What is the role of an advertising campaign & how does it influence the common man?
If you ask any brand manager or a consumer insights professional (such as me), we can go on & on about this topic. However, I will stop myself and refer to the textbook definition of an advertising campaign which goes something like this: “An advertising campaign is built to accomplish a particular marketing/business objective or a set of objectives. Such objectives usually include establishing a brand, raising brand’s awareness, aggrandizing the rate of conversions/sales etc.” Although in 21st century the role of advertising is not so simple anymore. Philosopher Marshall McLuhan went over the top when he declared advertising to be “the greatest art form of the 20th century” in 1964.
Irrespective of the fact that the media environment of McLuhan's heyday – the 1970s - was almost quaint compared to today’s digital marketing world, he was correct in coining this phrase because there is no denying that there has been profound influence of advertisements on society and people over the past few decades. This continues to make advertising one of the most fascinating and talked-about fields of the 21st century.
In my humble experience of being a consumer insights professional for the past 12 years, I have observed that most popular & “thought leader” brands religiously invest their time and money in creating advertising campaigns and approach this activity with a lot of rigor & passion because as the philosopher rightly said: the success of a brand campaign no longer depends on hitting the sales target alone, it is an art form these days.
In this digital marketing era, where we have too much media clutter, it is increasingly getting difficult for brands to build a distinct brand identity, personality, and image of their own. Therefore, an ad campaign is not only meant for sales conversions but is also responsible for showcasing the brand’s thought leadership in the form of powerful stories: connect, move, inspire the target audience and thereby establish a distinct identity of its own.
McLuhan was right in calling advertising as an art form because ad campaigns are now judged by their ability to go viral and garner awards, likes, comments & appreciation on social media platforms.
However, to resonate with and touch target audience deeply, a brand would need inspiring consumer insights, rooted in complex human behavior. Therefore, the best campaigns begin when consumers insights professionals, marketers & ad agencies work together to unearth that one idea that will stick with consumers. Just one fundamental truth about consumer’s life can inspire a powerful message that will last.
On this International Women’s Day I am going to talk about a few good Indian ad campaigns, which have successfully inspired, moved & deeply connected with its target audience (women) across urban India.
Indian brands have certainly come a long way in depicting their women from 1980’s iconic Lalita Ji who spoke about value for money being more important in managing a household than purchasing a ‘sasta’ (cheap) detergent powder, to recently popular Tanishq Remarriage Ad where the brand has chosen a women empowering & humane point of view towards remarriages.
I am going to mention some iconic brand campaigns where they target women in the age group of 15-45yrs as their core audience.
Dove
The Campaign
Dove, one of the largest beauty brands, launched another great campaign which reflects on their core belief that beauty should be source of confidence, not anxiety. In Feb 2021, Dove launched #StopTheBeautyTest which sparked positive conversations across social media platforms.
The Insight
This campaign is based on a powerful insight that most Indian girls are constantly judged through the marriage lens & some are rejected for not being beautiful enough in the arranged marriage market.
A recently conducted ‘India’s Beauty Test (2020) Report’ reveals some unsettling statistics about the pressures & anxieties around conforming to the narrow ideal of beauty – fair, slim & tall if she wishes to get a good arrange marriage match. An alarming 90% of single women feel that they are judged and rejected based on their looks during the marriage process. Furthermore, 68% claimed that rejections based on beauty during the arranged marriage process impacted their self-esteem and confidence.
This ad film is based on this powerful insight which questions our age-old culture of testing a young woman’s ability to be a good match based on unrealistic standards of beauty. This search for beauty is ugly and disparaging. The campaign ends with a powerful message which makes us ponder “After all how much beauty is good enough?”
Why it worked?
The campaign features real life stories of 4 women across different cities, cultures & religions who have been through the same experiences. Hence, the life insight captured was a very powerful one. This ad film makes us contemplate and at the same time it inspires us because it ends with a positive message for the audience saying “kamiyan nahi khoobiyan dekhiye”.
Audience instantly connected with this life insight because millions of Indian girls face this situation all the time after they come up to a “marriageable age”. This ad campaign is an ideal example of audience-centric marketing at work, where the target group is at the core of the brand’s message.
Vicks
The Campaign
Vicks' ‘Touch of Care’ ad campaign was launched in 2017 and went viral for all the right reasons. By this beautiful heart-warming real life story of an orphan and her newfound ‘mother’ Vicks tried to reassert its main proposition of ‘Family is where Care is’. It was more than a transgender ad. It changed the lens of motherhood.
