God help BBDO from Blackberry !!

A blunder on the part of BBDO India as seen in the copy of the above ad - i.e. spelling mistake of 'transcend'. A systemic failure should we say? The creative must have went to so many checks at the copy stage, art stage and the client servicing stage as well. Yet it slipped through at all levels. Whats more, it is a front page ad. God help BBDO from the wrath of Blackberry brand team.


Source: Times of India - Mumbai edition - 09 August 2012. 

Mr. Jack Daniel – NO SAINT!!

After a very long time, I have seen a print ad which has a headline which made me sit up and take notice. The creative doesn't seem very out-of-the-world yet it grabs your attention. The icing on the cake, as I said, is the headline. And so true it is. I am a teetotaler but I know the kind of following and influence Jack Daniel’s has on my friends who are whisky connoisseurs.

I liked most about the creative that it draws an analogy with guitar player. The individual who plays guitar is in some sort of a trance when he plays it (this is what I have heard, I don’t know whether it is true or folklore). Even better is the end copy “Make Mr. Jack proud. Celebrate responsibly”. A direct reference to the target audience who are at a particular stature in the societal ladder, both in terms of affluence and respect. Hats off to the creative team. No key number is visible thus indicating that it is an ad showcased in the developed world and been directly released in India. 

Siyaram’s- Casting Coup

Brand ambassadors, they say, should fit the brand in terms of its character and personality. When a brand needs to take that leap into the luxury and aspirational segment, the lineage & heritage is highlighted. But when you are Siyaram’s who has always been a mass-market brand with strengths in the semi-urban and rural areas and quite less aspirational value, trying to position one of its products as a luxurious is difficult. Siyaram’s has always been playing catch up with Raymond’s and Reid & Taylor

Siyaram’s though has come up with the ultimate casting coup. They have signed on Bollywood’s original stylist and fashion designer Manish Malhotra as the face of their luxury product Royale Linen. Considered by them as “the most luxurious linen to be introduced in the market” which is “100% pure”, Siyaram’s plan to ride on the fashion quotient of Manish Malhotra to make its presence felt in the luxury space.

Of its various brand ambassadors over the years, from sports stars and Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan & Priyanka Chopra, this seems to be the perfect brand-fit which will add weightage to Siyaram’s as a luxury brand. It could also help in its distribution if Manish Malhotra lets them showcase their range of fabrics in his exclusive boutiques. They could use his influence in the world of fashion through his fashion shows.

The company plans to spend about Rs. 30 crore on promotional activities. The above print ad in the Bombay Times of Times of India (1st May 2012) could have been placed better. Probably the first page would have been a better option. The ad creative though, nothing out of the ordinary, is elegant. 

IPL 2012 B(r)andwagon – creatively boring

IPL is considered the hottest property for advertisers in India. Apart from the World cup that is. Last year’s IPL started within a week of India’s World Cup triumph and it was obvious that corporate India did not have the deep pockets to spend on IPL. Cricket fatigue was a concern this year along with India’s not too well a tour to Australia and the subsequent Asia Cup.

The aspect that has been disappointing though is the ads on display during this IPL. It seems the best ad was the IPL ad by Set Max created by Ogivly. The number of advertisers has not gone down but the quality of ads certainly has gone down. Most disappointing have been the Vodafone ads. Not a single ad has been entertaining. It certainly does not have any recall value. Idea ads with Abhishek Bachchan too have been really boring. Ranbir Kapoor’s act as an old-fashioned restaurateur too isn’t quite entertaining or worth remembering. The series of Reliance’s ads featuring Anushka Sharma & Rannvijay are not new.

Considering the onset of the summer, you find the cola ads everywhere but the thing of note is that there is no campaign by Coca Cola featuring their flagship product. Rather you see Sprite ads. On the other hand, the ‘change the game’ Pepsi ad featuring the football heavyweights Kaka, Messi & Drogba with IPL heavyweights MS Dhoni & lightweights Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina & Harbhajan Singh is really average to say the least. The Thumbs Up ad featuring Southern superstar Mahesh Babu is the only saving grace. ‘Aaj kuch toofani karte hai’ is a nice tagline. Katrina kaif’s Slice ad is decent but not wonderful. Similar is the case with Anushka Sharma’s Canon powershot ad.

