Nokia announced their own App Store, which will be first seen in their N97 model – it will be available for download on existing Nokia phones later. May. Not to be outdone, Microsoft announced their version Windows Marketplace with 20,000 applications (what’s better – a handful that work great or tonnes of mediocre stuff?). There are others too, as outlined here. As one of the chewing gums ad in India asked, ‘pehle kyon nahi socha?’…
Print ad for Amway’s car polish with the promise of ‘Shine like new’. You got the idea? Agency: Y&R, Bangkok
Unless you have been living under the proverbial rock, you must’ve heard about Twitter being hailed as a social media revolution. It also has it’s fair share of detractors. For an idea of what is being said against them, see here and here. Am I an obsessive user of Twitter? No. Do I think it’s fun? Yes. While it tires me to read through tweets like ‘eating a water melon now’ or ‘just back from…
The latest Pepsi commercial with a bevy of cricket stars is out. The news channels picked up the story with Sehwag’s wig being the point of interest. The claim: the link to ‘getting ahead in life without connections’ is your ‘thirst’ or drive. Definitely a better commercial from the Pepsi stable than the handful of recent ‘Youngistaan’ ones with Ranbir/Deepika. The protagonists chosen – Dhoni, Sehwag and Ishant are all small town dudes who have…
Fast Company has made a list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. At No.1 is Team Obama (dethroning Google) because it ‘took a skinny kid with a funny name and turned him into the most powerful new national brand in a generation’. Apple features at No.4 (down from last year when it was No.2). It is heartening to see a couple of bigwig advertising agencies featuring in the list. Tied at No.23 & 24 are…
Apple’s retail strategy (outside India) is generally deemed a huge success. According to a 2007 report, Apple’s US stores generated an average of US $4032 worth of sales per square foot. The next highest was that for Tiffany’s with Best Buy topping the electronics retailers at $930. Microsoft is now planning into venture into the retail business (they closed their only store in 2001) and have hired a Wal-Mart veteran to lead the effort. It…
Ads that poke fun of the vagaries of the ad agency business are like inside jokes. It tickles agency folks no end when creative tantrums, Account Management woes and client-side behaviour is captured in mainstream media. And if the product being advertised is relevant to ad agencies mainly, why not resort to humour? Showoff Films, Portugal promises the creative folk that their ideas won’t be killed since there are enough ways already. Rest of the…
Keeping it simple always scores over trying too hard, when it comes to ambient ideas. ‘Category relevance’ meets simplicity in this case with branding on an ice cream stick for Colgate Palmolive. Even if it’s a handful of kids seeing this message, the environment and the surprise-value creates an impact that a 30-sec TVC, conveying the same message, cannot. Agency: Y&R, Bangkok.
Two new ads for Cycle Agarbatti’s (incense sticks) are doing the rounds of ad blogs. The explanatory blurb says, ‘in India, all Hindu prayers and religious functions start with the lighting of incense to invoke the gods. Further, in all Hindu homes and business establishments, a puja (prayer) is done at the start of each new day and incense is lit. Thus, Incense sold for religious purposes is the largest reason to buy in this…
Thomas Friedman quotes Shekhar Gupta in his New York Times column on a way to stimulate the US economy: “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has…