The Pope had just finished a tour of the East Coast and was taking a limousine to the airport.
Having never driven a limo, he asked the chauffeur if he could drive for a while.
Well, the chauffeur didn't have much of a choice, so he climbs in the back of the limo and the Pope takes the wheel..... The Pope proceeds onto HWY 95, and starts accelerating to see what the limo could do. He gets to about 90 mph, and suddenly he sees the blue lights of the State Police in his mirror. He pulls over and cop comes to his window.
The cop, seeing who it was, says, "Just a moment please, I need to call someone.
The cop calls over his walkie talkie and asks for the police chief. He tells the chief that he's got a REALLY important person pulled over for over speeding and rash driving, and asks how he should handle it.
"It's not Ted Kennedy again is it?" replies the chief.
"No Sir!" replied the cop, "This guy's more important."
"Is it the Governor?" replied the chief.
"No! Even more important!" replies the cop.
"Is it the PRESIDENT??? replied the chief.
"No! Even more important!" replies the cop.
"Well WHO is it?" screams the chief.
"I don't know Sir I guess its God himself,,,,," replies the cop, " Im not sure though...but he's got the Pope as his chauffeur!"
Now that is not just a joke.....
Tell a lie and it remains a lie.... tell it again and it remains a lie.... repeat it manytimes and it becomes the truth nothing but the truth.. said Joseph Goebels, the man whose Marketing Communication Strategy made one cult brand out of a comical product.. I am referring to the one stop, all under one roof propaganda manager that Adolf hitler annointed to make him a brand... Goebels, did it , amazingly well and catapaulted the short and unimpressive Guy( Chaplin could imitate him with such an ease) to a position where the world revolved around him....
Reliance and its history is what made me sit and ponder and draw the poor German guys into the fray. Reliance is famous for their project management skills and more importantly for the money and the wealth that they have created and that too from nowhere.. How the brothers fought and split was fodder for the media for so many days and months and when suspicious eyes watched and breaths held the two brothers grew on their own and made it big.....
The two Reliance empires....the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group or the Reliance ADAG which started with some 45000 crores and three brands made it long and now has many a consumer brands, making marketing a core activity...To foresake its old logo and embrace its WPP Landor designed Red and Blue one, and a moving and emotional testimonial from long time friend, the Big B in his baritone voice, which flood the media, ADAG didnt take much time to set its foot...
Now It is the Reliance power IPO that is the news... a multi media campaign where in the marketing warriors took the ‘more is more’ approach and came out with this emotive nationalistic slogan- “Power on to India On”........ It was across 50-60 TV channels, radio stations, Adlabs theatres and over 500 hoardings; burning up crores ( keep guessing) in just 17 days. Its the old dictum " spend the small fish to catch the big one" that seems to be working......Gone are the Mudra days when the old agency inherited all Reliance brands as a birth right, now a 7 agency roster is in place and it looks like a who -is -who of the ad world with Leo Burnett,Mccann and Rediffusion in the league....
Seven agencies and Mudra is just one, among equals...With a Ray & Keshavan brand guidelines guide serving as the common bible as it was claimed over media, there will absolutely be no confusion, with so many verticals and products....and together they are making money like hell, even as ringtones..Power on to India on... The art of making money for a non existent, hyped up product, no one can beat these guys and market watchers I am sure will vouch....
And the game has just begun...going by this rate, of ad spends and the carpet bombing that is on, cricket association and other stuff, it will not be too far when HUL and the other jaggernauts will have to stand a bit behind the ADAG, in the ranking of the biggest spenders in advertising...climb down after long long years of being there up and top.....
We believe what we see.. particularly when we are shown it again and again.. where ever we go and whatever we do we see it again and again..... the Limousine is here and the poor man on the street is bewildered.....
When the pope himself is driving, who else can be the traveller??
No comments:
Post a Comment