Lotte Choco Pie creates new lingo with fresh campaign

The skies are changing. This new India is influencing a brave new world, confidently and assertively. Brimming with youthful energy and an inimitable desire to succeed, this new India is showing the world how it’s done. 

Humming a new tune and scaling new peaks, we are at the threshold of self-confidence and ambition never seen before. We can create magic from the mundane, abundance from emptiness. We seek new horizons, new frontiers and vast new worlds. We are a new, young collective, and we have found a bold new voice that carries everyone along. A voice that can reach far and wide; a voice that can open up the skies and change it forever.

A bold new campaign for Brand Campa captures this very emotion, and re-introduces a much-loved brand to a new India. In flavours that match the diversity and character of this nation, Campa promises to be an offering that brings much-needed variety/differentiation and enthusiasm. As Reliance Consumer Products scales up its operations, the brand film will be launched during the current IPL season, with media amplification planned across TV, Digital, Outdoor and Print.  

The film has been conceptualised by Prasoon Joshi and executed in collaboration with filmmaker Arun Gopalan and singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan. The song has also been penned by Prasoon Joshi.

Prasoon Joshi, writer and chief creative officer McCann Worldgroup, said, “With this new creative the brand Campa looks to strike a chord with new emerging India who has self-belief and is restless to explore new horizons. It’s about pride in the indigenous and talent and determination to soar high.  

This new India has a thirst which needs something special to quench it.” 

“This is the start of a journey for us, to provide the hard-working Indians with global quality products at affordable prices while celebrating their high aspirations in our communications.”, Said Ketan Mody, COO, Reliance Consumer Products Limited.

Amazon Fresh has released the second edition of ‘Nahi toh Mehenga Padega’ campaign, featuring actor Manoj Bajpayee as the beloved character ‘Ghanshyam’.

The campaign is conceptualized by MediaMonks.

In the first ad film, Manoj Bajpayee’s character Ghanshyaam, pulls off a comical act where in a hurry to receive groceries, he misses out on great deals and offers. Hence, as a reminder, he writes ‘Amazon Fresh se grocery laao nahi toh mehenga padega’ on post-it papers to remember ordering from Amazon Fresh for unmatched value offers reiterating on ‘savings’ with Amazon Fresh. In the second ad film, Ghanshyaam commits the same mistake, he forgets to order groceries from Amazon Fresh and receives foul-smelling and decaying fruits. Again, in distress he turns back to the white board and remembers that for good ‘quality’ fruits and vegetables ‘Amazon Fresh se grocery laao nahi toh mehenga padega.’

"In our latest campaign, 'Amazon Fresh se grocery laao nahi toh mehenga padega', we are driving home a crucial message, that will resonate with viewers long after they've watched it. At Amazon Fresh, we prioritize exceptional ‘value propositions’ to help our consumers save via bank offers, cashback incentives and ‘quality’ of fruits and vegetables made available by the Sellers, after a 4 step quality check. The extensive selection with the convenience of scheduled delivery within 2-4 hours, ‘no delivery or convenience fee’, ensures Amazon Fresh as a distinguished online grocery shopping experience for customers,” said Harsh Goyal, Director – Grocery, Amazon India.

Manoj Bajpayee said, “My involvement with Amazon Fresh over the past year has been exhilarating, solidifying the compelling character of 'Ghanshyam'. I often try to create recipes at home and realize that getting ‘quality’ products at good ‘value’ with the convenience of getting delivery at your preferred slot, is a win-win situation for a customer and that makes Amazon Fresh as the go-to online destination for grocery shopping.”

IPG has posted a total revenue, including billable expenses, of $2.50 billion for Q1.

The net income of the agency is $110.4 million.

Philippe Krakowsky, CEO of IPG: “The first quarter results we are reporting today represent a solid start to the year, and are consistent with our 2024 targets. Our data and tech-driven media offerings, healthcare marketing, and PR capabilities continued to perform strongly, driving our growth. Marketer sentiment has begun to improve relative to the back half of last year, and the new business pipeline is more active.

“We continue to enhance our offerings, further embedding precision and performance into our integrated, full-funnel media solutions, including our suite of Unified Retail Media services, which deliver cross-platform planning and optimization for a range of clients. We are also progressing in the integration of technologies such as Generative AI into the core of our marketing services capabilities, notably through our recently-announced partnership with Adobe, which speeds content ideation, creation, production and activation. By deploying proprietary best-in-class Acxiom data and identity products into our enterprise-wide marketing engine, we can create a more accurate picture of consumers and deeper connections with brands, all in the service of helping marketers drive growth and achieve business outcomes.

