Good to see

Do I need to say more?



Huh??



Brilliant isn't it ???

Via Hidden Persuader

The best reason to buy an iPhone

Wickrum, my dear friend from O&M send me this:

Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field has achieved a lot in the past, but nothing to rival this. Could the iPhone's most impressive feature be the ability to help treat AIDS?

That's was a young man called Johnny Vulkan hopes . He's first in line outside the SoHo Apple store in New York, waiting to pick up a handset, which will auction on eBay. The proceeds will then go to Keep a Child Alive, which provides AIDS treatment to African children. He is also considering selling sponsorship on his t-shirt, anticipating the media attention his plan would get.

It seems like a great idea. Sure, the handset has its problems but, by being the first in line, Vulkan will surely double, triple or quadruple his initial investment. And, more importantly, he's harnessing all that iPhone hype for a really good cause.

The other people in line for the iPhone fascinate me too. Also outside the 5th Avenue store in New York is retired Greg Packer, who arrived four days before the launch. He was also in line for a PS3 days early. Others are there as paid placeholders, advertising their services on Craigslist for anything from $200 to $1000. Vulkan has perhaps the only sane reason for waiting in such a queue.

Maybe it would be wise for other charities to send their staff out to queue at big product launches. They could make lots of money in a few days. Anyway, let's hope that Vulkan's iPhone becomes the most expensive one sold this week.

Original is always clutter breaking

The new (well, more than 90 days old now) MP Tourism ad did take most viewers by surprise. The 'bioscope look' of this ad made it so very distinct. The tune is catchy and suddenly it brings a smile in your face. Then today I found another brilliant way they created the print ad of the same. A full page cartoon strip of the same TVC. So refreshing.

Originality not for the sake of being original. Wish I had done this campaign. And let me assure you, the cartoon strip format will be blindly copied by someone to create other ads in the near future.

Long live creative advertising.

Innovative changes in our lives

IBM recently unveiled its new study called "IBM Next Five in Five" - Five innovations that have the potential of changing the way people work, live and play over the next five years. So what are they:

• Remote healthcare access system from anywhere in the world: Now this is a big innovation. Imagine a Doctor keeping an eye on you 24/7/365 from somewhere in the world. WOW.
  
• Mobile Phones will start reading your mind: Intelligent phones which will adapt to the user. Termed as "presence" technology. Which means it will do things as per your preference. Well, do remember that features will vary based on price.
  
• Real-time speech translation: This is already happening in Japan and Korea. For example when you travel from Delhi to Rameshwaram and you don't know how to speak Tamil, don't worry. Your hand-held device will translate real time Tamil into English as you speak to the person for direction.
• There will be 3D internet: Hmmm, that means from now on I can walk the retail aisles in Ebay or Amazon. An assistant or an expert will be ready to help me out. Makes sense in a techno-ambivalent nation like India.
  
• Nano-technology will address environmental issues: Nano-technology has the ability to manipulate which I always knew. But now it will be able to manipulate the environment. Get you fresh drinking water, help grow more trees, etc. etc.
  

Out of the 'Big Five' I like only one - Remote Healthcare. I'd love to have a doctor attending me all the time. Though it might be pain in arse after sometime, but doctors are good people. In this case, I guess it will be a 'supercomdoc' monitoring me. I also think real time speech translation and mobile mind readers will become standard features like we have 2.0 megapixel cam, FM radio. Go ahead read the entire article here.

Start thinking digital, baby, but do remember not to become a humanoid.

Men are back

This is definitely a male marketing strategy. Suddenly all the retail shelves are alive with male range of skin care products. Switch on your TV and they pop up too. Indian male or shall I say the metrosexual (sometime the homosexuals too) men have started taking their skin very seriously.

Personal care companies are targeting Indian men as rising incomes allow them to buy more deodorants and shaving gels, adopting the metrosexual look popularized by Bollywood actors. Spending on men's grooming products is expected to rise 24 percent to 14.5 billion rupees, or $320 million, in the next five years, Euromonitor International forecasts. Emami, which makes beauty and health care products, developed its whitening cream for men because surveys showed they were consuming 30 percent of the women's version, ha!

"Everyone wants to be fair," and "To be fair is not just to be beautiful, but to be moving up the caste hierarchy" said Mr. Jayashankar, a professor with Tata Institute of Social Science. Since suntanned skin was associated with untouchables suddenly dark skinned men and especially those living in south wants a fair skin.

