I have been teaching marketing and Advertising for quite some years now.. Even yesterday I was waxing eloquent about the first mover advantage and the like… Does Marketing theory anywhere talk about a last mover advantage? If not I guess its time that some one makes a theory of it and about it… Seeing DOCOMO doing a new every time, I feel like being the last to enter (in spite of all the barriers and scope of falling into a clutter) has its own merits as well…
Much has been written and blogged (already) about how the timing ( IPL and the world cup), about the charm and personality of Ranbir Kapoor, India’s young and fastest-rising Bollywood icon and how he is Refreshingly Different and hence all fit and perfect match for the brand persona… Much has been said (again) about how this ad reminds us of the great stand up comedians like George Carlin and our own Raju Srivastava ..I doubt that part though !
Ranbir for sure has a charm which is unique to him and his style and wit simply gels perfectly with the selling idea ‘keep it simple… silly ’. Among all the brands he now endorses ( and that includes Hero Honda (from February, 2011), John Player, Nissan, Virgin Mobile, Pepsico and Panasonic India)- this one seems to be a perfect endorser personality – brand personality fit . It focuses mostly on how Tata DOCOMO make things easier for the average telecom consumer, by providing differentiated products and services (?) …Again I doubt about the so called perfection that this guys offer.. To my knowledge all of them are the same…..
Each individual advertisement starts by illustrating a complexity in the category, and presents the Tata DOCOMO product and/or service as a means of simplifying things… as of now, this series of ads are simple and silly… and hence reaching where it is actually intending to… the viewers minds… !
I have been an ardent animation& cartoon enthusiast ever since I got some sense of my own… While in advertising too animation could seize my imagination and keep me there. But then my school of thought remained mine and not many joined it.... but then that was THEN...
Over the decades but this amazingly varied and vibrant medium has progressed from an inconsequential tool aimed at engaging children tired after school (and on dull Sunday mornings) into a source of power that has connected civilizations, enthralled scores and generations of people of all economic levels . ( I still watch a Tom & Jerry show over any other show ,given a choice !)
My beloved Industry still keeps a taboo over using of animation as an execution strategy and it still remains a under utilised tool reserved for cereal commercials and some (very few)other segments of the children’s market. This is not said forgetting the great mascots that advertising has produced (Captain Crunch, Tony the Tiger and The Jolly Green Giant, The Simpsons (Domino Pizza, MasterCard etc), Wallace and Gromit (Renault Kangaroo)…not to forget our own gattu of Asian paints and the omnipresent Zoo Zoo …. the list is endless. But then they were all mascots and very rarely became an execution platform…
Now at this juncture is what I saw this ad from ACME fitness which is direct, funny (just because it uses animation) and hitting the target right there at the weakest touch point…
Animation, with a fine dosage of humour and a compelling theme can give a brand and its agency inestimable creative and communicative powers .....It can bring to life images and ideas that can reach the TG and make waves. It could be used to say stuff which couldn’t be that easily said otherwise- exercise improves ‘performance’ said using any other execution platform would have been sexist, animation saved it…
To sum up, ACME is in the right path of advertising and if the platform is maintained and new variants of the same idea brought up, the brand is here to make waves in its category !!!
Kudos to Salt Chennai ( the creators - little is known about the guys though) and Mediaedge:cia for the right piece of work... !!!
‘How many moments have you lived’ is the question asked here and it makes one ponder.. I liked the ad for the simple fact that after a long time here is a car ad that shows the small and happily family in their car, enjoying their world…since mid December it’s going the rounds and is contributing immensely to the sales of Ritz which is a good car and hence this simple and beautiful ad looks so believable and real.
‘Plan ahead’ is what the Chevy beat has to say in this ad which looks like the mirror image of the Ritz one. Life and its living moments is the theme in both and hence the similarity, may be. That is ,seeing it from the view point of a simple family man, who bought his new car just a month back (not a Ritz or a Beat to make a confession!).
Such communication makes a lot of difference. Buyers when deciding to buy a car – choosing between A brand and B brand, may not take an ad seriously for information. This is because ads are the purest form of commercial sources of information. But a good ad, such as these can help the brand in climbing the ladder of recall and taking to brand into the buyers consideration set. If an ad does at least that, its purpose is done.
The review of Ritz and Beat as Cars is better left to the auto experts but the ads are striking, positive, simple and sweet!!!
A gut-wrenching commercial made for NSPCC (national society for prevention of cruelty to children) – UK by Saatchi and Saatchi UK in 2002 creating waves across UK and even outside. It escaped a TV ban narrowly despite receiving 127 complaints from all quarters.
The independent television commission-ITC then (and now Ofcom of UK), decided not to uphold complaints, including12 from victims of child abuse, which claimed the ad was ‘upsetting, shocking and had “overstepped the mark”.
