Know Thy Breaks
Uncategorized
Thums Up- Styled Catch-up By a Ketchup
May 2nd
Tag line: Taste. Like Never Before.
Client: Field Fresh Foods
Brand: Del Monte
Creative Agency: Contract Advertising
Exec Creative Director: Nima D T Namchu
Creative Director: Vandana Katoch
Copywriter: Vandana Katoch
Art Director: Shalini Singh
Director: Shoojit Sircar
Production House: Rising Sun Films
Duration: 60 secs
Year: 2010
Insight: Del Monte celebrates the desire of young urban India to try new and exciting tastes. This ad is based on the simple human insight that every time we come across something new and interesting, we want to immediately know its source. If we see a friend wearing a nice shirt, we promptly ask what brand it is. In this ad, they made the same point, albeit in an exaggerated and entertaining manner.
USP & Differentiation: When a brand is launched in a crowded market as of sauces, it needs a very strong point of differentiation. Good / new / different tastes are advantages which every brand claims (remember ‘it’s different!’). What Del Monte had is that it is one of the top ranked sauce in US (probably just after Heinz). The ad completely misses this point, and makes the brand look like a newbie. It will not be able to take a prestigious brand like Del Monte to its rightful place in Indian market. Nestle guys can celebrate for a formidable competitor has shot itself in the foot. (*)
Target Audience Connect: The product like sauces is generally taken by the ladies or by the young people. So considering that, ad aptly shows a lady and few young guys. Moreover the lady taken is Shefali Shah- a recognized actor and a well known face for Indian ladies and youth. As product is trying to target middle class and is avoiding to show themselves as some international brand, so the ad is shot in a train with a lady having a samosa (Indian snack, may be to show connectivity). The Indian touch shows even in the background music track that has complemented the plot. (***)
Freshness: The “Kareena Kapoor – Jab We Met” train scene is too boring to emulate. There are hit and misses between the shots… could have been managed much better. The histrionics of the lady in the ad and the theme has nothing new to talk about. From the customer communication perspective, it is confusion… what customer insight is the advertising targeting- newer taste, or a new packaging or new brand identities (the brand recall of either zingo or tango) the bingo brand recall is very high. The similar sounding brands would have to fight with different decibels. (*)
Verdict: The commercial does not have an overdose of comedy that is so rampant in this category. It does not ask you to tax your brains either. The casting is quite good & the shoot quite decent, although the chase is quite a run-of-the-mill sequence. And it’s good to see an Indian Lady doing an Akshay Kumar… the young homemaker would definitely be elated by this play of alter-ego. This launch ad is at best amusing with the brand using hyperbole to drive home the taste USP.
Spend on Your Child With Their Expertise
Apr 30th
Tag line: Faidey ka Insurance
Client: Kotak Life Insurance
Creative Agency: JWT
Creative Director: Nandita Chalam
Copywriter: Nandita Chalam
Art Director: Minal Phatak
Director: Rajesh Krishnan
Production House: Soda Films
Duration: 35 secs
Year: 2009
Story: A Kotak Life agent talks about how parents want their children to take up various professional options. As the agent mentions these career options, the child seated between his parents turns into an astronaut, doctor, etc in quick succession. The agent then describes how Kotak Life Insurance’s Child Plans ensure better returns from investments made in a growing market, which could facilitate higher spends on the child’s education. The film ends with the agent leaving the house with a piece of friendly advice – that a child must be given room to make his own career choice.
Positioning: The earlier campaigns of Kotak Life Insurance featured the tag line – ‘Zindagi se ek kadam aagey (One step ahead of life)’. The idea was that sound financial planning would help one stay a step ahead. Kotak Life Insurance has adopted a new brand positioning with a new tag line- ‘Faidey ka Insurance‘. Consumers now seek beyond protection and endowment from their insurance plans. In this context, leveraging Kotak’s core strength of investment expertise seems a natural extension for the brand. The new positioning is a reflection of Kotak Group’s strength in the area of research and capital markets. (****)
Freshness: No traditional emotional selling but bold thinking & outstanding execution. At least someone has tried to break away from happy emotional family based advertising. Kudos for breaking through the hackneyed child-centered mindless advertising done by some of the Life insurance players. (****)
Verdict: In today’s insurance parlance, a child plan is synonymous with the parent’s expectations from their child. Kotak Life Insurance through its TVC, attempts to break this mould. It gently suggests to parents to refrain from forcing their expectations on their child but allow and enable the children to exercise their choices and do what they like to do. It also reminds the parents that, they should invest and plan so that they can provide maximum resources when the need arises.
No Chore is a Bore Any More
Apr 16th
Tag line: Tumko Dekha To Ye Design Aaya
Client: Onida Electronics
Creative Agency: McCann Erickson
Creative Director: Prasoon Joshi
Creative Art Director: Kapil Tammal
Copy Head: Prasad Venkatraman
Duration: 45 secs
Year: 2009
A brand has to be very relevant to its times. In Onida’s case, the Devil was losing relevance in today’s times. The film has not taken a serious but a tongue-in-cheek and humorous approach in portraying a modern couple’s life.
