Category: ADVERTISING

  • McDonald’s wins 2018 Spikes Asia Advertiser of the Year title

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spikes Asia has revealed that McDonald’s is this year’s recipient of the Spikes Asia Advertiser of the Year Award.

     

    The year 2017 alone saw six different campaigns from three different countries win 10 Spikes Asia Awards. This included a Creative Effectiveness Spike for #MacItBetter, which showed how the work drove tangible business effects for the Big Mac and the brand in Australia.

     

    Said Joe Pullos, Festival Director, Spikes Asia commenting on the announcement:“The awards at Spikes Asia are all about celebrating and championing Asian creative and McDonald’s has achieved monumental success for their branded communications both here in APAC as well as globally. It’s an instantly recognisable brand that continues to evolve and drive for higher standards in its creativity specifically nuanced for this region. We’re very excited to be able to reward the company’s commitment to innovative communication.”

     

     

  • Quite unlike an ad…

     

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    When you don’t see the advertisement, you see a story unfolding before you.

    Thank you, Whatsapp. Otherwise, I would have missed seeing this beautiful, touching piece of communication from Hyundai 20-year celebration in India. It ’s served on WhatsApp with a cleverly planted introduction that remains unchanged through lazy forwarders. ‘Almost every advertisement depends upon half-nude females to propagate the sale of products but just this one… It’s a class in itself. Hats off to Hyundai- what a fine advtt.”.

    I agree the Hyundai ad is brilliant, and there are no half-clad females.

    Jokes apart.

    Hyundai’s 20-year celebration ‘Brilliant Moments with Hyundai’ idea is not new. Many brands have tried finding emotionally charged life stories. However, most have failed to get the right insights and stories or mucked it up in the presentation.

    Hyundai ‘Army with Santro’ is a perfect example when the advertisement does not seem like one. It is an engrossing story. It is slightly exaggerated and dramatised, but that is acceptable.

    The second film  ‘The deal with Accent’ is not as engrossing as ‘Army with Santro’. Something is missing. It seems stretched and somewhat unnatural. For me, it failed to touch me emotionally.

    I hope the brand team and Innocean does justice to the selection of REAL life stories. The long format story telling is an art in itself. Remember once you commit to a format or a series, it becomes that tough to surpass the expectation. Some succeed and some fail. I am waiting to watch many more powerful stories brought to screen in future.

    The Hyundai 20-year celebration communication is working with all car owners. There are instances and episodes of life getting refreshed in the memory box.

    I never had a Hyundai car, and I don’t think Hyundai is interested to hear my story. However, that does not matter. While writing this, I remembered my first car Maruti Zen, which was a hand down office perk, my first and second Ikon, my Innova, my Mahindra SUV and now the Honda BRV. They were a part of my life.

    …………………………………………………………….

    THE REUNION

    While talking of advertisements that do not seem like an advertisement, I must talk of Google Reunion series.

    Father-Son reunion by Google is not a new DVC, but it has a special place in my heart. My father passed away in September 1992. As with most of us, I too am full of memories. I will be lying if I said, I remember him every moment of my life. However, there are moments when his absence is felt very strongly. In those moments I miss him a lot.

    No, my father never wanted to be a Bollywood hero. However, I know he would have been the happiest person with whatever I have achieved in life. In turn, my happiness too would have been amplified. I grew up in Jabalpur, and my mother lives there alone. She is rooted in the city. It seems, there is nothing that can make her move to Mumbai.

    Today, if my father was alive, he would have been with us in Mumbai, even if my mother decided to remain in Jabalpur. That would have been a tricky situation and impossibility.

    This Google Search DVC hits me on a very emotional level.

    The whole search experience is smartly woven into the script.

    Knowing it is a Google ad, you still engage in a different mindset.

    It is more content than an advertisement.

    The best advertising is one that does not feel like advertising.

    This Google DVC (2016) and its previous avatar Indo-Pakistan Reunion (2013) were referred as one of the best product service integration. And I would tend to agree with it.

