GAME CHANGERS

When we think of #sustainability, we often think of plastic, emissions and such elements, but it never strikes us that a simple thing as a tennis ball could be playing havoc with the planet. Every year, 300 million tennis balls are produced and hardly any of that gets recycled. 

ABN AMRO Bank N.V. being the sponsor of The ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament wanted to do something about it as they believe in the circular economy.

They recycled tennis balls and came up with completely new products, including a playground. This took the tennis world by surprise and got them great earned media. You can read all about it in the link below, and also see the case study video that made them the winner at The Drum Experience Awards 2019. 

                                          ABN Amro turns tennis balls into playground

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STAR WARS

On 20th Dec, Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker will have its premiere, and to build up the excitement for that, the team behind it is coming up with various marketing ideas across different countries.

In Philippines, the team has launched a beautiful ad film, which shows two young kids going to crazy lengths, working on a mysterious project to create something magical.

The film has been made by Wunderman Thompson Philippines and the beauty of the film is in it finer points:

1. You do not need to know the language to understand the ad. The message can be understood by everyone.

2. The entire film keeps you intrigued, really showing the power of storytelling. 

3. The end is surprising and makes you smile.

Enjoy this gem of an ad.

EDIBLE COFFEE CUPS

Every year, millions of plastic cups are used across airlines and then dumped into the growing pile of plastic that lies in the world.

New Zealand airline Air NZ knew that they had to do something about it, as they serve 8 million cups of coffee on their planes annually. 

So, they have just introduced edible coffee cups in their lounges and all their flights as a test. Made in partnership with the NZ company Twiice, these plant-based edible cups are vanilla flavoured and can withstand the heat from the coffee without melting. 

Some time back, they had already started serving #coffee in biodegradable cups, but this is definitely a step further. Having edible cups on board will also reduce the weight that they carry and further help in reducing the greenhouse gas that planes release. It is a great step forward towards a #sustainable planet.

2020 ROGER FEDERER COIN

If you are a tennis fan, enthusiast or aficionado, then chances are that you love Roger Federer or admire his achievements. 

He is often hailed as G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time) because of his consistency, longevity, passion, humility and hunger for more. With 103 tour-level titles, including 20 Grand Slams to his name, it is hard to debate that at all. 

The Swiss Government tends to agree too. In honor of his achievements, they have done something unusual. 

It is for the first time in history that a living person will be immortalized on a Swiss coin: Roger Federer! 

Swissmint, the official mint of the Swiss government, will be producing a special silver coin bearing Roger Federer's name and face. The heads side of the coin shows #Federer playing a one-handed backhand.

The denomination of this coin will be 20 CHF =~20 USD. It is a limited edition and a total of 55,000 such coins will be released. 

The coin went on sale from Dec 2nd. As soon as Federer posted the link himself, the website got 2.5 million hits and crashed a few times. 

In May 2020, the Swiss mint will be releasing a Roger Federer gold coin with a 50-franc denomination as well. 

Now if that does not define #success and #legacy in capital letters, then what does?

CHANGE

When organisations want to bring in #change, it is extremely important that they plan properly and consider all five elements that matter and bring them all together. 

These five elements are: Vision, Skills, Incentives, Resources, and Action Plan.

Even if one of the element goes missing, it will not ensure a smooth transition and create more hurdles in reaching the final outcome.

OPEN 24 HOURS

Simple, effective and creative. The print campaign by McDonald's in Uruguay is brilliant. 

With the upside down text, the reader will turn the page around and as soon as she does that, she will notice that the time reads right on both sides, even though the time itself is different. The message is extremely clear. 

Conceptualized by TBWA\Worldwide, this is yet another example of a lesson in #communication - Do not try too hard. Keep it simple.

GREEN TEA IN A GUMMY

If you are in a rush and have no time to wait for that warm cup of green tea, but still want to enjoy the benefits, then the answer is here. 

Three New York entrepreneurs have come together and launched gluten-free gummies that come infused with #Matcha, giving you the fix of a green tea in a quick and convenient way. This is a good combination of functionality and fun. 

Currently available in a few select retail channels in USA (online and offline), the product will be scaled up, depending on the response. 

