His was the year when the Indian advertising industry was expected to shake away any remnants of the economic slowdown of the previous two years, and the industry certainly did that, ably helped by the expanding ad budgets of its clients. The year 2010 has seen the entire world betting on India to lead the economic recovery and the advertising industry reflected that euphoria. The ?recessionary mindset? fast became a thing of the past as marketers used advertising strategies to reinvigorate brands. Buoyed by the ever-increasing ad spends by top companies and the optimism shared by Indian and multinational brands, the advertising industry came out with several clutter-breaking advertisements in 2010.
A variety of campaigns playing on humour, nostalgia, wit and more were released by different brands in 2010. Some were average, some good and some excellent. The telecom sector was the most active category in terms of advertising with brands like Vodafone, Airtel, Videocon Mobile, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Micromax, Samsung and Tata DoCoMo releasing a number of campaigns to talk about their services.
In this edition, BrandWagon brings you the top ten television commercials of 2010 selected by an eminent panel comprising six top honchos of the advertising industry. Interestingly, most of the top ten ads are of multinational brands. But what is relevant is that, over time, these brands have become more Indian as they increasingly draw on uniquely Indian themes (for instance, Cadbury Dairy Milk?s Shubh Aarambh ad and Coke?s Diwali spot) to connect with local audiences.
From the consumer goods space, Coca-Cola, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Nestle KitKat made it to our top ten list on the strength of their innovative ideas which were able to forge a strong emotional connect with their prime customer base?the youth of India. While Cadbury Dairy Milk devised a new positioning for itself to make a place in the hearts of Indians? young and old, rival chocolate brand KitKat from Nestle?s stable used the art of animation in its path-breaking ad to catch the attention of its core audience.
Vodafone brought the Zoozoos back for the second time during the Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament and one of the ads from the series has made it to our top ten list. Blackberry advertised for the first time in India, first through Vodafone and then with a standalone campaign. Vodafone?s BlackBerry spot, especially the jingle, was a hit with audiences and rightly found a place in our list. Idea Cellular continued its ?What an idea, Sirji? campaign with its brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan playing different roles. The Idea ad which made it to the top ten list is the ?Breaking theLanguage Barrier? campaign.
In the direct-to-home category, Tata Sky ruled the roost with the help of its brand ambassador Aamir Khan who donned various avatars for the brand. The milkman commercial for Tata Sky has made it to the top ten list. Another brand which has made it to the top ten list is Asian Paints which created a humorous campaign to talk about the revamped Asian Paints website.
A cursory glance at the names behind these outstanding ads prove why Ogilvy and Mather continues to be feted as the country?s best ad agency. O&M is clearly topping the charts with five of its ads in the top ten list. It created some of the most memorable campaigns of the year for brands including Vodafone, Tata Sky, Asian Paints and Cadbury Dairy Milk.
Apart from television commercials, this year, advertising was flourishing in print and digital mediums too. More brands joined the digital bandwagon this year. A number of digital advertising awards were launched this year which is a clear sign of the importance and relevance of this medium in the future. Even in our top ten list, what stood out this year was that most of the television campaigns had their digital counterparts, which were not just an afterthought, but part of a well-planned strategy designed to attract the Indian audience which is increasingly spending more time online.
One of the most talked about print innovations this year,the ?talking newspaper?, was done by Volkswagen, through its creative agency DDB Mudra and media agency Mediacom, to launch its brand Vento. Audio devices were put into the print ads in some of the English dailies, which certainly caught the attention of the Indian reader.
Read on.
The Six Panelists
Prasoon Joshi
Executive chairman of McCann Erickson India and regional creative director, McCann Erickson Asia Pacific
Whether it is penning lyrics, writing a script for a film or making an ad, Prasoon Joshi has done it all. Joshi was recently appointed the chairman of McCann?s Worldwide Creative Leadership Council, the first Asian to be appointed to this post. He is also the first Indian and the only one from the emerging markets to be inducted in McCann Worldgroup?s global board. Joshi was the man behind the memorable ?Thanda matlab Coca-Cola? ad and the HappyDent ad?said to be the best ad to have come out of India till date.
