ADrenaline

July, 2009 |

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ISSUE 4 VOLUME 1 @ 2009

ADrenaline

Contents

A D V E R T I S I N G . . B E Y O N D L I M I T S . .

03 Editorial

05 Letters to the Editor

06 Truly Asian

AD Ventures at Goa

10 Liril Ads

The “Cult-ure” Shock

12 AD view

Lead India

Slice—The Aamsutra way

15 Welcome to Zoo Mania

18 I Guess you are never too old

DAVID OGILVY

19 From genesis to a new dimension

Out Of Home Advertisement

21 Standing tall

without celebrity endorsements

25 Company Profile: O&M

26 From an Intern’s desk

Stint at JWT

28 Guru Speak

Ideate Out of Box

29 AD Quiz

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This edition is in honor of the auspicious come back of what we

call the support system which gives stimulus to the down turned economy! Since the past one year we have been analyzing, may be in too much depth, how this slump has affected the advertis‐ing industry. For some it was an opportunity and for others it was a chaos…but with the presence of Indian Advertising frater‐nity at Cannes, clouds at home seem to be drifting apart. This has paved way for more work as advertisers report recovery of key sectors like automobiles, real estate, financial services and con‐sumer durables that are posting higher sales. ADrenaline in its 4th issue has made an endeavor to cover varied facets of advertising: depicting a journey from laurels to criti‐cism for what has led to confused brand positioning. From this issue onwards apart from the articles scrutinizing the creative juices which the ad agencies unleash to inflate their bottom lines, ADrenaline will feature a regular section containing a cover story, Ad Guru and Ad Agency profile and food for mind‐ quiz for the budding creatives. In this issue we have covered Goa Adfest 2009 along with David Ogilvy, a legend who has set apart the standards for Ad agencies. This time in our kitty we have articles on culture shock, out of home advertising, an argument on celebrity endorsement, chubby Zoo Zoos, Ad reviews and quiz which you cannot resist. I now extend my gratitude to Dr. Jagrook Dawra without whom this compilation would have been a daunting task. We at ADrenaline believe that creativity is when either you make absolute sense or when you make absolutely no sense. I encour‐age our readers to write to us if we have been able to make some sense through our reasonable non sense!

Sumita Jain

Editor‐in‐Chief.

ADrenaline

Volume 1

Issue 4,

2009.

Sumita Jain

Editor in Chief

Editorial

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Keep up the Good work…

As the magazine promised, here yet again a fabu‐lous anthology, from brand building to political campaigning without missing on what we call so‐cial responsibility. This magazine have it all. I look forward to read more such editions. Cheers!

Pooja Burman‐(Class of 2010)

Is it the right Way...?

Well the article is very informative and holds the interest in the right spirit. But I would like to point out that how intense is the presence of the polka dotted moppet at present. Having had such a strong brand resonance, Amul could have used this lady for other products too but only if it was to stay with coming posterities. Who prefer Barbie instead of fat dolls.

Shashank Dewal‐(Class of 2010) I really appreciate the work that you guys at ADrenaline are putting in. This magazine has done wonders to enhance the limits of our knowl‐edge. Keep it up!

Vani Mahajan‐(Class of 2010

Change is the only constant!

Yes we can!, is a classic example of how innova‐tion and novelty can supersede conventional set ups be it an advertising message or the marketing strategy adopted by the client. It is acknowledged fact that ‘Change’ is perhaps a thing that human being resist and yet it is inevi‐table. It marvels me to think how a presidential aspirant has managed to pull crowds using the concept of CHANGE. Besides this, use of social networking cites like Facebook is also com‐mendable!

Charu Madan‐(Class of 2010) We as consumers pay little attention to how much money a company spends and the entire gamut of exercise that precedes a change of logo. In fact, I gave no thought to it before read‐ing the article that appeared in ADrenaline’s last issue. Personally, I feel changing a logo has a greater impact when the company is under‐going a merger, diversification, targeting a new market or undergoing a complete re‐vamp i.e changing its brand identity like in the case of Accenture (from Anderson Consulting to Ac‐centure). Nevertheless, it was interesting to get the comapany’s side of the story that why they change their logos.

Harsha K‐(Class of 2010)

Letters

ADrenaline

Send your feedback at [email protected]

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Source : www.goafest.com

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Zag when the world zigs!

Be different.

With the spirit of being truly Asian, Goa Adfest 2009 was hosted from 2nd April to 4th April at Cavelossim beach in Goa as its back drop. Apart from being a platform for promoting young crea‐tives, it brought with it, a respite from the co‐nundrum looming all over world. It not only pro‐motes and recognizes the creative excellence in the region but also provide a unique opportunity to interact with industry experts, ad Guru’s and other creatives from all over the world. This year, Adfest focused on understanding what opportunities this recession holds for ad makers. It proved to be a testing ground for win‐ning the creative and the media Abby for many recipients. Adfest which has now become one of the regular features of the exotic beaches, this year with a registration fee of Rs. 9000, added an interna‐tional flavor with four global speakers viz. Sir John Hegarty, chairman & worldwide creative director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), Jean‐Marie Dru, chairman, TBWA, Sean Finnegan, chief media officer, Vibrant Media and Dan Wieden, founder, Wieden+Kennedy. Just like a

plant keeps growing bigger and heavier each day if nurtured properly, so is the Adfest. This year creative Abby’s entries exceeded the last year’s entries by 322 despite the slowing econ‐omy in following categories:

There is nothing right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, a long list of such analogies can be made but the bottom line is beauty lie in the eyes of the beholder. This slump is one such example. Companies reacted differently to what has been driving the corporate and individuals’ crazy alike. Some marketers patronize this downturn as an occasion to keep the brands intact and based on this premise has risked launching and increasing their advertising budgets. It is said that if the old systems will not fail, the new power will never rise. This year’s Goa Ad‐fest seems to have been testing waters with re‐gard to what it has for the creatives to offer in

“A Crisis is too good an opportunity to miss .Strengthen your brands now” - Vineet Taneja, head of marketing, Nokia.

