By Our Staff
Nexus Malls, the retail offered of Blackstone Real Estate funds, has announced Amitabh Bachchan as its ‘Happyness Ambassador’.
Said Dalip Sehgal, CEO, Nexus Malls: “We are extremely privileged to welcome Amitabh Bachchan to our Nexus Malls family. He has a remarkable ability to connect with different age groups. We are proud to partner with one of India’s biggest icons to help us deliver Har Din Kuch Naya experiences to our customers.”
By Our Staff
Manyavar has launched its Pehno Apni Pehchaan campaign featuring actor Amitabh Bachchan with a strong messaging on wearing Indian wear on occasions. The film sheds light upon the feeling of Indianness after wearing Indian wear through a monologue narrated by the legend himself. The monologue is an ode to Indian tradition and culture, celebrating the pride of India, and how Indian wear is adding to the pride and culture.
The film has been conceptualized and executed by Shreyansh Innovations.
Speaking on the campaign launch, Vedant Modi, Chief Marketing Officer, Vedant Fashions Limited said: “Manyavar has been at the center-stage of promoting Indian culture and trends in Indian fashion since the beginning. With the film featuring Mr Bachchan narrating the poem in his voice, we are certain that our message will be positively echoed in the minds of our consumers.”
Said Shreyansh Baid, Director at Shreyansh Innovations: “Manyavar’s campaigns have always been about standing up for the core cultural values of India. In sync with this, we have gone one step ahead in this latest ad and made a clear statement that treats Indianness and Indian traditional wear as inseparable. Evoking love and pride for our culture, it captures the very essence of what the brand stands and aspires for.”
By Our Staff
Manyavar is back with their new films under the campaign #Taiyaar Hokar Aaiye with actor Amitabh Bachchan.
Commenting on the association, Vedant Modi, Chief Marketing Officer, Vedant Fashions Limited said: “Manyavar has always been a brand that showcases the nuances and beauty of the Indian culture. The new digital films are aimed at everyone who believes in the magic of celebration. Mr. Bachchan with his narrative and screen presence has put soul into the idea of #TaiyaarHokarAaiye and we are confident it will be a widely accepted and celebrated phenomena amongst our target groups.”
By Our Staff
MediBuddy, a digital healthcare platform, has onboarded Amitabh Bachchan as its official Brand Ambassador. With the signing of the veteran actor, MediBuddy further aims to amplify its reach across the country.
Commenting on the collaboration, Satish Kannan, Co-founder & CEO, MediBuddy, said: “We are elated to bring Amitabh Bachchan on board as our official brand ambassador. It is an absolute honor to be associated with him, whose name alone carries so much credibility, trust, and respect. Mr. Bachchan to cinema is what MediBuddy aims to be to the Indian Healthcare system. We see this as a step forward in achieving our goal of reaching every Indian and making high quality healthcare easily accessible to everyone.”
By Our Staff
Muthoot Finance has launched its new marketing campaign. The campaign is anchored by the brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan, across three films built around the game of chess to highlight two elephants in its logo. This win in a game of chess using the Elephant is a metaphor for winning in life by trusting the Muthoot Elephant and availing Muthoot Finance Gold Loans to realise your dreams.
Said Alexander George Muthoot, Joint Managing Director, The Muthoot Group: “Through this clutter-breaking campaign, we present our brand in a distinguished and unique way through the game of chess. Our endeavor is to facilitate people lead a much better quality of life by helping them unlock the true potential of their emotional currency (household gold jewellery) and move ahead in life. Our objective is also to help grow the gold loan category, and being the category leader we consider it as our primary responsibility to lead the way. With +25,000 tons of gold in the form of household jewellery available in India and less than 5% of it being monetised by way of gold loans; the scope for growth is tremendous. I am confident this new communication of ours will pave the way for us to further strengthen our leadership position in the gold loan category.”
By Our Staff
Legends League Cricket (LLC) has announced its partnership with Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) to live telecast all the matches of the league to be played in January 2022, on Sony Ten 1 and Sony Ten 3 channels as well as livestream the matches in India on SPN’s premium OTT platform, SonyLIV.
