NEW DELHI: Taco Bell has announced the launch of its new ‘Best Of Bell’ menu, which offers the fast food chain’s signature menu items at ‘surprising prices’.
Each item on the ‘Best Of Bell’ menu is priced at just Rs 59 (for vegetarian variants) and Rs 69 (for non-vegetarian variants). The brand’s endeavour through this new launch is to ‘Break Food Monotony’ by democratising Mexican cuisine and offering value to its consumers. Right from the Fiesta Taco, Burrito Roll and Mini Quesadilla, to the Mexi Wrap, Cheesy Roll-Up and Churros ‘N Chocolate dessert, the exclusive menu offers a complete variety and gives consumers a chance to try out the brand’s best offerings at never-before prices.
Building on the proposition of ‘The Best at Best Prices’, the brand has launched the #BestofBell campaign across its social media handles. Revolving around an auction that takes a bizarre turn of events, the campaign highlights Taco Bell’s delicious menu offerings at irresistible prices.
Taco Bell’s master franchise partner Burman Hospitality Private Ltd director Gaurav Burman said, “Consumers in India are known for being experimentative, especially Taco Bell fans – we believe our customers enjoy trying new flavours, and recipes. This trend has grown significantly in the last few months as we have been forced to spend most of our time at home and have been yearning to try innovative foods. Taco Bell has conducted extensive research, as a result we are delighted to introduce the ‘Best of Bell’ menu, which gives consumers the opportunity to try an array of Taco Bell favourites at unbelievably affordable prices.”
MUMBAI: Audi India has announced the appointment of BBH as its lead agency in India, handling mainline and digital work. The appointment follows a multi-agency pitch which took place towards the end of 2018.
BBH and Audi’s global partnership goes back 37 years with the brand being BBH London’s founding client in 1982. The alliance has birthed the iconic ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’, a line and ethos that is still used today and sits at the heart of every piece of communication from the brand. In 2018, BBH London won the Grand Prix at IPA Effectiveness Awards for its work on the brand.
The appointment comes as Audi looks to its next phase of growth in India and is looking to their communications strategy to help fuel that growth. With its breadth of integrated capabilities, BBH India will lead Audi’s brand communications across mainline, experiential, activations, digital and social media. A multi-channel, multi-faceted, fully integrated mandate in its truest sense that will evolve in line with Audi’s India business.
Commenting on this occasion, Audi India head Rahil Ansari said, “Audi is geared for an exciting year with a fantastic line-up of products and activities. While finding a partner, we were looking for someone that understands modern India and brings energy and disruptive thinking to the table. Audi and BBH have had a great partnership globally and the India team demonstrated a deep understanding of the local market and was able to translate that into exciting work across the consumer journey."
BBH India chief creative officer Russell Barrett added, “Audi is one of the founding clients of BBH. And the opportunity to create extraordinary stories, from the tiniest interaction to the final decision was something that genuinely excited us. We hope, along with Audi India, our bespoke, cross-functional, integrated team will help in crafting work throughout the customer journey. We look forward to a great partnership and the opportunity to bring to life the idea of progress through insightful stories and surprising technology.”
MUMBAI: This Children’s Day, BookMyShow has a special message for all parents
Conceptualised and executed by BBH India, this children’s day film beautifully addresses the stigma that many Indian parents continue to face regarding the sexual orientation of their children. In consonance with the recent Section 377 verdict, it strikes an emotional chord and urges parents to love their children for who they are, regardless of who they love.
In the light of the historic Supreme Court judgement on section 377, BookMyShow and BBH chose to play out a story of love and acceptance against the backdrop of the magic of the movies.
BookMyShow SVP of marketing and business intelligence Marzdi Kalianiwala says, “Pursuant to the recent historic verdict of decriminalisation of Section 377, we wanted to put across our perspective and what better way to portray it than through the lens of entertainment. This film is our attempt in reaching out to all parents and asking them to accept their children for who they are.”
