The monsoon in Mumbai

The monsoons in Mumbai are very special.

Sheets of rain pour down relentlessly. Clouds are stacked one on top of the other like the high-rise buildings that give Mumbai's skyline its unique character. Offices and schools are open or closed subject to the local trains running on time. Young people flock to the sea-facing roads to play a futile game of hide-and-seek with monstrous waves that rise above the giant tetrapods and splash over them in a cloud of saline spray. And with all that, the city looks lovely to the Mumbaikar, and to the Arabs who love visiting the city in the monsoons.

Advertising in the monsoons

In days bygone, advertising slowed down during the monsoons. The only advertisers who ventured to display their products or services in soggy newspapers delivered late to Mumbai homes were manufacturers of umbrellas, raincoats, rubber `rain-shoes', and MTNL and MRF. Why MTNL? Simple, because every time there was a heavy downpour, thousands of phones would stop working. And MTNL would first advertise how to take care of your phone, and then to tell you that water-logging had resulted in cable faults. Well, at least it bothered to keep the customer informed.

MRF

MRF, on the other hand, has had a wonderful annual pre-monsoon advertising campaign. Every year, it predicts `MRF Rain-day,' and conducts an annual countdown to the rain day. So what if it hardly ever gets it right? It's the weather it's predicting, and what's more unpredictable than weather, at least in India? Yet, it keeps people watching and waiting to see if MRF gets it right, and that ensures visibility, in a very topical way. And the monsoons are a very critical fit with sales of a tyre company.

Present-day advertising

These days, one sees a different kind of advertising related to the monsoons. Last year's "26/7" which literally drowned the megapolis has ensured a flurry of advertising this year. We've had the State Government and the Municipal Corporation advertising all the efforts that have been taken to ensure that there is no repeat of last year's 26/7. Airtel has advertised similar efforts to keep the mobile services humming (all mobile phones had gone on the blink on that fateful evening). As they say, the times are really changing.

Krissh

Hrithik Roshan in Krrish

As the first Indian superhero landed in Mumbai's multiplexes and made a bid to smash all box-office records, the advertising for films touched a new and innovative high. The multiplexes vied with each other to aggressively advertise the film, offering, for example, the "IMAX experience" to see the film. Singapore Tourism went into overdrive on television shows with promotions that advertised Singapore as the place where the movie was filmed. And if that was not enough, travel agents, wanting to get a bite of the feeding frenzy offered deals to Singapore that touted not just air fare, hotel accommodation, Sentosa, breakfast with orangutans and dinner at the Night Safari but the `Krrish Trail' — a half-day tour package highlighting spots where all the action was shot. Obviously, you would get to see all this wearing a Krrish t-shirt as well. Talk about convergence. Here you have the works. Promotions, advertising, merchandise et al. Gone are the days when little specialist ad agencies handled the high-risk promotion of Bollywood films. Now you have marketing at its best. You had specialist agencies cashing in on the IPO boom, specialist ad agencies positioning themselves as healthcare experts to cash in on the OTC pharma boom, so when are we seeing specialist ad agencies in the entertainment domain? Didn't Leo Burnett make a beginning with a division that was associated with Darna Mana Hai.

Joga Bonito

Nike really hit the nail on the head, or the head on the ball with an international campaign entitled Joga Bonito. For those not completely in sync with football fever, the words mean `play beautifully.' An endeavour to encourage or bring back the spirit of professionalism, team spirit and fair play into competitive soccer. After all, wasn't that what sport was supposed to be all about? Now you have Maradona's `hand of God,' and Figo's temper and Rooney's intolerance and Cristiano Ronaldo's famous wink captured by the all-seeing eye of the camera. The campaign acquires even more significance and the brand (Nike) even more equity. Just keep doing it guys.

Soccer fans

Incidentally, the only eating houses that are seeing any customers on soccer match days are the sports bars and the discos that have put up large TV screens. Mumbai seems to have taken to soccer in a big way. Incidentally, tell us who are the advertising bigwigs who are flying to Hamburg for the finals. Looks like ESPN is laying out the red carpet and many agency heads are getting ready to walk down it.

Victoria

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