Know the trick behind creating a successful ad campaign

During this cricket season the brand that has scored with its TV campaign, grabbing eyeballs in the process is Cricbuzz.com. But then there’s a catch to their success on the idiot box. From among the TV Ads they unveiled this season, only one has struck a strong chord with viewers. That’s the ‘Cricket ka Keeda – Milk’ one, where a husband browsing the app on his mobile phone absent-mindedly bowls a packet of milk, only to have it land on his wife’s head and drench her. Viewers loved it! Note two comments on the video uploaded on YouTube. Sushant Jadav had this say, ‘Concept was superb but the actors made it absolutely awesome, duck karna chahiye tha na, that line made me burst into laughter.’ Another viewer, Bobby Ramani wrote, ‘Absolutely hilarious! This ad makes me burst out laughing each time!! Can relate to it!!!’

What’s interesting is, though Cricbuzz put up three Ads on YouTube on the same day, a month ago, the ‘milk’ one has almost four times as many views as the other two. A show of hands in my class too confirmed how popular the ‘Milk Ad’ is. Now this is not the first time such a thing has happened in the world of TV advertising. Remember Naukri.com and the ‘Hari Sadu’ Ad? The one where workplace boss, Hari Sadu is helped by his subordinate using cuss words to book a table at a restaurant? The Ad hit home, big time! Then the slide started. The rest of the Hari Sadu series of Ads that followed sank without a trace. Here’s another example. Remember the Mentos ‘Dimaag ki Batti Jalla De’ Ad on TV? The one where a college kid walks backwards and fools his professor to get a seat despite being late to class? That one too went viral. All the other ads in the Mentos campaign featuring a college kid at a musical recital and other similar scenarios went past viewers without even a whimper.

Considering this gaggle of evidence from TV advertising, it’s pertinent to ask if there’s a pattern here that we can learn from. So here’s the question. Why is that brands are more often than not remembered for the one Ad only, despite having released a series as part of their communication campaign on broadcast media? To unravel the reasons, it’s important to understand the role viewer senses and their adaptation to stimuli (read, advertising) play in the success or failure of communication campaigns. So here’s what happens –

1. Stimuli Selection – The ad that grabs viewer eyeballs is the one that presents to viewer senses, stimuli that’s out of the ordinary. That could mean the content is uniquely witty and something viewers can relate to. In the case of Cricbuzz, Naukri, and Mentos, the Ads that connected were the ones that made viewers grin broadly, plus the ‘relatability’ quotient was top notch.

2. Threshold Setting – The problem with ‘uniquely witty’ advertising is that it raises the viewer threshold of ‘uniqueness’ and ‘wittiness’ for those to follow. So to catch viewer attention subsequently, the second or the third Ad must be ‘super witty’. Truth is, most follow ups aren’t and so they sink.

3. Sensory Adaptation - What makes it worse for following Ads is by then, every marketer tries to join the ‘witty’ bandwagon. So there are now too many Ads trying to be ‘funny’ and so ‘funny’ goes out of the window a la ‘viewer fatigue’. The jokes don’t work anymore!

So is there something marketers can do to arrest the effects of a rising viewer threshold, and the damage sensory adaptation to stimuli can cause?

Of course! Here’s what they must do.

1. Note rising stimuli threshold – First recognize that the threshold has been raised, and so ensure subsequent ads are crafted with care. Don’t do funny for funny’s sake, because the first amusing Ad worked. Know this time the viewer won’t bother, unless your Ad puts on view unique original content, or one that’s outscored the previous setting with enhanced wit and relatability quotient.

2. Assess and cross the ‘JND’ – The Weber’s Law of Just Noticeable Difference (JND) says, to produce a noticeable variation in sensory experience, there’s a minimum amount by which the stimulus intensity must be changed. If such a minimum amount isn’t crossed, the subsequent stimulus will have zero ‘arresting’ power. That means, for subsequent ‘funny’ Ads to catch consumer attention, they must be ‘funnier’. Plus the difference between ‘funnier’ and ‘funny’ must be at or greater than the JND.

I agree that isn’t easy, especially since the ‘first’ funny Ad raises viewer threshold. But that again doesn’t mean it can’t be done. There are brands out there that have done it, even over decades. The ‘Amul Girl’ on a billboard and elsewhere for example, hasn’t just managed to catch and keep our attention; she has also made us grin broadly every time she has appeared! Why not, with copies such as, ‘Cricket ya Gaylee Danda’, ‘India, Jeet te Raina’, ‘Swachh a Big Burden’, and others, Amul not just defined our sensory thresholds, it crossed it consistently breaking JND barriers!

Now that’s advertising genius we can all learn from!

(Ray Titus is Professor of Marketing & Strategy at the Alliance School for Business, Bangalore. He is also the author of 'YUVA INDIA: Consumption & Lifestyle Choices of a Young India'.)

(Image Courtesy: cricbuzz.com)