POWERING BRANDS

Weekend Inspiration: 5 Creative and Stand-Out Facebook Cover Photos

2013-05-19T21:32:00.000+05:30

Over the past year, brands have realised the potential of the large Facebook Cover Photo branding real estate available to them. It is a high impact space to creatively project brand themes or communication, engage fans and also hook first time visitors with an attention grabbing visual. The key to a great cover photo would be to keep it current and well designed with as little copy as possible.

Here is a look at 5 striking brand cover photos on Facebook, in no particular order.

Vodafone ZooZoo
Fans: 12.3million
This one is just adorable and funny. The imagery is current, from the latest Vodafone TV commercial, and the profile photo has a ZooZoo with an air gun pointing to shoot at the balloons on the cover photo. Excellent.

Café Coffee Day
Fans: 3.7million
Café Coffee Day’s new branding is vivid and young and this bright imagery continues on their Facebook page where the profile photo and the superb cover photo are completely in sync.

Nike
Fans: 12.87million
This one just speaks for itself. The logo and the product, you really don’t need anything else.

Thomas Cook
Fans: 318k
A clean imagery that says 'holiday' like nothing else does.

Jabong
Fans: 1million
Jabong created this new cover photo after reaching the 1million likes milestone on Facebook. The nice sketch creative commemorates the happy Jabong family of fans.

Royal Enfield's Bullet 500 gets a starring role in a Graphic Novel

2013-05-13T21:23:00.000+05:30

Royal Enfield’s Bullet 500 website is another example of their great creative aesthetic. Clean and minimal. And with the iconic Bullet as the hero on the page, you don’t need much else.

Most of the sections on the site focus on the bike – the new Bullet with a 500cc engine now available in a new shade of green - and its specifications including a 360 degree click and drag view that highlights key USPs and a Special Features page that uses hot-spotting to give a zoomed-in view. You also have a one-click wallpaper download.

The no-scroll UI is simple which makes sections easy to find & explore and the layout & branding are consistent throughout – which proves that it is not that difficult to get it right.

The most exciting feature on the website though, is the Graphic Novel, with an action-packed story weaved around the Bullet. The concept and excellent action-comic artwork have enough drama to keep the reader interested though the story is still work-in-progress. It would be interesting to see how it culminates. This is a cool idea to keep users hooked. I haven't seen this getting promoted though except for a few social integrations.

Check out the site here.

Weekend Inspiration: Say it with Skype on Mother’s Day

2013-05-12T11:22:00.001+05:30

Skype has created an interesting video greeting app called Say it with Skype that users can personalise and share. You can choose the messaging, the band, and the most fun element – create a personal video (using webcam and microphone integrations).

The UI is seamless and easy and the final rendition is visually clean and entertaining. There are multiple social sharing options and one can share the final link to the greeting or schedule it to be sent later.

The app is now being used as a thematic promotion on the occasion of Mother’s Day today, but it is clearly scalable with options of sending out group greetings to family and friends as well.

Contest Watch: Perfetti Van Melle's Mentos Batti Jalao

2013-05-11T21:27:00.001+05:30

Perfetti Van Melle’s Mentos, in its typical irreverent style, has been promoting an 8week contest, with a theme that is in sync with its ‘Dimag ki Batti Jalao’ tagline. The fun riddles (like Dhakke kisne khaye, Dhokha kisne diya, Dooba kaun etc) are set up as 30 second well-shot, smart videos hosted on Mentos' Youtube Channel. All you need to do is follow the sequence of frames closely, get the cue and crack the answer. Weekly winners stand a chance to walk away with Rs.1lakh!

The well-conceptualised and executed contest is already in its 7^th week. Participants can share their answers on the Mentos India website.

The contest is being promoted across Mentos' social media properties including Facebook and Twitter where the brand engages its fan base with similar witty caption contests & guess-the-movie quizzes.

