A couple of days ago, I saw this advertisement in the Times of India:
Now, the Question:
Has Sachin Tendulkar endorsed ‘Transstroy India Limited’ for this ad?
My guess is that he has not.
p.s: If you are or know the licensing agent of Sachin Tendulkar, can you please help clarify this assumption of mine?
This is a case of Classic ‘Hijack Marketing’, in my view.
The concept is simple – someone scores a major achievement and someone else leverages (hijacks) it!
Assuming that I am Sachin Tendulkar:
– Will I serve a notice to this Company for “congratulating” me publicly with such awesome words in India’s largest newspaper?
I doubt it. I will gulp and let it pass.
So, I’m thinking – what did the owner/CEO of the Transstroy Company get out of this?
Check out this ‘co-branding’ part of the ad:
Check out the language, the grammar of the ad.
This is a nice way for Sridhar Cherukuri (Chairman and MD) to get his mug into the media! Will his friends, relatives and associates see this ad and call him and say, “Wow! Awesome! What an ad Sir”…?
Maybe Sridhar Cherukuri will get more congratulatory calls for this ‘major achievement’ than Sachin himself?!
The question is – is this sense of false vanity worth 30 lacs or so – which will be the cost of the ad paid to the TOI to print it?
I guess it depends on how desperate people are for their ‘false sense of fame’.
Coming close to the Economics of Hijack Marketing – does this kind of underground marketing benefit the sponsoring Brand or the Business in any way?
After seeing this creative ad, will Sachin’s fans, friends, family, associates and the proud citizens of India suddenly wake up, and contact Transstroy and ORDER Highways and Bridges, Irrigation and Power projects for themselves?
Oh wait a minute, will the Govt. of India appreciate this fabulous gesture of Transstroy and give them new Metros, Railways, Mining and Oil and Gas projects?
What will happen post this ad?
Will new business be generated?
Who will benefit?
From a Corporate governance point of view, I may ask – who are the shareholders of Transstroy? Are they pleased by the way the Company they also own, is spending money?
Ok let’s give these guys a break. At least the employees of Transstroy India will be delighted to see their Company advertising in the papers and their Chairman & MD standing shoulder to shoulder with Sachin; and hence make them feel more motivated to work for the Company?!
Errrr…..oooops…. there is no mention of ‘People’ on the Home page of the Transstroy website 🙁
In my humble opinion:
– Hijack Marketing does not work. When a Brand becomes a hijacker of someone else’s fame and achievements, it’s very difficult to ‘transfer’ that glory from the Hero to the Brand.
This applies to legit advertising also. When I see large, multinational brands advertising ‘Congratulations’, ‘Well done’, etc messages for Cricket Stars or the India Team… I, for one think, “What losers! What ‘pile-ons’…. Couldn’t they stop bragging about themselves just this one time?”
– The victim in this case is Sachin Tendulkar. Honestly, his reputation is also tarnished when seen with some vague brand like this. It makes innocent fans think, “Is this what Sachin does for money?”
– The Airline in this case is the Times of India ‘coz they carried the Hijacker Brand and the victim. Shouldn’t they have better security systems (a la warning Sachin Tendulkar or his agent) before allowing the ad to get published?
The media reviews all ads before accepting them – so why not request clarification when Hijack Marketing is suspected?
On second thoughts, come to think of it – this is probably the only ‘Airline’ in the world that benefits from this kinda hijacking – so why even bother with security, right?
*******
Rushabh Turakhia
By that logic all brands who are active on Social Media are hijackers right? Because every time Sachin gets to a century or India wins a game, the follow up generally happens with a ‘Status Update’ or a ‘Tweet’ tweaked with their brand message 🙂
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Give me an example? Add an image to your reply?
Mohamed Madani
Mohamed Madani
Well, if not sachin… “Did Virat Kohli Endorse Freecharge.? I don’t think so.
Puneet Sharma
I don’t feel it quite correct –
Say, I am a die hard Rich Fan of Sachin who’ve waited since school days dreaming “One day he’ll make a 100 of hundreds” ……. Now, the day comes. I am happy, I am excited and I want the world to know – I dedicate TOI’s front page to sachin’s 100-100. If I dont mention Myself, how will I be able to do it.
What If INDIAN OIL or TIMES OF INDIA or BHARTIYA JANTA PARTY congratulate him in the same way. They cannot do it without mentioning who actually is proud of him.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
and this if detected does call for IP infringement!
its using the imagery of someone for the purpose of sales..
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
you will at most say, from puneet sharma, colaba – a fan.
i doubt you will have your face next to him and give a bhashan?
Shireesh Joshi
Alok I agree with you this type does not work. First of all a viewer (consumer) can distinguish when the star has herself/himself spoken or not. In this case there is no comment attributed to Sachin a la ‘Boost is the secret of my energy’. So there is no endorsement.
Ads need to get attention and deliver a message about the brand. If the message is relevant and memorable then it has potential to influence purchase. This ad got your attention, but delivered no message about itself thats relevant to you. So two days later you will remember only as ‘some construction company had made some comment about Sachin’s 100 and the MDs mug was on it’. So total failure on message. And as to getting your attention or others in TOI, I dont know who the audience of this company is. Its not you or me, so its bad media placement choice or as you have said – wasteful placement since most of the audience paid for by this ad is irrelevant.
Its not even worth the amount of time you and I have spent commenting on it.
Sheth Raxit
Hijacking works or not it depends on, is Hijacking able to link the viewer ?
It depends on context+content+who is reading in what situation.
all above, you thought crap/hijacking… Amul has put interesting hijacking on the same topic, which has create buzz !
ex. during dhoni time, Unhony ko dhoni kar de… Mamta Butterji… and all.
its about building context to promote and interact with brand
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
:-)) BUT i had the Great Shireesh Joshi to comment upon it!! Do u mind if you introduce yourself to the folks here?
Rushabh Turakhia
Mohamed Madani
Well, i have come across about 25 more brands which have done that in the recent past.
Harihara Sudhan
I see this is done mostly for self pride ( to show off). If you really consider business interest in this, he may be in competition with few others for a particular project. He could have thought this may make his customer believe he is a bigger brand. It may be irrelevant to you and me, but we don’t know to whom this ad is targeted for. If it works out in the targeted market, then irrespective of our resentment, he still wins. All of us don’t like this. But everyone of us do it in one or other way. We always don’t share or tweet all the links to just help others right?
-Hari
SimpleLife.in
Snehal Nimje
Well, people dont do so much of analysis, and the MD is aligning himself the to the fans and not Sachin, so doesnt it create a bonding? Reminds me of politicians with their huge photoshopped hoardings with Gods all over Bangalore announcing pandals for festivites.
Sid Shah
Its a straight vanity thing, and it is pretty dumb. Its about as effective as a cement company using a bollywood star as a brand ambassador.