Indian ad campaigns are losing their magic

Lloyd Mathias, angel investor and former marketer at PepsiCo, Motorola and HP, says he and his friends have been discussing that campaigns are underwhelming

Television advertising in the ongoing cricket Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen a 12% jump in volume over the 2023 season (IPL 16). As per TAM Sports, a division of TAM Media Research, the number of categories advertising on TV increased by 51% over IPL 16 for the first 39 matches while the number of advertisers jumped 38%.

Experts proffer several reasons behind agencies churning out banal ads.For starters, a lot of marketing has shifted to the here and now, partially driven by digital-first brands where everything is quantified in terms of leads and results.

But how many campaigns from this growing ad volume have you found remarkable or memorable? “Frankly, nothing has made me sit up and say, ‘wow’,” says Subhash Kamath, brand consultant and former CEO of BBH and Publicis Worldwide, India, and former chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Lloyd Mathias, angel investor and former marketer at PepsiCo, Motorola and HP, says that he and his friends have been discussing that campaigns have been underwhelming: “Maza nahi aa raha” (ads are not clicking) is the common refrain,” he adds. Both Kamath and Mathias admit there’s dip in the overall quality of creatives. Abhijit Avasthi, founder, Sideways Consulting, concurs, only a little more forcefully: “IPL seems to have become our annual reminder of the lack of imagination and courage in the marketing fraternity,” he says.

For starters, a lot of marketing has shifted to the here and now, partially driven by digital-first brands where everything is quantified in terms of leads and results. “Businesses are looking at the short term and there’s greater emphasis on performance marketing which boils down to metrics, likes, reshares and conversions. Somehow, long-term brand building and creatives take a back step,” says Mathias.

He feels some of the performance marketing money could also help build memorability and appeal for the brand. “It can’t all be just about the next purchase transaction, but, over time, how does it make me feel,” he says. Avasthi says performance marketing has its time and place but it cannot replace what good creativity does for the brand.

Kamath also blames unnecessary dependence on celebrities for poor quality of creatives. “99% of celebrity ads are hopeless. There is no real idea or intelligent way of using a celebrity,” he says. For the first 37 matches of IPL 2024, the share of celebrity-endorsed ads stood at 61% versus ads without celebrities at 39%. The share of ads featuring celebrities in IPL 16 was higher at 75%, according to TAM Sports.

But paucity of talent in advertising may be a reason for poor campaigns, too. Kamath feels creative directors in agencies may not be mentoring their teams the way they used to earlier, though Avasthi thinks it is not fair to blame the agencies. Brand marketeers have changed, he says. “It takes conviction and maturity to believe in creativity which is ambiguous by nature. Marketeers today are not comfortable with ambiguity. They are not willing to take that leap with their agency,” he says.

Kamath too believes that the responsibility of a great creative lies with the client since it is his money and product. “It takes a very smart marketing head to drive creativity through ads. How many CMOs (chief marketing officers) are truly invested in creativity as a weapon for their brands?” he asks.

Besides, the agency-client relationship is more short term now unlike in the past when, say, a Pepsi stayed with J Walter Thompson for 25 years, Fevicol and Cadbury which stuck with Ogilvy for several decades or Bajaj and Lintas’ 30-year-old relationship. “Because there is pressure on delivery, the agency-client tenures are truncated. They are not so invested in the brand in a sustained manner together,” Mathias says.

Marketing is at an inflection point. After the 70s, 80s and 90s that were print dependent and had advertising gurus like Mohammad Khan and Goutam Rakshit writing long-format copy, came the television revolution which was about making great ad films with talents like Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi, Mathias says. “It’s been 10 years and the digital era is firmly here but one hasn’t seen great quality digital creatives. There may have been some lovely, exciting short digital campaigns, but not something that lasts the test of time,” he adds.