The Best Of OgilvyOne Delhi

The World’s Largest Space Invaders Game

2011-11-19T01:52:00.001-08:00

Check out the Chelsea Football Club team members playing the world’s biggest space invaders game in real life. This real motion gaming technology combines everything we love about 3D projection mapping with ultrasonic motion sensors and other various technical elements to create a physical gaming experience. Now who wouldn’t want to play this?

Real Motion Gaming Technology: Chelsea Football Club from Scott Ashton on Vimeo.

Opel Movano: The 2GB Banner Campaign

2011-11-19T01:39:00.001-08:00

Here is a great banner from Opel to showcase the utility potential of the new Opel Movano van.The banner literally carries your files across the web to your chosen recipient, and to demonstrate the carrying potential of this van, it allows you to transfer up files up to 2GB in size right through the banner! Ok, so in reality this isn’t as much a utility as a stunt, but it’s a good one, and in less than a month, the banners carried almost 6,000 files!

Google: The Online Checkout In Real Life

2011-11-19T01:28:00.001-08:00

Ever wondered what some of those annoying checkout experiences online would actually be like in real life? Well, here is Google’s take on them. A satirical 2 minute video highlighting just how important getting the checkout experience right actually is.

Volkswagen: The Fanwagen

2011-11-19T01:15:00.001-08:00

Choose, Build, and drive away with it… This is the tagline of a new campaign, called “the Fanwagen”. Volkswagen the Netherlands invites its fans to vote for their all-time favorite model. As a reward, it rebuilds this model in a one of a kind edition: the Fanwagen.

Whether they vote for the classic van the T1 or the Beetle, the winning car will be equipped with a myriad of features that avid Facebook users will instantly recognize, making it the most social car ever.

For instance, the Feed-O-Matic allows users to print their friends latest status updates, straight from the dashboard. The gearstick is shaped as the most recognizable Facebook icon: the Like. The Friend finder, a map with all your friends hometowns plotted on it and so on…

National Geographic: Live Augmented Reality

2011-11-19T01:08:00.001-08:00

There is a pretty cool National Geographic road show touring shopping centres in Hungary right now, an augmented reality installation that lets the thousands of people passing by interact with the type of content they would find on the National Geographic channel, from dolphins and dinosaurs to leopards, spacemen and lots more.

It works by placing a huge digital screen and high-powered camera in front of an AR marker that is stuck to the ground. As people step onto the marker, the content comes alive on the big screen in front of them. A neat little trick here was having what looked like a park ranger (or something!) who was there to help people interact with the augmented reality content and make the whole installation a little more interesting. Created by the guys at AppShaker.

ASICS: Race This Ad Installation

2011-11-18T22:37:00.001-08:00

Here’s a great experiential execution from ASICS to coincide with their sponsorship of the ING New York City Marathon. ASICS installed a 60-foot video wall at the Columbus Circle subway station and challenged passersby to race against Ryan Hall, U.S marathon runner. Luckily no injuries were caused as people raced against the video of Ryan, and few people could keep up with his 6ft 10 stride length and 4:46 mile pace. Ryan even turned up to race against himself.

JCPenney: Voice Message QR Code Gift Tags

2011-11-18T22:17:00.001-08:00

What a cool way of using QR Codes. JCPenney’s new “Who’s Your Santa” campaign has a QR code extension for 2011, where everyone who buys a gift for Xmas will receive a unique QR code Gift Tag or “Santa Tag” … That QR code allows the gift giver to scan and record a personalised voice message for the recipient… Once they are done, just stick the QR code Santa Tag on the present and you’re done! It’s actually a pretty innovative way to utilise QR codes, particurally in such a personalised way, and for me, this is a super smart experiment for JCPenney. Finally i see a nice use of QR codes.

Ultimat Vodka: Social Life Audit Facebook App

2011-11-18T22:12:00.001-08:00

Here’s a Facebook app that analyses your actual social life rather than your online social life. Polish vodka brand Ultimat (No, that’s not a typo!) worked with developer StinkDigital to create The Social Life Audit. Once you allow access the app aggregates a vast amount of your details to create an infographic style audit of your social life, including use of photos and check-ins. It then takes this info and calculates a score based on categories including gender ratio, average mood, and social status updates. Users can then share and compare their results with their social network, the app also features a leaderboard of nationwide top scorers.

As long as you can get past being told that you have “failed the social life audit” then this app is pretty interesting. It's time Indian brands tried something like this.

Sony Ericsson Xperiments Case Study

2011-06-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

Check out this case study from Sony Ericsson Australia. To launch their new range of Xperia smartphones they decided to embrace social media and create something engaging for their audience. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties in the past there was some pretty bad brand sentiment on their Facebook page. To overcome this Iris Sydney created a live online experiment “Xperia Social Xperiments” with comedian, Tommy Little, locked in a room, with just his Xperia and a live video link. Over 8 hours, Tommy had to get as many people as he could to like him on Facebook. By doing whatever it was they asked him.

Sony Ericsson Xperiments case study from Iris Sydney on Vimeo.

BMW 1M vs Concrete Walls Viral Video

2011-06-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

How many times do you hear “I want my video to go viral”. To make this happen you have to create content that is pretty innovative, exciting and cool so that your audience will want to share. Well here’s the kind of video that ticks all those boxes. BWM Canada have released this “BMW 1M Vs Concrete Walls” video which has had over 300,000 views (at time of writing) in a few short days. It became the number one worldwide auto video on YouTube after just 2 days.

“Singles Finder” App for Zonacitas.com

2011-06-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Ogilvy Argentina have created this ‘Singles Finders’ app for Zonacitas.com. Developed in Buenos Aires under the tagline “Love is out there. If we get organised, there’s plenty for all”, Ogilvy Interactive launched “Singles Finder”, an app to assist single people with finding the perfect date.

“Singles Finder” is a free Smartphone App accessible from the iTunes Store that tells users the exact amount of single people in each location. Aimed at giving single people the chance to find out where the most single people are before they enter the club or bar.

What do you think of this idea?

Facebook and Twitter in Real Life: Video

2011-06-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

This is a great video that takes Facebook and Twitter and puts them into the real world, acting out everything that you would do on those networks. Whether it’s a ‘Like’ or a ‘Follow’, it’s all included here. It’s a fun way to showcase how odd our online behaviour can seem when it’s taken out of context. This video is part a viral campaign to advertise a new opera called Two Boys, by Nico Muhly, which premiers in London on 24th June and centres around how strange our online lives can be. Do you “Like” it?

Sony Pictures’s DVD Amnesty: Case Study

2011-06-19T22:35:00.000-07:00

Sony Pictures were looking for a way to encourage people to update their movie collection and buy new DVDs, a hard job in a dying market. Iris, Sydney came up with a fun solution with ‘The Great DVD Amnesty’, people could trade in their old, unwanted DVDs and get $5 cash back, thus freeing up space in their DVD collection.

DVD Amnesty Cyber case study from Iris Sydney on Vimeo.

Burger King: The “Whopper Lust” Challenge

2011-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

Here is another Burger King challenge… Love them. This time it’s in the form of a seemingly endless interactive TV ad, actually, its an entire dedicated TV channel on Direct TV, channel 111, and will be airing until the end of this week, giving away an unlimited number of Whoppers! All you have to do is tune in and activate the Whopper Lust challenge… You’ll see a 5 minute countdown. Just watch the perfectly flame grilled burger spin for a ridiculous 5 minutes and you get a free burger, watch it for 10 minutes and you get two, 20 minutes and you get four… it’s endless!

But, you have to stay on top of it. The TV prompts you to hit various buttons on your remote every so often, miss one, the clock re-starts, and you loose that burger! Complete the challenge and you can claim the free burger right there on the TV. So simple, but so powerfully engaging! Burger King have already given away over 50,000 burgers this week, and at this rate, by the end of the week, over 800,000 minutes or 13,500 hours of pure Whopper TV will have been watched! Love it. Another great idea by CP+B for Burger King.

Diesel: The Facebook Spreadsheet App

2011-06-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest digital campaign from Diesel, it’s called “Be Stupid At Work” and is centred around a desktop application called the “Excellbook”. Weird right? Well, it’s pure genius actually. Diesel’s Excellbook becomes your entire Facebook stream, it just happens to have been fed into an Adobe Air App that looks like a spreadsheet, meaning your boss might just not notice you posting status updates and using FB chat while hard at work!

I really love this concept, it leverage’s a desire millions of office workers have to access Facebook secretly at work, and if pushed well, should generate some buzz pretty quickly. You can configure the spreadsheet text as you wish to make it more relevant, but unfortunately it just doesn’t scale to widescreen size, and I just wonder how much traction it will actually get in the corporate world with all those IT restrictions… What do you think? Will it actually be downloaded?

Diesel: Be Stupid At Work "Facebook Spreadsheet App" from Digital Buzz on Vimeo.

Nike+ Graffiti Challenge Case Study

2011-06-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice campaign for Nike Running out of Amsterdam, leveraging the Nike+ mobile app in conjunction with a very cool Facebook app, designed to get youngsters back into running.

After identifying that youngsters think running is boring, Nike set out to make it a little more fun and socially rewarding. So they created a campaign called Nike Take Mokum, a social challenge that lets runners draw creative running routes over satellite maps through a Facebook app, before sending out challenges to friends to help complete them in the real world, through the Nike+ running app.

As the teams of friends ran the actual routes, they turned into cool graffiti looking pieces of art on the Facebook app. The campaign looks to have been a solid success, with the page putting on just over 9,000 fans, having 220 unique runs created, with over 1,200 Nike+ km’s run during the 6 week campaign. The campaign was created by Boondoggle Amsterdam.

YouTube Interactive Music Machine

2011-05-27T03:54:00.000-07:00

This is a Cannes Lions creative challenge “YouTube Good Work” entry and is a really innovative ideas being developed to help such a good cause.

This interactive YouTube video was developed in repose to a brief from Education Through Music-LA (ETM-LA) as part of this years’ Cannes Lions creative challenge. They asked for an innovative, modern video to inspire new audiences to get passionate about keeping music and arts in school for every child. ETM-LA works to bring instruments into the hands of kids to ensure that music is part of their learning and development. In a simple way this YouTube video lets anyone and everyone creative music. Using existing Youtube functionality, this video hands the controls over to the viewer and allows them to make their very own music track. Your keyboard becomes the controller, with keys 2 to 8 triggering different sounds. Very cool.

UNICEF: Donate A Word Campaign

2011-05-27T03:46:00.000-07:00

It looks like the Miami Ad School is producing some great talent of late, and here is another nice conceptual piece from current students Lisa Zeitlhuber and Katharina Schmitt, designed to create a new way to donate money for child education.

It’s the “Donate A Word” campaign for UNICEF that utilises the spelling feature inside Google Chrome to trigger donation prompts. With each miss-spelt word adding a “Donate This Word To UNICEF” option when users right-click the red underline to amend spelling mistakes…

After taking you through a donation process, that word appears on a globally aggregated “EDUCATION” statement filled by the worlds most commonly miss-spelt words, directly helping to fund education for kids in need. What a great concept, if that was to be introduced directly into Google tools, that page would need to be a whole lot bigger!

Stockholm: The Homeless Banner Campaign

2011-05-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a neat little case study for Stadsmission, a small charity dedicated to helping the homeless in Stockholm. The “Homeless Banners” campaign was based around a blank, homeless banner with no website to live, a banner that has been re-sized, and waiting for a home…

When users got to the micro-site, they were promoted to copy the embed code, and paste it onto their own website, essentially giving the banner a place to live. The longer it was embedded and the more that it was interacted with, the brighter the banner became, helping to drive donations and further emergency banner housing to help spread the word…

After just a month, there were over 400 websites hosting the homeless banners, generating 36 million impressions, and tripling donations… A great little idea! Created by the guys at Garbergs.

Homeless Banners from Garbergs on Vimeo.

Turkcell Twitter Campaign: #Turkcell

2011-05-27T03:32:00.000-07:00

This is a great campaign for Turkcell who were looking to promote their new smart phones bundled with mobile internet. Turkcell’s agency, Rabarba from İstanbul, developed a campaign that would be a great fit for their target market. In order to attract heavy internet users, who tend to avoid online advertising, they created a unique live competition through Twitter.

The campaign featured the smartphone, which was packed in gift boxes and covered with post-its. Players had to tweet what was written on the post-its to unwrap the boxes, using the hashtag#turkcell. Along the way contestants could take part in games, such as Pictionary, Trivia and word puzzles winning minutes and mobile data. The final challenge was to get a celebrity to retweet the message – winning the successful Twitter user a phone. The campaign was live for 3 hours a day over 7 days and generated 56,734 tweets.

Red Cross Miles: Social Donation Concept

2011-05-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice little concept for Red Cross by a few students from the Miami Ad School in Europe. Instead of asking people to donate money the students came up with a concept whereby people could donate their air miles to transport Red Cross staff, therefore reducing the cost of aid.

By adding a “Donate your miles” button to flight booking websites people can donate their unwanted or unused air miles instead of donating money. This donation would lead to the Red Cross microsite where users can log in with their Twitter or Facebook account to track and share their donation and encourage friends to do the same. This is a simple but effective way of encouraging donations. Keep the great work coming guys!

Mobile controlled Banner Game

2011-02-25T01:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a pretty innovative banner ad from the guys at AlmapBBDO in Brazil for Gol Airlines. The banner ad challenged people to think about what it would be like to fly on your mobile phone. So users input their mobile number into the banner, seconds later they got a live call with flight instructions as the page transformed into a flying game controlled directly from your mobile.

Users would fly the virtual plane across Brazil’s biggest travel website, throwing in a few tricks as the latest deals appeared with each destination they flew over. Flying was pretty easy, users touched numbers on the keypad to change directions and activate special manoeuvres. The ad finished by reminding customers that flying is easier when you check-in via your mobile phone.

Gol Airlines - Mobile Check in from AlmapBBDO Internet on Vimeo.

Virtual Footwear Wall from Adidas

2011-02-25T01:25:00.000-08:00

Adidas have created an in-store digital experience to showcase their 8,000+ shoe range. It can be deployed to allow almost any retailer to sell the entire Adidas product range without having to be a flagship store in a major city, which is a huge win for all sorts of retailers big and small.

The experience is defined by a large footwear wall, made of multiple LCD touch screens that use facial recognition to detect a customers gender on approach to the wall. The adiVerse virtual footwear wall then customises the product experience for that gender, and helps guide them to the perfect shoe, or alternatively, let’s them browse the entire range of products, with each rendered in real-time 3D (hence the Intel partnership).

The most popular products get the full content play, with videos, game stats, product specs and even twitter feeds fed through to the customer. Customers can even add product into their virtual cart, and check out via an iPad that sales staff would hold, paying with credit card or cash.

While there are a few things left to be desired with the adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall, its a great step in the right direction that helps blur the line between instore and online experiences.

Crush Hour

2011-02-25T01:10:00.000-08:00

Here is an experiential campaign that is a little different… Ogilvy Paris set out to drive acquisition for Europcar’s Auto Liberte, a service that aims to have you renting cars instead of buying them. So, they devised a “punked” style prank that towed unsuspecting people’s cars away, replacing them with crushed cube cars, and a number to call for help… That phone number, just happened to be a radio station who were broadcasting live to everyone in Paris… Slightly different. Very cool.

Twitter Race

2011-02-25T00:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race … Jump onto the Facebook page, pick your team to tweet for and get ready to help power these cars to the finish line. The more positive tweets received, the more power the car gets, which shouldn’t be a problem for any of the teams, as they each have a celebrity coach with over 1 million followers to help get the word out.

Honda shows you how to grab characters from the TV onto your iPhone

2011-02-25T00:50:00.000-08:00

Honda has just unveiled an interactive TV campaign called “This Unpredictable Life” to launch the new Honda Jazz, and with that, an iPhone app that allows you to literally grab content from the ad as it plays. Cool isn't it? well, read on.

The campaign was created by W+K London and uses whats called “screen hopping” that works by having sound from the TV ad recgonised by the iPhone App, so when pre defined sound waves are read, the app knows to display the same character that was on screen at that moment, essentially giving you the ability to interact with the TV ad in real time.

Screen hopping takes this a little further though, once you’ve got the character, you can interact separately with each one away from the TV ad, by doing things like singing into the iPhone to make characters dance.

See how organizations are using social gaming

2011-02-25T00:05:00.000-08:00

Standard Chartered Bank embraced social media with a campaign in the United Arab Emirates. In order cut through the clutter of Ramadan advertising they turned to Facebook to create an engaging and interactive campaign.
The Idea is based around the traditional ‘Majlis’ (Ramadan tent) where family and friends gather during this time. My Majlis is a Facebook game that replicates the experience and social aspects of the real life place in a virtual setting.
Fans are able to create their own ‘Majlis’ or tent, purchase furniture, decorate and invite guests to visit, all using Standard Chartered credit cards. Each of these steps have been designed to optimise Facebook’s share features to increase the potential reach of the campaign.
In just 4 weeks, more than 15,277 fans played My Majlis, on average spending over 7 minutes per visit playing the game. This campaign has demonstrated that Standard Chartered Bank are willing to step away from traditional marketing and offer a more engaging experience for their audience. Hope the credit card companies in India are listening or reading this.