“At this point, with our smallest seasonal quarter complete, we continue to expect to achieve full-year organic growth of 1-2%, although a recent decision by a significant ongoing client will adversely impact the balance of this year and likely make achieving the top end of that target more challenging. With growth in that range, we continue to expect to deliver adjusted EBITA Interpublic Group 909 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 212-704-1200 tel 212-704-1201 fax 2 margin of 16.6% for the full year. The strength of our balance sheet positions us well to deliver on our long-standing commitment to capital returns and also augment our offerings and asset mix with M&A, with a particular focus on further broadening our commerce and digital transformation capabilities.”

It was a transformation that earned Dentsu a lot of attention from the media two years ago, but to say that it cost them more than a few clients won’t be a stretch either. But like they say - creating something beautiful takes time, even if you have had a history of spreading your footprints in the advertising sphere in the country at a record pace.

Dentsu India’s (then DAN) revenues grew by 2200% in the eight years ending 2017, (as reported by IMPACT) riding on the back of acquisitions. The period is relevant because it was also the time when the Group released the most talked about agency campaign, proclaiming themselves as the number 2 network in the country. So, when the company shortly after the turn of the decade started contemplating folding its 23 agencies into 6 brands in India, it almost appeared that they were retracing their footsteps. Only they weren’t, the plan was much bigger, keeping in mind the changing requirements of the industry and the client, who from being thrilled at the prospect of working with 15 agencies earlier was now frowning at the thought of having to collaborate with all so many for one campaign.

So, is the plan working and has the restructuring exercise borne fruit yet? The network responds in the affirmative and shares that they have won a total of 108 Media accounts, 26 Creative accounts and 46 CXM accounts since March 2023, some of the popular names being Aditya Birla Capital, Motorola, Sony Entertainment Television, Sony SAB, Sony MAX & Sony MAX 2, Skore, Eva and MsChief, Bharat Benz, Gemini Oils, Drone Destination on the creative side and Welspun, Berger Paints, Bharat Benz on the media side.

Have they managed to mitigate the loss of marque accounts like Reckitt and Maruti on the media side and Airtel, Ikea, ITC- Fiama, Urban Company, Meta on the creative side? Well not quite, it appears and yet it is a great beginning armed with the new South Asia CEO Harsha Razdan’s industrious method of diving headlong into the root cause of the problem, both clients’ and their own.

When Dentsu’s global leaders Jean Lin, Group President of Global Practice and Will Swayne, Global Practice President of Media recently visited India, they spoke to e4m about why the industry will see a new Dentsu in the country in 2024, while Harsha Razdan spoke about how they are winning back client confidence.

With a rather unconventional choice of a leader, a former Consultant, to lead them in the country, Dentsu has definitely set a precedent in the perception game, already differentiating themselves from the other agency networks in the country.

Also, by banking on their capabilities which is a good mix of marketing, technology, and consultancy services via a joint problem-solving approach has given them a head start in the simplification of services game. The other half of the battle is being fought by Razdan by listening actively and putting together solutions and teams that can help in the transformation of clients, each one of whom he has made a point to meet personally, ever since he took over the top job 12 months ago.

Edited excerpts:

With the simplification of structures, which of your clients are working across multiple disciplines and practices at Dentsu?

Jean: Majority of our Japanese clients embrace all our capabilities. We want to bring the eastern thinking to the west as well as the best of capability innovation from the other side. We have had quite a good track record in the past few years. Apart from the Japanese clients, for those like General Motors, American Express, as well as for some of our recently won clients - Royal Canin, T-Mobile, Lowe’s, Ferrero we have put together many different capabilities. But our model is not to say we integrate agencies for you, Mr. Client. Our model is to say, we solve your problem, you don’t need to care from where within the Dentsu Network it is getting done.

William: The big shift is that we were structured on the service lines, and the CEO/Head of each service line was focused on the P&L. Now we have taken down those P&Ls, to be able to get in place leaders who are focused on the practice, namely - Media, CXM, Creative and Business transformation. And all of them are really focused on driving the craft of each of their areas and bringing them all together to solve the client’s problems. We also have integrated solutions as a fifth pillar, which essentially are pre-packaged capabilities that we know are integrated by design like Gaming, Dentsu Good, etc.

Harsha: My belief is that there’s only one person who owns P&L in Dentsu and that is our big boss, Hiroshi Igarashi. Rest of us, including me are just carrying the legacy on his behalf. In fact, in India no Dentsu agency or person gets rewarded unless the overall India numbers are looking good. Basically, if only Carat does well and India doesn’t, they can be prepared to say goodbye to their bonuses.

