MxMIndia

Tag: anil thakraney

  • To be taken seriously in India, I need to work for a foreign publication. That's the irony of our existence

    Anil Thakraney: Oye, ‘Time’ mein job milega?

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    TIME mag has termed our Prime Minister an ‘Underachiever’. I completely disagree with this description, it is much too kind. The truth is, and every sane Indian would agree, MMS has been a total flop show since he became PM once again in 2009. His government failed the country on every single parameter, and in particular, his team has damaged India’s growth story. Anyway, enough has been said on Manmohan Singh’s stellar performance, so I won’t delve on that.

     

    What got me interested is the impact of TIME’s cover story in India. Both, the politicians and the media got their knickers in a twist discussing this article threadbare. Almost as if the final report card had arrived from the Big Boss. As if what the goras, located thousands of miles away from the action, think of our PM is the gospel truth.

     

    All sorts of insinuations are being flung around. Some people suggest it’s a marketing gimmick from TIME mag to boost its circulation in India. One Left leader claimed it’s a conspiracy hatched by America to put MMS under pressure so that they can launch new businesses in India! And of course, the netas are busy hurling dirt at each other. As the BJP leaders gloat over the article, the Congresswallahs are firing back with: ‘Hello, but they were harsher on Atal Bihari Vajpayee!’

     

    However, what hurt me the most in this tamasha is that various Indian columnists and speakers have been dissing Manmohan Singh’s policies for a long time, but no one takes them seriously. It’s as if what India thinks about India does not matter. Quite obviously, after over six decades of independence, our colonial hangover hasn’t gone. No wonder then that some top industrialists from India happily meet the foreign press, while desi journos don’t even get a response to interview requests.

     

    My conclusion: To be taken seriously in India, I need to work for a foreign publication. That’s the irony of our existence. Therefore I am busy preparing my CV afresh, and will soon be knocking on the doors of gora editors. Jai Hind!

     

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    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMfSGt6rHos[/youtube]

    PS: Glad this utterly charming ad from Chipotle won the Grand Prix at Cannes. My most favourite commercial of last year. Superb idea backed by terrific animation. It’s all soul, and it makes you think where we are headed. The film is particularly relevant in India, where we have lost our way in the mad ambition to be an industrialized nation. And yes, Coldplay’s haunting track, ‘The Scientist’, works wonderfully out here.

     

  • Love this ad. The humour is solid and the treatment outstanding. (Not easy to re-create that era in an ad… ads usually have limited budgets.)

    Debrief: Maruti: ‘Kitna deti hai?’ continues to rock

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    I have always been a fan of Maruti’s ‘Kitna deti hai?’ campaign. Okay, the phrase has an erotic ring to it (admittedly that’s my dirty mind at work), but its single-mindedness of purpose is admirable. And also the fact that it’s totally relevant; Indians tend to be obsessed with mileage. There’s one more reason for my liking this campaign: The commercials are always entertaining.

     

    Well, Maruti is back with yet another ‘Kitna deti hai?’ ad. And the timing could not have been more appropriate. With petrol prices going through the roof, this is the one question on top of every middle class car buyer’s mind. The new TVC re-creates the thirties. A firang lady called Amelia Johnson is the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She’s arrived for a ‘stop-over’ in Mumbai, and crowds have gathered to meet her. Amelia excitedly boasts about the various technical features of her aircraft when a desi jumps her with that most important question: Kitna deti hai?

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyynrjP3EM[/youtube]

    Super stuff. Love this ad. The humour is solid and the treatment outstanding. (Not easy to re-create that era in an ad… ads usually have limited budgets.) And most importantly, I simply adore Amelia’s expression when that deadly question is fired at her. It’s a cross between amusement and astonishment. And it’s not an easy expression to deliver. A huge pat on the back to the film’s director just for this.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 4. Wonderful idea. Lovely execution.