I've a serious task in hand at the moment. Make (oops rather force) all fat, dark, south-Indian males to use Skin Whitening Cream. Anybody got any decent communication idea that will help turn dark-male-arse-skins, White??? If you do have, please please do share with me, I promise to buy you a beer.

Brilliant Billboard

Above one bagged few metals at Cannes this year. Interactive. Creative. Eye-catching. Clear message. Worthy of metals. Isn't it?

The road to Electronic City

It's a 30 km stretch from Hosur Road- Koramangala junction to Electronic City in Hosur at Bangalore. On the way you'll come across several billboards of big Indian IT companies proudly announcing what they do, what they stand for, mission statements, vision etc etc.

A closer look and you'll find this big, bold statements in every piece of billboard:
(Logo) Creating Innovative Solutions
(Logo) Experience the Difference
(Logo) Creating Value
(Logo) Enriching Lives
(Logo) Enhancing Values
(Logo) Empowering People
(Logo) Discover Passion
(Logo) Experience the Exotic

Probably they are doing so, probably they are not. But what I fail to understand, do this two word- three word statements make your company unique? Do people really see value in it? Are young software techie's enamored by these thoughts? Or is it a "Just do it" - "Impossible is nothing" phenomenon that's being Indianised. Or is it another hygiene factor for the Corporate Communication team at work?

Every company is creates or enhances value, every company empowers people, every company aims at enriching lives, every company tries to create innovative solutions. So where the bloody difference?

"Think different" you guys and gurls inside your air-conditioned glass buildings. The architectural design of your building says more than your billboards. Do create value but do it with conviction. Do it creatively.

Milky Art

All eyes at Cannes 2007. The epitome of creativity. Will Happydent Palace make it to the Grand Prix? Anyway, in the meantime enjoy these beautiful art direction.

Yo Tomo = I Drink. Ad from Chile.

Via Creative Criminals.

My Impressive Idiotic Idea

In one of my previous post, I had mentioned about how Reliance Fresh can benefit by bringing local vegetable vendors into their fold. I was extremely happy today morning, when I saw this news article below in The Economic Times. Call it a give-away idea (ofcourse I deserve the consultancy money, man!) or free consultancy, sometimes my idiotic ideas are not so idiotic. As long as you help those poor vendors grow in life, I promise not to charge you a single penny.

It's for a social cause, so I request you (Reliance Fresh) to keep that in mind apart from your business objectives. Feels good to see Reliance Fresh taking a step forward in the right direction.

Sounds Familiar

The forewords from the 1^st edition of ‘Superbrands’ Book in India by Anmol Dar – Chairman, Superbrands Council.

“Most of us go through life in a kind of a motor automated trance. We do things by rote and reach out for objects by instinct. Instinct in everyday life is nothing more than familiarity with our surroundings and comfort with things. But if we, each day, come face to face with unfamiliar things, we’d probably go through life in fits and starts.

A brand brings sanity to everyday life.

In the morning we want a familiar brand of tea. We brush with a familiar toothbrush and use familiar tasting toothpaste. The shaving gel is familiar so is the tang of the after shave. The soap we use has a familiar smell. The breakfast has the familiar cereal and the milk has a familiar consistent taste. And so through the day we reach out for the familiar.

In a familiar departmental store we go to familiar sections and shop for familiar brands. When a new one appears in the racks we stop and look at it closely. Often, we postpone the decision to try – for another day, another time.When a brand embeds itself into our lives and we are willing to go to the nest shop to look for it, we are no longer looking for a brand. We are searching for a Superbrand. By definition, ‘A Superbrand offers consumers significant emotional and/or physical advantages over its competitors which (consciously or subconsciously) consumers want, recognize and are willing to pay a premium for.'

A Superbrand cannot be substituted. It is part of our life. It has become one with us.”

Truly inspiring.

Extreme Communication

Yet another example of Extreme Brand Communication from Levis. Agency - BBH, London



People in Reykjavik were shocked rather than being surprised.

Keep Talking

Indians are talking. Talking very loud indeed. I'm writing a white paper called "Keep Talking - The social impact of mobile telephone in Rural India." Any contribution is most welcome.

