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Marketing and creativity are as different as they can be, yet they need a middle ground

Varun Jaura
Head of MSD, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles

Ajit Singh
Manager, Asha Advertising

Are companies in Oman wary of experimenting with creative advertising?

Varun: The definition of creativity differs from person to person, you can’t have a single standard. A typical brief given by a company is: ‘The ad should show my brand, increase my marketshare or footfalls’ based on the industry that it is in. As long as the ad fulfils these objectives, I will call it creative.

Ajit: I will not say that clients are wary of experimenting. What the market lacks is a proper demarcation of the role of a client and an agency. When a client appoints an agency, it needs to empower it, but in a number of instances the agency is not given a free hand due to which the final work may not realise the full potential.

Are the agencies in sync with market realities?

Varun: As professionals from the Indian subcontinent dominate most agencies, when people come into the country they are out of sync with the local market. Omanis make up close to 90 per cent of my market and they are different from expatriates and it takes time to understand them. As most advertisers are not conversant with the local market, there is a tendency to play it safe.

Ajit: To say that agencies are not in sync with market realities is not true. Agencies do not create work to please themselves; if ads do not bring in results an agency will also go down along with it. Regarding the predominance of expatriates, at this point there is no choice as there is not enough local talent. Advertising business remains the same across the world. The challenge is to understand local nuances.

Is there a dearth of creative advertising?

Varun: Companies are experimenting in their own ways. There has been a sea change in the way they have been approaching advertising in the last five years. Nawras and Omantel have brought in the concept of ‘branding cam-paigns’ which did not exist in this market.

Ajit: If people equate creative advertising with big headlines or a fancy copy, it is wrong. There are instances where ads look more like wallpapers. There is a definite lack of refreshing ideas. But the blame for this needs to be shared between clients and agencies.

How do companies view agencies – as suppliers or marketing partners?

Varun: We will never select an agency that is a mere supplier. We want to hear their unbiased opinion – they need to tell us how the world looks at us.

Ajit: The larger companies see us as partners, but there are smaller clients who see agencies as mere designers. This can be frustrating. One hopes there is a greater understanding of the role of agencies in the near future.

Why is advertising in the market dominated by scheme-led campaigns rather than theme-led ones or brand-building ads?

Varun: Brand-building, as a rule, is done by global manufacturers. As most automobile comp-anies in Oman are distributors, a number of limitations come into play. They do not have the resources or money required for extensive brand-building campaigns.

Ajit: Being a distributor-led market, tactical promotions, which bring in immediate sales, predominate. Brand-building becomes impor-tant only when there are a number of homegrown products like in the telecom sector. I think there needs to be a balance between tactical advertising and brand-building. If your product is not in a customer’s consideration set, it will not sell despite a hefty discount. So there is no running away from brand-building.

Have there been instances when a company tried something new but went back to the tried-and-tested idea because it failed?

Varun: At SBA we work on a PDCA cycle, which stands for plan, do, check and act. We set measurable goals at the planning stage and then check the impact of a campaign against its target. If it does not work we drop it and work on something new. We recently dropped a Renault ad, as its recall was not good. The ad merged a racetrack with a road adjoining row houses in Shatti al Qurm showing how a Renault vehicle worked equally well on both tracks.

Ajit: There are times when despite the best efforts a communication fails, but we have never faced a situation where we have had to go back to an old idea.

Does a failed creative campaign inhibit future experimentation on both sides?

Varun: Not at all. A failed ad teaches certain things and one tries to apply them in the next cam-paign. The only thing that we are careful about is that we don’t repeat the mistake.

Ajit: No, advertising is a profession without boun-daries and one cannot put blinkers on just because something did not work.

How would you rate the overall awareness of advertising agencies and companies about how best to use the power of advertising?

Varun: This market has two major drawbacks. One, with a majority of people in agencies being expatriates, there is an inability to look at things from a local perspective and the lack of local language skills is a big limitation. Two, there is a lack of research and authenticated data on things like readership.

Ajit: There are still certain segments in which a lot of awareness needs to be created. A realisation that agencies need a lot of support from other stakeholders like specialised outdoor units, models, and photographers etc will help. Clients themselves need to be open about their data. We find it difficult to get basic figures like sales during the last three months from clients and this is a big handicap forcing us to work on nothing more than gut feeling.

Who is more receptive to creative work: people who run their own businesses or large organisations run by a team of executives?

Varun: I would say executives are being prudent rather than playing it safe. At the end of the day nobody wants to lose money whether it is a company or an entrepreneur. In fact, the latter is likely to be more cautious with his money than a company executive.

Ajit: An entrepreneur is more receptive as his is a one-man show. He is a decision maker and it is much easier to do good work with an educated, well-travelled entrepreneur than an executive from a large company. In a large organisation, there are a number of hierarchies and committees which inhibit creativity.

Have tie-ups with international agencies had a visible effect on the advertising scenario in the sultanate?

Varun: Tie-ups will bring in three things: best practices, talent and the experience of working on international campaigns. Overall, it is improving the exposure of the market.

Ajit: Most tie-ups till now have fallen short in terms of contribution. But looking ahead, local agencies will need to get the best out of their networks to take their work to a higher level.