Petzzco, the pet care service provider, has named former cricketer and commentator Ravi Shastri as its principal advisor and brand ambassador.
Commenting on the association, Raj Kantak, Founder, Petzzco, said: “Pet-lovers often have a strong bond with their pets and look for guidance and recommendations from people they admire. Since Ravi Shastri is an avid pet-lover himself, he can connect with Petzzco’s target audience on an emotional level. Having Ravi Shastri as a brand ambassador can significantly increase Petzzco’s brand awareness. His association with the company will generate positive media attention and public interest.”
MGM School of Sports, has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Coaching Beyond Cricket Academy, founded by Ravi Shastri, B Arun, and R. Sridhar, former Team India coaches.
Situated near Cuttack city, just 30 km from Bhubaneswar, MGM School of Sports epitomises a commitment to promoting a culture of high-performance cricket in the state of Odisha.
Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, CMD of MGM Minerals Ltd., expressed his optimism about the collaboration, stating that it will significantly contribute to the development of cricket in Odisha and position MGM School of Sports as a premier cricket training destination globally.
Ravi Shastri has become the new brand ambassador for FanCode, digital sports destination. Shastri will bring out FanCode’s ‘fan-first’ proposition by leading the upcoming campaigns for these properties.
Welcoming the new ambassador, Yannick Colaco, Co-Founder of FanCode, said: “We are delighted to have Ravi Shastri onboard as our brand ambassador. Ravi is one of few sports personalities who has experienced success as a player, a coach and a broadcast analyst, and this has helped him develop a deep connection with casual and die-hard sports fans alike.”
Since this was the last week of IPL, my editor suggested that maybe I should decide on the Top 4 ads of the season. Like the Top 4 play-off teams. But with IPL being unusual in so many respects, I decided to do something unusual too. What if we had an IPL ads awards? Not just the best four, but look at many more. So, here is a list of the categories and the winners.
Oh, before I forget, these awards are sponsored by MF, as yeh bilkul sahi nahin hai.
The Paisa Vasool Entertainment Award is a toss-up between the Ravi Shastri Cred ad and the Swiggy Instamart Dolly Aa Rahi Hai ad.
While at Swiggy Instamart we cannot forget Dunzo. It gets the award in the Prophet of Doom category for announcing the demise of refrigerators in the midst of summer.
Spotify gets the award in the Saannu Ki category for using music to blank out all the worldly debates.
The Hum Nahin Sudherenge Award goes to Jio for its song and dance routine by cricket stars season after season.
Jio also wins the Can’t Act for Nuts, Can’t Dance for Nuts Award for forcing cricketers to dance and act year after year.
The undisputed winner of the Cooked Up Nostalgia Award goes to Dream 11 Ashwin ad.
Pepsi Salman Khan double role ad is the winner of the Faulty Time Machine category.
Pepsi is the winner again, in the Tag Line with an Asterisk category. It was the sole entry but the 7 point, 50 word explanation of the asterisk in the last three seconds of the ad made it a clear winner.
The Good from Far but Far from Good Award is again a toss-up. This time between the Kareena Kapoor MedNet and Aamir Khan PharmEasy ads.
The MedNet ad also won the Jab We Net category award, courtesy the Railways.
The Indigo paint ad featuring Dhoni was the clear winner in the No Animal was Harmed while Shooting an Ad category, as the only people who suffered were human beings like us.
Bas Naam hi Kaafi Hai Award goes to all ads featuring Dhoni.
PhonePe Aamir and Aalia ads get Police Story Indian version award.
Meesho ads are the recipient of the Wah, Kya Scene Hai award.
Tata Neu is the winner of the It Happens Only in India award for raising hopes of spending on a honeymoon by buying a sui (needle).
The Study, Study, More Study Award goes to Byju’s + Aakash classes and the Money, Money, More Money Award goes to all fintech companies except PayTM.
PayTM gets the Neend Se Jaago Award for explaining the concept of UPI five years after its launch.
Vimal, Kamla Pasand and Budweiser get the Cock a Snook Award for neatly bypassing rules and regulatory bodies.
Jiomart gets the impossible is nothing award for letting Ranveer Singh be a normal person.
A special award to Aamir Khan in the category, Any Publicity is Good Publicity, for asking Rashid Khan about the Eid spread that Rashid made for his teammates. Not an ad? You are wrong. Am sure his next release is round the corner. And as I write this, I see a trailer for his new film releasing in August. The interview was a quid pro quo for screening the trailer. Self-promotion.
And finally, if you do see this last award below being mentioned, then it means my editor does not read my columns.
