With apologies to none at all
By Vikas Mehta
My last column titled ‘Why are we building products and not brands’ seemed to have sparked off many reactions. Some raw, I dare say. The questions ranged from differentiation to personality to digital. But one question stood out. I was asked if all new age brands are just products? Is there anyone building a brand?
The answer was not difficult, but I will take the liberty of using this column to explain how a brand is being built by a new age product. Disclaimer first: I have nothing to do with the brand except I know the founder of the communication company which is spearheading the brand-building exercise. This is totally an outsider’s perspective.
I am talking about Dream 11.
Not many know that the brand was launched in 2008. The fantasy cricket app which is what they are all about today was launched in 2012 and by 2014 they had a million registered users. This figure rose to around 45 million around 2018, just when serious brand-building efforts started and today, the figure stands at around 150 million. I am deliberately starting with numbers because this is a brand which has been successful by all standards.
The brand started advertising during the Indian Premier League (IPL) around 2018 or so. It had a simple positioning. The cricketers, who play for India, back Dream 11. It was decidedly an endorsement but an endorsement done with a positioning, personality and differentiation in mind.
First, they aligned with the best Indian cricketers. Dhoni, Rohit, Pant, Bumrah, Hardik, Ashwin, Dhawan. Dhoni dropped out after a season or two but the core has remained the same. One of the first campaigns I remember was using Dhoni which was about khelo dimaag se. Dhoni was always an astute cricketer and the brand used his personality to show that it was a game of skill and not luck. This was required at the time because Indian laws did not allow any game which could be seen as betting or lottery. So khelo dimaag se, worked for the brand in more ways than one.
And then the brand took off. It decided that its personality needs to be light fun, cricket humour, and showing the human face of the Indian cricketers.
The positioning evolved into snippets of Indian street cricket as portrayed by star Indian cricketers. It was not too focused, neither too narrow. It did not get bogged down by a consistent tagline. I am not saying that consistent tagline is bad but the positioning is not just what the brand says in a tagline. Positioning is what the consumer stores in his mind. A tagline is static, positioning needs to evolve. Not change but evolve. Dream 11 did it brilliantly.
Yeh apna game hai
Yeh main kar leta hoon tum Dream 11 pe team banao
Dream big. Dream 11
Sab khelenge
Team se bada kuch nahin.
And each one of these taglines had a story. An emotion.
Weaved into the game as played by Indians everyday. Using the Indian stars.
Remember, pehle main batting karoonga kyonki bat mera hai, leaving Rohit stumped. Yeh apna game hai. Watch here
Or the film stars like Amir challenging the cricketers who are acting in ads. Sab khelenge. Watch here.
Pant’s dream of becoming a singer or Bumrah acting as a romatic hero. Dream Big. Watch here.
Or even magnifying the role of seemingly insignificant people. Ashwin’s soup wallah. Or the groundsman who prepared pitches for Rohi. Allowing them to Dream big. Watch here.
And Sharmaji ka beta. Team se bada kuch nahin. Watch here.
The brand owned cricket. And how.
For IPL, it focused on team or club rivalry which overtook national rivalry. So even cricketers from other nationalities were used. Even family members. Sunil Shetty for example.
For World Cups there was collectiveness, national pride. Ek se dikhoge toh best kheloge. The Mummyjee ad.
This was brand building at its best.
Dominate cricket. Own cricket. Emotionally own the category.
And they did many other things too. If one searches for Dream 11 on YouTube there are many videos made by the brand which are not brand-building but which support brand-building. Stories of ordinary people who won big. Videos of how easy it is to play the app. Videos made by influencers on why winning is so easy. Or videos on how Dream 11 employees have grown…… Watch here
And you know what. The competition too did all these. My circle 11. MPL. They too have such videos. They have big offers. Rs one crore prize everyday. An SUV to win everyday. They too talk about the big winners. They too have influencers in you tube videos. They have also used some Indian stars like Shubhman, Rinku, even Sourav Ganguli in the past.
But what they don’t have is a brand.
That is distinct.
That differentiates. Emotionally.
That dominates the category.
Chances are that if you want to play fantasy cricket you will first download Dream 11.
Because you remember it.
Because you connect with it.
Because it seems to dominate cricket.
In a category where big prize matters.
Where spends are high
And where quantitative parameters are easy to judge by.
So how much you spend where, gets immediate results or not can be the sole criteria to judge success.
In such a category, Dream 11 has built a differentiating, preferred and leadership brand.
So, should we still focus on products?
And ignore brand-building?
In my mind that is the role of advertising agencies.
Build brands.
That is the focus which the agencies have lost.
And that is why they are struggling.
Agencies need to start reemphasizing the need to build a brand.
Do not tell me that clients do not want it.
Do agencies explain it to them?
Do the agencies explain what the brand idea is?
How it can be differentiating and can be sustained long term.
The agencies are trying to do what the clients want.
Not what the brands need.
Agencies need to create a niche.
And they will find it is much beyond a niche.
Do you agree?
The high voltage dramatic world of Hindi television “news” is outside my comprehension as well as my mandate for this column. However, out of my commitment to you (ahem) and some insane curiosity, I dipped a toe into the muck, as Lok Sabha proceedings began.
