Addendum is a weekly column that takes a sometimes hard, sometimes casual, sometimes irreverent, yet never malicious look at some of the new or recent advertisements and comments on them.

Time to play equity markets?

As I write this, the bellwether indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, are hitting dizzy heights. The markets, buoyed by great confidence in the Government, are spiralling upwards. As usual, a laggard like me feels he has missed the great run-up. I also feel that getting into a market at this stage is fraught with risk. Well. Motilal Oswal would like me to think differently. In its second ad film, the Man from Motilal Oswal is back, natty suit, hat and all. And this time he wants everyone to return to equities. He feels the proportion of investors in the equity markets is just 2 per cent and it is his mission to change that. A set of situations show him meeting investors who have the same question that you and I have. And he has smart zany answers to them. In short, he feels the “time is always right.

You just have to get the stock right”. He also encourages a long and patient innings in equities and urges you to pick right and sit tight. An interesting, well-scripted film. Whether smart answers to these questions are the right answers is anyone’s guess. Show me one person who has been playing the market just right, and I’ll probably show you a liar. But yet, the message is worth considering. And who knows what the indices would be by the time this appears in print?

You know, you accept

Let’s stay with equities. They’re considered the hottest investment today. What if you lacked the guts to dive straight into the equity markets, or you are a prudent person who didn’t want to place all your eggs in one basket, or you wanted to start small and steadily grow? Then mutual funds could be your choice. And Birla Sun Life Mutual Funds is back as well (tells you something about equities, right?) with its customer education programme Jaanoge to Maanoge . We liked the first set of ads it came up with and the second instalment looks equally promising.

The film shows a concerned father taking his mischievous little son who hasn’t fared well in Math to the best tuition teacher in town. After signing what might be the cheque for the fees (I like this teacher, he accepts cheques), the father comes straight to the point and says, “So from tomorrow he will be a topper, right?” And the camera moves to show the very reassuring visage of the Birla Sun Life protagonist who tells you that this is the same attitude some people take with equities. They expect instant returns. He then implores you to be patient and directs you to the company’s customer education website for further information. The statutory information in the sign-off is also spoken at a proper, deliberate pace, not like the speeded up gibberish which makes a mockery of SEBI guidelines. Very well made, very reassuring. In perfect sync with the image of the Aditya Birla group. And that’s exactly how a financial advertisement should be. Reassuring but not in your face. Informative but not hard-sell. I like it.

Behind the scenes

The Federal Bank ads we wrote about are destined for glory. They should pick up some serious metal early next year and we won’t say “we told you so”. You have come to expect correct predictions from us. Yet, a peep behind the scenes at how these ads were made confirms what I have always said, publicly and privately, “a piece of communication is only as good as the brief that is given”. And credit for that goes to the good Prof Abraham Koshy (IIM-A) who is incidentally also Chairman of Federal Bank.

O&M was told to use the catchy tagline that read “your perfect banking partner” and infuse the spirit of partnership into it. And that’s exactly what they did. And furthermore the client and agency agree that they would not talk business in the communication. Rather bold, and that is something that really paid off wonderfully. Goes to show, a great partnership even between an agency and a client is one that ensures great communication.

Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Mail your comments to >cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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