hotstuff cover page issu 4 2015
TRANSCRIPT
A n e w s l e t t e r f r o m D D B M u d r a G r o u p - I s s u e 4 , 2 0 1 5
H tStuff
HotStuff Book Issue (Cover Inside Front Back)Open Size : (W) 472 X (H) 345 mm
Contents
Madhukar’s Message
Facts tell but Stories sell
01
Global Connect
Global WinsGlobal News
02 - 06
The Highlights
New Management Structurein Asia Pacific
Creativity for Growth
India’s first holographic Ganesh
Big Bazaar Bharat Yatra
Bernbach Fridays
Ahmedabad Office getsa spanking new look
Sameer Mehta
New Joinees
Wassup @ MICA?
07 - 14
Thought Leadership
Sonal Dabral
15
Q&A
A tête-à-tête with Sally Ali
16-17
Best of DDB Worldwide
McDonald’s
BASE
BMW
Mammut Sports
StarHub
Skittles
Deutsch Telekom
Volkswagen
Akatu Institute of Conscious Consumption
BBVA
18-20
Best of DDB Mudra
Century Ply
Aircel
Cycle Pure Agarbathies
Gulf Oil
Big Bazaar
Van Heusen
HDFC Bank
Star Plus
Nutralite
Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)
21- 23
Thus Spake Zeigler
Three ways the agency businesscan save itself
24 - 25
Amazing People
Ajay DuttaRicha Shah
28
Know More
Alina HasanMehak JainiToru Zaveri
29 - 31
Media Spotlight32
Last Word
The Internet of Everything (IoE)
IBC
26 - 27 Guts & Glory
Facts tell but Stories sell
Madhukar KamathGroup CEO & Managing Director DDB Mudra Group
1
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
The art of storytelling - it’s as old as the bible. Jesus Christ spread Christianity with the help of parables. And, what were these parables if not stories that captured the imagination of people for all time. The parable of the prodigal son. Or, the parable of the good Samaritan. Stories which helped them to better understand the tenets he preached. Stories that enabled them to be engaged. To relate. To commit body, mind and soul.
Today, this communication tool still leads and nowhere is it more in evidence than in advertising where you need to engage with the consumer by building stories into your marketing messages, in order to achieve top of the mind awareness. Because, stories stick. Facts, figures, statistics rarely do.
Storytelling is a powerful tool that can mean the difference between being an iconic and valuable brand to being just an also ran. We all enjoy a good story, whether it's a novel, a movie or simply the description of an experience shared by a friend. Stories put our whole brain to work, not just parts of it. We feel more engaged when hearing narratives and we remember them more. What gets remembered becomes top of mind recall.
Nike is a company that has made the most of the power of the story. Way back in 1970, Nike designated its executives "Corporate Storytellers". The stories the company leaders told ranged from recounting the company history - "the Nike story" - to tales of people simply getting things accomplished. By helping
their employees understand its past, the stories helped shape the company's future.
With the rise of social media, more and more businesses are realizing the power of storytelling. Business communication doesn't just have to be bullet points, simple statements, or rhetorical rants.A dose of the human element, emotions, and branded thinking can result in a memorable message. Stories build messages that people care about. Stories help people bond to messages. People remember what they care about and bond with. When you engage listeners in a powerful, entertaining, and informative story, they remember it, and many times they ask for more.
Stories create buzz. The more buzz about a product or service, obviously the more awareness there is about that brand. And, the more awareness there is, the higher the probability of being in that top-of-mind position. Your customers and prospects are making choices, preferences and buying decisions every day. Very often, these decisions are made as a result of what comes to mind first.
Storytelling has never been ‘hotter’ than today. The principles and success factors are closely related with word-of-mouth, social sharing, social media in general, brand perception and the very core of content marketing. The challenge is in figuring out how to share that story in a way that aligns with the needs and priorities of prospects and customers. But, it’s not just sharing the story. It’s about making the story so
compelling that it elevates perceptions of value and urgency resulting in more qualified leads and faster purchasing momentum.
Take the clever, adorable and beautifully made "Monty the Penguin" spot produced by adam&eveDDB which snagged the top prize in the Film Craft contest at the Cannes Lions festival 2015 and secured many an emotional attachment to the John Lewis brand.
This commercial, told the charming story of how the best gifts of all come from the heart. The short ad film portrayed the uplifting tale of Sam's pure love for his friend, Monty the Penguin, and reminded people of the magic of Christmas through a child's innocent eyes. The film inspired the audience to think how they could make the festive season extra special for their friends and loved ones.
Or, take the truly heart-warming short film made by DDB Mudra Group for McDowell’s No. 1. The 'No.1 Yaari' anthem epitomized the core values of “true friendship”. Presented through a 7-minute long music video, the poignant story showcased how three “close buddies” together navigate through life with the security and comfort of each other’s company thus celebrating the most important relationship in the life of the young Indian – 'Yaari' or closest of friendships. The hit song "No.1 Yaari" managed to garner over 10 million hits in less than 11 months and went on to become the most famous song for reunions and alumni meets.
As Bryan Eisenberg has said: “Effective content marketing is about mastering the art of storytelling. Facts tell, but stories sell”.
Madhukar’s Message
Global Connect
DDB Group Singapore named a Cannes Chimera 2015 Challenge winner
An initiative by Cannes Lions and the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cannes
Chimera challenges the global creative
industry to build awareness and support
for the Global Citizen platform, and help
solve critical global development
problems. For this reason, it’s the award
you want to win more than a gold Lion.
The winning idea from DDB Group
Singapore’s Paolo Agulto and Joseph
Chan was titled ‘Sign up is power’; an
initiative that plans to build booths around
towns in the UK, US, France, Germany,
Canada and Australia which allow people
sign up in support of Global Citizen while
absorbing their body heat. The heat is
then converted into electricity for
communities to prove that even small
acts can make a real difference.
This is the fifth and final year that the
Cannes Chimera challenge will run. Phil Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions,
said: “Over the last five years, we have, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, created a series of
sustainable campaigns and built
meaningful relationships across the
industry. Most importantly we’ve
hopefully inspired the community to
apply their creativity to the highest of
causes: humankind.”
Omnicom takes Top Honors at 2015
Spikes Asia Festival
BBDO and DDB finished in the Top
Three Networks for 7th Consecutive
Year.
At the annual Spikes Asia Festival of
Creativity, Omnicom agencies continued
to be the most creatively awarded in the
industry. BBDO received the top honor,
Network of the Year, for the second
consecutive year, with DDB placing third.
The award came on the heels of BBDO
winning the Cannes Lions APAC
Network of the Year. Colenso BBDO
won Agency of the Year and DDB Group
New Zealand placed third. OMD China
was among the top three Media
Agencies of the Year.
In total, over 40 Omnicom agencies in
12 countries contributed to nearly
150 Spike awards. More than any other
holding company, Omnicom agencies
won 4 Grand Prix awards in Design,
Digital, Direct, and Promo and
Activation, as well as 3 Creative
Effectiveness awards.
Colenso BBDO's "Reduce Speed Dial"
innovative campaign for Volkswagen
was a multiple award-winner taking the
top prize in Digital and Direct.
Whybin/TBWA won a Grand Prix and
two Golds for their "It's Your Call"
campaign for 3AW. DDB Group New
Zealand was among the top three
agencies and won two Grand Prix
awards, the highest honor, in Design,
Promo and Activation.
"Omnicom once again had a great
showing at Spikes and it's especially
gratifying to see our networks and
agencies continue their winning streak in
an incredibly competitive region," said
John Wren, President and CEO,
Omnicom Group. "I am extremely proud
of the recognition, the work that earned
it, and the people that made it happen."
DDB at CLIO awards The CLIO Awards, the esteemed international advertising, design and communications competition took place on 30 September 2015 in New York City
2
Global Wins
Global Connect
and featured an array of celebrities, musicians and top-tier creative talent on hand to celebrate the best work of the year. Alec Baldwin served as host for the awards, held at the American Museum of Natural History. The night also featured performances by X Ambassadors and Salt-N-Pepa. The 2015 CLIO Awards was presented by HP.
DDB agencies from around the world contributed to a win of six silver and seven bronze awards in various categories.
DDB Melbourne‘s Radiant Return for Radiant won a silver in the Social Media category and two bronzes in the Direct Film and Integrated Campaign categories. It also bagged 2 bronze Lions at Cannes.
DDB California brought home a silver under the Films Commercial - under 30-sec category for Clorox’ Bleachable Moments.
adam&eveDDB also received a silver under the Films Short Form category for John Lewis’ Monty’s Christmas. Its campaign Bad Fit for Harvey Nichols also earned a silver in the Print and Out of Home Posters categories and a bronze in the Print Technique category.
DM9DDB earned a silver for Tell My Story in the Design Direct Marketing category for Amor Exigente.
Volkswagen’s Bi Xenon Headlamps by DDB Mudra Group won a bronze in ‘Design’ off the back of its bronze Cannes Lion win earlier this year.
DDB Paris contributed two bronze awards to the haul.
DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu
#DDB DM9 JaymeSyfu capped off 4A's The 18th Agency of the Year Awards as 2nd time Best in Creative and 4th time Best in Industry Leadership & Community Service (2 years in a row and 4 years in row)!
DDB Group New Zealand’s April Fools double bluff cleans up at AdStars 2015
DDB agencies from across Asia Pacific brought home 15 awards from the AdStars 2015 Festival held in Busan at the end of August 2015. The haul included two crystal, two gold, three silver and eight bronze awards across five campaigns.
DDB Group New Zealand won a total of 11 awards for two of its much lauded campaigns this year, including ‘Reverse April Fools’ for BMW and ‘Don’t trade me’ for Paw Justice. The former won gold in the Branded Viral Videos and Campaign Videos categories, silver in PR and Media and a further four bronze awards in PR and Media. ‘Don’t trade me’ won one silver and two bronze awards in PR.
DDB Group Vietnam and DDB Group Singapore each won a crystal award for Green Cross ‘Kinetic Energy Shoe’ and StarHub ‘4G4Good’, respectively. ‘4G4Good’ also took home bronze in PR.
DDB Mudra Group completed the awards tally with a bronze in Design for ‘Volkswagen Identity’.
3
El Taier DDB wins Agency of the Year at Antigua Festival
The festival that celebrates Central America’s creativity, Antigua, took place in August in Guatemala. Taier DDB won the maximum recognition as Agency of the Year and Best Local Agency in Guatemala, and received a Grand Jade for its campaign “Checa tu trago” for Seguros El Roble. The agency won 10 additional medals and awards including three golds, three silvers and three bronzes.
DDB South Africa’s Skittles “YouTube the Rainbow” Radio Campaign recognized at the Loerie Awards in South Africa
DDB South Africa’s radio campaign for Wrigley’s “Country”, “Opera” and “Disney”, which are made up of YouTube subscribers’ comments, excelled in the Cannes Festival Silver Lions category.
At the Loerie Awards the campaign received one Campaign Craft Certificate in the Radio Communication – Direction category and one Campaign Craft Certificate in the Radio Communication – Performance category.
‘The Loerie Awards recognized as the most prestigious in the region is dedicated to the recognition of creative excellence in the brand communications industry in Africa and the Middle East.
Global Connect
Keith Reinhard receives Clio's Lifetime Achievement honor
Now here is an award that is richly deserved. DDB Chairman Emeritus Keith Reinhard was presented the Clio Awards 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award, at a ceremony held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on 30 September 2015. Matthew Weiner, director, producer, writer and creator of AMC’s Mad Men presented the Award to Reinhard.
Anyone who has spent more than five minutes in the advertising industry knows Reinhard's name. Noted Clio president Nicole Purcell: "Keith's legacy is one that not only includes iconic spots in advertising, but groundbreaking work in shaping the creative industry as we know it today." During his years as an ad creative, Reinhard worked on advertising for many major brands, including State Farm, Anheuser-Busch, Volkswagen and PepsiCo. But it is the work Reinhard oversaw for McDonald's while he was based at DDB Chicago that truly sets him apart from the vast majority of his creative peers. When pressed, even Reinhard would admit McDonald's was always his favorite client. He helped mastermind a slew of iconic advertising for the burger behemoth in McDonald's early years, including "You Deserve a Break Today" and a number of other charming, story-driven commercials.
