Chillies Awards - “Insight Inside” revisited

By Sandya Salgado
Wow! That time of the year is here. The Ad Awards… The Chilies 2007!
What excitement, what expectations and what fun. The time most agencies are most stressed, while being most active.
This is the time most of us in the ad industry meet the most. Speak the most and discuss issues the most. In this spirit, it seemed most fitting to discuss the accuracy and relevance of the most important ad campaign of the hour… the campaign created to communicate the positioning of The Chillies 2007.

“Insight Inside” is undoubtedly a powerful positioning for any ad award. I completely agree that all great ideas are meant to be built on powerful human insights and no doubt, all such insightful campaigns should be recognized and felicitated.
The bone of contention however is nothing but the creative interpretation of this apt concept.
Prior to getting into this discussion, let me complement The Chillies Awards Committee for a wonderful job done thus far. (A thankless one, no doubt!) Planning and implementing the strategies that have led up to the awards have been extremely commendable.
The excitement created both through the media and non media communications has been outstanding. But as always, we should take a moment to do some objective soul searching of our own industry work if we are to strive for our own excellence -- hence this personal crusade.

As an advertiser, I cannot but wonder why a concept such as ‘insights’ has been misrepresented in the main communications campaign for The Chillies. While agreeing that the showcasing of Sri Lankan practices, traditions and rituals etc is a great idea, I find that there is gross confusion between the depiction of what insights are and what local traditions and practices are in the ad campaign done for The Chillies.

Wearing a suraya, or tying a pandura or displaying the amuda lensuwa is not insights!
These are simply Sri Lankan practices, (mostly Sinhala / religious) rituals or beliefs.
An insight is not something so obviously visible to ‘pluck and use’ as a visual aid or a brand message. I am saddened and concerned that this was not addressed by the committee prior to releasing the campaign. By advocating the wrong interpretations of insights in the name of ‘local idiom’ we could mislead our own fraternity, which in turn could lead to other communication nightmares later on for most of us.

If the campaign idea was to ‘protect’ the local idiom, this creative approach would have fitted in brilliantly, as most visuals depict some form of protection. (With the exception of the amuda lensuwa of course! Or on second thoughts, this too could have been seen as a means of ‘protecting’ the family harmony and wealth).

But the campaign for sure does not communicate the positioning Insight Inside!
Nor does it communicate the thought of ‘insight led creativity.’ It simply depicts a selection of clichéd local rituals that all of us as Sri Lankans know quite well. So pray tell me, what is the great insight in this ?

Lately, we seem to be on a major Be Sri Lankan Trip! Irrespective of the brand essence or the brand attributes. All aboard and happy as long as it’s the misunderstood local idiom, local insight, local tradition and local look and feel!
This is sad.
Let’s just pause for a moment to revisit the word ‘insights’ as used in the marketing parlance. In my understanding, an insight is an innermost emotion that exists in one’s deepest self. This could be common to an individual, a group or even a sub-set of people, who may have common demographic or more so, psychographic commonalities. But one has to really dig deep to identify this very powerful truth that can be used in creating new product categories or even in building strong brands. The challenge therefore is to find this most powerful insight in relation to the brand or category. I am not sure if one could unearth ‘universal insights’ and simply use it across the board.

Please correct me if I am wrong. May be I was working on a wrong belief all these years.
The greatest challenge for us advertisers therefore is to find a bridge between the brand and the human insight that bonds the brand to the consumer.

This does not mean the portrayal of a so called typically Sri Lankan practice, behaviour, expression or motif at every turn.
This misunderstanding seems to be happening far too often lately. As advertisers are considered great influencers on many publics, we need to act responsibly to communicate what’s correct.

Let us please get together as a fraternity and clearly understand what each of these words mean in the current scenario of promoting culturally sensitive marketing communications. Let us clearly understand what local cultures, traditions, idioms, practices, symbols and expressions are. How each word means something different. Identify its relevance to the target audience and create the correct brand fit in the right context. The latter is even more important. Finally, as advertisers and marketers, let us clearly understand what Consumer Insights are.

We seem to have got into an idiomatic rut with one trying to outdo the other in creating so called culturally sensitive ads garnished with superficial Sri Lankan values that have zero brand relevance.
In this unprecedented rush to be seen as truly Sri Lankan marketers and advertisers who understands the local idiom, we seem to have sacrificed the need to look for the basic principles of brand centric human insights in order to create an impactful and effective piece of communication.

The writer is an ad industry professional.