Google Reunion

An emotional Google search engine advertisement has become a big hit in India and Pakistan by surprisingly invoking a searing and traumatic period in the shared history of the South Asian arch rivals. Google ad "Reunion" portrays two childhood friends, now elderly men, who haven't seen each other since they were separated by the 1947 partition that created India and Pakistan from the old British empire.The three-minute film opens with an old man narrating his childhood memories to his granddaughter. He mentions his childhood friend, who he had to part ways with during partition. The granddaughter then takes to Google and finds ways of reconnecting her grandfather with his childhood friend. She manages to connect with the man’s grandson in Pakistan, and invites him over to New Delhi to surprise her grandfather on his birthday. Created by Ogilvy & Mather, the campaign consists of a three-minute lead film, and four short films focused on product offerings. It might seem a risky strategy to co-opt partition for a feel-good search engine advertisement. Within a span of a little over 3 minutes, a beautiful story was successfully narrated which is a clear sign to brands that they can also do so much more on digital." In spite of being a tech brand, Google has been rolling out campaigns that give it a human face, across the globe.

Airtel myPlan

BhartiAirtel has launched myPlan, a new option for post-paid subscribers to customize a plan suitable according to their needs. Airtel is the the first telecom operator in the country to offer flexible plan. Customer can choose monthly rental priced between Rs. 199 and Rs. 999 and then myPacks, which are free benefits, finally they can choose boosters at a nominal rate. The pre-paid customers make up 95%-96% of mobile users in India which is around 900 million.. However, the mere 5% of post paid customers contribute up to 25% of the total revenues of the sector. On an average, these customers stay with an operator for three to four years when compared to six to eight months for the pre-paid category. Hence, most mobile phone companies are keen to increase this base of reliable, high value customers.

Bharti Airtel Limited released a new commercial last week related to their new postpaid plan, called myPlan. The ad was created by Taproot Communications and directed by Ram Madhvani. The ad focuses on the message that the postpaid plan tailor made for every individual. The TVC shows various individuals using their phones through a simple abacus. The abacus will also be a key in-store feature that customers can use to plot their usage and create plans.

We need to wait to see if this campaign increases the number of post-paid users in India.

The TVC is a stylized montage of various individuals using their phones in different ways, and ends with the creation of a plan through a simple abacus. The abacus will also be a key in-store feature that customers can use to plot their usage and create plans. The commercial is accompanied by an outdoor campaign in several cities and POS material.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Bharti Airtel Limited has released a new commercial for its latest

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Bharti Airtel Limited has released a new commercial for its latest postpaid plan, called ‘myPlan’. Conceptualised by Agnello Dias of Taproot Communications and directed by Ram Madhvani, the commercial focuses on the plan’s unique feature – a postpaid plan tailor-made for every individual.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Bharti Airtel Limited has released a new commercial for its latest postpaid plan, called ‘myPlan’. Conceptualised by Agnello Dias of Taproot Communications and directed by Ram Madhvani, the commercial focuses on the plan’s unique feature – a postpaid plan tailor-made for every individual.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Bharti Airtel Limited has released a new commercial for its latest postpaid plan, called ‘myPlan’. Conceptualised by Agnello Dias of Taproot Communications and directed by Ram Madhvani, the commercial focuses on the plan’s unique feature – a postpaid plan tailor-made for every individual.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Bharti Airtel Limited has released a new commercial for its latest postpaid plan, called ‘myPlan’. Conceptualised by Agnello Dias of Taproot Communications and directed by Ram Madhvani, the commercial focuses on the plan’s unique feature – a postpaid plan tailor-made for every individual.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Bharti Airtel Limited has released a new commercial for its latest postpaid plan, called ‘myPlan’. Conceptualised by Agnello Dias of Taproot Communications and directed by Ram Madhvani, the commercial focuses on the plan’s unique feature – a postpaid plan tailor-made for every individual.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/brands/airtels-tailor-made-plan-leaves-its-customers-awestruck-1173207.html?utm_source=ref_article

Idea Cellular - "myIdea Showroom on Mobile"

The Idea Cellular has launched a new service called “myIdea showroom on mobile”. Idea Cellular has come up with an innovative campaign to promote its my idea showroom services, over 125 million Idea users can just dial ‘121’ from their Idea number and access Idea Showroom, anywhere, anytime in these fast-paced times in the new-age India, when reaching a showroom often needs to be timed and planned in advance, Idea Cellular has elevated the customer service experience by enabling access to showroom at customer’s convenience.

