Mr Verma, my mentor and brand consultant, sighed. He remembered the golden days when it was all about brand and revenue, preferences and creating preferences. The awards were the by-product of the marketing process. There was nothing called ‘Causvertising’.
His friend Mr Arya, CMO of one of the companies start-up (after some 8 years of business), returned empty-handed from Cannes. None of his three entries made the cut despite being curated by the experts at ‘FILLURCANESCFORM’ at a hefty fee. The presentation agency early adapter of AI had a good track record in ‘Causvertising’, but then there was no guarantee.
India brought home 25 metals across 15 campaigns in 2023. There was a heavy skew towards purpose-led advertising. This year the tally was 50% less than in 2022, but the reasons to celebrate Cannes remain the same.
The CMO, Arya, a veteran in the industry, knew people only remember the last campaign. The earlier wins did not matter. He had none to show for this year. No cause for a party and no need to revise his profile on LinkedIn or post those pictures on Instagram.
His product category did not lend itself to any public-oriented purpose-led campaigns. But that has never been a problem for ‘Causevertising’. He knew he would find a dependable defendable link later.
He was no longer interested in simplistic done-to-death malaria eradication, vaccinations, mensural hygiene, sustainability, climate change or woman empowerment. Disciplined, responsible gaming did make sense now that the country was full of gaming and betting sites under the game of skill. However, no point in picking something that obvious. For impact and award, it had to be something more esoteric, something no brand has tried before, something to shock the jury. For the purpose-led campaign and award entry preparation, 10% of the annual budget was budgeted, excluding the cost of his trip to Cannes.
How knew brands must go beyond functional and emotional benefits to build a belief system and ecosystem. Experts say it requires putting purpose at the heart of the business model, not just in campaigns. But damn the experts; they knew nothing. They are not practical.
The brand campaign was in place and will take care of the revenue generation. The link between the brand and the ‘Causevertising’ will be created, however tenuous. The possible overlap between the cause and the brand’s reason for existence was a bonus. It was the reason for his existence, his ego and his future.
The reality – rarely Award-Winning work works for the brand. Not saying it does not work. Only most award-winning work is different from the brand-building work. When you can make them meet or overlap, it is almost Nirvana. The agency and the client were divided and confused. Maybe they were totally clear about the purpose and return on the individual piece of creativity. Be it B2I, B2B, B2C. Maybe that is the problem.
Arya has been in jury panels and knew how much time was available and devoted to entries. Despite facilitators and coordinators, no one knew how the brands were doing in the market. All was secondary information or the information shared by the brand. The international jury can never know the reality or differentiate between brand and award work- both are supported by impeccable data and pre-post research: the data, impressions, results and the power-point with high-quality videos made sense. Arya knew precisely the person from ‘LETSBURNT’ to do the job. He was in awe of this person who could talk about creativity and expressions while discussing ‘Causevertising’. The consultant was good. He would make you believe poverty can be removed with a well-designed digital campaign.
Maybe one could shock the jury with a non-digital purpose-led campaign! He loved the Happydent and the Eriksson One black coffee ad. And indeed he loved the ‘Th Unfiltered History Tour’ as well as the ‘SRK-MY-AD’ too. They won.
Someone had to remind the industry of the need for branding and brand development.
He knew his options in ‘Causvertising’ was still between Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
The UCC – Uniform Civil Code push by the Government was a perfect case for ‘Causvertising’. It makes sense as a large, sustainable fight for diversity through inclusiveness, and politics and yet hints at undifferentiated equity. It came with a tadka (singed with spices) of religion and region. A pinch of minority-majority angle. And a national-level issue. You don’t get bigger than that.
However, there was a problem. The Government may not risk it other than with two of the known industry stalwarts. But it can’t stop a law book publisher from running a winning ‘causevertising’ campaign on UCC.
Arya had already approved the brief. It was out in the market after the famous ‘ITOLDUSO’ award consultant helped close it in the last meeting. He was a fast, proactive worker, a prosumer for awards and rewards.
The ink on the Cannes award list and the associated euphoria was yet to die, and here was he planning and thinking of the next year. He already had received feelers from the targeted agencies to pitch, to get a toe in the door. Everyone was interested. The list included the Japanese, Indian, the film city roadwali (one on the film city road), the Parel flyover ke passwali (One near the Parel flyover) agency and the BKC Bandra waali (one in Bandra).
The next few weeks will go into selecting the agency and pinpointing the final purpose for ‘Causvertising’ that will give his life a purpose. It was not about the industry seeing an opportunity to create positive change and impact in society – but it was about creating change and positivity in his life. Small things like this keep happening in the big cities and industries.
No one has forgotten that a clear promise to the customers gives campaigns a creative edge’. They should remember that a curated buzz around a ‘causevertising’ gives campaigns an award edge’. And a Jug-Mug-Bucket though popular and problem solving will never cut ice with the international jury.
BLOG/035/2023 To connect, send an email, join on Twitter S_kotnala or subscribe to the weekly update.
