That was the original and now a latest Airtel ad by Rediffusion that is going on the air as of now.. Creativity is no doubt an art of inspiration and this guys here has done it so well.. I am for a change not being sarcastic since I love the way the idea is adapted... Its better than no idea at all.... !
Yeah the parent Idea belongs to some one else but the adaption here is creative... Someone who said the word "Hello" on the phone first time would have never thought he’d be so creative that the whole world to come after him would be copying him... now that is the parent idea that is being so blatantly used over and over again.... We accept it and yet we all to an extent hate copying isnt it?
Do we hate the people who copy ideas? We all do it...... This is in spite of the knowledge that kids learn their language by copying parents, their play by copying what they see in life ad TV, their moves in sports and fun by copying other kids. We learn to write better by copying writing we like..... we all do... Adapt as we call it but we do it... We learn to get along with people by copying people.
'Do your own thing as much posible' is what I think creatives should be doing.....Original stuff has its own value and don’t just copy any thing.....
If you can't write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don't have a clear idea. ~David Belasco
The client sold chocolates and candies...and was good in that...We ( My second agency which took me to Europe) handled the creatives and the going was smooth..they weren't a trouble making client ..No IKE 's.. no shocking surprises... no tantrums.. a dream client....
They came up with a new type of candy which would cause a "revolution" as per their brand manager ..It was as normal as any other candy form out side and when one starts eating but as you go in.. voilaaaaaaaaa it rocks..it turns sour...funny...shocking.. and then slowly you start liking it...that unconventional taste of this new candy starts slowly tickling you, and by the time you finish it you fall in love with it......oooppppssss..... you even feel that all those sweet candies which you had been having all these years were bland and insipid.
The agency went celebrating...the product as described by the client ( for every crow and for even a crow, its baby would be the most charming, the most attractive thing in the world).. and before we guys could troop to the nearest bar for the success that was going to be ours ( the ad guys are bad guys---we celebrate the success that may come, will come , most likely come, shall come ,is coming, come, ohhhhh it didn't come...anything is a reason to celebrate..), the client gave the One liner that was what was going to be the brief....
Expect the unexpected...It said simply...
The brains cluttered together, confused, confessed and confined, astray and astute, wild and vivid, varied and voracious, vocal and vociferous....everyone thought thought and thought..but nothing evolved except crap and holy crap......
Finally the one evolved, did so from a junior client service guy who had just joined, who had an Egyptian father and a Danish mother ( he looked like Menses 2 the Pharaoh of Egypt..and we called him MUMMY...) it was some story which some one somewhere had told him which had this climax.....
Amrit Maghera, the new face of Lakme is charming the way she is , even when she makes cakes with mehndi in her hands and with fun worn as an attitude.. no matter what made the cake so hard, this ad is fun to the fullest, hard to avoid and makes people turn their heads , sit and watch it and say 'hey that is funny'.....
Anchor has always grabbed my attention- not for the success stories in their kitty , that they have in any case, but for the audacity with which they faced the titans and gave them shivers, and the brave new venturing out to all new (unrelated) areas ( from electric wires and cables to tooth pastes..) with a big scorn at the basic fundas of business theory which talked about core competence and the like stuff.. The infamous ad wars with the mighty Colgate (with a 48% market share) and this guy with a 7 % share defying all rules and what the teachers teach in B school classes , stood tall and from tooth pastes ( whites and gel) slowly proceeding to make soaps (Dyna- Katrina kaif claims her beauty is a by product of Dyna) they amuse us till date...
It is not a perfect case of Marketing that needs to be emulated.. it had its own flips and flops ..Kajol endorsed Anchor toothpastes for a time period during 2008 and then disappeared..... It may soon come up with Anchor biscuits and cakes and shampoo and skin creams and yet get some market share in all this..( soon we can see a Khan or the other munching the cookies, Kareena saying my fairness is all thanks to Anchor etc etc..).. that is future , as of now see the ad again.. it is a hyperbole but am sure you will like it too !