As he took on a larger network role within DDB, Reinhard also helped create Omnicom Group, the global agency holding company that encompasses a number of the world's top creative ad agencies. Said Reinhard as he prepared to accept the Clio Award, "I am blessed to have been involved for a lifetime in the
endlessly fascinating world of advertising. Given a chance, I'd do it all over again”.
Established in 1959, the Clio Awards annually celebrate high achievement in the advertising industry. Other Clio Lifetime Achievement Award winners include Dan Wieden (2009), Joe Pytka (2011) and George Lois (2013)
Amir Kassaei named as Integration Jury President by LIA
LIA, formerly known as the London International Advertising Awards, recently announced that Amir Kassaei, Chief Creative Officer of DDB Worldwide, has been selected to join the prestigious Integration jury. LIA is a worldwide award annually honoring legends, pioneers, and embodiments of excellence in Advertising, Digital, Production, Design, Music & Sound and Technology. This year’s awards show judging is slated to take place in Las Vegas between 1 and 10 October 2015.
Kassaei has also been selected as a speaker for this year’s conference.
Carlos Rangel to participate in “Creative LIAisons”
In addition, Carlos Rangel, Associate Creative Director of DDB Chicago, has been chosen to participate in LIA’s “Creative LIAisons” event. LIA has been running Creative LIAisons in conjunction with their judging period for their annual awards for the last four years.
During the Creative LIAisons event, Rangel will take part in a series of interactive networking events between
junior and senior-level creatives, such as seminars and speaking engagements, as a way of connecting younger professionals with seasoned advertising experts.
Luis Miguel Messianu is ADCOLOR’S 2015 Legend Honoree
The ADCOLOR Industry Conference is the premier diversity gathering for professionals at all levels. This year, they chose to honor Alma Founder and CEO Luis Messianu for his dedication to championing diversity on the screen, in print and in the workplace.
The conference and awards show took place in New York on 19 September 2015.
Rich Guest and Noelle Troccoli selected for 2015 min “Sweet 16” List
The min Integrated Marketing Awards, which salute the campaigns, ongoing programs and innovative people who’ve raised the bar on magazine marketing programs, named Rich Guest, President of Tribal Worldwide – North America, and Noelle Troccoli, Media Supervisor at DDB New York, to the 2015 “Sweet 16”
Global News
4
Global Connect
list. The awards show was held on 22 September 2015, at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.
The annual min Sweet 16 list recognizes 16 of the most influential marketers and media buyers in magazine publishing. To be considered for this list, nominees must fervently support magazine brands and also be incredibly active in their field. Rich and Noelle were nominated based on their successes in the digital agency industry by a collection of min’s editorial staff.
Global Change Award launched by DDB Stockholm
On 25 August 2015, DDB Stockholm launched “The Global Change Award” together with H&M Conscious Foundation. The award takes on one of the biggest challenges facing today's fashion industry – to create fashion for a growing population while reducing its impact on the environment. The aim of the challenge is to protect the earth’s natural resources by closing the loop for fashion by catalyzing green, truly groundbreaking ideas. The question for fashion is no longer “What is the new black?” but rather “What innovative ideas can close the loop?”
Five winners, chosen by an expert jury, will share a grant of €1 million and get
access to a tailor-made innovation accelerator. The global public will be invited to distribute half of the total grant through an online vote. The result will be revealed at a grand award ceremony in Stockholm, in February 2016.
The innovation accelerator − a collaboration with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm − will give the five winners the support and knowledge they need to actualize their ideas. Starting off with an innovation boot camp in Stockholm, provided by KTH Innovation, it will be followed up by guidance from Accenture Strategy on how to develop the winning ideas further. This includes the provision of a one-year training and coaching program with a particular focus on circular economy. The innovation accelerator will also provide exclusive fashion industry access and offer possibilities to build networks and try out the ideas within the fashion value chain.
Another first from DDB Stockholm
DDB Stockholm, a co-founder of a
start-up named PUGZ launched its
prototype of the smallest wireless
earphones in the world on Kickstarter
on 31 August 2015. The PUGZ team
consists of techies and designers that
have been working on this dream
project in secrecy for over a year now.
With no wires attached to the phone
you can easily access your PUGZ and
enjoy a smooth wireless experience.
The lightweight and the minimal shape
of the earbuds gives you a perfect fit
and lets you walk around freely, without
bothering with wires or tangles.
The wireless earphones will also be the
first product on the market to be
charged directly through your phone.
So, you can listen and charge at the
same time.
DDB presents… Vincent Laforet at Spikes Asia 2015
Since 2007, DDB has been bringing some of the world’s most exciting creative pioneers to Spikes Asia. This year’s DDB Presents… speaker was Vincent Laforet. A global filmmaker, Pulitzer prize-winner and former staff photographer at The New York Times, Vincent’s core values of creativity and humanity made him a perfect candidate for what has become Spikes’ most attended speaking event.
Vincent presented a seminar on day one of Spikes Asia, followed shortly afterwards by a workshop to a
combined audience of young marketers and creatives as part of the growing Spikes Academy initiative.
There is no denying Vincent Laforet knows his craft inside and out. After years of going backwards and forwards between photography and directing, Vincent now refers to himself as a visual storyteller. While he has an enviable knowledge of equipment, technology and gadgets (and 7 million annual readers to his blog agree), Vincent maintains it’s the story behind your content that counts and makes it go viral.
Here are the key take-aways from Vincent’s inspirational, and at times jaw dropping, speaker session at Spikes Asia 2015.
AIR. Los Angeles-based Vincent came to Spikes fresh from completing project AIR. A series of photographs capturing world cities from 7,500 feet. Over Las
5
6
Global Connect
Vegas the helicopter rose to a staggering 10,000 feet with an oxygen starved Vincent hanging out of the door in the clutches of his trusted harness.
The images he shared, some of which he showed for the first time at Spikes, offer a never-before-seen perspective of world cities. The technology to do this only became available last year and the results are breathtaking. In Vincent’s own words, “Every city has its own pattern, you can see how we interact with each other and with the environment. You can almost feel the energy in the globe coming out of the city,” he added.
More with less. With rapid developments in technology over the last five or six years, people these days think everything can be done quicker and cheaper. Just because you can, said Vincent, certainly doesn’t mean you should. With increasing pressure to do more with less, you have to think outside the box.
New tools are allowing us to shoot things in a different way and break the model. Vincent referenced a collaboration with UGG for Treadlite where he overcame budgetary constraints and leapfrogged what can be a stifling production process to let his own creativity flow.
The moral of the story? Question everything you do, find new ways of thinking outside the box and don’t let a process stifle your creativity.
2015 Future Bernbachs lift the bar
DDB Hong Kong’s inaugural Future Bernbachs program went underway with talented interns from universities across China and Hong Kong enjoying a taste of agency life in the fast lane.
Launched in 2013, Future Bernbachs celebrates Bill Bernbach’s legacy and showcases the agency’s commitment in educating young talent through knowledge sharing and best practice over an intensive three-month course. Jimmy Lam, Vice Chairman & Chief Creative Officer of DDB China Group, who initiated the program, explained that the interns were in for “the toughest three months” as the agency gets them “out of their comfort zone”. “They will learn how to breakthrough boundaries
and think out of the box. Starting in July, the students worked on live projects with real clients alongside the DDB creative, planning and account teams, as part of an initiative designed to bridge the gap between academic theories and hands-on practice, helping young talent to unleash their potential.
In Hong Kong, interns experienced the process from campaign planning to creative ideation through both lectures and hands-on experiences.
In China, teams tackled different problems and participated in co-creation alongside weekly ‘Sparks’ sessions where they listened to DDB veterans sharing their knowledge.
On top of that, all interns were actively involved in each agency’s routine development.
Tribal Worldwide Buenos Aires introduces packaging innovation
McDonald's has seriously boosted its environmental credentials with its latest packaging innovation -- takeaway containers designed for cyclists. The packaging, designed created by Tribal Worldwide Buenos Aires fits neatly onto a bike's handlebars. Launched first in bike-friendly Copenhagen, Denmark and in Medellin, Colombia, it has plans to roll out in Amsterdam and Tokyo.
DDB Group Australia joins hands with Nepal for relief-effort initiative
DDB Sydney launched Namaste for Nepal, an art event that assisted the nation’s rebuilding efforts following the devastating earthquake earlier this year.
On 25 April 2015, at 11:56 am local time, the tiny Himalayan country of Nepal was stunned by a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake with shocking consequences.
In light of this, DDB launched Namaste for Nepal; an art auction in partnership with Save the Children to raise funds to directly help in the rebuilding efforts of this small country known as the roof of the world.
DDB Melbourne rising star makes 2015 The Women in Media Awards shortlist
DDB Melbourne Senior Business Director, Julia Sheehan was shortlisted for 2015’s ‘Rising Star’ by B&T’s The Women in Media Awards.
The Women in Media Awards celebrates all the inspiring, innovating and game-changing women in the industry, and Julia joins an impressive lineup of women from across Australia under 13 different categories of recognition.
The Highlights
7
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
DDB Worldwide announces newManagement Structure in Asia Pacific
DDB Asia, responsible for managing
DDB offices in Southeast Asia, Greater
China, Japan, and Korea. He reports to
Chuck Brymer, Chief Executive Officer of
DDB Worldwide.
Effective 1 October 2015, the
DDB offices in Australia, New Zealand
and India report directly to headquarters.
Thus, both Madhukar Kamath, Group
CEO & MD, DDB Mudra Group in India
and Marty O’Hallaran, Chairman and
CEO, DDB Group Australia and
New Zealand report directly to
Chuck Brymer.
Said Madhukar Kamath, “Since the
acquisition of the Mudra Group by DDB in
November 2011, it has been a fascinating
growth journey. As part of the
DDB Asia Pacific network, we learnt a lot
from John, Marty, David and the rest of
the team in APAC. I now look forward to
working closely with our Global CEO,
Chuck Brymer. For my colleagues and
me, this new reporting structure
underscores the importance of the
DDB Mudra Group and the immense
potential for growth in India.”
Chuck Brymer, Global CEO,
DDB Worldwide announced a new
management structure in the Asia Pacific
region on 18 September 2015.
Pursuant to his retirement from the
agency, John Zeigler, former Chairman
and CEO, DDB Asia Pacific, India and
Japan has taken on the role of Chairman
Emeritus, DDB Asia Pacific effective
1 October 2015.
David Tang, who leads DDB Group
Singapore was appointed the CEO of
Said John Zeigler, “I have worked with
many talented people, and the time is
right for these same people to continue to
drive DDB Asia Pacific forward. DDB has
been my extended family for so long, and
I will always think of it with fondness,
pride and admiration.”
Brymer commented, “John has been a
terrific partner for both DDB and myself.
He contributed an enormous amount to
our agency’s growth in terms of our
people, our work and our clients. We
wish him well in his new endeavours.
I also look forward to working closely with
our colleagues in India, Asia, Australia
and New Zealand.”
The Highlights
8
‘Creativity is the most powerful tool in
businesses’ –said Bill Bernbach more
than half a century ago. This is the
foundation of DDB’s philosophy and the
core of our being.
How does this belief hold in reimagining
the future of our industry in today’s day of
constant flux and incessant change? In
this background of change – How does
DDB rethink, reimagine and rebuild its
business and that of its clients?
A team of five strategic leaders from
across the Asia Pacific region –
Carlos Palacios from DDB Singapore,
Leif Stromnes from DDB Sydney, Ian
Forth from DDB Melbourne as well as
Amit Kekre and Aditya Kanthy from
DDB Mudra Group (India) took on this
task and met in Beijing and Melbourne in
July and August 2015.
