Everybody has an opinion on the advertisements currently on air. But there are few, if any, measures of the impact of television commercials. To translate the subjective takes into an objective ranking, Mint partnered Synovate India, the local chapter of a global market research agency, to conduct monthly surveys of public response to new ads.
Fiat Palio Stile: Agency: Leo Burnett India, Director: Manoj Pillai
The series of surveys conducted through the year have yielded a wealth of data on consumer response to advertisements. The campaigns included some of the best creatives seen in Indian advertising. While some ads were woven around intricate plots, such as the Fiat Palio ad, some others capitalized on the star-value of brand ambassadors such as actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
To rank these show-stoppers on a single measure, Synovate compiled the brand recall and awareness scores these advertisements netted in the month of their launch to arrive at the Top 15 ad campaigns of the year.
The scores on the softer parameters of likeability and believability were also collated to arrive at the Top 15.
Interestingly, only two campaigns (Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd) figured in both lists. While the Airtel advertisement, featuring a young man who visits his ancestral village to renew links between his grandfather and his son, scored 100% in likeability, the Timesjob.com advertisement topped the ad diagnostic charts by netting higher scores in believability and claim.
The ads which topped the monthly surveys were ranged against ads released in that month. However, some of the ads that topped the monthly surveys did not figure in the Top 15 list arrived at by processing data for the entire year. These include Kajol-starrer Alpenliebe and Cadbury India Ltd’s Dairy Milk chocolate ad campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan.
Advertisers pay good money to publicize their brands, and what is of critical importance is the brand recall a campaign is able to generate. Therefore, the rankings of the ads is based on the responses on recall and awareness. The survey tracks both spontaneous and aided recall (the ad is described to the respondent) to measure the reach of the advertisement. The reach of the ad indicates how far it succeeded in breaking through the clutter.
Synovate, supported by TV Ad Index, an ad monitoring firm, surveys 250 respondents each in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. They come from high-income families (social economic classification, or SEC, A and B) and belong to the 18-40 age group. The survey covers only those respondents who have access to satellite television, so ads beamed on private TV channels have equal exposure. Each telephonic interview lasts about 10 minutes.
1. Fiat Palio Stile
Agency: Leo Burnett India
Director: Manoj Pillai
“Fun times reloaded” was the tag line that guided the relaunch creative of the small car from the Turin-based automobile company.
To define “fun times”, the ad maker used a hit song from a 1969 Bollywood film ‘Aradhana’ and “reloaded” it on to a digital format- the girl listens to the song on her mobile.
The 2007 version of R.D. Burman’s ‘Mere sapno ki raani kab ayegi tu’ is played out by a Rajesh Khanna lookalike chasing the famous Shimla train, while driving a Fiat Palio Stile . The heroine he is serenading, however, is not reading a book as Sharmila Tagore did in the film, but is listening to the track on her cell phone.
The high recall value of the promotion, however, rides on the popularity of the classic number from Bollywood. It topped our 2007 survey with an ad reach index score of 96; just one point ahead of the ad that came second, De Beers’ Nakshatra.
2. De Beers Nakshatra
Agency: JWT India
Director: Prakash Varma
The third in a series of campaigns starring brand ambassador Aishwarya Rai Bachchan , the ad film is set against a slick backdrop of an eclipse. It was released just before the actor’s high-profile wedding to actor Abhishek Bachchan.
3. Nokia N95
Agency:Bates India/WPP Group
Director: Not available
One of the few international advertisements to have struck a chord with Indian customers. The concept of “It’s not just one thing, it’s many” is highlighted by slick execution. A cellphone ad campaign that broke through the clutter by turning out its pockets!
4. Logan
Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi
Director: Kunal Kapoor
The pitch for the entry-level sedan from Mahindra Renault was a focus on its features. The Lara Croft-style script which began with a copter descent had a surprise ending with the lady agent deciding to drive away in the sedan she was supposed to spy on.
5. Sony Ericsson Walkman
Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi
Director: Sabal Singh Sheikhawat
The script was simple. It let actor Hrithik Roshan’s dancing do the talking.
The catchy tag line, “I love the thump”, which was splashed across promotions in all mediums, helped give the brand high recall.
6. ABN Amro One
Agency: Equus Red Cell Advertising
Director: Abhijit Chaudhury
A funny take on the cash-back offer on the credit card, spiced up with a Veerappan-like dacoit looting train passengers gave high recall for the ad film, and a slightly lower one for the brand. The risk involved in carrying cash struck an instant connect.
7. MRF Zapper
Agency: Lowe Lintas/IPG
Director: Pratap Poddan
The 30-second ad film has given a brand linkage to the phrase “get a grip”. The laughing couple manoeuvring a bike past landslide fissures on a mountain road spoke volumes in a tight, focused script. One of the more memorable campaigns for tyres .
8. Lifebuoy Liquid
Agency: Lowe Lintas
Director: Gajraj Rao
The clear demarcation of the brand from beauty soaps with the help of a “do-good” script put this ad in the Top 10. The emotive appeal of a boy rescuing a puppy, and an angry neighbour completed the picture for the family-targeted brand.
9. Vodafone Prepaid
Agency: Ogilvy and Mather
Director: Shashank Chaturvedi
The brief was difficult: to advertise the carry-over facility offered on the card. Avoiding a verbose narration, the ad concept linked stretching the validity of a card to a car low on petrol. Actor Irrfan Khan’s deadpan delivery did the rest.
10. Vodafone
Agency: Ogilvy and Mather
Director: Prakash Varma
The Hutch pug has found a new house, er, kennel, in Vodafone. This one-line focus kept the script simple and delivered the message of a name change loud and clear. The iconic pug wins yet another campaign, this time a new brand.
The Top 15 television advertisements were ranked on the basis of their ad reach index scores. The index scores were calculated by multiplying awareness score and the brand recall scores of the ad and dividing it by 100.
The ad diagnostic score is not used to rate the ads, but it helps advertisers understand how successful their ads have been in breaking through the clutter. The ad diagnostic score is an average of an ad’s likeability, enjoyment, believability and claims score.