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Tag: Prathap Suthan

  • Bang in the Middle creates campaign to show magazine popularity

    Bang in the Middle creates campaign to show magazine popularity

    MUMBAI: The popular belief is that readership of magazines is declining, and is declining possibly faster than newspapers. The new IRS 2017 numbers indicate a stupendous growth in magazine readership. Magazines almost doubled the total readership from 40 million in IRS 2014 to 78 million in the latest IRS 2017. The growth has come from the urban areas, which added 22 million readers; and also rural India added 17 million readers. That is a whopping 95 per cent growth in the total readership of magazines in India, and this growth is coming only from print and does not take into consideration the online portals. The total readership of newspapers also registered a growth during the same period, of 40 per cent.

    Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) briefed agency Bang in the Middle to create a campaign that puts this 95 per cent growth in sharp focus. The campaign is devised to showcase the dramatic growth in readership.

    For the agency, the creative challenge was large, the campaign could not be descriptive that just informed the readers about growth in readership. The campaign has to make the reader stop and drive the feeling that they knew reading magazine had never gone out of fashion.

    The campaign is designed around the intrigue of number 95 per cent. The six ad campaigns build the growth in readership by making the ads contextual to the reader segments.

    Speaking about the campaign, AIM President R Rajmohan says, “We at the association knew that magazine readership is very robust and when the new numbers were released it only added to our confidence. AIM took this opportunity to build on the habit of reading magazines and drive its relevance to both readers and advertisers.”

    Bang in the Middle managing partner and CCO Prathap Suthan adds, “The brief was sharp and singular. Let the world know that total magazine readership has grown 95 per cent. Big growth. Big number. Big picture. Big story. And all of that came alive in the campaign. We didn’t have to get creative for creative’s sake. The number was dramatic by itself. We just had to make sure the number come through bold. With a small witty statistic to add in some wit, and with a hidden image inside the big 95 per cent that hinted and revealed a hidden consumer story. The execution too worked to make it topical for different magazine genres.”

    Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) is the national magazine association in India and is affiliated to the global industry association, International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP). AIM members include all the top magazine publishers of the country.

  • IndiaMART launches new campaign with Irrfan Khan

    IndiaMART launches new campaign with Irrfan Khan

    NEW DELHI: In a bid to establish its value proposition as a business facilitator of India, IndiaMART has launched a new campaign featuring versatile actor Irrfan Khan titled ‘India ki Khoj.’

     

    IndiaMART has positioned itself as the platform that powers the ‘Khoj’ for growth, success, ambitions and legacy.

     

    “It feels great to be associated with this brand and its campaigns that have been inspirational to millions of entrepreneurs as well as the buyers in fulfilling their needs, be it business or personal. Through this campaign, I am sure that it will generate a strong impact and encourage enterprising people across the country to come forward and put their ideas into action,” said Khan.

     

    IndiaMART has built itself as the definitive market place for millions of Indians who come searching for other businesses to do business with. The campaign moves a step ahead by connecting entrepreneurs to their role models, who they idolise. The idea is aptly voiced by IndiaMART’s brand ambassador, Khan, capturing budding entrepreneurs and their dreams in a short 30 seconds story.

     

    Speaking of the campaign, IndiaMART vice president Sumit Bedi said, “India’s economic prosperity is fuelled by millions of small and medium sized entrepreneurs. We give them the platform to grow and act as an enabler that they can trust. Through this campaign, we will be celebrating the spirit of enterprises found across the length and breadth of India. Thus, we have summed it up as ‘Khoj,’ for everything that they are looking for in life. We don’t just connect markets with opportunity; we connect individuals with their ambitions.”

     

    The campaign has been crafted by Bang in the Middle and was shot in Mumbai.

     

    Bang in the Middle managing partner and CCO Prathap Suthan said, “Every entrepreneur and every businessman starts his or her journey to follow a dream. The innate search and thirst to achieve a target, reach a landmark, and build an enterprise worthy of the dream in their minds. Our country is full of legends of people who have started small and made global successes, and those stories and surnames are driving forces for a country that’s now woken up.  They are inspiration to those searching for their own footprints to leave behind. This campaign is a tribute to that entrepreneurial spirit, as much as the earthiness of Irrfan adds realness to the grit of these people.”

