MxMIndia

Category: ADVERTISING

  • Salman Khan is guaranteed to give results, says a pilot celeb track study by Brandscapes

    Salman, Sachin star in celeb track

    By Ritu Midha

    However cynical one might get, celebrities do help a brand get noticed. Brands realise it and the proof is in the number of celebrities endorsing cold drinks, detergents, mutual funds, hair colour, personal care products and even a brand of battery. The scenario gets even more interesting in case of mens innerwear, where one can see almost every brand in the category promoting itself on the back of a celebrity. The belief perhaps is that consumer will wear the brand his favourite hero wears, or maybe it is the only way to create a differentiation in a category.

    Brands obviously do not spend crores on getting celebrity brand ambassadors and endorsers just to be noticed, the ambition is for the celebrities brand image to rub off on their brand. Current practice to select the celebrity are largely guided by judgment based on certain markers such as popularity with press, number of success stories (films/ matches/ achievements), net worth, fees they command, etc.

    Interestingly, a recent celeb track pilot study conducted by Brandscapes Worldwide throws up refreshing findings. The celeb track model measures celebrities on four parameters, namely popularity, image attributes, media presence, and affiliation with category/brand.

    Parvati Mahadev, Insights Consulting Partner, Brandscapes Worldwide explains, Celeb Track decodes the standing of different celebs on critical dimensions that underpin a brand – trust, appeal and relevance. By doing all this Celeb Track takes cognizance of the fact that there is more to selecting a Celeb than just his or her current popularity rating.

    She adds, Celeb Track works in two ways first, it allows the marketer to decode consumer opinion about celebs in a scientific and hence reliable manner. Secondly, it recognizes the fact that there are multiple facets to a marketing communication strategy, and celeb endorsements should help to highlight the desired facet.

    A few key insights from the pilot study:

     

    The study was conducted among 1,418 people, and the methodology was telephonic communication. It covers celebrities under four categories: actors, actresses, Cricketers and other sports person. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents were male and 33 percent female, and respondents were in the age groups and demographics both married (46 percent) and unmarried.

    Photographs: Fotocorp, Tables and images in them: Brandscapes Worldwide

     

  • A growing and aspirational middle class spells good news for sectors relating directly and indirectly to education

    Educational publication sector will see more ads

    By Akash Raha

    With the increasing growth of the middle class, and spread of education to the grass-roots levels, educational print publications seem to be doing fairly well in India. According to a report from advertising tracking service AdEx India, education sector print advertising in H1 2011 saw a jump of 4 percent vis-à-vis the same period in 2010. However, the top two categories advertising in this segment were ‘Educational Institutions’ and ‘Coaching / Competitive Examination Centres’ which contributed to 90 percent of this sector’s advertising. MxM India explored the reasons for the growth in advertising in this segment even as advertising in several other sectors continues to shrink, and the reason advertisers from other categories stay away from education sector print advertising.

    It is indeed true that India is a country where education is valued and is sought after. The population of the aspiring middle class too is constantly increasing. “India as a country has always been serious with education,” says Mr Anindya Ray, Vice President, Lodestar UM, “Academics and a good job is the sign of ultimate success. Alternative careers like sports, singing, adventure related sports etcetera, are not the staple for the vast Indian middle class. Even though of late such alternative areas are coming up, a basic-level degree education is a must. Hence education will always be on the growth path. In fact, during the worldwide recession of 2008/2009 when India was having a soft market situation, when all other advertisers were holding on to their media spends, education sector still showed a growth and was the leading spender.”

    Mr Premjeet Sodhi, President, The Collaborative, Lintas Media Group too touched a similar note and said, “Education as a sector is fairly liberalised and there is a lot of private/corporate interest in the sector. A large and growing youth population provides an opportunity for private enterprise in India and hence this sector is on the anvil of significant growth. From the advertising perspective, its prominence in advertising shares is mainly because of the huge number of companies that contribute to the advertising of the sector. In the future, more companies are expected to start advertising. Besides, even the existing ones are expected to increase their advertising spends. However, it remains to be seen if these spends will be retained within the print sector or will television and digital take more and more of it. The recent trends do suggest that it will be a challenge for print to continue to grow in this domain. If one were to estimate the growth not in terms of volume but in value then the trend may already be unfavourable for the print category.”

