Last week, The Denver Egotist kicked off things on this topic by writing an editorial. Scamp, picked up the thread and wrote his version soon after. The Ad Contrarian then re-posted some of his earlier thoughts on this subject. All of which make for fascinating reading. My favourite one being The Ad Contrarian’s view. I don’t profess to be in their league. I am not a Creative Director either. But herewith some thoughts gleaned (sigh)…
The print Grand Prix at the recent Dubai Lynx awards went to this campaign for Heinz Ketchup, created by Leo Burnett. The tongue in cheek, almost self deprecating humour comes through in this 3-ad campaign. Heinz as a taste enhancer has been done before in several campaigns. The stand out here is the Art and the light hearted approach to a local cuisine. Like?
Think of this as a TV ad delivered in an ambient medium. Confused? The stretchy caramel of the Milky Way bar lends itself very well to these ambient ideas – almost like product demo TV ads in real life. The more impactful placement is perhaps at the check out counter at shopping malls. There is also a seatbelt demo. When you have a product attribute that is relevant ad and differentiated, it helps anchor the…
Here’s a campaign for Samsung washing machines which won a Print Gold at the recently concluded Dubai Lynx awards. Agency: FP7, Doha (the same agency that created the award winning ads for EA Games). The idea is to highlight the spin speed of the washing machine, which results in mud, oil and ink ‘spilling’ out from the clothes because of the circular movement. Too clever for the aam janta or a fresh new perspective? Great…
I have been a fan of Apple’s products and it’s customer service for years now. My friends who are new to Apple world have also commented on the great service levels and friendliness of the staff even at the Apple Reseller Outlets in India. Over the past two days I have been both frustrated and delighted at Apple Care’s approach to its consumers. My Macbook is out of warranty (bought in July 06) and clearly…
In the recent past, several copywriters have either approached me with ambient ideas or shown ambient stuff in their portfolio. It is usually accompanied with much wide-eyed enthusiasm and an obvious itch to have it executed. Most of the stuff is in the area of shock or surprise and expectedly, for ‘social causes’ (anti-smoking being the favourite one). But very few stand out – that’s true even with ambient ideas on the ad blogs. So…
Before you go any further, read this excellent post on the future of the newspaper industry. Done? OK, good. A business that has been running for 146 years will shut down for good tomorrow. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will produce it’s last printed edition and move to a web-only news source. Interestingly, it won’t be a newspaper version online – it will ‘feature new columns from prominent Seattle residents; more than 150 reader blogs, community databases…
The next version of the iPhone operating system is going to be previewed tomorrow and the rumours (as usual) are flying thick and fast. Wired Magazine reports of a rumour that a premium App Store will be announced tomorrow. The logic? The premium section would largely be focused on games, giving game makers a channel to offer more in-depth (and pricier) titles without getting lost in the clutter of free and $1 apps. Makes sense…
Just discovered MeeHive, which bills itself rather drably: MeeHive is your personal newspaper that brings you the latest about what’s happening in your world. But having tried it and going by the buzz around it on the web – it’s got more potential than that. It utilizes Kosmix – in fact, the guys behind it are the same folks. You start out by entering the topics that you’re interested in following, then the site provides…
The New York Times writes about Kosmix, a start up company often described on blogs and news sites as a search engine that may someday rival Google. Kosmix describes itself as letting users ‘explore the Web by topic, presenting a dashboard of relevent (sic – their spelling!) videos, photos, news, commentary, opinion, communities and links to related topics’. This kind of aggregation of content from multiple sources is not new in Search. Yahoo has a…