Though the idea is great, the web design creatives leave you asking for more, especially the contest page layout which seems disconnected. A little more effort and this could have been a roaring execution.

Pepsi IPL Goes Social. Oh. Yes. Abhi.

2013-04-21T21:25:00.001+05:30

Since acquiring title sponsorship, Pepsi has gone all out this IPL with its new ‘Oh. Yes. Abhi.’ campaign to create maximum buzz. New ad spots and contests tailored for the tournament, a new Fan Can and UTC promo, ensure it creates engagement with its target audience throughout the IPL season - which is also a perfect seasonality fit.

Digital is playing a big part in the executions, especially contests which leverage Pepsi’s social media presence. The tiled Oh.Yes. Abhi. campaign landing page brings together the latest IPL scores, contest leader-boards, details of the UTC promotion ‘VIP Box Ka VIP’, IPL Tweets and the latest TV commercials.

There are 2 live contests. The big one is ‘Pepsi IPL Ka Boss’ where Fans need to login via Facebook and score points for engaging with brand content by sharing & liking, inviting friends, following Pepsi channels on Twitter & Pinterest. The top scorers get to win prizes like match tickets, VIP box passes and limited edition branded merchandise. This is Pepsi’s hunt for its biggest social fan.

Tweet20 is another interesting contest that employs Twitter integration. Fans need to sign in via Twitter, follow @PepsiIndia, choose an IPL team and play the game through tweets. VIP box passes are up for grabs. All contests have special video guides that explain what needs to be done. Pepsi pioneered this sort of custom content created for the web more than half a decade back.

The brand doesn't disappoint and is doing a great job on social media by keeping the content fresh and therefore engaging.

HomeShop18’s Scan N Shop Virtual Wall at Delhi’s IGI Airport

2013-04-13T22:26:00.003+05:30

If you have jetted out of Delhi’s T3 Terminal in the last couple of months, you may have noticed HomeShop18’s Virtual Shopping Wall called Scan n Shop. Strategically located, the prominent wall is a super way of integrating M-Commerce with the airport shopping/browsing experience for travellers.

The dynamic wall displays top deals on HomeShop18, and corresponding QR codes. One can scan the code and get immediate access to the deal on the phone. The experience for me was seamless, quick and impressive. If you like something, you can immediately place a one-click order through your phone. Shoppers without smart phones have the option to call the HomeShop18 toll-free if there is a deal that catches their fancy. The setup also has kiosks available for more information.

Innovation is the key to getting eyeballs in E-commerce, being the competitive category that it is in India. This is a great way to increase awareness and engagement for HomeShop18 with their potential consumers. In my opinion, the concept is ideal for browsing deals. The format also provides means for conversions but that would depend on a lot of other variables including compelling products and pricing.

It would be interesting to see how this execution is tracking with respect to scans and final sales.

Great execution.

Rich Media Watch: Doritos on MSN Canada

2013-03-27T20:45:00.000+05:30

Doritos executed a fun and interactive rich media on MSN Canada early this week to promote its new fiery snack called Inferno.

The 300x600 monster unit allowed users to activate a fire cursor (essentially a mouse tracker) and take it around the MSN Canada home page. Users could also set up their status message through the banner and see it go up in fire on the landing page! The Inferno status could then be shared across social media. Great concept and fantastic execution.

Check out a video the execution, below.

Vodafone Zoozoos On Facebook: 10 Million Fans and Counting

2013-03-23T20:43:00.001+05:30

Vodafone Zoozoos are celebrating 10 million fans on Facebook. The achievement doesn't come as a surprise considering the popularity of the characters. Big credit also to the well managed content on the Facebook brand page, one of the few that stick to the brand ethos and are prolific with quality posts and specially created web content. Is there any other brand in India that has managed this feat? I doubt it.

The Thank You video series created especially for this occasion, play on the ‘Facebook Likes’ premise and are clever as usual.

Check out the superbly executed App page on Facebook and a video below. Enjoy!

