In India, the oft-quoted example of how competition forced a hitherto monopoly brand to change for the better, is likely to be Indian Airlines. Consumers experienced better customer service, punctuality and more after the entry of private airlines, forcing Indian Airlines to improve its customer experience. A big manifestation of this change would be about better in-flight service and punctuality which would then have to be conveyed through advertising. That was a couple of decades…
Great design is often the only moat against competition. It allows for a brand to command loyalty and price premium. Apple is often cited as a great example of this. Recently it was argued that regional publications in India ought to invest in good design in order to command a premium from advertisers. In the same article it was mentioned that ‘even if Patanjali’s noodles are as good as Maggi, superior packaging design will help…
Facebook Canvas is being rolled out this month and its creative examples got me thinking about the lack of a standard, winning creative unit in mobile advertising. Every advertising medium has a unique characteristic. TV is an audio-visual experience, a billboard is a fleeting medium, radio is great as an in-the- background audio medium…and so on. Most of these platforms have been around for decades and were extensions of of a previously existing medium or…
Many moons ago my then ad agency boss told this about public service advertising and campaigns seeking donation: ask the reader to take a specific action. It is better to ask for a specific amount as donation for a cause than to simply say ‘donate generously’ and specify a behaviour change when it comes to public service or do-good advertising. As part of the road safety campaign in Melbourne (a favourite of mine), Traffic Accident…
Between bookmarked sites, Twitter and RSS feeds which showcase advertising, I come across many new creative ideas every week. As with advertising in real life, only a handful are memorable. Here are my picks for the week ending 19th February, 2016: Snickers, Scrabble and Stoli Vodka.
Despite posting a 48% year-on-year growth to $710 million revenue in Q4 (Oct-Dec’15) Twitter got a lot of flak in media recently. The reason: a flat MAU overall and a negative growth if one excludes SMS users. Many have written about Twitter’s core problem and offered suggestions in product improvement (good reads here, here and here). Most of them have identified these common issues: – a confusing, intimidating product experience especially for newbies; that’s why one…
Between bookmarked sites, Twitter and RSS feeds which showcase advertising, I come across many new creative ideas every week. As with advertising in real life, only a handful are memorable. Here are my picks for the week ending 12th February, 2016. GE: ‘A Snowball’s Chance in Hell’: I have always believed that GE does a fantastic job of creating consistently good content which push forward the core brand idea of ‘Imagination at work’. What’s more,…
In advertising circles, many mock the use of celebrities in campaigns seeing it as a lazy option. ‘Could not think of a decent creative idea, so decided to sign up a celebrity’ is the explanation. There is some truth in that. The recent controversy about the signing of a ‘right celebrity’ for the Incredible India campaign is an example – where it is somehow assumed that a brand endorser is a must. Fact is the…
There is a lot of talk recently about the need to drop the word ‘digital’ in marketing & advertising. The reason: it sets up an artificial separation – as if there is ‘regular marketing’ and ‘digital marketing’ when There is merit in that argument and in my view, it has nothing to do with the digital age. Marketing has ALWAYS been about reaching out to a brand’s most relevant audience in a profitable way using…
The Bajaj V is perhaps one of the best brand ideas of recent times. Of course it remains to be seen if the actual product goes on to win the hearts & wallets of consumers purely in terms of featurs, performance, pricing and overall ‘value’. But just the idea to make use of scrap metal from INS Vikrant made me (not a potential buyer, a non-bike enthusiast) sit up and take notice of the brand.…