Can I please change my name to throwthegarbageinyoumoron.com?

If you are one of those retired types (like me) who read The Hindu cover to cover, you wouldn’t have missed this one. An article about a girl in the US who changed her name to cutoutdissection.com. Yes, the kid is apparently very serious about her vocation, raising awareness to stop cutting up animals in the name of science. She even got her license issued in her new name! No prizes for guessing, her friends call her ‘cutout’ for short.

But it begs the question, what if we agency folks, changed our names to reflect our true beliefs about advertising? Some samples. 60daysismylimit.com; iamonthewaytoyouroffice.com; stopmakingthelogobigger.com; deadagainstthedeadline.com; yourideasucks.com; thisfilmneedstobeshotabroad.com; iaminitonlyfortheawards.com…

Posted by Niru

The A-List of Advertising Reality

Advertising – A form of communication that attempts to persuade potential consumers to purchase / consume a brand, product or service. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Truth – A racquet where creatives develop gigantic egos, suits develop incurable ulcers and clients develop indecisive skills to skillfully distract the consumer.

Advertising Agency – A firm involved in the service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising / communication for its clients. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Truth – The only place that guarantees thicker skin as a makeover. Without a transplant!

Art Director – An art savant in-charge of the art department and responsible for the art that comes out of the agency.

The Truth – A quiet soul (mostly from Maharashtra and West Bengal), who rarely speaks. And if he/she does, would be vociferous about reducing the logo size beyond recognition.

Awards – Yardstick to measure creativity.

The Truth – A shortcut creatives take to double their salaries (and their egos).

Account Executive – The lowest yet pivotal link in the Account Management ladder.

The Truth – The hapless soul who learns to smile when being whipped by the boss, client and creatives at the same time.

Posted by Murali

Breaking the Indian stereotype

Anyone who's been remotely associated with advertising in Chennai will recognize the name Shakti Lasers. They are typesetters who swing into action anytime, there's a request for a vernacular ad, in any agency. Their ace is a catalogue of some 200 odd fonts in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and Urdu. I've not seen any significant addition to this catalogue, for years. That, my friend, is the sad story of Indian typefaces.

Despite having a thousand art directors, we are stuck with the same old fonts. Shame on us. Can't our art schools do something about it? Should we wait for Microsoft and Google to create machine-made indic fonts?

I think the key reason why no one's really bothered to create vernacular fonts is no one knows how to convert their typefaces into machine fonts. Thankfully this can no longer be proffered as an excuse. Fontifier has solved all these problems. This site lets you convert your handwriting into a font!

If the 15 art directors in Orchard (ok, I made up the number), can use this software to create even 100 vernacular fonts, we would be starting a new movement Think about it: we'd be motivating hundreds of other art directors to create funky fonts. Who knows we may even spawn a desi dafont. But are we up to it? Do we really want to put Shakti Lasers out of business?

PS: I announce a reward of 1000 rupees each for the first five vernacular fonts created and uploaded on this blog. Let's see who pockets my largesse (or should that be smallesse?).

Posted by Anantha

ALPHABET SOUP FOR ADVERTISING DUMMIES

CRAP: Consumer Research & Analysis Presentation
Usage: I sat through the CRAP dished out by the Account Planners.

C+V: Control C + Control V

Usage: If Goafest celebrates originality, then how come it's a C+V of Cannes?

FIFA: Fabricated Ideas For Awards
Usage: Is Cannes the ultimate FIFA cup?

FLEA: Free Lancers Employed by Agencies
Usage: Suits love FLEAs because they are deadline friendly.

KISS: Killed Internally by Sadistic Suits
Usage: Award winning ideas always get KISSed.

PAD: Pretty Art Director
Usage: This agency needs more PADs.

PMS: Potty Mouthed Suit
Usage: Why the hell did they hire that PMS, he's such a pain!

SCAR: Sexy Campaigns Aborted by Research
Usage: I have many SCARs in my portfolio.

SLOB: Slimy Lecherous Obnoxious Boss
Usage: That SLOB spends all day recruiting interns.

SSDD: Same Shit Different Designation

Usage: My job description hasn't changed after my promotion. It's still SSDD.

Posted by Anantha

Why can’t our political campaigns be half as interesting?

