In its fifth year, Goafest has successfully established itself as the biggest event for the advertising industry. As the best and the brightest converge on the beaches of Goa, it?s the Abby awards given for advertising excellence that everyone is looking forward to. With two days for the festivities to begin, BrandWagon invites experts from the advertising and media industry to pick their favourite television, print and radio ads as well as the best media innovations. By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta
Priti Nair
Managing Partner, BBH
Brand: Zoozoos
Company: Vodafone
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Campaign: These egg-headed mascots with their antics conveyed the promise of Vodafone?s different value added services when they made their first appearance on television screens during the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Expert Take: A refreshing new take on casting. A new species is born. That touched everyone from a six-year-old to a 60-year-old.
Brand: Max New York Pension Plans
Company: Max New York Life Insurance Company
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Campaign: The retired husband tells his wife that he?s going for a cup of coffee to his friend?s place but actually goes off on a trip from Lucknow to Kanpur. On coming back home late at night, he is scolded by his wife. But he tells his son he will be off on another adventure as he has no worries, while his son slaves at the office.
Expert Take: A simple charming narrative with immaculate storytelling casting and crafting. That too for a finance ad. It stands even above some of the easier categories we advertise for.
Brand : Bingo Red Chilli Bijli
Company: ITC Foods
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Campaign: The ad features a boy and a girl trying to communicate with each other from their respective balconies. The girl is munching on a packet of Bingo! Red Chilli Bijli chips. The boy tries to calm her by using various gestures as well as compliments. When she finally smiles, he asks her to give him a flying kiss, after much reluctance she eventually blows him a kiss and he happily tucks it into his shirt pocket. As soon as he does that, his pocket catches fire, the reason being the girl had been eating Bingo! Red Chilli Bijli chips.
Expert Take: It?s a wicked commercial but superbly made. It?s illogical but superbly crafted.
Sonal Dabral
Chairman, Bates 141 – India & Regional
Executive Creative Director – Bates Asia
Brand: State Bank of India
Company: State Bank of India
Agency: Interpublicity India
Campaign: A series of print ads around famous people including Pheroze Shah Mehta, Rabindranath Tagore, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose and others and stating how State Bank of India has been the ?banker to this Indian? and ?the banker to every Indian?.
Expert Take: Hard working and competent Campaign but unfortunately that?s where it stops.
Brand: The Economist
Company: The Economist
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Campaign: Based on the theme ?Intrepret the world?, it?s an all-art led Campaign that talks about the perils the world is facing.
Expert Take: The Economist Campaign is definitely engaging, but the execution is not new.
Brand: Saint Juice
Company: Parle Agro
Agency: CreativeLand Asia
Campaign: In a cluttered market, this ad attempts to stand out with its ?100% natural juice?.
Expert Take: I liked the Saint Juice Campaign too. Nice clean layouts, good copy but like The Economist, not fresh enough to score big at Goafest. I think both these could be finalists.
Apurva Purohit, Chief Executive Officer, Radio City
Brand: Indian Premier League
Company: Board of Control for Cricket in India
Agency: Ogilvy&Mather
Campaign: A man hears someone selling tickets for a premium. The protagonist asks for front row tickets and the confused black marketeer questions why not the back row. Turns out that the man was asking for IPL tickets and not movie tickets. In the second ad, a husband is very excited with the IPL ticket he has got, but his wife thinks he?s got tickets for a Singapore trip.
Expert Take: IPL T20 tickets have a huge craze. And the IPL?s Sabse Bada Ticket ads have been made keeping the medium in mind and they synergize very well with the television commercial.
Brand: Cadbury
Company: Kraft Foods (Earlier Cadbury India)
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
Campaign: In this day and age when one doesn?t have the time to know who lives next door, the Campaign tried to inspire people to spread the joy of Diwali.
Expert Take: Cadbury, the name synonymous with some of the most sweetest/cherished moments of people?s lives, now through its Campaign Iss Diwali Aap Kise Khush Karenge? aims to get people to spread the festive joy beyond their homes.
Brand: Nokia Life Tools
Company: Nokia
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy India
Campaign: The script about a father proudly telling his community that his son can speak flawless English. When they ask the son to display his talent, he simply raps a mix of words in Hindi and English in a highly accented anglicised manner.
Expert Take: Touches you every time you listen to it. There is something so honest about the entire spot. It?s a very consumer centric and focused messaging and holds your attention and has a quirky level of entertainment to catch your attention.
L S Krishnan
President, Mudra Max
Brand: Paa
Title: The film god speaks on India?s biggest religion
Company: Amitabh Bachchan Corp and Sunil Manchanda (producers)
Agency: Mudra Max
Campaign: While a chat show was in full swing on Neo Sports during a cricket match, suddenly audiences could hear a child giving his opinion about the match. And then Amitabh Bachchan who plays the role of Auro in the movie Paa makes his appearance on screen and talks about the match. This was followed by a similar stance on news channels as well.
Expert Take: The reason is that it was an innovation which brought out the element of intrigue in the mind of the viewers and at the same time gave the central character of the movie a life. The platform and the execution made it special and impactful.
Brand: Tata Nano
Title: How it was said uncommonly
Company: Tata Motors
Agency: Lodestar Universal
Campaign: R K Laxman?s ?common man? cartoon strip in The Times of India echoed the common man?s aspirations about the Tata Nano with a simple sketch on the day of the much-awaited small car?s launch.
Expert Take: Tata Nano stood for the common man and his aspirations. The association with RK Laxman?s ?common man? was aptly contextual and gave the communication the required impact.
Brand: Cadbury Dairy Milk
Title: Salary Alert on Pehli Tareek
Company: Kraft Foods
Agency: Madison Media Infinity
Campaign: An SMS alert was sent to consumers on the first of every month reminding them it?s salary day and therefore time to celebrate with Cadbury Dairy Milk.
Expert Take: The platform of Pehli Tareek was well appropriated by Cadbury. Everyone is elated when the SMS indicating salary credit is received and in my view that is the moment of truth?that moment when the message will be well received.