The Business of Advertising

Super Bowl XLV - Game On!

2011-02-01T19:20:00.003-05:00

From Huffington Post - Super Bowl 2011 Ads: A Preview Of This Year's Commercials

Guest Post: Is Aishwarya's L'Oreal ad - over acted?

2010-12-16T01:18:00.003-05:00

This post is by Payal Mukherjee of Kolkata Diaries fame. Her city blog gives readers an insider's view of life in the metropolis and has been picked up by Trip Advisor for its varied content. "Need one reason to change your shampoo. Ill give you Five" says Ash. Actually she says... "Ah'll giive you Faaeve" Whats with the accent. Or the pouted lips while she delivers the dialogue. L'Oreal has

The Social Network - Play by the Rules

2010-12-01T13:32:00.002-05:00

Image via Tom Fishburne: Marketoonist Every brand, big or small is jumping on the social media wagon thinking it to be the solution to all their problems. What they sometimes forget is that it's not the media which holds the key to great branding, it is how they use that media. This pic depicts a facebook page for a brand (the cartoon is by Tom Fishburne) and brilliantly sums up the

A Step Back in Time

2010-11-03T15:21:00.001-04:00

This framed poster hung from the walls of the Sporting Eagle Saloon beneath the streets of Havre in north central Montana. On the third day of my week-long Montana trip, my fellow journalists and me took the "Havre Beneath The Streets" historical tour which essentially consisted of a set of business establishments from the last century, linked by narrow corridors. Of all the things on display,

Talking Rainbows, Boulders and Trees

2010-10-14T21:52:00.004-04:00

Click on image to enlarge. Source: popsop.com "High fructose corn syrup" is the new ingredient to watch out for. Move over "trans fat". It's fructose that we hate now. Food and drink labels all over the nation are being scanned for the F-word. According to onenews.com "People are concerned that high fructose corn syrup is more harmful or more likely to cause obesity than sugar, perceptions

30 Rock raises a pertinent question: Why does Geico have so many spokespeople?

2010-09-24T18:01:00.002-04:00

I am relieved. So it's not just me. Last night's premiere episode of 30 Rock had both Liz and Carol wondering why Geico has four spokesmen. Here's how it goes: we have the Gecko with a cockney accent, the confused and sometimes angry caveman, the stack of money with googly eyes (yeah, creepy!) and of course, the fake Rod Serling guy. Why do they need so many characters and so many concepts? I

Kindle vs. Ipad

2010-09-21T11:05:00.001-04:00

via Creativity Online Comparison straight up! This in-house web film from Amazon takes it up a notch. May the better product win! Did I hear Kindle?

Seinfeld on Soda Commercials

2010-08-17T01:12:00.001-04:00

[image via the Gotham Gotham Comedy Club] Jerry's opening monologue from a Seinfeld episode titled The Phone Message: The bad thing about television is that everybody you see on television is doing something better than what you're doing. Did you ever see anybody on TV like just sliding off the front of the sofa with potato chip crumbs on their face? Some people have a little too much fun on

Trashing Toronto: Bad Idea but Good Publicity

2010-08-02T15:51:00.001-04:00

Recently an ad campaign for Niagara Falls has been causing quite a stir in Canada. In brief, here's what it's all about (via CBC News) "The Niagara Parks Commission is coming under fire for an ad campaign that portrays Toronto as a city riddled with noise, crime and gridlock. The commission is running four television ads and eight online videos in a campaign that calls on people to leave the

Hotel Room in Melbourne - Free of Charge!

2010-07-15T11:31:00.001-04:00

Yes, you heard right. You can stay for free at the Lost & Found Hotel Room in the heart of Melbourne. That's what I call aggressive promotion and I like it! According to PSFK "Tourism Victoria-run e-newsletter Lost and Found recently added a hotel room to their venture, offering lucky subscribers the chance to experience Melbourne’s cultural offerings free of charge. Decked out in products

Mumbai Traffic Awareness

2010-07-14T00:50:00.009-04:00

Image via adoholik. Click to enlarge. This is an example of an effective outdoor campaign. I know because I have driven to work on these very roads. Yes, the laws of billboard ads (short copy) does not work here 'coz as every Mumbaite will tell you, hell you can read a magazine cover to cover and maybe even a paperback given the long hours you spend stuck in traffic.

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

2010-07-13T12:32:00.002-04:00

Banana Juice. Designed by: Naoto Fukasawa, Japan. Image via adoholik Pop-up Popcorn. Designed by: Packlab, Finland. Image via adoholik How many times have I reached out and bought something just because it looked good on the outside? If you ask me, of all the P's in marketing, packaging rules when it comes to an impulse buy. Yeah, yeah...don't judge a book by its cover...but

Legacy or Expense?

