consumers

Consumers
Well yes there has been a tremendous shift in consumers and their tastes as well as preferences and in all overall purchasing power, based in India i see that happening more closely with all the development happening around and the perception of people changing.

Today a city like Mumbai, which has consumers you more closely associate with, is cluttered with billboards, television advertising to such an extent that more time is spent on watching ads then actual programs. In India we still dont have complete freedom to filter unwanted ads however we are moving closer to that day thus what marketers are doing is to get more creative,

There has thus been a drastic change in the kind of billboards i see today, even the ads are more focussed towards a particular trend or fad thus making consumers take note or associate with it more easily, then we have the start of mobile message advertising, where a person can send a free message to anyone's phone and attached to that message is a small ad.

We are also moving towards more creative floor and table graphics which i find in cafes, where every time a person spends a good half an hour he will get a glimpse of the ad.

Then there is the usual viral advertising that again plays with the fact that its sometimes comes across as word of mouth or reference promotion than general advertising, all our gmails, yahoos, flickers and orkuts have used this.
and to mention a few good viral videos on youtube i would suggest the Cadburys gorilla campaign as a reference,

and talking about videos - plz dont miss the goa fest videos on youtube they are brilliant

then of course there are blogs however i don't personally see their use as an advertising medium due to lack of credibility, HOWEVER they are out there and deserve a mention.

None the less the best way to reach out easily is to piggy back on a trend or fad, or a promotion that serves a dual purpose, so that it leads to word of mouth. As far as a consumer goes tickling the funny bone is always a good way of reaching out.......

advertising medium and marketing

A perception that we all hold true in the industry is that Indian agencies lack creativity. Well a few years ago i would have agreed, when copying the west was all we Indians were understood to be good at, none the less today when we have proven ourselves across fields and when our agencies our handling multiple international accounts and have won several other awards the allegation sounds frail.

We may not pull off the most mind blowing advertising however from what i see, its not due to the fact that we lack creativity but due to the cultural differences and the technology they have access to, however today we are changing on every count including the kind of content Indian agencies are coming up with.

Today we are making the world sit up and take notice, creating new trends within, offering new mediums and opening up new avenues for reaching the consumers mind. New age advertising in India is no longer boring like it used to be a decade back.

A case in point, billboard advertising in India. Anyone noticed how billboards put up of late in metros like Mumbai are so much more creative. Now all of a sudden companies are paying more attention to the product and selling than showcasing the model, focussing on fads, coming closer to interact with the consumer on a more personal note.

Let’s look at some recent billboards, the all time favourite Amul ad, its been around forever , picking on general issues and portraying their product on those lines, the recent one was IPL cricket wherein the Amul ad said India’s premier lick. Another one would be the recent Shopper's Stop Billboard at Bandra, Mumbai, stating that they are changing their logo. What essentially came across was the concept. it shows a couple of workmen erasing the old logo and rite next to it is the new logo of Shoppers Stop. Most of all, the hoarding looks real, multi dimensional, Classy, simple and yet so effective.

Somehow most billboards we see are built around the whole television media scene however some still manage to hold their ground and are given as much importance as the more traditional media.

Another change i see is the new form of advertising in local coffee joints and shop, which have replaced the old placards with table stickers, very hard to ignore for youngsters who spend a good hour on an average there and then there are these illusion based graphics which appear on roads and on walls which are so designed to look three dimensional. Thus if we see carefully all those mannequins that appeared outside clothes shops thanks to companies like levis have been replaced by more artistic half bodies jutting off walls or attached to glass doors and now with graphical pictures which give a similar impression. Not only these most of the retail outlets are thronged with 3 dimensional floor stickers that further act as point of purchase decision influencer.

Another smart move to innovatively occupy space is what we see in theatres today, the mirror with a projection of an ad, which goes transparent as soon as we approach it. Smart and effective usage of property ain’t it.

Well, all in all, we have reinvented media for all those consumers who now have DTH and may soon be able to watch disturbance free programs or ad free television. It is this outdoor media that will then take over and be the mode of communication to reach out to the masses.

Outdoor Advertising is a form of advertising that is targeted at people who are, “on the move” and out of their homes. Formerly one of the most popular forms of outdoor advertising consisted of Hoardings, majorly with other spaces not getting an equal amount of weightage.

But today there has been a drastic change not only in terms of perception but also acceptance in the outdoor advertising scenario both in terms of technology and innovation as well as the diversification of media spaces. An outdoor media campaign is not just about the product it is promoting, but how it goes about doing the same. The visual attachment a consumer develops is what finally adds to the product recall.

Anyone noticed how billboards put up of late in metros like Mumbai and other tier two and three cities are so much more creative.

Some of them i came across during my internship are attached, just take a look.

Today we however don’t restrict ourselves to billboards and hoardings we now have fleet ads (ads on vehicles), or the new form of advertising in local coffee joints and shop, which have replaced the old placards with table stickers, very hard to ignore for youngsters who spend a good hour on an average there and then there are these illusion based graphics which appear on roads as floor graphics and on walls which are so designed to look three dimensional.

Smart and efficient way to occupy space i say.