Popular Posts

Monday, September 24

Twenty20 : Observations of a Couch Potato

What a match!! What a befitting final for the twenty20 game...Wonder what the TRPs have shot to!

This is the raciest format of cricket on the planet, and as a couch potato, there is never a moment to slouch save for the ads, the best of which appear so repetitive and boring!

As I watched the matches up to the final, few thoughts passed my mind. In no particular order...

1. Multiple Creatives. I wish marketers and us agency types quickly root for multiple creatives. If our messages are repetitive, in the racy Twenty20 format, they would be all screened out by the viewer!! Even the SRK starrer Pepsi ad became a headache after a while(and that when I am a die-hard SRK fan)

2. Entertainment Quotient.. I guess we now need to rate all our ads on EQ and not just messaging objectives! Only the ones that have an EQ comparable to the twenty20 game ought to be aired:-) The rest will be noisy irritants, filtered by the couch potato! I ignored all of them!

Guys, at best we are creating branded interruptions. The public might just appreciate if we make them really entertaining.

3. Category fit.I feel certain categories are a total mis-fit with this racy, non-stop, edge-of-the-seat format of the game. I remember I saw an ad for Amity B-School. The message and the creative execution was clearly out of place with the twenty20 environment!

If your product category doesn't fit in this breezy format, one would better stay away and save some money!

4. Media Innovation. If you ask me the best media innovation would be to air shorter TVCs. If the overs have reduced from 50 to 20, shouldn't the TVC duration be reduced to 5 seconders or some such thing:-)

Twenty20 is transforming the game of cricket as the overs reduce from 50 to 20. It is less cricket and more like a 'Bollywood entertainer'. I think our humble ads need to change to fit in this new game...

5 comments:

Shek said...

hey manish,

i enjoy reading your blog. your enthusiasm is inspiring indeed..keep at it...

thanks.

cheers!

Smiling Dolphin said...

shorter durations - i love it....

Unknown said...

thanks shek! you have a great blog going there...

Lynn- u must influence your clients towards these 5 sec or less adlets:-) else advertisng will be the most boring and hated aspect of a televised twenty20 show!!

we might think we are getting eyeballs(puke), but all we will ever get is eyeglares/ eye-threats/ eyeignores LOL

Smiling Dolphin said...

i think i understand your present fixation with eyes:-)))

Reshma Bachwani said...

Multiple Creatives have been used with ads during the Super Bowl...the attempt was to screen the ad relevant to the mood and make it contextual.

As far as EQ goes - i would consider that one of the key parameters on which an ad would be evaluated - irrespective of when it is aired. Only when it is entertaining will people actually watching it...message objective, persuasion etc - will all be relevant later