The charter of this group was to see
Bernbach’s creative legacy in the light of
Paul Feldwick’s pioneering thinking as a
strategist in BMP/DDB London (credited
with inventing the discipline of account
planning) and Les Binet’s seminal work
as head of Effectiveness adam&eve DDB.
Les’ analysis of close to a 1000 of the
most effectiveness case studies in
marketing help prove Bernbach’s
assertion about the power of creativity.
Could we draw on this rich legacy of
DDB and define our offering by thinking
and producing more than 1-D creativity,
with ‘ads’ being its sole dimension, while
marketers look for more than 1-P
solution?
Over a week long ‘hothouse’ under the
Great Wall of China, and then in
Melbourne, the group discussed,
deliberated and designed a set of
fundamentals, tools and processes to
drive DDB and its clients into harnessing
the true power of creativity in its full force
across the value chain of business
growth opportunities.
The group’s work that reframed the role
of creativity to drive business growth in
today’s times is being rolled out across
offices and clients.t
Creativity for Growth
The Highlights
DDB Mudra Group presentsIndia’s first holographic Ganesh
In 2014, DDB Mudra Group and Nutralite
revolutionized the way India prayed to
Lord Ganesh during Ganesh Utsav by
presenting India’s first six-pack abs
Ganesh.
Keeping its promise of promoting good
health and fitness, Health Cha Shree
Ganesh was back this year with India’s
first transforming holographic Ganesh set
up as Health Cha Shree Ganesh pandal
at Growel’s 101 Mall, Kandivali (East), the
venue partners.
In its second year, Lord Ganesh at Health
Cha Shree Ganesh pandal transformed
into a fitter, healthier avatar with the help
of his beloved devotees. The devotees
had to workout at a temporary gym
created inside the pandal by Gold’s Gym
and donate their calorie loss to help
Lord Ganesh reduce. The calories lost by
the devotees were tracked in real time via
calorie meters and they had to burn close
to 50,000 calories during the 11-day
event, in order to see the unique ripped,
fitter avatar of Lord Ganesh on the
last day.
The recyclable holographic technology
also made Lord Ganesh at Health Cha
Shree Ganesh, an environmental-friendly
alternative to the regular statue,
maintaining the promise of a clean and
healthy environment as well. The other
rituals from last year’s pandal like the
on-site weighing machine, calorie
donation screen (where one can view the
calories donated to the deity) and a
donation box (where one can drop off
their unhealthy habits and take an oath to
stay on the path of good health) were
also in evidence.
During the 11 days, the pandal hosted a
number of interesting, engaging activities
such as body building competitions,
professional Zumba dancing sessions,
diet camps, healthy cooking workshops
and cross fit workout sessions, etc. In
collaboration with the health partners –
Wockhardt Hospitals, a team of doctors,
dieticians, health counsellors and
nutritionists were present at the pandal to
carry out free health check-ups and give
advice on healthy lifestyle on all 11 days.
The unique pandal pulled in over 1 lakh
visitors who burnt 5,50,000 calories for
Shree Ganesh in 11 days. The social
media scene buzzed with 1567 organic
followers on Facebook and a
commendable number of conversations
on Twitter. A unique feature was the
healthy modak prepared with Nutralite.
The total earned media was estimated at
`10 million.
On Nutralite’s association with Health
Cha Shree Ganesh-2, Sachin Dingankar,
Marketing Head, Nutralite said, “Health
Cha Shree Ganesh is a unique concept
which fits well with Nutralite’s brand
promise of being the Healthier Choice.
We strongly felt that it would be a perfect
opportunity for a brand like us to get
associated and convey the importance of
good health to consumers.”
Added Aneil Deepak, Head of Ideas,
DDB MudraMax, “The holographic
technology used for Lord Ganesh was a
first in its kind. A Ganapati who gets fitter
by the day is a sight and a memory to
cherish. We have seen many pandals that
have spent and donated millions, we are
the first to spend calories towards the
Lord. Health Cha Shree Ganesh has set
new benchmarks in promoting
health and fitness.”
9
The Highlights
Big Bazaar Bharat Yatra – Where are my customers?
2 days, 17 cities, 30 stores, 32 team members and a total of 512 man hours spent.
The above numbers could easily talk about a marathon shopping spree undertaken by a chosen lucky few at DDB Mudra Group.
It was a marathon spree, not for shopping though, rather to understand the shoppers who do their shopping at Big Bazaar. The Big Bazaar team in collaboration with DDB Mudra Group network undertook a massive multi-city exercise to understand retail shopper behaviour across various retail players in India. The challenge was to bridge the gap between the ubiquitous push and pull of product marketing in retail markets and to define the aspirational lifestyle of Tier 1 & 2 towns.
While retailers have become highly aggressive to push their products to consumers, consumers have become much more evolved in terms of fulfilling their needs. In order to witness the shift in their lifestyle and purchase patterns, the team decided to investigate shopper lifestyle patterns and observe their shopping patterns. The insights gleaned from this exercise would eventually help to relook at the business and the consumer from micro point of view. With fresh outlook and determination, the team, armed with research collaterals such as store observation guides, consumer interactions guides and linked in profile formats of the stores, headed to Big Bazaar and competition stores.
Tonnes of curiosity and daredevilry to observe, shadow and spy upon shoppers, store managers and competition stores were required to get the best insights during this exercise.
The team, not only managed to understand the purchase patterns of routine shoppers, they unearthed valuable understanding about the retail format. Retail is increasingly seeing a major shift towards micro-management.
Retail outlets and business need to constantly upgrade their products and formats to cater to the 3 big “S’s” of Retail – Spending Power, Social Mindsets and Shopping Behaviour. The right balance and understanding of the 3 factors provide the major driving force for customer loyalty and repeat purchase rate.
Says Sanjay Panday, Sr. Vice President, DDB Mudra West, “Working on the brand day in and day out, we get compartmentalized in our thinking. An exercise like this helps us pull back, open our minds to the new consumer realities and re-engineer the business in order to cater to consumer needs more effectively.”
It would have been a nightmare collating information from 17 cities, co-ordinating the availability of resources, identifying the right catchments and competition and creating a battery of questions that help get rich information had it not been for the dedication and innovativeness by all the members of the team. Over the two days of travel, all the experiences were recorded through a Whatsapp group which highlighted all the highs and the lows of the research.
The exercise helped the Big Bazaar team to uncover consumer relevance attributes and scrutinize it by degrees to which it helps distinguish the brand from the commoditization forces plaguing the product category and that within cities there are sub-cities and sub-cultures trying to stand out from one another in a very unique manner. Retail businesses should concentrate on catchment area (radius of 2-4km from the stores) specific consumer lifestyle and purchase patterns rather than categorizing consumers on the basis of catchment areas as consumer generalization is increasingly becoming a thing of the past.
10
• 2 days, 17 cities, 30 stores, 32 team members and a total of 512 man hours spent to understand retail shopper behaviour across various retail players in India
• Collected key insights about the retail format and new consumer realities
• Highlighted the need to upgrade retail products and formats to cater to the 3 big “S’s” of Retail – Spending Power, Social Mindsets and Shopping Behaviour
• Concentration to be on catchment area based specific consumer lifestyle and purchase patterns rather than consumer generalization
The Highlights
11
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
Bernbach Fridays
suggestions or alternatively a concept
sketch for a poster, in order to shortlist
the attendees.
In his introduction Sonal said, “Nalin has
led a very interesting and adventurous life
which also shows in his work. He has
travelled the world and is an international
name in filmmaking. Disappointed by the
fact that India has had a plethora of male
buddy films but is yet to produce a female
buddy film, he has written and directed
what could be called India’s first female
buddy film which is slated for release
across India in Sept /Oct 2015.”
Six young women from various parts of
India descend on a beautiful old Goan
home for a few days, not knowing that
their hostess has summoned them down
for her wedding. Each of them have at
some time or other smarted under the
tyranny of male dominance. They have
other things in common. They are
fearless, outspoken and ready to take on
the world and unabashedly pepper their
vocabulary with explicit four letter words.
Two other females, a child and a domestic help, complete the main cast.
Trust Sonal Dabral to come up with
something new and different every time.
Bernbach Fridays are meant to inspire
and this one certainly did. On 17 July
2015, he rustled up an exclusive preview
screening of the first Hindi feature film
‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ made by the
renowned Pan Nalin, maker of global hits
like ‘Samsara’. As space was a constraint
at the preview theatre, a contest was held
calling for loglines and tagline
As the stroy unfolds several aspects of male tyranny be in the domestic, police, legislative or social sphere are explored and social taboos turned on their head. From blaming the rape victim for her predicament, to delineating the selfish husband who cannot see beyond his own needs or the sheer crass treatment meted out to actresses and singers to the right to decide ones sexual preferences, the film sends a powerful message about the need for women empowerment.
The film is unique at several levels. It is the first time that an Indian director has attempted a Female Bonding film. Male bonding films are a dime a dozen.
Secondly, while it addresses a smattering of women issues in the context of current day India, it is not preachy or didactic. Rather, it communicates its powerful messages through storytelling and entertainment, knowing that by grabbing the heartstrings of the audience, it can inspire its members to do something to make India a safer, better and less biased place for women in the future.
Finally, in its making, Nalin has thrown many accepted filmmaking techniques and conventions to the winds in favour of what he calls Organic Filmmaking. He used just two handheld cameras and a variety of unique methods of lighting to capture a very realistic and new cinematic look. The protagonists were not prepped with detailed dialogues but were encouraged to speak from the heart. Thus making them very real and easy to relate to. Their characters are revealed in reverse so to speak, with their flaws, faults and frailties being highlighted first and their compassion, depth and goodness coming through in the course of the film.
The film promises to be a big hit in the West whose appetite for Indian themes has been whet by movies like Slumdog Millionaire.
The Highlights
Ahmedabad office getsa spanking new look
Mudra Tower is where the Mudra dream
began, where its success story was first
scripted. This was the original
headquarters of Mudra Communications
and in the early nineties was the place
where the most iconic fashion
advertising was created for Vimal.
The place where the most endearing
work was done for Rasna and Dhara.
The place where numerous
entrepreneurial ambitions incubated, from
Symphony to Paras to Sun Pharma.
On 25 March 2015, exactly 35 years
after Mudra was born, DDB Mudra’s
office in Mudra Tower reincarnated into
a new form – a renovated building.
Emerging out of its previous pale self
into something a lot brighter and lighter.
It now houses the office of various units
of the DDB Mudra Group, viz.,
DDB Mudra West, DDB MudraMax
(OOH and Media), Corporate Finance
and Corporate IT Teams, as well as
Hall & Partners Research of the
Omnicom Group and has more than
100 people working there.
Putting all communication services
under one roof has helped in ensuring
greater collaboration; integration with
the larger team is helping in sharpening
our ideas. The canvas is becoming
larger, the campaigns more innovative
and the brands a lot more influential.
12
The Highlights
Sameer Mehta elevated to President, TracyLocke India
New Joinees
13
DDB Mudra Group announced the elevation of Sameer Mehta to the post of President, TracyLocke India. TracyLocke is DDB Mudra Group’s shopper marketing, field marketing and retail solutions agency. In his new role, Mehta reports to Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO & MD, DDB Mudra Group.
Mehta has been a part of the DDB Mudra Group since 2005 and has been instrumental in setting up and growing its
field marketing, retail solutions and shopper marketing services. He has led the business transformation of this agency to offer the entire spectrum of these services under one roof. With 17 years of experience in this field, Mehta has knowledge and experience in helping businesses grow through interventions at the point of purchase and this has been utilised extensively for brands such as Samsung, Motorola, Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Sony and others.
Pushpendra Singh
Vineet Kindra
Arijit Chakrabarty
Nilay Moonje
Vineet Kindra has joined DDB Mudra North as Sr. Vice President & Business Partner. A brand management and communications professional, he has wide ranging experience in brand building through providing strategic inputs to help realize marketing objectives. He comes from L&K Saatchi & Saatchi and previously had stints with Rediffusion Y&R, O&M and Triton in Delhi. Some of the brands he has worked on include Carlsberg/Tuborg, Huawei, Xerox, Yahoo!, DLF, CNN-IBN and Dabur Hair Oil. He was involved with the launch of Hindustan Times first “I Love Delhi” festival and the re-launch of HT City. He has worked on the immensely successful TV commercial for Greenply in 2005 that brought the brand a lot of recognition. He has an MBA (Marketing) Degree from IGNOU, New Delhi, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising & Public Relations from Centre for Mass Media, YMCA, New Delhi.