    As the number suggests, 90 percent of the advertising in this segment come from ‘Educational Institutions’ and ‘Coaching / Competitive Examination Centres’. The rest 10 percent is comprised of ‘Computer Education’, ‘Vocational Training Institutes’ and other categories. When asked why advertisers from other categories don’t see this segment as an opportunity to advertise and get to the young and educated Indians, Mr Dinesh Vyas, Business Head, MEC India said, “Advertisements gain a lot from the editorial content of a magazine. It might be true that educational publications are doing well and is a medium to reach young-educated Indians but several categories might be a misfit in the publication. A consumer buys educational magazines to know more about education and an advertisement about diamond sets or deodorants would be a total mismatch.  While advertising, it is important to match the environment of the magazine”

    When asked the same question, Mr Ray said, “Yes it does make sense for advertisers from other segments to advertise in this sector – theoretically though. However in our country, education is a serious subject and entertainment, technology, consumer durable industries do not want to be in that atmosphere. More so, because there is not a single minded education platform in India and the best that you have are the various education supplements with mainline dailies.”

    In a burgeoning population of educated Indians, the scope of growth in this sector is likely to soar in the years to come. With it, the advertising revenue will rise too and the sector will grow further. However, in the world of digitisation, the current players will have to throw caution to the wind and plan well ahead of time.

    According to Mr Sodhi, as the AdEx data suggests, “The education sector is highly disorganised and fragmented. There have been attempts by various education brands to monetize their education materials/periodicals, events and their chain of training centres, websites, etc by associating with other advertising brands. However, I am not aware of formal education sector print that can be consistently be used as an advertising medium by others.”

    How much the sector grows in future, and whether or not it will put up a good show at IRS and other measurement researches, only time will tell. But currently, going by the media planners’ verdict, this sector seems to be giving good value for money for its advertisers, though some semblance of organization would help the medium on the bullish ride forward.

  • I am sending the TVC and stills separately to PM and RM by Gmail as they are large files. Afaqs has the TVC up on their youtube channel but I haven�t found it elsewhere online yet. – VH

    Catchy retro tune for Westside’s reinvention

    By A Correspondent

    Chances are you’ve been humming the Shammi Kapoor-Asha Parekh foot-tapper Aaja aaja, main hoon pyaar tera and not realized quite why it’s stuck in your head.

    You may have seen Ogilvy & Mathers new brand campaign for Westside, Endless Possibilities, starring an ever-changing, bubbly Giselli Monteiro, with the opening bars of the song in the background.

    As the 50-second TVC demonstrates, endless possibilities is Westsides name for mix-and-match. An old concept given a fresh update with an interesting take on the same model meeting herself in different avatars as she progresses through the streets of picturesque Prague, where the TVC was shot.

     

    Mr Suresh Kumar Nayak, Group Creative Director on the Account, comments,When each look is created to tell a story then imagine the endless possibilities of stories with all the different looks a Westside store has to offer.

    The promise of newness permeates the commercial, highlighting how the same piece of clothing can be worn differently for a new take on one’s look. In a way, it’s a hearkening back to pre-globalised India where women got garments tailored with an eye to diverse uses, mix-and-match being the order of the day. Now one goes not to the tailor but to the department store.

    Westside, of course, is much more than clothes from home furnishings and accessories to gourmet food, it’s got something for everyone. In a nutshell, Endless Possibilities sums it up.

    Along with the range of merchandise, Westside’s new USP is the changed in-store look and feel and the international SIS (shop in shop) format.

  • A chat with 300-odd marketing and media pros indicated there was much gap between demand and supply…

    Why MxM India?

    Offo, ek aur nayi media website! I can’t promise you a Maya Alagh smile when she mouthed a similar line launching Promise toothpaste eons ago, but I can guess at what’s running through your mind even as you read this.

    Agreed MxMIndia isn’t the first off the block. We are in fact Website #15 if you count the outdoor, digital and telecom sites. I have much admiration for the owners, publishers and editors of many of these. They’ve been pioneers, risk-takers and have jointly created a niche that’s unparalleled in the business-to-business media space.

