Celebrity Endorsements - The beginning of the end?

4Ps B&M's Monojit Lahiri traces the big bucks story and wonders whether the latest IMRB-IPAN report will disturb the honeymoon between celebs, advertisers and the consumers...

Okay, its been said a zillion times before but it warrants repetition, one more time, simply because the disease just wont go away! India has only two – sorry Politicians, you don’t count! – religions: Cricket and Bollywood. Come what may, they guarantee you excitement and eyeballs, like nothing else. Advertising, forever searching for devices and touchpoints (read: bakhras!) to engage in a meaningful and rewarding manner with its customers, naturally, zeroes into the juicy terrain of these two with breakneck speed, sometimes, not bothering to either look at the speedometer or the impending roadblocks!

Has the journey been smooth? A quick pan of today’s scenario.

Master Blaster and cricket’s hottest icon, Sachin Tendulkar, has always led the pack – in this area too. Apart from his earlier portfolio, he has of late, been signed on by Kishore Biyani’s Future Group as Brand Ambassador for its upcoming range of products, which include energy drinks, shakes, diet supplement powders, sports goods, cricket gear, bats, balls, vitamin-enriched natural juices, treadmills, exercise mats, cycles and eyewear. Pepsi too has signed him up to endorse a sports drink Gatorade. Aviva too has picked him up for a child plan, unit-linked plan. The comeback guy Saurav (Dada) Ganguly has been picked up by consumer electronic firm, TCL, German sports lifestyle brand PUMA and INX News, a new broadcast channel. Tennis star Bhupati has been signed up by ApolloTyres, while Barclays have frozen on Golfing ace Mikka Singh. (These however are exceptions).

Ah, coming to Bollywood, have the ad guys turned on the heat?! Gorgeous, new star scorching the headlines Deepika Padukone leads the youth brigade with Kingfisher (brand ambassador) and watch-maker Tissot, along with Levi Strauss.

Bipasha Basu continues to fly high on the road with Kinetic’s Sym Flyte, as also (for some inexplicable reason) real estate developer, Emgee! Elegant and classy Sushmita Sen – more seen in ads than movies, sadly – blitzes the adspace with Olay, Tag Heuer, Kiah Diamonds and Pantene. Kajol’s going strong with Perfetti’s Alpenliebe and some others. Cousin Rani Mukherjee – Bollywood’s popular Queen of Hearts – has Good Knight mosquito repellent, Titan Raga, Fanta, Dabur Vatika, Nestle Munch, & Aveo. Bubbly Preity Zinta has Rexona Roll-on deo, Godrej EON air conditioners, BSNL telecom and new airline GoAir. The fabulous Lara Dutta and cool Bobby Deol are the face of trendy fashion name Pantaloon.
 
In the men’s zone, superhero Hrithik Roshan remains hot as ever with Acer, John Players, Parle, Tata Sky, Sony Ericsson, Radico Khaitan… up next is the rockin’ Chhote Nawab, Saif Ali Khan with Taj Mahal tea, Royal Stag, Yamaha, Newport, Colgate, Lenovo, Aveo… Then there is Akki, with Grasim Suitings, Thums Up, Microsoft Xbox 360. And about the Big B and SRK, (bulging with endorsements), who doesn’t know?

All these glitzy and glamorous endorsements are, undoubtedly, wonderfully rewarding for the stars and hugely rewarding for the insatiable (can’t have enough!) star-hungry TV viewers. But, at the end of the day, does it do anything for the clients’ products advertised? Remember the (ageing) yesteryears dream girl Hema Malini hawking mineral water Kent RO and (would you believe it) – Bank of Rajasthan!

Where on earth is the remotest connect or credibility, for chrissake? Equally weird is hi-profile lyricist Javed Akhtar endorsing Jaypee Cement! Bips and real estate? The Big B and Navratna hair oil? Naseer Shah and Om Puri doing equally crazy stuff? Admittedly, for the star its mega-bucks in double-quick time (with Mallika Sherawat reportedly netting a staggering Rs.3.5 crore for an ad campaign!) but what about the poor sucker who doles out the dough?