Pushpendra Singh has joined DDB MudraMax in Gurgaon as Senior VP OOH & Experiential. He is an astute marketing professional with over 23 years experience in NBD, Media Planning, Brand Building activities, Events, Outdoors and other BTL promotions. He was earlier with Street Talk Connect Pvt. Ltd. as Consulting Adviser where his key responsibility was establishing an outdoor advertising agency. Pushpendra started his career as a sales officer and worked in various sales and management positions, mainly in the outdoor advertising sector. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the Rajasthan University.
Arijit Chakrabarty has joined DDB MudraMax in Gurgaon as General Manager. He has 13 years of cross-functional experience spanning corporate strategy, media sales, and product leadership. He comes from Greenlam Industries Limited where he held the position of Dy. General Manager (Product Head – Laminates). He began his career as Senior Officer, Corporate Strategy and Planning Group, Times of India, Delhi. Arijit has a Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and Communications Management from the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune and was a first rank holder of the 2001 batch.
Nilay Moonje has joined DDB Mudra West as Group Creative Director. He has more than 12 years experience and has worked on leading national and international brands such as Amaron Batteries, SBI Life Insurance, Glycodin Cough Syrup, Star TV, Tata Motors, Parle, Johnnie Walker and Reliance Mutual Fund. He was awarded the Ogilvy Young National Creative Person of the Year, 2004 and has won several awards at Abby, Mirchi Kaan, Effie, Kyoorius, National Hero and Asia Pacific Adfest. He has a Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and Public Relations, from the K. C. College of Management Studies and stood first in Copywriting at a Programme in Crafting Advertising at the Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), 2002. He also achieved the First Rank and was awarded Dubai Media City’s IBDA’A International Media Student 2003 Award for Advertising.
The Highlights
Wassup @ MICA?
14
Mr. Saugata Gupta, CEO, Consumer Products inaugurated MICA’s three residential programs for the academic year 2015-16, viz., the 22nd batch of PGDM(C), the 25th batch of CCC and the 5th batch of the FPM on 29 June 2015
The valedictory function of the 10 students who attended a month long course on Creative Communication held for Disney UTV. This was a culmination of the Bindaas Dream Start – Certificate Program in Creative Communication for Disney UTV at the MICA MDP centre.
Events
• A 2-day In-Company Management Development Program was organized for the sales team of HT Media Ltd. in Gurgaon. • MICA was invited as session facilitators (online and in-person) to help build global UNICEF capacity in communication for development.
• MICA Incubator Centre organised its first Demo Day of the year on 5 July 2015 in association with eChai, supported by Innovify (a UK based company builder and Incubator) and Entrepreneurial Spark (the world’s largest free business accelerator for early stage and growing ventures. Ten start-ups, one company builder and one accelerator made presentations while awards were handed out to local entrepreneurs. The Centre also hosted a talk by MICA alumnus (PGP- 2001-03) Varun Dua, Co-founder and CEO of Coverfox.
• The MICA MDP Centre headed by Mr. Narayan Nair commenced the 3rd batch of Viacom18 postgraduate certificate program in Sales & Marketing Management.
• Mr. Venkatagiri Rao, ex-Executive, Creative Director, DDB Mudra Group, Mumbai, and a MICAn from the batch of 1999-2001 held a session on ‘Creativity + Humanity’ for the MICA community.
Thought Leadership
• MICA added three new Governing Council members in Dr. Tridip Suhrud, Director, Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, Mr. Achal Bakeri, Founder Chairman & Managing Director, Symphony Limited, Ahmedabad and Mr. Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer, Wipro Group, Bengaluru.
• MICA welcomed a new Dean in Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay and a new faculty member in Prof. Anjali Bansal and new staff members in Mr. Brahma Ghosh Raval and Mr. Govind Chauhan.
• Dr. Nagesh Rao was invited to join the Editorial Advisory Board of Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, a quarterly peer-reviewed management journal of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
• On the occasion of World Social Media Day, Prof. Falguni V Oza was invited to speak at The Social Media Conclave in Bangalore and later also recorded a podcast with Web Marketing Academy, Bangalore. She was also invited to talk on "Teaching Methodology" at the Teachers Training Program at GLS, Ahmedabad.
• Prof. Panda was invited as a resource person to the 2-day Faculty Development Program (Teaching and Learning Process) organised by the GLS University, Ahmedabad.
• Prof. Dhaval Patel was invited to work as a mentor for entrepreneurial healthcare start-ups in USA at MATTER, an organization currently working with about 90 companies. Prof. Patel was also appointed member of the Technical Committee for the upcoming 2015 Global Social Business Summit Academia Conference.
• Prof. Shubhra Gaur’s book titled Charity to Parity: New Dimensions of NGO Management was formally released on the occasion of MICA’s inaugural function.
• Prof. Varsha Jain was appointed as a reviewer for American Marketing Association, AMA Winter Conference, 2016.
• Dr. Atish was invited to be part of the grand jury by PitchonNet.com, the marketing magazine to choose the top 50 Brands for 2015.
• Prof. Varsha Jain was appointed as a reviewer for a premier international peerreviewed journal of American Academy of Advertising, AAA, Journal of Advertising.
• Prof. Dipti Kulkarni presented a paper titled "Forestalling trouble through self repair in instant messaging interactions" at the 14th International Pragmatics Conference in Antwerp, Belgium.
• Prof. U. T. Rao was invited as speaker on “Industries – Entrepreneurship & Start-ups” at the Gujarat Chintan Shivir held in the presence of the Chief Minister and other ministers of Gujarat government. He was invited to be a member for the core group to suggest / recommend Start-up Policy for the Govt. of Gujarat. Prof. Rao was also nominated as part of the jury for the Make in India Excellence Awards – 2015.
MICA conducted a 3-day In-Company Management Training Program (ICTP) on Strategic Corporate Communication for Managers from various regional offices of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL).
Thought Leadership
Sonal Dabral
15
HotStuff Book IssueSize : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
BullsEye Conference 2015
Sonal reported that he saw some
amazing and inspiring pieces of work
from Asia Pacific DDB offices during its
BullsEye Conference 2015. BullsEye is
DDB's Regional Creative meet held
annually. This year it was held from
20 to 21 July 2015 at the Commune by
the Great Wall which is located in the
Shuiguan Mountains, a one and half
hour drive outside of Beijing.
#ProudFathersFor Daughters
The weekend of 1 and 2 August 2015
saw Sonal participate in the second
edition of "Proud Fathers For
Daughters" an initiative started in 2014
by Atul Kasbekar. This year Atul
partnered with Colston Julian and
Jaideep Oberoi to once again
photograph portraits of Fathers and
Daughters for free. The retouched,
colour corrected prints were then made
available for a small minimum donation
of `5000 and the entire proceeds went
to Nanhi Kali, a dynamic NGO that has
made it possible for several hundreds of
underprivileged girls to go to junior
school for an entire year.
ADSTARS 2015
Sonal was invited to serve as a final
judge at the 8th ADSTARS event in
Busan, S Korea. The event was held
from 20 to 22 August 2015. ADSTARS
is the world’s first convergent
advertising festival consisting of a
preliminary online competition running
year round and the main offline
competition in which the finalists
contend for honours and prizes. Sonal also received the Gold in the Brand Stars category that was awarded to DDB Mudra Group for its work on Volkswagen.
Creative All Stars
On the heels of Spikes, on 14 September 2015, he went to Kuala Lumpur for the Creative All Stars event. The theme of the full day conference this year was "The Next Big Thing”, and Sonal had the opportunity to showcase his latest work and also talk about what he sees ahead for Creativity. He opened his presentation with an impromptu rendition of Shah Rukh Khan's Kuch
Kuch Hota Hai which the crowds absolutely loved.
Other stars that attended included Khai Meng, John Merrifield, Edmund Choe, Merlee Jayme, Ted Lim, Gigi Lee, Hwa, CK Tan and more.
Needless to say Sonal used the 30 minutes slot allotted to him to inspire with his wisdom, wit and tips on how to make it to the global stage.
16
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
Q & A
Please tell us a little about your academic background and the career path that led up to your joining DDB Worldwide.
My academic background was certainly not designed for the job that I am handling in DDB today! To quote John Lennon, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” I grew up in NYC, one of five children of an immigrant family that had crossed over from the West Indies. Since I was the eldest, the responsibility of acting as the mediator of my siblings was thrust upon me. It was this grounding coupled with a passion for people that inspired me to begin working in the Social Services area of helping children, when I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. I felt then that my skills and passion would be put to best use in helping children. This brought me into close personal contact with hundreds of neglected children and those from homes with domestic abuse. After doing this for a year, I realized that I could not cope with the emotional toll and switched jobs.
This time the pendulum swung to the other extreme. I joined a firm called Thomson Financial where I worked as an Account Manager in the investor relations team managing the accounts of several Fortune 500 companies. I learned a lot about business and management during my time with Thomson, but I was ready to move on after 3 years, towards a people related
vocation again. I joined a staffing firm as a Recruiter and handled the specialized area of recruiting paraprofessionals from all over the world. I loved this position because it was the perfect melding of business and human relations. I was particularly effective in this role and helped grow the business from 50 to 500 people and triple the income within a year’s time. They monopolized their market at the time. I was promoted to lead the Recruiting team and eventually the HR team and grew the team from 2 to 20 around the world.
With my passion in business and HR, I decided that it was time to return to school for some grounded learning in leadership and organizational change and so I pursued my Masters degree in New York City. Shortly, after completing my degree in 2006, I joined DDB, in Jan 2007, as a Talent Associate working on Europe, Middle East and Africa with the former Chief People Officer of EMEA and a best practice expert on global talent management.
What made you join DDB and what were the milestones of your career path here?
I have a passion for people and advertising because it is all about people.
Two years after joining DDB I was promoted to Senior Consultant, Talent for EMEA and still held the global best practice responsibilities. My job was to
drive the engagement of leaders with the People philosophy by executing our People 10-point plan, at the time, with leaders in EMEA. In addition I developed our first global online performance appraisal system, training programs for coaching managers on delivering performance feedback and created best practices around selection and interviewing. In 2011, our former Chief People Officer, Greg Taucher, promoted me to Director, Global Talent, overseeing our entire talent management practice – performance management, leadership and top talent identification and selection, recruiting & mobility best practice, diversity & inclusion and employee engagement survey design and analysis. Within 3 months of being in this role, our Global CEO, Chuck Brymer approached me to take on the additional responsibility of being the Director of Corporate Development. This added responsibility gave me the opportunity to be the liaison between DDB and Omnicom in an operations role.
I managed both positions for 2 years and then realized that the Corporate Development position, while exposing me to senior leadership at DDB & Omnicom and the inner workings of our organization, left little room for strategic pursuit on the talent side. Chuck and I discussed options and I took what some at DDB like to refer to as a sabbatical. Within two weeks of being away from DDB, I received a call from Chuck inviting me to rejoin as Chief Talent Officer and to join the Executive Board, as one of only two women. An offer I could not resist!
Please describe your current role and responsibilities...
I partner with Chuck and Amir to deliver on the vision of the company. I set the direction of our talent strategy based on the corporate strategy. I reinforce the People, Product, Profit philosophy through the work that we do in the People Team. That is that with talented people, we produce
A tête-à-tête with Sally Ali
People are our key assets in this business and it is their knowledge, creative talent, skills and the ability to think outside the box that provide the raw material and the fuel to create our products – outstanding and innovative advertising campaigns.
17
Q & A
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
great work that sells. I see our 3 Ps philosophy as somewhat akin to a 3 legged stool. You cannot achieve the ideal balance if one leg is too short or too long.
