Read Between the Ps

Spending money on a full-page print ad is definitely noticeable. You spend a lot of money and time to invest behind the creatives, the messaging and the back-end preparation. It would then be quite heart-breaking for a marketer when readers would ignore or not get your message and flip over! Worst, it is noticed more by marketing students (like me) who would rather intellectualize than buy! When such a step is taken by one of your peer companies that you admire, the marketer in me cannot hold myself from opining! Case in point is iChef   - In case you heard the name for the first time, let me not tell you what they do - just see this ad and see if you guessed it correctly. This was the ad on 5th of August - front page of Bombay Times So what did you guess? The company is into ready-to-cook meal kits pre packed and served fresh to you - so that you don't have to get worked up on sourcing the ingredients and make a nice complete meal for your family. The next one cam...

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...

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...

There are some campaigns that get your attention and your “ share of wallets ” as well – and there are some campaigns that manage to just get your attention, but get ignored by the latter. Most of these campaigns get your attention, not because of the brand, but because of their innovative execution & excellent creatives – very few, however, of them manage to ensure even the brand recall at the end of it. Such campaigns, at best, can be appreciated and blogged about, and that’s where they stay for most part of their lives (till the time they get archived!).. One such campaign is for AT&T coverage, done by BBDO Atlanta/New York, titled “ the best coverage of any carrier worldwide ” – Have a look at the set of 6 creatives, representing various “exceptional” geographies in which AT&T is present (200 to be specific) – China, India, Japan, Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Egypt. Undoubtedly, one of the finest work of art I have seen till now – a perfect blend of mapping geographies wit...

I just read some quite interesting facts about how the brains of women work, but there is something to be added in that entry,so might post that by tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile, found an equally interesting piece on kids this time – and how a brand has leveraged insights into kids’ psyche to promote its brand. And guess what it is about? Not diapers or food items, not chocolates or balloons, not games or toys, but the batteries on which their toys run – Energizer batteries , and how critical they are to a child’s growth – in ensuring that his/her highly energized brains stay constructive, keeps them occupied and do not distract them to resorting to naughty pranks like these… ..so much so to put it professionally – but worth the insights, and worth the effort. How else do you think you can market batteries to kids/parents? Brilliant execution! The agency that did this creative, was deservingly awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes as well. DDB South Africa won the Grand Prix for this ca...

Time has passed. Things have moved ahead. But the “ Chinese Irony ” still remains at the top of my entries. Maybe, a lot of entries have assumed so much importance before, but this one seemed to hurt a little more than the previous ones. At least when I was offered to sell my blog because it seemed I am no longer interested in it!! Well, no more sabbatical for this blog – maybe a few off days would be more of the norm as my understanding goes – more of the professional calling if so. But no so long that I am made another selling offer! No way. So much to say – I am out of the box, and thinking! Taking the out of the box and thinking part forward, this is a nice piece that leverages today’s occasion of Father’s day wonderfully, to ensure a strong recall, even though, it hits out at its competition. This piece has been doing the ad-blog rounds for quite some time, since I have seen this print before as well. Nonetheless, worth picking it up again – maybe to get cues on more creative i...

Found this nice piece of creativity at advertising for peanuts . A fine example of how simple concepts of design can communicate a strong social message. Made for CVV ( Suicide Prevention Center ) by Leo Burnett, Sao Paulo (Brazil), the campaign symbolizes how the best person to help you in your times of trouble is you yourself. Hence, the campaign “ Help Yourself ” Incidentally, found an interesting blog, Mer-chan , whose author, Katy, had identified a similar design piece created by Peter Callesen . Peter’s work - designs made by cutting sheets of paper – seems to have inspired the creators of this campaign. Katy mentioned in her post that the work of the artist from Denmark would have either designed the posters himself or would have inspired the admen….both in Brazil as well as in China Nonetheless, excellent pieces of design - in fact, I would recommend any aspiring designer to visit Peter's website and learn how he has created wonders out of simple sheets of paper. Comme...

