THE IMAGINARY LINE

The line that divided advertising into mainstream and below-the-line was drawn in magic ink. It is fast disappearing as clients force the industry out of its medieval mindset.

As you start eating your favourite dish at a restaurant, a message tries to raise its head out of the bottom of the plate. As the dish gets emptier, you can read better, "There are X number of people dying of hunger every month. Don't waste your food."

The message hits the gut at the perfect moment. You aren't going to forget that in a hurry. So does the medium – the plate become the mainstay for this client? It probably did what no TV commercial and certainly no print ad could have done, because it met the consumer where he would be the most receptive.

As communication needs to get more encompassing and sophisticated, it is becoming more imperative to use and even create more media options to deliver brand solutions. Until yesterday, below the line was a euphemism for below the belt. It was any form of communication that was not traditionally media commission-linked and that a metal hungry creative person of yesteryears wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

But no Indian agency can ignore the call any more. Every one of them is creating separate divisions to handle different areas of brand communication including out-of-home advertising, events, promotions, digital media buying.

While some may have been a little faster than the others largely the demand came from the client. Says Ranjeetha Menon, head, Ogilvy One, "Clients have been asking for 360 degree communication." The process has been largely led by international corporations like Citibank, IBM and Ford, the new generation Indian entrepreneurs or old-time companies that are being turned around by their foreign educated scions.

Says Cajetan Vaz, national; creative director, Everest, "Now it is for us to evangelise and offer solutions to our clients that are media independent." Soumitra S Bhattacharyya, CEO, MOMS, Madison's Outdoor arm, further explains that "With media fragmentation it is critical to have touch point communication which reduces wastage and hits your target group directly".

Vasant Jante, Publisher, POP and Outdoor advertising says that "Marketers realise that a combination of mediums will make the best impact. And everything, every space –washrooms, lifts, malls, mirrors- is being explored as a medium to give a brand maximum exposure to the target group. Jante instituted The Outdoor Advertising Awards last year marking the recognition of the medium as mainstream.

So the change is coming surely and fast enough both in the mindset of agencies and consequently the services they offer. O&M only recently appointed Pratap Bose, the man who led its outdoor business, as CEO. Every agency is setting up divisions with dedicated staff for them and increasingly more experienced people are heading them.

Those days when agencies would create advertising for print and the same artwork was used outdoors are fast disappearing into the horizon. Today, the agencies create advertising specifically for outdoor and OOH mediums. Finally, design is getting more weight.

The change in the remuneration system from being commission based to fee based also supports the rounded servicing that is today's news. Earlier, everything outside of traditional media commission-led work like say hoardings would be done but the agency never got a cut out of it.

The learning is fast as increasingly business depends on it. "We choose to be media-independent" says Vaz. Right now, says Menon, we are in a stage where we are looking at direct marketing not as just a channel but need to map out the customer journey and understand their purchase patterns.

Vaz clearly outlines that his agency's focus this year is to deepen its understanding of digital media. Menon says that digital marketing is where she will focus as technology gains ground and digital media (Internet and Interactivity) lead growth. The integration of digital media-. TV, radio, online, mobile telephony, digital outdoor all converging in one handset or desktop is the future. The communication opportunities are mind-boggling. I'd love to dive in, says Vaz.

Internationally, the ratio stands at 50:50. Here it is 80:20 in favour of mainstream. While TV and print have stopped growing internationally in India they are yet to be saturated. But the trend will be first arrested and then probably reversed. Sectors like banking, insurance, hotels, airlines, automobiles, IT, have made the shift globally and it follows here.

(This article appeared as the lead in Billboard, the weekly advertising and marketing page of Hindustan Times in May `06)