     

    The campaign kick-started with a tweet by Khan and will also be amplified through his other digital platforms as well as television, press and radio promotions.

     

      

  • IndiaMART launches new campaign with Irrfan Khan

    IndiaMART launches new campaign with Irrfan Khan

    NEW DELHI: In a bid to establish its value proposition as a business facilitator of India, IndiaMART has launched a new campaign featuring versatile actor Irrfan Khan titled ‘India ki Khoj.’

     

    IndiaMART has positioned itself as the platform that powers the ‘Khoj’ for growth, success, ambitions and legacy.

     

    “It feels great to be associated with this brand and its campaigns that have been inspirational to millions of entrepreneurs as well as the buyers in fulfilling their needs, be it business or personal. Through this campaign, I am sure that it will generate a strong impact and encourage enterprising people across the country to come forward and put their ideas into action,” said Khan.

     

    IndiaMART has built itself as the definitive market place for millions of Indians who come searching for other businesses to do business with. The campaign moves a step ahead by connecting entrepreneurs to their role models, who they idolise. The idea is aptly voiced by IndiaMART’s brand ambassador, Khan, capturing budding entrepreneurs and their dreams in a short 30 seconds story.

     

    Speaking of the campaign, IndiaMART vice president Sumit Bedi said, “India’s economic prosperity is fuelled by millions of small and medium sized entrepreneurs. We give them the platform to grow and act as an enabler that they can trust. Through this campaign, we will be celebrating the spirit of enterprises found across the length and breadth of India. Thus, we have summed it up as ‘Khoj,’ for everything that they are looking for in life. We don’t just connect markets with opportunity; we connect individuals with their ambitions.”

     

    The campaign has been crafted by Bang in the Middle and was shot in Mumbai.

     

    Bang in the Middle managing partner and CCO Prathap Suthan said, “Every entrepreneur and every businessman starts his or her journey to follow a dream. The innate search and thirst to achieve a target, reach a landmark, and build an enterprise worthy of the dream in their minds. Our country is full of legends of people who have started small and made global successes, and those stories and surnames are driving forces for a country that’s now woken up.  They are inspiration to those searching for their own footprints to leave behind. This campaign is a tribute to that entrepreneurial spirit, as much as the earthiness of Irrfan adds realness to the grit of these people.”

     

    The campaign kick-started with a tweet by Khan and will also be amplified through his other digital platforms as well as television, press and radio promotions.

     

      

  • Jabong unveils new ad campaign celebrating individuals

    Jabong unveils new ad campaign celebrating individuals

    MUMBAI: Online multi-brand fashion website Jabong.com has unveiled a new promotional campaign with the tagline – “This is who I am. This is what I believe in.” Jabong took up the task of encouraging people to embrace their uniqueness, last year, with its 360 degree campaign – Be you.

     

    This season however, it goes a step further and shows what ‘Be You’ means for different individuals. The three TVCs, which will be aired across various channels, have been creatively scripted and shot across length and breadth of India. They capture aspirations, dreams, thoughts and personal styles for people who have chosen to break free from the norm and followed their own style and passion.

     

    The TVC, which will be aired across channels, has been innovatively shot featuring the life stories of young individuals from different walks of life. The TVC reiterates the idea of self-direction and freethinking, unescorted by the stringent norms of the society. It inspires lateral thinking and affirms fashion as a mode of unorthodox expression.

     

    Jabong.com founder and managing director Praveen Sinha said, “Post tasting success with the launch of ‘Be You’ campaign last season, our team decided to take the winning streak forward and give a different dimension to it in the second season. Jabong.com is constantly innovating to churn out something new for its customers; we let out a spark of individualism last season and we plan to sustain it with this TVC in its second inning. The TVC is very simple in terms of the message it plans to send out, chase yourself, not the word.”

     

    Created by Bang in the Middle, with different films, weaving different stories, this year’s plan is much grander and bolder. Instead of just telling people to follow their own star and break free, it shows the stories of people who dared to be themselves.

     

    Bang in the Middle COO Prathap Suthan added, “Last year around when we launched the philosophy of ‘Be You’, we were pretty much convinced that it gave enough and more encouragement to young India to be proud of themselves and to go ahead and be what they wanted to be. Jabong being the one brand that would support and inspire them on their self-discovery and conviction with the widest range of fashion. Ready with ideas to help express themselves across the days and nights of their journeys. The campaign was a balanced act of liberation, and pushed people to go beyond the shallow definition of fashion, and gave them the freedom to stand up and be themselves: beLeaders instead of followers.”