Sumita Jain (Batch of 2010)

AD Ventures at Goa

Truly Asian:

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building trust and keeping the customer attri‐tion rates to the minimal.

Not only the theme on which the Adfest was based intriguing but also the zest for the remain‐ing two days was well received by the various categories of awards, workshops and world re‐nowned speakers. Apart from the mesmerizing ideas and concepts a special award viz. a viz. LOTUS root was intro‐duced to reward the creativity which reflects the culture and quintessence that the region holds. This entry was judged by all the chairmen of the various categories.

On Agenda A three day long event started with the industry conclave followed by the media and the creative Abby the next two days. Industry Conclave: 2nd April 2009 witnessed some of the finest brains under one roof to discuss and debate the repercussions this slow down can have on the brands and communications. As we know, crea‐tivity is everything to do with the right part of the brain, but at such turbulent times consumers look for a brand in which they can put their trust. Retaining this mind space for sure keeps the left brain of the creatives occupied. So the times may get tougher, budgets may shrink. What today is most successful may become ob‐solete tomorrow but only the brands and com‐munications with a mélange of left and the right brained approach will continue to survive and thrive!

Day 1: There is something auspicious about the Adfest, it is held in the ad village which adds that extra bonanza in its kitty. After registering with the blooming day, tables were laid and drinks were served. Then came the most awaited moment

when, Jean Marie Dru, Chairman TBWA, “the brain box” addressed the participants. This was just the beginning, the saga continued with Neeraj Nayar, President, Contagious communi‐cations and Sean Fennegan, President & CDO, Starcom Media. Now it was time to “reward the best brain”, it was 7:30 pm and the centre stage was set to award media excellence. And the award goes to…

Day 1 ended with post awards Beach party.

DAY2: Organizers empathizing with the participant’s hangovers started the day little late. To revital‐ize the numbness day 2 began with Sir John Hegarty’s brainwaves. To lighten the atmos‐phere after the world renowned right brain’s storming; rain dance rejuvenated the party mood and increased their appetite. Knowledge sharing session resumed after the lunch with Thanonchai Sornsrivichai followed by Dan Wieden. Once again the quest to reward the right brain’s creativity was reinforced and the creative Abby goes to…

It was time to leave the brain behind and get drenched in the champagne at the beach part!

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Genesis It is the only Asian ad festival which is truly de‐mocratic i.e. by the Indians for the Indians and from India. It started in 1998 as Asia pacific Ad‐vertising festival and was designed with the mo‐tive of acknowledgement and appreciation of the Asian creativity. It is organized in associa‐tion with Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and Advertising Club of Bombay (now Mumbai). It ensures that the creative’s all over Asia find a common platform for interac‐tion. It helps in developing the careers of the budding creative talent in Asia.

Behind the scenes: It is a well known fact that controversies and disagreements are the cheapest mode of attract‐ing attention. Goa Adfest is no exception! It seems no Goa Adfest can be conducted without the attention it draws from the controversies and disagreements with regard to the creative and media Abby. In 2008, for the first time in the history of crea‐tive awards, results were leaked and the win‐ning team was alleged of scam. This year as well, there were rumors regarding the results being leaked. More than that there was a watershed in

what Piyush Pandey felt the purpose of awards should be! His contention was by awarding the only Grand prix at the end of the finale made the victory of the team which won maximum no. of metals less victorious. JWT being the only agency which received Grand Prix for Lead India campaign and having its chairman as the fest’s chairman made the matter worse. But when Colvyn Harris contacted he said, “I would have probably seen at least two more Grand Prix if it were up to me, but at the end

of the day, the decision is up to the jury. I never

wanted to know the results, because I am new to

this role of GoaFest Chairman and I did not want

anything to color my judgment in this role.” So the question is, Is the industry taking enough interest and care of the awards for which it seeks global recognition?

Photo Source: www.flickr.com

The writer is a second year MBA (Marketing) student from IBS Hyderabad and can be reached on [email protected]

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Shraddha Bhuyan (class of 2010)

If you thought that bold visuals today truly de‐fine the term ‘culture shock’, then do put your collective memories in the reverse gear back to sometime in the 1980s. It was the small screen and the visual in question was the Liril advertisement, one which had a bikini‐clad Karen Lunel dancing with abandon‐ment under a waterfall. It was a culture shock for the times then, but the child‐like exuberance hit the right note with the viewers making it a cult advertisement. It’s one of the finest examples of culture shock making way for a cult status and consequently strong brand equity. Of course, this theme was so deeply in‐grained in the psyche of the viewers that a change in it didn’t go down as well with the consumers as the original ones did.

The story of Liril, the soap brand from Hindustan Lever Ltd. (now HUL) began in 1975. Being one of the first colored ads to be aired on the Indian television, the Liril girl retains its iconic status even till date. How‐ever, this status lives in consumer’s mind today more as a memory of one of the strongest brands than an image that would compel them to pick up the soap from the market shelves.

According to the creator of the original Liril ads, Alyque Padamsee, the then Director of Lintas,

the ad was originally created with the the con‐cept of promising “20 minutes of freedom to the Indian housewife who gets pulled in different di

rections for the rest of the time.” H o w e v e r , with the changing para‐digms of con‐ven t i ona l i t y , increasing com‐petition and the emergence of the new age Indian woman, the Liril ads seemed to be stuck in a rut. It no longer held the charm of culture shock and the losing market share over the years pointed to‐wards the same.