2010-07-06T13:47:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest from HSBC, right at the crossroads of the world...yeah, Times Square in NYC. The brand's message is as usual tied to customized/personal needs and wants. It also proves the oft-repeated advertising law: Babies can sell anything! Photo by Rene Chakraborty

Branding a Seaport

2010-06-09T15:44:00.028-04:00

On a recent trip to Portsmouth, I was stumped. I couldn't think of a fitting slogan for the city. It's a New England harbortown, favored by tourists and rather rich in history, art and culture. Cities are branded by professionals with the help of logos and taglines which are then plastered on buses and brochures. Logos are a different ball game altogether, they need to be much more than visually

Movies That Inspire Travel

2010-05-20T16:12:00.007-04:00

Tourism boards advertise via various media, nowadays they even include social networking sites. But sometimes a movie can promote a place like nothing can. 10 movies which made me want to pack my bags: 1. A Good Year - Directed by Ridley Scott, this adaptation of Peter Mayle's best-selling novel is the story of a London-based trader Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) who goes to Provence in the south

Show Me the Money

2010-04-23T14:36:00.009-04:00

Recently I read this great post on Knowledge@Wharton. They ran an interview of Jagmohan Raju and John Zhang, the authors of 'Smart Pricing'. As the book suggests, pricing when done right can contribute to the success of a product like nothing can! Competition-based Pricing and Cost-Plus Pricing are the popular concepts used by FMCGs but there are many more strategies in the marketplace, both

Choice Architecture and Advertising

2010-04-09T17:05:00.004-04:00

Say you want to buy a set of cheese from the pack shown in the picture? Which set will you choose? If books like Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Prof. Cass R. Sunstein or Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely are to believed, our mind plays quite a few tricks on us, and those tricks actually influence our day to day decisions! This piqued my interest in the subject and I realized along the

Opportunity Marketing

2010-04-01T16:31:00.000-04:00

Is it a coincidence that the home page of Amazon.com is promoting the Kindle as "easy to read in sunlight" and "thin and lightweight" when the recent nytimes review of the iPad says "You can’t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile"?

reBlog from thebrandbubble.com: The looming crisis in brand value and how to avoid it

2010-03-23T12:37:00.004-04:00

I found this fascinating post today: The 19th century U.S department store merchant John Wanamaker once famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. And such is the case with measuring the value of brands. While many forms exist, I took the opportunity to write about our model, which relies on measuring the momentum, creativity and

Oscar Winning Short - Logorama - Here for the Long Run

2010-03-08T16:15:00.002-05:00

I was one of the lucky few...I managed to watch this Oscar nominated and ultimately Oscar winning short before it was removed from youtube. Yeah, now it is no longer available due to copyright claims etc. What you see above is the trailer. The "trailer" of a "short"! The short gets shorter. Remember we are in the world of "tweets" now. No more than 160 characters please. Anyway, the idea here

Travel & Tourism Ads

2010-03-02T17:44:00.002-05:00

Images via adsoftheworld - Click to enlarge After my foray into travel writing and my recent visit to the NY Times Travel Show, I am looking a little more closely at travel ads. These ones by Swiss Tourism for instance have a neat layout, a clear message and the right colors. The creative idea isn't out of this world but it pretty much does the job, doesn't it? var addthis_pub="esamajpati";

Killing a Cause

2010-02-09T10:15:00.004-05:00

A recent controversy on a photograph put the ad shown below on the front page of leading newspapers during my stay in India. "Ex-Pak air chief photo ad goof-up: PMO orders probe" screamed the Times of India headline. Further details revealed that a government advertisement has featured the photograph of a former Pakistani air chief alongside Indian icons in a campaign to mark National Girl

Turn OFF the lights

2010-01-05T14:14:00.002-05:00

Image from www.adsoftheworld.com (Click on ad to enlarge) Advertising Agency: Prolam Y&R, Santiago, Chile Executive Creative Director: Tony Sarroca Creative Director: Claudio Wilton Art Directors: Giovanni Repetto, Fabrizio Capraro Copywriter: Giovanni Repetto Can't help but begin the New Year on a cautionary note...and of course, there's not much to explain about the strategy or the message

Bergdorf Goodman - Setting Trends in Visual Merchandising

2009-12-28T14:52:00.016-05:00

Located on an Avenue aptly called a shopper's paradise in New York City, Bergdorf Goodman is a well known high-end retailer with a flair for visual merchandise. Each year, during the holidays, the legendary store windows attract many a fashionable eye and scores of photographers.As my photos suggest, this was the year of the fox and a much-needed cross-promotion. The windows depicted sets from "

Holiday Season Window Display in New York - Cartier and Fendi

2009-12-28T10:42:00.010-05:00

As you can see in my pictures, Cartier wraps it up much like last year and Fendi clinches it with a double round. Luxury brands in the accessory segment, each had an elegant touch despite the drop in sales. Hope next year is better for all of us!