The extended celebrations include promotions via sponsored post on Facebook and video masthead on Youtube.

Sony Xperia Z brings the Best Of Sony to the web

2013-03-19T20:48:00.002+05:30

Sony executed a neat Video Pushdown on MSN India home page yesterday for its Xperia Z launch. The video which was shot specially for digital executions with celebrity endorser Katrina Kaif, is another example of how advertisers are finally recognising that celebs should also be used for digital promotions through specially created storyboards that sync with the overall communication and yet bring in a fresh angle to the online media campaign.

Check out the execution in the video below.

The New Xperia Z is said to bring together the Best of Sony in the phone. The product microsite aggregates campaign assets including the TV commercial, Twitter feeds with the #bestofsony hashtag, behind the scenes videos and images of Katrina Kaif and a Facebook interactive application.

The Katrina and You app on Facebook is a predictable idea of getting fans to add their image to a placeholder in a celeb picture, in this case it also has an on-ground layer, which makes gratification more tedious, in my opinion.

Sony Xperia Smart Challenge is a slick Global execution where participants are asked to look for images of the phone in high quality pictures of iconic cities shared weekly on the site.

Sony always impresses with high quality creative executions and this is no different.

TRESemmé’s Ramp Ready Hair Brand Channel on Youtube

2013-03-17T20:51:00.000+05:30

Salon style hair seems to be the universal theme for most consumer hair care brands. We have seen Sunsilk’s deep brand integrations and engaging executions on Youtube for its Keratinology range and now TRESemmé, the latest entrant in the hair care space, has come up with a similar execution on the same platform. Considering both the brands come from the HUL stable, some differentiation in the product range and eventual campaign execution, would have helped. If there is, it is not immediately apparent.

The TRESemmé India page on Youtube called ‘Ramp Ready Hair’ uses videos of celebrity endorser Diana Penty, shot specially for this initiative *kudos*. It takes users through the backstage of Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week and gives them options to check out DIY hairstyles at the TRESemmé Salon. The step by step detailed videos are very well put together. There are also elements of personalization which include adding your picture to create an access card to the Fashion Week and picking the hairstyles you like and creating your own fashion show. A Style Album also brings together on-trend hair-dos that would work with your hair type.

Youtube Masthead, 16 March 2013

A very well put together execution. I even liked the simple Youtube Masthead which was about getting the right sequence of events on the banner.

Rich Media This Week: Kotak Mahindra Bank’s new Campaign

2013-03-10T22:22:00.001+05:30

Kotak Mahindra Bank debuted a new campaign last week, right after budget and in time for the most significant month in the Indian Financial Year. The new campaign is an extension of the popular ‘Subbu sab janta hai’ commercials that presented Vinay Pathak as the endearing Mr. Know-it-all, Subbu.

He is back with his elvish charm, in the new commercial ‘Life Mein Khushi ka Khata Khol Le’ with a new breezy jingle urging everyone to open an account with KMB for apparent interest rate benefits.

Last week KMB took over Yahoo! India’s Email Login Page and Facebook Logout to promote the new commercial. The clean video renditions stood out.

Facebook Logout, 7 March 2013

Yahoo! India Email Login Page Takeover, 8th March 2013

In addition to frequent updates and deconstructing the TV commercial on its Facebook Brand Page KMB also used Promoted Tweets to drive users to its Dining Deals page.

Simple and effective.

E-commerce digital advertising in India: Trends and Observations

2013-03-10T18:37:00.000+05:30

E-commerce in India has been the consistent buzz word since the last couple of years, spawning a whole new generation of entrepreneurs and marketers with new ideas. The category, after the initial rush, is slowly consolidating with existing players now looking to define their unique propositions and stand out from the crowd in a bid to survive.

On the web though, most marketing has been me-too with hardly any attempt to innovate. In most cases, as a consumer, I am unable to differentiate between brands, as the copy, design, campaign themes seem to roll into one. Even the platforms tend to be the same. Not to mention some seriously incredulous offers. Check out some advertising units I captured since the last couple of months.

