It’s that time of the year; the time when everyone looks forward to the New Year (this post being a trifle late notwithstanding). Yet, this blog looks at the year gone by and attempts to identify the winners, the losers and the jokers!
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the Marketing Maayaajaalam Awards. And the winners are…
Best TV ad of the year: Airtel
I am talking about the ad where the dad ties his wrist along with his son’s to convince his young son he wouldn’t get lost and the son doing the same later in life with an Airtel connection. Rarely do we see such powerful insights in Indian advertising. And even rarely do we see an ad that is strong on strategy while being cute on creative. Without a shade of doubt, the ad of the year!
Brand failure of the year: Kuselan
Kuselan was touted the next big Rajini film after the stupendously successful Sivaji. That Rajini kept insisting that his role in the film was less than 25% got drowned by the hype and hoopla around the film. And when fans turned up in theatres expecting to see Rajini all the way, they were in for a depressing disappointment. Expectedly the crowds gave the film a big thumps down. The distributors ended up with massive losses, the theatre owners with empty seats and Rajini with eggs on his face (sadly though, he didn’t deserve it since he had always maintained he was doing only a guest role in the film). Kuselan, this year’s biggest brand failure of the year.
The brand joke of the year: Airtel Digital TV
You have to hand it to Airtel for making us laugh. I don’t know about you. But I certainly enjoyed Airtel’s sense of humour. Airtel Digital TV! What an idea. What a joke!
Expected failure in 2009: Vivel
What is Vivel? Soap? Yes. What kind of soap? Everything. It has an ayurvedic variant; a natural variant; even a couple of cosmetic variants. Is that all? No, Vivel is a shampoo too. Serious? Yeah, Vivel has a range of shampoos. That’s it? No, Vivel has a premium variant too. Vivel de Wills. Great. What next? Vivel Filter cigarettes? Ladies and gentlemen, expect Vivel to flop without a trace in 2009.
To make this year’s awards a trifle more interactive, I am offering three categories to you to make your choice: ‘Brand Success of the Year’, ‘Marketer of the Year’ and ‘Expected Success in 2009’. Send in your choice, along with your reasons for selection, and let me see if it matches mine!
Remember, this blog is extremely democratic. It always welcomes differing views, countering viewpoints and varied opinions. Yet, the final decision would be unmistakably mine!
25 comments:
‘Marketer of the Year’ - HORLICKS
Sir why is that the Best tv ad of the year Airtel is unable to produce a decent ad for its extention (Airtel DTH). Is that the fault of the ad producers or that of the viewers who expected more from the ad producers? And which ad according to you is the best among DTH ad's?
Hi,
What happened to the 'krdrice' which was awarded 'The expected success of 2008'.
Any idea, people out there????
Hi Anonymous, let me first answer about the Krd Rys. The brand found acceptance among consumers, but has been killed by the short-sightedness of our retailers. You see, Krd Rys had to be kept refrigerated at all times. But most of our retailers switch off the refrigerator in the night when they close shop and switch it on when the shop opens. That is enough to screw up Krd Rys. People who buy it the next day complain about its sour taste and conclude the product is no good. The product, fortunately is, but the retailers are not! On your question about DTH, I haven't yet found a good DTH ad. Reason why most consumers still lack adequate info about the category. On your other question about why Airtel which has made a good mobile ad hasn't been able to do the same with their DTH...don't parents who have a nice kid also have a rotten one!
"Marketer of the year" - OBAMA
"Marketer of the year" - OBAMA
The brand joke of the year: Airtel Digital TV
hi,
Air-tel is a well established successful brand.. Their take on DTH could be to merge entertainment, Broadband and Mobile services na???
Air-tel has launched recently "DIGITAL TV INTERACTIVE" where in if you get the DTH you'll get 256kbps broadband connection free...(welcome offer) the deal is modem is built-in with DTH..
later on the customers may get the benefit of using three different services under one platform...
isn't that sound different among the rest???
Wow....Beautiful post...Whether its been the awards of 2007 or 2008 its always been a pleasure reading your posts..:)
Well, I shall get back soon with what I think are the nominees for your open categories but wanted to know your opinion on something which I read a few days back and couldn't think of any one else other than you to throw light on this :)
Well, it came out a few days back that Subhiksha, the low cost retail chain was in trouble and they required almost Rs 300 crores immediately to get back on their feet and their shelves were empty and drying out and so were the footfalls...Subhiksha, as far as I believed were pretty focused...They started with low cost and ended there...nothing more, nothing less...Their showrooms weren't posh a la Nilgiris and neither did they come out with frequent discounts like Food World...
So where do you think they went wrong? Do you think they could have avoided this had they done a few things differently?
HI Aarthi, I don't have much dope about Subhiksha but I can say one thing as an outsider. While they focused on low cost and all that, they made a big mistake venturing into mobile retailing and that too with the same brand name. The gadgets business, I presume, screwed up the grocery chain.
Hi,
KrdRys-the brand being widely accepted by the consumers as you said, don't you think the brand manager should have done something about saving the brand??
