Travel together

Good work Duval Guillaume.

Cannes 2011 - Is it the year of Independent Small Agencies?

Cannes 2011 is coming and am sure you're all waiting for good news. 2011 seems like the year of small agencies. Small agencies with big, bold and brave work.

Here are some of the best works of 2011:

1. Adidas: Sid Lee, Amsterdam

2. Chrysler: W+K, Portland

3. Volkswagen: Deutsch, USA

4. Jim Beam: Strawberry Frog, NY

5. DirecTV: Grey, NY

6. All State: Leo Burnett, Chicago

7. BBC Books: Unknown

8. Ray-Ban: Cutwater, San Francisco

9. Method + Virgin America: Unknown

Enjoy. Btw, which one do you think will walk out with the top prize?

KIA Motors kicks some ass

David & Goliath is kicking some serious ass with KIA Motors. Great work guys. Here is an interesting interview of Colin Jeffery, Managing Partner and ECD of D&G, LA.

Awesome. More please.

Together

Well its funny but still don't understand what Bacardi got to do with it? Anyways. Good creative work.

BACARDI Together Manifesto from Devon Hong on Vimeo.

Blue Star's cool thinking

Summer can be horribly hot and sweaty in India. Temperatures sore and so does heated debates and egos. Summer is a time when the AC brands in India also get active. They spend millions trying to persuade consumers to buy their AC's. But like most categories, the AC category, which is a sub-class of the White Goods category has its own conventions and cliches. You will notice that the moment you turn on your TV. Brands like LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Voltas, Onida are all fighting for market share with some really boring, unexciting propositions. Nothing much has changed over the years. The creative executions are even more pathetic.

The top three propositions are often:

1. Equal cooling at all corners of the house.

2. Anti-germ, anti-bacterial and clean air.

3. The most energy efficient AC for your home.

Cut to Blue Star. Blue Star, the AC brand has been the market leader in office cooling or air-conditioning solutions for commercial complexes. They created some memorable advertisements claiming their expertise in cooling solutions.

Blue Star recently ventured into the home cooling segment. And they brilliantly integrated their proposition of being an "cooling expert" from offices to home. Now that's the brilliance of good strategic thinking. When you're positioned as an expert, you build on that. You don't look for lame propositioning which leads to boring creative communication to persuade consumers. Blue Star found an excellent proposition that builds on their expertise at office and smoothly integrated that with the task at hand - home cooling. The result - Get office like cooling at home. Now thats refreshing. A nice execution helps you stand apart too.

Good work Blue Star. Look forward to some more refreshing creative work from you.

Make your grill shine

Nicely done though the idea is cliched. Anyways. I likes. Via Tim Ho.

Give it when you're done

Honestly, this is brilliant. Very touching. Makes you uncomfortable, makes you think and do something about it. At least I feel that way.

Land of the Stupid & Home of the Braves

When you're stupid, you would want to go to the Diesel Island. Now Diesel is indeed doing some radical work. Go check out here, Diesel Island.

Well, go to the stupid island, be brave and have tons of fun.

Live the language

EF's new campaign is beautifully shot. A serial campaign done brilliantly. It's a wonderful mix of city branding plus learn the language plus watch the pretty gals. Gives you mixed feelings, makes you smile, makes you warm. For all of you who haven't seen it yet. Enjoy.

EF - Live The Language - Barcelona from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

EF - Live The Language - Beijing from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

EF - Live The Language - London from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

Cheers.

Its better in bed indeed

Lol. Here's the new Sealy's Mattress Ad for Superbowl. Simple, clear message and very nicely done.

Cheers again.

Xoom to the future

Motorola launched their new ad for Motorola Xoom. In between all the white, expressionless people with Apple iPad lies the new powerful product that forces iPad users to take off their ear-plugs. Works well when you want to differentiate.

Enjoy.

VW - Awesome work

Some ads are just amazing. You love to see them again and again. You love to show them to others. download them, share them, talk about... well here's two new TVC's from Volkswagen.