     

    “This time around, instead of a common philosophy, we are bringing to life stories of individuals, how they choose to live their lives and how they use their minds to create a niche for themselves. More importantly, these ads also surf the top of emerging social trends and try to present the changing faces of the country. Young India is a more confident, globally conscious, and empowered lot of people. And all you have to do is look around to find youngsters living life the way they want and successfully at that. Jabong is at the cusp of being the one positive pat on the back for these millions of dreamers and thinkers and doers who will do India prouder than ever,” added Suthan.

     

    Bang in the Middle CSO Naresh Gupta said, “Today fashion is just not an external style statement, it is how you live, the choices you make, the statement you want to make. It is not about rebelling, or being different for sake of being different, it is about living by your own conviction. We started the journey with the previous campaign; we are making an even stronger statement with this seasons campaign. We have tried to capture the new ethos of the young trendy Indians to make the brand the real fashion choice for them.”

     

    This campaign is a mouthpiece for the youth that has risen above the herd and retained its true identity. Jabong, with these new ads, exemplifies what ‘Be You’ means. The TVC includes a 30 second couplet narrating the tale of a young couple in a live-in relationship, defying the societal customs and avowing to stay true to their individual beliefs.

     

    An additional 60-second film is shot for digital promotion encapsulating the dreams of young India and how they are pursuing their unique entities, away from the social orders. Two more commercials chronicling journeys of the protagonist follow as well this season.

     

    The TVC is an ode to triumphant success Jabong has consolidated in a short span of time owing to a noteworthy response it has amassed since its inception.

  • #LikeAGirl, is not an abuse

    #LikeAGirl, is not an abuse

    MUMBAI: ‘Like A Girl.’ When did those three words become an insult?  

    This thought provoking question has been floating on various social media platforms for a couple of weeks now. Thanks to Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) new campaign, this thought is being heard loud and clear across the globe.

    The campaign which has different phases on digital is supported with a power packed video filmed by P&G’s ‘Always’, a leader in feminine hygiene products with a market valuation of $3.4 billion.

    Though the film might appear to look just like many other feminist-themed videos, there is a lot that it brings across the table. As part of the campaign, ‘Always’ has partnered with award-winning documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield to conduct a social experiment to illustrate how people of all ages interpret the phrase ‘Like A Girl.’

    Wondering why this campaign?

    On the official YouTube channel of P&G Lauren Greenfield, filmmaker and director of the #LikeAGirl video explained, “In my work as a documentarian, I have witnessed the confidence crisis among girls and the negative impact of stereotypes first-hand. When the words ‘Like A Girl’ are used to mean something bad, it is profoundly disempowering. I am proud to partner with ‘Always’ to shed light on how this simple phrase can have a significant and long-lasting impact on girls and women. I am excited to be a part of the movement to redefine ‘Like A Girl’ into a positive affirmation.”

    The video has already been viewed over 29 million times on YouTube, shared approximately 300,000 times on Facebook and tweeted around 40,000 times on Twitter. According to various media reports, P&G spends about $10 billion annually on marketing in the US. Of this, 25-35 per cent is spent on digital.

    This percentage of digital spends will soon get somewhere near in an emerging market like India. Last year P&G’s Pantene released a digital video which was also championed by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg who showed how the same behaviour by men and women is viewed differently by the society.

    With this campaign from ‘Always’, the company is taking a step further to strike social conversations and impressions for a good change.

    Click here to watch the campaign

    We at Indiantelevision.com, asked Indian creative fraternity of the challenges of creating campaigns on the digital platform and how much did the ‘Always’ campaign touch their hearts. 

    “It is a brilliant effort“

    According to Bang in the Middle managing partner and chief creative officer Prathap Suthan this particular campaign from P&G, shows how major advertisers in the world look at the criticality and importance of the digital space. And as usual, focus is in on universal insight.

    “The fact that physical weakness is often attributed to ‘being a girl quality.’ It pries open a lot of areas. It opens up a conversation into giving girls more liberty, comfort, reality, and empowerment. It is a brilliant effort. It squashes down on the global habit of seeing a girl’s natural and general lack of brawn as deficiency. Instead, the campaign applauds the differences, caliber, mettle and a whole lot superior attributes that only women possess.”

