By Malay Desai
In the second of two parts of our year-ender column, we look at films and campaigns from India and abroad that stuck effectively in our heads, for reasons remarkable and memorable.In chronological order, we have Frooti (March, by Saigmeister& Walsh), KFC’s ‘Rich kids of Instagram’ (May, by MRM/McCann), EA Sports ‘Bitter-sweet football’ (June, by Wieden + Kennedy), Love Condom (October, by BBDO Belgium) and Orient LED feat. Dhoni (October, by McCann Worldgroup).
1. Frooti
By: Saigmeister& Walsh
India’s favourite mango drink came of age this year with the most vividly colourised campaign in a long time. As summer beckoned, Parle Agro got the NY based agency to create uncluttered, bold visuals and took the risk of skipping the iconic jingle. The new visual identity’s risk paid off, and so did making the brand look bigger than SRK.
2. KFC – Rich kids of Instagram
By: MRM/McCann
In Romania, the American fast food giant introduced its low-cost menu in a scorching digital activation. ‘Little Money big fun’ took a dig at rich kids posting snobby pictures on Instagram, by asking ‘bourgeoisie’ folks to recreate them and upload. It was a rage, shooting up engagement and more importantly, sales.
3. EA Sports – Bittersweet football
By: Wieden + Kennedy
Electronic Arts’ web film took the world’s geeks by storm with what to my mind was the finest ad film from Europe this year. The GFX laden film showed Lionel Messi’s tears being distilled in a lab, to be made into a dual chocolate bar. The graphic novel type execution was stellar, and it will now be a benchmark for sports products. Incidentally, Messi’s club won two titles around this launch.
4. Love Condom – Footballer or Father
By: BBDO Belgium
Europe’s football-crazy ways made for another memorable campaign, this one already counting down to Euro 2016. The condom brand asked men to use it for a particular month (the duration of the campaign) to avoid their girlfriends/wives being pregnant during football time next year. The treatment was serious and the results were hilarious.
5. Orient LED–Toss & Presentation
By: McCann Worldgroup
The CK Birla co.’s ‘Switch to smart’ campaign assumed innovative proportions this year when ambassador Dhoni was outwitted by the kid of his home, Chutki. The girl’s inventive replies and use of technology stumped the captain and joked around memorably, without offending him or his fans!
That said, I’d give the ‘TVC of the year’ mention to Ambuja Cements’ film featuring Khali, with a close-runner up being a film on another wrestler, GeetaPhogat, by JSW Steel.
Over to 2016!
Social Newsfeed
Your regular dose on the shifts in the social media universe
FB pulling all strings before Dec 31 deadline
In the 48 hours of so before writing this, I have come to know of even more compelling reasons to say Facebook is desperately trying to fool us millions into buying its fairytale story of FreeBasics. There’s another deadline looming, the third big one this year, Dec 31, before which Facebook is exhorting its users to write into TRAI and support its plan. Problem is, it’s also ‘mistakenly’ asking US users to do it. Apart from the utterly misleading full-page ads in newspapers, FB has made backdoor efforts to influence the government. Thankfully, the wiser among us have emailed TRAI too, and it’s good to see IPOY nominee Vijay Shekhar’s PayTM’s home page also on the neutrality side. Do your bit, go to savetheinternet.in.
SaveTheInternet.in likes this
YuppTV Bazaar arrives
Last week at a presser in Mumbai, live streaming platform YuppTV launched a new category of curated, user-generated content. While it says it is approaching content creators to upload content, it will let all and sundry to do it later. Now this may have been launched with fanfare (Abhishek Bachchan and the Maha Governor were guests) and it sounds hunky-dory, I fear there aren’t too many original video content creators among us. Name the top 5 ones on YouTube without struggling and that will be my argument. Platforms may be good, but it's the users that make or break it.
YouTube India likes this
When BCCI did a ‘Facebook Mentions’ session
Last week, while scrolling down the Wall looking for inane video distraction, I ran into BCCI Chief Shashank Manohar, literally. Facebook’s live-streaming service, Mentions, as I had mentioned in this space earlier, has been open from August-ish, but only to ‘public figures’. While Hollywood’s celebs have made hay in this, it made a big splash here when cricket’s most powerful man began rattling off administrative details of an ongoing matter. The streaming of course went viral and now sits as a recorded clip on the official team page. If you’re a brand with a famous ambassador, consider this tool for massive visibility!
ICC likes this