The APAC region (excluding Japan) contributes to only 10% of Dentsu’s total revenue, where does India stand in the pecking order there? How important is the country for Dentsu and how did it fare last year?

Jean: When we look at India as a market, it goes beyond the financial figures. India will be the future, and we are committed to investing and setting up our global delivery centre here which will enable Dentsu the world over. India is not a geography; it is a centre of excellence and a key foundation for us to drive our network talent strategy.

Harsha: When I joined Dentsu, the first thing we needed was stability within our own company because we didn't have a leader or a head for some time. Clients oft asked me questions like ‘Are you back?’ But fact is, we were never gone. It was just one blip in the 123-year-old history of Dentsu. So, 2023 was all about getting client confidence back. We have repositioned ourselves, and are not just creative, media or CXM specialists today. If a client has a marketing problem, we will solve it no matter what practice it takes. So, last year, having stabilized, we are looking strongly upwards, and it’s not about media or creative anymore; it is 20 times bigger. What matters to me, is not ranking but profitable and sustainable growth. In fact, competition for me is not about comparing Dentsu with some other traditional companies. Anyone who tries to snatch away anything in the broader framework of marketing from Dentsu is my competition, be it Accenture or IBM. I will use all the armoury we have to cover that space.

Dentsu won the ‘Network of the Year’ Award at two Asia Pacific Advertising festivals this year – Adfest and Spikes. You also won the Regional Network of the Year for Asia second year in a row at Cannes Lions in 2023, ditto at the LIA awards. But how soon will you transcend the Asian boundary in the awards recognition at an ‘overall network’ level. Is this going to be Dentsu's year at Cannes on a global level?

Jean: Well, India did break that boundary on the global stage by becoming the ‘Agency of the Year’ at Cannes in 2022. While we appreciate awards, we don't work for them. Nothing inspires us more than delivering the right results for clients and in the process, of course, getting recognized by competitive awards because it helps us to also attract talent and clients. Therefore, we also have intra-Dentsu awards. Watch this space because we hope to do well in all awards, even if it is not our focus. Our focus is on client centricity, solutioning, and business.

As per the Comvergence Barometer none of the media agencies from Dentsu have made it to the top 3 in India for 2023 in new business wins or in size of business. Does that trouble you? What is the goal you have set for Anita Kotwani in India?

William: While that was indeed the result for 2023, we have had a long history of being on top of the league. The nature of the agency business is quite cyclical and you sometimes end up having a year like that. I spent the past couple of days with Anita and her leadership team and I'm really pleased with the momentum that they've built. We have had some great local wins like Berger Paints and some great international wins like Ferrero, Carlsberg, etc. And what's really important about those wins is that while we win globally, we have to win in every market too. And so, the real strength is in how the network is teaming up across markets and securing those wins. So, Anita and the team have been a big part of those network level wins as well as wins locally. I am happy with the way they are progressing and the leadership team that she has built.

While most of the star leaders from your most successful ‘Unfiltered History Tour’ team have quit the agency, we saw a top former leader Narayan Devanathan making a return. Would you say Dentsu is as much of an aspirational network to be working at, in India as it was before?

Jean: After I took on this role last October, many people called me to say that they now see the point in the simplification of structures at Dentsu. Some of them even wanted to discuss their return to the company that they love so much. When Harsha told us that he managed to bring Narayan Devanathan back to Dentsu, we couldn’t be happier. At the same time, we will be joined by a lot of new talent, we're also very focused on Gen Z right now.

Amit Wadhwa is missing a creative partner as the group CCO position has been vacant since the departure of Ajay Gahlaut in Feb, 2023. Do you plan to fill that soon?

Jean: We definitely want to invite great creative talent to join us, Harsha has some big plans there. But at the same time are conflicted about whether the traditional Group CCO role will lead to the right model for Gen Z talent and move the business forward. In parallel, we’re thinking of how we can create parts of the capability that will connect with each other, while also enabling younger talent to have a bigger stage. We are evaluating both sides.

Another week has ended, and we got to see more awesome ads. In Week 3 of April, brands were at their creative best, taking viewers by surprise with their clever concepts and wacky storylines.

Jab We Met fans were delighted by Kareena Kapoor Khan's iconic revisit to "Hotel Decent" for Goibibo. Uorfi Javed, known for her sartorial choices, had us in a chokehold with her "bread dress" for The Health Factory. MS Dhoni and Ranveer Singh starred in futuristic ads for Orient Electric and Sleepyhead respectively. These are our best ads for week 3 of April.

