More and more brands are weaving a strong social message into their advertisements to stand out in the clutter.
Scene 1: Two young women in a swanky car wait at a busy traffic intersection. One of them spots an elderly couple sprawling on the road next to their two-wheeler with fruits and veggies scattered around them — presumably the stuff they had gone shopping for. One of the girls says how the city has become insensitive to other people’s plight. The other girl, without waiting for her friend to finish ranting, quickly gets off the car to help the couple. She comes back to the car and urges her friend to go ahead and change whatever she doesn’t like.
Scene 2: Two young women in a business district spot some sort of a demonstration. People shouting slogans presumably to protest against something, throwing bottles, paper packs, etc, here and there and ending up making the otherwise clean environ filthy. One of the girls says how people don’t think twice before littering. In a repeat of the earlier sequence, the second girls rushes out to pick up the rubbish. She urges her friend to go ahead and make a difference.
The message is simple: Be a change agent; blaze a trail. The brand holding up the flag for change comes from an unlikely category — it’s Stayfree, a brand of sanitary napkins from Johnson & Johnson. Socially, advertising has always been pushing the ticket. Now, they have become more visible and talked about, thanks to a large extent to social media.
Mind you, Stayfree is not alone. Increasingly, brands are weaving in a social message in their creatives as a means to differentiate themselves in the clutter. And sometimes in categories which are unsexy, unrelated. Take Tata Tea. At a time when scams and corruption are the flavour of the season, Tata Tea is championing change through its latest campaign Soch badlo , an extension of the social message the brand had adopted a few years ago. Remember the Jaago Re! campaign launched in 2007 harping on social awakening?
The campaign not only created a buzz because of its powerful message but indirectly got consumers to sit back and take notice of a category as mundane as tea. As Tata Global Beverages director (marketing) Vikram Grover explains, “The objective was to go beyond the functional benefits: from physical awakening to a broader message as social awakening. And this helped us connect with young people who strive to be the change around themselves.”
Obviously, changes in consumer behaviour are prompting marketers to rethink how they sell products. “Earlier brand building, particularly in FMCG categories was about the end benefit the product provides to the consumer, but with increasing product parity, brands are using the social theme as a new branding paradigm. Social emotions are always powerful,” explains Dheeraj Sinha, regional planning director, Bates India. It also helps that the brand comes across as responsible and aware. That goodwill will eventually translate into real gains in terms of better equity, improved sales and so on. But that’s a long play. In the short term, it’s about getting noticed.
“Sometimes it is also a way to draw attention of people in highly cluttered categories. Case in point the recent ‘Unhate’ campaign by Benetton,” points Sanjay Nayak president at McCann Worldgroup. The campaign by the Italian fashion label released globally shows leaders from different sides of the religious/philosophical divide exchanging kisses. “Yes it is sensational but that does not take away from the fact that this message—stop hating—is socially relevant. And it is consistent with Benetton’s ‘united colours’ positioning.” And of course, Benetton is doing what Tata Tea or for that matter Stayfree hopes to go: Make people sit up and take notice.
Marketers say this strategy is slightly different from non-government companies adopting a pure social messaging platform. For example, Breakthrough NGO’s Bell Bajao campaign, conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, won accolades for supporting the cause of preventing ‘domestic violence’. Likewise, World Wide Fund for Nature launched the ‘Save Our Tiger’ campaign to support the cause of tigers in our country. .
Brands embedding a social message in a campaign began as a trend in India only a few years ago. “In the West, it started much earlier, but closer home, where the middle class was enjoying the first taste of luxury, hardship was still too close to reality for them to bother about whether the brand was a do-gooder or not,” says Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, Ogilvy South Asia. But, as the economy matures and consumers get more affluent, social themes will dominate advertising in India as well.
But why is this trend picking up now? “That is because Indians are more confident now—confident of bringing about change,” says Hemant Misra, CEO, Publicis Capital. “These are very different times from the seventies era, as typified by Amitabh Bachchan on the screen, who was the underdog and was therefore rebellious. This is a different age, we are no longer the underdog and we therefore demand change as opposed to rebel for change.” As they say, Advertising routinely reflects the society around it.
However, experts believe social messages in advertising often go beyond ‘doing good’. It can be used as a platform to bring to the fore a socio-cultural conflict. For example, Hindustan Unilever in its campaign for washing powder Surf used the theme ‘Dirt is Good’ to resolve the problem of hyper-parenting which is very common among kids today.
It was a win situation for the brand as well as it not only helped break the mould in a commoditised category like detergents, but also worked towards resolving a socio-cultural conflict,” says Ashish Mishra, chief strategist, Water Consulting). Similarly, Big Bazaar launched a campaign Des Badla Ab Vesh Badlo (nation is changing, so change the way you dress) two years ago.
This was driven by the cultural shift that the way you look impacts how society judges you.
Does this kind of advertising work? When brands in their communication attempt to solve a social conflict it helps build a huge amount of connect. It also helps leverage social media. “Often, a powerful theme becomes the trigger for a discussion on the social media,” claims Mishra.