ITC accepted that the ad was “extremely hard hitting” but agreed with the NSPCC’s defence that the particular imagery was “an effective means of communicating the seriousness of the issue and moving people to take action if they were concerned about a child”.
Few viewers complained that the ad suggested that 'only men' abuse children and several other viewers said that, while raising awareness of child abuse was important, they felt the film’s treatment of the issue had overstepped the mark. It but went on to become one of the most decorated and awarded ads of its category….the rest is history.
Credits & Description:
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
Production Company: Gorgeous Enterprises
Awards:
Cannes Lions - International Advertising Festival, 2002 (Gold Lion) for Fund-Raising & Appeals
BoB - Best of the Best Awards, 2002 for Best Commercials Director
British Television Craft Awards, 2002 (Winner) for Best Performance by an Actor
British Television Craft Awards, 2002 (Winner) for Best Animation
British Television Advertising Awards (BTAA), 2003 (TV Commercial of the Year)
The One Show, 2003 (Gold) for Public Service/Political Television Single
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising Crafts: Use of Music
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising: Public Service & Charities Individual & Campaigns
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising Crafts: Direction
D&AD Awards, 2003 (Silver Award) for TV & Cinema Advertising Crafts: Animation
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Product/Service: Public Service
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Silver) for Technique: Animation-Film
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Technique: Direction
CLIO Awards, 2003 (Bronze) for Technique: Editing
Art Directors Club of Europe Awards, 2003 (Gold Winner) for Public Service & Charity
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Grand Prix Cinema)
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Worldwinner TV)
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Winner) for Best Sound Design
Kinsale Sharks Awards Advertising Festival, 2002 (Gold) for Public Services & Social Welfare
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Best Idea in 60 Seconds or Over
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Best Direction
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for NABS Charity Advertisement
Advertising Creative Circle Awards, 2003 (Gold) for Best Use of Animation
The Gunn Report, 2003 (02) for Most Awarded TV Ad
The team :-
Creative Director: David Droga
Art Director: Howard Willmott, Duncan Marshall
Copywriter: Howard Willmott, Duncan Marshall
Director: Frank Budgen
Producer: Paul Rothwell
Cameraman: Ben Seresin
Lighting Director / Lighting: Ben Seresin
Account Director: Norma Clarke, Stephen Corlett
Strategic Planner: Thea Tetley
Animation: Russell Brooke, Hugo Sands, Passion Pictures
Animation Effects: Chris Knott
Sound Designer: Nigel Crowley
Music Composer: Jonathan Goldstein
Actor / Celebrity: Johnny Harris
Brand Manager: Dugald McDougall
Animation Director: Russell Brooke
Animation Producer: Hugo Sands
This Print Ad titled 'Jag' was done by M&C Saatchi for you know whom.... Its an ad from New Zealand and got released just some days back.... It exhorts people to see the world differently !!!!Stunning creative - stunning because it follows the KISS rule in all sense ..Simple and sweet !!!
Credits & Description:
Advertising Agency: M&C Saatchi, Auckland, New Zealand
Executive Creative Director: Dave King
Art Director: Dan Fastnedge
Copywriter: Olivia Wagner
Retoucher: Lightfarm Studios
Photographer: Mat Blamires
Account Director: James Johnston
Account manager: Amy Ivancic
Via: bestadsontv
Running a campaign is like having beer, it’s rare that the second one will taste as good as the first one, and the third one as good as the second…. (This however is not a rule and even if it is, as with every other rule, this one has exceptions as well…..)
Cadburys diary Milk is a brand that always amused me – and since today (as I write, )I am in a golden hangover of having seen and heard it all from the man himself – Piyush Pandey who came to Kochi and talked to us on how Cadbury's made it .. The hangover is intact even now and yet I cannot resist myself from my humble duty of evaluating and putting my view on ads in the limelight...
Diary Milk and its oscillation is part of marketing history. As Piyush himself admits, brands have to say stories and have to change them (keeping the soul intact) as per the changing TG that you talk to. Some times such change is triggered by the market needs/ marketing needs of the brand (like the DM case when they first repositioned it from just being a kid’s stuff to also for adults stuff… See to here…) And many times even when the market or marketing needs don’t want you to change the communication, the agency does for want to avoid getting bored.. Classic case of you getting bored with your own creation before the viewer does.. Thus Pappu pass ho gaya, Radha and the Miss Palampur ads ( a crime!) and then after a long foray into the ups and downs of positioning roller coaster rides , the Pehli tarik ads with the song 'Khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai, Meetha hai khana aaj pehli tarikh hai” which just means sing and rejoice, it's salary day today… (Nothing great!) ,,,,
Then came the Shubarambh one - cute, sweet and hitting right at the spot.. There were critiques for this one as well but that’s part of the game.. The first beer bottle for the thirsty (deprived of good beer for long, that is!), it was refreshing and so very tasty.. In fact too tasty to be true and I used to wonder, how they will retain the cuteness element in its successive ads, if they are going to prolong the Shubarambh campaign… Whether it is due to the need that the variety loving market place throws in, or simply because the agency gets bored of its existing work, it takes some guts for a new campaign with a new tag line, tone and tongue to be launched … It takes but more than guts to make it look and taste better than the older one… The cute teenagers in the bus stand was the fresh chilled beer for the thirsty soul, the oldies in jeans was the second one (getting dull) and now the young gal eloping with her beau only to be encountered in the car with her family, sitting there to share a piece of DM is the third..
