One-upmanship

Sujit from gkk-mode mailed me these ads post the Kingfisher tactical advertising post. This one's a classic. Had heard about them. I hope they are real and not internet generated scam ads:-)

We Made Them Change

A friend of mine from Chennai mailed me this pix.

Says he - "Following the Jet-Air Sahara deal, Jet Airways went thru with a few
changes, one of them included a change in their colors - logo, uniform, etc

Last week, at many places across the city, big Jet Airways hoardings were
put up with their new punch-line, "We've changed."

Barely 36 hours later, KingFisher came up with an even bigger hoarding
declaring "We made them Change."

Seems like a war mirroring the Cola ones!"

Well, at least better than the advertising we have seen from Kingfisher till now except Yana of course...)

GoaFest : Absolut Patli Gali

I think I pronounced my judgement on GoaFest a day too early! After the impressive event, came the dampener. The actual award show was ABSOLUT SCAM-VERTISING!

As Trevor Beattie said in his interview - you could spot the scams from a mile!

Amongst the biggest scamsters this year was Rediff! There was almost nothing that they had done for their biggest clients - Airtel or Colgate! Most of the awards were won for vague clients like the Midland Second Hand Book Shop!!

The worst categories were print and out-door, where almost 80% of the work appeared to be SCAM.

What is particularly depressing is that as an industry we are endorsing and celebrating the scam culture! So little respite in the years to come either...

I sorely missed Ogilvy. I think Ogilvy alone at the Abbys had more authentic/ mainstream work than all the agencies combined at the GoaFest.

So, in the end I would give full marks to GoaFest - the event and spectacle. But if one has to see genuine work, one would still have to rely on the men in black!

Beattie FCUKs Scam Ads

For the official version on the Goa Ad Fest goto agencyfaqs! For the spice and straight from the trenches feel, stay tuned!

With a weak broadband link, its increasingly difficult to upload stuff...but I shall try my best.

In the two days, Ad Fest has upstaged Abbys as the numero uno advertising awards. It's been organised like an International event. A round of applause to the AAAI. Well done guys! But for the heat it's been a spectacle.

The beach, the babes(!!!), the booze, the water sports, down to the msn bike-taxis ferrying people up and down the ad village, every thing's been well thought out.

Just came back from Trevor Beattie's one hour chat! The guy was full steam and theatre. And boy did he take the pants of scam ads!

Some quick fire Beattie bytes before I rush again for the awards...

1. "I think the world is divided into two camps - the ones who care and the ones who don't"

2. Scam ads should be called cheat ads as you cheat the clients, the consumers and most of all yourself!

3. "Let's be very clear. We don't do ART. We do COMMERCE"

4. I guess in the ad industry we all need to say something nice about someone behind their backs.

5. in my whole life I might have had just two BIG IDEAS...What we all need to take to clients are a whole bunch of small ideas that take the brand forward.

6. The great work will speak for itself...

That's all I can manage...Gotta rush to the venue!

Another School. More Fresh Thoughts

I have written about SchoolOfDavid, the open-source learning lab at David. Read more about it here...Post our merger, the school resurfaces under the brand name - Incubates.

I took my first session in Delhi earlier this week. Curious new faces! Generally got the impression that they liked this introductory session on 'what is account planning!'.

But the best reward was this e-mail I got from a Sr. AE today...
Hi,
Was listening to this song from the film life in a metro "in dino". there's a line in the song which says

jab mile thodi fursat khud se karle mohabbat

i think it's an awesome line and these days most of us have no time for ourselves...too apt for today's generation.
Let me know what you think of it.

I too think it's a nice line/feeling...
I am never surprised at the level of understanding and creativity inherent in the young minds of our industry, even as we berate the lack/ exodus of talent. But what heckles me no end is that most often we fail to tap into/ train/ motivate this reservoir of talent...

Hope, we will be able to make a small difference...Okay got to go. Got to pack my bags for the Goa Adfest...

Haig : A Sunday Well Spent

I love the shape and smell of old cars. But it took my wife's initiative to herd me for the Haig Vintage Car Rally yesterday at Kala Ghoda.

Neo had great fun. Thrilled as he was in the local from Bandra to Kala Ghoda and back. In fact, the beauty pageant of the Mercs, the Chevys, the Austins, the Buicks, the Hindustan 10 owned once by the Maharaja of Jaipur, the Maurice 1938( Mumtaz drove in it), the VW military tempo, the 1949 Maurice( with an all women team) and many others made it a memorable day...

I think it was a great promotion and branding idea from Haig - apparently the oldest Scotch guys in the world! Subtle, substantive and a sensory treat...

New Age Brands Have a Different Ning!

A little late in the day(48 hours back to be precise), I discovered the online social networking brand Ning introduced to me by my new digital partner and co-conspirator(John Lambie)!

Okay, back to Ning. After 48 hours I try to discover more about it. Google for the site but find that it's down for repairs. However, I still end up liking it. Because it's got a sense of humour and a message that's warm and human. It's also got a cute little bear trying to repair the site...

Ning like a person apologises for the technical snafu and directs me to the Ning blog and enthusiastically gives me an approx. timing when it would be up and running...

