Ravinder Siwach,
Group Creative Director,
Ignite Mudra
|
There are three kinds of clients (read, buyers of advertising):
A. One who has heard of a certain Ogilvy, the bloke who said ‘what sells is creative’ and is against all glory because advertising must sell and has a Gandhian repulsion to all things good
B. One who enjoys the odd good spot on TV and talks about it with great glee but when it comes to his own brand, looks out of the window and says “maybe we should just write ‘50% OFF”
C. One who knows about advertising as much as the agency. Is update on what is happening and thinks of advertising as a critical almost crucial part of the marketing mix.
What I feel like telling the first one is to read what Ogilvy said once again. ‘What sells is creative’, beg your pardon sir, wouldn’t that mean ‘what is not creative will not sell’. To which my client is likely to say, “You writers no! You know how to play with words”. I suspect he would go home and think a little more about it, still. Exhibit A here is the kind that believes advertising is a mere necessity that need not be taken too seriously. ‘You say what you have to, if the product is good people will buy it.’ Yes, you can debate. Like, with a wall.
|
Exhibit B. Hopeless in a different way. This type believes, it’s not for him. I dare say, this type is rampant in the FMCG category. So they would talk about the likes of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign but will be content with a montage of category codes when it comes to their own advertising.
Dear C, I exist for you. You make me think harder. You make the work better. And I know for sure that behind every piece of advertising that I cherish there is a you. You make the other two of your clan bearable.
There’s a Bhojpuri saying that goes, ‘Saiyaanbhayekotwaal’ . Simply translated that means, ‘hey! The cop is my husband’. Popular logic says, that can be made possible in two ways. One, you marry a cop. Two, make the one you marry, a cop. Privileges of - ‘Hey! My husband is a cop’ will be the same as those of ‘Hey! The cop is my husband!’, after all.
Not all of us, at all times are going to get a client who makes us think harder or pushes us to create advertising that is less than ordinary. Hence the cop trick. To begin with, it’s pretty easy. Send that link, your advertising friends sent you, to your client/s. Type A is likely to get suspicious immediately and type B will sigh. Keep at it. Next time you see a stunning piece in a relevant category, send it across again. Maybe this time you can support the creative with results. Type A is likely to call and ask what exactly do you have in mind? Say, ‘nothing really’. Type B will sigh again. Download those Cannes winning films from canneslions.com, put them on a DVD and send it to your client. It makes for a good weekend watch, if nothing else. Show him the scope of creative thinking. Cut to a meeting sometime in near future. Your client is a little more aware. A little closer to the page you are on. A cop more approving and appreciative. Carry something you would present to a C type client, even if you have to carry the ‘all the category codes’ options. Present both. You may not see success immediately but you are working at it. He will have things like ‘but this doesn’t work in our category/our country/our market’ to say. You will have another link, another success story to share. Keep at it. Push logic and not merely the ‘creativity’ or your whims, and one day you will have a ‘kotwaal’. Don’t do this, and the cop will keep reading out the safety guidelines to you.
(The writer is Group Creative Director, Ignite Mudra) |