Louis Vuitton - Destinations Galore!

2009-12-28T00:31:00.015-05:00

As you can see from my pictures, Louis Vuitton hits the nail on the head with their "destinations" theme for this year's Christmas display. Tokyo, Mumbai, London screams the stamps from their Manhattan store on Fifth Avenue. They have successfully managed to promote their brand such that it stands out in the holiday clutter and they have done it without losing sight of the function of the

Christmas Window Displays from the Streets of Manhattan

2009-12-27T23:56:00.011-05:00

Macy's invented the concept of Christmas window displays in 1862. Even today, Manhattan's famous Fifth Avenue attracts thousands of people during the holiday season...they brave the cold and the crowds to soak in an art unlike any other.Marketing students will be aware of POP or Point of Purchase advertising which of course are known to make quite an impact on sales if done right. After all, the

Vanity Flies Right Out of the Window

2009-11-26T11:59:00.010-05:00

The above is one from a set of three of Jeep's latest campaign. Although hard-core Jeep enthusiasts may not like the new strategy with its lack of a dirt trail, I must say am liking it! I get that this is more of a lifestyle ad than a product communication but given the state of the automotive industry and GM in particular, this seems to be a pretty smart move! And what's more, the core brand

Addressable Advertising

2009-11-20T15:17:00.003-05:00

TV ads have always lagged behind their technologically advanced cousins...interactive web ads. Not any more.<- Pic via WSJ OnlineAccording to WSJ Online, "As Comcast gets close to a deal for control of General Electric's NBC Universal, the big cable operator and Madison Avenue think the merger could lead to some major changes in the $65 billion U.S. television advertising market.The potential new

Take Charge

2009-11-05T23:05:00.002-05:00

O&M does it again. Creativity at its best. The latest from American Express basic charge card, after a hiatus of 7 years is captivating yet simple. The tagline "Don't Take Chances. Take Charge" urges customers to take responsibility for their spending with a lightness of spirit that is hard to ignore. Although the benefits mentioned in the commercial is a huge plus, the charge card in question

Coca Cola - From Santa Claus to Social Media

2009-10-22T13:26:00.013-04:00

Advertising plays a larger role in our life than we can ever imagine. Did you know that the image of Santa most people have today is largely based on Coca-Cola advertising? Before the profiling by Coca-Cola, Santa's appearances ranged from big, small, tall, fat, elf-like, bishop-like, gaunt, strict, spooky...and he wore everything from animal skin to a tan suit. Except for the color of his suit,

Branding Brown

2009-09-22T13:52:00.000-04:00

We all know the kind of hype generated by Dan Brown and his books revolving around Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Recently, the character was brought to life by Tom Hanks as summer blockblusters. But apart from being adapted to the big screen effortlessly, Brown's books have a certain brand of their own. His contemporary J.K. Rowling has claimed her place in fiction fantasy with the Harry

Crowdsourcing for Flavors

2009-09-09T10:19:00.003-04:00

"Vitaminwater is turning to Facebook fans to come up with its next flavor. The Flavorcreator Facebook app, which launched this week and runs through Oct. 20, is designed to crowdsource the company's next product." - reports BrandWeek.I am sure Vitaminwater has done enough research before spending money on this venture but I could not help think of Henry Ford's famous quote "If I had asked people

Progress is Beautiful

2009-09-01T16:25:00.002-04:00

Created by San Francisco-based Venables Bell & PartnersI know how this Audi Ad is dangerous if imitated, breaks all traffic rules and generally makes no sense. But I am not here to judge or over analyze till all the fun is gone. Now and then, I simply love the thrill of a car chase and nobody does it better than the transporter himself. Aired during this year's Superbowl, this commercial shows

Make Way for eBooks and Book Ads

2009-08-10T14:03:00.008-04:00

Last month, Barnes & Noble launched an online store for digital books with 700,000 titles. Moreover, they intend to stock more than a million eBooks in the coming 12 months. To read them, you can download the free eReader from their website which is compatible with iPhone, iTouch, BlackBerry, PC and Mac. It is interesting to note here that it is not compatible with either Kindle from Amazon or