In fact this is what the message reads - At midnight tonight, we're going to take Ning offline to add a few new features. We'll be back in action by the time the bars in California close and you'll be free to resume your late night social networking.

Guys my 10 year old credit card company, 7 years old mobile service provider company, my 8 year old bank none talk to me like this - in a normal voice that's full of life, zest and quirkiness!

I like the brand feel of Ning...Here's the post in 48 hours for Ning...Never wrote one for my bank or the credit card, etc.

I guess as we step into this new age/ digital lifestyle era, brands even while they ride mass media vehicles need to have a human voice. Stuffiness of the analog, hierarchy driven marketing era won't get brands love marks from customers!!

Flash Promos Ki Khareed Mein Samajhdaari Hai?

When Flash Brands/ branding is here, would flash promos be far behind.

Flash promos are single day promotional(invariably price-off) offers. Often they might last for just a few hours!

I guess they stoke the growing acquisitive and impulse-led buying patterns in much of urban India.

Shopping for a small part of cash-rich urban India is now an acquisitive sport. However, under intense time constraints, there is no stamina to do a 'Lalitaji' kind of detailed 'samajhdari' purchase.

Instead, there is just enough time for a quick McPuchase. Enter the flash promos. When they are from trusted brands. They reassure quality. They entice with their slashed prices. And their 'buy-now-or-regret-later' proposition gives it the veneer of 'samajhdaari'.

Last month, I was almost pulled into one such offer from HP. A heavily discounted flash offer from HP on a Laptop + Printer combo. Even though I had no real need for the printer!

But for the lack of a convenient physical demo of the product, I would have been a victim of the Rs. 39,999/- flash offer!

It's just as I flipped the Mumbai Mirror today, I once again saw the HP flash offer -'Hurry, offer valid between 8am and 8pm today only':-)

But I am becoming 'Flash Smart'!!

Let me be a train. No logo please!

I am sure many of you must have read about the decision by South Western Railways to auction the rights to have a train named after brands!! So guys, brace yourself for Kurkure Mail, Pepsi Express, LG Rajdhani, Ujala Local and more...

The initiative, called Brand Train, basically entails the use of a train as an advertising space, where the brand name would feature in all of that particular train’s announcements, reserved tickets, reservation charts and so on. As of now the deal is limited to certain summer specials, but if successful the experiment could be enlarged to embrace more trains.

In fact there was a debate in the TOI on this...It's one of those stupid marketing ideas that have no concern for environment sensitivity. Yes, It may earn the railways some money but at the immense cost of 'aesthetic, visual and cultural pollution'.

1. Argues an emotionally charged Kautilya Kumar( don't know who he is, as TOI doesn't believe in sharing details about its writers and contributors)- What’s in a name? A lot, particularly if the name invokes an imaginary space rich in culture and geography.

Imagine the Netravati Express being renamed after a soap or a sari? Or Rupasi Bangla being prefixed with the brand name of a coffee or a condom?

Netravati and Rupasi Bangla stimulate our imagination. The former, a river that cuts through the Konkan, invokes a world that is lush, green and fertile.

The name captures the sound and the silence of a river that links the Sahyadri to the Arabian Sea. Rupasi Bangla celebrates the memory of a great poet; it captures the landscape of Jibanananda Das’s evocative poetry. A train thus becomes a bridge connecting a traveller to the cultural memory of a people and the natural wealth of a place.

2. Train names reflect geography, culture; make us realise our diversity...I don't think there is any space or sense for marketing/ advertising to enter anywhere near a train.

It's an utterly ill-thought, idiotic idea that must be protested against and nipped in the bud.

Also, with the laws of diminishing returns having already set in the over-stimulated out-door landscape, we need more surprise and sensitivity in the creative expression of commercial messages.

Mere plastering the logo won't sell more soap, sandals or saris!

The Great Idea Myth - Simon Solves It For Me

I have always believed it to be true. At least for the last 10 years. Ideas are easy to produce. A dime a dozen. But I don't think anybody would have agreed with me. Least of all some 'creative types'(in an agency). Who routinely hide behind plumes of smoke, frequent breaks, large egos, being rude to servicing, being undisciplined, etc.

After all these years, I read Simon talking a similar language. What a relief! My hypothesis has been verified by this sample of one:-)

Buy why this myth that ideas are difficult to produce, in the first place?
Great ideas are. But then they are rare anyways! And most of them happen outside of advertising!

1. Our industry has an abundance of mediocre minds/ idiots who just have a creative designation/ swipe card. They are actually young and old farts who wouldn't get a job anywhere else. Their idea productivity is sub-optimal. And I suspect they are present in decent numbers in every agency in India today!

2. If you say ideas are easy to produce, you take away the glamour/ the black-box syndrome!

3. Maintain that ideas come with great difficulty and you can buy a ton of time and even manage to waste most of it.

4. Perpetrate and protect the myth that only the 'creative badge wearers' can get those elusive ideas. And you protect your job and the fat salaries.

And I love what Simon says next in his post - "Ideas might be difficult. But not the coming up with ideas part. The truly tough part is knowing what to sacrifice and what not to when protecting the idea, coming up with more ideas to help 'sell in' the idea, having the tenacity to constantly tweak and shape and develop the idea (crafting). being sure enough to know your idea is strong enough to be done on a smaller budget, being mature enough to be able to see beyond awards, being generous enough to know that the idea isn't yours at all, but is owned by many."