Matcha in a solid format is not something new. Chocolate brand KITKAT has been selling KITKAT Matcha for a few years now in the markets of Japan and Malaysia, and earlier this year, they had also done a Green Tea Matcha launch in Europe. There are other chocolate players also that have been selling a green tea flavour in their portfolio. 

With the acceptance of #greentea and matcha becoming more mainstream worldwide, we will continue to see it evolve into multiple products across different markets. The launch of these gummies is one more indication of that trend. 

What is your preference? A green tea in its pure form or green tea in a product format like this?

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Pic courtesy: Matcha Bears

DIGITAL ADDICTION: YOU DON'T KNOW IT

Have you ever been in a restaurant or a tourist spot or a public transport and seen most heads down, looking into their #mobiles or other #digital devices, even when people have company?

As long as you are conscious about it and it does not affect your conversations and relationships, it is fine. However, when mobile phone engagement overpowers the real and true engagement and you start neglecting your relationships, there is a problem there.

Delete Institute, an NGO in Brazil, dedicated to guiding and informing society about the conscious use of technologies through training, consulting and support has launched a fantastic print campaign that uses extremely powerful visuals and shows people in different situations, busy in their phones. 

The beauty of the campaign is that each of this black and white picture shows a typical scenario, but the digital device has been removed from the picture. 

Each picture ends with a powerful line Digital addiction. Only you can’t see it. Delete conscious use of technology.

 

QUALITIES OF A GREAT MARKETER?

In my opinion, great marketers have two qualities: 1. They are #storytellers. This ability of storytelling allows them to build the brand, its positioning and its functional and emotional benefits in the hearts and minds of customers in a language that connects with the customers, while being true to their brand's purpose. 2. They are #analysts. The ability to analyze trends and data allows them to form strong insights, and then turn those insights into opportunities through innovation or communication. 

Great marketers know very well that good storytelling only helps, when not only does it improve the brand health, but also delivers on the financial metrics that matter. So a great marketer looks at his/her P&L to analyze and drive top line, bottom line and market share as much as looking at the advertising spends, video views and digital KPIs. 

Quite often, marketers get enchanted by the creative side only, which can give them a few minutes of fame but cannot sustain them if the numbers do not come. 

So I strongly believe that a combination of storytelling with analysis is the right mix to become a great marketer.

RAZR HAS ARRIVED!

Once upon a time, there were flip phones in the world. Until, some companies decided to change the game and flip phones became a part of folklore. 

But then, how can you keep the forefather of flip phone, #Motorola away from it? They were the pioneers in the flip phone era, launching their first flip phone model StarTAC way back in 1996. 

Now, more than two decades later, Motorola launches its new model of Motorola Razr that is sleek, modern and stylish. It comes with all the features that you expect in a smart phone and yet retains some of the heritage from the earlier versions of the Razr. 

A launch like this deserves an edgy commercial as well. Motorola does complete justice with their new ad film, which has great visuals accompanied with a strong music track. 

Enjoy this one and swoon over the new Razr.

FUTURE OF ADVERTISING?

Advertising agencies will always tell their clients that a 30 second TV spot does not do justice to their brand or their story.

I wonder what they would say when they see three brands being advertised in a single 43 second spot. Yes, that is right.

Three non competing brands decided to join hands and pull of an advertising stunt that has never been seen before. The common link to all three - actor Ryan Reynolds.

The result is an ad in which Ryan is promoting his latest movie that is coming on #Netflix, but he talks about enjoying its experience on a #Samsung QLED, and then brings in an ad of his own #Aviation American Gin as a mid-roll ad placement!

Is that brilliant or is that brilliant!

Will we see more non competing brands joining hands in future to save on money without diluting their own individual messages? We will have to wait and see.

Till then, enjoy this masterpiece.

MAN ENOUGH

On 19th Nov 2019, the world celebrated International Men's Day. As expected, there were many #brands that tried to leverage this day through their social media posts as well as their advertisements. There was one commercial that stood out for me. It was Gillette India's new Man Enough film that asks people to 'Shave Stereotypes' and says it is ok for men to cry. 