No humming and hawing any more. The Jury is out. A new survey conducted jointly by IMRB & IPAN reveals some startling facts. Conducted with a sample size of over 2000 respondents, across 12 cities (small and big metros). 86% of those interviewed admitted that the ad that they most remembered had a celeb, but only 3% said it influenced their buying decision. The IMRB head-honchos seemed clear that “more than the celeb pull, factors like quality, price and experience ultimately drove consumers purchasing pattern.” Further, “only 22% of this sample believes that the celebs actually use the products endorsed. In the South, the figure is even lesser, 13%!”

So, should celebs be dumped? “Not really” believes IMRB’s Pal, “At a primary level celeb endorsements help to break the clutter but beyond that… it is doubtful whether they add any real value.” The bitter truth comes from the very survey itself.

The Big B & SRK have so many endorsements across product categories that 15 % of people have “wrong” brand recalls for the towering inferno and 9% for Badshah Khan. Can you blame them?

Remember there is absolutely nothing more dumb or grossly unprofessional than having your audience/customers remember the ad but forget the product!

Celebrity Endorsements - The beginning of the end?

Snapshots! adland’s affair with the Indian woman...

4Ps B&M's Monojit Lahiri does a check out with a few celebs on this edgy image issue

First things first. Only guys in dire need of an instant brain transplant perceive advertising to be the unsoiled harbinger of truth or relentless brand ambassador of reality. Advertising is after all (first and last) a crucial marketing tool mandated to do a job as effectively as possible. Toward achieving this end (like Bollywood) magnifying, hyping, dramatising, exaggerating and colouring comes with the territory. “Agreed,” says the hugely respected Asia Pacific President of Leo Burnett, Michelle Kristula-Green, “but are we reading the writing on the wall correctly?” In a hard-hitting presentation made a while ago in Delhi, titled MIS UNDERSTOOD-WHY SHE’S NOT BUYING YOUR AD’S, she let fly some disturbing whoppers based on her findings on an extensive survey across Asian markets – China, Japan and India. Woman, she said, accused advertisers of portraying them in a man’s version of what they should be like. Further, she added, the basic communication slant was way off on five solid counts: money, sexuality, humour, emotion and authenticity. The survey also revealed that unlike the West, woman here weren’t comfortable with blatant portrayals of sex. It was more an internal paradigm shift where they’ve learnt to handle and appreciate sex appeal as part of their intrinsic feminity rather than an exhibitionistic, brazen and titillating man-baiting USP. Finally, in Asian society, “girls are taught to view emotions as their strength NOT weakness hence they seem to respond to a message that is authentic & real – warts and all – more positively than one that is beautifully packaged but phoney.”

How does this argument rock with our guys in celeb-ville?

Ad Film maker (and now celeb Feature Film director), Pradeep Sarkar refuses to bite. He believes that like in the movies, the shift toward realism has begun in the ad film scenario. “You will see a lesser degree of the superwoman, supermom and superwife persona today because the industry has started to recognise and respect the readers/viewers intelligence and thus offer slices of life in the communication that both entertain and connect. No wonder the new war-cry in today’s ad-scene is yaar, make it less addy! Meaning, don’t make it look like a typical ad; make it look real.”

High profile head honcho of PNC, Pritish Nandy however scoffs at any mention of advertising being associated with truth or reality. “To me, advertising is nothing more than a 30 second recreational capsule designed to provide a breather from the brutalities of India’s newscape. Into this, of course, is insidiously built-in the profit motive.” Warmed up, he offers his views on advertising’s depiction of woman. “It’s very interesting. They throw up two stereotypes, neither of which is anchored in reality! The first is the “firang” model, the sassy and sexy international (Kate Moss?) import who sashays across up-market glossies, Sunday supplements as also our TV screens. The creators of this persona believe that teaming with the brand owners, they can successfully hawk style, attitude and looks because, after all, what you see is where the action is! This leads to the conviction that consumers will surely buy into this image because in today’s globalised India, the Western look, style & pizazz is the flavour of the moment.” This tragi-comical colonisation of their mind, Nandy believes is, mercifully, not shared by the Indian consumer and reflects the ad fraternity’s total disconnect with reality. It brilliantly symbolises what today’s India is NOT!
 