All in all, a very dull season for advertising enthusiasts like me. 

LIC Single-Premium ad gaffe

Advertising space in newspapers come at a very high premium. Second only to the television. The premium increases with the placement of the ad in the newspaper. Top-right hand or a jacket ad or a double-spread ad. A gaffe is quite a rarity in newspapers since it is proof-read. However a gaffe such as the above is quite serious ( Single premium ad followed by a post to be careful about the product). Surely it was not intentional from the newspaper. Yet LIC marketing managers must be irate on seeing this piece. The damage may not be too much considering the clutter of ads and information on financial products. LIC managers and more importantly their advertising agency and media agency, should be doubly careful the next time around.

Source: Economic Times 28^th March 2012 Page 13

An analogy between Sachin Tendulkar and your veteran Chief Executive

If there is one thing in India that can overshadow the budget session, which is followed with much interest, then that thing has to be cricket. Last week as the Indian Finance minister was busy reading out the script, an unwritten script was unfolding. Although this was expected a lot earlier, one would say “better late than never”.

I am of course talking about Sachin Tendulkar eclipsing the Mount Everest and making his own peak for others. A peak others won’t dare let alone think of. My mind though wanders on the diverse opinions made by the connoisseurs. Some want him to retire now, some wanted him to retire after the world cup, some want him to play till he feels he wants to play, some feel the selectors should adopt a touch stand and make him toe the line on his retirement plans so that the team can be built for the future and the opinions continue unabated.

I could draw an analogy to a corporate executive who has served his company for over 3 decades has risen from the rank of a trainee to the chief executive. When the trainee climbs up the ladder with his outstanding talent, he is given the room to experiment. This blossoms him further catapulting the company into high growth and making that employee the celebrity. Same is the case of Sachin Tendulkar. As a prodigy, he showed India how to be aggressive yet maintain its demeanor. The growth was phenomenal. Just like a novice to the highest echelons of power. He has everything at his mercy.

Law of nature though has to take its own course. With age, Sachin’s mastery started diminishing. Just as the Chief Executive’s decisions did not work as before. The market changed and so did the though process. Sachin’s age took toll and bowlers/ captains started getting a measure of him, albeit to a very less extent. Now the chief executive started becoming a liability. Fresh ideas needed to be included but who would ‘bell the cat’ and tell the CEO to hang up his boots. Who will tell Sachin Tendulkar to retire?

In a company, grapevine would probably used to tell the CEO that he is no longer the force to reckon with. In Sachin’s case, the media does that job. The CEO has achieved everything, topline-bottomline-profits-new products- innovations- acquisitions- you name it and that’s been achieved. Just like Sachin. Anything achieved more will not make much of a difference to the already burgeoned cabinet. A Cabinet with invisible accolades.

Borrowing from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, both have reached the self-actualization stage. Both live to contribute towards others. In Sachin’s case, it’s the country and for the CEO, its his company. Let them be where they are. They know when is the right time to call it quits. They would be the first one to accept it when they see the runs drying up or the strategies being not as effective as was construed.

Its very easy to criticize but very difficult to sustain excellence over a period of long time. Just like Sachin or the CEO, pointing about the lack of contribution after a spectacular career would amount to being called an opportunist or some one who uses people till their sell-by date and then removes them unceremoniously. As they say in cricket, “form is temporary, class is permanent”. Sachin should decide when he has to go. Similarly the CEO too would know his sell-by date. Hankering after them to quit would be gross injustice to their contribution.

Banking wars- Kotak vs Yes: uncomfortable!!

The deregulation of saving account interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India has suddenly livened up the banking sector. We are seeing aggressive advertising campaigns by Kotak Bank followed by even more aggression by Yes Bank. Kotak must have got the first mover advantage but it was short-lived since Yes Bank overtook them immediately in its offerings. 6% by Kotak vs 7% by Yes Bank.