5. By rubbishing every idea that doesn't originate in the 'creative department(gawd, how I hate this department word), the creative types have succeeded in breaking the confidence of young minds(in servicing or planning or traffic, wherever it is applicable).

So guys, lets write, create, paint, draw, post-it, posterize it, art direct it.
Believe that good ideas are simple to get.
That everybody is creative.
And that with practice ideas are even more easy to get.
It's the creative apartheid within an agency that's the difficult part.

But walls are fast crumbling. In the digital era, there may be little room for 'mediocre minds/ idiots' or over-the-hill prima donnas! Neither is there any time to fret on the differences and 'the ideas are difficult to get' story!

Thanks Simon for bringing the topic up! While on the subject, do read Russell's post that sparked Simon's post!

You may want to read a related post...

Big Idea : Management meets Marxism

27 year old Chepuri Srikrishna from IIM A has created history of sorts by volunteering to intern at the CPI(M) office. He is the first guy in IIMs 46-year history to opt for this experience...

When I read about him in ET, I instantly loved his guts and 'thinking outside the box'. Says he - "The CPI(M) is not against reforms. They are against the pace of reforms. It is trying for industrialisation in West Bengal. The party stands for a certain section of people. It is not anti-people" He added that - " the IIMs are not anti-Left either".

Srikrishna had been impressed by Sitaram Yechury's speech and then set his mind on doing his intern at the CPI(M).

A self-proclaimed "left-of-centre" individual Srikrishna sees no alternative to economic reforms. "How to control the pace of reforms to allow the under-privileged sections to cope with change" is the challenge he hopes to meet partly through his internship at the CPI(M).

Maybe its time to do the reveres as well. Get some fire-brand young party workers from the heartland into advertising to shake up things a little:-)

Million Rupee Smiles Vs 2 Rupee Sweat

Two very different pictures stuck in my head over the week-end. The first was that of the three giggling Miss India's. Now a familiar annual photo-op.

Backed by an indulgent media, aggressive cosmetic companies and a desire to promote surface beauty above all else, this annual ritual of beauty celebration is the dumbest and amongst the most crass forms of consumerist imports from the West.

These women, supposedly represent India on a world stage. Qualifications include an intense and early aspiration, a beauty coaching regimen and a mechanical parroting of social conscience...These women then become the role models for a young and aspiring India!

The other far more liberating picture was that of these Tirupati women barbers who have stormed a male bastion.
Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam has broken away form an age-old tradition by allowing them to wield razors for tonsuring heads in the temple town, as part of the ritual of thanksgiving to Lord Venkateshwara for boons granted.

Currently there are 18 female barbers. They get paid a mere Rs. 2 for each tonsure. And they tonsure anywhere between 10-60 devotees a day!!

But of course, organised media does not have much space to show-case such grass-root changes! They are busy splashing manicured pictures of beauty. After all while the smiles are worth millions, the sweat costs a mere Rs. 2!

What holds Bollywood scripts together?

Kapil mailed me this Fevicol ad which is a good example of a hand-painted Bollywood poster. Thanks Kapil!

Will Street Meet Strategy?

Was speaking to David, our regional training head in the morning. Predictably like most non-Indians he too was struck by the vibrant colour and diversity of our country.

Later, on board the flight to Delhi, came across a feature on street art in the in-flight magazine JetWings!

There is so much ingenuity in the street. Something which we must capture while we tell our brand stories. The 'Street' is far more original, colourful, messy and alive than the manufactured images in most of our ads...Picture from Jetwings : Paining on a house wall in Calcutta by the popular local artist, Ajay Kar
Picture : Paintings on the bodies of trucks
This is a really unusual cross-over of ethnic cultural motifs and practical messages. A medium which has barely been tapped into by big brands.
The format is very Indian, very street and the content 'very native Indian wisdom'!Picture : A mural at Bandra Reclamation
Any form of street art not only produces a gallery of colourful images but also provides a platform to explore regional variations.

Will commercial communication tap into street art or will we just allow homogenised electronic-age images to smoothen all our diversity into a blander, uniform landscape...

Big Idea : Finishing Schools for Rural Youth

Often I find advertising ideas to be quite small. Mostly, that's a limitation of our trade...But many-a-time a reflection of the size of our thoughts. Shackled as many industry minds are by a 30sec structure and generally inflated egos!

Therefore, I loved this 'finishing schools for rural youth to curb attrition' idea of Azim Premji!(read it in ET).

Wipro has set up finishing schools in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh on an experimental basis. Under this, students from interior parts are selected and given training in English and IT skills for 6 months.

These rural students are barely 10th/ 12th pass. Not typically eligible for any IT job. The 6 month training readies them for a proper job in the IT industry.

Wipro and Premji believe that apart from creating newer employment opportunities, the students from these rural finishing schools would be loyal, determined to prove themselves and a definite value-addition to the company.

Wipro, under another education programme imparts training to primary teachers and students. Till date, it has engaged in training 2.5mn children from the interior parts of 16 Indian states.

Both the efforts are great,laudable examples of the corporates giving back to society instead of merely creating islands of excellence...

