Hey there! It?s me!

If you have been tuning into FM radio stations lately, you would have heard a female voice crooning in a clipped uppity accent, ?We are DEFINITELY NOT looking for size zero models?.We are looking for REAL women?.?

This, actually, is an invitation to be part of the mainstream advertising campaign of a premium soap brand, Dove, of Hindustan Unilever (HUL).

The country?s largest manufacturer of consumer goods is inviting consumers to share their brand experience online with the promise of featuring their stories in their campaigns.

HUL?s initiative is an example of the recent trend among consumer products companies to design advertising campaigns around consumer experience and even featuring the real people in their marketing communication.You may have, for instance, stumbled upon a granny?s gummy smile on a MAGGI Noodle pack. While you may have thought she is a regular model, the truth is that she is not. She is a real grandma who likes to tuck into her bowl of Maggi masala soup and tell the world about it.

To commemorate the flagship brand, Maggi?s 25 years in India, Nestle India launched the ?Me and Meri MAGGI? initiative in March, this year. It instantly became a commoner?s ticket to instant, 2-minute stardom, maintains the company spokesperson. ?From the huge number of entries received, we picked up some 5,000-odd stories that have been carried in print ads, internet, TV commercials and on MAGGI Noodles packs,? says Shivani Hegde, general manager (Foods), Nestle India. The stories speak of consumers? unique association with the brand?as a favourite tiffin food, a treat for hostelers, delight for the newly weds, or a tasty and healthy, light meal for a growing up child. And, it?s not just consumer products companies that are casting consumers in their brand stories. In a recent episode of its daily serial Balika Vadhu, Colors, the Hindi general entertainment channel of Viacom 18, invited a regular viewer from Faridabad to play a bit role in an episode with family in tow.

?That?s classical marketing,? says Rameet Arora, head of marketing at Colors. ?I won?t be able to measure the impact of that one Balika Vadhu episode in terms of viewership, but, as a marketer I know that if you put the viewer in the picture and make him part of your product, the unaided recall goes up, manifold. We call it reverse engagement.?

Featuring consumers in advertisements, however, is not entirely a new concept. Dove, the premium soap brand of HUL, has, in fact, been running a global campaign ?Real Beauty? by the advertising agency O&M for several years.

O&M?s original campaign ?Evolution? with the tagline??Every girl deserves to feel beautiful?was a global effort at getting a plain Jane to endorse the product by recounting her experience of using the brand. The campaign won the world?s most coveted advertising honour?the Grand Prix for viral marketing at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, in 2007. This unique experiment with brand communication, has now become a trend of sorts.

Observers say that featuring common consumers in campaigns also beats the celebrity clutter in advertising. ?There was an overdose of celebrity advertising and content on TV. Many of these are empty ?time pass?programmes or ads offered no significant rewards to the viewers,? says BBDO India chairman and national creative director, Josy Paul. Paul is of the opinion that years of ?vacuous streaming of pure nonsense? had to have its backlash.

?What you are seeing is the first flush of that reaction. Balika Vadhu and Dove are clear proof that people want substance in their entertainment,? he adds. Agreeing with him, Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy and Mather says: ?A model or a celebrity looks great anyway even without the help of a product. But when a real woman is endorsing a brand she is presumed to be speaking the truth. It always works.?

While brands have been using celebrities to endorse their products for ages, observers point out that last year, ie 2008, saw an overkill of celebrity endorsements in advertising. There were campaigns were not just one or two but several celebrities were used in one single ad. ?When people are put on a rich diet for very long, they begin to appreciate daal-chaawal for a change. (Or Maggi, if you will.) It may seem like the food of Gods to a jaded palette,? he jibes.

Endorsement of an attribute by a common consumer, who in most cases happens to be the person who has used the brand, goes a long way in establishing the trust among the target audience at large, say advertising and marketing experts. Today, most consumers know that the face of a celebrity does not promise delivery, they point out.

?In branding, it works best when the concept is more relational?playing on emotions such as trust, empathy, care, affection, reassurance etc. It is less effective, when the branding concept is a symbol of the consumer?s aspirations?typically ?badge? brands,? says Samit Sinha, managing partner of Alchemist Brand Consulting Pvt Ltd. Sinha cites the example of Volkswagen. The brand?s much-acclaimed advertising campaigns never relied on celebrity or hyperbole, instead choosing ?real people? to communicate facts.

?Dove has always featured ?real? people, so it?s in any case part of its branding concept. Maggi wishes to remind its consumers that it?s been around for decades, especially in the face of emerging competition with newer forms and taste variants. At some level, the consumer finds it reassuring,? he explains.