Retail Detail

The client called us for pitch. He wanted to know how the agency can help him make the largest retailer in South India. Things went on well and liked our strategy. But we're up against few big names in the industry. So fingers crossed.

Found this very interesting video via Reshma's blog.

glumbert.com - Supermarket 2.0

Dope on Booze

Interesting figures in today's ET. Booze market in India is growing.

• In 2006, sales of beer and other spirits crossed 220 million cases - a growth of 10%
• Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) sales made up half the market
• The market for IMFL is estimated to be around Rs. 34000 crore
• Beer hogged 90% of the rest of the market
• There are estimated to be 200 million regular whiskey drinkers in India
• A McKinsey study sees consumption of alcoholic beverages growing from Rs. 11,500 crore in 2005 to Rs. 71,200 crore in 2025 at an annual CAGR of 9.6%
• Almost 90% of the whiskey sold in India costs less than Rs.300
• The alcoholic beverage market is seen growing @ 15 - 20% if deregulated
• Exponential growth in the premium liquor segment is pulling the entire category
• Imports account for barely 1% of Indian spirits market
• INDIA is the BIGGEST CONSUMER of WHISKEY in the WORLD

Hola, I guess Alcoholic Anonymous has lot of work to do in this country. Anyone out there has any interesting campaign based on this figures. If yes, do revert. And don't drink and drive, you might end up paying the cops more than you drank.

Hic.

Update: More resources:

• Beer sales in India are forecast to grow at a CAGR 17.2% to 2011
• South India consumed most beer - 471 million litre, while north guzzled up 35 million cases
• Kingfisher rules the market with 45% share
• SABMiller brands command 37% market share
• Annual per capita consumption stands at just 0.6 litre compared to 23 litre in China, an average of 73 litre across Europe and 78 litre in US

Hurray.

Pink she is

Well, I did have the opportunity to meet this wonderful young woman, who also is a planner. And true she is all pink. She took me to this small yet wonderfully decorated place called Chokola in Vasanth Vihar.

At the corner beside a huge glass window I set to pick her mind because she is born to catch the dragon in its den. She's jolly, she's bubbly and she's touchy. She is very intelligent and she gave me few quick ideas on how to make a restaurant look interesting. But somehow I annoyed her by pointing my finger at her on some thing (without any intention ofcourse, as I always do) while I was talking to Khalid (damn you). Are women planner's touchy creatures?

Lady, it was my pleasure meeting you. Wish you all the success and please, please don't get me wrong, I never intended to be rude. Hope you don't linger over trivial issues for long and do pardon people. Keep rocking the Capital. Cheers.

The Fantastic Fabindia

I always wanted to write about Fabindia but never got the time or the right frame of mind. Yesterday, my aunty took me to the Fabindia store in GK2. By the way, I am in Delhi at the moment working on zoom and pixels. She bought me a lovely khadi kurta in a greenish aquamarine shade.

The Fabindia story is really fabulous. It started in the year 1960 with a strong belief that there is a need for marketing the vast and diverse craft traditions of India. Thereby provide rural employment. Their endeavor has been to provide hand crafted products which help support and encourage good craftsmanship. With 57 stores in the country and one each in Rome, Dubai and Guangzhou, Fabindia has managed to create a sustainable employment by providing jobs to close to 15000 artisans today.

Fabindia’s success story is now a HBS case study. Without any advertising this one time small retail store has managed to create such a huge equity in the marketplace that it has become a household name today. You want to buy some authentic Indian clothes, just walk inside any Fabindia store and you have it. The store design is also very unique, bright colours, local motifs, spacious displays and lots of free space for consumers to touch and feel. A business model, which many has tried to copy without much success.

Goes on to show it’s not necessary to do advertising or hire an agency to create a brand. Fabindia also shows us how a build a sustainable business model by bringing people together. But then Mr. John Bissell was a visionary. He had the conviction to turn that vision into a reality. "Our constant endeavour is to resist the temptation of going `mainstream' which is more of a commodities game, and develop and widen the niche markets in which we are the dominant player," says Mr. William Bissell, Managing Director, Fabindia.

