Skydiving, a high-speed chase, a penthouse apartment and the element of surprise?this is just some of the stuff car ads are now made of.

Where car makers till a few years ago were peddling the functional aspects of their products, they are now increasingly emphasising on the lifestyle and emotional aspects of owning the vehicle. And, there are a whole bunch of reasons why.

YOUNG AND MONEYED

Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager, marketing, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, says it has partly to do with changing consumer demographics and partly with growing competition. The average age of the car buyer, for instance, has come down from 36 years around six years ago to 31-32 years now, he says. Also, there are at least 15% more women car owners than was the case even five years ago. He explains: ?The median age of Indian consumers across sectors is 24, the second-lowest in the world after South Africa. These consumers are not just looking for reliability and functionality, but also for style, excitement and adventure.?

This drop in the average age of the target consumer has expectedly impacted brand communication. Take for example the latest Hyundai i20 TV ad. A young owner of a penthouse parks his i20 right in the middle of the living room. Explains Arvind Saxena, director of marketing and sales, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, ?The i20 ad reflects a lifestyle that I think youngsters today would aspire for.? The coded message that goes out to young men and women, who desire a lifestyle that includes penthouse accommodation, gadgets such as an LCD flat screen television and plush interiors, is that the i20 fits neatly into this picture of high living. The tagline, ?Uber cool: i got it all? reinforces the image. There is a clear break from ads for the Santro car, which, the company says, targets the conservative, middle-aged buyer.

Says Sanjeev Shukla, general manager, marketing, Ford India: ?Younger people are now able to buy bigger hatchbacks and the communication needs to say what?s in it for them.? Ford India launched its Figo model in India on March 9 this year. Shukla elaborates that the marketing team at Ford India identified the typical Figo buyer by the name Sandeep and assigned characteristics such as age and marital status to him, which helped define a sharper communication strategy. So Sandeep is around 27 years old, is recently married and lives with his extended family, and the communication needs to be ?in his tone, manner and language?.

The demographic change has effected a change in Maruti, the country?s biggest car maker, promotions too. Srivastava points to a subtle shift in Maruti?s communication from a tagline that read ?Maruti Suzuki: Count on us? to ?Maruti Suzuki: Way of Life? now.

Maruti Suzuki spent at least Rs 225 crore last year on its nationwide promotions and an additional Rs 80 crore on regional initiatives. Srivastava says while overall ad spend had increased, per unit expenditure had remained more or less constant over the past three years because of the growth in sales volumes.

MORE OPTIONS

What has also changed in the past few years is that the Indian car market has grown exponentially. ?The past five years have been a period of strong growth, fuelled on the demand side by strong economic growth,? says Kapil Arora, risk advisory services partner, Ernst & Young. Car sales grew nearly 40% in April this year over the corresponding period in 2009, to 1,43,976 units.

Competition, too, has been hotting up in the segment. Since just the beginning of this year, Volkswagen has introduced the Polo premium hatchback, General Motors drove in with its Chevrolet Beat and Maruti has given a facelift to the WagonR. But growing competition also means more clutter. Auto companies must, therefore, constantly remain on the ball if they are to differentiate their product from a line-up that continues to expand with new launches and product variants hitting the market.

Adman Piyush Pandey compares the current scenario with the one prevalent till the early 1980s, when there were limited choices available to Indian car buyers. Back then, he says, demand was greater than supply. ?If you wanted space and sturdiness, you chose the Ambassador car. And if you preferred a smaller, swifter car, you went with the Premier Padmini,? he explains, adding, ?When there are choices, ads will have to explore.?

Pandey says while the car ad segment ?leaves a lot to be desired?, there are some good commercials out there too. He cites the ad for the Safari, a sports utility vehicle from Tata Motors, where the wilderness and danger of the jungle invade the cityscape. ?It pushes the latent desire to explore places that you normally only dream of. From Day 1, the communication has been built around the sense of adventure, of a human being who would like to get away. Now, he no longer needs to get away on a weekend; the sense of adventure has come into the city.?

The Ogilvy & Mather veteran is somewhat disappointed in the formulaic work that?s coming out in the passenger car segment. ?People have preconceived notions?a boring party, more of lifestyle. But that is not an idea.?

Bobby Pawar, national creative director, Mudra Advertising, too, emphasises the importance of a good script that ?brings a crinkle to the eye?. He cites the example of the Volkswagen Polo campaign, in which the car owner attempts to test the vehicle?s strength by going up against a rhinoceros. Pawar says the campaign ?has a story to tell. It doesn?t take itself too seriously, but attempts to leave the consumer with a crinkle in his eye?.

AIMING RIGHT

Of the 1.9 million cars sold last year, 70% were in the small car segment, and were manufactured by eight car makers across various product offerings and variants?that?s how crowded the market is becoming, explains Ernst & Young?s Arora. He adds that India is an under-penetrated market, with just nine cars per 1,000 population, compared with 700 vehicles per 1,000 people in the US. While the statistics point to an explosive growth story waiting to happen, Arora cautions not all of it is what he calls the ?addressable? market. ?Not everyone can afford a vehicle here,? he explains.

This leaves car makers and admen to narrowly identify and target the consumer segment. And, ad spends are only likely to go north, as global car makers look for growth opportunities in emerging economies and competition hots up. ?Ad spend as a quantum will go up as the market grows over three to five years,? he says. Television ads for passenger cars comprised 4% of all TV ads in 2009, and ad volumes in the segment were up 33% over the previous year, according to research by TAM Media. The passenger car segment contributed 46% of all automobile TV ads.

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX

Auto companies are thinking out of the box, literally, as they seek to reach out to a younger consumer with fewer responsibilities than the family man and more dispensable income than was the case ten years back. They are delving into alternatives such as the reality TV format and taking their campaign into the realm of the big screen, for instance.

It?s a clich? now to say that cricket is a religion in India. But that?s far from saying that all possible ways to use the sport for marketing a product have been discovered and used ad nauseum. The third edition of the Indian Premier League saw Ford Figo and UFO Moviez bringing the tournament out of the stadia and into movie theatres. Says Ford?s Shukla, ?It was very exciting. It brought the outdoorsy atmosphere?the shouting, screaming and whistling of watching a match with a crowd?but minus the negatives of a stadium.? The Figo car was prominently featured in theatre foyers and, according to Shukla, generated much interest and even enquiries.

And, as reality TV continues to attract eye balls, marketers aren?t leaving that stone unturned either. The ?Blue-Eyed Boy? promotion for the new WagonR included airtime on the reality TV competition show, Dance India Dance. ?The day of the launch coincided with the show finale, and the winner was presented with a new WagonR,? explains Srivastava, who is also very happy with the way the campaign played out on Red FM radio station. For one day in April, Red FM was painted blue. ?The headlights on the new WagonR are blue,? he says, explaining the choice of tagline. ?It is an English phrase, but it is popular everywhere, and not just in urban centres.?