“The second is the homegrown Kanta Bai / Lalitaji model. This representation attempts to propagate old-fashioned values of thrift and choices. The models also are (consciously) unglamourous, plain, non-threatening, cosy and cutesy hitting the security zone and evoking visions of the virginal, innocent, blissful past. Pity is, that it symbolises India of yesterday, not today! It is a corny and romanticised version that just doesn’t resonate with today’s life and times.” Where is, Nandy wonders, today’s real woman – of complexities and contradictions, magic and mystique – that any sensitive male sees everywhere, across a nation on the move? Gifted director Aparna Sen (36 Chowringhee Lane, Mr. & Mrs. Iyer, 15, Park Avenue) joins the fray. She believes that the Indian women is represented in a truly pathetic fashion, forever one-dimensional – North Indian, fair, urban – with occasional, unimaginative and degrading forays into tokenism. “How is it that beyond this cardboard, stereotypical cut-out, one hardly ever gets to connect with a real, believable, flesh & blood type! When was the last time one saw a woman from the South, East or North-East as ad models”? While Sen appreciates the crafting, technological highs and slick execution of these endeavours, she feels very strongly about the real Indian woman being hi-jacked by a predictable and soul-less stereotype, completely powered by a consumerist culture and vested interest.

Okay, so what gives? I believe advertising’s endeavour is to identify, dramatise, even magnify some “real” emerging trends. The actual portrayal is seldom clinically and cold-bloodedly accurate; it is more a mythologised version, but everything considered, one certainly gets to see a fascinating representation (across the spectrum) with the housewife playing a starring role! Suddenly, this harassed, sacrificial, 24X7 slogger, gatekeeper and provider of her family’s joy and well-being has morphed into a zestful and joyous participant as well. She seems to be able to say YES (rather then the earlier, automatic NO) with more élan than before. She seems to also enjoy a much greater sense of control along with the ability to be playful with her husband, rather than treat him as the authoritative, fearing, lord and master. She is no longer defined by the role she plays but slips in and out of her several roles – (daughter, wife, mother, daughter-in-law, working woman) with a greater degree of style, conviction and confidence. Overall, she seems to be much more together and aware of who she is, what she’s doing, where she is coming from and the effect she has… and she uses that more consciously than ever before. In fact, the most dramatic paradigm shift has been in this area – not the so-called westernised, hot-babe segment (“Am I looking good and smelling nice”) where the paranoid and insecure chic is constantly looking at every mirror available to check-out whether she measures upto the Gladrag’s Diva or Femina’s hot princess desperately waiting for approval and affirmation from the world.

Snapshots! adland’s affair with the Indian woman...

NCDs become CEOs!

It’s myth- exploding time, guys! Suddenly cash and creativity are no longer crass, weird, warring or strange bedfellows anymore, but pro-active, hi- profile, compatible entities, merged into one being, in some of the biggest marquee shake-outs , blitzing Indian adscape in recent times. monojit lahiri does a checkout and investigates whether there is a contradiction in this new shuffle or, is it – finally – an idea who’s time has come!

Okay, first things first. Did you ever imagine that a day would come, when a guy juggling creative briefs and providing cutting-edge, insightful solutions would be the same guy bogeying with projections, business targets and business development strategies?! Excuse me, aren’t these diabolically different and separate jobs, demanding specialised expertise and skill-sets? If the cataclysmic goings-on in the highest echelon of adbiz are any indication, the answer has to be a firm and categorical NO. In recent times, at least three hi-profile National Creative Directors have joined the exalted status of Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi, by donning the hat of Executive Chairman as well. They are R. Balki (Lowe Lintas India Pvt. Ltd.) Josy Paul (Omnicom Group, BBDO) and Sonal Dabral (Bates David Enterprise). Hey, wassup? Are the lines blurring or what? Are we really entering a whole new era where cash and creativity will rock together?