I had earlier posted a collated list of the Economist Ads that appeared around 18 months back. To add to that, found this interesting ambient piece ( below ) sometime back. Another Ad ( right ) won the Epica Silver last year in the print category. Wonderful concepts....takes a bit of thinking to understand, though :) [via Ads of the World and Epica Awards ]

Thanks to Adcritic’s latest print issue, found a unique competition aimed at creating something for the environment – One Show College Competition , organized for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) , announced its winners for 2007. The theme was “ Another way to save the world " and asked the entrants to focus on global warming and clean energy; toxic chemicals and human health; and protection of the oceans. The Gold Pencil winner in the Innovative Marketing category was this smoking gun. The brief reads “ Air Pollution kills 60,000 people a year ” and has been excellently executed.(With all credits to Jeseok Yi and Francisco Hui of New York's School of Visual Arts). Deservingly the best! The concept of the Silver winner is also commendable – making water out of Hope ….check the campaign to know more. Entries of other winners of the competition can be browsed here The effort of NRDC is focused on residents of the United States , the global leader of global warmin...

Found these nice creative pieces at Ads of the world , for another offering from Wrigley's - “ Hubba Bubba ” The tagline reads “ For Blowers, Hubba Bubba ” Made by Wrigley Jr. Company in 1979 in the US, Hubba Bubba has been positioned primarily as a bubble blowing gum . Since the gum was less sticky, these bubbles were easier to peel from the skin after they burst…a scientific explanation to the pranks intended indirectly hinted at.. As is evident, the company has built localized portals for each region, and most of the advergames to engage children are built around bubble blowing and bursting them. The UK website of Hubba Bubba has built a virtual city with various events and stalls. From the time I spent inside it, it is definitely an interesting tour… The product – not only does the gum come in various flavors, it also comes in various forms…..initially, it was distributed as chunks / pieces , but recently, it has been produced as shredded pieces of baseball , rolls of bu...

Found a nice piece of ad in the latest edition of Harvard Business Review . Following the lead, these 2 ads are featured as posters at the website of PI Worldwide. A nice analogy to present and market the need of a behavioral Assessment tool – tools that are required to improve performance and productivity of human assets. Human resources cannot be taken as commodities, and there is a concerted subjective assessment required to make the most of these resources – this is the basic purpose of this tool by PI Worldwide - to hire, develop and retain talented people . A nice way to put across the point in the B2B space for corporates.. As the title of its brochure reads "Uncover the hidden value in your most valuable resource" PI Worldwide is a HR management consulting firm, with its famous tool “Predictive Index” process “ The Predictive Index process improves effectiveness and productivity across all levels of an organization. As a practical, reliable indicator of workplace ...

I spoke about Advertisers and the level of creativity they demonstrated. Well, maybe, one cannot generalize this for the industry per se, since there are some works that get redundant and duplicated with time. On one hand you have the campaign of Sherwin Williams , and on the other you have a similar, but " Indianized " version of the campaign for Nerolac - the young couple is replaced with an old man...abiding by the " moral " code that is so much in talk lately... Though Sandeep claims that it is totally incidental, I have limited knowledge of how the copyright industry works....and I just hope that some of the neophytes didnt interpret it in a different sense....that all it requires is to " copy Right "!! Following are other pieces of the two campaigns... [Source: Sherwin Williams - Twenty Four & Ads of the world , Nerolac ]

How does a human mind work when it looks at emotions? A normal human brain would, most likely, interpret the emotions based on previous information, and relate to causal conditions for the emotions - and sympathize with them. In some cases, we can empathize with those emotions as well..... For instance, this photograph might look like a baby crying and tired, or the pic below might seem to be two cute twins posing for a photograph, with sheer innocence... But an advertiser's mind doesnt stop there....he connects these emotions to his intended communication and gets a campaign out of it - and in a fantastic combinaton of emotions and brand values - he gets his point across.. Things which we, as normal individuals, would experience and interpret in isolation, but do not connect them - he forms that connection.... Thats called the art of creativity , something one epitomizes in the rarified Advertising Industry...must say, Commendable interpretations and designs! Call it presence of...