Karthik Srinivasan

Update: Assuming you have, by now, seen this ad, have you wondered what would have happened before this *interview*? Why would the CEO do what she is doing in this ad? Here's a prequel to this ad, from my imagination, using only the information presented in the ad: https://lnkd.in/gGC3-7Ts

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Totally loved Sabhyata's 2022 Diwali ad film! The unhurried pace that makes us care for the story's characters, the choice of actors (Sheeba Chaddha, who is always exceptional; and Ayesha Kaduskar, who really sells us the narrative!), the thought... all prop the somewhat unrelated inclusion of the brand.

Lovely work by the agency 'P se Picture'.

#advertising #marketing #creativity #creative #storytelling

This is truly bizarre and interesting!

A new brand of Vodka, simply called 'Alcoholic Vodka' (!!) has text on the bottle and website that is a bit too honest! Take a look at the brutally direct copy!

The anatomical illustration on the bottle has red markings, indicating the body parts that are bound to be ravaged by alcohol consumption.

The website proudly starts with 'It's expensive and bad for you. However, the first batch will ship in March 2022'!

And who is behind this utterly crazy idea? Swedish creative directors Johan Pihl and Magnus Jakobsson, who have been behind many award-winning campaigns. They aren't just the creators of the packaging idea and website - they are the owners of the brand as well :) I guess they are putting their own money into their craft!

Will this reverse-psychology approach work? Come March 2022, and we may know :)

#advertising #marketing #packaging #alcohol #creativity

Hahahahahahaha... this is fantastic stuff! Vintage Ogilvy! It's best to watch this without knowing the brand 😁

#advertising #marketing #creativity

Hahahahahaha... a B2B thriller with the most unlikely villain 😁 The idea speaks directly to the target audience by adequately dramatizing their problems and the 'villain' hamming it to the hilt. Good work by the agency Umault.

#advertising #marketing #client #agency #B2B

I buy fresh potato chips in a ‘Hot Chips’ shop in Bengaluru. Only last year did I start paying them using my phone.

They first had a Paytm QR code sticker. Then they added all other options, incl. Google Pay (which I use, via UPI). I show the shopkeeper my Google Pay screen as the payment-made sound happens in-app.

That sound really helps in closure, more than the text message. He also says that his hands are coated with masala/salt etc. and he’s not able to check his phone for the closure, at his end.

Paytm has solved this problem with a very-desi innovation: a voice-activated point-of-sale speaker! The speaker announces the incoming payment that closes the deal for both the buyer and the seller! The speaker also may help in the persistent worry if we made payment to the right number! There are enough news and WhatsApp forwards about spurious Paytm QR codes.

Is a separate speaker needed? Couldn’t the buyer’s phone perform the role, much like the Google Pay audio-branding? There may be operational issues with a multi-purpose device like a phone. A dedicated speaker has just one purpose – be the voice of incoming payments, literally.

Smart, sound innovation by Paytm!

#UX #userexperience #innovation #voiceactivated #voice

Epic headline that grabs your attention while also making sense contextually (when you read the copy) 😂

I wonder which agency produced this.

Update: This ad is by Madison BMB, promoted by IAA, AFAA, and the client (Save Soil).

#advertising #marketing #headline #copy

PR vs. News.
Two Indias.

#publicrelations #PR #corporatecommunications #crisis

Hugely creative Ganesha sculpture by Bhagwan Rampure, where the size of Ganesha's tummy is left to your imagination/as vast as your imagination! The sculpture's design checks all the boxes - instantly captivating, makes you think and is something that you cannot not share with others.

Good day to share this on LinkedIn within the context of what I usually share (creativity, in all forms of communication), I reckon :)

वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ ।
निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥

#creativity #design #creative

Beautifully scripted music video from Mother Dairy, by Ogilvy India. The specific snapshots gain tremendously from exquisite writing and casting. While the inflight ice cream exchange and the next one, the husband helping his office-going wife are lovely, my favorite is the more subtle last episode where the kid emulates his mother's 'hold', combing, and petting himself. Utterly charming!

Thoughtful lyrics by Gulzar, excellent music by Shor Police (Clinton Cerejo & Bianca Gomes), and outstanding singing by Mohan Kanan.

Mother Dairy has been positioning the 'Mother' aspect in its marketing communications frequently and this music video takes that positioning one notch higher, into the zone of 'mother-like'. And this umbrella positioning gives it enough width to place assorted products naturally, without them seeming forced.

#advertising #marketing #creativity #creative

Excellent idea, Kalyan!👌

You will know what I mean when you see it.