     

  • The 'boutique' agency will now have a lot more moolah in its kitty to play around with. So that's the good news. The bad news however is the agency has lost its independence

    Anil Thakraney: BBH must remain the black sheep

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    So, Sir John Hegarty has sold out his cult hot shop to the Publicis Group. The latter already owned a substantial stake in BBH, but now it’s a complete buy-out. How this acquisition will impact the future of BBH, only time will tell. It will all depend on how the new parent handles the adopted baby.

     

    BBH definitely gains from the acquisition in terms of financial muscle power. The ’boutique’ agency will now have a lot more moolah in its kitty to play around with. So that’s the good news. The bad news however is the agency has lost its independence. How much ever Publicis claims they will leave BBH alone to carve its own future, the ground reality is that as people change, as leadership changes, and as egos clash, this reassurance can change too. When push comes to shove, the ultimate power lies with the man who signs the pay cheque. That’s the new reality BBH now wakes up to.

     

    There’s another, larger issue to worry about: Sir John Hegarty and his partners will have run into serious personal money with this acquisition. Good for them, and they do deserve every penny of it. But it’s also a fact that Hegarty isn’t getting any younger, and BBH could come under a cloud when he retires to his farmhouse. Which is likely to happen pretty soon, within the next two years to be precise. As long as the Big Man is around, the Publicis suits will resist the temptation to interfere. Once he’s gone, it’s anybody’s guess how things will pan out. Suffice to say this: BBH, in its new avatar, won’t find it as easy to attract hot creative talent as it did till yesterday. It’s a pucca family member now.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZtDqpdvy7s[/youtube]

    Publicis’s best bet is to allow BBH to maintain Hegarty’s famed ideology, even after Hegarty walks into the sunset: ‘When the world zigs, zag.’ They poke their neck into this and try to tweak it; BBH will immediately lose its magic and turn into just another ad agency. And that would be a pity.

     

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    PS: Heineken’s new ad. It’s a simple idea: ‘The perfect beer calls for the perfect bar.’ But the magic has been created by the art director and the production designer. A good example of how superb art direction can really lift a film. I feel like a Heineken already!

     

     

  • It’s clear that not many lessons have been learnt from the past, and that the news channels are busy making the same goof ups. It’s back to alarm-raising and hysteria

    Anil Thakraney: Hysterical news channels

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    On Wednesday noon I got a serious jolt. Was in the middle of some work, and during the quick lunch break I switched on the TV to check if there was any khabar on the heavy downpour in Mumbai. What I saw instead made the food plate drop out of my hands. All the news channels were going ballistic over the discovery of a ‘suspicious looking’ object inside a Lokhandwala Complex (Mumbai) mall. Even as the police was busy sussing that mysterious object, it was being freely referred to as a ‘suspected bomb threat’. In fact, close-up shots of the damn thing were being flashed.

     

    Totally panicked, I frantically got onto the phone to alert family members who live in the vicinity (and am sure many people did ditto), and then rushed back to the television set. Suddenly, instead of the bomb threat, all the news channels were hectically ‘breaking news’ on the Indian cricket team’s selection for the up-coming Sri Lanka ODI series! And I was like: Arre, bomb ka kya hua, behenji?

     

    I had to strain my eyes to read the fast moving ticker. Which, very quietly, indicated that it was only a false alarm. Meanwhile, of course, many weak hearted sods (like me) had to endure a great deal of stress. Now this is worrying. It’s clear that not many lessons have been learnt from the past, and that the news channels are busy making the same goof ups. It’s back to alarm-raising and hysteria. (Also, I later discovered this led to intense rumour mongering all over the city.)

     

    Guys and gals, it’s simple, really. No ‘God Particle’ science, see? Maybe we should hold the news till some sort of an official statement is made by the cops? Maybe the media needs to let the investigators do the initial work in peace, that of determining what the ‘suspicious looking’ object is? So that people don’t needlessly panic. And most importantly, the same old disturbing question: What public service is being served by such ultra hurried, speculative reporting? Correct, the answer is none.

