"In Pakistan CSR is an expression of the passion of the chairman or the CEO"

Shadab Fariduddin, Director & Lead Consultant, Four Corners Group talks to Marylou Andrew about what’s needed to make CSR activities truly effective in Pakistan.

MARYLOU ANDREW: How would you define CSR as companies currently practice it?
SHADAB FARIDUDDIN: There have been three waves of CSR. The first focused on philanthropic activity, where companies went out to do good deeds. Then they realised that CSR has a lot of pull and they started indulging in PR-related CSR which involved leveraging the CSR face of the company for PR mileage. The third phase is when they actually deploy business capabilities to solve real social issues, and that is real CSR.

 MLA: Internationally there is a shift from corporate philanthropy to triple bottom line (TBL). What is TBL?
SF: According to the theory propounded by Milton Friedman, the only responsibility of business is to earn a profit; however in practicing this theory they have harmed people and the planet. Take the case of Nike and its inhumane labour practices in Bangladesh and Latin America or the more recent example of the BP oil spill, which has caused so much damage to the environment. Because companies were motivated purely by profit, they had a license to kill as it were. Now the realisation has come that businesses have to balance their desire for profit with what benefits people and the planet.

MLA: What motivated this shift in thinking?
SF: Businesses will never change unless there is incentive or punishment. The incentive came when non-profit organisations stood up against businesses and their unfair practices and started making customers aware about why they should not buy products that are damaging to people and the planet. When faced with the threat of decreased demand for their products and services, businesses saw the need to focus on a triple bottom line (profit, people and the planet). A well known example is De Beers and the conflict diamonds they used to sell. When Global Witness single-handedly created awareness about these diamonds, people stopped buying them and De Beers had to clean up its act.

 MLA: What is motivating Pakistani companies to do CSR?
SF: Most companies in Pakistan are doing corporate philanthropy. Pakistan’s social and economic issues are so immense and there is a dismal failure by the government to provide any kind of social services, so private individuals have taken it upon themselves to do this. But there is another important element to consider. In Pakistan, CSR is an expression of the passion of the chairman or the CEO. Usually it is not integrated into the corporate strategy.

MLA: Why is integration important?
SF: Integration is a must to ensure that CSR does not remain leadership dependant. A good example of integration comes from National Foods (NF). NF is a huge buyer of chillies and Pakistan produces some of the best chillies in the world. But the Pakistani chilli also suffered from a fungus which made it unfit for human consumption. To grow fungus free chillies, changes in cultivation and preservation techniques were required. NF brought in bio-technology experts to study the problem and identify the causes of the fungus. They then piloted the solution at their own expense and finally took it to the farmers. Now the farmers required an incentive to change their techniques so NF offered them a premium on the price and paid them in advance. The farmers adopted the new techniques and this not only benefited NF but the entire sector and Pakistan became known as a fungus free chilli producer. And there was the huge benefit to the farming community. This is an example of true strategy integrated CSR.

 MLA: Why don’t more companies have a strategy integrated CSR plan?
SF: It’s a painful process and requires a huge change of mindset. Let’s say I’m the CEO of a company and I am passionate about doing business ethically. That raises a number of issues. First I have to persuade my employees to care about my cause, which takes time. If I manage to persuade them and I decide to look for say, cleaner energy sources, this will incur a sizable cost. This means that the cost of my goods and services will increase and so will the price; then I will have to ask myself whether my customers are educated enough to want to pay this extra cost. If they are not, is the government willing to subsidise the good I am doing? If the support structures are not available at the industry and macro level then I will have to step back and continue doing the kind of CSR which is good to the eyes but not necessarily to the society.

MLA: Companies spend a lot of time and money publicising their CSR initiatives. Do these strike a chord with consumers?
SF: I want to point out an interesting phenomenon. When companies want to make even the smallest change to their product they will immediately commission research. But when it comes to CSR activities, companies will never undertake research to find out whether the cause they want to promote is dear to the consumer or not. Instead they will launch a CSR campaign and evaluate it afterwards to see whether there is an impact on sales and brand equity. Why not do the evaluation before and base your campaign on a cause held dear by the consumer? This is why most consumers remain unaware of the company’s CSR initiatives.

 MLA: If that’s the case, why do companies continue to do CSR?
SF: Sometimes the CSR budget, as a percentage of the overall budget, is small change, so companies do it in order to have something to put down in their annual reports. These reports, of course, will only list the activities but not the results or the socio-economic impact. Another reason is that although you know your customers don’t care, you just keep spending hoping that it will click in the future; this is a very, very long term approach. Finally, companies sometimes indulge in CSR as reputation insurance. At BP for example, their big defense has been that despite the oil spill, their past record shows how much they have done for the community. Companies cannot anticipate when and how their reputation could go on the line, but if and when it happens, CSR can act as a way to defend their track record.

MLA: Where do you see CSR heading in the next three to five years?
SF: It will evolve and this will be governed by two or three factors. The government is promoting public-private partnerships in two ways; the public sector partnering with for-profit private sector companies as well as with non-profit private sector companies. A third type of partnership is private-private (for-profit-non-profit) partnerships. Such partnerships are important because foreign aid is drying up and donor dependent organisations are seeking alternative sources of funding. As a result there is a great deal of pressure on the non-profit world to start behaving like a business and identify business opportunities. All these factors will increase the quantum of CSR initiatives.

