Advertising as we know it has always had it superstars. Not only internationally but also in India. When I joined advertising it was Alyque Padamsee who along with Mohammed Khan was the doyen of the Indian advertising industry. Alyque of course, was famous for his English theatre too. This was in the era of print and in print Mohammed was the God. Of course, the world of advertising in print at that time was dominated by English advertising and the reach and fame of these gentlemen was limited to the Indian speaking audience.
The advent of TV changed the scenario. With its wide reach, the opportunity to speak in the local idiom opened a new world for the industry. Non English took centrestage and the likes of Piyush, Prasoon and Balki were its new purveyors.TV also encouraged a move from information to story telling. Soon Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Fevicol, Vodafone, Surf Excel, Happydent, Tata Tea, Saint Gobain etc became the talk of the nation. TV also gave the creator of these campaigns a medium to talk about their work.
So now with the digital wave on us where a 30 sec commercial is not necessarily the norm, will we see the end of such creative superstars? These great storytellers who used the TV media so brilliantly to build brands, will they have no successors?
I think the answer is already around. In the last few years except for Aggy, no new superstar has arrived. I suspect one reason for the same is that the work of creative has changed. When TV was the lead media the focus was to produce a great campaign around a TVC. That focus has changed. It is no longer a TV lead game. Now its about how do we use digital media? Its now about how to go viral? Its about how we involve the consumer? The trick is not just in TVC but on how to take the TVC further.
There is no denying that the idea is still core to the communication. One needed a great idea for a TVC and one needs a big idea for a digital campaign too. But the subtle change that has come in has been that communication has truly become a two way process. Whereas a TVC was a one way process, a monologue at its best, the digital era means that we need to involve and let the consumer participate in the communication. So its no longer about just bonding with the consumer. Its about letting him be part of a dialogue. Its not about making a TVC and then watching it work. Its about unleashing a piece of communication, tweaking it, adding to it and responding to the consumer interaction.
This means that the creative person who till a few years ago was content with grasping the nuances of film making today has also to be a technology geek. He has to understand and keep on evolving with the digital medium. He cannot just be an ideas person. He has to mould his ideas with the nitty gritties of the medium. So it is a complicated task.
And that's the reason I believe that the next breed of creative superstars will not be the creative types but the technology types who will be bold enough to experiment with ideas and ready to take creative leaps. These will not merely be a writer or an ideas guy or even an art person but someone who understands what digital is, what it can do, how it can work with the consumer and how it can enter into a dialogue with the consumer.
Yet another reason for the fading away of the TVC type creative person is the evolution of product and hence brands and hence marketing. Brands life cycle is becoming short. Brand differentiation in features is blurring. With technology progressing by leaps and bounds no brand has a feature edge for more than few months. You would say, well more reason to create a differentiated brand. But the truth is that the process of creating a differentiated brand has taken a back seat. It is now about, got it flaunt it. So there is less of brand build and more of brand sell. Less about a story, a tale and more about buy me why and buy me now. Its about seduction and not flirting. The message is about a feature or a price or an offer. That does not really need a story telling TVC. It needs an interesting way to pass on information and use digital to focus the message and get the consumer involved.
E commerce is the best example of the same. Flipkart started with some brand building TVC's but they have now moved on to deals, weekend offers, exclusive offers and so on. Amazon is all about offering more than 1.6 crore products. Myntra is about likes, Snapdeal is about the electronic sale....so where is the creativity...its all about offers, deals. They put up a TVC for information, but what they are creative about is digital media. How do they score there is what matters. So Flipkart seals an exclusive 30 days deal for Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography and uses Social Media to tap cricket fans, uses sites like ESPNCricinfo to tap their data base or banners in the live scores....that's what counts.
So for all you know the next superstar is actually a number cruncher. Maybe he is already there hidden behind all that data and charts. Thinking on how to differentiate in media and how to get more eyeballs, more likes, more hits and more consumer comments. Know anyone matching that description?
The advent of TV changed the scenario. With its wide reach, the opportunity to speak in the local idiom opened a new world for the industry. Non English took centrestage and the likes of Piyush, Prasoon and Balki were its new purveyors.TV also encouraged a move from information to story telling. Soon Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Fevicol, Vodafone, Surf Excel, Happydent, Tata Tea, Saint Gobain etc became the talk of the nation. TV also gave the creator of these campaigns a medium to talk about their work.
So now with the digital wave on us where a 30 sec commercial is not necessarily the norm, will we see the end of such creative superstars? These great storytellers who used the TV media so brilliantly to build brands, will they have no successors?
I think the answer is already around. In the last few years except for Aggy, no new superstar has arrived. I suspect one reason for the same is that the work of creative has changed. When TV was the lead media the focus was to produce a great campaign around a TVC. That focus has changed. It is no longer a TV lead game. Now its about how do we use digital media? Its now about how to go viral? Its about how we involve the consumer? The trick is not just in TVC but on how to take the TVC further.
There is no denying that the idea is still core to the communication. One needed a great idea for a TVC and one needs a big idea for a digital campaign too. But the subtle change that has come in has been that communication has truly become a two way process. Whereas a TVC was a one way process, a monologue at its best, the digital era means that we need to involve and let the consumer participate in the communication. So its no longer about just bonding with the consumer. Its about letting him be part of a dialogue. Its not about making a TVC and then watching it work. Its about unleashing a piece of communication, tweaking it, adding to it and responding to the consumer interaction.
This means that the creative person who till a few years ago was content with grasping the nuances of film making today has also to be a technology geek. He has to understand and keep on evolving with the digital medium. He cannot just be an ideas person. He has to mould his ideas with the nitty gritties of the medium. So it is a complicated task.
And that's the reason I believe that the next breed of creative superstars will not be the creative types but the technology types who will be bold enough to experiment with ideas and ready to take creative leaps. These will not merely be a writer or an ideas guy or even an art person but someone who understands what digital is, what it can do, how it can work with the consumer and how it can enter into a dialogue with the consumer.
Yet another reason for the fading away of the TVC type creative person is the evolution of product and hence brands and hence marketing. Brands life cycle is becoming short. Brand differentiation in features is blurring. With technology progressing by leaps and bounds no brand has a feature edge for more than few months. You would say, well more reason to create a differentiated brand. But the truth is that the process of creating a differentiated brand has taken a back seat. It is now about, got it flaunt it. So there is less of brand build and more of brand sell. Less about a story, a tale and more about buy me why and buy me now. Its about seduction and not flirting. The message is about a feature or a price or an offer. That does not really need a story telling TVC. It needs an interesting way to pass on information and use digital to focus the message and get the consumer involved.
E commerce is the best example of the same. Flipkart started with some brand building TVC's but they have now moved on to deals, weekend offers, exclusive offers and so on. Amazon is all about offering more than 1.6 crore products. Myntra is about likes, Snapdeal is about the electronic sale....so where is the creativity...its all about offers, deals. They put up a TVC for information, but what they are creative about is digital media. How do they score there is what matters. So Flipkart seals an exclusive 30 days deal for Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography and uses Social Media to tap cricket fans, uses sites like ESPNCricinfo to tap their data base or banners in the live scores....that's what counts.
So for all you know the next superstar is actually a number cruncher. Maybe he is already there hidden behind all that data and charts. Thinking on how to differentiate in media and how to get more eyeballs, more likes, more hits and more consumer comments. Know anyone matching that description?
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