Why marketers favour long and audacious campaigns?

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
At a time when marketing budgets were not high and marketers had to watch each rupee they spent, coming up with long advertisements was not considered to be sensible.

However, over the years, duration of ads has almost tripled and so have their advertising budgets for few companies, despite the economic slowdown which was anticipated during the finance minister's budget speech in February this year. So, what is the real reason behind marketers ditching short and crispy ads in favour of long and audacious advertising campaigns.

Priti Nair, managing partner, BBH India, opines, "With so much clutter around, the idea behind these long ads is primarily to break the clutter and get the ad noticed. Earlier the trend was to rope in big celebs to draw attention, but now with so many celebrities trying to sell everything from a toothbrush to a car, marketers want to try something different to grab the attention of the Indian consuming masses."

Hero Honda to celebrate its 25th anniversary in the Indian market has recently come out with a foot thumping 180 seconds commercial. And it is not just the sheer length of the campaign that comes as a surprise, but also the presence of as many as eight celebrities swamping all over the television channels that make one wonder that does it makes sense to have such a lavish ad budget?

"It is not just the length of the ad that would hook the customer, but the ad should also provide the watchers with entertainment value," avers Sanjay Sharma, creative director, Draft FCB Ulka, the man behind the Hero Honda commercial. Marketers are now working harder on a story board that is interesting and hooks the customer till the end of the advertisement.

"The size and scale of the ad also helps the brand in creating a statement about itself," informs Rajeev Raja, ex creative director, Bates David Enterprise. Little wonder that Big TV, Happy Dent, Bajaj Pulsar, et al, have made ads that are longer than the normal 30-45 seconds ads.

There would be ad-men who would be quick to point out that there has never been a cap on the ad length and even in the past there have been ads of various lengths that have been made from time to time. As a matter of fact, it was not so long ago when Nike came out with its gully cricket ad that clocked almost two minutes. What's more? Although the Nike ad boasts of a few celebrities, the entire show is run by faces that are lesser known.

So does it always pay to make something grand as attempted by these ad gurus? Not really, and the biggest example is the Pepsi Bubbly campaign. The ad had Big B, SRK and Preity Zinta giving company to Sachin, Dravid, Irfan, Yuvraj, Zaheer and Kaif. The company also launched a remix video with Kareena Kapoor.

However, the ad campaign did not click with the audiences. The reason was very simply, with so many stars, brand Pepsi got lost somewhere. Although people do remember the bubbly song yet the association with Pepsi is not that easily to make. The trick here is not to create a long ad, but to ensure that each dime that the marketer spends gives him good solid returns.