse to fall? When you are told your team is better off without you or when your child is born on the other side of the world? And we have a dejected Shane Warne on the frame but as they say you can’t keep a Nike model down. The film cuts to his bowling Herchelle Gibbs with an unplayable ball in the 99 World Cup semi-final and the rest as they say is history. The commercial ends with the celebrated Nike tag line of “Just do it “. Yes, Shane Warne was the man of the series in the 99 World Cup that I had the good fortune to watch live.

Think long term

This leads me to the learning from Nike a brand I admire. Nike thinks long term when it comes to celebrities. Today, sadly many brands and brand managers are obsessed with the short run and quick fixes. Its celebrity strategy is not new and some of the greatest sportsmen and athletes have been proud of this superior brand. This is an important aspect of successful brands like Pepsi and Nike who have been consistent in their strategy of always using celebrities. And in the case of Nike there is another feature that I have noticed and admired. They have always looked for champion athletes and sportsmen but like Warne they have always been people who live on the edge, who are unafraid of speaking their mind and who have the odd transgression as they are human after all. But they are all people with “attitude” and people who hate losing.

So what’s your strategy?

This leads me to an important question for your own brand. Yes, it is okay to use a celebrity and pay an arm and leg for it. But is your strategy in place and more importantly is it long term. And finally does your celebrity’s personality match your brand’s personality?

Think about it before just doing it!

How disruptive brands like Uber, Airbnb, transform lives

They offer opportunities that had not hitherto existed, giving people a chance at a better life

As a consultant I am a great admirer of “disruptive” brands like Uber and Airbnb. To someone like me whose very life and livelihood is about brands these are the ultimate aspirational brands. And yet, I am also aware of the bad press that dogs a company like Uber, at least which includes horror stories of rape, outrage over “surge pricing”, complaints from  the government of Karnataka  about its non-compliance (with some horribly archaic and unfriendly rules)… But as a consumer I have more often than not been delighted with the new cars, generally polite drivers and use of technology. I wish some of the companies that I work for including mine have half the energy of an Uber which is a happening company. But let me talk more as a consumer and less as a consultant  and about what happened last Saturday night in Bangalore as my friends and I attempted the impossible - driving through the city in the rain on a Saturday evening! We ambitiously left JP Nagar in South Bengaluru at 6.15 pm in pouring rain wanting to reach RMV stage 2 by 7.30 pm. As our luck would have it we had an Uber driver who was an exception and proved extremely uncommunicative and unfriendly as he kept talking on the phone perhaps to his wife who to all intents and purposes was extremely unhappy with him and our torturous ride continued till 8.45 pm. A small matter of two and a half hours for 20 kms as our trip sheet sadly showed! It took me fifteen minutes and two malts to get over the ordeal. Not one to take it lying down, I rated the driver poorly and promptly got a response from the company.  Another case of technology and its value in customer service.

Things change dramatically for the better

We left again at 10.30 pm thankfully avoiding the traffic and had the benefit of a smiling, chatty driver. On probing I discovered that his name was Waseem. He had completed his BSC degree in Bio Technology at Bijapur and was desirous of studying for his MSC. Thankfully one of the bigwigs in Bijapur is an honest government servant at Bengaluru (yes miracles do happen) who owns a few cars and he offered him a job for three months where he earns 1000 Rs a day should he meet his incentive targets.  He does that regularly, smilingly. So in the three month break he would earn close to 80,000 Rs which would enable him to study. I was pleasantly surprised at the demeanour of this friendly, ambitious young man who represents the middle class aspirations of India which strongly believes that the way to advancement is through education. More importantly companies like Uber are providing opportunities that had not hitherto existed and making a difference to the passenger comfort in cities like Bengaluru which have no public transport worth speaking  about even as they provide opportunities to the Waseems of the world.  Of course Waseem is not the only one to benefit.  My own driver of 27 years is today the proud owner of a Toyota Etios and as an Uber owner driver he earns more than twice of what he earned with me.  Even if a driver complains to you about companies like Uber rest assured it is a great opportunity to the entire driver community who promptly get their dues paid and makes twice at least of what they used to earn before.  The more enterprising ones are running small fleets of 3-4 cars and becoming entrepreneurs in their own right.

A State Government with its own agenda

Even as I pleasantly exchanged a good night with Waseem my overwhelming thought was one of regret for the way our state government operates. Instead of supporting enterprise that is providing an opportunity to people to move up in life they are putting obstacles and hurdles in their way, clearly with objectives that are not above board. But then such is our karma!

As I went to sleep I was just wondering if Waseem had been more cheerful because he was single!  But that’s another story!

 

Of poll symbols and their promotion in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, May 8 (IANS)

"It is Mango season" begins a PMK TV spot for its election symbol. In other TV commercials, ripe mangoes burst into juice - but PMK's mango symbol bursts out of mango juice!

Perhaps PMK is the only party in Tamil Nadu to buy airtime on different satellite channels mainly to popularlse its election symbol ahead of May 16 assembly elections.

While the party's chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss has reached the people through its campaign - Change and Progress - it is time for PMK to popularise its symbol so as to make the connect between the two.

On election day it is the battle of party symbols that would determine the winner and political parties have to popularise their symbols to gain the voter's mind share.

This is important as rival parties tend to prop up candidates with identical names to confuse the voters.

According to an Election Commission official, each voting machine will have 15 buttons against the symbols of political parties and one NOTA (none of the above) button.

