AIYO! ARE WE READY FOR BI-LINGUAL ADVERTISING?

Despite what it says on our birth certificate, we are an invisibly hyphenated people who employ a complex language. Where we live, or what movies we watch are poor indicators of the messages that might grab us. An up-country Tamil may speak as much Sinhala as a down-south Muslim. Our hybrid culture does not respect that bookish notion called segmentation.

And it’s not exactly a Sri Lankan phenomenon. Merging markets and mixed-language advertising is on the rise. The fast movement of immigrants into many parts of Europe, Australia and America have been blurring the lines of what used to be called ‘core markets’. This is not rocket science. For decades, there have been China Towns in many major metropolitan areas around the world. A ‘Little Italy’ tucked away in some obscure town in mainstream America, a South-Indian enclave in Leicestire, UK, with samosas, and sarees in the windows, and Portuguese communities, Middle-eastern shopping districts, and Greek festivals making up the commercial landscape.

But when these enclaves began to move into the mainstream, their food, music, dance forms and fashion began to erase the lines between one community and the next, one language and the other. American cultural icons such as Mark Anthony and Jennifer Lopez are markers of a huge demographic shift that took many mainstream marketers off guard. The numbers prove it. The US Census Bureau recently released figures for the year 2000 that show how Hispanics have overtaken African-Americans as the dominant hyphenated minority –a whopping12.5 percent of the population, or 35.3 million people. Ten years ago, people of Latin-American descent only numbered 13 million, and in marketing, were largely ignored.

What this means for marketers is that the cultural icons, fashion and tastes that once comprised their core market, may be totally irrelevant to integrated communities. A good example: early this year, Revlon dropped Cindy Crawford, the most recognized face in its cosmetics advertising for 13 years. Revlon cited the need to move on to a more ‘user friendly’ image. Or, to put it in demographic terms, Cindy, relevant when the cosmetics consumer was trying to emulate the looks and lifestyle of the single white female, made no sense to brown-skinned women in Shalwar-Kameez, and those with dreadlocks, tattoos, and strange accents.

Mixed Media
The old laws of segmentation, where you could target one group with a TV commercial in one language, and another group in another market with an edited version of the master tape, are proving inadequate. Ethnic groups don’t live in neat demographic boxes anymore. They move in and out of the mainstream, and have a critical mass that makes them large enough, and powerful enough to reject such half-hearted overtures. The English-speaking, college educated mother of 3, living in a white neighbouhood, and driving a Ford Explorer, may actually be a Gujarati woman who speaks three languages. Likewise, the Hispanic young adult market may seldom watch Telemundo, and would be better reached with a Spanish-language ad on Jay Leno.

These are the early days of mixed media approaches –one attempt to make marketing communication relevant. But it’s not easy. There is always resistance from those who refuse to see why shades of gray (or brown) can exist in what were once black and white issues of language, culture and accent. Here in Sri Lanka, the Colombo mentality is shifting. Sandya Salgado, who heads Ogilvy Outreach believes that many ad people have finally started thinking in the indigenous languages, unlike the days when everything was conceptualized in English. It was not long ago when Sinhala and Tamil copywriters worked a freelancers for many agencies, because they were merely ‘translators’. Deepthi Senanayake, Media Director of JWT believes this shift has been a long time in the making, and what we see is actually a transition period. "For the past twenty years, clients like Levers strongly believed that there were no ‘English only’ speakers", she observed.

The parallels in other cultures are unmistakable. In the US for instance, the children’s programme Nickelodeon started incorporating a Spanish-speaking character in a popular English language cartoon series. But incorporating ‘Dora’, the heroine was a tough choice in a White dominated network like CBS. People thought a Latino character using Spanish words on an English program would alienate one audience, while trying to cater to another. Special requests that Dora’s skin colour be darkened, and her eyed made more brown, suddenly became ‘problems’. The producers took the risk, and it paid off.

In Sri Lanka too, the concept of burred markets is a reality that is receiving mixed reactions. The press still dictates the percentage of Sinhala or Tamil language (roughly 60%) that can be incorporated in an English ad. Common sense told us that we seldom behave according to our demographic labels. Our Sinhala-ness or Tamil-ness has been blurring in spite of what the politicians want us to believe. Marketers are suddenly prepared to take more risks.

How does one address Gomes, the Sinhala-speaking gentleman who drives a three-wheeler down Dickman’s Road? Don’t patronize him, for sure because he speaks fluent English.

The opportunity to reach many niche markets like these (the self-employed, retirees, commuters etc) is wide open –and complicated. Media Planners welcome the challenge. Gone are the days, says Senanayake, when language segmentation was rigid.

She uses the Media Planner’s bible, the NMS (the National Media Survey), to make sure JWT’s bi-lingual ads are more finely targeted, and relevant.