Wish the communication industry too had the bandwidth, the vision and the money to do something similar...

The strands of DNA

About a year back, two newspapers were launched in Mumbai - HT and DNA! Contrary to my initial expectations, DNA outsells HT by a good margin...I guess DNA Mumbai was amongst the most hi-profile and expensive media brand launches in 2006!

I regularly read(okay snack) both HT and DNA and have been following the brand trajectory rather keenly. My thots on brand DNA(triggered by their new campaign)in no particular order...

1. The Dainik Bhaskar group(which co-owns DNA) has perfected the art of launching newspapers in new markets after doing a huge consumer research...Full points to people-led-marketing . It works.I think it helped DNA get its initial lead over HT in Mumbai. The marketing efforts also looked sufficiently distinct from the leader TOI.

2. I sort of liked the voice-of-people tonality of the launch campaign. Of course, it helped that HT had a totally ambiguous 'Let there be light' launch campaign done by Ogilvy!

3. On any given day, I have always found more content(in an absolute sense) in DNA than HT.

4. But what's perhaps lacking in DNA is a POV, a sharper articulation of what brand DNA is...On the other hand, HT under Vir Sanghvi appears to me a newspaper brand with a balanced POV. Though ironically it's Mumbai launch was with the cover story on the scandalous Salman - Ash tapes:-)

5. I feel DNA should have worked more on the people-generated content/ brand landscape. A more approachable, a more conversational brand. Not just in content but also in tonality.
Clearly the current campaign - 'Start a Conversation' is a bit distant and cold for the brand as I carry it in my head as a reader...

Conversations with strangers/ anyone often start with a degree of hesitancy, a certain languidness and a general warmth over chai/coffee tonality...
Which this campaign with its stark images sorely lacks even as it hits you from massive hoardings in the city.

6. As a reader I have felt more comfortable with the design/lay-out of HT. It's smart, it has an even spread of content...Neither too text heavy. Nor too visually indulgent. Just the right amount of information for a quick but relaxing browse.

DNA on the other hand chokes me with information even though I admire its attempt to feed me more news every morning. Relative to HT its not easy on the senses. I would have loved a little more naturalness in the lay-out rather than a sense of contrived exactness. The DNA layout appears a bit FMCG-ised...

The models in the current ad campaign are like that. Cardboard picture-perfect-caricatures...Like the product, the brand communication could do better if it loses its stiffness...

I think in the case of DNA, its a case of the product leading the brand...And a change of agency from Rediffusion-DY&R to Contract hasn't helped much.

The brand needs to focus on its DNA, which to me the reader appears to be a strand of collaboration, conversation, cause and of course good content!!

Being David - A Spirit Rarer than Tanzanite

It's a special day and a sad one...As I write this post, there are packers all around me, wrapping the last remains of a small agency called David.

It's funny how much I have got attached to this agency in just over 12 months!

Are we the creative hot-shop that the world(well, part of it at least) calls us?
Maybe we are not.
Are we radical in the way the edgier agencies in the western hemisphere have adopted new media?
No again...

But, I can say with certainty that Brand David as it stood and shone is/ was culturally the richest agency brand in India!

Before it was decided to merge it with Bates Asia. Because it makes sense to have a stronger mid-sized network in the region...

But in life and in business what makes sense may not always be right!
Cultures are about shared dreams. They need more nurture and less merger!

After my initial anger and resilienece, the planner in me has bought into the merger.
David hasn't.

You may ask, if we aren't edge-ily creative or new media mavericks...what makes us so special...

My list wud include the following.

1. Josy Paul - the maverick guy who along with Madhukar Sabnavis and now Kumar started it all.

2. I don't know about the other 5 years but in the last one year while I have been a David, Josy has helped create a culture of creative strategists...

Creative in the new millennium is not about 'silo thinking'! The best work comes from a seamless integration of creativity and thinking! And we have here in our play-rooms and on the WallOfDavid.

We have done brave thinking...The results may not match to our efforts...But in our thinking and culture, we may be as edgy as W+K, Mother, Naked, et al...

3. David's model of senior guys hands-on everything and lots of energetic young Davids worked for us!

4. We have possibly the best training program in the country...It was called endless converstaions between youthful energy and passionate experience...
No closed doors, just windows of opportunity for everyone...

And our open-source training programme 'SchoolOfDavid' was amongst the most 'fun-and-play' modules possible in our industry.

5. A while ago I read in BusinessWeek that the metal Tanzanite is rarer than even diamond. As it is mined in just one small dusty town of Tanzania...I may sound utterly soppy and nostalgic, but the spirit of David is a rarer metal than even Tanzanite...

I think I was a David before joining David and believe that all of us(Davids) will retain a part of it where we go next...

It's very easy in today's world to buy technology, sometimes even market shares but it's next to impossible to buy or create BELIEF...

I feel David was a network/ agency with a great belief and energy eco-system...

It's unfortunate that it had an abrupt end. But what is important is that we lived the life of Davids...And hopefully will always retain it...

Brand Hype Vs Consumer Retaliation

Amongst the most hyped commodities in India is the Indian Cricket team. Other strong contenders being 'The Economy', 'Mumbai' and 'India's Software Prowess'...
Talking of cricket - the ads, the media crescendo and the moolah almost always outshines the actual performance of the cricket team...

