Snippets

idle browsing through the internet prompted me to start this. Small snippets of the interesting (to me!) happenings in and around out little world.

Sorry if most of these are marketing related events, but can't help. You can't expect a chocolate salesman to write about Rocket launches and underground sewage system right!

What next?

Lazy people, and insomniacs demand an apology from karan johar. The movie’s title has hurt their sentiments. Why should someone force me to wake up. This is a free country, and I have all the right to keep sleeping, with anyone er! I mean anytime.

Two months here in delhi has made me literally fall in love with the city. Everything out here is amazing. Especially the food. There are so many eateries, offering a wide range of options to satisfy every pocket. In fact, my favourite part in MINT is their weekend mid page where they have a tie up with TIME OUT, listing all the happenings in the metro. The food section there gets the most time share.

One more addition to the same is PlanForMe.com, a one-stop solution for all planning needs related to the food and hospitality industry, with its new print avatar of the website, in the form of a magazine called Food and Nightlife.

It is being positioned as a Delhi-centric magazine. With a cover price of Rs 30, the 60-page magazine will have an initial print run of 50,000 copies. Editorial content will form 70 per cent of the pages, while the remaining 30 per cent will be advertisements.

An the best part, By the end of this financial year, PlanForMe will be operational in Mumbai and Pune. By 2010, the company hopes to expand its reach to all the metros.

Though I am not all that a big foodie, who does not like good food?

Coming to the basic needs of life - mobile phones. no hello! it is no more the luxury it was a couple of years back. Now everyone holds a mobile. infact, a recent article in ET states that many indians actually have more than a single connection. trust india on extracting the maximum of schemes. i work for an MNC, selling chocoltes, and deal with distributors and retailers on a daily basis. trust me, even a 1% scheme, which might ammount to less than a few hundreds in a transaction of about a lakh matters a lot.

Anyways, coming back to the core issue - mobile phones. How many of you feel you are addicted to your mobile?. 99 out of 100 would refuse and claim that it is just another thing. But well, I firmly believe that 99 of 100 are actually addicted! Okay. Debatable.

Okay, chuck that. How many of you actually sleep with the mobile phone next to you?. A vast majority I am sure. A study says, “more than four in 10 Americans say they “can’t live” without their mobile phone and and nearly half sleep with it nearby”, according to a global mobile-phone survey from Synovate, which found that cellphones are increasingly becoming consumers’ “remote controls for life.”

This issue is something I have been working on for the past couple of months. Diwali gifting.

With the festive season well underway, people are gradually loosening their purse strings. Freebies, gift packs, discounts – FMCG players have pulled out all stops to attract customers. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dabur and Parle are some players that have come up with attractive schemes as in the previous years. All major players are eyeing 25-30 per cent growth in sales during the festive season. And well, my company is aiming much more than that. A never before seen spectacle.

Coca-Cola with its ‘Coca-Cola Khushiyan Replay’ consumer promotion campaign, a computer generated lucky draw would provide consumers with a chance to win Camcorders every hour for the next 40 days

Not to be left behind, PepsiCo India has come up with no less than eight different kinds of beverage gift packs consisting of its brands – Pepsi, 7Up, Mirinda and Tropicana, along with gift packs of snacks brands like Kurkure, Lays and Leher Namkeen. Damn! Direct competition. “Chitta, yeh teri boundary hai.. aur yeh meri. Mere area mein aake maal mat bechna!”
Can Dabur remain far? They have started selling gift packs with health as the selling point. Along with the real juice packs, the ‘Gift of good living’ – a container consisting Chyawanprash, Honey and Squeezy Honey would try to further the basic brand appeal – health.

Parle is also participating in the race, giving away free gift packs of Hide & Seek, Milano and assorted biscuits.

And who creates this category? Who shifts the consumer from the traditiona mithai and the dry fruits gifting of Diwali? more on that soon.

Last summer, during my stay at home, I was filled with nostalgia when I spoted a young cousin of mine reading the latest issue of Tinkle. I, like many of my age, have grown with Tinkle, chacha choudhary and the likes. And now Suppandi – the funny simpleton character from the magazine, is set to jump out from comic strips to the silver screen. ACK Media is producing a stereoscopic three-dimensional animation film, with Suppandi as the main character. The film would hit cinema halls in November 2010.

