And a brand and its agency are responsible not just to themselves and to the brand and to the whole revenue of the thing, but you're responsible to people.
Three takeaways worth carrying forward.
- 01
Now with the digital coming in and people moving to OTT, how do you see the entire advertising industry in that context?
- 02
Which you'd said no matter however slant the reference to the brand is in the ad, it'll still stink of an ad.
- 03
Nowadays, you know, we used to do advertising on television where the whole idea was don't reveal the brand.
Connected to the DMAasia operating frame.
Proof
This episode connects brand purpose to credible evidence, leadership archives and field-tested marketing practice.
Access
This episode connects brand purpose to routes into communities, councils, juries and senior conversations.
Ascent
This episode connects brand purpose to learning, recognition and the next generation of marketing leadership.
AdChoices / DAA
This episode connects brand purpose to privacy-first marketing, consumer trust and responsible data use.
Unfinished Business
This episode connects brand purpose to open industry problems that still need senior participation.
Durable lessons from the record.
- Start with the consumer problem, not the channel.
- Treat digital transformation as a behaviour change, not a software purchase.
- Measure effectiveness without losing the brand story.
If brand purpose is now table stakes, what will make the brand genuinely harder to ignore?
Take it into Unfinished Business →READABLE TRANSCRIPT1,265 words
Good brands have a personality. Right. And not just, they don't have just one personality, but they have parts to their personality. So ad blindness is increasing among consumers these days. In that context, how do you ensure that a brand reaches people? This content thing increasing of all kinds. Yeah. It's something that people want. An overload of content? Yes. People want it. People want it. That's why people are doing binge watching. Right. That's why so many shows are up. So many things are happening. These things happen in media because of demand.
Right. Very high demand, one. Second, wherever you thought was me time or free time or think time has now become... Binge time. Mobile time, let's say. Yeah. Some screen time. Some screen time. Right. So if you were just looking out of the window in a bus or a taxi or something, now you don't have to do that. Right. You have to, this is the window that you're looking in. Right. So it's come to you and you have wanted it. Right. So in a sense, people want it. Right. We are also bored of speaking in the same way that we used to speak. Right.
So the challenge actually is exciting and it's interesting and we want to take it head on. Right. So the new world for us has given us a new lease of life in the head. So we can think in different ways. So do you think that there's a need to reinvent? Yes. In terms of advertising? Yes. And how do you? So one is when you say reinvent, right? I think formats ought to change. Right. I think, you know, that's very important. Interactivity has happened a lot. And I think from digital, we can learn that interactivity can lend itself to different formats.
Right. Right. So for example, let's say social experiments have become a new format. Right. A lot of people are now communicating through social experiments. Right. Live, candid, more, you know, free to, you know, stuff is happening. And those are opening up new ways. Another thing is that these days you see a lot of brands getting trolled for the ads. Wow. That are being created. So you can't talk as freely or probably cannot communicate as freely as you want to. Yeah. So how does it curb your creativity or what impact does it have on you?
Any kind of public speaking comes with responsibility, right? Yeah. And a brand and its agency are responsible not just to themselves and to the brand and to the whole revenue of the thing, but you're responsible to people. Right. So if you're going to speak, like I'm speaking to you here, there are five people around me, 20 people outside, thousands of people outside that. I have to know that what I speak should make sense to you. I should respect, you know, how you think. So brands have the same exact responsibility on them.
They need to sort of feel what is the vibe of people. So also how much has digital changed the creativity? Because earlier you were creating ads only for print, PVC, radio, outdoor. Now with the digital coming in and people moving to OTT, how do you see the entire advertising industry in that context? Yeah. So now everybody, you know, talks about thumb stopping, which is like, you know, earlier it used to be, you know, like stop you in your tracks or, you know, stop in some other way. But now it's thumb stopping, right? Because you're scrolling. Yeah.
Where do you stop? Right. Where do you stop? Right. So now the thing is that, see, television, you couldn't control it. You couldn't stop it, right? Right. So you had to watch it was there or otherwise you tune off, right? Tune off, yeah. But now there's this, what is it that you'll put there in that window that will make your thumb stop? Thumb stop, yeah. Another thing that is happening is the formats are changing so much, right? Right. So there is like now six second formats and there are 45 seconds and there are two miniters.
Each one has a challenge that is different from earlier. Nowadays, you know, we used to do advertising on television where the whole idea was don't reveal the brand. Don't reveal what it's all about till the very end, you know? It was more based on cinema. Cinema, yeah. Cinema was like, keep the reveal for late, keep the climax for late. Right, right. Now it's no longer like that. Now it's like tell somebody what it's about but still engage them. That's a different kind of challenge. So that's fun too.
So Amit is something that I've taken from an earlier blog that you'd written. Yeah, yeah. Which you'd said no matter however slant the reference to the brand is in the ad, it'll still stink of an ad. Yeah. If that is the case, why do brands go for native advertising? See for me, it's not about hiding your brand. You can have all kinds of work. You can have work that is somewhere in the category. You can have work which is clearly and openly branded. Right. You can have all kinds of work like that.
The only thing is you need to know what pisses people off, what doesn't piss people off like that, right? So I discussed that whole thing because people were trying to sort of put their work in a little shrewd, sly sort of way. Right. I mean brands, I think, need to become a little bit more upfront. So basically instead of fooling people. Yes. Come out. You should say, okay, this is our thing. Come out. Be more straightforward. Right. Be more confident that you as a brand have a role to play in somebody's life. Right. And use that confidence.
Good brands have a personality. Right. And not just, they don't have just one personality, but they have parts to their personality. Right. Sometimes a brand can make you cry. Yeah. Sometimes a brand can make you laugh. Right. Sometimes a brand can show you a fresh perspective of something. Right. There are different sides. Use all of those sides to talk in different ways. I think don't try to slide yourself in. If you try to slide yourself in, it gets caught like that. I think that's the thing that consumers hate the most. Right.
I'm thinking it's a 24-7 job. How do you unwind? What I find is I have a lot of friends and family who are completely away from advertising. Right. I was telling somebody that my wife, I once told her that there is a Vodafone pug. Oh, that's a Vodafone pug. And she looked at that pug and she said, what do you mean Vodafone pug? That's a pug. So she was completely away from advertising. And I think for me, that side of my friends, of my family, that refreshes me a little bit. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.