The Enigma

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Iconoclastic Icons

Demonstration of cleaning utensils, comparisons between two similarly stained clothes washed in two different detergents. This is what we had been growing up with. Now, the winds of change are here.
I initially hated the campaign of Bingo brand of chips. I despised it so much that I dont recall its manufacturers, but I think of this brand more than my own fave brand of chips. The name lingers on my mind so much that I want to try each of its flavors. When at the PoP, I reach out to my wallet and utter the brand name to my vendor, the ad somewhere is occupying my mindspace and the recall value is getting stronger. I have no reason to try it, I neither am interested in its taste. As a matter of fact, I know nothing about it outside the name 'Bingo'. But when am making a decision, it gets the highest priority for obscure reasons. This definitely means Bingo has been able to make a mark in a considerable number of decision making minds.
At the face of it, every ad has its own audience. I dont think there would be any ad that is hated universally. Hence, Bingo gets its first share from people who like the ad. Then, the name, the manufacturer etc etc... These are what the usual advertising campaigns aim at! In addition, Bingo also captures minds like mine which are just curious.
The point I am trying to make is, with an obscure campaign like that, and little information about the product and almost no information about differentiating capacities over its competitors, Bingo has done what many hard-selling campaigns could not.
Most kirana stores in India ask the salesman one simple question before they keep the stock of the brand ," Advertisement kitna aataa hai iska?!" This is a million dollar question even brands like Rin have to face! This crucial question may not even bother Bingo, for the kirana vendor's mind recalls Bingo very easily even when it is aired in non-prime time slots and fewer times than those Saif Ali Khan-Rahul Bose-Preity Zinta ads!
Another interesting campaign is for 'Mentos'. It is a mint, after all! Bingo at least speaks of the flavors. Mentos is available in 2 flavors, which are never spoken of in the communication. It neither speaks of freshening up your mouth, avoiding stinking mouths or anything like that. It instead says 'Dimaag ki bathhi jalaa de'. Now, this is remotely connected to a mint, but it works wonders, for the campaign is interesting and the ad makes the consumer buy the products than the product itself!
It is very rare to see advertising campaigns for mailboxes, of all things! Rediff did it, for some time, and Yahoo limited itself in such practices too. Even if they did, they never slung mud on each other. Though Zapak doesnt do that directly, it shows funny videos where Zapak is compared with other mailboxes. The next time you sit idly, given the high probability that you are in an IT firm, am sure zapak will come to your mind when you are looking for a new site to check!
These communications might be obscure, iconoclastic, without any or limited reference to the brand itself, but the recall value and the fun factor sustains them in the decision making space of the user's mind. Probably 5-6 more such campaigns would mean a saturation for such ads, but for now, its an interesting campaign and it sure is raking in the returns without any Amitabh or Shahrukh pushing the brand.
On that note, am sure most of you would dislike the Sachin and Shahrukh overkill of the ITC biscuits!

Labels: , , ,

8 Comments:

At May 29, 2007 10:28 PM, Blogger Prasoon said...

Bingo - I'd never even think twice about buying it bcoz I'd rightaway oversee the pack in my first lookout.
Zapak - dude, am in IT firm and believe me,a spam which would promise cash also wouldn't lure me into logging into it and creating an account that would be so unfancy compared to gmail, rediffmail, yahoo or hotmail per se. You me and everyone knows that all mail providers offer a simple mailing service and Zapak could be doing nothing revolutionary in its 3 steps mailing procedure.
Talk of Mentos, it has replaced the 50ps coin at every galla, PCO and Kirana store for that matter. The high price stores too nowadays keep toffees for times when they have to return that Re.1 coin in a rs.499 purchase for which the consumer stylishly pays by a Rs.500 note.

Somehow your post about these 3 ads does not ring in anything in my head - they fail to even leave a tiny mark. Call me different or say that the strategy did not work thence but I donot agree with you when you say that the fun factor lingers.
Sachin/Amitabh are an in an overkill these days with their hairold/biscuit ads - don't these people come with a price tag (I mean can't they go with a brand which has value n 'demand' :O) Name me one ad where Aamir has played except for a Rs.10 priced Coca-Cola - all ads he gives have been for products costing 'heavy'. Cheap products shouldn't need these big names in my pov bcoz something that is cheap will anyways sell like hotcakes.

 
At May 30, 2007 12:37 PM, Blogger Saraswathi said...

Some ads do leave their impact on us. Let it be out of curiosity or liking.

Some ads I remember till now: "Jalebi-that kid who comes bk home", "washing powder nirma", "one black coffee please ad for a cell phone many years bk" and so many others.

 
At May 30, 2007 3:11 PM, Blogger Naresh said...

he he...
Prasoon bhai... The figures speak otherwise! Moreover, Aamir has done nothing to Coke which Hritik couldnt... ;)

 
At May 30, 2007 5:33 PM, Blogger Prasoon said...

I'm not questioning the ability of Aamir viz-a-viz that of Hrithik. i would be displeased if Htithik tomorrow does an ad for some Biscuits/Mentos for that matter. Duhh !!

Hope you get my point.. Anyways - aap hi behtar jaante ho !

 
At May 31, 2007 4:33 PM, Blogger Raghu Ram Prasad said...

the Icons means Icons....if you can not worth doing,,,,,,,,there will be sooooo many in the earth...they can do better than you

 
At June 01, 2007 8:58 PM, Blogger Smartalec said...

nice post, naresh!
we have been wondering exactly the same thing that how can these bingo folks make such annoying ads with glad bangles, tamil wango, pongo, etc. and still survive! i guess u're right in that these ads are so glaringly bad that twe remember them just out of curiousity!
some marketing! no celebs, no fanfare and it sure is working!
i'm yet to get a taste of bingo's different flavors tthough:D

 
At June 02, 2007 9:16 PM, Blogger Seshadri said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At June 02, 2007 9:19 PM, Blogger Seshadri said...

surely ads like these offer better brand recall.(ppl discussing, "bingo ka naya ad dekha"..or the 'mentos zindagi' sms fwds.).which is significant in products like these..where u dont go to the PoP with a decision in mind..u just buy the product if u r at the store (or even in front of it :)) for some reason...probably not much differentiation to offer makes these more effective ( except, of course, polo)...btw, just did sum formatting to the prev comment

 

Post a Comment

<< Home