IPL 2020

 

#IPL2020

#dream11IPL

 

 IPL window has grown extremely popular over these years with more and more brands patronising IPL to promote their brands. There have been cases of brands getting overtly popular through this, classic examples were : Micromax, Snapdeal, Muthoot Finance, Zoo Zoos from Vodafone, Polycab and many more. I always feel that to understand the advertising landscape and the brands that are active in India can be easily decoded by watching a set of matches. This will give us a clear picture of the big spenders in our country. So the objective of this note is to capture the brands that got featured and also to highlight the good work done by brands, some bad work and some extremely bad work. There are some brands which have just use the opportunity to shout loud, louder and loudest without a strong proposition to share. Few categories had to stay away as the weather conditions were not favourable for them – Icecreams, Softdrinks etc., Some of the brands moved smartly into capitalising on an upcoming festival “Diwali” and unveiled promotions around it, notable ones are Ajio.com, Titan, and Coke.

 

Most of the brands tried some connections to bring in the Virus into their theme : Paints, Fans, Laminates.

 

STAR, National and Regional channels have enabled brands to focus on their relevant markets thereby avoiding unnecessary media spillage. Hotstar has further localised the advertising opportunities where usage / location based advertising has boomed.

 

The usage of celebrities across categories is a proof that the quality of creative is sliding down. The easiest way to crack a brand is to use a celebrity and write a few lines. “Phone Pe “ and “CRED” are  great cases where the celebrities are going beyond and engaging with the audience. Using Aamir Khan as a “dummy” in the CEAT ads is a very bold approach and one needs to see the success of this communication. But the overall feel of the creative scene seems to be pathetic and not encouraging comparing the kind of talent we have. This also could be an indication of over spending rather than smart spending.

 

The big list of popular celebrities who occupied enough advertising space: Ayushmann Khurana, Vicky Kaushal, Aamir Khan, Amitabh, Shahrukh, Aliabhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Hrithik Roshan, MS Dhoni, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin, Salman, Ranbir, Ranveer, Deepika, Hemamalini, Akshay Kumar,  Rakul Preet Singh, Hardik, Pant, Rohit, Shikar Dhawan.

 

Let’s try and take a look at the communication and brands categoriwise:

 

1.Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)

 

Colgate Toothbrush’s  “ Taxiwala” proposition is a very strong one while the communication may not be highly engaging, but the thought of germs in toothbrush is a powerful one.

Coke introduced its Cola advertising as a continuation from the old series with Ranbir and Paresh Rawal, a very timely one.

Five Star’s “Do Nothing” is an interesting shift from “Suresh / Ramesh”.

Dairy Milk Silk’s Romantic proposition got stronger with the interesting 30 sec where the boy is travelling with an umbrella, is definitely engaging.

ITC’s sponsorship has enabled them to promote their brands : Savlon, Engage, Bingo and Sunfeast range.

The big colas featured late while Thumbs up was stealing the thunder with Ranveer Singh from the beginning. Salman’s shifted loyalties into Pepsi camp.

Sprite’s Drone Ad with Anirudh in South and some other person for the rest of the country goes only to prove that the southern markets need to be handled with care, but the same care should have been taken while conceptualising the TVC.

 

·         Bourbon

·         Sprite

·         Thumbs up

·         Coke

·         Dark Fantasy

·         Fortune  Oil and other products

·         Dairy Milk Silk

·         Five Star

·         Bingo - Promo

·         Colgate Vedshakti

·         Colgate Zig Zag Tooth brush : Taxiwala / Ayushman Khurana

·         7up

·         PEPSI – Salman Khan

·         Sunfeast

·         SKORE

·         Sensodyne

·         Maggi Tomato Ketchup

·         Maggi Noodles

·         Savlon

·         Tide Ultra : Triple action by Ayushman Khurana

·         Engage Deos

·         EVA Deodorants

 

Building Materials / Construction Industry

 

Nothing really stuck in the heads, except for the Alia Bhatt and Ayushman Khurana’s Colors of India campaign, still I felt the connect with the brand was lagging and therefore the recall.

Asian Paints with some simple story line was average.

JSW tried connecting some  Rishab Pant’s  old incidents from his on field experiences were stupid and too far fetched.

 

 

·         JSW Steel with Rishab Pant

·         JSW Coloron Roofing Sheets RishabPant

·         JSW Paints with Alia Bhatt and Ayushman Khurana

·         JSW Cement with Ganguly

·         Indigo Floor Paints

·         Berger Silk : Kareena Kapoor

·         Berger Paints : Akshaykumar

·         Asian Paints Weather Shield

·         Polycab wires

·         Merino Laminates

·         Century Ply : Virus protecting furniture

 

 

Automobiles / Auto Products

 

Clean road shots continued to occupy this ever challenging category, where FORD for a change concentrated on SERVICE aspect a smart decision to move away from the clutter.