BBH India CCO and managing partner Russell Barrett adds, “The world of entertainment is probably the most egalitarian. There are no walls and no divisions here. In fact entertainment brings people together, across geography, language, religion, sexual preference and class. We were keen to cast a real couple in the lead roles for so many reasons, the most important being, it was the right thing to do. We are so very proud to partner a brave, aware and modern brand like BookMyShow in this initiative and hope to do much more going forward.”
MUMBAI: Acko, India’s first online-led independent general insurance company, has launched its latest campaign – #PaisaVasoolInsurance.
The campaign conceptualised and executed by BBH is aimed to break through a category cluttered with melodramatic communication, with a fresh voice full of wit and humour.
Founded by Varun Dua, Acko is a third-generation insurance company aimed at making insurance effortless. With is its digital-first interface, Acko is ushering in a new age of Insurance in India. Acko had raised a record seed round of $30 million from some of the marquee investors. More recently, in May 2018, the company raised $12 million in a new round of funding led by e-commerce giant Amazon.
#PaisaVasoolInsurance
The campaign draws from the insight that while purchasing insurance, people look for a product that provides value for every buck they spend. Acko’s consumer-centric offering at value for money prices along with a completely digital interface and hassle-free claims fills this market gap. The film’s hilarious storyline highlights this.
Acko general insurance founder and CEO Varun Dua says, “Consumers today choose auto insurance mainly based on pricing followed by quality of service. We are able to offer disruptive prices to the consumers due to the possibility of distribution & underwriting efficiencies in the lean digital model. We also offer 3 days claim guarantee along with doorstep pick and drop facility.”
Acko business head Jagjeet Harode adds, “We have taken a quirky route to stand out amongst other Ads and establish the “paisa vasool” proposition of Acko. This is the first time in India, an insurance company has taken value for money positioning and the idea of the campaign is to encourage consumers to check out car and bike insurance prices on the Acko website before making the decision.”
BBH chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett mentions, “Acko is a disruptive product in a fairly standardized category. While the “paisa vasool” message is not new in the world of advertising, we needed the work to be as disruptive as possible without losing simplicity or compromising the codes of the category. We have had great fun working on this brand and when that happens, it shows in the work too.”
MUMBAI: Creativity sometimes takes inspiration from past creatives but what if it is an entirely copied one? Plagiarism (or inspiration), is a never-ending burning issue in the advertising world. A little similarity can be overlooked but complete knockoffs are just astonishing.
Information sharing on the internet has led to rampant plagiarism. In the garb of creativity, sometimes, knowingly or unknowingly, ideas tend to be entirely copied.
Plagiarism with ads is much more difficult to pinpoint compared to a music piece or a film narrative, purely owing to the shorter format of the medium. Accepting that this does happen, The Glitch senior creative director Sunetro Lahiri admits that he has personally been part of campaigns where the main thought had to be tweaked in the event of another brand (that too, from a totally different category!) having launched a campaign with the exact thought. He affirms, “It does happen and that’s why it’s more about ethics than rules. We see elements of different auteurs in the work of a lot of current film-makers. Just the way you can’t label it plagiarism, there’s a larger grey area in advertising too.”
Without naming any brands Grapes Digital COO Shradha Agarwal brings up that there are times that a client shares references to create a new piece of communication. After multiple rounds of changes and iterations, it becomes less of an inspiration and more of a ‘copy’. This is another reason why sometimes a creative agency, without the intention of copying, might actually end up copying a current campaign from an ‘inspirational’ campaign.
Lesser known local brands tend to ape their famous counterparts. It was only last year when a 2015 ad for Wagh Bakri Tea conceptualised by Scarecrow Communications was plagiarised by a local Gujarati tea brand, Jay Jawan Tea. The local brand not only copied the entire ad but smartly replaced Wagh Bakri shots with its own product placement.
Wagh Bakri ad:
Jay Jawan ad:
Recalling an old incident, Happy mcgarrybowen senior creative director Naren Kaushik read about a bike, named Gulsar, which was a rip off of Pulsar. He says that maybe years ago when internet didn’t make everything news, it was just easier to use existing ideas for which people would have spent time and money, and just rip them off as is. In today’s context, Jai Jawan gets their share of eyeballs very quickly. Now we all know such a brand exists.