    So if there’s much mush and gush, why MxM? Why fill your inboxes with more content, when there’s enough of it? Because when I spoke to some 300-odd marketing and media professionals over the last few months, I found there was much gap between demand and supply. Yeh dil surely maange more!

    Also, for many of the players, integrity and ethics are fashionable words but not really put into practice. Stories and covers being sold for ads or cash, awards for favours — past, present and future… there is much decay in the system. In fact the decay has set in so much that it may take a few Annas and Kejriwals to cleanse the mess. So while media houses run high-pitched campaigns against corruption, they happily espouse dubious paid content practices.

    I am a huge believer that it’s possible to conduct business ethically. I also believe that if we ask the world to rid itself of corruption, the media must have a squeaky clean rep.

    Hey, I am not here to sermonise. It’s important for you to know how MxMIndia will conduct itself. But we are no prudes. We don’t think innovative advertising is a no-no. We don’t think that there is a way to do away with fake ads. We just believe, as our good friend Arnab Goswami would say, that the nation wants to know more than just what’s on the surface of the world of marketing and media.

    My one-line advisory to my editorial and business team is: we will write about people and companies regardless of whether they advertise.

    After 25 years of working in various jobs (save for a bit when I tried my hand at blogging and assorted consulting), this is an honest attempt at starting an enterprise. MxMIndia has hired some of the best available talent. We believe this is the only way to start if we wish to be counted as the website of choice for mediapersons and marketers. What you see now is the Beta version of the site. There are still many loose ends and the content will only get richer and the sections under each of channels will open up. Please let us have your feedback.

    MxM in our name stands for Media and Marketing and it was suggested by my friend Prashant Basrur. The logo was designed by his art team at Deadline Advertising. Thanks hugely to the entire Deadline team for bearing with me all these months. The site was developed by Mediology Software in Gurgaon (Merci, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Manish Dhingra… and Arun Nair and team). Thanks to Raj Pandian for showing me the way with the numbers, and Nandita Saikia and Saikrishna Associates for the legalese. Thanks to Mahalakshmi DM for being around in my early days and Deepak Joshi for help with all the paperwork. My sincere gratitude to the various people whom I bugged for advice and all of you who I turned to for support.

    MxM wouldn’t have happened without my family supporting me. A big thanks to each member of the MxMIndia founding team, associates and our star writers present and who have agreed to write in the immediate future.

    We will make it happen. Hum honge kaamyaab. Not ek din, but soon, and ethically.

     

     

     

    Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Email pradyumanm[at]mxmindia.com

    BBM: 23050B5D

    Twitter @pmahesh, @mxmindia


  • Spikes Sidelights | No random networking

    By Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer
    It was an insightful weekend at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore reviewing some of the best works from across Asia. But before I get to that, let me say that the dinner on the evening before we actually sat together to review the work, helped to get together and know one another, be familiar with the professional backgrounds to set the pace of views and reviews that would be relevant over the next two days.

    Rather than an informal dinner setting I appreciated how Spikes Asia had organized a sit down dinner where each jury was assigned their table to group together with their co-members. So there was no random networking, and no one was left out of the conversation. It was a very
    productive dinner so to speak.

    The next two days we started really early, well yes by Indian Standard Time, it was a 6 a.m. Fortunately I was able to be wide awake for the prospect of reviewing work with people across the Asian region was definitely exciting, plus to have anyone from Crispin Porter + Bogusky to chair the meet was an equally if not more exciting prospect. And Jeff Benjamin, chief creative officer CPB, the jury chair, was someone I did learn from over the last two days. I was humbled of course by the kind of work that rest of Asia is producing. And yes, barring an idea or two, saw how far away we in India are from thinking beyond getting the basic’s right, executing great ideas, and presenting stuff in a manner that can capture the juror’s attention.

    We had some fun during the day of course. There was the jury photo shoot where the jury chair more than we women on the jury was concerned about the effect of blowing wind and his flying hair, and well, when a couple of guys decided that the silence from the next jury room was killing. So a `help me’ note was slipped under the door, a lot of sound effects were created so it would get noticed and we get some reaction, but the note was totally ignored :P.

