I recently had a caustic comment about Indian film star (well, superstar!) Shah Rukh Khan endorsing a brand of DTH satellite TV (Dish TV) on a television spot, along with his obviously fake wife and daughter. In response, a fellow tweeter agreed and asked my take on Gillette’s ShaveIndia campaign. It’s incidental that this post follows my take on the earned/ paid/ owned media and how high involvement/ low involvement brands can take advantage of the types of media.
Note that I do not differentiate between online and offline paid media. Paid media could be anywhere – could be a billboard on the road or a banner ad in a website. Owned and earned media is more often visible in the online space – in the offline realm they perhaps occur in smaller, less track’able circles.
Is DTH satellite TV high involvement?
Yes, to me, it would be. We do a research, however rudimentary, on available brands, quality, pricing, plans, freebies and peer feedback before we select one. So, where does Shah Rukh feature in all this? Nowhere! The TV spot featuring Shah Rukh is merely an announcement that Dish TV exists and that too, with a new logo. It does not give us any reasons to opt this brand over a rival. But since paid media is used, they can get away with anything. Results? They know better.
Shave India
Shaving blade? Low involvement. Most people buy a brand that they’ve been using already and the shift in brand is likely to happen occasionally when there is a new variant or brand. But, given its low involvement nature, P&G devised a paid media campaign to communicate how shaving blades can be medium to high involvement – *gasp* they sought engagement. Take a look at the press release – I admit it is rather difficult to read through it with a straight face and not be incredibly amused by Gillette’s audacity of hope…that people will make the connection that since Mach 3 is now available at Rs. 125, men will heed to the 3 glamorous ladies’ clarion call!
But, my point is not a sarcastic job at the campaign – they’re fully entitled to it since its their money and their research. My issue is that they’re seeking engagement and conversation with such a flimsy pretext. The release actually says, ‘While initially starting up, W.A.L.S is inviting women from across the country to write in with their stories on their perception of the clean-shaven vs the unshaven look, things they might have done to get men to shave and any other stories that they would like to share with other women on one interactive platform. Women can write into walsstrikes@gmail.com to tell us what you think!’
They wanted people to talk about the shaving experience and its perceived benefits in attracting women (to give credit, without necessarily referring to the brand every time) – when people are least likely to.
So far, so good.
Where it backfired is at the point when they used paid media to get earned media. Earned media cannot be purchased – the simple reason why it is called earned media. There has to be a credible and relatable cause for the transition from paid to earned, where paid media is used to communicate merely the cause. Had they used a more believable story – say, for instance, an AC Nielsen survey of the top 100 employers in India about interview appearances – it may have fared better…probably.
The other grey area here is the fact that paid media was blatantly camouflaged as earned media, which led to annoyed comments online, even as men’s NGOs were up in arms against the campaign and many women saw the campaign as ‘sexist’!
Paid…to earned
Low involvement brands using paid media as a starting point to gain earned media is perfectly fine, but it has to adhere to at least some of the tenets I had jotted earlier – need for a brand-agnostic trigger, acceptance of the brand as an incidental player and not the main story and having an indisputable USP.
In Gillette’s case, they did have a brand-agnostic trigger, but perhaps goofed on the creative thought process – chose a frivolous talk point and executed it with even more frivolousness. In the end it merely became a paid campaign with no traction online and whatever they gained was merely paid media made to look like earned media. That backfired too!