 MLA: Will consumers become more demanding that companies become more transparent and ethical?
SF: Yes and no. When a society reaches a certain level of per capita income and that income is well distributed, consumers start thinking of the higher needs of fairness and triple bottom line. However the public in Pakistan is so tied to the routine of earning a livelihood that even if you educate them they will not do anything about it.

First published in the September-October 2010 issue of Aurora.

The growing Lions

Cannes 2010 was bigger than ever before, writes Patrick Collister.

The Cannes Advertising Festival gets bigger and bigger. This year some 8000 delegates came to see some 50 seminars and take part in 20 workshops spread over seven days. On four separate nights there were awards presentations with 100 Lions handed out in the TV category alone. 

But what I really mean by ‘Cannes is growing’ is the number of categories, currently standing at 12 and about to become 13.

It is easy to understand exactly why the Festival has expanded from the TV-only show it was 20 years ago. Firstly, advertising began to change and the awards categories mushroomed to reflect those changes. Secondly, there’s money in it.

For Emap, owners of the business, this is good news. Take Wieden+Kennedy Portland’s campaign for Nike Livestrong with the Chalkbot. This won the Grand Prix for Integrated Campaigns. It also won the Grand Prix in Cyber. It could also have won awards in Outdoor, Media, Direct, Promo, Design, PR not to mention the new Grand Prix for Good.

And ‘Deepest Pockets of The Year’ goes to...

With the cost per entry ranging from 1150 euros for entering the Titanium and Integrated category to ‘just’ 380 euros for Direct, Media, PR et al, it would be relatively easy for an agency to spend as much as 25,000 euros on submitting one piece of work alone.

If you are a big multinational agency, this is affordable. For the small, independent shops, Cannes is beginning to price itself beyond their means. Perhaps this was why they created the ‘Independent Agency of the Year Award’, as an enticement. (It was won by Jung von Matt, Hamburg.)

 

Take Special Group, from Auckland, whose ‘Orcon+Iggy Together’ campaign won the Direct Grand Prix. Quite probably they could not afford to enter it in any more than the one category.

To be ‘Agency of the Year’, you have to have deep pockets to be able to fund all your entries. This year the accolade went to AlmapBBDO, Sao Paulo. One wonders what it cost them.

Everything except Titanium

The plethora of categories brings some strange results. For instance, TBWA/Chiat/Day L.A.’s ‘Replay’ for Gatorade. This was branded content, the story of two high school football teams being brought back together 16 years later to replay a drawn match.

It won Gold in the Titanium and Integrated category, Gold for Branded Content in Film but only a Silver for Branded Content in the Media category. And in Best Use of Special Event it only made it to the shortlist. In Cyber it was worth a Bronze. It probably deserved the Titanium Grand Prix, actually, as the most inspiring idea of the week.

Cannes these days is about buying as many juries as possible in the hope one of them will look kindly on your work.

For many agencies the expense is worth it because the currency of the Lions is increasingly valuable. This is because clients are coming to Cannes in ever greater numbers. Agencies which do well at Cannes do well in front of the very people they most want to impress, people like Keith Weed, new CMO of Unilever, Mary Beth West, CMO of Kraft and Marc Pritchard, CMO of P&G.

The most desirable Lions are Direct

It used to be that the most prestigious Lions to be won were on the last Saturday of the week, for Film and TV or in the Titanium and Integrated category. But no longer.

Paul Silburn, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi, London, and a serial winner at Cannes both as a copywriter and as a creative director, told me that, for him at any rate, Direct and Promo were the two most interesting categories, the ones in which he most wanted to do well. As it happens, his agency’s only Gold was in Outdoor with ‘Singalong’ for T-Mobile though they did pick up two Bronzes in Promo for ‘Josh’s Band’, also for T-Mobile.

The Direct and Promo Awards were held at the very beginning of the week, on the Monday evening. Almost everything that won an award was also a winner five days later at the Saturday bash, leaving a number of visitors thinking they might save themselves a lot of money next year by coming just for the first two days rather than for the whole shooting match.

Looking at the Direct Lions, it is becoming increasingly hard for direct marketing agencies to win awards in their own category. Above-the-line agencies took the major prizes and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London was named Direct Agency of the Year. Their campaigns for Walkers Crisps and for The Metropolitan Police won three Golds, three Silvers and five Bronzes.

The results in both campaigns are impressive.

For Walkers, the online films were viewed 1.6 million times leading to extra sales of 1.5 million packs of crisps. With the ‘Anti-Knife Crime’ videos, click-through from the banner ads was 2.1%, as opposed to the 0.2% norm.  More than 3000 comments were posted about the campaign, which has achieved total views approaching three million. However, with video at the heart of these two campaigns, albeit online rather than on TV, many direct marketers were muttering darkly that Abbott Mead Vickers is a direct agency in the much same way Goldman Sachs is a Friendly Society.

Direct agencies can’t compete in direct any longer

One response to the way ad agencies are piling into Direct is to have a moan about how unfair it is. Another is to enthuse about how the bar has been raised.