The difference though has been the communication medium. Kotak has gone for the expensive television medium whereas Yes Bank has been content with the relatively less expensive newspaper. I may have missed Yes Bank’s TVC but I doubt if there is any TVC talking about 7% interest rates on saving accounts. Kotak’s “subbu sab jaanta hai” campaign has a smart insight which though obvious was a master stroke. Take 6% which is more than the existing 4%. I liked the “50% more” perspective. Isn’t it obvious yet none of must have thought about it. And it still seems true that in spite of all the information regarding financial products, people are convinced when an individual endorses it or rather propagates it i.e. Subbu in this case.

Anyway moving from the marketing standpoint, to the financial or economic view. I am no economist or no student of economics but having been through the crisis of 2008 and subsequent happenings in the various developed economies and financial markets, have worries about the direction banking sector is taking in India. Though tightly regulated by the RBI, hope it does keep an eye of this price war. My doubt stems from the fact that will the banks be able to sustain such a high interest rate when other banks have not followed suit. As they say “there are no free lunches”, there cannot be high returns without high risk. There is a chance that banks will or might take higher risks to be able to cater to its offerings and parallely maintain profit margins or even increase them. It might work in the short-run but there is a systemic risk like in 2008 and now in Europe.

It also should not result in the kind of price wars which are bleeding telecom companies. The customer gains at the cost of future stability of the company. It doesn’t seem likely as the larger private banks and PSUs have not entered the savings account war. It could put pressure on the mid-segment banks that would be forced to up the savings rate to keep abreast with immediate competition and increase their account holder base and spread its base wider.

The RBI as said earlier should keep itself on its toes to avoid any untoward incident happening which might result in necessity of a tax-payer funded bail out.

Volkswagen ad- hyper-exaggeration

Isn’t it a contradictory copy? The headline says that there are 1000 reasons why you should visit a Volkswagen store else you will regret it. The body copy says that “besides superior German Engineering, there’s now a great reason to head out to ….”. It means that there are only two reasons. The ad is simply exaggerating. Moreover, I really can’t see 1000 reasons to visit a Volkswagen store. A boring attempt at an ad.

Airtel- ‘Sorry’ to its friends

Like. For a change, more than just imitating the west, we are learning from them as well. A testimony of this is the public apology by Airtel to all its subscribers for the hiccup in services since the last couple of days.

Today’s newspapers carried a quarter page public apology. This is in sharp contrast to Indian companies’ belief that all wrong doings or mistakes should be swept under the carpet. Toyota recalled its cars after a fault was detected, and Toyota Motor chief executive Akio Toyoda apologized in a press conference. RIM co-CEO and founder Mike Lazaridis apologized through a youtube video after blackberry services went kaput for a couple of days affecting its millions of users all over the world. Rupert Murdoch apologized for the phone-hacking scandal engulfing News Corp.

Cadbury India did not accept its mistake that a worm was found in its chocolate bar. It however went out of its way to give the chocolate bar extra packaging to avoid any future problems. Tata Motors did not apologize to its customers when there were fire incidents in its Tata Nano cars.

A start has been made by Airtel. Let’s see if corporate India accepts its mistakes in the future.

Free roaming- that is real good news!!

According to news report a month back speculated that if the government had its way, then we may have a united telecom India, in its literal sense. The panel of ‘Babus’ of Department of Telecom (DoT) to make recommendations on strategic issues related to licensing matters, have recommended to the government to consider the entire country as a single service area or four separate zones instead of the existing 22 telecom circles.

At present, around 10 per cent of the revenue of telecom companies comes from roaming charges which from my information (unconfirmed) is in the range of Rs. 13000-14000/- for the whole industry. If this indeed is implemented, it would be wonderful for the customers but would bleed the already bleeding telecom companies who spend a fortune of communication through advertising. The tariff wars had subsided a reasonable bit and now you have news about the abolishing of roaming charges.

Anyway this is going to happen sooner rather than later. So how should telecom companies gear up for this monumental change? At the outset, believe in the first-mover advantage and start communicating about no roaming charges before the government announces it. This way, you would get a head-start in top-of-mind recall just the way Idea Cellular did with Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The advantage would not last long because the other players too would immediately jump in the fray with their communication. At least you had the pioneering advantage.