There are a number of reasons why this film gets special:

1.  It features a soldier, and soldiers are known to be the epitome of manliness.
2.  The narrative is built on the real-life story of Lt Col M K Sinha SM and his father.
3.  The story is narrated by the person himself, lending it so much credibility. 
4.  There is a significant role of the product and the brand. 
5.  The ad does not just leverage an occasion in a disjointed way, it rather helps #Gillette continue on its purpose driven communication.
6. The brand is helping in changing culture, making people sit back and reflect, sowing the seeds of change in society. All the key requirements of what strong brand campaigns are supposed to do. 

Enjoy this gem and feel the goosebumps.

MESSAGE IN A LOGO

The ad below is such a powerful creative, done so simply and yet so effectively. Love the creativity and the twist on the existing logo of Audi AG to give out the message about the entry of #Audi in electric cars segment.
This brilliant piece of print #advertising was done by the agency #TBWA in the market of Sweden.

AMAZON SMILING BOXES

Every year, a few weeks before #Christmas, there are a few brands in UK like John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, and Amazon who come up with a new ad campaign that viewers, customers, marketers look forward to. 

This year, #Amazon has come up with a Christmas ad that features its singing delivery boxes. The idea of these smiling boxes was first introduced by Amazon in 2017.

For the third year in a row, the Amazon boxes are singing to ring in the holiday shopping season. If you look at the logo of Amazon on the boxes closely, they do resemble a smile and that is exactly the idea they built on.

The ad has all the elements that make an ad enjoyable, watchable and repeatable during Christmas – snow, dogs, singing children and happy grandparents. The ad also shows the journey of a delivery woman and the singing boxes giving her the chorus!

The 90 second film is set to the tune of Solomon Burke’s song “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” and the ad has been created by the London agency Lucky Generals.

According to the marketing people at Amazon, the aim of the Christmas advert is to portray how important it is to spend time with people you love during the festive period.

Enjoy this short film.

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

The year was 1953. 

It was quite a few decades before pioneers like Nokia or Motorola showed the world the possibility of portable #mobile phones.

Any chance of the Internet pervading the personal and professional lives seemed far-fetched because the #Internet hadn't even been created by then. 

Smart phones, selfies and 4G were not even terms anyone had heard of. 

Despite all of this, Mark Sullivan from The Pacific Telephone and Telegraphy company was able to stick out his neck and make some bold predictions about how the future of #telephones would look like! 

People may or may not have believed him then, but today it seems as if he was able to see and predict the #future. 

That is what innovators and trend-setters also do. They look much ahead, using their foresight and then come up with things,ideas, products, solutions and even predictions that the world has not even thought of!

THE AHA MOMENT!

The #innovation engine at The Coca-Cola Company continues to churn out idea after idea!

Just a few weeks back, we saw Coca Cola venturing into cola flavoured mints and festive drinks to expand their franchise and boost incremental revenues. 

Now, for 2020, Coca Cola is gearing up for a big launch in the flavoured sparkling water market of USA with the launch of #AHA in eight new and exciting flavours in two sizes. 

This launch is yet another step from #Coke to move into healthier space as part of its beverage

#strategy. Mainstream flavoured sparkling #water is the largest and fastest growing part of the water business, and the current U.S. market size of $3.1 billion makes it the perfect playground for Coca Cola to enter.

American #consumers are gravitating toward drinks that have functional elements and nutritional value or a jolt of caffeine. They also want healthy, low-sugar or sugar-free offerings. Sparkling water ticks a lot of those boxes, and American consumers are buying more of it. 

#Pepsico already saw the potential, and in 2018, they had launched a range called Bubly in this segment. Bubly has grown sales by triple digits since then and has taken a 6.2% dollar share of the category this year.

This is a segment to watch closely.

ROYALTY ON AIRBNB

Have you ever wondered about the palaces of #India and the lifestyle of the royal families? 

You can now get answers to those questions. 

Airbnb has done a coup by getting the royal family of Jaipur to list a part of their palace on
#airbnb. 

The luxurious Gudliya suite will come with all the trappings including a private, indoor swimming pool and personal butler. Guests will also get a guided tour of the palace. 

The palace is symbolic and historic for many reasons: 

1. It is a 300-year old palace built back in 1727 and an architectural marvel. 

2. The royal family still lives there. Maharaja Padmanabh Singh (Pacho), the 21-year-old monarch of Jaipur, will play host to the guests. 