While there is no way to stop it and brands often just send a legal notice to the other party, maybe there is a need to have more stringent rules to keep a tab on plagiarism.
Our experts view on this:
BBH chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett:
The people who do that should be ignored. It’s the best punishment. It’s a vile habit that untalented poseurs have resorted to through the centuries. The best thing is for them to be forgotten and ignored. By their peers and their audience. The argument should not be about copied versus unique. Show me what you think is a unique idea and I will show you another one that is somewhat similar. The drive should be for freshness. Why is this idea different? Why should it exist in a new form? What’s fresh about it?
Happy mcgarrybowen senior creative director Naren Kaushik:
Needless to say, yes. A regulatory system for any big industry is important. There will always be me-toos bordering on illegal. If we walk around our own neighbourhood, how many salons do we see with actors’ and actresses’ pictures all over them? Surely they haven’t paid for endorsement. Even smaller and local fashion outlets use celebrities of all sorts. There’s no real way to keep track of who is copying who and where. We have also seen billboards when we drive out to smaller towns where some or other ad has been ripped off. It is very difficult to keep a track of this. But when it does come to someone’s notice, there should be some action that we can take. The trouble, though, is that this is a sketchy process right now. We don’t have a system to ensure quick results and more often than not, the petitioners end up losing time and money. That is a huge deterrent. If there’s a ‘regulatory body’ that can help fast-track this, more agencies will be encouraged to take their case up.
The Glitch senior creative director Sunetro Lahiri:
Ideally, it should. If various forms of media are protected, why should this field be left out? The lack of legal action stems from the lack of belief that there will be a possible resolution. Also, as a rule, as mentioned in the question, agencies and brands aren’t even aware of the said creative.
Grapes Digital COO Shradha Agarwal:
There are a lot of copyright laws that exist which are meant to safeguard the interests of advertisers from ones that are out to steal. But sometimes they are not enough as has been proven time after time. Things, like muting the audio or taking the entire video down, are currently practised on multiple social platforms as a good way to minimise copyright infringement. So yes, perhaps a regulatory body can help minimise the damage that this sort of plagiarism can cause. If the entire advertising community comes together as one and penalise the one that is stealing work from one of their own, it can definitely serve as a step in the right direction.
White Rivers Media co-founder and CEO Shrenik Gandhi:
Honestly, it is too small a problem for a regulatory body to be formed for. These are marketing techniques used by smaller brands to influence a smaller audience. So this has to be solved at a smaller level itself. And I don’t think at this moment there’s a need for a regulatory body to guide on this particular issue. There are much bigger issues the industry is facing and if a regulatory body exists, they should focus on those.
While copying someone’s creative is a pertinent issue that needs to be looked at, maybe AAAI, ASCI (The Advertising Standards Council of India) and other regulatory bodies should come together to fight against this. If not, let us just leave ideas to breed other ideas just like this ad where oil brand, Sunny Lite filed a complaint with ASCI against the Aashirvaad Atta brand over a TVC where Sunny Lite claimed that the ad bears a striking similarity to its advertisement.
MUMBAI: BookMyShow has launched an ad celebrating Independence Day with Akshay Kumar starrer Gold which covers Balbir Singh’s triumphant journey that helped India to win the first ever gold medal for hockey at the Olympics.
BookMyShow marketing and business intelligence SVP Marzdi Kalianiwala said,“Consumers are usually flooded with offer advertisements during holidays and the festive season, and we thought to have a light-hearted take on the situation with our latest film. Even in the case of our past films, the objective was always to be highly relevant and get inspired directly from conversations that take place all around. We hope the audiences will love the subtle use of humour in this particular digital film.”
BBH chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett added, ”Go to where the people are. It’s that simple. With our advertising for BookMyShow, we’ve been able to tap into conversations that people are interested in rather than force a completely new conversation on the audience. Gold is a brilliant film about India’s first gold medal as a free country at the Olympics.”