    According Suthan the campaign hits the right chord. “It’s a truth. Every girl, woman, daughter, mother, sister, aunt etc. will relate to it and so will all the men, especially fathers. I think it radiates a lot of optimism, positivity and reinforces confidence.  #LikeAGirl is one of the most common insults and demeaning expressions that have been going around until now. It has been used to not just debase and abuse women, but also used as an expression that’s widely used to lash out at boys and men when they don’t physically and even mentally push the bar,” says Suthan.

    With #LikeAGirl now trending across the world, and with every woman synching with the thought, hopefully this will initiate and propel a movement to help women across the world gain even more confidence, stature, self-esteem and happiness mentions Suthan.  “We need that for a better, healthier and more peaceful world,” he says.  

    Origin Beanstalk co-Founder Upendra Singh Thakur thinks in India, discrimination against girls starts at birth. It is way beyond than just making fun of ‘being like a girl’. “However, keeping the affluent consumer in mind that the brand caters to and the notion of silly being associated with girls, to me the brand has definitely hit the right chord and really made us think that in many ways, jokingly, we do tend to discriminate even though we don’t realise it,” says Thakur.

    “If you are not creative on digital then it is criminal”

    Curry Nation founder Priti Nair believes in the above statement. She says, “It is not being creative that is a challenge on digital, but it is how much more creative can you be. That is the real challenge. It is not your typical 30 seconder shot on location or set. It is an audition and the audition is the advertisement.”

    “In the #LikeAGirl campaign everything lies in the music and the casting. It takes you through an emotional graph. I think it is really insightful and I love the way it is connected to the product. Most of the times you have lofty philosophical stuff floating for causes that does not really have any connection to the brand. But to connect confidence ebb and fall with puberty is excellent and also true. It is good to know that someone is thinking harder,” opines Nair.

    Infectious director Nisha Singhania has similar thoughts about the campaign. She believes, “#LikeAGirl taps into a fantastic insight on how without realising it, we create norms on how girls and boys are supposed to behave. Often I’ve heard boys being told to stop behaving ‘like a girl’ as if it was an insult.” Since most clients want the campaign to go ‘viral’ Singhania thinks they buy braver work for the digital medium. 

    “How I wish, this gets translated into different languages. Or it needs a global version with multi-cultural and multi-ethnic representation. There’s so much truth going waste otherwise,” concludes Suthan.

  • Is it right of Congress to blame Denstu?

    Is it right of Congress to blame Denstu?

    MUMBAI: It was early this year that Congress started its Rs 600 crore blitz ad campaign. The campaign started with the slogan ‘Mein Nahi, Hum’ which caught itself amidst allegations from the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) which said that the slogan was first used by Narendra Modi at a rally.

    Then came ‘Har Haath Shakti, Har Haath Tarakki.’ The campaign conceptualised by Dentsu was meant to position Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as a young and dynamic leader who could empower the common man.

    BJP’s campaign, ‘Abki Baar, Modi Sarkar’, which went on floor a few months after Congress’ communication line, portrayed Modi as the saviour who could change the game of Indian politics.

    Both the campaigns created a stir not only amongst the experts but also amongst the common man as everyone had something to say about them – good, bad or ugly.

    The D-Day, 16 May, proved which ideology and promise voters believed in. BJP came out as a clear winner, while Congress’ performance was of sheer disappointment.

    Since then, the Congress has been ‘introspecting’ to find what went wrong. However, its latest reason for the debacle is the campaign, itself. The party is now blaming the creative agency by saying that its campaign was weak.

    When we contacted Dentsu India Group executive chairman Rohit Ohri, who is travelling abroad, sent an official statement of the agency through an email.

    The statement reads, “Dentsu India was hired by the Congress party for their 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, for advertising services, after a publicly announced request for proposal by the Indian National Congress. Dentsu India bagged the mandate after a rigorous pitching process involving several iterations among top Indian agencies. While Dentsu India worked rigorously on an ad campaign as per the client’s brief with approvals at every stage, the other aspects of the campaign eco system such as PR, media relations and online strategy were not within the ambit of Dentsu’s scope of work as mandated by the client briefing. Throughout the campaign, Dentsu India enjoyed a good working relationship with the Congress party.”