Idea’s new TVC, riding on a hummable tune – ‘Do the 121’ – and a catchy dance step, goes on-air on Friday, September 6th, during the opening of the new season of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), powered by Idea. The company’s association with KBC continues for the 4th consequent year. TVC promotes its 121 offering, the toll free number mobile users can dial to avail offers, subscribe to value added services, internet plans and so on. Created by Lowe Lintas and Partners, the film uses a dance move to promote the 1-2-1 offering.

The film opens with a boy asking for a directions to the Idea showroom. The man responds with a dance move – he jumps once to the count of one, moves a step to his right and jumps again and says ‘2’, and then takes a step to his left to jump one more time, and says ‘1’ again. He adds, 'Aa gaya Idea ka showroom' (You’ve reached the Idea showroom). The film goes on to show a series of situations where people perform the same move, before showing a boy do the move on a mobile – stepping on the keys ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘1’ in the process. A voice over explains that users simply need to dial 121’ for the Idea showroom to ‘come to them’.

Kellogg's 'Anaaj ka Nashta'

Kelloggs is introduced the concept of Corn Flakes as a breakfast item throughout the world.  They are experts in changing breakfast eating habits of customers across the world. Kellogg's in 1990's came out with series of ads which focus that the Indian breakfast was not nutritious and that Indian breakfast was not very good for health.  This deeply hurt the sentiments of the Indian home makers. Later on they modified their campaign as Kellogg's breakfast is as good as any other Indian breakfast like idle or chappathi.

Kellogg's came out with a creative Hindu News Paper Ad on 25th September 2013. The ad was placed as if it is a news article and the ad was positioned below. When you have the first look you will feel that its a news article. The ad try to emphasis that corn flakes is a balanced breakfast. The second interesting aspect of the ad it that is has a small plastic pack of wheat pinned to the ad which helps to get the attention of the reader.  This small attachment creates curiosity to the read whole content of the ad. The title of the ad is Kickstart your day with a balanced Anaaj Ka Nashta.

Titan Edge - Master Beyond Belief

Titan Edge watches released a new commercial for its brand. TVC is Conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore, and produced by Stockland Martel, New York, the creative idea, titled “Mastery beyond belief”, was to lend a human association to the watch. Titan Edge is one of the slimmest watch in the world. I like edge watches due its minimalist design and the new TVC also exhibits that clearly. The titan Edge watches are made with space age titanium, which is also light as feather is reflected in the advertisement. 

The TVC show Swiss balance artiste Maedir Eugster executing a sophisticated balancing act, starting with a feather on a palm frond spines. He carefully rests the feather on a small branch and then grabs another slightly larger spine and balances each one on the tip of the next, until he’s holding a massive kinetic sculpture overhead. The act of ‘Mastery beyond belief’ symbolises the precision and skill that goes into creating a Titan Edge, as the structure he holds morphs into a Titan Edge on screen. The super reads – ‘Maedir Eugster, balance artiste, wears the slimmest watch in the universe.’

The commercial used the short film "Balance" created by photographer Tobias Hutzler. The full video can be checked here video. 

LINE: A Social Entertainment Platform with emoticon

LINE is a Japanese company which launched its mobile apps in India. The line users can send messages, images, video, audio media messages and make free VOIP calls. Its family of 52 apps — which includes games, tools, communication services and photo apps for iOS and Android — have been downloaded more than 290 million times — Line Camera alone has clocked 48 million downloads worldwide. Line is competing against WeChat and Whatsapp. Few months back we saw China made WeChat  targeting Indian using celebrities like Parineeti Chopra and Varun Dhawan. 

