There are ads, and then there are those 10 that have personified the concept of how branding can be made to work for the product most efficiently and effectively. From creativity to brand recall, from concept to execution, these 10 advertisements have gotten our attention; thanks to the commitment of the teams that created them. We present you with our review of the top three ads.
MIND THOSE BAUBLES
4Ps B&M Take: If you thought that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, you couldn’t be more right. Rich or poor, happy or sad, housewife or working, jewellery has a way of ingratiating itself with women before you can say pat. And that is the reason Tanishq launched its minimum-fuss Mia range targeted solely at working women about two years ago. Because the range was targeted at professional women, its campaigns were bound to be different from the rest of the jewellery ads primarily focused on women wearing pretty baubles either to flatter their husbands or simply to indulge a whim or fantasy. But this latest advert stands out for the simplicity of its tagline – ‘as beautiful as your work.’ The starkness of the tagline and the storyboard therefore is what makes this one so appealing, and of course the matter-of-factness in the execution. So there is this young girl working late in office on a business presentation. Her lady boss coming in and takes a look at her work. Impressed, the boss tells the protagonist that the presentation is great, but asks if she can lose her baubles, so that the focus stays on the presentation instead of the glitter. First the working-woman takes of her earrings but then thinks better of it, eventually walking into the presentation meeting with her baubles intact. When the boss nudges her, she confidently replies, ‘Don’t worry. The presentation looks even better than me.’ South Indian actor and playback singer Nithya Menon plays the lead role in this commercial and pulls it off with aplomb bringing the brand promise to life. High on its simple storyboard and smart yet natural execution, this one’s a winner all the way for the target audience.
A CLASSY MATE
4Ps B&M Take: This one manages to bring a smile to your face, make you faintly nostalgic and steal your heart away, all in 60 seconds. Well, that is the length of this unassuming commercial which scores on virtually every front. Beautiful lyrics – penned by none other than Gulzar, a haunting melody, picture perfect cinematography, superb editing and a protagonist with innocence writ all over her face. Set in Ghum, a small hilly locality in Darjeeling, the advertisement opens at the picturesque railway station where a girl and her grandfather are waiting for the toy train. The child is scribbling something in her notebook and hides it from all and sundry who try to peer at what she is writing. The rest of the advert carries forward the same theme, of the little girl scribbling something and hiding it from her grandfather, her school friends, her dog and everybody else. The moments captured by the camera are poignantly nostalgic and take you back to those carefree schooldays. In the school bus, under the school desk, in the school corridors, grandfather feeding you on the terrace, spending alone time with the dog, at the carnival… and all of it embellished with fantastic prose and poetry from Gulzaar in the background. Eventually when the girl does share her notebook with her grandpa, he finds that she has been practicing her signature everywhere, capturing the consumer insight that the signature is perhaps one of the most important portrayals of one’s identity. Writing instruments is a fairly new foray for ITC and this commercial will for sure set it a class apart in the category.
ROLLS OF FUN
4Ps B&M Take: Two big ideas parceled in one package, that’s the big USP of this advert for the pizza brand. One, that fast food is usually ordered by youngsters in groups and two, that it is often consumed while watching television or in other ‘fun’ gatherings. Having already established its ‘delivery in 30 minutes’ brand ethos, Dominos is clearly bidding to expand its outreach among youngsters by expanding its palette with more international offerings and also underline and enhance its ‘fun’ foods positioning. The Lebanese Rolls offering is a recent addition to the Dominos menu and is riding on this fun gatherings factor to propel itself. The campaign has a couple of TVCs lined up all built around the same theme of teenagers watching TV together, munching on the Lebanese Rolls and enjoying themselves by mimicking the actors on the screen. One of the storyboards has the teens doubling up as they watch an old Bollywood melodrama, put the screen on mute and complete the sentences of the actors on screen. The scene is of a doctor explaining something to a cop outside the operation theatre, and the kids get a good laugh pretending that the doc is saying that he operated on the kidney instead of the heart. The other one is even funnier, when the friends compare the on-screen action hero as a ‘superstar without chaddi, tode sabki haddi.’ Slick execution, lots of vibrancy and your casual everyday teens instead of perked-up models! Good combination and a great concept – which we are sure will enthuse the youngsters to walk up and ask for Lebanese Rolls at the Dominos counter. After that, it’s up to the first P of marketing that is the ‘Product’. Will it live up to expectations, is anybody’s guess.
Advertiser: Dominos Baseline: Yeh chatakedaar, banaye company mazedaar Agency: Contract Advertising
