Advertising Is An Art, & Not Everyone Is An Artist

 In our day to day life we come across Advertisements , Tv Commercials so often that we tend to ignore them and never give a thought about what they are selling or what message they are trying to pass on, and there are so many ads around us be it YOUTUBE or SPOTIFY. Displaying Ads is Business Model for these streaming platforms if you don't want Ads they be like look here we also offer premium membership, either way they have to make money to survive as a company. Some of us do pay the premium to get rid of Ads but also get the exclusive features. But today it's not about which platform offers the best premium plans. 

Source : Google Images

Today we will look at how Ads work, how a Product is marketed.

There's no new way to put it. Sometimes Ads ruin the experience not just by interrupting between the show but also by being the worst Ads ever and you have to seat through it. This happens right? You are sitting peacefully watching your favourite movie you've increased the volume so the dialogues are loud and clear. Everything is fine and bang! this high pitch song starts playing it's a Ad you always hated and now you are all panicked as you are trying to reach out for the remote so you can decrease the volume, it's all over for you the experience is ruined and now you are swearing and all mentally disturbed. But sometimes there also are good Ads, They are beautifully written & directed. There's a fine line when it comes to Commericals, if they overdo it a little it's ruined, finding that balance is very hard but also very important.

What I mean to say is few of these Ads you see aren't Ads they are Marketing Disasters, there's a bad song, the visuals aren't any good, the starting ain't subtle, there's no head or tail to what that Ads is leading too, it basically is a mess.

HOW BRANDS DO IT RIGHT OR COMPLETELY WRONG

India's most beloved soft drink Thums Up there is so much wrong with that Ad yet they have a recipe for a good decent Ad, That Commercial is the disaster I mentioned earlier, If you know Thums Up is a soft drink but they are marketing it like a energy drink. Actor doing macho stuff I don't even want to talk about the stunts and the laws of physics here, even the tag line they use doesn't match what they are selling. So what's worng with Thums Up Ad? First things first it starts with a bizarre music I won't even say music it's just noise, and then to follow up with the stunts. But as I said it before they had the recipe A Brand Face, Big Budget, A Catchy Tag Line, Background music. Yet they weren't able to produce a good Ad. The music and the Ad together makes sense but when you get to know they are trying to convince you to buy that soft drink,it stops making any sense because it's a mismatch. Still they are selling it and people are buying it. In a perfectly normal world that's fine. 

Source : Thums Up

On counterpart Redbull Energy Drinks have these Ads made up with cartoons and a different twist to end the Ad. That Ad series if you've seen are good no major songs or music, minimum dialogue, no brand face in Ads, A catchy tag line. People love those Ads they watch it, lightens the mood. With that Marketing Redbull Sold 7.5 BILLION drinks in 2019 to give you some perspective the world's population in 2019 was 7.7 BILLION. So simple yet so effective.

Source : Redbull

Let's look at some other Ads to get some more view point.

Sony and their Ad on Bravia Oled TV's is a masterpiece. They have a background music, good visuals, no dialogue, no brand face, just the TV and relaxing sounds of nature, started slow and peacefully. What they showcased was Sony makes bright display panels that displays sharp and crisp image, sound system is good and the TV delivers immersive experience, it was a well scripted Ad.

Now remember how we talked about bad music in Thums Up Ad, that  was a custom made music to go with the video but still the Ad failed, the music you hear in Sony's Ad happens to be from TOM WALKER it's just a normal song not intended to be used in a advertisement and still fits perfectly.

Source : Sony

Apple's Ad showcasing Airpods also have music, something similar to what Thums Up and Sony did and Apple nailed it. Music was good, visuals were good, not too harsh on eyes (except for the laws of physics) but let's face it they didn't over do it. When you listen to some good quality music and you are totally into the song you tend to imagine some crazy stuff, right? That's what they did. They showed how you can disconnect from outside world ( with Active Noise Cancellation) and be on your own listening to rich music and enjoy your time. If anything the song used in the Ad was by MARIAN HILL not custom made for the Advert and still was a good commercial.