I think the marketer of the year award should go to Lifebuoy, for consistently building the brand in a highly competitive market.
Hi Anonymous, one brand manager can't do anything to one lakh plus retailers. Can he? And about Lifebuoy, I am surprised you are saying they have been consistent. In fact, they have been flirting with disaster all these years. They launched Lifebuoy Gold, a soap for women and it failed miserably. They launched Lifebuoy talc and it went no where. Then they launched Lifebuoy Hand Wash and I am not sure if that category itself has taken off. Knowing HUL, be ready to see a Lifebuoy shampoo soon.
Why is Airtel digital tv a joke? any explanations? do u mean to say its a saturated market and an unwise decision? or that Airtel (being a communications company) cannot launch digital TV, is it that u mean to say it will be an extension failure?
Two brands which sounded quite weird to me:
1. Unwanted-72 (Could they not have found a better sounding name? )
and,
2.(this is my favorite) Nirma Salt!!!!! ..leaves a soapy kind of taste in ones mouth....
Nirma salt!!!..nther disaster in de offing…they hav de same nirma girl n de ad….thnx dey do nt have de same jingle….
Lalit modi wud be my choice fr de marketer of de year….The very IPL thng has really transformed de game of cricket...
expected success of de nxt year may b Big TV... nd ya problem with subhiksha s more of a financial..expanding aggressively wit no equity but only debt wil only increase de cost of capital...its more of a shortsightedness by de promoters..
Brand Success of the year : Gajini
Expected success in 2009 : Unwanted 72
i-pill may sound stylish when compared to Unwanted 72. But it doesn't relate to the product. Initially i thought the name Unwanted 72 was a bit amateurish but later after thinking again got to know the logic behind the name. A Brand name must be simple, easily rememberable, and should convey the purpose...here in this case Unwanted relates to the unwanted Pregnancy and 72 denoted the hours within which it has to be consumed after intercourse...So I think the brand name is excellent and logical too...
(But the only -ve w.r.t to unwanted 72 is a women might feel comfortable asking for i pill rather than unwanted 72!!....I'm not sure abt this point...need to think from a woman perspective where i'm not good)
Marketer of the year: Obama (thx to Saravana Pandiyan)
Waiting for ur final results sir :)
"Expected Success in 2009 "
I am not 100 % sure whether this brand will be launched in this year. Anyway my choice is " TATA NANO "
Hi Karthik, I think Airtel wouldn't fly thanks to the name. Try asking a few people what Airtel means and you would hear the word 'mobile'. Even the brand manager of Airtel would say the same thing! It would be close to impossible to make the name stand for something else too!
Finally, I agree with Mr.Satheesh on this issue. Whether airtel-dth is a good diversification or not, its definitely not an effective brand extension.
More than anything else it does not have anything unique. Please don't say it has worldspace and an universal remote.
I personally feel that they should at least change the logo to give it a different identity
Am no brand pundit but I really wouldn't write off Airtel Digital TV. Nor do I think it is bad brand extension, moreover brands are not just the name and logo (they're def important elements).
Maybe the brand manager of wipro said it stood for soaps and bulbs in 70's and 80's, but today wipro means IT. The dynamics change.
And Airtel moving over to the satellite digital space and Internet over and above mobile communication is quite understandable and makes sense. If you tell me they're launching Airtel Soaps or Cola I understand, but they seem to be moving towards owning a communication/network/digital space in the consumers mind. watsay?
Hi Karthik, you are right. Wipro indeed stands for IT. But did you notice they don't stand for bulbs and soaps anymore. That was the point I was making. A brand can stand for only one thing. Also, I didn't say Airtel shouldn't launch DTH. I only said they shouldn't have done it with 'Airtel' brand name for the reasons I had outlined earlier.
For me, The Brand success of 2008 was "Dove" - though has extended into various categories, the equity of the brand has allowed it to gather considerable market share in soaps and doing decently well in shampoos.. Undoubtedly the MARKETER of the Year is OBAMA - who won the US elections to become the President of the WORLD... Expected Success of 2009 - NANO, if launched...
My choice for "brand success of the year - 2008 ' is IPL(Indian Premier League)
And about 'marketer of the year', Its undoubtedly Obama.
Brand Success of the Year- Infosys
For the simple reason, that on a day when satyam revelations happened, stocks across sectors closed in RED..But Infosys being from same sector closed in GREEN..Now thats called as powerful branding..
I know this happened in 2009, but you can give an exception for this one.
Marketer of the Year- OBAMA (Globally)
But as these are Indian Based Awards, the marketer of the year should be Lalit Modi...The man who made IPL a resounding success..
Hi
Airtel DTH ad - is it a joke or something serious that has to be debated...advertising agencies are now trying to use other companies ads... is this smartness or unethical issue which to be overlooked by the agencies?
Hi,
I am Bijoy here, I really thought the name unwanted 72 was so bad. They really lack ideas big time. Something that sensitive needs a lot more care to be taken in advertising. i feel disgusted at the product every time i see the ad.
hiiii.. could u please give me a proper explanation of why the brand MTS is a massive failure?????
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