Barack Obama’s multi-million dollar campaign has generated huge interests around the globe. One, because of the money splurged in times like these. And two, for the way they have managed to splurge the money to build Brand Obama – through an amazing 360 approach that's way better than some of the finest brand campaigns in the recent past.

It doesn’t matter if you want Obama or McCain to get to the White House. Just for the sake of sheer curiosity just visit barackobama.com and check out the way his campaign has panned out. It’s simply brilliant.

Just for starters, for those who haven't seen Obama's campaign, here's a video which takes off on the famous ‘Wassup’ spot for Budweiser that appeared 8 years ago. The cast is the same and they’ve got the same director to direct this video. I bet you'll love it.

Now, to my question: Can our political parties create something as rivetting or better? My take is they can. Considering, they give that job to professionals and not botch it up themselves.

What do you think?

Posted by Murali

10.04pm: The best time to ideate?

Researchers studying Eureka moments have concluded that, most creative people get their bestestest ideas at night. And believe it or not, after studying 1426 adults, the surveyors unearthed 10.04pm as the ripe moment for getting a brainwave. The study spewed one more insight – people feel least inspired at office hours. They feel creatively zonked at 4.33pm!

If you ask me, all I can say is, I am amused. I mean, how the hell did the MR guys pin down respondents into citing a specific time? My instinct says that these specifics were thrown in to sex-up the study and to create a viral-value around the research. So we should take it with a chamach of namak.

Anyways, do you agree with their basic premise that creative juices gush after dark? In my case, it's a resounding YES. I can't think for nuts at office. I splurge my work time on finishing off the menial tasks. I don my thinking cap at late night or early morn. To tell you the truth, my bulb glows only between 11pm and 8am.

I have a theory to explain this: Most of us download our ideas from the Thotmosphere which is an invisible server with zillions of terabytes of pre-cooked thoughts, concepts, theories, notions, models and ideas..The Thotmosphere faces a network clog during the day time because so many clueless sods are downing their byte torrents. But during night time, half the world has switched off their brains. Therefore you have a greater chance of zippy downloads :-)

Now, I am not gonna ask you, your take on my silly theory. All I am gonna pose is a simple question: When do YOU get your kickass ideas?

Posted by Anantha

TRIPPIN

The thrill of it…

Is in making a plan to not make plans.

Is in getting on a bike at 11:30 in the night and not knowing what your destination is going to be.

Is in driving a hundred and fifty kilometers with the fuel indicator on empty because your chilled out buddy thinks…Hmm the fuel gauge is probably broken. Probably.

Is in knowing that somebody up there that likes you, because your bike runs out of fuel, bang in front of a petrol pump.

Is in defying the dead silence by screaming like a freak of nature in the middle of the night as you pass through abandoned roads, with only your headlights to break through the darkness and dissipate paranoid thoughts of serial killers jumping out of the bushes.

Is in feeling like a freaking genius because you thought of the perfect thing to say to your grandma who called up at 1:30 in the morning to find out where you are.

Is in stopping 35 times in the middle of nowhere, when all the sane people are fast asleep, 20 of which were to pee by the way.

Is in cracking a joke and bravely laughing like madmen at each stop…for at this moment you believe that you’re the scariest FU*%@R out there.

Is in sipping chai at a hill station at 3:30 in the morning. Because that was what this whole trip was for. One single cup of chai in the freezing cold.

Is in priceless moments and laughter shared with your gang atop a hill, as you sit on a ledge and gaze at the lights shining below of a city that has refused to sleep just like you.

Is absolutely in returning home just in time to watch the sunrise from the only place in the world you would rather be right now. Your bike.

Is in smiling like an idiot as you reminisce about the night you’ve just had. Knowing that even if just for a night, you and your buds know exactly what it feels like to be a ROCKSTAR.

Here’s to…
The open road.
My buddies.
My brothers.

Cheers.

Posted by Shane

Those Amazing Men & Their Blockbuster Commercials

There are ad men who become movie makers.

And there are movie makers who turn ad men.

Of the second species, you may not know many.

Ridley Scott may come to mind.

Off the cuff, I can think of Manoj Night Shyamalan & Gurinder Chaddha.

UK-based website Shiznit has compiled a super list of Top 10 Coolest Commercials by Movie Directors.

