Category: Strategy

  • Coke and Bull

    At the risk of being questioned about what i had for breakfast or about my recent smoking habits, i have decided to post this absurdity.

    Saw the new Coke ad yesterday featuring HR (no, not the unfriendly department kind or the topi kind, but the Roshan kind). According to agencyfaqs, research stated that a lot of youngsters, after their regular nightlife go to street food joints, thats true for most cities, and since coke goes with most food, that right there, was the thought behind the ad. Fair enough. The line now is ‘Jashn mana le’ as opposed to ‘Piyo Sir, Uthake’ (er, something like that).

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    Meanwhile thats not the absurdity i was talking about. Since HR and Ash are both citizens of Cokistan, how much fun would it be to do an MTV style spoof on the song ‘Jashn -e-bahaar’ from Joe Tha Akbar (copy error, ignore), with a video to match, and use it as a brand ad for Coke?

    For those who have concluded that I’ve lost it, wonder what you’d have thought if i shared the other idea that also involved Celina Jaitley, the brand ambassador for Jashn, an ethnic Indian wear brand.

    until next time, I’ve not been on coke!!

  • Connecting Ads

    A couple of posts back, I’d written about the possibility of brands getting together to make a TVC. And Hallelujah, they’re listening :). Airtel and Nokia (and SRK and Madhavan) have teamed to bring us a combo ad, which though begins as if a lot of people are suddenly having heart attacks, has been done quite well. See, SRK really meant it when he said thoda wish karo. Oh Okay, i was just being mean 😀

    While these were two completely related products (mobile handset and service provider), what I’d like to see is an ad featuring products whose only relation to each other is the target audience they’re aiming at, and the way the brands fit into their lives, either by say, time (Gillette + Kelloggs) or geography (Woodland + Vodafone). Strange, but fun.

    Meanwhile, i read on agencyfaqs that Simply Marry has tried a viral approach to marketing. I had a look at the site, and while the animation and music is pretty decent, i felt the entire concept is too frivolous to become a viral. In fact, I’d like to pitch another thing to them. Why couldn’t they just buy over a property like this, and then start making episodes of these with more and different characters. Meanwhile, also make it multi platform and offer downloads of mobisodes, if the idea is also for 58888 to make money. They can even do an entire reality series based on this and air it on Zoom and Times Now. Even if not a TV reality show, this can be an MMS based mobile reality show. Connect to a Reliance/Vodafone/Airtel or even that insufferable Tata Indicom (free couple available with brand)  and they’d be happy to partner, i guess. Promotion shouldn’t be a problem with the group’s immense newsprint strength. Considering this is a ‘metromonial’ site, I’m sure all these media are toppers in their respective genres. Yes, all except ‘Isko Dekho’, though statistics and niches can be found, i bet.

    until next time, howzzat for connections? 😉

  • Added Advantage

    I happened to see the new ad of Pizza Hut. Now, I am not very sure if the following is a figment of my imagination, so bear with me. Bappi Lahiri is a brand ambassador now (no, thats not where the imagination comes in). He is the only one visible in the edited version of the TVC, but in a larger version, i thought i saw Hari Sadu and the guy who spells out H A R I. Dont tell me you’ve already forgotten the naukri ad. In fact, the theme of the campaign is on the lines of ‘a happy ending’, and keeping with that Hari Sadu offers the guy his job back and apologises.

    Like i said, I’m not sure if i’m factually right (in case anyone from Pizza Hut is reading this, yes, then i will know this blog is getting somewhere, please clarify), but it does throw up a lot of interesting opportunities for brands to work together on a commercial, if they have a similar audience to reach. I think this commercial has used the equity of Hari Sadu brilliantly. Its a bit like K Jo bringing back characters from his earlier movies (remember the star counting sardar kid of KKHH in K3G. hey, why isnt KJo getting sued?) except in this case, these are different unrelated brands.

    Think of the possibilities. In a slice of life scenario, the number of brands that could appear contextually is enormous, imagine a scenario of the morning rush to office, from the shaving blade to the cereal breakfast to the soap to the apparel and accessories, to the vehicle to the radio station listened to on the way and everything in between, everything is a brand. And so, brands share the cost and come up with interesting, funny etc storylines that fits the ethos of all brands concerned. What do you think?

    and until next time, have you seen the times jobs version of Hari Sadu?

  • Idiotbox 2.0

    Saw this , apparently the first sitcom (in India), thats been made specially for alternate viewing platforms like internet, mobile etc. Haven’t seen all the episodes, but from the first two, it ain’t too bad. At least its not like Ekkta KKapoor stuff, and the characters are all very urban. But i digress, this is not a review blog!! 🙂
    I’ve always been interested more in content coming onto the net, as say, opposed to internet on TV. While there might not be too many differences at a later stage as far as end products go, i feel that the television can never be a personal medium, not as much as the net.
    Meanwhile, doesnt a sitcom for the net offer tremendous possibilities as far as brands go? For one, you can clearly measure audiences, and their reaction to what you do with your brand online . In addition, there is all the stuff that are mantras currently – offline and online media partnerships, product placements etc. And of course, the costs of production and definitely distribution would be really less, which also means the scope for experimentation is huge -brands making more films and UGC ones at that with the product being weaved into the storyline (HLL, oops, HUL could do wonders with that, i’m sure)
    How is this different from say, a YouTube? For one, it’ll not be completely user generated, and the brand could build a site/microsite to ensure stickiness. And second, and most importantly, its the content, silly, its almost like the brand having its own channel. Would you watch an ad, or would you rather watch a sitcom with brands featured?
    But like many other web related things in India, i guess all this will take some time, hopefully, only time.
    and i bid adieu, while you start making the popcorn 🙂

  • The Next Big Thing

    No, this is not the major announcement about an awesome new service I’ve developed, thats later..sigh

    This is about the Ambani kind of Big, and its amazing to see what i consider a perfect duplication of the strategy that made an oil, petrochemical conglomerate. Backward integration. Only ADAG is not stopping at that. Its going horizontal too. Its putting its fingers in every pie that has some stake in the entire big pie of communication and entertainment – be it content or distribution.
    Lets talk about distribution first. They have a nationwide CDMA serivce provider, hell, even a GSM provider in a few markets. Smart!! They will roll out a DTH operation very soon, and they already have the retail version of broadband up and running. Its only a matter of time before they make a big impact in the consumer broadband space, and I’m not even taking the ubiquitous datacard into consideration. Which basically means they have 3 platforms – mobile, internet and television neatly tied up. A small bylane in distribution – Big FM, Big Flicks. FM is not that small, and Flicks is a good start to a click and mortar way of functioning. In fact so is FM, because a friend who works there recently sent me a link to their podcast!!
    Now the meat – content. You want movies, they got Adlabs. You want music, they got Big Music. Oh, you’re that new gen animal that thinks UGC and social networking is cool, welcome to Big Adda.
    I’d like to think that somewhere i have seen a fragment of the big picture that the younger Ambani has in his head. The more i see it, the more i admire it, coz he really thinks big.
    Meanwhile, if/when they integrate from a brand communication perspective, they have a perfect family friend who can be ambassador. Yup, you guessed it, Big B 😉
    and i bid adieu thinking zapak is a whole new ballgame 😀