Guy Bradbury, Executive Creative Director of Touch DDB London belongs to this camp. Specialist direct agencies need to up their game, he believes, even if it can be difficult for them to get the same sort of permissions and the same sort of budgets to think big as the traditional ad agencies.

To try and change this, he took a senior client with him to the Festival. “Why aren’t you doing work like this for us?” he asked Guy as they reviewed the Direct winners together.

“Because you won’t let us,” was the reply.

There were many more examples of agencies bringing their important clients down to Cannes, not to schmoose them but to educate them and inspire them.

So, while most of the big Direct Lions went to what is essentially brand advertising, there were a handful of traditional direct pieces.

Grey Vancouver’s ‘Cardboard Record Player’ for GGRP Sound Design won the only Gold for a mailing of any sort; but for my money, it is a triumph of execution over idea. Making a record player out of cardboard may be clever but it doesn’t position GGRP as being at the cutting edge of recording technology, does it?

Languishing in among the Bronzes, however, was the brilliant ‘Magical Christmas Cards’ from Crispin Porter+Bogusky Sweden for the Swedish Postal Service. It allowed Facebook users to create real Christmas cards for their friends out of their Facebook conversations, a genius way of making digital and mail work together.

It’s not all hard work

Cannes is no longer the big knees-up it used to be. As well as an opportunity for senior managers and senior clients to spend time together, many networks also use it as an opportunity to hold their own mini-conferences.

Wunderman hosted a two-day event for their worldwide team of creative directors and I was privileged to be invited along to talk to them for an hour.

But there is still plenty of opportunity for partying and the Gutter Bar on the Crosiette, the main sea-side stretch, did great business until dawn on pretty much every night of the week.

As Editor of Directory, I hosted a small poolside party for some of our friends and subscribers. If anyone from Pakistan is able to make it to the Cote d’Azur next year, I am sure we will be holding some sort of event again and it would be a real pleasure to meet you. Till next year, then!

Patrick Collister is Editor, Directory magazine. He is former Executive Creative Director and Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather. patrick@directnewideas.com

First published in the September-October 2010 issue of Aurora.

I heard him on the radio

Marylou Andrew meets Wes Malik.

At the outset I must admit that I have had a slight crush on Wes Malik ever since I saw him on an oddball of a channel called K2 (Khyber 2). My first thought: ‘THIS is THE Wes Malik I’ve heard on CityFM89 – he’s quite cute’; second thought: ‘what’s he doing on K2’; third thought: ‘he’s cute!’

That’s the end of my gush-fest; thank you for reading.

I first ‘heard’ Wes when he hosted The Breakfast Show with Sohail Hashmi in the mid-2000s. To be honest, I perceived him to be a minor player in comparison to Hashmi’s immense personality and popularity, and to use a popular song (apologies to Shania Twain), Wes didn’t impress me much.

In the five or six years since then, however, he has hosted a plethora of shows on 89 including Charted Territory, Pre-Party, Alive at 5, Dial 89 and Nasha 89, and has filled in for practically every RJ at the radio station. In doing so, he has developed a fan following that is second (perhaps) only to the likes of Fasi Zaka. In fact Wes and Fasi are to contemporary FM radio what Jonty and Junaid (both of FM 100 fame) were to that media in 1999. 

Wes had me confused for a while there; he has quite a pronounced American/Canadian accent, so if you listen to him on radio you could be forgiven for thinking he’s a gora. The confusion doesn’t dissipate when you meet him because now you can see that he’s a Pakistani and that makes you wonder why he’s called ‘Wes’.

Now if you are from the ‘Islamabad circuit’ (and I’m not), you’ll know as a matter of common knowledge that Wes is a nickname that ‘Awais’ acquired when he was growing up in Canada. It made sense to use it as a ‘stage’ name when he started doing radio, and while not everyone is particularly fond of it (some of his listeners think he’s trying too hard), Wes is unconcerned.

“How bad is Wes compared to Moonman or DJ Nasha,” he retorts with a chuckle.

He’s got a point there.

The story of how he got into radio is interesting because of its randomness. He was working with Adgroup (an Islamabad-based advertising agency) when his client, Radio Pakistan, decided to launch FM 101. In one of the many client-agency meetings, someone suggested that he host one of the shows; a suggestion he conveniently ignored.

“A few weeks later, I was at my friend’s CD shop in G-8 Markaz, when Syed Asim Raza (who we used to call ‘Cobra’) from FM101 came up to me and mentioned the radio gig again. This time I accepted and off we went to the radio station.”

The show, called ‘Much Music’ was “terrible” says Wes, “and I wonder why I didn’t get fired.”

Talking about this ‘terrible’ show, Wes gives me a fascinating insight into the world of Pakistani FM radio in the late 90s.

“Taking live requests in 1998 was a b**** of a job because all we had was cassettes which we had to rewind and fast forward. So I would walk into the station carrying a tote bag full of 300 or so tapes which were alphabetically lined up before the show began. Even so it was hard to find a song because the tape recorder I had could only fast forward stuff.”

Technically, radio stations have come a long way since then. However, Wes believes that the quality of the content leaves much to be desired.

“You have people who are giving religious sermons, and then others who are doing incredibly lewd comedy, and all of this is so wrong.”

He firmly believes that RJs need to be opinionated – “if you don’t have an opinion, people will not respect you” – but they need to have opinions about the right things, such as music and social issues.

