The Twitter addicts amongst the readers of this post will know all about Twitter, so they may as well skip reading. Now. For the rest of us, here is the story. I discovered Twitter a few months ago (Why don’t we ever remember the exact moment we heard of a new thingy/fad? When did you discover Facebook?). For the uninitiated: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates”…
Business Standard reports that Apple is likely to launch the iPhone in India by September this year. The report quotes a lot of ‘sources’ and seems speculative in nature. According to the report, Vodafone is likely to partner Apple in terms of mobile services. Will it be ‘exclusive’ like with AT&T in the US or not (like in Europe?) is unclear. Anyway, count me in. Apple as a topic opens the floodgates in me. The…
Focus Groups. Two words that conjure up visions of long meandering chats, forced probing questions (yeh jingle kaisi lagi aapko? Model ko kaala chashma pehenna chahiye ya brown?), inane comments, peering at a TV screen and a presentation with charts and diagrams soon after. One school of thought is that in any focus group, only 10 minutes of the discussion is actually meaningful. Rest is prattle. Such groups have their share of predictability. There will…
At the recently concluded Goafest, Mr D. Shivakumar, Vice-President and Managing Director, Nokia India spoke about the coming 3G revolution in India. In another 2 years, India will have 500 mn subscribers of mobile phones and the break up could be: Out of the 500 million subscribers, 60 million would have video capabilities, 10 million music, 200 million radio, 250 million camera capabilities, while 250 million will have net connections. In a world where we…
Amidst reports of the honeymoon period between Kingfisher and Deccan coming to an end, is the question: can merger of two distinct brands work? The bone of contention seems to be the brand positioning of Deccan and retaining of the brand name. In my view, Deccan had a sharp positioning and a great vision. The ‘common man’s airline’ and the vision of converting the mass of train travelers to air travelers is a promising one.…
Media and blog circles are abuzz with the launch of Times of India’s Chennai edition. The Hindu now has serious competition. While Deccan Chronicle and the New Indian Express do have Chennai editions, I don’t think they are as formidable as TOI when it comes to a fight. Deccan Chronicle played the price game and claims No.2 position and the Indian Express was light years behind in terms layout and presentation. I grew up in…
There was a time when the work out of the Gulf countries used to be scoffed at. But of late, I am steadily witnessing ads from there, which not only look good but right up there in terms of ideas. Advertising Agency: Team Y&R, Dubai, UAECreative Directors: Shahir Ahmed, Guilherme RangelCopywriter: Keshav NaiduArt Director / Illustrator / Typographer: Dinesh Tharippa Advertising Agency: Team Y&R, Dubai, UAECreative Directors: Shahir Ahmed, Guilherme RangelArt Director / Photographer: Dinesh…
The brilliant ideas for Cycle Agarbattis which won some metals at the Goafest. For a minute let us not worry about when this ran, how long, to address what client problem etc. Sometimes you just need to applaud simple yet breakthrough idea – an idea which was so obvious but no one else saw. Advertising Agency: Mudra, Mumbai, IndiaCreative Directors: Bobby Pawar, Rajesh Sonawane, Mahendra Bheda, Varun MehtaArt Directors: Girish Wadisherla, Vivek Jadhav, VijayanandCopywriters: Varun…
When it comes to browsing Annual Awards books, I used to be as prolific as the creative guys. One Show and D&AD Annual were the books I used to browse through regularly when growing up in Advertising. I used to be fascinated by the work done by Fallon McElligot (now simply Fallon) and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. These two agencies used to have the maximum number of entries in the index page. I am talking…
Came across this interesting piece of media innovation for BMW Canada. Vice Magazine ran an ad for BMW 1 Series—visible only in the dark— on the cover of its March issue. According to MediainCanada magazine: At first glance, it looks like any other cover. But when the lights go out, a glow-in-the-dark ad for the BMW 1 Series appears, with the 1 appearing where the “i” in Vice usually does. “The media strategy for the…