Flash Brands. Flash Thoughts

Like most of us, I have been privy to the out-of-work Bollywood actor Shilpi Shetty's bizarre turn-around in fortunes through the British reality show Big Brother! It's been a 100m sprint towards famedom for Shilpa...

From 'nowhere' to 'everywhere'
From relative joblessness to a flood of Bollywood offers(a report said 74!!)
From a 2nd rung Bollywood star to an 'overnight diva'
From an ill-dressed actor to an icon of 'fusion clothing'
From a 'dumb bimbette' to an 'Indian Icon'(of course debatable and with large dollops of media frenzy!)

Over the last 12 months, I have viewed few such Flash Brands, built solely by media who rise to prominence and share of mind and then fade away. But while they last they are a brand no less!

Some other flash brands( if I can say so) would be 'Prince'(the Haryana boy who fell in a hole and shot to national recognition, Budhia, the Orissa marathon kid who generated TRPs for close to a month for all the Indian news channels and of course Laxmi Niwas Mittal...

Unlike Shilpa, of course, Prince and Budhia did not generate commercial opportunities(at least I am not aware of). Was wondering if there could be a science/ art of the flash brand. In our attention-deficit world, can we create them...Or do flash brands happen only by chance?

I think flash brands might have the following traits...
1. They have a strong topical core. In the case of Shilpa it was 'Resurgent Indian Pride'. More about it here. Budhia = Super Kid Archetype...

2. Built by PR and media reportage and not by advertising.

3. Largely unpredictable. But the flash-timing has to be right. The media must be relatively free to build stories and feed the public. So. flash brands are unlikely to be created in the week preceding KBC's launch or the Union Budget week:-)

4. Indian Flash brands(Shilpa, Budhia, Prince, LN Mittal...) in the recent past have mostly been human. As opposed to the Western/ Japanese ones - Harry Potter(a fictional character), Rubiks Cube, Pokemon, Sudoku!!

5. Flash brands generally follow a story, a quick trajectory of facts, fiction and spice...They ride on a wave of media frenzy and 360 merchandise(Harry Potter, Sudoku)

6. While the origin of a flash brand might be serendipitous, it needs sustained interest by media to keep it going through its relatively short shelf-life...


7. Flash brands might happen with greater frequency today. In the digital age, with the democratisation of technology tools and creative expression, if a flash brand core has an appeal, it encourages an active participation from the masses rather than a passive, push-only communication strategy of most conventional brands...

Would love to hear of more examples, counter-views, other flash brand traits...

Flash Brands Bollywood Ishtyle

Most of us have used flash memory and some of us know about flash mobs -a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital media/network. Though I have not really heard of flash mobs in India! Have you?

Now, Bollywood is increasingly using the same tactics to sell its masala fare. Here its the film - KANK, Bunti Aur Babli, Rang De Basanti or Hanuman! Bunty and Babli did something unusual - Abhishek and Rani as news anchors on NDTV, KANK stoked a national debate on extra-marital affairs, RDB had candle light protests all over the country...

Each of the 'flash films' grabbed the Nation's attention for a fortnite to a month. Got the viewers to the theatres, created 'buzz' and WOM like never before. And then equally fast dispersed from the scene. Although the memes remain active in pop culture. All the symtoms of a 'flash brand'.

All these 'flash films/ brands' practiced 360 branding with aggression - News content, actors as event managers, merchandise, digital media, sms/ mms, songs, national debates, controversies(RDB, Fanaah), the making of the movie DVDs, press conferences...

Welcome to the era of 'Flash Branding'. Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Aamir Khan know it. Maybe FMCG brands can learn the tactics of flash branding from Bollywood. Of course the products are different but there are occassions such as festivals where 'flash branding' can work very well! Any thoughts?

The World of Adike and More 1

Few days ago, I noticed my Nike and Adidas deos jostling for shelf space in the bathroom. It felt strange. There was a time, about a decade back when I was a great Nike loyalist. Fed up on advertising case studies, hand-me down brand myths and real + planted PR stories, I adored the brand!

A few years later, when I was working at TBWA Mumbai, I switched allegiance(though never gave up the Nike brand-citizenship:-)to Adidas. The imagery and some of the more hand-crafted stories of Adidas grabbed the mindspace!

Then came a stage when I wore Nike sneakers. But I loved the Adidas TVCs more. But now when it comes to accesories and apparel. Things like SALE, the shop ambience, the call-of-the-mall urges and last mile communication swings the deal...

The above image of the two erstwhile adversary brands led me to the following thoughts...I felt how I approach brands has dramatically changed in the last 10 years !!

1. Today last mile dictates most of my brand purchases - from toothpaste brands to apparel, durables and consumables!

2. Very often image-led advertisng is for entertainment and aesthetic consumption alone. The purchase is on rational parameters, convenience and value-based offers which have nothing to do with the image.

3. I am not loyal to 'only image' anymore. To a brand, or to its philosophy. In most cases it's a consideration basket of brands that I date. Multiple brands for the multi-tasking mind and the multi-avatars that we don...Brand relationships aren't monogamous any-more!

4. But occasionally I give into 'Flash Brands'. Theses fast rising-from-nowhere people and product brands, backed by manipulative marketing and a combo of PR + Buzz + the shared UGC technology available. Harry Potter, Shilpa Shetty, iPhone can all be bracketed under this cluster...

5. Personally, I value brands that have authentic stories...Decades of image manipulation(and here the fatigue is more because of greater proximity to the branding/ advertising process) have left me cynical about most brand messages.
Tag-lines don't work with me. Neither does hype or manufactured statements.

6. The other thing which has fundamentally changed is that I expect my brands to be inconsistent and surprise me. This is a marked departure from the 'consistency is King' school of thought...
Brands now need to be more creative than consistent in their final expressions...

7. I feel much of the puerile research that happens around us dates the consumer intelligence and evolution by a zillion years. In a digital age, we are trying to measure atomic clock movements of consumers realtionship with brands with vernier callipers LOL

Many a time we ask the wrong questions, in the wrong context, in the wrong way. Then we interpret them wrongly, draw wrong conclusions and recommend wrong things. Then reapeat this chain!!

There are some other thoughts around Adike which I will capture in the sequel to this post...

P.S. I wish to label all the new dichotomous thoughts around brands under 'Adike'