In order to recreate lost appeal and in keeping with the concept of freshness through bold communi‐cation, Liril tried to take its cult ads a step forward. This was done with the idea of not only

keeping the relevance of the concept alive in current times, but also being a step ahead in order to account for the “shock” value that had worked the magic earlier. In 2005, Liril attempted to reposition the brand by investing in the ad campaigns to promote its new variants that would appeal to both men and women. However, it didn’t work the same magic as the original ads did. This was because almost two decades of the invariable presence of a

Photo source: maddy06.blogspot.com

LIRIL ADS: The ‘CULT-URE’ Shock

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young and exuberant girl amidst the waterfall had captured the mind space of viewers that had grown too fond of and used to it. The ad created by the advertising agency Lowe had the consistent concept of breaking free of monotony depicted through a couple sharing intimate moments to keep the spark alive. Al‐though it had been successful in retaining the concept of freshness or breaking free of monot‐ony, yet the depiction failed to revive the cult status of the earlier ads. According to the manufacturers, Hindustan Lever Limited, “The new Liril Aloe Vera and lime has conceptualized communication that once

again dares to refresh the Indian mindset, by capturing a married couple having a delightfully

naughty moment after a bath with New Liril. The

communication brings alive Liril’s new promise of

sparking ’playful intimacy’ in the stressful lives

led by couples today.’’

The cult status of the earlier ads that were con‐sidered to be culture shocks at first probably prompted this move into a bolder territory. However, while the maiden ad made the brand a market leader in the category of ’premium fresh‐ness soaps’ within a year of its launch, the recent ones led to a dip in its market share as it failed to recreate the magic. According to Padamsee, “Hindustan Lever had made a big mistake by taking the Liril girl out of

the waterfall which is just like taking the flute out

of Lord Krishna’s mouth.” As the market had un‐dergone a drastic change since the earlier Liril ads had first been featured because of the multi‐tude of choices being offered to consumers, the second daring attempt at rejuvenating the minds of viewers failed to translate into a cult ad and, by implication, into increased revenue. This time around the attempt at culture shock failed to revive the brands lost fortunes probably not be‐cause of Padamsee’s aforementioned belief, but

because it could not keep up with the market developments.

The ads with the Liril girls attempted to convey the idea of rejuvenation and a break from an es‐tablished paradigm through a bold concept. However, the monotony of the ads despite the variations in tune and the model from time to time failed to offer better aspirational value than that by brands that flooded the market over the years. Therefore, a similar attempt at culture shock 25 years later failed to recreate the magic.


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Photo source: www.Afaqs.com ADrenaline

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An ordinary man with extra ordinary dreams! In a lower middle class family with a tainted fan, a cupboard, some stuff toys and a few laurels, swearing by one of the most prized possessions‐his daughter, is a man who looks content and proud. This five year old child says more than what is explicitly visible…a promise to fight against bureaucracy, criminal convictions, politi‐cal salesmen selling brand India and above all a pledge that her father confines his trust in her, “the coming posterities”. Molestations, terrorist attacks, bursting bubbles, blame games, political scams and add whatever you can think of, harbingering the lull, lost con‐sumer confidence and gloom to the list. After winning our independence in 1947, we have be‐come complacent and succumbed to the slavery of the lack lustrous Indian politicians. ”Not fit enough to work but good enough to rule”. A consecutive bulls and bears experienced by the Congress and the BJP every five year of their

rein may show the derive that these political parties feel every time they lose to the opposi‐tion but nothing of such stature can be boasted about the solidarity of Indian politics. A two year old brand, “LEAD INDIA” seems to have once again stirred the political satire by the amalgamation of youth and media. JWT, the only winner of Grand Prix at Goa Adfest 2009, has been successful in conveying the message “jagoo re” last year. This year too former chief creative officer of JWT, Agnello Dias and former Executive Cretaive Director of Leo Burnett, Santosh Padhi have pulled it off well at TapRoots, their brain child . Lead India ‘09 ad campaign targeted the rich and poor, tall and short, dark and fair, old and young keeping in mind the role they play in the development of the Indian economy.

Photo source: www.Afaqs.com

Client: Times Of India

Agency: Taproot India

Theme: Lets make this

vote count!

Sumita Jain (class of 2010)


AD VIEW: Lead India

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Indians love mangoes. So in the light of this statement it has been very strange that PepsiCo never took their brand “Slice” seriously. Their recent “Aamsutra” campaign by JWT seems to have confused the audience whether Slice is a fruit drink or something else? Slice has always been a fun drink but had never been a brink which pushes sexuality. The advertise‐ment which stars the bollywood diva Katrina Kaif seems to be positioning the brand sensa‐tionalizing the presence of Katrina Kaif rather than talking about the drink.

No doubt the sultry charm of Katrina Kaif is more than sufficient to get the attention of the male viewers and hold it too. But how will you get the share of wallet from the people who can not relate to the drink they would have bought otherwise. Though the advertisement has been shot aesthetically and the fine line between sen‐suality and sexuality has been maintained. The question to be asked is, could it have been bet‐

ter? One of the potential disadvantages of using someone as charming and beautiful as Katrina Kaif is that she might take away the limelight from the product itself. Another factor is that the kids, who form a major segment for this giant cola company in India, will not be able to relate to this advertisement. I would have appreciated the huge dent in their advertising budget by roping in this celebrity if the brand recall for Slice could have increased instead of Kaif’s! By no means am I trying to tarnish the exotic and absolutely sensational back drops and the background music but all I m trying to say is I remember Kaif better than the beverage.

Photo source: www.Afaqs.com

Client: Pepsi Co.