Four things that Fabindia did right, right from the very beginning:
1. Create an exquisite and exclusive product
2. A price point that defines that exclusiveness yet not out of reach of common man
3. Operate at a niche market with limited accessibility that builds an aura
4. Never advertise but make people talk about the product and shopping experience

Their strategy paid off. A lesson on branding that I learnt as a planner. The solution does not always lie in advertising or the communication. Innovation can be at any level, you need an eye to identify what that innovation would be and how easily that can be en-cashed upon in the most interesting yet engaging manner.

Half Cup Please

Period.

At a Coffee Cafe in Indore. Drink Coffee, become intelligent, improve understanding, do more crapy work. ;-) Cheers.

Morality, Hush or Creativity?

Will you also draw the thin line of hush and morality here? Advertising's job is to make the brand famous. In the most creative manner. Amul Macho did exactly that. Moreover, I'm posting in my blog and people talking about it itself gives the brand more mileage. PR value increases. The brand benefits.

Anyway, I'm nothing but pixels at the moment and Delhi is hot. But do send me your comments.

Crafted for fantasy

My boss called me today to ask my honest feedback/opinion about this ad of Amul Macho. When I told him, I actually like it, it came as a shock to him. Well, the category in question is male underwear. I ask them what is harm in showing a woman's fantasy for male underwear? Don't we, the creative folks, in advertising speak about sexy, raunchy ads for women lingerie?

Moreover, 'Crafted for fantasies' is a brilliant strategic thought. It elevates Amul underwear to a different level. Is male underwear communication all about well-built-bare-bodied-hunks wearing a red brief standing with their groin' bulged? I say what harm in turning it around and making women feel nice about their man's machine? ha!

Not a open mind behind closed doors

The big daddies of Indian advertising are all knowledgeable sods. They are the harbingers of change, disruption, integration, activation, three sixty, holistic ideas who can sway clients in their boardrooms. They create ideas which sell products in millions. They create brands which are always energized. They are those pathetic passionate professionals who will do anything to solve a client’s problem. They have a brilliant websites which has a long list of client and the creative portfolio. Yet none of the Indian advertising agencies have a blog. They don’t have a point of view about their own work. They have nothing to say to the world at large. They have but agencyfaqs, where they explain about ads they just created and why it is so unique. Why? Because no body in the focus group during the pre-testing of the concept understood it, so they need to explain it and generate PR, post the ad being on air.

So the forefathers of the most open minded profession lives behind perpetual closed doors in India. True reflection of the closed door policy in our industry. Indeed open minded they are. They fear if they talk, others might steal their unique concept. Their ideas will become public. Their clients won’t be happy. Or let’s just put it this way, they are too busy doing an offline for a 30 second TVC that they don’t have the time to do any faltu kaam. Advertising industry in India was always a closed door industry. So frightening the scenes behind these closed doors are most young people find it difficult to enter. Now there’s a dearth of talent. Huge tantrums about not finding the right person with right experience to do the task. Head hunters are running like headless chicken.

On the other hand, as I keep reading W+K’s blog, LB’s blog, Russell’s blog, Rob Campbell’s blog, Richard Huntington’s blog, Jon Howard’s blog, John Grant’s blog I realize how much these agencies and these people benefit from sharing their thoughts with unknown others. Open Intelligence Sharing is not a Linux concept. There’s nothing techie about it. It’s all about gathering collective intelligence and then refining them to produce and create bigger and better ideas for the benefit of all, sometimes even including the client. You have a marketing problem to solve, post a live brief/assignment on the blog. You get 100 replies. Filter and measure them based on the objective, you have your campaign ready in 7 days flat. But then, they are also the most interesting people on web. Thousands like me look forward to their next post, just to know, learn and contribute more. Selflessly. That’s why they create stuff, which we look at and say Wow.

I guess it’s high time for our big daddies to understand these basic principles fast and act upon it. No point going and selling User Generated Content to advertisers unless you start practicing it. No wonder GOG has become a case study.

Long live blogging. Long live planning.

Weekly Issue #4 - Marketing Move

What is the reason behind HLL's mega move in merging Rin Bar with Surf Excel? Is Rin losing it's market share? Or it is HLL's own brands are eating into each others market share? Is 'Dirt is good' a bigger philosophy than 'Rin ki chamatkar'? Is HLL trying to consolidate Surf Excel as a Power Brand?Has anyone seen the new Rexona pack? Why is Lux mentioned in it? Will HLL next move be to consolidate Rexona Soap into Lux Soap?

Would love to hear your comments and point of view on the same.