Ever wondered what is the single thing that transformed once
upon a time corporate and serious business of advertising into creative, clever
and crazy advertising industry during the late 1950s of Mad Men era? From hard
sell and repetitive advertising to witty, artistic and sophisticated ad
campaigns, it was the introduction of an ‘Idea’ into advertising that
glamourized the likes of Doyles, Bernbachs and Ogilvys to re-engineer a
creative breed of advertising professionals who pledged by the idea as their primary
source of fame and fortune. It was the ‘idea’ that become eponymous with
creative advertising culture. Both agencies and clients swore by the ‘idea’ to
upscale their sales graph. The tradition still continues strong in its fifth
decade albeit with a difference. Ideas that have been selling ketchups and
automobiles are now increasingly selling knowledge and advocacy in their latest
avatar. From big corporations like Vodafone who did a campaign to address
domestic violence in Turkey, Unilever’s deodorant brand, Lynx who raised
awareness about male suicides in London to ITC’s Savlon that promoted hand
washing through chalk sticks in India, every brand is exploiting the power of
‘idea’ to sound sustainable and resonate with their consumers’ conscience.
When ‘idea’ took reins over advertising business during Mad
Men era, it practiced narcissism, competition outsmarting and wit with
vengeance. In last few years, the ‘idea’ however became more nonchalant and
started designing subtle but strong communications targeting brands’ commitment
towards innovation, sustainability, and enhanced engagement. The leading beer
brand Heineken since 1970s has been proclaiming itself with wholesome vanity as
world’s number one beer brand. The same brand in its 2016 campaign urges its
target users to ‘dance more, drink slow’ advocating responsible drinking. A
beer brand advocating less consumption of its product is unprecedented and a
bold move. The same year, Heineken also launched a campaign Brewtroleum where
it created bio-fuel from the beer waste to power cars in New Zealand which had
won Grand Prix- Outdoor in Cannes. Another shocking campaign came from REI, a
major retailer in the US who shut its store on one of the busiest shopping days
of the year, telling people instead to get out and enjoy nature, at the cost of
its business!
1974 Heineken
1960 Heineken
What is inspiring and channelizing the course of the ‘idea’
from profit to philanthropy centric that is making brands go more humble,
honest, humanitarian and eco-conscious?
1. Persuasion is passé, Empathy is in:
There has been a paradigm shift in audience’s emotional, social and
intellectual quotient which has increased exponentially with exposure to media,
knowledge, processes, and entertainment. Today, if a brand tries to claim its
supremacy with perfect creative finesse, it will still sound like hard-sell to
this new breed of an over-fed target audience. Brands are now using the ‘idea’
to penetrate within the conscience of their target audience and do things that
they always wish for with the help of their products/services. Ariel’s ‘Share
the Load’ campaign urging men to share the load of household chores especially
that of laundry with their wives is an example of brands intruding in the lives
of its target audience albeit benevolently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJukf4ifuKs
2. More Media at no to less cost: Advocacy and social
good act as catalysts to attract media to review the ad campaigns that appear
more as acts of benefaction rather than promotional content. Moreover, advocacy
and social good being universal in their appeal have the more organic reach and
appeal to larger audience breaking the barriers of nationality, race, religion,
and ethnicity. This gives a competitive edge to the brand in the scenario where
every brand is boasting about the social media fan lineage running into millions.
The campaign to stop the sale of acid in retail counter by non-profit, Make
Love Not Scars featuring acid attack survivor Reshma garnered huge PR across
media like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC World, Mashable,
Mirror, The Huffington Post at no cost and personalities like Amitabh Bachchan,
Ashton Kutcher, Sherly Sandberg and Sachin Tendulkar too shared their support
for the campaign, making it an award campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhbULUd-KE
3. Sustainable Policy: Some marketers are
restructuring their businesses to accommodate sustainable business practices
and are making investments in research and development of new technologies that
can help them achieve their sustainable goals. Unilever, for instance, has committed
to half its environmental footprints by 2030. P&G plans to replace 25% of
petroleum-based products with sustainable ones by 2020. Branding sustainability
also helps marketers to target consumers, investors, vendors and employees at
one go in a single communication campaign.
4. Awards: Cannes advertising festival, the most
sought-after festival amongst the advertising fraternity branded as ‘field-trip
to future’ for agencies, start-ups and marketers has been generously awarding
campaigns that are packaged with social good and those that promise to address
environmental, psychological, health and lifestyle issues. The festival has
also introduced new award category-, Glass Lions: the Lion for Change to
challenge gender biases. In a bid to stay ahead and bag awards at prestigious
awards festivals, brands are making use of ideas that force their way to the
jury’s shortlist.
5. Ease of Execution with Technology: Technology and
data have given power to the ‘idea’ whereby they not only help in the adequate
execution of the idea but also help in measuring the effectiveness of the
campaign in real time. This has encouraged agencies and brands to dream big,
invent without fear and set as challenging goals as possible and experiment
upon their hypothesis. Never before brands and agencies were so confident about
putting into practice everything that they ever dreamed of without the fear of
sounding impractical and unrealistic. Toyota has launched i-Road, an
ultra-compact electric vehicle which helps to resolve parking issues in
congested cities of Japan by utilizing small and unused spaces with networking
parking and charging spot stations. This project would have been unthinkable a
decade back in absence of tech-driven infrastructure that works in unison with
the advertising agencies.
As the evolution of ‘idea’ took from being a piece of
communication to transforming into products, experiences and engagements,
advertising businesses that were earlier lauded for their creativity now have
to be multi-faceted with innovation, technology, research and empathy. We can
expect Flipkart as a part of its festive sale campaign to introduce invisible
packaging that replaces cardboard cartons loaded with plastic bubbles with certain
sonic waves technology that secures the products without causing any damage.
This can save the country from the generation of tonnes of plastic waste as
well as from deforestation which otherwise forms an inevitable part of the
delivery process. Or can we expect a fertilizer brand to develop high yielding
solution that brings back the fertility of the barren soil that can solve the
problem of food crisis and waste lands. While the earlier Mad Men saw
advertising going glam and aristocratic, this age of idea revolution is making
advertising mad with innovation and social consciousness.
