Owning a great brand property and leveraging it.

To me it is a great success when it comes to building a brand through one annualized property. This is where the Gujarat Government has religiously capitalized the great KITE FESTIVAL which happens in Gujarat along with the Makar Shankaranti the harvest festival season. Year after year the state of Gujarat has made huge noise and high visibility both through PR and advertising campaign. What’s more this Kite flying movement has become a global event since as many as 300 kite fliers would participate in the three-day festival, including 81 kite fliers from 24 countries, 120 from nine state of the country and local fliers from different parts of the Gujarat. The primary objective of this festival is to highlight the glorious traditions of Gujarat and clearly spread a national message which connotes a symbol of unity and brotherhood across India.

Similarly the state of Kerala has made the boat race as its annual property during the Onam festival in the state. The spirit of tradition and unity is displayed when people compete in this boat race. In fact both Kite festival and the boat festival has a strong international appeal and is also rated as one of the top 5 kite festivals in the world. While several other states keep doing their festival but these two states have made it as an annual property. In the case of Gujarat the festival has also increased employment opportunity. “The festival I believe has given a boost to the kite manufacturing industry in Gujarat, which employs over six thousand people." "A survey in 2007 had estimated the kite manufacturing industry in Gujarat to be worth Rs 100 crore. If extrapolation is done on that figure, today the industry would be around Rs.175 crore giving employment to thirty thousand people in Ahmedabad alone according a government spokesman.

Some of the brands really leveraged this Kite festival with strong branding in the most refreshing and memorable manner. You can brand kites with your brand colors or mascot and you can keep coming with innovative ideas to ride on this festival to get a greater brand connect and move closer to your consumers. A strong merchandising medium for any type of product which will touch the consumer.

I am sure the Gujarat Government must have made this event as a FAM trip to promote the state as a great tourist destination for people from other parts of world. Interesting stories could be and is being featured through PR right from making people teach the art of kite flying to how Kites in different shape, size and color is manufactured. A great photo opportunity for the photo journalist, as the place is filled with colorful extravaganza. The state has also roped in Bollywood celebrity Amitabh Bachchan to further leverage mileage.

Product Identity Design

One major factor that significantly contributes in the ‘brand’ or ‘corporate image’ of a company or its product is its identity. This identity over a period of time becomes a stamp or a property. To create a strong design and identity one must use inimitable visual devices which looks simple and stylish to catch the audience’s attention. The visual device could be in the form of color, fonts or a design layout across its entire products consistently. Here I would like illustrate the case of a housing brand very popular in the city of Mumbai.

And the brand I am referring to is Hiranandni constructions. One could easily identify or relate a skyscraper from this construction house with ease as they carry a certain distinct design and style in its architecture which stands out from a distance. The brand has over the years ensured to keep the design coherent with all its new property which has allowed them to be recognized from the rest.

Repositioning and Rebranding the identity of the bank. What it means?

Over the past few years a whole lot of banks starting from nationalized bank to some private sector bank have gone on an aggressive manner to create a new face for the bank. The latest one who has gone for a makeover is Dhanalakshmi Bank from Kerala. Frankly to me it has not made me much of a difference as I have banked with several banks in the last two decade. The bank is made of people and it is the people who make the difference and I am of the opinion if you have the right kind of people to service your customer and give that enhanced experience is what will clinch the customer. What's more you need to maintain if not increase the experience for the customer to stay with you.

In the last few years many banks have added a fresh new look to bank but I am not sure if the value proposition has been delivered. Now in the case of Dhanalakshmi bank the new kid in block which changed its spelling to make it pronounce easily and also did a makeover exercise to me may not excite a customer. You need to really give some added benefit which your competition cannot offer to woo customers and increase traffic. As a bank Dhanalakshmi has a very regional and ethnic image attached and may be even perceived as a cooperative bank. Making inroads to the urban towns will be really a great challenge for them. Also some of the up market customers in the cities are very brand conscious and would prefer to bank with some reputed brands when engaging with a bank. Some of them are even more particular that their choice would be to bank with a global or an international bank.

So my question is while refurbishing and presenting a new look to a bank sounds interesting but in the long run they will have to deliver value to its customer which is tangible.

You made us proud Piyush. A great journey to get this coveted Life time award

I was other day at the AAAI function and I was deeply touched by Piyush’s superb speech which he delivered after being given the citation and the award. Everybody who had worked closely with this creative genius had turned out to give him a thunderous clap and a standing ovation as the citation was read. I know Piyush close to two decades and I thought I should share his journey.

As a Trainee and then an Account executive Piyush worked with some excellent bosses in client servicing. His first boss if I remember right was Swati Bhansali with whom he used to handle PCA the makers of Sumeet Mixers and HLL’s Sunlight Detergent Powder. He also worked with Jaideep, Chinta, and Ranjan and of course Mani Ayer who used to oversee him on the Bhor industries account. Besides this some of the other brands that Piyush handled were Ju-c from Kothari General Foods, Vicks Blue from RHL ( Now P&G).Yes he also handled Philips Television ( PHX B&W and Trendset colour TV’s ). While he was in account management many of us used to go running to him to get the right Hindi nuances and exciting headlines for the ads which he solved with ease.

