MxMIndia

Category: BLOGS

  • No matter how interesting the idea… If the technology doesn’t deliver, neither will the message, says Viren Popli

    The Anchor: Viren Popli on 5 things mobile advertising in India should adopt

    By Viren Popli

     

    It is not internet advertising:

    Don’t treat it like internet advertising – banners, spam, CTR, CPI. It didn’t work, doesn’t work and will not work.

     

    More co-operation needed:

    Handset manufacturer, content owner and telecom companies need to work together and maybe share 30-30-30 and give the tech/reseller 10.

     

    Don’t interrupt conversation:

    Use waiting times when we are staring at a blank screen, or listening to a dumb audio sound for advertising. Keep it out of my real conversation.

     

    Consumer is the king:

    Allow consumers to select brands he wants to hear from, and ads he wants people to see when they reach out to him. After all, many of us use brands to define our personality – give him a piece of the action.

     

    More engineers in creative agencies:

    Have creative agencies hire more engineers and put them on par with the “creative types” – create internal stress. You can’t separate the technology from the message. So no matter how interesting the idea… If the technology doesn’t deliver, neither will the message.

     

    Viren Popli is Senior Vice President – Strategy and Market Development at Mahindra & Mahindra

     

  • Reliance needs to ask Anushka Sharma to tone things down. Sooner the better. Let her be spunky, not offensive

    Debrief: Reliance Comm: Girlfriend from hell

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Reliance Communications has been running a campaign to hawk their various mobile products/services. All the ads feature their brand ambassador, movie actress Ms Anushka Sharma. And she does what she does best in every single commercial for all the brands she endorses: to play the feisty, high attitude chick. No issues with that, it’s a persona the actress has created for herself, so it makes sense for brands to exploit it. But in the Reliance campaign, they have gone totally over the top.

     

    What Ms Sharma does, in order to establish Reliance’s superiority over their competitors, is to insult her boyfriend (who uses rival brands). She does this in every single ad in the campaign, but the one for the 3G Tab has pushed things too far. She projects her boyfriend as a total loser; she humiliates him, and then to screw him even more, broadcasts her feelings to all her friends and family members. Any self-respecting chap would want to bury himself in the closet hole.

     

    Let’s get one thing out of the way: I am all for feminism, and girl going one-up over her man is fun stuff, so no issues with that. But I have reservations on militant feminism, where the woman abuses her man, treats him like shit and walks all over him. That’s repulsive, not cute. I am sure there are some wicked women like that out there, but must a mass advertiser feature such a sadistic creature? Does this generate brand goodwill? I seriously doubt it. In fact, I have read quite a few tweets (from women!) that express rage over these ads.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EURnQGeiwxU[/youtube]

    Reliance needs to ask Anushka Sharma to tone things down. Sooner the better. Let her be spunky, not offensive.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 1. Nasty, off-putting campaign.

     

     

  • "Idea" is the constant factor which keeps production house smiling, says Hemal Thakkar

    The Anchor: 5 things to keep in mind while running a production house

    By Hemal Thakkar

     

    1) Focus on future is the most important as “change” is the only constant thing in the industry.

     

    2) Talent needs to be nurtured; nurturing means patience and patience means money.

     

    3) Teamwork is the most essential underestimated product; it’s the most crucial for functioning of any production house.

     

    4) “Idea” is the constant factor which keeps production house smiling, with churning of new ideas comes more work and this keeps everyone smiling.

     

    5) Patience is the biggest investment, so yoga is a must!

     

    Hemal Thakkar is the Producer/Partner of Playtime Creations

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: Anna movement reaches its predictable end

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The news was quick to jump on India’s new Union Home minister after a series of bomb blasts hit Pune the day Sushil Kumar Shinde was appointed. In a revealing interview with Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, Shinde exposed himself as a “family” man and also attributed his political success to his Dalit caste. These are just the kinds of things a new India does not want to hear. Even worse, he then went on to say that he had been an “excellent” power minister – this on the day that North and East India reeled under power blackouts for the second consecutive day.

     

    Fortunately for Shinde and his possible short-comings – and also therefore for the UPA government – escape came from what has been the top news story, especially on television: the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement.

