For bikers, Royal Enfield is a brand that is likely to set their pulses racing. Not exactly on the same league as Harley Davidson, I would imagine but pretty much a cult brand. With its rich history and Owners Clubs its got some mystique about it alright. Apparently, Royal Enfield is a brand of the Enfield Cylce company which also produced rifle parts. Rifle, bullet…I get the drift. In India, the brand has been in…
The ibibo commercials seem to evoke a mixed response: either you hate them or hate them a lot! Most of my friends’ reaction is ‘yuck’ or a squint of the nose. ‘Balti’ (a bucket) as a concept (someone who does not talk) is very ‘dilli’ and may not be understood by all. A lot of bloggers have also panned it. But lets look at the larger picture – they have achieved brand salience in double…
One of the hot topics now in advertising blogs, is the death of a senior advertising executive called Paul Tilley.Paul was the managing director of Creative at DDB, Chicago and apparently committed suicide at the age of 40. This is what happened: – In October 07, Paul writes a memo to his staff where he said: ‘“Some of you are doing truly great work — work that makes DDB/Chicago one of the top 10 most…
He did it again. Richard Branson launched Virgin Mobile in India recently and almost everything about it is ‘going against the grain’. The advertising tagline, ‘Think hatke’ could very well be true for the brand launch. Look at the facts: – the brand has taken a route hitherto not thought of by other global brands, that of franchising. Since India does not allow MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). An MVNO is a company that provides…
Sometime back I had whined about the process of new business pitches. It’s time to whine again. Some recent incidents at work have reiterated these things about new business efforts in advertising:- The final decision on the agency is rarely a reflection of the quality of strategic inputs or creative work. Some other powerful factors are also at play. It could be that your MD and their MD are not golf partners yet. Or that…
MediaPost reports of a possible move by MindShare to offer creative services within its digital media operations. The article also outlines several such initiatives by media agencies. As of now, the moves are limited to offering digital creative services. Some like Aegis, the parent of Carat have ‘recently begun producing offline creative, including conventional 30-second TV commercials’.This is a far cry from the days of unbundling of media services. Media agencies and creative agencies continue…
I enjoyed reading this extremely well-written and brilliantly argued piece of writing on scam ads by Suman Srivastava. I will not be able to capture the power of the argument fully here, but the gist of Suman’s argument is this: we celebrate creativity & skill that are not put to practice in everyday life (e.g. Fashion Shows, F1 racing). So why can’t we ‘celebrate’ scam ads in creative awards? Suman says ‘Creative awards are meant…
No other subject (apart from increments, perhaps) generates as much heat in an advertising agency as the Creative Brief. While the brief as we know it has been around for decades now, there is rarely an occasion where an agency team feels that the brief process is working. The creative team invariably cribs about the quality of brief, irrespective of the format. In large agencies where the planning team is responsible for the creative brief,…
This is not restricted to India, but globally too, there are only a handful of agency blogs. One would imagine that this being a great tool for agencies to showcase its thinkers and creative stars, there would be more.Many of the agency bigwigs and creative stars in India articulate their thoughts through newspaper articles, interviews and sound bytes on TV programmes. Why not set up a blog? I think the dearth of blogs from agencies…
Godrej has signed up Hrithik Roshan for Cinthol. This is a brand that attempts to convey confidence as a brand promise. The latest ad featuring Hrithik’s torsos and biceps is out.The ad urges you to run for life, climb, glide, breathe and jump. I am serious. The corny copy apart, this is a well-executed film full of gloss and is likely to make Cinthol look contemporary. The range (deos, talcs) with nice new graphics is…