Indian Badminton League - Net Lagao, Pyar Badhao

Cricket has been the cynosure of Indian sports and the success of IPL seasons one after other manifests how insatiable is Indians’ hunger for cricket.

A slight change in this stance where other sports like Tennis, Football, Hockey and Badminton are getting some attention as well, hence, is quite refreshing. We have had competitions on the line of IPL in other sports and Indian Badminton League is latest one to register. Indian Badminton League was kicked off with player auctions and now we are seeing the promotional advertisement of IBL on major TV channels.

                           

The ad scores well in all aspects.

It moves from one frame to another while keeping its theme and message intact. Starting with a couple at home who gets into an argument to a courthouse with lawyers fighting with each other to the tension at Line of control, the context and communication is succinct.

Context – The IBL is promoting its maiden season and attempts at garnering a bigger audience for the event by building interest and curiosity around the league event

Theme – Various set-ups suggesting a contest between two parties and a badminton net that interestingly finds its way in such chaos. The background score propagates the intended message of bringing people together with the help of net and badminton (& hence, IBL)

Message –The ad cleverly use some serious situations and place a badminton (net!) in the middle of the scenes. The message propagated by the score emphasizes on building love and trust and how badminton can do that. Hence it suggests the audience to fasten a badminton net and build lovely relationships.

“..Ky rakha hai anban me, pyar hai bas badminton me…Ye khel dilo ko jodta hai..Net lagao Pyar badhao..”

Ad Promise – Badminton brings people closer (Hence embrace it and watch the coming IBL)

TG – All sports enthusiasts (Especially badminton)

Response requested – The ad clearly notifies the audience of the starting date of IBL and channels on which it will be telecasted. Hence, the requested response is the audience viewership for the event.

The ad puts forth the message in a cleverly packaged theme which is funny as well as serious at the same time. It does a wonderful job as a promotional tool but how will this cricket-crazy country respond to the maiden season of Indian Badminton League, only time will tell!

Cheers,

IndusInd Bank - Hitting lucky number just right!

Riding on its central theme of “Responsive Innovation” and superior customer-centric approach, IndusInd Bank has been unveiling a string of services for its existing customers. These services reinforce its commitment to identify and bridge need-gaps for its customers.

 Latest feather in its ‘responsive innovation’ service-cap is the – ‘My Account, My Number’ scheme. Just like other services introduces earlier this year like – ‘Direct connect’, ‘Quick redeem’ and ‘Cash on Mobile”, MAMN too is a result of extensive consumer and market research undertaken by the bank and it seems that the bank has gotten it right this time too.

My Account, My Number – This service allows a customer to choose 10 of the 12 digits of his or her bank account number. The other 2 digits are fixed to identify the type of bank account. The move is a unique one and will benefit the bank in multiple ways.

This proposition specifically aligns with the preference and sometimes obsession Indians have with numbers due to emotional, rational and even superstitious reasons. Preferred vehicles registration numbers and mobile phones number commanding exorbitant premium in this country justifies the assumption and research results.

A well-planned (Business approach), extensively researched (Consumer preference), efficiently implemented (Operationally) and effectively communicated (Business proposition or offering) marketing approach has given the IndusInd bank the credibility in the eyes of its customers (existing and prospective) in terms of it customer-centric culture. This will help IndusInd bank in attracting new customers not just due to existing unique services but also because it will keep the customers anticipating further propositions due to a well-managed marketing offering and communication plan in the past. It also helps in retaining existing customers by reducing the cognitive dissonance as the customers feel that the bank care about their needs and comes out with consumer-centric propositions regularly.

The bank’s earlier service offerings were also based upon extensive research and were meant to solve some specific pain points which customers pointed out during the research. Direct connect is one service which is longed by almost all the consumers. It is a well-known fact that in the era of ‘customer-service’, reaching actually to a customer service executive through your phone is nothing less than solving a jigsaw puzzle. This maze of selections on phone before reaching to the executive was cut short by ‘Direct connect’.

Other services like Quick Redeem and Cash on Mobile too were launched in response to pain points, ‘must-haves’ and ‘good-to-haves’ identified through consumer research.

The campaigns to communicate these services adopted a 360-degree integrated marketing approach to propagate the service message. Print, Television, OOH, Radio and  Digital mediums have been brought to use.