     

    Two days ago, Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami had practically been in tears over the frail but defiant condition of Anna Hazare adviser Arvind Kejriwal. The activist, who is apparently a diabetic, was in a bad way but was refusing to break his fast until all his conditions were met – arrest half the government and so on.

     

    Goswami therefore got into fighting mode as there were indications that the movement was looking for a political solution. Karan Thapar also explored this on his Last Word on CNN-IBN.

     

    By Thursday, it was announced that the anti-corruption movement would now become a political platform. The news was welcomed by all political parties since the fight had moved away from civil society to a battle ground they were all very familiar with.

     

    The media’s relationship with the Anna Hazare movement has been fascinating. TV went overboard last year as it supported the movement wholeheartedly and since most TV journalists are under the age of 11, they must have felt this was bigger than the freedom movement. The print media however remained cautious and in some cases critical. The people of India also get enthusiastic and social media was buzzing with anti-corruption rage. The government helped by bumbling and fumbling in its negotiations. But nothing topped the one lakh people who supported the movement in Delhi last year. The Lokpal bill was passed in the Lok Sabha but did not get past the Rajya Sabha.

     

    Buoyed by its success, the movement went a little overboard in its demands and so TV also started asking difficult questions. No one showed up in Mumbai in December and TV totally turned. All the allegations against people like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal were discussed. Hazare’s rustic ideas on politics and society became public knowledge. The group’s diverse and contradictory views on the politics, on political parties and ideologies were exposed.

     

    This time’s agitation saw the love coming full circle. TV tried to be supportive but the people were not. The movement’s supporters roughed up journalists for reporting the lack of popular support. The government was unmoved.

     

    The result is that the movement has gone political. Media support, which bolstered the movement so much in its early days, is now no longer assured. An interesting tale of how activists took on the government and enthused some people for a short while has reached a very predictable end. The media, they will have to remember from now on, will never be a pillar of support if it has to be a pillar of democracy.

     

  • In principle, this is a good concept. However, the execution fails to replicate the magic of ‘Har Ek Friend’

    Debrief: Airtel Internet: Lacks the magic of ‘Har Ek Friend’

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I was looking forward to see what Airtel does to extend their superb ‘Har ek friend zaroori hota hai’campaign. It was a maha cool idea, and enough has already been said about it. So let’s cut to the new ad for Airtel Internet.

     

    The TVC carries a brand new friendship message: ‘Jo mera hai woh tera hai’. It features youngsters riding around Mumbai on an open-top bus, singing, bonding, enjoying and sharing. The ad also, in a sing-song manner, talks about the constant sharing of pics and updates that happens in the social media. Sharing is at the root of today’s friendships, and that’s the insight the idea rides on.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIuGHTAwi1g[/youtube]

    In principle, this is a good concept. The consumer insight is correct; kids, who are perpetually sharing stuff in the virtual world, would connect with this. However, the execution fails to replicate the magic of ‘Har Ek Friend’. This time the creative is a bit too literal, and ‘Jo mera hai woh tera hai’doesn’t pack in the natural charm of the earlier ad. And the song isn’t catchy. I think the creative team faltered at the last mile on this one, they needed to go a few steps further to weave in magic around sharing.

     

    Anyways, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So let’s see if youngsters get hooked to the new song, and are found sharing it excitedly on the net. Personally, I doubt that’s gonna happen.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 2.5. Good insight. But the communication disappoints.

     

  • I think ad agencies should devise a powerful communication package, to be run across the media, with the objective of imparting Americans with basic knowledge on various religions and cultures

    Anil Thakraney: Ad agencies can help with hate crime control

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I still recall the first thing many Americans did immediately after 9/11. This was to frantically search for their world maps, and try to locate Afghanistan. This, of course, became a subject of many jokes at the time, but after we stopped sniggering, we realized that the average Yankee is totally cut off from the rest of the world. That, he/she has never stepped out of his/her comfort zone and hasn’t even bothered to find out what goes on beyond their shores. That it was of no consequence to them. And this isn’t something to laugh at, it can be dangerous.

