At no point in the ad does Infomedia Yellow Pages tell its customers what is so special about their product that will help to boost customers’ sales. Business growth for small players is a very serious issue, and it has to be handled with facts and logic

Anil Thakraney

Here's the business promise: If you get your dhandha listed in the Infomedia Yellow Pages, you won't need to search for customers. They'll come to you. In fact, they'll come rushing to you! Sounds simple? It is. But what has the advertising agency done to deal with this proposition? Well, they've gone literal. And worse, they have added in irrelevant madness.

The television commercial features a small-time entrepreneur. As soon as he registers his company in the Infomedia Yellow Pages, hordes of clients come knocking at his door. Well, not knocking. They smash through his office.

Our man spots a red card at unexpected places. And when he grabs it, along with it arrive excited clients. And the clients burst into our entrepreneur's office through sofas, file cabinets, cartons… they even spring out from under the wooden floors! 'Kaam aata jaaye, bhadta jaaye…' goes the languid jingle. And of course, prosperity needs to be highlighted. So as the clients keep pouring in, the entrepreneur's office gets bigger and plusher.

The advert suffers from two very serious problems. On the creative front it's a huge bore, even if the ad agency execs and their special effects team had a blast producing it. There's zero entertainment for the viewer, despite the exaggeration route and despite all the slapstick stuff. This is unforgivable. The whole purpose of exaggeration is to get some adrenalin pumped into a banal promise, and to generate some laughs. If the ad fails on that score, it's sunk.

But the larger problem is the strategic one. At no point in the ad does Infomedia Yellow Pages tell its customers what is so special about their product that will help to boost their (the customers') sales. This ad feels more like a comic caper, and this is what small entrepreneurs would be most wary of.

Business growth for small players is a very, very serious issue, and it has to be handled with facts and logic. If it's magic the businessmen wanted, they'd visit a miracle baba (and god knows there are plenty of them going around). I am sorry to say, neither the brand manager nor his/her ad agency personnel have bothered to understand their customer. This is nothing short of hit-and-run advertising.
 
Not sure about the red cards featured in the ad. But I would certainly raise some red flags for this sort of advertising.