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Tag: Malvika Mehra

  • Eleven industry captains on the buzzwords they’ve hated so much. (Hint: Big Data & Viral top the list)

    The Most Annoying Buzzwords of 2014

     

    We asked the industry’s finest for buzzwords they grew heartily sick off in 2014. Big Data and Viral were the big losers. Read on for the rest:

     

    Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands

    1. Talent

    2. Compensation

    3. Digital

    4. Television measurement and

    5. Analytics were annoying as the more people spoke, the less they did anything about these things.

     

    For 2015, for starters, I have high hopes from the new TV measurement which Barc will put out, media agencies getting into content production, collaboration between all constituents of the ad ecosystem, budgets which will hopefully be at landmark levels and the World Cup which we should win again.

     

    HALL OF SHAME 

    Viral – Most of the time it is just an ad that runs way too long. Get some scissors, people

     

    Big Data – The ultimate Brahma Astra for the advertising charlatan

     

    The only viral I know of is the one that requires the intervention of a doctor

    Perhaps the most, abused & misused terminology in the year. Runs the danger of being called ‘Pig Data’.

    It’s just analytics. People have been doing this ever since humankind stepped on this planet.

     

    Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director and Executive Vice President, Grey

    The 5 most oft used words in 2014 were 1. Guys 2. Let’s 3. Make 4. A 5. Viral.

     

    Also ‘Take your time (4-5 minutes is great), but please don’t take my money. No budgets this year. And while you are at it, make it so stunning that it is ‘organic’ (unpaid distribution)’. Ji Sirji. ‘But ultimately make me a TVC. And I want a ‘BIG, LAUNCHY’ feel for our product in 30 seconds or less. Chal, paanch second aur le lo’. Ji sirji.

     

    The Pitch Bitch: ‘Of course we love you guys! We are just opening it up to 10 other agencies to inject some freshness into the brand (and test how much lower will they drop their price vis a vis yours for the same or more amount of work)’. Par Sirji?

     

    Femvertising: From soap brands, to makers of shampoos, sanitary towels, watches to home appliances and mobile network providers, everybody suddenly wanted to ’empower the woman’. I get the noble intent, but wish the brands would really ‘walk the talk’. Else it’s just a ‘token’ gesture. And consumers see through that inauthenticity.

     

    Interactive Pre-rolls: With stern warnings of ‘If you skip this ad, I will have to kill not only Jack and Jill and Mary and her little lamb, but also Old MacDonald along with all the cute animals on his farm’.

     

    Research: Gut instinct is officially dead. It got replaced by the R word. Heard about ‘No guts. No glory’? Not lately.

     

    Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Executive Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather

    Native Advertising: I imagine people wearing grass skirts and clapper boards singing jingles.

     

    Vlog: At times we Bengalis mix up our Vs and Bs. That’s what I thought this was all about!

     

    Content: As in, ads vs. content, content marketing. Like ‘traditional’ advertising has no content? I’m content to pass on this one.

     

    Social: Yeah, why not? Let’s party. And get paid for it! That’s what I say.

     

    Seamless: Every element has to seamlessly work with everything else. Imagine if our clothes were like that too! Now that would be some fashion trend.

     

    Santosh Padhi, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Taproot India

    Pitch: If you do not respect yourself nobody will.

     

    Research: Like sex determination, it should be banned

     

    Low Budget: Instead of 300 insertions can we do 280 and improve the quality of the creative?

     

    Urgent: Premature babies forcefully welcomed will always run a risk

     

    Celebrity: They are the super highly paid creative directors, why do you need one more creative agency?

     

    Rohit Ohri, Executive Chairman, Dentsu India and CEO, Dentsu Asia Pacific (South)

    Integrated: Integration is the process, co-creation is the magic.

     

    360: 360 degree campaigns are consumer conversations in bursts, 365 is everyday relevance.

     

    Alignment: Alignment is passionless, belief runs deep.

     

    Structure: Structure constrains, open source liberates.

     

    Procurement: Vegetables are procured, ideas are partnered.

     

    Meenakshi Menon, Chairman, Spatial Access

    Big Data: That has to be on the top of my list. It’s just analytics. People have been doing this ever since humankind stepped on this planet.

     

    Twitterati: Everybody has become an instant expert on Twitter. I’d replace the term with ‘scum.’

     

    ISIS: ‘Isis’ is supposed to be the goddess worshipped as ideal mother and wife. Our vocabulary keeps evolving, sometimes not in the right direction. I’d call the group as a distortion than assigning them the name of a goddess.