Wish I was part of these projects. Alas. Great work. Keep'em coming.

Honda Jazz - Binding communication and interaction.

Wieden + Kennedy are claiming a TV first by supporting the spot with an iPhone App that turns a regular TV ad into an interactive viewing experience. Created in conjunction with Gravity Mobile, London, it allows viewers to interact with the TV spot on their handset, catching the animated characters as they appear on screen.

Amazing example of how effectively technology can be used to bring together communication and interactivity. But I still ask the same question, how many people will actually engage, having engaged will they purchase the car? Or maybe people up north have plenty of time. Or maybe it's targeted at kids to pester their parents buy the Honda Jazz. Who knows? Anyways.

Back home you get to see this on telly

When I see these two TVC's from the same brand, coming across from two different countries and agencies, I believe its a better marketing strategy for Honda to use 'teenage-pester-power' to persuade the actual buyer who is often the father (stereotype though :-). iPhone App + Interactive TVC + Teenage Pester Power = Dad buying the car. Ha!

Good job W+K. Welcome to optimism.

SBS brings out the truth of Australian Immigration

I absolutely love the way these three ads were crafted and created by SBS. Clear message, brilliant execution and indeed funny. Dark humour. Ha. Enjoy.

3D Audi

Good effort, innovative and new. Otherwise it is just an expensive, auto parts demo of Audi A8. Don't give you goosebumps though. I was more looking for some hair raising action packed commercial that people just won't stop talking about.

But again full marks for the effort and that's what counts the most. Good work.

The brilliance of choice

Just couldn't stop laughing after seeing this tvc. Indeed great execution. The script might be clichéd but the casting and execution is neat. Good work.

Can we see more of them please?

Excite the sexy boy

Axe does it again. The latest one from Portugal. They get it right most of the times. Good work.

Cleartrip with a Purpose

Wish I had done this work. Awesome work. But let's first see it through the lens of my sarcasm. Client asks agency to do a qualitative consumer research. Planner writes DG. Asks a question - What is the purpose of your travel. Does vox pop. Shows the vox pop to CD. CD bulb is turned on. Positioning - Every trip has a purpose. Edits Vox Pop... Bingo!! You've created magic. Anyways. Let's talk about the magic later.

Every trip has a purpose - great thinking. Communicated in a series of TV Ads, very pleasing to the eyes, fresh execution (could have been better though :-) and attention grabbing. Good thinking + nice execution + different format = lethal combination. It's working. Perfect time for the brand to start the conversation. That's the magic I was talking about.

15 sec TVC is a very effective innovation from the media agencies. You get to create a series of content unfolding the story of the brand. More inviting rather than being intrusive like any TVC playing on telly. Vodafone Zoozoo is a great example, Tata Docomo logo animations is another recent example, Nescafe "Neighbours" is the 30 sec format of the same thing am talking about.

By asking travelers to reveal their purpose of the trip, gives you an instant creative freedom to play with three different things - experimentation with formats , creating unlimited content and optimizing media. More purpose I bring alive, more content I create. it can be Renne, Phunchok, Dr. Tripathi, Mr. & Mrs. Khandelwal, Sujoy, Surya, Prosenjit, Pooja, Priya, vaishali... millions of people would love to share their purpose of travel.

At the heart of Cleartrip.com's brand strategy lies a dynamic creative core. A core that can be activated anytime by just listening to people. An outside-in approach to communication instead of the other way round. There lies ahead immense potential in this campaign. Activation, social media, user experience... the magic is here. Creating a content eco-system around the brand.

Well done. Wish I had done this one.

The Doers

Here's the latest from Honda. The DOERS. Good work. Not as good as Hate Something, Change Something though but good work nonetheless.

True sponsors of tomorrow

Another good work from Intel. Surprisingly Intel has pushed the creative bar. With Sponsors of Tomorrow, they're indeed doing some amazingly great work and its consistent. Way to go.