It's time to tap emotions

In the era of media explosion and assorted information, what stands out makes sense. That's why media strategies need to focus on 'out of the box' ideas. Juby Kuruvilla, managing director at Equity Plus Advertising, explains how to be subtle yet hard-hitting.

Conventional media is scattered, and choosing just one form for effective marketing is a humongous task even if the client knows which corridors are to be tapped. 
Being in the UAE, where more than 200 nationalities reside, for the last two decades, I have seen and experienced the drastic changes of the consumer market. We are today spoilt for choices here. The success of a product and its services depend on how you penetrate the features into people's mind, and not just by captivating their eyes or ears. This is where non-conventional marketing strategies come in and work way better.
In this market, unless you are a giant with big wings, you can't afford to have marketing plans that covers all conventional mediums to tap product segments. The ratio of profit and ad spent differs beyond our gauge if your product needs to stand out.
Equity Plus has been serving the UAE market for the last 12 years and our forte is effective packaging methods for each client. Being one of the pioneers in the field, we have a huge share of non-conventional strategies in the form of events and concepts.
The era of direct marketing of products has gone by. It's time to sell emotions and feelings. How you feel about a product depends on the build-up created by the product over the period while sustaining its quality deeds.
Children today are influencers when it comes to opting for products and, at some point, are the decision makers as well. Our unique approach towards ground events has given huge brand exposure with leads. Mass events tailored for families and professionals who are the end-users of right products have been non-conventional in its nature.
For instance, YOUFEST, which is now considered to be UAE's biggest cultural competition platform for Indian schools, takes you through the eventful memories of your childhood back in India. It's a huge talent pool with more than 5,000 kids perform in 30 competition categories and over 100 schools send their students in various performance categories. Associating brands with YOUFEST get great exposure because the campaign spans through 50 days of ground activation where footfall is unimaginably huge. YOUFEST targets kids, parents, teachers and school authorities, thus forming a large buyer's forum.
Likewise, our new initiative for working nurses in the UAE, Angel Awards, touched millions of hearts when it was launched. Angel Awards moved the public emotionally and prompted them to nominate a nurse who turned out to be an angel in their lives.
In the UAE, around 25,000 nurses are working and we had received over 20,000 nominations from the residents in the UAE that itself shows the immense impact the campaign had over its consumers. Digital spectrum is another area of non-conventional strategy where indirect selling works like magic. Events like YOUFEST and Angel Awards have decent share of update and stories on social media platforms as well to push the limits of indirect sales, thus benefitting the brands.
Also, trip campaigns on radio, with extensive other cross-media coverages, have huge traction among listeners and clients. Equity Plus Advertising has been the pioneer in such 360-degree activations where sponsors and associated media get huge exposure. Over the years, we have taken thousands of UAE residents to 22 destinations across the world through different radio stations.
Trip campaigns are great non-conventional activations as it leaves goodwill for the brands in listeners' minds. It doesn't stop there; on a corporate social responsibility angle, we do activations at labour camps across the UAE.
The most hardworking segment here are the blue-collared workers. They deserve some break in life and that's how we started 'Big Carnivals' years ago, which eventually became the most sought-after ground activation that big brands look forward to every year. Games, cultural entertainments, food supply, gifts and a lot of client activations give them a chance to rejoice and break free from their dull life. This is core ground activation without any media mix and I can proudly say that clients draw satisfaction in such activations across the country.

• Media & Marketing