I want my Lady Noire

The Lady Noire Affair. The lovely lovely Marion Cotillard (gros gros bisous, bébe). Branded content at its best by Dior. Indeed content is the king. Am sure there will be a series, coming out Rouge very soon, maybe a Blanche or a Vert or a Bleu in the days to come. You can follow Lady Noire on Twitter here. Or join the Facebook fan club. Or simply buy the DVD's when they are released.

Good content - always leaves you wanting for more. Remember the craze BMW Films (starring Clive Owens) started few years back. I just love the idea of making 'brand cinema,' it is much more engaging and entertaining than a 30 sec TVC. And it is thousand times more interesting than in-film product/brand placement. Why place products for few seconds when you can create an entire brand film.

Though not a strong argument, I agree and you will give examples like Taxi (the film) made Peugeot 406 famous or how after watching The Bourne Identity fans just got behind a Mini Cooper, or the legendary story of Easy Rider and Harley Davidson. But there's a huge difference between in-film placement and Brand Cinema. The Night in the Museum, not only made the American Museum of Natural History famous, number of visitors increased too.

If automobile brands have done it successfully, outdoor gear brands can do it, hotels and resorts can do it, food brands can do it, Pet food brands can do it, heck even the banks and financial sector can get into making successful cinema as part of their marketing communication strategy. its about how open minded you are as a marketer and to what extent will you gamble. Personally, I like the idea of Brand Cinema. Now how well you execute is a different ball game which i won't get into but its possible as long as the content is interesting.

Nice work from Dior and I love that Lady Marion.

Movie side of Coke

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen, Denmark

I find it very similar to ZooZoo, though the execution is different but the background thinking of 'entertainment through irreverence' stands out. And really funny to watch. The coke side of life - Unlimited brand experience. Unlimited ways to surprise. The others are here and here. Enjoy!!

Mashing up Micro-Credit, Economic Crisis, Social Media and everything in between – Part 2

In my previous post I tried to position micro-finance/ micro-credit as an alternative to traditional stocks, bonds and mutual funds. So far the feedback has been very positive from Drew, Charles, Kyle. As I explore the subject, I am becoming more convinced that Green Money, Social Capital and Social Investment will emerge as new frontiers and it will happen faster than everybody thinks. Mirco-finance and social media will join hands to create a greater movement within the finance and banking segment. We don’t need to wait for the economic crisis to recover. There are high chances of smaller P2P Micro-credit services being bought over by bigger banks. Maybe most micro-finance institutions will give up their NGO status to become mainstream and integrated within the banking system. For that matter, banking regulation for micro-finance will become more structured and move away from the flat interest rate, the norm today.

We are already seeing a lot of integration between green economy, green business, fair trade, micro-entrepreneurs, micro-loans, tactical philanthropy etc. taking place. Though bigger banks will still have greater control but smaller and nimbler MFI’s will be in a better position to gather millions of customers in a short time. These customers may not be the most potential banking clients but large numbers do have their own merits. This is where social network and social media will start playing a larger role. Social organization or ventures backed with social capital from social investors will emerge as a new way of doing business. Shareholders will look for better Return on Involvement instead of greater return on investment.

I was not shocked when I read this article today. “If we do no take measures, there is a risk of a serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications,” Robert Zoellick said. The World Bank’s warning of human catastrophe in the world’s poorest countries and an extra 53 million people at risk of extreme poverty is a good indicator of days to come. Now, I don’t want to sound like a doomsayer but things are worse. 53 million people in less than a year??

Wonder, what measures they can take unless they are ready to change their attitude and outlook about the fundamental principles of banking. And isn’t that fundamental principle of banking somewhere rooted in to the ‘social-wellness’ of economic prosperity?

Change is difficult, especially when it is from Social-Illness to Social Wellness. In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt mentioned that economists love incentives. Isn’t ‘Social-wellness’ a bigger incentive for bankers given that they almost drove 53 million people to extreme poverty? What better incentive can be other than instilling confidence and gaining loyalty of these very same people? Loyalty can be regained if these very people pushed at the edge of poverty had the opportunity to build something meaningful, with the assistance of other ‘good doers’ and financial support. In this case micro-financial support. The incentive for micro-finance is not to make huge profits but make the world a better place. And maybe its time for the banks to realize the mess they have created and get their acts together before a full blown ‘human catastrophe’ takes place. If the banks don’t get their acts together, people will take up the cause, they have already done it before but this time they will do it with gutso and what a shame for big multinational banks that will be.