"Symbols of political parties are more earthy and functional than the logos of corporates. People recognise symbols and shapes," Ramanujam Sridhar, founder and CEO, Integrated Brand-Comm Pvt Ltd, a brand consulting company based in Bengaluru, told IANS on the phone.

According to him, logos of political parties are consistent, unlike corporate logos.

Tamil Nadu has around 15 known parties, several smaller outfits and many independent candidates in the electoral fray.

This time, the ruling AIADMK is contesting the polls aligned with a couple of small parties in 234 constituencies.

However, all the candidates will be contesting under the AIADMK's two leaves symbol - a first of its kind in the party's history.

"I may not agree with the ruling AIADMK's policies. But when it comes to voting it is only the 'two leaves' symbol for me," a taxi driver told IANS, stressing on the symbol's brand equity.

"In Tamil Nadu, the two leaves and the rising sun symbols are very strong and have easy recall. Similarly the colour scheme of their flags also have good recall among the voters," Sridhar said.

The DMK has aligned with the Congress, two Muslim parties and some smaller outfits.

While DMK candidates will fight under the rising sun symbol, the Congress candidates will do so under the pary's hand symbol.

The third front led by the DMDK (symbol- drum) comprises the CPI-M (hammer, sickle and star), CPI (ears of corn and sickle) VCK (ring), TMC (coconut trees) and MDMK (top) under its fold.

The BJP (lotus) leads another front with smaller outfits while Naam Thamizhar Katchi is also contesting 234 seats under 'two burning candles' symbol.

There are independent candidates who will be contesting under different symbols.

Though the election symbols of AIADMK and DMK are well known, the two parties are not complacent.

In all their advertisements and other mass communications they lay stress on their logo so that the voters do not forget.
Comparing and contrasting the political and corporate logos, a political strategist not wanting to be quoted told IANS: "The logo strategy for a political party comes from its political strategy whereas in the case of corporates it is derived from their business strategy."

He said the symbol allotted by the Election Commission is in black-and-white and the colour scheme for the logo is decided by the political party based on its philosophy.

Though corporates change their logos at regular intervals in line with the evolution of the market and customer perception, political parties do not change their logos as it is their lifeline.

Physical promotion of an election symbol is also possible in the case of certain parties like AIADMK, DMK and Congress.

In the case of AIADMK, the two leaves symbol can be depicted by showing two fingers -ring and middle - like the victory sign.

The DMK's rising sun symbol is depicted by showing the open palm and spreading the five fingers.

In the case of the Congress just showing the open palm is sufficient to convey the message.

Communication is critical

A host of Indian companies have faced compliance and regulatory challenges to their operations in India and abroad in recent years. Here's what corporations could do to mitigate risks to their brand equity:

Just over a fortnight ago in Wisconsin, a US federal court slapped $940 million penalty on two companies of India's Tata group - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata America International Corp - for allegedly "stealing" information related to medical software company Epic Systems. TCS, India's largest information technology services provider, will appeal against the judgment, but it faces a protracted courtroom battle and a threat of losing brand equity.

*Across the Atlantic but around the same time, Germany's health regulator raised the red flag accusing Alkem Laboratories of fudging data on clinical trials of an antibiotic and brain disorder drug. If its drugs are asked to be recalled, the Mumbai-based multinational pharmaceutical company won't be the first Indian firm in the sector in recent years to be pulled up by an overseas regulator.

As these examples suggest, for companies venturing abroad an understanding of the regulatory landscape, the specific compliance requirements and the penalties and consequences of violation is absolutely essential. Experts also point to how factors such as politics and divergence in perceptions and standards in developed and developing economies come into play as companies try to anticipate or negotiate such crises. Sridhar Ramanujam, CEO and founder of Brand-Comm, says any global brand could be under fire for not meeting regulatory requirements. "Who can forget the stress Volkswagen went through? Its problems continue to have an impact not only on its own bottom line but on the entire German economy." Far too many Indian brands, he adds, have managed to do well by 'managing the environment' which is sometimes less stringent back home than many other parts of the world. He calls for an attitudinal change where brands embrace global standards and norms of compliance "as a matter of choice and not something that they are forced to do".

The reason is simple: At best, the brand equity of a company will take a hit when faced with regulatory flak. At worst, it might have to pack up and leave the host country. For instance, Sun Pharmaceuticals had to contend with a dip in share prices after the US FDA issued a warning letter for the company's Halol plant in Gujarat where it raised data integrity issues. Ramanujam suggests it might be worthwhile for Indian brands to follow a mantra of "think local but comply globally". "In a global environment, compliance is going to be the key mantra for survival," he adds.

So what can brands do when they get into a TCS or Alkem-type situation? Is an advertising blitzkrieg the answer or should brands look at public relations coups? The answer seems to be communication - honest and immediate.

Sandhya Shama Rao, GM, corporate communications and marketing, Vertebrand, believes the ideal response in any crisis situation is to come out into the open early and clarify one's position with regards to the allegations. This should be done by the senior leadership or company spokesperson. But more often than not, organisations clam up refusing to offer any comment/clarifications to the media. A "no comment" response is invariably construed as acceptance of guilt and hence should be avoided as far as possible, while in case of lawsuits/ongoing investigations, care should be taken to inform the public that the matter is sub judice and hence cannot be commented upon, she adds.

AN Bhattacharya, professor, marketing and social innovation, School of Inspired Leadership, highlights the political concerns resulting from the growing penetration of Indian businesses. "Fear of loss of jobs is leading to opposition from industry bodies and trade groups overseas. Protests against outsourcing are growing." Setting high quality standards is desirable, but one needs to take into account that depending on the product cycle, products and services offered by Indian companies cost less than those offered by firms in developed nations, he adds.

