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Tag: O&M

  • Cannes Lions 2014: HUL qualifies in Creative Effectiveness shortlist; O&M, Havas in PR

    Cannes Lions 2014: HUL qualifies in Creative Effectiveness shortlist; O&M, Havas in PR

    MUMBAI: Lowe and Partners Worldwide India is the only Indian agency whose campaign has made it to the Creative Effectiveness Lions shortlist. Only those campaigns that have won some Lion in the previous years are eligible for this category.

     

    The agency’s ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ campaign for HUL’s Lifebuoy had fetched it a silver Lion last year in the Film Lions category. While the piece of work last year was submitted by the agency’s London office, this time it is the Mumbai office that has participated in the ongoing Cannes Lions.

     

    In the PR Lions category, O&M India’s ‘Google Reunion’ campaign qualified in the shortlist under two sub-categories, namely, Brand Voice (including strategic storytelling) and technology & manufacturing.

     

    The other shortlisted entries include those for Akanksha Foundation Schools’ ‘Barter’ campaign under the sub-category ‘Influencer Communication’ and Channel V/Star TV’s campaign ‘The Seatbelt Crew’ for road safety awareness under the sub-category ‘Corporate Responsibility.’

     

    Havas’ ‘No Child Brides’ campaign for child survival India has also been shortlisted in the sub-category titled ‘Charity & Not for Profit.’

  • Akanksha, O&M ‘force’ celebs to help for free

    Akanksha, O&M ‘force’ celebs to help for free

    MUMBAI: If you are an organisation in desperate need of a service but don’t have the money to put out an advertisement, what do you do? Well, just let the advertising agency do the talking!

    That’s what NGO Akanksha did when it could no longer wait for teachers for the underprivileged kids under its care and protection.

    Akanksha’s brief to Ogilvy & Mather was clear: “The organisation does not have money for advertising, but it needs to reach out to thousands of people and tell them we need teachers, because when that happens, the teacher applications will go up.”

    O&M lost no time in getting onto the job at hand and the result was ‘Message Barter’, a ‘smart yet sweet’ way of getting celebrities to help these children without spending a rupee. “The insight was that you cannot say no to a child, especially when a child does you a favour and asks for one in return. You just can’t refuse! So in a way, we actually ‘forced’ the celebrities to help us,” says O&M associate CD Jigar Fernandes.

    “Another very, very important guiding point is that when you meet the kids from Akanksha, they are so intelligent, well spoken, street smart and always up for fun. I can guarantee you that if you do not know of their backgrounds, you would never guess, where they come from. So yes, the idea had to reflect the smartness and cheeky attitude of these cool kids.”

    A video was filmed with Hrithik Roshan being ‘forced’ to ask his fans to apply as teachers with Akanksha in return for services rendered by the kids – promoting the actor’s film Krrish 3 outside theatres and on streets. Similarly, Farhan Akhtar and Chetan Bhagat among other celebrities, and social media influencers featured in the video. The video was then mailed to the celebrities. Luckily, the Bollywood brigade jumped into the fray and through their facebook pages and twitter handles, urged people to not only watch the video but also apply for the job of teacher at Akanksha.

    Akanksha authorities were rendered speechless when traffic on the NGO’s official website (www.akanksha.org) increased four-fold and teachers’ applications witnessed a 160 per cent rise.

    “We didn’t set ourselves any target because this was a very new and unexplored experiment. In the end, it worked,” says Fernandes, proudly. A 10 member team worked on the campaign and took almost a month to execute it. Akanksha too was involved in the process; the NGO’s Chitra Pandit and Nupur Bhargava believed in the idea and were part of it from the scratch itself.

    The digital space was chosen as the destination as Akanksha’s target audience is largely urban educated youth which is most likely to be on social networks.

    The first-of-its-kind campaign, not only wooed celebs and helped the organisation, but it also won the agency the interactive award by BestAdsOnTV.com.