For more of Anchor ads see here ... http://www.anchorglobal.net/galleria.php ....
Passengers on a Lufthansa flight heard this announcement from the captain, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sorry to inform you that we have lost power to all of our engines and will shortly crash into the ocean."
The passengers were obviously very worried about this situation, but were somewhat comforted by the captain's next announcement. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we at Lufthansa have prepared for such an emergency, and we would now like you to rearrange your seating so that all the non-swimmers are on the left side of the plane, and all the swimmers are on the right side."
After this announcement, all the passengers rearranged their seating to comply with the captain's request.
Two minutes later, the captain made a belly landing in the ocean.
The captain once again made an announcement, "Ladies and Gentlemen we have crashed into the ocean. All of the swimmers on the right side of the plane open your emergency exits and quickly swim away from the plane. For all of the non-swimmers on the left side of plane... "Thank You For Flying Lufthansa."
I always thought that low price means low quality (when taking flights) and this thought came and later got deep rooted from my experiences with low fare carriers that always have messed up my travel (whenever I thought of saving a penny .. as they say penny wise, pound foolish ) .. Until once I missed a Jet flight to Hyderabad and was FORCED to travel in an Indigo, I didn’t know the beauty of it…the fact that low cost and low fares doesn't mean low quality dawned on me that day…( step-less stairs , Q-busters, boarding ramps and so on….).…..The biggest selling point for a flight is to be on time and if its taken care of, half the job is done..! My two experiences with Indigo so far had been proving this ‘on time factor’ and hence when I saw this new ad from Indigo which harps on the ON-TIME factor as a performance policy of the company and the efforts that lie behind such performance I couldn’t agree more…
On May 17 when the ad was released, I was amused for three reasons…
1.It came from Indigo, a small, low cost and unpretentious airline which (at least for me) flies on time.
2.It was from Wieden + Kennedy and having seen their marvels of work in the west I was wondering how and how far they will(can) bring the same here in India
3.It was different and refreshingly international if I may say so ( I am not meaning here that all international stuff are adorable)….
The fresh and cool idea that supports the basic selling proposition of the airline is so very clearly articulated and hence reaching the customer… If you have seen the TVC space in this category, every one ( almost ) brags about being number one or number two, forgetting the fact that, to the end user whether you are number one in this or that is not important, the only thing that matters is whether you take them for a number two ride (the pun intended). For some one who wants to position as a real leader in terms of customer experience, value and operational efficiency this ad does the work…. I even have a feel that the airline has a real and authentic adoration and admiration for its customers.
IndiGo is very aptly saying that they of course take you from here to there without tossing with your time and money, and without being made to feel low-priced in the process.( I have seen the disputes of the range of street fight in Air Deccan counters at a point of time when airports looked like railways stations)…All this in a cool, chic and friendly manner and that is a real price winner !!!
And let me add as a parting note.. I loved the VO ( in spite of the so called phoren accent which some critics believe that middleclass Indians may not understand) and the WE and US tone… kudos to the makers for the idea, the script and the execution!!!
The only doubt is whether this is on Time, I mean this ad… I really don’t know, may be Time will have an answer !!! Right now but next time I fly I will take an Indigo, for sure ..
Credits.
Title: On Time
Client: IndiGo Airlines
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy (Delhi)
Executive creative director: V. Sunil
Senior copywriter: Keshavan Naidu
Agency producer: Anil Sharma
Client servicing: Neha Puri
Production company: Bang Bang Films
Director: Harvey B Brown
Director of photography: Vikash Nowlakha
Produced by: Roopak Saluja, Kirk Dias & Amarjeet Kaur
Editor: Harshal Thakur
Post production: Pixion (Mumbai), Prime Focus (Mumbai)
Music: M Mat of Bhavishyavani Future Soundz in partnership with Tarun & Vinayak
Anti dote: - an agency friend of mine after seeing this ad, texts me.. “hey did you see the Indigo ad ? For me it sounds like a great work, had it been for an alarm clock…”