Media of course gets the TRPs, either way! On the up-swing and the downward-spiral...
But the advertisers really get screwed when on top of the hype, the team fails miserably!

One of the brands that repeatedly doesn't learn from this is the lost-its-sheen-a-long-time-ago Pepsi in India...

And when the hype gets punctured, the consumers get back at the brand and the endorsers...Earlier it used to be localised conversations and pent up anger. But UGC(User-generated-content) has taken over.

Today, consumers talk back, make fun and de-pedestal their icons almost instantly and then share with the world!! Technology is a great tool to retaliate against the hype...Sample this( got it on mail just a while ago).

Separated @ Birth

Found the two in current issues of Business Week and Femina:-)

Snacking on English

Saurabh had this interesting post on thotblurb on the exploding market for self-help books(in English) in India!

Since like many others, I have traversed the path from small town India to Mumbai, the city of dreams, I have lived through this fast-track booming India and its fascination for self-help. My addendum to Saurabh's pointers...

1. India may not be unique, any fast-track economy will have a huge demand for 'fast-track literature'!

2. I disagree with the premise that most of the non-textbooks till now have been bought for leisure reading...a visit to any wheelers book-store even a decade back wud have revealed a fat proportion of 'kaamyaabi kaise paayein' books! Competition Success Review has been a best-seller since the 80s...

3. The new change has been the translation of English sub-titles into Hindi/ regional languages...but a change under-way for at least a decade...It's of course accelerated with the economy. I myself have been a sucker for such books for a long time:-)
I had an old copy of 'How to win friends and influence people' in Hindi which i read and re-read although studying in an English medium school!

4. The real change that has happened is the SEC C-ization of the English language...the language of success & station. Nothing new here as well...just deeper penetration...the net is doing its own bit in democratising the access to English.

5. Yes Meraj - I too have read somewhere about the rise of the Hindi/ regional language blogs and other portals of indie expression...

6. I feel one of the primary reasons why self-help books are in great demand is their snack friendliness. Long fiction is not. In an attention deficit economy short tips on anything > twists and turns of long narrative...
Picture: The famous Wheelers bookstall at 'Katni' railway station during the great train journey...

Where's the Glue around here?

I have often ranted at the lack of disruptive systemic level changes in the Indian advertising business...Be it a culture of open-source creativity or the subject of a creative-planner formalised partnership, Agency 2.0 and more...

Between Prasoon, Balki or Piyush - I have rarely heard them speak about the agencies/ creatives/ creative products of the future...In fact of the trinity, only Prasoon appears to be wired into the new world/ new media space. At least that's what I get from his heavily PRed thoughts...

However, a flat world ensures that one at least knows of the disruptive business models emerging in other parts of the globe. The Glue Society is one of the agencies/ creative fraternity that is at the fore-front of systemic changes in the way they approach the advertising business...

Came across this interview of co-founder Jonathan Kneebone at this website.

Capturing the essence of his thots peppered with a few of my own.

1. The Glue Society is a creative collective based in Sydney and New York comprising of writers, designers, art directors and film directors. Founded in Sydney in 1998 by Jonathan Kneebone and Gary Freedman.

2. "Rather than become an agency with permanent clients, we decided to work project by project. That way we would be able to ensure all the projects we worked on were those we were suited to and interested in".

I feel the planning fraternity in India could possibly adopt this project/ free-lance approach. Not all clients are worth the jet-miles:-) or the long hours...I would be happier building a domain expertise in my interest area rather than head a geographically demarcated client base.

3. "Rather than just come up with ideas then outsource them to other people to make, we decided to combine concept and execution into the same four walls".

Advertising is amongst the only industries where the central product(still the 30 cc commercial) is out-sourced to the producers...I guess its high time the concept and execution be combined together. It will be a viable, nimbler, happier model.

4. "Our catalogue of work tends to attract clients who are similarly interested in breaking down walls and being brave to new opportunities".


This piece of glue society creative is actually a sculpture(installation) at a beach. It depicts melting ice-cream!!

5. "Bad advertising agencies have a tendency to copy the latest fads or mimic other popular things. This simply won't wash anymore. Why would someone spend time with a fake piece of entertainment, when they can spend time with the original. The industry is being forced to change by the realisation that everyone is creative (something we've long believed)."

6. Advertising is like art in some respects - in that there's a hell of a lot of crap and some things that resonate. The difference for me between the two is at the conceptual level. Advertising tends to be where we solve other people's problems. Art tends to be where you get to solve your own.

I wish we had more thinkers like Jon Kneebone & Gary Freedman closer home...

This is the famous Chicken Sandwich world championship work conceptualised by CP+B and directed by the Glue Society!

Are we incapable of building iconic youth brands?

When I look around, all I see are 'phoren' brands that attract the youth.
Limca, Gold Spot, Campa Cola, Citra, Thril( the cool Indian brands of the 70s and 80s) have long been bought and killed by Coke.

Thums Up is the lone survivor among Indian cool drink brands!. In beers - Kingfisher is the market leader, but lacks edginess of any sort...

In cosmetics, Lakme had lost its sheen but seems to be on its way back. Elle 18 is visible but is it cutting edge?

