Best time for real-time advertising

Ads that collapse time are back in favour after Google unveiled a burger emoji with cheese underneath the patty

What’s in a burger, you may ask. Something surely, as India-born Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, showed us. When Pichai responded to writer and media analyst Thomas Baekdal’s observation on the placement of cheese underneath the burger patty in Google’s emoji as against Apple putting cheese on top, twitterati across the world got involved rather crazily. Baekdal started it off calling for a “discussion”’ on the matter, to which Pichai said he “will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday :) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!”.

Burger or rather hamburger, often referred to as a culinary icon of the US, has had an interesting history with McDonald’s and the Big Mac Index being pieces of globalisation in many ways. Now with the emoji talk, tech majors have joined the narrative, too. Such has been the influence of the debate on the microblogging site that the San Francisco Bay Area that houses many of the global tech giants’ headquarters announced a competition to select the best burger or patty in the area.

While Pichai’s light-hearted promise last weekend did not translate into a change in the Google emoji, the burger debate opened up advertising opportunities for those in trade including in India. Cheese major Kraft Foods promptly joined the debate with plenty of hashtags to say “we partnered with HeinzKetchup US to create the Single best #cheeseburgeremoji, #cheeseontop”. McDonald’s India uploaded a musical video with the message that whether it’s made like this or that, cheese on top of the patty or lettuce on top, both are right. “A burger will be delicious for sure as long as it’s McDonald’s...’’ KFC India was there too with its statement, “When the chicken is finger licking good, it doesn’t matter where the cheese is.” And then there is KFC Double Down — all chicken no bun….

If burger talk kept food firms such as McDonald’s, KFC and Krafts engaged, bread and butter (read customers) was the focus in a far-removed telecom industry back home. Here, too, advertisements were doing the Pied Piper’s job to attract the crowd. Bharti Airtel, for instance, invited customers of Reliance Communications to shift their network but retain the same phone number last week. The ads came just a day after Reliance Communications had made it known that a major chunk of its wireless business was headed for closure. “Airtel welcomes Reliance Communications customers. Switch to India’s fastest network without changing your number.” This was soon after Airtel had acquired Tata’s wireless business in a cash-free, debt-free deal. 

It was almost a year ago when real-time advertising went viral. Indians woke up to the change on the morning of November 9, 2016, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced banning big currency notes in a late evening address to the nation. Some newspapers had cover-page ads of wallet major Paytm congratulating the PM for “taking the boldest decision in the financial history of independent India”. Over the next few days, other digital players were part of the party, too. Freecharge advertised, “Cash is not feeling accepted. We are.” A year later as we move towards the anniversary of demonetisation, digital is being celebrated again, though with a bit of cash topping now. “Be it digital or physical, all you need is Ebix Cash (formerly Itz Cash, a financial exchange)” is one such example.

The goods and services tax (GST), the indirect tax reform that was rolled out on July 1, also prompted many companies to advertise quickly, gauging the mood of businesses, especially small traders, in the country. GST solutions cleartax.com, industrybuying.com and gstplus.com were among the many that showcased their products in advertisements, cashing in on the opportunity.

Amul, of course, has been at it for long, responding to every development — from politics to cricket, Bollywood to business. Among the recent hits from the dairy brand were “Crackering the whip?” on the Supreme Court judgment banning fireworks and “Makhano ka Taj” underscoring the fact that the monument is very much part of our culture. 

The West has seen such repartee ads for much longer, whether it’s Coke-Pepsi, Burger King-McDonald’s or Nike-Reebok. But the flavour of the season is burger no doubt, and Pichai may just tweet back soon on whether cheese should be on top or beneath the patty.