The new brand campaign showcases the surprising thoughtfulness behind Onida’s product features through the eyes of today’s young couple, personified by fictional new-age pair Siddharth and Ritu, who share a loving yet ‘chatpata‘ relationship. Although the concept of young couple was not new but in all they somehow gives you a kinda fresh feeling… guess… because of that music too.
In both the commercials, the couple is hosting their friends. It’s when that Sid’s friends soil the pillow covers with food & on another occasion Ritu asks him to cook prompting his culinary skills to the friends… Onida’s advanced appliances prove to be a godsend to Sid.
The married couple in the commercials show how the gender bias, when it comes to household chores, is being blurred and both husband and wife share the work, while (Onida) appliances become a part of their lives instead of just lying around.
What the ads actually tell us that the product has been designed keeping “me”, the consumer, in mind- this is where the danger is. Over the years, advertisers have abandoned the tangible qualities of the brand, such as the USP, to focus on something bigger, the intangibles in their communication. Having fallen into the trap of saying that “we are good design”, something that’s tangible, the brand now needs to deliver what it’s promising.
Also these ads are direct and they talk about the benefits (read new-age features) upfront. Okay, good. But they are without a brand image! Add Samsung’s; LG’s or Whirlpool’s logo at the end and they might look like the respective brand’s ads. Just a me-too campaign & nothing distinctive about it. Purchase behaviour for this category is purely based on technology and, to a certain extent, looks. Not Indianness.
It certainly looked like the world (including audience & ad makers both) was divided on the ONIDA Devil getting buried… With Onida’s intent to re-establish itself as a multi-category durables brand, most of the critics mouthed– the new tagline & positioning has nothing new in it; the cast looks pretty similar to so many of the ‘young couple, consumer durable’ ads with a lot of ham acting; and what not.
Not withstanding anything, it takes courage to move away from established positioning of a brand. Good sportspersons retire. Good singers stop singing. If they do not do it at the right time, they get punished very badly (e.g. Ganguly). Of course, there are Mathew Haydens of the world who are 40+ and still make sense and remain energetic on the field – but quite rare! Big brands & players need to rediscover themselves from time to time!
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Let us see growth of the brand in the next couple of years and reserve the verdict for after a few quarters.
Just a ‘Couple’ of Ads Exorcized The Iconic Devil
Apr 15th
Tag line: Tumko Dekha To Ye Design Aaya
Client: Onida Electronics
Creative Agency: McCann Erickson
Creative Director: Prasoon Joshi
Creative Art Director: Kapil Tammal
Copy Head: Prasad Venkatraman
Duration: 45 secs
Year: 2009
While other rivals are bringing international products to India, the new Onida campaign pushes the idea that Onida is exclusively Indian and its products are developed with the consumer in mind.
The new campaign features a young couple, whose lives are enhanced by Onida products, & carries the tag line: Tumko dekha toh ye design aaya (this design came to me when I saw you). The DVD player ad shows Siddharth(husband) pulling a fast one on Ritu(wife), telling her that she is on air. Ritu excitedly calls up her mother & asks Sid the channel on which she’s appearing, to which he casually says Onida. Getting it soon that he has just inserted a SD card into the player she hits her husband in mock anger.
The ads are well made. The whole look, the casting is very refreshing & it makes you want to look at the ad again. The attempt to convey Onida as a brand beyond TV is apparent with the sub-branding of ‘Onida- Theatre’; ‘Onida- Cook’ etc. These will present Onida as a cross-category player, rather than its earlier image of a TV company.
This time the durable major’s marketing team is playing on its technological prowess. The prank played on the wife shows the reward to the prospect as customers can now access multiple utilities from just one player. Onida is finally shaping up its brand personality with this eye-catching ad for its multimedia range. Except for the wife being a tad too dumb (is the women’s lib lobby listening?), this one overall allows Onida a break from its (now) irrelevant ‘envy’ positioning.
The electronics & home appliances maker Onida has finally bid adieu to the Devil who had been turning many eyes green for more than two decades. Tough sticking with the Devil according to me ought to be better option, rather having some couple representing the brand which will be obscured in the minds of audiences.
He wasn’t boring us with random details about technology, he was saying “don’t envy it, just grab it”. But as things went along, the Devil got old & was reduced to being a salesperson and thanks to all the crappy ad campaigns later on, he appeared senile. I guess the best way forward was to resurrect the Devil using him ‘creatively’ along with these couple to make it an actual Onida one. If there is a sudden shift from the age old character, acceptance of the audience would be the big question. How this campaign creates an identity exclusive to Onida the way the Devil did…?
The above suggestion should sound logical in the light of the following fact- ‘Neighbour’s Envy’ had lost relevance as an emotional driver of durables purchase, which has become a necessity and is no more a luxury. Plus, things have changed. In today’s world people don’t bother about neighbours, they even don’t know their name. They have become a lot more individualistic & don’t aspire for what their neighbours own but mostly go by what they like.
