The long and short of it

Did you think the recent Tanishq commercial with a Bengali beauty dressed in all her finery was a a leftover scene from the recent hit film Parineeta?

Or that the month-old Airtel advertisement resembled a series of short films? Jog your memory further and you'll remember having got moist eyes after watching the Air

Deccan commercial that was shot over four days with national award-winning, south Indian actor Murali.

Suddenly, commercials on the telly aren't the typical 30-second spots shown at regular intervals on television. Instead, they are longer and are managing to grab the eyeballs of those viewers who were otherwise surfing channels every time ads appeared.

Not anymore, especially if you have ads like Asian Paints where two cute kids are happily engaged in "cutting-shutting", or for that matter, even the Tata salt ad where a lady in a conservative south Indian family manages to whip up a pizza for her five-year-old son and adds just a pinch of salt to complete its delicious taste.

What's attracting viewers to an increasing number of advertisments that are looking slick, are nearly 145 seconds long, and even seem to challenge ad guru David Ogilvy's famous quote:"You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer."

Piyush Pandey, chairman and national creative director, O&M, prefers to tread cautiously. "It doesn't matter if the commercial is two minutes long or is 20 seconds short. What matters is the message."

According to experts, the main reason behind this trend is the increase in ad spends. "Some of the companies that earlier spent in lakhs are now spending in crores to get their advertising strategies in place," says a source.

Prasoon Joshi, regional creative director South and South-east Asia, McCann Erickson, feels, "Humour can be conveyed in a jiffy, but to convey an emotional message, longer ads are far more effective."

But would he agree that there' seems to be a trend towards creating longer duration ads for television? "I would agree only to an extent. We need to break the clutter for viewers. A company that spends Rs 5 crore should be convinced that its ad will be noticed. Having a longer duration ad can sometimes work as a strategy in doing just that," he points out.

Nitish Mukherjee, managing director, Orchard Advertising, who created the 150-second Air Deccan commercial, feels, "It's not that short commercials will phase out or longer commercials will continue to stay. It depends on the idea and the message you want to convey." He warns: "A campaign can fall flat on its face if the idea is weak."

A case in point, the Siyaram ad starring sportstar Boris Becker and Indian actor Dia Mirza failed to have any recall value with the audiences. Santosh Sood, chief operating officer, Rediffusion DYR who recently completed the Airtel Nigaahein campaign agrees, "One doesn't think about the length of the commercial while conceptualising it."

Point noted.

"" Inputs from Abhilasha Ojha