Here you can see the work of directors of Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mullholand Drive, Birth, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Insider, Man on Fire and Se7en.

Most of it is jaw-dropping stuff.

Like the bullet-time shot staged in 1996 much before the Wachowski Brothers had even imagined becoming screenwriters.

Go watch.

For the sheer pleasure of it.

Posted by Anantha.

If you ain’t seen Rhett & Link, you ain’t seen cool comedy as yet

Folks, these guys are something else. Really. Rhett and Link are a hot comedy duo to have come out of the US of A. Being new generation yuppies, they have naturally taken to You Tube with their awesome music videos that have absolutely hilarious lyrics. And they also have been voted as one of the most popular netizens around the world.

They can create viral campaigns for your brand. Like this one for Microbilt. A company that provides small businesses with risk management solutions.

Or just create something wacky. Like this one for internet overload.

Or, create music from a rant. Like this one from an American Idol farewell speech.

Enjoy.

Posted by Murali

Join The Conversation

Join the Conversation
By Joseph Jaffe
(Wiley Books)

I’ve heard Joseph Jaffe talk. And he writes like he talks. A lot.

This is a book about the wave of new media that is sweeping the world and how marketers can learn to cope with it. Consumers are having conversations and brands need to find ways to join in. That’s the gist.

I did find the “conversational” style of writing a bit irritating simply because it makes the volume needlessly thick.

But I loved the book. Here’s why:

1. Most seminar speakers at new media conferences are just trend watchers. They just commentate. Jaffe is different. He is a trend creator. He keeps trying new things and tells us what he’s learnt. May his tribe increase.
2. This is a field where the knowledge changes every month. And very few have the courage to write a book on a subject where the content is perishable. Jaffe is brave. He puts out ideas that run the risk of being outdated rather soon.
3. It is loaded with lengthy stories about recent Internet phenomena like Fedex furniture, Coke-Mentos shows and more.
4. Jaffe is provocative. I learnt some things by disagreeing with him.

As a creative guy, I read his earlier book “Life after the 30 second Commercial” with a sneer on my face. A year later I found my agency new film reel had shrunk. That’s why I fully understood the import of “Join the Conversation”.

I tell you this - read both the books quickly if you want to be on the bus. And understand his next one.

I’m sure he’s wrapping up new tome.

As I said in the beginning, Jaffe has a lot to say.

Posted by Thomas

Just a pretty face – or can it launch a thousand ships?

A slight shift in the eye moment of the model can make all the difference between whether someone reads the ad or not... Apparently staring into my soul will not make me buy the product. Here is an interesting article on how a beautiful woman will definately stop you in your tracks, but will she be able to pass on your message; that’s the trick you can learn here.

http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/10/04/how-a-pretty-face-can-push-visitors-away

Posted by Monica

Research kills good work

I’ve always believed that research has an uncanny ability to crush good ideas to death. Sadly, most clients and many of my advertising mates don’t believe so.

And this is what they do to prove their point: They put precious monies to research a piece of advertising, patiently listen to multiple views without having an objective and joyfully suck out the last few droplets of creative juice from the piece. Finally, they end up creating a piece of advertising for the brand that’s stupendously boring.

Bravo, people. You've managed to do yeoman service to the marketing and advertising industry.

To all you guys out there, here’s a small request. Please watch this piece of film. Trust me, it's worth it.

And if you can, avoid researching it for once.

Courtesy: Via Scampblog

Posted by Murali

Pyala Zindagi Ka

Zindagi ek chai ka pyala hai, jab peena shuru kiya toh do–teen chuski ke baad thoda taste aane laga. Phir kuch aur aage bada toh mein sab kuch bhool kar ussi mein doob gaya. Laga maano pehli baar shayad kuch aisa mila hai jise peete rahne ka mann hai.

Ek waqt aisa bhi aaya jab pyala khali hota dikh raha tha, toh dil mein ek ajeeb si bechaini thi ki, koi aaye aur apna pyala issme mila de par aisa nahi hua. Ek waqt par aakar mera pyala khali ho gaya.

Ab mein baitha hua un saari chuskiyon ko yaad karta hoon jo maine dil se li hain aur dil hi dil ye dua karta hoon ki koi aaye aur apni zindigi ka pyala, mere pyale mein mila de taaki mein phir se un chuskiyon ka maza le sakoon.

