By Srishti Chauhan:
With competition at its best, advertising is a crucial arena of any company’s policy towards expansion of consumer base. However, gone is the time when ads consisted of a man and a woman in rural setup admiring a particular brand for its worth and quality. This is the new age advertising. Everything here is a surprise!
Nestcafe’s ad consisting of actor Deepika Padukone has emphasized on the coming back of a trend- the “to-be-continued-ads”. These are ads whose story is not completely revealed in the first go. And fairly managing to keep up the audience interest- these ads are a great hit amongst the new generation of consumers.
The trend doesn’t stop at this. Ads go all out to make you believe in the madness, the immensity and the drive that that particular brand represents. With the World Cup taking center stage in the minds of the people about a month back, the Nike ads with the “Bleed Blue” slogan were a rage. Showing the cricketers playing on tops of buses in a crowded area, the ad focused on the madness the country possess when it comes to cricket. And inbuilt was the idea that cricket, madness and Nike are inseparable! It was the best you could do for your country during the World Cup- Yes! Bleed Blue!
Ads have no longer been restricted to the boob tube or newspapers. They are all over- wherever you look! For the promotion of their movie “Tanu weds Manu”, the actors chose to gatecrash a wedding. This publicity gimmick fetched them the much demanded limelight- just what a film needs before its release date!
Not only this, the new age advertising also focuses a lot on competitions to keep a viewer interested- not only for his sake- but also for the sake of the attractive gifts offered. Lux had an ad campaign which promised dates with the brand ambassadors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.
The fresh series of ads have spilled over to the social networking sites as well. The site of earning massive revenues- thanks to the immense number of people that advertisers can target using these sites. A lot of brands have a policy of keeping their consumers engaged in small competitions that they organize on their facebook pages. A great example of the same is of HT Horizons which conducts several weekly competitions where winners are awarded small gift items or books. These activities constantly remind a person of the brand- a wonderful marketing strategy indeed!
Another way to advertise that is often adopted is the prints on T-shirts. Nokia service center employees can be seen wearing T-shirts that are openly popularizing “WatsApp”. You just CANNOT miss the printed T-shirts that are screaming all out loud about the thing that they are promoting. What better does an advertiser want!
Another method of advertising is the “accidental slip” which quite a few actors resort to. It’s quite easy. Karan Johar provided them with a show where they could easily blurt something out- a little extra perhaps and spark off rumors and controversies and speculations about their oncoming movies. Producer Ekta Kapoor did just the same. By passing unflattering remarks about the heroine of her soon to be released movie, the lady sparked off undying rumors- the obvious result of which was that the movie, Shor- in the city, got some of the much needed media hype.
A few years ago, actor Aamir Khan, known for his innovative styles and thinking, did the “Disguise Tour” to promote his movie “3 idiots”. The actor toured different parts of India in different disguises and people were given an open challenge of recognizing him, doing which would win them exciting prices and a personal meeting with the actor himself. The news kept many on their toes for days to come. The newspapers were filled with articles about how Aamir Khan was spotted in different disguises at different places. Rumors about his future destinations did the rounds as well. What more, the movie and this advertising campaign left an irremovable imprint in the minds of the people. Who could forget such innovative strategy?
So which is your favourite ad or marketing campaign?