Online parodies are a new promotional tool for brands, says Karan Bhardwaj
It begins on a dramatic note! As goons try to snatch money (dowry for his daughter) from an old man, the ‘Himmatwala’, a brawny, rugged macho man, comes to the rescue. However, the uncomfortable and restrictive leather black bodysuit confines his body movement, which ultimately leads to his defeat. But the story is not yet over! Then enters hero number two, the Cottonwaala! Clad in all cotton, he is comfortable to stretch his arms, punch and kick the villains. Hence, the moral of the story: Wear cotton to beat the goons and be the saviour.
This video is a part of a digital spoof campaign by the Cotton Council International (CCI). In little time, the video has got popular on social media as well as on YouTube.
Online spoofs, which have emerged as an alternate source of entertainment, are now being used as an effective tool by brands to promote their services and products. “Advertisers always use the flavour of the season to market the products,” says adman Prahlad Kakkar. Not just CCI but brands like Smirnoff, Old Spice, Pepsi and Complan have successfully used spoofs to capture consumers’ attention.
Marketeer Bobby Pawar feels that “spoofs are topical and if you will make fun of someone, consumers will take notice. They will either applaud it or laugh at it and that’s where you will get brownie points for the brand.”
Promoting a brand through spoof is a tongue-in-cheek way to add to the recall value of the brand. Mostly, already popular subjects or topics are chosen for the spoof. like CCI is cashing in on the popularity of Bollywood. The campaign is a hilarious take on some of the most iconic movie scenes. The video shows how the scenes could have been different if only cotton had a role to play. “Creating characters and inventing new marketing vehicles consume a lot of time and money. It’s always wiser to piggybank on something which is existing and popular. People relate to it and know what we are talking about. If the campaign is of short duration, then spoofs are the best medium to engage consumers today,” says Akshay Gurnani, business head (North) of FoxyMoron India, the company behind CCI’s campaign.
The spoofs have a large fanbase among young people. The netizens, of age group 15-35 are mainly the target audience of companies using parodies. In the last few years, videos like Babuji Sanskaari Rap feat, mashups involving news anchor Arnab Goswami, Gana Wala Song, Gangs of Social Media, Nayak II and several others have taken the Internet by storm. “It’s fun and youthful. It catches the attention instantly as they hit the right note. Also, spoofs have a big size audience on social networking websites as well as on YouTube. In a matter of days, our campaign has achieved more than five lakh hits and several likes,” says Gurnani adding, “which is why we are using digital medium to reposition cotton as a cool fabric among the youth.”
Spoofs are generally perceived as a joke to fool around and hence, do not fit into the scheme of serious things. Spoof advertising is something that not all brands can do. It is essentially meant for categories which are fun. “If it is a serious brand, a brand in health segment or a brand which is a considerable purchase like a car or a motorcycle, it can do competitive advertising where it talks about its features, saying this is how we are better, but it can’t do mindless spoofs,” says ad expert Rohit Ohri.