The biggest award of the season, the KLPD Award goes to Tata Neu for having a great set of teasers but then the revelation being like a hole in the sui.
Do you have any more categories to suggest?
Disclaimer: Tsk Tsk Tsk. All of you with dirty minds….KLPD stands for Kaise Log Proposition Dubate hain
Vikas Mehta is a senior strategic advisor and educator based in Dehradun. This is the second season that he’s been reviewing ads around the IPL coverage. His views here are personal.
Cred, the Bengaluru-based fintech company (Dreamplug Technologies) for Credit card payment promises its nine million-plus members points that can be redeemed against rewards. In a way, the customer not only earn rewards while buying things on a Credit card, but also when making Credit Card payment through Cred.
I have commented on Cred’s strategically quirky ads and clutter breaker creative devices. Personally, I was never a huge fan of Cred advertising and found it crazy. It did not really make sense, with hardly a real call for action and flogging the same message for too long.
With time, the advertising started making some sense. Cred advertising is impressive enough on focussed consistency. The message format has changed yet it has retained its basic flow and quirkiness. I can now appreciate the structure and the advertising a bit better, but am simply stumped with the scale and need.
Cred advertising is still about the rewards on Credit card payments. Other features like Expose Hidden Charges. Track Spends. Clear Bills, Free Credit reports and scores, referral programmes, Get Rewarded, Peer-to-peer lending or pay Rent are not promoted.
Cred – BOWLS OVER WITH RAVI SHASTRI
With the Ravi Shastri Cred ad, Cred seemed to have bridged a gap. The ad is all about the performer’s perception and image. Coming in towards the last leg of IPL, the timing is right. Being a country that focusses a lot on cricket, viewers relate to the act as Ravi Shastri and his passion for drinks is a joke shared too often.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vLHpfulLcUE
The ad is humorous. It exploits the media image of Ravi Shastri. It has dialogues that one may find crazy and cheesy, but they are on the dot. And then Cred promising more fun than what Shastri is having. That is the week link.
‘Sattar minute for happy hours’, ‘I used to be a batsman, but for you, I can be a keeper’, ‘Waste mat karo yaar’ are spot-on. The timing perfect. Add to them my favourite: the poker-faced answer at the press conference, ‘Hate Talking to sports journalists’.
The Cred Ravi Shastri ad, like any other Cred quirky ad, is gaining views on YouTube. The small write-up under the ad on the Cred YouTube channel is equally interesting. Here it is.
As Ravi Shastri, I want to make it very clear that all my parties are invite-only. But I admire our youth and their potential, so if you’re able to do all of the following, you’re automatically on the guest list: (1) Open beer bottles with a bat. If you ask how, you’re already out. (2) Analyse footage from the party to see where drinks were wasted (3) Bartend 24×7(4) Carry an extra case of cough syrup at all times (5) Parallel park the bar-counter
If you make the cut, congratulations. You’re never going to remember another night in your life again. But if you don’t, cheer up: you can find an equally rewarding experience on Cred. All for paying your credit card bills. Believe me, I know what’s fun. To join me as a member, download the app.
What Next With Cred Ads
If Cred remains true to its advertising SOP, we can expect a series of ads in the format where the Celebrity may project their unwarranted images. Maybe Shashi Tharoor, Kangana, Chetan Bhagat, and Salman Khan could be good extensions to the series. Maybe the next series can pick trends with social media influencers. Hope it remains away from the region, religion, sex and politics – the four pointers that tilt the Smear Index for any communication.
Cred Clutter Breaking Communication Recipe.
Something must be right. Cred claims ( as of Oct 2021) a 700% increase in app downloads after the 2020 audition campaign featuring Madhuri Dixit, Govinda, Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, Bappi Lahiri, and Anil Kapoor. And I was questioning – what the hell Cred was doing?
The next lot of communication has celebrities portraying images that you don’t associate with. The series featured Rahul Dravid, Jackie Shroff, Kumar Sanu, Venkatesh Prasad, Neeraj Chopra, and Kapil Dev. These were fun, and everyone had their favourite, with the Dravid ad being the most loved.
Then came the old era imagery with Karishma Kapoor in Nirma ad, Zee Antakshari with Renuka Shahane and Annu Kapoor, Sharma Ji-Gupta Ji, Shaan-Sonu Nigam song. I thought Cred was becoming too constrained with its own format and boundaries. And then it surprised us with Ravi Shastri ad that pushed me to rethink. The Ravi Shastri ad is fresh and one of the most enjoyable- but if it does anything to the business is a question mark. I will any day have the fun Ravi is having then go for the Fun of earning rewards by making Credit card payment on Cred.
Too Much Of Advertising!
