There is something fascinating about Apple. It isn’t the biggest brand, yet it is the most talked about. The power of the brand comes from its products, and its owner Steve Jobs. From the Macintosh launched in 1984, it has given the world a series of products that have delighted consumers by bringing aesthetics to a functional technology category. Be it the iPod that houses thousands of songs or the iPhone that makes mobile interface fun to do, Apple has had technogeeks and technology lovers enjoy its products. And to the rest of the world, the products have left everyone amazed. If there is a marketer in recent times who has used the adbhuta rasa at the product level best, it has been Steve Jobs — accomplishing the task at least three times in the last 25 years. Not surprisingly, it’s a brand that has been built by its products; the story is in the company’s philosophy and it has had consumers waiting with bated breath for its next launch. And consumers have never been disappointed.
“Adbhuta” in Indian navarasas is all about wonder and curiosity. The awe that one feels when one comes across something divine and supernatural, some power or beauty that is remarkable and never seen or imagined before is adbhuta. It is the curiosity of man, the astonishment caused by seeing something unusual and magical. It’s about the appreciation of a marvel that goes beyond the routine and the mundane. All creativity at the core is about creating this feeling of wonder. And more so advertising ideas, because all great ideas attempt to make unusual connections between two seemingly disparate things to gain viewer attention and be memorable in their minds. Yet it’s perhaps the most difficult of the nine Indian rasas to create in 30 or 60 seconds, often the maximum time brands get to push their messages into the consumers’ consciousness. That is where Apple scores. Brands that have products that can by themselves generate curiosity and then get the first users to be amazed by their experience, need little advertising and brand stories to build them. Fortunately for advertising, such products are few and far in between and that is where advertising storytellers come in to weave “myths” around products to make them endearing and desirable.
Advertising, over the years, has consciously used varied facets of adbhuta to engage with the viewer — from creating little surprises to generating awe to even sometimes shock, leaving consumers wondering about the brand and their brand choices.
One trick, quite commonly used by marketers to create curiosity, is the “teaser” campaign. It sounds exciting. However, it could sometimes end up like “khoda pahad, nikali chuhiya” (dug a mountain, out came a mouse) as in the case of the Digen Verma campaign for Frooti a few years ago. Or more often, it ends up with advertisers and agencies talking to themselves. I think consumers have many puzzles to solve in life, so expecting marketing stories to create intrigue and suspense is being ambitious.
The other common adbhuta trick is the “advertising burr”, a favourite for television advertising. This is the simple trick of putting a “twist in the tale” at the end — often a joke — that adds memorability to brand messaging. Twists work simply because they surprise the viewer. Cadbury’s recent “Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye” campaign has used this to strong effect. Whether it is in the first Pappu ad where a whole lot of teenagers gorge on chocolates and the shopkeeper ends by telling poor Pappu: “Aur paise Pappu dega.” Or the ad where a cow is revealed to be Miss Palanpur (that itself a little twist) ending with the sarpanch saying: “Agle saal filmo mein aayegi.” And the recent Kenya commercial where an innocent viewer asks: “Kenya kidhar hai?” and a fellow viewer says: “Idhar hi tha.” These are all little elements at the end of the story that bring a smile and become the hook by which the commercial and brand are remembered.
The other way to create adbhuta is by breaking brand codes. This works particularly well for brands and categories with strong associations. Consumers get shaken to pay attention when they are shown a completely different version of a familiar look. Cadbury’s “real taste of life” campaign in the mid-1990s did exactly that — moving from kid imagery to adult — and thus created discontinuity and made consumers wonder what’s going on, to positive effect. Onida abandoned the Devil in the late 1990s with its “Big Picture, Big Sound” campaign, once again shaking consumers up. It’s a brave way to create wonder, but it could work if based on sound long-term strategic thinking.
The fourth way to create adbhuta is by scale in execution. British Airways’ famous “face” commercial in the early 1990s showed that the airline brings millions of people together every day, by getting thousands to come together to form a face on screen. The execution was awesome in the true sense. The Honda cog film which had over 1,000 moving parts moving in precision in one single shot is another example of advertising that creates awe through just its execution. The making of such ads are stories in themselves and can add to the myth of the brand.
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Finally, the boldest way to create adbhuta is by defying conventional logic. It can take a shocking form when you have Richard Branson jumping off buildings or helicopters to launch Virgin Mobile. Or it can be simply amazing when a brand — Apple again — launches its Mac with a commercial that is aired only once. BMW got seven directors to make films for it at a $72 mn outlay and then used only $1 mn to put it on the net — reversing conventional advertising logic of media and production spends. Closer home, Hutch promoted its theatre festival in Bangalore by staging mock fights in cafés and pubs only to later reveal it was all just drama. The power of the last two ways of creating adbhuta is that it gives the communication a window in which to discuss it. It doubles the impact.
As we move into the future, messaging by making unusual connections in advertising may not be enough. Brands and their communication need to work harder to gain attention and be remembered. While all the other eight rasas have their role to help get into consumer consciousness, looking at adbhuta has the potential to create a larger impact. It’s not just about memorability but also about buzz and generating word of mouth. Nothing creates that better than doing something that either shocks or awes the consumer.
Something worth thinking about.
The author is Country Head - Planning, Ogilvy and Mather, India. Contact at madhukar.