Sharing happiness for 125 years

I love Coca Cola. And I love sharing their stuff. Period.

You can also check out the Very Best of Coca Cola and all their best works for the last 125 years. Icons are made of such stuff. Enjoy.

14 awesome iPad Apps

Go here and see some of the best designed iPad apps. With Tablets becoming the default handheld device, immense opportunities are waiting for us. Especially for the newspaper/ media companies as the early adapters in India. Anyways. Thats another debate all-together.

Scribbles from the Tissue Roll # 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm glad to present you Scribbles from the Tissue Roll. Tissue Rolls is not about wiping your arse in the loo. It's all about quick observations from things that are seen on Indian television channels, read in the newspapers, heard on radio stations, watched on the streets, seen on the retail shelves... It covers almost anything and everything that attracts my eyes. Things that are insignificant in nature but has the potential to make a difference in our lives. Will try to keep it interesting, insightful and fun but I request you to also share your observations on trivial issues that you think are highly eligible for hanging on Tissue Rolls here.

So here goes the first edition:

Parle Musst Bites - One great snacking product from Parle Foods. The product was launched with some good communication which were enjoyable and hilarious to watch. However, little effort has gone to sustain the momentum of the communication. Even lesser effort has gone in to build a holistic brand out of a good product. Well, maybe because of high marketing and media budgets involved in building a brand. Maybe other reasons unknown to us.

Musst Bites is positioned as a snack food too tempting to part with. Fair enough. Now, look at the packaging. The communication says something that doesn't reflect on the packaging. Maybe the packaging was done before the communication strategy was finalised. This are small things that make a huge difference in the brand building exercise. It's not about a Big Idea anymore.
Well, they have some characters at the back of the pack? You see it? Why did they create those characters in the first place? Did they do it to fill the gap? Does it have some other meaning? Or are they meant to sitting static on the pack? Why not use these characters to do something? Hmmm... something as simple as stickers maybe? Or badges? Or caps and t-shirts for kids- your core target audience? Maybe amplify the 'Too Tempting' theme to do some really nail biting cutting edge stuff. Contest. Game Shows. Mobile Games. Short Videos. Sad but true, they don't even have a website mentioned on their packaging either. Grrrrr... the list goes on. These things don't cost you a bomb in an era of social media. What are you waiting for??

Mind you, if you plan to use any of the ideas mentioned here, be decent and kind enough to drop me a mail or pay up the royalties. Ha.

How clients are going mobile

I wrote about the future potential of Mobile Advertising in India. The beautiful Mansi Trivedi send me some brilliant examples, which I think you should know about. Thanks Mansi.

The Regeneration from Virgin Mobile in partnership with Youthnoise. They created a text message based episode - a story of a football player called Ghost. Something really unique - a mini mobile text sitcom kind of stuff.

Then there's Northwest Airlines experimenting with QR codes in Japan. Well, techno-savvy Japanese have special readers in their mobile phones which might take few more years to hit the Indian market. But the point here is clients like Northwest Airlines are experimenting. It's interesting to find out how clients have started giving importance to interactive channels. In this case Billboard and Mobile integrated together to create a communication platform.

Finally, to know more about mobile marketing and effective use of the mobile medium for greater benefits of your client and agency, frequently visit - Mobile Magazine.

Remember we are talking something beyond SMS campaigns.

Clients Go Mobile

Is mobile advertising the next big cash cow? In a ‘tell-me-new-touch-point’ starved media industry, will betting big on mobile advertising generate value eventually more money? In a recent discussion with the CTO of a MNC who is doing just the same, my belief got stronger.

I quote - “Yes, today most clients in India slowly understand the potential of New Media. Alas, it took them so long. Techno-phobic brand managers suffering from ‘What-if-I-get-fired-for-my-experimentation-from-my-higher-ups’ syndrome are willing experiment. I mean to say they’re open to the idea. On a happy note it’s encouraging for agencies too. Honestly, I feel client should be willing to experiment. There lies the fun. Allow a bunch of intelligent freaks to do a targeted communication. The client attitude should be more like show-results-and-I’ll-put-more-money. There lay the challenge. As client you ignite their desire to dare among those intelligent freaks. Allow them to drive it with passion to show results.”

He showed me a live demo of an excellent mobile platform. Fone Mine - The power of mobile advertising. How to do targeted communication? A solution that is service provider, demographic independent. How not to annoy consumer by giving opt-in preference? Integrated m-commerce. Data generation. Rich Analysis of the data. Believe me, the possibilities are endless. All it needs is little patronage from clients. It gives creative people direct access to some very funky stuff. It allows media agencies to make money. This much more than SMS campaign plugged into presentations as 360 communication. This is 360 by itself. Imagine the sheer 'reach-potential' of the medium (if you still don't think mobile phone as medium) in India and China. A mobile advertising platform, our industry should take immediate notice. To me this is a live example of - How technology can change media dynamics? Something worth exploring.

SMS <> to 5656 is so 2007 ;-)

When dads and sons fight for attention

Wilkinson has a launched a new campaign which I found quiet bizarre. Making dads and sons fight for attention and kisses of their wives and moms. As Richard put the insight as, "The new dads can feel neglected, even feel jealous about their offsprings" seems interesting, the execution remains poor. Maybe they've given a movie trailer like look and feel on purpose.

And then they created this site which has some cool stuff to download. Seems like all experimentation is only possible in the digital space.

