The Good old Indian Ad World and Behind the Scenes of an Ad Film

The Good old Indian Ad World and Behind the Scenes of an Ad Film

The Indian ad world has come a long way since the 1970s & 1980s.  However, some of the ad films made in that era still tickle our memory chords. 

                         

The  “Liril” ad campaign was a 1985 soap commercial.

The original Liril ad girl, Karen Lunell and the ad shot under the water falls was a never fading ad soap.  The ad stirred the bottom of our hearts and still lingers in our memory.  Karen Lunell was an Air Hostess with Air India.   She shot into fame with just one ad film ‘the water babe’, a soap commercial of Consumer Goods Giant HLL. 

 

The ad film maker behind the original Liril Ad Kailash Surendranath stated in a recent interview that he searched for a waterfall to shoot the ad film in Ranchi, Khandala and Ooty and finally settled for the hill station waterfall in Kodaikkanal in Tamil Nadu.  However, the waterfall was to come lively only during the winter season.  The commercial was to shoot in December-January in extreme cold weather with a freezing temperature of less than four degrees.  The waterfall should not be so high or heavy to stand under  and also friendly for the model to feel comfortable to bath and enjoy herself.   Karen  Lunell sizzled under the waterfall.

The shots of brandy was consumed by the unit members to keep warm in between the shots in such extreme weather conditions.  The ad film was made with dedication and total involvement for perfection by the unit members. The rest is history.

The Liril soap ad campaign “come alive with freshness”  was a huge hit and it ruled the ad world for decades.   The smile of Karen Lunell was infectious and unforgettable and it shot up the sales of Liril soap.  The product was sold like hot cakes.  The ad managed to contain the message ‘tingling freshness’. The waterfall has become a legend popularly known as ‘Liril Falls’.  It is a location much sought after today by the visiting tourists to Kodaikkanal.

Another famous  ad campaign is that of  Lux soap.  The popular brand ‘LUX’  and ‘Lux Supreme’ featured ruling Bollywood Divas from time to time  across the years in its ad films.

The HLL’s competitor in premium brand soaps Godrej Soaps was not lagging behind either.  Its ‘Crowning Glory’ ad film shot in Godrej’s Private Swimming Pool in his Mansion was a major soap ad too.  The Crowning Glory ad featured Bollywood heart-throb Dimple Kapadia as its brand ambassador.

 

                

The ad featuring Anna Bredmeyer in “Anne French Hair Remover” was a popular ad in the beginning of Indian advertisement  industry.  Persis Khambatta of Star Trek was another popular model of that vintage period.

The ads of “Nirma Girl”, “Murphy Boy”  and the “Thumps Up”  jingle “Thumps Up ! Taste the Thunder” as well as the health soap campaign “Wherever there is Lifebuoy there is Health” was the popular ones in Cinema theaters and TV channels at that time. The Lalitaji’s SURF ad was famous too.  The soaps and detergents being a daily use personal care products, the need to create nostalgia about the same.

 
                    

                          

 
                                   











The Charminar cigarette ad and VIP Frenchie ads were a craze amongst ad enthusiasts.

           

The Consumer Giant Godrej Soaps “24 hr Conifidence Cinthol Brand” ad campaign featuring bollywood matinee idol Hrithik Roshan was a noteworthy successful endeavor.  Hrithik Roshan  with his arresting Greek God looks and charismatic persona that he is,  boosted the Cinthol brand confidence as well as sales.  Hrithik in various adventure sports was a befitting ambassador for 24 hr confidence boosting Cinthol soaps.

Before Hrithik Roshan it was Bollywood’s then reigning super star  “Vinod Khanna” and Pakistani prince charming cricketer “Imran Khan” who was leading ambassadors for the Godrej’s “CINTHOL” brand.

 

                                              

The recent Cinthol ad campaign “alive is awesome” is sensational too.

The growth story of advertising industry in India –

The passage of time found Indian ad world mushrooming and obtaining an industry status.  The extensive marketing by manufacturers for the competitor’s edge found the ad industry on its toe. This also resulted in some of the major manufacturers/production houses having their own advertising arm.

The ad industry’s resurgence from print and electronic media to internet, digital signage and mobile ads lead to its growth story.

With sustained growth of the Indian economy during the last two decades, there has been a constantly increasing yearning for a better lifestyle among Indian people.  Advertising industry has been both a catalyst and beneficiary of these yearnings as the industry has been on a continuous growth trajectory with only temporary slowdowns at times.