Aamir featuring as a Dummy : an expensive celebrity that way, the question is Why should there be a Celebrity at all?

MG Gloster’s Abbreviation led campaign with the kid stood out only with the feature “Reverse parking”

HERO’s corporate message focussing on COVID was run of the mill

 

·         MRF Two Wheeler : Virat Kohli

·         MRF ZLX

·         CEAT : Aamir Khan / Don’t be a dummy

·         MG

·         KIA

·         SKODA

·         HYUNDAI

·         HERO corporate / Covid

·         HERO Xtreme : Virat Kohli

·         TVS Jupiter : Amitabh

·         TVS Apache

·         TVS Victor : Dhoni / Amitabh

·         TATA ALTROZ

·         FORD Service

 

 

 

 

Finance

 

RBI continued with its cautioning messages, AMFI (mutual fund association) used almost all cricketers to drive the message “SAFE HAI”. CRED’s simplicity to lot of people came across as complicated.

 

·         HDFC Bank

·         RBI with Amitabh

·         Mutual Fund

·         CRED

·         Master Card

 

 

 

 

 

Enablers

 

Aamir’s multiple storyline TVCs were endearing and engaging with his presence and some simple story telling.

Amazon with idea of “Khushiyon ka Door” wasn’t making an impact

AJIO came late, but with its filming and presentation was creating some engagement.

 

·         Phone Pe

·         Amazon

·         Flipkart

·         Ajio

·         Bharat Matrimony : Dhoni

·         Housing.com

·         Pharmeasy

 

Online Gaming

 

Dream 11’s interesting series, did  justice for being the Title Sponsor. Two distinct set of commercials certainly created impact for that brand. Lot of consumers seem to have logged in to the brand.

 

·         Dream 11

·         My 11 Circle

·         MPL

 

Education

Coding can be done even by 3 yr olds looks like a tall promise from Whitehat Jr another Byju group initiative. BYJU’s with SRK had some interesting TVCs last year, not this year.

UPGRAD was an absolute non-sense and I think they recovered by another meaningless TVC.

 

·         Byju’s

·         White hat Jr

·         UPGRAD

 

Surrogates

 

As usual, NO COMMENTS.

 

·         Sterling Reserve

·         British Empire

·         Mc Dowell’s

·         Royal Stag

·         100 pipers

 

Footwear

Sporto work though came in during the later part of the season looked good but the messaging was confusing.

 

·         Paragon : Hrithik

·        Sporto

 

Luxury Products

We can afford to miss these.

 

·         TITAN

·         TANISHQ

·         MANYAVAR

 

Online / Apps

 

Facebook’s thought of Open up your thoughts to expand your world was interesting. (the same thought translated into Tamil “Ulagam viriyum” was funny). Regional Agencies have a lot of potential to tap these.

JOSH, the replacement for Tik Tok attempted something interesting.

Instagram Stories was inviting.

 

·         Whatsapp

·         Facebook

·         Instagram

·         JOSH

 

Home Appliances

 

Anti Virus Fans was a real killer, goes only to prove how businesses are getting desperate.

BOSCH’s powerpoint advertising was pathetic, especially from a brand of this stature.

 

·         Aquaguard

·         KENT RO

·         Polycab Anti virus fans

·         Bosch Washing machines

·         Luminox Inverters

 

Services

 

Swiggy was a good repeat. The new TVC encouraging people to order definitely had some good performers, as their expressions were highly noticeable.

 

·         Urban Company

·         Swiggy

 

Mobile  Phones and Services

 

Surprisingly Vodafone’s communication wasn’t impressive.

Jio continues with its song and dance. The brand is still struggling to find a strong proposition for itself.

 

·         Vodafone Name Change and Giganet

·         Jio

·         Apple

·         Vivo V20 Twins

·         Oppo  F17 Pro Diwali Edition

·         Samsung Galaxy

·         One Plus

 

Garments

 

AMUL innerwear

 

 

Gutkhas

 

This larger than life projection has never appealed (probably I am not the consumer!!) but I still remember the “PAN PARAG” TVC!

 

·         Kamla Pasand

·         Pan Bahar

·         Vimal

 

Entertainment

 

STAR PLUS promoting their own shows

 

 

Let’s hope IPL 2021 will unfold with more interesting work that is relevant!