My current responsibilities fall into three main areas globally. They are Talent Management, Learning and Development and Talent Acquisition. My team consists of 11 people who are assigned to global projects such as performance management, top talent programs, learning and development, employee engagement (Voice), recruiting, diversity and inclusion. A few of these people are dedicated to leading the People strategy in a region.
One of the tools that we use to identify talent is our People Day process where top talent in each market are recognized and made visible to senior leaders around the world. We use our Voice survey to solicit feedback from our employees to test the health of our organization along key areas like Career Development, Company Strategy and Innovation, to name a few. The feedback gives us insights into what we are doing well and enables us to improve upon high needs areas for our success. Leadership Development is a priority and we currently partner with Omnicom to ensure our senior executives have access to the best trainings. There are three programs available to senior executives – the Advanced Management Program (AMP) and the Senior Management Program (SMP), which are the highest esteemed programs led by Harvard
Business School professors and the Agency Leadership Program (ALP), which helps leaders gain and develop their abilities operating a business. At DDB Worldwide, we have our Management Development Program (MDP), that focuses on developing and enhancing the skills of mid level managers. A majority of our population also has access to incredible online learning through our Learning Management Platform, Grovo.
As the direction of our business is moving fast, so are the areas of Talent. Today, performance management, learning and development and even recruiting look different than they did only just one or two years ago. We need to be more efficient, agile and faster in the way we identify and retain talent. We need to pursue a true blended learning approach to employee development, because development can happen on the job, in a mentoring or coaching relationship, through a challenging project and not just in a classroom. And we need to find talent in the most atypical places than we ever did before, in the most dynamic and different ways than we ever did before.
This is all what my team and I work on everyday. Striving to find a better way to identify, develop and retain the best talents.
What was the main purpose of your visit to India?
At the top of the agenda for my recent visit to India was to get a firsthand look into DDB’s operations in India. Madhukar Kamath had personally invited me to come and see what the DDB Mudra Group is all about. To understand its operations and get to know the people who are leading the businesses in India. It’s a really complex operation with so many different businesses working so closely together under one umbrella. It requires strong leadership and I found that the people at the helm who make up Madhukar’s team are fit for the challenge. The conversations around
change and growth are so important today and hearing that India were well beyond the beginning of this, by actually doing some of it, was refreshing.
I’m proud they are part of the DDB family and proud I get the privilege to work with these fine people.
Please share your experience of India and how successful your visit has been?
During my visit, I had the privilege to sit in for the six monthly performance reviews of each of the businesses and was especially pleased to see that the presentations were created using the 3 P’s template of People, Product and Performance. Each business showcased what it was doing in these key areas. In return, I provided them with some insights based on experiences from other parts of the world particularly in the respect of Top Talent, Voice (the employee engagement tool).
My only regret is that time did not permit me to meet more people at DDB Mudra Group. I would have loved to get to know more of them on a better footing to really understand what passion they have for DDB, their work and for their careers.
I look forward to my next visit and to meeting more of the fabulous people at DDB Mudra Group.
It is my goal that in five years time our entire network will behave more as a network with constant collaboration, insights shared across borders and the unshakeable and pervasive belief that People are our number one assets.
I’ve always heard about the amazing job that the LLC team are doing and finally had the opportunity to see them in action. They have been able to realize the goal of having team members truly embedded as partners into each of the businesses. This is something that only 5% of companies in the DDB network has managed to do.
Best of DDB Worldwide
Globally, Big Mac sales were at an all-time low. To restore the icon to its former glory to an audience who couldn’t care less, McDonald’s did the unimaginable. It released its legendary Big Mac secret sauce. It began by producing a limited run of bottles and allowed people to bid for them online. The bids went up to $23000 and all the proceeds to Ronald McDonald house charities. Once McDonald’s had everyone’s attention it launched phase 2 “MACITBETTER” which was based on the premise that everything tastes better when it tastes like the Big Mac. A limited edition of tubs were created for those who couldn’t afford $ 23000. In only a few days, thousands of Aussies made everything better. McDonald’s generated 3.8 billion media impressions in just two weeks. And, achieved the highest Big Mac sales in Australian history. It not only unlocked the love for the special sauce, it created a new love for the entire brand.
The Belgian mobile provider BASE came out with PhoneAddress™, a new application that allowed online orders to be delivered to a 'phone address' instead of a home address. If someone wanted to have a pizza sent to the park or swimming trunks delivered to the beach, PhoneAddress™ made it possible. The new app connected the del ivery service with the consumers in an interactive way, so that when a person moved, his address moved with him. Via the GPS signals from his phone the app knew exactly where he was and when the orders needed to be delivered. The app of the purchaser was linked to that of the 'delivery boy' so that he could locate the purchaser who, in turn, could track the route of his order through Google Maps. PhoneAddress™ is expected to make e-commerce much simpler in the future, more flexible and above all more mobile. A beta version of PhoneAddress™ is currently available free of charge on the Android Play Store. Belgian Food delivery service “Royal Delivery” was the first to partner up with BASE.
McDonald’s | MAC IT BETTER | DDB Sydney
BMW | Reverse April Fools | DDB New Zealand
BASE | PhoneAddress | DDB Belgium
Project 360 is a long term digital communication concept that offers a real benefit for alpine hikers. It consisted of a team of mountaineers scaling the more than 13000 feet high Aiger mountain in Switzerland and reporting the trek with special cameras that shot 360 degrees and recorded every thirty seconds automatically. For this, a custom camera system was developed which needed to be light weight, steady and reliable without limiting the hikers speed of movement. At the same time, it needed to shoot pictures in six directions. The system and the software were tested over weeks. Users can follow the most renowned climbing routes with a kind of street view. They can also navigate along the route section by section or browse the detailed data of the route and its history on the website. The launch of the project was accompanied by massive media reports. TV, newspapers and online blogs all around the world. The 360 degree experience was also brought to life at stores sports conventions. The project achieved more than just opening up new views peak by peak. Mammut evolved from a trusted outfitter to a holistic preparation partner for any mountain ascend.
Mammut Sports | Project 360 | Heye Munich
BMW is world-renowned as being the maker of the Ultimate Driving Machine, but also as the creator of many memorable April Fool's Day pranks. This year's effort was its most audacious and elaborate yet and involved the world-first reverse April Fools' Day joke. More than 145,000 copies of the NZ Herald rolled off the press on 1 April 2015 with what appeared to be a bogus ad printed on the front page, inviting people to bring their car to the Newmarket dealership and swap it for a brand new BMW 1 Series. The first person to do so, having fulfilled terms and conditions, would be rewarded with the new car. The ad was intentionally vague and definitely appeared too good to be true. But daring to dream big on April Fools' Day paid off handsomely for Tiaana Marsh who swapped her 15-year old Nissan Avenir for a brand new BMW 1 Series worth almost $50,000 . Tiaana's new BMW featured personalised number plates NOF00L and came with a five-year warranty and a three-year scheduled servicing included. She also received a free BMW Driving Experience course at Hampton Downs.
18
HotStuff Book Issue (Page 23 - 24 Gate fold)Size : (W) 222 + 232 X (H) 345 mm
19
StarHub joined hands with nine voluntary welfare organizations to celebrate Singapore’s Golden Jubilee with a heartfelt rendition of the National Day favorite “Home”. To remind Singaporeans of fellow citizens who are not as pr iv i leged but share the same love for Singapore, “Home” was sung in Singapore’s four official languages – English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil. To accompany the song recording, a full-length music video was shown on StarHub’s social media channels (YouTube and Facebook), StarHub TV channe ls and in Go lden V i l l age c inemas. Sta rHub customers were encouraged to support the nine VWOs that recorded the song by redeeming 50 StarHub Rewards Points, for a $5 donation. The donations were effected through the StarHub Sparks Fund, StarHub’s corporate philanthropy vehicle. Furthermore, as part of their SG50 celebrations, StarHub TV held five weeks of free previews, culminating in six days of all-access free viewing of over 150 channels during the National Day week. StarHub also offered special mobile and broadband offers during this period.
StarHub | SG50 Singapore Golden Jubilee | DDB Singapore
Skittles | Skittles Settle It | DDB Chicago
Deutsch Telekom believes that l ife is for s h a r i n g . I t d e m o n s t r a t e d t h i s w i t h Instaconcert which turned an exclusive by-invitation-only concert from an event for only a few into a new experience for millions. The first concert video through the eyes of the fans, it allowed users to experience the concert like they were there themselves. For this Deutsch Telekom got fans to do what they would have done anyway, take videos
and upload them to Instagram. The difference this time was that e ve r ybody was a sked t o u se t he s ame Hash tag . #EDINSTACONCERT so that all the videos could be located chronologically and spatially. Then the videos were dynamically connected by their content management system. As a result users could use the Instagram player to decide how and from where they wanted to watch and listen to this concert. Also, every time they could watch an entirely new video. A new way to experience a concert was thus made possible by Deutsch Telekom. Proof that life really is for sharing.
Volkswagen | Too close Moments |DDB Canada
Deutsch Telekom | Instaconcert |DDB Germany
Skittles Super Bowl advertising in 2015 focused on “Skittles Settle It”. In the days leading up to the big game, a YouTube video was released that showed citizens with unusually well-developed biceps on their right arms. “It will be settled”, the text played over a gonging bell. The 30-second commercial shown during the 2015 Super Bowl revealed the meaning of those arms. In it, a small town bestowed with massive right arms gathered around a small table to the sound of bells. They were there to witness two men arm wrestle with their ridiculously huge biceps over the last lemon Skittle. This, after all was how they usually settled things. Trivia: this spot featured 59 custom arms, with makeup artistes adding muscles, veins, freckles and hair to match each cast member, including one for the dog, Banjo!
Volkswagen’s TVC t i t led Too Close Moments started with an elevator door opening to reveal just one occupant. A nondescript man stepped in and despite the large amount of empty space chose to take a position way too close to the other occupant. Thereafter, the TVC showcased the same man in several other everyday
Pedro Suarez Vert iz is Peruvian’s most loved rock star. Unfortunately, in 2011, Pedro suffered Dysarthria, a rare motor speech disorder that robbed him of his speech. So, imagine him making the biggest concert of his life. BBVA the bank of the people made this possible. I t offered al l Peruvians a challenge. If one million people asked him to come back, he would. People had to sing a petition as loud as they could.in order for Pedro to hear them. Over one million four hundred thousand people participated. It was a unique concert in which Pedro contributed the music and the crowd was his voice. The concert was a big hit in every possible way. More than 40000 people attended. I t garnered 90% posit ive feedback in social media. 1916867 data was collected. 1.5 million dollars in free press. It got the concert of the year prize award by the main newspaper El Comercio and voted by the people. Paul McCartney came second. But the best prize of all was a chance to see the legend on the stage again.
BBVA | The Concert no one was waiting for |Fahrenheit DDB Peru
20
Deutsch Telekom believes that l ife is for s h a r i n g . I t d e m o n s t r a t e d t h i s w i t h Instaconcert which turned an exclusive by-invitation-only concert from an event for only a few into a new experience for millions. The first concert video through the eyes of the fans, it allowed users to experience the concert like they were there themselves. For this Deutsch Telekom got fans to do what they would have done anyway, take videos
and upload them to Instagram. The difference this time was that e ve r ybody was a sked t o u se t he s ame Hash tag . #EDINSTACONCERT so that all the videos could be located chronologically and spatially. Then the videos were dynamically connected by their content management system. As a result users could use the Instagram player to decide how and from where they wanted to watch and listen to this concert. Also, every time they could watch an entirely new video. A new way to experience a concert was thus made possible by Deutsch Telekom. Proof that life really is for sharing.
Have you ever seen a drought face to face? Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil with 11.8 mil l ion residents faced the biggest drought in its history. The rains had stopped and the city’s main source of water from the Cantareira water reserve had reached i ts lowest levels ever. To ra ise everyone’s awarenesss about the importance of water, a typeface was created from the dry soil of Cantareira and featured on a digital platform The Voice of the Drought. On the website, people could write their messages with the letters and share earth's vo ice v ia Twi t te r. More than 14363958 peop le were reached. .At the World Water day, the voice was empowered by the country’s major soccer team, the Corinthians who en te red the p i t ch w i th a sh i r t by the vo ice o f d rough t . Resulting in over 90 minutes of promotion. The earth was heard through brands, newspapers, and personalities.