Influencers: How Trends Become Contagious

2010-11-19T23:24:00.000-08:00

This is a really nice short film from R+I Creative that documents how trends and creativity can become contagious in the real world. From music to fashion and entertainment to advertising. The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential and all without taking a statistical or metric approach! The film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives who are shaping today’s pop culture.

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

Toyota Auris: 3D Projection Mapping On the Car!

2010-11-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

Here is a really innovative piece for the new Toyota Auris Hybrid. Instead of the usual 3D projection mapping onto a building, here it was projected directly onto a real Toyota Auris, with no less that 7 projectors helping to give a true 3D, 360 degree projection mapping experience on all sides of the car, so you could actually walk around and experience the visuals from any angle. check out the campaign site here.

How Marketers Use Social In 2010

2010-11-19T23:01:00.000-08:00

The report from flowtown takes us through how long brands and businesses have been involved in social media, how much time they invest each week, are they outsourcing and what are they getting out of social. Hoping to find something similar from an Indian perspective ...

Social Gaming Comes of Age

2010-11-19T22:57:00.000-08:00

Here is what could just be a look at where the future of social gaming is headed, called I Am Playr, it’s a football based game created by We R Interactive.

I Am Playr combines a unique mix of online gaming, social integration, interactive videos and story telling through a pretty cool looking first person perspective. The idea is to give players to chance to experience being a football star from that first person perspective, that would include everything from signing the contract, training, scoring goals, partying and more… all with the aim of building up your player value on a global leaderboard.

It launches to private beta in December, and already has Nike as it’s major integrated sponsor. This is what the future of social gaming probably looks like ...

A Message from my Arse

2010-10-14T04:13:00.000-07:00

This video has been made for WaterAid as a part of the YouTube Cannes Young Lion Ad Contest. Sign the petition at www.wateraid.org/drop

Pringles: Can Hands Banner

2010-10-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting winner at Cannes 2009 in the Cyber Lions. A banner so simple that you can’t help but to continually interact with it’s cheeky lines of text. How many times did you click? This banner would have got the brand engagement tick many times over, even if it wasn’t exactly exciting. Check out the banner here. It was created by Bridge Worldwide.

NZ Army: YouTube Sharpshooter Game

2010-10-08T07:58:00.000-07:00

It's really exciting to see what brands and agencies are doing with their YouTube channels of late, and this new campaign out for the New Zealand Army (created by Saatchi & Saatchi NZ) is right on the money in terms of platform engagement and experience. The team created a Sharpshooter game that challenges you to “Get What It Takes” through a series of shooting range missions that get increasingly harder and ridiculously addictive. I’m up to level 10 and pretty sure I’ll have to give up in a few mintues or I might just be playing this thing all night…!

Once you’ve completed the game, you’ll be able to explore a number of webisodes detailing fast tracked army training to show potential recruits just what it takes to become a soldier in the NZ Army.Click here to check out the campaigns site on YouTube.

AXA: When Print Ads got converted to iAds

2010-10-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

This was a really cool way to engage an audience from a print ad. AXA Insurance in Belgium recently released an iPhone app designed to help people in the event of an accident, and to get their customers attention, they decided to launch it in an innovative kind of way. They bought traditional full page print ads, but combined with with a digital twist by mapping out a space to place your iPhone. Once you’ve got the iPhone into position and typed in the address the add came to life.

The Talking Tree: Social Nature

2010-10-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered what a tree might say, then this social experiment might just answer all your questions! EOS Magazine decided to hook up a 100 year old tree, living on the edge of Brussels, to a dust meter, ozone meter, light meter, weatherstation, webcam and microphone in the attempt to convert the tree’s feelings into human words!

A custom app takes live data and converts that through a number of algorithms into thoughts, feelings and comments through the eyes of the tree. Those comments have been synced live to Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and Facebook among other things…

The tree already has over 6,000 fans on Facebook. Don’t forget to check out the site here.

Talking Tree - Making of from Tom on Vimeo.

WWF: Augmented Reality Tiger Shirt

2010-10-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

This is a great piece of Augmented Reality for WWF aimed at raising awareness around the plight of the siberian tiger, created by Leo Burnett Moscow. WWF printed thousands of tiger t-shirts and distributed them online and to key stores in Moscow featuring specially placed AR video mirrors that would instantly active the AR experience the moment a tiger t-shirt was detected. And at that moment, the experience became quite graphical to anyone wearing the shirt, complete with bullet wounds, huge amounts of blood and sound effects to match… This is a great example of AR working seamlessly into campaigns.

Orange: Singing Tweetagrams!

2010-10-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

One thinks twitter and thinks "Boring". Micro-blogging? What can you possibly do with that? How can that be so interesting. Check out how Orange used twitter in an interesting manner to spread messages or should i say tweets. The concept works around creating a singing tweetagram where users can send personalised singing tweetagrams by finishing any tweet with #singingtweetagram. They are selecting the best ones in real time, shipping them into the studio and sending back great little signing tweetagrams all day long (probably about 60 a day)… Truly awesome.

Hamilton Vs. Facebook

2010-09-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

Vodafone launched a new campaign in Netherlands called: Facebook vs. Hamilton. On September 13, the world’s youngest Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton takes on racing against a virtual race car, composed of profile photos of 28,800 Facebook members. The race is organized by Vodafone Netherlands to mark the release of its upgraded mobile data network. What a brilliant way to engage consumers and promote a product. Truly inspiring.

Google Instant Search

2010-09-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

We have all heard of the new Google Instant Search, so here is the introduction video to help us all understand exactly what instant search is. Instant search may very well change the SEO game from a visual and language perspective. It allows people to flick through results in real time character after character. Yet another big break through from Google.

Tipp-Ex : A hunter shoots a bear

2010-09-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

A brilliant YouTube takeover campaign from Tipp-Ex called “A Hunter Shoots A Bear” has racked up over 2.5 million views on the initial start video and over 3.5 million channel views in the last week. YouTube is surely powerful when it comes to conducting campaigns like this. All you need is a strong idea.

The Human Pac Man Game

2010-09-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond has created a 5th video as part of the GAME OVER project. Check out this cool stop motion human PAC-MAN game played out in a cinema hall. It supposedly took them about 4 hours to complete across 111 “human” pixels that are better known as cinema chairs filled with people …

Sony Ericsson X10 mini gives mini a new meaning

2010-08-15T03:41:00.000-07:00

Many companies use branded-car parades as a strategy to promote themselves. It is an uncreative way of polluting the world, and an easy way out for the agencies that propose it. Danie Gomez talks about how Sony Ericsson France came up with a parading concept that doesn't pollute, and that creates a fun memory for the people that experience it. In order to promote the smallest cellphone available they created a mini car parade that interacted with public areas in Paris. The playfulness of the campaign is lovely, and the key benefit of the product will be clear for the potential consumers after they are exposed to it

Advertisements that watch you

2010-08-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

In an interesting blog post Danie Gomez talks about how technology is getting a bit scary lately. Orson Well's concept of Big Brother is becoming a reality. The first major influencer in this trend is Google, who controls and analyses all the searches we make. Facebook is aware of all our networks and our lives in general. Now in Japan billboards can "see" who is watching them.

Old Spice Social Media - The Complete Case Study

2010-08-15T03:11:00.000-07:00

We all got pretty excited when we saw the videos. Well, here is the complete case study. The Old Spice Social Campaign Case Study from WK. The Old Spice Case Study talks us through the insight around targeting men & women at the same time to generate conversation around body wash. When it was launched online for the super bowl weekend (and TV shortly after) the campaign managed to capture 75% of all conversations in the category before every man and his dog was talking about the Old Spice ads.

Diesel Facepark - The analog version of Facebook

2010-08-15T03:03:00.000-07:00

Here is some really innovative work from Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign. This time they’ve said that Digital is smart. Analog is stupid. And with that, Diesel has created a social event called Facepark, a live event where thousands turned up to create an analog version of Facebook, simulating pretty much everything you can do on Facebook in a physical format, starting with every guest receiving a profile cut-out on arrival that would become your analog wall for the day! This one is awesum.

The SMS Slingshot - Very vVery Cool.

2010-08-15T02:51:00.000-07:00

This project from VR Urban (a group dedicated to creating interactive street art installations) is the coolest use of digital graffiti I have ever seen till date. Their digital installation integrates projection, laser guidance and SMS to create a graffiti painted digital slingshot. With a phone embedded into an over-sized slingshot, users simply type a message they’d like sent as part of their graffiti splat, and, guided by a laser, shoot that onto a wall that is being projected onto. The camera sitting above the projector tracks the laser point and then accurately projects the splat with message included onto the wall in real time.

Pizza maker comes up with "Deliver me to Hell" campaign

2010-08-15T02:40:00.000-07:00

Another great use of YouTube annotations. A New Zealand based pizza company creates a crazy YouTube choose your own adventure film as a lead gen tool and sales driver called Hell Pizza. This campaign allows users to “Choose Your Own Adventure”.

Called “Deliver Me To Hell” the campaign is essentially a 15 minute film, broken down into 3 minute chunks as you choose your own adventure through this hilarious video. Check it out now.

What is the importance of social media monitoring and measurement?

2010-07-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Very recently, I was speaking to a prospective client of mine in the Mobile handset category and he was quite intrigued by Social Media Monitoring. That prompted me to write this article. So sudeep if you are listening or reading this, here goes.

Social Media Monitoring – What is it?

Monitoring or “listening” is a process of continuous discovery of conversations with the purpose of learning, engaging, helping and collaborating. This could be done with absolutely any of the following target groups like your customers, prospects, industry thought leaders, former customers, partners or others. There are also different cues to listen for and different ways to engage. Typically, monitoring is to track keywords as they appear, with the goal of quick response or course correction.

. How it works: Typically, monitoring is performed on a keywords basis. Relevant keywords include your brand name, product name, etc. Based on your keywords, your monitoring system of choice goes out to the social networks you specify, grabs the relevant articles and messages, and hopefully arranges them for easier digestion and action. You then go through each of these conversations and rate them positive, negative or neutral.

. Why it’s important: Let’s look at it this way, imagine social media as a “large cocktail party in the world.” It’s a room filled with people driven by one desire to communicate, share, digest and relate, while carrying on many independent conversations. Some of these conversations can be about your brand, your competitors or your industry. Some of these conversations could be people looking for a product like yours. They will talk about all these topics regardless of whether you are listening or not. However, you wouldn’t know any of this if you weren’t listening.

Social Media Measurement – What is it?

Unlike monitoring, measurement is more concerned with metrics over a specified time period. Whereas monitoring answers the question “Who is talking about [insert keyword] right now and what are they saying?” monitoring answers questions of “How did my keywords perform over time?” “How does that compare to my competitors?” and “What are some trends I can glean to make my product more usable by these people who are giving me feedback?” It gives you strategic direction and allows you to course correct you marketing plans based on what your consumers and prospects are talking about.

. How it works: Similar to monitoring, your system of choice goes out and looks for articles where that specific combination of keywords occurs. It then tabulates these occurrences and presents them to you in relevant data reports. You need to be able to slice and dice the data by source, date, and other dimensions, as well as drill down to the social media “atom” level — the individual message — if you need to.

. Why it’s important: Constant benchmarking is the only surefire way to know if things are working. Social media is a quickly evolving beast, so if you don’t routinely measure and course-correct, you could be marching down the wrong path. The idea is to “fail fast.”

Conclusion

As you can see, social media monitoring and measurement leverage the same data for different business ends.

Measurement is crucial for benchmarking and tracking your success over time and helps you draw comparisons to your peers, analyze the huge ocean of tweets and blog posts, and distill them to a list of actionable insights.

Monitoring, on the other hand, lets you listen and respond in real-time and protect your brand from negative word-of-mouth.

Clearly, both monitoring and measurement should be a significant part of your social media strategy.

An iPhone App that lets you customize your own Pizza

2010-07-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

This might be the BEST commercial iPhone App I’ve seen to date. It’s got a beautifully designed interface and just about every feature you would have expected, then some more! The new Pizza Hut iPhone App lets you create the perfect pizza from scratch from every ingredient available (even half/half it!!) then order it instantly from the app, plus while you’re waiting for the pizza, they’ve even supplied a range of funky little games to play to kill time! Very very cool. Click here to get the download the app. However, I'm not quite sure if it works in india though. What a shame.

Canadian Tourism builds Live Twitter Murals to attract travellers

2010-07-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you want people to get excited about your country and get them to think of actually planning their next visit there? Canadian Tourism has launched a new campaign aiming to grab interest from busy Americans in New York, Chicago and L.A in the hope to lure them up to Canada for a holiday. For this they jumped on the twitter wagon with interesting digital storescapes or what they are calling live twitter murals, that show aggregated tweets and photos from selected search terms on twitter, the tweets are pulled live to large screens in prominent locations in New York, Chicago and L.A.

Passers by can interact with the content that is being tweeted by flicking through tweets and enlarging images on the fly through seriously big touch screens. Without interaction, the tweeted content is animated in lots of cool ways to help spark attention.

What are iAds?

2010-07-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

An in-app ad, basically. In Apple-speak, an iAd combines interactivity (a characteristic of the Web) with emotion (which TV ads apparently excel at, according to Jobs). It's a typically Apple way of describing what Apple hopes are richer, interactive, and far more lucrative advertisements that go beyond banners. "People aren't searching like they do on the desktop," Jobs said. "They're using apps."

More importantly, the ads themselves don't take you to a separate Web page. The app pauses, and when you close the ad you go right back to where you were in the app, a critical component to make sure users actually interact with ads.

This is a full video demo of the Nissan Leaf iAd, showing everything from how iAd banners sit in-app right through to how it plays and allows interaction from the user.

Google’s Open Spot Makes Parking A Breeze, Assuming Everyone Turns Into A Good Samaritan

2010-07-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

Sick of circling the city streets in your car, looking for a spot — any spot — that you can squeeze into? Google may have the answer, or at least the very beginnings of one, though it’s going to heavily rely on the good deeds of your peers to be a success. Meet Google Open Spot, the latest addition to Google Labs, which has just released a new application for Android phones.

The service is really straightforward: fire up the Android application (it doesn’t look like there’s a web-based version yet), and you’ll see a map with nearby open parking spots marked with colored dots. These spots were placed by other users, who are supposed to hit the app’s ‘Mark a Spot’ button when they leave a crowded parking lot or happen to see an open spot as they walk by.

The color of each available spot is tied to how long ago it was marked by another user — a spot that’s 10-20 minutes old will look yellow, while a spot marked within the last five minutes will be bright red. After 20 minutes spots are removed from the map. You’re able to see parking spots within a .9 mile radius of your current location.

That’s all well and good, but there isn’t a major incentive to actually mark spots yet. Google is employing a basic karma system to reward users when they share an available spot, but karma doesn’t actually award any bonuses in terms of making it easier to find parking — it’s just there to make you feel good. That said, if Google gets creative with the system (perhaps by adding a leader board), then that might provide sufficient incentive to get people using this. I’m not particularly optimistic, but here’s to hoping it works. Of course, even if a ton of people really do start marking their spots, it won’t necessarily be much help — in crowded cities, many spots are only available for a few seconds.

In case you were thinking of making parking even more of a hassle than it already is by adding fake spots, don’t bother (please). While parking submissions are anonymous, the Open Spot FAQ says that Google has ways to monitor for so-called ‘griefers’ and can make sure they aren’t leaving multiple fake parking spots.

- Article written by Jason Kincaid on Techcrunch

"Life in a Day" Project

2010-07-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

This is a good example of user generated video that I have seen. YouTube have just launched a new project called Life In A Day, a user generated campaign that will take HD video submissions filmed on July 24th, editing them to create a film that shows what that day looked like around the world. Interestingly, they’ve brought on Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald to direct and edit the film that will be premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Anyone can contribute to the project and all you need to do is capture some HD footage on July 24 and then upload it on the official Life In A Day channel. I think the content of this documentary style film will be really diverse, but with guys like Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald, it should come out amazing. And even more interesting, is that YouTube are asking for the video content you capture to show no limits and be as creative, personal or random as you like…! Find out more info here.

"Idiot Box" or "Device of the Future"? You decide.

2010-07-04T02:18:00.000-07:00

Television has come a long way from being an idiot box to becoming a smart digital screen. Over the last 50 odd years we have seen B&W TVs to Colour TVs to Flat Screen TVs to LCD TVs to LED TVs to now 3D LED TVs, it’s all come a long long way. But these innovations have largely been centered around hardware by various manufacturers. What has also changed with that is the TV programming, which has moved from Antenna’s to Cables to Satellite to IPTV. Along with this what has also changed is the external devices connected to our televisions like VCR’s to VCD’s to DVD’s to now Blue Rays. All beautifully integrating into one box, which we earlier knew as the “Idiot Box”.