    Click here to watch the video

     

  • Ad film maker Film Farm to foray into feature films post TV success

    Ad film maker Film Farm to foray into feature films post TV success

    Film Farm India, a leading ad-cum-entertainment film production house, is planning to foray into the feature film business after a successful foray into the television production. The firm is already working with top ad agencies including Lowe, JWT, O&M amongst others. The feature film will be an out and out commercial film.
     

    The Economic Times Brand Equity dated 4 June 2003 featured two of the ad film firm’s commercials in a compilation of “three best commercials of the week”. The two commercials that were featured in Brand Equity include “Rasna Juc- Up” directed by Pushpendra Mishra; and “Kissan Mr. Fruit” directed by Navdeep Singh, both a part of the Film Farm team of directors and both produced by Film Farm.
     

    In a double whammy, the company also celebrated the success of the television division’s successful foray into the TV production business at a party held in Mumbai on 6 June 2003. The serial Dil…Na Jaane Kyon on Zee TV – as part of it’s new initiative Chausat Panne – has reached the No. 2 slot in Zee’s Top 10 list just below Astitva Ek Prem Kahani.
     

    While speaking to the indiantelevision.com team, Film Farm India’s managing partner Harsh Dave says: “We are amongst two or three top companies that have adopted a different model – talent kitty within an ad film. We have a panel of young directors who have developed a core competency area of expertise and domain knowledge. The ad film industry is constantly evolving and clients/ad agencies prefer to rope in the younger generation in an attempt to get fresh ideas. The senior team within our group merely nurtures talent and guides them. Our films look much more contemporary and original.”
     

    Film Farm has a team comprising of 32 professionals. Different directors specialize in conceptualizing films related to different themes – be it fashion or food or people. “The younger lot has a lot of fire in their belly, more enthusiasm and have a broader perspective. Also, there is no one-upmanship within the team and everybody contributes in the brainstorm sessions,” Dave adds.
     

    Dave is also not in favour of creatively-oriented people running an ad production house. “We believe that production houses need managers who work out economies of scale and keep the focus on costs and schedules. There has to be a balance – since the business involves both Saraswati and Laxmi. There must be teams that focus purely on business development, others that nurture relationships and the rest who focus on creative aspects.”
     

    In less than five years since its conception Film Farm has done advertising work for companies such as Hindustan Levers, Dabur, Hero Honda, Revlon, MTV, J & J, Marico, Nerolac Paints, Jyoti Laboratories, MRF, Bombay Dyeing, Rasna, V.I.P. to name a few.
     

    “Clients and ad agencies want value and seek a comfort level while working with any ad film maker. The focus is not on cutting costs. After all, at any point of time, an ad film maker makes a Rs 3 million film that will be part of a Rs 30-million media campaign which in turn will decide the fate of a Rs 300-million brand,” adds Dave.
     

    Along with two more in-house and some more freelance directors from advertising fraternity, Film Farm has also produced TV commercials with directors of feature film background like John Mathew Mathan (Denim soap commercial), Mansoor Khan (Nerolac commercial), Pankaj Parasher (Hercules cycles with Akshay Kumar), Kundan Shah , Govind Nihalani and Rituparno Ghosh (Ponds). “We use different directors based on their styles or personality or expertise or even areas of interest,” says Dave.
     

    Besides India, Film Farm has done work for companies in Thailand, U.A.E.,Malaysia, Australia and South Africa working with directors from the same regions. Film Farm has also collaborated in production with U.K. based Academy Films for the prestigious music videos for bands like UB 40, Basement Jaxx.
     

    “We believe in two-way traffic. We have also done line productions and provided value added services to Europe/US firms that want to shoot in India. Through our international affiliations, we have also sourced good directors from a talent pool; got them down to India to shoot some of our campaigns.”
     

    Currently, the production house has an 80:20 mix as far as the ad business and television business is concerned. However, the mix will vary after we foray into the feature film production arena and increase our presence on TV channels,” adds Dave.
     

    Film Farm India is definitely planning to give it’s close competitors Big Brother and MAD a complex!

  • Ads piggyback kids

    Ads piggyback kids

    MUMBAI: The latest advertisement to hit television screens is testimony to the fact that advertisers can’t seem to get enough of children when it comes to publicising brands. And this includes brands which don’t target kids; not even remotely.