Gullu Sen
Executive vice chairman and chief creative officer, Dentsu India
Gullu sen leads the creative and design function at Dentsu across its advertising agencies (Dentsu Marcom, Dentsu Communications and Dentsu Creative Impact). He also heads the creative design cell of Dentsu ?iki?. Sen has worked on over 300 campaigns in his career spanning more than two decades. Some of his highly acclaimed work includes campaigns such as that of HDFC Standard Life (Sar Utha ke Jiyo), Maruti (the Ladakh Gypsy Service Centre film) and Airtel (AR Rehman launch film).
Madhukar Kamath
Group CEO & MD, Mudra Group
As group chief executive officer and managing director of Mudra Group, Madhukar Kamath has transformed the company into an integrated marketing communications group. Kamath has earlier served as the president of the AAAI (Advertising Agencies Association of India) and chairman of ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India). He is currently on the board of ABC (The Audit Bureau of Circulations). Under his leadership, the Mudra Group unveiled a new brand identity this year even as it successfully integrated its four agencies under one umbrella.
KV Sridhar
National creative director, Leo Burnett
KV Sridhar first joined Leo Burnett in 1995. After this he moved to Lowe and then joined Leo Burnett back after three years in 2003 as its national creative director. Fondly known as ?Pops? among the ad fraternity, Sridhar is the man behind the creative resurgence of Leo Burnett. Under his creative leadership, Leo Burnett India has won the Agency of the Year in the Leo Burnett global network twice. He has also been on many Indian and international awards juries and has recently been honoured with the New York Festivals Creative Achievement Award.
Prathap Suthan
National creative director, Cheil Worldwide Southwest Asia
Prathap Suthan stepped down from his position as national creative director of Cheil Worldwide Southwest Asia recently. He plans to set up his own advertising agency soon. However, he continues to be associated with Cheil as a mentor and consultant. At Cheil, Suthan spearheaded several outstanding campaigns for Samsung. Suthan is best known for his ?India Shining? campaign made for the government of India, besides the ?Incredible India? campaign he was associated with while at Grey Worldwide.
Mahesh Chauhan
Group CEO, Rediffusion
Mahesh Chauhan resigned this month from his position as the group chief executive officer of Rediffusion, which includes group companies Rediffusion DYR, TME, Wunderman, Showdiff and Rediffusion Public Relations. Chauhan?s journey from president of Rediffusion DYR to its group CEO mirrors the growth path of the agency and its evolution into one of the top communications hotshops in India. Chauhan has worked on brands like Unilever, Cadbury, Shell, Annapurna, Castrol, Tata Motors, Airtel and Amaron.
Recipe for good luck
* Campaign: Shubh Aarambh
* Brand: Cadbury Dairy Milk * Company: Cadbury India
* Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
This is the first of the new ad series capturing the new positioning adopted by Cadbury Dairy Milk??Shubh Aarambh? and takes off on the Indian tradition of eating something sweet before commencing any important task as a good luck charm.
This television commercial starts with a young girl standing at a bus stop and eating a Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar. A young boy who is standing next to her requests her to give him a piece of her chocolate. The girl looks surprised at the request and asks him whether she knows him. He shakes his head to indicate no.
The girl then asks him why she should share her chocolate with him if she doesn?t even know him. The boy then goes on to say that his mother has told him to eat something sweet before doing any good deed so that it is successful. The girl finally shares her chocolate with him and then asks him about the good task that he plans to accomplish. The boy replies that he was thinking about dropping her home. The girl smiles at this and the voice over says, ?Shubh Aarambh. Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye.?
The ad brings forth the new positioning of the brand very nicely. After this ad, two more have been released as part of the ?Shubh Aarambh? campaign. One of them features a middle-aged lady who is embarrassed about wearing a pair of jeans for the first time and wonders what people, especially her mother-in-law, will think about her. Her husband convinces her with a Cadbury Dairy Milk and the concept of ?Shubh Aarambh?.
In the other spot, a girl who is running away from her house finds her family sitting in the same car in which her boyfriend is waiting for her. The boyfriend asks her to turn around, and as she does, she finds her family sitting in the car waiting to wish her good luck. They offer her a piece of chocolate as a good luck charm as she embarks on a new phase of life.
Make-believe games
* Campaign: Invisible Bottle
* Brand: Coca-Cola * Company: Coca-Cola India
* Creative Agency: McCann Erickson
The commercial features film actors Kalki Koechlin and Imraan Khan. The film opens on Koechlin sitting in a crowded bus and wanting to attract the attention of Khan who is standing ahead of her, while a background score plays. When she looks outside her window, she spots a huge hoarding with a Coca-Cola bottle. When Khan is looking at her, she pretends to pull out the bottle from the hoarding. She throws the cap of the invisible bottle and takes a sip from it.
She then offers the same invisible bottle to Khan who grabs it and pretends to gulp down the whole bottle. When Koechlin looks at him disappointingly, he takes out an actual Coke bottle from his shoulder bag and offers it to her and they smile at each other. The film ends with the tag line ?Coke khule toh baat chale?.
The campaign is based on Coke?s global tag line ?Open Happiness?. This theme was launched in India in 2009 with a campaign featuring Aamir Khan. However, Coca-Cola wanted to target the communication at teenagers and thus Khan and Koechlin were roped in for this particular campaign. The film was interesting and fresh. The background score of the ad also became quite popular.
Brothers in Arms
* Campaign: Two Brothers
* Brand: Asian Paints * Company: Asian Paints
* Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
From ?mera wallah cream? to ?Wah, Sunil babu?, Asian Paints has had a long list of memorable ad campaigns, and the latest one is another feather in its cap. However, this ad is not about Asian Paints? range of paints but its website which helps out people during the painting process in terms of design, colours, budget, etc.The spot opens with two brothers sitting with a laptop. The elder brother tells his younger brother that his wife has complained that he has been ignoring her.
On this, the younger brother tries to explain that nothing is wrong. The elder brother now demands to know who is this woman Aparna, that he has been talking to. The younger brother then explains that Aparna is the woman on the Asian Paints new website who helps people make decisions when they want to paint their homes. The elder brother now quips whether she is the only ?Aparna? he knows and the younger one blushes. The older brother then mistakenly calls out to the younger brother?s wife as Aparna and quickly corrects himself by calling her ?bahu? (daughter-in-law).
This ad is part of the humorous and clutter breaking campaign which aims to educate the viewers about the revamped Asian Paints website. The other ads in this campaign show how the elder brother is hurt when his younger brother starts taking his own decisions.
In one of the films the younger brother has chosen a designer wall for his home and in the other, he gives painting advice to a worker who is painting a wall. In the third film, he is shown calculating his painting budget with help from the website.
Language lessons
* Campaign: Language Barrier
* Brand: Idea * Company: Idea Cellular
* Creative Agency: LoweLintas
The campaign shows four friends who are worried because they have been posted in unfamiliar cities where they do not know the local language. The speech-impaired tea vendor, played by brand ambassador Abhishek Bachchan, then comes up with a solution? they can help each other with the unfamiliar languages by easily connecting with each other through their mobile phones.
The various films then go on to show everyone landing in the cities where they have been posted and overcoming the language barrier with each other?s help over the phone.
This campaign is a part of the highly successful larger ?What an idea, Sirji? campaign for the brand which was launched about five years ago. The overall campaign talks about solving important social issues through the use of mobile phones. The success of this campaign led Idea to launch an online reality show on the ?Language barrier? theme to further connect with young audiences.
The other Idea ad that was released this year was ?Save paper. Save Trees? which saw Abhishek Bachchan play the role of a tree and advising people to use their mobile phones to reduce wastage of paper.
Smooth operator
* Campaign: Customer Care
* Brand: Tata DoCoMo * Company: Tata Teleservices
* Creative Agency: Draftfcb+Ulka
The ad has been created in the form of a video game. It shows a small animated character (which is the player ) trying to overcome various barriers as it moves forward to reach its destination. It manages to cross three barriers and then reaches the fourth one which is bigger and more difficult to surmount and thus, he gives up. The next frame reads ?Why go through multiple levels to get help? Press 9 anytime to speak to our customer care.? The next frame reads, ?Only Fair, isn?t it.?
Tata DoCoMo has had an extensive marketing exercise this year after the launch of its mobile telecom services late last year. Though a late entrant in the telecom sector, the brand changed the dynamics of this extremely crowded market with its ?Do more every second?unique positioning. All along it has been using the stylised characters in its logo to create a series of extremely enjoyable ads .
This year it launched a number of campaigns including the latest one for its soon-to-be-launched 3G services. There were campaigns to promote its mobile community and social networking product, Buddynet, its pay per use scheme, the daily payment talks plans and reverse caller tunes.
The aliens are back
* Campaign: Zoozoos-Circus
* Brand: Vodafone Job Alerts * Company: Vodafone
* Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
The spot opens on an animated circus stage with a smiling Zoozoo ready to perform a trick with a cannon placed next to him. Then another Zoozoo, with a sad expression on his face, comes on to the stage and fits himself inside the cannon. The first Zoozoo then presses the trigger and the Zoozoo who is inside the cannon flies out with a force. He comes back to the stage again looking very upset.
However, he again puts himself inside the cannon and is flown far away as the other Zoozoo pulls the trigger. The screen shows, ?Find a new job. Get Job alerts at Rs 30/Month? and ends with Vodafone?s tagline ?Power to you?.
The endearing egg-headed characters were launched by Vodafone and O&M in 2009 and since then they have hogged the limelight. They were popular and how ?there?s a dedicated and highly active Facebook page which has attracted thousands of fans. After a series of ads last year, the Zoozoo campaign was pulled off and was re-launched with a new spate of commercials in 2010 during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
Calling all the Cool Guys
* Campaign: BlackBerry Boys
* Brand: Vodafone * Company: Vodafone
* Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
If Vodafone?s Zoozoos caught everyone?s fancy last year, this year almost everyone was humming Vodafone?s ?We are the BlackBerry boys? jingle. This was the first communication of BlackBerry, even though it was through Vodafone, targeted at Indian customers, and it hit the spot right on. The ad was created for the launch of BlackBerry services on Vodafone pre-paid, a market segment which is much bigger than the post-paid section. Prior to this, BlackBerry services could only be accessed by Vodafone?s post-paid customers.
The commercial opens on five middle-aged individuals, dressed in formal black suits, singing the BlackBerry song ?We are the BlackBerry Boys? . They think they are cool and the BlackBerry adds to their status. But soon, to their amazement, a number of young people dressed in casual clothes start joining the group even as they continue singing the song. The group keeps getting larger as the song goes on. The five corporate guys are surprised and confused as the newcomers are young and colourful in more ways than one?funky clothes, weird hairdos, et al. The film ends with the frame that says ?BlackBerry on Vodafone Prepaid, not just for office guys. Unlimited Chat and Internet at Rs. 15 daily?.
This was a tricky ad in the sense that one brand, Vodafone, was using it to redefine or extend the brand positioning of another brand?BlackBerry, but O& M crafted the ad very well. The commercial, especially the jingle, has been quite popular. The ?BlackBerry Boys? song became the talk of the town soon after the campaign was launched.
The ad tried to break the perception that BlackBerry is only for the senior management people and shows that a lot of young working professionals are now enjoying the benefits that it offers.
Recently, BlackBerry launched its first ever exclusive campaign.
Back to the roots
* Campaign: Come Home on Deepawali
* Brand: Coca-Cola * Company: Coca-Cola India
* Creative Agency: McCann Erickson
The ad opens on a young boy stranded in a desolate town who is struggling to get back home to Delhi in time to celebrate Diwali. There is a bus standing in front of him which has broken down. He then asks a few people about a bus which could take him to Delhi but to no avail. Disappointed, he sits down at a tea stall and wishes himself ?Happy Diwali? as he opens a bottle of Coca Cola. After this, there is an animated firecracker which bursts in the sky. First the boy looks surprised but then he again says ?Happy Diwali?. Now, the animated characters which are actually in the form of Warli art start dancing on the Coca Cola bottle. These characters move from the bottle to the bench and then to the bus which had broken down. The bus sparkles with these characters and the bus driver calls for people who want to go to Delhi. The boy is ecstatic and hops into the bus to go home. The ad ends with the tagline, ?Coke Open Happiness?.
This ad was created as a part of the marketing activities of the brand during the festive season. The ancient art of Warli (which is associated with Indian festivals) gave a unique look to the film. The television campaign was complemented by out-of-home advertising, digital online applications for social networking sites and a range of road shows and contests, all based on the concept of coming home for Diwali. The digital leg of the campaign leverages Facebook and mobile applications where the user has to choose two destinations (start and end) and completing the journey by accumulating 100 steps along the way.
Milking the customer
* Campaign: Milkman
* Brand: Tata Sky * Company: Tata Sky
* Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
TATA Sky?s ads have always been a delight to watch with brand ambassador Aamir Khan using his histrionic skills to the optimum. The latest spot features Khan essaying the role of a milkman. In the film, Khan is shocked because he has only got half a month?s payment from his customer. The customer justifies that since his family was away for half a month and did not take any milk, he cannot be expected to pay for the entire month. On this, Khan says the cow did her duty by giving milk for the entire month and quickly takes out the money from the customer?s pocket even as the latter is holding onto the vessel of milk with both his hands. It?s then that Khan pulls another fast one, glibly saying that since that previous month actually had 31 days he should be paid for that extra day and takes out more money from the customer?s pocket. The ad ends with the voice-over which tells the viewer not to pay the milkman when she goes on a holiday and says that this practice can be extended to the DTH service, thanks to Tata Sky?s new ?subscription holiday? service.
The film is a part of the campaign that Tata Sky has launched to announce its new service ?Subscription Holiday?. The brand has released two more films this year, to promote its TruChoice packages, in which Khan plays the roles of a shopkeeper and a barber.
The opera in the park
* Campaign: Squirrel
* Brand: KitKat * Company: Nestle
* Creative Agency: JWT
The spot opens on two men sitting in a park. One of them is working on his laptop with his headphones on. The other one opens a KitKat and has a bite of the chocolate. As soon as he eats the chocolate, he is amazed to see two animated squirrels appear in front of him while one of them starts singing a popular Hindi film song. The male squirrel appears to be wooing the female squirrel with the help of his song and dance routine. The female squirrel finally succumbs to his charms. When the man tries to show his friend the extraordinary scene he just saw, the friend is not able to see or understand anything.
The ad ends with a voice over that states that ?Mana ki life bahut busy hai, par kabhi kahi break lo, Kit Kat khao, Zindagi aapko shayad kuch haseen dikhae.? The ad basically talks about taking a break from our hectic lives and enjoy the interesting activities happening around us. With this campaign, KitKat has used animation for the first time in India and has given a new edge to the idea of having a KitKat during a break.
The ad got about 500,000 hits on YouTube within two weeks of its release indicating the overwhelming response that the two squirrels managed to get for the Kit Kat brand, which till now has been overshadowed by other chocolate brands. Following this success, Nestle has rolled out the campaign across different touch-points in the digital and social media. It has even introduced various different format portions of the chocolate at convenient price points.