The advertising world is celebrating winners at Cannes Lions 2026 this week. My handpicked list of winners (among the many case study films showcased in ad portals) and few others I noticed over the last week or so form part of my weekly compilation. John Malkovich for Croatia: hear it’s beautiful Marketing a country as a preferred vacation spot is tough. The purchase decision is a high-involvement one and often involves many decision makers or…
Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of new clutter-breaking creative ads. This week, ads from Uber Eats,…
Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of top new creative ads. Nike’s ‘rip the script’ and few…
Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of clutter-breaking best new creative ads. This week, ads from Faber-Castell, Air Transat, Stella Artois and more. Faber-Castell: shot on Faber-Castell It’s always tricky when one brand rides piggyback on another brand’s famous campaign idea. You can end up paying for that brand’s advertising and visibility. In this campaign, Faber-Castell mimics the visual style of the famous ‘Shot on iPhone’ series. The twist? The image is…
Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of clutter breaking new creative ads. The first and the most…
Every week, I attempt to share a curated list of best new creative ads. This week: Flipkart SASA LELE sequel…
There was an interesting conversation on cult brands, over at Twitter, triggered by this tweet from Karthik. The conversation that…
The Facebook Brand Page has become de rigueur for virtually all brands today. Every brand seems to have one, irrespective…
Advertising is meant to effect a change – either in behaviour or attitude. In my book, the most effective advertising…
The death of Mita Diran, a copywriter at Y&R Indonesia, got widely reported in ad industry magazines recently. She reportedly…
One of the lessons early on in my career was about the role of advertising and distribution. We learnt that…
Music: Here comes the Hotstepper – Evian remix by Yuksek Agency: BETC Directors: We are From LA Production team: Iconoclast & Mikros ‘Live young’ and the baby dance have become trademark Evian messages over the last few years. Their ‘roller babies’ video became a viral sensation across the globe, garnering a staggering 63mn views thus far. The visual hook of dancing babies and the print version of it have become iconic brand properties. Instead of…
Most ads go unnoticed. In a 2017 article, Dave Trott said ‘In the UK £20.3 billion is spent each year on all…
Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans, goes the famous quotation. With Apple, it can be…
A hilarious new spot from Adobe, targeting marketers hits the sweet spot. It is in a way reflecting reality: lot…
The proliferation of social media and services that call for your ‘conversation’ has it’s downsides. There are so many of…
Johnson & Johnson got a lot of buzz recently for their print ad which was infused with the distinctive smell…
Most ads are simply ignored. That’s a fate worse than being noticed but disliked or being indifferent about it. My weekly…
It is said that a majority of advertising is mediocre and plain forgettable. While we all are exposed to hundreds…
The last ad of Guinness which made waves across the world was the basketball one. The choices we make reveal…
Having spent a couple of years in Direct Marketing, I still find the practice fascinating. I must admit that I…
Every week, I attempt to share a compilation of creative ads and occasional commentary about the business of advertising. Here…
While chatting with a marketing veteran recently, the discussion acquired a ‘those were the days’ ring, recounting some of the…
Every category of advertising has a code. A common debate is one about B2B vs B2C. Luxury brands (think high…
When I groggily opened today’s Times of India, I was pleasantly surprised to see an ad for the iPhone 3G, from Vodafone.
Apple continues to push the diverse apps as the differentiator – until the Android and Ovi markets catch up, at…
Got myself a Blackberry recently, triggered by two reasons: the seemingly endless wait for the iPhone 3GS India launch and…
‘Digital media usage time is exploding right now, and it’s predominantly being driven by mobile apps’ says the 2015 Mobile…
Apple revealed a new page, ‘Shot on iPhone 6’, dedicated to showcasing great pictures taken on the phone. The page has some truly haw-dropping pictures making one wonder if such pictures are possible through a phone camera. In a clever move, the images are used in an outdoor campaign (apparently synchronised to be launched globally including markets in India) – all of which are meant to evoke a ‘wow!’ reaction. I don’t know if the campaign was timed to launch alongside the Samsung S6 launch but it appears to be so. At the Samsung S6 launch event the brand took pains to compare pictures taken on that device along with those from an iPhone 6, obviously showing the latter as worse off.
Titan Industries, known for its watch and jewellery brands, released an ad which evoked a polarised reaction on social media.…
The ad industry trade portals were abuzz recently on the topic of ageism in advertising following the comments made by…
Stephen Fry wrote that a single human year is really three digital years. By that yardstick, 2008 was 15 digital years…
This video put together by Neil Curtis is doing the round of tech & Apple blogs. It compresses the entire…
Ad industry veterans said recently in an interview that brands should ‘think apps and not ads’. I respect the two…