But what is next? Data shows that television is fast loosing it’s grip over the consumers mind and there is a fast shift and change of focus for the generation that was earlier hooked onto it. For the television industry, some of these trends could be quite disturbing. Like:

The level of web & video content produced online

The level of innovation on web programming vs. television in matured markets

The time spent by users on Internet devices

Users wanting to stay connected – The growth of social media and the concept of sharing

Advertisers shifting spend to digital

Is this the start of the Digital Divide. So who will stand to gain? Does this mean that TV manufacturers will stand to lose? Wrong! Do not misinterpret the digital divide between devices connected to the web Vs. devices not connected to the web. This is definitely not the end of Television. Television is a multi billion dollar industry and existing players will not let it die, but instead fast innovate and adapt to the consumer trends and interests.

Going forward innovation will not be centered around hardware alone. It will be around the user. So the TV of the Future = Users + TV Programming + Connectivity + Personalize.

So who then would lead the way? Let’s find out.

Trends #1 – Connectivity & Identity

Expect Televisions to get connectivity. From 3G to 4G to WiFi or WiMax, Television too will move in the direction of getting all sorts of connectivity. This will lead to Televisions getting its own identity by having IP addresses or probably a TV address that will be unique.

Trend # 2 – Personalized Streaming

Users, over the web would be able to create a list of preferences for time-slots and television shows available for themselves. They would then link his online television synchronization account with the television devices they own. So when the user switches on the TV, he sees his own TV stream. They would create TV Stream of any list of programs available live, recorded or those broadcasted prior by channels. And these TV Stream would also be synced up in parallel with the user’s calendar (from Google, iPhone, or Outlook, or any other) and can be edited in real time. Wow! Now won’t that be cool?

Trend # 3 – Not just watch TV on TV

We would not just watch TV on TV but also be able to watch the WEB on TV. Google TV is the first step in this direction, but there will be much more to follow.

Trend # 4 – You own your own TV stream

Your TV Stream will contain lots more like YouTube videos, Flickr Photos, Facebook Updates, Tweets, CNN news, Slideshare presentations, and so on. Even updates from your blog on Wordpress. So, you can stream any website content in your TV Stream. Over a period of time, standards like RSS or XML will evolve that would allow large as well as small publishers and bloggers to publish to TV Streams. Users will just have to add the feeds to their TV Streams. Large publishers will create content or standards that will maximize experience and interactivity through your TV Stream. And like channels I’ll need buttons on my remote to flip through all this content.

Trend # 5 – Where ever you go you carry your TV along

No, not really. What I mean is that wherever you go – Home, Hotel, Office or on Vacation and have a TV in front of you, all you do is that you simply login to your TV Stream. So you don’t carry TV anywhere, you access your TV Stream from TV Devices. Watch your OWN TV STREAM wherever you go.

Trend # 6 – Watch TV without the TV

Any device capable of reading the TV Streams will let you watch TV. Essentially you don’t require a TV to watch Television. Now you would require a TV Device. Oh! Do I have to buy another device? Any ‘connected device’ can act as a TV device, just like a TV itself, a Computer, your iPhone or iPod, an iPad, a Kindle, a Mobile Phone, anything. Over a period of time, Web Standards for TV Stream will develop. They will be fast adopted by existing devices through applications.

Trend # 7 - The Big Disruptions in Viewership, Content Producers, Advertisers and Social Influences

Television Channels will compete with every Web Publisher that is capable of publishing content to the TV stream. Television Channels will focus more on web production of its content and provide greater interactivity than ever before.

Any one, any user or any entity would be able to launch its own content in various media formats (video, pictures, text, etc) that can be published to user’s TV Stream. The cost to launch a Television Channel over web that can be plugged in to a TV Stream will be significantly lower than the costs involved today in launching a satellite channel.

Some TV Streams might be public, allowing users to share their TV Streams with their friends on Social Networks like Facebook. User’s friends will influence and also recommend programs or TV streams for him or her, which would be accepted or rejected. The power to choose what to see will be driven by user and his social influence circle. Users will be able to share the feedbacks and rate various programs in TV Streams in real time across Social Networks, which will encourage or discourage further viewing of such programs.

Like Facebook allowing Fan Page advertising today; Programs & TV channels will advertise for acceptance or recommendation of its programs at all levels or applications where users creates/updates/recommends TV streams for himself or for others. Advertisers would pay higher amounts to those programs that have higher viewership within TV Streams.

TV will be a digital device – connected like any other. Users will choose their programming on TV Streams and watch where they go. Simple standards that allow content to be published to TV will evolve. Any connected device shall be able to provide TV experience. Dynamics of Television Industry will change. Tremendously

Ikea - Use of rich media banners

2010-07-03T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a great example of the use of rich media. Ikea is one company who I really admire for doing some very engaging digital stuff. Here in this example, Ikea created a new rich media banner that is very creative in application and great fun to watch as well. The question is would you actually play around with it if it interrupted your web surfing? Either way it's a proof of their consistent creative outlook on advertising.

Is it a video? Is it a website? you decide.

2010-07-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

The most creative website that I have ever seen. An interesting way of using YouTube annotations. BooneOakley actually went ahead and showed the world how to use video's creatively on YouTube. It wasn’t just a video, it was actually their Agency site embedded into YouTube across 50 odd videos, the very first of its kind. Well that was 12 months, 1 million views ago and is now possibly the most viewed agency site of all time!? To cap it off, last week they won a Gold Lion at Cannes in 2010. Well deserved, still the most original and creative agency site I’ve seen to date. Hope To see some innovations like this in India.

Olympus - "The Pen Story"

2010-07-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

Olympus celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their legendary “PEN” camera and for that created a stunning Stop Motion tribute called “The PEN Story". It is a stop motion video with 60,000 unique photos & no post production! It also marked the re-launch of a special edition PEN.

Interactive Movies - The next revolution in the digital world

2010-06-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

The first interactive theatrical commercial by Jung von Matt & Film Deluxe. Client: NBC Universal (for 13th Street). Recipient of Cannes Lions 2010 Media Bronze, Cannes Lions 2010 Direct Lions Direct Response Digital: Mobile Marketing Silver, and Cannes Lions 2010 Promo & Activation Lions Best Use of other Digital Media in a Promotional Campaign Gold.

Bridging the gap between the real and the virtual world

2010-06-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today consumers are practically living in the digital world. They are constantly seeking new experiences and the virtual world is fast merging with the real world. When was the last time you went to the railway station to book a ticket? When was the last time you went to your bank to transact? When was the last time you bought a movie ticket in black? The digital world has taken us by storm and changed the way we do stuff today.

But one may argue that there are still some things which the digital world cannot substitute. For example going to my favorite retail outlet and trying out the latest collection of t-shirts thats just arrived. Im sure the digital world cannot substitute that. Are you sure? Think again.

Augmented reality today makes it possible to even do that. Check out this video and I'm sure it will blow your mind for you. Now do you still want to go to your favorite retail outlet during the end of season sale and fight for your life to get in, leave alone find something that will fit you? Marketers reading this, do you still want to invest in expensive real estate to convert into retail showrooms?

It's time. It's a reality. It's Augmented Reality.

Olympus uses augmented reality to demo its new camera

2010-06-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

Olympus introduces its new PEN E-PL1 camera through augmented reality. The demo allows users to test out various features of the camera—it even includes a “tripod” and allows you to shoot yourself using the camera’s various filters. what a cool way to have a complete product demo right in your home. Are mobile manufacturers, camera manufacturers, automobile manufacturers listening?

How to unite Beer drinkers during the world cup

2010-06-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

How would you unite beer drinkers? Well, on May 25, Budweiser launched the "Bud United" series. It consists on a 'reality show' that is following 32 football fans. Each fan represents a nation competing in the World Cup finals. They will all be living together in a house in South Africa for the duration of the tournament, watching each match, and exploring the country together. The football fans will be eliminated as the teams they represent drop out the competition. The last two fans in the house will attend the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa final, and the winner will present the 'Budwiser Man of the Match" award to the most valuable player.

Video content from the house is being published daily via a YouTube page, and promoted worldwide through television, digital ads and social media. This is exactly the way one needs to implement digital programs. True integration of the real world and the digital world. It's time brands realized and exploited the power of integrated brand communication.

Pilot Handwriting

2010-06-16T12:51:00.000-07:00

There are numerous studies that demonstrate you as a person. Your handwritting is a living description of your personality, yet now a days, we almost don't show it to people around us. Here is a delightful strategy from Pilot that lets you personalize your font. It was created by Grey Barcelona.

A great example of how a brand such as a writing instrument can leverage the digital media to engage customers. It also demonstrates great viral ability. This example has been taken from the blog of Dani Gomez. thanx for sharing Dani.

9 Essential Social Media Tips for Beginners

2010-06-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article written by Glen from TopRank - Online marketing blog. I thought it was a good read and so wanted to share it with you guys.

Plunging into social media for the first time can be a bit daunting for individuals or businesses. There is a learning curve when it comes to becoming more social online, and it can take a while to learn what works and what doesn’t. Here are a few of the best Do’s and Don’ts that can save you time and help grow your social media authority more quickly.

1. Start small

You’ll want to start small and try a couple services out at a time. Oftentimes newbies sign up for every social network under the sun and try to grow each of them. Guess how long they last? Building profiles for multiple social sites is hard work, so it’s best to start by only tackling a couple at first.

Once you find the right ones for you or your brand, then start to narrow your focus on those. Eventually you may want to scale your social media strategy to include more services, but you have to crawl before you can walk.

Start small, and then grow to other social networks as your confidence grows. Success breeds success.

2. Get a widget

Put a widget up on your site for your social networks. The best place to find followers is your own blog or site. Also, it’s much easier to get your readers and friends to vote or retweet your content than strangers. Adding a widget next to your content can help.

Facebook has a widget generator you can use, and the Tweetmeme badge is easy to add to your site as well.

3. Frequently test your buttons and widgets

Start testing which social media profiles have the most impact, then drop the rest. For example, if your site does really well with Facebook shares but hardly ever gets voted on Digg, then drop the Digg vote button.

Oftentimes you’ll see sites littered with tons of widgets and buttons. Having a gazillion widgets at the end of each article only creates noise and annoys the reader. Figure out which buttons are getting clicked, and drop the buttons that don’t convert. Ideally you’ll only have two or three widgets on each page.

You can tell which buttons are effective by using Google Analytics and goals to see who’s clicking what. You can also use A/B to see which types of buttons are getting more clicks.

4. Don’t annoy your followers

Sounds like common sense, right? Unfortunately, lots of companies that are just starting out with social media think the best way to “promote” their brand is to publish coupons, offers, news, and anything else related to their business.

Rule of thumb: if it’s something you personally wouldn’t like to receive, avoid it.

Your social media goal is to be helpful first. People follow and respect brands that are helpful, not self-promoting shills. Give first, then ask.

Try posting useful links to industry articles, answer questions, and engage. The followers, engagement, and ultimately sales will come if you’re helpful first.

5. Don’t fret about follower counts

Don’t believe all the spammy ebooks out there that sell you the notion that you can attract thousands of followers in a matter of days. Sure, you could do that and it’s not hard. But the types of followers who are going to be following you are mostly bots. Or they’re just following you in hopes that you’ll follow them back. Ultimately, they aren’t followers who would engage with you.

You want social media followers that are going to listen and interact with you, and 10 of those followers is worth more than a thousand bots.

It takes a while to organically build up a great social profile. Focus on building great content and being helpful, and the followers will come.

6. See what the pros are doing

Everyone has a different strategy when it comes to social media, and sometimes it’s best to take a look at people who are real social media experts. Lee Odden is a good example of someone using Twitter and Facebook to help people, which in turn grows his social media influence.

There are plenty of fantastic examples of people who truly understand how to interact and build powerful social media profiles the right way. Check out sites like WeFollow to find influential Twitter users within your niche.

7. Don’t overlook niche social media sites

When people think of social media, they typically think of Twitter or Facebook. But there are literally hundreds (maybe thousands?) of social media networks and sites that you can use to help promote your brand. Jut because a network isn’t huge doesn’t mean it’s not going to impact your social media strategy. Oftentimes targeted niche social sites can bring more targeted traffic to your site than larger sites.

If you’re smart, you can use smaller social networks to help promote your site on other bigger social networks. For example, I’ve written posts on web development that have made it to the front page of Dzone, a social media site for web development. Once the article made it to the front page of Dzone, the attention brought a lot of saves on Delicious, and subsequently made it to the Delicious front page. The delicious front page brought even more traffic, and those Delicious users voted the story up to the Digg front page. So, by simply submitting my site on a smaller niche news site with a great headline, I managed to make it to the coveted homepages of both Digg and Delicious.

Niche social news sites can be very powerful, and oftentimes much easier to become influential in than the larger sites. Here’s a list of social news sites organized by category.

8. Find people within your niche to follow on Twitter

The ideal follower on Twitter is one that has similar interests within your niche. You can find like-minded people to follow on Twitter through these directories and odds are many will follow you back.

Once you’ve started following these people, start interacting with them. Participate in discussions, and retweet things they say that would be helpful to your community.

Not only will this method help build your follower counts, it also gives you more influence within your niche. You’ll find great friends that will help you promote your content and site too. Always remember to give first and ask later.

9. Stay Humble

Social media beginners often try to quickly establish themselves as “experts” within their field, but they have nothing to back it up. (For example, search for “social media experts” on Twitter. You’ll find many with only a handful of followers. Shouldn’t an “expert” have more?)

As with anything in life, nobody likes a know-it-all. Be humble. Ask questions. Teach, but don’t preach. Let others do the hyping for you. And they will if you’re helpful and humble.

KFC tlks 2 me - The power of language for today’s youth.

2010-06-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

Words, words, words – the power of language is something we focus on with customers everyday, but nowhere can it have more impact than with teenagers and tweens. Harnessing the power of language for today’s multi-tasking, tech-savvy youth is the first step in effectively communicating and building loyalty among them.

To truly connect with kids – to form and keep a meaningful dialogue that will help win their hearts and minds – you must learn to have a conversation. On their terms. In their language. In fact, according to teen marketing experts “Teens identify best with someone who speaks their language, dresses like them and understands their human condition.”

Smart use of language with our youth audiences can help us achieve two key challenges online. One, you can earn and maintain credibility with a tough, web savvy audience. Two, you can provoke action in an environment where they, perhaps more than anyone else, feel right at home.

KFC wanted to connect with teens and tweens. They wanted to be seen as a cool brand. A brand that this audience would like to hang out with. From a more business perspective, we wanted to build a community and engage them so that with time the brand could get closer to them.

So we went back to understanding how teens and tweens are different. To start with they surely spoke differently. A language that your dad wouldn’t be able to relate to at all. And that was cool. We introduced LICKONOMICS. And this was, how should I say it, “Finger licking good”. There was a brand connect and we could suddenly see where this was going. We built certain facts or truths about “finger licking food” and called them Lickonomics. Suddenly we were seeing the birth of an absolutely new language. And thus was formed “The Indian School Of Lickonomics”. A place where cool dudes hang out. Where they learn and speak a whole new language. Where they bond with their friends, poking fun at one another. Where they could feel at home.

The portal was built like a university with many rooms to do various activities. Things, which you couldn’t do in the real world, you could do here. For example, you could scribble graffiti on the bathroom walls and let out secrets about your friends or you could learn cool pickup lines and woo that girl next door. There was the gym where you could vent out your frustrations by taking on your friends or colleagues in a verbal duel of words. And off course there was the classroom where you could build your very own dictionary containing cool words. Every activity you did allowed you to share it with the world at large in your own existing social network using Facebook Connect. There was also a Facebook app that was made and connected to the portal. So it didn’t matter where you accessed the site from. You could be on Facebook and still be in “The Indian School of Lickonomics”.

We intentionally kept the branding to a minimum as we did not want to put off the kids and did not want it to seem as if we were trying to sell them anything. It was subtle in the form of Col. Sanders who acts as the principal of the university walking you through every room. What have more there were opportunities to win KFC discount vouchers for all that you did, hence driving footfall into the stores.

Parts of engaging is provoking. Kids have tons of energy; give them something to do. Online we must engage, we must inspire activity. Whether its getting them to IM or clicking through a mindless game, we only succeed if they act. Otherwise, we are not making good use of how they instinctively use the web and the channel as a medium. They are impatient but the right message can unleash a torrent of activity and participation from kids.

The site and the application are in beta mode right now and ill be sharing and updating the final link pretty soon. Till then you can enjoy these link. If you have a Facebook id I would recommend that you log into the application. It’s easier to invite your friends to come join the community or should I say university.

The portal temporary address:

http://www.indianschooloflickonomics.com/kfc01/

The application on Facebook:

http://apps.facebook.com/isl_kfc/?ref=appd_my_recent&fa=1

Digital and the power of the community

2010-06-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Alcohol is a restricted category where advertising is not permitted. How do you then get consumers to sample single malt and then spread the word. How will the typical surrogate advertising model work here?