That’s too many films in the last two-three years with not much to show in revenue other than valuation. So many celebrities and four format mutations. I may be bowled over with Cred Ravi Shastri for its timing and content. Still, I am stumped at the need and purpose of this considerable advertising.
Thanks to the advertising and some positive word of mouth, the brand enjoys a high recall and decent usage among Credit card users. However, the ad never made me want to check out or download the app. Maybe and hopefully, I am a minority. And perhaps the advertising is more cantered for VC, Investments and valuation.
Cred Not-so-Cred-ible Performance!
It is different when it comes to financials. Cred marketing spends outscore its revenue by huge multiples. It became a Unicorn within two years of launch, and the current expected valuation is around $6 Billion! And it behaved like one burning at a high rate.
Reports tell that Cred had a 95 cr total income and 88.6 revenue from operations in FY 21 (against 18.1 cr and 0.5 cr in FY 20), with total expenses at 619.4 cr and a loss of 523 cr in FY 21 (( against the expense of 3979 Cr and a loss of 361 cr in FY20)! Additionally, the marketing expenses themselves are pegged at 418 cr in FY21.
The brand seems to have launched or substantially grown products, including Cred Max, Cred Cash and Cred Travel which were not pushed aggressively with advertising.
One would here like to believe the founder Kunal Shah, statement: “At Cred, we are constantly working to enhance members’ experience to make it more engaging, frictionless and rewarding. With new design philosophy, gamified rewards constructs, best offers and high value jackpots, we are consolidating our message of rewarding the right financial decisions and the privileges that come by being a member of the Cred community.”
Will Cred Credibility get stronger in the future? We will have to wait and watch? Being Bowled by advertising is bad enough but getting stumped with financials is worse.
Cred, the fintech company, has unveiled another offbeat brand ad film. This time it features Ravi Shastri. Shastri has been a cricketer, coach and commentator and with this new ad film the former Indian all-rounder shows us that he is not only the life of the party, but the party follows him wherever he goes!
The film was produced by EarlyMan Films and Karan Malhotra composed the music for the film.
Said Kunal Shah, Founder Cred: “At Cred, we are constantly working to enhance members’ experience to make it more engaging, frictionless and rewarding. With new design philosophy, gamified rewards constructs, best offers and high value jackpots, we are consolidating our message of rewarding the right financial decisions and the privileges that come by being a member of the Cred community.”
Lintas C:EX Entertainment, the content business vertical of the MullenLowe Lintas Group, under the leadership of Yogesh Manwani has teamed up with Ravi Shastri for an unscripted series. Conceptualised by Lintas C:EX Entertainment, the series will be headlined by none other than former India men’s cricket captain, coach and commentator Ravi Shastri.
Said Amer Jaleel, Group CCO and Chairman of MullenLowe Lintas Group: “Since we began Lintas C:EX Entertainment last year, we have been exploring ideas that resonate with our vision and help set new benchmarks in the premium content space. The concept of this global unscripted series with Ravi is a testament of that vision. We are glad that Ravi shares our belief and passion for this concept and got on board right away. We are excited to partner with him and there could not have been a better start to our innings in the premium content business.”
Cleartrip, the online travel platform, has launched a campaign to announce the Cleartrip Big Travel Sale. The campaign has been created by Lowe Lintas. It has roped in Ravi Shastri (his first-ever brand endorsement), Mithila Palkar and Dhruv Sehgal from Little Things drama series, and actor Shruti Haasan for its latest ad campaign films. Cleartrip has rolled out three films promoting each sale across domestic flights, hotels, and international flights.
Speaking on the sale, Kunal Dubey, CMO at Cleartrip, said: “We’re thrilled to launch the Big Travel Sale with the best summer deals for everyone who is looking to satiate their wanderlust this season. We understand the two-year pent-up wait to plan a perfect summer getaway, and we’re set to sweeten the experience with massive deals on international flights, domestic flights, and domestic hotels. Our latest campaign will resonate with travelers who regret missing out on the opportunity to book a great travel deal and encourage customers to go ahead and book that holiday. This is an exciting time for our customers and for us. Let the travel season begin!”
The Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) has released its Tiara Research Report on Celebrities as Human Brands. The Report was released by the Coach of the Indian Cricket team, Ravi Shastri and Dr Sandeep Goyal, Chief Mentor of the IIHB on Dussehra day in Mumbai.