    Finally the day was over. We finished with champagne by the poolside last evening after we had finally decided on the metals. It was refreshing. Jeff ordered some Singapore Sling shots, to top it, and that was a nice lift to the end of the day.

    Hope to catch up on the some of the sessions today at the Festival, and some of the after dark parties organized by some of the agencies here in Singapore this evening.

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer is founder and managing director, BC Web Wise

  • Day 2 of Spikes Asia gets underway

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spikes Asia took off in Singapore yesterday with India dominating the participating countries in the awards event with 612 entries. Celebrating creativity in advertising and communications, the three-day event is the apex congregation of the trade in the region.

    “As the largest awards in Asia Pacific, we are delighted with the continued support of the industry in the region, demonstrated by this incredible growth. Spikes Asia is the place to see the region’s great creative work across all the different disciplines, including the two new categories for this year – Mobile and PR. Winning a much sought-after Spike, provides important recognition, inspiration and motivation for both agencies and clients alike,” said Mr Terry Savage, Co-Chairman of the Spikes Asia. “With a record number of attendees this year, Spikes Asia is set to be a great event, with much to learn and discuss,” he continued.

    During his session, Mr John Wren, President & CEO, Omnicom Group had summed on the must-have’s among the people they hire-high energy, talented and nice. He also dubbed mobile as the core to change in future. He also pointed that Asia is the growth center for marketers and its here that they can achieve the greatest growth.

    Mr Stephen Kim, General Manager, Global Creative Solutions, Microsoft discussed the journey of storytelling and pointed that every brand and every consumer has a story to tell and as marketers, it is important resonate these stories with the consumers.

    There was also a presentation on `Lessons In Creativity And Innovation From The Simpsons’ by Mr Joel Cohen, the Writer and co-executive Producer of The Simpsons. Mr Cohen attributed the success  of the Simpsons to the environment in which it is created and also reminded the importance of connecting with the audience before innovating.

    There are many more sessions that delegates are making a beeline for. These include Creativity & Fear by Todd Sampson, CEO, Leo Burnett Australia, Does Creativity Make Advertising More Effective? by James Hurman, Planning Director, Colenso BBDO and The Gamification Of Marketing by Laurie Coots, Chief Marketing Officer, TBWA\Worldwide among host of others.

    The grand awards event will be held tomorrow evening.

  • …but the winners made me believe in advertising and communications once again, writes Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer

    Spikes Sidelights | Not a spectacular night

    By Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer

    Finally, the grand evening, the Awards Night for Spikes Asia at the Esplanade Theatre. I must admit the evening was not as spectacular as I thought it would be. It was a laundry list of awards being given out. But the highlights were, as it should rightly be to see the presentations and films for the Gold and Grand Prix winners. That I must say, almost all of them made me believe in advertising and
    communications all over again. It was fascinating to see some awesome craft and design work in particular. They did let the imagination take leaps and bounds.

    It felt very good whenever `India’ won something and whenever any Indian walked up on stage. It felt good to see Samsonite win the Advertiser of the year award and an `Indian’ who was the Asia-Pacific head, Dr Ramesh Tainwala of the Tainwala Group that Samsonite has its joint-venture with, walk up on stage to receive the award.

    A simple man, simply dressed, humble to say he is not used to it, and who said the best of things any agency, in this case JWT, would love to hear, and ensured that the Indian arm Contract got a mention too when he was up there on stage. That speaks volumes about the person, and I guess a reason why Samsonite is such a big success in the region, they got the best partners in India.

    I skipped the party thereafter at a place called `Indo Chine’ I think, hosted by Leo Burnett. Thought I would catch an early nights nap, for we leave the hotel tomorrow morning at 7 a.m for the airport, and that is 4.30 am India time.

    Signing out from Spikes Asia… thank you, it was fun and a great learning opportunity in many ways.

     

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer is founder-managing director, BC Webwise

  • It’s simple communication, so why do banks get it wrong so badly?

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: What use IIM degree if you are Mr Crude?

    I recently shut my account with a well-known international bank. After nearly nine years of really poor experiences. And I took this long to pull the plug because, one, I used to think, well, at least this was a known devil… who knows what awaits elsewhere. Two, many of my clients directly remit funds to my account, so it’s painful to reinvent the wheel. And three, because I genuinely believe people should be given many opportunities before you hang them.

