I don’t consider myself well equipped to write about media (or for that marketing) but a media innovation being praised by all and sundry caught my attention and I decided to make it the topic of this belated post!
If you didn’t know already, on September 17 all consumers who watched any of Star’s 10 channels saw only HUL brands being advertised. HUL had, to use a media term, roadblocked all advertising time and space in Star’s ten channels and had only their ads for the entire day.
The world stopped revolving and exclaimed ‘my god’. The entire nation stood up and applauded the most earth shattering event since this nation became independent. ‘HUL has done it again’, screamed the who’s who of marketing.
Done what? This mind of mine fails to grasp the outcome of all this. So a few million people watched only HUL ads all day, fine. But, how many of them felt they were watching only HUL ads. Or how many of us know which company makes most of the ads that we watch or the bulk of the brands that we buy.
Do we know who makes Oral B?
Do we know who makes Medimix?
Do we know who makes D’Cold?
Do we care to know?
It is not just about a simple case of buying inventory from Star. The premium cost for such a strategy is obscenely high and my media sources say it would have been about 100%. Businessworld magazine estimates HUL’s ad-spends that day at about Rs.1,000 crores!
So what did HUL actually achieve by spending a fortune? People got to see only Surf or Lifebuoy or Pears or whatever that was dished out. To the average Mrs. Housewife it’s just another day of ads on TV. Even assuming she never switched to any other channel– Zee or Sony or Colours - during ad breaks, what would have she got? Agreed, she probably didn’t get to see any HUL competitive ads that day. So what? She saw them earlier and she would be seeing them the next day; the day after. Why need to spend Rs.1,000 crores for this? Isn't this the classic case of putting-all-advertising-eggs-in-one-media-basket?
Has recall of HUL brands increased tremendously post this? I doubt. HUL has yet to comment on that. Knowing HUL, they would have done a study by now to ascertain the impact. Their silence screams the deafening impact of their media innovation. Zilch!
You see, this media roadblock strategy might gain people’s attention if a single brand does it with a single message on a single day. For instance, Hutch used this roadblock strategy in 2007 in Star, when they changed the name to Vodafone. All day, a single focused message that Vodafone wanted to achieve – ‘Hutch is now Vodafone’. Maybe that made sense. But different brands of the same company being advertised on the same day – to the consumer, is just another set of advertising. Spending a fortune on it is strategically foolish and creatively futile.
I wondered why any company would even do this. Was I missing something in all this? So I called my media friend – one of the most respected media minds in the country – certainly one of the few I respect - and posed him this question.
Why would a company spend Rs.1,000 crores on just one set of channels on a single day? Who would benefit?
The soft-spoken friend of mine smiled and said, ‘First, the brand manager would. He or she would show it as something different that they attempted and executed. Secondly, the media agency would have earned brownie points and a fat media commission as well. And thirdly Star TV, which would have made a quiet killing’.
But what about the brands, I enquired. He smiled even more and said, ‘Who cares about them’!
8 comments:
wen the brands go big, you need a 360 approach to sustain its tempo.
examples:marico & britannia
1000 crores of BTL advertising could have given better results.probably
they have lot of money & are innovating ways to spend it.Results may be long drawn, but investments dont justify the purpose.
Interesting post. :-)
One more gud one.. A one that made a lot of sense..
@ Tushar:
BTL activities builds trials and sales But doesnt build brands.. BTL doesnt offer u with a "reason to buy" in most cases.. As Sir pointed out, may b "a roadblock on a single message or a brand wud ve made more sense.."
WTF? 1000 crores on ads in a day? Looks like they are tired thinking of the creatives.
They would have made a campaign with their entire brand portfolio in all major cities with free samples to increase the trials. Atleast then Pennies spend would have justified... And whats so special on September 17? That too only the ads of 4 top brands of HUL, which was Fair & lovely, Dove, Ponds and Lifebuoy. Does over dose of something makes an impact?
the fact you are writing about it. and so many other blogs, news columns, business mags, brand equity and its sisters and in general all the P.R coverage has added on to make
1. Showcase the might and size of HUL
2. Maybe clearly establish who's boss in FMCG
3. And also, establish HUL and specifically the unilever logo strongly in the minds.
4. not that i know, maybe it had something to do with stocks also.
5. lastly, and that we continue to talk about it, why they did it? why not something else? what did they achieve? even after it is long over. Like it were as if independence achieved again.
But i do admit it was a stupid attempt. And we at Lowe had distributed questionnaires to just establish any impact . tat it really didn't make a sliver of an impact on the consumer, and they did not bother to realise it also.
Good one sir...!! Running the same Ads repeatedly for the same brands throughout the day, that too on a weekday will definitely results void. Generally, any TV viewer tend to tune through the channels during the Ad-commercials and when companies are trying to look in for other kinds of effective communication and interaction modes other than TV ads , this kind of strategy is a rubbish activity. As like Hutch to Vodafone Campaign, if it has been made for a new brand launch or for a new variant for an existing brand then it make sense and could have created a better impact. May be for HUL, September 17 2009 could be a high funda strategy day but for a typical Indian consumer it’s an another day annoyed with repeated ads and could have made them to surf through channels more faster than ever... If they can analyze the TRP of Star channels on this particular day then they can understand better on how people reacted for this.
I enjoy reading it, really good one. Sir u have aptly said that media road blocking strategy are good only when we have a single focused message.
Hi Sir,
Nice post from you once again and let me share my views on this.I agree with your views in this post in fact if HUL would have came out with an single ad or a message which is depicting their entire product line that would be better . Imagine an ad which is showing 35 major Indian brands like Kwality Wall's, Knorr soups, Lifebuoy, Lux, Breeze, Liril, Rexona, Hamam and Moti soaps, Pureit water purifier, Lipton tea, Brooke Bond tea, Bru coffee, Pepsodent and Close Up, and Surf, Rin and Wheel laundry detergents, Kissan squashes and jams, Annapurna salt and atta, Pond's talcs and creams, Vaseline lotions, Fair and Lovely creams, Lakmé beauty products, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Sunsilk and Dove shampoos, Vim dishwash, Ala bleach, Domex disinfectant, Rexona, Modern Bread, and Axe deosprays in a single ad.If HUL has followed this strategy with an ad like this then that would have been a great success for them forever.
By
Prasanna
Sona School Of Management
Salem
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