What were they thinking?
There can be a number of reasons behind their thought process. Maybe it's a new brand manager who wanted to make this mega TVC and impress all and sundry. Or maybe it was the old agency who thought that the new brand manager will buy this 'song +dance+biscuit' concept (see ad here). Or maybe it was both. Or maybe the top management felt that it was about time that the biscuit industry follows the sing song formula which was used, misused and abused by the telecom giants, milk brands and cola drinks, to name a few.
But why Sooper?
Sooper is the crown jewel of English Biscuits Manufacturers (EBM). And it deserves to be that. The biscuit tastes good, looks good and has very attractive packaging. It gave LU Bakeri (a product of Continental Biscuits) a run for its money so much so that Bakeri had to completely revamp itself; new product line, new packaging and a new campaign and still they are no match to the mighty Sooper. Even when EBM reduced the size of the biscuit and increased the price, Sooper survived.
The thought, which I humbly believe, is behind this new campaign is merely to take the brand to the 'next' level (a jargon often used by our agencies and some brand people). How do we do that? The most easy method is to have some good looking people eating a tea time biscuit in an extremely seductive way at all the places where biscuits are not, usually, on the menu. You would think the models are taking swigs of whiskey or chugging down beer, and not eating an egg and milk biscuit. Looking at their expressions and body language it appears that the biscuit is giving pleasure of an orgasmic proportion. ‘Mazar Ker Lay, Dil Bhar Kay’ (Have a good time to your heart’s content) – what has that got to do with biscuits?
Why do brand teams want to break away from the legacy of a brand? Why do we forget the basics and just focus on the advertising campaign? Why do both brand teams and the agency forget things like target market, usage situations, user profiles and brand personality? Why?
Poor Pied Piper – his days are over and done with, unless he, too, gets a makeover!
oh my god, i saw the ad after i read your post, and i must say it's godawful. :P
ReplyDeleteI did like a few shots in it! Specially the one where the biscuits jump to the beat!! Visually its pretty awesome... and maybe that was the main "maksad"
ReplyDeletei liked the tune during the commercials which i often have to play in between my radio show. I saw the video firstime following your link. You might have a point about the recent TVC, but in this race of gluing one's brand onto consumer heads; i think the jingle has revitalized "sooper" for listeners at least. I remember in their previous TVC campaign "pyar mohabbat se bhi o0o0oper.. etc" subject was all visual. and the audio played on radio was way too flat to have any content.
ReplyDelete@ Cage - The ad was shot well (Asad ul Haq was the director, what else do you expect??) but a campaign should be more than a few good shots, right?
ReplyDelete@ Shoaib - Somehow I don't agree with you. The new jingle is based on the tagline 'Maza kar lay - jee bhar kay' and considering how much attention listeners pay to radio, I doubt that this new jingle will make Sooper TOM (top of mind) when they go out and purchase biscuits. When it comes to radio, the jingle must have something that is strongly associated with the brand, for e.g., the Airtel tune.