“The movie releases close to Independence Day, when the airwaves and newspapers will be filled with ‘freedom sales’ and brands exhorting us to ‘stand’ for something. We just felt it was a great opportunity to capitalise on and we hope the audience enjoys the ad enough to go book a ticket on BookMyShow,” he added.
BookMyShow has also released a humorous take on the plethora of discount and promotion led advertisements that usually release around Independence Day.
MUMBAI: Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) – the leading global brewer has appointed BBH as the creative agency for its new brand Beck’s Ice. An integrated mandate, BBH will also be responsible for social media marketing.
Part of AB InBev family, Beck’s is renowned for its uncompromising quality by consumers in over 85 countries. With 100 per cent pure malt liquid that delivers a refreshing taste, Beck’s Ice is inspired by its German heritage from 1873 that is sure to appeal to unisex consumers.
The brand also launched its maiden campaign in the country this month. The campaign, conceptualised and executed by BBH, derives from the cultural insight that Indian millennials are constantly on the lookout for new experiences to escape the monotony and pressures of urban life. Beck’s Ice with its uncompromising quality offers just this – a world of pure & unmitigated fun that one can enjoy with friends.
AB InBev marketing director for India Kartikeya Sharma says, “We are glad to appoint BBH as our creative agency for Beck’s Ice in India. BBH had a thorough understanding of our market requirements giving us the confidence to award them the mandate. BBH partnered us in finding a unique positioning for the brand, which is much differentiated in its category and resonates with young millennials, our key TA. We are getting a good early response and we hope the momentum will carry forward with all creative assets going live.”
BBH chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett adds, “Working on Beck’s Ice has been an exciting journey. From the way we were briefed (at a golf course) to the very first presentation, the entire process has been wildly exciting. The creative team, led by Sapna and Yohan, along with Akash Bhatia, the director, have created a beautiful film that makes you feel the tension of everyday life and the release that a break in the mountains brings. The film exhorts you to escape the everyday, to the purity, of the mountains where time and stresses are put in their place. You can’t help but agree with that message.”
MUMBAI: Behrouz Biryani, the largest biryani brand in the country with its rich Persian heritage, has launched its first ad campaign.
Crafted by BBH India, the film takes you through a gastronomical journey tracing the origins of biryani. This is the brand’s first integrated campaign extending across digital, print, outdoor and radio.
Sharp visuals, delectable food shots infused with veteran actor Raza Murad’s voice ignite the screen to bring alive the story of this Persian inspired biryani. The film has been directed by popular ad film director, DoP and special FX expert Nick Sawyer best known for his work on international food brands.
FAASOS (Faasos, Behrouz, Ovenstory, Mandarin Oak, Firangi Bake, Sweet Truth & more )CMO Sagar Kochhar says, “We are extremely delighted to launch our first ad campaign and this is an important milestone in our journey towards being the ‘Royal’ Biryani of the country. This film pivots around the brand story that we created since our inception, a 2000 year old recipe from the lost Persian kingdom of Behrouz, where wars were fought to win this recipe. Being a digital only premium brand with no physical/dine in presence, the campaign is targeted to create brand awareness highlighting its alluring Persian brand persona and a recipe worth indulging when you think of not just ordering a biryani, but actually experiencing finesse.”
According to Behrouz’s market research, Biryani is the highest searched and the most ordered dish in India. However, there is no single organized Biryani player with the ability to give a superior and consistent product to the consumer across the country.
Moreover, with the food industry moving to online ordering from dine-ins, Behrouz has setup a network of 160 cloud kitchens to cater to a large geography at a reasonable cost.
BBH CCO and managing partner Russell Barrett adds, “We’ve quite willingly done a lot of research on biryanis. A lot of research. The idea of an origin story for something as ubiquitous as biryani is a story waiting to be told. The film is beautifully crafted and besides taking you on a fantastic journey through time, it makes you want to order a biryani; an impulse which you should absolutely give in to when it comes to Behrouz.”