The third beer never tastes as good as the first one, but that simile is no excuse for getting it worse than the predecessor every time and this one so far is the worst. How I hope they get back to something sensible and saleable than this or at least stop cobbling up such bits and pieces to question the commonsense of the average viewer…
May be they have met a family somewhere who met her daughter in her boy friends car and saw her off with a DM and thus got inspired!!!
May be they want to now expand the celebration platform and make even elopement a reason to celebrate!!!
May be after all the gaps and holes that they have identified and ventured into(refer to market expansion strategies by Kotler )this is the only one possible hole where they can NOW sell some chocolate ….
From celebration to celebration of trash .. Bankruptcy at Ogilvy? ….
CWG and all the mess that it created, the negative energy and the media debates, the last minute efforts, dogs and snakes, fallen bridges and fallen hopes……
Everything turned into a bright ray of hope as the day came to an end on 3 rd Oct 2010. As the world watched in awe, as India unfolded its unparalleled history, geography and myths before the world in all grandeur and blush, in its infinite variety, any one who would have seen the show, at least for a second would have wanted to be an Indian….
I sat glued to TV and after ages Doordarshan (India’s national channel who had the exclusive right over the CWG show) amused me and after some hours I was trying to calculate the number of years of mine , where I would have had nothing to do with the first TV channel of ours…
The show was awesome as you have seen and read it all, but Doordarshan had to live up to its nick name Kroordarshan.. … Commercial breaks with no logic and sense.., an array of ads that were nothing but irritating (largely of the Public sector and hence irresponsible), and poor visual and miserable sound quality…. And to top it, you never knew when the break appears, suddenly cutting short an event in the thickly packed stadia making India curse its national TV….
I was too lazy to pick up a remote and sat idle when I saw this …a group of men playing a train like we all used to do as kids, singing and going galli galli and house after house.. 10 seconds into the ad I knew it was something worth watching and when it ended I had goosebumps all over..
I am in love with this ad because ..
It is from the Indian railways, I would have never expected them to come out with such a stuff.. (My apologies for the earlier “public sector and hence irresponsible statement”.)
It was different in terms of concept, so very near to all of us- (all of us would have played a train) and yet so very different, it can grab attention and hold you in its grip and make you feel proud of the biggest railway network of the world..
It has a Potent strategy in it, it stands out and has a strong selling idea and more over ,it is relevant and can be build into a campaign without much efforts…
Kudos to Indian railways, Nirvana Films and Prakash Varma…. It is a sea change from what the PSU ads looked and stared at us like…
After note :- in case you have read the post already , this info came to me late as my contact with Prakash Varma just buzzed me saying, the ad had a Piyush touch in it.. Not entirely the idea but parts of it and the song to its entirety... so Kudos to the great Piyush Pandey as well...
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”
IDEA Cellular has launched this new ad under the popular What an Idea, Sirji! Campaign series, to demonstrate the power of telephony, in a country where 850 mother tongues and 22,000 dialects are spoken…most of you would have seen it for sure and when I saw it amused me for the fact that it is so far the best in the series… remember all those various avatars such as the sarpanch, tourist guide, school principal, politician’s aide, doctor, and even a tree…...
Sirji this time has come up with an idea to sell Idea to people who have lucrative job offers (from far flung cities in India- most jobs these days are far flung...) The setting is quite familiar and all of us have gone through the same scene, in spite of the offer exciting us, the thought of living in a place where a different language is spoken, makes one unconvinced and uncomfortable.
