Close on the heels of the Ad Club’s Effies 2012, which recognize creative effectiveness, marketers and agencies reiterate that what matters is creativity making a difference in the marketplace
What does groundbreaking creative work mean? At the end of the day, what marketers look for is return on investment and ads that push the envelope to bring in positive changes in the marketplace. The partnership between clients and agencies is crucial to this, and in the words of ad guru Piyush Pandey, “The very purpose of each piece of creative work is to improve the client’s business.”
Pandey, executive chairman & national creative director of Ogilvy & Mather, India calls himself “a commercial artist”. “I am not paid for making paintings of my choice, we are here to do a job. If a creative is not effective in the marketplace, it is futile,” he says.
His sentiment is echoed by Karthi Marshan, executive Vice President & Head - Group Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank, who says, “The goalposts against which effectiveness is measured may vary, from brand metrics to business metrics. No client worth his salt would spend money on advertising that was not tasked with delivering a measurable goal. After all, the creative work that agencies produce is commissioned work, made to order, so to speak, not a work of art that springs from the well of a struggling artist’s anguish.”
Pandey and Marshan’s thoughts are a reflection of today’s times, where creative effectiveness is not a desire, but an imperative to be able to stand out and make an impact. Marketing ROI is all important and every component (read penny) counts. Today’s CMO has donned the role of a quasi sales guy to ensure that the brand gets bang for every buck.
Marketing budgets are always under scrutiny. And unless marketers can demonstrate the efficiency of every rupee spent, the budgets will always be under pressure. “Whichever be the brand and whatever be its budget, as marketers, we know that there will always be a high deliverable attached to cost. Realizing this, I believe more and more agencies are waking up to the fact that creativity for the sake of creativity or mere advertising is not a viable solution. They have to create winning ideas and then find ways to reach out the brand message, cost effectively, with an impact on the customer’s heart and wallet,” observes Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group.
SOME BRANDS WHICH ARE ALREADY THERE
The importance of ringing the cash register cannot be undermined in the least, which explains why the ‘No Kidding No Worries’ campaign for Flipkart from a relatively small agency like Happy Creatives has forced people to sit up and take notice. Creative effectiveness does not automatically relate to bigger agencies only, and the Flipkart campaign is one such example. It succeeded in increasing monthly revenues for the brand by 100% - from Rs 30 crore to Rs 60 crore per month. Items shipped went up from 14,000 to 30,000 per day during and post the campaign (114% increase). Moreover, the brand flipkart.com ranked 10th in the awareness quotient of ‘retailers of electronics, gadgets and home appliances’ in a list of physical and online retailers (according to a brand track study).
Fevicol and Cadbury can indeed be called icons of such effectiveness over the years. These brands have built a relationship with consumers and are now part of their daily lives - be it ‘Kuch meetha ho jaye’ or ‘Yeh Fevicol ka jod hain, tutega nahin’. Today, these terms are part of our lexicon – that’s what great advertising is all about.
“Today, I certainly think that clients and agencies are on the same page, and both understand the criticality of effectiveness. If the ad is not effective, the client simply won’t run it,” says Anil Jayaraj, CMO, Pidilite Industries.
EFFECTIVENESS IS THE BUZZWORD WORLDWIDE
Creativity and effectiveness, which were earlier considered different sides of the same coin, have today beautifully blended into one entity. Even the Oscars of the advertising world, The Cannes Lion awards, endorsed the importance of creative effectiveness when they introduced Creative Effectiveness as a category last year. The Creative Effectiveness Lions honours creativity that has shown a measurable and proven impact on an advertiser’s business – creativity that affects consumer behaviour, brand equity, sales, and identifiable, profit. Only entries that were either shortlisted or were Lion winners, across all categories at Cannes Lions 2011 were eligible to enter into this category as these had already been judged and established as being creatively world-class. PricewaterhouseCoopers reviewed each entry for the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions and checked that claims made were supported by appropriate data.
Incidentally, BBDO India’s W.A.L.S or Women Against Lazy Stubble, done for P&G’s Gillette, won India a Creative Effectiveness Lion in the inaugural year of the category. BBDO India was also the only Indian agency to win a Creative- Effectiveness Lion at Spikes Asia (for Gillette ShaveSutra).
“These awards help resolve the debate about creativity versus effectiveness, and prove that creativity is the bottomline. It also helps raise the bar and pushes us to look for ideas that are action-oriented and offer platforms for greater consumer engagement. Our integrated programmes for 7 Up, BlackBerry, Aviva Life Insurance, P&G, Gillette, J&J, GE, Quaker and others have demonstrated that ideas that move the market also move the jury – be it at Goafest or Cannes,” observes Josy Paul, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India.
