There was a time when lawn was worn to beat the heat during the long summer months; the preferable material to wear while getting your chores done. But that was before the advent of designer lawn and the enormous advertising which has succeeded in taking lawn from functional to fashionable.

Even the established names in the lawn market — Gul Ahmed and Al Karam — admit that while lawn has always been popular, it was designer input that helped it reach its tipping point. Two other factors that aided the growth and popularity of lawn was designer wear offered at ‘affordable’ prices (few people can afford a Sana Safinaz customised outfit but many people can afford their lawn); as well as the soaring price of cotton which made it necessary for textile mills to invest in value addition to their cotton based products so that they could justify higher prices.

This led to collaborations between textile mills and designers, resulting in a demand for not just any lawn but the kind of outfit that comes complete with all the embellishments, including lace, trimmings and panels. This means that the lawn suit is now sold as a complete package that is, if not ready-to-wear, at least ready-to-stitch.

Although it is very difficult to put a value on the size of the lawn market because most of the business is undocumented, Farrukh Mian, CEO, Textile Links estimates that the value of designer lawn alone was between eight to 10 billion rupees in 2012 (last year’s estimate was approximately Rs 3.5 billion).

Of course, an increase in the number of players in the lawn market meant a corresponding increase in promotions and advertising. While models draped in gorgeous prints has been fairly standard fare in lawn advertising, Firdous Textile Mills (from Punjab) turned this trend on its head in 2010 when it hired Indian superstar Kareena Kapoor as its brand ambassador for a sum of money which was reportedly in the region of 30 million rupees. In 2011, the brand hired Deepika Padukone for the job.

It quickly became obvious that advertising was no longer an afterthought for the manufacturers and 2012 has been one of the biggest years in terms of lawn advertising. This may well be a result of the fact that the ubiquitous lawn exhibitions are becoming less common and designers and large textile mills alike prefer to sell through mass retail, making it necessary to build a strong brand image and presence.

While Firdous chose Bollywood ‘it’ girl, Sonam Kapoor as its brand ambassador for 2012, Crescent (another Punjab based brand) stunned people with a campaign starring Karishma Kapoor. However Gul Ahmed had the biggest surprise in store.

It is important to note that Gul Ahmed is the only major lawn brand that has completely shunned the idea of collaborating with a designer because, as Ziad Bashir, Director, Gul Ahmed explained to Aurora in 2011, “the Gul Ahmed brand sells on its own and we don’t need an endorsement.”

Clearly, however, Gul Ahmed needed a shot in the arm or else it wouldn’t have indulged in a bit of guerrilla advertising this year and launched its ‘original lawn’ campaign which covertly says that everyone else’s lawn is second best. This is perhaps one of the first ad campaigns from the lawn market that has moved past the lawn-draped woman and showed signs of having a concept and a big idea.

While most lawn advertising campaigns continue to be conceptualised and executed by freelance directors, designers and hot shops, there are some indications that this trend is changing. While Al Karam has been with a professional advertising agency called Adcom (also the agency for Engro Foods, Telenor and Continental Biscuits among others), 2012 also saw designer Asim Jofa launching an ad campaign conceptualised by Red Communication Arts (also the agency for brands like Garnier and Nestle). Jofa’s campaign, although controversial, celebrated a women’s right to choose and had very obviously been researched and thought about.

The mediums used for lawn advertising essentially remain the same — billboards or outdoor advertising is used most frequently along with a few print ads and a television ad every now and then. However brands with smaller budgets are finding new ways to market themselves, whether it is through business pages on Facebook, updates on Twitter, or giveaways on morning shows.

Although there is a lot of activity in the lawn market in terms of product innovation, marketing and advertising, what we see now is really the tip of the iceberg. As even more players enter the field, the larger and more serious contenders will find it necessary to cement their brand image further via better thought-out marketing and advertising campaigns that move beyond the current one-size-fits-all approach and apply the principles of market segmentation for greater visibility.