The Human Element: How Akartha brings in ‘the human element’ in modern marketing
Human beings are powered by emotion, not by reason — this is the advertising mantra that we at Akartha stick to in every work. Why is this mantra important? Because there is an essential difference between emotion and reason, i.e., emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusion. Emotions and decision-making are linked in the brain. Both rely on the same neural network. Thus, while making decisions, people always go with their guts.
The ads which we love generally, are mainly because they made us feel inspired or happy or taught us something important. Of all the potential aspects of emotional resonance, perhaps none is more important than the positive emotions that come from great storytelling. Thus, each one of us at Akartha understands the huge value that positive emotions and stories hold in advertising. They look in the right direction: at people. You can’t tell a story without characters, emotion and sensory detail. And stories with the right emotion capture our attention more faster than anything else.
Emotions are part of our advertising strategy so that it can tickle the consumers and be powerful drivers of consumer desires and preferences. At Akartha, each component of our ad is designed in a unique way that can appeal to the audience. It is a factor that helps to make the right impact and transforms the ad from ‘just an ad’ to ‘one of the most memorable’ or ‘most successful ads’. Any advertising should be such that it can add the ‘est’ value to the brand. It’s important to tap into positive emotions and through the advertising make the message about the consumer’s wants, needs and feelings. Understanding the audience is equal to the half battle won, and solving their problems with a solution through a story told through positive emotions is almost similar to winning the other half of the battle.
The most basic and common emotions that should be used in advertising are — humour, truth, righteousness, peace, love, non-violence, happiness, empathy, togetherness.
We will discuss some of the works by Akartha, where we have stressed on emotional elements.
The most loved work by Akartha is the CSR film by Akzonobel for e-Arogyakendra setup by them, had the emotional elements of love, righteousness, empathy that anyone including the rural people of India could relate to, those to whom the film was directed.
Isha Foundation’s ‘Rally for Rivers’ had the element of pitch-perfect truth that people mostly ignore on a daily basis. The facts were right in front of you, we just held that wide so that you could notice it.
When Achieve Group approached us for an ad film for Women’s Day, we couldn’t think of any other way than showing the love that women spread through every little contribution and sacrifice women do for us.
Through the Paytm’s Festive Season ads with kids, we connected festivals, love, nostalgia and happiness. This step won 2,00,000 campaign views across all platforms.
Through another animated series for Paytm Travel, we took the approach of the modern and humour added take through the iconic scene of the popular Bollywood film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. We chose this approach in order to make it interesting. And the factor that acted as an add-on in this ad was going to the train stations and platforms for talking to people as a part of research, in order to understand the pain points and why they should book tickets on Paytm.
Blackbuck’s Fastag campaign that made the target audience instantly relate to the ad. This campaign was loved by everyone where more than 80% of the viewers had viewed the full ad.
Light humour through actions and connectivity played a great role in Khatabook’s ‘Khata Hua Khatabook’ campaign. We didn’t show the target audience in the ad in order to make the campaign more emotionally interactive as we wanted to add more life in the campaign through showing how the shopkeeper struggled with different types of customers in his daily life. And we added a pinch of humour in the final dish of story and problem-solving.
We never regard a negative light to be stressed on through any campaign we work on, because we believe advertisements can play a great role in society. It reflects how a society is shaping itself. Success of an ad campaign, thus doesn’t rely only on how sleazy it is, it depends on how the audience is going to remember it and how it will affect the society. If the ad campaign is affecting the audience in a wrong way or delivers some negative messages that aren’t good for the society, then it doesn’t matter how cleverly and tactfully one is using the human instincts for marketing, the entire image of the brand will fall in the eyes of the consumers. Thus, all our strategies for each of our clients comes after a thorough research.