Running a campaign is like having beer, it’s rare that the second one will taste as good as the first one, and the third one as good as the second…. (This however is not a rule and even if it is, as with every other rule, this one has exceptions as well…..)
Cadburys diary Milk is a brand that always amused me – and since today (as I write, )I am in a golden hangover of having seen and heard it all from the man himself – Piyush Pandey who came to Kochi and talked to us on how Cadbury's made it .. The hangover is intact even now and yet I cannot resist myself from my humble duty of evaluating and putting my view on ads in the limelight...
Diary Milk and its oscillation is part of marketing history. As Piyush himself admits, brands have to say stories and have to change them (keeping the soul intact) as per the changing TG that you talk to. Some times such change is triggered by the market needs/ marketing needs of the brand (like the DM case when they first repositioned it from just being a kid’s stuff to also for adults stuff… See to here…) And many times even when the market or marketing needs don’t want you to change the communication, the agency does for want to avoid getting bored.. Classic case of you getting bored with your own creation before the viewer does.. Thus Pappu pass ho gaya, Radha and the Miss Palampur ads ( a crime!) and then after a long foray into the ups and downs of positioning roller coaster rides , the Pehli tarik ads with the song 'Khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai, Meetha hai khana aaj pehli tarikh hai” which just means sing and rejoice, it's salary day today… (Nothing great!) ,,,,
Then came the Shubarambh one - cute, sweet and hitting right at the spot.. There were critiques for this one as well but that’s part of the game.. The first beer bottle for the thirsty (deprived of good beer for long, that is!), it was refreshing and so very tasty.. In fact too tasty to be true and I used to wonder, how they will retain the cuteness element in its successive ads, if they are going to prolong the Shubarambh campaign… Whether it is due to the need that the variety loving market place throws in, or simply because the agency gets bored of its existing work, it takes some guts for a new campaign with a new tag line, tone and tongue to be launched … It takes but more than guts to make it look and taste better than the older one… The cute teenagers in the bus stand was the fresh chilled beer for the thirsty soul, the oldies in jeans was the second one (getting dull) and now the young gal eloping with her beau only to be encountered in the car with her family, sitting there to share a piece of DM is the third..
The third beer never tastes as good as the first one, but that simile is no excuse for getting it worse than the predecessor every time and this one so far is the worst. How I hope they get back to something sensible and saleable than this or at least stop cobbling up such bits and pieces to question the commonsense of the average viewer…
May be they have met a family somewhere who met her daughter in her boy friends car and saw her off with a DM and thus got inspired!!!
May be they want to now expand the celebration platform and make even elopement a reason to celebrate!!!
May be after all the gaps and holes that they have identified and ventured into(refer to market expansion strategies by Kotler )this is the only one possible hole where they can NOW sell some chocolate ….
From celebration to celebration of trash .. Bankruptcy at Ogilvy? ….
1 comment:
thats not fair...cud have aired ur apprehension to the great man himself :-)
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