"We know what percentage of speakers use the single/dual language; as planners, we know that except for the expat community, all other citizens speak at least 2 languages."

The one-language, one media approach stifled creativity, too. Take the Nespray ad where the headline uses the repetitive word ‘kiri’ with purpose. (See ‘Kolombatath Kiri’ Ad). Even in terms of reach, the bilingual company ad (See the Ogilvy Outreach ad) is suddenly more relevant. Or take the use of the letter A, in the ad for Arena. The writer transfers the phonetic sound from the English letter to a Sinhala word. It shows how creative ideas can jump out at you when advertising treats language with flexibility. (see Arena Ad). The ‘silo mentality’ is disappearing in the media. For a small extra fee, newspapers will run a bi-lingual ad. The electronic media, especially private stations, are the most flexible, says Adrian Selvadurai, Media Manager/Planning at Masters DDB. "With TV, we have no restrictions on running a Sinhala or Tamil spot on an English programme".

More than a fad
Another fascinating example: Pioneering site Kapuwa.com captures the mixed idiom of young people across many regions in Sri Lanka. The patently match-making site has sections such as ‘karadara corner’ alongside an urban hangout titled ‘lovers lane’. (Speaking of cross-targeting, Ritzbury Chocolates is advertised on page called ‘Panawa’). Apart from the unique positioning of Kapuwa.com (a tongue-in-cheek reference to disparaged character), its ability to strike a cord with so-called conservative markets is interesting. "We are getting hits from all parts of the country including Hambantota and Batticoala", says Mike Masilamani, who oversees this project. On the chat lines, the site administrators see many people engaging in ‘code-switching’ between English and Sinhala. Not that marketers need any proof of the hybrid nature of so-called core segments. The biggest obstacles, they say are the old prejudices, not about their developing markets, but about the language and tone-of-voice of advertising. The purists like to deny that code-switching happens everywhere. But screaming from billboards and radio, is a Yellow Pages campaign where words like ‘rasthiadu’ and ‘achcharu’ are surreptitiously woven into the English copy. You’d think there’s no looking back.

Is this a fad? Indeed, a local approach was something many ad people always wanted to take, but were held back because of the lack of an indigenous advertising idiom. But marketers are acutely aware of cultural sensitivities. Being culturally sensitive is one thing, says Salgado, but "we also need to be careful that we don't 'bastardise' our language in the name of creativity". Because of her clients’ rural markets, she is aware of the cultural spanner thrown at city-folk. Perhaps we take ourselves –and our language-- too seriously.

The best way to test this is to look at Sri Lankan literature over the years, unshackled by the localization/ bastardisation conflict. Leonard Woolf, writing in the first quarter of the last century incorporated the local idiom ("aiyo, aiyo, the house will be empty") in his novel A village in the Jungle. Michael Ondaatje, wove vignettes of our local dialect in novels as varied as "Anil’s Ghost and Running in the family. Carl Muller had characters in The Jam Fruit Tree say things like "Not a small one, that Beryl," Maudiegirl observed, "saw the way she was looking at Sonnaboy." Likewise, Romesh Gunesekera in Reef evokes the sensual aroma of a ‘temparadu’ dish and a has a scene where a haberdasher’s cries of "badu badu badu" fill the air. No one complains of ‘bastardization’ of course.

Then there is technology that indeed speeds things up. A Cellcard ad for Celltel, created by JWT, encourages users to adopt the short message service (SMS) now available in Sinhala. The ad itself is in characteristic ‘singlish’. There are call-outs in both languages (‘Introducing’ and ‘Inna Epa’) which compete for attention. The messaging benefit, not being English, is appropriately handled in a Sinhala headline. It is, after all, "Sinhalen – SMS like crazy’. There’s that phenomenon named kaputa.com, where the promise of free e-mail is rendered in a folksy expression, 'Kalu Kaputa Sude Wenaturu..' It is e-mail until the crows turn white! Niranjan Meegammana, the brains behind the site, believes that the local idiom has made the site’s offerings stand out. "We needed to develop strong brands on Internet ... to be different, and they worked," he observes.

But to get back to advertising, there are more fundamental concerns of cost effectiveness at stake, too. Uma Rajamanthri, Media Director of Ogilvy & Mather, speaks of how scheduling a ‘Singlish’ radio commercial for Elephant House Ice Cream in two language channels not only amounted to a great media buy, but it helped cut through the clutter. "This scheduling breakthrough in English and Sinhala channels helped us reinforce the message to a wider section of listeners," she said. The ads are particularly relevant to those who comfortably cross over from English to Sinhala programmes.

In this sense, communicators are moving beyond the trend. With the media on their side, they may be taking the first bold steps towards making advertising more relevant. Or, as Ogilvy Outreach likes to put it, "Paths do not exist where we trek... we need to clear and create them by walking..."