Ad Creative

The Art of the Un-Ad: 11 Strategies from the World’s Best Marketing Guru

The journey began not with immediate success, but with a series of rejections. Yet, when I finally stood before the interviewers at Ogilvy, the world’s biggest advertising agency, I brought a philosophy that challenged the very core of conventional advertising: The best ad is one that doesn’t feel like an ad.

While others focused on product features like water resistance and long-lasting paint, I spoke of homes, beautiful walls, and families. Why? Because showcasing the product’s feature is often the killer of advertising. My goal is to create an ad that feels like a sweet injection to a child—the customer should feel the product is their own kin, not that they’ve been tricked by an ad.

Here are the 11 strategies that define my work:

1. Undercover Marketing: The Unconventional Tactic

Marketing in a less obvious manner—that is the essence of it. It must employ unconventional tactics so that the advertising never registers as an ad.

When presented with a can of paint at the Ogilvy interview, I didn’t mention its features. I spoke about the home because an ad must be one that people ponder over (‘gor karein’) rather than one that bores the audience. This philosophy led to the iconic campaign for Asian Paints: “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai” (Every home says something).

The insight was simple yet profound: A home is not just walls or a roof; it’s an emotion, a memory, an aspiration, and a personal journey. By capturing this sentiment, the brand communicated on an emotional level, making the conversation feel natural, not a forced advertisement.

2. Fast Forward: Capturing the Non-Consumer

The challenge with Cadbury in the early 90s was that 78–80% of chocolate was consumed only by children. There was a social taboo—if an adult ate chocolate, they were treated as a child. The market share was plummeting.

The strategy: Reposition the audience to target the much larger non-consumer segment—the youth and adults.

Observing a young couple enjoying a chocolate on a flight sparked the idea that everyone loves chocolate, but the taboo must be removed. I didn’t aim to buy the market share; I aimed to add a new market share. The concept: Cadbury should be eaten by all of India, not just children.

The resulting campaign, featuring the girl dancing spontaneously on a cricket field after a six, was unusual, uncommon, and disproportionate. It was about connecting chocolate to celebration and unadulterated joy, giving the youth a license to indulge. The taglines—“Asli Swad Zindagi Ka” (The real taste of life) and later “Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye” (Let there be something sweet)—replaced traditional sweets with chocolate during celebrations and festivals, dramatically increasing the target audience.

The Power of Music and Attention: That unforgettable dance and the unique music composition by Shankar Mahadevan were the hooks. People may forget a song from last week, but that 30-year-old dance step is still etched in memory.

3. Fear-Based Marketing (Without Scaring)

This is about a subtle psychological phenomenon where we influence a person’s decision and buying behavior through latent fear, the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), without explicitly showing danger.

For invisible products like Pidilite’s Fevicol, M-Seal, or Dr. Fixit, the challenge is clear: How do you make an invisible product visible?

Instead of talking about technology or how well it sticks, I highlight the consequences of not using the product. People are driven by fear, which must surface in a humorous, unexpected way.

  • M-Seal: The famous ad where a single dripping drop of water erases the zero on a will, leaving the son with nothing. The tagline: “Sirf ek tapakti boond aapki kismat badal sakti hai. Ghar mein rakhiye M-Seal.” (Just one dripping drop can change your fortune. Keep M-Seal at home.) It addresses a common, witnessed problem (leaky roofs) with humor and urgency.
  • Fevicol Marine: The scene where three carpenters who used Fevicol Marine effortlessly float their shop away from the police, while the fourth, who didn’t, sees his shop disintegrate. It’s an unexpected, delightful surprise that creates a Before and After contrast, sparking a sense of urgency and regret for not having the product.

4. Community Targeted Ads (CTM)

You can only win the audience if you talk to them in their language and understand their context. This lesson was learned in my childhood when I failed a poetry competition by reciting difficult poetry, only to win the next one with a simple, relatable poem about donkeys that made the children laugh.

For Fevicol, the true customer is the carpenter. The strategy was to center the add around the carpenter’s community and life.

  • The ad showing two people hanging from a high bridge, pleading “Pakde Rehna, Chodna Nahi” (Hold tight, don’t let go), was designed to grab the carpenter’s attention, only to reveal they were watching it on TV during a break. The payoff is a close-up of a Fevicol can.
  • The crowded bus/truck ad, where people are tightly packed and hanging on, only to reveal at the very end “Fevicol ka jod hai, tootega nahi” (It’s a Fevicol bond, it won’t break), was a cultural observation of how people traveled in villages and small towns.

Content is Fire, but Community is Gasoline. You can only communicate effectively when you step into the customer’s journey and observe their aspirations.

5. The Psychology of Psychological Stickiness

The goal for Fevicol was to translate its physical stickiness into mental stickiness.

In the famous train ad, where an admirer tries to get to a Bollywood actress (Katrina Kaif) but is hindered by the crowd, the Fevicol product is only a box in the foreground. The ad’s hero is the script, not the celebrity. A strong script is paramount; otherwise, even a great star will fail.

