Indian consumers like emotional stories, says Soumya Mohanty, MD & chief client officer, South Asia (insights division), Kantar, which announced its advertising effectiveness awards recently. In this interview, Mohanty tells Pallabi Dey Purkayastha that to make an impact, advertising needs to be bolder without having to worry about offending somebody, somewhere. Edited excerpts:
India put up a lukewarm show at the recently concluded Cannes Lions 2024. Where did we slip up?
Advertising in India needs to be a little bolder, pushing boundaries, breaking category codes, and taking some risks. We are probably creating a lot of undifferentiated advertising which does not build brand differentiation. We need the element of courage back in advertising. The second thing is — maybe because of the level of cultural sensitivity all around — we have lost that ability to create genuinely humorous ads because we are always worried that we will offend somebody. If you see Meesho’s ad, which is one of our winners, it’s an extremely funny ad. It breaks the category code. It’s also a pre-
tested ad. I think we need to have the courage to push boundaries.
How do you recommend brands balance pan-India messaging consistency with the need for localised execution?
It’s not about being pan-India; a certain strategy or an insight can be universal. For example, the relationship between parent and child and how that has changed over time. So how would you execute it in the context of, say, the south of India in terms of the cultural nuances that you ought to pick up, or the kind of family setting you ought to show to make it relatable? If you look at the Maggi Jolly ad (Most Creative & Effective Digital Ad), which is created for the South, it looks at the fact that Southern parents, Southern fathers particularly, have moved away from being the strict disciplinarian to having a more friendly relationship with the children. It is rooted in the culture of the South but it is also a universal Maggi moment. The insight that Maggi enhances the moment when people are together, stays with the viewer.
Kantar’s new report stresses the importance of emotional resonance in advertising, particularly in the digital realm. How can brands integrate emotional storytelling into their digital strategy?
Digital has traditionally been seen as a performance marketing medium and not a brand-building medium. That is changing because it’s very difficult to quantify advertising performance and prove that it is working in terms of conversion. But digital is becoming more of a mass medium now . So it has to move to the top of the advertising funnel.
Our research found that digital advertising, which has a strong emotional element, not only builds long-term equity but is twice as likely to build salience and almost twice as likely to go viral versus digital ads that do not have an emotional core. If you look at our digital winner, Royal Enfield, you will see it is not just about the product. It romanticises the Bullet.
There have to be more made-for-digital ads that actually build an emotional connect with the viewer. What is happening today is that most digital ads are relying on humour. It’s not that humour doesn’t work, but don’t forget Indians like emotional stories. A lot of the digital ads are also about what is the trend at that moment and so the content is created very fast, sometimes they are created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). And it’s not necessarily effective.
What strategies should brands adopt to optimise creative content that performs well across mediums?
If we are going to have one copy, which is, let’s say, created for television, and we want to repurpose it for digital, then we’ll have to use some of the digital best practices. For example, you should introduce the brand much earlier in the digital copy because attention spans are shorter and people go through a lot of content in a small time window. So make sure that the brand and its moment in the story happen as soon as possible. Also, on digital, there should be stronger branding assets so that people connect them to the brand more easily.
Kantar’s report emphasises the role of pre-testing in identifying potential risks. What are the steps here to avoid wastage?
Today, we put out a lot of creative content that doesn’t get tested and on several occasions, brands have had to withdraw the content because it faced backlash. Pre-testing helps you understand what is going to work and what is going to give a better uplift to both your brand and the intention (intention to buy the product). You are making a more informed decision when you are pre-testing versus shooting in the dark. It will save a lot of money because, honestly, a lot of media money is spent behind bad creative. Truly effective creative has an even stronger impact than the amount of media money you spend.
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Source link : https://www.financialexpress.com/business/brandwagon-interview-soumya-mohanty-managing-director-chief-client-officer-south-asia-insights-division-kantar-3548924/lite/
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Publish date : 2024-07-09 22:45:00
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