A couple of recent ads – Stayfree’s ‘Daughter’s Day ad and Dove’s ‘The Beauty Report Card have become topics of discussion on social media and ad industry portals. Ads being noticed and more importantly being discussed is a welcome sign – at least they weren’t ignored. Given the nature of social media one is to expect both positive and negative feedback to any content – so it’s not surprising that recent ads for Dove Indi…
As consumers, how often have we experienced a situation where we remember elements of an ad (such as a key visual, a character or the story line) but are unable to recall the brand? Some marketers think the solution lies in placing the brand logo on the screen right from the first frame of a TV commercial, having the brand repeated many times in a radio spot or increasing the size of the logo in…
Every week, I attempt to share a compilation of clutter-breaking creative ads and occasionally some commentary on the business of advertising. As many have noted, a majority of the ads out there go un-noticed, so managing to break the clutter is actually a big deal. This week’s compilation includes a stirring ad for Paralympics from Citi, a fun trailer for the Tokyo Olympics from BBC and more. Citi: #StareAtGreatness The Paralympics event meant to be hosted in Tokyo…
Every week, I attempt to share a compilation of clutter-breaking creative ads and occasionally some commentary on the business of advertising. As many have noted, a majority of the ads out there go un-noticed, so managing to break the clutter is actually a big deal. This week’s compilation includes a humorous ad for Amazon Alexa, Dove ‘reverse selfie’, a topical ad from Heineken and more. Amazon Alexa: Pompeii The ease of use of Amazon Alexa was dramatised using…
Ad agency professionals and their clients – the marketing folks at enterprises, pretty much know that a majority of the ads are simply ignored by consumers. Now there’s a new phenomenon to worry about: social media outrage. Ad avoidance is a phenomenon not limited to digital advertising where a CTR of minuscule percentages is seen as a good metric. The problem has existed right from the days of traditional media – be it billboards, print…
Every week (OK, almost every week) I try to share a compilation of clutter-breaking creative ads. This week, I came across couple of funny ads for Amazon Alexa and some compelling ads for Nike, McDonald’s and more. Amazon Alexa: ‘Ironing’ and ‘Opera’ Among the basics of advertising is to figure out the difference between ‘feature’ and ‘benefit’. As I have said in an earlier post, effective ads bring alive the benefit of a feature. Sometimes,…
Every week, I attempt to share a compilation of clutter-breaking creative ads and occasionally some commentary on industry topics. Being noticed is an ad’s No.1job as far too many of our ads simply go unnoticed in the clutter of media noise. This week, my collection includes a charming ad for Yorkshire Tea among others. Yorkshire Tea: The Social Distancing Teapot Brands have been tripping over each other to release ads pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic…
Recently, on the back of the Black Lives Matter campaign, Unilever India came under the microscope regarding its skin lightening cream Fair & Lovely. Online petitions urged the company to take corrective action to stop promoting fairness as an ideal state of beauty. The company decided to drop the word ‘Fair’ in the brand to change it to ‘Glow & Lovely’. They have also said they will stop using words like ‘fair, fairness’, ‘white, whitening’…
Over the last few days, many enterprises and brands have put out branded communication in support of what has come to the known as the ‘Black lives matter’ campaign – with the recent riots in the US being the context. Essentially, such ads or corporate messages call for an end to racism. ‘Being silent is not an option’ and variants thereof are the most common expressions or reason-why brands are taking a stand or at…
I recently attended Zee Melt, a marketing & advertising conference. I shared my notes and observations through a blog post earlier this week, covering presentations from Mr. R S Sodhi of Amul and Dave Trott. In this post, I share my notes on presentations from a few others. Rory Sutherland: what are we missing? I have been a fan of Rory Sutherland for a while now, following his TED Talks, other speeches and social media…