The popularity of the Tata DoCoMo ad shows that the jingle is back in business.
There was a time when the ad jingle resonated long after the visual had vanished from the television screen. Only Vimal became as famous for the way it was sung in the ad, as the brand itself. Lifebouy, Limca, Nirma, Bajaj, Amul Butter, Frooti, Thums Up, Mayur Suitings, and Tata Salt all had iconic jingles that helped them stand out from the clutter of the 30-seconders that began to dominate Indian television screens in the 80s and 90s. But in the last five years, the jingle seemed to have run out of steam.
But then the Tata DoCoMo ad campaign broke last year, and the jingle resurfaced. The shots of people in a train titled The Friendship Express who start singing, one at a time, picking up cues from each other effortlessly has been noticed. And the brand has benefited from this easy public recall. Ram Sampath, music composer and the man behind the Tata DoCoMo jingle says, “Music has always been a great source for creating brand identity and over the years this concept has greatly evolved”.
Jingles unlike songs, are characterised by the use of the brand name which isset to music. So, Sampath’s contention that jingles have continued to play a prominent role isn’t the full story. For in the last few years brands like Airtel (the AR Rahman created signature tune which also features him), Britannia (who can forget, ‘ting, ting, ating’), Titan (the unmistakable symphony which is now indelibly associated with the brand), and Hutch (‘You and I in a beautiful world’) have created memorable campaigns based on strong tunes and songs but not jingles. Says brand consultant Santosh Sood, “To say that jingles are making a comeback is wrong as they never went away. It’s just that brands are using it in a better way now.”
There is a view that the 30-second ad spot on TV isn’t conducive for creating memorable jingles. Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer, Mudra says, “Look at all the so-called memorable jingles, and you will see that they were not your regular ad campaigns.” He has a point. The DoCoMo Friendship Express is longer than the ususal spot. Close Up which had a catchy jingle is also a lengthy ad.
This is where radio can come into play where ad time isn’t as expensive as it is on television. A strong jingle on radio is the best way to reach out to listeners, but Pawar feels that brands tend to ignore it as a medium and prefer to have “extended” campaigns on other mediums. “Very few brands will tell agencies to create only radio campaigns and this limits the scope for jingles,” he adds.
There has also been a trend to use a movie song in ads to get the audiences to connect like Ponds’ has done. But Sampath says categorically that “Jingles actually talk about the brand and aren’t just any random tune or song”. According to him Nirma, Bajaj and more recently Happydent are perfect examples of how good jingles can make all the difference to a brand.
While DoCoMo and Close Up are recent examples, experts believe that the jingle exists in different avatars to suit a brand’s need. “Brands change their taglines often to rely on a signature tune and thus the need for reinvention,” says Sood. As they say, it’s about changing with the times or in this case, changing with the tunes?