In a first of its kind event, over two hours across India, Canada, the US, Taiwan, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Britain a quirky get-together was held. Whiskey experts, bloggers all, were on twitter for a single malt nosing and tasting session to choose a ‘special 2010 edition’ single malt. Virtual tasting? Not quite.

Here’s how it worked. A set of four casks of single malts was shipped to various parts of the world. All four casks were American oak hogheads and all were filled from the same batch on September 25, 1978. Under #Vintagereserve, the organizer first rallied the tasters around on Twitter, then started on the nosing. Questions like “On nosing the first cask, what aromas can you pick up?” there was no stopping the tasters after that. It was a blitzkrieg of 140 characters of eloquence, capturing in multiple tweets the oaky, cedar cinnamon aroma and the fruity, peachy, even vanilla custard one. As the aromas were opened up, followers were allowed glimpses into what goes on in choosing what a distiller will bottle, an almost voyeuristic experience. The event worked both as an awareness camp for the uninitiated and a successful bringing together of whiskey experts. The point to remember is that each person tweeting that night had hundreds of followers so one can imagine the ripple effect. What a wonderful way of getting your customers to experience your brand and then honestly tweet about it to the world. You have to be brave to be able to do that and most companies shy away from that.

Consumers are more likely to believe people and sometimes people they don’t even know rather than believe brands. It’s time brands get bold and leave the decision making to the consumers. Infact they are the ones who build our brand. Let them decide. Focus on your product and service instead and let them do the advocacy. If they like it they will spread it. And spread it will like wild fire. You cannot force consumers to think in a particular way about your product.

So if a detergent brand makes a TV commercial which shows consumers taking a wash challenge, would they dare to do this in the real world? Where there is no technology to make one shirt look whiter than the other? Can a telecom business that claims they have the best network, take a network challenge and allow common people to experience and talk about the brand?

I think a lot of companies are scared to even attempt this incase they backfire. The power of the community can make or break your brand. And technology today can spread the message really fast. Use it wisely and you will see great results.

Digital campaigns can build great engagement models and can go a long way in building your brand if used wisely. Don’t look at digital as the last leg of your plan. Don’t restrict digital to simply building a fancy microsite supported with banners and social media thrown in for flavor. Think brand strategy, be brave and use the consumers to advocate on your behalf.

If one has to make full use of the digital medium one should not restrict it to the virtual world alone. Take it into the real world as well and integrate. In my mind the model is that of engagement using social media, digital technology and the real world all three coming together to form a unique experience for the consumer.

Cisco - Welcome to the Human Network.

2010-05-31T04:26:00.000-07:00

What is www.myhumannetwork.com?

We often come across groups of people who selflessly go about doing their own bit for the society. As a result they inspire hundreds to come forward and join them in this remarkable movement. At Cisco, we call this the power of the Human Network.

We wanted to build a social platform for these Champions. A platform which allows individuals and organizations, championing causes to locate like-minded individuals, group, network, collaborate and if possible replicate a social experiment in a different geographical zone. In the bargain, we wanted to drive brand relevance as well in the mind of our consumers.

Designed with a Google Earth interface, there are six broad cause categories, such as economic development and infrastructure, environment and animal welfare, education, healthcare among others, under which are specific causes and then initiatives that people can join. About 40 NGOs have already established a presence and the number of members has risen from the initial 600 to 1,270 in a week since the launch.

The next phase of the program is to work with these partners to take the initiative to a practical plane. For instance, if a particular NGO is conducting a drive or an event, then Cisco could put technology to use to probably match their needs with that of members who may be willing to come out as volunteers.

How did it all begin?

We needed to first understand how human networks operate. How can Cisco play a role in these Human Networks? How can we use technology to get people closer?

Increasingly the more we studied the more we were convinced that Cisco would be playing the role of a catalyst and we were really attempting to create an integral open system which was decentralized in approach. We needed to understand that we were dealing with an entirely different creature from the CEO. It was a totally different society and culture.

Let me give you an example of one of the most intriguing catalysts known to us. Jimmy Wales the man behind Wikipedia. His core values are to be thoughtful and kind and to have no personal attacks. It’s an ongoing process of making sure that people are happy doing what they are doing. You trust him because you know that he trusts you. As a catalyst it’s all about letting go and trusting the community to fulfill the task that we have set out to achieve. Our role would be to focus on maintaining the health of the community.

We saw five important legs around which we wanted to build the human network.

Leg 1: Circles

For any community to exist, circles are important. The apaches for example lived in many small non hierarchical groups spread across the south west. Though they shared a common heritage and tradition, each group maintained its own particular habit and norm. Each apache group resembled a circle: independent and autonomous. That’s the thing about circles. Once you join you’re an equal. It’s then upto you to contribute to the best of your ability. The internet has allowed circles to become virtual. Members join from their computers without leaving their homes.

We wanted to identify multiple causes around which people could come and setup their own circle or community. No one was the owner but they would all be equals working and learning together to make a difference to the society.

Leg 2: The Catalyst

Take nitrogen and hydrogen, two of the most common elements on earth, put them together in a container, close the lid and come back a day later, and nothing will have happened. But add ordinary iron to the equation and you’ll get ammonia. In fact ammonia doesn’t have any iron in it. It’s made solely of hydrogen and nitrogen. The iron just acts as a catalyst and facilitates the bonding of hydrogen and nitrogen in a certain way. Likewise Cisco would be a catalyst. We build the platform for the human network to take shape and then step away. Let go of its reins and allow it to become its own entity. The difference between traditional leaders and catalysts is like the difference between Julie Andrews character in the sound of music and Mary Poppins. The catalyst is an inspirational figure who spurs others to action. Circles don’t form on their own. They need a catalyst to spring to life. A catalyst is like an architect of the house. He is responsible for the long term structural integrity of the house but he never moves in.

Leg 3: Ideology

This is the glue that holds the Human Network together.

At Cisco our ideology was that we are more than a network of routers and switches. We are about people and communities. Every single person counts. Because when people connect, wonderful things happen. People meet. They collaborate. They make things better. Technology network helps humans explore new worlds of possibilities. Because when we are together we are more powerful than we ever could be apart.

It’s not easy for others to come around and offer a similar ideology and this is what sets us apart from other technology companies.

Leg 4: The preexisting networks

The internet is a breeding ground for small communities to take shape. The internet not only makes it easy for people to communicate but also provides a fertile ground for discussions leading to action. It’s because of this that we see a revolution. We wanted to take advantage of the many communities that already exist offline and give them a platform to communicate with the world. We brought on board 40 NGO’s across the five cause categories and helped them setup their networks.

Leg 5: The Champion

A champion is relentless in promoting a new idea. Catalysts are charismatic but champions take it to the next level. Catalysts inspire and naturally connect people, but champions take the game to a whole new level. We needed to identify and bring on board those credible names who will relentlessly work on taking this to the next level. We are in the process of identifying Champions across various cause categories like economic development and infrastructure, environment and animal welfare, education and healthcare.

Summary
By creating circles, tapping into an ideology whose time had come, drawing upon pre-existing networks, and joining forces with champions, we aspire to change the course of history in the most mary poppins of way. We set the event in action, inspire a movement and then let go. So come forward to either setup your own initiative or follow someone else. Let’s make the world a better place by sharing and collaborating. Welcome to the Human Network.

Setting your Social Media Strategy

2010-05-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

A lot of my clients have been recently talking to me about Social Media Strategy and it's the most talked about topic over the last one year. Here is a very interesting video that walks you through the entire journey of setting up a social media strategy. It's interesting and uses real life examples.
In future, I'll try and post some more specific examples of Social Media Strategy that we have successfully implemented for some of our clients.
Watch this space closely and till then enjoy the video.

Yahoo! Relaunch in India

2010-03-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

The digital market has almost exploded in India. Millions of choices exist for consumers today and the average youth practically lives online. Companies like Google, Twitter and of course our favorite Facebook has changed the way we consumer media today. Social is the new Buzz word today.

Some figures relevant from India's point of view: Google receives over 85% search queries out of all search queries, avg. no. of people spend over 400 mins on Google's network, people spend an average of 4 hrs. a week on facebook and over 0.5 million people are accessing facebook on their mobiles. These could be surprising and shocking figures for any online brand, particularly Yahoo! which started loosing its market to these brands despite having the first mover advantage in India.

Yahoo’s internal research found that:

a) People were loosing interest from Yahoo's home page due to a decade old and slow product experience.

b) People visited Yahoo Mail more than the Yahoo home page.

c) Usage of Yahoo was growing faster on mobile in comparison to pc

Convergence was also becoming a trend. "If i can do everything in one page, why go to multiple sites?" was a glaring question to most companies like Yahoo. Yahoo introduced the new APP structure that provided users the flexibility to Add the stuff they wanted right onto their homepage. This would make the homepage of Yahoo more relevant to all their needs and they would then not have to go to multiple sites.

The marketing objective was thus to communicate the APP led features of revamped Y! Home page, Y! Mail and Y! Mobile and get users to come back to the Yahoo! network. This would enable Yahoo to become relevant and get back into people’s hearts..

The activity was planned to fulfill the following objective over a period of 3 weeks:

a. Increase Y! network usage by 10%

b. Increase page views on the Yahoo network by 5%

c. Increase time spent by users to 180 million mins in a month

We were talking to people in the age group of 16-24. They are the ones who spend most of their time online, but particularly on Orkut / Facebook. Their friend list would have more than 130 friends on any social network. If they are on Facebook, they would have surely played Farmville. Irrespective of whether they are in office or at home, they would want to stay connected either on facebook or on G-chat. They would be most updated about gadgets. For them, the term ‘App’ is not a jargon. They are hardly concerned about safety on internet, therefore they won’t hesitate to swipe their father’s credit card on eBay.Their social life on internet is not a symbol of seclusion but a symbol of inclusion. You would often see them hooked to their mobile either sending or receiving SMS. They would hate to write full words in SMS. Most probably, by now, they would have bought the ‘Corby’ or any such phone which boasts of social media capabilities. If you would look at their social networks profile, then they would have uploaded some of the pics from their mobile. If they want to listen to a song on-the-go, they would simply type down songs.pk on their mobile browser and get that song downloaded then and there. They are broadcasters as well as creators of the content.

‘Coopetition’ is a term which was integral to our strategy. To simplify, we heavily and intelligently used partners’ network. Not only did we use partner networks, we also created special messages for those ad spaces. For example, specific ‘mail’ related keywords like email, email on mobile etc. were bought on ‘Google’ search engine to market email properties.

Content and contextual targeting along with site targetting was done using Google & Tyroo ad networks to target display ads as per the desired content. All through, the revamped features of Yahoo! on Home Page, Mail and Mobile platform were communicated. Specifically, the whole idea of ‘ADD’ was used to make people experience the product and Add apps to their new Y! Home page.

Step by step campaign execution:

Step a – A user sees the Yahoo! communication through display banners on various sites like (Yahoo, Rediff, Indiatimes, Tech2) / Google text ads and third party emails

Step b – After clicking on these online ads, the user lands on to a micro-site which asks the user to make Yahoo his home page. Here the user gets a demo of the new product.

Step c – User makes Yahoo his home page.

Step d – User receives a thank you message with the help of an auto generated email

The above 4 steps also apply to Y! Mail and Y! Mobile messaging.

Innovations across the media:

Social Media Optimization: A dedicated group of bloggers was selected, who just created buzz about Yahoo products across the bloggers network.

Handset targeting: Special mobile related ads were created for smart phones. These phones were selected with the help of mobile ad networks, on the basis of Yahoo’s compatibility with particular phones.

DTH advertising was done by Yahoo, on Airtel’s digital TV interactive platform.

Additional elements which led to the success of the campaign were:

1) 360 degree digital presence

Message consistency was maintained over the platforms be it mobile or pc. Due care was taken to incorporate relevant call to action as per the platform. For example, if an ad played on Airtel live, then the message was, Add Yahoo! to your mobile.

2) Integration with social networks

Instead of keeping ads away from the competitors, we joined hands with them and ran our ads across their network. It helped in two ways a) it gave additional revenue to them which strengthened the relationship in the industry and b) it let Yahoo pull users from competitors’ network to Yahoo’s network.

Results

The campaign got the all time best figures as given below:

Particulars Projections Actual

Y! network usage 10% 17%

Page views on Yahoo network 5% 9%

Time spent by users on

Yahoo!network 180 mil. mins p.m. 230 mil mins p.m.

Source: Comscore

Check out the work here

Samsung - The birth of a new species

2010-02-02T00:38:00.000-08:00

The Background
In a market dominated by CRT TV (92.9% in 2008), the LCD TV holds 6.6% market share. However, according to a DisplaySearch report that analyses trends and opportunities in the Indian market, the Indian flat panel TV market is just at the beginning of a real growth curve. What with year-on-year growth of more than 100% expected for the next five years.
In fact, the report states that by 2012, LCD TV shipments will surpass those of CRT TVs in India.
Meanwhile, major brands like Samsung, LG, Sony and Philips and Indian local brands like Videocon and Onida are all focusing their efforts around LCD TV.
So the big question being, was the timing right and the market ready for the launch of Samsung LED TV?

The Problem
While LCD is still finding a strong foothold in the minds of the Indian consumer, was the launch of a new technologically superior Samsung LED TV a little ahead of its time?
While LCD TV carries a price tag of 60,000-80,000 and above; would the cautious Indian consumer be ready to shell out more than 1.5 to 2 lakhs?
Last, but most importantly, with the launch of the more superior LED TV, would it not cannibalize Samsung’s very own LCD TV market which holds a substantial share?

The Objective
To create awareness and clearly establish LED TV as a benchmark for TV viewing experience.
The second objective, get qualified leads – at least 400 to be specific that too at the time of launch and within a period of 2 months.

The Approach
There are TVs and there are LED TVs. Yes the avant-garde LED TVs from Samsung are here to redefine TV viewing. They also redefine the standards of image quality and aesthetics in home entertainment.
Which is why with the birth of LED TV it’s like the birth of a new species. This birth has no other parallel, there’s no comparison, no competition, no rival.
LED TV was pegged in a league of its own with the “birth of a new species”

The Direct Mailer
If the birth of the new species is one of the most extraordinary events in the history of life on earth and we are lucky to be present at this amazing time, then who better to carry this important news than a magazine of National Geographic stature.
Our execution was inspired by NatGeo. Our story was sent neatly packaged in a box containing a special issue of a mock-magazine, carrying only and the all important news of the birth of a new species. On skimming through the first few pages which built up the story, one finally realizes it is the birth of the all-new Samsung LED TV that one was referring to.
To add more punch to the mailer, a gift certificate comprising a great offer and a personalized letter made for a complete DM pack.

The Database
The objective was to contact a niche audience. Someone who’s unabashed about his indulgences and revels in the exclusivity of luxury and has the ability to afford it.
We contacted CEOs & CFOs residing in the metros and mini-metros, adding to 11 cities. With disposable household income of over Rs. 8-9 lakhs per annum. They mostly owned a D/E segment car like Honda Accord, Skoda Octavia, etc. No. of contacts: 42,000

The Result
Although the actual sales figures were not shared with the agency, out of 42,000 contacts made, we received ‘qualified leads’ totaling 374 - meaning the no. of people who were keen to buy the TV. Although, this figure is a few short of our target no., our client Samsung was satisfied considering the product was new (it was also a global launch of LED TVs), the price was high and time was short – just within 2 months of the launch.
The no. further indicates that for an activity spend of Rs 23 lacs, the mailer created sales opportunities worth approx. Rs. 2 CR.
Moreover, today LED TV has already created a buzz in the market and is synonymous with high-end TV viewing experience.

Pernod Ricard - Change lies within

2010-01-20T04:15:00.000-08:00

The Brief:

How do you celebrate and present the new face of an iconic spirit without denigrating the existing? More so when the spirit in question is Chivas Regal 12. The task gets even more challenging when the communication is aimed at the top rung of the core brand team that has lived through so many ‘changes’. So how do you shake them out of their ennui, raise excitement levels and ensure that this enthusiasm percolates right down to all those below them?

The Solution:

The old holds within it, the new face of exuberance. And this was demonstrated quite aptly by literally turning the carton inside out! As the old carton is folded back, the new one emerges from within, with the new bottle resting on a pedestal at its centre.

But the drama is not just reserved for the brand manager alone. It’s also to be shared with the team. And doing this to perfection are six identical miniatures of the ‘inside-out’ cartons, tucked into the base.

As each miniature is pulled out and reversed, from within emerges an exact new bottle replica holding an even bigger surprise. Hidden within each new Chivas 12 bottle replica are pen drives loaded with the new brand manual.

The Results:

Sometimes the impact of announcing change without the usual razzmatazz is more lasting. Not only were the core team taken aback by the multiple surprises the mailer held, but the levels of revelation intrigued them to go through every aspect in detail. And the piece de resistance - the miniature Chivas 12 bottle pen-drive, became as coveted as the new Chivas 12 bottle to be shared amongst all. What’s more, request for more miniature pen drives were placed to be gifted to the trade.

