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Tag: Rahul daCunha

  • A newer version of Amul's India is out. Presenting extracts – special articles by Rahul daCunha and Suhel Seth

    Utterly Butterly Amulicious

     

    Over the last 50 years, the Gujarat Cooperation Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which owns the brand name Amul, has been presenting some memorable advertising in the form of topical hoardings. These have turned markers of contemporary issues and events.  A few years back, daCunha Communications and DYWorks came up with a book titled ‘Amul’s India’ capturing the best of the outdoor creatives. Last week, a revised and updated edition was released celebrating the topicals with comments from Amitabh Bachchan, Alyque Padamsee, Harsha Bhogle, Rahul daCunha, Rahul Dravid, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sania Mirza, Santosh Desai, Siddharth Kak, Shobhaa De, Shyam Benegal, Suhel Seth and Sylvester daCunha.

     

    Meanwhile, Amul has also launched a new app “Amul World” which has all the Amul topicals created over the last 50 years. This app will soon be available for download on Android and Apple devices.

     

    At the release last week, R. S. Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) said, that “We had promised to release the updated edition at the time of launch of the first edition. It is an honour for us to have published the revised and updated edition of this book after the phenomenal print run of 1.2 lakh copies of the first edition. The Amul topical advertising campaign and our consistent advertising strategy has played a very pivotal role in the growth of brand Amul and we shall endeavor to continue our efforts.”

     

     

    Give us this day our daily ad!

     

    By Rahul daCunha

     

    Every day is a new day in the life of the Amul hoarding (or meme as it is now referred to on social media). My job is two-fold — to shepherd the brand, and to spoof the many events that emerge from this Pandora’s Box called India. Seven thousand billboards and twenty-one years later, I have never been tired of saluting and spoofing the numerous facets and faces of our colourful country.

     

    For 50 years, our little Amul moppet, or the Amul girl with her polka-dotted dress and bow, has commented on all things amusing, annoying, absurd and alarming. And unfailingly, India waits for what she has to say with expectation and excitement.

     

    The human race, certainly the Indian human race, has a newly-acquired, collective case of Attention Deficit Disorder. What holds good as a piece of news one day, is irrelevant the next morning. Plus everything is chatworthy news today – take male chauvinist politicians, mass hysteria Bollywood, multi-crore scams, messy scandals, Mamata Banerjee’s diatribes or M.S. Dhoni’s decisions, both follicular and on-field.

     

    In the ’60s and ’70s, daCunha Associates created one hoarding a month. By the ’90s, it had increased to one a week. This year, we went daily.

     

    One new Amul ‘topical’ goes online and outdoor every day. Every morning my creative team — comprising Manish Jhaveri, Jayant Rane and I, connect on what’s on the Amul menu for the day. Is it an upmarket issue that will tickle the fancy of snot-nosed south Bombay? Or a Bollywoodised titbit that will satisfy celebrity-obsessed north Bombay? Or is it a Laloo Prasad witticism that will amuse the Hindi belt? Or has Rajnikanth’s new movie galvanised the south of India? Or has TV show Game of Thrones thunderstruck the Twitter generation?

     

    There are five Indias today – Mumbai, the Hindi belt, the East, the South and social media. Mumbai is a country by itself. The East is passionate about Durga Puja, Dada, Mishti Doi and Didi. The North is political and paparazzi-obsessed. The Hindi belt is focused on Yadav Senior and Junior’s shenanigans. And Facebookers and Twitterers are just obsessed with the flavour of the moment.

     

    In the 21 years that I’ve been campaign custodian, we’ve poked fun and parodied, but never viciously. Our spoofs and satirical messages have been welcomed sportingly by both politicians and popular figures, actors and anarchists. Just occasionally, lampooning has led us to the doorstep of the legal process.

     

    Rahul daCunha is Managing Director and Creative Head of da Cunha Communications, the ad agency that creates the Amul outdoor billboards.

     

     

     

    A For Awesome

     

    By Suhel Seth

     

    Very few brands across the world speak a borderless,  timeless and ageless language. Amul is one of them. Very few brands across the world create both a sense of entitlement and waiting. Amul is one of them. Very few brands touch the soul of consumers in an enduringly consistent manner: reflecting the pathos of an evolving society: Amul is one of them.

     

    The history of India can be told in a three-part voluminous tome or can be absorbed simply by going over the advertising that Amul has created. It is however, as much the history of Amul. Just like the India we see today, ever-evolving; ever brushing aside challenges which may seem insurmountable and yet holding a place of pride in the comity of nations, Amul too has had a story of inspirational zeal. One which is more than about a brand that delights us on dining tables. It is a brand that we never seem detached from.

     

    Over the years, Amul has represented not just innate quality and the vision and coming together of millions of dairy farmers but equally, through its advertising, Amul as a brand has both been a chronicler and a mirror to each one of us. In our lives of drudgery, Amul helps us smile; it helps us laugh away the worries and at times it helps us celebrate the enormity of Indian achievement. It also, at times, very poignantly shows us the way.

     

    For me personally, Brand Amul has been a part of my growing up: not in terms of chronology but equally in an insightful way, capturing the trials and tribulations of a nation that India is. It has always been something that I have looked up to. The advertising that Amul has unleashed over decades is not something that is designed to sell butter. It is indeed designed to help reflect on who we are. I have always believed that Amul’s advertising is not about selling more butter or more milk: it is about helping the young and the old understand the India we are creating: either wilfully or as mere spectators. I have often said to those who care to listen: the biggest civilian honour one can hope to attain in India is to be on an Amul hoarding or in an Amul press advertisement.

