The Diminishing Return On Taglines

After more than two weeks of 'Zero TV'(just a few DVDs), switched on the tube. With little Neo around, watched Tom & Jerry, Mr. Bean and Ben10(hope I remember the name right!!).

Then switched between the half a dozen(lesser) barely sane News Channels and loads of ads...Some ad tagline triggered this train of thot...

1. The one-word-creative-brief and the creative leap has resulted in a whole factory of brand taglines of the 'xyz de' format...

Hilaa de, Pilaa de, Ghumaa de, Jalaa de, Dhikhaa de, Bataa de, Jeeta de

2. At first these 'xyz de' ads were genuinely funny, then there were occasional bright sparks, then they became a Big Bazaar commodity product and now they are mostly pakao spam ads on TV. At least they appear to me:-) Disagreements invited.

3. The thing about these 'xyz de' taglines is that one mostly attributes the tagline to the wrong brand, or even the wrong category and mostly never remembers the message(if there is one)...

4. Fleeting thot - This 'xyz de' tagline hype is in such sharp contrast to the general conversational tone of the web, blogs and the tweets...

5. I feel the 'xyz ads' have mostly diminishing returns today. With the odd exception of say a Mentos where 'Aam Zindagi vs Mentos Zindagi' is a clearly differentiated brand turf, the rest are largely creative indulgences at the expense of the client's money!!

6. So what's the solution? I think it's time we looked at ads sans taglines. There are simply too many of them. We don't need them. Because I suspect people don't register and definitely can't keep track of them anyways. Tagline Overload - especially if you are the 25th candy brand in a cluttered market.

7. So what's the solution? Focus on creating enduring/ endearing symbols/ icons(Mc Donalds), memetic concepts(Wah Sunil Babu, Badhia Hai variety), sticky concepts that can be built into a brand world-view(yes even for a candy brand), a micro-site to engage, develop the thot. Maybe a combo solution. But definitely not a 'xyz de' tagline...

8. There ain't no easy solution. Especially with a generation of creatives in India raised on the belief that 1-word briefs and 3 word taglines will Sab problem solve kara de!!:-)

There is no "Chutki Mein Suljha de" solution here...LOL

The Beach and the Thoughts on Kiosk Advertising

In my new role as the weekend papa, I took Neo and his cousin Ved to Juhu beach. In fact like most such excursions, this one too was initiated and co-ordinated by my wife...

So early morning, we trooped in a cab to Chaupati beach. The beach(like much of this hyped city - Mumbai) itself was too dirty to be enjoyed. The water was muddy and there was poop in generous dollops all around!!

But Neo and Ved had a ball of a time...Building sand castles, throwing water on each other and generally frolicking around.

Among the muddied water and two energy-filled kids, managed to spare a thought about two outdoor signage(I think I am losing it...I manage to think about my next post in the most unlikely of situations:-)

The first was on the long mocha wall opposite the beach. It was a Provogue signage. In fact multiple repeats of the same message all next to each other. It was cluttered. Jarring to the eye. And purposeless. What could 10 signages achieve that a single one cannot?
>Clearly when it comes to OOH( out-of-home) messages, people don't realize that diminishing returns of exposure set in with every needless extra unit!

The next on linking road were the Exide pole kiosks. Again I feel, in year 2007 with
'an acute shortage of consumer attention' and a general filtering of commercial messages by the common man, logo assaults of the Exide sort seen in the picture are an utter waste of money!Okay, so we know Exide, now what are we supposed to do? Yet another case of visual pollution and little else.