    It’s the simplicity of the complicated situation that grips you as an audience. The highly charged emotions demand your attention.

    In Indo-Pak reunion was about friends separated during partition living with a hope of meeting once before they die. Similarly, Father-son reunion DVC is an emotional cocktail. There is retirement, recalibrated aspirations and parent’s fixation with the small town. There is this uniquely friendly but unexplained relationship grownups have with their parents.

    Search is not glorified here. It remains a conduit. The audience, empathise with search being a facilitator and not a magic wand. The Google search does not remain just a transactional service.

    However, when the brand tried stretching the story, weaving in functional knots in a charged emotional tale, the equation changed. It missed the sensitive touch. The magic was lost. It is no surprise that the audience remembers Indo-Pak or Friends reunion but forgets fennel, Cricket or Anarkali from the same series.

  • WARC’s Future of Strategy

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    WARC, the advertising and media effectiveness specialist, has released the results of its recent worldwide survey of senior strategists, highlighting their challenges and the impact the strategic function is having on the ever-changing marketing landscape.

    Based on a survey of more than 500 senior planners and strategists from around the world,WARC’s second The Future of Strategy report provides both quantitative and qualitative data on the current state and future expectations of the industry. Key findings are:

     

    Strategy teams set to expand as influence grows

    More than half of strategists and planners expect their teams to grow over the next year, in an era when most feel that the influence of planning is growing both within their agency and among clients. Despite this optimism, there is a feeling that planners’ skills are not always being applied most effectively, commonly attributed to the pace of change in the industry, and a client focus on tech rather than sustainable strategy.

    Shekhar Deshpande, Global Planning Director & Strategy Consulting Director, J Walter Thompson, comments: “Senior clients want more strategy, perhaps to help them navigate the current marketing labyrinth, and become better marketers.”
    Budget cuts are threatening the ‘craft skills’ of strategy

    Budget pressures are a clear obstacle for planners and strategists globally. The majority of respondents in all regions say client-side budget cuts are having an impact on strategy teams. This is leading to more short-term thinking by clients. Within agencies, it means lower budgets and planners who no longer feel able to spend time away from their desks.

    Rob Campbell, Chief Strategy Officer, Deutsch, observes: “Fewer and fewer planners spend much time in the real world, preferring to observe it from the comfort of a research report and Google search.”
    Competition for strategic services is growing

    Marketing strategy is no longer just an agency specialism; increasingly strategy is being offered by consultancies, by tech and media firms, or by in-house client teams. That means greater competition for agency planning teams; but it may also mean more varied career opportunities for individual planners.

    Dan Burdett, Chief Marketing Innovation, Officer, EMEA, eBay, raises the question: “In a world where everybody is in some way competing with the guys in Seattle, how do we form coalitions that are going to benefit all of our businesses and help drive the industry forward?”
    Upstream vs downstream remains a crucial divide

    There is a tension between where planners want to be playing – on upstream business problems – and the reality of their day-to-day roles, with, in many cases, limited access to client data and heightened focus on tactical campaign elements. Reflecting the different visions of strategy in the industry and the potential need for reinvention in marketing services, several respondents argue that a link between strategy and execution remains vital.

    Paula Bloodworth, Brand Strategy Director, Wieden + Kennedy, London, comments: “With consumers moving and changing so quickly, we should be more executional in the way we plan and be nimble and flexible and adaptive.”

    Summing, David Tiltman, Head of Content, WARC, says: “WARC’s 2018 Future of Strategy report reveals a discipline in flux. There is generally a feeling of optimism – of greater influence and growing teams. But that is undermined by the impact of client budget cuts and, more broadly, a sense that the planners and strategists are not thriving as they might in current agency structures, at a time when competition for strategic services is growing.”

    A preview of the Future of Strategy report was unveiled during WARC Day at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June, with insights shared by senior global strategists. View the highlights video here.

    A sample of the report is available to download here and a free-to- join webinar discussing the findings of The Future of Strategy report will take place mid-August. The full report, including additional data, analysis and exclusive commentaries from senior survey participants, is available to WARC subscribers on warc.com.

