It seems like advertising is all misty-eyed these days. The surge in feelings has nothing to do with any Budget pronouncements or the rising-costs-shrinking-margins sob story that one has repeatedly heard from industry folk over the years. Rather, this one is all about the ad films that are coming from all corners of ad-land; the autistic boy in the Birla Sun Life ads, the girl with an artificial leg in the HDFC Life commercials, the deaf-mute lover in TVS scooters and the ageing blind cricket fan in the Gillette commercials. While all the above advertisements use disability in several forms to stir consumer emotions, there is also the case of Dabur’s hair care brand Vatika that shows the story of a young mother who has lost her hair during the treatment of cancer and how she courageously copes with it.
Are these ads tapping into new-age Indian consumers who have just discovered their sentimental side? Certainly not, considering that the Indian film industry has been exploiting the frailty of human emotions for as long as one can remember. Or is it that businesses have a newfound conscience for the differently-abled? As an article For an all inclusive shopping spree in cat.a.lyst dated January 23, 2015 pointed out, businesses are just about beginning to get their act together on that front.
So why are ads on a sentimentally high, or low, pitch these days? “True human emotion will always generate a positive reaction,” says Aniruddha Haldar, Head-Marketing - Scooters, TVS Motor Company. RajDeepak Das, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, the agency that created the HDFC Life campaign, adds: “People react to content that is based on a powerful human emotion. It is not about a smile or a tear. Any ad that evokes a powerful emotion connects well with people.”
In a category such as two-wheelers, most brands thrive on the exhilaration and joy of riding a two-wheeler through their communication. Haldar of TVS points out two-wheelers delivered a critical requirement of giving couples more quality time together, whether it was zipping through the traffic and getting from one point to another faster than other modes of transport, or creating physical proximity when couples rode together. Hence, the brand decided to play up the aspect of “finding your ‘we’ time” in its communication. The deaf-and mute character entered the storyline to emphasise that true love can express itself beyond words.
Consider the case of insurance. Through the years most of the communication played up the aspect of fear through their ads. As Ajay Kakar, CMO, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group points out, the stoking of fear resulted in consumers going into a shell. He adds that the storyline of the father of an autistic child dealing with challenges in his life showcases the “extraordinary story of an ordinary man”.
He says that the idea of “saluting the human spirit” that came through Hindi movies such as Anand, Kunwara Baap and Shor is what the brand hopes to replicate. He adds that the “ Khud Ko Kar Buland ” (loosely translated as “become a towering figure”) campaign only acknowledges that fact that while once cannot foretell the future, it’s only in our hands on how to live the future.
For HDFC Life the “ Sar Utha ke Jiyo ” (that translates to “live with your head held high”) proposition was reinterpreted keeping today’s context and audience in mind. Sanjay Tripathy, Senior EVP - Marketing, Product, Digital and E-commerce, HDFC Life, says the central character in their advertisement has taken the step ahead from “being a provider of financial security to an enabler of emotional independence”. Das adds that the HDFC campaign was designed to communicate what living with dignity and pride means for the young insurance buyers. “With this story of a young father teaching his daughter to live with pride, we wanted to bring alive the vital role men play in teaching their family to live with their head held high.”
Reality bites But behind all this advertising noise lurks the business reality. Kakar says consumers for financial services were split between two kinds. One segment believed in Karma and would not want to think actively about financial security. The other was the “reality show generation” that believed they were invincible and that nothing could happen to them.
Both these types of consumers were bad for business, particularly the insurance business.
As a result the financial services sector, that insurance is a part of, is severely under-penetrated. Kakar says that only 15-16 per cent of Indian consumers buy insurance policies, five per cent subscribe to mutual funds and two per cent invest in equities. Hence the Birla film tries to capture five different financial solutions through one story.
While stoking emotions might work well for the insurance category, would that tone of advertising work in categories such as hair care or shaving blades where consumers have never been used to commercials that tug at your heartstrings work across categories? “Emotions are not bound by categories. But yes, some emotions work better for some categories. But it is also largely a brand’s ability to tap into a specific emotion that may or may not be dependent on the category,” says Das of Leo Burnett.
In the case of shaving razor brand Gillette, the brand attempts to tap the spirit of an Indian cricket fan, who, despite turning blind while playing his favourite sport, uses his son’s eyes to view the latest on the cricket field.
Hair care brand Dabur Vatika takes its brand position of celebrating women achievers into saluting someone for the biggest victory of her life, conquering cancer.
If the online responses to these ads are any indication, most consumers seem to be giving the ads a thumbs-up.
Will these ads also perk up the sales graphs? As of now, no one is talking.