Read Between the Ps

You can always learn creativity from Car Ads - they have something new to offer everytime one of the big companies (or their agencies) come up with their adverts. Sometime back, an Ad from Honda won them the Grand Prix at Cannes . Since then, Honda Ads are always popular among Creative enthusiasts. Last year, even Fiat "eco Drive" won them a grand prix at that Cannes Lions. So here are 2 more I could manage to fish out, for their sheer creative brilliance - one in print, and the other a video clip. The first one is a creative from Lexus Hybrid Cars - leveraging their superiority in Hybrid cars, claiming to be the first ones to conceptualize the " hybrid " technology in a brilliantly executed manner. Click here for the video - worth a watch! The second one, is completely on the other side, from BMW - claiming that even if the cars are not the first one, the experience is simply out of the world for the user (or that is what one can interpret!) Worth a watch...even...

Holly would always come up with something that inspires you – that triggers that naughty bug that is sitting inside you wanting to jump out and explore that whole new world – this time, it is the world of moms – full of only moms and to-be-moms – young moms, new moms, happy moms and tired moms! This time she gives a direction to work upon, to make commercials women love – an old, light piece , but an insightful read - be where the moms are, talk to them, ask them questions, listen to them when they are talking and pay attention to what they are saying. “You’ll have fabulous, relevant, memorable commercial ideas coming out your ying yang” says Holly. If it sparked a thought in your head, shoot out and explore the world of moms – for that is exactly what I would attempt to do, in one of my next few entries (after of course, Tiger Woods and Japanese Consumers have been talked about!). As a thought starter, have a look at this wonderful ad shown during the Olympics Opening Night - Rated...

If you are into creatives, you would know (more) - Chicks, Children, Canines and Cigarettes – you don’t need to sell them, for they sell on their own. But for the sake of sheer creativity, though, they are, what one can say, ‘essential ingredients’ of any viral campaign. No wonder this space has mentioned Cigarettes in a lot of previous entries (as it has Chicks, Children and Canines as well) Imagine cigarettes being a cure-all for physical and emotional ailments, or one your kids are proud of, for their daddies or best case, smoking curing asthma for you! A brief report by Adage raises a question which I keep asking myself, while appreciating the creative geniuses behind some of these campaigns – whether one should criticize the horrific results that these campaigns entail, or appreciate the stunning creativity behind them! Even though the video is inconclusive, unfortunately, one can’t help but go for the latter sometimes (at least I did)! Click here to see the report about the ex...

Can cuteness sell? Well, in case of puppy lovers, it can –for a new commercial of Pedigree definitely has created ripples in the online world, with more than a million views, which, in all probability, would entail positive publicity for the brand, which, in turn, might or might not translate into more packs being sold for Mars. Spend 2 minutes to appreciate the simplicity behind the creative: Simple. Creative. Masterpiece – excellently shot! According to Creativity Online (via Mashable ) , the video was shot with a Phantom camera at 1,000 frames per second, which explains the underwater-like quality of this viral commercial. Director Bob Purman (Agency: TBWA, Toronto) explains the spot thusly: “The ‘Catch’ spot was to be a series of shots of dogs looking with anticipation as a piece of dog food is flying through the air towards them. We shot close-ups of the dogs at 1000 fps. The result was really wonderfully anthropomorphic . The super slow motion really captured this intense sense...

Just realized that I still haven’t posted the post on Tiger Woods, that I had been working on for almost 2 weekends. Actually, I was too busy with my social media world and trying to exercise. That’s why, when I glanced through a campaign which is a mix of social media and Gymming , it had to be posted here. Have a look at this campaign, and if you are a regular at Facebook, twitter or messenger , you would realize that it does reflect the situation around most of us. The tagline reads as “ What you leave out of Twitter, put it into Gold’s Gym ” or “ What you leave out of Facebook, put it into Gold’s Gym ” Very well connected with the Couch Potato Gen Y ! That’s what Social Media does to us. So you have an option - for those who are too lazy or busy for crunches, learn how to crop your pics! :) Others can choose Gold’s Gym! Few more examples on what you can do with your pics ( Messenger editing and Cropping ) (for those looking for some tips) [Advertising Agency: jotabequ Grey, San Jo...