Akatu Institute of Conscious Consumption | The Voice of the Drought | DDB Brazil
Best of DDB Worldwide
situations. He is seen in a grocery store, a train, a restaurant, at a bus stop and finally even in a public toilet. In every situation, he stood way too close for comfort much to the chagrin of the other party. Then, in the last sequence the e levator door opened, a th i rd person entered and stood at a respectfu l distance. The message Automatic Distance Control appeared on the screen. And, the TVC closed with the logo and tagline Volkswagen. Das Auto.
21
HotStuff Book (Page 21 - 22 Gate fold)Size : (W) 232 + 222 X (H) 345 mm
Aircel | Voice on Data | DDB Mudra North
People often avoid calling their loved ones in order to save talk time. However, communication over social media lacks a feeling of love and warmth. The real magic of a connection happens when you make a call, when you hear someone's voice. With mobile data usage dramatically increasing in India and mobile internet becoming a way of life for many, Aircel, one of India’s leading telecommunications players decided to give access to people to call their loved ones with Voice on Data service on selected data packs. Spread across Television, Radio, Print and Outdoor; this multimedia campaign had three protagonists, an old man, a teenage girl and a young man view a friend’s update on social media and apart from liking and commenting on the post, they also called them up to talk to them and share more than just a ‘Like’. All the three films end with a voice over which says “Rishta aur bhi gehra ho jata hai, jab baat bhi ho jaati hai.” (When conversations happen, the relationship grows deeper). The ad films have been released across India in Hindi, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Oriya, Bengali and Kannada.
Gulf Oil | Pick up your ride | DDB Mudra West
Gulf Oil is the fastest growing lubricants brand in India and the pioneer of products that deliver exceptional performance. To position Gulf Pride 4T Plus as a superior bike engine oil, the brand sought to create a connect with bikers and position the product as an aid to keep their bikes ready and responsive. Thus was born the idea - Pick up your ride. The idea that the product gives an ‘Insta pickup’- power at a single tap was translated into a 2-minute s ta r s tudded ad f i lm. The cast inc luded brand ambassador Mahendra Singh Dhoni with Gulshan Grover, Dino
Morea, Harshwardhan Rane and Anushka Manchanda and others. It was the first time such a large ensemble of celebrities came together for an ad film. Shot in black and white, the film opened with the riding club cruising on their bikes. On hearing a siren behind them, the riders quickly pulled forward to organize the traffic so that the ambulance could pass. Till date, the ad film has scored close to 600,000 views on YouTube alone.
Cycle Pure Agarbathies | Prarthana ki shuddhata | DDB Mudra South & East
Century Ply | Hamesha Taiyyar | DDB Mudra West
CenturyPly, the leading brand of plywood, laminates and veneers launched a new brand to serve the value segment – Sainik. Plywood is a commoditized but complex category with multiple products at different price points based on various technical parameters. A consumer does not understand those technicalities but knows his budget. To trigger a wider brand appeal, the brand was positioned as ‘Hamesha Taiyyar’ to display the toughness of the ply and its readiness for any eventuality or hardship, much like a soldier. This thought was brilliantly translated into a clutter breaking TVC accompanied by OOH implementations. To create a larger-than-life image of the brand in the consumers’ mind, the storyline followed a platoon of soldiers engaged in a fierce combat across land and water, under the most trying circumstances. The testing journey of the soldiers was matched by the journey of the plywood box, which eventual ly turned out to be carrying letters from their homes. The unscathed surface of the box testified to the strength of the plywood while it also personified the undaunted spirit of the soldiers.
22
Maha Bachat (English: super-saving) held for three to six days in-mid August every year provides massive savings to consumers who shop at Big Bazaar. With regular sales and deep discounts offered by retailers throughout the year, price had become a point of parity across retailers and a new way had to be found to stand out in an increasingly cluttered environment. The ad campaign positioned Maha Bachat 2015 as the one stop solution for all consumer needs, with quality products at amazing discounted rates. The multimedia campaign comprised a striking ad film, suppor ted by a ser ies o f pr in t and rad io adver t isements runn ing simultaneously. It featured a montage of various consumers with different needs being fu l f i l led at the Big Bazaar Maha Bachat Sale. The f i lm highlighted a clear shift from basic or lifestyle needs to those based on consumer moods. Whether it was a need to shop after a break-up or just to pamper a kid. Big or small, these new-age needs could also be fulfilled at Maha Bachat 2015.
In 2013, Van Heusen launched a digital property in partnership with LinkedIn cal led the ‘Most Fashionable Professional’ in a quest to f ind ten fashionable professionals who stand out in their work place. The contest aimed to legitimize fashion in the workplace by providing a platform for professionals to celebrate it. This year, Van Heusen raised the stakes and made the competition much more interesting in order to keep users engaged! The microsite featured interesting content around fashion education and Power Dressing, to provide an immersive, informative experience for the user. The shortlisted candidates would also be measured on the basis of their Power Score (a relative standing among one's LinkedIn network based on one's profile and skills) to stand a chance to be featured in India's top fashion magazines and win a wardrobe makeover worth ̀ 1 lakh from Van Heusen. Users stood to receive a gift voucher for submitting five nominations from their connections, as well as a chance to win vouchers worth ̀ 10,000 if their nominees won. By the end of the month-long campaign in August 2015, Most Fashionable Professional 2015 had received a total of over 61,000 nominations, with impressions of nearly 76 million on the LinkedIn platform. The ten final winners were featured in a high-fashion shoot that appeared in the October edition of GQ magazine.
Big Bazaar | Maha Bachat | DDB Mudra West
Van Heusen | Most Fashionable Professional | 22feet Tribal Worldwide
Gulf Oil is the fastest growing lubricants brand in India and the pioneer of products that deliver exceptional performance. To position Gulf Pride 4T Plus as a superior bike engine oil, the brand sought to create a connect with bikers and position the product as an aid to keep their bikes ready and responsive. Thus was born the idea - Pick up your ride. The idea that the product gives an ‘Insta pickup’- power at a single tap was translated into a 2-minute s ta r s tudded ad f i lm. The cast inc luded brand ambassador Mahendra Singh Dhoni with Gulshan Grover, Dino
Morea, Harshwardhan Rane and Anushka Manchanda and others. It was the first time such a large ensemble of celebrities came together for an ad film. Shot in black and white, the film opened with the riding club cruising on their bikes. On hearing a siren behind them, the riders quickly pulled forward to organize the traffic so that the ambulance could pass. Till date, the ad film has scored close to 600,000 views on YouTube alone.
To reinforce its position in the market and reach into the hearts and minds of new customers, Cycle Pure Agarbathies, the world’s largest incense stick manufacturer brought Amitabh Bachchan on board as b rand ambassado r. The Bo l l ywood i con endorsed the brand’s new positioning ‘Prarthana ki shuddhata’ across multiple national media. Centred on the theme of pur i ty, the campaign married the functionality of the product to the core value of the brand emphasizing purity of thought along with hope and optimism. The theme-line was translated as two 30-sec ad fi lms produced by Rising Sun Films, and directed by Shoojit Sircar, of “Piku” fame, and direct outreach programmes ac ross t he coun t r y. An i nnova t i v e dea l e r s ’ engagement programme ‘Meeting of the Legends’ offered the retail network an opportunity to witness, comprehend and participate in Cycle’s journey of growth. Covering the length and breadth of the country, the programme used a 3D holographic projection technique to allow the Cycle family a chance to see the Bollywood icon up-close.
Best of DDB Mudra
HotStuff Book Issue (Page 23 - 24 Gate fold)Size : (W) 222 + 232 X (H) 345 mm
Best of DDB Mudra
23
HDFC Bank | Commercial Vehicle Loan | TrackDDB India
HDFC Bank’s loans for commercial vehicles was targeted at a very specific audience - deans and principals of schools and educational institutes. The communication was scheduled for the first quarter of the financial year, when most institutes contemplate purchasing or hiring new buses. Initial research revealed that deans and principals are typically, fiercely proud of their schools. Appealing to this sentiment would provide cut through. Since deans and principals receive a lot of letters every day, i t was decided to use an approach where they personalized the letters even before they opened it! A direct mai ler was devised that seemed l ike a regular letter. The envelope had a window through which the TG was prompted to write the name of their institution. When they pulled out the letter, it was revealed that they had actually written the name on a picture of a bus. This gave the impression of ‘the bus being operational even before it was purchased’! The communication was thus personalized and implied that the process of acquiring a bus was now simple and easy.
Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) | ZincORS |DDB Remedy India
Diarrhoea is the th i rd leading c a u s e o f c h i l d h o o d m o r t a l i t y i n Ind ia , and i s responsible for 1 3 % o f a l l deaths/year of children under 5 years of age. The commmon perception was
that ORS should be used but does not give immediate relief. To spread awareness about how Zinc and ORS is effective, a new terminology was coined Zinc+ORS aka ZincORS and was targeted at the caregiver world who primarily belonged to the lower strata of society. The new treatment of ZincORS was seen as the game changer. The TVC featured a normal rural family where a little child is suffering with diarrhoea and the father rushes to buy some lemon. The twist in the story happens when he is exposed to this new treatment ‘ZincORS’ which sends him into a whirlwind due to its impact. The child is treated and its effectivity established through the product window.
Nutralite | India’s first holographic Ganesh | DDB Mudra West
Nutral i te was back with Health Cha Shree Ganesh b e t w e e n 1 7 a n d 2 5 September 2015 wi th India’s first transforming h o l o g r a p h i c G a n e s h pandal at Growel’s 101 Mall, Mumbai. This year, Nutral i te along with DDB Mudra made Lord Ganesha lose weight and transform into a fitter, healthier avatar with the h e l p o f h i s b e l o v e d devotees who worked out at a temporary gym
created in collaboration with Gold’s gym inside the pandal. The calories they lost was tracked in real time via calorie meters. The devotees needed to burn close to 50,000 calories every day during the 11-day event in order to see the unique ripped-up, fitter avatar of Lord Ganesha on the 11th day. The other rituals from last year, such as an on-site weighing machine, calorie donation screen and a donation box for dropping off unhealthy habits and taking an oath to stay on the path of good health were also installed. A number of interesting, engaging activities such as bodybuilding competitions, professional Zumba dancing sessions, diet camps, healthy cooking workshops were organized. In collaboration with the health partners – Wockhardt Hospitals, a team of doctors, dieticians, health counsellors and nutritionists carried out free health checkups and gave advice on healthy lifestyle. The recyclable holographic technology also made Nutralite Health Cha Shree Ganesh, an environmental friendly alternative to the regular clay statues.
Star Plus | Sumit Sambhal Lega |DDB MudraMax-OOH
Sumit Sambhal Lega is the Indian version o f Eve r yone Loves Raymond, one of the m o s t b e l o v e d American sitcom of all times and a ratings powerhouse. In India, t h e s h o w ’s c o r e
target audience is primarily women and men between age 15 -34 SEC AB and the viewership is concentrated in cities like Delhi, Mumbai and other 1 mn + markets. Star Plus decided to implement the campaign using innovat ions involv ing movement and light. The idea was to show Sumit caught in a tug of war between his wife and kids, and the family he grew up. Thus depicting the common ‘mard-ka-dard’ situation of the typical indian male stereotype.To execute this idea, sites were shortlisted and Sumit was created as a puppet in the shape of a see-saw with his mother and wife on extreme ends controlling him. All the elements were in the form of cut-outs. A motor contro l led wi th the he lp of a t imer was used for simulating motion.
24
Three ways the agency businesscan save itself
The problems facing the advertising
industry run deep.
I have written before about the dearth of
good work; the failure of businesses to
understand the power of creativity; and
the focus on efficiency (minimizing cost);
rather than effectiveness (maximizing
returns).
