Reflections

Advertising 2020 – A journey to the springboard

A look at the chronology of events since March and how they have changed advertising, till now.

Let’s be honest, some of us thought opportunistically in March and tried to change the narrative about our products. Without the proper knowledge of the virus ourselves and realizing the fear in the minds of people, advertisers tried to sell their products as an aid to counter the virus. Some of those claims were distortions, some lies and some actually held ground. People did complain about such advertising, Ministry of AYUSH reached out to ASCI and 50 such covid-cure ads were put out of circulation.

Right about that time, the percentage of alcohol in sanitizers was establishing itself as the single most important ‘number’ and people were beginning to read the back-of-packs for more information. Advertisers were about to experience that this BOP reading, would change the dynamics of purchase forever.

April 2020 will go down in the history as a standstill month for economics and even the US Oil turned negative for the first time in history. First month of the financial year has never attracted boastful spends from any sector. Managers make reports on the year past and plan for the year ahead. Number of pitches increase, and the marketeers focus on the upcoming vacations, where spending would be at its peak. The first half of April was the worst, and since then, things started improving, slowly.

Later part of April was when Lockdown 2.0 was announced and it allowed somethings to be opened. This is when people were still hopeful of overcoming this pandemic fast. Afraid, but hopeful. 

April also introduced a new problem to the – fresh fiction getting scarce and OTT benefitted immensely, becoming the most preferred medium by major advertisers (An ET report mentioned, FMCG products were contributing to 80% spends on OTT and a plethora of first time advertisers were joining OTT platforms). 

On the hindsight, this was the time, people started joking about themselves and the hopelessness of the situation. That's when topicals were becoming mainstream as everything amounted to a 'topic'. And, that's when news replaced entertainment completely. (And later news-channels started entertaining, but I digress)

Then came the Mother of all occasions in 2020, thus far. The emotions about the relations, which people were experiencing afresh (because of the lockdown and the losses) peaked on 9th May. Mother’s Day. Keywords like care, protection, health, precaution, salute and celebration reared their head again. And hence began the ‘New Normal’. The launch and distraction of ‘Paatal Lok’ also helped the month of May (and it would require another post to observe the increase of pets in households). 

May, sadly, was also the month, where the great Indian divide found its way into Indian houses. The great migration. The helpless and poor had enough of the suffering caused by lockdown and thankfully, none of the advertisers put up any stalls on their routes. Benefits and positives of Socialism were at display in all its glory. And we quietly moved into the Unlock 1.

The 2Js between 2Qs were the corrective months. Patience lost, habits formed, job loss and exasperated Unlocks. We got into the unlock mode because of economic reasons, not because we had a grip on the virus. This was approximately the time, when new content shoot was being permitted. And advertisers by now had realized that the same old content would not work. We all had to adapt. A change in tone here, a change in message there and most of all an attempt at complete disclosure everywhere. 

Over the top advertising and overpromises in the name of creative liberties were getting replaced by objective information about the products. Most of the advertising, seen in August was more meaningful, mature, and gave the audience an option to choose (rather than yelling that they need it!). We hardly saw any pot-shots taken and it all felt like a civilized group discussion. This year Independence Day didn't sound like competing with the frenzy of 1947 either. It was a composed celebration. Even with Unlock, no brand took Azadi to a level where it can be misconstrued.

As we were about to enter the deep sleep (The Green Day cliche), as if almost on cue, MSD retired and Virushka was announced. Within a span of 12 days the biggest religion in India (Cricket) started trending. 

But this ride named 2020 is not over, so keep your seatbelts fastened. Two of the biggest festivals are around the corner – IPL and Diwali. People are raring to spend and advertisers know it. Yes, income levels have reduced during Covid, but the savings have increased. If it’s any indication, Sensex gained almost 45% from April to August period. The frenzy is gripping and so are the number of Covid cases. 

People are forgetting or are getting bored by the virus and the self restrictions are getting relaxations. (You can see sunshades and miniature-crockery-sets being sold on traffic-signals.)