     

    Because in a strange way, Amul speaks for every Indian. Amul is infact, many a time, the voice of a multitude of voiceless Indians and herein lies its eternal charm and its enduring appeal. The reason is not because of what it says. But equally about how and why it says it. There are moments in time when silence is not a virtue. That is when Amul’s advertising speaks for millions. There are equally times when in the din we fail to separate the good from the not-so-good. It is at that time that the advertising of Amul helps us set the right course.

     

    Amul’s advertising is a barometer for what India has been, what India is and what India is likely to be. Which is why Amul the brand has morphed into Amul the being.

     

    Suhel Seth is a former Amul baby and now the Managing Partner of Counselage India

     

     

     

    Footnote:

    Excerpted with permission of the authors from:

    Amul’s India

    Based on 50 Years of Amul Advertising

    by daCunha Communications

    (Revised & Updated Edition)

    HarperCollins India

    Rs 299

     

  • Being the official sponsor of the Indian team at the London Olympics, Amul stands to gain much from the biggest sporting event in the world

    Taste of India backs Hope of India

     

    By Meghna Sharma

     

    Think of Olympics, and the one word that comes to mind is ‘glory’. With only a few weeks left for the mega event to begin, all eyes (and hearts) will be on the Indian contingent, which is the biggest by far that is being sent to the Games. While that increases India’s chances of bagging more medals, what it has also done is turn the attention of brands towards the aspirants with the obvious intention of improving awareness and possibly, even sales of products.

     

    One brand that is taking the lead in associating with the mega event is Amul. The Anand-based Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation’s (GCMMF) Amul has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for sponsorship of the Indian contingent.

     

    With this, Amul has become the official sponsor of the Indian team. For Amul, this association would work in two ways: first, allowing it to push its multiple products that have been positioned for the purpose of building stamina and strength and, second, enabling it to encourage aspirants to go out and deliver their best performance at the event.

     

    RS Sodhi

    Speaking on the association, RS Sodhi, managing director, Amul, “Amul is committed to strengthening the Olympic movement in India and encourage young generation from all corners of the country to take up sports in a big way.”

     

    With milk being Amul’s core ingredient, the brand believes that milk is nature’s original energy drink and plays a pivotal role in building the physical and mental strength of the athletes.

     

    “India is the largest producer of milk in the world and Amul is not only India’s, but Asia’s, largest milk brand. This association, and activities around it, will help in engaging the youth so that they can enjoy a healthy life,” he added.

     

    In fact, this is not the first time that the milk major has stepped up to push for the cause of promoting sports. In 2011, Amul sponsored the Nether lands cricket team in the ICC Cricket World Cup and Switzerland-headquartered Sauber F1 team at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. “We use the opportunities available on local and global scale to associate,” explained Mr Sodhi, on the brand’s recent decisions to associate itself with sporting events. “It is a good and positive association to connect with the youth.”

     

    Helping the brand in its mission is media agency Lodestar UM, which is the media agency on record for the company and has helped the brand associate with sporting events at a global level in the recent past.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”225″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qafz4YDG1A[/youtube]

    According to Lodestar UM, such associations will help the brand as India is a young nation with over 60 per cent of the population being below the age of 35 years and sports is a high interest area for them. “Amul has always been involved in raising the bar. The Olympics association has helped place Amul on the global map of international sporting events. We saw a great fit…Amul’s dairy products stand for high energy and complete nourishment and Olympics stand for values like strength, determination, vigour and winning which every person aspires to, and wishes to imbibe and practice in his daily life. We also saw this as an excellent platform for Amul Milk to assert the positioning of ‘World’s original energy drink’,” said Dhruv Jha, business head, Lodestar UM Content & Experiences.

     

    Although the brand has come up with a special campaign on the event for the medium of television, it doesn’t plan to come up with any more. “We are continuing our advertising, but no special Olympics focus has been planned during the Games,” said Mr Jha.

     

    Another motivator, that has always done its bit in raising the awareness levels of Amul with its consumers, will be at it around Olympics too. The eye-catching hoardings that figure the polka-dotted Amul Girl will continue disseminating messages as they always do.

     

    Rahul da Cunha

    According to Rahul daCunha, MD and creative head of daCunha Comminucations which created the Amul Girl, one should keep a catch-out for interesting and tongue-in-cheek hoardings during the period. “We have already started the build-up and there is a scope for many more as the Games have so many aspects and characters to it.”

     

    Mr DaCunha is proud to be associated with the brand and now its association with the world-class games. He added: “What can be more Indian than to support the Indian contingent in the Olympics. It’s a very ‘cool’ and prestigious moment for the brand. In the last year and a half, the brand has been getting allied with activities and events which will help it globally too.”

     

    And the attempt doesn’t end with Olympics. Amul plans to keep associating itself with such major events in the future too. “We will like to associate with any good event/series. Our focus is on the domestic market. But yes, Olympics will help in better brand recognition around the world,” said Mr Sodhi.

     

    Mahesh Ranka

    Mahesh Ranka, founder & CEO, Indus Sports and Sponsorship, feels that since it’s a home-grown brand, such association will help it create a buzz. “During and after the Olympics, when people will read or see about the games, hopefully, Amul as the brand will be on people’s minds. It’s a very good move by the brand and hopefully other corporates will also learn from it.”

     

    Not just the brand recognition, Amul hopes that the Indian contingent will get the country recognized in the world with a good medal tally as well. “Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate. Participation in Olympics is the aspiration of every athlete and with the kind of investments made by our country in this arena to select, nurture and train the best athletes, we are confident that Indian contingent will deliver the best ever performance in the London games and make our country proud.”

     

    So, let’s hope the players take India to new heights at the games while the brand would manage to do its bit and bask in the success as well.