Fair & Lovely a product purchased by every Indian household, Since 1970's they have marketed it as a skin brightening solutions, makes you look fair and everybody bought it. For over 4 decades they sold it by saying use Fair & Lovely for fairer and brighter looking skin. Which is so wrong, they were spreading such a toxic message in the society, being fair is beautiful well that's wrong and they faced so much critisism for doing it and yet they kept Marketing it the same way. Dispite all of this they made so much money, because the sales were so high, the company was openly in favor and supporting COLOURISM. Came 2020 with BLACK LIVES MATTER moment getting the attention it always deserved all around the world, Fair & Lovely had to completely rebrand themselves to GLOW & LOVELY. Now you might think what about the Advertisement? what was wrong with it?The message passed on to the public was wrong and it couldn't have gone any worse, the time taken to correct themselves accept it was so long. Even after rebranding they are marketing it like not only fairness is important but also glow is important. This dirty tricks and games brand's play is so unprofessional, we can talk about this all day( maybe someday).

Now Remember Glow & Lovely is product of  HUL (HINDUSTAN UNILEVER). HUL is a consumer goods company having many products in various categories like Health care, Personal care, Foods, Beverages etc.

Source : HUL

 

HUL happens to produced an masterclass Advert The Shower. In this Ad they have shared Heart-wrenching reality about water scarcity in villages and how people living in city use excessive water just for shower also how saving water should be our responsibility. This Ad could not get any better the music was good, kinda sets you up in that village type temper, the message was amazing. But there's a twist, they weren't try to sell anything it was just a message that needed to be brought into daylight, which they did and brought that message to us in such a beautiful manner.

WHAT MAKES A ADVERTISEMENT GOOD  

There can be 'n' number of factors that make an Ad Good/Bad and being the marketing team isn't easy. So, let's look at it from consumer point of view. Incase you noticed, I have talked about MUSIC/SOUND (Audio) , VISUALS , MESSAGE and TAG LINES alot and these are few of key components that really attract the viewer's. Bear in mind this is just the tip of the iceberg there are other factors too but for now let's focus on these ones.

• AUDIO : The audio output be it the music or other sounds in a commercial should always be chosen precisely, person's mind won't be reacting to something until they hear it (imagine sitting in a lecture staring at your teacher and not listening, physically in classroom mentally in Disneyland until the teacher calls you out and you start coming back to reality). The moment Ad start there shouldn't be difficult to process music or unpleasant sounds it freaks them out, a subtle introduction to prepare one for the audio is always better

• VISUALS : The video viewing shouldn't be painful on the eyes, Sitting in dark one doesn't expect to get flashed into their eyes by a 43 inche panel, especially when the brand logo comes up. Because that's the time in the Ad were most of the screen is empty and the logo in the center. You can observe this one. Brands like Apple, Samsung, Sony do it all black background. Also the overall Ad should neither be to dark nor to dull and faded, this is were wavelength of colors start making sense.

• MESSAGE : It's very clear with this part of the commercial. You either give a really good message or give no message. A brand doesn't want tens and thousands of people watching an Advert having something hateful against some community, and spoil there image. Sometimes brands really tend to skip on this one. Because knowingly or unknowingly one can hurt someone else's feelings. 

• TAG LINE : Tag line are really catchy and attract all of the audience. So many times you just hear the Tagline and you are like yes this is this brand. People tend to learn it quickly. This also gives the brand a different Identity, eventually that quotes are going to be on some Banner or in an Ad. So, people can recognise it's them.

Source : Apple

Personally, I would  like to watch an Ad by Apple any given day, because they actually market things that really matter, if you see Apple's Ads on iPhone 11 they didn't give out specifications of the phone. People know that at Apple, they make good premium phones, that will have bleeding edge technology, instead of that Apple's Marketing says "Privacy, That's iPhone". If I know my data is safe and I can trust them with it then, I might even buy one of those phones, simple. Apple's priority is their customers they can never say/ advertise something they can't deliver, failing their customers, losing customers trust is no brands dream.