As a very important measure, says Atul Pandey, associate partner with law firm Khaitan & Co, Indian companies operating abroad need to undertake significant relationship building exercises and work closely with local political parties, understand their agendas and learn how to manage them. In case their investments are jeopardised by actions of the local government, the companies may also seek recourse to bilateral investment treaties (if such treaties have been signed between the Indian government and the government of the investee state).

According to Rakesh Nangia, managing partner, Nangia & Co, "Indian MNCs need to think through their globalisation strategies by clearly defining a path for international expansion, setting up dynamic global operating models and building talent, leadership and culture for growth." Also, he stresses, wherever organisations have proactive and clearly aligned regulatory functions, regulatory-compliance challenges are minimal and there is timely mitigation of non-conformance risks.

Former Indian diplomat Amit Dasgupta, who heads the Mumbai campus of the SP Jain School of Global Management, lays down pointers for companies. First, they need to put forward a strong vision and plan for their global footprint. At the same time, it is important to be conversant with the legal framework, rules and regulations. "You simply cannot break the law or be perceived as someone likely to cut corners," he stresses. Second, it is usually helpful to have a local partner, especially someone who has credible and reliable credentials and more importantly shares the same values about being well within the boundaries of the law. For aggrieved companies, he says, the only recourse is legal. "If a charge is made, it needs to be refuted in court. Get a good lawyer to present your case forcefully and convincingly."

It is here - legal risk strategy - that many companies seem to falter. Somasekhar Sundaresan, partner at national law firm J Sagar Associates, says, "In India, we have the unique approach of seeing spending on legal services as an evil and wasteful expense. Lawyer jokes abound worldwide but Indian corporates take the lawyer jokes seriously and don't really engage meaningfully." He cautions, "Unless Indian businesses start seeing legal and regulatory expense as a business necessity and not as a luxury, their risks in international operations would continue to be a threat."

The other side of the coin is internal communication - if there is a threat to a company of its business, there is a lot of confusion and restlessness among employees. The only way to deal with this is to communicate with internal stakeholders directly - and the communication should come right from the top and before the situation snowballs into a crisis, say experts.

N Chandramouli, CEO of Trust Research Advisory, emphasises that in case of TCS, the trade secrets theft allegations are not a case of organisational involvement unlike instances of wrongdoing by companies like Nissan and Volkswagen. He says, "Brand trust for TCS is high. However, the worrisome issue is that not every link in the value chain is clued in on the company's ethics. That said, TCS needs to probe the matter internally."

All said, a unanimous piece of advice for Indian multinationals is to adopt a proactive approach towards compliance. Nangia says, "The regulatory group is usually viewed as a 'necessary evil' in many organisations and is more reactive than proactive, which leads to a considerable loss of time, energy and resources. The regulatory function should be given paramount importance. They must also understand that managing regulatory risk exposure, especially in the face of uncertain regulations (for example, environmental regulations around carbon emissions) in a more proactive manner is financially beneficial in the long run."

Advertisers use IPL's festive appeal to rebrand and launch new campaigns

 

The Indian Premiere League (IPL) is fast turning out to be the festive season for brands.  In spite of several controversies like the betting scandal leading to the ban of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the tournament and Pepsi backing out from the title sponsorship spot, the popularity of the franchise continues to soar.

 According to sources, for IPL this year, 10-second TV spots to sponsors are being sold for Rs 5.5 to 7 lakhs and brands are not hesitant about spending the big bucks. In spite of a hike in ad rates, the total ad inventory for the tournament has already been sold out.

Till now we have seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com, LYF and Havmor use the platform to launch their maiden television commercials. There are also few smartphone brands like Gionee and Micromax which are using the IPL platform to reveal their new identity post their rebranding through new TVCs.

Hitesh Gossain, Founder & CEO, Onspon.com says, “The timing of IPL is very appropriate, the advent of early summers has led to buoyancy in consumption categories such as FMCG, air-conditioners,– thereby leading to pre-allocation of marketing budgets, especially for categories such as soft drinks, consumer durables etc. This is also the time for annual bonuses, which allows the brands to go gung-ho because they want to capture the time and make the most of it. Also, the increase in interest from the sponsors can be attributed to the ICC T20 World Cup, thus making the brand continuity easier and effective.”

Maiden TVC launch:

IPL season 9, which kick-started recently, has till now seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com and Havmor launch their maiden television communication.

Vivo, the title sponsor for the event, has assigned a budget of Rs 200 crore to leverage its association with IPL. The brand which entered the Indian market in December 2014 has roped in actor Ranveer Singh as the face of its high voltage campaign. The market share of Vivo in the Indian smartphone market at the moment is 3.1% and the Chinese smart phone brand is looking at an aggressive growth in the coming years.

The Mumbai-based online reality platform Housing.com also launched its first television campaign which coincides with the ongoing IPL 9. The campaign titled ‘Yeh ghar sirf ghar nahi, Yeh ghar meri jaan hai’ highlights that home buying is an emotional journey, and Housing.com is a trusted partner in this journey. Nikhil Rungta, Chief Marketing Officer, Housing.com said, “We have just launched our first ever television ad to strengthen our brand and establish deeper emotional connect with our customers. We are looking at a marketing spend of USD 5-7 million in 2016-17 for advertisements on TV, digital and social media.”