It would surely work for people who spend a high percentage of amounts on roaming. But the moot question is that whether abolition of roaming charges by an operator is good enough to change the operator. The answer is a resounding yes since we are seeing it in conjunction with MNP. Thus ‘free roaming’ and MNP together surely is a winner on your hands.

SBI downgrade by Moody's- so what!!!

MINT newspaper featured a column about the rating downgrade of SBI by Moody's. I do not understand much of the way financial matters work but having experienced the great fall of 2008, have a fair idea of the reason of why it happened. Rating agencies such as Moody's itself, Fitch, S and P etc were one of the culprits wherein they rated junk bonds as Triple A, etc etc. Yet i find it difficult to believe why all the newspapers take these rating agencies so seriously. A case in point is the recent downgrade of US of A. In spite of the downgrade after a month you see that US securities are thought of as more secure that their European counterparts. And so you see the USD strengthening against the Euro. From as high of 1.48 to 1.32 as of yesterday, isn't it strange.

Moreover specific to SBI, bottomline isn't the only bottomline which should be seen at. There is more to banking than mere profits. SBI offers its services at places where private banks do not go. It helps the people in need of banking. Happiness index too needs to be looked at. What is the use of a bank which makes millions in profits with no NPAs but helping the rich get richer ever expanding the difference between the haves and the have-nots rather than helping it bridge it. Please do not misunderstand me as someone who is against capitalism. India is on the world map due to capitalism, yes, but it should come at the expense of doing something for as myopic as profits.

By inducing conspicuous consumption we should not go the way of debt-fueled consumption a la Americans. SBI or PNB or other PSBs and Private sector banks may not have the deep pockets of say a Bank of America or UBS or other western banks but what they have is a social responsibility towards the masses. I reiterate that please do not see me as anti-capitalism or a leftist. My only point is please look at the non-monetary and intangible side of things than merely following the materialistic way of western living.

Source: Mint Newspaper Oct 5, 2011

Louis Vuitton & Angelina Jolie- the perfect match!!

Louis Vuitton- the ultra luxury apparel brand has signed on the ultra diva herself, Angelina Jolie. Normally i would be a bit skeptical when a luxury brand of such reverence signs on a movie actor as brand ambassador. More so now when they sell every alternate brand on the shelf. With movie stars their is no exclusivity. And movie stars as brand ambassadors reduces the exclusive and niche appeal to mass appeal for the brand. However i am pleasantly surprised that Louis Vuitton signed on Angelina Jolie. At least of today, there is no celebrity with a bigger star status than her yet she isn't known only for her movies. Her work as United Nations goodwill ambassador, her adopting children from developing and underdeveloped world just to show her support and concern towards them makes her a truly global personality and some one worth emulating.

This is a casting coup by Louis Vuitton and they would substantially gain from it .

Source: Economic Times, Mumbai Edition September 22, 2011.

JP Morgan- Elite to the core!!

After a long time, saw a really really wonderful print ad!!!

A creative rendition true to JP Morgan's stature in the industry i.e. a world foot print, fabulous usage of commodities depiction and hard hitting message. When i turned the page while reading the newspaper, the ad immediately caught my attention. An unique interpretation. Attribute based approach yet very much creative and appealing. Surprisingly the agency name isn't written. Anyway , totally in love with it.

Jim Rogers would be smiling from ear to ear since he is completely in favour of commodities compared to equities. And believes that commodities would show the way forward to the global economy!!!

Blenders Pride and Bru- Common brand ambassador. Could have been avoided!!

The debate is never ending. Should brand ambassadors be used? What value do they add to the brand? What impact does negative publicity of the ambassador have on the brand e.g. the sexcapades of Tiger Woods on the brand he endorses? The point I am trying to make is about 2 brands currently being endorsed by National Award winner and former Miss World Priyanka Chopra.

The two brands I am talking about are Seagram’s Blenders Pride whisky and HUL’s Bru Coffee. In spite of being brands for the mass market, both cater to different target audiences. One is a liquor brand positioning itself as the drink for the elite while other is for families to move away from Tea to Coffee. The reason I am talking about it is that I find it disconcerting that an ambassador endorsing liquor is also endorsing a family brand.

