To flip through the latest issue of Brand.i - The quarterly magazine of the Marketing Cell at MBA (IB), Dept of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics, visit http://issuu.com/marcom.mbaib/docs/brand.i_feb15small

1. Brand.I | February 2015 Brand.I | February 2015
Y o u T u b e
VideoMarketing
and
Ad World’s new Fetish?
by
Raunaq Kalia
When Ranveer Singh did the Rex on computer and smartphone screens across India, for the
condom brand – Durex, a lot changed over-night. The power of moving images with sound
and animation was unleashed over the Indian cyber world. Since then, more and more
brands have started coming up with long-form Ads specially created for the Digital space.
Be it the heart-warming Kindle Ad or the emotional Sundrop one, marketers are trying to
engage with the audience on a deeper level. These long-form versions of their 20 second
primetime TV counterparts, have a meaningful story, are generally not trying to sell the
brand directly and have an element of raw emotional appeal.
`
Google started this trend in India with the ‘Reunion’ video which was first seen on
YouTube. It’s a beautiful story about two friends separated during the partition and how the
granddaughter of one plans to reunite the two aged mates with a little help from Google. It
instantly is able to establish a connection with the Indian viewer as the stories of partition
have been passed down to us by our grandparents, mass media, even our textbooks in
school. Not just that, the feeling associated with the Brand after watching the video is that
of trust, commitment and oneness. This doesn’t happen at a cognitive level but at very
emotional or affective level of the attitude building process.
Thomson, MacInnis, and Park in their 2005 research paper suggest that as a construct that
describes the strength of the bond connecting the consumer with the brand, attachment
is critical because it should affect behaviours that foster brand profitability and customer
lifetime value. Are marketers then, by creating these bonds, trying to change and build
attitudes corresponding to their brands? The construct hasn’t been proven empirically
but there is surely a critical relationship between attachment and the attitude associated
with the brand. With attitude branding, your brand contributes to the consumer's sense of
identity and self-expression. In today’s world of social media, self-expression is becoming
more and more important to people and brands are one of the common ways to project
one’s personality to the world.
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2. Brand.I | February 2015 Brand.I | February 2015
Let’s look at two of the recent popular Ads on YouTube to verify this proposition and to try
and find out if brands are trying to inculcate attitudes with these videos.
This Advertisement for Diu Tourism, which is running on TV now with a 30 seconder
was actually a 2 minute YouTube video. We see a working woman leading a busy life and
trapped in the vicious circle of eat, work, eat, work, eat, sleep, repeat. Finally, she wakes up to
a pleasant sea breeze and a beach with a
lighthouse, calming waves and cool dark caves. Do we see places being named or star at-
tractions being marketed? No. All you get to experience is a feeling. A feeling that makes
you want to take a break, smell the sea laden air on the beach and take naps in the warm
sand. Is that not an attitude building process? Well, it is not revolutionizing like the Mum-
bai Mirror Ads but it is definitely serving its purpose.
1. Welcome to Ilha de Calma – Diu
2. The Odonil YouTube Campaign
I was ready for my daily dose of Buzzfeed, when this hilarious video interrupted me. I had
the option of skipping the Ad but it really grabbed my attention. A newly wed sassy Punja-
bi girl complains about the relatives of her in-laws and questions her decision to get mar-
ried in this family. Why? Because they don’t have Odonil in their bathroom. After search-
ing online, I found out that this was a series of videos in different Indian languages. The
Marathi Ad features a woman in Bombay making fun of a friend who boasts about her plush
apartment in South Bombay but doesn’t have Odonil in the bathroom. All these videos
have great comic timing and are short and crisp. The brand, by constantly bombarding you
with these videos about the necessity of Odonil in you homes, is subconsciously drilling
the thought in your head. The next time you see Odonil in the aisle of a supermarket, you
are absolutely consider buying it. Do we hear about the beautiful fragrances or the special
odour eliminating properties? No. They are just trying to dwell of the feeling of insecurity in
the buyer’s mind.
Video marketing on YouTube is being taken seriously by all major Indian brand for many
reasons – there is too much clutter on TV, digital entertainment is popular among the youth,
it is economical and most importantly, time is not an issue if your content is engaging. But,
will we see a remarkable change in Ad spending patterns and a shift towards video market-
ing online in 2015? Only time will tell but till then, I have some YouTubin’ to do!
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