     

    Homechef: Where mothers cooking for their families had some dignity to it, now we have a whole new concept of women cooking for complete strangers that they invite at home. The food is charged, of course. It’s just a little pretentious a term. Just call them plain old cook, maybe?

     

    Climate Change: It only gets talked about. Never acted upon. Perhaps replace it with – learn to breathe under water? Or ‘Grow gills?’

     

    Anil Nair, CEO and Managing Partner, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi

    Integration: The term liberally used when you don’t have a clue of what to do with your brand. It’s been institutionalised now. We will have Chief Integration Officers everywhere in no time. Put an end to this painful word. Replace it with ‘We need to have an idea,’ Sirjee.

     

    Social Listening: It’s something that our good old researchers have been doing for ages. It’s nothing more than trend analytics, only instead of taking a dictaphone out to record voices, you’re recording them off Facebook and Twitter. Just call it ‘consumer understanding’ and do not make an unnecessary tool out of it, please?

     

    Viral: The only viral I know of is the one that requires the intervention of a doctor and loads of medicine to go away. I don’t care where this term came from, it needs to disappear. It’s an epidemic that needs an antidote.

     

    SEO, SEM: Why are we making a mountain out of a molehill? Can we not get caught up in the process and its terminology and revert to a simple non-jargonised world?

     

    Big Data: For God’s sake, the database just got bigger. But it always existed. The most successful political campaign of this year was based on pure emotional advertising and not big data. Let’s stop jargonising information. Call it what it is (read: information).

     

    Mallikarjun Das, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group (India)

    Big Data: A phrase bandied too easily and too much, especially by those who pay scant regard to rationality. The ultimate Brahma Astra for the advertising charlatan.

     

    Programmatics: A term used in context with media buying, especially on digital, when what they are doing is just using the optimiser.

     

    Fragmentation: The only problem with using the said buzzword is that it’s often used in a wrong way to strike some sort of terror in a client.

     

    Storytelling: Need I say more?

     

    360 degree: This term is like that sugarcane that’s passed through the machine 300 times. There’s no juice left in it and yet it’s being rolled one last time.

     

    Dhunji Wadia, President, Rediffusion Y&R

    Big Data: Perhaps the most, used, abused and misused terminology of the year. It runs the danger of being called ‘Pig Data’. There are questions regarding the implications of the approach and also the way it is currently done. It needs to look at data holistically – Total Information.

     

    Digital Evangelists: Don’t need them as you cannot preach to the converted.

     

    The ‘Selfie’ Contest/Promotion: Replace it with better imagination.

     

    E-commerce ‘Discount for the Day’: That runs for years together.

     

    Free App Download: With more and more retailers and brands reaching for e- and m-commerce, there is an explosion of apps to be downloaded. Begs the question, ‘Why would anyone pay to download such an app?’

     

    Ajay Kakar, CMO, Aditya Birla Group – Financial Services

    “Isse viral kar do!”: Which is what every client says. It’s content, not viral, please.

     

    “Facebook has 50 million visitors!”: So what? VT station has more people visiting, does that mean we put all our ads there?

     

    New media: Let’s just say ‘customer’ as opposed to new, old, traditional, or any other kind of media. Creative awards: Awards should be for creatives that work.

     

    Pitches: Here a pitch, there a pitch, everywhere clients flirting. Serial pitching must end. Let’s call them ‘Brand Custodians’ and not pitchers, shall we? Clients and agencies must stop playing the blame game. If one is the crutch to your success there’s no way one should let go.

     

    Bobby Pawar, Director and Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Worldwide

    Viral: For the love of likes, it’s just a video until lots of people see and share it. Most of the time it is just an ad that runs way too long. Get some scissors, people.

     

    ATL/BTL: It implies a caste system of ideas. The good ones go above, the so-called ‘hard working’ ones slide under. It shouldn’t matter where the idea lives, it must be good enough to move your audience. People don’t care, therefore you must.

     

    But: This is phaasi ka phanda for ideas. It is crueler that a blunt ‘no’. Why? Because it is preceded by some waffling words that give hope to the creative, then ‘but’ shows up and yanks the handle.

     

    Deadline: Nothing induces a creative butt-clenching moment like this word. Yes sir, three bags full sir, our work is time bound, but does it have to sound so, erm, deadly?

