Category: India

  • 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?

  • Impositioning

    No, thats not an opposite, more a reminder of the days in school when we were made to write a spelling or a multiplication table multiple times in a bid to make us memorise it. Can’t remember if it worked, though the Bart Simpson version of imposition during the Simpsons titles works for me 🙂

    But we aren’t a sitcom blog, so the blog title refers to the stance taken by a lot of brands as far as positioning goes. While i do not even contest the importance of positioning during the launch of a product, i definitely argue on hanging on to a positioning, especially if it is in the form of a tagline. This is an era in which brands are being forced to re-consider their existence strategy on the face of a changing media and user landscape, and to carry on a love affair with a tagline might be absolute harakiri.

    My favourite examples of  brands which have reinvented itself consistenctly, and been succesful at it would be Pepsi and MTV. Pepsi was cool when they made iconic lines like ‘Yehi hain right choice baby’, ‘Yeh Dil Maange More’ , ‘Nothing Official about it’, and they’re still cool when they make Shah Rukh an ‘uncle’, even though some people refer to it unfairly as an ad for SRK’s and John’s toilets. MTV was hot when Nonie (sigh) used to be around, and still is er, with Cyrus ;). The difference between the two youth brands is that while pepsi could not change the product, and has to resort to positioning and packaging and other innocations like say, gaming to keep being cool, MTV had the liberty to change content to suit a changing young generation, but both have done a commendable job without hanging on to lines for too long.

    Look around, and you’ll see taglines which are redundant, and ones which cause more harm than good. This is a case in point. I wish the energy and time spent on evolving catchy taglines would also be spent on making better products and delivering better service. Rather than trying to impose a certain point of view on the audience’s mind by repeating catch phrases for years, wouldn’t it be much better to deliver a good product/service and communicate it effectively in the right context?

    And yes, the reason Bart’s imposition works for me is because he changes it in every episode and still keeps it funny. He evolves.

  • Social Responsibility

    And the mother of ’em all is finally here- My Space. I wonder if the promos happening on Channel V for its campus star is My Space’s idea of an Indian launch. I hope not, because i kinda liked Big Adda’s efforts, and hope to see a good brand campaign from My Space.Meanwhile, i read this article recently, which talked about social networking fatigue.

    While it did make interesting reading, and gave what could be a popular perspective about the sites, i would tend to disagree on the fatigue factor.While I admit to being a more recent convert to all the sites, i’ve been on orkut and facebook long enough to have come across fatigue if it was lurking there. In fact, the case could be true of orkut where my involvement has perhaps seen a downturn after i joined facebook. But thats because Orkut doesnt have enough meat (IMHO) to keep me interested, and that’s precisely what differentiates Facebook. Its not just about messages and photo sharing, vampires/werewolves and forwards, its also about applications which cater to your interests in life – be it word games like scrabble, Tv shows like Heroes, or the philosophy of Ayn Rand, or a simply super group like ‘I love trashy Hindi movies’, the list just goes on.

    I can’t see fatigue setting in when i’m playing scrabble with friends, while buying and selling in the fantasy stock exchange, and doing a likeness test with my friends and so on. In fact, the kind of fatigue i see is in the number of sites that keep cropping up. While (with the entry of My Space) we have three globally recognised networks, we also have the local clones like minglebox, yaari, Big Adda etc. And here’s were the fight will happen.Thats because there are users, and quite possibly the majority, who are into the social networking sites because its the in thing, and offers the (by now) plain vanilla benefit of connecting with friends. Once that connecting is done, their attention span becomes fleeting, and they’d hop, skip and jump to the newest site before you can say ‘Scrap’.

    So every new site launched and every new campaign for them would create a ripple in that market.But then, there’s also the user who’ll try to derive value from a network which offers such avenues for him, and for him there’s no fatigue. If the site keeps adding stuff that will add to the user stickiness, then they would have to worry only if a better product comes into the market, not because of the wannabes that appear from time to time.

    In essence, social networks, as every other commodity, will be solely responsible for how long they keep the user, depending on the value they create.So you see, the writing, as they say, is on the wall 🙂

    and i bid adieu, wishing you all the best in your socialising efforts..

  • Of content being king

    actually in this case, what triggered the post was a queen. For those of you who haven’t been watching MTV, do take a look at this.
    While I’m not sure about the origin of their latest positioning (its my MTV), and how their content is fitting in, I’m sure that as far as their advertisers go, they’ve been at it for a while – creating customised ads for clients that pass on the client’s brand attributes in absolute MTV style. I remember the stuff they had made for Xbox, and recently, the Vodafone song, though i didnt find that very appealing.
    In an age where every ad practically screams out for the customer’s mindspace, the MTV brand of humour is definitely a differentiator. I’m sure a lot of my friends might watch MTV to see glimpses of Rani Bonkeshwari (the link earlier) 🙂 , and that is where MTV scores a win-win. I really hope they don’t overdo it, and keep giving us stuff thats good.
    and i bid adieu while you enjoy

  • 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 🙂