     

    Frankly, I really don’t know if and when we’ll get our act together on terror coverage. I guess our news channels simply cannot resist going live at the very first hint of terror. In which case, there’s no hope at all. Keep your pace maker on stand-by.

     

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    PS: Hahaha. Really enjoyed this series of comic strips on the advertising life. Hit this link only if you belong to the crazy world of advertising, because only then you’ll be able connect with these situations. Yep, we ad buggers have lived each one of these moments! Awesome stuff.

     

    Link: http://theawesomeworld.tumblr.com/archive

     

  • Wouldn't it be better to go full-on on your Japanese lineage and expertise? As a bike purchaser, I would actually find that a lot more appealing

    Debrief: Honda: No need for desi flavour

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    On Tuesday we examined what Hero is up to. Today let’s see what’s happening with their estranged partner, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI). I suppose the key task Honda set for itself is to establish a bond with the desi youth, now that the ‘Hero’ moniker is gone. And they have rushed to macho hero Akshay Kumar for help.

     

    The idea in the TVC is that every Indian is in a great hurry to make his/her dream come true. And that the Honda bike imparts acceleration to those dreams. The voice-over is provided by macho ‘dood’ Akshay Kumar (decked up in a horrendous hood), who claims to know all about chasing dreams because he’s been there, done that. Or some such words. And the ad is peppered with Indian symbols and attitude to further embellish the local flavour.

     

    An entirely boring commercial. It features nothing that we haven’t seen before. In fact, the ad re-hashes all the usual Indian advertising cliches. Worse, Akshayji’s non-stop drone gets on the nerves, and what saves your life is the biggest tech boon known to humanity: the blessed remote control.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz6Zxh7rbH4[/youtube]

    Apart from the TVC being a complete flop show, here’s a thought for Honda: Now that you are on your own, and now that your only USP is the Jap connection (and it IS a positive connection), why do you want to desperately bring out the Indian touch? Wouldn’t it be better to go full-on on your Japanese lineage and expertise? As a bike purchaser, I would actually find that a lot more appealing.

     

    Bring out the kimono, guys. And chuck the dreadful hood.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 1. Boring and misdirected.

     

  • Spend some money on content & design, not a new logo, Anil Thakraney urges Archies as he's surprised that people still buy the cheesy trash in card shops.

    Anil Thakraney: To Archies. With love

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Makers of Archies greeting cards have made a sensational announcement: They have a brand new logo! Wow! Can’t wait to hit their store! Am sure there’s a stampede out there!!

     

    Just kidding, of course. If there’s one product category that continues to disappoint me, it’s these festive cards, a category in which Archies is the market leader. These cards have got stuck in time, the design is the same old boring eighties stuff, and the messages seem to be written by juvenile delinquents and/or a group of really bored housewives. Each time I’ve dropped by at the Archies outlet, I have struggled very, very hard to find one single witty and sparkling card. It’s always the same rubbish: ‘Dear Husband, you mean the world to me, I will love you for the rest of my life.’ ‘Dear Mother, you are the best mom in the world, you make me happy.’ And this nonsense relentlessly goes on.

     

    Isn’t it amazing that people continue to buy this cheesy trash? Especially in these days of e-cards and social media? Why does it happen? The answer is quite simple, and it’s this human quirk that has helped Archies thrive despite years of staggering mediocrity. People, especially women, like the personal touch of a hard copy card, they don’t much care for the e-card. They appreciate the fact that someone they love made the effort and spent the time to buy them a special card. So what if the card itself sucks, that’s not really important. The gesture is.

     

    And it is this human quirk which has helped the card maker amass a lot of money without ever ploughing some back into improving the product. Thing is, I wonder how long this affection for a hard copy card last. As the generation changes, many Indians would smoothly switch to the internet for greeting each other, and be quite happy using that medium. And that would mean a quiet death for Archies cards.