So these are small random items to keep you occupied before you read the rest of my weekend. I have already written it, and it has gone seven seas across for proof reading and editing. Will post it once it is approved!

ZooZoo’istan

Tonight after a battle for more than a month, the best team is about to be crowned. The IPL final is scheduled for tonight, and DC and RCB – the bottom two teams in the last season are battling out for the top honours. I am sure this would be some soothing news for SRK, and his KKR. They can expect to sweep the IPL, next year.

It was a wonderful 5 week odd thing, and a complete entertainer. The evening talk at the beach was totally filled with animated expressions of the previous day matches, and we even had to go to the extent of rescheduling our timings at the beach, depending on the IPL matches.

Who won, who lost? Who was the gainer, who was the loser? These are all cases for analysis by better cricket enthusiasts than myself, who just watches the match if there is no better thing on TV, or the remote control happens to be in my brother's control. Whoever wins tonight - The clear winner all along the way is - the ZOOZOO's. Yes, welcome to "ZOOZOOistan."

Vodafone has managed to come out with such fine simple ads, that these slim legged egg headed creatures have caught the imagination of the whole nation. Everywhere people are talking about this new mascot. Forty-four years after legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray created the iconic dwarf Ang, which was adapted by Hollywood director Steven Spielberg as the E.T., India now has a new cult of queer beings - the Zoozoos.

In the first place - What is a zoozoo?

Zoo´zoo`

n.

1.

(Zool.) The wood pigeon.

This is the dictionary meaning.

Some find these cute characters similar to aliens, others say they are just cartoon characters while there is a huge majority who just does not know what to make out of it. Yet, the white, funny creatures have been invading us on the huge screens all through the IPL.

Vodafone has managed it again – last year's IPL saw HAPPY TO HELP, to promote their customer service, and this year the ZooZoo's to convey the value added services (VAS) offering in each of the commercials.

The best part being the many number of different ads being aired. About 30 odd ads are having been created so as to maintain the interest and create a spur. It's no mean feat to unleash so many commercials at a go, with the risk of consumers not grasping them as fast as the brand churns them out.

Media spends and visibility for brands peak during the IPL, so no doubt Vodafone obviously wanted a piece of the pie. Ogilvy – the ad agency behind these characters and ads, experimented with several characters and finally took its love for the term 'egghead' one step too far, creating characters that don the colour white (with black dots for eyes and a mouth), have heads resembling eggs, and disproportionately thin bodies. You egghead!

The idea was to tell the VAS stories in a world akin to, yet different, from humans. The creatures were then given a characterisation: they are to lead simple lives, speak a language of their own (something that sounds like gibberish), move in a certain way, and even emote like human beings, with big frowns or big grins to do the trick. The execution is almost like emoticons.

The naming of them as "the Zoozoos", has no science to it – the name is just something fun, memorable and catchy, and not a clever one that's difficult to pronounce.

Zoozoo trivia: Ironically, nowhere in the communication does the Zoozoo name pop up.

Making of the Zoozoo

As thought initially, No, they aren't animated characters. They are human beings who were made to wear body suits. The design of the characters is such that one gets fooled into thinking it is animation. It is 'live' animation!" The emails of the pictures of the people behind the masks have been doing rounds of late.

A fabric with wrinkles would have shown when the characters moved, thereby shattering the illusion of animation, so a more thicker fabric was chosen as it was more practical.

Zoozoo trivia: human head would typically reach up to the mouth level of this giant Zoozoo head.

The thin limbs, contrasted with big bellies and a bulbous head, all add to the illusion that these creatures are 'smaller' than humans. Sets were created to suit the size of the Zoozoos. Cinematically, this 'size' was a trick: the creatures look smaller than they actually are on screen, to portray a different world of sorts. For this, the speed of shooting was altered. They were shot on a high-speed format to make them look the size that they do.

Even in the digital world

In the digital space, Zoozoos are currently featured on a specially created microsite, where one can partake in quizzes and contests, including the 'What kind of Zoozoo are you?' quiz. Each Zoozoo has a unique set of characteristics and traits allotted to it. The microsite also allows for goodies to be downloaded (including wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones), and offers details on the IPL. With a specially created YouTube channel on the site, the TVCs are provided there for people to watch and share.