LINE initially started in Japan as a text-messaging service allowing users to text-chat with other LINE users or have group-chats with multiple users. Once the app is installed it’s easy to know which of your friends also has the app installed as LINE simply looks at the numbers in your address book and cross-checks them with registered LINE users. If a user has friends who are already on LINE, at registration the app will suggest friends to add to your LINE-friends network.  Three months after its launch, the ability to make free voice calls from smartphones was also added to LINE. If users have a flat-data plan, or are connected to WiFi, all calls to other LINE users will cost nothing. This is obviously of great appeal and due to the simplicity of registering with an existing phone number rather than having to give an email address, LINE is also giving Skype a run for its money.

Line is perhaps best known for its virtual stickers – often featuring cute and quirky cartoon characters – that people can send as messages. Line is making over $10 million (1 billion yen) per month selling stickers, the rich emoticon-like content.  Stickers are larger-scale emoticons which are primarily used for instant messaging (IM) chats. They are popular among some, particularly in Asia, because they help convey emotion, and are more visual than blocks of text. Stickers typically come in packs of up to a dozen, most of which are free to download and use, but some services charge $1/$2 for premium packs — which may be customized for brands, products or limited edition events. Once downloaded or bought, they appear as an option in the text box, and are published when pressed.

Tata Nano - Celebrate Awesomeness

The Tata Motors new campaign titled ‘Celebrate Awesomeness’ released for its brand Tata Nano. The new campaign targeting the youth focuses on the young generation’s penchant for being awesome at what they do. The film features young achievers from different fields such as actress and model Sarah Jane Dias, designer Masaba Gupta and magician Ugesh Sarcar. It comes across almost like a music video.

The ad opens with urban youth in different situations in a rush to get somewhere. A couple of girls in a local taxi witness Tata Nanos in various colours zipping on the roads. It is revealed that everyone is headed to a particular spot. The Nano drivers park and soon the gang breaks into a what seems like a flash mob. Elsewhere, magician Ugesh Sarcar who plays himself in the TVC, performs a trick in front of three girls. He snaps his fingers and vanishes leaving his hat behind. The girls find a small model of the Tata Nano in the hat. One of them throws it on the street and the model transforms into a real car. They too drive to where the youth are congregating. As more people assemble, the place gets a carnival look. Designer Masaba Gupta walks towards an orange Nano and yanks off the ‘cover’ to reveal a blue Nano. All along the 90-second film, a dash of vibrant colours make their presence felt through the costumes, cars and special effects. The film ends with the supers ‘Celebrate youness’, ‘Celebrate kickassness’, ‘Celebrate epicness’, ‘Celebrate magicness’, ‘Celebrate awesomeness.’ (Source: Campaign India)

The campaign has been extended onto social media as well. It has around 3,844,465 likes as of 31st August. A Facebook app on the Tata Nano page featuring the ‘Sound of awesomeness’ was shared to spread the word. Fans were asked to invite their friends through the app and help them discover the sound of awesomeness. The app had the provision to send the link via an SMS or as a Facebook message to their friends. 

We need to watch how this new campaign ‘Celebrate awesomeness’ can encourage the target group to test drive. Tata has been pushing the Nano in many ways to get an even better sales figure on the sales chart which include ‘Two-wheeler exchange’ programme, get Nano by simply swiping the credit card and many other. The latest from company is a new generation television commercial which is very colourful and attracts youths towards it. Will it attract the youth?

http://www.tatanano.com/

Cadbury Bournvita Tayyari Jeet Ki (preparing to win)

I saw an interesting Cadbury Bournvita yesterday. The new Cadbury Bournvita TVC tell about the importance of cultivating good habits (Aadatein) in children. The ad shows the story of a mother who instils in her son the habit of winning. Tayyari Jeet Ki (preparing to win) has been the theme of Bournvita’s campaign since 2011. Bournvita's communication strategy focus on mothers feel good about buying into the rational benefits of health and wellness, for the kids it is more about the taste and fun of drinking Bournvita. Unlike other brands which have focused on health benefits, Bournvita has always been about taste with heath benefits. 

