Learning from the most famous ad campaigns in India

When you want to be able to create an impact in a crowded market, it’s all about finding new ways to create engagement, buzz, and noise. For any aspiring marketer or ad executive looking to get ahead, we bring you the most famous marketing campaigns in Indian history. Let’s take a look at the creative elements and dive into the details so you can leave with a whole host of new insights. 

Ambuja Cement is known for playful ads

Something as seemingly mundane and generic as cement requires a delicate touch when advertising to the masses. Ask the regular person in the street where to source cement and they will typically shrug their shoulders and tell you that it is nothing more than a mere necessity. After all, how can you really build a brand around cement when all people want is for it to be delivered and poured without delay? The answer, of course, is to use humour.

The more you look at Ambuja’s ads the more you see the subtlety of their execution. Everything here is about creating short little snippets that viewers will remember and grow closer to over time. The really clever part is that the ads have continued to evolve over the years, taking on a character all of their own. While most viewers may never have to purchase cement in bulk, the wider public has a positive view of the Ambuja brand. At its heart, this is what smart advertising is really all about.

Ariel India and their #SharetheLoad campaign

In a world in which brands and celebrities are increasingly taking a stand, doing so in a way that touches the heart truly matters. No one wants to feel like they are being lectured by a brand that they associate with an everyday household chore, but they do want to feel heard. The solution? A viral hashtag with multiple layers of meaning that allows everyone to move with the times and achieve so much more.

Ariel’s genius lay in finding new ways to create a sense of unity and harmony with their audience and to do so in a way that felt real and authentic. Speaking up or calling out certain behaviours only works when you can do it from a place of care and authenticity. Ariel’s clever use of the hashtag format in their campaign allowed them to do so in a way that opened up a conversation and invited the general public to take part. This is what moved them away from the risk of lecturing and instead positioned them as the brand that opened the forum for discussion.

Cred's "Not Everyone Gets It" was truly bold

Confused by the emerging world of fintech and the dynamic way in which the products and services can be used in your day-to-day life? Cred knew this was the case, so they decided to educate their target audience without making them feel behind the times. It was a tightrope walking exercise in terms of communication at scale, but one that they appear to have executed flawlessly judging by the results.

As a consumer, there is nothing more off-putting than being made to feel like you are off the pace or ignorant. While you completely understand that ad campaigns are designed to change your patterns of behaviour — they want to sell to you after all — you don’t want to feel like you are being forced to do so.

Cred struck the right balance by using a combination of comical whimsy and relatable humour to explain their dynamic new offering. This allowed them to stand out from the crowd in a space where everyone else was focusing on more generic messaging centred around building the future. Sometimes in the ad world, it really does pay to be different.

Swiggy's #SantaOpenToWork campaign made us smile 

Giving a gift during the festive period is something that is so ingrained in our culture that it can seem too obvious an angle to be used in an ad campaign. After all, if you have the same old depiction of Santa, how are you going to stand out from the crowd when everyone else seems to be doing exactly the same thing?

The answer was provided by Swiggy — a forward-thinking platform that decided to turn things on its head and think differently. They used the idea of Santa being out of work as a result of the success of their service to show that you really can outsource whatever you want with their help. And because no one genuinely believed it would make Santa as a cultural concept redundant, it allowed a massive audience to connect the brand with a funny train of thought. Perfect when you want to be able to build a bridge between a brand in a crowded space and one of those all-important moments of positive emotion.

The T20 women’s world cup and B4U Music

This recent pairing has seen the latter start broadcasting ads for the online gambling brand Parimatch. The idea here is to find new ways of looking at in-play betting by seeing it as a way to enhance the experience of watching live sports. Rather than rely on direct appeals to the sporting knowledge of the audience (and positioning it as a way to potentially earn money) they took a different approach. Follow this ad campaign to its logical conclusion and you see that in-play betting is nothing more than a natural extension of watching live sport with a phone within reach.

Other approaches in this space have used online casino ads to highlight bonuses for new players, with some of the casino bonuses offering things like free gameplay. You can think of these as teaser rates designed to show players the fun they could be having without immediately having to deposit real money. These types of offers are all about changing behaviour while building trust.

You can then see how the industry really works when you combine these bonus offers with casino ads composed of eye-catching billboards and Bollywood stars. Because online casino ads are tightly regulated and cannot make claims of instant wealth, the operators have instead focused their efforts on building trust. Famous faces and relatable faces are what work best in this space.

Nike launched the best day ever

Perhaps one of the most famous advertising companies in the world, Nike created a campaign focused on positivity and direct action. They want to associate their brand with energy, confidence, and movement, so they created a campaign in which all three combined like never before. By showing that the Nike brand is always on the side of real athletes, whether they are professionals or amateurs just starting out, they were able to create a positive association in a matter of mere seconds.

Everything about the ad is designed to provide a sense of empowerment without being so direct that it risks coming across as dictatorial. This subtle yet vital balance is all about finding the right way to nudge people to take action without making them feel like they are somehow off the pace for not having already done so.

Final thoughts

Every ad campaign needs to understand the human psychology required to turn someone from a browser to a buyer. The problem is that there are so many ways to do it and that you have to do so at scale, therefore approaching things in a way that taps into a cultural shift really matters.

Ad campaigns that connect a product or service with a prevailing sentiment have the ability to strike a chord with a mass audience in a way nothing else can. One thing is for sure, it will certainly be interesting to see how things continue to evolve in the months and years ahead.