We come across hundreds of commercial messages everyday. A majority of them go unnoticed. Only a handful get our attention and perhaps even smaller number remain memorable. Here are a few which caught my eye this week: Combiflam IcyHot: Strong pain Advertising for consumer goods – be it everyday food and beauty products or OTC drugs have a predictable template. Setting up a a problem and then providing a solution is one such – the…
Every day we see hundreds of commercial messages. But only a handful of them are even noticed. An even smaller number of such ads strike a chord and become memorable. Herewith a few creative ideas which caught my attention over the last week. The Shower: Hindustan Unilever Advertising is meant to fulfil many objectives – from creating awards, building affinity, changing perceptions to changing behaviour. The last aspect is perhaps the most difficult, especially when…
A common advice to brands is to make remarkable products and services. Marketing & advertising is then tasked with ‘story telling’ that resonates. If only it worked like that in real life. Most products & services fulfil basic necessities of consumers and have very little scope to have truly differentiated product features.In his book ‘This is marketing’ Seth Godin outlines these steps: A majority of world’s brands would fail in the first step itself. I doubt if a floor…
The Christmas ad season is almost over. But perhaps the best Christmas-themed ad this season was out this week. And then there were some interesting design and social media campaigns. Herewith with a few compelling creative ads which caught my eye last week. Lyft: Nope/Yep The promise of taxi aggregator services like Uber, Ola and Lyft is one of convenience: it is an ‘anytime, anywhere’ transport without the hassles of driving in urban jungles. This…
Christmas ads from big UK retail brands get global attention. This week I came across enjoyable Christmas-themed ads from Sweden & Norway which are unlikely to get that kind of mileage but were just as compelling. 1. Elkjøp: To Give More Elkjøp is the largest consumer electronics retailer in the Nordic countries. In this ad, they want to convey a simple message: a gift can be more than a gift with a little extra thought…a…
A 150+ year old ad agency brand disappeared recently. WPP took the decision to merge J Walter Thompson and Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson. The need for the merger and the logic behind the branding (Wunderman first) is widely believed to be a reflection of industry compulsions. Specifically, digital. What everyone means by that is the ad industry cannot simply rely on providing creative & production services in traditional TV, print, outdoor, radio and web…
The holiday season sees the launch of marketing campaigns from a wide variety of brands. Most just go through the motions while a handful are a cut above. Here are a few campaigns – beyond traditional, ads which caught my eye. 1. BBC One: Wonderland Of late, brands have embarked on campaigns which seemingly discourage usage of their own category. For example, telecom brands which depend on data consumption for revenue have urged people to…