So what are the answers? I wish I had
them all – I don’t. But have we made
practical steps to try to address some of
the issues?
Here are three things that I believe we
need to be doing more of.
• Listening to clients – and asking them
the right questions about their
business, not their communications.
• Talking growth and revenue, not ads.
• Matching creativity to business solutions.
It sounds simple – but most of the time
these are things that don’t come
naturally to many traditional creative
agencies. But when we try, good things
happen. We just need to do more of it –
client by client, one opportunity at a time.
Let’s start with listening. We don’t listen
enough because we are always trying so
hard to demonstrate that we know the
answers! Our minds leap to the big creative
idea and sometimes the business issue
gets lost. Lately, I have been encouraging
all my senior management to ask more
questions… and then sit back and let the
client share their business problems, not
their ad needs.
Take notes. Ask questions. Pause. Listen
intensely.
We don’t have enough of these business
conversations, but we need them. The
point is to ask about the client’s business
goal. It’s not about communications or
making a new ad; it’s about
comprehension – it’s about knowing
what keeps clients up at night — the
ability to understand the levers of growth
and the real problems they are facing
within their business.
This leads me to point two. Agencies
need to talk about their clients’ growth
needs. And when we do, great things
often happen.
Here’s a real-life example of how this can
work. A major skin care brand
approached us with an interesting
problem. How could they encourage
people to wear sunscreen on cloudy
days? People’s skin can still be damaged
by UV rays on cloudy days, but most
people do not know this. It was a classic
behaviour change brief that required
people to think differently about the way
the category had been defined.
By having better conversations with our
client, we developed a new product idea
for them: Cloudscreen. In essence, a
sunscreen designed for cloudy days,
Chairman Emeritus / DDB Group,Asia-Pacific, India, Japan
Thus Spake Zeigler
Thus Spake Zeigler
sold in packaging that distinguishes
it from standard sunscreen. A communications campaign supported
the new product. But the most important
element was that changing the
packaging impacted behaviour.
The lesson from this is to have bigger
conversations earlier in the process.
Start broad; don’t narrow down to
execution until you’ve had that discussion.
It’s up to agencies to engage clients in
these conversations – to demonstrate
our creative capabilities and go beyond
the ad. To get more briefs like this, we
need to show we’re interested in the
business issues and engage in a way
where the brief isn’t ‘locked up’. The
possibilities lay open to generating
creative business solutions.
The Neutrogena example demonstrates
the need to talk about growth. We need
to understand the growth agenda of the
client. And if you’ve read what I’ve
written elsewhere, you’ll know that I think
recognizing this need for growth is
fundamental to restoring our fortunes as
an industry.
Marketing can be the major growth driver
for a business; you can’t cut your way to
growth. In the current climate, marketers
are under pressure from the CEO to
deliver growth – whether that comes as
higher sales, higher market share, better
leads for sales teams, or some other
measure. We are convinced that the
Neutrogena product launch delivered
better growth than an ad campaign
would have.
In advertising we talk about
effectiveness. Let’s talk about growth
instead. When we start talking about
growth, it resonates with clients, and
more importantly the CEO and CFO.
Finally, my third point, let’s talk about
creativity. Not just the creativity of a
30-second TV spot, but the application
of creativity to business solutions.That is where the opportunity lies.
Agencies bring with them a deep
understanding of consumer behaviour.
Clients need better understanding of
consumers – particularly when it comes
to the web-savvy millennial generation.
It’s all about customer engagement not
just brand awareness.
An agency should be able to bring its
deep understanding of consumers into a
client’s process of comprehension. It
should be a true partner as a business
develops its strategy. And it should be
able to develop creative business
solutions, not just creative ads.Again, this is an area we have had
success with.
In Singapore and Taiwan, DDB worked
with McDonald’s, which was facing
growing competition at breakfast time.
The client had run successful promotions
around breakfast, but needed a
long-term solution that did not risk
erosion of the price consumers would be
willing to pay for their meals.
The challenge was to develop something
that would engage consumers beyond
the communications of any other brand,
and to be ‘always on’.
We focused on phones. We realized that
the first thing adults in our markets do in
the morning is reach for their phone and
engage with either Facebook, email or
news apps.
The result was the McDonald’s Surprise
Alarm, a mobile app that blended utility
(helping people to wake up) with
surprises (entertaining branded content
such as tongue-in-cheek themed visuals,
inspirational quotes, Sony Music songs;
and McDonald’s coupons) designed to
make every morning a little happier.
It was a new way to engage consumers,
to deliver coupons, and to optimize the
offers based on the data collected by the
system. And it worked. Not only did we
deliver engagement, in the form of app
downloads and usage, we also drove a
lasting impact in breakfast sales. And we
could only do so because we combined
creative thinking and consumer
understanding with the business agenda
of our client.
As the Neutrogena and McDonald’s work
shows, our business is capable of
responding to the challenges it faces.
Engaging the client more effectively is
one pillar of what we at DDB call ECG –
engaging creativity for growth. It is a
platform that turns better understanding
of a client’s business into creative
solutions.
As an industry we are uniquely placed
to match creativity to our client’s growth
agenda. Our goal must be for these to
become the main focus of everything we
do, not just the occasional one-off
opportunity.
25
26
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
Guts & Glory
DDB MudraMax won the prestigious
‘Best Promotional Marketing Agency in
Asia’ at the coveted 15th Dragons of
Asia Awards by PMAA held on
30 September 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.
DDB MudraMax swept the award show
with the highest tally of 12 Dragon
Awards and 76 points in total. It won a
Red Dragon for the Best Campaign in
DDB MudraMax crowned ‘Best Promotional Marketing Agency in Asia’
Asia, Navy Dragon for the Best
Campaign in India, Gold Dragon for the
Best Innovative Campaign, 3 Silver
Dragon awards, 1 Bronze Dragon
award and 5 Black Dragon awards.
DDB MudraMax’s innovative ‘Health
Cha Shree Ganesh’ campaign was a
multiple winner. It picked up Gold for
the Best Innovative Campaign,
Navy Dragon for the Best Campaign in India and the prestigious Red Dragon for the Best Campaign in Asia.
For 15 years, the PMAA Dragons of Asia has been recognizing and showcasing the very best of the best in ‘results driven’ Marketing Communications throughout Asia and this year was no exception.
Spikes Asia 2015
DDB Mudra Group returned from 2015 Spikes Asia with a total tally of three
awards-one Silver for Misunderstood Scoreboard, in the promo and
activation, one bronze for Volkswagen’s ‘Don’t Drink and Drive - Vodka’ in
Film - CHARITIES, PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY & AWARENESS MESSAGES
category and Health Cha Shree Ganesh in Branded Content &
Entertainment category.
27
Q & A
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
Out of hundreds of entries received from across India, eight shortlists were
chosen from DDB Mudra Group. From those, DDB Mudra Group North was
presented a silver award for its poster submission called ‘Buddha’.
2015 Campaign for Dignity Awards
DDB Mudra Group was awarded a Silver for Misunderstood Scoreboard and a bronze for Health Cha Shree Ganesh at the coveted EMVIES 2015.
DDB Mudra Group received a Gold in the Brand Stars category for its work on Volkswagen at the ADSTARS 2015 event in Busan, S. Korea.’
EMVIES 2015
ADSTARS 2015
DDB Mudra Group won a Bronze in the Out of Home category for ‘The
Misunderstood Scoreboard’ done for Zee News. The CLIO Awards is an
annual award programme that recognizes innovation and creative
excellence in advertising, design and communication.
CLIO Awards 2015
DDB Mudra Group emerged triumphant with a Blue Elephant at the Kyoorius Design Awards for Volkswagen’s Identity Bi-Xenon Headlamp campaign.
Kyoorius Design Awards 2015
Guts & Glory
Amazing People
28
HotStuff Book IssueSize : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
Ajay Dutta is a key member of the TracyLocke team in Bengaluru and as General Manager is responsible for managing Client Operations, Servicing & New Business Development for TracyLocke-South.
His wonderful journey with the Mudra Group began on 17 December 2007 and according to him involved “loads of learning and the experience of accomplishing challenges.” As Branch Manager, he was successful in Mumbai achieving the best branch award (2007- 08). This was followed by a transfer on promotion as DGM to the North where he led the operations for Multiplier & Street Smart (2009-12). Then, in 2012, Ajay was moved to Bengaluru to manage the Samsung Account which he did successfully for three years.
What not too many people know is that Ajay is blessed with a creative streak and is adept at donning many hats. He has trained himself in Kannada and as a professional actor. He has acted and directed short films, commercials, plays and ad jingles. Among his creative accolades was directing the short film “The Cheat” where he essayed the role of an elder brother who catches and confronts his young brother on drugs.
In yet another short film on Paper Conservation, he plays the role of a School Teacher in a village recycling paper and helping school kids.
In a TVC called Taxi for Sure, he acts as a senior gangster who finds a new way of offering cash to a Mafia Head –
Referral Money. In yet another short film-cum-commercial styled as RNB Global University, he dons the role of a father of a young college going daughter who designs in-house a dishwashing machine for her mother.
In an English Play “Death” he takes to the stage as a crazy Bengali professor who wants to research the psyche of a lunatic serial killer on the loose but in the end gets killed by him.
His other hobbies are singing, composing and watching movies. His music album Ehsaas which celebrates innocent love was released on Valentine’s Day 2012 on 'YouTube' and 'celebrates' 5000+ hits so far. This song has his vocals and music by Ajay & Rajat Pendharkar.
Richa Shah
Richa Shah is currently, working as Manager-Brand Communication with
DDB Mudra North. An account management person by profession, she has dabbled in her spare time with design, in the form of logos, signboards and hoardings that shine amongst the colorful graffiti on the bustling streets of Kolkata. Her latest romance is with baking.
Her recipe for success has been to not judge a product. Just see what is best in it and tell the story. This simplistic approach and pure creativity helped her clinically bring out the best solutions, making her a promising graphic designer and a true businesswoman.
Her creative work in the form of logos, menu cards, print ads, in-store branding has rewarded her amply with travel in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. By the age of 24 she had built up a formidable reputation for her talent and experience in graphic designing with a client base which included brands like Kafe Bindass, Cube, Honda, Hyundai, Crafting Thoughts Management and AgroShine, to name a few.
Then, life suddenly threw her a curved ball and she found herself in a completely new world, the USA. Here too she was able to put her designing and people skills into play and soon had a clientele of local businesses such as Sidamo Café and a iComply LLC. She called her enterprise DezignLounge. In the process she learned the local lingo, the culture and mentality of general target audience. Additionally, she taught herself something new. To bake.
Today, she is passionately involved in an extra-Mudra affair with cupcakes. She is Zomato listed under the name Petite Delight - The Cupcake Place. (No prizes for guessing who designed that ‘logo!’). On offer are hot favourites such as Ginger-Cinnamon, Marble, Butterscotch, Rum and Spice, Banana Walnut, to name a few. And, the reviews like her cupcakes are to die for! But don’t just take anyone’s word for it. As they say, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, so the next time you are in Delhi, just try one!
Ajay Dutta
Know More
29
Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
The last time I ordered steak at a restaurant, what I was served instead was a beautifully plated indulgent looking entrée. A skilfully sliced, neatly stacked piece of meat, with a perfect stroke of jus smeared across the plate and a side of the most delicately styled vegetables. It got me thinking. Since when have restaurants in India started putting so much effort into the way their food looks?
Masterchef Australia, an Australian cooking show, is often credited with introducing the concept of ‘plating’ into India’s popular culinary consciousness. While expensive tableware would provide a touch of luxury on important occasions, the food itself was primarily about flavor. Even the thali, celebrated by tourists and food photographers, was intended to index higher on nutritional balance and less on visual delight. Masterchef helped people understand the importance of the appearance of food – its construction on a plate, the colors of the ingredients, the garnishing, all put together artistically to create visual delight.