Sandeep Goyal
Said Dr Goyal: “The sample size of the TIARA Report is 25% bigger than the universe of TRP data collection currently being done by BARC. Our respondent base is 60,000; while BARC only covers 44,000 respondent homes. So, the study is comprehensive and representative of the entire India market. We have covered 23 cities. No study on celebrities hitherto has been so detailed and exhaustive. We have used 64 active attributes in the analysis of every single celebrity. Totally, there are over 100 data points that have been used in the analysis. This report, for the first time provides a DNA analysis of almost every prominent celebrity in the country. More importantly, our proprietary tools allow cross comparisons across celebrities, across attributes, across demographics, across cities, and more.”
INDIA’S MOST BEAUTIFUL
Deepika Padukone is India’s Most Beautiful. She scores 59.9 on the TIARA ratings. Padukone is way ahead of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who leads the list of beautiful ladies in Bollywood, with a score of 45.0. In Television, Divyanka Tripathi Dahiya top scores with 39.1 TIARA ratings. Cricketer Mithali Raj has been voted Most Beautiful.
INDIA’S MOST GLAMOROUS
Deepika Padukone is also India’s Most Glamorous with a top score 60.3. In Bollywood, Priyanka Chopra and Ranbir Kapoor are seen to have the highest glamour quotient. In Television, Rannvijay Singh and Shilpa Shetty are top rated on glamour. In Sports, Virat Kohli and Sania Mirza occupy the top ranks. As a couple, Virushka are most glamorous.
INDIA’S MOST INNOVATIVE
Retired Indian Captain MS Dhoni is seen to be India’s Most Innovative. He top scores with a TIARA rating of 59.7. In Bollywood, Ayushmann Khurrana is easily No.1 in males, while Deepika Padukone leads on innovation amongst females. AR Rehman top scores in Television, Bharti Singh excels at top spot amongst women. Virat Kohli and Smriti Mandhana top score amongst sportspersons. DeepVeer – Deepika + Ranveer are the Most Innovative power couple.
INDIA’S MOST RELIABLE
Shuttler Saina Nehwal is rated as India’s Most Reliable with a high 69.0 TIARA rating. In Bollywood, old warhorse Anil Kapoor ranks at No.1 while Nushrat Bharucha is top amongst the females. Zakir Khan and Surbhi Chandna are in top places in Television. Sachin Tendulkar and Harmanpreet Kaur are rated best in Sports while Virushka are rated the Most Reliable amongst couples.
INDIA’S MOST PROGRESSIVE
Vikrant Massey who was recently in the lead role in Ginny weds Sunny, is rated as India’s Most Progressive, surprisingly ahead of Ayushmann Khurrana who sits on top in the Bollywood list, alongside Deepika Padukone. In Television, Dharmesh Yelande and Mouni Roy top on Progressive. Jasprit Bumrah and Sania Mirza score best on Progressive amongst those in Sports. Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma top score as a couple on Progressive.
Other category toppers include:
INDIA’S MOST RESPECTED : Amitabh Bachchan
INDIA’S MOST APPEALING : Akshay Kumar
INDIA’S MOST TRENDY : Virat Kohli
INDIA’S MOST DISTINCTIVE : Nawazuddin Siddiqui
INDIA’S MOST VERSATILE : Nawazuddin Siddiqui
INDIA’S NO.1 HEART-THROB : Ranbir Kapoor
INDIA’S MOST SEDUCTIVE : Radhika Apte
INDIA’S MOST SEXY : Priyanka Chopra
INDIA’S MOST DOWN TO EARTH : MS Dhoni
INDIA’S MOST FEARLESS: Virat Kohli
About the Tiara Report:
The TIARA Report, notes a communique, is the largest and most comprehensive study of celebrities in India.
• A sample size of 60,000 respondents pa- India.
• 23 cities (Delhi including NCR), Mumbai (including Thane), Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune (including Pimpri and Chinchwad), Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Indore, Bhopal, Patna, Vadodara, Ghaziabad, Ludhiana and Agra.
• 180 celebrities : 69 from Bollywood (37 male, 32 female); 67 from Television (46 male, 21 female), 37 from Sports (30 male, 7 female), and 7 celebrity ‘power couples’.
• The field study was conducted by Japanese research agency Rakuten.
Tiara is an acronym for Trust, Identify, Attractive, Respect and Appeal. The study uses the research data across 64 active attributes covering image, personality and human factors; and a battery of confirmatory statements to quantify key celebrity dimensions.
It might not be a coincidence that we use sports terminology in everyday management in our companies. We talk about a ‘pitch’, to a client, or we ask ourselves what is the ‘gameplan’ or when appropriate we say someone ‘dropped the ball’ when we see an error of judgment. Obviously, there is a lot to learn from the field of sports management.