    The ad in question is for IDBI Bank and rolls with a little girl sitting beside her friend, saying she loves to eat ganna (sugarcane) but can’t until she gets a new set of teeth which is why her pal is busy peeling it for her. The commercial ends with a voiceover: ‘Bank aisa, dost jaisa’. Two other ads are part of the campaign conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) and have children speaking of their friends in different scenarios.

    O&M NCD Abhijit Avasthi exults: “When we started work on the new campaign of IDBI Bank, we were very clear that we are changing the campaign and not the values that the bank stands for. The idea we came up with does exactly this. In an innocent and charming way, we are telling people ‘What if a bank would do what a friend would do’. When you say something like this, you really don’t need to say much more.”

    Indeed, the ad has charmed its way into people’s hearts, especially on social media. But that doesn’t stop one from wondering what kids can possibly have in common with a bank!

    Again, this isn’t the first instance where children have been used to sell products and services which they have nothing to do with; be it detergents, power inverters, cars, insurance policies or e-commerce websites. So what is it about kids that advertisers find so attractive? Ad veteran Alyque Padamsee reasons that people notice kids more than they do adults. “It is heart warming to see kids on screen. And who does not love them?” says he.

    Padamsee gives the example of Vodafone’s earlier campaign. “Vodafone used a little boy and her dog for its ‘everywhere you go, our network follows’ campaign, and it worked for them. Everyone remembers the commercial and it beautifully conveys the message the telecom company wants to tell people.”

    “Anything in life can be told through the eyes of a child. It’s not difficult,” says BBDO’s chairman and chief creative officer Josy Paul who elaborates on the point by giving the example of the agency David (founded in 2000 by BBDO) and adds, “When you joined the agency you got a resignation letter, not an appointment letter. You had to resign from adulthood to join David. The whole philosophy was to think like a child.”

    The other factor is that kids today play an important role in family decisions, say buying a car. Remember the ad with the Sardar kid whose car doesn’t run out of petrol ever – that’s how Maruti Suzuki tried to convince people about the car’s performance.

    Ernst & Young consultant (media) Mihir Date goes to the extent of calling present-day children decision makers. “What they watch on television is what they want. For example, my nephew only watches Cartoon Network but wants everything shown on the channel, be it a kiddie product or not,” he says.

    Peer pressure too plays an important part where kids want what their friends have; points out Date, adding, “And marketers have been smart enough to understand the GenY. It is working in their favour to use kids in advertisements wherein both kids and parents get targeted.”

    There are enough and more examples where brands and their creative agencies have used situations or scenarios where kids fit in beautifully, and the overall image is always happy and colourful. Say Nerolac paints, now being promoted by Shah Rukh Khan, which earlier had the jingle ‘Jab Ghar Ki Raunak Badhani Ho’ with happy scenes of children prancing around while the walls of their homes are being painted in bright colours.

    However, there’s a flip side as well to using kids in commercials.

    Says ad film director Prahlad Kakar, “If the brand value or what they stand for is not woven well into the story, then the message will be lost.”

    Padamsee agrees: “Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan are all over the place. They endorse so many brands; do we remember which commercial stands for which brand? Hardly… Similarly, one might notice and love the kids in an advertisement but that doesn’t mean that people will remember the brand. Many a times, the ad gets noticed but the brand isn’t.”

    While this is an open debate, it’s true that putting children in the ad is a sure way of getting viewers to like it, most of the times at least…

  • Fevicol spreads togetherness with its elephant mascots

    Fevicol spreads togetherness with its elephant mascots

    MUMBAI: They have endorsed the message of togetherness for last many years. Now, Fevicol, the largest selling brand of adhesives in India, has rolled out its third edition of the animated TV campaign series to connect with its audiences during festive season.

    For the third edition of the TVC developed by Ogilvy & Mather, the communication has taken a step further to reinforce the ‘strong bond of togetherness’. What is working for the brand is the clever use of Fevicol mascots – the elephants. O&M has clubbed the interesting concept with animation advertising that has brought its elephants to life, thus growing its connect with the audience. The animated elephants have kept the wit and humour quotient intact as always in a Fevicol fashion way.