Adformula had been a critic of some of the ads in the series (in the past) but this one for sure catches the attention of the average viewer in the TG….. India and its possibilities/ opportunities for the young, PLUS the challenges (language barrier for instance) is ably displayed in this ad. The diversity and vastness, at times, create an impediment in the growth of this country…. Not that Sirji has a solution for all that but it is one ray of hope for a nation kept purposefully fragmented for narrow political gains…
The new ad is yet another improvement in the series of Idea’s campaigns with the popular tag line – What an Idea, Sirji! ,this campaign has all the elements of what a picture perfect campaign should have… a new Idea (which keeps improving every time), a tagline which enjoyed such massive recall, and a celebrity who matches the brand and its charm ( except for south where the small B isn’t much of a charm). .. no wonder why the subscriber base of Idea has hit such heights in the last few years…
The happy brand said so… (as per media reports). “Almost every Indian has gone through a situation where one has struggled to communicate with another fellow Indian just because of language. The new Idea campaign offers a Champion idea to address this concern of our society, through the power of mobile telephony. We are confident that the new brand campaign will build a strong connect with the audience and further grow Idea’s over 70 million subscriber base” and why not… as said again and again, the longer clients stick on to its agency, the trust base gets stronger and the quality of its creative output goes up…… there is no substitute for long lasting and strong client – agency relationships in advertising… Here the credit goes to the client an well as Lowe , the agency behind…
The preceding campaigns – ‘Championing a world without caste’; ‘Championing a world in which no one suffers from the disability to communicate’; ‘Education for All’, ‘Participative Governance’, ‘Walk When You Talk’, and the recent ‘Use Mobile, Save Paper’ campaign – all abide by the essential brand promise of providing a simple, fresh and imaginative solution to a complex problem of the society… and now this one which is no different and in fact better…
In a campaign , each succeeding ad should be better than its preceding one… It is like having beer… the second one should taste better than the first one , and the third one should taste better than the second one and so on…… As said by John Steinbeck … .Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
Now that is an ad... I would call it tangy and tasty to the core and serves all that an ad is supposed to be... no rocket science here but this guys have made me ( I am sure everyone of the TG) get stunned for a moment, then awed by the gun men, the kidnap ,the gun fight and the police and then shocked by the sudden breaking and then laugh when the whole MASALA drama starts again with the Bachaooooo sound reverberating .... No logic here and thankfully the makers of this ad hasnt analysed the idea and killed it... Ideas like this are funny, or it's not.... As Mark Twain said, "Trying to figure out why something is funny is like dissecting a frog. You'll come up with answers, but the frog always dies."... I loved this ad for the same reason and more...
Bingo and O&M team believes in entertaining and here again they have done that .. who does not love to be entertained? And that too, thought provokingly and without being offensive to any one ... This ad respects the imagination of the viewer and the fact that their imagination may be bigger and better than the ad makers... Even when one laughs , the fact that is clear is that- the business of snacking thrives on constant insertion of excitement and thrill on the image value of the brand. . I love this ad for all this, plus still managing to stay in track ( with all the guns, thieves and bachaooo)and sell the product idea.. at the end of all the laughing if the brand and its images are not staying in the mind of the TG , what is the great fun in making ads?
Finally this ad , as many of the previous Bingo ads, breaks the limit... they know for sure that the best of humour comes from the edge,where simply there is no limits...
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…”
A great example of how ambient advertising can work wonders... It is aimed at car drivers and in a place like middle east where heat can eat people, such messages hit at the SPOT where it burns, can work wonders.. The frying pan as a symbol of heat can be extended to other images like a hot tea pot and boiling water etc.... simple and yet piercing !!!
A drunk wanders into a bar and yells, " I think all insurance guys are crooks".
A man quickly rushes up to the drunk and shouts "You take that back."…..
The drunk replies, "Why ....are you an insurance agent?",
The man, in a rage, hollers back, "No, I'm a crook".
One ad that really did amuse me and would find irresistible to see again and again is this one, this real delightful and lovely Metlife ad … in the heat and sweat, the dust and din of the IPL season and the influx of ads into channels, on every category from atta to underwear and from mobiles to 3D TV’s this one for me, stood out… no great announcements, no bombastic discoveries and no VAS or ATTRIBUTES standing in line to catch your attention..
Just a simple and plain fact of life that “who knows when will this regular income game come to an end ?” ("life mein regular income ka khel kab khatam ho jaye- kaun jane?”)said in just the colour and tone that happens in every family… the dad, the mom ,the parents, the naughty, brainy , blackmailing and finally disappointed kid.. I loved this ad for its simplicity for sure and for keeping the KISS rule alive and kicking but more for its lack ofcreative pretensions that make most ads of today either look like art films ( made for metals) or like worn out, also made creatives that come out of exhausted and underpaid ad agency labour camps…
Ever since they had (guess its was in 2001-02) this"have you met life today?" ads, MetLife as a brand has used a combination of hope, humour and humanityto talk about its variety of offerings for financial needs of ordinary people which are often complex (including life insurance, long-term care, banking and annuities) and hence often avoided…. The beauty is that through their approach they made it look simple but the needs were put forward to us as so inevitable to be left unattended…
Some time back to make sure that their voice is heard above competition Metlife took the same campaign outdoors….a mascot by the name 'Calendar Man', who did hold a cheque, signifying a guaranteed monthly income to the investors andmeeting people from billboards and bus shelters in Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh made a good impact… The campaign was devised by McCann Erickson (the longtime agency for Metlife) and executed by Platinum Outdoor, Madison's OOH arm.
