With apologies to none at all

By Vikas Mehta

Some people have equated IPL matches as the equivalent of modern-day colosseum games with the two teams being the gladiators. The stadiums are a riot of screaming chanting spectators who are fenced in almost like prisoners. I tend to agree, having watched one or two matches at the stadium before the pandemic. But I think the same spectacle is at home too. Specially if one is watching the match on a big screen. Except one feels like being imprisoned by a cacophony of repetitive and listless ads. Not to forget the myriad ads by the channel which keep on promoting the matches endlessly.

I used a strong word, prisoner. For many reasons. Because most of the ads are bad. I am sorry there is no better word to describe how I feel about the decline of a profession with which I was associated for quite a long time.  And I think everyone is getting caught in a vicious economic cycle, with we, the audience at home, getting the wrong end of the stick at the lowest end of the food chain.

As a sport, IPL is definitely a hot property. It’s sport, entertainment, tamasha and money all rolled into one. And it can’t get bigger. The biggest name in world cricket are a part of it. There is a bottomless pit of unlimited audience and there are big brands and corporates ready to shower crores on it. Safe to say that IPL has made the BCCI the big bully of world cricket. But in all this, the viewers, who sit at home and watch the matches on TV and through streaming, who are the reasons that the brands spend the big bucks are being served up some sports in the cacophony of the ads. Hardly a decade ago, when the IPL started, brands and companies would work towards preparing some memorable communication for the IPL. But the decline is alarming.

Many people put the blame on arrival of digital. On lack of enough data to measure ad effectiveness. On short attention spans. But all of this is irrelevant. What has happened is that in the guise of all of the above both, marketeers and advertisers have become lazy.

Lazy enough to repeat product proposition and forgetting the role of desired response. Lazy enough to finetune the target audience and not talk to all. Lazy enough to get some celebrities and not bother to see if their personality matches with the brand’s. Lazy enough not to have an idea which the target group can relate to. And to sum it up, lazy enough to not weave a story but happy with hammering a generic benefit while glamming it up with technical effects.

And still worse, in today’s day and age lazy enough to run ads which have been on air for past few months. Be it Kingfisher, Kamla Pasand, Rajashree Pan Masala, Vimal Pan Masala, TVS tyres, Macho underwear…….and all of them use celebrities, most of whom do not fit the brand personality.

There are some new ads. Spinny. It’s a vehicle buy, sell and upgrade platform. And they use not one or two but three ex-cricketers. Tendulkar, Kumble and Yuvraj. I am not even getting into if the brand personalities match but I did not even get what the product is or how it is different from other vehicle resell platforms. And seriously, does the brand want us to believe that these three are the best of friends who would be going for long drives in ordinary vehicles?

Those of you who read my last column here, will remember that I had singled out the Dream 11 ad as a stand out. It’s follow up ads are also very well done. I think that amidst a clutter of fantasy sports brands, it’s Dream 11 advertising which has positioned the brand brilliantly. The others, inspite of using celebrities, are a haze of similar sounding and similar offering brands.

I had asked my readers to revert with their comments on the Ranveer Singh Pepsi ad. Some who responded, mostly GenZ, gave it a thums up. I think it’s a good ad, could have been better, but Pepsi has finally found a celebrity which matches its brand persona. Frankly, I wonder what took them so long. I always slotted, Ranvir as the Pepsi type of a guy.

Then there is the new Rupay Visa card ad. A very good example of story telling while communicating the product proposition. Well crafted, good stimulus and sustains interest. Watch it here.

In a similar vein is the new Maaza ad with Amitabh Bachchan. I thought the second ad in the series, worked very well. It sticks to the product benefit. It uses the personality of Mr. Bachchan and very nicely superimpose it onto the brand and in an interesting way also takes care of the target groups desired response. Here it is.

Last IPL, Tata the key moneybags of the tournament, had launched the Tata Neu super app. While the product got a lot of flak and the consumer experience was not as great as thought, the communication has not disappointed. Even this year, the peppy, making shopping an enjoyable experience, the ads have focused on the story of Neu coins helping you buy more. The short stories have good humour and they have focused on the product proposition interestingly.

Just when one thought that things were looking up, I came across this ad for Happilo. So, you are an official sponsor. You can use some cricketers. Their availability is an issue. They maybe cannot act or emote. What does one do? Use them in a song and dance. Use them against a chroma background. Superimpose the shots with some tech wizardy. Get a rap sounding song. Highlight all benefits in the lyrics. Use some GenZ typical words or phrases. Let the brand name be mouthed in direct proportion to the number of seconds that the celebrities can speak. Voila! You have an ad.

Can it be worse? Yes, watch this Ceat tyre ad with three cricketers.

I am bailing out. Need a release from all these ads.

So, next week I am off to watch a match. Maybe it’s better to be a prisoner in the colosseum of a stadium rather than in my TV room. Will keep you all posted.