MxMIndia

Category: ADVERTISING

  • Pradeep Guha gets another term as Vice President and Area Director Asia-Pacific region and Srinivasan Swamy, President IAA India Chapter takes charge as Vice President Development Asia-Pacific.

    PG, Sundar Swamy elected IAA World Board VPs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Pradeep Guha
    Srinivasan Swamy

    The annual meeting of the IAA World Board of Directors at Cannes on June 18 saw the confirmation of two Indians to key global positions.

     

    Pradeep Guha (or PG as he’s popularly called) gets another term as Vice President and Area Director Asia-Pacific region and Srinivasan ‘Sundar’ Swamy, President IAA India Chapter takes over as Vice President Development Asia-Pacific.

     

    Mr Guha said there was a lot that could be done in the rapidly developing Asia-Pacific region and stressed the need for industry associations to collaborate in the greater interests of its professionals. Mr Swamy added that the 75th anniversary of the IAA was a landmark that would provide an impetus to many developmental events in the region. He also said he would lead a delegation of senior Indian professionals to the IAA 75th Anniversary Leadership Forum that is scheduled for October 3 in London.

  • Full marks to IndusInd Bank for thinking out of the box. However, the below average execution doesn't do justice to the unusual promise.

    Debrief: IndusInd Bank: Offbeat approach works

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Intriguing offer from IndusInd Bank. Their new ad is based on just one promise: We will offer you the account number you desire. Bollywood’s character actor Sharman Joshi has been hired to do the honours.

     

    Joshi is stuck on the number 30, because he considers it to be his lucky number. The ad tries to make this funny, as Joshi is pleased when his son scores only 30 percent marks in the exams. He desperately tries to fit into a trouser that’s size 30 inches. And so on.

     

    Must say I was a bit flummoxed when I first saw the ad. IndusInd Bank isn’t offering efficient service or higher interest rate or expert advice. They are offering an account number, which is the least of my concerns. Later I gave it a thought and felt they might be doing the right thing. Because all other banks make the expected promises, this bank is appealing only to the superstitious in us. And when you think about it, it makes sense because India is a nation of many superstitions, and ‘lucky number’ tops that list. The fact that so many people pay through their noses to get hold of the ‘right’ number for their vehicle is a clear indication of that. Full marks to IndusInd Bank for thinking out of the box.

     

    However, the below average execution doesn’t do justice to the unusual promise. The treatment is laid-back, the jingle is boring and the humour quotient is low. They could have conceived totally hilarious situations with the crazy obsession people have with numbers, and perhaps many short ads was the answer. And Joshi, instead of adding value, dilutes the overall impact. They didn’t need a celeb at all, the innovative offer is the real star! And that’s the only celeb the ad needed.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 3. Refreshing promise. But execution gets only 30/100. 🙂

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views of the writer are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney

     

  • On Day 4 of Cannes Lions 2013, 12 metals in Design and 11 in Press of which 6 were Golds

    It’s raining metals for India@Cannes2013

    By A Correspondent

     

    Indian Agencies @ Cannes Lions 2013
    Gold Silver Bronze Total
    Taproot 4 1 1 6
    McCann 2 0 2 4
    Ogilvy 1 2 7 10
    Grey 1 0 2 3
    Publicis 0 1 0 1
    BBDO 0 0 3 3
    DDB Mudra 0 0 2 2
    Leo Burnett 0 1 1 2
    TBWA 0 0 1 1
    Total 32

    India was indeed shining with 23 metals in the bag on Day 4 of the Cannes Lions 2013 International Advertising Festival.

     

    In Design, where India had 19 shortlists, 12 metals were won: 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 8 Bronze Lions. The Golds were bagged by Taproot for The Times of India’s Farmer Suicide campaign and the Ogilvy’s Daylight campaign for Philips Electronics.

     

    Ogilvy secured a Silver each for Philips Electronics and its Persian and Urdu campaign.

     

    The 8 Bronzes went to: two each for Ogilvy, McCann and BBDO and one each for Leo Burnett and TBWA

     

    In Press, Indian agencies secured 11 metals: 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 5 Bronze Lions.

     

    McCann bagged 2 Golds for its campaign for Penguin India Audiobooks. One Gold each was won by Taproot’s Farmers’ Suicide campaign for The Times of India and Grey’s Positive & Negative campaign for Procter & Gamble’s Duracell Batteries.

     

    Taproot’s Farmers’ Suicide campaign and Leo Burnett’s campaign for Tide also bagged a Silver each. A Bronze each went for Gatorade by Taproot and DDB’s creative for PE TV.

     

    Ogilvy’s Philips Electronics India won 2 Bronze for its LED Torch campaign and one for the NGO World for All.