     

    Purchase: It’s the leading cause of hair-loss among agency CEOs.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

     

     

  • This is the first phase of the campaigning, demonstrated by a 60 second TV commercial, which will be aired in 10 languages across all major networks

    Grey India unveils new campaign to propagate Swach Bharat initiative

    By A Correspondent

     

    To support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swach Bharat initiative, GREY group India, who was recently awarded to handle the creative duties of this mission has produced a new campaign as part of a larger campaign for the Swachh Bharat Mission.

     

    There are many offenders who have no qualms about throwing garbage on the street, littering on the streets, urinating in public etc., i.e. not contributing towards the social responsibility of keeping the nation clean. The central idea of the campaign is to “Shame” those offenders who do so. GREY¹s campaign aims at shaming those offenders, as the protagonist in the TV campaign is cheered or rather jeered by the people who have observed the protagonist’s dastardly act. This is the first phase of the campaigning, demonstrated by a 60 second TV commercial, which will be aired in 10 languages across all major networks.

     

    On the Swachh Bharat campaign, Samir Datar, VP & Branch Head, GREY Delhi says, “We are delighted to be part of Swachh Bharat initiative. We believe that the idea of shaming people who litter, is a compelling idea and can become a very effective behaviour change tool, once it gets traction in social media and ground activation.”

     

    GREY group is now working on the second phase to add momentum to this communication. GREY group India’s National Creative Director and EVP, Malvika Mehra said, “There is a saying in Hindi ‘jab ghee seedhi ungli se na niklay, tab ungli tedhi karni padti hai’. Despite countless ‘Keep India Clean’ efforts/messages by the government, we still see a total lack of involvement from our brethren for the cause. The sarcasm in the film is an attempt to drive home the point harder by now literally ‘humiliating’ the offender, albeit nicely. Hope such efforts lead to a Swachh Bharat indeed.”

     

  • During his first stint at Grey, he had been actively involved in launch campaigns for Honda Brio

    Grey re-appoints Dushyant Chopra as Creative Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dushyant Chopra

    Grey group India has appointed one of its former creative team members Dushyant Chopra as the Creative Director and Head of Art.

     

    During his first stint at Grey, he had been actively involved in launch campaigns for Honda Brio and initiatives like the India Bike Week for Fox Traveller. He had also worked on the brand campaign for National Geographic – Unlock.

     

    Malvika Mehra

    On his joining back, Malvika Mehra, NCD & EVP said, “It’s rare to come across good talent; rarer still having it come with a great work attitude. Dushyant seems to have both and I couldn’t be happier welcoming the prodigal son back into the Grey fold. In less than eight months.”

     

    In a career spanning almost 13 years, and apart from Grey, he has worked for leading agencies like OgilvyOne Worldwide, Rediffusion Y&R and Iris Worldwide. He has handled some leading brands across verticals like American Express, ITC Hotels, Cisco, Honda, Fujifilm, National Geographic, Fox Traveller, Sony Ericsson, DishTV, Videocon, GSK, General Motors, Chivas, Avaya, Adidas and Intex Mobile Phones.

     

  • The challenge that GREY group faced was that the communication had to capture the famed solidity of the car and yet promote the stylish new looks and features

    Grey says ‘Hello Life’ for Fiat Punto

    After establishing a decent fan base, Fiat has introduced the all-new Punto Evo with a revamped design. The car has retained its strengths while packing on oodles of style and plenty of new features.

     

    For Punto’s advertising agency GREY group the task was clear: announce the new Punto Evo, re-instate its strengths while promoting all the new additions, and ensure the car is a part of Fiat’s overall brand positioning of ‘Hello Life’. The major challenge that GREY group faced was that the communication had to capture the famed solidity of the car and yet promote the stylish new looks and features.

     

    GREY has come up with a campaign that ticks all the checkboxes while driving home the point with a lot of flair. The creative idea is ‘Life just became more interesting’ and it uses the device of adding a different take to any situation. While something is enjoyable in its own way, it can be made even better by simply incorporating a different aspect to it.

     

    Nagesh Basavanhalli, MD and President Fiat Chrysler India said,” Punto Evo is a stylish, premium hatchback embodying Italian design flair making it a preferred choice of a style conscious consumer. Agency was given the task of communicating the strengths of Punto while making it appeal to its target consumers who are life maximizers – Youthful ,Carefree, Cool, Hep, Happening, Stylish, Energetic who is a evolved and is tech savvy in today’s world. While we had a choice to talk just about the product, we wanted to keep it around the consumer and what the car promises to be to his/her life and hence, we developed the proposition of New Punto EVO, life just became more interesting. The TVC maintains the premium and international imagery of the brand and keeps the communication to the point yet very eye-catching and full of life.”