General Motors - Give in to temptation

2010-01-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

Chevrolet was going to launch a compact sedan with mid-size appeal - Cruze. A car destined to make an impact. This car breaks stereotypes, while staying true to its DNA. It’s bold. It’s stylish. It’s aggressive. It’s bigger. Faster. Stronger. Safer. And it embodies the spirit of Chevy's legendary muscle cars. In fact, the design of the Cruze is inspired by one of the most revered Chevys ever - the Corvette. And just like the Corvette, the Cruze features a push-button start, twin-cockpit sports car interior, and an exhilarating feeling that only people who love to drive understand. The Cruze is a category breaker, in a class of its own, and a car that’s value without compromise.

For Chevy, Cruze was an important launch not just because of the features of the product, but also because it was going to showcase the new face of Chevy in India in terms of styling and to let go the baggage of the GM global image post bankruptcy that acted as a barrier in the minds of the Indian consumer.

Chevy was launching a car in an already cluttered segment that was dominated by Honda and Skoda with 32% & 26% share respectively. Further, the image of Chevy took a hit in India post GM filed for bankruptcy in U.S. and hence, Chevy was not considered at the time of purchase. While the Cruze is a category breaker, the biggest challenge was to excite the TG and push them to consider the Cruze by demonstrating the segment first innovative features such as PEPS.

Out of a total of 377 people who we sent the DM to, we wanted at least 7% to test drive Cruze and consider the product. We sent the DM to 377 HNI Golfers. Why? A market research for the segment was conducted by Chevy that highlighted the need, interest and market share of the HNI Golfer community. On further probing, we found that while the HNI Golfer is constantly looking for style statement and a bold impression, he is also value conscious and hence, looks for the best of both worlds – value and features which Cruze is offering.

Since Cruze is a category breaker offering the segment first features, we wanted to create excitement & buzz around the product and make the TG ‘FEEL THE PULL’. OgilvyOne took the responsibility to generate hot leads through direct mailers which were sent to an external base of HNI Golfers

The creative hook used was that of temptation. Temptation has always caused human beings to lose their resistance power and fall for it. It started way back at the time of human evolution. Adam fell for the forbidden fruit in a bid to explore and seek knowledge. Temptations lure everyone, only this time, the form has changed.

In a small wooden carton, we sent across a real APPLE (with hay around it, just like the way it is packaged to ship) with the message - "Great temptation has always caused man to fall for it. Adam fell for the forbidden fruit; now it’s your turn."

Upon lifting the lid, you will find the Cruze brochure + a letter + response devise. The letter will explain about the temptations that Cruze creates. And hence, enticing him/her to test drive/book for it.

The responses cannot be shared due to confidentiality issues.

ITC WelcomGroup - Start on a fresh palate

2010-01-13T00:39:00.000-08:00

The Challenge:

Draw in an audience used to India’s bastardised version of Chinese cuisine with its kitsch potpourri of red dragons, paper lanterns and fake ‘Ming’ vases, to savour contemporary Chinese food at My Humble House - the speciality restaurant at ITC Maurya, New Delhi, that goes beyond all clichés. From the decor, presentation and cuisine, everything is atypical. Although the restaurant was launched earlier we needed to keep the momentum going and this was more of a follow up activity with the same message that "This is not the chinese that you are used to."

The Solution:

Implementation - In a dramatically atypical style, “erase” all remnants of Chinese tastes and perceptions by getting a new palate.

The creative idea translated this quite literally by numbing the palate with a strong mint placed inside the mailer. As the mint is tasted, it overpowers the taste buds, effectively cleansing them of all taste. Thus preparing the patron for the amazing sensory experience awaiting at My Humble House. In addition to the mailer, a poster was also made with an actual mint pack stuck on it. the poster was placed in the hotel lobby where guests could see and interact.

The Result:

Result - The mailer was sent to over 5000 people - the Who’s Who of the fine dining circuit that included ambassadors of diplomatic missions, corporate heads and top spenders of the hotel’s loyalty programme. Figures are currently not known and hence cannot be shared.

Pernod Ricard - Break the mould

2010-01-13T00:28:00.000-08:00

The Challenge:

2009 was the year of change for Pernod Ricard’s popular whisky brand, Blenders Pride. The brief was to enthuse the sales team and trade just before the launch of the new bottle in a manner that engages, excites and breaks their sense of déjà vu.

The Solution:

A very select audience of 300 recipients were sent a clay mould of the Blenders Pride bottle with a miniature hammer. The message urged them to literally break the mould, from within which emerged the new bottle. This ‘hands-on’ dramatic experience instilled a sense of pride of personally bringing the new Blenders Pride to life. And this was not all. From behind the mould, emerged the handy bottle-shaped brand booklet, highlighting all the new changes.

The novelty of this innovative mailer continued with the miniature Blenders Pride bottle, proudly sitting on the desk as a paperweight!

The Results:

How do you measure enthusiasm!? By the sheer spontaneity of response to the DM that became a breakthrough of sorts. It not only shattered mindsets but also defied all clichéd notions of ushering in change. The excitement and buzz generated across offices and the trade led to eager inquiries from almost all recipients about the launch date.

Seagate - I love my hard drive

2010-01-07T23:45:00.000-08:00

A story of a hard drive

A story which depicts what lovers want

A story which helped 1000s of lovers express their love on Valentine’s Day

A story which was shot in India but got publicity in Singapore

A story which got famous in just 10 days by spending only Rs 6 lacs

A story which got a fabulous click through rate of 0.8%

A story which generated a demand of over Rs. 72,00,000 in 10 days

A story which helped Ogilvy get over 3 times this budget for the next online campaign

Today, the Indian external hard drive market stands at 1,20,000 units per quarter. In revenue figures it comes out to be at INR 456,000,000. Out of this 1,20,000 units, Seagate commands a market share of 50%, with its immediate competitor, Western Digital far behind at 15%. The rest of the market share is owned by small players and the DIY category (‘Do It Yourself - DIY means, usage of internal laptop hard drives with an external casing.)

Our recent online research found out that Seagate is very popular among the male audience because of Seagate’s decade old market leadership in internal pc and laptop hard drives. But to grow the external hard drives market, female audience can’t be left out. The current female audience of Seagate was only 5%. So, the marketing task for us was to grab the attention of the female audience as soon as possible.

The activity was planned to fulfill the following objective:

To interact with 15% of the female audience out of the total TA

To achieve this 15% figure we planned to fulfill the following 3 objectives in our total media budget of 5.5 lacs with duration of 10 days:

a. To generate 1000 Valentine contest entries

b. To generate 250 product enquiries

c. To generate campaign CTR of 0.5%

The campaign was targetting data guzzlers. Males and females within the age group of 20-35 years. Who are currently in a love relationship. These are the people who are deeply attached to their loved ones and the moments spent with their loved one are not just moments, but memories for a life time. For these lovers, Valentine’s Day becomes the most important event of their lives. They would like to gift the most precious gift during this event in a most differentiated way.

They are the ones who spend maximum time online but particularly on Orkut/ Facebook. If they are in office, they would want to spend their maximum time chatting with their loved one; if they are at home they would be logged on to G-chat. To some extent they are the most evolved digital medium users. Their Facebook / Orkut account will always be updated with their pictures, videos and scrapbooks.

Data guzzlers need space. Space to store stuff from their music to their memories. Space which is portable and can be accessed from virtually anywhere. Valentine’s Day on the other hand is a day of reliving memories. A day of expressing your love and finding ways of capturing these moments and immortalizing them.

The strategy was to then find a fit between the two for which a Valentine’s Day contest was designed which allowed the users to express their love to their loved ones with the help of Seagate’s interactive platform. The best Valentine message delivered would stand a chance to win the couple individual gifts -“one for him and one for her”

a) FreeAgent – Portable Hard Drive

b) Diamond jewellery

Step by step campaign execution:

Step a – A user sees the Valentine communication through display banners on various sites like (Yahoo, Rediff, Indiatimes, Tech2) / Google text ads and third party emails

Step b – After clicking on these online ads, the user lands on to a micro-site which consists of a 2D product demo, a contest form & a purchase form. The user is asked to fill up the form

Step c – User receives a thank you message with the help of an auto generated email

Step d – A user who has filled up the “Purchase” form receives a call back within 24 hours.

Innovations across the media:

Specific valentine related keywords like valentine gift, valentine, valentine contest were bought to draw attention of Valentine info seekers on the Google search engine

Yahoo messenger, Orkut, HI5 and Facebook were the additional media sites selected to target the active female audience.

A dedicated customer care centre was set up by the client to follow up on the product enquiries

4 additional elements which led to the success of the campaign were:

1) Viral nature of the contest

Every Valentine love message received in the micro-site was sent to the other half with the help of an email. The other half was told that if he/she also fills up the form then both the partners stand to win prizes individually and also in pairs.

The idea of keeping diamond jewellery with portable hard drives was to make it exciting for both the partners.

2) Form factor

Instead of keeping one form to capture the Valentine contest leads, we kept two forms to segregate the contest leads from the potential buyers’ list. A user was given an immediate option to either play the contest or put in a request to buy the product.

All the users who had filled up the form to buy Seagate’s FreeAgent external hard drive received a call back from the Seagate’s customer care in the next 24 hours.

And all the users who had played the contest received an email from Seagate’s customer care about the FreeAgent external hard drives.

3) Timing in follow up

In response to earlier campaigns a sudden jump of 20% in the sales closure was seen due to a call back lead time of max. 24 hours. Quick follow up led to quick closures.

The campaign got the all time best figures as given below:

Particulars Projections Actual

Female audience interaction 15 % 30 %

Valentine contest entries 1000 1700

Product enquiries in units 250 900

Campaign CTR 0.5% 0.8%

Motorola Campus Rock Idols

2010-01-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

Continuing its push to forge deep emotional connects with youth in the music space, Motorola took on the mantle of promoting Campus Rock Idols (CRI), the biggest rock talent hunt in India.

While the on-ground event chain helped reinforce the association, sustaining momentum beyond the event was necessary to keep the relationship alive and thriving. This was a ripe opportunity to build an inclusive community of music, musicians and music fans like never before. To help celebrate music and music addiction 24/7. http://www.campusrockidols.com/ was the way this opportunity was brought to life, to:

- provide easy online registration of participating bands for the event

- be a forum for visitors to get official information about the event in the current and past years

- provide a portal for young artists and their fans to engage with each other via videos, pictures and shared opinions

- keep the buzz around CRI alive round the clock

Music is not just a philosophy to own but a ground reality to live and swear by. How does Motorola entrench itself as a solid part of this reality?

Campus Rock Idols existed before Motorola began its association with it. It was sponsored by other brands looking to associate with youth, but with no real connection to the world of music. The challenge then was to appropriate CRI so Moto would be the stand-out association with it. It was also a two-way street. For all the mileage Motorola could gain, it first had to build CRI into an inimitable property, one that stood for youth and music, and induced greater audience participation for the on-ground 10-city event.

The objective thus that lay before the brand to fulfil were :

• To build an online property for Campus Rock idols- the biggest rock talents hunt for India.

• Generate event awareness & drive traffic to www.campusrockidols.in

• To reinforce the association of Motorola with the Youth and Music.

• To provide a online platform for registration of participating bands for this event

• To build a forum for visitors to get official information about current and past events

• To build an online community of young artists so that they use this portal, view videos and pictures and share their views with others in the long run

o Target CTR was 0.5 % for the online campaign

Motorola in the process were trying to target Rock followers - a fanatic breed with strong preferences and aversions, entering their lives through the formative stage of CRI, presents the opportunity to connect with the heart and mind of this hard-to-reach yet the most significant target audience.

As Motorola was one of the most desirable brand amongst the youth, CRI was the best platform with the right kind of environment to reach out to the youth. And be part of their lives with their kind of music.

• TG- 16-24 Yrs. M/F, college students, Rock music lovers and active net users

• Targeting- India

• Ultimate Target was to reach-3.4 Million college students

The strategy deployed was to:

• Create an online presence and help drive traffic to the website along with tracking results to ensure success

• Build a website with registration made simple by giving the visitors both offline and online options:

1) Offline: Downloading the form from website and submitting the registration at Moto store or

2) Online: Online submission to an email id given by sponsors

• Create an online media plan including keyword search

• CRM initiatives like Virals to spread the word around

Activities scheduled

• First On ground event : 24th October 2007

• Regional events scheduled in between

• National Final: 2nd December 2007

Execution schedule

• Website went live on 11th October 2007.

OgilvyOne’s Role:

• Design and development of Campus Rock Idols website as well as online banners

• Selection of portals for banner deployment

• Running a Google search campaign on youth and rock music targeted keywords

• Integration of Google analytics for the website

• Performance tracking of banners and search keywords

• Design & development of viral emailer as a part of this campaign

The Results:
• Website results:

o Traffic (Tracking from 2nd November 2007 to 3rd December 2007):

 25,051 Unique visits across 61 countries / territories (96% traffic from India) and 37,899 page views in a tracking period of one month.

 Daily visitors traffic reached a peak of 1,819 Unique visitors on 27th November 2007

 Within India, the top visitors were from New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai in that order

 On an average, 808 visitors per day on CRI website

 13.07 % visitors are repeat visitors who keep on coming back to CRI website out of a total of 25,051 visits

 8.89 % visitors had visited CRI website for 2 or more times

 12.84 % visitors had spent more than 1 minute to a max. of 30 Minutes (0.68%) on the website

 The plan reached approx. 83% of the TG- approx i.e. 2.8 millions college students using Yahoo, Rediff & Google.

o Rock bands Registration:

 765 visitors downloaded registration form and left behind their name, email id and City information

 431 visitors signed up for future updates and left behind their name, email id, complete postal address, Mobile No., Name of the participating band and City.

 More than 300 application forms received and more than 180 bands participated

• Online Plan Results:

o 5,425,742 Impressions and 39,054 clicks delivered at a campaign click through rate (CTR) of 0.72% as against a target CTR of 0.5%

o Yahoo performed exceptionally overall contributing 55% of total clicks. Messenger Lrec banner contributed 30% of overall clicks.

o Rediff fell short of estimated clicks by 12% but overall the mailer performed better than logout banner.

o As expected search performed very well. CPC bid based Keyword search ads gave better results than CPM based flash ads.

The Fundamentals of Customer Value

2010-01-04T23:43:00.000-08:00

A lot has been said on customer value. And entire business models have been built around this concept. I have simply tried to collate my understanding on the subject and share my experiences with you.

Successful customer relationships are built on the bedrock of superior customer value. To attract and retain your most important customers, you must understand what they care about and what value propositions will appeal to them. While “value” is an overused buzzword, we rarely pause to reflect if we really understand what value is.

It is a natural human failing to question the concepts that we think we know well. We don’t know who it was who discovered water, but we are pretty sure it wasn’t a fish. In my 10 years of experience in this industry I have read a number of pieces about different aspects of creating, delivering and capturing customer value. But this is my first attempt to distill my understanding of customer value into six fundamental lessons. I would encourage people to add to these lessons or even criticize them.

What is Value?

The dictionary defines value as “Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor.” As this definition suggests, value is the assessment of “all that you get in return for all that you give” in an exchange. More formally I define customer value as “the perceived worth of a set of benefits received by a customer in exchange for the total cost of an offering, taking into consideration available competitive offerings and price.”

Consider an example. When a customer buys a new BMW car he gets a certain level of performance, comfort, safety and entertainment benefits from the car. He also gets service benefits like financing, warranty, repair, scheduled maintenance and roadside assistance. And he gets the social status of belonging to an exclusive club of BMW owners. In return the customer invests money, time and effort in searching for the right car and dealer, negotiating the right deal arranging for financing and maintaining the car over its lifetime. The customer will asses the BMW’s value based on how these benefits, weighed in proportion to the importance that he placed on the benefits, compared to the total cost of buying and owning the car. The customer’s assessment of value is also influenced by other new cars he may have considered, the car he currently owns, as well as the alternative of taking public transportation instead of owning a car.

The definition embodies six fundamental lessons on customer value.

1. Value is Customer-Defined

You don’t define value. Your customers do. As peter drucker the father of management theory, notes, “what the business thinks it produces is not of first importance … What the customer thinks he is buying, what he considers value, is decisive. And what the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product does for him.”

So the first lesson of value that I learnt is that value is that what you sell (products and service) and is not what your customers buy (utility and value). You may grossly misunderstand what business you are in if you see your business through the product lens. It is a myth that “If you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door.” Customers don’t want mousetraps. They want to get rid of mice. While you may be busy building a better mousetrap, the customers may simply get themselves a good house cat!