    Pidilite Industries Chief Marketing Officer Anil Jayaraj, said, “We are happy to present the third TVC in our ‘Judh Jayein Tyohaar Pe’ festive series. We have received positive feedback for our earlier commercials on Rakhi and Navratri and hope Diwali TVC also draws similar response. Picking out simple events of life, marrying these with the brand’s message and incorporating it in such a manner that the audience can find connect with the brand’s message has been the philosophy of all our campaigns and so has been for our festive campaign. We are happy to subtly remind our audiences that Fevicol would “stick” around and bond with them on all festive and joyous occasions.”

    The TV campaign will be supported by an integrated digital marketing campaign. Apart from outdoors and increased visibility at trade outlets, they are also executing a number of demand generation initiatives to reap maximum advantage of the new TVC.

    Commenting on the concept, Ogilvy & Mather executive chairperson and creative director South Asia Piyush Pandey, said, “Fevicol has never shied from experimentation or risked averse. We wanted to give animated life to our elephants and are happy to already see them growing fondness and capturing places in the minds of the audiences.”

    The ad will be aired across key Hindi speaking markets from 2 November to 4 November including sports during India-Australia ODI on 2 November, 2013. The communication will be extended through various digital promotion plan and BTL activities such as high visibility and innovative POS, demand generation activations, dealer certification, contractor certification and gratification program, Contractor contact programs among other elements.
    The commercial opens with one of the Fevicol elephants developing cold feet at his attempt to burst tenderfoot sutli crackers. Meanwhile, he is realises that the other elephant, his fellow companion, has slyly already lit the much impactful rassi bomb right at his back. Bang! With the thudding noise of the crackers, the elephants go back to forming the Fevicol logo (trademarked for Fevicol – The Ultimate Adhesive) wishing everyone a happy, playful and a safe Diwali.

  • Ogilvy Mumbai positions IDBI Bank as Bank aisa dost jaisa

    Ogilvy Mumbai positions IDBI Bank as Bank aisa dost jaisa

    MUMBAI: After a successful run of the elephant campaign, IDBI Bank and Ogilvy have decided to refresh the communication.

     

    While friendship was always the ultimate message in all their previous work, it was time to say it differently. Elaborating on the association, Ogilvy & Mather executive chairman and creative director, south Asia Piyush Pandey said, “Our initial thrust for IDBI Bank a few years ago had been to tell the world that just because we are a big nation-building bank, does not mean that we are not approachable to address your smallest need. And now when we look at the next step in the evolution of the communication, what better than the universal emotion of childhood friendships to symbolise the role that IDBI Bank plays in its customers’ and partners’ lives.”

     

    On the campaign, O&M NCD Abhijit Avasthi said, “When we started work on the new campaign of IDBI Bank, we were very clear that we are changing the campaign and not the values that the Bank stands for. The idea we came up with does exactly this. In an innocent and charming way we are telling people ‘What if a bank would do what a friend would do’. When you say something like this, you really don’t need to say much more.”

     

    The challenge before the creative agency was to craft the dialogues for each one of them. O&M group creative director Harshad Rajadhyakasha explained, “We wanted moments from a child’s world, because anything else would have been unfair to the campaign and fake. In one film a kid says, “One day my pant tore in school and my friend walked behind me all day to cover me.” It had to be as honest and as silly as that.”

    The campaign will see four films wherein in each one there are two kids and one kid is telling people why the other one is his or her friend. Curious’ Vivek kakkad has directed the films.

  • Sulina Menon quits SMG to join OMD

    MUMBAI: Sulina Menon has joined media agency Omnicom Media Group yesterday as managing partner –North.

    Menon confirmed her movement to Indiantelevision.com. She will continue to be based out of Delhi.

    Her last stint was with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) India as executive director, where she worked for more than three years.

    Menon started her career in 1986 with Interface Communications as a trainee and then moved on to work with organisations like O&M, McCann Ericsson, Zee TV and Carat Media Services.

