Brand Equity
BRAND EQUITY
Why recently ads have used old Hindi songs in place of jingles?
SWITCH on the telly and chances are that you will catch an old Hindi number. Now, they could either be from the numerous music channels playing retro numbers or songs running on television commercials . And with so many commercial breaks, one sees more Hindi songs as jingles for TVCs than the original song itself. So from ‘Pehli Tareek’ for Cadbury to ‘Hum jab honge’ for SBI Life to ‘I love you’ for Nestle Kit Kat, the list just goes on and on. It of course warms the cockles of the generation that’s grown up with the songs but it also gets the gen next confused — for some think it’s an original score. So these touched up, remixed hindi numbers — do they make the cut or are they just an easy substitute to creating an original jingle?
On the use of a popular number to sell life insurance, Chandramohan Mehra, VP - branding and communication, SBI Life says the idea was to keep the tone consistent with the previous films. “The essence of romance is stronger when we used an old Hindi song.” He explains that there is a cycle that jingles follow: “It’s basically about cutting through the clutter. The cacophony that is around with remixed sounds is easily cut through when you have an old song. Probably, later on, when this becomes oft-used , someone will come out with an original jingle.” So when an old song is pitted against a jingle, which works better?
“A lot of old songs were written to specific situations which sometimes come in handy like in the case of ‘Pehli Tareekh’ for Cadbury Dairy Milk. Riding on the popularity of an old song can be advantageous only as far as getting attention. Thereafter it is solely dependent on how well it gels with the film and the idea” , says Abhijit Avasthi, NCD, Ogilvy.
But take the example of TVS Scooty Pep ad that has a score from a Raj Kapoor movie. Given that the Scooty brand is specifically targeted at an audience who might’ve never heard
Why recently ads have used old Hindi songs in place of jingles?
SWITCH on the telly and chances are that you will catch an old Hindi number. Now, they could either be from the numerous music channels playing retro numbers or songs running on television commercials . And with so many commercial breaks, one sees more Hindi songs as jingles for TVCs than the original song itself. So from ‘Pehli Tareek’ for Cadbury to ‘Hum jab honge’ for SBI Life to ‘I love you’ for Nestle Kit Kat, the list just goes on and on. It of course warms the cockles of the generation that’s grown up with the songs but it also gets the gen next confused — for some think it’s an original score. So these touched up, remixed hindi numbers — do they make the cut or are they just an easy substitute to creating an original jingle?
On the use of a popular number to sell life insurance, Chandramohan Mehra, VP - branding and communication, SBI Life says the idea was to keep the tone consistent with the previous films. “The essence of romance is stronger when we used an old Hindi song.” He explains that there is a cycle that jingles follow: “It’s basically about cutting through the clutter. The cacophony that is around with remixed sounds is easily cut through when you have an old song. Probably, later on, when this becomes oft-used , someone will come out with an original jingle.” So when an old song is pitted against a jingle, which works better?
“A lot of old songs were written to specific situations which sometimes come in handy like in the case of ‘Pehli Tareekh’ for Cadbury Dairy Milk. Riding on the popularity of an old song can be advantageous only as far as getting attention. Thereafter it is solely dependent on how well it gels with the film and the idea” , says Abhijit Avasthi, NCD, Ogilvy.
But take the example of TVS Scooty Pep ad that has a score from a Raj Kapoor movie. Given that the Scooty brand is specifically targeted at an audience who might’ve never heard