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A stammering stand-up comedian struggles to carve a space for himself. He ultimately transforms this weakness in to his strength and presents himself on the big stage.
A female boss asks her subordinate to complete an assignment. After going home, she cooks and sends a video of the meal to her husband and tempts him to come home. The viewer realises that the subordinate was actually her husband.
The above storylines are from two of the most famous advertisements that beams to our drawing rooms during any prime time show. While the first one is from the new Nescafe ad, the later is from that of Airtel smartphone network.
These ads are not one of cases. Storytelling is being employed increasingly to convey the brand message, in a more impactful way.The salient feature of these advertisements have been that beside being sucessful on television, they have created a buzz on the online platform.
According to Nestle, the Nescafe ad launched on September 5, garnered more than a million hits in a week. With internet penetration increasing in the country, the face of Indian advertiment has increasingly changed from the days of Seema, Rekha, Jaya and Sushma of the famed Nirma ad.
Analysts say that with the demography of the country chaning, ad-makers are increasingly focusing on the younger generation who spend more time on social networking sites rather than the television. While earlier, the focus of advertising was directly on the product benefits sung through an ad jingle on television, today the focus is also on connecting with its target consumer segment on Facebook and Twitter.
"Brands and ad folks are trying to create conversations around the product by leveraging digital and social media initiatives.Social issues always lead to conversations on social media. By capturing key social issues through their advertisements, brands are capitalising on the indirect conversations triggered around what the brand stands for, " said Vinaya Naidu, co-Founder & editor, Lighthouse Insights.
According to a recent report by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), the digital ad revenue share will double to 16 percent in 2018 than 8 percent in 2013.
" The Airtel Boss ad by Taproot picked up the issue of women empowerment which was popular then, it created a furore on social media," said Vinaya.
According to analysts, social media campaign becomes an ideal medium for brands trying to carve a place in the crowded market as customers feel a sense of pride in using a product which is seen as an agent of change.
Brands also feel that online medium allows them to connect with their customers in a personal and interactive manner. "TV as a media has more mass appeal but digital media allows us to target our core target group and interact with them," said an official spokesperson of Emami Limited. Emami has been running a social media campaign to promote its HE deodrant which it launched early this year.
Budget is one more reason which encourages brands to go digital. Partha Sinha, director, Publicis, South Asia feels that one advantage of making an ad around an issue which is an "online hit" is it can be curtailed from its original version and still have the same impact.
" A 3-minute Idea ad was curtailed in to a 30 seconds jingle of ' No Ullu Banaying' for social media. It got more views and the impact on the target audience was larger," said Sinha.
Nayla Sioufi, General Manager, Coffee & Beverages, Nestle India though feels that presence on digital and social media is not about saving advertising expenditure. "It is an additional platform to engage with consumers more effectively; while advertising online is fast catching up, focus has not moved away from television." he said.
The view was reciprocated by Sinha. " While we have been talking about digital-ad revolution in the country for quite some time now, things will not change substantially unless big brands accept it extensively," he said.
