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Friday, September 22

In-film Advertising : Random Thoughts

This one's in response to an article I read in DNA Mumbai grandiosely titled - Marketer + Film Maker = Winning Union. As usual, there was a lot of stuff I disageed with.
Here's the rant...
Myth 1 : Consumers tune out TV ads, therefore in-film advertising is better
Reality : We tune out BAD ads, all media!
No more than we tune out irritating news anchors, tune out hyped Bollywood/ Hollywood movies, tune out bad power-point presentations, tune out unnecessary gyan, bad relationships, BAD anything!! And therefore BAD in-film placement as well!

Myth 2 : The Idea is King
Reality : Execution is King!
A great idea, in sync with core brand values but with low decibel promotion will fetch less publicity than an average idea, stretched through innovations, 360 extensions and the right media monies!

Myth 3 : Films are a great medium for celebrity endorsement
Reality : Celebrity endorsement will be dead by 2010!
When 10 Bollywood stars endorse 200 brands. Nothing is an endorsement anymore. It's just a safe strategy and 'feel-good for the marketer'! Barring of course the Big B who is an exception in the world of celeb marketing...But he is approaching 65!

End of rant. If you have other thoughts on the subject, BUZZ!

9 comments:

pooR_Planner said...

Execution is King ... VERY TRUE ... Talking about In-Film Placements .. BMW Films ... starring Clive Owens created the biggest buzz and created a Superstar ... www.bmwfilms.com ... I guess they have withdrawn the movies from their website ...order the DVD's for a mesmerising in-film advertising experience.

Manish your views on Video Game Advertising?

Anonymous said...

Another elusive truth!

Its high time advertising agencies spent more time cracking a brilliant "execution" than fussing about the big idea.

Unknown said...

big idea is often a whole lot of words and gas! and almost always the elusive chase of the big idea is used by many creatives to buy time, protect turf and waste client's money!!
the really big ideas happen outside the advertising world. Infosys is a big idea, ratan tata's 1 lac car is a big idea, out-sourcing is a big idea.

Unknown said...

yes have seen the BMW films... awesome... am not really the best person to give a POV on video game advertising! lets do some digging around this medium!

Anonymous said...

Having been a gamer and general thrill seeker, yes, there are very interesting subliminal gaming opportunities

Will show on my mobile phone, for instance. The street racing game touts brands right from Audi, Lambi, Ferrari, Ford GT and so on (all excellent racing heritage)

My last phone (unfortunately robbed within office confines!..*sob sob*) had a rather lovely tennis game - the side stands had advertising by Ericsson. Brilliant thinking!

Check out ragnorok. They're trying out some pretty interesting stuff in the MMPG space. (massively multiplayer gaming...hate acronyms!)

What is more interesting to my own mind, is the element of "Flow" -gaming has proven effects on generating flow, and a more relaxed mind state. But..blame that on the book.

There are a few superb opportunities out there, but important to tie them into a Big Idea. Uh-oh..here we go again, on that one..

My own thought is that our thinking as advertising folks, is sometimes shallow. And that there is a Big Idea, but it neccesarily needs to reflect business context. Changing behaviour is an admirable goal - but it also needs sound ideas that work harder towards this end.

Anonymous said...

Manish, just a suggestion.

Instead of manually moderating the comments on your blog, do consider switching on the authentication option.

it's lovely and works like a dream. Hoorah, no more comment spam!

Unknown said...

Harshal, i removed the comment moderation option. so life should be better for all of us...cheers. gimme ideas for todays post...have a hectic day but do not want to miss on the daily post:-)

Anonymous said...

How about non-conventional or simply, user-interactive advertising?

Ad avoidance on the increase and finding way to continue with that old doggerel of engagement.

Well, if an idea's interesting enough it'll attract folks anyway. And so on..

Fairly tough to manage something completely fresh, but we keep trying :)

Anonymous said...

interesting post manish...there was an article on branded content in the last Brand equity too...u might hv caught it i believe.

I asked most of the people whom i know and who had watched Lage raho munnabhai if they knew which radio station was vidya balan working for in the movie. Not one soul knew it. And these guys are from the exact same TG that World space is targetting.

So what does this say? Should the brand be more explicit with it's message? Will it, in that case, be too in your face? Or should it be subtle like the way it was in LRM? We come back again to the creatively crafted message which walks the fine line balancing the two.

U remember any instance where branded content in a hindi movie led to wider brand acceptance or atleast, awareness?