To understand how customers define value, we must first focus on the outcomes that customers want when they buy and use these products. This will help you understand what your real business is. Of the 10 odd years that I have spent in this industry and the many brands that I have handled, I can think of one great example to share with you at this stage. Lafarge Cement. They understood that their real business was actually helping customers complete their construction projects and not selling bags of cement. At the end of the day, no one wants to buy cement; they want to build a house or a bridge or a road. They are looking for a solution. And thus was born a revolutionary idea “The Lafarge Home Building Center”. Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon, echoed the same idea when he famously observed, “In the factories, we make cosmetics. In the departmental stores we sell hope.”

2. Value is Opaque

If value is actually defined by customers, you need to get inside their hearts and minds to really understand value. Needless to say, this is a very difficult task. As Drucker notes “What is value for the customer … is anything but obvious.” Quantifying value is difficult, because we don’t understand customers, customers don’t understand themselves, and we don’t speak their language.

The first hurdle in quantifying value is that we don’t understand customers as well as we should. I recently read an article on how Mattel failed to understand the Japanese market for its Barbie dolls. Mattel was at a loss to understand why its word famous Barbie doll wasn’t an instant hit in Japan. After much qualitative research, they discovered that Barbie’s legs were too long and her chest too large – physical attributes that young Japanese girls could not relate to. To appeal to Japanese sense of beauty and aesthetics, Mattel changed Barbie’s dimensions and made the dolls eyes brown instead of blue.

The second barrier in quantifying customer barrier is that customers don’t always understand their own motives and cannot always articulate what they want. Consider the inexplicable popularity of growing functions and features on your mobile phone. 50% of which you simply never use. Yet, if one were to remove it from your mobile, would you buy it? My guess is no. Being a gizmo freak, I have spent time in mobile shops and it has amused me to see customers asking the dealer if the phone contains features like Bluetooth, VPN (Virtual Private Network), POP 3 mail facilities etc. On probing further I realized that a majority of them didn’t even know what they were, yet they wanted it. Cause everyone else has it. This has made me come to a conclusion, that the smarter you are with technology the better your chances of survival in the urban jungle, where everyone is trying to bump the other one off. No one wants to look like an idiot who is all thumbs when it comes to technology, the new wave to hit our country. So, unless you plumb deep-seated customer motives and emotions, you run the risk of misunderstanding what drives their perception of value.

The third challenge is that marketers don’t speak the customer’s language. Let us look at a hypothetical situation. If you were conducting a research on attributes that customers would consider important while buying a HDTV (High definition Television) do you think “aspect ratio” would be considered an important parameter. My guess is “NO”. In case you are thinking what is aspect ratio? Well, it’s a term used to define that HDTV screens are more rectangular than other regular TV screens, with a length to width ratio of 16:9 instead of 4:3 for regular TV. Confused? Well, I’m sure customers too will be and this feature would not score very highly in your research. Realize this, the average customers do not understand techno-speak. Try this, If you were to reword your description of aspect ratio to “cinema like wide screen” do you think they would rate it highly. “Bingo” you have him right where you want him to be. He is suddenly interested.

To make value transparent you must realize that you are not the customer. The first principal of customer research is “I have met the customer and he is not me.” Develop empathy with customers by walking in their shoes and feeling their pain. It is a good idea to spend a few days in the life of your consumer to understand their hopes, fears, problems and ambitions. This is a lesson I have learnt from a dear friend and planner colleague of mine called Saurabh Sharma. Thank you Saurabh, for making me realize and experience this.

3. Value is Contextual

Value like beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. So it is irrelevant to talk about the value of a product without knowing the context within which the product will be evaluated, bought and used. Context has three dimensions: the end user, the end use situation and the environment. Customer assessment of value will be a function of who they are, what they want to do and the environment in which they live and work.

For example, a mother choosing a digital camera to take pictures of her child may value ease of use and convenience in a camera. A professional photographer on the other hand may emphasize on image quality, resolution and advanced controls. Hence the expression “Different strokes for different folks.” This is the essence of customer segmentation – identify groups of customers who have similar needs and priorities, who therefore will tend to respond similarly to your offerings.

4. Value is 3D

A common myth in marketing is that customers choose products purely based on superior features and functions. While functional value is important, it is only one of the three dimensions of value. Besides functional value customers also consider emotional and economic value. Emotional value is the psychological value that a customer derives from owning, using and buying a product. Economic value on the other hand is what the product is worth in terms of time and money.

Consider the value proposition of an Apple Power Book. According to Apple, The benefits of the Power book are its powerful processor, bright screen, expandability and flexibility. But to close a sale Apple must also demonstrate economic value of a Power book – Improved productivity for end users as well as GUI application developers. As far as the emotional value of owning a Apple product goes, well, just ask an Apple user and he will tell you.

Functional value is a good starting point but we need to translate functional value into economic value and develop emotional appeal which make the product far more sustainable.

5. Value is a Trade-off

Value is defined, as he perceived worth of something in relation to the total cost that customers pay for it. In fact it is a trade-off between the total benefits that customers get against the total cost they incur. So, in effect there are two ways of increasing customer value: Either increase the total benefits you offer or reduce the customer’s cost. It is important to understand that the purchase cost is only one element of the Customers total cost. We need to look at his total cost of ownership (TCO) and evaluate it to the benefits offered.

Sometimes customers may themselves not be aware of the hidden costs of using a product. Imagine a conversation between a pharmaceutical company CEO and a supplier of plastic. Now suppose the plastic supplier is trying to get the CEO switch to plastic bottles instead of the regular glass bottles. What is the first thing that the CEO would say? “Are your plastic bottles cheaper?” A classic case of the customer not seeing the TCO. The smart plastic supplier will try and show him his TCO of glass bottles and how plastic can add more value. First of all, plastic weighs less as compared to glass so the transportation cost would be lower. Secondly, plastic is not fragile so breakage loss would be lower. Thirdly, plastic bottles would save on labeling cost as u can print directly on plastic bottles. Fourthly, you can deliver plastic more frequently and in small batches thereby reducing inventory-holding cost. And finally the production line would be run faster as there is no breakage. As the example suggests there are several hidden costs in using glass bottles and the CEO was not even aware of them. To make an accurate value trade-off you must make sure that customers see the full picture of benefits as well as costs.

6. Value is Relative

Customers always evaluate value relative to available alternatives. Particularly the next best alternative. Some management gurus call this the customers “Best Available Substitute or Equivalent” or BASE. Customers always have a BASE, even if you don’t think you have viable competitors. If you don’t know your customers BASE you will never know the frame of reference customers use to make buying decisions.

Customers can use a variety of BASE to evaluate your product. This could be competition; it could also be your own product if you are trying to sell upgrades or new versions of your own product. Status Quo can be a BASE too. Doing nothing is always an option. And it is often a fairly attractive option as it entails less risk.

So whenever you think of value, you need to think of who or what you are up against, because this is the frame of reference that your customer uses to evaluate your value proposition.

Firms that adopt the value mindset think differently about the customers whom they focus on, the value proposition that they create for their customers, the growth strategy that they employ, the way they organize they marketing and sales organization, and the way they measure and reward success. Broadly we need to move from a product mindset to a customer value mindset.

In stormy economic seas, value can serve, as an anchor by reminding you that every initiative you engage in should be grounded in a clearly articulated customer value proposition. If you focus relentlessly on defining value as customers do, designing your offering based on what customers value, and measuring your performance in terms of value that customers experience, you will be well on your way to creating successful customer relationships.

Customer Satisfaction

2010-01-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

We have heard many companies claim how satisfied their customers are with them; they claim to have a satisfaction rating of 95 percent. However, it is very dangerous to define customer satisfaction simplistically, especially if you work out any customer plan or strategy based on oversimplified figures. Based on industry observations, any customer satisfaction measurement should cover the following variables:

Product

Service

Relationship

Price

Convenience

Brand/Image

Total customer Experience

But what is customer satisfaction?

Sometimes we find that although we have delivered a high level of products and services to our customers, they are not as satisfied as we presume. What’s gone wrong? Technically we are bang on. We have tried to deliver a complete experience to the customer, then why isn’t he satisfied? The satisfaction equation is missing one element: customer expectation. It is created by your company and your competitors, as well. Be aware that the expectations of the customers are constantly increasing.

“The quality of your customers experience is not a direct result of the objective quality of your products and services. Instead, customer satisfaction is more a function of how closely your customers’ experiences with your business conform to their expectations.”

So if one were to look at it as an equation one could simplify it as follows:

Customer Satisfaction = Customer Experience – Customer Expectation

The larger the positive gap the more satisfied your customers are and the larger the negative gap the more dissatisfied your customers are.

Let me give you an example if it still isn’t clear. Recently I was in Jaipur and went to shop at the local market called Bapu Bazaar. I wanted to buy my mother a bandhni saari. I had heard that bandhni saari is a specialty of Jaipur and one shouldn’t leave without buying one. Obviously before I went there I had surveyed the market and planned my budget. I heard Bapu Bazaar was a pace where you could bargain heavily. I also knew that the rock bottom offer should be around 30% of the price listed by the store owner, and the list price of my favorite saari was RS 500. Thus RS 150 was the amount that I was willing to spend. So I walked into the shop and pretend that I was not interested, though I showed some minimum interest on one particular saari. When I was asked the price in my mind by the store owner, I knew the rules of the game was to offer an unacceptable price to make them counter offer to reach a deal. I offered RS 100 and started to walk away, and within seconds was called back and said the deal is done. What went through my mind? What do you think I would have thought and felt? The price is way below my budget, I got what I wanted. So what’s wrong?

I was now thinking if my offer of RS 100 was too high or if there are any defects in the saari. I still bought it but was surely not satisfied. I would have been more satisfied had I got the deal at RS 150 after rounds of negotiations and bargains.

Why? Because there wasn’t any real experience (negotiating & bargaining) and my expectations (to get the saari through clever tactics and the negotiation process) too were not addressed and met. Simply put: The customer experience was less than the customer expectation.

On the other hand, 2 years ago I ordered 12 books from Amazon.com to come by sea freight. After 12 weeks, my order arrived at my doorstep but when I opened it I found only 11 books. The delivery list attached showed 12 books.

What do I do? I emailed Amazon.com. In two days, the missing book was delivered by air. Bear in mind that during the whole exchange there are no questions asked. This “no question” experience far exceeded my expectation. So, has Amazon.com lost or gained? They’ve got me as an extremely loyal customer from now on, and I tell this story to everyone I know. Simply put: The customer experience is greater that the consumer expectation.

These simple experiences have enabled me to look at and understand customer satisfaction more closely. I’ve tried to put them down as an equation so that it could be simplified and easily remembered. So as I wander around in the local flee markets (I believe that the local shop keepers there are the best marketers and there is lots to learn from them) I’m constantly testing this equation to see if it works. Do tell me if you agree or disagree with this equation. I would be more than willing to listen and improvise.

Hutch - How do you make CEO's run?

2010-01-04T01:10:00.000-08:00

Business is a serious game. And CEOs don’t run!

CEO’s attend round table conferences, strategy summits and engage in high profile leisure activities like Golf, cricket, swimming etc. But somehow we don’t associate them with running. (There are a few exceptions to this of course but only a handful). And certainly not running in public with the masses.

The challenge here was to break this mindset (in this case, the CEO’s own) and get them to run in the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon (HDHM). Since this event was being organized for the first time in Delhi, there were no past experiences to refer to and this event itself would serve as a benchmark for future years. Further since it was being launched for the first time, it was extremely critical to set the tone of the event. And for that it was important to elicit participation from even the upper segment of the society. The database constituted of 100 top CEO’s who were also Hutch customers, held in high esteem by the society and seen as leaders in their fields.

The Idea: Shoes are sold in pairs. Period.

A single shoe is an incomplete story. Which almost calls out for unraveling. When we sent the single shoe to CEO’s, we expected them to turn around and ask for the other pair. And sure enough, they did. The programmed was designed to keep room for a follow up communication. We were aware that we were giving too little time for CEO’s to reschedule their busy lives and take out some time for the event, leave alone to practice. And therefore we sent them a reminder email and offered a RSVP number for them.

Out of 102 DM’s sent the exercise saw 34 CEO’s responding to the invite and 34 pairs of shoes were sent out. This gave us an exceptionally good response rate of 33.33% as compared to the expected 10%. There was a tremendous amount of word-of-mouth publicity that Hutch received amongst the high profile customers and decision makers.

In the larger context, Hutch was also able to establish a connect with its top end users and this exercise served as a platform for Hutch to build a relationship program with these CEO’s subsequently.

This entry won the GOLD at EMVIES AWARD 2006

Nokia - Designed for the way we work

2010-01-04T00:59:00.000-08:00

The only online campaign in India to use Dilbert. Nokia wanted the new E-Series phones to work as ‘Blackberry Killers’ - business phones that facilitate any kind of work. Linking the E-Series with Dilbert created an immediate association with office culture. OgilvyOne partnered Nokia in facilitating a tie-up with The Dilbert Group, where Scott Adams’ team suggested a set of Dilbert images responding to the creative brief by the agency. The campaign had a fun personality test that discerned the user’s style of working and recommended relevant phone features in sync with the user’s work style. The campaign saw approximately 6 lakh visits to the site with close to 34,000 registrations

Nokia wanted to position the new E-Series (E71 and E66) phones as the leaders in the Office Phones segment. The aim was to educate the consumers about the E-Series Phones, and to be perceived as the most sought after business phones. Nokia being the global market leader, it was an uphill task to keep up with the brand expectations.

Hence it was imperative to devise a campaign which people could relate to, recall and receive gratification from. The challenge was to strike a latent chord with the consumer and to be perceived as more desirable as compared to the competition. During the launch there weren’t too many mobile brands present in the business phone segment. The only strong contender was the Blackberry, which is purely a business phone. Nokia wanted to position E71 and E66 as phones supporting business and entertainment, thereby creating an edge.

The objective was to

1. To position E71 and E66 as business and entertainment phones

2. Engage the user to experience the features of the phones

3. Lead generation by generating traffic to the site

The campaign was targeted at Life Builders, Techno Stylists & Technology Leaders

• 25-40, male & female with a skew towards males and active professionals

• Existing Communicator users and competition email device consumers

• High technology phone users

The campaign strategy revolved around the idea of having a conversation about ‘the way we work’ and how Nokia E-series facilitates that with the two new devices in its line-up. The proposition was that Nokia E-series makes it easier for ‘doers’ to enhance their business because Nokia products/services are designed for the way we work.

The creative concept of ‘Designed for the way we work’ visually depicted the target audience’s working environment and their unique habits to show that the E-series phones work in the same way as they do and help them increase efficiency. By linking the E-Series phones with the character “Dilbert”, an immediate association was made with office culture. A fun personality test was devised to arrive at the user’s style of working and the proposition furthered was that whatever your style of working, the E-series can help by getting it done in an efficient manner. This was achieved by revealing the phone features that match the user’s work personality. The site also included a viral component where the user could get his personal work profile and a certificate of incredible potential and forward them to his friends.

The online campaign consisting of banners and eDMs effectively drove traffic to the site and converted the visitors to active registrants.

The site was developed in macromedia flash and seamlessly integrated with the backend to display results in real time, basis the user inputs. The site also delivered the user’s work profile and a certificate of incredible potential on the fly, which could be printed and also sent to a friend, to invite him to take the test on the site.

OgilvyOne partnered with Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, to do a tie-up with Nokia and co-ordinate the creative development according to the character guidelines.

Within a period of 5 months:

Total Visits to the site : 591,262

User Registrations: 33,211

Sales figures are confidential and cannot be shared.

ITC WelcomGroup - It’s time to revise geography

2010-01-04T00:51:00.000-08:00

To highlight the transformation of the restaurant, West View from offering just continental cuisine to a cuisine that was quintessentially European in nature. Check out how ITC Maurya went about this task.

For many years, West View, the restaurant at ITC Maurya, New Delhi specialized in continental fare. Keeping in mind, competition and shifting trends the restaurant had undergone a total transformation in terms of food and décor and it now served typical European fare. The task at hand was to establish in the minds of customers that West View now stood for all-things authentically reminiscent of the European countryside.

To establish the restaurant’s European lineage by highlighting the décor, the food and of course the largesse of an overflowing European farmhouse’s centre table.

The target audience consisted of the WelcomAward members – ITC Hotels Loyalty Programme base. We also wanted to target the guests who were staying with the ITC Maurya. How do you capture the many different flavours of a continent? The cue was to take into account the mosaic of flavours available across Europe.What could be more perfect to illustrate this mosaic of flavours than by sending a Direct Mailer that encapsulated the many nuances of Europe’s different regions in the shape of a tile.

Each part of the tile opened up to reveal the many flavours of a country. The line on the tile summed up this perfectly by saying: Europe now resides at West View.

The Direct Mailer had a great response with a 15 % response with the weekends seeing a larger turnout.

ITC WelcomGroup - The secret is out

2010-01-04T00:45:00.000-08:00

This was one spa that was conceived and designed to be like no other. Royal in inspiration it was contemporary in interpretation. Inspired by the Mughals love for perfection, symmetry and aesthetics it sought to revive a lifestyle perfected by Mughal emperors 600 years ago.The task was to create a buzz around this Spa and position it as the perfect tribute to the city that holds the wonder called the Taj Mahal.

