MUMBAI: Speed, stunts, style - are the three essential elements that enshroud any two-wheeler television commercial. But are these doing enough to make two-wheeler manufacturers stand out in this steep competition?

According to auto-analysts, the answer is ‘no’ and companies certainly need fresh strategies and ideas. Experts feel the creative campaigns in this sector suffer from sameness and fatigue.

The two-wheeler segment is facing a slump, especially at the entry level, owing to the increase in the interest rates up to 17% (on average).

Manufacturers are hopeful that situation will improve by September, before the onset of the festive season.However, to combat the current situation, manufacturers are concentrating more on launching new variants and models to keep the buzz and excitement going.

And hence advertising and promotional activities will be most crucial to back these launches - albeit to create top-of-mind brand recall and up sales.

However, the way two-wheeler commercials are made of late, there is an element of monotony and repetitiveness.

“India’s biking ability is in its early stages. Therefore companies tend to highlight the features that the bikes usually have in a big way. The emotional connect will gradually happen once the market is more matured,” said Piyush Pandey, vice-chairman, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific.

However, it was Pandey who created the memorable ‘Chal Meri Luna’ ad in the 80s and coined in the concept of brand personification. Next was Alec Padamsee’s ‘Buland bharat ki buland tasveer — Hamara Bajaj’ that made the Bajaj brand a family-name. More recently, the Bajaj Avenger ‘I feel like God’ campaign was stand-out one.

Even Amit Nandi, general manager marketing, Bajaj Auto, feels there is a fair amount of commercials that looks the same. ‘Therefore we take a conscious effort to make every ad different from the other, especially for our variants like Pulsar, Crystal, et al’, says Nandi.

He adds, “Whenever any automobile company launches a commercial, there are two key objectives — to set the image of the product and to create awareness. If these two objectives are fulfilled, sales automatically follow.”

But there is another fear that’s lurking over the two-wheeler ad industry. It is censorship. Last year, most of the TV
ads that were discontinued after intervention by the Advertising Standards Council of India

(ASCI) were for two-wheelers. The list includes Bajaj Platina Bike, TVS Victor, Bajaj and CT 100. This year ASCI received

complaints against Hero Honda’s CBZ X-treme’s television commercial, after which the ad was modified.The council thinks that most two-wheeler commercial are hazardous because of the dangerous stunts shown in them.

R Gowthaman, managing director, MindShare, a media buying agency, says: “Whenever a commercial is pulled off air, it directly effects the brand benefits. Showing same stunts in two-wheeler commercials is not only hazardous for the brand but also leads to sameness. Therefore this sector definitely requires fresh creatives and strategies.”

Josy Paul, national creative director, JWT, offers a solution. He says, “Since two-wheelers are predominantly male products, people involved with the campaigns are men.

May be, if we start including women professionals in the process, they will bring in fresh perspective. They can be included in on the client’s side or research or during the brain storming sessions.”

Paul cited the example of the ‘Smart’ commercial that won a Cannes Lion this year. The product is a car without any backseat.

The ad revolves around scary ideas as to how criminals can hide on the backseat of a car and therefore it is smart not to have a backseat. Paul says that this was a killer idea that establishes the brand proposition so strongly.

Therefore Indian ad industry can also come out of the clichés and vroom into a new creative arena for two-wheelers.

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