With Television grabbing a major share of the advertiser’s attention, the quality of Print advertising has perhaps taken a hit. While there is still some excellent work worthy of recognition, efforts must be made to bring the good old body copy back in vogue
By Simran Sabherwal & Saloni Dutta
The year was 2011, remembered with a shudder by Indian cricket fans for the team’s string of Test match losses. The day was when batsman VVS Laxman was controversially judged not-out in a caught-behind appeal by England. “Has Vaseline on the outside edge saved the day for Laxman?” former captain and outspoken tweeter Michael Vaughan asked his followers. While news channels went ballistic at his allegation in the following days, the hard-working folks at Vaseline hit upon an idea for a Print ad.
“Dear Mr Vaughan, In India, Vaseline is used for:” the bold copy began, followed by an exhaustive list of uses – dry extremities, hands, elbows, chapped lips, et al. The front quarter-page ad in dailies had a striking image of a cricket bat with a red cross on it. “Let Mr Vaughan know, visit facebook.com./…” it signed off.
The question is, how many outstanding Print ads such as this one do you recall from the past few years? The answer is something media planners know and creative heads are still in denial of. Thanks to Television’s big names, OOH’s innovations and Digital’s multimedia alternatives, the Print advertising medium has got itself the dubious perception of compromised creativity.
Though there has not been any likewise nosedive in Print ad spends, not at least in this election year, you’d agree that the glorious days of ‘Gabbar ki pasand – Glucose D biscuits,’ Air-India Maharaja’s antics and innovative ads-thatdidn’t- annoy-you seem a bit distant now. We took our concern to industry experts – creative minds as well as brand managers - and asked them if the perceived lack of creativity in Print advertising is real, and would they still bet on Print.
A WIDER CANVAS
Mumbai’s Western Express Highway, recipient of lakhs of minutes of cumulative attention spans every day thanks to its traffic woes, has recently witnessed a spate of hoardings along its banks. “We are 342 times larger, sorry Print!” was the tune of one, among other promotions for an OOH brand which took direct digs at all other mediums. The message was telling, but we found many spenders who find the depth and detail of Print advertising more effective.
Shubhodip Pal, Chief Marketing Officer, Micromax, believes, “If I can catch the consumer for about 15 seconds with the right creative done smartly, I am sold on Print. That said, you have to be neat, clean and give out the right information, otherwise you lose the customer.” You might want to recall a recent Micromax front-pager which had the words ‘iPhone 4s’ in bold, with sketch markings to make it read, ‘I (can afford this) Phone 4Sure’.
Manish Bhatt, Founder-Director, Scarecrow Communications prefers the wide canvas that Print offers. “Print advertising is smarter and more clever, more informative, more catalogue-ish. It is a good medium for lifestyle brands, personal care, cosmetic brands which can showcase the product, range and make the target audience read the reference to purchase something. The concept that you write and convince people with charming and witty pitching, is only possible in Print.” Print also scores over other media because it succeeds in giving information with a single focus.
According to the Pitch Madison Media Advertising Outlook 2014, Print was the biggest share-holder in the industry’s total ad-pie, grabbing 41.3% of the advertisers’ spends last year. But this metric in no way suggests the creativity levels in the medium. For those to come back in vogue, the tone and agenda must be set up by the top bosses of creative and media agencies.
THE HUNT FOR CRAFTY COPY
High-on-recall print ads such as the recent The Hindu campaign (in which it took pot-shots at Times of India) and the ongoing creatives by e-grocer Local Banya have been as much about craft as about the big idea. The core concept, if accompanied by striking visuals and crisp, relevant copy can more than drive the message home.
Former CEO of Lintas and industry veteran Alyque Padamsee is expectedly saddened by the decline of old-school creativity. “I am very disappointed with the creativity in Print, as Print advertising globally has fallen. TV allows you to tell a story while in Print, you have to say it literally in one frame and it’s so much tougher. Good Print ads are those which make you think. Today, Print advertising has unfortunately become a step-child of the industry,” he says, adding that these days, even if a Print ad manages to catch your attention, it could be totally irrelevant.
How then, must we resuscitate the beautiful form that Print advertising once was? Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network & Chairman Posterscope & PS Live – APAC prescribes, “Body copy, which used to be almost an art form and a highly developed skill, seems to be going downhill. Either ads have too much of copy or very insipid matter. One basic step that needs to be taken is to improve there. While the headline obviously matters a lot, more attention needs to be paid to body copy to engage the reader, because this medium lends itself to give more information.” He also gives a bottomline, which could well define Print advertising as a whole: “This medium is about readers, so we have to get them to read our ad, not just look at it.”
TV or Digital cannot compare to the manner of stimulation that reading could give, and Sainath Saraban, ECD, Leo Burnett India, seconds that. “When one reads a publication for the articles to stimulate his mind, then why do ads have to be the dumb thing he wants to turn the page on? Everybody likes great content and Print ads are no different. If I see an ad that’s trying to make a halfdecent attempt at having an intelligent conversation with me, I will stop and give it my time.”