Interestingly, there is a lot of common ground when it comes to work that is awarded. For brands such as PepsiCo, Cadbury, Fox Crime and Mumbai Mirror’s ‘I am Mumbai,’ juries across the world looked at the insights behind each campaign, and solutions that the campaign provides.
“We’ve tried to focus on a problem or opportunity and then find a human response in the form of an action-oriented idea. We’ve tried to break down the walls between PR, advertising, activation, promo, digital and all these forced verticals. Our campaigns have demonstrated that ideas that move the market also move the jury – be it Goafest or Cannes. Many of these are ideas that integrate with society. They are ideas for life,” adds Paul.
AS CREATIVITY AND EFFECTIVENESS BLEND
Today’s consumer, who is exposed to some form of communication every second, needs to be delighted and resonate with the creative communication. One example of this is JWT India‘s ‘A Day in the life of Chennai’ campaign for Times of India, which won accolades and recognition from juries worldwide, including winning the first Film Gold Lion at Cannes. The film narrated a story using a cardboard cut-out character, who starts out as an action hero, becomes a politician and then loses it all to become a scarecrow. This riot of colour and song showed viewers that if any publication can truly understand the Indian political, social and cultural landscape of India, it is The Times of India. The campaign spoke to the consumers in their own language, using insightful Indian themes, music and traditions and resonated with the audience even though it was Chennai-specific. This showed that an understanding of consumers beyond the surface goes a long way.
“Creativity and effectiveness were two different facets about five to 10 years ago. What is creative works and reflects on the marketplace and on the balance sheet. Today, creativity and effectiveness blend with each other. Earlier, award juries would look at factors like music. In the last three to four years, consumer insights and consumer issues and local issues are gaining importance,” says Santosh Padhi, co-founder and partner, TapRoot India.
It is indeed the perfect combination of creativity and effectiveness based on consumer insights and behaviour, that not only provides a solution but induces the consumer to make a purchase that takes an ordinary creative to a level of excellence. As Piyush Pandey says, “when all this falls into place, magic happens”
AGENCY, MARKETER ARE NOW EQUAL PARTNERS
As a result of trying to take the effectiveness of communication and campaigns to the next level, what has emerged is an equal partnership between marketer and agency - more specifically the creative heads. Marketers have realized that their creative communication plays a pivotal role in generating revenue in the market. Both marketers and creative directors have realized that the middlemen in the equation can be done away with. “We used to work 16 hours a day even earlier, but the quality of work is altogether at a different level today. Clients and agencies are partners, much like the copy and admen used to be, none of us can achieve success without the other,” comments Santosh Padhi.
Ad guru Piyush Pandey too feels such creative effectiveness is possible only with a collaborative effort between marketer and agency. “You have to find the right people, the right planner, the right servicing team… the client is also part of this team and when all falls into place, magic happens,” he says.
While there is room to take creative work to the next level, without doubt the importance of knowing consumers has gained heightened importance, as Pandey observes. “No communication can be made without knowing the consumers, what you may call consumer behaviour and consumer insights, I call knowing what is in the consumer’s mind. Not all consumers give great interviews, but we need to know how to read between the lines and go below the surface,” he says.
Agencies certainly work very strongly with their clients to achieve creative effectiveness. “For a creative to be successful, there are three criteria – it should grab attention, it should communicate the brand proposition and consumers should enjoy the communication,” spells out Anil Jayaraj, CMO, Pidilite Industries.
But while India is one of the fastest growing markets, in order to stand out, creative directors should do much more and be experimental and sharp. “It is better to fail while trying to do something new than safely go with something easily achievable. Not that Indian agencies are not going this route, but we need to experiment a lot more. We have huge scope to push the envelope,” feels Padhi.
“Agencies certainly work very strongly to achieve creative effectiveness. For a creative to be successful, there are three criteria – it should grab attention, it should communicate the brand proposition and consumers should enjoy the communication.” ANIL JAYARAJ,CMO, Pidilite Industries
Taking the thought of Creative effectiveness forward we showcase the gold winners of the EFFIES 2012
BRAND: Cadbury Dairy Milk, CAMPAIGN: Kuch Meetha ho jaye – Cadbury Dairy Milk’s growth story from 2005 – 2012, AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
Effectiveness of the campaign Highest campaign recalls across chocolate brands over 7 years, the fastest growing chocolate brand over 7 years. The campaign grew both in teen and adult penetration and frequency ensuring massive growth and Cadbury leadership of the category. It has transformed an alien treat into ‘kuch meetha’.