“Yes we are, and it’s only natural that such a thing should happen”! That’s Leo Burnett’s hi-profile NCD, Sridhar, aka Pops take on it. He believes it’s a logical extension and progression of how advertising has evolved over the last decade in this country. “Never before have clients been so anxious to engage with the consumer (the more up-close and personal, the better!), enter his/her mindscape and imprint his footprints. This is light miles away from the strategic brand positioning route, championed furiously, in earlier times. Today, we live in a commodities age, where unique positioning is a very tough call because every product has everything that the other product has. In this complex scenario, where is that ‘critical differential’ that separates one brand from another? That’s when brand personality came centre-stage. The moment this happened, smart clients began to look for ‘the’ guys who had the sensitivity, vision, insight, ability and craft to understand the nuances that drove the creator of this brand personality and deliver it, meaningfully,” he shares.

This was indeed a watershed, marking a paradigm shift from (the earlier) ‘product benefits’ to ‘persona’, across categories. Number-crunchers gave way to people who could crack and track the shifting contours of consumer psyche. Also, speed was of essence with Annual Reviews giving way to Quarterly Reviews and brand managers being accountable for the bottomlines. Hence, since the creative guys seemed to understand the intricacies of the game and know-how to score, clients thought it would be a better idea to go to them directly. Another transformational leap was the ‘kind’ of creative people who are making waves today. Adds Sridhar, “Unlike earlier times, when the ultimate joy came from writing a memorable line or drawing a killer visual (and nothing more), today’s creative people are pro-active, involved and want to be a part of the brand-building experience. They want to know everything and believe it’s their job to see the big picture – not just write an ad or do a visual and go home. They are interested in the advertising business and entrepreneurship and want to create wealth for the clients. They speak with pride of monetising creativity in a responsible manner. That transition has definitely happened – more power to the movement!”
 
The un-putdownable Alyque Padamsee (adland’s evergreen Dev Anand, the hi-profile Lintas adman who headed the organistaion between the early eighties and nineties with great flamboyance, innovation and success) insists that he struck target only because he knew the ‘hisaab’ game very well! As a reputed & established theatre Director-Producer it was his job to not only provide quality plays to his audience, but also get involved in the ‘dirty work’ – locate & identify sponsors, arrange funds, check out auditoriums & hall rates, et al. “Hence, along with creative brilliance, sound, pragmatic executive ability is of critical importance.” Creative super-stars of yesteryears who headed agencies – Kersey Katrak, Frank Simoes, even Mohammed Khan – Padamsee believes, inevitably ran into heavy weather because of this lapse. He admits that its too early to write off the new, exciting creative guys heading agencies, but confesses (tongue firmly in cheek) it pains him to see Piyush furiously tearing his trade-mark moustache after long & hassled sessions with the union or deciding how much increment to give to whom, or which new car should the office assign to which category of personnel. “It’s tough to wear two hats & still look cool!

Mohammed Khan slings this argument out of the window instantly and emphasises that equitable distribution of expertise is the name of the game. “The greatest example & role model is Saatchi & Saatchi, where one brother navigated the business-side, while the other looked after creative.” Khan can’t figure out why this big song & dance is being made about something that is an accepted norm worldwide and India “is probably 50 or maybe even 100 years too late!” He speaks of his own example where, every time he opened a new shop, he had the right partners. “At Rediffusion, I had Ajit Balakrishna. At Contract, there was Sam Balsara. At Enterprise, there was Rajeev Agarwal. The ad business is ultimately a creative-led one, & no big agency anywhere, ever, has ignored the name of the creative guy who started it. Check it out.”

Priti Nair is up next. The sexily tattooed NCD of Grey Worldwide instantly goes slam-bang into the subject. “Boss it’s very simple. The end-creative product today totally defines the focus and strength of an agency. It’s not really a new phenomenon but the palpable, tangible and real difference is that creative today showcases the personality of an agency as never before. Every single department functions towards facilitating this prime objective because on it lays the agency’s flight towards the stars.” Nair believes that this creative dominance has happened because of the media boom, Internet, multi-national invasion & various communication avenues opening up, making the cutting-edge creative product the true-blue reflection of an agency’s persona.

“At the end of the day what drives a brand, or what consumers see, read, hear & react to is ‘not’ strategy, planning or research... It is the creative. If that is so, then this transition of NCD to CEO is perfect because then, (formally), every single function will work clearly towards realising this pre-determined objective. Hence, collectively, the direction & energy is totally one-dimensional.” Further, Nair emphasises, with technology access available to one & all, there is zero product difference, no USP, drastic time reduction in launch dates… all this only puts more pressure on making creative the ‘only real’ criteria between a product’s success or failure. “Nobody understands this better than a creative animal. No wonder most sophisticated clients today want to deal directly with the creative guys, because they know it is they who will translate their vision into a compelling value-proposition designed to seduce the consumer’s mindspace into delivering the right results.”