Said Raman Raheja, CEO of Legends League Cricket: “We are extremely happy to announce this partnership with Sony Pictures Networks India. They have a very credible history of making sporting events a grand success, including the most premium T20 cricket leagues in the world. We wish to walk a long mile with them and ensure viewers are treated with a very competitive and entertaining form of Cricket. The league starts January 20th 2022.”
Added Rajesh Kaul Chief Revenue Officer, Distribution and Head – Sports Business, Sony Pictures Networks India: “It’s a very exciting partnership to get into and having these stalwarts on the ground playing competitive cricket will definitely engage our viewers across India. Sony Sports has always served its viewers with its diverse portfolio of premier sports content and with the Legends League Cricket, we will present our viewers a great viewing experience of watching these legends in action on our sports channels.”
Actor Amitabh Bachchan has joined Legends League Cricket as its ambassador and will be promoting the League. The League also has former India Head Coach, Ravi Shastri, as its Commissioner looking after the cricketing aspect. As a host Oman has presented itself a very promising destination for cricket after successfully hosting the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup matches recently.
By Vikas Mehta
I write this review while watching the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL). For me, the tournament and the players had lot of parallels with the ads that were on the air. Let’s dive into these.
This tournament saw a revival in fortunes of established teams like Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). As well as some old stars like Uthapa and Du Plessis. Advertisements which ran in the first edition of this IPL and were then forgotten saw a revival in this extended edition of IPL. Finolex, Phone Pe, Unacademy, Dream 11, Mutual funds….
This IPL saw a lot of established players disappoint. Rohit Sharma, the Pandya brothers, Rahul Chahar, Hazelwood, Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, Rabada… all disappointed. Similarly ads from established brands like Coke, Thums Up, Ceat, Berger Paints, Sprite… disappointed. Eminently forgettable performances.
In the league stage, Delhi Capitals dominated the tournament by winning 10 out of their 14 games. Similarly edtech as a category dominated the ad scene. Byju’s, Byju’s Adarsh, Byju’s Whitehat Jr, Lido small group tuitions, Unacademy, UpGrad, Great Learning etc showed the potential and dominance of the category.
For M S Dhoni there was double success. While his contribution to CSK lifting the trophy was not all that significant, his single-handed contribution of appearing in most number of ads was unmatched. Homelane, Dream 11, ITC Yipee, Mutual Funds sahi hai, Indigo paints all benefitted with the free time he has since his retirement. I won’t be surprised to see him soon in some ed tech ad too.
The last few matches of the tournament saw a new campaign by Dream 11. Captioned Dream Big, the campaign I thought was a standout. Using different players, they used a different narrative for each under the Dream Big Umbrella. It’s interesting storytelling and flexible format was excellent. I liked almost all the ads, with Hardik Pandya, Dhawan and Bumrah being my favourites. A standout performance almost like the performance of K Rahul and Harshal Patel who stood tall amongst the batsmen and bowlers respectively.
Venkatesh Iyer was the star new kid on the block. He played aggressively and even had a good differentiation because he can roll over his arm effectively. The Oven Story ad was a good parallel here. A seemingly new entrant, at least as an IPL advertiser, the brand had interesting differentiation in the Pizza category and created a good enough impact for my daughter to order for it.
While the performer of the tournament was a difficult choice between Gaikwad, Iyer and Patel, for me the best ad performance came from Neeraj Chopra in the Cred ad. He blended well into the narrative and looked as natural as he does on the athletic field. But the new Cred ad featuring Kapil Dev on the last day was a total disappointment. It did not have the energy and joie de vivre that all the other Cred ads have had. It looked like the opening ceremony of most IPL tournaments. Too much pomp. Very little narrative.
But overall the ads were very tepid. The use of celebrities dominated the scene. Dhoni, Ranveer Singh, Kohli, Bumrah etc were omnipresent. The narrative though was predictable and in most cases just relying on star power. Frankly, the second half of IPL was similar. With just two-three games going to the wire, the one-sided final was a reflection of how most of the games panned out.
