Apr 21, 2005 05:04 PM
14361 Views
(Updated Apr 21, 2005 05:06 PM)
Suggestively fiddling with a ball pen or moving your hands inside the bag rummaging for something or an unassuming waiter uncorking a bottle of wine in the most risqué manner, now does that sound notoriously scandalizing to anyone? I am sure it doesn’t, well are you sure, check again, did I say that, well if the naughty minds were having a field day, probably that’s exactly what was the point of the adverts being talked about here.
Or how about another set of pointers, a game of soccer being shown on TV, as the tempo of the match increases to a crescendo, the sound bytes pick up the frantic creaking of a bed nearby, as the camera zooms out, the super says a tribute to the world’s favorite sports, well no points for guessing that, yes indeed, soccer is the world’s favorite sport, well or is it? Now, now come on don’t just brand me yet as a dirty mind.
Ok enough of beating around the bush now lets just face it, today as I celebrate my 50th review I thought why not write something which I am sure lot of people out there would be interested in reading and knowing about. This one goes out specially to my ever so dirty minded friends, zuludancing and jai_coer, who have been coaxing me to write on this one and like a true friend I am dedicating this 50th review to these “gent”le-men.
The advert in question today is that of J K Ansell’s Rs 30-crore condom brand Kamasutra. Well the name rings a bell doesn’t it, and conjures images from Vatsyayana’s ever sought after treatise on love making to the naughty nay sometimes risqué adverts that were made in the name of showing moments of amorous pleasure. Kamasutra or KS in short forayed in the market in the year 1991 and the market at that time was being dominated by brands like Nirodh, Masti and Kohinoor. Being a relatively late entrant in the Rs 100 crore Indian condom market KS needed to do something big to make a splash in the market.
The initial years, well nothing sells like ‘s’ex, and that was precisely the route KS adverts took. The ads were handled by Bombay based Heartbeat Communications and well o well who can forget the adrenaline raising and pulsating adverts steaming hot with the onscreen flesh show of the sultry sirens Pooja Bedi, Anu Agarwal and Viveka Babajee. Needless to say the starved populace relished the adverts, while it had the guardians of the Indian heritage and culture, fuming in their air-conditioned chambers. Please don’t quote me wrong, I am not saying that the adverts had nothing objectionable about them but at the same time I have always been a strong believer in the ideology that as free citizens we have every right to decide for ourselves what we want to see and what we don’t.
The pleasure of making love to date remains the brand’s unique proposition. KamaSutra condoms changed market perceptions with the brand position ''For the Pleasure of Making Love'' addressing values other than pure functionality. Projected as a means of enhancing rather than restricting sexual pleasure, it's relatively modern and overt visualization and wide range of product variants made it an instant hit. KS ads were the first to break out of that use condoms fight off AIDS mold. They brought a new dimension of sensuality and erotic appeal to the rubber and the results were there for all to see as KS shot from being an upstart to becoming India's second largest selling condom brand.
According to ORG-MARG, KS commands a 26 per cent share (11 per cent volume share) of the total condom market, while Durex’s share rests at a mere 1 per cent. Kohinoor has a 20 per cent market share (13 per cent in volume).
Winds of change By 2004, KS started facing stiff competition from other brands that had followed suit, abandoning their discreet approaches to branding and introducing new and exciting product variants. While KS still held the high ground of class and modernity it no longer remained seriously differentiated. `Creativity' in advertising is the ability to come up with powerful concepts that are relevantly and strikingly different enough to capture attention cut across media clutter and are remembered by the viewing audience. To be remembered, the ad also needs to have high entertainment value that allows for repeat viewing without fatigue setting in. Few ads, in fact, achieve all three aspects of relevance to the category and brand, differentiation from competition and the overall environment and last but not least, what can be termed as `box office' appeal. KS has been living on the good old Pooja Bedi magic and it needed something new to push it forward.
From sensuality to suggestive humor the ads have seen a transformation from a blue-toned effect ,featuring well-known faces to the new ones, that are colorful and vibrant, and features fresh faces. The idea at the heart of the latest campaign is rooted in the popular belief that men always have sex playing on their minds. Times have changed since and in today’s times, being serious about sex is passé and doesn’t have a connect with the youth or with everyday life. People are comfortable discussing sex on SMS and email and their daily conversation, so what was required was to reorient the adverts with the changing times. Therefore for the new ads, perfectly normal situations were chosen, but shown from a slant (the male slant, that is), thereby they could suggest a lot.
So what are thinking of, small things that could put a germ of an idea in the head, if your head works that way. People today share dirty joked all the time, what the agency did with the latest ads were to bring out sex into the open and not in an erotic way but in a fun way. Consider some of the adverts an attractive woman walks into a clinic. As she waits her turn, she unzips the front pocket of her tote bag kept on her lap and starts to fiddle around. The man next to her notices her hand moves suggestively. Then follows a male voiceover: “So, what are you thinking of?” In another spot, the sight of a woman’s generously-displayed thighs along with a waiter trying to uncork a wine bottle with a corkscrew sets a guy’s mind racing. The third spot shows a patient having wicked thoughts as he watches the nurse play with the pen cap. The sign-off is the same: “ ?” A sly grin spreads across the man’s face. The screen splits into two as the pack shot of KS condoms comes into view.
Now don’t be naughty didn’t we say its all in the mind after all. The imagery and visualization could seem perfectly normal to someone, while it could suggest a thousand things to a mind working overtime in another direction. The idea and execution of these ads is a far cry from the overt ads of yesteryears. The new campaign appeals equally to both the genders and has a broader spectrum, as it does not have the same racy content as the ads used to have. Perfectly normal things like uncorking of a bottle or casual fiddling with a pen or for that matter rummaging for something in the bag could assume different hues depending on your mindset. So what are you thinking, you naughty mind??
Cool it there well I hope you would have enjoyed reading the review as much as I enjoyed writing it. For those of you who just had a surge in their adrenaline counts, why not just cool it a little in the comments section, so see you there. Hope my 50th review would be as memorable for you all as it is for me.