The Insight
Vicks as a brand has always targeted families. However, families and their core values are changing at a very fast pace across India. A family today is not always as tightly knit as it was once upon a time. Vicks has tried to redefine the definition of a family in this contemporary society. With this story the brand has taken a bold & progressive stance: family is much beyond just biological connections or sharing a surname. In fact, “care” is the ultimate definition of what a family is.
Why it worked?
Created by Publicis Singapore, the ad campaign attained multiple awards and recognition by its target audience on social media. The story was told in the first person by the orphaned girl Gayatri herself. It worked because this story has compassion, love, genuine touch of care along with a social message. It reflects the challenges a transgender woman faces in our society with no basic human rights in place for them. Despite all these hardships, it shows how Gauri the transgender women cared for Gayatri, the orphan as her own, against all odds. The story instils positivity at the end of it.
Idea - Kaun banega crorepati
The Campaign
This ad campaign was created by Leo Burnett, Mumbai to promote Kaun Banega Crorepati, Season 6 in 2012. In the same season KBC incorporated a series of communications that focused on deep-rooted biases faced by Indian society - Girl Child, Dalits, Hindi medium, family name and more.
The Insight
In the Hindi belt hinterland “Mubarak ho! Ladki Hui Hai!” is not happy news. This plight of a girl child is written the moment she is born. With this thematic ad campaign, the brand took a higher stance where the spot shined on the gender inequities in India and showcased the obstacles and biases a girl child faces every day. It ended with an inspiring message that drove home KBC’s main proposition: “knowledge and only knowledge can help one change this society”.
Why it worked?
The message was powerful & inspiring for its target audience that promotes the idea that accomplishments are always related to meritocracy and not with their gender, caste, creed, or family name.
Levi’s
The Campaign
Levi’s, the manufacturer of first ever blue jeans for women has been obsessed about revolutionizing women’s fashion across the world since past 85 years. They started their journey in India back in 1994 and have been rated as the most trusted, stylish and iconic brand in the Indian denim wear segment among the Indian youth so far. In Feb 2021, Levi's launched this new ad featuring Deepika Padukone which went viral & garnered 4.5 million views on social media in a day. With the objective of increasing their popularity & sales amongst the women target group, this campaign has a new message - ‘When you take a step, we all move’.
The Insight
Levi’s tagline “Live in Levi's” has successfully helped the brand change consumer’s behavior because Indian youth now claims to be feeling most comfortable wearing denim daily & living in it.
Conceptualized and executed by ad agency Spring Marketing Capital, this campaign is simple & fun to watch without any heavy messaging. The ad beautifully showcases Deepika Padukone along with women from everyday walks-of-life, who are breaking stereotypes while following their passions in life - motorcycling, drumming, dancing, dreaming, believing and taking each step with confidence to live their next big dream. It aims to promote a culture of sisterhood within young women by celebrating their individuality & self-expression together.
Ajay Ram, Design Partner - Spring Marketing Capital, said "Levi's, as a brand, is built around culture, people and music. We had to build this campaign around these factors while celebrating the strength of the collective. Just like Deepika exudes power and confidence, we selected real women who have been acing their line of work. For instance, Aarifah Rebello is a drummer who features in the video among many other inspiring women,"
Why it worked?
This ad campaign was massively popular on social media because it strongly connected with the youth of today. Levi’s is popular within young women because they have been talking about body positivity, gender equality and self-expression as a part of their women empowerment campaigns such as the HER project and 'I Shape My World' platform.
Commenting on the launch of the new campaign, Saikot Das, Marketing Director – South Asia, Middle East & North Africa at Levi Strauss & Co, said ‘‘The campaign is an ode to the collective movement of women who are moving ahead with strength and shaping a massive cultural change. It’s great to have Deepika as part of the campaign as she embodies what it means to inspire generations to fearlessly chase their dreams and pursuits – a perfect fit to our campaign message ‘When you take a step, we all move’. Through our campaign, we believe we’ll be able to establish a strong connect with our consumers, influence and accelerate the women’s business, further strengthening our leadership in the market.’’
Tanishq
The Campaign
Back in 2013 when Tanishq launched this ad campaign on remarriage it created quite a stir on Facebook & Twitter, with many celebrities & politicians taking a notice of the brand. Many applauded the brand for being a thought leader and breaking stereotypes with grace & power. People took notice that the brand consciously showed the bride to be of "dusky" skin tone and was a mother of one. Both these features were appreciated by the audience & people started saying that Indian advertising is finally coming of age and is becoming progressive. However, there were many who also criticized this ad on social media.