When you see the world's biggest retailer teaming up with the world's largest FMCG Company for a totally different field that none of them are more famous for, you know there is something cooking! According to C21 Media , Walmart and P&G are getting into movie production starting with their first tele-film titled “ Secrets of the Mountains ” to launched on NBC in a couple of months from now. Starring Paige Turco and Barry Bostwick, the two-hour film is about a mother playing a single mom who ends up taking her kids to a mountain cabin owned by her uncle, who embark themselves on the adventure of a lifetime (according to P&G Productions, which has been producing soaps, variety shows and telefilms for many years) Why movie production of all the things? The rationale given by Stephen Quinn, Chief Marketing Officer for Walmart is to give what shoppers want, and delivering their brand promise to " help families save money and live better ". On the other hand, Marc ...

An interesting way to keep your price-conscious consumers stuck to you - Employing a pricing tactic like this one, which creates a unique sense of urgency, may encourage wary consumers to buy more immediately. The concept, called " steadily decreasing discounting" or SDD , by researchaers, entails discounting in a manner to keep the consumers attracted to the offerings. Either keep on reducing prices, adding promotions to your offerings, to keep the consumers engaged (leveraging the transactional utility) or once reduced significantly, raise prices with one/two intermittent break - to create a sense of urgency that prices are going to be raised shortly. Net net, Higher future price expectations and greater anticipation of inaction-regret appear to be the underlying mechanisms that lead to the effectiveness of the SDD tactic. Read the article and the research to get more details. Photo Ref: Tollipop

This Christmas, St Mattews Church ( Auckland, New Zealand ) decided to celebrate in a different way – it put up a controversial billboard on Joseph and Mary, challenging Christians the very foundation of their religion! Result – Thousands of criticisms, hundreds of praises, and tones of vague logic. But most importantly, global publicity of the campaign, engaging half of the “ clicker universe ”! The advert was designed by M&C Saatchi, Auckland , with the brief that it had to be sufficiently provocative to keep most other churches from allowing it. It was designed to challenge stereotypes about the way that Jesus was conceived, and get people talking about the Christmas story. The initial intent behind the campaign was to invite people to think about the virgin birth and the nature of God, be open to more than one Christian way to think about God, to promote the Progressive view of Jesus having 2 human parents and God being the power of love in his life and to invite people out...

While I spend my time in getting something interesting on Christ, I found this interesting ambient from Coca-Cola’s Shelf. Had earlier talked about Coke’s “ Happiness Factory ” campaign almost 3 years back – the best part is it is still one of most talked about global campaigns in the advertising world! The new ambient “ Happiness Machine ” clearly calls out Coca-Cola as a source of happiness – its just that is the vending machine now which vends out happiness, in the form of foodie (mostly) surprises! Put together by Definition 6 , an interactive marketing agency based out of Atlanta, this one is about putting a vending machine in a college canteen, that gives out surprises – much more than what you order for. So, students inserting a coin for a coke, not only get that coke, but also more cokes or flowers or even burgers/pizzas along with it. In fact, some of them are ‘vended’ out by hand as well! An interesting campaign. It doesn’t matter if it is staged or actual or if the " v...

One has to muster a lot of courage to write about pain. It is easy to express pain through your senses, but not through your hands. Changing the font, expressing it from your heart and then articulating it, does not seem to be an easy task. But I think I need to do it, for this is the thing I want to – as I was told it helps to let out. You never know, it just might reduce the pain. Time and effort, as they say, kept me away for a long time. 2 years away from myself, this reflection that I call my own, did not have me around. My effort to be ahead in the ‘rat race’ and struggle to be ‘out of it’ kept me confused. The fear of losing my most precious valuable kept me lost and ignorant. The end was perilous, Darkness was imminent, but the little shades of gray is what you bank upon – and you rest your shoulders on the fragile layer of hope, ironically putting more and more weight on it, as it trembles. Does that happen every time just before a person gets completely shattered? I always ha...