Havmor, the food brand from Ahmedabad has gone national recently with the release of their first ever television commercial with the tag-line ‘Goodness the world deserves’. Two ads ‘RJ’ and ‘12th man’ are one of the first steps that reflect the brand’s ambitious 360 degree plans that also include revamping the brand identity, packaging, retail identity and overall corporate structure among others. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX4fnmAfgrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJuLIBMHLZ4

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Retail’s smart phone brand LYF, which has signed up sponsorship deals with three teams including Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiants and Royal Challengers Bangalore, released its first TVC during IPL. Featuring Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and players like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, the ad talks about the unique features of the phone and is going viral on social media.

Click here to view the ad:

First TV campaign after Rebranding:

Handset manufacturers like Gionee and Micromax have used this occasion to rebrand themselves and present their new identity through new TVCs during IPL.

Gionee is witnessing an identity change worldwide. As part of this exercise, the brand has unveiled a new logo in India. The brand, which has associated itself with Kolkata Knight Riders as its principal sponsor, saw an opportunity to leverage the team to talk about the logo change, and to launch it during the event.  This fiscal year, Gionee plans to spend Rs 150 crore for its marketing campaigns.

Micromax has launched their new campaign ‘Nuts, Guts & Glory’ to talk about their recent rebranding exercise, including a new logo and tagline. Two new TVCs are running across TV networks, with a particular emphasis during IPL broadcasts.

Ratings:

The initial numbers of IPL-9 have been quite encouraging as well. As per the latest BARC ratings, the event opened with a cumulative reach of 218 million viewers in its first week. The opening game between Mumbai Indians & Rising Pune Supergiants rated 24,448 TVTs with a reach of 97 million viewers across India.

How effective is it?

We spoke to brand experts in order to understand, that in spite of being an expensive affair, why do brands still choose to launch high intensity campaigns during this time and how well do these campaign work out for the brands.

Gossain from Onspon.com feels that, “IPL is a great place to launch a brand and not sustain it. The cost of sustenance is so high that unless the base of your brand is big, it doesn’t make much of a sense.”

Saurabh Uboweja, CEO & Chief Brand Strategist, Brands of Desire cited, “IPL can now be safely touted as a big annual festive brand on the busy Indian calendar that attracts attention for a few weeks every year, uniting all major parts of the country through its city franchises and their loyalists. It may just fall short of the wedding season or the Diwali festive season that starts in October and lasts all the way up to January. There was nothing else on the calendar in April, it used to be a rather lame month for brands till the IPL came and showed its capability to trigger consumer attention and sales. Today IPL is truly an Indian national event, partly international and a feast for brands that want to launch anything new, be it a new product, a rebrand or simply a new campaign that triggers sales.” 

“But IPL related spends would still be a distance dwarf to the sports events market in the United States where it is estimated that a total of 15 billion U.S. dollars will be spent by consumers in the U.S. on just the Super Bowl related purchases in 2016. Imagine what impact that has on the advertising rates. The Indian consumer market is a decade away from that kinds of spends but maturing fast,” he added.

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm further elaborates, “Brands mostly prefer to get associated with the IPL property because it enjoys a fairly high and uniform viewership all throughout the tournament. It is a big property, has an ideal timing (8PM) which makes it convenient for viewing and also caters to the women audience, who particularly enjoy this cricket format. My doubts however, are coming from the fact that the tournament is coming right on the heels of T20 cricket, which also happened in India. So there was a large set of audience for a similar format. To me, it kind of overkills it, but if the IPL viewership remains high, then it works well for the brands who are investing huge amount of money for their campaigns.”

The Indian Premiere League (IPL) is fast turning out to be the festive season for brands.  In spite of several controversies like the betting scandal leading to the ban of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the tournament and Pepsi backing out from the title sponsorship spot, the popularity of the franchise continues to soar.

 According to sources, for IPL this year, 10-second TV spots to sponsors are being sold for Rs 5.5 to 7 lakhs and brands are not hesitant about spending the big bucks. In spite of a hike in ad rates, the total ad inventory for the tournament has already been sold out.

Till now we have seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com, LYF and Havmor use the platform to launch their maiden television commercials. There are also few smartphone brands like Gionee and Micromax which are using the IPL platform to reveal their new identity post their rebranding through new TVCs.

Hitesh Gossain, Founder & CEO, Onspon.com says, “The timing of IPL is very appropriate, the advent of early summers has led to buoyancy in consumption categories such as FMCG, air-conditioners,– thereby leading to pre-allocation of marketing budgets, especially for categories such as soft drinks, consumer durables etc. This is also the time for annual bonuses, which allows the brands to go gung-ho because they want to capture the time and make the most of it. Also, the increase in interest from the sponsors can be attributed to the ICC T20 World Cup, thus making the brand continuity easier and effective.”

Maiden TVC launch:

IPL season 9, which kick-started recently, has till now seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com and Havmor launch their maiden television communication.

Vivo, the title sponsor for the event, has assigned a budget of Rs 200 crore to leverage its association with IPL. The brand which entered the Indian market in December 2014 has roped in actor Ranveer Singh as the face of its high voltage campaign. The market share of Vivo in the Indian smartphone market at the moment is 3.1% and the Chinese smart phone brand is looking at an aggressive growth in the coming years.

The Mumbai-based online reality platform Housing.com also launched its first television campaign which coincides with the ongoing IPL 9. The campaign titled ‘Yeh ghar sirf ghar nahi, Yeh ghar meri jaan hai’ highlights that home buying is an emotional journey, and Housing.com is a trusted partner in this journey. Nikhil Rungta, Chief Marketing Officer, Housing.com said, “We have just launched our first ever television ad to strengthen our brand and establish deeper emotional connect with our customers. We are looking at a marketing spend of USD 5-7 million in 2016-17 for advertisements on TV, digital and social media.”