There are numerous luxurious spas in India and the world and then there are spas that are the ultimate in indulgence and pampering. Now, how do you defy and transcend even this?

The answer: look back in history and reach the very courts of the Mughal Emperors to revive their love for rejuvenating therapies and exotic treatments which were transported to India from Turkey and Persia.

The result of this was the creation of paradise that would do even Emperor Shahjahan proud.

The objective was to turn the Royal Spa into the last word for rejuvenation and revival and to get the invitees to come and experience the magical treatments available. This would not only get them to experience the wonder of this Spa but also make the Spa the most talked-about.

We sent the DM to Diplomats, Ambassadors of Embassies, opinion makers, members of the press and the countries’ Who’s Who. due to confidentiality reasons, the database was drawn up by the client from the patrons at their specialty restaurants, in house guests and societies’ crème de la crème.

The strategy was to partake of a royal experience that took them back in time to the glorious era of the Mughals. And what better way of doing this than sending them the fruit picked from the garden of paradise that the Mughals so loved, and created on earth. For the Mughals the pomegranate was the fruit of eternity, the fruit descended straight from paradise. It was considered an aphrodisiac and the elixir of youth.

Given this, the recipient received a direct mailer which had hidden within it this very fruit of eternity: A full-blooded, ruby red pomegranate from Central Asia, the homeland of the Mughals.

The results were phenomenal and it whetted the curiosity of the invitees. The prelaunch was a full house affair and the spa was covered by all the leading fashion and lifestyle publications. There was a 45% response to the invites sent out and within months of opening, Conde Nast Traveler declared it the ‘World’s best city spa’.

ITC WelcomGroup - The Joy of Light

2010-01-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

To make the festival of lights, Diwali a memorable one, ITC sent its high end guests a Direct Mailer which broke the established norms of the usual gifts associated with the festival. It also reinforced ITC’s commitment to be removed from the ordinary and the obvious while pleasantly surprising its guests every time. Every year during Diwali, high end business associates and customers are inundated with a flood of gifts ranging from dry fruits, sweets, crockery to aromatic candles. So, for the receiver these gifts were something that arrived every year and often also recycled!

The challenge lay in engaging the receiver of the gift at a deeper level and also to use the occasion of Diwali as an opportunity to reinforce the values of ITC Hotels.

The objective was to shake the receiver out of his indifference and make this a gift he would treasure even beyond the expensive gifts of silver and crystal.

The top 200 WelcomAward Gold Card members who are leading business honchos and captains of industry. The database are part of ITC Hotels loyalty programme - WelcomAward. This database consisted of corporate heads, industry leaders and other distinguished guests who frequent the ITC chain for business and leisure.

How do you compete for attention against an ocean of expensive gifts in an imaginative, yet attention grabbing manner. In this scenario, the strategy used a familiar element of the festival: a diya, in an innovative fashion, which reflected the ethos of the company of multiplying the joy of luxury manifold.

All it takes to make Diwali the most sparkling, magnificent and grand affair is the light from one candle. One spark can light up a hundred flames and glitter brighter than a diamond. The creative demonstrated this in a vivid fashion by using the concept of creating an alcove or ala with reflective mirrors embedded in it. On lighting up the solitary diya, the effect thus created was breathtaking.

Much like the magical experience, ITC Hotels received calls asking for more such packs to send to family and friends. A lot of the guests who received the pack called up to congratulate on the originality and uniqueness of the gift itself.

ITC WelcomGroup - The divine welcome

2010-01-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

ITC Welcomgroup unlike any other hotels anywhere in India and the world. While they offer the most modern of amenities of facilities and privileges, what sets them apart is the Indian soul – that takes hospitality to a new level. And this is exemplified best by the manner in which ITC engages its guest and customers into the festivities. Diwali being one such fine example. The festival of lights is one of the biggest festivals in the Indian calendar. And ITC becomes an integral part of this occasion by joining the customer in their celebrations at home.

In a festival when customers receive gifts that are consumed and are of utilatiranian value, the challenge lay in sending a gift that was not just clutter breaking but also created an emotional connect. So how do you become a part of the lives of your customers?

To make the gift relevant to the moment and the occasion itself while simultaneously engaging the individual as well as the entire family. It was sent to The Silver Card Tier members of the WelcomAward Loyalty Programme.

To enter the homes of the customer and be a part of the celebrations. And as a guest you come bearing the gift of prosperity and happiness that will attract the blessing and a visit from the Goddess of Goodluck. Create a personal carpet of flowers by hand for the Goddess of Goodluck and Prosperity to walk on. A block was sent with a floral motif carved on it and a series of colours related to the auspicious occasion were also sent. The accompanying card invited the receiver to let creativity flow and use the block to let his imagination take over and create his own carpet. A diya was given to place in the centre, so that the light it emanated would bring to life the colors of the rangoli carpet.

It was one of the most welcomed gifts of Diwali and the receiver of the gifts showed their appreciation by not only making the patterns, but by also taking photographs and sending it to ITC.

Chivas in the Cards

2010-01-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

What better way to usher in the festival of lights than on a winning note? And who else can do it better than Chivas Regal, the scotch in which lives the soul and spirit of celebration. To spread the spirit of celebration and get more and more people to participate and raise a toast, a promotion was designed which gave a contemporary twist to an age-old ritual associated with Diwali. Which in essence was friends, family and relatives gathering together over a game of cards

Chivas Regal is all about animated conversation, great camaraderie and spontaneous celebration. Festivals in India also share the same spirit of getting the same joy in large measures, more so in Diwali. We wanted to make Chivas the spirit of choice on the occasion of Diwali and break the perception of ‘Chivas being too good for me’. The challenge lay in getting more and more people to taste Chivas and ask for Chivas by name.

The objective was to promote sales of Chivas during the festive season by doing a promotion wherein the brand retained its premium status. Yet, in such a manner that the high ground the brand enjoyed was not diluted. There was no database in question here. The promotion was conducted fine dining restaurants, upscale pubs and bars in the city of Delhi.

The overall strategy was to take something that plays an intrinsic part of pre-Diwali and Diwali celebrations such as card games and leverage it to our advantage.

So how did we do this? Simple, we tapped in on the very essence of the brand that of winning with effortless ease and sharing the spoils with an open heart with friends.

We created a special Chivas pack of 16 playing cards. All the aces had parts of the bottle displayed. Each customer who ordered a Chivas was served 4 cards from the pack. The smaller the part of the bottle revealed, the smaller was the reward. The bigger the bottle revealed, the bigger the reward. The customer who drew all aces, which put together, formed the entire bottle walked away with a bottle of Chivas.

This game of Chivas became a celebration in itself and became a great crowd puller. The game became the highpoint of the fine dining and pubbing experience. The promotion did phenomenally well. To the extent that the client wanted to roll this out as a national initiative.

American Express - An Invite to the Ultimate Platinum Experience

2010-01-04T00:03:00.000-08:00

Amex had conducted a spend stimulation exercise done amongst the Platinum GRCC base. For an audience base which is so premium, we needed a reason big enough for them to spend. What better reason than a chance to win a Lamborghini.

The promotion had come to an end and we needed to design an invite which was as premium as the prize to be won. The invite was for the felicitation of the winner. The handing over of the keys to the sexy Lamborghini Gallardo by none other than Abhishek Bachchan.

The invite had to be a fitting end to a fantastic promotion which gave the consumer access to a whole world of luxury and drive home the fact that the American Express Platinum Card is the most premium card you could ever own. With most brands desperately trying to grab a moment from the busy schedule of the premium consumer, the task to invite him to a felicitation ceremony seemed to be even more difficult.

This guy receives almost a hundred invites everyday for occasions ranging from brand launches to round table discussions. What was it that would make him choose this over the others? How could we stand out of the clutter of invites on his table and get noticed and considered? How could we connect it back to the brand proposition “Membership changes everything.”?

The invite needed to constantly remind him of what he couldn’t win and at the same time propel him into an elite group of people who rub shoulders with greats like Abhishek Bachchan. Making him secretly feel “Next time this has to be me.”

The objective was to send the American Express Platinum customer an invite for the prize distribution ceremony of the recently concluded Lamborghini spend stimulation program. The invite was sent to the top 100 spenders in the Lamborghini spend stimulation campaign conducted by American Express. The invite was for couples and on a first come first served basis. Spend data cannot be shared due to confidentiality.

The target audience was a base which is predominantly male with age group between 35+ to 60’ - Someone like Anand Goel, a typical businessman and with a minimum income of INR 2.5 mn + per annum. Given the nature of his profession – business, he travels frequently, across the globe and within the country, and enjoys fine dining, stays and entertainment. The database was built purely based on transactional data. The top 100 spenders were selected and filtered out.

The event was an exclusive evening where a super car was being handed over by a super star (Abhishek). There were almost 99 people there who came very close to winning this. We wanted to give them something which would constantly remind them of what they missed and how close they got to winning the Lamborghini. A miniature car of the Lamborghini was designed and used as the invite which would sit on his office desk everyday and remind him of the “Ultimate Platinum Experience”.

To capture the spirit of the promotion and prestige of the cardmember truly, a very innovative 3 dimensional invite was designed which involved keeping a miniature of the Lamborghini Gallardo car inside a mini cargo container with a ribbon of “Amex delivery” wrapped around it. As the cardmember opened the ribbon of the container, the Lamborghini would roll-out along with his invite to witness the handing over ceremony with Abhishek Bachchan in attendance.

The invite witnessed a full house but unfortunately the event had to be cut short as there were bomb blasts in New Delhi on that day.

Nokia - Defend Your Turf!!!

2010-01-03T23:54:00.000-08:00

“Defend Your Turf” was a 360 idea, which was crafted for Nokia. A national level 6 a side “Gully football” tournament was organized in 8 cities. The national winners would need to face “The Boys from Brazil” in the finals. In order to participate one had to walk into any Nokia Priority Shop and register their team. This helped in generating footfalls into the Nokia stores.

There were three agencies who were working together to bring alive this idea. OgilvyOne was responsible for all the online work done for this brand and its objective was to engage the consumer on the website. For this we created an online juggling game cashing in on the world cup football which was just around the corner.

For Nokia the challenge was in targeting the youth and getting a larger share of their minds. The current issues which plagued them were that Nokia lacked conversational currency and a clear and compelling proposition. It was fast becoming a brand which catered to various target groups and was beginning to mean different things to different people. Thus, there was a need for a well-defined, appealing tone of voice for the brand. Music and Sports were the two high grounds that it could take on to lick these issues and sports are what we went ahead with.

The objective of the overall programme was clearly cut out for us. A) Strengthen the Nokia Brand Preference amongst the Youth and B) Communicate our brand benefit in a more compelling way.

However, we had a tighter objective to get people to engage with the brand & programme and play the online game on the Nokia microsite. The game also needed to act as a viral program and generate a database of email ids, which could be used for a one on one emailing data acquisition exercise later.

The industry benchmark for the amount of time spent by this segment on a single online game was around 4 minutes. We obviously had to better that especially when there were so many soccer games available free online.

The campaign was directed to the Youth of India. Although almost a thousand years old, the contradiction is that, India in 2006, is a young country. As per government statistics 54% of its population now is estimated to be 25 years or below. For an emerging economy like India this translates into a highy achievement-oriented, productive and energetic workforce. Also it’s the target group which is most comfortable with technology, the web, gaming and more importantly mobile phones.

Trends showed that the youth of today are a bunch of people with huge expectations. The self confidence of India’s youth has grown exponentially since the country’s economy began to open up 14 years ago. There is a drive to succeed within their community and they are ready to take on the world. “We have the best brains and we can beat anyone – no one is ahead of us” is the new mantra amongst the youth today.

The strategy was to engage the youth via their passions. Football being a sport the country is quite passionate about and moreover the world cup was just around the corner. We had to say it right and give a compelling brand benefit – “Nokia connects me to my friends and my passions”. The strategy was to build in a tone of voice which was upbeat and optimistic. Dynamic and outgoing but not reckless and rebellious. Fun loving, spontaneous and humorous and not loud and brash. Cool and real and not condescending nor wannabe.

The proposition was to communicate “connecting people” to the youth in a compelling way.

The mechanics of the programme was to organize a “Gully football” tournament which would build on nokia’s football equity. It was also conceived as a programme which is relevant and scalable for all markets. This programme would be a unique opportunity for the youth to obtain peer recognition and to take on the best – “The boys from brazil”.

OgilvyOne’s role was to build the microsite and engage consumers through an online viral juggling game. Through this game you could challenge the best including your friends.

The central thought revolved around football. Why Football?

• Sports builds confidence & character which is important for youth identity development

• Football, being the most popular sports in Asia, has been selected as a key platform

• To enhance the existing football on-air EPL properties that were developed since 2003

• To create an on-ground total experience – events, venues products and online & support communities

• Reach a critical mass

– Most popular sport

– 92% are interested in football

– 83% play football

• Leverage on profile of 2006 FIFA World Cup

Why Online football Game?

• Gaming is the second largest revenue contributors after music.

• The world cup football tournament was around the corner.

• Since 2004-05, the percentage of online users has increased by 54% to 38.5 million users.

• 69% of males online are below 35 years of age.

A total of 2,68,700 visitors came to the microsite.

78% of these visitors tried out the online game.

35,768 unique email ids were generated through the game.

On an average a customer spent close to 19 minutes on the game. Industry benchmarks suggest that we spend close to 5-6 minutes on a online game.

Total of 65,678 wallpapers were downloaded from the microsite.

Chivas Art Invite

2010-01-03T23:43:00.000-08:00

Though Scotch whisky sales may have been showing little growth worldwide over the past few years, major Scotch brands are busy sprucing up to turn that trend around. With white spirits and wine being seen as a more contemporary option for the youth, the key was to make Chivas relevant, visible and put it back in social circulation.

Way back in 1997, the general alcohol drinker category contained a very significant percentage of Scotch consumers in the world. Since then, the markets have become more diverse in what they want to drink. Overall, Scotch whisky consumption has stabilized. And to a degree, we can say it had gone a bit out of fashion. Enter Johny Walker Black label in this context. Aggressive presence in duty free shops, clear articulation of value proposition – “Keep walking”, and association with active achieving sports like Grand Prix helped them to make JWB synonomous with premium scotch whisky.

And all this while the Chivas Regal bottle gathered dust in the bottom shelf of every man’s bar.

The challenge was to put Chivas back in circulation and make it more relevant and contempory to the premium scotch drinkers.

The objective was to create a compelling invitation to an “A – list” event: THE CHIVAS ART EXPERIENCE. This was one of the few occasions in which opinion leaders, business barons, fashion gurus, style divas and the gliteratti of the city got together and bid for the collective works of India’s leading contemporary artists. These are people who are flooded with invitations and are rarely seen in social gatherings.The objective was not only to get them to attend a Page 3 party but also to buy the specially commissioned art on display. In effect, it was not just eat, drink and be merry but eat, drink, be merry and buy expensive art.

The target audience comprised of the who’s who of Delhi & Mumbai. People like Farookh Abdulla, erstwhile chief minister of J&K, O.P. Munjal, CEO of Hero Honda, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, sarod maestro of India, Vir Sanghvi Editorial Director HT, were among the few guests of the Art exhibition. These are people who are flooded with invitations and are media shy. If these guys are seen drinking Chivas in public, it creates valuable equity for the brand.

For India, which merges a celebratory culture with spiritualism and growing materialism, modern art has become a symbol of success and self-confidence both abroad and at home. This is because art adds value, in terms of wealth as well as image, for newly rich Indians at a time when the country is becoming an internationally significant economy, growing annually at about eight per cent. People want icons that you can show off – you can’t put stocks and shares on your walls. Art is recognised now as a commodity, a product for investment, rather than something in daily life.

The strategy was to own Art as a brand property because to those who know, Chivas like art today, is a symbol of success and self-confidence.

For the task at hand Chivas organized an Art Experience in Mumbai and Delhi. Specially commissioned works of prominent and eminent, contempory artists were on display and for sale. Invities were encouraged to complete the sensory experience and enjoy the evening while Chivas provided the social lubricant.

To break through the inertia of an audience with highly developed taste for art who had enough private means to have private art dealers sourcing for them, it called for a breakthrough and dramatic idea. The idea was to simulate an Artists Studio and to give him a first hand touch and feel of the tools that artists use to create masterpieces.

The invitation was designed as an Artists portfolio while some of its content also captured the feel of an Artists work bag. The miniture prints gave them a preview of the Art that would be on sale. This is an audience which is used to all things luxurious and grand. The reason why there were no short cuts when it came to attention to detail, scale and high production values.

The desired response was “If this is the invitation, imagine the event!”

90% acceptance and attendance

60% of the art displayed was sold. Value not divulged by the client.

The value of the paintings on display varied from RS 3 lakhs to RS 17 lakhs.

