A few years ago, when Cadbury launched ‘Bournville’, they had some really expensive ads all over town.
I remember that Cadbury even rented out the most expensive hoarding in India (at least till I kept track) called Patel Bridge – On the juncture of Marine Drive and Chowpatty (Mumbai)
Image Courtesy – afaqs
This campaign was a signature case of what I had called ‘Good Old Fashioned Waste’
Why?
For the simple reason that the Bournville product was NOT AVAILABLE for WEEKS even after the ads had hit the market!
The shopkeepers around Peddar Road (where I stay) were particularly annoyed.
They said, “Sir, we don’t know why Cadbury releases ads like this. All the time we are turning away customers….”
Of course, the hoarding guys, the ad agencies and the media channels had a good, rollicking time!
They made money – without a care if the product sold or not!
(classical advertising industry disease).
Today, I saw the same example repeat itself online.
This is a tweet that started it all:
Wow! I said, this sounds like fun.
I was still conservative and went to google to make sure that I had all my options.
This is what I found:
The ad made the twitter conversation seem concrete.
So, I CLICKED on the ad and came to this page on Flipkart:
Sure, there were 2 iPad Minis that were available, but who was interested in these basic versions (without 3G)?? (Probably that’s the reason why these models were not selling)
Another, great, classic example of “Good Old Fashioned Waste…”
I mean, THINK:
– Why advertise on the top of Google and pay for clicks when you don’t have the goods?
– Unlike Hoardings and TVCs that CAN’T BE STOPPED or rolled back, why CONTINUE to run CPC ads when they can be switched off???
The answer to the question is to PONDER about what’s common between Cadbury and Flipkart.com
LOTS OF MONEY to waste I guess….!!!!
******