     

  • The Cannes Lions 2013 India Tally (as on Thu, June 20)

  • The agency has brought in Anupama Ramaswamy and Simran Sahni as Group Creative Directors, and a slew of other new creative talent has joined too.

    Cheil India hires creative talent, ups bar for ‘Ideas that Move’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil Worldwide SW Asia (Cheil India) has announced an expansion to its team in India. This announcement comes close on the heels of Cheil’s celebration of its 40th anniversary where it unveiled a new corporate identity – ‘Ideas that move’ – that reflects its vision.

     

    The agency has brought in Anupama Ramaswamy and Simran Sahni as Group Creative Directors. The much-awarded duo has moved from JWT where both were working as Senior Creative Directors.

     

    Recently, Navin Theeng and Somenath Chakraborty moved from Contract Advertising to join the Cheil creative team as Group Creative Director and Sr. Creative Director, respectively. On the digital front, Shveta Singh moved from Euro RSCG, to join as Senior Planning Director and Siddhartha Deshaprabhu from Fashos.com, a direct-2-consumer ecommerce footwear e-tailing brand, joined as General Manager -Digital Advertising & Media. The creative teams report into Nima Namchu, while the digital teams report into Rajesh Bhatia.

     

    Hari Krishnan

    Speaking on the appointments, Hari Krishnan, COO, Cheil Worldwide, SW Asia said, “The creative bar is raised at Cheil across the globe. Our aim is to populate the organization with top quality talent who will make a difference and contribute to our global wins. We are fortunate to have on board a talented set of people who are passionate about creating ideas that traverse effortlessly across mediums and consumer touchpoints. They all bring to the table the right mindset to integrate, which is rare in most agencies today. I am sure with these bright stars joining us the right energy will be created and exchanged within Cheil to deliver exceptional work for our clients.”

     

  • As the disaster strikes and the aftermath plays out, television journos must do one and only one thing: Focus on the 3Rs… rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations. And only discuss the whodunit and the whydunit after some amount of normalcy has been restored.

    Anil Thakraney: Uttarakhand disaster: TV anchors screw-up yet again

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    You know who’s the biggest moron in this world? The man who reaches a building on fire, stands outside and wants to discuss in detail with those trying to douse the flames exactly what was the cause of the inferno, and who screwed up.

     

    Don’t know if this occurs to them, but some of the news channel wallahs have been doing exactly this on the Uttarakhand calamity. My friends in television must understand that their job differs from the newspaper editors when it comes to covering natural disasters or terror attacks. As the disaster strikes and the aftermath plays out, television journos must do one and only one thing: Focus on the 3Rs… rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations. And only discuss the whodunit and the whydunit after some amount of normalcy has been restored, after the victims have limped back to safety. This is because television is a live medium, it carries immediacy of news. But instead of doing this, on prime time, some news channels got those usual crappy, noisy debates going, to pin responsibility on who was behind this ‘man-made’ disaster.

     

    Just think about this: What if one of my friends or relatives is marooned in Kedarnath right now? Frantic, I would be madly surfing the news channels to see how folks are being rescued, and would hope get some details of the persons stuck out there. Or, god forbid, discover if the individual dear to me is gone. In fact, this is how a BBC would go about things. Instead, I see star anchors in a free-for-all with netas and the usual studio guests. Can you blame me then if my blood goes on the boil?

     

    While newspapers and magazines can and must cover a natural disaster with a 360-degree view, television has to cover the story step by step, and only shift gears at the right time. The question is: Why aren’t the idiot box runners doing the obvious thing? I can think of two reasons. One, perhaps because they are idiots. Or two, the anchors are convinced that shouting and screaming inside studios is the only way to gain ratings, whatever be the subject. You are free to pick the right reason.

     

    ***

     

    PS: An eerie anti drink driving campaign from the UK, one that might give you a heart attack in the pub itself. If they try this out in the Indian pubs, I suggest using only male mannequins. Else the BMC lady will object.

     

    Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2338000/Shocking-anti-drink-driving-campaign-scares-pub-goers-simulating-car-crash-complete-fake-blood-toilet-mirror.html

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney

     

  • The Cannes Lions 2013 India Tally (updated Fri, June 21, 2pm)

     

  • Coca-Cola's heartwarming attempt to bring India and Pakistan together is hit at Cannes Lions 2013

    Coke’s ‘Small World Machines’ a rage at Cannes

     

    By Ravi Balakrishnan

     

    One of the most talked about films by the Indian contingent at Cannes this year is not created by a local agency.

