The Other day I was caught in a terrible traffic jam. Out of plain boredom, I switched on the FM radio. And there it was — Om Puri’s booming voice telling listeners that he was a ‘Fool for the Forest’. And he urged listeners to be fools as well and protect our dwindling forest cover. A Fool for the Forest — the term caught my otherwise

flickering attention. For the uninitiated, it is Greenpeace’s campaign to protect our thinning green cover. And celebrities like Shyam Benegal, Mahesh Bhatt, Shaan amongst others lent their voices to the campaign, that was launched by Greenpeace recently.
Yes, that brings us to the all important question of how important advertisements are during a launch. Says Anushree Seksaria, Planning Associate, Rediffusion Y&R, “Before the launch of any product or service, it is important to create a market buzz. An advertisement is the perfect way of doing this as it is sure to catch consumer eyeballs.” Seksaria’s views are supported by research as well. A recent study has pointed out that before the launch of any product, advertisements have the power to arouse the curiosity of consumers. This in turn leads to people blogging about the product, and talking about it amongst themselves.
Says Saumya Chattopadhyay, Head, Strategic Planning, Rediffusion Y&R, “It is the perfect way to tell people that you will be there in a few day’s time. This definitely creates a lot of expectations.” An online research firm found that at least 30 per cent of consumers came to know about new products or brands from networking sites. Another 34 per cent used search engines to find out more about a product after having seen the advertisement. The research also revealed that advertisements lead to increased blogging amongst friends to discuss what they think about the product.
Says Chattopadhyay, “The pre-launch is a way to let your consumers know who you are, what you do and why they should buy from you.”
A Chinese infrastructure vendor had been contemplating entering the US market for ages, but found it difficult to gain a foothold in the country. The company was losing ground to Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Sie-mens and Ericsson. But this time the company was so determined that it started beaming advertisements to TV channels and on the radio. Even printed advertisements started appearing in magazines and journals. The main objective of the advertisements was that the company was a major player and that it deserved a fair chance in a competitive market.
The company believed in creating a demand. “It was a good move; you will have to let people know who you are before you enter the market. There is no point in telling them after you have launched. For then they wouldn’t know who you are, and they wouldn’t care as well,” says S. Chatterjee, an advertising professional. Take for instance, Volkswagen. When the company decided to launch its new model GTI, it did so through a racing game available as an iPhone application. Volkswagen also distributed six cars as prizes for those who won the game. So how much do companies spend on product rollouts? According to research, $50 million is an ideal budget for a product rollout. Seksaria also points out that creating a buzz is indeed very important. However, once launched, the brand must be able to constantly feed and maximise the attention generated.
Seksaria takes the example of the recently launched social networking site Google+. “Launched by Google, it had adopted a similar strategy used in its previous service launches (Google Wave, Gmail). The strategy successfully generated hype, creating a sense of urgency and exclusivity among users by giving out limited invites only. However, this time Google+ did not follow the strategy. It closed invitations due to ‘insane demand’.
Whether this created more hype, or killed the hype, only time will tell; though, the latter seems more likely.”

The writer is a well-known industry watcher