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!