Ad units for Clearance Sale

Ad units for specific Offers

This competitive category will surely benefit from some fresh thinking in digital marketing, considering this is the one medium that gets them maximum immediate eyeballs and conversion.

Current user trends point towards Jabong and Flipkart to be the category leaders with Flipkart being the more solid and engaging site considering it also leads on time spent with nearly no random advertising.

Check out the infographic I created below, with the available Comscore data as of January 2013. You can click on the brand names to see the related graphic.

Infographics

Lifebuoy’s excellent new campaign: Help a Child Reach 5

2013-03-07T21:35:00.001+05:30

Hindustan Unilever’s Lifebuoy has launched an inventive new health centric campaign. The brand which has been known as a proponent of hygiene and handwashing has taken it a step further, into CSR territory. The unique ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign is based on the heart-breaking fact that every year nearly 2 million children die before the age of 5 due to infections, which can be prevented by propagating cleanliness beginning with the simple act of washing hands.

Lifebuoy has showcased the strides it has made in making a difference through a fantastic 3minute ad film available on Youtube. A special mention for the concept and soundtrack. We all love a brand that is socially responsible, don’t we?

Unilever is promoting the film and its efforts with a well-rounded social media and video campaign on the web. The campaign sits on Youtube, considering the ad film is the hero this seems like a natural fit. They do have an app on Facebook that gets fans to take a pledge to spread the word. They also have a Twitter hashtag #helpachildreach5, though the handle has been dormant for a while.

A great idea and a super execution. Do you like it as much as I do?

Rich Media This Week

2013-02-24T21:15:00.000+05:30

The Oscars will be telecast live on Star Movies tomorrow morning and the TV channel took over Yahoo! India's home page today with an engaging trivia Q&A within the rich media execution. It stood out as one of the best executions from this week.
Do you remember the Charades campaign Star Movies executed for Oscars last year? Check it out here.

Also check out the cool 'Spot the Difference' rich media takeover on MSN Brazil executed by Heineken.

LinkedIn celebrates with members after crossing the 200million mark

2013-02-19T20:44:00.003+05:30

LinkedIn crossed the 200million member mark worldwide in 2012 and thereafter went live with a smart campaign to promote the fact, which has gone viral (as was intended, I would think). They used the premise to come up with an interesting infographic that showcased trivia like membership numbers from across the world, most common names, most viewed profiles etc.

Mailers to existing members were used to drive them to a nicely done one-pager that called out the achievement and thanked them for their patronage.

What made the initiative go viral, I would think, was the clever customisation. Mailers were targeted and carried a personalised stat with bragging rights that users would want to share. The one-pager also carried a pre-programmed message that could be posted on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Super, I say!

Rich Media This Week

2013-02-17T13:49:00.001+05:30

Renault India consistently executes some of the best rich media across publishers for their brand campaigns and launches. Last week they took over Yahoo! India’s home page with an interesting OTP with a user initiated page flipping animation for the Scala. Check out the video below. This was, imo, the best from the week.

Also check out the neat Yahoo! Email login page takeover for the Duster that Renault executed end of January.

Yahoo! India Email Login Page, 28 Jan 2013

Sprite India’s latest ‘Chalo Apni Chaal’ campaign on the web

2013-02-13T21:44:00.000+05:30

Sprite India’s new campaign for 2013 carries the communication ‘chalo apni chaal’ and the TV spots are typically cheeky. The clever storyboards bring out the confidence, ingenuity and sense of humour that we have come to associate with the brand that targets the youth.

The web executions though are a different story. The TV commercials carry the Facebook Brand Page link (great move!) so I logged in with great expectations. But like most Coca Cola India digital initiatives, this one too is underwhelming. The Facebook page is a global initiative and the posts from India are sparse and currently are only for the three TV ads. As a consumer I get bombarded with the ads, what’s new on Facebook? I did love the cover picture though!