Apart from the microsite, a Zoozoo fan page has been created on Facebook, which has more than 220,807 fans (on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 4:09PM. Dude, the number is increasing exponentially every day!), who have access to special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds (such as Zoozoo laughter and music tracks) and ad previews.

The page creators are clearly facebook savvy. They have uploaded albums, shared links and even created innovative zoozoo type products based on popular trends on facebook. That ludicrous "tag your friends into this sheet of cartoons depicting personality stereotypes" craze for instance. They have created two (admittedly very cute) pictures various zoozoos depicting personality stereotypes for people to tag. Hats off. Not only are the page managers homing in on a popular trend on the social networking site, they are also pulling off a clever piece of viral marketing. Now as more and more people tag their friends on these pages, it would just increase the brand recall of the campaign.

People are also following Zoozoos on Twitter and get updates whenever new commercials go on air.

So, from the famous hutch pug, to zoozoo's now, Vodafone here has a complete winner.

Awards

The cannes and other advertising and marketing awards can wait. The zoozoo's have already earned its first award - People for Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA) 2009 Glitterbox Award, for taking advantage of humane alternatives to the use of real animals in their ZooZoo ads.

The "Pug" commercial led to viewers purchasing pugs, and breeders cranking out as many puppies as they could. Later, when the appeal wore off, the dogs ended up in shelters or were abandoned. So you know what needs to be donw for the award:

1. Create an ad using animals and publicize them
   
2. Create your next ad again with the animals.
   
3. One more with the same animals..
   
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   
7. 
   
8. 
   
9. Now create an ad, with equally random creatures but no animals.
   

While the zoozoo's are there busy creating a spur for Vodafone, there is this one guy who just can't keep out of trouble – Varun Gandhi. Even after winning the election, he realized he was not being talked about anymore, and there he is misbehaving with journalists.

Brand Equity Ad agency Reckoner

While it shows in these times of recession and slowdown, that even malls are causing frustration among the people, and i am back from my trip to Manali and well into term 6, the best way to pass time is to watch ads.
It is time again to award those who build brands. The ad agencies and the people behind it.

Before we set out opening Youtube or google (now that it has reached 72% market share, i can safely assume that google is THE search vehicle), i guess it makes sense to take some time out and salute the people and agencies behind these wonderful ads. Why not? When we can adore Karan johar and ShahRukh Khan for hours, why should the ad people be left behind? i am sure many ads there are more fun to watch than the Dostana of karan johar (Except maybe for the venice scene where Aby excelled!!)

yes i am talking about the annual Brand Equity Ad agency Reckoner.The annual special edition, to be out today (Am awake waiting!!) has, over the last five years, emerged as one of the most-anticipated issues of Brand Equity (Economic Times on Wednesdays). Packed with power lists, rankings and analysis, the Agency Reckoner is a concise guide to India’s most admired creative and media agencies. And a reliable barometer for the hottest names in the business.

The question that’s foremost on many lips is whether Ogilvy will be able to hold on to the numero uno position for the sixth year running. Or will the successes of some agencies at Cannes — and the marketplace — see the rise of a new No 1? There’s also curiosity over which agency will top the Media Agency rankings — Mindshare, Madison or Starcom? And will there be dramatic changes in the Most Influential People lists? All we can say is there are surprises galore.

For the first time, this year’s Reckoner has also ranked agencies in three new verticals — Brand Promotion Companies, Digital Agencies and Design Specialists. This is in recognition of the emerging trend in marketing communications, where advertising spends are slowly but steadily being diverted into specialist channels. As always, Brand Equity is ahead of the curve in acknowledging the dynamics of a changing communications environment. Source : Economic Times

The thing that has really caught my eye is the way the edition and the event have been marketed, with these innovative ads. If not anyone else, probably the agency behind these ads should be given away the prizes. Subtle, made with low cost, but in line and very effective with an underlying humour. All speaking out the truth about the ad industry. probably Fashion conscious Madhur bhandarkar can get inspired and go on make Ad-War-Teasing (Sourced from PRISM - The marketing cell of IIML). Have a look at the award winning ads. Er! I mean the ads on the awards.