Havmor, the food brand from Ahmedabad has gone national recently with the release of their first ever television commercial with the tag-line ‘Goodness the world deserves’. Two ads ‘RJ’ and ‘12th man’ are one of the first steps that reflect the brand’s ambitious 360 degree plans that also include revamping the brand identity, packaging, retail identity and overall corporate structure among others. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX4fnmAfgrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJuLIBMHLZ4

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Retail’s smart phone brand LYF, which has signed up sponsorship deals with three teams including Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiants and Royal Challengers Bangalore, released its first TVC during IPL. Featuring Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and players like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, the ad talks about the unique features of the phone and is going viral on social media.

Click here to view the ad:

First TV campaign after Rebranding:

Handset manufacturers like Gionee and Micromax have used this occasion to rebrand themselves and present their new identity through new TVCs during IPL.

Gionee is witnessing an identity change worldwide. As part of this exercise, the brand has unveiled a new logo in India. The brand, which has associated itself with Kolkata Knight Riders as its principal sponsor, saw an opportunity to leverage the team to talk about the logo change, and to launch it during the event.  This fiscal year, Gionee plans to spend Rs 150 crore for its marketing campaigns.

Micromax has launched their new campaign ‘Nuts, Guts & Glory’ to talk about their recent rebranding exercise, including a new logo and tagline. Two new TVCs are running across TV networks, with a particular emphasis during IPL broadcasts.

Ratings:

The initial numbers of IPL-9 have been quite encouraging as well. As per the latest BARC ratings, the event opened with a cumulative reach of 218 million viewers in its first week. The opening game between Mumbai Indians & Rising Pune Supergiants rated 24,448 TVTs with a reach of 97 million viewers across India.

How effective is it?

We spoke to brand experts in order to understand, that in spite of being an expensive affair, why do brands still choose to launch high intensity campaigns during this time and how well do these campaign work out for the brands.

Gossain from Onspon.com feels that, “IPL is a great place to launch a brand and not sustain it. The cost of sustenance is so high that unless the base of your brand is big, it doesn’t make much of a sense.”

Saurabh Uboweja, CEO & Chief Brand Strategist, Brands of Desire cited, “IPL can now be safely touted as a big annual festive brand on the busy Indian calendar that attracts attention for a few weeks every year, uniting all major parts of the country through its city franchises and their loyalists. It may just fall short of the wedding season or the Diwali festive season that starts in October and lasts all the way up to January. There was nothing else on the calendar in April, it used to be a rather lame month for brands till the IPL came and showed its capability to trigger consumer attention and sales. Today IPL is truly an Indian national event, partly international and a feast for brands that want to launch anything new, be it a new product, a rebrand or simply a new campaign that triggers sales.” 

“But IPL related spends would still be a distance dwarf to the sports events market in the United States where it is estimated that a total of 15 billion U.S. dollars will be spent by consumers in the U.S. on just the Super Bowl related purchases in 2016. Imagine what impact that has on the advertising rates. The Indian consumer market is a decade away from that kinds of spends but maturing fast,” he added.

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm further elaborates, “Brands mostly prefer to get associated with the IPL property because it enjoys a fairly high and uniform viewership all throughout the tournament. It is a big property, has an ideal timing (8PM) which makes it convenient for viewing and also caters to the women audience, who particularly enjoy this cricket format. My doubts however, are coming from the fact that the tournament is coming right on the heels of T20 cricket, which also happened in India. So there was a large set of audience for a similar format. To me, it kind of overkills it, but if the IPL viewership remains high, then it works well for the brands who are investing huge amount of money for their campaigns.”

- See more at: http://www.exchange4media.com/ipl-2016/advertisers-use-ipls-festive-appeal-to-rebrand-and-launch-new-campaigns_64174.html#sthash.zbTidUvC.dpuf

The Indian Premiere League (IPL) is fast turning out to be the festive season for brands.  In spite of several controversies like the betting scandal leading to the ban of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the tournament and Pepsi backing out from the title sponsorship spot, the popularity of the franchise continues to soar.

 According to sources, for IPL this year, 10-second TV spots to sponsors are being sold for Rs 5.5 to 7 lakhs and brands are not hesitant about spending the big bucks. In spite of a hike in ad rates, the total ad inventory for the tournament has already been sold out.

Till now we have seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com, LYF and Havmor use the platform to launch their maiden television commercials. There are also few smartphone brands like Gionee and Micromax which are using the IPL platform to reveal their new identity post their rebranding through new TVCs.

Hitesh Gossain, Founder & CEO, Onspon.com says, “The timing of IPL is very appropriate, the advent of early summers has led to buoyancy in consumption categories such as FMCG, air-conditioners,– thereby leading to pre-allocation of marketing budgets, especially for categories such as soft drinks, consumer durables etc. This is also the time for annual bonuses, which allows the brands to go gung-ho because they want to capture the time and make the most of it. Also, the increase in interest from the sponsors can be attributed to the ICC T20 World Cup, thus making the brand continuity easier and effective.”

Maiden TVC launch:

IPL season 9, which kick-started recently, has till now seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com and Havmor launch their maiden television communication.

Vivo, the title sponsor for the event, has assigned a budget of Rs 200 crore to leverage its association with IPL. The brand which entered the Indian market in December 2014 has roped in actor Ranveer Singh as the face of its high voltage campaign. The market share of Vivo in the Indian smartphone market at the moment is 3.1% and the Chinese smart phone brand is looking at an aggressive growth in the coming years.