     

    Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director, GREY group India says, “Most car advertising in this segment typically sounds very transactional and competitive. It’s mostly about mileage, power, legroom etc. which while being an important part of the decision making process, sometimes leave out the ‘experience’ of what it ‘feels’ to drive that car. We forget that cars are actually an extension of one’s personality. With the new communication for the Punto Evo, with it’s exciting new features and great Italian design pedigree (an intrinsic part of the Fiat lineage), we have tried to occupy the mind space of a discerning consumer who while being reassured of the ‘basic asks’ of a great car (obviously) also has a chance to have an ‘interesting’ driving experience with this Italian hatchback.’

     

  • The juries for Titanium and Integrated, Press, Outdoor, Radio and Film Craft categories are announced

    Tista Sen, Malvika Mehra, Tapas Sen & Abhijit Chaudhuri join Prasoon Joshi in first list of Cannes Lions jury

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tista Sen, Malvika Mehra, Tapas Sen and Abhijit Chaudhuri join Prasoon Joshi in the first list of Cannes Lions jury announced yesterday. While Mr Joshi is Jury President of the coveted Titanium and Integrated category (as announced earlier), Ms Mehra will be adjudicate in the Press category, Ms Sen in Outdoor, Mr (Tapas) Sen in Radio and Mr Chaudhuri in Film Craft.

     

    Commenting on this year’s jury line-up, Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals says, “We are delighted to welcome this group of high calibre professionals to judge entries and award creative excellence in their respective categories. Every year the outcome of the judging process at Cannes Lions sets new benchmarks in creative communications for the global industry. By pulling together this collection of leading names we can expect the outcome of the jury’s deliberations to continue to achieve this.”

     

    The entire list of the juries for the five categories is as follows:

     

    Titanium & Integrated

     

    Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, India & South Asia, McCann Worldgroup – Jury President

    Alexandre Herv̩, Vice President РExecutive Creative Director, DDB Paris, France
    Anselmo Ramos, Founder, David, Brazil
    Gaston Legorburu, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, SapientNitro, Global
    Jacki Kelley, CEO North America & President, Global Clients, IPG Mediabrands, Global
    Katrien Bottez, Executive Creative Director, Duval Guillaume, Belgium
    Kentaro Kimura, Co-CEO, Executive Creative Director, Hakuhodo Kettle, Japan
    Kevin Brady, Executive Creative Director, Droga5, USA
    Steve Vranakis, Executive Creative Director, Google Creative Lab, UK
    Tor Mhyren, President/Worldwide Chief Creative Officer, Grey, Global

     

    Press

     

    R̩mi Babinet, Founder and Creative Director, BETC, France РJury President

    Alvin Lim, Group Creative Director, Draftfcb, China
    Damisa Ongsiriwattana, Creative Director, JWT Bangkok, Thailand
    Damon Stapleton, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi, Australia
    Danilo Boer, VP Senior Creative Director, BBDO New York, USA
    Darren Bailes, Executive Creative Director, VCCP, UK
    Fernando Tchechenistky, Executive Creative Director, DDB, Argentina
    Gabriel Roman, President/General Creative Director, Lowe Ginkgo, Uruguay
    Götz Ulmer, Executive Creative Officer, Jung von Matt/Alster, Germany
    Juan Silva, Executive Creative Director, Shackleton, Spain
    Kalpesh Patankar, Creative Director, Y&R Dubai, UAE
    Leslie Sims, Executive Creative Director, McCann NY, USA
    Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director & Executive Vice President, Grey Worldwide, India
    Marcelo Reis, Creative VP and Partner, Leo Burnett Tailor Made, Brazil
    Mariana O’Kelly, Joint Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, South Africa
    Maurice Wee, Creative Director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Singapore
    Nuno Jerónimo, Partner & Creative Director, O Escritório, Portugal
    Volkan Karakasoglu, Creative Director, TBWA\Istanbul, Turkey

     

    Outdoor

     

    Jose Miguel Sokoloff, President, Lowe Global Creative Council & Co Chairman and CCO Lowe SSP3 Colombia – Jury President