The ad campaigns have a subtle humor which manages to draw in customers’ attention and ensure higher brand recall. Message clarity is the key in all the campaigns as the service message is the central character of all the ads. Be it the ‘calling web or kabaddi’ for Direct connect or the number-obsession for the MAMN offering. An intelligent choice of the celebrity does the trick as well. The celebrities (Sharman Joshi, Jimmy Shergil and Neetu Singh) though are well-known but not that big of stars which may risk taking the attention away from the central message and the value offering. Also, you don’t see these celebrities endorsing too many products which avoid the risk of the product and message getting lost in too many endorsements undertaken by the celebrity hence diluting the credibility.

Overall, IndusInd bank has used extensive consumer research and put across its innovative service offerings effectively to its customers. How this approximately 20 crores marketing expenditure pays back in terms of top-line and bottom-line addition? We have to wait to see that. 

My Account, My Number - video

Call Kabaddi - Direct Connect Service - video

Cash on Mobile - video

How advertiser funded films are going to change the marketing spectrum in India?

Branding and entertainment have traditionally been woven together by a simpler concept of product placement where a product is placed on the screen making it a part of the set-up in order to strike the audience with the brand and its usage by the movie/ programme’s characters.

A few years back when Adidas decided to finance the ‘Goal’ movie trilogy with about $100 million investment, it was more than just a product placement. The financial risk was high due to the huge investment while it also gave Adidas the freedom to try and convey its message and brand personality to its audience in more number of ways than what a product placement would have offered.

Such productions where the whole programme or a movie is financed by a brand or a company whose primary objective is to put across its brand communication to its audience in a way which is more entertaining and assertive than the traditional advertising are known as advertiser funded programmes (AFP) and advertiser funded films (AFF). Some people also choose to call this practice Brand entertainment since a brand wrapped in a programme or film entertains the audience.It essentially is a step further by marketers from the product placement concept in the entertainment domain for communicating with its customers.

Simply put, AFFs and AFPs are content that allows brands to forge a deeper relationship with production houses via a funding model either in full or in part. Once executed, the advertiser’s investment is employed into producing the content while the advertiser earns a great degree of ownership over the content as well as its use as a wider communication platform for its brand/product/message.

Watch a short video by Schuyler Moore on how AFFs can be the future of marketing. Click here

Outside India, AFPs and AFFs have been regularly used as marketing and communication tools. The term soap opera was so called because the original soap operas were funded and produced by soap companies such as P&G. Some of the recent examples are short films by BMW, Castrol edge, TBA by Vodafone etc. P&G and Walmart have already announced their interest and entry into this newer advertising platform.

Click the below links to watch the video clips.

BMW funded short film - Hire

Castrol funded documentary film on Cristiano Ronalo

AFPs have been common in Indian marketing context as well, though AFF is a newer concept for India. Some of the examples of AFPs in India are - Cadbury Bournvita Confidence Champion, IDBIs Sawaal India ka, L’Oreal Elite Model Look ’06 etc, MTV Panasonic face of beauty (Watch video clip) etc.

Read more on IDBIs Sawaal India ka

AFFs prospects doesn’t look bleak either with the numero uno car company of India, Maruti Suzuki having tested the AFF waters very recently by partly funding the bollywood release “Mere Dad ki Maruti” produced by Y-Films, a subsidiary of Yash Raj Films. The producers wanted to make an advertising funded movie and with the of the movie based on family car, they pitches it to multiple auto companies in the country and Maruti turned out to be the most favoured partner with highest bid. 

Maruti Suzuki invested around Rs 6 crores in the movie which had a total budget of Rs 10 crores. As for the returns for the auto major, the movie has already earned more than Rs 8 crore and apart from having its brand name in the film title, it also managed to hog the spotlight throughout the two hours as Maruti is the main protagonist of the film. From Maruti 800 to the Swift and finally the Ertiga, the story weaves in both loyalty and aspiration towards the brand. A common feedback from the movie audience was that the movie was a fun-filled 2 hour Maruti advertisement.

 Marketers’ biggest challenge these days is to secure brand-space in their customers’ minds and with customers trying harder than ever to keep traditional advertising away, the challenge has only become more daunting. Hence, newer platforms for communication must be continuously looked upon. Advertiser funded programmes (AFP) and advertiser funded films (AFF) are such innovative planks to base marketing communications on.

AFPs and AFFs can be the new flag-bearers for Indian marketing rumble but how quickly and in what spectrum they evolve, it is yet to be seen.

Cheers,