Nikhil Nehru (the reputed & hugely successful VP of JWT, North, during the eighties & nineties) does not quite tango with the ‘Priti’ woman’s drift. While he un-hesitatingly salutes the creative talents of this new breed of CEO’s, he wonders whether there has not been a disturbing seismic shift in the blueprint. “The more I look around the agency scene, the more I tend to believe that the focus seems trained much more on ‘personalities than organisations.’ This is unprecedented. Sure you had superstars in earlier times too, but the organisation always came first. I am not sure that prevails today. It’s about names towering above everything else, aided and abetted by a pathetically dumbed-down media, that is perpetually looking for sensationalising everything. It’s about Brand Piyush, Prasoon, Balki… and whoever else… although Piyush has consciously striven to carry the organisation and team with him, playing out his role as an inspirational leader with passion and purpose. Whether others have – or can follow – is to be seen.” Nehru is also not quite sure whether (in this scheme of things) everyone works in a collective, unified way towards realising the same corporate agenda. “I sometimes get the distinct feeling that one-upmanship and who’s-pipping-whom to-the-post precedes everything else. After all, creative guys have huge egos, insecurities and competitive natures, which could blur their vision of the big picture. When celebrating the individual becomes the signature tune, leadership takes a huge hit, as does the basic premise of man-management. What is likely to happen is that except the charmed inner circle of the boss-man, others will be made to feel as orphans, leading them to look elsewhere… Leadership is as much about bonding across the board as inspiring everyone by example. It has to be inclusive and pluralistic – not Page 3, standalone razzle-dazzle.”
 
Strong words indeed, but Balki deflects these uncomfortable apprehensions to the back-burner, while airing his own views… and the new Executive Chairman of Lowe certainly has very definite views on the subject. “Frankly, I don’t think I am doing anything drastically different than what I did earlier. I head the advertising part of the business, which means I look after the ideas that drive the growth of my clients’ business and remain responsible for creating products that deliver the goods. And what is the end-product? Interesting solutions to client’s problems.” The affable bearded head honcho brilliantly projects the changing profile of the new clients. “As clients get more and more aware of an agency’s business they get lesser and lesser worried about how they (agency) manage their own business… and more interested in how they manage their (clients) business interest. In this scheme of things, the conventional, water-tight, pecking-order and hierarchy of yesteryears has no place. Clients don’t give a damn about whom they are interfacing with – creative, planning, client servicing – as long as they are confident about the person making a difference.” He believes too much is being made out of this role playing and the fact that – presently – the creative guys are at the helm of the affairs is a coincidence. “Clients are looking for people who can produce results. Right now, it’s some of the creative guys. Tomorrow it could well be a planner, management, whatever. Clients are in a hurry to break through artificial barriers and via media obstacles and go straight to the ‘chef’, the person who deals single-mindedly with the business of ideas that will impact his business. Regarding other stuff – as Mohammed pointed out earlier – there will always be a solid Business Head whose core competency lies in managing that area. As always, clients understood and recognised all this much before the agencies did, hence for them, it’s not a big deal. It’s the agencies – forever more reactive than proactive – who are yelling from rooftops!”

So at the end of the day, what’s the conclusion? It’s this. The entire advertising process (read: delivery mode) today has changed dramatically, with the creative product (what you see is what you get) being the most significant aspect. In this kind of a scenario – powered relentlessly by an insatiable media and awards syndrome forever plonking it centre-stage as major glitterati events – the NCD is projected as the hero, the glamorous mover ‘n’ shaker, the guy who makes things happen! Wasn’t it only a question of time before the formal coronation took place?

NCDs become CEOs!

ARE OUR (GLAM) ad awards, sending out the wrong signal?

4Ps B&M's Monojit Lahiri attempts to examine the truth behind the hype, hoopla n’ hysteria, glitz n’ glamour, awe n’ aura that accompanies today’s award ceremonies – and award winners!