In watches - Titan was a cool brand yesterday...but with the entry of Swiss and other foreign brands, its relegated to being a mass player...but again don't think has the attitude, the advertising edginess to be called a 'cool' brand...

All the hip jeans brands are 'firang'...

Actually these thots came while reading the interview of Shailesh Chaturvedi in ET - the CEO of Tommy Hilfiger India.

He lists a few reasons why there are no iconic Indian youth brands to talk about...with a dash of my own two cents!

1. The issue of sustainability - "Youth market demands constant innovation. Many Indian brands like Proline, Titan, Woodlands, Flying Machine, Liberty shoes started with energy and unique product and communication ideas but most of them could not sustain the tempo and the Indian youth migrated to the 'sexier', innovation-driven phoren brands...

2. The fear of loss of existing core customers - As the existing core users of a brand start to age(Papa-isation), their tastes change incrementally/ gradually...But the newer, younger users may want a complete make-over...Most Indian brands in order to protect their current franchise change incrementally and thus fall off the youth radar...

3. Universal Common Language - In a wired world, the young follow the same language offline, online, in gaming and chat rooms, on the cricket field...In a Bollywood meets Hollywood world, they are more comfortable with brands that traverse seamlessly in the connected eco-system...Indian youth brands clearly are not spending enough to create that aura/ texture around them!

4. Older youth icons in India - For a nation that boasts the largest percentage of youth in the world, our icons are strangely quite old.
In most researches, its Sachin(in 30s), Amitabh(in 60s) and the Khans(all in their 40s) who top the ratings!! I have always wondered why all youth Congress/ BJP leaders are in their late 30s and 40s:-)

And while all of them have mass appeal, none of course have the attitude of an 18 year old...

5. Cool brands are created by cool people with artistic sensibilities - Maybe, with our ultra emphasis on analytical skills and data-dependency, many of our brand and marketing managers are becoming purely analysis/ research driven and risk averse...

6. In fact there isn't an exact word for 'cool' or 'attitude' in Hindi! Don't think there exists one in regional languages as well. It's as if we have reconciled that 'cool' is an import item...

We can copy cool but seem unable to create them anymore...Ramesh Chauhan of Parle was the last cool creator it seems...Maybe Kishore Biyani, when he upscales might create a 'cool Indian youth brand'!!

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans

John Lennon's famous words...As I took time out from the busy Bombay buzz into the slower groove of Patna, going to the zoo, the circus(Gemini) or spent time at the century old Bankipore club along with my diasporic joint family, I just realised the importance and the neglect of my other life...This trip with Neo has been well worth the little extra effort!

Just had time to do a little surfing everyday...Discovered adobomagazine - this ad creativity website from the Philippines!

Few excerpts/ facts from a Neil French Interview on the web-site - a man whom I had heard more than I know about...I like his bluntness:-) and strong POV especially relevant in the Indian context where most ad guys have nothing original to say and when they it, they do it in the blandest possible way!!

1. In his roller-coaster life, Neil French has been a rent collector, account executive, advertising manager, waiter, singer, matador, beach bum, pornographer, bouncer, debt collector, concert promoter, nightclub owner, Judas Priests’ rock band manager, copywriter, art director, creative director, film director, actor, television station owner, worldwide creative director of Ogilvy and most recently, Godfather and worldwide creative director of WPP.
Now which department does he belong to?:-)

2. On BBH and Mother - "They're not so micro, actually! And what they bring to the party is freshness and an absence of what can only be described as bureaucracy. What clients want increasingly is an idea that will grab the audience. The question remains to be answered, whether the clients themselves will allow the leaps into the unknown that the step involves. It's too soon to tell, but the worst thing that could happen is that they get a smaller version of what they already had..."

3. On now his infamous comment that "women creatives are crap!" - Of course, I didn't say “Women are crap;” that's just the press getting hysterical and as usual failing to do any checking. However, men can't bear children and women can. If a woman in the early stages of her career decides she can do both jobs well, and that there's no price to pay, she's mistaken. I've had forty years of experience in this job, and there are NO exceptions. Nobody has a God-given right to a job or a job-title; it takes hard work and commitment. I'm all for sexual equality, but that means equality...not a free ride on the basis of gender, or for that matter race, religion, or whatever.

4. On long copy ads - Long copy has always been the most effective way of selling in the press. The 'direct' business has always known this. A reasoned argument will always beat a snappy headline with no backup. The present fashion for a big picture and a logo was started by agencies in non-English-speaking countries who realised that they were at a disadvantage in award shows. The format was adopted by everyone else because it seemed easier and required little in the way of actual work. It's one of the reasons that the press is now regarded as a second-class medium. That is sad and needs to be re-addressed. But the growth of the net is a good sign...you must be able to read.

5. On his future book - Haven't thought about it. Unless I get a decent advance and a contract, I'm not interested. Lots of publishers want to put something out, but unless there's money involved, why would I bother?

6. On the future for Asian Advertising - Nothing very exciting. Asia is no different to anywhere else, I have to tell you. If anything great emerges, I'll be delighted, but do remember that agencies all over the world are beavering away as we write.