For Titus Upputuru, National CreativeDirector, Dentsu Marcom, it’s also about attention to detail: “The kind of typography makes such a big difference. The quality of photography too has an impact. Body copy should be written with as much as love as headlines. Everything matters!”
CREATIVITY OVER MESSAGING?
At a time when multiple competitors are making every consumer product advertiser’s life difficult, creativity in an ad is not on the top of their minds as much as communication or driving home the simple message are.
So, while a creative visual or striking header could net eyeballs, the tenor of the copy must regain the balance and convey the message the brand has set out to give. “Shah Rukh Khan must be recognized in our ads, as much as the timepiece and the brand so that there is no cannibalization of one by the other,” explains Franck Dardenne, General Manager of TAG Heuer India, adding that their ads launching their product Link Lady had the right mix.
IS PRINT THE POORER COUSIN?
While Television can get your celebrity endorser to shimmy on the moves you want and Facebook can showcase your viral video to your target audience with unmatched precision, the relevance of a uni-dimensional Print ad rates lower. Added to that, more advertisers are choosing Television’s multiple placement offerings while ad talents opt for its glamour quotient, rendering Print creativity with mediocre holes.
Arun Iyer, NCD of Lowe Lintas & Partners, offers, “Most Print ads are transactional in nature nowadays as there are few that try to use the medium well. The general sense is that it’s okay if you fill up a space with all the information that you have and make the most of it.”
With declining attention spans of the young, spenders are increasingly looking at media that require minimal or no reading, something that affects marketers’ attitudes toward the medium. Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Executive Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather, tells us: “Print has become the poor cousin. Clients don’t want to invest in it as they feel that potential returns are not high enough to make it worthwhile.
The medium needs to reinvent itself – in a digital avatar. So, just as the Television spot is being complimented by Internet video, Print too has to find its digital equivalent.”
INNOVATION: CREATIVITY OR GIMMICKS?
It perhaps started in the late 90s, when the portal Indya.com took over the first page of The Times of India to launch itself. Front page blanket ads, perforated cut-outs, and never-seen-before shapes and sizes of ads kicked off the innovation space.
Today, you might recall that morning when your newspaper smelt like baby powder (Johnson & Johnson’s clutterbreaking ad) or when it literally spoke about Volkswagen Jetta’s features. While the ads managed to hit the day’s news and Twitter trends, our jury is split about such ideas denoting ‘creativity.’
According to Sandeep Sharma, President, RK Swamy Media Group, “The good and the bad part is that innovations have now become synonymous with creativity, so creative thinking in ads has taken a backseat while innovations are getting all the attention. That said, there is much clutter in the market and you need to catch attention; so large formats and innovative breakthroughs are important from a brand’s perspective.”
In 2012, Volkswagen used a ‘Post- It’ to communicate a contest-led campaign during the festive season. A small yellow slip was stuck on the first page of newspapers with the message of the contest around Polo and Vento. Volkswagen believes the campaign helped break through the clutter when all other auto manufacturers were giving the consumer images of fireworks and the routine festive look.
That, to our minds, was more innovation than gimmickry but some others don’t fall in the same scale. Girish Shah, EVP Marketing & Sales, Godrej Properties Ltd, believes, “It is a really fine line, for innovation not to come across as gimmicky, one needs to be careful on how the mix of a creative rendition and innovation stands out.”
APPS, QR CODES – WHAT PUBLICATIONS DO
It is no secret that media houses too have begun taking consumer engagement levels seriously. But is that leading to enhancing creativity in advertising? Sanjay Chitkara, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Electronics says, “There is an integration of Print and Digital with options like QR code, AR etc., in Print ads. Most of the leading newspapers, English and vernacular, have started their own mobile app apart from their Digital presence. Print advertising is not intrusive to content and the newspaper industry is constantly innovating new features and platforms which did not exist earlier.”
Pradeep Dwivedi, Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer at Dainik Bhaskar Group believes that publications on their part can do much more to get better traction around the quality of print advertising – both from the creative as well as media dimension.
“The ‘per sq cm price’ led mentality in Print advertising isn’t going to yield any further results. Print advertising sales teams have to consider themselves as an integral part of the client marketing team, look at what will appeal to the target audience of the advertiser and be willing to stretch the envelope.”
Harkirat Singh, MD of Woodland Worldwide, further fleshes out the role of media houses here: “Media houses need to innovate and tell us what they can offer us… give us their creative ideas. When they do that and propose something innovative, we might deem it risky but at least know that the thought process exists.” He adds that though Woodland takes a safe bet during ‘the season’, they do tell their advertising and media partners to work with media houses and bring out something new.”
The writing on the wall, therefore, is that Print is still a disciplined medium, having a world of possibilities. It perhaps just depends on the habits and attitudes – of the audiences, marketers and brand managers – to bring creativity back in fashion or let it die a gradual death.
Feedback: simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com