Agency: JWT, Delhi

Theme: Aamsutra

Creative Director: Sachin

Das Burma & Charu

Chhitwal


THE AAMSUTRA WAY

AD VIEW: Slice

Karan Mujoo (class of 2010)

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Photo source: www.afaqs.com ADrenaline

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Photo source: www.afaqs.com

Shweta Sharma (class of 2010)

ZooZoo Mania

The converging crises of climate change and financial breakdown on planet Earth has sent its inhabitants scuttling between panic at‐tacks and market crashes. But the scuttling inhabitants of ZooZoo Land are far from such worries. If anything, the fun loving, cuddly little chubby ZooZoos are providing ample reasons for spurts of laughter amidst the recessionary environment, carrying the laugh‐ing Vodafone shareholders all the way to the bank. Straight from the sets of ZooZoo land, little ZooZoos have taken the advertising world by storm in these past few months. It has become difficult to ignore these creatures being featured in Vodafone’s lat‐est commercial advertisements, as part of the telecom cellular gi‐ant’s latest advertising campaign. A creation of Ogilvy & Mather, ZooZoos have successfully attained an effective transition from the much loved little pug as the new face of Vodafone in India. The series of 29 short, catchy humorous ZooZoo commercials have been featured primarily during the Indian Premier League Cricket Matches, aired live on television. Through the launch of a different ZooZoo commercial each day, Vodafone aims to promote it’s vari‐ous value added services such as‐ mobile mail, beauty and health alerts, cricket alerts, international roaming facilities, etc, by capital‐izing on the IPL viewership.

As per reports by Starcom Worldwide, the Vodafone commercials have been tipped to be the highest recall ads among the on‐air com‐mercials during the match telecasts. According to data from April 19‐25, 2009 collected in relation to the IPL live telecasts, Vodafone has emerged as the most viewed brand during the season, claiming 10% of the total advertising share, the highest among all telecom brands. The exaggerated human emotions and hilarious actions enacted by the scurrying ZooZoos draw on the visual attractiveness of ani‐mated graphics, creating an overall element of humor and comedy within the short ad films, without actually using animation tech‐niques. The commercials are complimented with witty combina‐tions of ZooZoo actions that provide a physical description to the messages being conveyed. The ZooZoo creators have played effectively with puns within the

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ads and associated words, providing a humorous conjunction with the visual images. For example, the cricket alert services provided by Vodafone are re‐membered better when associated with images of a hurt and shocked ZooZoo after suddenly being hit by a cricket ball. Vodafone roaming services are highlighted even more in the minds of customers when remembered in conjunction with an adorable ZooZoo couple doing the rounds of customers when remembered in conjunction with an adorable ZooZoo couple doing the rounds of a miniature ZooZoo Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower. The refreshing concept of humor‐ous characters enacting the benefits of the value added services in a comical manner has certainly proved to be far more effective than traditional advertising methods such as celebrity promotions. The creators of ZooZoos namely the advertising giant O&M, devel‐oped the creatures using petite little women covered in layers of white fabric and rubber facial expressions pasted on large round head masks. The usage of special fabrics ensured that the body movements of the women remained invisible and gave animated per‐sonalities to the characters. These ad films were then shot at 20 frames per second in order to make the ZooZoo movements appear hurried and comical.

The ZooZoos have proved how innovation and creativity can intensify brand awareness and recall. The sequence of commercial ad films that illustrate white, round creatures walking around in ZooZoo land have won the hearts of millions of viewers in India. Zoo Zoos have enabled the company to establish a new yet heart‐warming emo‐tional connect with millions of viewers. This certainly has strong po‐tential to drive increases in customer base, subscription figures as well as intensify brand loyalty. Vodafone certainly has not acquired leadership of the booming Indian telecom sector, over its competitors such as Airtel and Idea. However, the adorable ZooZoos have nonetheless captured a sizeable chunk of customer affection for themselves. We love the exaggerated droopy eyes, wide smiles, toothy grins and comic flutterings over any movie star and his flamboyant dance sequences.

It’s definitely time for Shahrukh to move over. Our ZooZoos don’t re‐quire Rahman melodies with the superimposed emotions to win the popularity contest. The Vodafone finance division will assure you of that!


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Anurag Sikdar (Batch of 2010) “He is 38 and unemployed. He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist, and a farmer. He knows nothing of marketing and has never written any copy. He says he is interested in advertising and is willing to work for US$5000 a year. Who do you think will hire him?” this is an excerpt from the autobiographical piece, The Unpublished David Ogilvy, which encapsulates the professional incep‐tion of one of the greatest ad‐gurus of the last cen‐tury. David Ogilvy brought in a revolution in the advertising industry. His Belief:‐ Advertising had to be persuasive as well as entertaining and not just informative. Born in 1911 to a modest family in West Horsley, Surrey, David was trained, in his own words, in ‘Spartan Disciplines’ and went to college to study history in Oxford, which was a complete disaster. He dropped college and started looking for work. He felt this was one of the biggest mistakes of his life. But it was this mistake that shaped his unique personality: the dreamer with logic, the scholarly entrepreneur. He wanted to go to the United States of America. He truly believed the U.S.A as the land of opportunities. Before he could meet his fate, there were a few obstacles. He started his career as something in The Majestic Hotel in Paris. Although he just spent a year there, he learnt an important lesson: ‘No organization will ever create anything great unless it is lead by a formidable individual’. Al‐though Ogilvy did believe in this, little did he know that he would soon become the individual who will test it as well. After that he went to Scotland and sold cooking stoves door‐to‐door. It was then that he wrote a sales manual that till date is considered an essen‐tial read by Fortune Magazine. It was through this manual that Ogilvy found his way to America. His brother recommended him in his office‐ Mather & Crowther and sent him to America for a year as an accounts executive.

