Read Between the Ps

Have been browsing through a lot of Billboards today. This one is for KitKat and once again, wonderfully presented. Not sure of the location or the agency, except that it has reached here via Billboardroom and was originally sourced from Creative Criminal . Talk about execution and this one for Silberman Fitness Center caught my attention instantly. Once again, full credits to Billboardroom for posting this entry. What an excellent utilization of the Banner space! This is the kind of creativity one really looks forward to. It is not the idea per se. But putting the thoughts into a droning media line and extracting the intended communication from it is what deserves appreciation. I think where Indian advertisers need to venture into is such new modes of advertising. Creative and innovative advertising using the same conventional connection media has ceased to be appealing with the Indian Consumer. We need to reach the consumer from other touch points . One such media is Outdoor Adv...

Leoburnett has developed some special unconventional pieces of Advertising for Y+ Yoga centre . There are two creatives specifically: (1) In the Billboard category, the campaign demonstrates flexibility with the help of posters. The instructors are shown on the posters and it seems that they are performing yoga, as both sides of the poster has their photographs. Take a look! These are the back and the front sides of the posters, respectively. Below them is the display of these posters. Wonderful execution! (2) In the second case, an awesome piece of creative thinking has been exhibited by showcasing the concept of Yoga with the help of a straw ! This Ad also won the Golden Drum Award in Art Direction . [via Ads of the world ] Y+ has various studios for Yoga spanned across China and trains people on different arts of Yoga. Though the art originated in India , it has wonderfully transformed into an international lucrative business venture throughout the United States , UK ...

McCann Erickson has made an excellent creative for Heal Foundation of India on “ Child Labour ”. Have a look! [via Billboardroom ] The poster reads “ 12 million labourers in India can't paste a poster this high ”. It always feels nice to appreciate creativity in your own country. This Ad was awarded a Gold World Medal in the New York Festivals in the “ Outdoor/Transit/Posters: Public Service Advertising ” Category. Great work Mr Prasoon!

Laura Ries has presented an interesting perspective on the tagging of Atlanta as “ Every Day is an Opening Day ”. Though the news is almost a month old, considering the kind of attention tourism has attracted, this concept of City Branding could be pertinent to Branding in the sub-continent too. First things first. An article featured last month in the Economic Times on Atlanta’s new slogan. It is not uncommon to brand cities in the United States, create slogans and develop campaigns around them. With New York having “ I love New York ”, Virginia with ' Virginia Is For Lovers ' and the famous Las Vegas tag ' What Happens Here, Stays Here ', each city has had its own glory with Tagline Branding . So, it was time for Atlanta to become the cynosure with the help of yet another tagline after its previous similar attempts with ' The City Too Busy To Hate ' and ' Atlanta: People Seem To Like It Here ' and ‘ Hotlanta ’. Tagged “Every Day is an opening day”,...

Business Standard featured an article on CDMA handsets being sold through vegetable vendors in Rural India. In " CDMA majors draw up big rural push ", the penetration strategies of the CDMA-based telephony operators – Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) – has been highlighted. Reliance Infocomm is planning to sell its products and services through vegetable and grain mandis , cable operators and farm product vendors , like irrigation pumps and tractor dealers . "We are looking at selling our products and services through sabji and grain mandis and we expect this to enable us reach every inhabited place in the country.” Similarly, " The Tata group company , which sells its services under Tata Indicom brand, has started selling RCVs through pan and medical shops and hotels among others, apart from its 1,700 True Value outlets in the countries. " A challenging initiative indeed! However, the most interesting element of the strategy is that “ Re...

Tomorrow would be the completion of one full year of the biggest disaster to hit South Asia – Tsunami . Exactly one year before more than 11000 people had died in this disaster in India itself. Villages had been shattered; families swept away, cattle drowned….It was the worse of the worst times for the entire nation. Move one year forward and here we are. Things have moved forward, villages have progressed and people have moved ahead….thanks to an entire nation moving together, thanks to the initiatives of a select few and thanks to a strong determination and will power of the survivors. It is this strength and will power of the survivors …that created … Tsunamika ! Tsunamika is a project based out of Auroville in Tamil Nadu, South India . As part of rehabilitation and healing services, Upasana Design Studio conceived the concept of training the women of the villages and teaching them how to make dolls from used fabric, cleped as the child of Tsunami, or “Tsunamika” The project Tsu...

