Of trialogues and setting context: Ad Review explores 'Who Cares'

What makes for a good ad – A question that has left many an advertiser and creative mind in a state of constant flux. During the Ad Review by The Advertising Club held on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, industry stalwarts attempted to answer this question with recent examples of campaigns that have left a lasting impression.

The session, titled ‘Who Cares. vs Who cares?’, was kicked off by Raj Nayak, President, The Ad Club, and saw Agnello Dias, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Taproot India, and Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India, address the need for clever advertising. The session was moderated by Subhajit Sen, CMO, Micromax Informatics.

Flagging off the event and setting the tone for the evening, Raj Nayak said, “It has been our constant endeavour to encourage an inclusive analysis of our work from within our industry. I am thankful to Agnello, Josy and Subhajit for their enthusiasm in partaking the Ad Review, 2016 and hope the session leaves both the creative and the business minds of our industry with a more in-depth understanding of our work. Also, I’d like to thank Bhaskar Das for helping us curate tonight’s event.”

Agnello Dias took to stage a very powerful point of view – everyone cares and everyone has an opinion. He addressed the challenge of new age and emphasised on the point that communication has become a mass spectator sport. He said, “We live in fractured times and it is getting increasingly challenging to make an ad that cuts across all that clutter. Especially now, when times have changed where you are going through a trialogue compared to previously when there was a dialogue. Now everyone has an opinion even though they may not be your target audience, and they will be influencing you consumer. This is the challenge in the new age.”

Some of the examples of good campaigns for the year were Lifebuoy’s ‘Chamki’ as one that is talking to a broad audience even though the target audience is fixed. Similarly, Ariel’s ‘Share the Load’ to highlight the aspect that a detergent brand could cut across categories because of the appeal of the theme.

Josy Paul brought out an important point of context building being important more so than content. He said, “In order to change the game, much more importance needs to be given to context. Content is fleeting whereas context is something that will be remembered.”

Elaborating on campaigns that focus on context setting, he showcased campaigns by Olx, Whisper’s Touch The Pickle, Barbie and Airtel – campaigns that start and grow conversations. He laid emphasis on the fact that context, be it social, gender related or nation related, helps make heroes of the brands that use them.

Subhajit Sen, who moderated the session, concluded, “In the end, a good ad is one that makes the CFO happy; one that generates profits and sales. Not to forget that social media has indeed changed the way we are making ads and it is something to be cognizant of.”

Bipin Pandit, CEO, The Ad Club, proposed the vote of thanks at The Ad Review 2016.

The Annual Ad Review, held by The Advertising Club, endeavours to be a great ideas exchange that has the power and the ability to educate, study, and objectively analyse all the work that the industry has collectively done in the year gone by. The Advertising Review has successfully provided introspection and insight into the dynamics of the advertising industry and also presented a roadmap of evolving consumer and industry trends.

Industry stalwarts applaud the new approach

Dr Bhaskar Das, President and Chief Growth & Innovation Officer, Zee Unimedia
“There were a number of high points, but two points that stood out were – ‘Consumer is in the driver’s seat’ and ‘No rule is the new rule’. I think everything is fluid today and one cannot say in a definitive way what is what. Ultimately you have to try multiple prototypes and see which one works the best. So, one has to be very adaptable in this new approach. Flexibility, fluidity and a collaborative mindset is required to create impactful communication in the new world.”

Dhunji Wadia, President, Rediffusion - Y&R
“I think they made some very relevant points on content and context, which, I feel, is very important because today it is not just a Monologue or, as Aggy (Agnello Dias) mentioned, Dialogue, it’s a Trialogue. There are different people and different constituents who are participating in this and you need to make sure that the brand can be a part of the conversation. So, it’s not just the advertiser to the target audience. Consumers are creating groups among themselves and are having a conversation among themselves. So you need to make sure that your brand is spoken of in that group.”

Bipin Pandit, CEO, The Ad Club
“It was sweet and short. The two speakers – Aggy (Agnello Dias) and Josy (Josy Paul) – are very contrasting personalities. Aggy is a more serious type of speaker, while Josy is a lot more humorous, but both of them are very strong on content. So that is the most interesting part of it. And both are very good presenters and I think as a moderator, Shubhajit (Shubhajit Sen) also did a very good job. There was a lot of clarity of thought and we are personally very happy that we did the Ad Review in Mumbai because both the earlier Ad Reviews were in Delhi. There was a very good audience, which was a fine mix of some very senior members of the fraternity and some very young members. So, personally at the end of the show, I’m a very happy soul.”