Talking about the issues of the times is important to Wes but he doesn’t want to be preachy or make a big deal out of it.

“I just echo what people already have on their minds; that’s how you gain credibility and popularity.”

At the end of the day though, Wes knows his job is really all about the music that people want to listen to, and he is a master at keeping his finger on the pulse of the audience.

Take the example of the unlikely hit single, Amplifier by Imran Khan. Before it became the anthem of street side Romeos across Pakistan, I heard it on Wes’ show on K2. The lyrics are appalling; Khan compares a woman to the headlights, woofer and amplifier of his car. Why would he play that song on his show?

Apparently Wes is somewhat of a car freak himself and knows that guys who love their cars also like to compare them to women.

“I knew that song was going to be a super hit.”

He was right on the money.

Being able to predict and play songs that will eventually become popular forms a large part of a good radio jockey’s job. Wes, being the professional that he is, knows this. That’s why he’s always listening to new musicians to seek out hidden gems. But he has a problem with musicians who initially beg RJs to play their songs and then become aloof and difficult just because they become popular and acquire a recording contract.

Radio takes up a significant chunk of Wes’ time but there are other things on his plate. He no longer does the show on K2 because he grew tired of the “inferior product” the channel was bringing out. However, he can be seen on PTV of all places!

Where Shaista Zaid once gave Pakistani audiences their daily dose of Khabarnama at 7:00 p.m., we now have Wes Malik following in her footsteps. I’m not a huge fan of him reading out government hogwash in a staid old suit, but I do think PTV incredibly progressive for having hired him.

Wes Malik is not the kind of person you can fit into a neat little box – he speaks English with an American accent and Urdu with a Punjabi accent; he was raised in Canada but is passionate about Pakistan; he’s a serial job hopper (he’s worked in advertising, telecom, IT, radio and TV); he’s a considerably young man (mid-30s I would imagine) and has 2.5 kids; he does what would typically be defined as a fairly ‘burger’ show on 89 and then he reads the news on PTV (the beacon of bureaucracy); and he’s a bit of a diesel head.

So even after talking to him for over an hour, I wonder to myself, who is this guy anyway? The answer is not clear and perhaps that’s the way Wes likes it. After all, a sense of mystery is probably the most valued asset of a celebrity.

First published in the September-October 2010 issue of Aurora.

How to spread ideas exponentially

Going viral is all about engagement, writes Salma Jafri.

What do Lady Gaga, Old Spice and Paul Vasquez have in common? They are all new media celebrities, having leveraged the power of online word-of-mouth to spark interest, popularity and ultimately, tonnes of recognition.

Lady Gaga holds the record as the only living person to have more than 10 million Facebook fans and the most viewed video EVER on YouTube. Old Spice debuted its social media campaign in June this year to viral acclaim – some 15 million video views later. And Paul Vasquez was an ordinary guy until his emotion-filled, slightly loony take on a double rainbow sighting propelled him to global fame.

So what is it that makes these people and their content, go viral? Is it a fluke, or part of a carefully crafted marketing strategy? And how can your business produce content that will go viral?

But first… why would you want viral content?

Because it:

• Is what people look for and share.
• Is bookmarked.
• Is talked about.
• Sparks memes.
• Provides backlinks.
• Establishes search rankings.
• Promotes goodwill.
• Drives traffic, attention and recognition to your brand.
• Brings customers and sales.

The psychology of viral – why people share content

Just before the FIFA World Cup this year, a Pakistani production house was approached by an automotive MNC to produce a sports-themed viral video. Trouble was, what they really wanted was an ad, but were confusing it with the term ‘viral video’ as though the latter were some kind of technical function. So what’s the difference between producing an ad and producing organic viral content, where organic signifies natural and spontaneous sharing?

Simply, an ad is a one-way message where the advertiser is talking to the intended consumer. A viral video, however, is a two-way message: first the advertiser makes the video and then the audience responds to it by sharing it with their community, thereby setting off an exponential domino effect. The crux of viral content, therefore, is that it must be shared, and to be shared, it must possess certain characteristics. Here are some reasons why people share content online:

• It triggers a strong emotion (extreme joy, shock, disbelief, excitement, wonder).
• It highlights a major benefit (fast, convenient, economical, useful).
• It rides on the wave of a personality/brand (celebrities, sporting icons).
• It is new, unique or controversial (shock and naughtiness factor).

Recently, I came across a video that was being promoted as Pakistan’s first viral video. It was an ad which had garnered 3000 views in its first month solely due to Facebook advertising. Yet, true viral content does not need to be promoted or paid for in such a way. This is not to say that ads cannot go viral – they can, but they need to be approached from a social media perspective of ‘engaging with’ the consumer rather than the traditional advertising perspective of ‘talking at’ the consumer.

 Take Pakistan’s most famous (and perhaps only) viral content phenomenon: Coke Studio. It has gathered over six million views since debuting in 2008 and directly promotes a brand: Coca-Cola. When users share the Coke Studio videos online however, they don’t think they are sharing a brand, they are just sharing good music with their friends. And what could be more natural than that?