After reaching the United States, he worked for multiple organizations before buying a farm and making his mind to start a career in advertising. At 38 with inconsistent career path, job does not seem to be easy. So he took the high road. Ogilvy with help from his brother Francis setup his own firm in 1948, Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson and Mather. Francis brought in investments from British Agency S.H. Benson, Wedgewood China and Mather and Crowther. But after four years of part‐nership, Ogilvy’s ambition to enterprise some‐thing of his own loosened the bond and ignited the passion which drove O&M. Since 1952 till today, Ogilvy and Mather has achieved so much that the world is amazed by the leadership he left as a legacy. Starting with Hatha‐way with a budget of US$ 30,000 when companies like Arrow shirts were spending US$2,000,000 on their advertising, Ogilvy established what we know today as “Brand Personality”. Trying not to sell but persuade by putting the viewer in the shoes of the models in the advertisement. He never liked using flowery words; simply because he knows the world doesn’t have time for that. David Ogilvy never considered himself to be crea‐tive. Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them. He believed that to sell you need an original mind and an ounce of hard work. He fended off takeover attempts from many of the big names like Leo Burnett, JWT, In‐terpublic, BBDO…during the 70s and the 80s. He saw O&M as one of the best agencies in the world and he didn’t want to compromise by tying up with any other firm. He has received countless accolades from all over the world, but his dream to achieve Knighthood remained a dream. He passed away in 1999 in France. He has left behind a Kingdom, a Legacy and quintessential lessons: “never think you are too old” and “creativity does not drive this industry, foresight does”.

AD GURU–David Ogilvy

I guess you are never too old...

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The term advertising connotes the promotion of tangible and intangible ideas, values, goods and services and more specifically any form of paid communication which aims at influencing buy‐ers in their purchase decisions. Out‐Door Ad‐vertising, which is one of the oldest form of ad‐vertising, has undergone a metamorphosis from simple artistically painted billboards to innova‐tive forms whose ubiquitous presence con‐stantly act as a subtle reminder to the consum‐ers of the products and the value associated with them. Out‐of‐Home Advertising (the term is now interchangeably used with Out‐Door Adver‐tising) is slowly becoming a more appealing option for marketers owing to several rea‐sons. For instance, due to the rapid pace of urbani‐zation, as compared to the yester years, the av‐erage time spent by an individual to

com‐ mute from one’s home to work is in‐creasing and so is his exposure to Out‐of‐ Home (OOH) advertising. Further, in a bid to influence a large section of the masses, marketers are capitalizing on the concept of Out‐of‐ Home advertising.

Out‐Door advertising a decade ago focused on

local advertising which was largely influenced by the local culture and region. Advertising was largely in the form of simple billboards, painted ads on the walls of buildings or shops. In south‐ern India, advertisements were painted on the monolithic rocks of temples. These advertise‐ments did not cater to the visual delight of the con‐sumers. Out‐Door advertising was illustrated

with the use of text

and pictorial repre‐sentation was kept to the minimal.

Coke and Pepsi were the only two foreign ad‐

vertisers who used pictorial illustrations on billboards to appeal to the consumers. The main purpose of Out‐Door advertising is to imbed the products, services and value associated with them in the psychic of the consumer.

Out‐Door advertisements in recent months have become a shadow of the consumer following him in malls, metro trains, offices or coffee par‐lors. In the past few years, there has been a pro‐liferation of several small advertising companies like C2E Technology labs Pvt. Ltd, Out of Home media, Live media, Times OOH. These advertis‐ing firms though new in the business are equipped with the best technology and innova‐tive ideas, C2E Technology plans to capitalize on

Charu Madan (Class of 2010)

Out-of-Home Advertising

From genesis to reaching a new dimension

Source:http://www.southernballoonworks.com ADrenaline

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the advertising opportunities in the metro sta‐tions. They are emulating the concept of ‘tunnel technology’ which was developed by Submedia Inc, a US based company. Still pictorial illustra‐tions on signboards of the tunnel will give the impression of moving graphics to the passen‐gers inside the train.

Livemedia , a Noida based firm has set up LCD screens at various locations like restaurants, hospitals and corporate houses providing enter‐tainment services . Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd and a pleth‐ora of advertising agencies have launched digital outdoor services. Tag Media Network is setting up TV screens in grocery stores to influence cus‐tomers at the point of purchase.

Further, Nightlight balloons are being used to advertise customized messages. They are afford‐able and are different from the usual type of pro‐motional advertisements. It has the ability to catch the attention of all age groups, the young and the old and provides an opportunity to in‐teract with the person wearing the nightlight balloon who can further enlighten the curious customer about the product or service being ad‐vertised. Vodafone known for its innovative advertise‐ments has recently installed a hill sign measur‐ing 130 feet x 30 feet in Rajasthan. The hill sign designed by Ogilvy landscapes, Delhi is an emu‐lation of the Hollywood signs. Its colossal size

leaves a lasting impact on the viewers mind etching the brand name via the innovative out‐door medium.

Paul Meyer, President of Clear Channel Outdoor opines that “We are one unavoidable medium. There is no mute button, no off switch. You can’t change the channel. We’re there.” With the scope of advertising increasing out of home ad‐vertisements is adding a new dimension to the consumerist society.” And I bow down (to his views) in agreement!

http://www.afaqs.com/perl/ooh/news/story.html?sid=24190 Source: http://www.afaqs.com/perl/ooh/news/story.html?sid=24190 ADrenaline


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They help us to dream big, they enable us to transcend the reality, to go beyond what is at‐tainable, they are omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient…they possess the charm to magnify mundane joys and to nullify sorrows, they tap our latent needs, fill us with aspirations …they are the BRANDS!