     

    Anyway, guess I made a serious error of judgment. Not only was the account ill-serviced right through, the last straw that broke my back was when a few cheques I had issued bounced, leading to loss of face for me. And I knew I had more than sufficient funds in my account so this could not be happening. Panicked, I dumped urgent assignments, and rushed to the nearest branch of the bank. Where I was cheerfully told my account had been blocked. Because I had failed to submit some documents required for a business account, as prescribed by a new RBI guideline.

     

    And I was like, “Whoa! No one told me!”

     

    This is what happened: I was told my so-called “Relationship Manager”, whom I had never heard from in all these years, is based in Delhi, and that I should talk to him. And the reason they’ve allotted me a dude fromDelhiis because that’s where I opened my account in the year 2003. No matter that I left that city in the year 2004, and my Mumbai address has been in the bank’s records for all these years. And this gent very sweetly tells me he called myDelhimobile number (!) and wrote to myDelhiaddress (!), because at his bank they only use contact details that appear in the account opening documents! And that on getting no response, he blocked my account.

     

    Er, chief, why didn’t you check the records carefully to see if my address had changed? The Mumbai address has been there in the bank’s records for years, they have been sending me monthly statements at that address. “Sorry, that’s not in our standard operating process,” he chirped. Half an hour later he magically accessed my e-mail address, and mailed me the notification which I should have received months ago. And despite speaking on the phone for 20 long minutes, the mail addressed me as “Dear Ma’am.” And not even a little word of apology to dear ma’am for all the inconvenience caused.

     

    You might wonder why am I boring you with this sorry tale. Here’s why: There’s a lesson in this for all those senior managers who operate in the service industry. Advertising, banking, telephony, corporate communications, PR, etc.  Where direct customer interface is par for course, is full-on, is integral to the operations, and is critical to the survival of the business. That, when you hire young people, please don’t do so based purely on qualifications and experience. Those are important but secondary. The first quality interviewers must suss is the candidate’s people-handling skills, his response in the face of an upset client, his demeanour when his own organization is in the wrong. And most importantly, how he deals with a situation where the client has faced embarrassment for no fault of the latter.

     

    Because when the employee behaves like a moron in such circumstances, it DIRECTLY hurts the company’s business. There is no point in fancy management degrees if you lack basic communication skills. It’s anathema to hire such people in an industry where communication is at the heart of the business.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Was much intrigued to find Sachin Tendulkar in the children’s “Right to Education” ads. Our hero dropped out of school to pursue his passion, and then went on to make billions out of it. And the rest of the bachchas must sadao inside classrooms and become managers of post offices? Haila, not on, I say! 🙂

  • Day 2 at Spikes Asia in Singapore was fun and loads of partying

    Spikes Sidelights | Partying hard at Spikes Asia

    By Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer
    So it was a crazy time partying last evening. I left with Bo Hwang, ECD and VP from HS Ad Seoul, LG’s in-house agency. We had to decide which of the parties to go to! There was Ogilvy and Lowe starting at 7 pm and then a JWT party, one by TBWA and may be one hosted by McCann.

    I wasn’t really aware about the latter two. Anyway we decided to go Ogilvy first because our friend Johan ECD from AKQA suggested we are going to get some food there too. So there we made it by about 8 pm. And what did we find. Right outside the building before we entered we were accosted by a very attractively decked carnival woman, with all shiny blue sexy costume and those large plumes sticking out from her headdress and a very pleasant young man, and painted bus asking us to head to the Street Carnival organized by Lowe!! Ha ha.. so yea they did their best to redirect the crowd from Ogilvy, and I found out later that they were pretty successful. Bo and me decided to head upstairs anyway.

    So the Ogilvy party was happening at a newly opened office… so it was empty unfurnished. There were some 5 women who flocked over to Bo as soon as we entered!! And I was so impressed with BO from then on. Yes, I really liked him till then, and now I found out that he was so popular with women from around the globe.