I believe that to reach the customer’s pocket, you must first reach their heart. The use of music, which enhances recall, and simple, compelling narratives ensures that the ads remain memorable long after the movie or the serial is forgotten.

6. Mascot Marketing

A mascot is a character that becomes the brand’s identity. For the 2009 IPL, the challenge was overcoming ad fatigue from brands repeating the same film repeatedly between overs.

The solution: Create a character that is uncommon, unusual, and unexpected—the ZooZoo for Vodafone (then Hutch).

  • Low Budget & High Output: Instead of expensive film stars, the ZooZoos, designed and created in-house, had a fast turnaround time.
  • Strong Recall: Their gibberish language and small, distinct appearance, achieved through human actors in suits and clever camera angles, made them instantly memorable and a subject of conversation.
  • Freshness: Instead of one or two ads, 40 different ZooZoo ads were created for the 40-day IPL season, ensuring constant freshness and high engagement.

This guerrilla marketing approach, using creativity without a big budget, led to a 23% increase in market share and 7.6 million new customers.

7. Guerrilla Marketing (No Budget, Big Impact)

The Madhya Pradesh Tourism project in 2006 presented a unique challenge: zero budget for a film or even high-quality still photography.

The strategy was to use creativity to promote an un-promotable situation. I had to justify using old, faded, and dirty photographs provided by the Minister.

The solution: Embrace the poor quality and turn it into a nostalgic, vintage experience by using the concept of a bioscope viewer—where a blurry photo would be expected—and pairing it with an evocative jingle: “Hindustan Ka Dil Dekho” (See the heart of India).

This low-budget, high-concept approach created a powerful memory, was an unusual display, and was so successful it won an award at the Cannes Festival and led to the state’s tourist footfall increasing fifteenfold (from 74 lakh to 11 crore).

8. Personalized Marketing

Observation is the key. The brand message must resonate directly with the specific customer’s interests and behavior.

The ultimate personalization was demonstrated on Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday. Instead of an expensive gift, I brought him his favorite, Bharwan Bhindi (stuffed okra), which I had observed him eat daily on set.

This deeply personal, well-observed gesture moved him immensely, creating a lifelong loyalty where he insisted on my presence at shoots and offered to work for free. When you recognize and acknowledge your customer on a personal, emotional level, they become loyal advocates.

9. Conviction in Crisis

In 2003, Cadbury faced a severe crisis due to a report of worms in their chocolate, causing a massive boycott right before the peak Diwali season.

The strategy was not just to run an ad but to rebuild trust with the most credible face in India: Amitabh Bachchan.

When I approached him, he asked a single, profound question: “If I do this ad, will I be able to sleep peacefully?”

We decided to drop the script and go straight to the factory to observe and shoot the reality—double packaging, grade checks, and holographic seals. The resulting ad was simply a transparent display of the truth, with Mr. Bachchan himself eating the chocolate.

The story of what truly happened is the most convincing communication. Simple communication, not jazz, touches the heart. The strategy not only recovered Cadbury’s losses but also led to a 15% revenue increase in one year.

10. Emotion in an Emotionless Object

Every buying decision is taken emotionally and only rationalized later. The challenge for Fevicol’s 60th anniversary was to sell a feeling attached to an object.

The observation was the key: My mother’s refusal to part with an old, worn-out sofa, which she had brought from her maternal home. For women, furniture is not just an object; it is an emotion, a memory, and a time-keeper.

The ad, “The Sofa,” traces the journey of one sofa through multiple generations, weddings, and new covers, always being renamed after the new bride or owner. The humor and emotional sincerity made the community connect, proving that the sofa lasted because it was built with Fevicol.

Jazbaat se banegi baat. (Connection is made through emotion.) You must feel the customer before you deal with the customer.

11. Clear Call to Action (The Hidden Command)

The most effective Call To Action (CTA) is one that is clear without being bossy—a hidden command. “Pehle istemaal karo, phir vishwas karo” (Use it first, then trust it) is the classic example; it’s an instruction disguised as a friendly suggestion.

This was used to great effect in the 2014 political campaign for Narendra Modi, structured into three distinct 17-day campaigns:

  1. Anger and Disturbance: “Mehengai ko badhane walon, janta maaf nahi karegi” (Those who increase inflation, the public will not forgive). This broke the attachment with the previous government.
  2. Hope and Aspiration: “Acche din aane waale hain” (Good days are coming). This created a feeling of optimism and anticipation.
  3. The Hidden CTA: “Abki Baar Modi Sarkar” (This time, a Modi government). This was the final, simple, and unmissable call to action that became a chant, embedding the desired behavior into the national psyche.

The fusion of music, observation, creativity, and strategy is what builds a benchmark, even in a crowd. This is not drama; it is depth—the depth in strategies that makes brands immortal.

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