And interesting area of sport management are the sports coaches themselves and their style of team management. For example, if we were to look at some of our past coaches for the Indian cricket team, there might be one crucial difference between Anil Kumble and Ravi Shastri when it comes to evaluating coaches. And that is the question of ‘who is the boss?’ Kumble thought he was the boss, but Shastri thinks it is the captain of the team that is the boss.
If press reports are to believed, Kumble’s pep talk after losing the Champions Trophy final against Pakistan didn’t go down well with the team which might have led to his final ouster. Although Kumble was not rude, he is supposed to have mentioned how wides and no-balls cost India dear and how the bowlers were not able to execute their game plan. While Kohli might have agreed with Kumble on how the team could have done better, he is known to have gone on to give a positive spin with his Captain’s pep talk by mentioning how the team played well to reach the final.
In many ways, Kolhi acted like many leaders. Point out the mistakes to the team, but make sure that the team is not demotivated for future games and spur them on to do better in the future.
Paul Barron, goalkeeping coach at Newcastle United, is an advocate of relationship coaching and once described his philosophy as
:: They forget what you say to them.
:: They forget what you do with them.
:: But they never forget how you made them feel!
So, perhaps, it is not just about Kumble said, but it is about how he made them feel. And obviously he didn’t make them feel good after the defeat in the Champions Trophy. Relationship coaching is about coaches connecting with their players, getting to the real pulse of the team, and releasing a powerful collective emotional energy. This very often is the edge that allows teams to survive the bad times and go on to remarkable achievements.
Athlete-coach wars have been on as long as one can remember. Andy Murray for example re-hired Ivan Lendl after the pair decided to call it quits.
If there are no codes of conduct formulated to protect coaches and athletes, then there is risk of a breach in the athlete-coach relationship. So if some of the reports in the press are to believe about Kumble and Kohli falling apart because of a discipline issue, or because Kumble wouldn’t let the players go out shopping for example, this is a fault of not laying down an athlete-coach code. The code in this case would have determined who was wrong and who was right.
Coaches all desire strong team discipline, but do we really understand what that means? Are we willing to do what it takes? Athletes also crave discipline. They crave rules and boundaries regardless of how they may rail against them. Structure and a set of team rules, lets them know exactly what is acceptable and what is not for all aspects of team membership.
You’re NOT a good coach when you call an athlete out in front of the team and tell that athlete, “You absolutely suck! The questions this raises is
Does it motivate an individual to want to work even harder to improve?
Does it help that individual to feel good about themselves?
It;s very much the same in an office atmosphere.
Shastri plays it right when he pats the team on the back when the team wins. A win is a win and needs to be celebrated and is a strong motivation to keep winning.
According to various individuals from the BCCI and CAC as well as the committee of administrators, one big point of difference between Kohli and Kumble was who was the boss.
Shastri is more than happy to let the captain take charge. “It’s always the captain’s team and it is the leader who calls the shots. That’s how it has always worked. A coach’s role, effectively speaking, is to stay in the background and let the onus be on the players. The coach and support staff’s role is to get the players in the most brilliant frame of mind to execute things and if done effectively, it brings enjoyment to the player’s game.”
You’re NOT a good coach if you think that your most important job as a coach is to win games. If winning is the primary goal as a coach, he may have significantly lost his way and as a consequence, he might actually win less! The mission of a coach is to teach the team and help them grow as individuals so that they become better people in the world, both on and off the field. Good coaches teach their athletes how to be better people in the world and they use their sport as nothing more than a vehicle for this teaching. The winning and losing outcomes are completely secondary to the teaching of valuable life lessons.
Petzzco, the pet care service provider, has named former cricketer and commentator Ravi Shastri as its principal advisor and brand ambassador.
Ravi Shastri has become the new brand ambassador for FanCode, digital sports destination. Shastri will bring out FanCode’s ‘fan-first’ proposition by leading the upcoming campaigns for these properties.
Since this was the last week of IPL, my editor suggested that maybe I should decide on the Top 4 ads of the season. Like the Top 4 play-off teams. But with IPL being unusual in so many respects, I decided to do something unusual too. What if we had an IPL ads awards? Not just the best four, but look at many more. So, here is a list of the categories and the winners.
Cred, the Bengaluru-based fintech company (Dreamplug Technologies) for Credit card payment promises its nine million-plus members points that can be redeemed against rewards. In a way, the customer not only earn rewards while buying things on a Credit card, but also when making Credit Card payment through Cred.
It might not be a coincidence that we use sports terminology in everyday management in our companies. We talk about a ‘pitch’, to a client, or we ask ourselves what is the ‘gameplan’ or when appropriate we say someone ‘dropped the ball’ when we see an error of judgment. Obviously, there is a lot to learn from the field of sports management.
