TV ads: Is all the dancing really selling?

Agencies need to look at what actually makes a good advertising campaign for a product instead of dancing around.

Shoaib Qureshi December 28, 2010
Products in Pakistan have not always been sold by armies of men and women dancing to uncoordinated perfection.

However, recently advertising 'charts' have been hit by four choreographed entries: Tarang, Sooper, Warid and Chaika, which are running on all major TV channels night and day.

Does dancing sell?

Does this mean that singing and dance routines are what grip the Pakistani people and make them go buy brands? Or, does this simply mean that this is an idea that can be easily sold to clients by agencies?

Agencies have developed a stereotypical solution for all marketing communication needs and forgotten the essence of their business - to be different and not to do the same old thing.

I can go on dissecting and looking for further reasons for the use of such an advertising approach but the point I want to make here is that the clients and the agencies should think afresh on this issue.

A key point for the fraternity

When we look at Tarang and Sooper, which are both market leaders in their respective categories, we must remember that they did not launch with a song and dance execution.

Tarang, for instance, launched its advertising with the “Yeh koi jor nahi” - a filmi dialougue based on highly a dramatic scene between a hero, heroine and the heroine’s father!

Sooper's advertising campaign was based on the line, “Yeh to hai he Sooper.” The television commercial was all about a mother and daughter talking over a phone!

Both these brands were initially built on a great advertising idea. However, over time they moved away from that critical success factor and now find solace in only good advertising execution (minus the idea).

Great advertising always is and always will be about a great idea that is executed differently from the same old thing that we are accustomed to seeing all around us.

My advice: Get yourself out of the execution trap and think about things before it’s too late. Or, you can choose to still do the same singing and dancing routines and believe that they are what convince Pakistani people to buy!
WRITTEN BY:
Shoaib Qureshi Chief strategy officer for Bulls-Eye Communications
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (28)

Nobody | 12 years ago | Reply @anwar: Late in reading this, but may I ask, why are ads for sanitary napkins unislamic exactly? Is having your period unislamic? It's a natural thing, and if the ad is not vulgar, it's simply advertising a product then I don't see anything dirty in that. It would seem shameful only to those who have a dirty mind to begin with.
Slick | 13 years ago | Reply @ Shoiab,I agree with U that dancing and singing is not the way to sell ur product, it never was it never will be....but the problem here is mainly the CLIENT.....if the client wants his idea to rotate around a dancing and singing sequence, there is no other choice for the agencies, U being in the business for so long know how it works here, if the clients wants something they better get it or ...... Agencies do give clients creative ideas but the last choice lies in the hands of the client here i m criticizing the client because being in the ad industry i know we give ideas that are upto the levels of India if not good but the clients here are not willing to take risk with it, they want to go they typical approach which they think will sell their product a good Production a huge budget and heavy frequency on Media. How ever Dancing could work out for some products not all, TARAG made Dancing and singing its own , one can associate the brand with it coz of the target audience they want to hit and they have been successful in generating Sales which is good .....CHAIKA was Copy cat of TARAG going by the theory that Dancing will Sell their product but when Sooper is shown being consumed at a Mehandi function with everyone dancing, its just not right i dont know how they can come up with such a thing, even if the agency had presented the idea as U think they did, my question is again the CLIENT has the final say he could have vetoed it right there but they didn't which means that they wanted such a thing,and as per our industy rules" Client Khush to Agency Khush". I used to love Sooper Jingle which was also a copy of Breathless(INDIA) but it was very catchy and grabbed attention. With Warid, when i saw Noor as the brand Ambassador, i saw this coming i knew there will be a dancing ad coming soon, it had to be, perhaps she was brought in for that only reason. but ya, not everything can be sold on dancing .......this needs to be understood by the CLIENT more so than the Agency.
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