I heard someone say that ‘in India, cars don’t transport people; they transport egos’. It could be true of car marketing everywhere, especially among super premium brands. In luxury marketing too, there could be a truism: ‘luxury brands don’t just sell an experience, they sell a fantasy’. In the luxury business, a single brand often spans across many categories – watches, perfumes, fashion wear and accessories. It is critical to imbue the brand with a…
Real estate ads. Groan. You can spot them from a mile. Of late most of them follow a format – highlight the location & features, wean away the riff-raff by talking about the price (Rs. 3 crores only) and promise every amenity under the sun. The corporate ads from such real estate brands too highlight their success stories & projects. In that context, it was refreshing to see these set of ads for Rustomjee, the…
It’s been 25 years since the slogan ‘Just Do It’ debuted for Nike. 25 years is a long time in advertising where campaign ideas and ads change almost every year. The tag line is popular, considered cool, part of everyday parlance and resonates even with the younger audience, who may have not been exposed to a lot of the earlier work. Nike just released a new theme ad and not surprisingly, the ad deservingly so,…
The problem: with soaring house prices, more and more young people in UK have been turning to their parents to help them get their first home. Even if young people work hard and save up, most will still find themselves priced out of a home of their own. Essentially, the prospect of owning a home slips away for a whole generation. So, Shelter the housing & homeless charity wanted to raise awareness about the larger issue: the…
Blazing speeds. Widest coverage. Crystal-clear call quality. Great service. We are used to such tall (conveniently non-quantifiable) claims in advertising for the telecom sector brands. However, consumer’s actual experience toward any brand in the sector is likely to be disappointing. At best, people would consider all brands to be equally bad in terms of network coverage and customer service. But then you really cannot blame the advertising agency for it – their job is simply…
After a set of three teasers, HTC released the launch video of their new theme campaign, ‘Here’s To Change’. The news of Robert Downey Jr. being their new spokesperson already created buzz for the brand and set up expectations. The teasers provided a glimpse of what to expect with ‘Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran’ and ‘Hipster Troll Carwash’. Agency: 171 Worldwide In my view, the whole campaign is worthy of compliment. Here’s why: Right use of celebrity…
We all have such products in our house – those which are used rarely. Usually such products come into use only for a specific occasion (e.g antiseptic creams, adhesive bandages) or are bought but rarely used because of sheer inertia (e.g. honey in most households). Brands like Burnol, BandAid and Dettol come to mind in reference to the first category. Nestle Milkmaid, Dabur Honey (and other brands in that category) come to mind in the…
In Canada, buying a pair of Police sunglasses will help the Vancouver Police Foundation. Apparently, all the proceeds from the sale of Police glasses are used to fund Vancouver Police crime-prevention projects and early-intervention community outreach programs. In a fun take on this proposition, DDB has created a campaign with a proposition, ‘wearing the glasses supports the cops, not make you one’. Loved the David Caruso (CSI Miami)-like punch line said for effect. Agency: DDB Canada
Can hard butter destroy relationships? That’s the kind of laddering that can be risky – if you stretch it far too much you run the risk of being ridiculed. The exaggeration has to be just right for it to drive home the point. Using hard butter on toast can be an irritant and a new Australian ad for Devondale Dairy Soft promises to offer a solution. It is spreadable straight from the fridge and doesn’t…
‘Anytime, anywhere’ promise has been done before in the telecom especially when it comes to promoting live sports content on the mobile. Recently, Star Sports in India had the ‘get over TV’ campaign to promote the Champions Trophy coverage. We have The Sun promoting their premium service, Sun+ which promises every Barclays Premier League goal, on the go. Loved the take on where not to watch it and the wry humour. Agency: Grey, London