Is advertising on IPL a better bet for marketers compared to the cricket World Cup? That’s the question posed to leading marketers over the last fortnight or so. Interesting debates have happened on CNBC’s Storyboard and on print media (good reads here, here and here).The summary of the debate & discussions seems to be: – the risk attached to the early exit of India (as in the case of the 2007 tournament) from the World…
There was a time when several leading national advertisers were based in Chennai: Ponds, Citibank, MRF, Ford to name a few. Of late, many of those businesses have either moved out of Chennai (like Ponds and Ford India,) or have become less visible on national media. I was told by a local ad man that more than Rs.400 crores of billing has moved out of Chennai in the last year alone. I can’t verify the numbers but…
@GrimmFaced sent me this link on Twitter, with a request to RT. The work? An eco-friendly shopping bag for Lee. According to the Happy blog: We went for something a bit more inventive than just a bag made of recycled paper. The ‘Never Wasted’ shopping bag – a bag that can be used and reused in one way or another. Some for fun, some for function, but nothing ever goes into the trash. The bag…
I could not gauge the impact of HT’s ‘No TV Day’ initiative in Mumbai on Jan 29, as I don’t live there. But for me, it would count among the big, bold promo ideas of recent times. The campaign was mocked on Twitter (not suggesting that Twitter is the only barometer of sentiments) – as is the case with Twitterati who mock everything. Some suggested that despite the campaign they continued to watch TV that…
This article of mine appeared in the Brand Wagon supplement of The Financial Express, today: In a recent survey among marketers in the US, it was reported that demand for mobile media services is “not yet living up to the industry hype”. The “not living up to hype” part could very well be true about various new media avenues too. While social networking platforms, mobile phones and tablets have found ready acceptance among consumers, marketers…
There was a nice little media innovation for Listerine the other day on Sunday Times. Without any unwieldy cut out, it managed to attract one’s attention, mainly because it had an idea. The reveal ad was about 100% oral protection, thus linking the ‘incomplete’ idea of the front page. The TVC brings out the same idea differently. So far so good. But looking at the brand’s activity on Facebook and Twitter once can’t help feeling that they…
‘Where have all the young men (and women) gone?’ asked a thought-provoking blog post from Babita Baruah. Going by the number & quality of comments, the topic – where do the bright young sparks in advertising go, few years into their career – seems to have touched a chord. The topic has been in the limelight for quite some time now. According to agency CEO interviews over the last few years ‘attraction and retention of…
Does advertising on the Super Bowl makes sense? The debate is back. At $3mn for a single 30-sec spot this year (gulp, that’s Rs.15 cr – annual budget for a typical large client here in India), the question is worth asking, given the recessionary times in the US. The debate usually revolves around the direct impact in sales or lack of it of such activity. In its favour, people argue that getting a 100mn audience…
Setting up a Facebook fan page or a Twitter feed for a brand is the easy part. Figuring out a strategy and keeping the conversation going is the tough part. Even tougher is dealing with mistakes, even unintended ones. Kenneth Cole, the American clothing designer’s attempt at humour misfired. His attempt to link the turmoil in Cairo to Egyptians clamouring for Kenneth Cole’s new spring collection, was undoubtedly in poor taste. Following an outrage on…
‘A car designed for all the things life throws at us’ is the proposition for a new ad from Honda Jazz, UK. As a proposition it may not sound path-breakingly new but what W+K have done with the execution is definitely so. The ad (fantastic CG, great sequel to ‘Grrr’) ends with a link to an iPhone app. Once the iPhone app is downloaded, you can use it to ‘interact’ with the ads. As the…