B Venkataramanan, Group Media Manager, Hindustan Lever Ltd

“Ad should not look only creatively appealing, brand association and recall has to be high. Consumer should remember the brand when she enters the shop and not just enjoy watching its ad.”

B Venkataramanan, Group Media Manager, Hindustan Lever Ltd, is a force to reckon with in Indian media and advertising industry. The man at the helm of media affairs is obviously well versed with the current media practices and also where it is headed.

He believes that things could improve dramatically if the advertisers contribute towards research and some parameters to measure the effectiveness of media spend are set. In the present conversation with Ritu Midha of exchange4media.com, Venkataramanan discusses the changing face of Indian television, other media parameters for judging the ad effectiveness, return on investment and a host of other issues.

Q. Globally, there is an increasing demand by marketers that brands should be made a part of editorial in publications. Are you making any such demands on magazines?

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Not in particular. Generally it happens if a publication is covering an event where you are the title sponsor. For example, if you are writing about Lakme India Fashion Week, there is going to be strong brand linkage anyways. Same is the case with Ponds’ Femina Miss India and a few other events we are involved with.

In other instances, if there is an article on hand washing or on iodine deficiency, our brands might be advertised there. In such cases, sometimes we ask publications to put our brand there and sometimes they do it themselves. There is no doubt that we are advertising our brand but it is in the public interest too.

For the marketers to ask for the brands to be woven in content is a natural fallout of the fact that people can’t remember ads. Even on TV, only a handful of programmes deliver, and in the programmes that deliver there is huge ad clutter. Then, there is the issue of low break TRPs. Hence, marketers look for options like in-programme and in-editorial brand placement.

Q. Do you see Internet emerging as a strong medium in near future?

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My guess is it would, but there are some basic limitations. There are very few homes with computers; the Net is accessed a lot from cyber cafes and by a particular demographic profile, largely male. Moment the number of computer homes and affordability of Net connection increases, it would emerge as a strong medium. But then again, there is the issue of power cuts. Other issues like people treating mailers as spam mails and deleting them would need to be tackled too.

Q. Moving in another direction, how important a role does creative play in the success of an ad?

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Ad should not look only creatively appealing, brand association and recall has to be high. Consumer should remember the brand when she enters the shop and not just enjoy watching its ad.

Q. But as per sources, hardly 3-5% of your media budget goes beyond TV.

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Not true at all. We normally do not comment on figures, but I can tell you this information is completely incorrect. We are spending a much lesser percentage on television than you are stating. One of the reasons being that we now have a vibrant FM channel. We do not have numbers and measurement, etc., as far as FM goes, but based on whatever one has learnt and understood about the medium, we are one of the most active advertisers on radio. We are also a large outdoor advertiser. Our rural spends are also substantial. Print is also big.

Apart from all of this, in the last two years we have also got into what we call local area marketing. The purpose here is to connect with the consumer at a local level.

Q. Most of the advertising today is very predictable. Does it not hinder brand recall?

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Ads today are trying to be different. However, there is another theory that if you try to be too different or maverick, ads are remembered but not the brand. I know for a fact that our ads have scored consistently well for the last two–three years.

Q. How do you know in an ad whether it is the creative or the media that is not delivering?

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We can find it out through tracking. We also have an extensive preview testing. Unilever does it in every country. So, by and large, the creative part is made foolproof even before it is released. And then by tracking, we can find out which aspect of it did not work.

Q. Compared to a decade back, clutter on television has increased considerably. Are television ads still as effective as they were a few years back when the environment was not so cluttered?

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Though there is no measurement to prove that television’s effectiveness has gone down, it is obvious that it cannot be as effective today as it was a few years back.

TAM ratings only indicate that consumers are watching television. Fact of the matter is that there are 600 plus ads on television per week and one is not sure whether those ads are being watched. Without any doubt, proven ad recall is coming down.

TAM does not really provide measurement of effectiveness of television advertising. It is so on two counts – one, the large clutter on television, and two, we are probably measuring only 1/3rd the total universe. We automatically stipulate that whatever viewership towns with people meters are throwing up would hold true even when extrapolated to the entire universe. It is definitely not true.

Infrastructure is another major problem too. While sitting in Mumbai you assume that as these programme have good ratings, a large number of people would be watching them. In fact, there might be huge pockets in northern India that would not have viewed it at all due to power cuts. A national plan that rolls across the country becomes a waste because we are not able to measure what is happening in reality.