     

    Dear Archies, there are enough very talented designers and writers in this nation. Please loosen your purse strings and spend some money on content and design. That alone will assure a future for you. A cosmetic logo change certainly won’t.

     

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    PS: Don’t we often land up on a page that does not exist? When that damned ‘404 ERROR’ warning springs up? Well, some designers have decided to sex up that dull and un-inviting page. And the results are great fun. So much better to spend energies on this than indulge in fake ads to win awards.

    Link: http://www.topdesignmag.com/30-awesome-404-error-page-designs/

     

     

  • What would have been even better is, if they had weaved in entertaining situations around the hand motion, that would have added adrenalin to the TVC

    Debrief: Hero: Desh Ka Vroom Vroom!

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    The advertising promise is quite simple: Because Hero’s bikes offer terrific mileage, the entire nation rides out more often. And in the creative interpretation of that, Hero has done one boring thing and one interesting thing, so I have mixed reactions to their new TVC.

     

    Boring, first. They have gone ahead and done that same old, tired ‘Desh Ka Hero’ number. The commercial features people cutting across social, economic and religious divides. Wonder when Indian advertisers will evolve and avoid this route like the swine flu. It’s no longer interesting, really. However, the one good thing Hero has done is to use the hand technique needed to ride a bike as the central creative idea, and this device unites all the people featured in the ad. I like this touch. Because this particular hand motion is unique to bike riding (unless you are a plumber!), and it can and should become a neat memory hook for Hero. This is smart thinking.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j7BkAOtbFE[/youtube]

    However, what would have been even better is, if they had weaved in entertaining situations around the hand motion, that would have added adrenalin to the TVC. And it would have made it watchable on repeat exposure. But this issue can be dealt with as the campaign moves forward, so that’s fine. Also, must say the jingle is peppy and fun.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 3. Old route. But an interesting creative device.

     

     

  • In my belief, that answer lies inside the marketing office of Cadbury India, the company that enjoys a 70 per cent market share in this category

    Anil Thakraney: How ads helped chocolates treble sales

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Read an interesting story in The Times of India. It reported that chocolate consumption has trebled in India, not in the last 30 years, but in the last seven years alone! This is a huge rate of growth in any product category, and by any stretch of imagination.

     

    So, then what happened? Has India suddenly developed a sweet tooth? Can’t be that, because mithais and other sweetmeats have been part of our tradition and eating habits for centuries together. There must be another explanation. TOI’s story seems to link the growth in choc consumption to the rising income levels in this country. I find this link a bit tenuous. Because rising income usually translates into increased expenditure on consumer durables and other high ticket items, those that import some degree of status to a person’s life. How on earth does a bar of chocolate fit in this scenario? It’s a low cost impulse purchase product, much like all other sweets and snacks. So the answer lies elsewhere.

     

    In my belief, that answer lies inside the marketing office of Cadbury India, the company that enjoys a 70 per cent market share in this category. All those years and efforts the chocolate major has invested in expanding the market in India, to make their brands attractive to the adult segment, have paid off big-time. And Cadbury’s rivals have benefited in the process, too. This is the key reason behind the booming choc market.

     

    Some of you may not know this, but as recently as 20 years ago, chocolates used to be targetted only at kids, and this imagery of the product totally alienated the vast adult population. In the year 1992 if you dared to consume a Cadbury Dairy Milk bar in a public place, you ran the risk of being scoffed at for ‘shamelessly eating a bachchon ka product’. And in just twenty years the market has turned on its head.

     

    And this has been achieved by Cadbury purely on the power of advertising. It took some years, but the results are showing now, and how! The Cadbury commercials have won many awards over the years but their biggest victory has been that they turned the fortunes of the entire category. Cadbury India has shown the world the magic you can do when your strategy is innovative and when the creative work shines. The trebling of the choc market in India is the victory of advertising alone.

