Deshpande, Srivastava ‘unbox’ minds

To some, it may be just a workshop, but for Ravi Deshpande, chief creative officer, Contract Advertising, it is the “shortest route to an MBA in creativity”.

To encourage fresh thinking and motivation in the agency, Contract Advertising has organised a two-day workshop in Mumbai on June 7 and 8, involving its employees in discussions, debates and a general tossing around of ideas. On the first day of the workshop, Deshpande opened his speech by going through the ‘Grow Young’ process, which was created last year by Contract to ensure fresher, better and quicker ideation for brands.

Deshpande also cautioned those present not to think television the moment a client brief comes their way. “Every empty space is a potential contact point,” he said. For example, Apple stores or Levi’s stores around the world have a different language in which they contact their consumers. “These stores transport you to another world,” said Deshpande, adding, “the more memorable and intimate a brand’s conversation with the consumer, the better the chances of brand recall.”

Deshpande, with assistance from Contract’s executive vice-president, Rohit Srivastava, went on to speak of Contract’s Grow Young process, which begins with collecting information on the category opportunity, brand advantage, consumer understanding, competitive gaps and brand personality.

To understand category opportunities, Srivastava said it was important to first unbox the category. For instance, the box in a shampoo category essentially involves clichés such as an ingredient story in the ad, a celebrity quotient, artificial hair that twirls around, a boyfriend appreciating the silkiness of his girl’s hair, or even the absence of humour in such ads. In the car category, the box includes long winding roads, sexy women, celebs, fast paced shots, and quite ironically, even a Rs 1 crore budget! Colas, too, have their own box, in which are found celebs, fizz, fun, teenagers and sports.

“Once identified, we need to think beyond at least some of these characteristics,” Srivastava said. For the second point (brand advantage), Srivastava gave the example of Domino’s initial Paresh Rawal commercials, which used the brand advantage of ‘30 minutes or free’ rather well.

Consumer understanding, the next point of discussion, was put to use quite interestingly in the HSBC Premier ‘Different people, different views’ communication. In this segment, Srivastava also cited an ad for McDonald’s made abroad, which showed a small kid being picked upon by elders, and made to do kiddy stuff, including enduring extended cheek-pulling by relatives. But then he walks into a McDonald’s outlet and munches on his favourite burger, the super reads, ‘McDonald’s. Compensation for being six’.

For the analysis of competitive gaps, Srivastava suggested Virgin Atlantic and Chiclets commercials. Lastly, when it comes to making use of a strong brand personality, he spoke of Axe and what it has done for men over the years.

In conclusion, Srivastava said that once an idea is formulated after going through these building blocks, the creative and planning guys must subject this idea to filters and question its viability in the marketplace. The moment the idea is approved as being fresh and relevant, execution can begin.

To share an example of how the Grow Young process helped Contract, Srivastava spoke of the Cadbury Bytes commercials (‘Bytes jahaan, public wahaan’) which used the basic thought that Bytes, seen as a kid’s snack, should become a teen magnet. This was arrived at after going through the stipulated building blocks. Quite literally, the idea of a ‘teen magnet’ translated into an ad that has a ‘loser’ attracting all kinds of young people to him because of his Bytes pack.