Virtually any medium can be used for advertising. Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards, street furniture components, printed flyers and rack cards, radio, cinema and television adverts, web banners, mobile telephone screens, shopping carts, web pop-ups, skywriting, bus stop benches, human billboards and forehead advertising, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, banners attached to or sides of airplanes ("logo-jets"), in-flight advertisements on seatback tray tables or overhead storage bins, taxicab doors, roof mounts and passenger screens, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, doors of bathroom stalls, stickers on apples in supermarkets, shopping cart handles (grabertising), the opening section of streaming audio and video, posters, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an "identified" sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising.

                 

The Indian Advertising Market Report & Forecast can serve as an excellent guide for investors, researchers, consultants, marketing strategists, media planners, advertisers, radio and television broadcasters and all those who are planning to foray into the Indian advertising market in some form or the other.

Indian Advertising Industry is a sophisticated and professional one.

The major Advertising  Agencies of India are -

·         J Walter Thompson (previously known as Hindustan Thompson Associates).

·         Mudra Communications Ltd.

·         Lintas Howe Limited

·         Ogilvy & Mather (=OIgilvy & Mathew)

·         Madison Advertising Agencies Ltd.

The prominent ad gurus are –

·         Alyque Padamsee

·         Piyush Pandey

·         Sam Balsara

·         Prahlad Kakkar

·         R Balakrishnan

·         Arvind Sharma

·         Vikram Sakhuja

·         Frank Simoes

·         Sam Mathews

·         Josy Paul

·         Prasoon Joshi

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV.

                           

                        

In 1981  Network, associate of UTV, pioneers cable television in India.

The  biggest  milestone   in  television  was  the   “ASIAD 1982”  when Indian
television turned to colour transmission.

In 1986 Mudra Communications creates India's first folk-history TV serial ‘BUNIYAAD’. Shown on National TV Channel (Door Darshan), it becomes the first of the mega soaps to beam on Indian television.  “Buniyaad” Hindi tele-serial was sponsored by India’s most trusted major business house GODREJ.  Before the start of the serial slot “Godrej” logo used to appear on television screen as sponsors and also Godrej commercials during the breaks.

 In 1990 marks the beginning of new medium Internet online advertising.

Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various old media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television advertisement, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as blogs, websites or text messages.

 The model postulates six steps a buyer moves through when making a purchase:

1. Awareness
2. Knowledge
3. Liking
4. Preference
5. Conviction
6. Purchase

The Means-End Theory suggests that an advertisement should contain a message or means that leads the consumer to a desired end-state.

The industry is expected to maintain its current growth momentum, the pace of growth of various segments of the industry will differ significantly from one another.

                                          

                                              Madison Chief  Sam Balsara with Lara Balsara

According to Madison CEO & Managing Director,  Mr.Sam  Balsara,  “The Indian advertising industry in 2014 grew by 16.4%, almost at par with our growth projection of 16.8%.”  “In terms of absolute numbers, the advertising industry increased by Rs 5,200 crore and touched Rs 37,100 crore in 2014.”

The forecast for 2015 is slated to be in the region of nearly Rs 41,000 crore.”

The ad guru or advertising genius like Alyque Padamsee, Piyuesh Pandey, Prahlad Kakkar, Frank Simoes, Josy Paul, R Balakrishnan, Arvind Sharna, Prasoon Joshi and Sam Balsara has done priceless contribution to Indian Advertising Industry.

The co-founder of month old Advertising Agency ‘The Mob’ (founded in June 2015), Chraneeta Mann said “We are preparing for the battle and chasing business at breakneck speed”.  Chraneeta Mann and co-founder Nitin Suri of ‘The Mob’ believe that in traditional agencies ideas with digital legs remain an afterthought. Says Mann, we really need to break that mindset and get into a space that allows us to do braver, more experimental work.  Their focus is on ideas that work on the ‘all-in-one’ platform.

Says Suri, “Today with internet wearable technology, social media, app design, etc the world is converging onto what we call our ‘personal screen’.  It would be quite short-sighted of us to continue to view Mobile Advertising as limited to sending ‘location based texts’ when the possibilities are so much larger.

On the recent burst of ad start ups Mann says, “Of course,  there will be many start ups, but the ones that will make a mark will be the ones that can think young, fresh and are willing to experiment.

I was fascinated by the creative ad world and loved the jingles on the radio and television and envisaged making useful contributions to the advertising world.

Advertising was my passion and first love.  If you ask me to choose a career, the first choice would be advertising and media.

To write a Blog about advertising was always considered to be a thriller by me and materializing that endeavor satisfies the inner instincts.