  • Madhukar Sabnavis on O&M’s worldwide board

    MUMBAI: There seems to be an injection of Indian blood in the senior leadership team of global agencies. Last year, Vikram Sakuja became Maxus global CEO and McCann‘s Prasoon Joshi entered the Commonwealth board that was created to service the GM Chevy account. Now Ogilvy & Mather has named 12 new members on its worldwide board, one of them being O&M India vice chairman and country head, discovery and planning Madhukar Sabnavis.

    WPP’s global creative agency network announced that Carla Hendra will take over as the vice chairman of its Worldwide Board.

    The other new members on the board include Nelly Andersen, Executive Vice President of Global Brands, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Lou Aversano, Chief Operating Officer of Ogilvy East, Brandon Berger, Worldwide Chief Digital Officer, Shenan Chuang, CEO of O&M Greater China, Annette King, CEO of OgilvyOne EAME and Chairman of OgilvyOne London, Paul Matheson, Regional President Strategy and Planning of O&M Asia Pacific, Jaime Prieto, President of Global Brand Management, Ben Richards, Worldwide Head of Integrated Strategy, Gunther Schumacher, Worldwide Chief Operating Officer of OgilvyOne Worldwide, Steve Simpson, Chief Creative Officer of O&M North America and Paul Smith, Regional Creative Director EAME.

    O&M board chairman and CEO Miles Young remarked, “These additions represent a wonderful range of our key talent and inject a significant infusion of new blood. Our Board will now be significantly more diverse, and I believe, will be reflective of and useful for many of the debates about content which need to happen at the heart of our business. I am so very pleased to announce that Carla has been elected to the role of Vice Chairman. Carla’s contribution over the years has been enormous, not least recently as the founder and driver of OgilvyRED. As our Board continues to grow, we will need someone with Carla’s laser focus and drive to help harness the diverse talents and viewpoints within our Board to the advantage of the entire agency.”

  • Tata Motors to kickstart Safari Storme national campaign within a fortnight

    BENGALURU: Tata Motors has launched the new generation Tata Safari Storme in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, following which it will reach out to Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the next ten days to complete the national rollout of the vehicle. A multi-media national campaign will kick off within a fortnight to promote the launch.

    “This campaign will have a media mix of television, print, outdoor and online and will be far bigger than the Sumo Gold and the Arya campaign. On ground activation will include mall display, contests, adventure sports events and experiential marketing, ” said Tata Motors Head Utility Product Group – Passenger Car Business, Ashesh Dhar.

    “Our ad budgets are higher this year and the campaign will be television heavy,” he added.

    O&M handles the creative work while Lodestar the media buying for Safari Storme.

    The Safari Storme was launched in the NCR region on 17 October last year and Tata Motors has been staggering its availability across the nation as it ramps up production. It has sold around 3000 units over two months and has bookings of 2000 units in the geographies where the vehicle has been launched.

  • O&M creates new Parle-G TVC

    MUMBAI: In an attempt to cement its market leadership and strengthen its bond with the consumers particularly the newer generation of parents and children, Parle-G has launched its new ad campaign.

    Titled ‘Kal Ka Genius‘, the campaign has been created by Ogilvy & Mather. It is targeted at children of 5 to 15 years and their mothers.

    The creative idea of the campaign is ‘There is no bigger school than childhood; and there is no better teacher than curiosity‘.

    Parle-G believes all kids are exceptional and creative but when they grow up, they often lose their creative ability as they journey towards conformity. It wants parents to realise that their kids could develop their potential for genius if they let them be, if they nurtured their natural curiosity, encouraged the desire to try new things, experiment, learn from their failures and mistakes. They should realised that kids can learn everywhere and from everything and that school is beyond just books and classrooms, the agency said.

    The campaign was launched on the digital medium in two phases, Teaser and Launch Phase. In the first phase there was a teaser which was released across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

    This was followed by releasing the TVC online. The idea behind the new communication is to make the communication more progressive and not regressive. The core philosophy behind this campaign is to let kids explore and learn their own rather them stopping them.

    Produced by Chrome Pictures, the film has been directed by Amit Sharma while Gulzaar is credited for the lyrics of the campaign.