The Sprite India website still features last year’s ‘Rasta Clear Hai’ campaign. Clearly the medium is not in focus.

Sprite OTP on MSN India

Guess Sprite needs to consider the fact that a large number for their key audience is on digital platforms (more than 33% of the internet users in India are in the age group of 15-24yrs) and start engaging with them through the medium right from campaign launches.

Link Loving

2013-02-10T19:56:00.000+05:30

With no stand out rich media executions last week, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit some good digital marketing initiatives from across the globe spanning social media and videos. Check out these bytes, for some inspiration to start out the week!

Super Bowl Blackout: 9 brands that thought quickly on social media

MTV’s Digital Experience 'Backstory', creates awareness around Human Trafficking

Expedia’s new Travel Pix App on Facebook: Video Below

Pepsi India courts the ‘Impatient Ones’ with New Campaign, ‘Oh Yes, Abhi’

2013-02-08T22:29:00.001+05:30

Pepsi India is back with a new campaign for 2013, targeted at youth (of course) and centred on their need for immediate gratification. This is a direct extension of what Airtel did a couple of years back, with their Impatient Ones campaign for broadband. The new tagline ‘Oh Yes, Abhi’, on the lines of ‘Carpe Diem’, is a good phrase that should catch on. The TV commercial though, didn’t strike a chord with me. The music is lacklustre and the storyboard is unconvincing.

Pepsi’s web presence though, is more effective. The microsite is essentially a slick, simple, social one-pager laid out in a tiled format (Do we see a Windows Phone inspiration there?!). The page hosts the TV ad video and the tiles stream live updates from Twitter that pull tweets featuring the #ohyesabhi hashtag that Pepsi is promoting. Visitors also have the option to post to Facebook or Twitter directly from the page.

Pepsi India’s popular brand page on Facebook, with more than 3.5million likes, feature posts that stick to the theme via one liners and campaign imagery.

Yahoo! India Home Page, 30 Jan 2013

I think we will see more of this campaign through summer, considering Pepsi debuts as the title sponsor for IPL this year. I am hoping they come out with more interesting and original ideas through the year.

Campaign Watch: The New TATA Vista D90 Launch

2013-02-04T21:15:00.002+05:30

TATA Motors not only executed a brilliant takeover on MSN India, they took over nearly all high impact branding units across key publishers last week for the new Vista D90 launch. The campaign communication is ‘Designed to Thrill’ which highlights the technology innovations and a powerful new diesel motor that the new car comes equipped with.

Yahoo! Home Page, 01.02.2013

Youtube Masthead, 29.01.2013

Facebook Logout Banner, 29.01.2013

The Vista D90 website layout is simple and effective. I especially loved the slick transitions on the features page, which lets you explore the car interiors and exterior in detail. I am not sure why a Youtube video embed wasn’t used on the Videos page considering they do have a Youtube Channel. The rest of the site has the usual utilitarian links to the e-Brochure, Price, Dealer Locator and Test Drive form.

In keeping with the high-powered theme, the D90 was launched at the Buddh International Circuit for Dealers and Bloggers. The launch was also covered via a webcast on the site, a recorded video is now available to view here.

TATA Motors has done a great job with consolidating all its group sites with cross linkages which aids discover-ability, SEO and is generally a better practice that creating standalone microsites for every new launch. There are some issues with multi-browser compatibility, which should be looked into.

Facebook had to be an important element for the campaign and The Vista Surprise brand page prolifically covers feature centric posts.

Rich Media This Week

2013-02-03T19:36:00.001+05:30

The New Vista D90 full screen takeover on MSN India on the 30^th January was just superb! The rich media concept was an extension to the TV commercial and all-up campaign and left an impression. Check out a video I recorded. TATA Motors executed a takeover on Yahoo! India later in the week, but it was not half as impactful.