  • ASCI upholds complaints against 89 erring ads for April 2018

    By A Correspondent

     

    In April 2018, ASCI’s Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) upheld complaints against 89 advertisements of the total of 162 advertisements that were evaluated by the CCC.

     

    Out of the total 89 advertisements against which complaints were upheld, 24 belonged to the healthcare sector, 34 to the education sector, 20 to the food & beverages category,  two to the  personal care and nine were from the others category. A total of 101 advertisements were picked up by ASCI’s suo moto surveillance, wherein 31 cases were informally resolved as advertisements were voluntarily withdrawn and objections against 68 advertisements were upheld. Of the 61 advertisements complained against by the general public or by industry members, 12 cases were informally resolved wherein the advertisements were voluntarily withdrawn and complaints against 21 advertisements were upheld by the CCC.

     

    Exaggeration of product efficacy was the number one reason for upholding complaints. The other reasons included providing facts and figures which were inadequate to substantiate claims, exploiting consumers’ lack of knowledge, claims which were misleading by gross exaggeration and delivering advertisements which were misleading by ambiguity or by implication. This was followed by violations of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act (DMR Act) and the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Rules and advertisements which contravened various ASCI guidelines.

     

    Among the various complaints against advertisements, the CCC observed that a popular smartphone company was found to unethically attract customers by claiming the biggest sale ever in the history of India. Several advertisements used logos of AYUSH or FSSAI in their communication which was considered to be inappropriate as all AYUSH products in the market are required to have approval from the State Licensing authorities, and calling it out separately as a claim is misleading by implication that Ministry of AYUSH or FSSAI has approved the product efficacy / claims made in the advertisement.

     

    Said Shweta Purandare, ASCI Secretary General: “ASCI’s work in monitoring Print and TV advertisements for AYUSH sector has also been recognised by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare. The committee was of the view that collaborative efforts of the ministry, along with the DoCA, MIB and State Governments, have certainly given results as misleading advertisements with respect to AYUSH drugs which have been unregulated so far have been controlled to an extent. ASCI’s inclusion in the AYUSH’s empowered committee earlier this year is a reflection of regulators’ recognition of ASCI’s consistent efforts to curb misleading advertisements.”

  • Happy mcgarrybowen unveils ad film for Jabong’s Big Brand Sale

    By A Correspondent

     

    Jabong has launched its new marketing campaign to promote the fourth edition of its ‘Jabong Big Brand Sale’, which will end today. Happy mcgarrybowen created a 360-degree campaign for the same titled #OutOfTheWorld.

     

    As part of the campaign, the agency created a 30-second television commercial set in outer space. The commercial has fashionable people floating about in zero gravity chasing an army of shooting stars. Said Gaurav Kackar, Head of Brand, Jabong: “This campaign supports our bi-annual sale property- Jabong Big Brand Sale, which is about the best of international and Indian brands available at unbelievably great discounts. Our brief was to create a Jabong world where people express their individuality and sense of fashion, eluding the pull of the real world norms. Happy mcgarrybowen creatively translated the brief into the #OutOfTheWorld campaign. All credit to the collaboration between Happy mcgarrybowen and Jabong teams along with the director’s vision to capture the brand essence in a unique way and at the same time highlight the key sale callouts and innovations.”

     

    Added Kartik Iyer, CEO of Happy mcgarrybowen: “In a typical situation, this would be another opportunity to do another sale ad. But this is Jabong and the team seems to just push the experience of every piece of communication, every single time. A fresh take on what to expect and the excitement around it makes up the experience to be totally out of this world. All credit to the collaboration between client, agency and director.”

     

     

  • Shan Jain joins Madison as Chief Strategy Officer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media has just announced the appointment of Shan Jain as its Chief Strategy Officer. Jain will perform a national role but will be based in New Delhi.