The Mumbai-based online reality platform Housing.com also launched its first television campaign which coincides with the ongoing IPL 9. The campaign titled ‘Yeh ghar sirf ghar nahi, Yeh ghar meri jaan hai’ highlights that home buying is an emotional journey, and Housing.com is a trusted partner in this journey. Nikhil Rungta, Chief Marketing Officer, Housing.com said, “We have just launched our first ever television ad to strengthen our brand and establish deeper emotional connect with our customers. We are looking at a marketing spend of USD 5-7 million in 2016-17 for advertisements on TV, digital and social media.”

Havmor, the food brand from Ahmedabad has gone national recently with the release of their first ever television commercial with the tag-line ‘Goodness the world deserves’. Two ads ‘RJ’ and ‘12th man’ are one of the first steps that reflect the brand’s ambitious 360 degree plans that also include revamping the brand identity, packaging, retail identity and overall corporate structure among others. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX4fnmAfgrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJuLIBMHLZ4

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Retail’s smart phone brand LYF, which has signed up sponsorship deals with three teams including Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiants and Royal Challengers Bangalore, released its first TVC during IPL. Featuring Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and players like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, the ad talks about the unique features of the phone and is going viral on social media.

Click here to view the ad:

First TV campaign after Rebranding:

Handset manufacturers like Gionee and Micromax have used this occasion to rebrand themselves and present their new identity through new TVCs during IPL.

Gionee is witnessing an identity change worldwide. As part of this exercise, the brand has unveiled a new logo in India. The brand, which has associated itself with Kolkata Knight Riders as its principal sponsor, saw an opportunity to leverage the team to talk about the logo change, and to launch it during the event.  This fiscal year, Gionee plans to spend Rs 150 crore for its marketing campaigns.

Micromax has launched their new campaign ‘Nuts, Guts & Glory’ to talk about their recent rebranding exercise, including a new logo and tagline. Two new TVCs are running across TV networks, with a particular emphasis during IPL broadcasts.

Ratings:

The initial numbers of IPL-9 have been quite encouraging as well. As per the latest BARC ratings, the event opened with a cumulative reach of 218 million viewers in its first week. The opening game between Mumbai Indians & Rising Pune Supergiants rated 24,448 TVTs with a reach of 97 million viewers across India.

How effective is it?

We spoke to brand experts in order to understand, that in spite of being an expensive affair, why do brands still choose to launch high intensity campaigns during this time and how well do these campaign work out for the brands.

Gossain from Onspon.com feels that, “IPL is a great place to launch a brand and not sustain it. The cost of sustenance is so high that unless the base of your brand is big, it doesn’t make much of a sense.”

Saurabh Uboweja, CEO & Chief Brand Strategist, Brands of Desire cited, “IPL can now be safely touted as a big annual festive brand on the busy Indian calendar that attracts attention for a few weeks every year, uniting all major parts of the country through its city franchises and their loyalists. It may just fall short of the wedding season or the Diwali festive season that starts in October and lasts all the way up to January. There was nothing else on the calendar in April, it used to be a rather lame month for brands till the IPL came and showed its capability to trigger consumer attention and sales. Today IPL is truly an Indian national event, partly international and a feast for brands that want to launch anything new, be it a new product, a rebrand or simply a new campaign that triggers sales.” 

“But IPL related spends would still be a distance dwarf to the sports events market in the United States where it is estimated that a total of 15 billion U.S. dollars will be spent by consumers in the U.S. on just the Super Bowl related purchases in 2016. Imagine what impact that has on the advertising rates. The Indian consumer market is a decade away from that kinds of spends but maturing fast,” he added.

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm further elaborates, “Brands mostly prefer to get associated with the IPL property because it enjoys a fairly high and uniform viewership all throughout the tournament. It is a big property, has an ideal timing (8PM) which makes it convenient for viewing and also caters to the women audience, who particularly enjoy this cricket format. My doubts however, are coming from the fact that the tournament is coming right on the heels of T20 cricket, which also happened in India. So there was a large set of audience for a similar format. To me, it kind of overkills it, but if the IPL viewership remains high, then it works well for the brands who are investing huge amount of money for their campaigns.”

- See more at: http://www.exchange4media.com/ipl-2016/advertisers-use-ipls-festive-appeal-to-rebrand-and-launch-new-campaigns_64174.html#sthash.zbTidUvC.dpuf

The Indian Premiere League (IPL) is fast turning out to be the festive season for brands.  In spite of several controversies like the betting scandal leading to the ban of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals from the tournament and Pepsi backing out from the title sponsorship spot, the popularity of the franchise continues to soar.

 According to sources, for IPL this year, 10-second TV spots to sponsors are being sold for Rs 5.5 to 7 lakhs and brands are not hesitant about spending the big bucks. In spite of a hike in ad rates, the total ad inventory for the tournament has already been sold out.

Till now we have seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com, LYF and Havmor use the platform to launch their maiden television commercials. There are also few smartphone brands like Gionee and Micromax which are using the IPL platform to reveal their new identity post their rebranding through new TVCs.

Hitesh Gossain, Founder & CEO, Onspon.com says, “The timing of IPL is very appropriate, the advent of early summers has led to buoyancy in consumption categories such as FMCG, air-conditioners,– thereby leading to pre-allocation of marketing budgets, especially for categories such as soft drinks, consumer durables etc. This is also the time for annual bonuses, which allows the brands to go gung-ho because they want to capture the time and make the most of it. Also, the increase in interest from the sponsors can be attributed to the ICC T20 World Cup, thus making the brand continuity easier and effective.”

