My weekly compilation of clutter-breaking creative ads was the source for the first part of my mega list of best ads of 2025. Here’s the second and final part. Hope you enjoy it. Five Star chicken: death of a salesman The hallmark of any top-notch advertisement is the right combination of creative strategy and execution. It takes a lot of smarts to figure out what needs to be said and then the ‘how it needs to be said’.…
Every week I attempt to share a compilation of clutter-breaking ads. It’s that time of the year when lists are…
A majority of ads are simply ignored – a fate worse than being disliked. Clutter-breaking creative ads are a rarity.…
The marketing world is abuzz with holiday ads and promotions for Stranger Things. In my weekly compilation this week: ads from Deutsche Telekom, Uber, Apple and more. McDonald’s Taiwan: dreamy breakfast Advertising’s potential to solve a business problem through a creative idea is amply demonstrated in this campaign to promote McDonald’s breakfast in Taiwan. The problem: many consumers wake up late and hence miss the breakfast served at McDonald’s as that service is available only…
Almost every week, I share a curated list of creative ads. The movie Marty Supreme’s Zoom Call, TVC for Bang…
The Christmas ad season is upon us. Several brands in Europe and the US, across categories (especially retail such as…
There was a time when news was what we read in the papers about events which happened the previous day.…
I quite like the new Snapdeal logo. It makes for an attractive app icon (mobile being an important part of…
Over the last few years many CEOs of business enterprises have used social media (especially Twitter) as a platform for…
While a handful of brands paid millions to be associated with the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, for me the clear winner was Nike Cricket. Some brands had their fair share of high decibel campaigns – Pepsi’s Change the Game, for instance. And then there were others who force fitted their business association in ads. What worked for me?
The Facebook Brand Page has become de rigueur for virtually all brands today. Every brand seems to have one, irrespective…
An ad for the movie, Alice in Wonderland in the form of a cover-wrap in the front page of L.A.…
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 11th November, 2016: John Lewis, Paytm and more. 1. John Lewis: Buster the Boxer The marketing & advertising industry across the world look forward to Christmas adverts from big brand UK retailers every year, for the last…
The general perception (and rightly so) is that an Apple laptop or dektop costs more than a Windows-based PC. Some…
I love short duration ads – the ones which are 20 seconds or under. The ad commercial is in any…
News from Cannes Lions dominates the advertising world this time of the year. While ‘digital’ driven ideas get their fair…
This TV commercial for Colgate Max, created by Rediffusion DY&R is doing the rounds of ad blogs. I saw it…
Anybody can be a critic of advertising. But that’s not the toughest part of the business – getting noticed is.…
As far as Public Service ads go, I believe ‘a call for action’ works a lot better than an attempt…
For the past few weeks or so brands have attempted to create communication with the crisis triggered by COVID-19 outbreak…
I had made a short list of iOS-exclusive apps (14, updated to 17) which, on hindsight required a lot more additions. So…
The first and perhaps the most important job of an ad is to be noticed. If an ad goes unnoticed…
Clients have often asked ‘why is this creative idea true of only my brand and not my competitors?’ The attempt was to overcome mis-attribution and help the viewer believe that the messaging can only be true for the brand. The problem is that the product is usually never imbued with any significant differentiation (think of any consumer goods product) but the advertising is usually expected to do that job. The onus then is squarely on the strength of the creative idea.
Few years ago, if you developed a TV commercial for a brand chances are you will mandatorily develop an Outdoor…
The debate on scam ads continues. Sreekant Khandekar, the editor of agencyfaqs has articulated his views extremely well. Clients too…
Recently, AgencySpy published an internal memo of an ad agency, where the CEO makes a reference to advertising providing a chance…
‘Every day, more photos are taken with the iPhone than any other camera’. That’s the simple proposition. Nothing about a…
One aspect of Apple’s creativity – apart from it’s products of course, has been the way they handle their advertising.…
Will stand alone digital agencies survive or continue to be bought over by the big network agencies or simply shut down? My two bits going by the trends and what clients are likely to look for in their creative partners.
The general perception (and rightly so) is that an Apple laptop or dektop costs more than a Windows-based PC. Some…
Jingles have been part of advertising for decades. When done well, they have the potential to create a memory hook…
Nowadays it is common to spot articles bashing ‘content marketing’ as a discipline. The common grouse with such articles is:…
By now, you must have read about the world’s first edible cookbook. A German design agency Korefe has created a…
Remember ‘ambient’ advertising? Just over a decade or so ago, it was all the rage. Essentially, it was using non-traditional…
When I joined advertising a couple of decades ago, we did not have Account Planners in our agency (Trikaya, which…