     

    Jain comes with more than 25 years of diverse experience across Media, Account Planning, Strategy and Account management and has worked with Mindshare, RK Swamy BBDO, The Media Edge, FCB Ulka, Lowe, McCann and Ogilvy. Her last stint was with Publicis as Managing Partner – Business Transformation Practice. Some of the key clients she has led and contributed to are Unilever Personal Care, Unilever Foods and Beverage, GSK, Nestle, Sun Pharma, ITC, Maruti and Gillette.

     

    Said Vikram Sakhuja, Partner & Group CEO Madison Media & OOH on the appointment: “We are excited to have Shan join us as CSO. She is just the right person to help Clients navigate their way through a complex media environment that straddles legacy media with digital and manage the realm of data and technology.”

     

    Added Jain: “We are in the beginning of the fourth revolution. Industry 4.0 is altering the way in which people live, work, and connect with one another unlike any other revolution before it. It is the times of exponential change, fuelled by the way people are connected almost 24×7. Change is occurring in every industry and this is creating a seismic shift in the lives of consumers and businesses alike. Marketers need a new model for success. My endeavour will be to craft frameworks and processes that enable short and long term strategies for Change and Transformation to cater to this connected- consumer times.”

     

     

  • ‘Digital is a must-have for most businesses’

     

     

    The Advertising Club will host its inaugural India Digital Review in Mumbai this evening, that’s Wednesday, August 1. We got Vikram Sakhuja, President, Advertising Club, Group CEO, Madison Media and OOH and moderator of the event – interestingly called D-Code to take a few questions – on the digital review event and on the digital media in general in India. Read on…

     

    Does the fact that The Advertising Club is organising the India Digital Review or D-Code for the first ever time indicate that digital has finally arrived and is being considered as serious field of activity by even the Big Boys and Girls of Advertising in India?

    Digital is of course a serious field of activity. Anybody who thinks otherwise is not a very big boy or girl in advertising.

     

    While the growth of adspends on digital has been highest on digital (vis-a-vis other media domains), spends in absolute terms are still very low in comparison to budgets on television and even print? When (and how) do you see these rising?

    The momentum for digital over the past four years has been that of a juggernaut. So not right to say it is small. That said there will be a phase where this growth will stabilise as adoption makes way for understanding and optimising of the media mix. In my book, role of digital in the awareness phase is supportive but not leading, in engagement it gains in prominence, and in sharing and performance, it takes on a lion’s share. So, long story short, I see some stabilisation of digital growth in awareness phase, but huge increases in lower funnel activities

     

    Would you say that the relatively low budgets have impacted the spends on digital craft? As in would you say the best brains still work on traditional media because the bucks are there?

    That is somewhat true as far as production budgets are concerned, not media budgets. But it’s getting better.

     

    In the backdrop of the last two questions, would you say “digital is a good-to-have, but, well, not a must-have”?

    I think it is a must-have for most businesses

     

    Back to D-Code: Your brief to the speakers is very precise: speaking about one great campaign of yours, one campaign done by someone else and three lessons for marketers… that’s 26 showcasing breakthrough digital work done in India and 39 tips for the year ahead. And all this in 150 minutes – that’s two-and-a-half hours. And will there be a Q&A at all or just back-to-back presentations?

    Awesome isn’t it? Promises to be hell of a ride. I’m hoping we can squeeze a few questions. Will depend on how much adrenalin is flowing in the room

     

    Did you deliberately not have any one from the digital agencies?

    Not at all. We have some very credible agency faces who arguably handle the largest body of digital work. Specialist Digital Agencies vs Creative & Media Agencies who do digital is an artificial construct that some people have. I’m not one of those

     

    How have registrations been for the event? And a word to those who are unsure about coming?

    The reaction has been phenomenal. My advice is do get your ticket fast before the event is sold out.

     

     

  • Girish Upadhyay joins Madison Media Infinity as COO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media has just announced another senior level appointment of Girish Upadhyay as Chief Operating Officer, Madison Media Infinity based in Mumbai. He will handle Viacom 18, Asian Paints and other key clients for the agency.

     

    Upadhyay joins the agency from Tata Motors where he was Head of Marketing Services responsible for Media Planning and Buying, Digital and Market Research.  He worked to develop a multimedia communication strategy with special focus on large scale impact, analytics and digital excellence for its brands.