Maiden TVC launch:

IPL season 9, which kick-started recently, has till now seen brands like Vivo, Housing.com and Havmor launch their maiden television communication.

Vivo, the title sponsor for the event, has assigned a budget of Rs 200 crore to leverage its association with IPL. The brand which entered the Indian market in December 2014 has roped in actor Ranveer Singh as the face of its high voltage campaign. The market share of Vivo in the Indian smartphone market at the moment is 3.1% and the Chinese smart phone brand is looking at an aggressive growth in the coming years.

The Mumbai-based online reality platform Housing.com also launched its first television campaign which coincides with the ongoing IPL 9. The campaign titled ‘Yeh ghar sirf ghar nahi, Yeh ghar meri jaan hai’ highlights that home buying is an emotional journey, and Housing.com is a trusted partner in this journey. Nikhil Rungta, Chief Marketing Officer, Housing.com said, “We have just launched our first ever television ad to strengthen our brand and establish deeper emotional connect with our customers. We are looking at a marketing spend of USD 5-7 million in 2016-17 for advertisements on TV, digital and social media.”

Havmor, the food brand from Ahmedabad has gone national recently with the release of their first ever television commercial with the tag-line ‘Goodness the world deserves’. Two ads ‘RJ’ and ‘12th man’ are one of the first steps that reflect the brand’s ambitious 360 degree plans that also include revamping the brand identity, packaging, retail identity and overall corporate structure among others. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX4fnmAfgrc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJuLIBMHLZ4

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Retail’s smart phone brand LYF, which has signed up sponsorship deals with three teams including Mumbai Indians, Rising Pune Supergiants and Royal Challengers Bangalore, released its first TVC during IPL. Featuring Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and players like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, the ad talks about the unique features of the phone and is going viral on social media.

Click here to view the ad:

First TV campaign after Rebranding:

Handset manufacturers like Gionee and Micromax have used this occasion to rebrand themselves and present their new identity through new TVCs during IPL.

Gionee is witnessing an identity change worldwide. As part of this exercise, the brand has unveiled a new logo in India. The brand, which has associated itself with Kolkata Knight Riders as its principal sponsor, saw an opportunity to leverage the team to talk about the logo change, and to launch it during the event.  This fiscal year, Gionee plans to spend Rs 150 crore for its marketing campaigns.

Micromax has launched their new campaign ‘Nuts, Guts & Glory’ to talk about their recent rebranding exercise, including a new logo and tagline. Two new TVCs are running across TV networks, with a particular emphasis during IPL broadcasts.

Ratings:

The initial numbers of IPL-9 have been quite encouraging as well. As per the latest BARC ratings, the event opened with a cumulative reach of 218 million viewers in its first week. The opening game between Mumbai Indians & Rising Pune Supergiants rated 24,448 TVTs with a reach of 97 million viewers across India.

How effective is it?

We spoke to brand experts in order to understand, that in spite of being an expensive affair, why do brands still choose to launch high intensity campaigns during this time and how well do these campaign work out for the brands.

Gossain from Onspon.com feels that, “IPL is a great place to launch a brand and not sustain it. The cost of sustenance is so high that unless the base of your brand is big, it doesn’t make much of a sense.”

Saurabh Uboweja, CEO & Chief Brand Strategist, Brands of Desire cited, “IPL can now be safely touted as a big annual festive brand on the busy Indian calendar that attracts attention for a few weeks every year, uniting all major parts of the country through its city franchises and their loyalists. It may just fall short of the wedding season or the Diwali festive season that starts in October and lasts all the way up to January. There was nothing else on the calendar in April, it used to be a rather lame month for brands till the IPL came and showed its capability to trigger consumer attention and sales. Today IPL is truly an Indian national event, partly international and a feast for brands that want to launch anything new, be it a new product, a rebrand or simply a new campaign that triggers sales.” 

“But IPL related spends would still be a distance dwarf to the sports events market in the United States where it is estimated that a total of 15 billion U.S. dollars will be spent by consumers in the U.S. on just the Super Bowl related purchases in 2016. Imagine what impact that has on the advertising rates. The Indian consumer market is a decade away from that kinds of spends but maturing fast,” he added.

Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm further elaborates, “Brands mostly prefer to get associated with the IPL property because it enjoys a fairly high and uniform viewership all throughout the tournament. It is a big property, has an ideal timing (8PM) which makes it convenient for viewing and also caters to the women audience, who particularly enjoy this cricket format. My doubts however, are coming from the fact that the tournament is coming right on the heels of T20 cricket, which also happened in India. So there was a large set of audience for a similar format. To me, it kind of overkills it, but if the IPL viewership remains high, then it works well for the brands who are investing huge amount of money for their campaigns.”

- See more at: http://www.exchange4media.com/ipl-2016/advertisers-use-ipls-festive-appeal-to-rebrand-and-launch-new-campaigns_64174.html#sthash.zbTidUvC.dpuf

Brand Baaja: Healing Generations

Even after 86 years, the skin care brand is going strong without any change to its formulation or positioning. That’s Boroline for you!

The popular belief is that no Bengali can do without Boroline in the house. Be that as it may, if you ask anyone In india, particularly those with roots in the central and eastern states: “what is the quintessential all-purpose cream for everyday use?”, the answer may will be Boroline.

For consumers, it is the comfort antiseptic cream that is dependable, easy to use, and affordable. One reason for Boroline’s widespread loyalty is its consistency. Neither its packaging nor formulation has changed for most part of its eight-decade old journey, says Ramanujam Sridhar, founder and CEO, Brand-Comm.