3. The palace has hosted guests like Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Princess Diana. 

The royal family does not need this additional money. So, the sales proceeds will go to a nonprofit working to develop and empower underprivileged communities in Rajasthan.

Yes, the price will still be steep. However, it is a great step forward and an opportunity for the royal family to open their home to people while also doing good for society. On the other hand, it is a great chance for people to experience the royal lifestyle from close quarters while also playing their role in philanthropy.

This is a clear win-win for the Airbnb guests, the royal family, and the communities that will benefit from the proceeds.

STOCK RETURNS

Check out the tweet shot below. It shows the stock returns in some of the big companies in USA since the time of their IPO. 

Equity returns of such gigantic proportions are enough to change your lives, provided you invested well in time with a good amount.

There are some clear lessons here: 

1. It is extremely important to identify the diamonds. You may not know it then, but you have to go on your gut and belief. 

2. Patience always pays. It would have been difficult to hold back on to these shares if someone invested in them since IPO because of their returns. However, if people have still held on to it, then they would be laughing all the way to the bank today.

3. If the company and its business model is good, you can enter at any given point of time - either as an angel investor in its pre IPO days, or during the IPO or even as a shareholder who buys these stocks when they are still priced at a reasonable price. 

Have you been lucky and smart to find such gems early enough?

MINIATURE SCIENCE

When you want to explain big issues, you should not make the topic complex. Instead you should simplify it so that everyone can understand it.

This is exactly what ExxonMobil did with a series of films under their campaign on 'Miniature Science', where they explained in a very simple way, extremely complex topics like:

• Growing algae for Biofuels
• Using landfill gas for Energy 
• Power Plant Conversion
• Algae-fueled Engines

BBDO Worldwide worked on the campaign in USA and came up with a series of four films. Each one is easy enough for a school science student to understand. The treatment and the music of all four films have been kept consistent to build a strong connection to the brand and the campaign. This is such a great example of how communication should be done!

I am sharing one of the films 'Growing algae for biofuels' here:

However, if you want to see the other films, then the links are:

-> Using landfill gas for Energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4gZo7Ys8MY&t=1s

->Power Plant Conversion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ytOnwTqwF0

->Algae-fueled Engines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJtAG4uTWfE&t=2s

DON'T PRETEND

This is such a cheeky yet witty print campaign from Volkswagen AG in Turkey. 

Look at the two images closely. The people in the ad look seriously working, whether it is school or office. However, if you pay close attention, the boy has the pencil upside down and the woman is playing a computer game. 

I really like the closing lines - Ours don't pretend, they actually work. Volkswagen Genuine Parts.

Instead of using automobile visuals, they have chosen visuals unrelated to their industry and yet give a clear and strong message.

Good job by their creative agency DDB, Turkey.

YOUTUBE BRINGS SHOPPING TO MOBILE

With a huge user base of people coming to #YouTube through their #mobiles for product reviews, unboxing videos, consumer reactions, bringing shopping ads to YouTube's mobile app seems like a logical thing.

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#Google understands the power of their channel and have started serving shopping ads so that users do not have to go out of their website to search for the product that they like. 

The shopping ads, a carousel of clickable  consumer products, will appear on the mobile home screen and search results page.

It will be interesting to see whether brands can select where to appear or it would be driven through YouTube's own algorithm. 

I am also wondering the revenue sharing model on this between brands, ecommerce websites, YouTube and even the #content creators.

Can anyone shed more light on it?

FESTIVE FLAVOURS FOR WINTER

The Coca-Cola Company continues on its #innovation journey. 

After their recent launch of Coca Cola flavoured Tic Tac in the mints category in 70 nations, Coke has now come up with a limited edition range for winter in select markets.

They have introduced Coca Cola Cinnamon and Winter Spiced Cranberry Sprite - flavours that are relevant for the season and have a festive feel to it.  

                         

This #Coke and #Sprite range will only be available till 31st December, so the company wants to leverage #Christmas to drive their sales as much as possible, especially because cold beverage sale drops significantly in the winter months. So this is a great way to avoid the negative effects of seasonality on their sales graph. 

Good job by their #marketing and innovation teams.