Couldn't find the agency. Would love to know.

PS: As some have mentioned in the comments, the core idea of this 40-second ad is most likely inspired by the almost-5-minute music video for Arjun Kanungo's song Fursat, scripted by Dr. Vishal Handa and directed by Vivek Chauhan. See: https://tinyurl.com/fursat

#advertising #marketing #creativity #creative #independenceday2023 #independenceday

*😂

This is possibly THE most egregious misuse of fine print I recall seeing recently. And this is guaranteed to become a permanent meme material.

#corporatecommunication #communication #fineprint

Did Dabur have prior knowledge of Colgate's splashy 2-page ad in The Times of India? That was my first thought! While it is possible, it also seems unlikely because Dabur's ad refers to World Oral Health Day (today), while the Colgate ad does not. But Dabur ad's message hints directly at a market leader (among others) that is known to be a 'foaming fluoridated toothpaste' while Dabur is known to make 'non-fluoridated' toothpastes.

PS 1: See the same Dabur ad with a different headline in another newspaper, in my comment below.

PS 2: Looks like Dabur has unleashed an influencer campaign to comment under this post on LinkedIn (see in my comment below)! And all those commenters barely have any content ot connections - all bot-like and sock-puppet like profiles! This is making Dabur look incredibly bad. Plus they are wasting money on a so-called influencer marketing agency that is completely taking them for a ride with such phenomenally bad quality work.

#advertising #marketing

UPDATE (July 22, 2019): If you thought this print campaign was brilliant, wait till you see what Amul did online! See: http://bit.ly/2xX53c3

Whoa! Amul is using the same template it earlier used against 'frozen desserts' from HUL's Kwality Wall's - that they have real milk in their ice creams and Wall's is nothing but frozen dessert sans milk - this time, the battle is Amul vs. Britannia Good Day (so obvious from the cookies' design!). The ad is from TOI Ahmedabad edition, today.

The battleground? Butter vs. vegetable oil! Like last time, Amul has solid backing and credibility to talk about butter (like milk, earlier - since it produces both in enormous quantities).

Just that, in this case, Britannia also has a butter brand, unlike HUL's lack of presence in an end-consumer milk segment (as a result of Amul's salvo, HUL was forced to buy Adityaa Milk to have a better say about milk and Kwality Wall's/HUL http://bit.ly/30LfVpC).

The most powerful part of the Amul Butter Cookies pack is the presence of the Amul-Girl in the front! Instantly recognizable as 'the butter' and directly connotes 'that famous' butter being present in the biscuit!

#marketing #positioning #competition #businessrivalry

Brilliant ad that makes fantastic, contextual use of a counterintuitive headline.

Agency: Ogilvy

#advertising #creativity

Incredibly timely, topical and hilariously pun'ny - very well done! :) /Via Twitter

#socialmedia #mobile #notifications #apps #creativity

Very cheeky and clever, Pepsi! (Australia and New Zealand)! 😁
Well played by the agency Special Group Sydney, using the rival's can and brand name itself to make a point within Pepsi's 'Tastes Better' (as against 'Tastes OK') platform!

#advertising #marketing #creative #creativity

In marketing, it is best to explain the features of the product in detail to the brand ambassador before the launch.

Going by Sanju baba's expression, I don't think they told him that he was going to launch a non-alcoholic beverage 🤭

#advertising #marketing #brandambassador

This is a terrific series by the Australian underwear brand Bonds! Excellent use of euphemism to convey the central point with a generous dose of understated humor. 😁

Agency: Special Group, Australia

(6 ads play back-to-back, below)

More on the use of euphemism when it comes to advertising around men's nether regions: https://lnkd.in/gxedVU22

#advertising #marketing #creativity

This is a terrific mix of,
a. a topical day (Holi),
b. a topical theme (AI), and 
c. a brand (Pepsi).

Written by Sidhant Mago and made by the agency Daftar Creative Consultancy, the narrative takes a simple idea (dot ai) to ridiculously funny lengths, with the tongue firmly in cheek, while steadily ramping up the Holi-related references! 😁

Very well played!

PS: The only thing I'd have loved to see is that the video had English subtitles for better reach (for people who don't understand Hindi), instead of Hindi written in English script.

#advertising #marketing #creative #creativity

When it comes to 'steel' branding in India, Tata Steel's 'We also make steel' (agency: HTA) easily tops the limited list. But this new corporate ad from Jindal Steel makes a confident pitch with an almost hypnotic visual narrative!