    “The agency maintains the highest standards of creativity and professionalism and adheres to global standards of ethics and compliance. The agency shares cordial relationship with all its clients, and shall endeavour to maintain the same.”

    We at Indiantelevision.com, ask creative fraternity if it is right to blame the agency for the dismal performance of the political party?

    Bang in the Middle managing partner and chief creative officer Prathap Suthan

    This is a bit of a deja vu for me. Considering that some leaders in the BJP did exactly the same thing when India Shining didn’t work as a political multiplier in 2004. That aside, elections are purely won on the basis of performance. On a limited scale, one could overcome inefficiency by hyperbole and exaggerating the potential of the future.

    But this was the national elections. On the back of a long winded story of scams, misgovernance, corruption, lack of leadership, slow economy and what have you. However the campaign, for all its advertising polish and gloss, did not address issues that people wanted answered. There were no admissions. No apologies. No responsibility for incompetence.

    Instead what we saw was campaign that was divorced from the need of the hour. They pushed a campaign that presented a hollow and shallow picture of supposed happiness. More importantly, Rahul Gandhi hardly came through as an honest, well meaning, and effective leader. His own media exposure wasn’t very kind to him.

    So when you have invested in a campaign that didn’t speak what was required, and projected a story that was far away from the truth, it is bound to fail, and has obviously failed. It is absurd to blame an agency. They only delivered what they were contracted for. I am sure they advised otherwise, but ultimately the client is always right.

    It is ridiculous to imagine that the party didn’t agree to the communication. Everyone saw it and everyone approved it surely, if they didn’t agree they wouldn’t have run the campaign. The agency doesn’t and will not create and release an unapproved campaign. There are a lot of signatures that need to approve media releases. And if they have spent all that money behind a donkey in a horse race, you really can’t turn around and blame the jockey.

    Lowe Lintas & Partners NCD Arun Iyer

    One shouldn’t take too much credit if a campaign goes viral or flak if it flops. Of course, at the end of the day if a campaign doesn’t work then the agency is to be held responsible, but everyone is kept in the loop. It is a well kitted effort and everybody involved is responsible for the outcome. I don’t think what Congress is doing is right. It shouldn’t have done what they did, especially publically.

    Infectious director Nisha Singhania

    It is not fair to blame an agency if the end product fails to deliver what it promises to the consumers. The purpose of an advertising campaign is to popularise a product but if consumers’ don’t have good experience rejection is obvious. The same thought applies in this situation too. 

    Curry-Nation director Priti Nair 

    How can they blame anyone or anything for this except themselves? This goes for each and every product; if your product is bad even Santa Claus cannot help you. Agencies build a brand and make people choose so as to go and use it, so agencies help to choose. A product has to deliver on the use bit. Unfortunately here people had already experienced the product, and it had failed so miserably that no amount of brand building could resurrect it. In fact if you ask me the outdoor, the films (if that is what Dentsu did) were pretty good and looked and seemed even nicer than the BJP campaign, which looked more like the usual political campaign. Except that the BJP campaign thought was far more powerful and true. You can fool some people all the time or you can fool all people sometime but you can’t fool all the people all the time.

    Origin Bean Stalk co-founder Upendra Thakur Singh

    I personally feel that the agency can be blamed only if it, for any reason, goes totally off the brief. Not if the client and agency have been hand-in-glove while developing the communication and approving the same before release. Today’s consumer is more aware and smart and doesn’t often buy into a bad product even if the campaign is good. 

    Having said that, fingers are always pointed when the campaign doesn’t give you the desired response or when you lose. Owning to that fact that your product offering is bad is a good thing but blaming the agency for sticking to the brief and executing such a high-cost visible campaign is very unfortunate.

  • Mirchi Kaan Awards 2014 names Scarecrow as Agency of the Year

    Mirchi Kaan Awards 2014 names Scarecrow as Agency of the Year

    MUMBAI: The 11th edition of Mirchi Kaan Awards saw some of the big names of the ad and corporate world such Josy Paul, Pops, Sajan Raj Kurup, Rekha Nigam, Sunil Lulla, Sanjay Tripathi, Gaurav Seth and Sripad Nadkarni present at the awards as the winners were felicitated in front of a packed audience.

