Best TV Ads in 2014

I'm bored of all the mundane ads but recently few ads caught my attention.


1) Honda Ad featuring Kapil Sharma- 

It's Kapil Sharma's first ad and he has just simply nailed it. I loved the way the ad starts, it's a long ad, around 2:33 minutes but still worth a watch.

Tagline- Sharma ji ka Londa ya Apna Honda

It's definitely creative but not unique. Have seen such ads usually so it was predictable. But still the ad is engaging and you want to see it will the end. May be because of Kapil but, we still have to give some points to the creative agency.

The TVC starts with  Kapil showering praises to office receptionist who is talking over the phone from a distance and his boss catches him and orders him to focus on his work. Then a girl enters Honda showroom with her mother talking about her marriage and convincing her to marry Sharma ji ka foreign return beta. Kapil then tactfully states features of the car within mother daughter conversation. The ad ends where Kapil asks the girl whether she would go for Sharma ji ka Londa ya Apna Honda.

The word "Apna" is appealing and gives the brand a very warm feeling. Hence, I rate this as 4/5

Honda's New Ad Featuring Kapil Sharma


2) Fortune Oil- 2 Spoonful of Daal

Tagline- Ghar ka khaana Akhir Ghar Ka Hi Hota Hai

Amazing storyline and quite unpredictable. I couldn't really guess which brand is the ad all about until the end. After watching some recent ads, I believe brands are ready to share longer ads with their consumers to ensure effective and strong message is conveyed for their brand. And in this case, its wonderfully delivered.

The ad starts with a hospital scene, a nurse and an accident patient. A grandmother, visibly old climbs flight of stairs to make her grandson eat 2 spoonful of daal. Nurse refutes and tells her hospital policy doesn't allow outside food to which grandmother replies its homemade. But the grandmother is determined to serve the daal to her grandson at any cost and uses all tricks she could but the nurse remains adamant to her statement and loses her temper only to shout at the poor grandmother. Then grandmother offers her food the next day to please the nurse. Though the nurse doesn't allow the grandmother to serve daal to her grandson but she eats the daal she brought for her. Surprisingly the next day nurse greets the grandmother with a pleasant smile and informs her she can make her grandson eat daal as she guards the door. The grandson not only eats the daal but finishes off in a haste as he expresses that it tastes palpable. The TVC ends with a note of fortune oil, kynki ghar ka khana toh ghar ka hi hota hai.


Fortune Oil- 2 Spoonful of Daal

3) Century Ply- Khushiyoon Ka Rangmanch

I've actually never seen Nana Patekar in an ad but this is interesting. He delivers the ad with utmost grace and his style is impeccable. Its like few things that catch your attention in the midst of all that clutter we see online and on TV. This was one of that moment. I simply love this ad. It's newness is very appealing. I haven't seen such an ad since long time. A short TVC with a clear and informative message and the tagline matches it with ease.

The ad starts with a family having dinner and talking about gobi ki sabzi and suddenly we hear Nana Patekar's voice where he says why would somebody appreciate this dinning table, its just a table where you eat, drums your fingers, have family talks. Then he says the tagline, its not just a table, but kushiyoon ka rangmunch .... par gobi achi bani hai....

Century Ply- Nana Patekar Ad

Social media & Digital Marketing: The next big thing in India

In recent times, the marketing has changed and so does its techniques. Though global economy is struggling with the dearth of jobs and business, India still stands a chance among them. The latest trend in the marketing scenario is Social & Digital Media Marketing. Online or Digital marketing in simple words means promoting of products and services over the internet. Digital marketing gave birth to ECRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Management), Email marketing, SEO marketing, banner ads, viral marketing, etc. It new, in vogue, misunderstood by some but useful to most type of types of businesses. The creativity of this platform is the real time interaction one can have. Direct word of mouth that can be tracked by the companies themselves through their Facebook pages or/and twitter accounts. Social media has found its roots in India since last five years. If you talk about brand, transparency and trust are two most important ingredients to build up the image of a brand. Now-a-days the trend of excelling in one area has caught up rather than stepping in ten different dimensions. One needs to focus on the key areas and maintain the core competency. With higher internet connectivity and increase in awareness level of the consumers, online marketing is a rage among the marketers. Undoubtedly, it’s rather new to India and the consumer base is still trying to understand this part of marketing.