Disruption thrives on chaos and we are living at a very chaotic time. People all over the world are getting into this act of doing good. Like I mentioned earlier, only micro-finance institutes along with social media (whatever you want to call it…) has the power to bring 5 billion people together at any given time to change the world of banking. Someone will surely take that leap very soon and disrupt the banking category like never before...

Coming up next week, interview with the two young Directors of Veecus, Mr. Clemént Carjat and Baptiste Fabre who has the potential to disrupt the status quo.

Do let me know what you think. Please do share your thoughts. I know I am everywhere but thats what I mentioned in the first place - 'and everything in between.'

Rochebobois

Via Adsoftheworld. Good work from BETC Euro, Paris.

The erotic history of advertising

I just got my copy of 'The Erotic History of Advertising' by Tom Reichert. Love it. Truly inspiring. An interesting review of the book here. Sex sells but how you sell sex, matters the most. Grab one for yourself.

Taste the future in your mouth

This is bloody brilliant. Love the proposition - Taste the future in your mouth. No one can beat them. Ha.

Cadbury - Confused or Creative?

Sometimes reputed global brands end up making big mistakes. Mostly when it comes to their localisation strategies. I use the word 'Mistake' beacause for some reason I think they have a complete lack of understanding between message and medium, sometime the digital behaviour of netizens (ok consumers who spend lot of time in the digital world) or integration methods or they are just being lazy. Now, I'm not being critical to the good work global marketing team does sitting in their HQ but rather trying to understand where things go wrong. Or maybe it just me thinking in this way.

Let's take an odd example of Cadbury.

Firstly, their corporate worldwide website looks completely different from other country specific websites. Absolutely no similarity amongst each other except the purple colour. Why? Ok, I do understand every region has its own priorities, marketing goals, business objectives, targets etc. Why such inconsistency? And this is something true for most global brands.

Secondly, its confusing to everyone, be it a loyal brand fan...consumer...shareholder...potential investor or just a casual surfer.

Thirdly, what purpose does fancy phrases like 'creating brands people love,' 'performance driven, values led' serve? Instead why don't you just simply mention your corporate core values and beliefs in an entertaining way.

Fourthly, more inconsistency when it comes to localisation of creative thoughts and execution. Best explained by this two examples below...

Scenario 1:

Country - UK, Client - Cadbury UK, Agency - Fallon

Idea: Glass and a Half Full Productions

( I don't need to explain anything here and you all know the story and the awards and how it spread in the digital media etc.)

Scenario 2:

Country - Canada, Client - Cadbury Canada, Agency - The Hive

Idea: Bicycle Factory

Same brand. Two different country. Two complete different message. As a 7 year old internet surfer, who has seen the Gorilla ad on TV, likes it very much decides to go to Cadbury.com will have a complete different perspective. He lives in the digital world, he's too young to understand the difference between cadbury.co.uk and cadbury.ca and might end up being very disappointed. This is where I think most global brands mess up in their digital strategy. Though this is an odd example but there are several brands which ends up doing the same mistake, time and again. Trying to load too much information in the front page, ending up distracting people who visits for fun in the first place. At least, thats how I feel. Maybe am completely wrong. Which means, there is lot of space for improvement. And this is not about social media or digital media strategy. Its about making sure that the corporate website is in sync with its overall communication. Incase you find other examples, please do let me know.

Needs a mention

Via Mansi Trivedi.

Mashing up Micro-Credit, Economic Crisis, Social Media and everything in between – Part 1

In the last 15 days I’ve been working on a project about micro-credit. A client approached our agency and I’ve been entitled to handle the pitch. The subject is actually heavy and tiring and given it’s printemps out here and the weather is beautiful and I have to work late everyday while others are enjoying the sun, the cafés and the skimpy cladded Parisien women, concentration on subject matters like micro-credit becomes little difficult. Not that I don’t like the banking and financial category, it’s too complex for a non-economist poor planner like me. Obviously being as ignorant as I can be, I tried to read as much possible on micro-finance, micro-credit, the impact of economic crisis, world poverty, social media, social investment, civic banking, ethical economy, triple bottom line, corporate philanthropy, Grameen Bank, SKS Microfinance, Mohammed Yunus, Jonathan Morduch, Microplace etc. phew. Honestly too much information for my half-wit brain to process in such a short span of time.