The most memorable incidence I will never forget is that one of our clients Crompton fans wanted to get into radio as the summer season was approaching. We did not have any old spots and time was against us and so I went running to him to create a new spot. The brief to him was to create a memorable jingle as Crompton fans sells only on its name being market leaders. In next 48 hours during the weekend the script was written and the spot got recorded after the CAG cricket match. On Monday the spots was approved by the client and it got aired. After few months the next thing I got to know was Piyush has moved to a new place in the office to head the Indian languages and rest was history as he started cracking campaigns after campaigns starting from Chal Mere… Luna, Merewalla Pink…, etc…

A well deserved award for a man who has made lot of personal sacrifices to contribute significantly to the industry. A very versatile person with a golden touch and a creative mind Piyush changed the way creative was viewed. He has placed India into the international map and without any doubts he is our brand ambassador and a thought leader both in India and abroad.

A proud moment. How a great idea can be leveraged through PR and win Cannes

In the past when you think of Cannes festival the one thing that connected people’s mind easily is Film festival and creative excellence in Advertising. PR never came into any limelight for these awards. But this time that shackle is broken and in my many years of being in the communication business this is first time I happen to witness PR take a front seat from India at Cannes festival along with other disciplines

A great moment for all us to hear that Gillette won the Cannes metal for its best integrated campaign led by PR. It’s the first PR metal for India at Cannes, and was won against some really tough worldwide competition for real transformational work done on a mega brand like P&G Gillette. A 360 degree effort and all the teams which partnered and created this campaign have bought great glory to India and the PR fraternity of our country.

I am sure this award was won on the basis of great idea which had flawless execution and followed by using PR effectively which caught the eye balls of many diverse audiences. The link below will tell you how this event was conceptualized, executed and finally what was the result in terms of coverage garnered free of cost.

http://www.exchange4media.com/cannes/2010/fullstory2010.asp?Section_id=50&News_id=38521

A great eye opener for many PR professionals in this country to have a open mind and come out with more path breaking ideas and win more metals in the Public Relations globally.

Promoting Hampi or BJP ?

About a decade back we were working on a campaign to promote Andhra Pradesh as the best investment destination setting up industries. For this we created a film to capture the state in a very interesting manner using Kuchupdi as a metaphor interspersed with some attractive visuals showing the state. During this tenure we had Chandrababu Naidu as the chief minister who positioned himself as the CEO of Andhra incorporated. The film was sleek and well executed. But the bureaucrats at the state insisted that we must show the face of Mr. Naidu. We fought tooth and nail and on this and asked the client do we need investments or votes. In a matter of second the client bought our logic and we aired the film as it is. Imagine if we had acted to the clients order.

Just a few days back I a happen to see the advertisement from Karnataka government promoting Hampi a great historical destination where the face of the Karnataka CM and a minister is shown in the advertisement. I fail to understand as to why the picture of the politician needs to be depicted when the objective is to promote the historical tourist spot.
It is high time bureaucrats bring in a touch of professionalism and put an end to showing the pictures of politician. Let us be clear that such silly strategy will not drive any votes to the party as it is a very cheap way of getting mileage.

Tribute to Mani Ayer. A great orator and a true communication Guru.

The passing away of Mr.Mani Ayer has left shell shocked many advertising and communication professionals both in India and abroad. A great personality Mr. Ayer could speak impromptu on Advertising, PR or direct marketing. It was he who first introduced PR with in Ogilvy in a very professional manner and ensured that clients got more value beyond just doing vanilla advertising using the traditional medium. Remember in the mid 80’s advertising was still emerging in India and he took the first bold step to bring in PR to the Ogilvy fold.

Some time back I happened to read in one of the online media where Mr. Ayer mentioned in his speech to a group of communication students that “Technology cannot substitute human brains, you still need a great mind to come out with strong ideas.” While he was a great believer of technology but to him technology could never work in isolation in the communication business.

As a professional Mr Ayer believed in strong principles and transparency in what ever he did for the industry In fact I was once told by somebody that he never believed in going for speculative pitches and strongly believed that if you have a strong credential clients will automatically invite you. His mantra was always think long term and grow your business from existing clients. Although this has changed now but his strong guiding principles helped in cementing the foundation of Ogilvy. We need to salute him for this.

One can keep writing and saying what Ayer did for the industry endlessly. But to me I have lost a great teacher, mentor and a perfect gentleman. Attending meetings with Mr. Ayer was pure joy; every word he spoke during meetings was worth the weight of gold. Insights use to just overflow in those enlightening discussions and debates.

The entire industry will miss him. May his soul rest in peace.