Posted by Vikrant

6 steps to become an indispensable asset to clients

1. Typically most agencies tend to over-price themselves. It's critical to keep one's feet on the ground and take a good hard look at the mirror and figure out what we are really worth, and how good we really look.
   
   
2. I believe if we make our clients indispensable to us in terms of understanding the job, brief, creative, turnaround time, passion and energies, everything else falls in place. Believe me, a client knows when they have a good thing going. It's a lot like a good relationship or a marriage.
   
   
3. Try and accommodate clients as far as possible and empathise with their job predicaments, deadlines etc., so they see us as an ally and not as an outsider.
   
   
4. Don't try to psyche them out. The moment we start asking for written briefs, question strategy and written communication, and we bounce it under some pretext or the other, it screws up the relationship. The more we treat them as equals, the friendlier the outcome of the relationship. The idea is to ask the right questions without trying to get into one upmanship game. I am smarter than you ......kind of thinking.
   
   
5. Treat client's money as our own. If we feel a supplier or a filmmaker or photographer is overcharging, let's negotiate further irrespective of whether client feels it's OK or not. In a lot of circumstances, we have brought costs down on agency's will and not because of clien't pressure. When you start doing this and the client acknowledges it, then start looking at the agency differently. They stop thinking that we are out to make a quick buck out of them.
   
   
6. Lastly, if we make our clients our friends, they stick with us longer. Bond with them outside work - over drinks and food. That helps too since most clients would love to hang out with their agency.
   
   Posted by Kaushik

The Mug List

If a Bucket List is stuff you want to do before you die, then I guess you could call what you want to do before you hit middle age, a Mug List. And, despite the shy protestations of my lady friends, I am old enough to make mine.

I have no real logic as to how I arrived at the list, except that it might be imbecelic to attempt any of these endeavors a few years from now.

1. I want to have that step-cut I was prohibited from having as a teen.
2. I want to, just one last time, ride a bicycle without a headlight, after sunset.
3. I want to get into my size 30 Levi’s 501s and sing a karaoke without my voice going up an octave.
4. I want to see 3 continuous shows of A Few Good Men at Rex on a Sunday. And NOT complain of migraine.
5. I want to call up Venky who was my mate at IIM, Bangalore and return the 250 bucks I owe him.
6. Ok, add Eswar, Ashok, and T.P. George to that list.
7. I want to apologize to Sonia for not turning up for dinner at her home 12 years ago. I never called to explain my whimsical absence.
8. I want read the entire collection of Hardy Boys again.
9. I want to understand Salman Rushdie’s fiction.
10. Finally, I want to go back to all the parties where I stood tongue tied, with the repartees I have thought of since.

There I’ve done it. I already feel younger. I am going to start on this list now.

But not before I send this note to the folks upstairs: “Dear Mrs. Kumar, in the days to come if you hear a poor rendition of Song Sung Blue do not shtock my ceiling with a mop handle. It’s just a man trying to age gracefully.”

Posted by Thomas

Even metal Gods need a design agency

Design and branding has surely come a long way. Metallica’s latest album Death Magnetic’s cover art has been designed by award-winning design agency Turner Duckworth, San Francisco.

Gone are the days of underground artists, record company art department or artists themselves envisioning album covers. Serious branding is in now.

Metallica were looking for an agency who could give life to Death Magnetic. And guess how Turner Duckworth landed the account. Drummer Lars Ulrich’s kid and agency founder David Turner’s kid go to the same school and the daddies became buddies. So, Lars checked out David’s agency and the rest is history.

Here’s the cover. Awesome isn’t it?

The magnetic coffin on the cover has a tweaked Metallica logo which the band proposes to use from now on. And the partnership seemed to have worked. Half a million copies of the album have been sold in 3 days. And is No.1 on the Billboard 200.

Posted by Murali.

Thomas speaks on Humankind

http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/interview/dialogue_detail_theweek.asp?id=384

A free world

The 2 way economy (buyer and a seller) has given way to a new 3 way economy. A world where so much is available for free.

The most common of the economies built around free is the three-party system. Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties. Sound complicated? You're probably experiencing it right now. It's the basis of virtually all media.