Ever since the focus has shifted from commoditi‐zation to brand building, the key to success has been differentiation. Distribution of freebies to ‘get lucky contests’, price reductions to combo offers, surrogate advertising to building brand equity through social awareness campaigns‐ companies have sought to various means of building their brand. Yet, one of the most com‐mon practices of brand building is through ce‐lebrity endorsement (1). The benefits of celeb‐rity endorsements are evident and you need not be a rocket scientist to decipher that. Perhaps this also explains the popularity of celebrity en‐dorsement as a technique of brand building. However, through this article we intend to adorn the spectacles of a critique and look at some of the success stories who choose to carve

out a place for themselves without celebrity en‐dorsements. Remember the two minute instant noodles that each one of us has memories of since our child‐hood‐ Maggi Maggi Maggi! Nestle India Limited launched maggi in 1980s. Maggi, then had to

face stiff com‐petition from the ready to eat snack seg‐ments like bis‐cuits, wafers etc. Also it had other competi‐tor the so c a l l e d “homemade” snacks which are till today c o n s i d e r e d healthy and h y g i e n i c . Hence, to cap‐

ture the market it was positioned as a hygienic homemade snack, a smart move indeed! (2). The first Maggi TV commercial featured a hun‐gry kid saying “Mummy bhookh lagi ’’ the mother answers “Bas do minute!’’ and soon he

is shown relishing the instant snack Maggi. The situation depicted in the ad is an everyday household story. Here, Nestle was trying to build a bond with the common man. The company thoughtfully chose to leave a mark on the minds of the consumer by elucidating one of the prod‐uct’s benefits through faces/personalities that were ordinary, that resembled the kid next door. The company continued to send brand messages that revolved around the common man and were articulated by the common man,

Cheshta Chadha (Class of 2010)

Maggi celebrating 25th anniversary – Me & Meri maggi campaign Source: www.nestle.in

Without Celebrity Endorsements

Standing Tall

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with one exception being the launch of chotta maggi (3). Incidently, Maggi also celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. To make consumers part of the brand’s jour‐ney, maggi’s latest communication talks about various memories people associate with Maggi over a period of 25 years. “It gives you a feeling of nos‐talgia, and works on the basic truth that everyone has at least one Maggi story to tell,” says Emmanuel Uppu‐

turu, national creative director, Publi‐cis India, the agency that conceptual‐ised the campaign. (4)

Also as a part of its promotional drive, Maggi has launched a website, me‐andmeri.in, where consumers can up‐load their Maggi moments and submit their favourite Maggi recipe (4). The best stories will be shortlisted and the writer will get a chance to be featured on Maggi packs or ads. It would interest us to know that In‐dia is the largest consumer of Maggi noodles in the world (2). This is a classic example to a brand riding high

and standing tall without celebrity endorsement.

United Colors of Benetton, more commonly known as UCB, is a lead‐ing global fashion brand and a part of the Benetton Group S.p.A. based in Treviso, Italy. The company follows a unique strategy for creating its brand value. It is famous for spon‐sorship of a number of sports events and for the controversial “United Colors" publicity campaign. This

idea of the campaign was conceived by photographer, Oliviero Toscani. The USP of this campaign is that it contained striking images unrelated to any actual products being sold by the company. “These graphic, bill‐board sized ads included depictions of a variety of 'shocking' subjects such as a deathbed scene of a man (AIDS activist David Kirby) dying from AIDS, a bloodied, unwashed newborn baby with umbilical cord still attached, two horses mating, close‐up pictures of tattoos reading "HIV Positive" on the bodies of men and women, a collage consisting of

Source: www.benetton.com ADrenaline

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Source: http://images.google.in

genitals of persons of various races, a priest and nun about to engage in a romantic kiss, pictures of inmates on death row, and picture of blood‐ied, shot up pants and t‐shirt of a soldier killed in Bosnian War. The company's logo served as the only text accompanying the images in most of these.” (5)

In a nutshell, Benetton too has not vouched for celebrity endorsements to promote its products. While these are just two examples, many compa‐nies today prefer (and some since their incep‐tion prefer) building their brand either by exclu‐sively stressing upon their product attributes or by building on a symbolic images that the con‐sumer can associate with the Brand. Lijjat Pap‐pad’s rabbits that sing along “Karam puram pu‐ram karam”, Vodafone’s zoozoos (and earlier the pug that ran through the Hutch ads), Amul but‐ter’s moppet, Everready batteries’ rabbits that win the race faster than others, Onida’s Devil who repeats‐ Neigbour’s envy, owner’s pride, etc are some more to join the category of ‘sans ce‐lebrity endorsement’.

This brings us back to the question that is cen‐tral of this debate that despite enormous bene‐fits that celebrity endorsements offer what is it that is holding these companies back from lever‐

aging such a powerful advertising tool. One of the major threats posed by celebrity en‐dorsements is the consumers’ ability to associ‐ate with the celebrity than with the brand. This results in high celebrity recall and low brand recall value. “For example Rod McCulloch who is the head of the acting school of communication at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, once point out that Tiger Woods's involvement in a campaign for shaving products as an example of a celebrity overshadowing the brand: "I can re‐member him but I don't know what brand he was endorsing and it can't be a great ad if you can't remember the brand” (6). Here, the audi‐ence recalls the celebrity but fails to realize the brand. Another disadvantage of relying on celeb‐rity endorsement is that a company may not be able to get a celebrity to represent their product exclusively. The celebrity may endorse several products at the same time. This is also called ‘overexposure’. “This problem occures when a celebrity endorses too many companies and products (Belch & Belch, 2001). For example Tiger Woods and David Beckham. Tiger Woods endorse for Nike, Buick, American Express, Ac‐centure, Electronic Arts and Tag Heuer. David Beckham endorse for Adidas, ESPN, and

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Source: www.benetton.com

Motorola, Gilette, Pepsi, even in soccer‐lite America and more. Because of endorsing too much company the perceived credibility may suffer.” (6) “It also sends a message to the consumer that, "If the endorser won't stick with a brand, why should I?" Auto racing's Jeff Gordon is an exam‐ple of one who has multiple endorsement con‐tracts and consequently, is less effective as an endorser” (7).