Incorporated in 2016, Behrouz Biryani is the first and largest Biryani brand in the country. With presence in 15 cities across 160 locations, Behrouz is the first every organised player in this segment in the country. The brand has no physical store-front and works on a dark kitchen-delivery only model.
MUMBAI: The Diamond Producers Association (DPA), an international alliance of the world’s leading diamond mining companies, has launched its second film as a part of their integrated marketing campaign ‘Real is Rare. Real is a Diamond’.
The film titled ‘Sneaking Out’ is conceptualised and created by BBH India, with the intention of celebrating the rare moments among couples with a diamond.
Extensive research conducted by DPA in partnership with BBH highlights that couples believe there are moments of bonding apart from anniversaries and birthdays which actually form the foundation of their relationship. However, these moments, unique and rare to each couple, go unrecognised in the journey of a relationship.
Sharing her thoughts on the launch, Diamond Producers Association managing director of India Richa Singh says, “There are lot of defining moments that make this journey unique and precious and we wanted diamonds to symbolise the successful transformation of the partnership by making them equals. The second TVC brings to light another real life example of such a moment.”
Commenting on the experience of creating the campaign film, BBH India chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett mentions, “In many cases, especially with arranged marriages, couples first get married and sometime after, actually fall in love. We’ve tried to recreate an intimate moment in the lives of such a couple. A moment of epiphany when they realise that what they have is special, rare and authentic. No jewellery boxes being whipped out, no jaws dropping, none of the clichés of the category. “
The ‘Real is Rare’ platform aims to connect with the younger generation in a personal and emotionally relevant way, while emphasising that diamonds are a symbolic expression of commitment to a relationship.
The second TVC is a part of the larger ongoing campaign that marked the first ever category marketing initiative for diamonds globally. The campaign has been launched through an integrated marketing communications mix of TV, cinema, digital, PR, mobile and social media. The DPA will also be engaging with the entire diamond and jewellery community to bring this to life.
MUMBAI: Online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow is back with a television commercial, especially targeted at Hindi speaking markets, just in time with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer Tiger Zinda Hai hitting theatres last week.
The 40-second ad film takes a slice from reality and wonderfully brings alive that feeling of disappointment when a person so willingly walks up to the box office cinema hall only to be told that the shows are houseful or only the front seats are available. It shows the distress of a person to resort to information gathered through hearsay to make himself seem pretentiously involved in the discussions surrounding a movie. The film ends with a simple solution to this common problem- just book your tickets on BookMyShow.
With this ad film, conceptualised by BBH India, BookMyShow effortlessly describes how it feels to be left out when you haven’t seen a film and others around you have. BookMyShow arrived at the insight after a detailed consumer research conducted with India’s leading research and measurement company Nielsen India.
The TVC also has a shorter edit and will be supported by digital campaigns in select markets.
BookMyShow VP of marketing and business intelligence Marzdi Kalianiwala says,“When we decided to use television as a medium to bring on board new users on BookMyShow, we wanted to come up with a simple film that would resonate with many of us. Conceptualised by BBH India, our ad film has been specifically timed with the release of Tiger Zinda Hai to capture the hype and existing awareness and excitement around the film.”
“We are confident that viewers will find the film’s honesty very reassuring and comforting when they see that they are not the only ones to feel left out when they haven’t seen a film and that more importantly, there is a solution to this problem- BookMyShow,” he adds.
BBH India chief creative officer and managing partner Russell Barrett mentions, “We have to thank BookMyShow for a clear, sharp and definite brief. The feeling of missing out in life is universal, it’s instinctive and in a world where new things trend every 15 minutes, it’s also more relevant now than ever. We have managed to tell a fun story in a memorable, modern and stark way. As a brand that lives in the world of entertainment, an ad for Book My Show, must also be, first and foremost, entertaining as well. This film, conceived of and written by Sapna and Yohan is simple, funny and celebrates both the fans and the movie really very well.”