In the traditional media model, a publisher provides a product free (or nearly free) to consumers, and advertisers pay to ride along. Radio is "free to air," and so is much of television. Likewise, newspaper and magazine publishers don't charge readers anything close to the actual cost of creating, printing, and distributing their products. They're not selling papers and magazines to readers, they're selling readers to advertisers. It's a three-way market.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all

Posted by Monica

Check this blog out!

Guys! There’s some cool stuff to be read at
http://cstadvertising.com/blog/

Posted by Thomas

My first time

Sorry.
This is about my first ad.
I hope you’re still reading.
I became a copywriter when I was 11 years past the age at which the Election Commission considers you an adult. I know, I know, I should’ve done it earlier, but it took me that long to decide where to cast my career vote.
So here I was in Mudra - Bangalore, crouched in a corner, hand held out for assignment droppings. And come, they didn’t.
So I spent my time copying the great Volkswagen ads onto my scribbling pad, just to get a feel of how they would’ve looked on Bob Levenson’s, before they adorned the Hall of Fame. When, in walks Karthik, the account head, cursing my community, “F***ing copywriter b********!”
I turned around in panic. I was alone on the floor.

“Not you” Karthik assures me.“Who are you?”

“Trainee writer” I offer.“Balki said I could sit here.”

“And where is Balki?”

“In Mumbai, doing the UNDERLINE YOUR PRESENCE campaign for Van Heusen”.

Karthik sits down, rearranges his frown and sighs. “There is this ad to be done for IBM. I had briefed Kavita and Sharmila. Now they’ve both let me down. Sharmila says she’s just joined a week ago so she’s still in the soak cycle.”
“And Kavita's washed out too?“ I ask clumsily clinging to the metaphor.
“She’s dried. Tumbled out. Quit. Because she doesn’t want to share the assignments with Sharmila. It’s just some posters for the IIMs. I guess I’ll have to do them myself.”

Silence.

“I studied there.” I confess.
“What? And what are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you to brief me.
Karthik grabs my limp hands. “IBM is back in India after 15 years. Just give me a poster that tells these grads that it’s a great career option.” Then he throws an IBM newsletter on my table. “You’ll find all the info you need in it. Can I see something in two days? “
“Tomorrow morning” I said dramatically.
“You do that, I’ll take you to Koshy’s.” says Karthik humorously.
That’s my problem. I over commit.
But it makes me anxious; the only state in which I do any work.
So that’s good.
I look at the newsletter. It’s titled THINK. I remember back at my engineering college there was an IBM 1620. It came with one accessory that was hung on the wall. A little IBM designed plate that read THINK. Their slogan since they started making computers. (Before this they made meat slicers.). And, evidently, IBM did THINK. Because they had 5 Nobel laureates on their rolls. Suddenly it was all coming together. This is one company that had an interesting history And a dynamic present. Obviously the future could not be any behind. (Metaphors mixed, oops.)
I got it. I am going to give Karthik not one poster, but three. Two teasers followed by the final one. Writing the teasers was a breeze. The problem was the final one.
Then I remembered a line I had written for our institute T shirt: “I THINK, THEREFORE IIM”. It wasn’t used because the student’s rep didn’t get it. (Yes, not all IIM grads have heard Descartes’ original line.)

I leapt at the opportunity. “I THINK, THEREFORE IBM”, I wrote.
Morning came, and Karthik couldn’t believe it. A writer chasing him with work to see. He did like my lines. But more the fact that I had lines, I suspected. Anyway he asked Santosh, a kindhearted art guy to make the layouts, which, in those pre-Mac days, took at least 24 hours. So I had my nails for nutrition.

When I saw the bromides, I remember thinking “My lines! In print! They look good.”







The next afternoon when I came back from lunch. I saw these messages on my soft board.



I still have these yellow post-its, only they’ve yellowed further in 16 years. Mike Klein (then head of IBM India) actually had these posters framed for his room.

Karthik’s enthusiasm for my work helped my career get the impetus it badly needed. Today he is in Singapore heading, among other things, the GLOBAL BRAND FORUM. (Google it, you’ll learn a lot.) Thanks Karthik.
Balki gave a me a pat on my back. And lots of work.

Simply put, my first ad came to me rather easily. It was the ones that followed that threw me. But that’s another post, for another day.
Karthik did take me to Koshy’s. Where I had the first steak of my life.

Posted by Thomas