And last but not the least, companies that go in for celebrity endorsements have to be prepared to deal with the negative publicity that some‐times tag along with the endorser. To put it dif‐ferently if celebrity’s positive image changes, the consumer perception of the brand is also likely to suffer. There are “some evidences to show that a company’s sales can decline by the nega‐tive images of the celebrity who endorsers the brand (Shimp 2003) For example Kate Moss and H&M. After pictured taking drugs in Daily Mirror newspaper, a lot of brands she endorsed such as Chanel, H&M cancelled their campaigns and con‐tracts with her.” (6) All this is not to say that Brands should refrain from celebrity endorsements. They are at a lib‐erty to leverage from the denizens of the ‘glam world’, all I m saying is way the pros and cons before you make that choice. Also let’s acknowl‐edge and give them their five minutes of fame, to those who stand tall without celebrity endorse‐ments!

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Samiksha Bali (class of 2010)

COMPANY PROFIL – O & M Company Profile : O&M

Established in 1928, O&M was the first advertis‐ing agency in India. Since then it has been associ‐ated with some of India's most successful brands like Asian Paints, Cadbury, Fevicol and in recent times‐ Perfetti, Hutch, Close Up and many more, O & M is acknowledged as the leading communi‐cations agency in the country today. 360 Degree Brand Stewardship is the mantra followed by this renowned agency and has come a long way in bringing the company to the top. The company was incorporated in India in Au‐gust 1928 under the name D J Keymer & Co. Ltd. Between then and today, O&M , wore the banner of Bomas Ltd, followed by S H Benson (India) Pvt Ltd. David Ogilvy launched Ogilvy Benson & Mather in New York in 1948 with the financial backing of two British agencies: Mather & Crow‐ther and S.H. Benson. The business units today encompass O&M Advertising, OgilvyOne, Ogilvy Activation and Ogilvy Public Relations. S.H. Benson dates back to 1893. The Mather name had been prominent in London advertising since 1850. David's older brother, Francis was Managing Director of Mather & Crowther and he considered it a small triumph to start a British‐owned agency on American soil. He attributed much of the success to the genius of his brother, David Ogilvy. From the very beginning, David Ogilvy intended to have a different kind of com‐pany. He knew that if he was going to be success‐ful as an expatriate running an under‐capitalized offshoot of an old British firm in the country that invented modern advertising (in the city that was its epicentre), he would need a strong agency brand: respectable, high‐quality, highly creative and intelligent. Starting with no clients in 1948, Ogilvy has since grown into a worldwide enterprise. In 1965, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather merged with Mather & Crowther to form a public company, O&M Inter‐national. By 1970, O&M had 30 offices in 14

countries. In 1971, O&M bought out Benson, thereby acquiring holdings in Asia Pacific under the Ogilvy, Benson & Mather name. This included India.In 1989, The Ogilvy Group, became part of Martin Sorrell's WPP Group PLC, world's second largest communications network. Talking about the honchos of O&M, Piyush Pandey's career at Ogilvy, from a trainee Account Executive to Executive Chairman is a story in it‐self. Born in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Piyush obtained his Master's degree from St Stephen's College, Delhi. Cricket seemed to be his calling as he led Delhi University to its win in the Rohinton Baria Trophy in 1979. He also played in Ranji Trophy, India's premier domestic cricket tourney. Piyush even worked as a tea taster, before joining Ogilvy in 1982 as a suit.In1989, he moved to the creative department in O&M, became the Creative Direc‐tor there in1992 and then become the National Creative Director, O&M, India by 1994. The fol‐lowing year, Piyush was nominated to the BODs. Under his leadership, O&M has succeeded in re‐taining its well‐acknowledged leadership posi‐tion in Indian advertising for 8 years in succes‐sion. In Feb 2004, he was appointed the Execu‐tive Chairman for Ogilvy, India & South Asia. S N Rane, another prominent name associated with O&M , started his career with a professional firm, moved on to a group of manufacturing compa‐nies, and dabbled in Shipping and Chartering be‐fore joining O&M, India. His two decades at O&M have seen him partner two CEOs and has been instrumental in making Ogilvy, the leading com‐munications agency in the country today. He currently serves as Director on the Board of O&M, RMG David Communications Pvt Ltd, Group M Media India Pvt Ltd, Meridian Communications Pvt Ltd and Phoenix O&M (Pvt) Ltd., Sri Lanka.

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Source: www.ogilvyindia.com

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As I take you through the journey of how prod‐ucts become brands at JWT‐ one of the finest advertising agencies in the world, I am reminded of the first day of my summer internship program. Brimming with excitement, there I was standing in front of a yellow coloured building at the Enkay Centre, Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon on Febru‐ary, 24th, ’09. I was directed to the fourth floor of the building, where my mentor was waiting for me. The place looked a quite different from the usual corpo‐rate offices; the walls were painted in bright yel‐low and red, there was a basketball net on one side of the room and green bean bags all around the place. Employees were dressed in casuals. One corner of the room was occupied by people singing at the top of their voices and at the other end were those abusing them, asking them to shut up. It was definitely not like the usual of‐fices for sure, I thought to myself. Initially things were slow but then I realized that people at advertising offices don’t only sing and abuse, they also work. Well, my learning began when I came to know that an advertsing agency comprises of three main departments namely,

Account planning Creative Client servicing

Account planning division manages the com‐plete account of a brand. They meet the clients, make presentations, go for pitches, decide who the target audience is going to be, what message the ad should convey to the audience, what is going to be the tonality (1) of the ad, what me‐diums should be used to reach the consumer so on. They also prepare a creative brief, which is then shared with the Creative Department. Next, in line is the Creative team. They are the

people who in turn, weave a story around the main idea of the ad. The selected ideas are made into story boards. Then these are audio recorded and next a video, like a cartoon film is made on them. It is then sent for a market testing and the ad which rates best on consumer rating is sent forward for a proper shoot and that’s how fi‐nally an ad is made. There can still be a number of changes in the ad after it is video shot as per the requirements of the client. However, it is the Client servicing department which ensures the execution of these ads. They are the people who decide how many hoardings are to be put, where they need to be put, what promotional schemes need to be introduced, etc. With them also rests the task of converting the language of the brand managers into a language that the creatives can understand and vice versa. To put it simply, they also act as a bridge be‐tween the client and the Creative team, to en‐sure prompt feedback and smooth communica‐tion till the execution stage. At JWT, I was working as an intern in account planning department, handling the brand Glaxo Smith Klime or GSK. From time to time, GSK con‐ducted workshops to come up with new prod‐ucts, product’s positioning, targeting, and the entire advertising campaign. One such work‐shop was called as BCP which is an abbreviated form of ‘Brand Communication Platform’. Dur‐ing this workshop, the account planners and the members of the New Product Development Team of the advertising company sit together with the related officials of the company and come to a conclusion as to how the communica‐tion about the new product has to be designed.