I do not know whether Blender’s Pride signed Priyanka first or Bru. If Bru signed, then they should pull out all ads with Priyanka when she signed with Blenders Pride. Whereas if Blenders Pride signed first, then it is a major goof-up on part of HUL to sign her for Bru knowing all too well that she endorses a liquor brand.

Although different as chalk and cheese, the issue is problematic since it is a liquor brand. It would not have mattered had it been a soft drink or an energy drink. Indian society looks at liquor in a negative way. Moreover a female endorsing it would draw more attention since women in India do not drink liquor except may be the educated urban areas. It is still a thing that is looked down upon by Indians. I really doubt the efficacy of Seagram’s to sign a female for a Men’s brand. I doubt if women are the target audience here.

An unpardonable goof-up from a brand point of view. More so for Bru than Blenders Pride.

Zindagi Mile Na Dobara- creating problems for Investment companies!!

It is said that celebrities influence minds of the young who are at an impressionable age. They follow their path blindly. Right or wrong is just a perception for these guys who get swayed by the on-screen charisma of the actors. Not only the young but even mature people get swayed intentionally or subconsciously when the message is woven in an emotional scene.

A case in point is the scene between hunk Hrithik Roshan and sultry Katrina Kaif. He is like the many next door boys for whom money is the priority over family and she is a person who pursues passions. When she says that “stop planning for your retirement and live life for the present”, it unintentionally hit the raw nerve of investment companies who say that they plan for the future including the pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies.

The thought of living for the present as much as it sounds perfect is difficult to follow in this imperfect world. As life expectancy increases and science advances, cost of medicine too is going up. Without proper planning of finances and health insurance, it is very difficult to survive the medicine expenses. The cost further increases for critical diseases and lifestyle diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes among others. Thus people in the developing world need to plan for the future at the cost of being stingy in the short term.

Moreover the developing world doesn’t have the type of social security that the European countries and US have. Thus you see the high savings in China and India whereas consumption remains debt-fueled in Europe and the US. Anyway getting back to Zindagi Mile Na Dobara, I hope people take it just as a film and not derive unintended messages from him.

MBA opening literal windows-- poor creative

I disagree with the headline. No, i am not talking about the credentials of MET, i ll leave that to others to decipher. I have not seen a more literal creative rendition of a phrase. "Opening windows"... Would make any sensible art guy balk!!

Aamir Khan- The shrewd marketer

If there is someone who understands the PR machinery better or how to leverage the thirst and reach of the Indian media, Aamir Khan is his name. He is an actor par excellence, sensitive director, and a visionary producer. No one understands the pulse of Indian audiences better than Aamir. But that discussion is not for now. Today is all about how Aamir promotes his films. Content matters but equally important is the word-of-mouth publicity and endless discussions among the film-goers.

In the initial days, Aamir was a recluse, an enigma, away from the prying eyes of the media. He was visible only when his movie was released. He didn’t make it to the cover of filmy magazines. He made people crave for seeing him. His opinion though has changed over the past 5 years or so. He has understood the potential the media has to promote his films and the incessant discussions that go on in movie studios. No topic is frivolous for these news channels.

He used the media wonderfully well to promote Ghajini when it was pitted against Shah Rukh Khan’s Rab ne bana di jodi at the height of their so-called war. The idea to have Ghajini look-alikes in theatres that played Rab ne bana di jodi was a master stroke. Result- free publicity. Then there were the creative difference with director Amol Gupte for Taare Zameen pe, which made Aamir don the mantle of director for the first time. Although a low budget film, result- free publicity. Of course the content made it last longer but the awareness was almost free. Then the fracas over story of 3 Idiots with author Chetan Bhagat asking for his place under the sun. A press conference with himself, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director Raju Hirani made it seem as if it was an event of national consequence. The media going to town talking about it non-stop. Result- free publicity. As the famous saying goes “There is no such thing as bad publicity.

We ought to commend Aamir though on staying true to his word about boycotting awards, not only the usual filmfare, zee, star et al but now the national awards too. It remains to be seen only if he boycotts Oscars. Not that it would make news anywhere except India because frankly, the Americans are least bothered. Commercialization of everything has made even them prefer the economic side of creativity than art itself.