7. On future plans - Oh, my blood is flowing. I just checked. Advertising isn't the only thing in life, you know. And it's not the only way to make a living. It just happens to be the thing I know best. As I said earlier, I'm not actually dead yet, and the amount of response I've had from ad people throughout the world has been very flattering. My problem is not what to do next, but what NOT to do!

A bit sad that after a long career in advertising he will probably be remembered most by two quotes "women creatives are crap" and "death by blog."
You can read the complete interview at the adobo website

Neil French’s website is http://www.neilfrench.com
Picture Source : www.kleinerfisch.com

The Disposable Culture

Read this write-up in Brand Equity yesterday(14Mar) on the rising disposable culture. Nothing really new...It's just that the change has been dramatic and quite rapid...

As a child in a middle class house-hold, I remember we used to preserve everything - old newspapers, Amul Spray tins, plastic milk packets, old stationery, diaries, ball-point pens, old clothes(to be exchanged for new utencils) ...

Contrast this with today when relatively expensive cellphones are upgraded in 6 months to a years time!!

1. Its clearly been a move from a 'mindset of scarcity' to a 'mindset of consumerism'

2. As Santosh said in the article, as a nation we are going through a 'I am what I have' syndrome.

3. Perhaps the change is best captured by the middle class iconic brand Bajaj Auto's tagline. It changed from - 'Value for Money for years' to 'Inspiring Confidence'!

4. In under a decade, the replacement cycle for TVs and other consumer durables has come down from 8-10 years to 4-5 years!

5. However, we haven't lost our VFM mindset completely. Rarely would an Indian throw a durable. He would most likely upgrade to a newer durable/ gadget by exchanging the old one. The mindset still is 'Iska kuch toh mil hi jayega'!

6. Of course, the disposability index will vary widely within the same family. While the youngest members would believe in the use-and-throw religion, the grand-mother would still be using Amul Spray tins for keeping the pulses even while she might have upgraded to a new camera phone:-)

7. On a personal note, my new Nokia E-50 is my 6th phone in 7 years and yet when it comes to raddi(old newspapers), I hate to give it away free:-)

Ironic then how even with a new disposable mindset and with vastly shortened durable upgrade cycles, Gillette is still facing problems with its disposable razors in India!

Great Train Journey

My off tonite on a train journey to Patna along with young Neo. Father and son, both are very excited...

The questions have started pouring...
- Kaun se colour ka train hoga
- Driver boogies ko pull kaise karata hai?
- Driver bahut aagey kyun hota hai
- And over the next 30 hours, a zillion others:-)

So, will be donning the father cap and not the planner one for the next week or so...

Blogging will be intermittent, if at all:-)

Department of One

After Meraj left to join Rediff, I have been pretty much functioning as a department of one...

And managing it reasonably well(that's what I feel)! I have realised that small planning cells in small agencies could do well with a lot of crowd sourcing...

At times, I have opened up problems and tapped into the wisdom of the community/ blogosphere. Totally, unimaginable few years back/even last year!

John(Grant) for macro issues; Neil, Thotblurb for idea bouncing...Reshma, Dina for research learnings...
The nodes of interaction/ learning are expanding every day!

However, this also has meant putting in a lot of trust in people!
But the experiment seems to be working...

Thots on a Thursday

I am waiting at the airport to go to Chennai for a new business pitch on an interesting account! Haven't made my power-point yet:-)

These days I get a kick not just by what I put into the power-point but also how quickly I assemble the entire collage of slides/ ideas...It's sort of my race against time/ deadline/ boredom/ plandom...

Anyways, I love the busy solitude of an airport!! You feel you are between cities. Between work and home. A stranger in your own city! It's also a great place to get different ideas(at least it works that way for me)...

So while I wait these thots flitted on this lazy Thursday afternoon...
Of course these are broad brush stroke generalities!

1. All of us are 'informing ourselves to death'(I think it's also the title of a Neil Postman article).

2. It's possible to fill up your mind with so much stuff that there's no place for anything new!

3. Is the rate of change inside me greater than the rate of change outside me? Is it possible to measure this...

4. How does one measure the size of a new idea? What would the unit be?

5. Which is the most creative industry in India? Is it outside of media...

6. What if I don't read for a year? Will it affect the quality of my thinking?

7. In an over-stimulated world, how can communication create interest every time?
What are the new rules/ models of engagement?

Okay, here's the last and final call for boarding...Must go!

Quali Thoughts in a Quant World

Read this great post on 'What do Art and Qualitative Research have in common?' on Reshma's blog!

Once again I realised/ felt the following:

1. I haven't read a good quali research report in months...(Maybe this one's just a case of bad company:-)

2. Many of the clients that I worked with in the recent past have had little understanding/ respect/ empathy/ belief in/for quali research!

3. Many of my colleagues/ even planners still think that 'quali is a bit unscientific'.

4. The general level of discomfort with anything that cannot be quantified...

5. The belief system that only quant has rigour and a sense of conclusiveness!

6. Our stubbornness/ stupidity to keep on trying to understand the world around us solely with numbers, ignoring the quali clues & codes that we receive everyday...

7. Practically zero training to budding planners in this area in most agencies...

8. The 'quant-devotees' among the senior management in an agency far out-number the 'qual-followers'(purely my guess)

In our business that's so much of an intuitive art...this is a gaping void that must be filled up...