     

    Scarecrow Communications emerged as the ‘Agency of the Year’, with a total of 6 awards, including 5 Gold and 1 Bronze. JWT Mumbai bagged 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze awards. Linen- A Lintas Group Company, walked away with a total of 11 awards, including 4 silver and 7 bronze.

     

    Last year’s agency of the year, Ogilvy & Mather, bagged 2 silver and 1 bronze award. Scarecrow Communications also won the ‘Crystal Award’ and ‘Best Radio Creative of the Year – Client’s Choice’ for the Nitco Tiles radio spot captioned ‘Pinkesh’. Kapil Tammal, Manish Bhatt, Raghu Bhat and Sarvesh Raikar walked away with the ‘Radio Writer of the Year’ award.

     

    NITCO was honored with the title of ‘Client of the Year’. Sounds Good Production won ‘Excellence in Production’ while Madison Media Pinnacle won the ‘Best use of Radio as a Medium’ for Cadbury Celebrations – Songs for Sisters campaign. At a regional level, Radio Mango won 2 bronze awards.

     

    The Mirchi Kaan Awards was introduced in 2004 to celebrate creativity in the challenging field of radio advertising. The 11th edition of the awards, centered on the theme of ‘Mute the Clichés’, attracted over 250 entries from 36 agencies across 20 categories.

     

    Commenting on the success of the event, GG Jayanta, National Marketing Head, ENIL (Radio Mirchi), said, “We are extremely delighted to see the turnout of our initiative in acknowledging the potential of radio. The surge in participation is a testament to the acceptance of radio as an important medium in creative communication. This year we have opened the way for regional entries too. We hope to continue our efforts in awarding and showcasing some of the most innovative advertising campaigns on radio. We congratulate all the winners and take this occasion to thank the jury.”

     

    This year’s jury included eminent creative personalities such as Josy Paul, Prathap Suthan, Agnello Dias, Anurag Agnihotri, Priti Nair, Amit Akali, Manohar Nayak, Tista Sen, Rekha Nigam , Prateek Bharadwaj & Tapas Sen.

     

  • BJP’s campaign is dull, drab and quite ordinary: Prathap Suthan

    BJP’s campaign is dull, drab and quite ordinary: Prathap Suthan

    MUMBAI: The upcoming election is possibly the only one in a long history of five-year polls, where political parties are unabashedly using media to promote their prime ministerial candidates and agendas.

    Thus we have both the main players – the Congress and Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) – splurging crores of public money on election campaigns in a bid to outdo each other. Indeed, Congress was the first to jump into the fray with the tagline ‘Main nahi, Hum’ which attracted much controversy, what with the BJP claiming the punch line had originally been used by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at a ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Gujarat.

    However, the BJP lost no time in launching its own campaign with posters, TVCs, radio spots shouting themselves hoarse – ‘Ab ki Baar, Modi Sarkar’. The underlying message being that the common man’s woes such as inflation, lack of women’s safety etc. would be assuaged if Modi was elected for the country’s top job.

    With the political climate hotting-up this election season, both campaigns are attracting their fair share of bouquets and brickbats. But we thought it would be interesting to speak to Prathap Suthan – the man who created BJP’s earlier ‘India Shining’ campaign (2004) – and get his perspective. Excerpts…

    What do you have to say about the BJP slogan? Do you see it touching an emotional chord with urban and rural voters?

    Barring the fact that it rhymes, I don’t think it’s an inspiring slogan. It’s a mere auto suggestion as to what the voter should do. It doesn’t hold out any promise, mission and vision to people like us. It’s dull, drab and quite ordinary.

    Do you think the BJP has started too early or too late?

    The BJP campaign is at least a month late. Worse still, despite the fact they have started and bits and pieces are making their way onto social media, they have been invisible. Till yesterday, I haven’t seen their advertising in print or on TV. Anymore invisibility and they’d be sending out wrong signals to the electorate. But knowing them, and their almost strident confidence, I suspect their cause has been sabotaged by terrible media planning or a media boycott. I can’t think of any other reason why their campaign hasn’t broken out in media yet.

    Modi stands for development. Do you think the current campaign and slogan brings out this core message?

    If the Modi line of thinking has to do with progress and development, the campaign should have been a reflection of that. This is a boring campaign. I see no cues of development and young and contemporary thinking in this. Congress on the other hand, despite whatever else, has better looking advertising by far.

    What are your views on the AAP and the way they use publicity in their favour?

