Much has already been written about the Ford-JWT India scam ads episode. Heads have rolled, tongues have wagged and a prominent award jury head has quit. Many have weighed in with their opinions on the whole affair (good reads here and here). I am late on this, but here go my two bits: The ads: questionable taste, missing answers It is apparent that the ads were created with the intent of doing ‘something different’ from the regular brand stuff…
‘Let’s go mobile’, could vie for top place with ‘Lets create a Facebook page’ when it comes to brand manager requests in recent times. In the US and other developed countries, brands have featured in the Apple iTunes store for years now. For some, it is a necessity – banks, airlines and hotels for example. Since consumers and their mobile devices have become inseparable, its natural that brands wanted to become a part of it.…
A video that begins with a recital of A-B-C-D in a kids voice – not exactly the kind of imagery you would associate The Economist with. The magazine is associated with great content of the cerebral kind, appealing to a certain mindset. A mindset that can best be described as curious. Andrew Rashbass, CEO of The Economist Group referred to a ‘mass intelligent’ audience in his presentation, ‘Leanback 2.0’ – the impact that e-readers and…
Referring to the hype and global media attention for the launch of Samsung S4 in New York, Fortune magazine’s Apple 2.0 blog wrote, ‘Samsung’s event marketing makes Apple’s hype look tame’. The general drift is that is captured in: ‘Samsung is going bigger and brasher, hiring the big halls and the dancers and mocking Apple — and itself — in TV ads loaded with attitude’. The aggressive nature of Samsung’s marketing, the breathless anticipation & speculation…
In June 2012, Twitter aired its first TV commercial which ended with the hashtag #NASCAR. It was essentially showing brands how Twitter hashtags can be used to maximise live or ‘current’ events. Most brands run campaigns with a ‘central idea’ for a short window of time. And the launch phase of the campaign is usually the most critical in determining whether the ideas gets traction both among mass media and niche social media target audience. One…
Millions love Google for its products which are part of everyday life: search, Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, Android phones and so on. The halo around Google is driven by the many cool, innovative products they experiment with; it helps attract global PR and has a positive rub-off on brand Google. Self-driving cars, Google Glass come to mind in that context. But deep down, Google is an advertising company. Recently, Adweek named Susan Wojcick, SVP of Google’s advertising…
Visual puns in advertising can be great fun. It could be an image that plays tricks in your mind. Or something that conjures up the right kind of imagery that the brand wants to portray. Herewith a few examples:
How many times have we seen it? A brand executing its activation campaign in a mall with a handful of participants and many hangers on? Such events usually limit themselves to creating brand awareness, some exposure to the brand world and sometimes brand trial. Sometimes the fit with the brand’s target audience is also suspect, especially for super-premium brands when many in the activation area can ill-afford the brand. You could say that they aspire…
Agency: TBWA E-commerce websites which sell lifestyle products in India (and there are many of them) have little leeway for differentiation. Price, ease of navigation & purchase, convenience, quality of customer service, money-back guarantee have all been tried. Many have tried to create a preference through mass-media advertising. Yebhi.com, which has gone the ATL route in the past too has hit upon what could potentially be a dissonance-creating factor. They are offering a ‘try &…