Micromax mobile- Nothing like Anything !!!!

Akshay Kumar is like wine, the older he gets the better he is whether in acrobatics or even in his histrionics, except I must say in this ad.. This one which makes him laugh like an obtuse idiot and that too for about 30 seconds in a 45 second commercial is just too much to endure. Whatever the product is and whatever the new Gamolution thing that they want to sell (like SKINNOCENCE this is a new ad word GAMOLUTION)

This ad irritates, first by the absolute lack of any bit of creative spirit, second for the stupid laugh which lurks like the one you get to hear in mad houses and third rate Hindi films and third and most important, by the sheer senselessness with which this nerve breaker is aired again and again as if they can bore, irritate and torture people to buy their stuff while people watch IPL 3 in all peace and excitement.

I even know of people who said that if IPL 3 so far has any irritant so far, it is this laughing ad.


The mobile handset market already has players such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, and these players already enjoy great allegiance and loyalty among consumers.. Unquestionably that is….. It would have been a big challenge for any new player (this guys are new in this market) to shift this loyalty to them.. a lot of work should have gone in …..A dual GSM-dual standby QWERTY keypad phone at less than Rs 5000, and such stuff that Micromax offers are definitely a thing that could have changed the game had they got into the right game…. If their advertising is any indication, it seems quite unlikely… Some of their ads are good enough to sit and watch (done then by Draft FCB) but the Akshay one is for sure a de-seller and the game seems to be lost even before it has begun …


Big brands, big budgets… Niching seemed to be the only option and guess they were into it but with an advertising budget of Rs 50 crore plus as per industry sources, the blitzkrieg is to continue and even aggravate through other media as well.. I hope they don’t carpet bomb me from the likes of Facebook and twitter…

A big thumbs down to Lowe (the agency) for the creative impotency, and sub-primary school level imagination and a ‘shame on you’ to the media planner (who cares the name) for this nothingness which proclaims ‘nothing like anything’ as its tag line.. How true… !!!

Tata Do Co Mo - doing the new...!

Tata DoCoMo the GSM service from the Tata stable is here…. Another one HUH? I sighed when I thought of the prospect of a weak ME TOO player in the Kerala market which already has a war between an Airtel vs Idea vs Vodafone vs Reliance vs BSNL vs Aircel vs MTS vs Virgin .. UAE based Etisalat is on ground already with its basic works…With Tata Indicom ,Tata is already in the CDMA market but as it is well known the CDMA market is a smaller cake and the GSM one is a bigger cake and therefore the Tata DoCoMo.

Do Co Mo is there everywhere…. After the teasers that went on for a while and the revealers that wasn’t that great as expected,after the ads that unveiled the logo’s( they were good ads and you can see some of them here…)…..now it has become omnipresent (A telecommunication client with deep pockets is any agency’s jack pot and its rivals envy) ....In marine drive, in the walkways, in the shopping malls, in my car yard, in twitter where I go once while ( docomo id : tatadocomo which has about 1000 plus followers already ) in the FM radio’s (50 to 60 second ads which can at times make you crazy) and in the TV of course and yet it does not irritate beyond a point……NTT Do Co Mo of Japan which has only 26% stake (and the rest is with TATA thus creating the TATA Do Co Mo) dominate 74% of the logo said some literature and I felt like.. arey wah !!! No one says Tata Do Co Mo now.. It’s just the Do Co Mo and it sounds good.. and it is working without the TATA tag….…… cute, peppy ,rhyming and simple….

Tata DoCoMo’s advertising ( I tried getting them on You tube but in vain… will post them when I am able to locate them..) is banging, true that they are not amazing works of exceptional creativity but they are what ads basically should be…..communicative and creative..!!

First came the footballer who strikes a goal and then rejoices with his jersey pulled up to cover his face and as he runs in joy, bangs on to the goal post and falls flat.. then came the guy in the plane who gets to seat next to a lady and when he is about to strike a conversation, he is asked to move his seat, first to his chagrin, and then to his delight, when he gets to place his ass between a voluptuous blonde and a sexy damsel, one of them instantly falling on to his shoulders in sleep….. And the message? Life can change in a second… why talk of a minute?

It just says “Do the New” with the amusing Do – Co – Mo sounds and each ad has a story, the inviting fun and mischief and great climax…

No big faces, No Dogs, No South African creatures and no big IDEA’s being swept around… Simple Job.. Simple differentiation (second is the new minute) that is striking a cord with people (people are shifting from A B and C to Do Co Mo and I am seeing it...) or is it that simple… ? The pulse is dragged down to 1 second from the existing 1 minute..... Sure the cost might be the same but the rounding off will be to the nearest second and not to the nearest minute.. and that makes a hell lot of difference for people who value money…And I can give you a list….Why pay for two minutes when you have spoken for only one minute and 3 seconds..? “Don’t pay for something which you don’t use” is a proposition that works….

Apart from the simple differentiation, and the simple logo and the simple ads, the tag line Do the new, is simple as well… its similarity with Do the DEW, of Mountain Dew didn’t go unnoticed but I guess it could be taken as part of the game considering that both are players in two different games…In a cluttered market place, the rule to be seen is to stay different and Do Co Mo has done it (began it) well… As they say well begun is half done !!! (I am forced to compare this with Reliance since Tata and Reliance are the only guys in both the GSM and CDMA markets) … The Reliance launch of their GSM with Hrithik Roshan and this one… which is better?

Kudos to Chaks (KS Chakravarthy, National Creative Director, Draft FCB Ulka) and his team……