Getting better at evaluating TV ad scripts

So a round of script presentation has just gotten over, and the agency team is looking around the room, trying to gauge reactions. The client starts speaking: one element in one script doesn't seem right. He rejects that script. And the downward spiral begins.

Somehow after multiple rounds, a script is approved, and everyone leaves the conference room happy. But when the final ad film is presented, the mood is not as exuberant. Because "the film didn't come out as expected".

So what can be done about it?
Most marketers haven't been through a film-development process, so they don't know what to expect at the intermediate stages. Here is what can help them:

1. Train yourself to visualise an ad from a scriptPick up your favourite movie and look up its script online (one source: The Internet Movie Script Database). For me, it was with 'The Matrix'. But even if it's not a sci-fi film, there will be a lot 'not said' in the script that gets added in the film.

Another option is to read a book that later got made into a movie. Notice how storytelling differs as words and as scenes. The Harry Potter book series, and 'Song of Fire and Ice' series (made into Game of Thrones) can serve as recent references. This will familiarise you with how the script that you are listening to, may look like as the final product.

2. Watch a lot of ads and show-reelsAd film directors, just like movie directors, have their unique way of storytelling. Thus, watching show-reels will get you a sense of how the director would treat the script.

3. Read comic booksSince most popular comic book characters have been around for decades, we can compare how storytelling changes from comics, to animation, to movies, and to TV series. The idea is to see variety rather than linear thinking. At the very least, it broadens our imagination for visualising the scripts.


And, still, the final result could be different!That can still happen, because non-creative people like you and I, go for the familiar, while the creative guys will go for new, different, and unique. But, the output won't come as a shock, rather an improvised version of what you already expected.

Anyway, our objective is to get the right direction, not direct the ad sitting in our armchairs.

Using Big Data for Strategic Communications

Once upon a time, the marketing department was data-starved and decision-making was largely about following the Marketing Head's gut-feel which in turn was influenced by 'trends' of the time.

Now, as the tsunami of Big Data shifts this decision-making to led-by-data and further to overloaded-by-data, strategy seems to take a backseat. But it doesn't have to be that way.

1. Find the Highest Common Factor, not the Least Common DenominatorMost upselling and cross-selling is based on what was searched and bought recently. This is standard data analysis and cross-tabulation at play. While that is good for incremental sales, it does little to grow large-scale business.

Instead, in a market like India, where the potential to grow the pie is still big, we can use data to solve larger business problems - to go beyond sales pitches, and find behavioural triggers.

For example, online retail seems to be battling slow growth beyond cash-on-delivery. Here, big data can help collate first gifting items purchased for delivery to other addresses - these purchases would automatically push consumers to go for some mode of pre-payment, instead of cash-on-delivery. And once they have experienced this mode, they are ripe for a complete shift away from COD.

Once these ideas are discovered, the appropriate ones can be elevated for ad campaigns too. For example: what if in this ad for Amazon, big data could provide the most correct item to purchase? Perhaps sales growth can see a steeper trajectory.

2. Redefine your segmentation criteriaIn absence of data, segmentation is usually done with geography and demographic variables - age, gender, etc. But with big data, these very factors can be challenged. What if, more than geography (small town / large town / metro), the 'life-stage' of the customer (single / married / married with kids) defined his / her purchase behaviour?

3. Redefine your competitionIn MBA classes, we were told of Coca-Cola's big growth story that came from redefining competition as 'all beverages'. Similarly, using big data, we can redefine our brand's competition based on time and money - instead of just product category. As brands move from mere products to experience (and want to charge a premium for it), this becomes interesting as well as critical.

What do you think?
Any stories to share on Big Data?

Weaknesses brand 'Patanjali' should watch out for

Brand Patanjali's galloping success is a rare case in the FMCG industry.
But, is it a brand with no weaknesses? Of course not. Here are some:

1. It's a founder-person brandWhile phrase is a made-up one, I think it explains best the category of brands strongly linked to their founders, like Richard Branson and Virgin, and Salman Khan and Being Human.

A large proportion of the brand's power comes from the person behind it, and that may very well cause trouble. We have already seen how the Lokpal movement died after Anna Hazare moved on. Questions were raised on the future of a brand even as strong as Apple after its founder's death.

In its advertisements, there are other endorsers - Hema Malini for biscuits, Sushil Kumar for ghee. But they are not strongly used to build the mother-brand, nor do they carry any past association with Ayurveda.

2. Product quality being questioned, especially in the food categories
When product quality gets questioned, losses pile up, and even loyal customers bid goodbye. Coke, Pepsi, Maggi... the list of strong brands facing PR nightmares is long. Only some, like Cadbury Dairy Milk, were able to bounce back strongly.

In case of Patanjali, its atta noodles product was highlighted in the news for all the wrong reasons. And with the product range getting wider, the connection with Ayurveda becomes weaker. A tomato ketchup from Patanjali may increase sales in the short term, but I have my doubts on its impact on Patanjali's brand value.

With the new announcement on jeans, the brand association seems to be moving away from 'Ayurveda', and towards 'Swadeshi'. While it will help the brand tap a larger potential, the association seems more 'inside-out' at the moment, and it remains to be seen whether or not consumers also make the same connect.

3. Consumer Dissonance
The biggest success factor for Patanjali is the association with a healthier way of living - Yoga and Ayurveda. This image / perception can trump Science, by evoking association with artificial, cosmetics, chemicals, etc., and can make consumers feel happy that they are moving towards a way of life closer to nature.

But habits are tough to break, and the newly built Yoga regimen will soon be given up in exchange for an extra half hour of much-needed sleep. Then, every purchase of Patanjali would increasingly remind consumers of their broken promises to themselves. Big risk!

If the 'Swadeshi' hook takes off positively among consumers, the 'Ayurveda' association can take a backseat, and perhaps avoid this dissonance altogether. However, with that, the food section of Patanjali's product range will lose its biggest differentiator too. Tough task ahead.


Of course, for now, these are mere theoretical possibilities, and Brand Patanjali can rest on its laurels, as its products continue to topple competition at retail counters. So for now, other brands would simply have to try to ride this wave of healthy living.

Or perhaps, they could stage a comeback using positive associations with science and technology, or by using rational arguments of superior product quality (like Heinz ketchup tried last year)?

What do you think?