Over the last few days, couple of ads from a deodorant brand Layer’r Shot caused widespread outrage (and rightly so) in India. Both the ads are anchored on cheap word play around the brand name and lewd. In one ad, four men at a department store aisle look in the direction of a woman and ask, “Hum char, aur ye sirf ek? Toh Shot kaun lega?” (‘There’s four of us and just one of it? Who will take…
Recently, a well-known Indian news personality was in the news after she put out a statement on Twitter that she had been tricked into leaving the company in June after she became the “victim of a very serious phishing attack” that led her to believe she’d been hired as a journalism professor at Harvard. The news was widely discussed on social media with various theories and speculation on how someone seemingly so aware could be…
Advertising has changed over the years. Or shall we say it has evolved and adapted as it always does, to suit the media environment, consumer trends and changing times? Deep down, the fundamentals of advertising and marketing have and will remain the same forever. Products & services have to meet a genuine human need, solve genuine problems or capitalise on valid opportunity. Communication has to break the clutter, offer a proposition which is relevant in…
The concept of Super Apps and the success stories in China (WeChat, Alipay) and South East Asia (GoJek primarily) have been well documented, especially in tech & business columns. The discussion took centre stage again, even in mainstream media recently after it was revealed that the diversified Tata Group has plans to build a Super App of their own. “There’s an app for that” to app fatigue The App Store was launched in 2008. The…
For the past few years, I have attempted to share a few compelling creative ads with the audience of this blog. Once in a while I comment on issues pertaining to the advertising & marketing industry. Here are a few creative ads from New Zealand Government’s ‘Keep It Real Online’, Mars Petcare’s Optimum range and more. ‘Keep It Real’ online: New Zealand Government Being a parent in today’s digital age can be challenging. Addiction to…
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…
Another new term has entered the new age marketing & advertising vocabulary: moment marketing. It is essentially topical advertising but since turnaround times are not measured in days but in minutes it is called so, I guess. It is also a country cousin of occasion-led advertising where brands attempt to gain leverage from big news events or calendar events such as Mother’s Day, April Fools Day or Independence Day. In India, such calendar events are…
In India, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting recently banned airing of condom ads during daytime. The move came under criticism – see some reactions here, here and here. ‘It is moral policing’, ‘our kids need sex education’, ‘our kids have access to more risqué content everywhere from movies to the internet’ are some of the arguments put forth while criticising the ban. While I agree with some of the points raised, especially the one…
Nowadays it is common to spot articles bashing ‘content marketing’ as a discipline. The common grouse with such articles is: – content marketing is just a buzz phrase; it is essentially what was practiced in advertising forever – the practitioners of this discipline are bullshit artists who thrive on throwing jargon – most of what passes off as content marketing is noise and does not add much value to a brand by way of sales…
1. IKEA Human Catalogue A critical piece of the IKEA marketing mix has been its catalogue. There have been several notable marketing activities centred around it over the years including outdoors which were pop stores, mobile app which uses augmented reality to bring alive the shopping experience, effective use of relevant social media platforms like Pinterest and even an Apple TV app.It makes business sense as the catalogue showcases the vast range and helps consumers…