Pakistani brands as well as ad agencies need to understand that to produce viral content they must shed their traditional advertising one-to-many approach and employ the new media one-to-one strategy of connecting directly with their fans. Make people feel important, even if you have to make 208+ custom videos for your audience within 48 hours –which is what the Old Spice team did. Get them talking about you. Make them WANT to share your content. Old Spice’s marketing agency defined it perfectly when they said: “Brands don’t make viral videos, users make videos viral.”

Components of a viral marketing strategy

Although every marketing strategy is unique, local businesses and advertisers may keep in mind the following key components for a potentially successful viral marketing campaign:

 • The content must be original and sincere.
• It must evoke a strong emotion.
• It must be easy to share.
• It should make the sharer feel important.

Some of the ways in which marketers can help their content achieve these objectives is by

• Telling a story (Schweppes’ love story on YouTube).
• Showcasing a unique use of a product (Blendtec’s wacky blending choices).
• Enabling people relate to a product (Dove’s ‘beauty is distorted’ campaign).
• Keeping it simple (Boone Oakley’s interactive website demo).

How people share content online

When putting together an online viral marketing strategy, it is imperative to know which social networks your audience hangs out at. Maybe your audience comprises of net-savvy Twitter users, or they are heavy Facebookers, or they love Digg, or perhaps they are Posterous fans.

Once you have identified the social channels you want to use, go for them with full force. By that I mean, post up interesting intros and variations to your content.
You could ask a question, or identify a problem, or offer a thought-provoking lead-in statement, or write a funny intro or offer a prize or other incentive before your content link.

This is where your catchy headline-writing skills come into play so put your best copywriters on the job in developing different and interesting ways to promote your content across a wide variety of social networks.

Don’t spam and always follow the rules of the networks; some, like Digg, don’t allow overly promotional material, so make sure your team understands the rules and guidelines of each forum you are marketing to.

Tools to track your marketing content

Once you have done the hard creative work of getting your hopefully-soon-to-go-viral content out there, you must keep an eye on the numbers and tweak your content as necessary in real time. Some tools that will help you keep track of your campaign’s progress are:

• YouTube Insight
• Google Analytics
• Backtweets.com
• Facebook Insight
• NetVibes
• Google Alerts
• Tweetdeck (or other twitter applications)

If you are funnelling visitors to a particular landing page, keep track of the numbers and goal conversions on that page. If your goal is to get more email subscribers then keep an eye on your mailing list numbers. If the viral content is not channelling visitors to a specific page on your site, you can gauge the success or otherwise of your campaign by tracking your homepage hits as a result of the viral campaign, including direct hits, organic search results and referrals from social media sites.

Making the decision to produce viral content must always come with the knowledge that as a company your goal is to create interesting, compelling, share-worthy and original content. As opposed to blatant advertising, sales language, gimmicks and sugar-coated gloss. The latter will turn people off, while the former is a conversation starter. And that is essentially what great viral content does: starts a conversation around your brand, builds buzz, and creates hype – all organically.

Your next step is to distribute your content to as many targeted social media networks. The rest is up to your audience. If they like/love/hate/identify with/love-to-hate your content, they will pass it on. Once the ball gets rolling, you jump in to keep the interaction going and the interest levels rising. In no time, your business will be receiving recognition from a new set of customers now aware of who you are and judging you on the content you made. Make sure you rock it!

Salma Jafri is founder and CEO, WordPL.net – an online business building firm. salma@wordpl.net

First published in the September-October 2010 issue of Aurora.

Globetrotting telecoms

Yasmin Malik investigates how the top global cellular brands project their image in Pakistan.

Inescapable. That is the definitive word to describe the dominance of cellular brands which have, in recent years, gained ground over the more traditional global giants such as Coke, Microsoft and Nike.

According to recent research commissioned by MCI and Informa Telecoms and Media’s World Cellular Information Service, the top 100 cellular brands have a combined value of almost US$ 318 billion.

Top of the list is China Mobile (as it deservedly should be) closely followed by Vodafone as the second most valuable cellular brand in the world – their respective brand valuation stands at US$ 31 million and US$ 22 million. Telenor, at number 32, with a brand value of US$ 2.3 million also features on the list.

Becoming a global brand, of course, is not easy and the list was compiled after a rigorous study/methodology which centres on the fact that brand values are a reflection of a particular brand’s ability “to generate future income”.

Each brand was judged on forecast sales but also assessed on its ‘royalty rate’ so that it would accurately depict each brand’s profit/cash flow. Nine measures of brand strength – including market share/scope, price positioning, heritage and perception – were taken giving a panel brand score. Each brand was also scored on three years of ‘hard data’ including turnover/profitability, subscriptions, churn and ARPU. The average of these two total scores was then used to determine each brand’s unique royalty rate (brand equity). In this manner, China Mobile has an average brand score of 60% and Telenor one of 42%.

When I first became aware of these rankings, the predominant question that came into my mind was how cellular brands in Pakistan measure up to this global brand valuation.

Keeping in mind China Mobile’s dominance as a global operator, Zong’s Head of Marketing, Salman Wassay, clarifies that Zong is China Mobile’s “first and only international brand and operates as a totally separate business unit with full autonomy on the brand positioning/marketing. It is therefore incorrect to think that Zong follows China Mobile’s lead on the brand image.”

He admits, though, that there are strong overtones from the global brand.