     

    The recent attack on a Gurudwara in Wisconsinis yet another reminder that the average American remains blissfully ignorant of international geography, history, culture and religion. The attack was obviously targeted at another religious minority group, and our Sardarji friends paid heavily for someone’s lack of general knowledge. So then what’s the way out of this mess? There is only one way: this problem can be fixed by advertising agencies. Because it pertains to communications.

     

    I think ad agencies inIndiashould work with their American parents and devise a powerful communication package, to be run across the media, with the objective of imparting Americans with basic knowledge on various religions and cultures. The Obama government needs to include this education as a part of school and college syllabi, but that can only work as a long term solution. Ad agencies can create campaigns to provide immediate solutions.

     

    So go for it, people. Not only will such a public service campaign win you many awards, you can end up saving many innocent lives. What can be sweeter than that?

     

    An important disclaimer: Having said the above, let me hasten to add that attacks on ANY community members is highly deplorable, and one hopes that the world evolves to a stage where these things don’t happen at all. But in the meantime, at least the ill-informed Americans must be educated on how to differentiate between communities. That itself will be an important beginning.

     

    * * *

     

    PS: If you are a constant tweeter, and have no control over your thoughts, hit this link. It’s about the journalist whose Twitter account was suspended. I like this. It’s time the social media portals stepped in to oversee things. Excessive illegal and abusive stuff seems to be freely floating around in the virtual world.

     

    Link: http://mashable.com/2012/08/01/kicked-off-twitter/?
    WT.mc_id=en_all_stories&utm_campaign=All%2BStories&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

     

  • A brand is a sum total of the creative elements that go into designing the product, its packaging and its communication, says Sumanto Chattopadhyay

    The Anchor: Sumanto Chattopadhyay on 5 ways how creativity can change the image of a brand

    By Sumanto Chattopadhyay

     

    A brand is nothing without creativity. It is, in fact, a sum total of the creative elements that go into designing the product, its packaging and its communication. There are ways and ways of giving these elements a new spin – a new lease of life.

     

    Here are five examples of how a brand can hit the refresh button:

     

    1. Creativity can gloss over history: Volkswagen was launched by Hitler. But creative communication made the brand that rides the Beetle Bug one of the most lovable automobile icons of our times.

     

    2. Creative rebranding can make an old brand new and improved: When UTI Bank became Axis Bank – adopting a contemporary look and logo along with the changed name – it shed some of the negatives – ‘public sector’, ‘technologically outmoded’ – associated with the UTI label and made itself relevant to modern consumers.

     

    3. Not just products, but people too can change the image of their brand: In order to join Bollywood’s A List, Brand Karishma Kapoor underwent a total makeover. It took considerable creativity – that of hair stylists, beauticians, costume designers, film directors, publicists – to change her persona and transform her into one of tinsel town’s more premium brands.

     

    4. Creativity can make a brand attractive by putting it in a different slot in people’s minds: Cadbury’s told consumers to think about it in the same way as they do about Indian sweets – something you eat to make an auspicious beginning. Imaginative skill went into making people see an inherently Western product as something that satisfies a very traditional Indian need. And voilà  – Cadbury’s was reborn in a new avatar.

     

    5. Brand China wanted to replace the existing view of a grey, regressive totalitarian state with the image of a vibrant, young and capable nation. And so, at the 2008 China Olympics, it put on the greatest spectacle on Earth, taking branded event management to a new high.

     

    Sumanto Chattopadhyay is Ecd, South Asia, Ogilvy

     

  • This campaign will work. Because it's rooted in desi culture, it features situations that are relevant to the lives of those who live in the heartland of India

    Debrief: KBC: The power of knowledge

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Well, yet another season of Kaun Banega Crorepati is on the way. And the ad campaign has already gotten underway. I have always believed that for an old and established show like the KBC, the advertising needs to be really fresh and exciting to generate viewer interest. Especially so, because all things are likely to remain constant with the show’s format, including the host.