The benefit of digital marketing is to utilize the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) approach. The companies now know how to segment their potential customers, who their targets are, and how to position their products & services to extract the best result out of it. The online communication landscape is to be painted in such a way that the consumers and the marketers both are benefitted. Tracking the brand reputation through digital media has been an integral part of the branding and promotion. The future of digital media lies in the idea-led planning. Though India and China are laggards in adopting this technology driven market, but with internet gaining presence in India where Facebook, twitter, YouTube, etc. are used 2 hours daily on an average, the reasons of getting your brands in the eyes of your potential targets becomes imperative. There are 80 million digital consumers in India which includes students, working professional, housewives, businessmen, etc. who use internet as part of their daily routine. The powerful technology these days allows you to tweet your experience from your mobile, bank on your mobile and even locate a place on your mobile through GPS. 

The world has become such a small place that a news might spread within seconds of its posting. The digital media includes mobile marketing (also called viral marketing), social media integration, email marketing, geo-targeting and localized marketing, etc. Marketing combined with media gives strong valued Public Relations to the brand and its presence in the minds of its consumers and potential users.   Using of Facebook to display your products, using of online sites for customers to buy your products and services online, making your customers aware of the new products & services through personalized emails or better than ever Facebook and other social media tools. The rate at which this industry is booming states that in coming 5 years it would be equivalent of the traditional form of marketing. It continues to bomb in coming years and is now a prominent part of marketing mix. Thus the brand managers need to understand the effectiveness of digital & social media initiatives. The six key areas in this domain are necessary to know: Reach, Architecture, Content, Conversion, Integration and Measurement. All this determines the ROI of you’re the budget that you’ve put in. It is imperative to keep a track of your outflow and what benefits are you gaining out of that.

As previously mentioned that India is far behind in terms of using Social Media & Digital Marketing as a platform, both by the marketers and the consumers. But now people have started using online buying portals and have also used facebook as a source of their information. If you see the Facebook pages of famous brands like Tata Docomo (my personal favorite), Surf Excel, Vodafone Zoo zoos, Axe Angels Club, MTV Roadies, etc. you would notice that each one of them is different adopting different techniques to increase traffic on their pages. Surf Excel needs no mentions every detergent powder is surf for common man. From telecom to television, everyone is using Facebook and twitter as a medium of interaction to the general public. The most crucial thing is engagement. If you cannot engage the fans or followers to your page you would be soon disliked or unfollowed. The need of the hour is to put up the relevant information that is useful to the readers and draws attention in the midst of several me-too brands in the market with similar pages. To conclude this article, would like to mention that though digital marketing has a bright future but it cannot replace traditional print and TV/radio ads that are still going strong in comparison to digital media. It is also speculated that by 2020 there would be 10 lakh jobs to cater the digital media requirements. Within 5 years Social Media would hold 30% of marketing budget and would be considered as a major marketing tool. Waiting for India to take this medium serious and learn to utilize it soon. 

PaRanoid Economy

Recession may have struck European markets but India is still on the safer zone making the PR industry bolstering high. Experts forecast as advertising budget is drastically cut down the role of PR has been focused in picture than ever. There might a bad hair day but recession has increased corporate demand of PR and now the analysts think PR has become an “organizing principle” behind decision making. In today’s time PR is more personalized than ever. Being a progressive and ever evolving field, PR & Corporate Communications have done wonders in terms of crisis management.

As a PR person and Social Media maven I believe PR’s role has taken forefront and due to low cash flows and diversified budgets to pain areas, the focus of companies have shifted from spending on advertising to maintaining their public image in long run and win the investors’ confidence.  Now companies are making proactive strategies with the help of PR and corporate communications. Addressing the public immediately is a step forward to reduce damage to the image of the company as rumours can be more fatal then the truth. And this is where the PR people step in coordinating with the media and aligning a favourable coverage which can process a better and improved image of the company.

The primary concern for any PR agency is to maintain their standard. A good internal communications plan can diffuse the tension, reassure doubts, or at the very least, keep people in the loop about what’s happening.PR has also benefited from the changing media landscape. If a company launches an effective marketing campaign or a shrewd, targeted public relations campaign not only will that company thrive as others wither, but they will be ahead of the pack and powerfully positioned to grow and succeed once the economy begins its upswing.

The key during recession is to implement SMART marketing.