    We made our way through the fairly packed place at Ogilvy… we got our glass of red wine, no food though J. I think Bo managed to get himself a bite or two. I had to make it right downstairs to grab a smoke. But yes I made friends with Emma Osborne, MD from Aspire Gobal Neworks who down there for a smoke too and holding two red balloons that flew away. And then back up with a cute little girl Jenny Choo from Breakfast Film Seoul. She was going to entertain me I realized , more than I expected much later in the evening.

    So yeah, JJ from Ogilvy One had it organized for us, we were to go in his car for the next two parties and we made it to the Lowe Carnival at the junction of Ann Siang Hill and Club Street. And was that place packed.. the street was overflowing from the likes of Madison Av. Asia . There were 3 pubs that were blocked by Lowe and people with drinks were inside outside everywhere. Jenny was soon garlanded with a scarf of pink feathers… and we got our drinks. We also got some real food and some 5 of us were placed ourselves next to the snack counter and made friends with loads of people there.

    Finally we headed to the JWT party on the rooftop of the building their office was in. Yeah, and this is where Jenny gave that moment to remember. The rooftop has this little shallow pools all over. And Jenny walked straight into one with her plumes and all.. her little black dress and black pointed heels.. and she managed to ensure that her glass of wine did not fall.. it was an awesome sight. I was right next to her.. tried to stop her.. but it was too noisy for her to hear. So yes, then I did help her out of the water apologizing all the time as I was laughing my heart out, and then did not feel guilty
    ‘cause she could not stop laughing too. And yes.. so we laughed for rest of the night we simply could not overcome that scene. JWT party had the best music, I must admit. I couldn’t catch the DJs name. Some fireplay was organized but those are the kind of stuff we find on the beaches of Goa, so nothing spectacular. What was sad though was when the drinks ran out pretty fast and all the bar seemed to have was warm beers.

    Johan, Bo, Jenny and me decided to head back to the hotel, tried to find out if the Post Office bar on the way was open, but we could order just one last drink so we headed straight back to Axis Bar at
    the Mandarin Oriental where we all stayed.

    That was the end to last evening or early morning hours of today. Now heading for the Awards Night and the After Party… . J

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer is founder-managing director, BC Webwise

  • Terrorists will get a setback if they don’t get the bhav they currently get from the media

    Hard Knocks: Ban terrorism coverage

    Knock, knock. Before you get into the blog, here’s an intro. It was meant to be a one-sentencer, but it’s turned to be a loooongish one. Anil Thakraney is an adman-turned-journalist living mostly in Mumbai, but sometimes in Bengaluru or Nashik. Or for a few days in a year or two: London. Many moons ago, he would edit The Brief:, an ad magazine that the adfrat loved to hate or hated to love. Well, they loved it and hated it. The Brief: was unceremoniously shut, but Thakraney had tasted the thunder. He went on to subject all and sundry to his interviews and stings (and stinging interviews) at Mid-Day and later with Mumbai Mirror. He was even editor of Mid-Day’s Bengaluru edition for a bit.

    When I joined the exchange4media group in 2008, I got Thakraney, a former colleague and friend, to write reviews and interviews. It was only natural that when I thought of launching MxMIndia, I asked him to be our Editor-at-Large. Do a blog, write reviews, interview the biggies. Etc, etc. Publishing Thakraney’s blog was like wearing a near-red shirt in a bull ring. But, heck, he’s one of the bestest writers on medialand. His views, most often contrarian, are interesting. I enjoyed reading his hat ke views today, and I am sure you too will. As for those who are at the receiving end of his commentary, I can only say: dil mein mat lena yaar! – Pradyuman Maheshwari

    Without much ado, Hard Knocks. By The Anil Thakraney:

    I am aware this is a heretical thing to say. And it goes against all tenets of good journalism. But drastic times call for drastic measures, as it’s said. I really think time has come for the owners of the mass media, in particular the TV channels and the newspapers, to come together and shun exhaustive coverage of bomb blasts and other terror attacks.

     

    And I propose this seemingly preposterous idea because the biggest source of motivation for terrorists is to sit back and watch (with beer and popcorn for company… the 76 virgins will have to wait) the hectic media blast of their actions. This 24×7 coverage not only provides oxygen to their deeds, it also encourages other terrorists to join the party. And their message of hatred quickly gets spread all over the world, free of cost. And sometimes, as it happened on 26/11, the TV coverage aids them directly in their planning and execution. In short, the media unwittingly ends up providing a huge bang for their buck.

