Why Twitter’s Babuji Is A Darling Of Brands Today?

What does it take for a brand to make it right through the consumers’ heart? Echoing the needs of the consumers that can be served by the product, putting the message across in a creative way to make its own identity and sometimes, taking a slice out of the daily dramatic soaps. Indians love drama but they are also happy with dal chawal. Indians are always on the verge of mixing trend and tradition in its own way which makes marketers emphasise on the emotional quotient of the people.

Last year we saw the father figure from Barjatya movies and a common face in television serials, Alok Nath aka ‘Babuji’ rising in the ‘most trending’ charts. First on Twitter and later jokes and memes flooded the Facebook. What caught the attention of the people was the fun take on the ubiquitous nature of the characters portrayed by actor Alok Nath in many movies and daily soaps.

Now, interestingly, we find Alok Nath featuring in television commercials of some big brands (for example Snapdeal’s Diwali ad and more recently Nissan GO+ ad). Wondering what could have driven the brands to play around with a popular trend for TVCs, we face an array of questions.

The Father-figure Phenomenon

Apparently ‘Babuji’ is a normal character popularly found in almost every Indian family and there is nothing new about it. The jokes on him are fine, even Alok Nath himself is sporty enough to accept them. But this is a trend that is set to go out of trend after a while. There is no futuristic approach to these TVCs or that have they come up with some real great creatives that takes the entire ‘Babuji’ hoolah to the next level.

Then what is the purpose of these TVCs? Should we say that the brands in order to cope up with the social media highs and lows are ready to invest good amount of money on a temporary thing that might wither away in a while? Or should we say the brands are taking trends more seriously rather than originality and creative output? If we take a look at some of the other trends that the brands have followed recently like, Kapil Sharma from Indian Comedy Circus, the big selfie trend, is it sending across a message that the advertisers are waiting for something to happen, rather than making something happen? We dig in deeper to try and find out whether this approach of advertising a trend was a hit or miss.

The Snapdeal Diwali ad had set a record featuring 28 popular faces from television in 50 commercials. No matter, how path-breaking approach it was, there is no denying that it was more of a gimmick than actually establishing a unique tone of the brand. This is because Snapdeal has always been starting from its inception in the limelight for attractive offers to lure the audience.

Unlike Flipkart or Amazon who have been consistent in creating an identification of the brand, Snapdeal has been creating aggressive campaigns of Sale ads and not any creative route to set the brand tonality. Now, among all those stars Alok Nath was a face who we all identified with, but suddenly in trend taking cues from his quintessential dialogues. The question is how much this move is going to affect a consumer?

The twitter trend where ‘Babuji’ found popularity is still restricted to a certain section of the consumers. Trends on Facebook, twitter are mostly limited to the social zone only with sharing, liking or commenting and then after few months moving on to something new. Is it possible for a customer who is not at all influenced by the social trends to be convinced enough to buy a product watching that commercial only? The huge discounts will interest him/her lot more than Alok Nath who is just a moment on social media.

Coming to Datsun Nissan Go+ TVC, the MPV car is all set to hit the right notes with variant features, quality and at a most desirable price. Apart from some loopholes like not having airbags and ABS the car is banking upon its feature of more space, an essential thing that most Indian families love to afford.

So, with the target audience being middle class and upper middle class, why has this brand brought in faces like Ayushman Khurana and Alok Nath is a debatable issue. The dialogue between the two actors emphasize on the USP factor of the car that is the extra space. Here we get a middle-class approach when Alok Nath is saying, we can adjust and then the catching up with the trend comes in where Ayushman reassures things are different in new Nissan Go+.

The ad gets aired while the trend of Alok Nath has almost died, and Ayushman (definitely a known face) is not significantly in news. Period. So, while the creative execution remains nothing impactful does it connect the brand properly? The message is sent across, but there is no way the brand can be recalled.

As far as the car television commercials in India are concerned, it is a very obvious thing to talk about a family with grandparents with their grandchildren, but the executions previously have been lot better. Don’t we all still remember Innova car ads? The Innova ads were more successful mostly because actor Aamir Khan had introduced the car in so many ways throughout the campaign.

Capitalizing on a Social Trend?

When Nissan was on the way of introducing a brand new car in the market would not it have been more feasible if they had started with a fresh campaign and not by taking help of an ongoing trend that hardly bothers people anymore?

In both the cases, did we find that Alok Nath is trending back again on Twitter as a result of his appearance in the TVCs? Did the ‘babuji’ factor contribute to the brand in a different way or were the brands accommodating their messages to fix in the man of the moment on social media? Manish Porwal, MD, Alchemist Marketing & Talent Solutions, gives us an interesting insight on why some brands are going by the trend.

“Advertising is all about trends or creating trends. What is important for the country at that moment is crucial for advertising. These ads will run few times and then it will move on. This is not a strategic move but going with the trend”, explains Porwal.

He continues, “These characters are already established. Advertising are lot more expensive now, if they want to create such a character it might take a few years. So, at a lesser cost these characters can be used to send across a message. Thirdly and quite importantly, these characters will not overpower the brand. Today if they want to use the top-notch celebrities, they often become the news themselves instead of the brand.”

On the other hand, brand endorsing expert Harish Bijoor is of the opinion, “Brands love to capitalize on the minds of the consumers. Not just today but using the ongoing trend has been a practice since the popular Hindi movie villains like Pran or Amrish Puri as Mogambo. The advertisers always eye the comic sphere of the mind. And as far as the longevity of the ad is concerned, it depends on how the concepts are implemented. It is surely not a strategic move, but a brand tactic.”

Advertisements are indeed all about convincing people to spend some money on what makes them happy. In an attempt to reemphasize on the emotional quotient of consumers, advertisers often take help of moments like festivals, special occasions, Bollywood and Cricket that engage people. But while in doing so if such a large amount of money is being spent, some creative aspects or something that has long-term significance can be aimed at. Flipkart had set an example of saying the same thing, but in such a quirky manner in the campaigns featuring kids. Fascination for cars to Indians means a lot more than apparent. Why not treat them with more care? And as far as using the ongoing trends are concerned, ‘Babuji’ is a character who we all knew but for a while enjoyed the funny side of it. If there is any necessity of connecting him with any brand, why not re-establish the character targeting another crucial sphere of audience i.e. the senior citizens and hold onto him for a little longer? Trends are something that will come and go, but advertisements are meant to be impactful, resonating and something that remains with us for a long time.

(Image: BCCL)

About the author: This article has been written by Somrweeta Mukherjee