“The fact that the parent company is rated so high internationally puts positive pressure on the local brand to live up to expectations.”

Central to Zong’s performance has been the aforementioned concept of brand equity/score.

Wassay elaborates.

“It takes years to develop a brand and register a healthy brand equity score. Yet in a very short span of time Zong’s brand equity score has reached competitive levels and today it is the fastest growing score in the industry.”

Zong consented to give a quantifiable view of this in order to justify its claim of ‘competitive’ brand equity levels.

“Our brand equity scores since November 2008 (when the first results of our tracking came) to-date have seen a 55% rise. In the same period, the other (telecom) brands’ equity scores have mainly taken a dip (approximately five to 10%).”

As brand equity is a tangible measure of turnover, it is pertinent to question how Zong has fared with respect to revenue generation.

It is an established fact that 85% of local MNOs revenue is still based on voice (Source: July-August 2010 issue of Aurora) whereas many global cellular brands are reaping the benefits of ‘data-centric’ services such as the mobile internet.

Wassay counters.

“Zong’s share of VAS/data-centric services revenue as a percent of total revenue is the highest. We believe that the future of the telecom industry globally is in VAS.”
He emphasises the practical steps that Zong has undertaken to make mobile internet more affordable.

“We have recognised that one of the biggest barriers for people in Pakistan to use this has been affordability. So we have launched some of the most innovative and affordable mobile internet packages. The target market for these VAS services, particularly this internet package, has been the youth of Pakistan who need to maintain an online identity and also remain in touch with a wider network of people through means other than a voice call or SMS.”

In comparison, Telenor’s djuice brand is, in my view, more distinct and has been projected by Telenor as the ‘international brand for youth’.

Affan Haider, Head of Corporate Communications & Responsibility, Telenor elaborates.

“It is available in Norway, Ukraine, Montenegro, Hungary, Bangladesh and Pakistan and even prior to its (Pakistan) launch had a pre-hype build-up of an international (European) telecom.”

Haider emphasises how global synergies and the ‘global brand image’ have imparted strength to djuice’s brand value locally:

“Being an international brand for the youth, djuice globally believes in subtle endorsement of its mother brand and being recognised independently for its own distinct personality and value proposition. But at the same time it endorses the mother brand’s values, i.e. voice quality, international brand with quality standards, wide coverage, EDGE network, etc., all of which have a trickle-down effect.”

With regard to revenue generation however, Telenor, like Zong, cannot deny that 90% of its revenues are predominantly from voice (Source: July-August 2010 issue of Aurora). However, as an analyst I am encouraged by the fact that Telenor has made inroads to make its branding more data centric particularly with the use of mobile marketing.

Haider elaborates:

“All djuice global teams share best practices, which if inspiring enough, are later customised/ adapted in various markets. For example, the international djuice Thumb concept was localised for an SMS campaign in Pakistan.”

Telenor claims relative success in ‘cross promotion’ mobile marketing campaigns as well.

“A (recent) collaboration between djuice and Red Bull – in the form of a mobile media campaign entitled the Red Bull Street Style Ball Artist competition – is a good example of mobile advertising where different media were used.”

Haider explains:

“The mobile media extended for this campaign included bulk SMS, website (djuice and Red Bull), digital assets i.e. djuice Facebook/YouTube/Twitter and ground event updates through SMS/website.”

Zong expresses a more cautionary approach to mobile marketing as an alternative VAS revenue generation route.

“Mobile advertising in Pakistan is still a nascent medium, primarily because of regulatory and technological limitations. The telecom sector is still in the process of obtaining accurate demographic profiles, which are a prerequisite for targeted mobile advertising. Having said that, Zong has still used this medium to advertise its own services. We have used SMS and voice recordings to do this, but we have always been very careful to do so in as non-intrusive a manner as possible.”

Can we then say with confidence that global synergies have filtered down to the performance of our local telecom brands? With respect to their brand image in Pakistan, I think they certainly have. But in order to further strengthen and sustain their local brand equity, it is essential that local operators make a definitive and quantifiable move towards data based VAS as a powerful alternative revenue stream.

Yasmin Malik is associated with the UK’s Informa Telecoms & Media. yasminmalik1@yahoo.com

First published in the September-October 2010 issue of Aurora.

Welcome to Sunday bazaar

By Ali A. Rizvi

Until a couple of years ago, Pakistani advertising was at a crossroads, waiting to make a right turn towards pushing the creative envelope to the next level; creating communication that was not only relevant but entertaining. Telecoms, FMCGs and other sectors had a good mix of campaigns catering to brand building and consumer promotion, and all the while there was a tussle to outdo each other’s communication. Then something snapped and the entire commotion came to a screeching halt. A cloud of stagnation settled on the advertising scene.

Now brands are either airing international versions of ads or we hear a constant stream of messages about low prices: Bachat bachat! Mujh say faida uthao! Apna hai bachat kay saath! 67 paisas for one minute! Creatively there are numerous ways to communicate affordability while maintaining brand appeal and image and giving a sense to the customer that his brand loyalty is justified; there is no reason to act like the brand is cheap. 