     

    Said Vikram Sakhuja, Partner & Group CEO Madison Media & OOH on the appointment: “We are delighted to welcome back Girish to head Madison Media Infinity. He is a great combination of planning and deal making. And having been at the helm of Tata Motors Media for some years, he brings a great Advertiser perspective which our Clients will value.”

     

    Added Upadhyay: “I am super excited to be back in the Madison team embarking on a new journey, and I look forward to bring to the table, my experiences built at Tata Motors, as a Marketer, working across different functions. Today, communication reaches consumers at light speed, disseminating information and competing for attention at a pace we have never seen before and Madison with its vision to be the best communication agency is rightly navigating this space for its clients. I look forward to driving business results for clients and adding to the Madison culture of a balanced outlook and a client first approach.”

     

     

  • Sammie 2018 felicitates social media stars

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sammie – Best Social Media Brands Summit and Awards wrapped up its second edition on Tuesday as winners across 19 categories and 14 special categories took home gold and silver trophies.

     

    In all, 95 Awards were given away across categories, which included 37 Gold and 58 Silver metals. Of which Schbang bagged 2 Golds and 2 Silvers for their work for Ashok Leyland, Raw Pressery and Godrej Good Knight.

     

    Foxymoron too bagged 2 Gold and Silver metals for weaving campaigns for Epigamia, Burger King India, HBO and GoAir. E-commerce giant Flipkart took home 2 Golds in two of the special categories – Best Use of Social Media to launch a product or service and Best Use of Technology to create a seamless Brand Experience on Social Media.

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network took away 12 awards. Isobar won 3 Gold and 2 Silver for their work for Reebok, National Geographic Channel, Fox Life India and Wrangler, Webchutney won 2 Silver for IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, iProspect took away 1 Gold and 1 Silver each for Switzerland Tourism and Essilor, WATConsult won 1 Silver for Godrej Appliances while Happy Mcgarrybowen 1 Gold and 1 Silver for OLA and Duroflex Mattresses.

     

    The summit had interesting sessions by Virginia Sharma, Director-Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn India on Content Marketing and Bhaskar Ramesh, Head of YouTube and Brand Advertising, Google India on the video first approach in India.

     

    Speaking on the success of the awards, Hitesh Rajwani, CEO, Social Samosa said: “#SAMMIE this year took a huge leap towards setting benchmarks for Brands on Social Media and we really look forward to further scale this platform with our jury panel, brands, agencies and creators network.”

     

     

  • D-Code, D-Cool!

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Okay, we know the headline looks very pluggy, but hey we aren’t xxxx or yyyy and we don’t get influenced by anything at all. The inaugural annual digital review conducted by The Advertising Club on Wednesday evening in Mumbai was a winner of an event. If anyone complained of event fatigue in the A&M fraternity given the hundred thousand  events and awards conducted by all and now even sundry, this was super. Started not too late – just 45 minutes, and many thought it will be at least twice that. In fact as we told someone this morning: we were touched by the response.

     

    There was no entertainment dhinchak. And those of thought we would starve of F&B given the 150-min sitting, well, the drinks were flowing liberally, as were the chaknas. And, heck, they were even serving Hoegaarden!

     

    But before we go further, let’s look at the downers: One, we thought there was at least one of the speakers went pretty off the brief though tried to offer tips at the end. Two, we missed Agnello Dias. He is an impactful speaker and behind his understated demeanour, there’s a lot of ‘dum’. Aggie is down with conjunctivitis, and wanted to spare us of the infection.  Three, the food was superb, but there were loooong queues. Guess no one expected such a full house, and more importantly, people staying back till the end.

     

    So the brief to the speakers was: share an example of your own work, one work you admire and three learnings you would want to share with the audience.