Brand expert Harish Bijoor describes Boroline as “the mother of all antiseptic creams”. According to him, “Boroline brand loyalty is a legend. This spans across regions, never mind the fact that this is a brand that was all about the East of India. Basic skin care means Boroline to a lot of women, men and children alike in this country.”

Manufactured by G D Pharmaceuticals, Boroline continues to be positioned as an over-the-counter antiseptic perfumed cream as it was when launched in 1929 in Kolkata. The cream is a combination of the antiseptic boric acid, the astringent and sunscreen zinc oxide, and the emollient lanolin and can be used for cuts, chapped lips, rough skin, and to treat infections.

Over The Years
A number of advertising professionals that BW Businessworld spoke to, readily recalled the Khushbudar Antiseptic Cream Boroline jingle that played on Doordarshan and radio and later on select cable channels in 1990s and early 2000. But the brand sells the most on word-of-mouth publicity. In the 1950s, Boroline was sold with the strapline ‘Tender Face Cream’ which was positioned as a cosmetic face cream. But beyond 1960s the company tweaked the product and positioned it as a multi-purpose skin cream. This was reflected in the print commercials too in those years, says veteran ad-filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar. “It has got a very strong brand recall as a winter cream and has a wide consumer base in Kolkata and neighboring states,” he says. Then through the 1970s to 1990s, the brand positioning of Boroline underwent changes. From being sold on the plank “Boroline has no substitute”, to “you can count on Boroline” to it is “The Original”. Towards the closing in of the millennium, Boroline was sold with the tagline “Boroline skin. Healthy skin”.

These little changes aside, consistency has been the key for brand Boroline, which hasn’t changed its trademark green and white packaging and logo since its launch. But Why? Explains Sridhar of Brand-Comm: “The basic formulation that the product has may not change if the product has a strong following and customer base, because if you try to fiddle around with it like Coke did when it came up with a new improved Coke, the people were disconnected and that turned out to be a big flop.”

Concurs Kiran Khalap, brand consultant, author and founder of Chlorophyll Brand & Consultancy. “There is a brand called Converse in USA. The product has not changed since the last 40-50 years as it appeals to the new generation. Now take for example the fruit-based beverage company Tropicana, which changed its packaging in 2009 and lost about 20 per cent market share, because the consumer just couldn’t identify with the product.”

“So the pick is this: if newer and newer segments enter the market and if these segments are not alienated and are not rejected being called their parent’s brands, then there is no need for the brand to change its packaging or product,” says Khalap.

According to Bijoor, Boroline is a “working product” with a price-point that has remained rational all the while. “This has appealed to a nation of Boroline users,” says Bijoor.

Should It Change?
The manufacturer and promoter of Boroline G D Pharmaceuticals believes that there is no need for the product or its imagery to change. According to a company insider, brand Boroline with its green packaging and elephant symbol is recognized by even those who cannot read or write. “In West Bengal, Boroline is also used by the poor and working class. It is an affordable product. These people call it “Haathiwaala cream” (cream with an elephant symbol). So why change,” says a senior executive associated with the brand. However, it should be noted that questions sent to the company remained unanswered. Attempts to get official reactions from the company about the brand, market share and financials did not elicit any response despite repeated attempts.

But can Boroline change to gain market share? According to Sridhar, the reasons for not changing could be many. “May be it is about competition. Either their competitors are too aggressive or they consider Boroline as a niche product. Lot of customers seem to be happy with the brand as it is, but can you not do some stuff that keeps the brand excitement intact?,” he asks.

Khalap has a different take. He says there is no need for the brand to change its packaging or product if it continues to be relevant to the new generation. “Also, we talk about the brand loyalty where the consumer remains loyal to the brand, so we should also keep in mind the brand’s loyalty to itself,” he says.

Kakkar argues that Boroline has held on to its market in Kolkata and West Bengal and perhaps that is the reason it does not feel the need to change anything. “The moment winter comes, people get a hold of Boroline,” said Kakkar.

But Bijoor feels that the key challenge for Boroline ahead is chalking out a path that does not disturb its brand-equity as it embarks on profits. “Many brands err at this spot, sacrificing brand equity at the altar of profits. Must Boroline become more than what it is, or should it remain just what it is. That is the key answer the the brand will seek,” says Bijoor.

Numbers Say It All
While no response, either written or oral, was received from G D Pharmaceuticals, a quick glance at the reports filed with the registrar of companies shows the financial health of the company which has made profits for 2013-14 at Rs 19.06 crore on total revenue of Rs 114 crore. For 2014-15 the net profit was listed at Rs 25.67 crore as on 31 March, 2015 on a total revenue of Rs 138.93 crore. In simpler terms, the antiseptic skin care market in India is pegged at Rs 450 crore and Boroline is estimated to account for 25 per cent of it.

But according to Superbrands report on brand Boroline, the product commands a big chunk in retail distribution network of over three lakh distributors. Also, it was commanding an annual sale of 2.8 million litres valued at more than Rs 180 crore a couple of years ago in the antiseptic cream market. It is fair to note here that the overall category is dominated by Boro Plus Antiseptic Cream that was launched in 1984 under the Himani umbrella by Emami. While Boroline still retains its hold in West Bengal, Boro Plus has become a dominant brand outside West Bengal commanding around 74 per cent share in the national antiseptic cream market, as per media reports.

ashish.sinha@businessworld.in; @ashish_bw

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