The campaign:Publicis Communications? Beers, Mountain, Sky
The award: Gold Lion
The agency: Publicis Communication India
The client: Publicis Communication India
* The brief:The brief was to let all the planners know about ? The Publicis Planners? Meet? held by John Woodward (planning director of Publicis Worldwide), which was held at the Publicis headquarters in Paris. The agency had to create a tongue in cheek communication that makes everyone look forward to attending this particular conference.
* The execution: It?s a very common perception in the advertising community that account planners tend to complicate the briefs by going too deep into every brand, rather than simplify things. So, these posters were designed in a very tongue in cheek manner keeping this popular perception. This also set the agenda for a new informal way of planning which was unveiled by Woodward during the meet. In these posters, even the simplest of things in the world were made to look extremely complicated.
* The result: Response was that everyone who received the invites made it a point to attend the Publicis Planners? Meet. The communication succeeded to spark off the enthusiasm for the meet among all the invitees.
* Agency take: ?We believe we have a balanced approach towards work?be it internal or external. We have created a healthy mix of creatives which are dazzling and award winning. For this particular campaign, the challenge was like that of any other campaign. The work had to look good specially because it was for Publicis Worldwide,? said Ashish Khazanchi, vice chairman and national creative director, Publicis Communications.
Magnetic pull
The campaign: Tide Dirt Magnets? Coffee, Ink, Egg & Ketchup
The award: Media Bronze Lion & Press Silver Lion
The agency: Leo Burnett India
The client: Procter & Gamble India
* The brief: The objective of this campaign was to drive Tide?s superior whiteness benefit story by communicating a unique and extremely powerful story about dirt magnets. Numerous qualitative and quantitative researches done on Tier 2-3 cities in India had revealed that the average Indian housewife juggles between many chores during her day and thus looks for an easy and effortless solution, within her budget, for her laundry needs. Consumers believe that white clothes once dirtied or stained can never look new again. With this campaign, P&G wanted to change this very belief of the consumers by bringing to life the Tide dirt magnets property.
* The execution: Asked to promote the Tide Dirt Magnets property, the campaign included some magnetised sample packs, and iron filings. The close nature of the interactivity between the readers and their experience of pulling away the stain from the garments left them stunned and smiling. This simple product demonstration truly hit the right human chords by placing interactivity, surprise and excitement at the forefront. The campaign was channelised through instore merchandising and print execution which brought the dirt magnets? property to life.
* Client Take: The simple act of pulling away the stain left over 40,000 readers with smiling faces. Post-release of the campaign, Tide?s value share grew from 8.2% to 9.1% in just a matter of 3 months.
* Agency Take: ?I think the oldest principle in advertising is to live with the product. We wanted to illustrate one of the benefits of the product where the magnet is pulling out the dirt. The challenge was how to illustrate this. Then we decided to go for iron filling ? simple fifth standard physics. But the media was also a challenge. So we created special packs that had magnets in it and these were circulated in magazines. So overall it was a massive labourious task,? said KV Sridhar, national creative director, Leo Burnett.
The camera never lies
The campaign: Fuji Film F 70 Camera?Funeral, Poker & Airport
The award: Press Gold Lions
The agency: RMG India
The client: Fuji Films
* The brief: With so many brands in the digital camera segment, the aim was to stand out in the crowd through the campaign. The agency?s task was to highlight the smile detection feature in the FujiFilm camera in such a way that the brand remains at the top of the mind of the customer.
* The execution: The insight was simple. There are moments in life when you are dying to smile but cannot. The agency used bold creatives to highlight this idea. It showed serious situations in life when everyone is supposed to be serious and one person is caught smiling.
* Agency take: Anupama Ramaswamy, senior creative director, RMG ? a part of JWT, said, ?The biggest learning was there are insights which are right in front of you. One just needs to pick them up. We first came up with the ?funeral? ad and extending it to three campaigns was a challenge given that all the three needed equally strong visuals and the budget was really tight.?
Trick and treat
The campaign: Frooti Mango Surprise
The award: Outdoor Silver Lion
The agency: Creativeland Asia
The client: Parle Agro
* The brief: To reinforce the message that Frooti is made out of real mangoes.
* The execution: The mango surprise pranks were played on people across cities in India. Giant mangoes were dropped from trees, 8-foot long mangoes rolled down sloping roads, people swapped baggage for giant mangoes on airport conveyor belts. Then the prank anchor would run up to the prank victim and hand him a Frooti bottle and surprise him with the fact that Frooti is made of real juicy mangoes. The footage of the same was used in the TV ad.
* The result: Sales during the activity went up by a whopping100%. Frooti retained its market leadership by a huge margin. The campaign created an unprecedented word of mouth advertising around the brand. It generated brand recall worth around Rs15 million across the internet, social media, print and television.
* Client take: ?The Frooti Mango Surprise integrated marketing campaign that involved live outdoor stunts, direct marketing TV ads and promotional activity has worked brilliantly in the market. It generated tremendous word of mouth and recall for the brand. While it won a Silver Lion at Cannes, for us it is nothing less than a Gold Lion,? said Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director and chief marketing officer, Parle Agro. ?We have consistently raised the bar moving away from the current crop of generic commercials in this category. The win at Cannes is great but what the campaign is doing for us in the market is greater.?