     

    I wonder if their enthusiasm levels will remain the same if the oxygen supply is cut off. If they are ignored like petty pickpocketers. If they don’t get the bhav they currently get. I suspect it will be a setback for these buggers.

     

    So then what about the role of journalism, you ask? Isn’t it the duty of the media to inform the janata on what’s happening? How can the media ignore such a huge story? These are valid questions. But maybe for the greater good, these need to be compromised. I think a bomb blast should get a tiny slot in the coverage, as would a road rage incident. So people DO know it happened, but there’s no accompanying drama around it. The terrorists will deem this to be an insult to their work. And that’s a good thing, no?

     

    Yup, I know traditional journos and media barons will immediately scoff at this idea. Because it sounds crazy. But once the laughter dies down, they would do well to chew on it. Because often for difficult problems we need to search for lateral solutions. Especially when the horizontal and the vertical ones have failed. And especially when you are operating inside a soft state called India.

    PS: There’s this ad which the Pak government recently released in theUSpress. It would have won an award at Cannes for sure. But they screwed up a bit with a small typo. The headline should have read: ‘WHICH COUNTRY CAN DO MORE FOR YOUR PIECES?’

     

     

  • DeBrief: Reliance Netconnect’s little movies

    Reliance Netconnect has put out a speed challenge. ‘It’s fast. Are you?’, is the question being asked. And to highlight that offer, they have released three thrilling commercials.

     

    In one, an unknown ‘taskmaster’ has tied a chap with a rope, and placed him inside a van parked across a railway track. As the train approaches, the man struggles but manages to reach his laptop, he then affixes the Reliance Netconnect dongle to it, and surfs to find a way to untie the knots. Yup, he does get out of the van just before the collision happens. In another ad, a girl has been locked inside a moving car, and the boot is set on fire. But she manages to escape by locating the nearest fire station. Using Reliance Netconnect, of course. In the third one, a young dude frolicking inside a deep forest comes face to face with a marauding elephant. And manages to get away by using Reliance Netconnect. When he streams a video that distracts the animal.

     

    Yes, the ads are dramatic and entertaining. Like little action-packed movies. And as Reliance Netconnect has been used as the key part of the plot, it doesn’t appear forced into the stories. Should appeal to young net users.

     

    However, there’s a built-in problem with this approach: Shorter edits of these films won’t work, the drama simply won’t happen in a 20-seconder. Which means Reliance better have huge budgets ready to keep releasing 45-second films. An idea is powerful when it works in short edits too. Creative directors must never forget this basic ad principle before writing TV scripts.

     

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 2.5

     

     

    Anil Thakraney’s ad review column DeBrief will appear twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays.

  • Saatchi & Saatchi strengthens planning team, appoints Hari Ganesh Desikan as senior planner in Mumbai

    Saatchi & Saatchi appoints Hari Desikan as Senior Planner

    By A Correspondent

    Saatchi & Saatchi India today announced the appointment of Mr Hari Ganesh Desikan as Senior Planner at its Mumbai office, thus strengthening its planning division, an area that has always been of prime importance for the agency. Hari will be responsible for regional planning for Pampers as well as some other key brands.

    Talking about the appointment, Ms Nisha Singhania, GM, Saatchi & Saatchi, Mumbai said, “With Hari joining the planning department in Saatchi Mumbai we now have a truly fantastic team of planners with a diverse set of experiences and talent. I wish Hari all the best and look forward to him helping create some Lovemarks for us.”

    Speaking on the development Ms Kavita Kailas, Vice President – Planning, Saatchi & Saatchi, Mumbai said, “We are very excited to have Hari on board. Along with rich experience across categories, his forte is infusing fresh thinking into brands, which will be of immense value to clients”

    Mr Desikan, an electronics and communications engineer, comes with a rich experience of over a decade years in marketing, brand management and advertising. Talking about the new assignment, Mr Desikan says, “Saatchi Mumbai has a wonderful set of people, in fact more than the brands that I would get to work on, what made me choose Saatchi was the chance to work with Mr Sourabh Mishra, Ms Kavita Kailas and team”.