I ended having lots of unanswered questions. So, I thought its better to put everything up here for discussion and someone among you might be able to enlighten me in the process.

The objective of micro-finance is to provide financial access to all people living on the edge of poverty and eventually eradicating poverty from the face of earth. Micro-credit (under micro-finance) helps build micro-entrepreneurs, generate employment for the poor and make them self-sustainable to handle difficult times of their lives. So, microcredit is a tool for socio-economic development.

However marco-banks (read Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, UBS, AIG, Citi) have proved us how they can push the middle-class on the verge of poverty instead of eradicating it. The global financial crisis is slowly manifesting itself across the globe and the impact is becoming clearer by sweeping away firms, mines, jobs, revenues, and livelihoods. What an irony. The microfinance sector is trying to eradicate poverty while global banking segment is making us the people poorer. The recent economic crisis will leave more than 20 million jobless by the end of 2009 according to ILO. In a world inhabited by 9 billion, more than 1.4 billion people are already living under extreme poverty on the sidelines of the global economic crisis. By end of the year more gets added to that number.

Anyways. My concern at the moment is whether the banking segment re-invents itself? If yes, how? Is there a place for ethical economy in the world of finance and banking plagued with growth, gross product and greed? The more we invest in Micro-lending, the more individuals will be working toward bettering our economy as a whole. Will larger banks and corporations start looking at micro-finance seriously?

Forbes magazine said that "microfinance has become a buzzword of the decade, raising the provocative notion that even philanthropy aimed at alleviating poverty can be profitable to institutional and individual investors." There signs of things happening. Members Project from AmEx par exemple. So my first reaction is micro-finance is one very important segment that will indeed see growth and integration within the larger system.

Microfinance institutes benefits from these close ties with their local communities, from knowing their borrowers well, from having an ownership structure that includes shareholders with a strong interest in their well-being, from conforming to local financial regulations and from making good use of local savings. In India, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) finances more than 500 banks that on-lend funds to self-help groups (SHGs). Nearly 1.4 million SHGs comprising approximately 20 million women now borrow from banks, which make the Indian SHG-Bank Linkage model the largest microfinance program in the world. Microfinancing also helps in the development of an economy by giving everyday people the chance to establish a sustainable means of income. Eventual increases in disposable income will lead to economic development and growth.

It’s a kind of offline version of Social Networking. And since big banks didn’t show much interest or help MFI, P2P based institutes like Kiva, Babyloan, Veecus, Microplace etc. gained prominence and started growing. Individual investors and common people understood the importance while banks kept showing their reluctance. Suddenly the whole world of banking got affected by so called Web 2.0, Social Networking, and Digital Media. The internet is now giving birth to new concepts like social investing, social finance, and social budgeting tool. Social Picks, Bull Poo, Green Sherpa, Geezeo. List is endless. Bankers better take noice.

Companies like Virgin Money, Globe Funders are changing the way banking is seen. Will the growing apathy of people towards our banking system force them to re-look at Ethical Economy seriously? I mean people are buying only ethical coffee so why not start focusing on ethical economy sooner. Will traditional banks adapt to these new changes? Yes, I am aware of the fact that this economic crisis will have a major impact of P2P lending platforms like Kiva, Babyloan etc. but I also have a feeling that individual investors driven by their passion of ‘doing good’ to society will keep recycling their money they have already put. And the numbers will grow by the end of this year. That’s because they will find micro-investment a less volatile investment option rather than just sitting on the money or taking up other high risk investment decisions. Micro entrepreneurs participate in micro economies, which are in part fueled by micro loans. This is one system that benefits all. Though it’s a lengthy process of return on investment but it is indeed a right step in the right direction.

I wanted to put these questions out there for discussion. Will small investors start looking at microcredit and micro-lending as a serious alternative to mutual funds, bonds and stocks? Who will social media influence people in social investments or social companies with micro entrepreneurs from poor regions of the world? How innovative do you think bankers will become and what new products can they launch? Will the banks drive these innovations through their social media platforms? Where do you think is the convergence point of social media and micro-credit? Do you think Social Banking is the new frontier?