(So, here we are, on the springboard, ready to take that step to load the slingshot. Mindyou, we need to land properly again on the board first, to finally leave the springboard, upwards!)

Stance! - postponed

Saw a group of young guys in their teens playing cricket in a park. I stood there, with a usual, one hand in pocket and the other holding a cigarette, stance, right at the edge of the park. Almost ashamed to be seen for various reasons. One being, how un-fit I looked as compared to (no, not those guys) myself when I was a teen. Two, of smoking in front of those kids and three, because it was almost an year since I strained any muscle in my body.

The characters were all the same, as we used to have in our time. A have-it-all guy, who always turned up in the park in proper sports kit. Does a decent job as an all-rounder (an all rounder generally opens the batting in gully cricket) and can bowl economic overs.

A nerd looking guy who generally gets all the equipments and tries desperately to earn some respect because he is letting others use his equipment.

A guy who can never connect the bat with the ball and almost never gets the batting, and announces himself as the opening bowler by virtue of law of equal participation. Still with every innings change he fights with almost everyone else, that he deserves to bowl the first over.

One guy who has accepted that his outing at the field will be spent fielding at an obscure position (where only a miscue goes) and in catching practice when his team is batting.

An annoying character who goes about having a go at anything and everything, he knows it all and is an epitome of knowing-and -not-doing. These kinds generally take the keepers position where they can have a well round view of the game and can be heard by everyone. Even to the opposition team who generally hangs around behind the keeper.

A fiery bowler who goes about his bowling as a surgeon performing heart transplant. His moments of glory are countless. He gets the ball even if the 'deserving guy, who dint bat' is shouting at the top of his voice, takes wicket in his very first over and brings down the run-rate severely after an expensive over. Anyone can spot this guy easily, as in how many of those kids are actually performing surgeries out there.

Rest all, either fit into the above said categories or form a massive non-existents. Their presence goes un-noticed every time and they generally are picked up by the team captains to fill up slots.

Watching those kids and identifying the characters took me about half an hour and two more cigarettes.

And then one incident took away my shame and defined the characteristics of those young people in a better light.

One shot, flew over the boundary and into a sewage drain (which act as the ultimate ball gobblers, even if it is a 1ft by 1 ft opening, it will attract the ball in it). In my time, the fielder (one of the non-existent mass) on the boundary would go, dirty his hands a little, if smart, will pull out the ball making a glove out of a carry bag, bounce the ball 3-4 times and the play moved on.

Will complete this, some other day..

Ironman!

Life se Dhobi jaate dekha hai?
As in physically, the guy (must have been from one of the BIMARU states, identifiable accent) used to hangout on the street.
Our building has shops on the ground floor. Facing the street, which has openings of 3 other buildings. And this guy, used to own, one of the corner shops.

As any typical, middle class society, each shop has some spare area in front, which ends on the road, at a height of 1 feet. (So this area cannot be used as the road, and differed in texture too). When you see on the left, you can see partitions (cement blocks with slits every one feet, between pillars, shaped like moulds and not talking to each other), 4 ft across, throughout the length of the road; each partition 3 feet distant then the previous. (Trivia: what's the length of the road on the left of Dhobi?)

This guy, used to make his meals at the base of one of those partitions. Chicken and roti meals.

As a background, he is a hardworking guy, who used to cheat sometimes, in the count of clothes. Rest, ironing was fine, and devoid of any burnt accidents.

So around Covid, his business evaporated. His makeshift house and shop were his universe. His freedom was that free land, which was neither road nor individual property.

He used to be seen, in his lungi, shirtless, roaming the street. He roamed like he owned the street.
I can say, he did own the street. There isn't any other Dhobi, nearer to these buildings.

I went downstairs with garbage, and while coming back, I deftly light a cigarette, using only one hand, not the one which held the garbage (no mixing the touch of hands, they both can touch different surfaces, separately).

I usually smoke in that corner. Where that Dhobi always moved. And I always ignored him, and he, me.

That time, I din't feel like smoking. To see that iron channel, halfway to the no-man's land, holding (about to burst) an activa and some old furniture.

Life was missing, in that corner!