Here are a couple of international executions I loved this past week.

The Mercedes-Benz video wallpaper with pushdown on MSN Italy’s Home Page was brilliant and H&R Blocks’ expando on MSN US Home Page was fun and expertly used the brand elements and videos.

Campaign Watch: Write your Hyundai i10 Story

2013-01-29T21:15:00.000+05:30

In an attempt to crowd-source the next i10 TV commercial with Shah Rukh Khan and engage its target audience, Hyundai India has conceptualized a new digital led campaign.

The contest gets users to write the storyboard for the next ad film for i10 starring Shah Rukh. The promo microsite hosts teaser videos with SRK calling for entries and also guiding users on navigating the site. This is a great way to leverage celebrities and create exclusive web content. The SRK videos are also being used smartly on rich media across publishers, as seen on the MSN pushdown.

PUSHDOWN ON MSN INDIA 29.01.2013

The microsite highlights various modes that have been activated to help users share their stories easily. Stories in video, audio or text formats can be uploaded directly on the microsite. Users can also snail mail their stories and send a missed call to a number for a call back (Really!).

The creative renditions for this campaign (e.g. the layout and page design) look static and lacking in terms of quality. The intent and ideas are strong and the made-for-web videos are a good touch, but they don’t translate into compelling executions. Considering other advertisers in the Auto category like TATA Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra deliver superb web experiences, they really need to take this up a notch. Don’t you think?
Hyundai internationally also does a brilliant job with its web executions. Check a Rich Media executed in Brazil and their Live Brilliant Global Campaign

Rich Media This Week

2013-01-27T17:21:00.002+05:30

HP rendered a great takeover on Yahoo! India for its Envy 4 launch. The ad had a webcam integration which brought out the product’s touch functionality. This was by far the best rich media execution last week. Check out a basic video I captured.

For some additional inspiration, check out a couple of cool rich media executions from around the world.
The CCA ad on Yahoo! Brazil uses video innovatively to create a disruptive execution and Toyota’s Masthead on Yahoo! France shows us how to create engagement on a simple Billboard banner.

Campaign Watch: TATA Safari Storme ‘What’s in your Mirrors?’

2013-01-21T20:52:00.000+05:30

TATA Motors is pitching Safari Storme as ‘The Real SUV’ that takes on every rugged terrain and in line with this communication the latest promo is targeted at adventure enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies. The new sustenance campaign for Storme is called ‘What’s in your Mirrors?’

The contest, activated through TATA Safari's Facebook Brand Page and the visually dramatic ‘What’s in Your Mirrors?’ promo microsite, asks fans to submit pictures from their past adventures (the rear-view mirror connection). Selected pictures could be featured on the new Safari Storme TVC or be used as TATA Safari’s Facebook Cover Photo. Lucky participants also stand a chance to win Safari Storme Extreme Kits which is a hamper of adventure sport essentials.

FACEBOOK LOGOUT AD

What stands out across the campaign are striking visuals, imagery and fantastic connected execution across digital platforms. Someone’s doing a brilliant creative job.

Check out TATA Safari’s Youtube Channel and Twitter Handle

Rich Media This Week: HP Envy on MSN India and Helios on Yahoo! India

2013-01-20T19:25:00.000+05:30

There were two impactful rich media innovations this week.

HP executed a takeover on MSN India introducing the Envy TouchSmart with an execution that simulated the product’s touch premise. In animation, a finger is shown getting elements together on the MSN Home Page ending with the brand communication.

MSN INDIA HOME PAGE, 18 Jan 2013

Helios Watch Store executed a smart Game in Banner on Yahoo! India’s home page where users had to catch as many watches as possible within 10 seconds by moving around a glass with their mouse. A discount meter showed how much discount they have been able to score. Users could enter their email address and phone number to get the discount coupon. Great way to promote a limited-time Store Sale.

YAHOO! INDIA HOME PAGE, 18 Jan 2013