Do write back with your comments and feedback. Maybe there is merit in what I am thinking, maybe its utter cow crap. Whatever. Would love to hear it from you.

Hilarious

Invasion of ZooZoo

Oglivy India has struck again. This time for Vodafone with ZooZoo and the whole thing has taken everyone by surprise. ZooZoo is a character created to communicate Vodafone's VAS during the IPL. A series of total 30 commercials about the various services offered by Vodafone. I know it's old news as some of you might say but sitting in the Paris office of Ogilvy, I do feel the heat. Everyone's talking about it and they love it. Seems like ZooZoo is making the most of now, hein? Evident from Facebook and Youtube. This article shows some figures etc. about the recent success.

Well, instead of talking about how great the idea is and how it is taking the digital world by storm, I was thinking how the creative guys envisioned the idea it in the first place. What was the problem? What was the brief? What was the strategy? Finally how did the idea turned out to be larger than the brand?

Now this is purely my opinion and I might be very wrong. In case you know the real story or truth behind the whole campaign, please do enlighten me.

The problem: The Indian mobile market is growing at a healthy 20% y-o-y which is coming mostly from the semi-urban and rural market while the urban metro market has become quiet saturated. The brand is also facing severe competition from lower call rates from CDMA and BSNL and other newer and smaller players like Virgin Mobile, Idea Cellular, Aircel etc. With 90% revenue coming from voice and rental, 5% from P2P and the rest from VAS, so mobile operators have hardly anything new to talk about. Vodafone wants to position itself as a leader in the Indian mobile market with VAS as the potential revenue generator for the brand in the future. Therefore it makes sense to target and attract the urban youth with innovative value added services and increase usage (read revenue).

The Brief from the Client: Do exactly what you have previously done for Hutch. Create a character that will strengthen the brands bond with consumers and allow them to explore different value added services offered by Vodafone.

The Strategy: Build a character that is so simple and so stupid but so entertaining and so surprising that mobile users demand more of it. (Now this sounds like a very stupid strategy, but irreverence has its own place in the world of communication) To argue my point let me ask, what strategy did Saatchi adopt for T-Mobile with its flash-mob film and the recent show they pulled off at Trafalgar Square in London, though its nice to tie everything together as 'Life's for sharing'? Like I mentioned yesterday, what is the strategy behind Arnet and hairs? Surprise people. Make people feel good. Make them discover. The way people want to consume advertising is changing (no, am not talking about media or method here) making communication easy yet so very challenging. When irreverence takes people by surprise, you get to create a new differentiator for yourself. This is exactly what the strategy is - Make Vodafone surprisingly irreverent to people (a complex mental state of surprise, fun, entertainment all put together)

The Idea: Rajeev Rao, one of the brain behind ZooZoo is a great creative guy. He did it before with the Pug and the Little Boy for Hutch, something that caught the imagination of people. He created a series of this Pug and Little Boy commercials. That ugly pug became an instant icon and so did Hutch. The campaign was creative, it was effective. So he understands how to make ugly, odd things look extremely stupid and funny and yet get away with it. ZooZoo does exactly that. ZooZoo is this odd white egghead shaped character that is pure entertainment. It does stupid things, knows how to make fun and make people happy about it. The only clever thing that the creative and the production team did was not making another animated film. But using real characters to act as animated ones. And in the process confusing consumers to the hilt and forcing them to question, what is it? The process of not knowing what is it encourages people to come together. Just like people came toegther and started singing not knowing its a fast one pulled on them by T-Mobile.

So what is the winning formula here? The winning formula is not coming up with a great idea, but how to surprise people at the right moment in the right place. ZooZoo launched during IPL when all eyes are glued on the television set. ZooZoo started giving downloaded goodies to people to play with. They let people digital share stuff and have fun with it. It's like seeding the ZooZoo idea are different places and seeing how it grows from there. To me ZooZoo is a perfect example of Transmedia Planning though am not to sure if Transmedia came in Rao's mind while thinking about ZooZoo. Thanks to Faris who gave us this term (but I do have a question for Faris - How different is Transmedia Planning from the much abused '360 Communication Planning' we often talk about?)

Yes, I may have missed out on several important questions like effectiveness, will it increase VAS users, how to make Facebook fans download VAS application for their mobile by making them pay, what does it mean to semi-urban and rural consumers etc etc. Nevertheless, ZooZoo is big idea and has the potential to live for many years. ZooZoo has showed us it can surprise people and create an auro of irreverence around the brands core promise - Make the most of now. That's exactly what the Vodafone should do, allow to make the most of now.