     

    Small World Machines is a video from Leo Burnett Sydney for Coca-Cola about two camera equipped Coke vending machines set up in Lahore and Delhi. The film features Indians and Pakistanis interacting with each other, via the machine (see video at: http://youtu.be/ts_4vOUDImE).

     

    People dance, wave and use the machine to draw peace signs and hearts. It’s all quite heart-warming – even the comments on YouTube, a fairly consistent source of contemporary bigotry, are mostly positive.

     

     

    The Story behind the Coke Small World Machines

     

    Why winning at Cannes is good for our business: Jonathan Mildenhall

     

    Until you speak to the Indian ad folk about it. It is perhaps only fitting that a film about borders should be so polarising. A famous creative chief believes Indian agencies ought to hang their heads in shame for not having come up with something like this.

     

    There’s another agency head who hints darkly at this being a form of client sanctioned scam, an unrealistic message entirely dissociated from the prevailing atmosphere of suspicion and hostility between the countries. He says, “We mustn’t forget Coke is the company that created Santa Claus. There’s a big difference between impacting lives and being in the news.”

     

    The other perhaps unfair critique is that while Leo Burnett Sydney came up with a great idea, the team played it safe by choosing two antagonistic nations that are still more or less functional as opposed to the Koreas or Israel and Palestine. And then there are people on the fence. Says Satbir Singh, chief creative officer at Havas, ”I am not sure about the scale since I live in India, and here’s where I saw it first.  It did give me goose bumps, but I think it’s more of a viral video than an activation.” None of which has stopped the film from doing very well. It’s picked up four bronzes, one silver and three golds in categories like Cyber, Direct, Media and Outdoor at Cannes 2013.

     

    Jonathan Mildenhall

    Ad pundits believe it could have bagged a Grand Prix or two if it was not up against the immensely popular ‘Dumb Ways to Die’. The project was conceived after Jonathan Mildenhall, VP of global advertising strategy and creative excellence at Coca-Cola, decided to galvanise Leo Burnett, one of the lead agencies globally, asking them to come up with a global idea.

     

    The agency got back in six weeks with a book of 15 ideas. Mr Mildenhall recalls, “They had done the research about the cultural challenges between India and Pakistan and created a story that I knew that the brand could help address. We approved where it was going to happen in just one meeting.” What followed was a logistical nightmare. While Mr Mildenhall refuses to reveal the budget, the project went 150% over its original price tag, with Coke having to abandon plans for Pakistan on their first attempt due to local challenges. However, Mr Mildenhall is clear this could only work in its current format and not as a vanilla TV commercial.

     

    ”In that case it would have been simple, contrived, preempted and pretested. TV ads are our bread and butter. But we wouldn’t have created a genuine conversation that’s in the heart of not just Indians and Pakistanis but the people from these countries living elsewhere. Once we created an activation we knew that compared to a commercial this was worth its weight in gold.” Andy Dilallo, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett Sydney, believes the idea has got legs and can be used in other cases as well.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

     

     

  • Gossip suggests that some of the winners at Cannes are 'scam' ads, because 'nobody' has seen the winning entries in the media. It's very likely that none of them are scams. But to know that, we need access to the media plans of the winning entries.

    Anil Thakraney: Cannes winners, release your media plan

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Congratulations to the Indian ad world, it was a very satisfying show at Cannes; 33 trophies is really wow when you consider that till only a decade back we used to win zilch.

     

    However, the rumour mill is buzzing. Again. Gossip suggests that some of the winners at Cannes are ‘scam’ ads, because ‘nobody’ has seen the winning entries in the media. The PR winnings sound dodgier, the work appears to have been designed to please an international jury. For example, that bit about adopting a pothole. Wouldn’t firangi judges just lurve stuff like this from Incredible India? Everyone out here is wondering exactly how may potholes got sorted.

     

    Now, it’s quite possible that the gossip is unfair to the winners, it’s very likely that none of them are scams. But to know that, we need access to the media plans of the winning entries, and that’s impossible. One could have filed an RTI application, but sadly, the ad world doesn’t come under its purview, not yet at least. So then what’s the way out? I would urge the winners to publish their media plans in the trade media. With details of the number of insertions for press ads, number of hoardings used, etc. And the PR winners should publish full details of the operations and the effectiveness of their campaigns. I think this is important for it shall help kill the gossip. In any case, if you have done genuine work, why not proudly publish the facts?

     

    On another note, must say our continuing disappointing run in the digital category is a cause for concern. I can only think of one reason why we aren’t winning anything: Our old world creative directors who are obsessed with the traditional media, and have failed to evolve. Well, they better change this fast. By finding people who can help them understand the digital space. (By the way, many of these giants haven’t even tried out social media, I kid you not.)