S-Strategize

M-Maintain market spend

A-Assess and allocate budget

R-Research your customer thoroughly

T-Target and reach out to them

Procter & Gamble pushed their Ivory soap during recession through immense media presence and unique PR campaigns

Intel during 1991 economic difficulty came up with new branding strategies and creating a wave with “Intel Inside” campaigns which is case study of recession in management colleges.

Wal-Mart launched their “Every Day Low Prices” campaign in 2000-2001 which is running till now with a great success rate giving huge profits to the retail giant.

With online media increasing its presence big time in India, companies are now seeking Social Media as their major tool to curb and resolve budget problems during recession. Facebook and twitter being a great interactive platform are attracting more brands and companies to create their presence on these social networking sites. The future of PR is still and will even grow with time and as the Social Media is adding to PR’s advantage it will run in mainstream marketing soon. 

First Step: Choosing Marketing as Career

When I was young I wanted to be a Doctor (cardio surgeon) then a Dancer (Salsa cum Belly Dancer) then a Social Reformer (still want to be) then *isn’t the list getting too long, wonders* anyway then a CA (that thought ran from my mind, but once I saw the syllabus and the size and weight of books provided by ICAI). Let’s assume then I wish to be near about everything that a young mind can think of with his somewhat little child’s wandering mind (Am I actually praising myself?) Oh!!! Let’s not go on the old memories I’m here to illustrate why I choose to be a marketer.

Business has always fascinated me. I wanted to learn the techniques of doing business. Though I was very good at finance and accounts and always wanted to join banking sector.  I also knew in the back of my mind that I’m good at business, but what I needed was to gain was experience. My father is into business so learning the layman thing was not an issue. But my mind always wondered how these big brands became such a brand that people all across world knows them at the mention of their names. So, I spend my time researching observing about these big giants like TATA, Reliance, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, etc. though it’s very astonishing fact that I’m a finance student. I’ve don’t my gradation in commerce; I’m a postgraduate in finance and marketing, both as major; so that makes me (appear) good and strengths my profile as a financial analyst. I learnt my lessons quite early. I use to observe the road side vendors, beggars, selling their products in a very aggressive way. Aggression is necessary to the extent that you don’t intrigue with your buyer. Because they knew that they have to maintain long term relations they would give small discounts to regular customers. It clicked me, that what we call networking.

That was the click. Yes, I thought. That’s why Linkedin has picked up so much business, cos it helps people to connect with each other, professionally. Bravo, I thought, I’m also going to do the same thing. Though I was a very quiet person but I had to shed my inhibitions to reach out people. Can’t believe street vendors can be so inspiring but trust me people they are not less than any hard core sales person. They have their own techniques and methods and if given chance they could be very good businessmen. Wish them all luck for their future. This thing is also added in my itinerary. I would love to help this people as they are doing so well with any formal management education and I know with given help they would reach new heights.  I was very much creative, use to write poems at the age of 16. Then other things came along and the passion dropped in deep routes of my heart (it’s still there though).

 I miss my own self sometimes, the reticent girl who was shy and somber now has turned into super confident yet vigilant marketing personnel. Now I’m not afraid of crowd and people, though I still hate being in crowed places. I was twinkle of my classmates, not all but most I would say. And while doing MBA I learnt all the things that you people have heard about, the Bible of marketing, Philip Kotler,  my favorite teacher, Mrs. Neeti Kasliwal who taught us Marketing and Advertising. I leant a lot from the subject Consumer Behavior. During my MBA, though as I said I was interested in banking sector and at one point of time wanted to join the world best banks like HSBC, Citi Group, Standard Charted, etc. but somehow my priorities changed, my mind changed, goals, motives everything changed in a small period of time while I was doing my MBA.

Marketing was a subject I was good in, and slowly I made myself believe that this is the field I should choose for long term career rather than finance. Now finance, in which I was very good at one point of time, seemed to boring to me in front of marketing. I liked to do case studies of different companies, empires, business group, to know how they became such giants of today’s time. It became an obsession for me at some point and I have developed a soft corner for this subject. Everyone in class came to know I was good at this subject. Always use to get 9 out of 10J. The big smile is a proof of my sense of achievement so needless to explain. But, truly it was worth it, the time I had spent is paying off now. I’m very happy that now I’m able to apply what I leant (both in MBA and by myself). So this blog is dedicated to the marketing people who love marketing as I do. Stay tuned to this blog for more interesting stories about how this field is growing and developing in my words. J