Branding India

2009-08-03T21:34:00.002-04:00

I have been writing for travel websites for more than a year now and the way I see it, each city is a brand. Each country needs to be placed right, much like a product. Tourism is an industry which needs to be promoted, much like a service. Often what bothers me is how India is misrepresented time and again. The poverty is highlighted, women are shown as helpless or oppressed and everthing

"Marketing is not a cost" - John Gerzema

2009-07-22T02:20:00.021-04:00

I follow John Gerzema's Brand Bubble so I clicked on this video posted by my friend Saurav on Facebook. Soon I found myself listening intently to John who was talking about "Avoiding the Looming Crisis in Brand Value" in this year's The Economist Marketing Forum. He cites examples of brands who have done the right thing, he warns us of the changing consumer psyche and of the changing marketing

Focus Group vs. Facebook

2009-07-14T12:10:00.010-04:00

According to Nielsen NetView, users are spending more and more time on Facebook. The study suggests that the average US user spends more than 4.5 hours a month on Facebook, beating competitors like AOL, Google, Yahoo and Micrsoft hollow. This obviously explains why everything from the Lexus Convertible to a no-calorie Sweetener is nowadays advertised on the said site.But Splenda Mist has gone one

Have Fun with a Run

2009-07-01T16:55:00.024-04:00

Source: www.adsoftheworld.comAdvertising Agency: 72andSunny, USAMusic Artist: Gnarls BarkleySong: Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)Nike, the proud owners of one of the world's most popular slogans "Just Do It" and the max-recognized logo, the famous swoosh to match it, has done it again.At the beginning of this year, http://www.nikeplus.com/ (the world's largest running club) tallied the kilometers of

Advertising Budget in a Slow Economy

2009-06-18T02:36:00.011-04:00

Click on image to enlargeAs the cartoon by Tom Fishburne suggests, this is exactly what some premium brands are doing or thinking of doing. My advice: DONT! In times of economic downturn, the last thing you want to do is lose your premium advantage. Instead,1. Focus on your core brand value and maintain it.2. Try and avoid advertising budget cuts as much as possible. When the economy revives as

To Bing Or Not To Bing

2009-06-03T15:56:00.018-04:00

I assume we all know what Bing is by now. After spending $80 million to $100 million on an advertising campaign which forced JWT to thaw its frozen hiring, I would believe the least Microsoft has done is created a brand presence. Always happy to use a new product or the latest in sevice, I jumped in to find out all about Bing. The words "new" and "latest" spell "improvement" and maybe a certain "

Quality Matters

2009-05-19T12:59:00.036-04:00

Image Credit: Starbucks BlogClick on image to enlarge In my earlier posts I had mentioned the importance of copy in ads and the increasing influence of social media. Imagine my surprise when I read that my favorite coffee brand is making ample use of both in their latest marketing efforts to combat the launch of McCafe.Take the above ads for example. According to New York Times, "Starbucks is

First Build, Then Promote.

2009-05-13T17:51:00.025-04:00

Image Credit: Private FleetCar lovers can click on image to enlarge Advertising Age reports, "Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it's expected to be in bankruptcy -- the U.S. Treasury's auto-industry task force gave it half that." Why am I not surprised? While some people are shouting "socialist" and blaming Obama, I don't get how they didn't see this coming.

Relevance is the Soul of an Advertisement

2009-05-08T15:04:00.017-04:00

Click on image to enlargeSource: http://www.adoholik.com/ Via [adsoftheworld]Agency: JWT London, UKCreative Directors: Nick Bell, Russell Ramsey, Howard WilmottArt Director: Mark NorcuttCopywriter: Laurence QuinnPhotographer: Mike RussellAccount: John Mitchell, Nick JacksonLengthy is out. Brevity is in. Email is out, IM is in. Expressing yourself within 140 characters via Tweeter is in. Attention

Nobody reads copy anymore

2009-04-26T12:59:00.031-04:00

I cringe everytime I hear this. A visual and a logo is fine, but what about the sanctity of the written word? The words which build your trust, the joke which amuses you, the promises that make you shake your head with disbelief. I go as far as to read every cereal box and every wrapper that comes my way. When I buy my pouch of ground coffee, I read about the aromatic beans imported from some

Dove and CW present the Cwingers!