* Agency take: ?What makes Creativeland proud about these wins is the fact that we have done it on large mass home-grown Indian brands. What it teaches us is that you can do award winning work on large brands. And that the same work that has worked exceptionally well in the market can win big with the jury too,? said Sajan Raj Kurup, founder and creative officer, Creativeland Asia.
Froth and foam
The campaign: Gillette?s Women Against Lazy Stubble
The award: PR Silver Lion
The agency: BBDO India
The client: Procter and Gamble India
* The brief: The aim was to increase trials of Gillette Mach3 razors by dropping the price so as to encourage men to sport the clean shaven look more often.
* The execution: The agency created a woman?s movement called W.A.L.S. It started on social media website Facebook and resulted in a movement which was also supported by three Bollywood actors. The final multiplier happened when about 2000 men came together and shaved their stubble in public! the program trained over 100,000 people and doubled its reach in 2009.
* The result: The campaign got over $ 2.5 million worth of free media coverage.
* Client take: Sumeet Vohra, marketing director, P&G India, said, ?We are extremely pleased to know that our initiative has reached such epic proportions .?
* Agency take: Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India, said, ?It was all about collaboration. Many partners came together to grow and execute the idea. These include the people at Mediacom, Weber Shandwick, Encompass and GRIPS. We are here because of them.?
Joining the dots
The campaign: The Economist ? Bag, Baby & Whale
The award: Outdoor Bronze Lion
The agency: Ogilvy & Mather India
The client: The Economist
* The brief: The promise of The Economist is that it helps you ?interpret the world?. There are invisible connections between world events that The Economist helps make visible.
* The execution: The consumer was given a taste of this connection through an outdoor campaign which was connected to a direct response device. Each hoarding had three disparate visuals. The viewer was supposed to make the connection between them ?which one could do quite easily if she was a reader of The Economist, as the answers were implicit in the various stories between its covers. They were a little tougher for non-readers who could only make intelligent guesses and then send a text message to the number provided to get the correct solution to the puzzle. There were six such visual puzzles created. One of them, for example, showed a cob of corn, a fuel nozzle and a vulture. The story here is that food crops are being diverted to the production of bio-fuels, leading to deaths from famine.
* The result: Subscription increased by 40% after the campaign.
* Client take: ?One feels very satisfied by the fact that a campaign that moved consumers closer to the brand has gone on to win a metal at the Mecca of ad awards. It shows that if you have a team that works with the clear understanding of the marketing task, then business and creative success go hand in hand; they are not such strange companions as they are made out to be,? said Suprio Guha Thakurta, MD, The Economist Group ? India.
* Agency take: Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, said, ?The Economist is that rare brand that pushes us to create ads that challenge the consumer rather than spoon feed him. This path led us to a campaign that helped increase subscriptions by 40%. And now that path has led us to a Cannes Lion. What a wonderful journey it?s been.?
Cops and robbers
The campaign: Virgin Mobile? Lost & Found
The award: Press Bronze Lion
The agency: Bates 141 India
The client: Virgin Mobile
* The brief: The task was to highlight the product benefits of vSwing that has inbuilt mobile tracking technology. The mechanism in which the track functions is that every time a new SIM card is inserted in the mobile phone, two pre-selected numbers automatically receive an alert informing on the contact number of the new user. The high-point being this process takes place without the knowledge of the new user of the handset.
* The execution: The creative idea behind the award winning campaign was that vSwing with track technology helps users win their stolen phone back. Traditional magazine wrap around was used as a creative medium to visually demonstrate this handy feature using an interesting story. The creative showcases a thief stealing a mobile phone on a busy lane and running away with it, he stumbles through many obstacles and eventually returns and hands it back to the owner.
* Client take: Sonal Dabral, chairman, Bates 141- India and regional executive creative director, Bates 141, said, ?This is just the beginning. The shelves at Bates 141 have been dusted and cleaned. As Mir Taki Mir said…Aage Aage Dekhiye Hota Hai Kya (Just wait and see).?
* Agency take: ?We are absolutely thrilled with this win and four shortlists at Cannes. This is in continuation to our excellent show at Goa Fest, One Show where we got a silver and D&AD Awards,? said Sandeep Pathak, CEO, Bates 141. ?The winning idea for Virgin Mobile VTracker, was a simple illustration of a security feature which allows you to get back your lost/stolen phone. We feel it won as it was a surprising and an innovative presentation of the unique feature without it getting too ?techie?.?
Driving home a point
The campaign: Road Safety?Puppy Love, Just Married, Waiting Friend
The award: Outdoor Silver Lion & Press Bronze Lion
The agency: Mudra DDB
The client: Bangalore Traffic Police
* The brief: Most of the time public service messages are ineffective and therefore the task was to create something disruptive that people would immediately take notice of.
* The execution: The message was about how dangerous it can be to receive calls while driving. Most people think they are responsible and good drivers and therefore nothing can happen to them.
So the agency decided to make the creative from the perspective of the victims? relatives. And the copy said: ?Don?t call him/her when he/she is driving?. There is a certain sense of rawness in the execution which was amplified in the graphic detail.
* The result: While no quantitative numbers are available the campaign has been a huge success and has now become popular online. There is a chain mail which is doing the rounds online around this campaign because the message is so universal.
* Agency take: Joono Simon, creative head, Mudra South, ?I think the important lesson learnt from this campaign is there is some sort of an indifference, apathy and callousness towards public service messages. Also, when it is addressed directly it is mostly overlooked, but when it is about others then people become more receptive to these messages.?