And that is not the only problem. While some ads focus on low prices, others display a complete lack of taste. I never would have imagined that communication such as ‘Yeh cheez meray aziz’ (Zong) or ‘Sniff to find your ghanta to get lucky’ (djuice) would see the light of day. Tear jerkers are also in; brands are doing their best to infuse emotions and make you cry for no reason, and if that doesn’t work then let’s talk about sex – aam ko thaam lai uglian iss pay cuss, hoothon pay aam ka russ barasnay ko hai (Slice).

Why is the consumer’s intelligence being insulted? Are brands worried about losing their market position? Or are the creative agencies so scared of losing the client that they would rather play it safe and do whatever is imposed on them? Or is sheer lack of creative thinking the main culprit?

I believe the lack of creative thinking is the father of this electronic Sunday bazaar where everyone seems to think that whoever shouts the loudest will sell his wares. Yet, even in this environment there are brands who are delivering creative campaigns that excite consumers and show the brand’s progression. All good campaigns follow similar principles. They don’t over complicate or look down on the consumer; they are based on brand insights and are relevant. After a lot of searching the following ads have inspired me.

BRAND: Ufone  

Campaign: Corporate
Message: Voice clarity

Effectiveness: The concept is simple and there is a single message – voice clarity. It’s one of those commercials you cannot help but enjoy and the message resonates even after the TVC has ended. The acting by the models further enhances the viewing pleasure. More than anything it has the believability factor going for it. The jingle is simple but effective in terms of hammering in the message. The only disappointment is a technical flaw; the placement of the band and the players changes in every frame which is disappointing given that the commercial was shot abroad.

Verdict: Barring the technical glitch, it’s brilliant. It has mass appeal and will have tremendous impact on brand health and top of mind.

BRAND: Pepsi

Campaign: Pepsi-PCB Cricket Stars

Message: Become a star
Effectiveness: Imran Khan and Wasim Akram come together to encourage youngsters to become the next cricket stars by participating in the Pepsi-PCB cricket hunt. Pepsi could not have picked better brand ambassadors for this message. Imran Khan’s intro shot is very powerful and the footage of the 1992 World Cup further infuses energy.
A well-shot commercial with a tinge of blue to amplify the brand colour.
Verdict: Nostalgic. The brand has regained its creative form along with dedication to brand building.

BRAND: Express Power

Campaign: Dhulaee ka challenge
Message: 64 rupees ki bachat kay saath
Effectiveness: Ariel (the competitor) was the first to release a TVC that took a dig at the quality of Express. Express has retaliated with a clever commercial that is a frame-by-frame copy of Ariel’s. The commercial shows the similarity of both brands in terms of washing effectiveness while highlighting that Express has the edge because it provides a saving of 64 rupees. The final punch is through consumer endorsement: ‘If they wash the same then why pay more?’
Verdict: Express has taken its competition to the cleaners and communicated to the consumer that the wise choice is to buy Express.

BRAND: Omoré

Campaign: Omoré Chocolate Temptations
Message: Lose yourself
Effectiveness: In the past such advertisements were considered rather vulgar (think Wall’s) and adversely affected the perception of the brand. But this ad is different. Overall the feel is sensuous, it is crisply edited and the dark colours throughout the TVC make you visually experience the velvety richness of pure chocolate with the creaminess of vanilla while tantalising your taste buds.
Verdict: Coming of age TVC loaded with oomph and class.

BRAND: Zong

Campaign: Phone on hai!
Message: Winner kaun hai, jiss ka phone on hai.
Effectiveness: In a category where all the players are singing the tune of ‘churn baby churn’ Zong has brought in a clever spin. Clever because competing brands usually offer rewards to users who return to the network whereas Zong is rewarding both existing and returning customers, hence the message ‘keep your phone on and get rewarded’. In doing so it is trying to minimise churn and encouraging multiple SIM carriers to switch. The jingle is foot-tappingly good with a regional feel. Visually they have captured ordinary people from different backgrounds in relatable slice of life situations.
Verdict: TVC on hai. In terms of execution, Zong has kept it real and will find the brand connecting with the target audience.

Ali A. Rizvi is COO, Contact Plus. ali.arizvi@gmail.com

Because we’re not worth it

Tariq Ziad Khan wonders why Pakistani consumers are being force-fed ads made for foreign markets.

When I started out my career with this august journal over a decade ago, everyone in the ad industry was raving about the arrival of the multinational (affiliated) agency. There was much talk about how there would be no need to “reinvent the wheel” as concepts would come from markets with “similar demographic indicators” which would then be “appropriately localised” to fit the Pakistan market.

There were, at the time, a few advertising practitioners who cried foul, fearing this would ring the death knell of a profession already indicted for producing lacklustre creative work. These naysayers claimed that the introduction of foreign ad concepts was just the first stage, after which even the creative execution would be generated abroad, thereby reducing local agencies to the advertising equivalent of freight forwarders.

However, by and large the profession ignored these protests as ‘conspiracy theories’ and the trend continued with ad concepts being imported and then localised – mostly in the form of the Aishwariyas of the world being substituted with the Meeras in the Pakistani version of things.

Ten years on and the aforementioned ‘conspiracy theories’ seem to be ringing true. After importing concepts, Pakistani advertising underwent a phase during which every major work of advertising was produced in India or in Southeast Asia, and now we are in yet another phase where brands – particularly MNC brands – are simply releasing advertising produced in other markets.
 