Since then, the evolution has been rapid. Food aficionados today are much more likely to give the aesthetics of food as much importance as its flavors. And aesthetically pleasing food needs to check a number of boxes - how it is plated, what kind of cutlery it’s being served with, what the table setting is like, how each of these elements complement the restaurant’s ambience. Dining is
increasingly driven by aesthetics, evolving into an experience where the meal being served should ideally be in perfect harmony with the atmosphere.
The verbal aesthetics of food have changed as well - people are familiarizing themselves with the technical terms for different cooking styles, for ingredients from around the world and for popular entrées from French towns and far-off Latin American countries.
The process has been accelerated by social media savvy consumers. Instagram, Facebook and foodie forums such as foodtalkindia overflow with images that romance the precise placement of food, with beautiful lighting and beautiful filters setting the tone for practically every meal, including coffees and croissants eaten at one’s breakfast table, in-home.
And, what are the broader implications of these changes? First, and most obvious, is the need for restaurants and eating joints to raise the bar on décor, plating and serving food. But the search for visual delight is playing out in less obvious and more interesting ways as well. Home-bakers are using Facebook to display their registered brand logos and elegantly crafted cakes and pies; roadside dhabas are investing time in branding their menus, chaatwallahs are using mouthwatering images on their thelas to attract consumers, all in an attempt to create a ‘visual identity’ of their own.
This appreciation of culinary aesthetics has even given rise to careers like food styling and food photography which are being taken up by young entrepreneurial Indians and are focused solely on the art of making food look great. Industries like music, lighting, e-décor are offering themselves up as complementary services to food. Special cooking playlists, dinner table music, themed chinaware – the potential for ancillary services that enhance food’s inherent appeal has never been greater.
And what does this mean for packaged food brands? Packaging and design could gain precedence over price points and SKUs, visualization of food products in commercials could become the new battleground for styling, and marketing initiatives could be built around educating consumers about food, its frills and trimmings. We can already see these shifts manifest themselves in products all around us – elegantly plated work lunch services; delightfully designed bottled beverages (think Innocent and Paper Boat); hybridized junk food and reinvented snacking staples (bacon scented caramel popcorn, anyone?). There is also interest in the publication of visually stunning content around food, whether in the form of video-zines, dedicated food-art magazines like ‘Meatpaper’ or the Webby award winning Panna.
The future of food is food designed for sensorial delight, encompassing not just flavors, but aromas, textures and visual dazzle. It is a scenario full of infinite, exciting possibilities.
Alina HasanStrategist, DDB Mudra West
Food’s fashionable makeover
Know More
Mehak JainiStrategy Director,DDB Mudra West
Slogans go slang
How often do you find yourself or people
around you using phrases from
advertising as if they had become part
and parcel of daily lingo? ‘Yeh Dil
Maange More’, anyone? As both
curators and creators of culture, this
makes for an interesting phenomenon to
understand and replicate.
There are perhaps hundreds of examples
like these that have made their way into
our language. Each one following a
fascinating gene-like propagation as
suggested by Richard Dawkins (1976) in
his meme theory. Dawkins defined the
meme as ‘a unit of cultural transmission,
or a unit of imitation.’ So really, any
communication – tunes, phrases, acts,
ideas – that creates its own repetition,
spreads, imitates and evolves into new
forms is by definition a meme.
Meme theory is based on a biological
model where ideas and fashion are
considered similar to genes and
successful ones behave like successful
genes. ‘What an Idea, sirji’, for instance,
travels and survives in the world like a
successful gene.
What is it about some ad memes that
make them behave like successful
genes? And, what conditions help them
travel on in the world?
First, they all have a very high degree of
audio-visual exposure. Everyone should
have heard or seen it. If your neighbour’s
never heard of ‘waaasssuuuuppp’ you
could come off looking like a complete
weirdo.
Second, when a catchphrase is picked
up by figures of authority or stature, the
social influence of the phrase is
amplified. Sehwag’s mention of ‘India Ka
Tyohaar’ (IPL’s latest campaign), for
instance, helped its popularity.
Third, more often than not, the more
brand neutral the phrase, more the
chances of it gaining cultural currency.
That’s why Dhara’s line ‘my daddy
strongest’ became commonplace while
lines like ‘kachua jalao, machhar bhagao’
though very memorable, never made it to
everyday conversations.
With this, the stage is set for advertising
catchphrases to travel. But, what about
the actual phrase makes it ripe for
entering daily language?
Ad lingo that truly travels isn’t just
memorable, fun, funny or creative. It is
above all, useful.
Utility, dry as it may sound, underpins
every successful ad-meme. The phrases
that travel are able to communicate an
existing, often unarticulated feeling, belief, idea or behaviour. They give you interesting, participative phrases. Be it Mountain Dew’s ‘darr ke aagey jeet hai’ that lets you offer light-hearted encouragement and confidence to a friend faced with a gutsy task, or Cadbury’s ‘pappu pass ho gaya’ as a spontaneous celebration of a dear one’s achievement.
Anchored in powerful consumer behaviour, not only do these phrases help express an unspoken feeling, but they do so in an extremely sticky manner. Setting the phrase to music or rhythm, or delivering it through an interesting alliteration, helps create an earworm effect, making them easily replicable and helping them roll off our tongue when the moment is right. ‘Pappu pass ho gaya’, effortlessly rolls off the tongue, often making it the first announcement of achievement.
Does a successful ad meme mean good business? Or, it is just fun? It’s a question Les Binet and Peter Field have asked before us (‘The Long & the Short of It’) and proved that more famous advertising campaigns equal more success. That’s reason enough to create the next big ad meme.
The question, then, to ask ourselves is what unexpressed emotions can we powerfully help articulate?
30
Know More
Toru JhaveriStrategy Director,DDB Mudra West
How the shelfie, smarter sister tothe selfie, is quietly reframingsocial networking currencies
The selfie is a phenomenon. A Fact of Life, lamented and lampooned, here to stay. It is perpetuated by an ever-growing eco-system – celebrity endorsement, physical equipment, tips and tricks, listicles, memes. And yet, in all of the cacophony around the selfie, we run the risk of failing to notice a stealthier cultural current, one that actualizes social media’s promise of a ‘curated self’ in ways that are more complex, sophisticated, and arguably more compelling.
I’m talking about the #shelfie. Artfully constructed images of bookshelves, clothing, food, home décor, curiosities, collectibles – any everyday object set to delightful effect – blending into a background, cleverly juxtaposed, achieving a striking contrast. You’ve seen some, and you might have unwittingly or intentionally even created some.
Dale Hrabi, writing in the Wall Street Journal, pinpointed shelfies as the preserve of the ‘design cognoscenti’, caustically describing them as “Portraits of one’s taste…hopeful bids for attention in which one’s aesthetic and one’s ego overlap.” There’s no arguing that shelfies have a wink-wink, nudge-nudge quality to them, the texture of a knowing nod among peers who move in the same intellectual or aesthetic spheres. Peers, not necessarily friends. And, that’s what makes them interesting.
The selfie has a transparent ‘look at me!’ agenda and is intended to create ripples of low-grade envy amongst family and friends, however loosely defined. But the shelfie’s bid for attention is quieter and more strategic. Shelfies are much more tasteful than a Facebook humble-brag, but much more humbling as well. After all, in manifesting the ingenuity of the creator, shelfies also test the viewer’s ability to engage in multiple levels of decoding – Can they appreciate the composition? Can they identify the references to artists/ writers/ books/ films/ designers? Can they then respond appropriately, either with commentary or with a shelfie of their own?
The social currency up for grabs here is the oldest one of all. Not the popularity that social networks were designed to deliver and measure. What is at stake in the arena of the shelfie is taste – that lingering, old-school vestige of snobbery, reinvented for our times. What music do you listen to? Which authors do you read? Which designers do you patronize and where do you go to get your organic whole-foods? How far to the peripheries of popular culture do you travel and what is the cool, exciting, edgy material that you identify and bring back with you? How appropriately can you exhibit these wares?
It is no coincidence that shelfies mimic the still-life and portrait paintings of
bygone eras. With one critical difference – earlier, taste was private – domestic and in the case of creative industries, professional. People would have to visit your home or collaborate with you to understand and appreciate your aesthetic. Today, as Hrabi has pointed out, the shelfie allows people to showcase their taste to large audiences, who can admire it from afar.
It’s easy to get caught up in shelfie-invective. Shelfies perpetuate class distinctions and hierarchies, encouraging people to play to the tune of a narrowly defined cohort – hipster, vegan, goth, knitting fetishist.
Equally, though, shelfies are rich fodder for inspiration and expression. They litter Pinterest, Instagram and are steadily encroaching on Facebook. They allow people to showcase the things that they are passionate about – venerable institutions such as the New York Public Library and the Guardian newspaper have both run shelfie contests to celebrate readers’ love for books. They remind us that life is not only about appearances, and that not all types of appearances are equal. They represent a profound desire that runs underneath the exhibitionism and the desire to look clever – the longing to not just be beautiful, but to have a beautiful life, and to remember to enjoy and commemorate its beauty.
31
Media Spotlight
HotStuff Book Issue (Page 32)Size : (W) 235 X (H) 345 mm
32
Brand Wagon - 11 August 2015Business India - 30 August 2015 Brand Wagon - 11 August 2015
Brand Equity - 09 September 2015
Bombay Times - 16 September 2015
Bombay Times - 22 August 2015
Editor - Pilloo Mullan | Editorial Team - Hirak Kapasi, Siddharth Raman and Akanksha Mishra | Cover Design -Sachin Panchal, Gutenberg Networks India.
Artwork – Vithal Malgundkar and Sachin Panchal | Print Production – Chandrashekhar Deshmukh and Hrushikesh Inamdar, Gutenberg Networks India.
The Internet of Everything (IoE),Governments and Businesses
The Internet of Everything – the networked connection of people, process, data and things – has the potential to make governments and businesses more productive, efficient and profitable by reducing silos between departments and agencies, improving data flow, aggregation and mining, and by improving citizen and consumer services. Cisco’s analysis estimates that IoE is poised to generate $4.6 trillion in Value at Stake for the public sector and more than $14.6 trillion for the private sector over the next 10 years. This article will focus on the potential for governments’ use of the Internet of Things and the implications for the business community.This valuation stems from the new ability to manage assets, optimize performance and create new business and planning models. The five primary drivers for the public sector’s IoE valuation are: 1) citizen experience, 2) connected militarized defense, 3) cost reduction, 4) employee productivity, and 5) increased revenue. All of these (except for possibly #5) have direct or indirect benefits for its citizens and will improve perception of the elected bodies.
Governments (and their citizens) have already begun utilizing the Internet of Everything to improve the everyday lives of its people. Examples vary, but below are some of the more interesting ones with direct impact on people.
-In Panama City, citizens’ groups placed RF transmitters in potholes that send tweets to the local government every time a car drives over them. This allows the government to not only identify potholes that it would have had to find manually but also determine the prioritization of repair based on the volume of traffic.
-Smart grid technology enables municipalities to measure residential, commercial and industrial power demand in real time. This allows for a better resource allocation during the heavy demand seasons and time (i.e.,summer, work hours) in order to reduce the instances of outages as well as maintain proper energy source diversification. In one Oklahoma test of the smart grid, 98% of consumers in the test group saved an average of $200 during the 100+ degree summer months.
-In Australia, measures that allow farmers to monitor their cattle herds offer the possibility of more accurate and timely returns to government for subsidy regimes, and for managing animal health on a national and potentially international scale. For instance, being able to monitor herds from birth enables the tracking of Mad Cow outbreaks to feeding operations or farms, helping to stop the spread of the disease.
Implications: Governments are investing in and implementing the IoE into their strategic platforms and seeing the potential value for their citizens. Businesses should be heavily focused on how they can benefit from the IoE as well. Businesses and brands should allocate more resources and focus on connecting departments, processes and data to reduce costs and inefficiencies, make more informed decisions and improve delivery effectiveness and ultimately revenue. With $14.4 trillion in value at stake, businesses cannot afford to not invest in the Internet of Everything.
Last Word
HotStuff Book Issue (Cover Front Back)Open Size : (W) 472 X (H) 345 mm