The Insight
In traditional Indian marriage market, there are 4 pre-requisites to qualify for being an ideal bride – she must be fair, slim, tall and unmarried. Tanishq consciously wanted to question the norm. Until 2013, remarriage of a divorced or widowed woman was not a topic of conversations in any forum. With Tanishq putting a bold message out there it won the heart of millions of progressive Indians who want to normalize such conversations.
Social activist and Director of Centre for Social Research, Ranjana Kumari said “while ad campaigns cannot bring about social change, it is good when they focus on the progressive portrayal of women rather than resort to clichés and stereotypes”. She adds that in India, unlike the underprivileged and affluent sections of the society, it is the middle and upper middle classes which are not so comfortable with the concept of second marriage and Tanishq very smartly wanted to target them through this ad.
Why it worked?
You will either love this ad or hate it but cannot ignore it. This campaign evoked strong polarizing response from its viewers for all the right reasons. It was the beginning of normalizing conversations on topics like divorces, late marriages, remarriages etc. Over the past few decades brand Titan has created many unconventional TVCs. However, amongst them only a few are iconic like this one.
PregaNews
The Campaign
Prega News, India’s no. 1 pregnancy detection card from the house of Mankind Pharma has launched this beautiful ad campaign for the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021. It touched on a very sensitive topic of infertility that exists within women in the age group of late 20’s - 40’s. In urban India infertility is an increasing trend as 1 out of 6 couples battle the issue of infertility.
The Insight
After the marriage of their son, the next “good news” in a traditional household is the news of a grandchild. Preparation for welcoming this first grandchild is a big affair in such traditional families.
Prega News created this beautiful campaign showcasing the psychological pressure and depression a woman experiences when she cannot conceive easily due to infertility. Some existing research has suggested that infertility affects women more deeply than men in India because social pressure on the woman to conceive soon after marriage is very high. She undergoes severe psychological pressure, depression and social ostracization while facing the problem of infertility because no matter how accomplished she is, Indian society will call her complete only when she becomes a mother. With this campaign the brand wants to deliver this strong message by saying “she is complete in herself “.
Talking about the campaign, Joy Chatterjee, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma said, ‘Through this campaign, we urge everyone to extend the care for those suffering from infertility and celebrate every woman for who she is because #SheIsCompleteInHerself. We all need to be sensitive and embrace each and every woman for the completeness in herself! It is the responsibility of each one of us to make this world a better place for those suffering in silence.”
Why it worked?
This ad campaign is meant to invoke a sense of empathy among its audience and urges them to help those couples who are facing the issue of infertility & suffering in silence. The ad campaign is being appreciated by marketing fraternity & its target audience for being a thought leader in stepping forward to raise a conversation around such topics and breaking these stigmas.
As consumer insights professionals & marketer, we already knew that there is some truth in the statement that pop culture and advertisements are intertwined. However, the question many experts have not been able to answer is the ‘which came first’: the chicken or the egg?
The ads shown above are a proof that ad films are based on powerful life insights i.e., one fundamental truth about consumer’s life that has the power to impact their subliminal psyche in an influential way when communicated effectively.
In conclusion we can say that, as more and more women join the work force in urban & rural India, their stature in their families, workplaces and society is going through a massive churning.
Unlike the India of 80’s-90’s, many progressive brands and advertisers are now changing the portrayal of Indian women in their ads by tweaking the visuals, tonality, actors, make-up and models being featured in their ads. Gone are those days when popular advertisers had to showcase perfectly ideal looking women with air brushed skin and hair so as to be noticed by their audience. In fact the most popular advertiser Hindustan Unilever Limited had to change the name of its most popular skin cream from “Fair & Lovely” to "Glow & Lovely” because of the changing ethos of Indian audience and this case study is the biggest proof that the advertising sector has come of age.
As an audience & marketer I am very excited to witness this change in Indian ad industry where we are normalizing women having scars, blemishes, dreams & ambitions. This is an era where good content is the king. Any good story with appropriate brand integration will be noticed far more than an air brushed model by today's youth. This is massive culture change vs India of 80s-90s wherein a women’s role in the ad was restricted to looking pretty & attracting the audience.
On this International Women’s Day let us celebrate the triumph and challenges faced by women in real life through these thought-provoking ad films on reel.
Reference :
https://www.socialsamosa.com/2021/02/doves-stop-the-beauty-test-campaign/
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advertising-influence-people-57377.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_campaign
https://blog.globalwebindex.com/marketing/powerful-consumer-insights/
https://www.socialsamosa.com/2020/01/brand-saga-kaun-banega-crorepati-marketing-strategy/
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/variety/tanishq-makes-a-point/article23028840.ece
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