The gamut of the workshop extended to cover‐ing who is the target audience, who all are

Vasu (class of 2010)

From an Intern’s desk

A stint at JWT

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the competitors in that line and how have they designed their promotional campaigns, packag‐ing of their products, and how can we position our product distinctively from them. The tonal‐ity of the advertisement is also decided.

A number of other activities like Myth breakers and giving a face to the consumers (where all the present members participate) are carried out before reaching a final conclusion. If that conclusion is accepted to all, then a creative brief is prepared and is handed over to the Crea‐tive team.

Creative team while preparing a storyline about the advertisement keeps in mind all the points stated in the creative brief.

Workshops are also organized to find out what the latest trends, what kind of products are be‐ing desired by the consumers and what what products need to be launched in the next few years. Teams comprising the research and de‐velopment team, marketing team, innovation and new product development team, etc. all sit together and decide on the different kinds of products to be launched, with what ingredients and their packaging needs. One learns a lot about how every small decision can either build or break a brand. It feels amaz‐ing to find the commercial you have been a part of run on air and also when people appreciate it and enjoy it and also when it serves the purpose of its whole existence. Huff!!! That was all about serious stuff, now let’s talk about the fun element of an ad agency. Soon after 5:00 everyone used to wait for the refresh‐ments at JWT, especially the mouth watering papri chaat, noodles and pav bhaji. Post office hours, JWT also provided for recreational activi‐ties of their employees. From table tennis and cricket matches, to people listening to music to different genres of music and still others playing games like counter strike were a part of the or‐

ganization work culture. The company has its own band with a very interesting name “Band Chor”. One thing that I really appreciated was that one never had to be bothered of what they are wear‐ing to the office because the more weirdly you dress, the cooler, hip and innovative you are. We really enjoyed watching people sometimes turn‐ing up in their boxer shots and torn t‐shirts and rubber chapples. But the desks of some of these had to be seen for the number of trophies and awards they have won. So, I realized it’s no how you dress, but what ideas you carry in your head, the kind of work you do that gets you lau‐rels and respect.

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Talking of Bing, “But it’s not Google”, from Mi‐crosoft, Seth Godin of Permission Marketing fame says that by calling upon Google, Microsoft is only trying to be another “Google”. The point is: we don’t need another Google ‐ we already have one, and the next, which is probably Google itself. Why would anyone want to be “next Google”? Google never came as the next “anything”‐ Google was Google and did what it did! The next product to change the world shouldn’t have to be “Google” but has to be bet‐ter than “Google”‐ the “other” and not “another”. Most marketing problems seem to arise from this precise mindset, the assumption that there is “what’s done” and “what’s not done”. If one were to look at anything path‐breaking, product wise or idea wise, it’s always “what was never done before”. So what’s with the run‐of‐the‐mill advertising we continue to make today, ‘slice of life’ all the way, either in the form of animation or with real people (think Zoo‐Zoos, Fortune cooking oil, Ma‐ruthi service center and so on and so forth mak‐ing us go “oh so cute” over and over and over

again). Indian’s by nature seem to take things too personally and don’t like to be made fun of. And so, we end up being over sentimental and over analytical of our own behaviors. When we do get a little light, we start to make fun of com‐munities, in bad taste! It really is time to start taking the “chill pill” and laughing out aloud about ourselves and our idiosyncrasies, which could help us to identify the little deviant quirki‐ness that we have as a ‘people’ and appreciate it. Instead of looking at everything in terms of what’s different about us, George Carlin, the fa‐mous stand‐up comedian says, can we look at those things that kind of common about us, what we all know, but hardly talk about? Like you wake up in the middle of the afternoon and you ask “What time is it?” Or how when a man and woman are walking together with their hands around each other, one of them has to change the way they walk? Or what about the fact that people can’t process more than 7 (+/‐) 2 bits of information at any point of time? Time to start thinking out of the box before we turn the idiot box boring for the viewers.

Ideate out of the box

Guru Speak

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The writer is a Marketing professor at IBS Hyderabad

Srividya Raghavan

July, 2009 | 29

1. When the newspaper was first published in 1838 in Mumbai, it was known as “The Bombay times and the journal of commerce”. How do we better know this today?

2. WPP is the parent company of J. Walter Thompson and group of companies. Expand WPP?

3. In print media what is known as a bulldog edition?

4. Name the first advertising agent of the world?

5. Which is the longest running TV advertisement in the world?

6. Identify the adjacent logo

7. Motorola "MS" series of cell phones what "MS" stands for......

8. Identify the adjacent logo

9. "An arrangement that associates a single product or service with more than one brand name, or otherwise associates a product with someone other than the principal producer. It involves two or more companies acting in cooperation to associate any of various logos, color schemes, or brand identifiers to a specific product that is contractually designated for this purpose."

Give a single term for the definition given above

10. This engraved logo was used on the products trial‐manufactured by the company in 1934, but not released in the market. Identify the brand.

AD Quiz

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The Team-Batch of 2010

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Documents

i t s03 editorial

d v e r t i s i n gb

outofhome advertising

advertising message

ad quiz

asian ad ventures

chief editorial adrenaline

brand building