Recession or not, brands need to go beyond the narrow traditional definition of advertising and find creative ways of combining old media with new
When Walmart founder Sam Walton was asked what he thought of the recession, he said, “I thought about it and decided not to take part.” Flippant as he might sound to those struggling through the economic downslide, there is wisdom in his words. The truth is that creative advertisers spend their way out of a recession, coming out of it ahead of the competition, both in terms of profit and market share.
Consider this. Breakfast cereal brands Kellogg’s and Post were competing neck-to-neck before the Great Depression. But while Post cut its advertising expenditure during that mother-of-all-recessions, Kellogg’s upped its budget. The result: Kellogg’s emerged from the downturn as the dominant player, and has remained so ever after. In fact, in every phase of recession, there have been examples of brands like Coke, Gillette and Nike following the path of Kellogg’s and flourishing.
During hard times people need to dream. It’s not rational nuts-and-bolts advertising, but the emotive, creative kind that works best. For the same reason, in a downturn, the movie business does better, the sales of big-screen TVs rise and romantic novels are lapped up. That’s also why Disney was born in the recession of 1923-24. The iPod, too, was born in the recession of 2001. Both brands transport you from the rational realm to the world of the imagination. Creative advertising does the same and sells more in troubled times.
New media plays an important role in a recession but not as a replacement for old media. In terms of reach and impact, television still rules. But when you combine the TV screen with laptop, tablet and smartphone screens, the aggregate effect is much better. What these other screens help you do that television alone can’t is have a conversation with the consumer. While you can effectively make your opening gambit on television, one needs Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to interact with the consumer, allowing her to respond and spread the word of the brand. The fact that these media are dramatically cheaper makes the deal sweeter.
Recently, the Facebook page of UK’s Bodyform sanitary pads went viral when a man called Richard Neill posted his rant against Bodyform’s commercial. The commercial portrayed menstruation as a wonderful experience for women. Neill felt deceived by this misrepresentation. To tackle the situation, Bodyform quickly produced a tongue-in-cheek video response. In the video, Bodyform CEO Caroline Richards, played by an actress, apologises to Neill for lying about the nature of periods. In rather broad comedy, Williams pours herself a glass of blue liquid (the kind used in sanitary pad demos) as she begins her apology.
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Later, she passes a bit of wind, saying that this is another example of a bodily function of women that men find difficult to handle — her justification for not portraying hard reality in their ads. The video was viewed millions of times on YouTube. Featured in newspapers, TV shows and blogs, this ‘ad’ notched up untold sums in earned media.
The quotation marks framing the word ad above speak volumes about the changing nature of creativity.
The more one goes beyond the narrow traditional definitions of advertising, finding ways of combining old media with new to interact with the consumer, the better one can build one’s brand. Recession or not.
Pepsico successfully harnessed the crowd-sourcing capability of the Net to engage consumers with Lay’s ‘Do Us A Flavour’ campaign. Lay’s asked consumers to suggest new flavours for its potato chips. The contest generated eight million flavour ideas in 14 countries and resulted in the launch of such unusual flavours as caesar salad, chili & chocolate and mastana mango. The secret behind the success? Making customers feel that they are in the brand’s driving seat. Not only is this a recession-friendly way to build brand value and consumer relationships, but it also saves the millions that the brand might have spent in predicting and developing its new range of flavours.
Whether it’s Bodyform or Lay’s, what one is really seeing beyond the recessionary practicalities is brands responding creatively to the new kind of consumer spawned by the digital revolution: the consumer who holds the “like” button in her hand like a scepter of interactivity.
The storytelling that brands do through their traditional ads has so far been enough to earn them a place in the consumers’ heart. But, increasingly, consumers are judging brands based on how well they behave with consumers through the increasing number of interfaces that new technology is making possible. It’s a fundamental shift in the way consumers evaluate brands. Creative agencies will have to combine traditional advertising with software and even product development to help brands interact in a meaningful way with consumers.
The Nike+ Fuelband, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year, is an example of a future-ready interface that does precisely that: It is a wristband that measures the activity your body goes through in a day. It tells you how many steps you took, how many calories you burned and even gives you a special Nike metric that calculates how much you pushed your body today.
The Fuelband was created by R/GA, a company that describes itself as the agency for the digital age. While your traditional agency might have responded to the brief with a TV commercial, radio spot or press ad, R/GA came back to their client with — well, what do you know — a wristband. Nike defines itself as the brand for the athlete in everyone. What better way to get the consumer to experience that vision than through this new interface?
Is the Fuelbrand a Nike product? Is it their advertising? Is it the medium that is the message? Whatever it is, it’s where advertising creativity is headed. A place in the not-so-distant future where product, communication and even the consumer himself will come together in the melting pot of the interactive brand experience.
Sumanto Chattopadhyay
Executive Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather