Advertising is important. It is a critical component of any brand or company’s strategy and tactics. Good advertising can help a company or brand in numerous ways, especially in increasing sales. Yet, mediocre ads abound. While many agencies will present poor ads to clients, I have always marveled at the clients who buy mediocre ads […]
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I just read an article in Adweek entitled ‘How This Interactive Subway Ad Got Everybody Yawning, and Wanting Coffee.’ The article outlines an interactive outdoor campaign by Lew’Lara\TBWA for Café Pelé at São Paulo’s busy Fradique Coutinho subway station at morning rush hour. A digital panel, equipped with a motion sensor, was set up at […]
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Celebrity chef Antony Bourdain said, “Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.” The same is true for almost anything. For example, one of the great appeals of Apple products is their amazing simplicity. But simplicity is not easy to achieve, it takes immense hard work. That is why Steve Jobs said, “Simple […]
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The biggest sporting event in India is the IPL that lasts for around six weeks. Many advertisers spend huge sums of monies during this six-week period to get their brand messages across. I am sure that Vodaphone, Amazon, Tata Sky, Paytm, Snapdeal and others have spent huge sums of money to advertise on the IPL. […]
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If I were to ask you about your top 5 favourite TVCs, I bet you won’t have too much difficulty rattling them off. However, if I were to ask you of your top 5 brand campaigns on the internet, I am quite certain that most of you would scratch your heads. Unfortunately, most marketers in […]
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I have found that ad agencies tend to come out with quite outstanding public service (or social issue) ads. This is obviously because public service ads allow greater freedom for creativity; there are no ‘boundaries’ inhibiting the creative process. I mean, when you are creating ads for brands and services that have a commercial motive, […]
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There are three path breaking technical innovations that are happening today: The rise of mobile broadband Smartphones with powerful cameras Explosion of social media As a result of these innovations, people are creating and sharing images and words like never before. Two thirds of the content in the ‘digital universe’ is created by consumers, not […]
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Surely advertising cannot have ‘laws’! It is a creative endeavour where all copywriters and art directors (and even the servicing people, the ‘suits’) have to be encouraged to be mavericks, to shun formulae, to go where no one else has ever dared. However, there are universal truths in everything that we do, even advertising. Sure, […]
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The digital disruption that is sweeping the world is leading to a number of changes: Changes in the way we consume news and information. Almost all of us are now getting a lot of our information on mobile devices and we are spending a lot less time on traditional media. In the West, newspapers and […]
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I find that both clients and creative directors are increasingly losing interest in body copy in print ads. In fact, years ago, when I was working in advertising, many creative directors would write the headlines for campaigns and then pass them on to rookie copywriters to write the mandatory body copy, the quality of the […]
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