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Anamika Rath
If you thought that non-FMCG companies do not have deep pockets for spending on advertising, think again. The Rs 300-crore Siyaram Silk Mills Limited, manufacturer of suitings and shirtings, has released a television commercial which has broken records of sorts in Indian advertising by being one of the longest duration commercials in recent times: 100 seconds, and running for the largest period of 10 days.
While this computes to a whopping spend of over Rs 30 crore (going by official channel rates of an average Rs 40,000 per 10 second ad-film), the company is understood to have got deep discounts on the media package.
Normally, most companies are content with a 10-second commercial. In the past, however, the industry has witnessed longer duration commercials of up to 90 seconds--Pepsi, for instance. There have also been commercials which have exceeded the 100-second limit, but which ran for a shorter period of just about one or two days (for example: British Airways).
In the case of Siyaram, however,not only is the ad-film of 100-second duration, but it has also run for a larger period of 10 days, point out ad-industry observers.
Siyaram Silk Mills general manager (marketing) N Gangadhar puts the ad-spend for the entire year at around Rs 15 crore, which includes the 10-day ad-blitz. While this is a 50 per cent increase over last year (1998-99), it is no where close to the actual spend on the 10-day advertising blitzkrieg. ``We have got some good deals and discounts,'' insists Gangadhar.
The campaign released on July 21, 1999 ran across 12 channels, seven times a day per channel as a 100-second commercial till the end of last month. However, Gangadhar did not reveal the exact negotiated price at which the media-buying deal was struck.
While the commercial ran for the longest duration of 100 seconds in July, the duration has been reduced to 60 seconds and 30 seconds in August. Says Gangadhar: ``In a market that is so competitive, we wanted to stand out by this advertising. By running a 100-secondTVC, we wanted to hammer the brand message into the customer mind.''
The second son returns
The commercial has been made by Percept Advertising, which has also done the media-buying for the company. Percept has been the agency for Siyaram for last 10 years. Says Percept executive director Shailendra Singh: ``The brand is already established. We have enough brand recall. The idea behind a longer-duration ad campaign was to give a larger than life picture of the brand. It is to establish an enlarged image.''
The new ad campaign is a continuation of the series of Siyaram campaigns that have been released in the last nine years. The campaigns have been made to build a story all these years.
It started with the introduction of a couple (models Gurpreet Singh and Deepti Bhatnagar) in the heart of Rajasthan. In this first series of ads they were shown to meet, get married, go to different locations for the honeymoon and then have a child.
The latest commercial has introduced a new couple: VikramSaluja and Lara Dutta. Vikram Saluja has been shown as the younger brother of Gurpreet who is coming home--and is rescued by a mysteriously hooded Lara. The new commercial has shot three generations--Gurpreet and Vikram's parents, the sons, and Gurpreet's son. ``To show the three generations in one film was a difficult task. And Kunal Kapoor had made the film so beautifully that we decided to keep it at 100 seconds--at least initially,'' says Singh.
As regards introducing a new couple, Gangadhar says: ``While we are entering the new millennium, the new campaign signifies the handing over from the old to new generation.''
Fabric remains firm
However, the positioning in the new campaign has remained the same: homecoming. The concept was started in 1991, and since, each of the ads has taken care to depict Indian culture, and emotions. The new commercial also conveys the same message. It is scheduled to run for one year.
As a second step, the company will be releasing the 100-second commercialsfrom next month onwards in major theatres across the country. For the print campaign to be released in October 1999, the company is looking at lifestyle and film magazines.
Meanwhile, for the follow-up ads, the company is planning to take the new couple to different locations and shoot with the same basic theme. For the individual brands of the Siyaram Podar Group like Jay Hampstead and Oxemburg, the company is planning another six campaigns or so by March 2000. The Jay Hampstead campaign is due to release on September 23, 1999, with Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati as the brand ambassadors.
Of course, all this to garner a greater market share than the existing four per cent in the Rs 5,000-crore suitings and shirtings market. With leading brands in the market like Vimal, Mayur and Gwalior, it's Siyaram now which is changing the warp and weft of textile advertising.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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