Not nuts about Happilo's 'healthy snacking' ad, say experts

With marketing budgets getting fatter for IPL, one could expect more creativity and recall value for ads. Instead, they are getting repetitive with the same song-dance-routine and the same cricketers. In a sea of ads, it's become increasingly difficult to differentiate one from the other, stellar acting by our cricketers notwithstanding. It turns out that a hefty ad budget can be as big an impediment to creativity as anything else.

Health food brand Happilo released its latest ad with the stars of Royal Challengers Banglore a few days ago. The Bengaluru-based brand that deals in dried fruits and nuts has "healthy snacking" as its core proposition. Athletes are probably the closest thing we have to fit celebrities in the country, so teaming up with cricketers makes solid sense for the healthy food brand.

The latest ad features RCB players Virat Kohli, Dinesh Kartik and Glenn Maxwell. The trio sit down for a press conference as Kohli spots a packet of Happilo on the table and signals to his teammates.

Taking the cover of the flickering lights, the players audibly much on the nuts, covering their mouths when the lights come back. Caught red handed, their pictures are splashed across the newspaper with headlines that read "SNACK ATTACK SPOTTED: RCB players can't stop munching on Happilo."

All's well till this point until the trio starts inexplicably dancing on a disco floor, and just like that, within 20 seconds the ad ends.

So what happens after they are caught munching on the nuts? What's the aftermath of their pics being splashed across the paper? Will they get into trouble? For a snacking brand, Happilo has oddly left us hungry for more.

What did experts think?

There's nothing much to consider for a 20-second blink-and-miss spot. One can argue that the compact time frame doesn't leave room for compelling storytelling, but many brilliant ads have excelled despite time constraints; the Imperial Blue Music CD ads come to mind.

At this point, it's easy to mix up the Happilo ad with any IPL spot starring cricket stars. The lack of idea in the ad vexes Yash Kulshresth, Chief Creative Officer, ^ a t o m network as well."Cricketers, rap, hammy performance -- regular ingredients of an IPL season ad. But where is the idea?" he asks pointedly.

He notes the lack of novelty, idea and execution in the ad. "More than lacking, there are too many words to fit in a 20-seconder," he notes.

Nitika Parmar of VMLY&R rues the wastage of talent: "Kohli is a good actor and a dancer. The makers could have used him better."

"Happilo has done some really good ads in the past. Their product demo is quite unique wish they had used it," she notes.

Rap in ads is a great tool to say a lot in a short time, says Subodh Chaubey of Infectious Advertising, but nothing the ad says is worth remembering: "The rap isn't very catchy either, so while it's fun, I miss an insight or that thing that makes it memorable." 

Is there anything that can redeem the ad? Kulshresth says the name itself can come to the brand's aid to help in the recall. "'Happilo' is a sticky brand name. It has a ring to it. People might remember the brand name if there is a hefty media plan behind the TVC," he adds.

"Maybe a few might find the rap interesting," says Kulshresth, "otherwise, the concept and execution are meh. As a frequency builder and a follow-up to their current ads, this piece might add to the overall recall of the brand."

With inputs from Tanzila Shaikh