Via Adliterate

Have fun out there

So the new campaign of Jeep is creating news for all the good reasons. Another great example of how marketers can benefit from using Youtube, FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr effectively. Check this out here. Since Social Networking is attracting millions of consumers, it makes sense for brands to be present there. You need good data mining skills, you need to identify and tag the right target audience and Bingo. You have a success story worth sharing with others. What better way than communicating with a large base of captive audiences available in social networking sites.

Rhythm of lines

If you are in digital communication industry or for that matter in the communication industry and still haven't seen this, you are a waste. Yes, a waste! A big round of applause to the digital agency of The New Audi 5. Do I need to say more?

meet Charlie

My boss had given me a project on "The Impact of Social Networking to Society" which I am still working on and a long way to go. Since this is a hot topic, I am spending most of my time doing research and I came across this great article by Neil Perkin who said it all very sweetly. I still remember how I met my boss using RSS and then we spoke for hours and landed up new job. Today we don't need to meet (actually we hardly meet each) but work flows so smoothly.

Web 2.0 and now its Enterprise 2.0. This is an interesting story about Charlie. And do thank Neil Perkin for sharing it with the world.



Collaborative working is such a wonderful thing. The Age of Conversation is the latest outcome of collaborative working.

Don't you think the HR Heads in our advertising industry should be looking for more Charlie's ??

Minority Media

I completely agree with what Prabhakar Mundkur said in this article. The entire OOH business will change in few years from now. This clip explains what OOH will be in the future.



It will be the technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, Cisco etc. that will drive these growth and not the big media companies (probably Viacom will buy the technology for their use). And this is how OOH will grow.



With 3G network becoming a reality in India, Bluejacking is the new tool many retailers have started using. So watch out for OOH medium. Transformation of life ahead.

Desi Spiderman

Desi Martini.com has launched a new viral doing rounds within the ad community at present. I received two calls from two friends in two separate cities asking me if I saw the website. No was my answer. I was abused and humiliated for not being up-to-date with the latest digital scene at present.

Guys and Gurls, here it is. Presenting The Makkadman. Have fun. Digital is wonderful.

Signs

Sent to me by a friend from Romania. Now, isn't this New Media too? (Though it looks like a Photoshop job, but hey, good idea nevertheless)

What say?

No one belongs here

I found this brilliant website (via Servants of Chaos) and let me tell you what a great way to promote a book.

Folks at Rediff Y&R, you should have thought of doing something like this for Midland Book Store to win real awards.

Get the glass

Am sure you all remember the famous Got Milk campaign by Goodby Silverstein . Now the latest campaign from California Milk Board is this new online Interactive Board Game called Get The Glass.Brilliant. And everything centered around life without milk. Now this is a real good example of interactive web2.0 work by a brand. All kudos to Goodby.

Our very own Amul can do so much. Huge potentials looming large. The Amul Girl is such a wonderful brand property which can be taken to new heights. Alas they don't think like me ;-) Maybe you (Amul) should hire my agency and give us the task to create something interesting.

Mail me soon. Am waiting.

Lynx - The UGC Effect

UGC (User Generated Content) is touted as the new baby of the marketing world. Alex Wipperfürth's book Brand Hijack is a great read to understand the basic working principles of UGC. Well, at least it provided those basic seeds to me. And I am fan of his work. Visit his website here and you will find some very interesting white papers worth reading while getting bored at work.

This recent videos on Youtube is a great example of UGC at work. The Brand - Lynx.

Lynx Effect on Married Man


Lynx Effect in Real Life


I regret the quality of the video. Makes me wonder if put in the right context UGC has the true potential to bring people together. Any marketer in India, bold and wise enough to take it forward?

I also found this interesting Lynx Blow page.


Enjoy.

ARCB Media Inc.

Rusta Media is a wonderful example of interactive communication. T0 sell media space and time for SABC Channels in South Africa during ICC World Cup, Tequila\Johannesburg created this website.

Interesting is the way Rusta Media shows coconut branding, roaming goat branding, restaurant branding, beach imprints and umbrella branding. Well they ain't selling any of those expect their Radio and TV though but as you know inspiration can come from anywhere.

My inspiration: Abandoned Roaming Cow Branding in India (we have millions of them, don't we?) As long as I take good care of them, I don't think CUPA or PeTA will come running behind my arse. ARCB Media Inc. is the name of my new project. Any Vulture Capitalist interested?

Axe again

Call it a visual pollution or a clever creative execution, one thing that I've noticed in Axe is the way they always manage to draw attention from by-passers . In this case a towel. Simple yet so powerful. Always a new way to promote 'Attraction.'

Agency: Lowe MENA (UAE)

Via BestadsonTV.com

Personal Billboards

How about a personalised billboard? The one which calls out your name and greets you very morning when you drive to work. Or remembers your birthday an wishes you when you come close to it. Mini USA is breaking new grounds with technology-meets-billboard-advertising.

Imagine a similar feat. on M. G. Road as Mr. Mohit Sharma approaches the Dickenson Road junction saying "Santrowale Sharmaji suprabhat, nashta kiya aapne?"

Read more here.

Cool Hunting - JWT Style

This is great compilation of great ambient media at work. JWT Cool Hunting Team.

What exactly is new media?

A friend of mine send me the above images. 'Wow,' was my first reaction upon seeing this lovely creation. It also forced me to think about the much talked new media. Isn't this a wonderful example of new media?

Imagine brand message popping up on the windshield of cars kept at parking lots at the cost of dirt. Yes, Dirt.

The artist behind this wonderful art. I've no clue who he is. But whoever he is, he sure must be a good man.