So, while i have a look into the latest scandal to hit the US markets and wait for the ET copy, do have a look around. Also, Hold your fingers close for my new blog on leadership Discovery as a compulsory part of my elective with the same name. it is being taught by Professor Debashis Chatterjee. He was described as one of the "thought leaders" of the world by Professor John Kotter of the Harvard Business School for his contribution to the theory and practice of leadership. So looking eager for more classes by him.

Also, soon to come is my post on my trip to Manali last weekend. So till then, have fun and look for your Rab arranged Jodi!!!

LUXOR Marketing

LUXOR - the company which makes markers, yes yes the same sketch pen lookalike, which we commonly use to colour our otherwise neat looking text books. It is also used by many to show that they have read the complete book. Even my cousin's 9 year old son, uses a fluorescent luxor marker, just colouring his text book, to avoid his mom's ire, for not studying. What he actually does is just picking up random lines from the text and 'highlighting' them.

On a personal note, i use it thinking i would read this part later, and it would help me before the exams to revise. But Alas! till the day of the exam not more than one chapter is 'highlighted'.

Anyways, this post is about the print ads by LUXOR. The campaign for Luxor Highlighters shows a full page of copy with historical information about historical characters. This copy is then highlighted with a Luxor highlighter in such a manner that the face of the historical character is outlined. The beauty of the ad lies in the fact that the copy, which is continuous, makes complete sense only when the highlighted portion is read too. The copy for the ad was readied after much research on the characters.( source: AFAQS)





I am not really sure about the choice of people except maybe Chaplin, but the ad speaks right of the highlighter. It does take a moment or two to really understand what it says, but a closer look clears, and the whole text seems coherent.

MTV Marketing

MTV has managed to be the youth icon for a decade or so now. (Ah! it voted Orkut as the youth icon last year, though )

It has been showing some really creative bent of late, and it reflects in each and every activity of theirs.

MTV managed to keep the buzz alive on its flagship hugely popular reality show - Roadies, even when the season was not running. Constantly showing repeat runs, involving the game participants in another reality show - Splitsvilla, and even launching the Roadies Cheatcode DVD set. This has managed to keep alive the same enthu all across, and also keep the cash registers ringing.

Also in adopting the latest youth fabs as the medium to reach out to them, MTV was always the front runner.It make use of Social Media marketing and is using the Orkut community MTV Roadies Battleground to create an Online Contest which is similar to the show's TV version, making it completely interactive.

The roadies show is now ready to go more international after the last year's stint at bangkok. Its Australia now. The posters for the city auditions are mind blowing if anything.


The campus programs also manage to mantain the same fun language. the recent event that it has launched in premier BSchools - A typical BPlan competition, but positioned it as " DO SOME DIFFERENT SHIT". The whole tone of the competition is quite informal, quite appealing to its target segment - Youth. Right way to attrat the young managers to join Vizacom18.

Also, the latest series to hit its screens - "FULLY FALTOO FILM FESTIVAL". The ads presented here are filled with humour. The poster itself would create the curiosity to watch the show atleast once.

Admimst all this, hoow can it miss out India's OSCAR entry.

Amnesty ads in China

Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a Western based international non-governmental organization which defines its mission as "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.( Source: Wikipedia)

The motto of the organisation is - "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"

The recently concluded Beijing Olympics were spectacular, no doubt about it. Beijing Olympics was the platform China had created to showcase its might, its arrival to the world.

Amnesty tried its full might to highlight the human rights issue in the nation through this platform.The Chinese authorities pledged that human rights would improve through the hosting of the Games. Amnesty swears to hold them to their word, particularly in areas linked to preparations for the Olympics judging their progress and inform the world. The core aim being to assess the impact of the Games on human rights in China, to highlight important related issues and to get the world involved.

Some of the ads it had come out with, to highlight the issue to the global masses are -




When i first saw these ads, had not heard much about amnesty and its activities, nor much about the grave Human rights issue in the neighbouring country. The ads have striked an emotional chord and have gone down well conveying the message in quite a relevant manner.