Now this ad has come in regional versions (dubbed ones) too and thankfully they too look and sound good and the song is retained, at least in the Malayalam version I saw.. would love to see the Tamil version...
Using premises like "create your own pension plan" and "guaranteed income for life," these ads stands and sticks exclusively with the economic apprehensions of baby boomers - individuals between 35-55 years old - who may be troubled about outlasting their nest egg….. Since I fall in the category may be, I loved the ad, it stayed in my mind for long and even after all the TV watching, it started pricking the spend thrift in me who lives for today, so much so that for the first time in 36 years I thought of some savings and I told my wife that ‘we need to start some saving’ … ‘who knows when will this regular income thing come to an end..?’
I haven’t bought the product yet but have made the first step, have asked an executive to meet me.. I guess if I am a sample, this ads are working… and that’s what they make ads for..
Three cheers to the Suhasini Mulay (the actor who portrayed Dadi) ,team Metlife and McCann-Erickson Delhi for the work…!!!
Tail piece :- "The insurance guys keeps us poor all our lives so we can die rich"
Last day, as if the surprises that IPL throws up isn’t enough, I was amazed to see the who is who from all the teams (not literally) but in as many coloured uniforms (Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Gautam Gambhir, Andrew Symonds along with 15 others) perform the“Ooh la la la ” act… These stalwarts from the top four teams of IPL( Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, Deccan Chargers & Rajasthan Royals) fight with each other to perish the other on the field where sparks fly, but off the pitch they are all together and cannot get away from trying and playing with their vocal chords to get the Kingfisher jingle right and finally with the tag line 'Divided by teams: United by Kingfisher’!
Twenty one seasoned cricketers from four teams of IPL coming together on one platform to sing for a new advertising campaign launched during IPL 2010 is for me fun for sure but more than the entertainment part I felt enamoured by the seemingly endless possibilities that IPL gives to the business of Marketing…
This 30 second TVC is on air of course during the IPL matches on Set Max but also in other channels across the news, movie and music genres……Thanks to some good media planning by Mindshare( and credits to Balu Chaitanya the planner behind and a beloved student of mine,,,) Conceptualized by JWT Bangalore, this karaoke music (popular in bars, pubs and disco’s) based story line commercial is a delight and joy to watch, as an invigorating break in between anxious moments of the match. Bearing in mind the arduous and frenzied schedule of the cricketers in the IPL, the ad has been shot in four different locations (Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi) and cheers for the efforts as well as the results.. For the brand that is fun and serious business at the same time, the ad will do good for sure…Nothing so out of the world if you take the idea but different, entertaining and definitely worth the efforts…
Kingfisher as a brand is very closely associated with IPL 2010.They are the Good Times partner to Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians. Kingfisher is also the official Umpire’s partners with the brand sitting and smiling from the uniforms and on the score boards in the stadiums.
Liquor, as some critiques say may not need marketing and sales and the growth in the category is just organic. The category grows in spite of the tough rules and legal hurdles that governments impose, ostensibly to dissuade consumption. The fact but is with or without marketing the growth is happening. According to agency faq’s today “Kingfisher claims a growth rate of 12-13 per cent, as against an industry average of 10-15 per cent. The UB Group also claims a sale of 100 million cases of beer in 2009-10 as compared to 83 million cases sold in 2008-09, while the total market size of beer in the country stands at 200 million cases. The credit is to the Marketing acumen of the brand”
So Marketing rules and the rule continues !!!
As of now three cheers for the team, for the entertainer... !
After 3 idiots, the scene has changed.. If Indusind bank roped in Omi Vaidya (Chatur for beginners ,if any), Airtel has taken in Sharman Joshi in what I would call as a brilliant move which but didn’t seem to be taking off… Brilliant because Sharman can easily be ranked amongst one of the most talented actors in Bollywood today. He tickled our funny bone with Style, Golmaal and Shaadi No. 1; played the high spirited guy in Rang De Basanti and then the rest is you know what !!!! Simply a dude with super cool attitude and effortless enacting of his fun of a role which made cinema goers sit up and take notice of him in 3 Idiots.
After having established a name as an actor, Sharman took the logical next step- brand endorsement. His first ever endorsement is for Airtel and when I read the story I felt a bit relieved that at last some fresh faces will now sell us this and that …. Tired of the old faces, I am sure people would feel great about new faces… Madhavan –the other actor in the 3 idiots trio, is also an endorser in his own style. Remember his romantic ads with Vidya balan… ?
