Some ads set you thinking long after you have glanced and digested the message. A new for campaign for a New York book shop, Book Culture is doing the rounds of ad blogs. The ad gets your attention with intriguing visuals alright but what holds your attention and sets you thinking is the central idea: Imagination got there first. The ads show case books, whose themes were precursors to major global event years after the…
Of late, there’s been a surfeit of videos for Coca-Cola which can be broadly clubbed under ‘activation’ or Promo. Most of them involve an on-ground event where consumers engage with the Coca-Cola brand directly or indirectly. Some of these activations have gone on to win awards, while many have become viral successes. All of them have the ingredients of great activation programmes. The latest in such videos are these: Coca-Cola Second Lives As part of its…
A new video created by McDonalds for the FIFA World Cup Brasil 2014 has already raked up close to 100k views on YouTube. The video is a compilation of trick shots and even for a non-football fan like me it makes for compelling viewing with repeat value. But it is not just another YouTube video going viral. At the heart of the campaign is a mobile app which is hardwired to brand purchase. The iconic…
Years ago, when I was working on a MNC account, the MD of the Indian operations (a Canadian) asked why his ads (for an FMCG brand) were not shown on sports channels during telecast of golf tournaments. When I told him that the numbers didn’t warrant it, he said, ‘but all my friends watch golf’. That’s the trouble with hanging out with only a particular kind of like-minded people and being completely out of touch…
Design and Art Direction (D&AD, formerly known as British Design & Art Direction) is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising. D&AD ‘exists to stimulate, enable and award creative excellence in design and advertising’. It is a highly respected award and recognises great design beyond advertising – some of the categories include Product Design (in 2012, Apple was named best design studio and best brand of the past 50…
How can startup advertising agencies stand out from the clutter? Fact is, there are truck loads of small advertising agencies, usually started by a team of ex-big advertising agency folks aiming to create clutter breaking work. A lot of such agencies, talented as they may be, are never heard of. It is a tough world out there and it takes a lot of effort (and big monies) for startup agencies to be taken notice of.…
The results of the 2014 D&AD Awards are out. Design and Art Direction (D&AD, formerly known as British Design & Art Direction) is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising. D&AD ‘exists to stimulate, enable and award creative excellence in design and advertising’. It is a highly respected award and recognises great design beyond advertising – some of the categories include Product Design (in 2012, Apple was named best…
Creative advertising or idea is ‘attention-getting’ and catalytically relevant representation of brand position and NOT straight translation. For an idea to be effective and creative, it has to be generated in a form that is detailed enough to be executed and tested. Additionally, it has to be amenable to multiple executions to prevent wear-out. New Framework for Creative Advertising – ‘EmBRACED’ 1. Engagement: It can be achieved by keeping people at the heart of conversations,…
Remember the case of XUV-500 the Mahindra SUV which was sold out even before the first ad broke? The advertising agency must have banked upon a huge ad campaign only to be told by the client that ads are not required now that the product is sold out. The agency very cleverly released an ad in the leading dailies, saying: ‘The XUV500 is out. Sold out’ subtly conveying the launch and the success. So what…
Remember the Aspirina, CafiAspirina campaign which won big in 2010 and again in 2013? A new campaign for the same set of brands is a winner at The New York Festivals. What I liked about the campaign: the strategy to combine two variants into one ad and the format of assigning two kinds of problems to the variants. This is like a stand up comedian’s routine (Rodney Dangerfield had ‘No Respect’, David Letterman had the…