I have added a link of Cookania’s ad featuring Sohai Ali Abro and Hamza Ali Abbasi. after I finished watching it more than 5 times, I asked myself a few questions: 1). Are jingles and dancing really necessary when they have become overly annoying. 2). I looked at the ad, I must ask. Who eats cake rusks at traditional South Asian weddings (especially Pakistani weddings)? 3). Multiple errors regarding amount of cake rusks on the plate. what did the creative team do? 4). Despite the target market, was this kind of ad even necessary? 5). Apart from this ad, are slang terms necessary to appeal to the people?.
Pakistan is currently embroiled in a political cum economic turmoil, where the incumbent Prime Minister is stuck in a scandal over overseas bank accounts and undeclared assets while the nation is heavily indebted with loans and stuck in an economic crisis. Despite tall claims from the Prime Minister, a never ending brain drain has taken place and is slowing down the brain gain.
Jingles and Models have always been part of advertising since ages, depending on the demographic group/market being targeted. Problem is, not only is advertising a costly job but also selective targeting (or precision targeting) can cost the firm more than what it has/had invested in other activities. To make it further worse, operating in one of the world’s largest consumer markets where socio-economic conditions are worse beyond that of Africa and taking an even worse turn instills the fear of uncertainty thus flight of intellect, capital and people is then rampant.
Our marketing minds today have been pegged to old tactics. They think innovation is being western when in fact innovation has nothing to do with regions, it only relates itself to creativity.
Nurpur, Pakistan’s oldest & most premium dairy products company recently produced an awesome commercial. Best part is, there were no fancy jingles. the music used was Pakistan’s traditional sitar tune with bit of traditional drum beats and mouth watering shots of milk, butter and yogurt. This ad is being praised by many and has won the hearts of the entire nation. I have added the video of the commercial so everyone can view it.
Even students of business administration, visual studies, communications, media and advertising are in admiration for Nurpur’s ad. Clearly, this ad has set a new benchmark and has given a new ray of hope for Pakistan’s beleaguered Advertising industry, beset by copy writing errors and mistakes in creativity. Nurpur has done good job in giving Pakistan’s advertising industry a new ray of hope and the same has also been done by Qmobile. We are hopeful that the advertising industry in Pakistan will rebound back from old methods and come up with much better ideas.
Advertising is, no doubt very costly. Bloggers, web posts are another way of boosting brands/firms/products/services and yes controversy does create cash. But what if, we choose not to show/produce anything controversial? what if, we decide not to run after ratings and what if, we produce something sensible, heart warming, soothing and aesthetic. What if, we found that in simplicity also lies creativity.
We all think out of the box means something new, what we do not know that modifying or adding more touches to old ideas is also innovative. Novelty is something that is not worth losing, in fact novelty is a must in all ads in order to win hearts and minds of consumers.
Sameer Wasi 