Anybody has interesting quali reports, thot-pieces, academic papers, web-site links to share...

Open Source Creativity

Was chatting with a fellow planner who said she is 1/4 copy-writer, 3/4 planner...Well I too think/ feel/ believe to be part copy-writer-part planner:-)

This reminded me of some print ads that me and my friend Shantanu had done while at TBWA - the agency where I think I was the most prolific!



Agency : Open Source
Ideators : Shantanu + Manish
Art : Prashant

This is roughly how I think it happened.
1. We were at a TBWA party, getting drunk and bored.
2. The discussion somehow veered around to the subject of 'Tsunami'. A spirited
Shantanu mouthed this nice line - 'Duniya Se Dard Mita De'. We
felt we had to use it somewhere!
3. Next morning, we exictedly plugged it to a creative team.
4. Waited for about a month. Nothing much happened. More dard:-)
5. Then I had this Bollywood idea.
6. Roped in Prashant - the art guy...who gave this look!
7. Then Shantanu left and we waited another 2-3 months before we presented these
ads to the client along with a media plan! Ambrish was a great help!
8. The client liked and approved the ads.
9. Then I quit TBWA.
10. The ads were given a quiet burial...End of 'Open Source'

Shantanu - Apne dard ki kya dava hai??LOL

Happy Holi

Had a great Holi today! Few thots before I hit bed...

1. It's the best Indian festival for a 3.5 year old...As you can see, my son Neo freaked out!

2. Increasingly the diyas for Diwali, the small Ganesha idols for Ganesh Chaturthi and now 100% of the pichkaris for Holi are made in the factories of Guangzhou...
BTW, the ecosystem of colours, pichkaris, etc. around Holi could be a possible candidate for a 'flash brand'.
So, flash meets a flat world:-)

3. My father, a late adopter of new technology(not because he was slow, but because technology was slow when he was younger) but a 'fast-and-furious' learner sent this 'Holi Game' though SantaBanta.com:-) And Neo had the best of the physical Holi and a taste of the digital-Holi.
End of day best scores...Baba(255), Neo 310 and me(410):-)


4. Many of us are life-caching our experiences with a vengeance. This post, the e-mail I just sent to my parents are part of my digital auto-biography...Even 5 years back, it would have been beyond my radar or reach!!
Hope all of you had a great time...

The Future is Copyright:-)

Every time I have spring-cleaned my eclectic cartons of 'sundry collectibles/ scraps/ physical thot blurbs from the past, I have always discovered real gems...

Must hone it into a planning tool soon...LOL

What you see is a BPL corporate print ad made by Rediffusion DY&R from the Jan 2000 issue of the magazine The Week!

The copy reads...
Chillers of the Future!
Will your refrigerator converse and calculate calories?
Will it be made of titanium, or kryptonite?
Will it freeze air into food?
Only one thing's for sure...it will be BPL
The future is copyright BPL!

With the benefit of hind-sight and the continued stress of the myriad problems that have plagued BPL, brand BPL has been the only unsurety:-)
This print campaign was a visible one(of its time). In fact the BPL - Believe in Yourselfcampaign with Amitabh was perhaps ver1.0 of the 'India Shining/ India Poised story!

Is it available online? Possible to get that campaign? Meraj? Your agency...

How T-Shaped Are You?

I discovered Paul Isakson's blog today...He is a planner at a small agency in Denver, US. A click at his blog-roll led me to Giles(Rhys Jones)'s blog who happens to be a director at Ogilvy London! Giles has this very interesting blog on interactive marketing trends, a subject that I am very keen to explore and have 0.5 people around me to talk to!!

That's the thing I like the most about the blogosphere. I can escape the tyranny of 'proximity'. I can operate like a department of one. More about it sometime next week...

Now Giles has this interesting post on Mr.T-shaped People! A small search on wordspy.com led me to this ...

"T-shaped" communications planners, with a background in media, have a deep understanding of media, and a broad understanding of the other disciplines within the marketing spectrum. They might not have a deep understanding of the minutiae of direct marketing, but they would broadly understand the repercussions of its inclusion in a through-the-line campaign.

To continue the alphabetical analogy, if the ideal communications planner is "T-shaped", then a classic media agency employee is "I-shaped" — with a deep understanding of their discipline, but not necessarily of any other — and a classic client-side employee "hyphen-shaped", their role requiring a broad understanding of many disciplines rather than specific knowledge of one.

"The worry is that media agencies are trying to do a "T" job with "I" people." - Angus Bannerman, in Marketing Week, October 2, 2003

The earliest citation on T-shaped people is by David Guest in "The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing," (The Independent (London), September 17, 1991)
*This type of rounded personality is also sought in other branches of science which prize individuals known as T-shaped People. These are a variation on Renaissance Man, equally comfortable with information systems, modern management techniques with an unusual set of interests."

After the unbundling of media in India and elsewhere, I suspect, the creative and media agency systems have promoted the I-shaped guys...Many of the planners of the last decade I suspect are also more 'I' than 'T'!

At least that's my experience being a planner in a small agency! And now how do I cross my 'I' every day?:-) Any suggestions? Giles?