     

    This time the ad positioning is ‘Gyaan’. KBC promotes the show on the contestant’s knowledge skills. And on how it serves as the great leveller in life. While the idea doesn’t excite me much – it’s much too close to the previous ‘Koi bhi insaan chhota nahin hota’ – the execution of the new ads shines, and the script is very well written. There are many commercials on air, I watched the one featuring a vernacular lad called Bhaskar, who keeps getting dissed by friends and foes alike for his poor English speaking skills. And of course the girls avoid him as if the chap suffers from deadly measles. The TVC ends with Bhaskar winning 50 lakh rupees on the show, purely on the strength of his general knowledge. And haanji, he goes one-up on all those people who had trashed him all his life.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNGT4mQE92I[/youtube]

    This campaign will work. Because it’s rooted in desi culture, it features situations that are relevant to the lives of those who live in the heartland of India. And indeed these are the folks who form the bulk of KBC’s viewers. In that sense, the campaign is highly focussed and will score big on empathy.

     

    I applaud the ad agency for lifting what is actually a very generic and obvious concept with cool advertising and witty writing.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 3.5 Focussed and funny.

     

     

  • The print companies need to realize that the main asset they hold is their relationship with their consumers and their readers, says Ashish Pherwani

    The Anchor: 5 ways to make print more relevant for advertisers

    By Ashish Pherwani

     

    1. To make print more relevant for advertisers, we’ve got to have more interactions and more engagement through either digital or activations on radio or any other vehicle. There needs to be a level of engagement built into the print offerings of media companies. Advertisers are looking at some kind of measurement which is not just readership but a measurement of a deeper level of engagement.

     

    2. You have got to make print more relevant to the reader, and therefore the one-size-fix-all newspapers being generated today may not be the answer and it may call for better segmentation and better understanding.

     

    3. Overall, the print companies need to realize that they are no longer B2B companies, that the main asset they hold is their relationship with their consumers and their readers. And therefore, they need to evolve into B2C companies, build databases with their customers as information and optimize that database for different advertisements.

     

    4. As youth moves away from its consumption of newspapers and moves towards different methods of consuming media, newspapers need to be able to figure out ways to retain those youth, either on some other medium or by giving them the kind of news that they want to read. Most publishers still believe in giving out news which they believe is relevant. Therefore giving youth-centric content is something that the industry needs to work on and youth is a category which most advertisers look forward to.

     

    5. Print companies need to proactively come to advertisers with innovations with products that resonate with their brands.

     

    Ashish Pherwani is Partner-Advisory Services, Ernst & Young India

     

  • Videos, app-based ads and interactive ads are just a few forms of advertising that we would like to see in mobile advertising, says Albert Almeida

    The Anchor: Albert Almeida on 5 things he would like to see happen in Mobile Advertising

    By Albert Almeida

     

    1. Ads beyond mobile internet:

    India is still a voice driven market. It would be great if consumers can hear an ad and make a free call rather than see an ad.

     

    2. Better targeting via location-based services and near field communication:

    Both these words have become full fledged buzz words in mobile advertising. This can be used for payment with your mobile device, pushing marketing or other content to the user’s phone, as well as many other possible scenarios we have not even thought of yet. NFC has taken off in many parts of Asia, and there is a huge potential for it in India as well.

     

    3. Richer forms of ads (beyond the banners and text ads) – videos – interactive flash based ads:

    The changes to the pricing strategies for advanced GPRS and 3G will allow more consumers to access mobile internet. With richer content, we would like to see a surge in creativity in the mobile advertising platform as well. Videos, app-based ads and interactive ads are just a few forms of advertising that we would like to see in mobile advertising.

     

    4. Social Integration in mobile advertising:

    With the surge in social networking via mobile devices, we would definitely like to see social integration in mobile advertising. This would also help create word of mouth for brands on social media.

     

    5. Advergaming on a mobile platform:

    Gaming has always had great pull and with mobile gaming on the rise, we would want more branded gaming content that can be offered for free in an ad funded model.