You have thought of a brilliant idea and a cracker of a concept and you know it will make a difference! The problem is ...who do you want the idea to reach? How will the idea reach? Will a radio jingle work or a billboard? A print campaign or a primetime television Ad? Would it be well taken by the consumer? How do you know if your idea has reached where it was intended to reach? Is there any integration of the multiple media sources reaching the consumers?.... Advertising is not just about out-of-the-box thinking , vague ideas and glossy prints . Though these elements are critical for any agency to get out of the clutter and shout, there is another element that is equally critical for any campaign to be successful – its Execution ! It is imperative to give a firm structure and provide a strong foundation to leverage the thought process and translate it into feasible solutions and practical execution. One such agency that has laid out a firm structure that facilitates its media planni...

This campaign for Economic Times is almost one-and-half years old. But the idea is still striking enough to be mentioned here. Enterprise Nexus designed a set of visuals with the baseline “ The power of knowledge ”. According to a review of the Ad in the May’04 edition of Times photo journal , the Cat and Dog photograph is real and is not a Photoshop product! Though “the cat was able to perform at will, staring into the eyes of any dog you put in front of her”, it was difficult to get a dog (Great Dane) to express the way the Director wanted. Most of the Ads are a creation of B Ramnathkar , Executive Creative Director of Enterprise Nexus. The best part I liked about the agency is what Sachin Anand, a Senior Account Executive, mentioned in his interview - "Enterprise Nexus follows a set work ethic, which is - No playing and Manipulations with art. As far as possible we don't use image-editing softwares.” Though it is tough, it is definitely admirable taking such a stance in ...

A new campaign by ITC Hotels entails a creative on Mona Lisa . Advertised under the theme “ Experience the world with an Indian soul ”, this creative has been done by JWT and was launched to highlight the culture of India and ITC as the representative of that culture. According to Express Hospitality , the Ads are a “ visual representation of the fusion of the rich Indian culture and heritage and world class standards in the context of hospitality ” and “ bring alive and showcase world class hospitality with an Indian touch ” But what exactly is the campaign about? The intention of the campaign is to capture the essence of Brand India , and subsequently, route this equity to the ITC group of Hotels . That’s why the tagline ‘Experience the world with an Indian Soul’. According to JWT, “ Mona Lisa is synonymous with universal beauty and intrigue and this universal symbol of feminity doing the classical Indian namaste sent the message across ” Though the recall value was very high and ...

A recent viral campaign by FedEx has been launched in Europe, key Middle East markets and India . [ source: Adverblog ] Titled “ Relax I will Manage ”, the campaign comprises five videos targeting different target segments/demographies in each of the videos. Highlighting different situations in the corporate world, the creatives end with the solution provider as FedEx - “ FedEx Express. All you need to know in shipping to Asia ”, “ So easy to ship internationally. Practically, anyone can do it ”, or “ Relax. Its FedEx ” and “ When you need fast, reliable service, Relax. Its FedEx ”. In one particular case, as has also been highlighted in Adverblog , the creative remarks on MBAs “ Even an MBA can do it ”. Since it is so much pertinent to this blog, I could not resist entering it here! When told to ship the packages through FedEx, a new Manager replies “You don’t understand. I have an MBA” Quick comes the reply with a thoughtful gesture “Oh you have an MBA…In that case, let me show h...

Having talked about Levi’s Europe and Levi’s US , next in the series is my very own country – Levi’s India. A new campaign launched by Levi Strauss & Co. – Red Loop uses some specific tactical measures to attract ‘attention’ . What remains to be seen is if this attention can be translated into conversion or not. Red Loop campaign has been conceptualized by JWT, Bangalore , and has been shot by Colston Julian . The models have been chosen from over the world and (according to the creative on their website) “ display an incredibly casual attitude towards their dress, body language and expression, infusing a quality of ‘effortless cool’ through the campaign ” What is unique about this campaign is that though at the look of it, it would be perceived as an International campaign – it isn’t! It is an Indian agency working with International models, to market a product ONLY in India (or possibly in South Asia). For the first time, advertising has been done at the local level for loc...

Hit upon an Indian advertising blog “ How Advertising Spoiled Me ” by Arvind R from Chennai. The Blog has an excellent collection of print and video campaigns, some of which are creative works of Indian agencies. Two specific entries that I really loved were the Save Trees with the tagline “Save Trees. Trees Save” and Education ads that says “45% of India’s Adult population still needs guidance. Each one. Teach one.” Incidentally, both the ads are a result of the creative genius from Lowe Mumbai. Nice campaigns definitely. Unfortunately, I could not manage the creative brief on any of these ads. Nonetheless, the work shows that the agency has an excellent understanding of the customers’ emotions , and has been done keeping in mind the emotive appeal that was to be created. But both the Ads trigger some food for thought and an introspection from the people who take this seriously. Great work indeed, both by Lowe and Arvind . Must say, the creativity reflects in their work!