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…
1. BBC Sport: Wimbledon coverage It’s Wimbledon time of the year. Here’s a new spot from BBC Sport announcing the live coverage of the event. The device is simple – a tennis ball wreaking ‘havoc’ across Britain and ending up at the centre court. Even though this montage of visual set to music is a common format the ad is riveting. 2. Verena Sure Thanks to this commercial, I came across this category called of…
1. Gillette: Assisted Shaving Razor It is so refreshing to see a long format, web film which is anchored on the product. We have all seen many such initiatives where one is left wondering about the tenuous link of the brand to the theme advertised. This film, launched to introduce TREO, the ‘first-ever razor designed solelyfor assisted shaving’. The film is a touching story of a son taking care of of his elderly father and…
There are hundreds of commercial messages vying for consumer attention everyday across traditional and new media. Only a handful are noticed. Here are a few creative ideas which caught my eye, the week ending 26th May, 2017: Sweden’s tourism campaign, Sony Bravia’s TV spot and more. 1. Visit Sweden: Airbnb Sweden’s official website for tourism and travel information, has listed the entire country on Airbnb. Why is it creative? For one, it is different from the…
Every day we are exposed to thousands of commercial messages from brands both in traditional and new media. Most of such messaging goes unnoticed with only a handful catching our attention. Here are a few which caught my eye this week: Nike’s Breaking 2, Marks & Spencer’s #SpendItWell and a few more. 1. Nike: Breaking 2 Nike has set the bar high when it comes to marketing and usage of new media. The ‘Just Do…
‘Digital media usage time is exploding right now, and it’s predominantly being driven by mobile apps’ says the 2015 Mobile App Report from Comscore. The report goes on to say ‘mobile now represents almost 2 out of 3 digital media minutes, and mobile apps alone now constitute a majority’. Apps dominate the mobile web in time spent – mobile app users spend 18x more time on apps than mobile web visitors. Mobile apps have become…
Recently, Indian news publications have come together to block their website content from user’s who’ve installed adblcokers. The rationale seems fair: use of adblockers deprive such sites of revenue which comes solely from advertising. As a user of adblocker and a fairly frequent visitor to news websites, here are my views on the whole affair: Advertising is not the issue, greed is Why did the practice of adblockers start in the first place? In my…
The rise of digital marketing has seen some marketers hail every shiny new toy as the next big thing – be it 3D printing, social media, branded apps, virtual reality or native advertising. All this has resulted in many pundits calling out, rightly so, much of the BS. The charge against this trend is that everyone gets caught up in jargon and tactical stuff forgetting that the basics of advertising has not changed even today.…
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 22nd April, 2016: Mosquito Killer Board, IKEA and more. Mosquito Killer Board The lines between the erstwhile ‘mediums’ of advertising – outdoor, PR, activation have all blurred now. An outdoor campaign was once about pasting vinyl skins.…