     

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    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI7Oq8y-jXA[/youtube]

    PS: This is why I am so looking forward to watching The Newsroom, the latest, hottest American TV serial. Am excited not just as a viewer, but also as a journalist. It’s high time the media looked at its own self. This is gonna be something else, going by this kickass capsule. Must watch.

     

  • Personally speaking, I am all ready for the future. I have decided to start a specialized scam ads shop. Which to me sounds like a really lucrative business

    Anil Thakraney: Channel V: A wasted opportunity

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Channel V has announced they are giving up music for good, and it will be all about youth entertainment from hereon. My first reaction: ‘So what’s new, guys?’ Because whenever I have made the mistake of dropping by at Channel V, I have never spotted a music video, only some mindless trash involving screaming and yelping kids.

     

    Channel V has been around for nearly two decades, and I must say they have struggled badly in terms of the content mix, from the start. From music to comic promos (remember Quick Gun Murugan?) to juvenile reality shows… they’ve been trying to pull all sorts of stunts, with the hope that something will get the Indian youth hooked. This hasn’t worked. Channel V has remained a very small player in the STAR bouquet, and every other year there are murmurs of a shut down.

     

    The core problem, in my books, has been lack of focus. As programming heads and CEOs changed over the years, each one added new confusion to the proceedings. With the result that today, all these years later, Channel V stands for nothing really to the youth segment. It’s become like that proverbial dhobi ka kutta… na ghar ka na ghat ka. This is bad news for any brand, leave alone a television channel operating in a very saturated market.

     

    Anyways, they seem to have finally decided it’s going to be all about entertainment content, whatever that means. But it appears to be good bye to music for sure. Let’s see how this pans out in terms of actual programming, though going by past records, this is likely to be 24X7 nonsense stuff.

     

    When I look back, there appears to be one very important trick that Channel V missed. And it’s cost them heavily. They should have positioned the brand as THE Bollywood music channel from the very start. Hindi film songs are always popular in this nation (the local pop and rock bands are sidey shows anyway). And the channel, being an early starter, could have owned this genre, leaving no place for those who came in later, such as Sony Mix, Mastii, and others. Channel V could have become Bollywood’s official music station. This would have translated into loyal viewership and a lot of ad revenue.

     

    But instead of that, they opted for retarded reality shows, and today they are neither here nor there. Channel V should consider itself lucky its parent has very, very deep pockets.

     

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    PS: Harvey Nichols recently ran this outdoor campaign inLondon. The idea is totally sensational and many locals found it to be deeply offensive. But the damage was done before it could get pulled. Wonder when we’ll see such stuff in India. And wonder how the hockey loving ACP Vasant Dhoble would react. 🙂

     

    Anil Thakraney is a senior journalist and commentator. He is Editor-at-Large, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are his own.

     

     

     

  • Now while the insight is cool and the execution funny, there is a basic flaw in the communication. Monster.com is only a job finder, they can't help you do well in an interview

    Debrief | Monster.com: Misplaced communication strategy

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Monster.com believes that more than talent, Indian candidates rely on luck to make it through in a job interview. This is true. Many of us do have our superstitions. The lucky tie, the lucky socks, the lucky underwear, and so on. It may or may not work, but the illogical superstitions go on. In that sense, Monster.com is on to a good consumer insight.

     

    So these two blokes are waiting to be called in for the interview. And they spend the time competing with each other on who is more superstitious, and therefore luckier of the two. Eventually both get egg on the face as the job goes to the third chap who doesn’t believe in luck, but uses Monster.com.

     

    Now while the insight is cool and the execution funny, there is a basic flaw in the communication. Monster.com is only a job finder, they can’t help you do well in an interview. Ergo, if luck is what Monster.com is riding on, then this ad doesn’t make sense. Because even the superstitious candidates DID land the job interview. So on pure logic, the commercial derails.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbrzc8-w6SY[/youtube]

    This would have been a sound strategy for, say, a grooming shop, one of those that help you create a favourable impact in an interview. For Monster.com, this doesn’t work at all. Funny that the managers of the job portal overlooked such an important factor. I suspect on the day the brand manager came up with this strategy, he/she wasn’t wearing his/her lucky charm. 🙂

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1 to 5): 2. Entertaining ad. Based on a wrong promise!