The TVC created by Ogilvy & Mather went on air in early April. The film starts with a mother and son racing in the woods. She is shown pitting herself against the boy in regular sprints. The mother tells the story through the voice over. She says, “Mere bête ko jeet ki aadat tab lagegi jab woh mujhe harayega” (My son will learn the habit of winning when he defeats me). But she is in mood to let her son win by giving in. “Akhir adatein na ek din mein banti hay na asani se” (Habits are neither built in a day nor easily) she says. The day arrives when the son defeats her in their race. The VO says, “Toh jis din woh mujhe harayega, main jeet jaoongi” (So the day he defeats me, I will win). As she pours him a cup of Bournvita, the VO explains that only a mother knows the value of good habits. The TVC ends with the boy sprinting and the super reads, ‘Taiyaari jeet ki’ (Preparation to win).” (Source: Campaign India)

India, the world's largest malt-based drinks market, accounts for 22% of the world's retail volume sales. These drinks are traditionally consumed as milk substitutes and marketed as a nutritious drink, mainly consumed by the old, the young and the sick. The Health Food Drinks category consists of white drinks and brown drinks. South and East India are large markets for these drinks, accounting for the largest proportion of all India sales. The major players in the market are Bournvita, Complan, Horlicks, Boost and Milo. Cadbury's Bournvita is the leader in the brown drink segment with a market share of around 16.2% (as per Nielsen data for the quarter ending March) and overtakes Boost 12% market share. 

Horlicks, being a white malted beverage, has never really been a direct competitor to Bournvita. Horlicks has always been the market leader, with almost 45 per cent share in the category. Boost is strong in the South while Bournvita’s strength has been the North and West. Horilicks is the most popular brand in Chennai and its brand is ingrained in the minds of Chennai consumers and it is also served in tea stalls in Chennai. In the past there was milk shortage in Chennai and this helped Horlicks become a popular brand in Chennai where consumers started taking it as a milk substitute.

Image Source: http://print-ads-india.blogspot.in/2011/02/cadbury-bournvita-taiyyari-jeet-ki-camp.html

Market Study Source: http://www.pbr.co.in/julyseptissue/9.pdf

Tanishq Diamonds now at a Flat 15% off!

Another cute and funny ad from Tanishq....

Tanishq Mia 3.0 TV Commercial

Jewellery brand Tanishq from Titan Industries has the subbrand named Mia – targeted at working women. Recently they have launched a commercial that stars South Indian actor and playback singer Nithya Menon. Ad Agency is lowe Lintas and partners. 

TVC shows Nithya Menon working on a presentation on her computer where her boss walks up to her and looks at her work. Her boss suggests her to remove her earrings, so that it does not distract the client and they can concentrate on her presentation. TVC proceeds showing her walking into the meeting with her earrings on and then reassures her boss that ‘Don’t worry, the presentation looks even better than herself.’ Then a voice over says, ‘As beautiful as your work’. TVC concludes with the visuals of the jewellery and a super that reads, ‘Mia by Tanishq. workwear jewellery from Rs. 4,999’.

The ad shows the boss who get involved in every step of each assignment they give to their employees. I hate these kind of bosses as this type of leadership style is terrible for the employees as well as the organization. By controlling everything that an employee does, these managers sap away the confidence of younger employees, who may end up feeling that nothing they can do is right.  This is beautifully shown in the ad. The segmentation of Mia is very good and it creates a unique niche which was not touched by their competitors. Tanishq new Mia ad targeted the working woman who believes in herself and wants to look professional, efficient and presentable, and perfect in every way. This ad also try to overcome the myth that the extra attention that comes with jewellery often detracts attention from their performance. 