     

    Albert Almeida is the COO, Hungama Mobile

     

  • And the best news is that star athletes like Mary, Saina, Vijay and others will inspire a whole lot of young Indians to take up athletics very seriously

    Anil Thakraney: Indian media wins Gold @ Olympics 2012

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I am forever taking potshots at our media on all sorts of issues. Most of the criticism is well deserved, of course! 🙂 But there comes a time when one needs to applaud them for good work done. Must say I am extremely happy with the glorious coverage of the London Olympics. And it’s been an outstanding show across the media, in particular on the news channels and in the daily press. This is important for the nation’s sporting future, because the excessive attention to cricket leaves the rest of the sportsmen and women languishing on the sidelines. Thanks to all the excitement in the media, this is no longer the case. Mary Kom, relatively unknown till yesterday, is a household name today, she’s on the lips of every bachcha bachcha.

     

    The argument usually put forth is that the reason our media pays so much attention to one game is because India is a cricket crazy country. And the media is supposed to cater to the tastes of the masses. This theory has been blown to smithereens by the Olympics. We Indians happily consumed all the coverage, we passionately backed the contestants, so it’s clear that the media can take the lead on issues and influence viewer behaviour. And I must add here that I don’t recall this kind of hectic coverage during the Beijing Olympics, so it is refreshing to see things have changed.

     

    And the best news is that star athletes like Mary, Saina, Vijay and others will inspire a whole lot of young Indians to take up athletics very seriously. This will lead to a better score-card for India in the future tournaments. And the media hype will put pressure on the various state governments to honour and support athletes from their respective regions. It’s high time this happened.

     

    Yes, the London Olympics has been Indian media’s shining hour. A pat on the back to all the editors, reporters and studio heads. And I sincerely hope I get a chance to write more such happy posts in the future. Even I get tired of cribbing constantly, haha.

     

    ***

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjTLhW0c5cM[/youtube]

    PS: Louis Vuitton pays a rich, touching tribute to the great Muhammad Ali. This is the fash brand’s first ever campaign. The ad recites a lilting speech made by the legendary boxer inside the ring. Superb script, concept and direction.

     

     

     

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: The shame of the PR influence on the media

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    It is interesting indeed to see that newspapers have chosen to report on the Maharashtra government’s decision to ban the sale of Mahyco’s Bt cotton seeds in the state but has not gone very far beyond that. In another story on Friday morning, a Parliamentary panel has sought a probe into the current stand-off over the introduction of Bt brinjal in to India.

     

    Criticism of Bt cotton in the media started off by being as expected but soon buckled under the tremendous pressure brought upon it by Mahyco Monsanto Biotech. Earlier in this column we have discussed the “expose” on The Times of India done by P Sainath in the Hindu. The marketing department of the TOI used articles done after a Mahyco Monsanto junket to promote the company, years after they were originally written.

     

    Although there have long been allegations that the forced or over-encouraged use of genetically-engineered cotton seeds have been detrimental to farmers as yields have fallen and land has to be fallow for too long. The initial success of Bt cotton, coupled with the promises made, led to high expectations from farmers and a corresponding high debt burden. This in turn led to most of the suicides by farmers is what most activists and social workers have alleged.

     

    While many such stories appeared initially, the enormous pressure brought upon the media by the company and by the government saw the stories petering out. Monsanto, the American company and Mahyco, the government venture, both employed very persuasive PR to push their case. The Sainath column in Hindu, in fact, went through all the mistakes and misrepresentations in the Times of India Bt cotton junket, point by point. A Parliamentary committee which went to the same areas of Maharashtra a few months later found an area rife with debt and suicides – sometimes quoting the same people who claimed to be happy in the TOI report.

     

    In Friday’s papers, TOI has a single column story while Hindustan Times has a more detailed report.

     

    The shame of the PR influence on the media is not just about glamour or lifestyle stuff, although that is rampant and in some cases institutionalised. But when it comes to corporate pressure, especially from aggressive companies who are willing to use the law and every other avenue to protect themselves from criticism, the media comes up against a formidable opponent. In the case of Monsanto and Mahyco, having initially put up a fight, most of the media seems to have capitulated. Friday’s stories have been carried only because the Maharashtra government has finally accepted that the shift to genetically modified cotton has not been the universal success initially claimed.

     

    Time perhaps for the media to find its teeth again?