I am sure a lot of people will find the Cadburys 5 Star series of ‘Kho jao’ ads funny. The proposition, ‘Get lost in the taste of 5 Star’ has been given a literal meaning in the creative idea (I wonder what the Creative Brief was) and that has an appeal to a certain section of the audience. I am controlling myself not to use words like ‘juvenile’ and ‘stretched’, but my fingers magically typed those words.
I decided to check out the website. Thankfully, it was much better than I expected. Yes there are some so called fun activities for the youth (answer a few questions and figure out if you are a fruit or a nut and get a certificate). But then aren’t the target audience for this site getting this and more in stickier social networking sites? Good news: no wallpapers! Hooray! By the way, the site descriptor says: ‘Frut and nut’! You can also create a ‘missing person’ video of your friend and mail it. The missing person video was cute. They could have possibly added the embed code so that it can be put on sites like YouTube? Can we see the videos already created? No, to both.
And then, I saw the company press release: “The distinctive element of the “Kho Jaao” campaign, is the new online community building website that will stimulate real time consumer interaction in an engaging and interactive manner. Extending the idea of the TVC where the protagonists eat 5 Star and vanish, visitors to the website can upload photographs and details of friends who they want to report missing! It will be delivered to a chosen mailing list of friends in a breaking news alert format!”
The date of the release: July, 2007. In an online environment where things change by the hour, isn’t it ironic that the core interactive idea has not changed for so long? Also, if its a community that is being built, it must be a forum to exchange/share information. Since the ‘missing video’ is a template, you can see the video & mail a link, but cannot post it on to a forum in the site. The template offers little scope for customization or a personal touch like uploading your own video.
It’s great that brands are making a presence on the web. But when its a token presence, a huge opportunity is lost. I had also whined about online efforts earlier and outlined 3 tenets: objective, longevity, memorability. The 5 Star effort is a notch better than most campaign websites. Yet, compared to the online efforts abroad you can’t help thinking that we have a long way to go in the online world.
Hope we don’t get lost.