From Jumping Jhapak to Bulaava Aaya hai: A look back at IPL ads

For anybody who has family in both Delhi and Chandigarh the Shatabdi actually ends up becoming your second home. On one of those innumerable rides between the two cities early this year the waiter produced a 200ml tetrapack of “Jumpin” with the evening snacks. At that very moment, much to my horror, I heard a little voice inside my head say “Dil Jumping Jhapak, Jhapak Jhapak… Gili Gili Ya.” If advertising is all about bringing the product close to the consumer, then Sony, the broadcasters, and their ad agency (Havas Worldwide) had done a great job – the IPL jingle from last year was now a part of my unconscious mind. [caption id=“attachment_1479903” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  IPL ads have always been a big part of the tournament. Youtube.[/caption] Honestly, I was quite surprised that I was humming this jingle because it had been over a year since I had last heard it. And at that very moment burst another bubble – that people who study and analysis ads are less likely to be pulled in by the ads. With the aim to crush that little voice inside my head, this time I decided to have my guard up and not let the latest IPL campaign get the better of me. Exactly the opposite happened when the “Bulaava” came. Once again brand IPL had managed to make me internalize a new message – “Come on, Bulaava Aaya Hai.” So, like all good social scientists, I decided to study the seven IPL campaigns. What makes these campaigns so memorable and “sticky”? Do they tap into the consumer psyche so beautifully because they mirror the life cycle stage at which the product (IPL) is? Or are they encoded with subliminal messages that our unconscious mind decodes with ease while consciously we remain oblivious? Or maybe at a very simple level they function like “mating calls”. I am going to start with early 2008, when we were introduced for the first time to “ Mano & Ranjan Ka Baap”. “First impression is the last impression” goes an old saying. Everyone connected with IPL knew this and they went all out to ensure we fell in love with this “three hour long full paisa vasool blockbuster.” The Manoranjan campaign added to this drama by upping the level of anticipation and excitement around the event such that at 8pm on 18 April 2008 millions tuned in to watch the first ball ever bowled in an IPL game. By June 2008 even the cynics agreed that the average Indian had adopted the IPL and it was here to stay. If there is a synonym for the average Indian Cricket fan it has to be “fickle”- they embrace with gusto and dump equally fast. This was probably the biggest fear that the IPL bosses had in 2009 – when the IPL was shifted to South Africa (because of the general elections). They feared that the average fan might reject the event and stop viewing it as their own. If nationalism by definition is the collective voluntary expression of national identity, then nothing achieves this better than cricket in India. With an aim to capture this nationalistic feeling IPL 2 launched it’s “ Ek Desh, ek Junoon” campaign. The ads showed random people across the country doing the same activity. The subliminal message was - come 8 pm and every Indian would tune into the IPL game - turning the IPL into a thread that ties us all. The next year brought the IPL back to Indian soil and Sony launched the “ Saare Jahaan Se Achcha” campaign, which showed the nation laying out red carpets to welcome back their favorite heroes. In a nation which cannot seem to get enough of Cricket, the 2011 ICC World Cup also “came home” but it was IPL 4 that followed it immediately which declared a “ Bharat Bandh”. A lot of people assumed that the IPL immediately following the World Cup (which India won) was a bad idea – the players wouldn’t take the games “seriously”, the sponsors had exhausted their purses and the fans were not very excited as they had just seen the best in the world play in their backyard. Maybe that is why Sony pushed for a Bharat Bandh. None of the IPLs managed to generate as much excitement as the first edition did, but what each IPL did manage was give the average Indian a conversation point for those two months (thanks to the controversies in some editions this went beyond the two months). Sony was not oblivious to this fact. IPL 5 was positioned as “ Aisa Mauka Aur Kahan Milega”- a cure to bring distant relatives together, increasing the bonds of friendship and turn a stranger into a friend. Clearly the IPL was turning into a community affair and that is why in 2013 we were all asked by Farah Khan to participate in it because IPL “ Sirf Dhekhneka Nahi”. Unfortunately for Sony, IPL 6 will be remembered for all the spot-fixing scandal rather than what happened on the field. That is why 2014 becomes an important year for the league, the response of the sponsors and fans will be closely measured. The Bulaava will need to call all the stakeholders back to the sport. Rashi Kakkar (@rashi_kakkar) is a business graduate from SRCC who spent most of her teenage years either on a tennis court, swimming pool or football/cricket field. Currently she is trying to understand the social and economic aspects around sports.