     

    On the stage were: Ajit Mohan- CEO, Hotstar, Anupriya Acharya- CEO Publicis Media, Anuradha Aggarwal- CMO, Marico, Arun Iyer- Chairman & CCO, Lowe Lintas, Juhi Kalia- Head of India & Anthology APAC for Creative Shop, Facebook, Rahul Johri- CEO, BCCI, Mohit Kapoor- VP Advertising, Reliance JIO, Sam Singh- CEO- South Asia, GroupM, Sapna Chadha- Head of Marketing, India and SEA, Google, Siddharth Banerjee- EVP, Marketing, Vodafone and Tanmay Bhat- Co-Founder, AIB.

     

    Said Vikram Sakhuja, President, The Advertising Club: “The Advertising Club has been at the forefront of driving the A&M industry’s excellence agenda. We are constantly creating forums that enhance the learning curve of the fraternity. With D-Code we have created another engaging property that bring together the industry to debate and deliberate on the stimulating issues of the digital ecosystem.”

     

    Added Aditya Swamy – Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club: “I have always believed in the power of colabs. Inspire and be inspired was the theme of D-Code and bringing together key stakeholders across the industry to crack the digital code was an exciting idea. From my days at MTV where we looked to marry pop culture and brands to now at Google where we unlock the power of digital and tech to deliver value to advertisers, this is a journey that only throws up more and more interesting opportunities. I look forward to being in the centre of this equation as we build centres of excellence.”

     

    And this is what Punitha Arumugam – Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club said: “Our endeavour while curating D-Code was to create a platform that would showcase pioneering work on digital and facilitate ideas exchange within the fraternity.  We have tried to bring representation of all facets of digital with the versatile panel of stalwarts from across the M&E industry.”

    The five key learnings that the advertising, digital and marketing mavens agreed upon were:

    1. Digital is a medium that everyone is experimenting with and no one exactly knows how to ‘crack-it’. The need of the hour is to approach it with an open mind, keep experimenting and learning from one’s own and each other’s strategies.

    2. Digital as a medium does not exist in a silo. All that media needs are great ideas, beautiful craft and creative people who can utilize the right tools to gain success.

    3. One needs to invest in the right marketing technology, tools, talent and partnerships.

    4 .To execute successful digital campaigns, one needs to fully leverage digital signals, customise messaging, employ data and have performance-oriented goals.

    5 .Partnerships are critical in making digital campaigns effective. Scale for both a campaign and digital as a medium of marketing can be amplified when the power of partnerships is harnessed.

    And one last cool thing about the event: Save Rahul Johri, who we are sure is crazily busy, everyone stayed on till The End. Now which A&M gyaan conference do you find speakers not scooting off after their sessions (and those nine minutes more)?!

    If you want to get an idea of what the three tips each that everyone offered, we recommend a scan of the Twitter timeline of The Ad Club (at https://twitter.com/adclub_in).

  • Triton Communications appoints Sam Husaini as President, North India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Triton Communications has announced that it has appointed Sam Husaini as President, North India. As part of his role as President (North), Husaini will ensure the growth of the agency and will provide existing and potential clients with indispensable partnership that catalyses their quest for prosperity and greatness.

     

    Sam Husaini

    Said Ali Merchant, Founder and Director, Triton Communications: “We are aiming to be among the top five integrated communications agency in the next three years in North India, for this we need strong yet disruptive minds to make it happen.  We are confident that Sam Husaini will provide the leadership to make it a reality as President, North India of Triton Communications Pvt Ltd.”

     

     

  • WatConsult wins Riso’s digital and creative mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    WatConsult, the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network India, has bagged the creative and digital media duties of Riso, the leading rice bran oil from Kamani Foods. The agency will handle the brand’s digital media duties including media buying, media planning and the creative duties.

     

    Said Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WatConsult: “We are very happy to welcome Riso in our roster of clients and are looking forward to extend our creativity in line with the brand philosophy. The market that Riso caters to is one of the growing and challenging ones hence it will be encouraging to produce work in the coming future.”

     

    Added Vinay Chawla, CEO, Kamani Foods: “This lends perfect synergies to Riso, our physically refined 100% Rice Bran oil brand which has been known for its bold and unconventional brand building approach.”

     

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