When Airtel signed on Sharman, his immense popularity that he got after the roaring success of 3 Idiots was cited as the main reason and also the youthful and bubbly image that he has and which Airtel also wants to stretch to its young TG…. No wonder why the actor has been paid a whopping amount for the endorsement and soon after Airtel’s announcement came Nokia took him as well/ this time again with Adah Sharma ( who appears with R Madhavan in Joy Alukkas ads) as their latest brand ambassadors for their latest X series range…
The series so far has 5 ads .- Roaming, Night calling, Mobile internet ,SMS and STD services….see them here... But my trouble is not in the idea of Sharman, not even in the whole idea of “baath karne se hi baath banti hai”- talking only can make things work ( what an idea guys ooppsss sirji… ) I will give a standing ovation for these choices… My worry is that inspite of the guys next door boy looks, his boyish charm and the naughtiness, his mischief married with the plots the ads do not have the killer effect that they could have had if the creatives had pushed it a little more further..
The HERO convinces girls to YES him just by texting love quotes, sells 'his price' to a shop keeper by making him talk to his maaji, makes his dad agree to send him more money by emotional black mailing, again appeases his professor by praising his books on thermodynamics and hoodwinks an irate brother of his girl friend are all funny even though not very gulpable , just like that.. The ideas do not fully represent today’s guys true naughtiness and they don’t really and in total connect with the real guys of the real world ( who are these days locked in with the IPL matches and there are better ads that score well.. for instance) the yo yo guys are more creative, more convincing , more appeasing, more black mailing and more hoodwinking and you cannot even feel it…
They for sure are better than the Vodafone Zoo Zoo’s that have come back, the Idea Ungli chalao ads (from tree savers to fingering , Idea seems to have run out of ideas!..at a point I even thought that Idea will come up with 'Stop exams and save trees campaign'…!) .. Sharman and the Airtel ones stand out, but are they getting the place they deserve.. ? I doubt…
May be I am wrong and for a change I would be happy to be proven wrong!!!
As of now Airtel and Sharman is an awesome duo but we want more… because with a slight push you can give us that more… baath karna abhi baaki hai bhai !!!
Pls wait if its taking time to buffer,, and have your speakers on.. !!!!
This is one of the most discussed video for the last fortnight.. It has raised many an eye brow, have taken debates about sexuality into a new level… It had some superb factor in it that can kick start a conversation among people who takes it as a topic to be conversed and fuel a controversy among people who see a controversy even in a drop of milk. This commercial was realised and released for Aides- a French association fighting AIDS by TBWA Paris …..
Controversy but then is the other name of TBWA- be it in the Beijing Olympics Chinese pride ads vs the Amnesty international ad showing the Chinese torture of its athletes both at the same time done by TBWA or be it the 'Pincha la Rueda de Hamilto' or the Burst Hamilton's tires or recently in India the Haagen-Dazs India and its “Access restricted only to holders of international passports” ad and the acrimonious client walk out after the beating…
Funniest advertisement it is, but it is an eye opener.. of course I don’t agree to the suggestion that wearing a condom works like magic or even a magnet that draws to it the female sexual organ, which in a way encourages promiscuity but yes the protection factor is well depicted… We have seen much about AIDS awareness and not many are so open and so very piercing…. Needless to say that graphics and animation is just brilliant. It may be notorious, even be enjoyable, for some it may be detachable but for me it is distributable and most importantly something that will be effective on a wide range of targets…..
Now such messages that suits the audience in other places as well needs to come out, and use the new media tools as well to keep hitting the targets and keep the conversation going and even augment it..
For the time being but three cheers to the awesome team work, and taking advertising as an art and for the simple plain talk..... and hey -thanks to good friend and brother- Rajiv Rajan for sending me the links required ....
Credits
Agency: TBWA, Paris Client: Aides Executive Creative Director: Eric Holden Executive Creative Director: Remi Noel Art Director: Ingrid Varetz Copywriter: Ingrid Varetz Agency Producer: Virginie Chalard Agency Producer: Maxime Boiron Production Company: Wanda Productions Director: Yoann Lemoine Music Company: AOC Productions-Paris & NY
Sometimes, television commercials can be so hilarious that we favor to stay back on our couch during commercial breaks, and go for the lavatory, during the shows we’re trying to watch. Camlin Marker – Vermillion ad entertained me a lot from the first time I saw it to every now and then when I use it in lectures and training to drive home the point why ads should be simple, precise and direct….
It opens with the information that in India, vermillion, bangles and a locket are signs of a married woman, and that when a woman loses her husband, she is stripped of these symbols. The husband applies vermillion to a wife’s forehead daily as it is supposed to be connected to his lifeline.