2009-04-21T13:37:00.030-04:00

After pod-busting, we have another innovative TV advertising format, the "Cwingers". As the name suggests, this format swings from TV to Internet and will be broadcasted by the popular US network CW, owned jointly by CBS and Time Warner.April 27, 2009 is the D-day when CW will unleash this new format on its young viewers. Studies suggest that viewers, aged between 18-34 are constantly switching

The Magic of Touch

2009-04-06T15:16:00.020-04:00

It is time we lost the keyboard, the mouse and the remote control. It is all about touch, tap and flick! On March 13 2009, Levi Strauss & Co.'s Dockers San Francisco brand launched the first interactive “shakable” mobile advertisement. Of course, the innovation made use of iPhone's inbuilt accelerometer technology and is available within a custom-built ad network of iPhone applications such as

Chocolate never felt this good before - repositioning a brand with style

2009-03-18T14:26:00.018-04:00

Piyush Pandey, the Executive Chairman and National Creative Director of Ogilvy India has redefined Indian advertising in more ways than one. But in the midst of all his achievements, awards and accolades, there is a commercial from the nineties which can make you feel good like nothing can. Well, almost nothing. See it if you don't believe me.If Hindi as a language is not your strong point, watch

How smart is your phone?

2009-03-12T21:13:00.021-04:00

Smart phones are the answer to an advertiser's prayer. Each application you download and each site you visit become part of your profile information. Which in turn helps companies target specific products and services to an interested set of consumers. The recent New York Times article on how smart phones are being used to generate user profiles can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/

Social Media - What are the rules?

2009-03-09T16:14:00.023-04:00

Image Credit: Fred CavazzaSource: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredcavazza/2564571564/ Click on image to enlargeOn March 1 2009, Skittles gave up their corporate website and replaced it with user-generated content from social websites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and You Tube. The result: more than 600,000 fans on facebook, zillions of blog posts and in short, a frenzy amongst netizens or as I

Crunch on it!

2009-03-02T16:47:00.018-05:00

Click on image to enlargeMarket Research agencies. Most clients are obssessed with them and most creative directors couldn't care less about them. Welcome to the nightmare that is account management.Having said that, I must say I am with the creative team on this one. The amount of money spent on analysis, re-analysis, focus groups and dissection of basic human emotions could very well feed a

Geico Gecko - a strategy which makes sense

2009-02-19T15:48:00.029-05:00

When a green reptile, friendly or otherwise, tries to influence your decision about something as major as car-insurance, you may not take him seriously. But over the years, the Geico Gecko has done just the opposite and has grown to become the third-largest personal auto insurer in the US. The lizard struck the right chord with the target demo, so much so, that it was voted America's favorite

Super Bowl Commercials - why spend so much money on them?

2009-02-04T14:32:00.002-05:00

So much is being written about the Super Bowl commercials. The spots are being rated, categorized, praised and criticized. Well, nothing new about that. What is new though is that companies are reducing costs and struggling to survive in this economic slowdown. According to Forbes.com, the game attracts almost 100 million viewers, a rather astonishing number given that there are only about 300

'Trust Me' me on TNT - branded entertainment at its best

2009-01-25T13:38:00.001-05:00

Creative executives, Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny are part of the team responsible for creating "Trust Me", a series premiering tomorrow on TNT. The authenticity is provided by the fact that both have worked at agencies like Leo Burnett, JWT and Y&R. Now, what does this mean for all the brands competing with each other in every possible media in every possible way? Can we hold the television

Pod-busting, but of course!

2009-01-15T11:43:00.000-05:00

In a desperate attempt to engage viewers, more and more TV networks and advertisers are resorting to creative innovation in US. The last couple of years saw a surge in "pod-busting" which was initially restricted to MTV, VH1 and Comedy Cenral keeping their young gadget-friendly demographic in mind. In 2005, MTV invented the concept of pod-busting which proved to be partly successful though not a

The architecture of advertising

2009-01-13T12:20:00.002-05:00

My brother, who is studying architecture once told me that one cannot design a building without knowing its purpose. Similiarly, you can't create an ad without a strategy.“Creative without strategy is called 'art.' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.'” - Jef I. Richards (US advertising professor). The marketing team from the client's side and the account management team from the

Mentioning competitive brands in your commercial

2009-01-12T14:49:00.000-05:00

After spending five years in Indian Advertising, I moved to Connecticut, the bedroom of New York. Hoping to get a first-hand experience of US ad agencies and their work, I dived in. Of course, anybody who is interested in advertising can see first-rate ads from around the world, thanks to the Cannes website, ad-based shows on TV and the youtube....but what about the regular Joes? How and where