BRAND: Airtel, CAMPAIGN: Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hain, AGENCY: Taproot India
Effectiveness of the campaign
• Share of Gross Additions i.e. New customer acquisition percentage increased by 1.6 points, which is the highest growth seen across all players in this period.
• High Brand recognition after the campaign.
Digital Integrated campaign HFZ Facebook App generated -
•1.2 Mn visits
•76,000 new fans added
•3,95000 friends tagged
•65,000 friend types created
Rs 1.2 crore worth of PR generated.
• More than 600 clips of stories were generated
• 29 million people were reached across all online access points (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and various blogs)
• 172 (at last count) user generated videos received.
• 51st most visited channel in the world in Jan 2012
“India today is one of the growing markets. In order to stand out, we should do something away from metoo and be experimental and sharp. It is better to fail trying to do something new than safely go with something achievable. Not that Indian agencies are not going this route, but we need to experiment a lot more. We have huge scope to push the envelope.” SANTOSH PADHI,Taproot India
BRAND: Voltas, CAMPAIGN: Voltas All weather AC, AGENCY: Meridian Communication
Effectiveness of the campaign
The 2012 campaign made Voltas edge out consumer durables giants LG & Samsung to take the 1st position in market share and nearly double brand equity scores.
BRAND: Fox Crime, CAMPAIGN: The Photographs Case, AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
Effectiveness of the campaign
The campaign drew an immediate and overwhelming response. Tweet ups made ‘Foxcrime’ a trending topic and it garnered over 77,000 followers, foxcrimeindia.com had more unique visitors than any other GEC channel across languages. Facebook fan base grew by 400%, Foxcrime registered a 37% increase in subscriptions and needless to add recognition and awards followed including the Yahoo Big Idea Chair and Best Integrated Campaign among others.
BRAND: Madhya Pradesh Tourism, CAMPAIGN: How Madhya Pradesh became Incredible in Incredible India,
AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
Effectiveness of the campaign
This campaign made MP one of the foremost tourist destinations in India.
BRAND: Fevicol, CAMPAIGN: The ultimate bond 20 years and still going strong,
AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
Effectiveness of the campaign
The fact that Fevicol has grown faster than category consistently for 20 years and dominated the category despite its price premium is testimony of the campaign impact. Perhaps it helps to be reminded that it is easily among the most awarded campaigns over the years with a tally of over 65 awards across creative, effectiveness, media, and branding. But the most enduring result is its impact on culture – where Fevicol has become another word to describe any strong bond or sticky thing!
BRAND: Flipkart.com, CAMPAIGN: No Kidding No Worries, AGENCY: Happy Creatives
Effectiveness of the campaign
Sales: The monthly revenue went up by 100% (30Cr./ Month to 60Cr./Month)
Volume: Items shipped per day went up from 14000 to 30000 per day during and post campaign (114%)
Category contribution: The campaign was skewed towards the new categories like electronics and the contribution from these categories went up by 50% (40% to 60% of total revenue)
Traffic: The monthly traffic to the site had increased by 900% in comparison to precampaign period
Awareness: Flipkart.com ranked 10th in the awareness of ‘retailers of electronics, gadgets & home appliances’ in a list of physical and online retailers
BRAND: Satyamev Jayate, CAMPAIGN: Satyamev Jayate-Managing a billion expectations,
AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
Effectiveness of the campaign
Sustaining viewer interest in a socially relevant show on a time band is arguably not suited for the nature of the content, given it was broadcast on Sunday mornings. Yet it managed the kind of viewership that it did episode after episode – commendable.
BRAND: Vodafone India, CAMPAIGN: Drive into the Big league, AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
Effectiveness of the campaign
Being a late entrant in the Enterprise segment, this campaign gave Vodafone Business Services the much needed traction is was looking for. 80,000 valid, engaged and unique SME leads propelled Vodafone’s enterprise division to a fantastic start and built itself a solid foundation in the hearts and minds of the SMEs in India. The campaign received recognition and rewards in both creativity and effectiveness at the AME, Abbys and the Effies and a Silver in IMC.
BRAND: Asian Paints, CAMPAIGN: Yeh Badhiya Hain, AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
BRAND: The Hindu, CAMPAIGN: Undumb India, AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
BRAND: Dominos, CAMPAIGN: Pizza Signs, AGENCY: Ogilvy and Mather
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