Right from that opening note to the rudalis (professional mourners) who were waiting for the man to die to the man who dies and then comes back are awesome in their expressions. And then the flash back which says why and how the vermillion got fixed there and then the man’s dramatic come back..
It has won hell lot of awards, both in house and outside but more than that it for sure has helped the brand in its branding and sales…
The concept is so Indianised and the execution is brilliant... Everyone from the miserable deadpan expression, makes the start look like an award film but in the end one can’t help but laugh. A serious situation is turned around with such ease and the climax proves the rule that the last 10 seconds is very important…kudos to Lowe and the team who made Camlin brand....Hence this ad becomes the first of the perpetual amusers in adformula….
Peugeot 607 , the executive car which rolled out in 1999 to replace the 605 was a brilliant car in its styling and function... Both the 605 and this new version was a hit and was admired of rits executive style and looks.. (Except in some parts of Europe where I have seen it being run as a taxi) I love this ad for its attitude, and for the shivers that it gave to others... After the ad many copy cats came , not only in the business of making and selling cars but also in other businesses.But then that itself is the biggest testimony to this ad !
Its nostalgia for me to see this ad again and my appreciation to the creatives that thought this idea and for the brilliant execution... Proud that I too had a past in Euro RSCG Europe and have seen this ad in the making !
Titan is the other name for watches in India…for the one follower who came in to the monopoly of the Indian market in 1987-88 fully diversifying into jewelry as well in 1994 by 2003 had upset the apple cart.. Changed the rules of the game.. huh why rules.. change the game it self …Now that is not the reason why the new ad finds a place in adformula … in fact whenever I found celebrity endorsement I have (most of the time) found myself scathing in my attack on laziness as a strategy that ad makers employ when they make a star sit (stand/bath/run/drink/wear/dress) lift the produce (soap/shampoo/energy drink/petrol/pen) or whatever and say I am this and that because I used this…. In class I give the example of Dyna soap and Kathrina Kaif to prove my point…..
Aamir and his association with titan is really endearing… it proves the ten commandments* that I strongly hold dear and think as must for advertising guys to adhere to whenever they have a famous face to help you sell the product in the short term and build your brand in the long term…
1. Thou shall not take into service a celebrity, for want of other choices.
2. Thou shall not employ a celebrity, who is there, everywhere.
3. Thou shall not appoint a celebrity who is outdated/ controversial.
4. Thou shall not sign up a celebrity who doesn’t really connect.
5. Thou shall not hire a celebrity who lacks expertise in the category or at least who is a total misnomer.
6. Thou shall not engage a celebrity because everyone else is behind him/her.
7. Thou shall not hire a celebrity, just because the competitor has one.
8. Thou shall not assign a celebrity with every brand in your product mix.
9. Thou shall not utilize a celebrity without the advertising strategy in mind.
10. Thou shall not slot in a celebrity without a personality study of the Celebrity and the brand(s).
*From “mechanics of celebrity endorsements” Advertising express- August 2006- Sabu M Nair
Now having said that it is not only the gelling that the brand and the celebrity is having in this ad, it is also about the equal weightage given to both so that the star do not eat on the brand (vampire effect) . It is also about the continuity that the stars persona is enjoying and such continuity being consistently taken in by the brand for its prosperity.( Remember the Ghajni ads and the Mangal Pandey ads). It’s about the celebrity not being seen for too many brands and in discontinuous intervals and when seen in all fun and fancy that fits his image…It is like a perfect marriage, even though there is nothing in real life called a perfect marriage…
A watch is not just a time device now…it is not just an electronic device that covers a small part of a man’s framework…. It is not even an essential part of your wardrobe if I may say it. Thanks to Titan and the first set of Aamir ads which made it look like “if you do not have a set of watches in your wardrobe, you are a looser” feel and the feel stayed through out the “be born every day”ads to “what’s your style” and to “be more”.. The sales figures of the past decade talks…..Titan as a category leader for sure has done its job- both of category development and its own brand development … their ads always had been simple, strikingly different and leaving a smile on the viewer.. this one is strictly in the same mould and the most striking feature is the consistency… brands and their managers who get bored of their advertising and strategy even before the TG does, have to learn a lesson or two from this partnership…
Kudos to the team at O&M and Titan for being consistent, continuous and creative ! ( this is not forgetting the latest brand extensions of Titan like the eye+ the worth and value of which is yet to be decided and the fact that O&M handles its advertising as well)
This 2003 American ad is finding a place here in Adformula not because it is the best ad in my archive... For that matter, I haven’t yet seen the best ad, as my archive is getting bigger with every passing day.....