The latest case in point is the PIL to be filed by Imran Khan, nephew of Aamir and the lead actor in his latest to-be-released Delhi Belly (incidentally, Aamir is also the producer of the movie). PIL against a law in Maharashtra to ban liquor drinking below 25 years of age. Is it a mere coincidence that the PIL news came out just a week before the film was released? Moreover it make sense since the movie is targeted towards these youngsters. Even if its Imran’s decision, it has all the indications of Aamirs brain. No one is going to believe it more than a publicity stunt. Proves that Aamir is indeed a marketing strategist which corporate India would learn a lot from.

BLUE DART- completely ‘focussed’

When I saw the above packaging, it immediately struck me. ‘Domestic Priority’- it is such a strong word and such a strong message. Marketing gurus always talk about the need to be focused and being strong at one thing rather than average at many things. Focus is the word used to go out in the market with one core competency. Advertising executives always try to tell the client to keep the message short, simple and easy. Do not add clutter to the already cluttered minds of the consumer. Make sure you are associated with one word or thing rather than not standing for anything that separates you from competition.

With this message, Blue Dart is clearly going to face a loss when it comes to international couriers. Not in the short run, but in the long run. Blue Dart will stand for domestic couriers. This new strategy allows Blue Dart to be a master of the domestic market. It will be ahead with respect to the local players allowing it to carve a niche for itself in terms of quality and service and thus command a premium in the long term.

What I liked most about the concept is that they are trying to quantify a service. 10.30- time definite delivery. Quite appreciable. I just hope that they have done homework about their distribution and made sure that the 10.30 mark is not breached. It takes a long time to build an equity whereas a snap of fingers to lose everything.

PEPSI TVC- one word ‘DISAPPOINTED’

Pepsi over the years has come up with some memorable campaigns. TVCs with Sachin, Shah Rukh Khan, Shane Warne and a host of other Bollywood celebrities. I wouldn’t mind putting my neck out and saying that Pepsi has come up trumps more times than its arch rival Coca Cola. Barring the ‘paanch matlab Coca Cola’ campaign with Aamir, Pepsi has been the creative leader.

I am a tad disappointed though with the latest creatives. The Youngistan campaign with Ranbir & SRK wasn’t too creative. And so was the game series with Ranbir & Sanjay Dutt too wasn’t. Frankly none of the Ranbir campaigns have been memorable even with his charming personality and mass appeal. The cricket world cup 2011 saw the ‘change the game’ series with cricketers. Except may be Dhoni’s helicopter shot, none of the ads were good. As a matter of fact, the ad with Dilshan was preposterous.

Now the extension of ‘change the game’ series sees the first ad post the massive world cup win. And what do you get. A childish ad with a below average creative rendition. Absolutely disappointing. One would have thought of an ad with cricketers immediately post the world cup win to leverage the high recall value. I am sure the Pepsi guys would have tried but the cricketers would not have been available due to the IPL 4.0. Pepsi has always been favoring the humorous side compared to Coca Cola who have been emotional. Having said that, this ad completely has no head or tail. As said earlier, this ad just has one description- DISAPPOINTING!!!

Out-of-the-box thinking thrown out of the window

Really now. That is a limit of trying to fool the customer. It is as if the buyer is completely a stupid person who would get swayed by words, openly questioning the intelligence of the buyer. Firstly the name 'Times Square' blatantly copied from the famous Times Square in the US financial capital is a turn-off. Secondly shouting in the headline that you need a out-of-box working place to think out-of-the-box would make Edward De Bono cringe in his seat. Thirdly i do not see any futuristic thinking in the building architecture. A very sad attempt at trying to create a positioning where it clearly doesn't exist, not in terms of attributed or metaphorically even. The copy isn't mentioning anything out-of-the-box i.e. features if any.

The DLFs, Indiabulls, Lodhas, Hiranandanis, Rahejas of the world at least have created some sort of differentiation. Credit though has to be given to the thought but the context seems completely wrong for Times Square. Alas the razzmatazz associated with the original place seems missing here and it doesn't seem it will ever get associated here.