Do let me know what you think?

Por Un Pelo

Don't know why I haven't heard about this agency or this advertisement before. Created by an independent shop called Santo from Argentina for Broadband Service provider called Arnet.

I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed again. Honestly. Amazing power of a strong creative idea - bringing out our basic emotions and changing our behaviours. Exactly what advertising should be. Simple message but pure entertainment.

Replay after 15 years

Gatorade and TBWA are doing some wonderful stuff recently. Their new website Mission G is fantastic. They did a good piece of communication this year during the Super Bowl. The spirt of sports, competition and challenge - BMX, Skates, Snowboard, Ski, Surf, Salsa, Freestyle Dance, Tennis, Basketball, Baseball, Football... Gatorade is bringing action into its marketing. Apart from the regular digital stuff, I feel they have hit upon a big idea...rather one Big Ideal.

Talking about the recent Replay campaign (though a copycat idea of Nike Football in some way) Gatorade have managed to involve a local community. Two school team (Easton vs Philipsburg) from the batch of 1993 will replay a game of football after 15 years. Now that's interesting. And engaging. And sticky. That's because they can keep doing lots of stuff around Replay. Bring back school memories. Bond with friends in real time and most importantly bond for something they were friends in the first place. Idea vs Ideal, a great example.

Back Again

Back. Yes finally am back to blogosphere exactly after one year. Honestly these 365 days have been one big roller coaster ride for me. I am doing okay. Though not everything is all right but what the heck, I can’t get everything I cant, right? Well, I travelled a lot. From June to Sept last year spent time travelling all over India. In October relocated to Paris from Bangalore. Joined Ogilvy. Set up my apartment in October (setting up apartment in Paris – another story for another day). Started discovering Paris and France the next two months (too many things to write, maybe another day – don’t want to bother myself and you with all the details on the first day). Spend a lovely Christmas in the Alps. And finally the New Year arrived. Things started falling apart (don’t ask me what) and I kept fixing them.

From Jan till now, I spent some time traveling to Italy, Switzerland and but mostly working mercilessly. Enrolled myself for French lessons. Made new friends. Lost some of them. Discovering new places in Paris, which are not mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Still in the process of discovering the museums, the monuments, the lovely evening walks in the boulevards, the wine, the cheese, the books, the music, the street music, the metro, the café, bars and restaurant, the language, the french people, the french food, their culture, their sub-culture, the youth, the old, the middle class, the rich, the homeless, their society, their fashion, their lives, their behaviour, their complaining attitude towards everything, the endless debates on anything, their raising of voice to prove a point or being heard at a conversation during lunch or dinner, their pseudo-intellectualism, their arrogance, their criticism and raison d’accepter, their sweetness, their politeness and impoliteness, their apathy towards Sarkozy and govt…, the endless delay in handling paperwork in all Govt. dept, the late arrivals to feel important… I am observing and learning. Yes I do love this city, do love the people but haven’t exactly made Paris my home yet. And I miss my dog.

Have plans to visit Spain, Portugal (in the west) and Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Poland in the east… So I might take off again very soon. Depends on how much money I’ve in my pocket too. Always a poor planner, you see.

Yes, I could have done one of those ‘My Life in Paris’ blogs… with pictures and all in the last 6 months. I was accused of becoming a ‘Digital Recluse’ by Charles. He kept asking me what am I doing and when am I coming back? Rob kept in touch sending me mails once in a while asking how am I doing and if everything was alright… But I haven’t forgotten anyone. All this time I have kept myself updated on what happening in other blogs. Discreetly though. So I guess it’s not that bad being away. Kinda gives you a feeling of starting things all over again, afresh. Having said that I think this webpage needs a facelift - don’t you think so???

Alors. So here I am back again. Have some plans about my life, my career, my future and ofcourse this blog. You know mostly boring things which make no difference to anyone’s life… things like what I want to do next? What are the things I really care about? What are new things I am learning? What are new things I am doing?

Well, enough about myself. How have you guys been? Well, do anyone read this blog any more? I guess not. Anyways, do write back and let me know, how things are going at your end. Let’s begin a new journey together from today.

Cheers.