If only politicians were this straightforward. The new commercial from IDEA takes forward the theme of ‘social change’. While the ‘school in a mobile phone’ concept and TVC were memorable, I am still not sure how the idea works. While I am waiting, the new TVC says that politicians can listen to the masses through technology and if they don’t they will get booted out. If only. Seen purely as a brand & advertising idea,…
When I read about the new Pepsi My can ad, I was quite excited about the approach. You know, ‘interactive television commercial’ and all that. Visions of an edge-of-the-seat commercial with a tantalizing story, a last minute twist – all backed up with a major online activity flashed through my mind. Unless I am seeing the wrong version, this seems like any other TVC. I am sure there are plans to make it interactive -…
Is it a case of yet another international brand talking to Indians and saying, ‘hey, we understand you’? The new corporate ad from ING caught my attention and I must admit that I quite liked it at first view. The lyrics are poignant, the jingle catchy (the pahadi style refrain of ‘sirf paisa nahi hai’ is still playing in my mind) and the visuals have an emotional appeal. The insight of us Indians equating money…
What would happen if Charlie Brown and friends worked in an advertising agency? And how would they go about creating the ‘Agency Holiday Party Invitation’? A new film, created in May 2008 has been doing the rounds of the ad blogs over the last one week. Lucy is the whip-cracking Executive Creative Director, Charlie has existential pangs about the agency business and Linus is the insecure (but Silver Addy winning!) Art Director. The films weighs…
Another sign of Hindi movies getting international marketing exposure – Chandni Chowk to China makes it to the Apple start page. As with Hollywood movies, the movie has a promo page and trailer at Apple’s trailers website. The trailers are also available on iTunes (link). The international exposure is not surprising given that its a Warner Bros. Picture. The trailer compares well with the Hollywood movies in slickness quotient. I remember Farhan Akhthar’s Don getting…
Ages ago, I happened to watch Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in quick succession. I was curious to lay my hands on similar movies but didn’t know where to look. Similarly with books – after I read Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen I wanted to read more such books. Amazon tapped into this need and offers reading suggestions based on your interests or purchase. A new movie search engine, Clerk Dogs, takes…
I must admit that I was skeptical about the ‘Suno dil ki aawaz’ platform of Tata Indicom, based on the launch film. Even when it moved to the celebrity platform featuring Lalit Modi, I wasn’t too convinced. But with the new spot featuring the Pathan brothers things seem to be falling into place. For one, the selection of the protagonists was spot on. The execution – life like, without any chest thumping bravado, makes the…
There was a time when the creation of promo films was almost robotic: shout out the offer atleast 5 times in a 15-sec ad, resort to computer graphics and avoid telling a story. The client was also used to backing it with huge amount of GRPs. Not anymore. I guess all promo films began to look the same. Brands like Tide have attempted to treat promo films (price off, new lower price, new pack) differently…
The ‘R’ word has taken its toll on financial service and durable advertising. In India, banks are resorting to reassurance (‘hey, don’t worry, your money is safe with us’ – probably evoking the exact opposite reaction) or portraying the brand as a friend you can count on (ING?). Car brands are giving out discounts and other incentives. Natural reactions, one can say. A campaign for ING Direct in the US, has gone against the grain…
Ever since they stumbled upon the ‘Sar uthake jiyo’ (not to be confused with the earlier Coke baseline: Sir, uthake piyo) idea, the strike rate of the HDFC ads have been pretty good. The very first ad which introduced the concept was very filmi and did not extract the full potential of the idea. And there were a string of ads (Papa, Cycle and the Singapore trip and Tulika) which were popular and endearing. And…