     

    Lastly, a pat on the back to the TOI group. Despite being a huge, huge organization, they consistently find a way to inspire their ad agencies into doing scintillating work. Marketing directors and brand managers of other large companies should borrow a leaf from them. On why bigness should never come in the way of good creative work.

     

    ***

     

    PS: Cool idea from the makers of Homeland, the hugely popular US TV serial. They are looking for ‘extras’ for the next season, and are inviting members of the janata to come forward and apply. Great way to promote a soap, Indian TV serial makers should try it too.

     

    Link: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/homeland-casting-call/

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is also Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached via Twitter at @anilthakraney

     

  • Among the agencies, Taproot leads the tally with 4 Gold Lions, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze. McCann brought home 2 Gold and 2 Bronze Lions while Ogilvy secured 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 7 Bronze.

    Indian entrants win 33 metals at Cannes Lions 2013. Ramesh Deo bags bronze with Film Craft

    By A Correspondent

     

    Indian agencies came back their heads held high with as many as 33 awards at the 60th edition of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival held in Cannes, France last week (June 16-22).

     

    Make that number 34 if you also include a film crafted and conceived in India by Lowe Lintas but entered in the fray by Lowe, London. Lowe Lintas, as is known, does not participate in creative advertising awards.

     

    On Saturday, Ramesh Deo Productions won a Bronze for Nike’s Parallel Journeys (agency: JWT Bengaluru), the last of the metals that can officially be credited to Indian entrants.

     

    Among the agencies, Taproot leads the tally with 4 Gold Lions, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze. McCann brought home 2 Gold and 2 Bronze Lions while Ogilvy secured 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 7 Bronze.

     

    However, if one were to account for a point gained for each shortlist which is used by the Lions organizers for the special awards (agency of the year, etc), Ogilvy would perhaps be #1 with 36 shortlists. Taproot would be #2 in this tally and McCann #3.

     

    Indian Agencies @ Cannes Lions 2013

     

    Gold

    Silver

    Bronze

    Total
    Taproot

    4

    1

    1

    6
    McCann

    2

    0

    2

    4
    Ogilvy

    1

    2

    7

    10
    Grey

    1

    0

    2

    3
    Leo Burnett

    0

    1

    1

    2
    Publicis

    0

    1

    0

    1
    Ramesh Deo

    0

    1

    0

    1
    BBDO

    0

    0

    3

    3
    DDB Mudra

    0

    0

    2

    2
    TBWA

    0

    0

    1

    1
    Total

    33

     

     

  • For the second consecutive year, Ogilvy Mumbai has been found to be the Most Effective Agency Office globally

    Ogilvy Mumbai is most effective agency office in world yet again

    For the second consecutive year, Ogilvy Mumbai has been declared the Most Effective Agency Office Globally, in the 2013 Effie Effectiveness Index. Effie Worldwide and Warc, the global marketing intelligence service, revealed the global results of the Effie Effectiveness Index in Cannes on Friday.

     

    Said Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director, Ogilvy South Asia: “I am truly delighted for Ogilvy Mumbai and all our clients who we have partnered in achieving this unprecedented recognition of being ‘the Most Effective Agency Office in the World.”

     

    Said NavinTalreja who heads Ogilvy & Mather’s Mumbai and Kolkata offices, “To do it once is good. But to be awarded the Most Effective Agency Office in the world for two years in a row is a staggering achievement. This only further underlines our philosophy of deep collaboration between Creative, Planning and Account Management helping us deliver on the twin peaks of creativity and effectiveness. This would not have been possible without the support of our clients so a big thank you to all our clients who continuously repose faith in our ideas.”

     

    Kawal Shoor, Head of Planning – Ogilvy Mumbai, said, “We didn’t plan for this. Couldn’t have. It’s impossible to know what hundreds of other offices across tens of agencies are doing globally. Only in hindsight have we figured the reason Ogilvy Mumbai has been honoured with this accolade, in successive years. And the reason is – great work that works, not for a few, but for a very wide set of brands, across different clients. I think Ogilvy Mumbai manages the depth-versus-width issue beautifully because we’re blessed with a unique mix of skill sets, our creative culture, and a genuine desire to motor each other’s thoughts forward.”

     

    The Effie Index was launched in June 2011 and is led by Effie Worldwide.  It was predicted to become the industry standard and according to industry influencers, it is now considered to have attained this status.  The Effie Effectiveness Index identifies and ranks the marketing communications industry’s most effective agencies, advertisers, and brands by analysing finalist and winner data from Effie Worldwide competitions.  It is the world’s most comprehensive ranking of agency and advertiser performance and a valuable resource for anyone interested in marketing effectiveness.

     

  • The Final India tally at Cannes Lions 2013