The parallels continued right till the end. There was a lot of speculation about Dhoni’s retirement from IPL as a player. And the suspense continued even in the post-match interview. Will he retire or continue? Exactly the same thing happened with the Kamla Pasand surrogate ad of Amitabh Bachchan. With a holier-than-thou attitude, he made a grand statement of withdrawing from the ad and returning money for the ad as he did not know it was a surrogate ad. He obviously does not live on earth. But like Dhoni, the ad was not retired, even five days after AB’s statement. It was there in the finals too. What did disappear, albeit briefly were SRK Byju’s ads. But blink and they were back. All the twitter brouhaha lasted for just a few days.
There was one area where the parallels ended. CSK proved that old is gold. A team led by a 40-year-old with many players above 30 and retired from all other types of cricket, the team did well to win the tournament. The same, of course, cannot be said of the old traditional brands which have ceded ground to new category and brands and have been totally eclipsed. Let’s hope these new categories and brands do create new benchmarks in their advertising too. The next edition of IPL will tell us if that comes true. Till then au revoir, sayonara, alvida, tata.
By Our Staff
The 13th season of Kaun Banega Crorepati is to start on August 23 on Sony Entertainment Television. Produced by StudioNext, and hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.
Said Ashish Golwalkar, Head – Content, Sony Entertainment Television and Digital Business: “For a show like KBC that has followed a certain creative pattern, it was time for us to break the mold and approach it differently. While digital auditions replaced the regular audition process, it didn’t deter the volume of entries. In fact, the ease of digital audition encouraged a lot more aspirants, based in the remotest areas possible to participate. We are happy with the spiritedness of each contestant, and we are hopeful that they fulfil their KBC journey. Furthermore, while we did introduce AR (Augmented reality) in the previous seasons, this year, the use of AR is far more superior and immersive. From refurbishing the entire set with the play of lights to the graphical elements and LED panels, India is the only country to host the format with inclusion of such refined technological detailing. With distinct modifications to the game this season, we look forward to a rewarding gameplay and promise an enhanced viewing experience to the audience.”
By Sanjeev Kotnala
At the end of May 2021, women’s tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open to preserve her mental health. As if taking a cue, many athletes in recent times have been vocal on the subject. Fortunately, now it is receiving the desired focus. We, at least for the celebrity and sports personalities, are now agreeing, ‘It is OK to be not OK.’ And celebrating their courage to be open about it.
In the Indian context, we have read about the mental health issues of Deepika Padukone, Virat Kohli, Abhinav Bindra, Tiger Shroff, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Shah Rukh Khan and many others. Many may say that it is easier for them to be open about mental health than an average person.
Mental illness, also called mental health disorders, refers to a wide range of mental health conditions – disorders that can affect your mood, thinking and behaviour in personal and professional life. Mental illness includes depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviours.
Reports suggest elite athletes experience mental ill-health at a rate comparable to the general population in anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and sleep disorders. We now acknowledge these superhumans – high-performance humans are also vulnerable to mental health issues.
Which makes me look inwards in the Marketing Advertising community. Just like #MeToo opened up flood gates. People shared their experiences.
Are we going to see people from Marketing and advertising now coming out with their experiences and issues? Personally, I doubt.
The industry has all the environment that could lead to mental health issues. It is high performance led. There is subjectivity. There is a swinging of fortunes in approval, appreciation, rejection and dejection. There are creative blocks that make people question their abilities. Then some push confidently even when they are way behind their benchmarks. Loss of business, shifting fortunes, impossibility to predict and control outcomes. The growth. The layoffs. The repeating iterations. The questions about capabilities, abilities and capacity of someone understanding the problem. Long working hours, no control on timelines and expected to be working beyond office hours add to the problem.
Like me, many of you must have seen cases of people that we never rightly labelled as mental health issues. Because no one wanted to accept such a problem. Theek ho jayega. You will overcome it. Let’s drink to it. ‘Come on. Burn out. Recharge. Are some of the stock solutions offered by colleagues.
