Decoding the significance of creativity in marketing and the ROI on IPL was filmmaker R Balki at the unveiling of the e4m Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2024. He engaged in an interesting conversation with Vikram Sakhuja, Partner & CEO, Madison World.

Vikram initiated the conversation by emphasizing the significance of creativity in marketing.

To this, Balki candidly shared that the quality of IPL ads showcased during the event had been surprisingly mediocre. "A few years ago, there was a great experience I went through, and we were judging some IPL ads, and let me tell you the truth is there were the trashiest ads that you could find, and that shocked us. Surprisingly, the most expensive media in the country has possibly the worst quality of ads."

Balki highlighted a prevalent discrepancy in marketing, stating that despite the widely acknowledged importance of creativity in generating return on investment (ROI), many marketers need to align their actions with this belief. With the upcoming IPL season, the discussion turned towards the advertising landscape of the cricketing extravaganza.

Adding his thoughts on the same, Balki posed a critical question: "Why can't IPL, a premium advertising platform watched by millions, showcase the best advertising?"

Expressing his disappointment in the fear-driven approach adopted by marketers, where they opt for safe and regressive strategies on such a premium platform, he said, "There is an extraordinary amount of fear in marketers' heads today. I've never seen this before, and we've regressed in communication. We've regressed in advertising like never before. An ad has to be as interesting as the content first number one; if it is not, it's a waste of time."

"We're kind of spending tons and tons of money. We are not looking at quality in the tons and tons of money, and we're defining quality wrongly. We're defining quality very conveniently. We're defining quality in fear, and we're losing the part of advertising, which is to live in fear," Balki added.

Addressing the cost comparison with Super Bowl, Balki argued that advertisers should focus on making their IPL ads more exciting and captivating than the program itself. Furthermore, he challenged the advertisers to view IPL as a chance to create memorable and impactful advertising rather than a mere opportunity to be seen.

Taking the discussion forward, Sakhuja added, "Do you think the advertising that you have to do for IPL on TV and on digital platforms like Jio Cinema, needs to be the same or will it just share the format of a digital to change things?"

To this, Balki answered, "The idea may not be very different, even the execution may not be different, but advertisers can do added things with that particular execution on digital which you may not be able to do on television and there are so many more interesting things which an idea can develop into on digital which you can't do on television. So, digital is hugely advantageous and it can make IPL ads a lot more creative than what it is."

In conclusion, Balki proposed a radical idea of incentivizing better advertising on IPL and emphasized the need for someone to break the system, fight for a creative breakthrough, and set an example for the industry, predicting that such efforts would open the floodgates for creative brilliance in IPL advertising.