An ad is a product of painstaking craftsmanship. Various elements, ranging from positioning of the product, clarity of the idea behind the product to visibility of the brand, its persona and the power of communication have to be intelligently weaved together. But while some ads manage to rewrite preset creative benchmarks, some go the wrong way, fall by the side & fail to excite viewers. In this section, we review three ads that came out tops, for the right and the wrong reasons this fortnight.

Advertiser: Yamuna Expressway
Baseline: Suhana Safar, Salamat Safar
Agency: Clayground Communications

4Ps B&M Take: The 165-km-long Yamuna Expressway connecting Agra and Greater Noida is almost complete and will soon be open to public. So what does the developer Jaypee Group do? It immediately ups the ante, ropes in some TV soap stars and starts advertising its achievement. Star TV couple Sakshi Sinha and Ram Kumar are out for a drive on the highway – and the three part ad series communicates various highway driving etiquettes to viewers. They stress on the need to obey traffic rules, to not drink and drive, wear seat belts and refrain from littering. The creatives have even tried to inject some humour – well, as much humour as an advertisement for Yamuna Expressway can have. One ad has Ram Kapoor singing loudly and totally off-tune while driving. The voiceover says that it’s okay to sing and drive, but not okay to drink and drive. Ahem... okay, so you are not laughing. Neither did we. In other words, the ads are okay but lack creativity and the storyboard leaves a lot to be desired. Their sole purpose seems to be some chest thumping after a project well done. But here’s where the problem is. Apart from some graphically simulated visuals towards the end, there is hardly any talk of the project and its achievements. The storyboard actually dwells more on obeying traffic rules – than on brand positioning. Excuse us, but shouldn’t there also be subtly-woven talk about the number of lanes, consumer convenience, civic amenities, green belt, et al, along the highway? This is not to say that we don’t like all the obeying traffic rules messages. India’s highway accident statistics certainly underline the crying need for Indians to diligently follow all traffic rules. And if the message is a part of Jaypee’s corporate responsibility initiative, rest assured, we are indeed clapping.
 
Advertiser: Amul Macho
Baseline: Bade Aaram Se
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

4Ps B&M Take: What a perfect waste of a super celebrity endorser in a totally out-of-place concept. Saif is hot property these days and Amul Macho has hired him as their brand endorser for more than a year now. The bid was to get rid of their raunchy image reinforced by the ‘Yeh Toh Bada Toing Hai’ series of ads. They even re-positioned themselves with the concept of effortlessness using the tagline ‘Bade Aaram Se’. But if the idea was to endear themselves to the urban, sophisticated target audience by implying that the brand user is one who gets things done effortlessly, the brand has been unable to cut much ice. Perhaps the creative team is trying too hard to milk Saif’s stardom for all it’s worth with storyboards laced with oodles of forced humour. Why else would ad after ad from Macho’s stable still continue to suffer from tackiness? In this ad, a damsel in distress runs to the lifeguard on the beach asking him to rescue her drowning baby. The bored lifeguard looks through his binoculars to discover that the drowning baby is in fact a fully grown ‘baba’. So he half-heartedly barks out some terse orders through his loudspeaker to help the struggling guy. Suddenly a shark begins circling the petrified ‘baba’. Really? Anyway, Saif nonchalantly orders the shark to leave him alone, and the big fish meekly swims away. All this, while Saif remains perched disinterestedly on the lifeguard’s seat. A piece of advice for O&M. If the idea is to own ‘effortlessness’ as a brand image, then please try harder. After all, disinterested is certainly not the same as effortless.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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There are ads, and then there are those 10 that have personified the concept of how branding can be made to work for the product most efficiently and effectively. From creativity to brand recall, from concept to execution, these 10 advertisements have gotten our attention; thanks to the commitment of the teams that created them. We present you with our review of the top three ads.
 
Advertiser: Honda
Baseline: Sach kar denge sapne
Agency: Dentsu Marcom

4Ps B&M Take: Once in a while, there comes an ad that just leaves you with a warm, good, tingly feeling and the latest ad from Honda India’s stable does just that. Emotive lyrics, superb cinematography, hand picked visuals from real life moments of middle class, urban Indians that leave you fondly nostalgic. This ad effectively captures the desire and ambition of the audiences to make their dreams come true. Of course, the Honda motorcycle is presented as the solution to ride the race of life faster. And the line “Bas zaroorat hai in sapno ko thodi si raftaar ki” (our dreams only need a little acceleration) poetically encapsulates the message. Honda has broken into the 6 million units a year executive commuter segment with this bike. Till recently, a joint venture with Hero had prevented Honda from directly tapping into this mass segment of the two-wheeler industry. The television commercial is likewise geared to position Honda as a heavyweight in this segment from day one. Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, who has recently been roped in as the Japanese two-wheeler major’s brand ambassador, is the narrator who ties up the entire TVC together. Poetic lyrics like ‘’Hamare paas sapne hai kilo ke hisaab se, aur samay atthanni bhar’’ are spot-on. Sure, it’s a hundred seconds long film and may have even been a tad monotonous had the visuals and lyrics not been so compelling. But overall, positive vibes all around on this one. Our #2!
 
Advertiser: Monster.com
Baseline: Find better
Agency: Dentsu Marcom

4Ps B&M Take: Funny, ingenious and culturally attuned to the taste of Indian audiences. The line just about sums up the Monster.com creative that is keeping the target audience amused these days. The ad showcases two job hunters waiting for their turn with the interviewer. Both have a slew of good luck charms with them to enable them to land this job. In a bid to make the other nervous about his chances, they begin indulging in a bit of a one-upmanship as far as the lucky charms are concerned. One guy shows the horse-shoe ring that he is carrying with himself, while the other one makes his comeback with a Nimbu-Mirchi charm. Next, the bracelets and evil-eyes come out. But the funniest is when one of them brings out his mom – who dutifully gives best wishes to her son no sooner than she is fished out from the bag. Well, Monster.com agrees. They specifically asked their agency to weave an ad around this mindset after a recent study they conducted which gave Monster the insight that most Indians carry a good luck charm on big occasions such as a job interview. Incidentally, the research, which surveyed over 4,000 people, indicates that almost seventy percent of India believes that ‘luck’ plays an important role in finding a job. So, while the two job seekers are still fighting their ‘charm’ battle, the interviewer walks out with a completely new third chap who apparently has already landed the job. The selected candidate pulls out his smartphone, which has a Monster application for job seekers. The final message from the advertiser? ‘Get lucky, get active on Monster.com’. Now that’s what we call clever weaving of consumer insight into your brand promise. Quite a monstrous effort surely!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012

An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page

IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail

IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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