    I used to like the idea of AAP. But somewhere, they’ve changed into something else that they shouldn’t be.

    Considering that they don’t have the kind of media budgets that the main parties have, their public activist avatar keeps them in view. It is clever thinking because media will carry and play the de facto advertising vehicle. However, too of much of everything has a down side. You can’t be a serious national party when you pick up street fighting as a brand character. At some level, it will backfire. Leadership, and genuinely inspiring stewardship of the nation is what’s missing today, and AAP isn’t quite playing that wedge.

    One piece of advice you’d like to give to the creative and media agencies that are handling the BJP and Congress accounts?

    There is no point advising advertising agencies. I believe all of us are equally qualified and experienced to handle large campaigns. We do that day in day out, and on some very challenging focussed briefs. In this case, the client takes the call and at times, dictates. The fault, if any, doesn’t lie with the agencies. It has to squarely lie with the parties.

    Lastly, of the two parties, which is the campaign you are betting on and why?

    I think the country is loaded in favour of BJP – but they have an uninspiring campaign. One man almost looms over you. Congress, however, seems to have delivered the campaign better. It’s younger looking, modern, non-traditional, and in a strange way, more inclusive.

  • Bang in the Middle launches in Kolkata

    MUMBAI: Gurgaon-based advertising agency Bang in the Middle (Bang for short) has started its Kolkata operations from today. This is the agency‘s fourth city office in six months with one each in Gurgaon, Chicago and New York.

    Bang in the Middle expects Kolkata to become a very important market in the coming months. The agency will offer its full suite of services to the clients in Kolkata and help open up global markets.

    The new-age communication agency driven by Prathap Suthan and Naresh Gupta started in May 2012 and serves clients like Dulux, VEEN Waters, Vimal, BigFlix, Hawktrack, Fabulloso, iYogi and PRestival. Bang offers a range of services ranging from traditional ATL advertising to BTL solutions to web advertising, online marketing and digital media.

    For the Kolkata office, Bang has brought on board Meenakkshi Sen as managing partner. She is a former model and has a long association with advertising and media business. She is an inspired first time entrepreneur in the communications arena.

    Bang in the Middle managing partner and CCO Prathap Suthan said, “Kolkata has some great brands that need fresher solutions; both traditional and digital. Whether we like it or not, the world of advertising, marketing, and communication is stepping outside traditional boundaries along with the help of technology. The world is no longer limited by geography, and every market of the world is accessible and open to even local businesses through the web and online advertising. I also have the pleasure of returning back to a city that gave me great memories, beautiful opportunities, and some wonderful campaigns.”

    Sen said, “I am super excited to bring Bang in the Middle to Kolkata. Kolkata has not been getting the attention it deserves from communication companies as a whole. Barring one or two agencies, I would think Kolkata gets back handed treatment. Along with scaling up regular advertising opportunities, I believe that digital marketing also has enormous potential for the brands of Kolkata. New avenues are calling Kolkata, and we better listen to them.”

    Bang in the Middle managing partner and CSO Naresh Gupta said, “Kolkata can add significantly to our growing band of clients. We believe digital marketing solutions work very well for the growing ambitions of home growing ambitions of home grown brands today, and along with our communication expertise we can offer highly relevant brand solutions.”

  • Bang in the Middle wins Veen Waters’ communication biz

    MUMBAI: Bang in the Middle has bagged the communication duties of Veen Waters, a Finnish brand of premium bottled water.

    The water brand is sold in luxury hotels, gourmet restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

    The agency will help Veen enter newer luxury markets of Asia and also consolidate its already strong presence in European, Middle Eastern and Chinese markets.

    Bang in the Middle will henceforth be responsible for managing the brand’s health globally.

    Bang in the Middle managing partner Prathap Suthan said, “For a world thirsty for gourmet experiences, Veen is an extremely special offering. I believe that we have been very fortunate to be considered as Veen’s global communication partner. At Bang in the Middle, our focus, work and thinking aren’t going to be limited by geography, and Veen is a brand that fits our plans to brilliance.”

    “I am thrilled to find a like-minded partner in Bang in the Middle. The market for premium water is growing rapidly, and this growth is a potent opportunity for a young brand like Veen. Together with their expertise we would be looking at entering various new markets including India,” Veen Waters director Aman Gupta added.