As far as Vertical Roadblocks go, the oAs far as Vertical Roadblocks go, the ones on Viacom 18’s MTV stand out. Take Cadbury’s ‘Meetha hai khana, aaj pehli taareekh hai’ campaign. Cadbury tied up with MTV for the launch of this campaign. The TV channel created two videos – one was a hip-hop and the other, a pop version of the original commercial. On July 1, 2009, the day the campaign broke out on television, MTV aired only these aforementioned Cadbury commercials the entire day. In short, it was Cadbury, Cadbury and only Cadbury that day, for all MTV viewers! Similarly, Bingo had tied up with MTV for April 1, 2009, and branded the day as ‘Bingo Bakra Day’. Interestingly, in these cases Roadblocks were not limited only to ad-spot buys, but were smartly integrated as a part of the content too. “Roadblock advertising is an important part of our marketing plan. We set aside a certain portion of our ad-budget every year for Roadblock advertising for a particular brand from ITC Foods,” reveals an ITC foods official. An example of Horizontal Roadblock advertising is SRK’s film My Name is Khan, whose trailers blocked 11 Star India channels, including Star Plus, Star One, Star Gold & Channel V, on December 16, 2009, at 10 pm to telecast a three-minute trailer of the film. Now that’s marketing the King Khan film in a king-sized style!
Another very talked about Roadblock which happened twice last year, was by HUL, which blocked advertising on Star and Zee network channels in September and again on Star Network in October for some of its brands. Industry reports suggest that HUL spent roughly around Rs.10 crore a day on this effort. However, there are some experts who don’t view this HUL gameplan as a very smart one. One such critic is T. Gangadhar, MD, Mediaedge:cia, who argues that “Roadblock ads work well for a brand, but not for a company which uses it for multiple brands!” Allied Media’s Delhi Head Surbhi Murthy, also doubles up as she claims, “Roadblock means I am blocking everyone else. But what HUL did was more like a family get-together or a celebration. It wasn’t practically a Roadblock!” Talking about the evolution of Roadblocks in Indian media, we do expect some innovation in the format over time; one possibility being as a media analyst says, “We may see a Roadblock on a channel, where even the anchors and characters in the various shows, talk about that particular brand the entire day.” Interesting, yes, but in the present times, the very difficulty of implementation and the costs associated with the plan, pose a huge challenge to marketers, as TOI’s Kansal says, “Convincing a client to do a Roadblock is very difficult…” Implementing a Roadblock needs a lot of muscle since a 100-200% premium on normal ad-rates need to be spent to block a media vehicle. Considering such high opportunity costs, extra caution is mandatory as Dentsu’s Gupta says, “It is not a way of life, it is an innovation and therefore has to be done too too sensibly!”
Some call Roadblock advertising a ‘sheer display of brawns’, which some brand it a ‘shrewd art of brains’; whatever be the cause, the effect is simple – people-talk! And if that’s what makes it a sellout, why not experiment?
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.Another very talked about Roadblock which happened twice last year, was by HUL, which blocked advertising on Star and Zee network channels in September and again on Star Network in October for some of its brands. Industry reports suggest that HUL spent roughly around Rs.10 crore a day on this effort. However, there are some experts who don’t view this HUL gameplan as a very smart one. One such critic is T. Gangadhar, MD, Mediaedge:cia, who argues that “Roadblock ads work well for a brand, but not for a company which uses it for multiple brands!” Allied Media’s Delhi Head Surbhi Murthy, also doubles up as she claims, “Roadblock means I am blocking everyone else. But what HUL did was more like a family get-together or a celebration. It wasn’t practically a Roadblock!” Talking about the evolution of Roadblocks in Indian media, we do expect some innovation in the format over time; one possibility being as a media analyst says, “We may see a Roadblock on a channel, where even the anchors and characters in the various shows, talk about that particular brand the entire day.” Interesting, yes, but in the present times, the very difficulty of implementation and the costs associated with the plan, pose a huge challenge to marketers, as TOI’s Kansal says, “Convincing a client to do a Roadblock is very difficult…” Implementing a Roadblock needs a lot of muscle since a 100-200% premium on normal ad-rates need to be spent to block a media vehicle. Considering such high opportunity costs, extra caution is mandatory as Dentsu’s Gupta says, “It is not a way of life, it is an innovation and therefore has to be done too too sensibly!”
Some call Roadblock advertising a ‘sheer display of brawns’, which some brand it a ‘shrewd art of brains’; whatever be the cause, the effect is simple – people-talk! And if that’s what makes it a sellout, why not experiment?
Pallavi Srivastava
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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