Also, TAM is a measure of whether or not a TV set was on – and at best who was in the room. It is not a measure of whether your ad was being watched or people were reading books or talking on the phone. As it is, break viewership goes down by 20% or more. Another important factor is that channel fragmentation has made it more and more costly to reach your target group.

Proven ad recall is definitely on the decline, more so in the smaller towns. You obviously need to supplement your television plan with other media. However, the advantages of TV are very obvious – with a 30 second ad you can launch a brand.

Q. Would product placement work for non-impulse FMCG brands the way it does for impulse category and automobiles, etc.?

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It all depends on how well it is woven in the story; it should not be something in your face. If it were very obtrusive, it would not work. Besides, it would also lose its credibility and people would not like to watch such programmes. If the core value of the brand is integrated in a communication, probably it would have some rub-off effect. However, product placement in programme does not work as a stand-alone but along with an ad campaign. Biggest challenge for the marketer is to cut the clutter.

Q. Your biggest global competitor is emerging as a heavy Net advertiser. Do you have plans on the same lines?

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Basically, we don’t look at individual communication – we look at a particular campaign. Based on the objective of a campaign, we decide on what are the ideal communication channels. For most of our important campaigns, many of these communication channels are used simultaneously and most of our ads have an Internet address.

Q. Can you suggest a few concrete steps to bring a change in scenario?

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One possible way can be that a small portion of this ad spend is deposited for research. I believe it is done in South Africa. There 0.5 per cent of total ad spend is taken out and it is administered by an independent body. Such a practice would definitely help an industry to grow. 0.5 per cent of Rs 8000 crore is around Rs 40 crore. You can even look at 0.25 per cent. Even then, you would have the corpus to do research that is useful for the entire industry. It can be used to showcase what medium is working and how it is working. Today a lot is done on faith.

The second thing is having accountability that can be laid down on the basis of given parameters like GRPs or circulation. Here you automatically compensate for under delivery. Once a sturdy measurement is in place our ad spend has the potential to grow 10 times. If that does not happen, more and more money would go towards local activity.

Q. Moving to another media vehicle, how effective do you consider magazines as an advertising medium?

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There is a lot of clutter there too and the ratio of ads to editorial has gone up substantially. It is very difficult to differentiate one brand communication from another in the same product category. There is also stagnation in readership and circulation. Having said that, for some of our products it is important to advertise in these magazines. For instance, colour cosmetics. These are more likely to be there in magazines like Cosmopolitan and Femina.

Stagnant magazine growth, to a large extent, can be attributed to channel fragmentation. Time is at a premium, and entertainment options to capture consumer attention have multiplied. Print will, however, continue to play a part in our communication, at least in the immediate future. Newspapers have announcement value, and in addition they are ideal when you have to provide detailed information. Even today a larger portion of our advertising spends is on newspapers, as compared to magazines. Magazines generally work in tandem with other media like TV.

Q. How do you measure whether you have got good RoI? Do you just look at GRPS, CPRPs and CPT?

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You definitely have to look beyond it. There are two parameters – one is what have we actually bought, it is measured on the basis of measurement data available. Return on investment is quite different; it can only be seen if your ad stock increases. It is based on whether the parameters by which you are tracking an ad have gone up or not. We measure that. You must also remember that media and advertising is just a fraction of the cost that goes into building a brand. When you buy raw material from a supplier for a product, you have 100 per cent guarantee that it is good, and as per your requirements and expectations because parameters are very well defined. However, in case of media there are no guarantees. Ultimately, media spend would move towards a situation where you agree on a parameter, maybe reach. If you know a direction or parameter that would make the big difference, it would be the common currency. Ultimately every advertiser would want to track an ad on the basis of whether it is going to translate into better sales or not. In a small company it is easier to see cause and effect but in a large company or for a national advertiser, it becomes important to isolate all the factors. If a campaign does not work, you need to figure out if it did not work due to the reach of the media or poor ad quality. If the ad recall itself is not there, there is a serious problem. Ad spend and GDP ratio in our country is still very small as compared to other countries. GDP is growing but I don’t think ad spend is growing in tandem. We would have to move to a scenario where the delivery can be measured vis-à-vis price. Currently, there is no indication.