     

  • Net net: It's the traditional mind set that needs to change. A tall ask in an industry where some senior leaders pride themselves in not even trying to figure out how a basic internet tool like the social media works

    Anil Thakraney: Zero in digital work

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    So, once again we did miserably in the Cannes cyber awards category. Here’s mxmindia’s story on this subject, and I must say it is pretty depressing.

     

    http://www.mxmindia.com/2012/06/are-we-duhs-in-digital/

     

    I suspect the main reason we continue to languish in this field is the apathetic creative directors. Most large agency creative directors don’t get this new medium, and it appears to me they don’t even WANT to get it. Because we are a third world nation, for lakhs of people the television set is still an aspirational purchase. And, therefore, it is widely believed that it will take many years before the digital medium becomes truly relevant in India. This might be true, but that still doesn’t change the fact that the digital world is already at our door step… rather, it has walked right in… and many brands can benefit from it. And the winners will be those who move early.

     

    Another thing: If the traditional ad agencies continue to ignore this space and treat it as a ‘supplementary’ medium, they run the risk of losing this business to specialized tech solutions shops. Such boutique digital agencies are already sprouting, and before the sluggish large agencies get their act together, this part of the business will be lost to them. Perhaps forever. All the more reason the ad agencies need to act before it’s too late.

     

    It is also true that most of the senior ad agency leaders are old worlders and they are finding it difficult to connect with this medium. Their lives begin and end with the 30 second TVC. That’s all right, and they can continue to focus on TV commercials. But as long as they make sure their creative departments are packed with young ‘techno-creatives’, and these blokes are on the job from the very first client briefing. This would naturally lead to upping the staff budget, but this is an investment that will pay off in the long run. Just as when television started booming in India, ad agencies were compelled to start out a specialized films department, exactly that’s what needs to be done now.

     

    Net net: It’s the traditional mind set that needs to change. A tall ask in an industry where some senior leaders pride themselves in not even trying to figure out how a basic internet tool like the social media works. Check for yourself how many of them are on Twitter and Facebook and you’ll know what I mean.

     

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    PS: Must watch: Repellent Radio. Brilliant stuff. This is a good example of Brazil’s super advertising talent. And also why that nation always does marvelously at Cannes.

     

    Link: http://www.canneslions.com/work/2012/radio/

     

     

  • The young gen, at who Britannia Bourbon Cappuccino is targeted at, will connect with this stuff

    Debrief: Britannia Bourbon Cappuccino: Power of insight

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    Britannia has launched Bourbon Cappuccino biscuits. And the key ingredient, also the USP, is the coffee flavour. Nothing really exciting about this, but the advertiser has used a cool consumer insight and this helps inspire good creative work.

     

    What they have done is to give ‘coffee’ a sexual touch. As in, after a date, when the guy is dropping his partner home, and if he’s really lucky, the girl invites him in for a cup of coffee. Naturally, this is less about coffee and more about some rocking fun on the couch.

     

    The TVC plays on this angle, adds in a little twist, and the ad works out pretty nicely. What is just another biscuit brand now gets wings, and along the way the coffee USP gets suitably highlighted. Mission accomplished.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjbkkut1dKY[/youtube]

    Yes, good work. The young gen, at who Britannia Bourbon Cappuccino is targeted at, will connect with this stuff. It’s simple, entertaining and effective. And most importantly, the product attribute is smoothly communicated, without ramming it down our throats. A good example of how critical consumer insight is to the advertising business.

     

    Rating: (On a scale of 1-5): 3.5. Good insight. Entertaining ad.