Different strokes

We all see a lot of Public service advertising… most of it during award ceremonies. The work is so wonderful and touching that you wonder how come we don’t get to see more of it in the outside world. Lots of reasons, obviously. But the one I plan to address is the dilemma agencies face when confronted by advertising for NGOs. The question I am asking is – Is advertising for an NGO different from that of a Brand?

Yes and no.

Meaning?

Well, Are you a different person when you are at home and at work?

Does your response to questions vary when the person in front of you changes?

Do you in the similar situations behave differently?

Do you always compare brands and buy the most expensive?

What is your answer…yes or no??

And now let me ask again… Is advertising for an NGO different from that of a Brand?

Let me at the onset say ‘Yes’…. It has to be. One is food for the stomach and the other for the soul. Who do you want to feed more?

Advertising for a Brand is challenging, for many times from absolutely nothing you create a living, breathing entity…. It is just like having a baby. Going thru the whole process with its pains and pleasures intact. Most women and a few men too will know what I am talking about.

But advertising for an NGO is an altogether different experience. It stems from passion… passion for an issue or passion for a good idea…whichever comes first! The joy is when the two marry and a good idea takes the issue to a new high (metaphorically speaking).

But this passion comes for a price. Not that the challenges don’t. But challenges have been in the fray long enough to know the requirements. Passion knows no such boundaries…it is positive, abundant and all encompassing. It engulfs all, refreshes all and enthuses all. Let me just summarize in one line and say, “It is not easy to advertise for NGOs.”

Why? Well to begin with they have their own ‘in-depth, grass root level” understanding of the issue and they work with their hearts…the head is there to crunch numbers and data and tell them how many more hurts they need to cure and how many hands need to be held and how many more doors they need to knock on. But to reach to those that are not affected by all their passion is incomprehensible for them at times and that becomes a massive challenge for an Agency. For those are the ones that the NGOs need to actually motivate.

And motivation does not come cheap either. Obviously NGOs do not come with a lot of money to an Agency. Most of the time they have a miniscule fraction of the money, if any at all, compared to what a brand has for marketing, but the need is much direr! At the same time they are in a fix to for they have to clearly answer their conscience if they should actually be promoting themselves or should the money be used for those ten odd children who could be sustained for a whole year on the available cash?!

Besides the money ­factor the bigger issue becomes where to get the exposure even if the Agency manages to pull together resources to get a brilliant campaign out. Which NGO could possibly afford the lakhs needed to air the spots or print a campaign with the outcome of a visible brand? Prohibitive costs may at best allow releases a couple of times in press and print. And then this, during awards, sometimes becomes a controversy in itself within agency circles.

To top this the TG is very vague. An NGO needs to reach all and naturally an agency cannot create a campaign without knowing whom to speak to…will it be the kid on the street or his mother; or the man in a restaurant; or that woman rushing to shop or is it the girl stepping into college? Who is the audience and Which is the right audience? Who do we target? What do we target?

Brands know whom they are for and what they want to stand for. NGOs talk to all…en-mass…no SEC can define the boundary; no income level is too big or small. Yet each NGO is an individual, run by individual philosophy. So much so that at times NGOs working on the same cause may not have the same POV about how to handle or communicate the same issue!!

Then how does communication give a correct perspective? Agencies are believers in the brands they help create. What do you do with a philosophy? Believe in it? Or simply work on briefs?

That, is another sore spot …briefs I mean. There are none most of the time. What agency people consider briefs with details about target audience, insights, and results expected from the ads, RTB, single-minded proposition, mandatories, market scenario etc are not there. Not that you cannot write briefs it is just that the issues are too complicated to get down to picking one aspect for advertising. You need to tackle e.g. in a women’s issues – gender based violence; mental and physical trauma of domestic violence, rape, child marriage, education, sex discriminations, legal rights, etc. etc as they all are in one or the other way completely related. Separating one from the other at times is impossible. Similarly, there are hundreds of critical issues out there to be handled with multiple choices. Who and what gets priority?

In a different way brands face all this too but then a single-minded vision takes the brand to another level altogether. Added to this is the sheer money power that entrenches the whole brand philosophy in the consumers mind. The 360-degree ideas further ensure that the brands get high recall scores when measured on a variety of parameters.

One could easily say if the NGOs are given matching budgets can they do similar stuff. My reply is if we do not treat them as “Clients” then yes they can and perhaps with a much better ‘ROI’ too which is both at a mental and spiritual level. Added muscle of both electronic and press media would give the much-needed impetus to issues that people at a conscious level tend to put on the back burners. Constant hammering a-la brands can get the message home and call for action could be a hundred times more effective than it currently is.

But to get this going the NGOs need a lot of handholding, nurturing and guidance from the gurus of marketing and advertising. The question then really becomes -Are agencies ready to take up this role? Are they ready to put in all the hard work of nurturing, guiding and sometimes just patiently listening? Are they agreeable to put into place a completely different business module? Are they also ready to deliver the highest standards necessary for the success of the venture, which necessarily means budget constraints and fifty different opinions to be taken on board! And above all the biggest question that needs to be answered is – Is the media ready to lend their whole-hearted support? Without them, things are dead even before beginning. If everybody’s answer is a big and loud “Yes” then there is no reason why agencies will ever need to answer the question “Is NGO advertising different from brand advertising?’

Know more?

Introducing Seema Sood is not easy to do in a few lines. She is Currently working as Head – Project Management and Leo Hope. Seema has worked on the corporate communications account of Nestle, Westside, Nerolac paints, Philips DAP, Glucon D and Heinz tomato ketchup.
Her pride till date has been putting together Leo Hope, with ample support from Leo Burnett team, to make a difference in peoples lives. Her belief is that if we think creatively enough about the mobilization of resources for social welfare and not charity alone our problems could be solved. For this if each of us plays a moral role from whichever chair we occupy, we can change the social fabrics weave completely…intelligent human effort is all that is needed.

Currently she supports HelpAge India, CEHAT, Prerana-Anti trafficking cell, Terre des Hommes (Germany) YUVA, FACSE, CCVC, Bombay Eye
Centre, Koshish-Education centre for the deaf and Mute.