This ad awed me for sure for the fun in it. But more than that, it has overwhelmed me for taking the formula out and doing something new... Procter & Gamble and many other makers of detergents has used the "doorstep challenge" method (formula) in which a B or C rate celebrity encounters and persuade a "surprised housewife" that the powder really does work better than other washing powders.. a dirty bucket and some unbelievably dirty clothes which when dipped on the said bucket will prove the point…..Some places and in some situations the formula slightly varies where the celebrity is replaced by a jealous neighbor or even a mother- in- law or daughter -in -law who teaches and the other one gets taught…
As an advertising device, however, it has been living on borrowed time. While it may have proved to be a tried-and-tested way of demonstrating the powders qualities, a whole new generation of housewives (and husbands too) found the idea a bit too out dated and cheesy to be accepted just like that…
Out of the box stuff when the ad introduces to us to Mummy Maureen and son Sean. Maureen finds an off-white bra in Sean's bedroom.Sean's girlfriend is not using Daz, she concedes, but the bra is not her’s either……. Sean looks bashful and the barmaid looks shifty..... TheAd is made by Leo Burnett and was extended into different forms and ideas of which I have one more to show and it is here...
Hitherto, I use this ads to teach “out of the box” concept… but as the saying goes” to think out of the box, one first have to have the box”………
DTH brands haven’t featured much here- for two reasons- one) they are relatively new and two) I don’t understand most of them in the sense- most are the same- the unchanged features and benefits and adding more to the same clutter.. no great differentiation and frankly I don’t find the need gap (I am happy with the good old citi cable network connection that I have)…… and since they are new, they still are in a demand creation and category development mode, and since there is tough fight among the players ( Reliance Big TV, Airtel TV,Sun direct, Tata Sky, Dish TV and God knows who all) the share of voice and noise is yet to be decided… just today news papers say how the ASCI has upheld Tata sky petition questioning the ‘Dil Titli’ television campaign featuring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor which claimed that the campaign “misleading” for suggesting that the picture quality of Airtel Digital TV was superior as it used the MPEG4 and DVB-S2 technology.. Airtel will soon have to withdraw….a lot of dust and din for simple minds, for sure…
The new Tata Sky active English ad, but even in the din, pleased me a lot… no great reason should be explained I know, as to why it is discussed here because as an ad it serves its purpose- Have it made the feel in you? And then does it prompt you to do the action part…..
I am not in the TG ( as I speak ok English) but I know many who will like to speak, particularly house wives who have a regular timing and schedule that this guys seems to have wonderfully understood and made a product accordingly… (Tata Sky has tied up with British Council in devising the programme ,keeping in mind the busy schedule of an average housewife, Monday to Friday, keeping the content new and the whole week's content being reviewed on the weekends… and the training remaining on air 24 hours and people allowed to access it according to their convenience. Active English would also teach people the correct pronunciations of words apart from training for normal daily situations and plus no grammar and hence no complication… and that too free for a year and then I am told Rs 30 per month… )
As any other Marketing guy would put it, great products combined with great marketing sell for itself… Advertising is not just about being able to write catchy lines and tit for tat’s.. Its not about drawing great pictures either.. It is about being able to reach to the TG in their language and fashion, when they want and when they are free…It’s not about being able to rope in a Khan or the other just to add to the fuddle…
I guess this ad where the protagonist woman speaks and speaks about how she heard of Tata Sky active English and how she used it to make over herself, demonstrating the transformation in her speech which moves from Hindi to English and then to a clear , blemish less and active English…I loved the way the protagonist talk about pronunciation ..it is simple, subtle and straight …. And this fact that it is not boring or looking made up as the normal testimonial ads ( with or without celebrities most of them are boring, especially the doctors types that Dettol, Lizol, and the others use so very sterile a fashion) is a feather in their gorgeous cap…After Aamir khan, Aamir Khan/Gul panag ads, it could have been really arduous for the marketer to come up with something better.. This guys but seems to have done a cake walk… it proves again, if your box is working well, you will get some real out of the box stuff!!!
See this ad and read this review along with the fact that DTH is a service which is not so easy to convince people to buy… it requires some money and some serious process, that the buyer has to invest to get a connection( all the buyer behaviour process steps that one learned from a Kotler) … To feel gratified about the decision that he has taken after he has taken it, he needs to get better pictures, better sound etc ( as promised in the ads) , more channels for less (as promised in the ads) value added services ( as promised in the ads) and quite more..
The fact (however) is that many DTH subscribers after the purchase lands up in huge dissonance stage and just wanted to rip off their connection just to return to their good old cable network with no hidden charges, and no long list of channels that are “scrambled” and/or you have to pay separately to see it and still get to see the ads shouting Jinga la la ,pooh poohing their decision….
As of now ,three cheers to Tata Sky Active English and its active advertising…
Footnote:-“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits”.