    Alemsah Ozturk, Chief Happiness Officer, 41? 29!, Turkey
    Brett Morris, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Creative Officer, Draftfcb, South Africa
    Cristina Tin Sanchez, Executive Creative Director, BBDO Guerrero, The Philippines
    Darren Spiller, Executive Creative Director, DDB Group Melbourne, Australia
    Eugene Cheong, Chief Creative Officer, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, Singapore
    Gigi Lee, Executive Creative Director, Y&R Malaysia, Malaysia
    Gonzalo Ricca, Executive Creative Director, DON, Argentina
    Jeff Kling, Chief Creative Officer, Fallon Worldwide, USA
    José Valdir Bianchi, Art Director, Agência Mood, Brazil
    Juan Sanchez, Chief Creative Officer, TBWA\España, Spain
    Keiichi Higuchi, Creative Director, Dentsu, Japan
    Kevin Lee, Executive Creative Director/Partner, Leagas Delaney, China
    Luis Elizalde, Executive VP Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi, Mexico
    Matthieu Elkaim, Executive Creative Director, CLM BBDO, France
    Stefan Kolle, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Kolle Rebbe, Germany
    Tista Sen, National Creative Director & Senior Vice President, JWT India, India
    Vicki Maguire, Deputy Executive Creative Director, Grey London, UK

     

    Radio

     

    Tony Hertz, Owner & Creative Director, Tony Hertz: Radio & Brand Sound, The Philippines – Jury President

    Danny Searle, Chief Creative Office/Vice Chairman BBDO Asia, BBDO, Singapore
    Emma Eriksson, Creative/Partner, Le Bureau, Sweden
    Felipe Luchi, Creative Vice-President, Lew’Lara\TBWA, Brazil
    Jan Leube, Chief Creative Officer, Y&R, Germany
    Josh Rabinowitz, EVP/Director of Music, Grey Group, USA
    Max König, Creative Director, Simple, Chile
    Raf Debraekeleer, Producer – Director, Cobra Radio Brewery, Belgium
    Rafael Arnau, Producer, Composer, Sound designer, Rafael Arnau Freelance, Spain
    Shane Bradnick, Executive Creative Director, DDB, New Zealand
    Simon Blaxland, Owner, Blazland Productions, UK
    Tapas Sen, Chief Programming CrOfficer, Radio Mirchi, Entertainment Network, India
    Tom Eymundson, Partner, Director, Pirate Group, Canada
    Vanessa Pearson, Executive Creative Director, House of Brave, South Africa
    Victoria Marie Evensen, Copywriter, Dinamo, Norway
    Vince Lagana, Creative Director, Leo Burnett Sydney, Australia

     

    Film Craft

     

    Brian Carmody, Co-Founder, Smuggler, USA – Jury President

    Abhijit Chaudhuri, Director, Q.E.D. Films, India
    Augusto Gimenez Zapiola, Director, Argentinacine, Argentina
    Corey Esse, Managing Director/Executive Producer, Exit Films, Australia
    Felipe Vellasco, Director, Sentimental Filme, Brazil
    Jenny Gadd, Head of Integrated Production, Johannes Leonardo, USA
    Kerstin Heffels, Producer, Heimat, Germany
    Martin Loraine, Deputy ECD, AMV BBDO, UK
    Pia Dueholm, Executive Agency Producer, INGO Stockholm, Sweden
    Roel Welling, Director, Wefilm, The Netherlands
    Thierry Buriez, Creative Director, Being, France

     

    With the introduction of the new Product Design category, a total of 17 juries will be judging in Cannes this year. Members of the remaining 12 juries will be announced shortly. Cannes Lions, the world’s leading celebration of creativity in brand communications, will take place 15-21 June at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France. For information on how to enter work, or register to attend, please visit www.canneslions.com.

     

  • Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, India & South Asia, McCann Worldgroup, has been appointed Jury President of the Titanium & Integrated Lions category at the 2014 edition of the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival

    Prasoon Joshi is jury prez at Cannes Lions

    By A Correspondent

     

    Prasoon Joshi

    Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer, India & South Asia, McCann Worldgroup, has been appointed Jury President of the Titanium & Integrated Lions category at the 2014 edition of the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival to be held in Cannes, France from June 15 to 21. “Titanium brings the world’s most respected and eclectic set of people to the jury, and there is immense learning. The bar is raised and new benchmarks set for the world in advertising and communications. It will be an honour to work with the jury,” Joshi, who also is an awardwinning film lyricist and scriptwriter, said.

     

    Meanwhile at the Clio Awards which is scheduled to be held in October 1, 2014, Taproot India founder and Chief Creative Officer Agnello Dias and Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director, Grey India have been invited to the jury. Said Mehra, who will be on the jury of the ‘Content & Contact, Integrated Campaign & Innovative Media’ category, is looking forward to being on the jury. “It’s a great honour and a responsibility as one has a big part of play in setting a benchmark.” Dias will be on the Film jury.