Tremendous word of mouth publicity and appreciation

Hutch - Pass The Flame

2010-01-03T23:34:00.000-08:00

When Hutch introduced the Half Marathon to Delhi, the objective was connecting with masses at large, and raising the stature of brand Hutch in Delhi.

While getting people to register has never been a challenge, the bigger opportunity here is to connect with people in huge volumes, amongst all age groups and different SEC profile. Hutch has since the time the marathon was launched, employed various media comprising of Television, print and outdoors, targeting different TA profiles.

What was missing till last year was an interactive campaign targeting youth. Given the efficacy of this channel and its relevance in a market as evolved as Delhi, Hutch sought to bridge this gap this year. And so was created the concept ‘Pass the flame’ – a flash based animated e-mailer as a viral marketing tool. The objective was to engage citizens and get them to start talking about the upcoming marathon. In short, create a buzz in the online world.

The Hutch marathon generally has around 25,000 people from all walks of life participating in it. Some run for a cause, some run for fun, some run because that’s all they know how to do … Whatever the reason the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon connects people together and for that one day paints the city “Pink” … This year saw the addition of the digital medium … Why digital? Because digital connects people and is the most accessible and fastest growing medium today.

According to IMRB, there are 37 million Internet Users in India (as of Sept 2006). While the top 8 metros (traditionally early adaptors) continue to be the biggest contributors to the internet population in India, usage is fast spreading to non-metros and smaller towns too what with a 39% share of total internet users. While applications like information search, entertainment and e-commerce are fast gaining increased share in terms of usage, traditional favourite email still continues to lead with a 45% share in Internet usage in 2006. Not surprisingly, brands are fast latching on to this fantastic medium that is adding more than 10L unique individuals every month, which can be accessed by people practically anywhere in the world, allows active engagement and what’s more, is cost effective. Digital marketing now features in the marketing plans of many a marketers’. Whether it is Cadburys’ digital extension of the famous ‘Pappu pass ho gaya’ campaign, Sunsilk managing to create active engagement with the brand through Sunsilkgangofgirls.com or even IL&FS managing to generate 60,000 leads for its online share trading in less than 2 months, its clear that brands including Hutch have acknowledged the potential of the medium and are capitalizing on it.

The primary objective was to spread the news and create excitement. Secondary objective was to build a database of email ids that could later be utilized for marketing promotions in the form of acquisition.

However this was the first viral marketing campaign undertaken by Hutch and no specific targets (in terms of numbers) were specified to the agency.

The campaign was targeted at people in large – anybody who lived in Delhi and NCR and who had an email ID. Because it was aimed at the online community, it is believed that the primary audience comprised of people between 18 to 35 years of age. People in this segment are:

• behaviorally most likely to respond to a communication like an e-mailer

• pass it on to their friends

• talk about it amongst their peers, and therefore serve our objective.

The communication was designed to strike a chord with Delhi-ites who have a sense of pride in belonging to Delhi, enough to participate in a community sport like the Hutch Delhi Half Marathon, either by way of running or by simply being the audience.

A marathon can be a very lonely battle for people who are not professional runners. And this works as the biggest impediment to registrations.

The strategy was based on this very insight. Run with your Friends is what we told people by designing an e-mailer that friends could in turn forward to their friends, inviting them to join the race. An effective viral marketing tool, this e-mailer could be forwarded by one person to five of his friends and as the e-mailer traveled from one group to another, Hutch was able to successfully spread the buzz about the Marathon and capture email ids of approximately 800 people.

The operations comprised of the following:

• The communication was released by Hutch to a select database of email ids, comprising of ids of internal employees as well as some selected randomly and belonging to people outside the Hutch community.

• The mail out happened 5 days prior to closure of registration.

• Every email id was personalised with the TA’s name and what’s more it allowed him to send it to five friends by entering simple data such as name and email id.

The communication message was to Pass the flame of the marathon by registering for to run or by being in the audience in case the TA did not wish to run. The e-mailer itself was animated and every time the mail was forwarded by one person to his group of friends, the flame of the marathon grew and the sender’s name was added to the group of Delhi-ites who had chosen to participate.

The idea was to “Pass the Flame around” … A virtual flame … A flame which re-ignites the spirit of the marathon within us … Why? Because not everyone is in a position to run on that day … We may be traveling, we may be in another city, we may be incapable of running … whatever the reason, we needed to find a way to get people to participate even if it meant without actually running …

The uniqueness of the creative lies in the fact that it managed to create affinity groups within the larger mass of Delhi-ites. And since these groups comprised of friends, there was a greater probability of their eventually running the marathon.

What’s more, there was a great deal of pride in someone getting this email by virtue of their being a Delhi-ite. But the honor did not end in case you could not run. The communication stressed that being in the audience, cheering the crowds was just as important as running itself. And therefore, so long as you belonged to Delhi, you had a role to play.

The execution was impeccable – the flame itself was lighted by the CEO of Hutch Delhi and it was then passed on to people at large – within and outside Hutch circles. The e-mailer was passed on by one person to another and the flame kept growing by an exact proportion. What’s more, the name of each of the person who’d passed it on was firmly embedded in the flame, for them to take pride in.

The email generated an active and validated database of 800 unique email ids.

But its success really lies in the fact that it created a lot of excitement in the Hutch circles where CEO’s of different circles expressed their appreciation of the initiative.

The e-mailer was in circulation only for 5 days but the buzz it triggered suggests that the responses could have been far higher if the activity had been given its due time.

General Motors - Let your heart decide

2010-01-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

The AutoExpo is the most sought aftered event by car lovers. Come the AutoExpo and we all look forward to the swankiest of cars across categories by a host of manufacturers. This year was special because the most sought aftered car – The Nano was about to be launched.

The SUV category also has seen many players recently entering and each one fighting for its own turf by trying to woo the customer by highlighting high tech features of the vehicle.

For GM this was a challenging task as the car is amongst the most expensive in its category and the reasons to buy had to be very very strong as compared to competition.

The communication focused on the emotions that an individual feels while driving a vehicle. For example frustration while driving through maddening traffic, or thrill while racing through the highway or wilderness. We used these emotions and linked them back to key features of the car to bring them out more beautifully. It was almost like saying “Let your heart decide”.

Till date India’s big car was a luxurious sedan. Only few players were fighting within the SUV segment like Ford Endeavour and Honda CRV. Ford SUV positioned on its macho factor and off roader feature while Honda positioned its SUV as more luxurious vehicle for the city.

The Captiva with its promise of “Choose your own turf” had smartly captured the gap and fulfilled the untouched need of the market - “the best of both worlds”.

The challenge thus was to make the Captiva the most favored SUV inspite of its steep pricing and to see the vehicle as being more superior to the Honda CRV.

Out of a total of 1000 people who we sent the invite to, we wanted at least 2% to come for the AutoExpo and 10% of those people who turned up should test drive and buy the product.

Mr. Harsh Mehta, 40, Investment banker in Mumbai. Progressive. Ambitious and doing well. Family man and enjoys weekend Getaway. Camping near the river.

NEED GAP: Tired of driving the sedan as it doesn’t make the adventure side of him come alive. Wants to upgrade but doesn’t see much difference in the Upper Medium segment offerings.

Position the brand as “Takes the rough with the smooth”. The launch was scheduled during the AutoExpo along with print media and online. OgilvyOne took the responsibility to generate hot leads through direct mailers which were sent to an external base of Citibank and HDFC’s HNI customers. The size of the database was 1000 in Delhi and NCR.

With the AutoExpo happening at the same time of the launch of Captiva, the task became tougher because Captiva also had to be top of the mind during the high decibel launches of other Cars (NANO, Fabia et all) during AutoExpo.

The entire DM was done in the form of an ECG, but with a twist. It demonstrated powerfully that behind the wheel of a Captiva, every road will feel good. The anger, frustration, felt in city traffic in their existing car simply vanish in a Captiva. While the lack of thrill, speed and control witnessed in their existing car in the wilderness turns into a pulsating experience.

15% people turned out to attend the launch event at AutoExpo on 9th and 10th of January.

Out of these 98 people actually booked a test drive for the Captiva.

This resulted in 11 people actually buying the car – a conversion rate of slightly over 11%.

Total amount spent on the invite was RS 4,10,000 and total sales generated RS 206,25,000. Since we are not aware of the margins we are unable to calculate an ROI for the same.

American Express - Party With Abhishek Bachchan in Goa

2010-01-03T23:20:00.000-08:00

Membership changes everything – the proposition that Amex wanted its customers and prospects to experience. So how does Membership change everything? What is so special in the Platinum experience? Well, truly we needed a reason strong enough to drive these messages home.

From a business point of view we wanted to increase our customer base through a member-gets-member program. Why? Because your customers are your true brand ambassadors and if they were given a truly platinum experience they would speak favorably for the brand and do the actually convincing on behalf of the brand. We leveraged Abhishek Bachchan and drove the Member-gets-Member program through a voice call and an emailer which was a personalized invitation to party at GOA. The catch being that you had to get a friend along.

With the premium end of the market growing at 11 to 12% annually, this target audience is lured in with promos and offers every single day with most brands trying to grab a share of their minds and wallets.

The Platinum GRCC card has a membership fee of RS 50,000 on it. In today’s day and age when all credit card companies offer you a free card with a host of benefits on it, who would want to pay RS 50,000 for a card? So if the customer is paying RS 50,000 for it he needs to see the value or at least feel special and be part of an elitist group.

What could we have done which was different? What could we have done which was attention grabbing and yet involving? We needed a MGM program that made him feel special and give him a chance to experience how membership changes everything. What’s more, we needed him to feel that American Express is the ultimate Platinum Experience that one could ever ask for and in this prestigious circle you rub shoulders with the likes of Abhishek Bachchan.

We were looking at getting approximately 200 new members through this MGM program.

• We were speaking to the Platinum GRCC base

• A base which is predominantly male with age group between 35+ to 60’s

• Mostly business people with a minimum income of INR 25 mn + per annum

• Having traveled a lot across the globe and one who enjoys fine dining & entertainment

The strategy was to allow the customer and the prospect a chance to party in GOA with Abhishek Bachchan and a friend. Very subtly it also demonstrated how membership changed everything and catapulted you into the elitist circle of a select few who enjoyed the Platinum experience.

The entire exercise had a very unique twist to it. Unlike the regular MGM programs that one is used to seeing, this had to be special. It had to demonstrate the Platinum experience. It had to be different. Something that was never done before.

We conducted the MGM through first a voice call in Abhishek Bachchan’s voice and then an emailer. Yes, a personalized call in Abhishek’s voice. The audio call had Abhishek inviting you and your friends to party with him in goa. All one had to do was recommend a few friends into the platinum club. On recommendation, their friends were sent a emailer urging them to buy the platinum GRCC card and see how membership changed things for them.

This was a huge success and saw a large number of recommendations pouring in. Beyond a point the program had to be stopped as it was becoming difficult to manage. All in all we saw close to 263 new acquisitions through this exercise.

American Express - Win a Lamborghini

2010-01-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

Win a Lamborghini contest - A spend stimulation campaign targeted towards the American Express Platinum Card Members

With the premium end of the market growing at 11 to 12% annually, the target audience is lured in with promos and offers every single day with most brands trying to grab a share of their minds and wallets. American Express Platinum Card though amongst the most prestigious of cards in India and offered only by invitation, is sought after by India’s burgeoning noveau rich more for its badge value and the exclusivity that comes along with it rather than using it for all their regular spends. As a result, the spends on the card were dipping.

The challenge was thus to do something different, attention grabbing and yet involving to make the members feel passionately about the reward and go all out to direct most of his spends to the Card, at least during the promotion period. What’s more, we needed him to feel that American Express is the Ultimate Platinum Experience that one could ever ask for.

The target audience was a base which is predominantly male with age group between 35+ to 60’ - Someone like Anand Goel, a typical businessman and with a minimum income of INR 2.5 mn + per annum. Given the nature of his profession – business, he travel frequently, across the globe and within the country, and enjoys fine dining, stays and entertainment.

We were talking to the 2500 RCP customers and the 11000 GRCC customers of American Express Platinum Card.

To entice Anand to accelerate spends on his Card, it was crucial to lure him with a desire that he could now fulfill. The strategy adopted was that not all desires are unrequited, some come true and the choice is in your hands – The American Express Platinum Card, the perfect card for wish fulfillment. So why live out your desire for the most lusted after race car in the world through a poster when you can own the dream machine – the Lamborghini Gallardo!

Hence the idea was to make the invite exciting and teasing which would play upon the desire of Anand and make him spend more and more through the Card. Every spend of Rs. 10,000 gave him a chance to enter the contest and win the car. Hence the more spends made by Anand through his card, automatically increased his chances to win.

The objective was to ensure at least a spend increase of 15% from existing card members during the promotion period.

While the campaign was directed at exisiting cardmembers, it also focused on getting new prospects to sign up for the Platinum Card. Hence for the new acquisitions, individuals with a high net worth in leading metros were targeted at.

The strategy was to sow the seeds of desire and awaken a man’s latent lust for owning the dream machine - the Lamborghini. The entire invite was designed as an oversized poster (34’ X 24’) of the Gallardo with a teasing message “Why drool when you can cruise”.

The car was shown in full glory with very little branding on it so that Anand could display it as a wish unfulfilled and at the same time be constantly reminded that this could actually be his. The invite was sent in a tube much like a collectible or favourite memorabilia.

The dream machine often remains just that – a dream. Something to gaze at on the wall but rarely see it parked in the driveway. This was the insight for the creative idea: an attention grabbing invite designed in the form of a 34’x24’ poster of the Gallardo. The kind that’s pinned up as a wish unfulfilled. The invite was sent in a tube, much like a collectible or favourite memorabilia.

The Platinum Card was the key to turning this dream into reality. And all it took to win was spends on the Card. What’s more, every Rs.10,000 charged to the Card was a ticket to enter. So, the more the spends, the greater the chances of winning.

The mailer increased spends on the Card by almost 25% as against a projected 15%

What’s more, the mailer created a buzz and the card members called in with requests for more copies of the Lamborghini poster to meet the requests of friends and family.

Cost of Mailer: RS 125 per mailer

Cost of Mailing: RS 15 per mailer

The mailer changed perceptions in the consumer’s mind that cash was not necessarily the best way to pay. Using the Card was not only more rewarding but it also got you a gleaming new Lamborghini: Imagine winning a INR 2,50, 00,000 car with a spend of INR.10,000.

UNITECH - The Home of Five Senses

2010-01-03T22:54:00.000-08:00

The Home of Five Senses campaign was aimed at arousing the interest of real estate buyers into investing in a prime real estate that was like no other.

India was witnessing a real estate boom. The economy was thriving. The market place was flush with premium properties. And the rich have the best of it all. Spacious bungalows, little patch of green, Jacuzzi, et all. Except that these are little patches of green in a concrete jungle. So, the view is limited to a few hundred meters, after which the concrete jungle rears its ugly head. Given this, even the richest of them all aspire to get away from it all and escape to an ideal world – 360 degree views of verdant green, bird song, hanging gardens, golf course winding through, suspended plunge pools and a select habitat with few likeminded individuals as neighbours.

Enter Unitech Grande, a world-class living experience that makes all these wishes come true with 97% open space that offers a unique experience still unmatched by the competition.

The challenge was in successfully demonstrating this experience that living in Unitech Grande would offer.

The target audience was the top most rung of high net worth individuals with earning in millions and a taste for fine things of life. Somebody on the likes of industrialists like Gautam Singhania or Ajay Bijli, who are used to the good things in life , be it food, travel, the cars they drive or even the exclusive neighborhoods in which they reside. 500 of New Delhi’s ‘Who’s Who’ was invited. The list was provided by client.

To entice the target audience, an experiential route was taken and turned into a tactile, sensory journey so that it became an unforgettable experience. The DM thus painted a picture of a unique habitat called Grande through essences, aromas and the elements.

A personally hand delivered DM was sent to the top 500 of New Delhi’s richest individuals that made them embark on a journey of life on a magic isle.

Imagine living in a home surrounded by the elements that make us and the sights, sounds and scents that surround us. In fact, each of the elements that live in us has its own special essence which the Mughals had even distilled and bottled. Taking these elements to be the elements that create the ideal home, a direct mailer was sent to the target audience that set them off to a special cosmos where only a select few will reside.

Inside the mailer were enclosed all the five elements and their essence in vials, each with the distilled essence (Itar) of fire, earth, water, wind and sky. It offered the recipients an almost sensual glimpse of how it felt to stay in a place like Unitech Grande - a cosmos deep inside a magical forest.

387 of the recipients (Top 500 of New Delhi’s richest individuals) showed interest and requested for more information. 58 of those requesting information actually (14.98%) booked these exclusive homes within two months of the mail out.

Production cost information: INR 1800 per mailer

Cost of mailing out the DM: INR 150 per mailer

Total cost per mailer: INR 1950 per mailer

The creative idea was atypical to real estate communication. It gave brick and mortar soul through a feast of the senses not only did it evoke keen interest in the property but also led to people booking homes.