I am not a doctor but, like every advertising marketing professional, an observer of life. And that makes me sure that sooner or later, we will be able to question behaviour and have a place for the proper counselling. Maybe the HR and the stakeholders in the industry could initiate a debate on it and think of possible policies to address it.
Campaign did a research survey on the subject. Which told us 71% feel that their organisations haven’t taken any concrete steps towards actively reducing workplace stress. Employees claim they haven’t been receiving considerate timelines and are even unable to sign off for the day post 6 or 7 PM. Additionally, they are dealing with the pressures of coming to the office and are expected to be available over weekends. Exchange4media did a story that told us that as an industry, we are opening up to it. Times Network-initiated #ActNow to spread awareness, normalise conversations around the issue and sensitise people to be responsive to the mental health needs of others. The business insider did a story on World Mental Health Day: How to address the challenges of overworking in an ad agency. Not enough. And we know the reality.
I may have spoken about the Marketing and Advertising Industry as I am a part of it. But I will not be surprised that it is an omnipresent problem. Police, sales, Manufacturing, Bureaucracy, and students are included in the list.
We need an ecosystem that does not treat it as a taboo subject. Time we are a lot more open and inclusive in our reaction and acceptance of the possibilities. Remember, It is OK, Not to be OK.
By Our Staff
Welspun Flooring Limited has launched its new digital campaign, ‘Floor Makeover In A Day’. The campaign highlights the brand’s proposition of ‘Less than a Day’. Featuring actor Amitabh Bachchan, the digital film highlights how, Welspun Flooring’s Click-N-Lock tiles allow people to revamp the look and feel of their homes with minimum hassle.
Commenting on the campaign, Manjari Upadhye, CEO – Domestic Business, Welspun Flooring, said: “At Welspun, our focus has always been on developing innovative products that add value to the customers’ lives by addressing challenges and archaic methods that have been left unresolved. The latest digital film highlights the unique proposition of Click-N-Lock floor tiles that use our proprietary Wel-Lock technology to minimize the hassle and inconvenience of floor retiling. We are confident that the film will help us reach out to the aspirational Indians across the country, and it will help us strengthen and expand the presence of the Welspun brand in the country.”
By Our Staff
Kalyan Jewellers has launched a new campaign highlighting its wedding jewellery brand Muhurat. Brand ambassadors, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Prabhu Ganesan, Akkineni Nagarjuna and Manju Warrier portray key roles in the ad. The music is composed and sung by Shankar Mahadevan with Shashaa Tirupati joining in as the female lead.
Said Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director, Kalyan Jewellers: “Indian weddings are diverse and vibrant with varied traditions, customs and special moments, and our new Muhurat campaign tells the story of one such bride and her family, on her special day. The very same diversity is also seen when it comes to bridal jewellery, and as a brand with a pan-India presence, we understand that jewellery worn on that special day is a legacy every woman is proud to own. Our specially curated and newly revamped Muhurat wedding collection features exclusive designs inspired by regional trends, and are designed and skillfully crafted by local artisans.”
By A Correspondent [updated]
Dr. Fixit, from the house of Pidilite, has unveiled its new TV campaign featuring actor Amitabh Bachchan. The TVC urges consumers to prefer technically correct solutions like Dr. Fixit Roofseal as a remedy for roof repairs and waterproofing, over temporary solutions like paint and patch repair
Said Vivek Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Pidilite Industries: “Waterproofing is a category where often a consumer is not fully educated about correct products and solutions. Therefore, people often resort to quick-fix solutions and end up making the mistake of choosing a wrong waterproofing method. This campaign aims to make people aware about the correct way of waterproofing roofs with Dr. Fixit Roofseal, an elastomeric coating with nano fibres, that protects roofs from water and heat.”
Commenting on the campaign, Talha Bin Mohsin, Executive Creative director, Ogilvy & Mather added: “Dr Fixit offers a range of products for different types of expert waterproofing. This time, we wanted to convey that when it comes to roof one requires an expert product as well, that protects it from heat, rain and moisture for a long time. It is Dr Fixit’s Roofseal that offers expert waterproofing that no one else can match. The ad featuring our brand ambassador Mr Amitabh.