The narrative device of flooding the screen with quick-cut visuals of many, many steel items used in daily life in India is great on paper, but the magic is in the execution. And that, director Ayappa K.M does with total flourish! He is superbly aided by the music composer of the ad, Sneha Khanwalkar, since the sound accentuates the effect considerably.

There may be some creative exaggerations here and there. For instance, the stick-wielding traditional art showcased at 0:39 and 1:26, generally makes use of wooden sticks (bamboo, usually), not steel rods, in both the Kerala version (KaLaripayattu) and the Tamil Nadu version (Silambam). And labelling every piece of steel used anywhere in India with Jindal Steel is a clever, overarching exaggeration :) But I'd overlook them for the larger impact, and file them under 'creative license'.

The larger point is that this ad is visual poetry and a terrific display of creativity!

The ad was conceived by Kondurkar Studios (Amrish Kondurkar, Sanya Malhotra, Muskaan Jain, and Ishita Sharma).

#advertising #marketing #creative #creativity

I don't think I have ever seen an ad for a driving school. Yes, I have seen roadside posters of local driving schools in most cities, but a campaign mounted like this? No way! But this is Maruti Suzuki Driving School and this kind of campaign is expected (agency: MullenLowe Lintas)

Really thoughtful writing all through. Every line is carefully constructed towards the theme of dad-certified, implying that fathers are sparse with their praise, no achievement is ever enough, and even when they do praise, it lands more like a jibe... but that's the biggest compliment one can get :)

Of course, this is a stereotype of an older kind of dad (played brilliantly by Tigmanshu Dhulia), but that device lends itself well to this narrative.

The idea of Gagan (Arora) talking to us (and not to his dad) the earlier lines as he starts driving from Reis Magos railway station is a good touch to indicate respect. The first line we see him uttering to his dad is the brand name. At first, I thought this seemed very in-your-face to bring the brand in, but they have set up the context right from the beginning: the L sticker having been removed, Gagan expecting his dad to notice it, Tigmanshu noticing it and making a comment... all lead organically to Gagan moving past the driving school and informing his dad why he was now driving confidently and well.

Simple, effective writing, with a lovely, heartwarmingly fun denouement by Tigmanshu in the end that you cannot resist smiling along with :)

#advertising #marketing #driving #cars #automobile

How can an insurance brand use a topical theme like Olympics? Here's how! 
Terrific idea here by Ogilvy, for the Australian general insurance provider, AAMI (Australian Associated Motor Insurers Limited), mixing a topical flavor brilliantly to mine good-natured humor that made me laugh out aloud 😂

Considering this is Olympics season (starting July 26, 2024), the blending of the topical theme does not seem forced at all. In fact, it is very normal for kids in the household to be inspired by whatever is making news - cricket world cup, Olympics, trending movies, and act like their favorite stars, whether in sports or movies. You may argue that Olympics may not be as inspirational these days (as they used to be, at one point), but that would be a function of how they are looked upon in families, schools, and in the peer circle, besides the fortunes of each country's participants in the games.

Where Ogilvy scores is tying the topical theme to insurance seamlessly, making it both relatable and believable! Things start going wrong (at the half-way mark in the ad). At the first instance, given how dramatically it happens (the basketball stand hitting the car) I couldn't help but laugh out aloud.

PS: Please don't waste your time commenting about how long the ad is (at 60 seconds). This is the 60-second version, and they have a 30-second variant and many smaller 15-second versions too.

#advertising #marketing #creative #creativity

Very few brands around the world have built a compelling and undeniable association with certain elements they have used consistently for years. If you see red and white together, you may think of Coca-Cola involuntarily. McDonald's yellow (plus some red) too is a good example. Here's KitKat using the distinctive elements they have used for years to stupendously good advantage!

A red backdrop + 'Have a...' would automatically lead your brain to complete the sentence - 'Have a Break. Have a KitKat'. That's precisely what Wunderman Thompson UK did for KitKat in the UK using digital billboards.

But the beauty of the entire campaign was not simply that they let people complete the sentence on their own, recalling the brand effortlessly in the process. That's just one part of this brilliant campaign.

The truly compelling and brilliant element of the campaign is *WHY* Wunderman Thompson UK did this for KitKat. Because... stopping with 'Have a...' is an act of taking a break, the very break KitKat is famous for :)

As the video explains, the brand could afford to take a break mid-sentence because of the impeccable branding effort built over 66 years! That's the power of the brand, and here KitKat demonstrates the power of its brand so beautifully while also completely staying on-brand at the same time!

#advertising #marketing #creative #creativity

Stupendously striking cover! Brilliant design by Arsh Raziuddin - hats off!

#creative #creativity #coverdesign #design #bookcover