Cannes. Abbys. Goafest. Ad club events … Awards seem to be the flavour of the day… and award-winners, the new Supernovas on the block. This was brought home to me dramatically when some biggies of the revered JWT, candidly confessed that – despite their blue-chip lineage, glorious track-record, fantastic client profile, impressive size and gigantic billings – they were finding it tough to attract the right (hot, young, gifted) creative talent. Kids just didn’t appear interested in moseying over to their corner. (Insiders claim that boring, factory and too systems-driven were some of the kinder terms used!) To the reputed market-leaders, this was bewildering, surprising and disturbing. What was the problem? What did the others (Read Ogilvy, McCann, Lowe) have that they didn’t? Why was their work – or head-honchos – never featured or written up (like Piyush, Prasoon or Balki) like some others? Reviewing the scene, they discovered, one of their greatest perceived flaws was a lack of awards. JWT never made any waves at award ceremonies. It lacked charisma and chutzpah. A dramatic re-scripting of the blue-print followed, wherein it was openly declared that the creative product, henceforth would define their new persona. That the creative guys would work in an atmosphere that would be conducive to create outstanding work. That awards would be targeted with passion and purpose. Did this re-invention help? Both, Delhi-based Rohit Ohri, Managing Partner and Mumbai-based Agnello Dias, NCD, categorically nod in the right direction, pointing to a slew of awards and nominations that, subsequently, has come their way …Great, but seeing the big picture in recent times, doesn’t one get the distinct impression that too much song n’ dance and dramabaazi is attached to the awards thing? That, many times, they send out the wrong signals (for young, impressionable starry-eyed aspirants) about the kind of work that is felicitated (and awarded) and the quality of the creative animal, hymned and celebrated? That somewhere along the way, the industry – agency & clients – completely blown by this new bimari, have misread the writing on the wall to wow the sizzle – not the steak?!

Mohammed Khan (the just-retired Chairman of Bates Enterprise) is shocked at all that goes in the name of awards and is convinced that the industry has completely lost the plot. “Awards, at best, are meant to be by-products of fresh and interesting work that makes a difference, but the way its caught fire gives it both, an unreal and dangerous dimension. Its as if an award is the ‘real’ product and advertising, a poor also-ran! I’m told teams and budgets are set up in some agencies for this – imagine! Then, of course there is the very real and active ‘scam’ factor. Khan believes that the general standard of advertising today “is the pits and the industry should focus its attention in doing good work. Clients should be ashamed of these goings-on and blow the whistle, but I guess, they too are taken up with the glamour and media coverage and are happy to be co-opted. Awards, truly, seem to have taken on a life of its own … really tragic and deeply disappointing.” Ogilvy’s mustachioed public face, Piyush Pandey, is cool. His agency has been the recipient of a zillion awards for sometime now and he has no reason to complain. He believes that the guys who crib and moan are the losers for whom it’s a case of sour grapes! He emphasises that every single piece of work that is submitted for awards from his agency “is meticulously scrutinised by an in-house committee and selected as much for brand performance as creative excellence”. Personally, he enjoys award-functions and awards and gives it “the space, recognition and importance it deserves”.
 
Lowes’ reputed anti-awards champ, Balki, brings his very own case to the table. “If awards are meant to really reflect and celebrate excellence, I’m all for it. Problem is, (in most cases) the people judging advertising still have archaic and stereotypical ideas of creativity, which conflicts with my version of a level playing field. Why rock the boat and create controversies? So I stay out”. Balki is also of the belief that in most cases, clients are way ahead of agencies in terms of creative and breakthrough concepts … and consumers are miles ahead of the learned jury members when it comes to selecting the best!

At the end of the day, awards really are meant to salute your merit and provide impetus to further raise the bar. However, in recent times (thanks to a glossy, dumbed-down media) the ad industry in general and awards in particular have really occupied miles of media space, transforming Creative Directors into Page 3 creatures! These chosen few are then flaunted as trophies by their agencies to clients in the hope of getting business. Other agencies also eye them with the idea of poaching. And suddenly its not advertising we are talking about. Vague echoes of IPL?!

ARE OUR (GLAM) ad awards, sending out the wrong signal?