Lifebuoy Social Mission - Help a Child Reach 5

Hindustan Unilever’s Lifebuoy launched an inventive new campaign focusing on hygiene and handwash. The unique campaign ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ is based on the heart-breaking fact that every year nearly 2 million children die before the age of 5 due to infections, which can be prevented by propagating cleanliness beginning with the simple act of washing hands.  Socially responsible brands will create a very positive image about the brand. This is one of the best CSR campaign i’ve seen. I just loved the heart touching video and the message it delivers. 

Every year, two million children under five die of infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia. Lifebuoy has created a unique social campaign to create awareness on this disturbing statistic about children under 5 years. Thesgora has one of the highest rates of diarrhoea in India. The Gondappa campaign aims to improve hygiene standards in Thesgora village in Madhya Pradesh by providing handwashing education to children and their families to reduce the number of children dying from infections such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Hats off to Lowe & Lintas Partners and Lifebuoy for creating this masterpiece. Not to mention the background score is excellent as well. Credit goes to the whole team who have created the video. Special mention about the background score and tamil song by Clinto Cerejo, one the main singer in some of the ARR albums.

Client: Unilever Brand: Lifebuoy

Samir Singh,Rohit Bhasin, Myriam Sidibe, Anusha Gupta, Kristine Go, Shalini Seneviratne, Anila Gopal

Agency: Lowe Lintas + Partners

Creative Team: R. Balki / Amer Jaleel / Sagar Kapoor / Garima Khandelwal

Account Management: Virat Tandon / Vinay Vinayak / Rohit Chatterjee / Rohan Fernandes/ Natasha Sunderan

Account Planning: Varsha Chawda / Saji Abraham

Production House – Chrome Pictures Pvt Ltd Mumbai

Director – Amit Sharma

Producer – Prafull Sharma

DOP – Tapan Basu

Chief AD – Naved Ahmed

Editor – Shekhar Prajapati

Music – Clinton Cerejo

Links:
http://www.hul.co.in/brands-in-action/detail/Lifebuoy-adopts-Indian-village/346573/

https://www.facebook.com/LifebuoyIndia?brand_redir=1

http://www.youtube.com/user/helpachildreach5?feature=watch

Indian Fairness Cream Commercials - Emami, Ponds and Fair & Lovely

India’s fairness cream market is growing at rapid speed, fuelled by television  advertisement by the celebrities and the rapidly changing lifestyles. The Indian whitening cream market is expanding at a rate of nearly 20% a year. An industry that once was associated with Fair and Lovely and Vicco, now includes international heavyweights like Ponds, Dove, Vaseline, Nivea, L’Oreal, Garnier, Nuetrogena, and Emami, with more joining them every year. We are exposed to advertisements continuously  beaming in television which subconsciously leave their mark on us. These companies also use social media to reach their target consumers and provide real time advice, encouraging them to share their personal stories on various online forums, and influence consumption for a fraction of the cost. This post try to get into few of the commercials telecasted in TV recently. 

1. Ponds has roped in beautiful miss India Navneet Kaur Dhillon to promote their Pond's White Beauty BB + Fairness cream. Their ad agency is Ogilvy & Mather.

2. Emami holds 58% market share of men's fairness cream market in India. To overcome the competition from foreign players they have relaunched Emami Fair and Handsome with new packaging, new positioning and campaign along with brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan. Their ad agency is Situations Advertising. The commercial is about Shah Rukh Khan’s rise to stardom by wanting more (Zyada) from life. The campaign is also supplemented by outdoor, digital and print media promotions.

3. HUL Fair and Lovely holds around 50% - 60% of skin whiting market in India. The HUL ad shows Virat Kohli  endorsing Fair and Lovely Max. 
                                 

4. L’Oréal coming out promoting their product one by one in India. Garneir India ad agency is Publicis Capital India.