The temptation may be to blame the present economic downturn for this state of affairs. However, this current lobotomised state, whereby international content is simply being replayed without even the slightest attempt at localisation, is something Pakistani advertising did not experience even during the last recession, which lasted for over a decade. Also, if I recall correctly, in those days brand managers were all talk about how big the share of generic and non-branded products was compared to the miniscule presence of branded goods. Brand managers would go out of their way to tell me that even single-digit growth was enough to sustain their markets for decades to come.
 
So what went wrong? Thanks to the fragmentation of the media, the opening up of borders, the inflow of foreign funds (more borrowed than donated now), the market, even today, has immense potential for growth, albeit at a slower trajectory. If the fundamentals largely remain unchanged, why then are the trends in advertising going the way they are? Why are we being subjected to advertisements showing buxom blondes sitting in bull fighting arenas, kids jumping over high rise buildings or Thai models smiling seductively with Urdu commentary wittering on irrelevantly about kamiyaabi or the virtues of clear skin?
 
While I can perhaps understand that shrinking budgets and media fragmentation may be putting the pressure on brand managers to spend money maximising their media placement rather than on creative development, the fact is that brand relevance is going out the window. It seems that today brands are willing to subject me to an ad with an Indian, Indonesian, Thai and/or other assortments of foreign models without even bothering to try and fit the concept into something remotely resembling a localised scenario. Clearly, as a customer, I am no longer even worth the sales pitch.
 
Looking back at the last 10 years the saddest part of this trend is that the worst offenders are the MNC brands, which were supposed to lead the way in bringing better advertising to Pakistan’s brandscape. Following in their suit (as always) many local companies are also outsourcing to international production agencies (mostly briefcase film-directors from across the border).
 
The tragedy is that despite blaming Pakistani advertising for lacklustre creative work, outsourcing abroad has not done anything to improve the level of advertising the Pakistani consumer is subjected to. The only visible difference is the inclusion of more curvaceous models with augmented breasts and puffier lips and the wholesale loss of relevance.

Left to its own devices, Pakistani advertising did come up with memorable concepts such as the Pied Piper, Aey Khuda Meray Abbu, Baara Ghoron Da Zaur, the Rhythm of Unity and more recently Captain Safeguard. This fact alone should provide brand managers with the answer they have been dodging for years; that risk-averse clients are as much to blame for lacklustre advertising as are unimaginative agencies. Without reinventing the client’s appetite for creativity, even the dream merchants next door will not be able to improve the overall level of advertising creativity.

It’s time that brand managers revisit their agencies and re-energise their creative staff so that they start churning out something relevant to their audience. If MNC brands cannot take the lead then the local brands should exploit the gap. Otherwise advertising in Pakistan will continue to have a relevance akin to that of Mussarat Shaheen (of Pashto cinema fame) when she reinvented herself as a right wing politician, while claiming that “angels from heaven will come in droves to vote me into office.”

We all know what happened to that enterprise and I am sure no brand manager wants his brand to go that route.

Views expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of JS Group or any of its associated companies.

Tariq Ziad Khan is VP, Product Development & Management, JS Bank. tzk999@yahoo.com

A Few of my Favourite Things

By Ali Khan

Latex Condoms

Category: Print

Call it brave creativity or scandalous, this ad will surely make you pause and think. The idea is so well interpreted that no words are needed to support the visual and hamper the communication. The colour scheme is perfect.

Agency: Grey Worldwide, Germany

Mentadent Professional

Category: Print
How do you reinforce earthy pink? How about inserting a few good looking men clad in ‘black-belt’ judo uniforms?! Love the way they all add up to a perfect smile; just say cheese and you get the idea. The ad is simple yet well done.
Agency: Lowe Pirella, Italy

Mitsubishi L200

Category: Print

Who would split their product in order to make the interior pop out? Well, it’s here before you. Interesting to note how the West values quality and not just a good looking exterior. The colour scheme does justice to the overall look and feel of the product.

Agency: Africa, Brazil

K&N’s
Category: Print
K&N’s has certainly proved that following your branding guidelines pays off. The product looks yummy, the message is well placed, everything is finely balanced, what more could one want?
Agency: Unknown
  

Olper’s Cream

Category: Print

I must admit to having a soft corner for this product. But I do think that the size of the pack is a bit too big and the caption is just okay. Overall the ad looks nice.

Agency: JWT, Pakistan

 

Wi-tribe

Category: Outdoor

The minimalist feel of the communication lives up to the reputation of the company. Less is always more. There is a feeling of excitement. The abundance of the laptops in the background gives the notion that the devices are falling from the sky.

Agency: Ideas Workshop, Pakistan

Lipton Clear Green
Category: Print
A perfect campaign. Well balanced, aesthetically pleasing, good typography with icons that make sense. The overall look and feel of the ad is right for the product.
Agency: Blitz DDB, Pakistan

Tabasco
Category: Print
Thought provoking, visually appealing, I like the way it all adds up. Self explanatory, it gives the product a strong image. If the logo had not been there one would still be gripped by the conceptual image shown. Like it.
Agency: Glucose, Pakistan

Ali Khan is Creative Manager, Ideas Workshop, Islamabad.

aleekhan786@yahoo.com