Goibibo 

After revisiting the iconic 'Poo' from K3G, Kareena Kapoor Khan reprised her much-loved Geet character from the hit film Jab We Met for Goibibo this time. She goes on a search for "decent" accommodation, paying tribute to some of her famous dialogues from the film.  The film has been conceptualised by the creative agency Talented.  

Orient Electric

MS Dhoni in a sci-fi avatar was not on our bingo cards this year, but Orient Electric Limited made it happen for us. The whimsical ad showcases the future where bots play cricket for the amusement of humans. The TVC uses the futuristic narrative to assert that the future of fans is already here.

Sleepyhead

Ranveer Singh takes on aliens with Sleepyhead's Technic Grid Mattress. Decision Pinnacle has conceptualized the new campaign for the sleep solutions brand and Nirvana Films is the Production house that has brought this film to life.

The Health Factory

Social media icon Uorfi Javed, known for her highly experimental fashion sense, has worn many things for shock value. But when she donned "bread" for The Health Factory, she raises many an eyebrow. The ad film is a part of the #Bread Badlo Aadat Nahi campaign for the bread brand.

Celebrating the universal values of love, care, emotion and compassion embodied by mothers, dairy brand Mother Dairy has rolled out its brand anthem and campaign in its latest communication headlined under “Mamta Jaisi Shudh, Maa Jaisi Mamta" Mother Dairy, Maa Jaisi. 

Penned by Gulzar, the anthem beautifully describes the virtues of a mother which all of us inherit and exemplify in varied situations and circumstances. These virtues represent not just the emotions but also showcase that there is a mother in all of us. 

The campaign narrative explores instances where maternal virtues are demonstrated outside traditional mother-child relationships. These relationships within families, friends, colleagues and even with the unknowns supporting each other showcases the myriad ways in which these values enrich lives and strengthen bonds. 

"In a world where compassion and empathy are more vital than ever, Mother Dairy recognizes the enduring significance of maternal values," said Mr. Manish Bandlish, Managing Director, Mother Dairy. "As we commemorate our 50 years of establishment, our new campaign aims to celebrate these values and inspire individuals to embrace them in their daily lives, fostering stronger connections and a sense of community." He further added, "At Mother Dairy, we believe in infusing every aspect of our work with the same love and care that a mother provides by ensuring quality ingredients to craft delightful products, our commitment to excellence is rooted in these timeless values and remains steadfast." 

A mother often exudes the purest of virtues. But the values of a mother can also be seen in people other than her. Sometimes you can see it in the way an elder brother looks after the young ones. It is in the care a colleague shows towards his teammates. Or even in the concern a teenager shows towards elderly. It is these values of a mother that Mother Dairy endorses. It is the same love and concern that goes into making each of our products. 

The film begins with a scene set in an office cafeteria, where two colleagues are prepping up for a meal. Just as they're about to begin, one of them receives an urgent call from their manager. Hastily leaving his meal behind, he rushes off to attend the meeting. However, his thoughtful colleague insists he takes a roll of a Chapati with Paneer along. In another scene, two senior citizens share a fond moment. One of them, being fed by a nurse, seems disinterested in the meal. The other encourages and motivates him to have the food if he wants to satiate his desire for Mother Dairy’s Mishti Doi.

Similar scenarios unfold throughout the film, involving a couple, a group of friends, a child and a fellow passenger, and two students getting ready for school in their hostel room all sharing a moment while relishing a Mother Dairy product. Each situation highlights and narrates a stanza on maternal virtue aptly embraced by a captivating background score, ultimately leading to a frame featuring brand's product window. 

Commenting on the campaign, Ritu Sharda, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy-North, adds, “Every now and then we come across people who take care of us just like a ‘Mother’ would do. They are Maa Jaisi to us. The same is true for Mother Dairy products. They are made with the same love, nurturing, and purity. Qualities taught by mothers. This inspired us to weave this new story for Mother Dairy, an ode to all those who are Maa Jaisi. With ‘Mother’ in our name, this is a beautiful natural fit with everything we stand for.”

Macho Sporto has roped in Sidharth Malhotra as its new brand ambassador for its campaign 'YEH TOH BADA TOING HAI'.

The ad shows Sidharth Malhotra being impressed by the girl making the first move, as the jingle 'YEH TOH BADA TOING HAI' plays in the background.

Sidharth Malhotra had this to say about being announced as Brand Ambassador for Macho Sporto. “I am excited to partner with Macho Sporto, a brand committed to providing comfort and style to all of their consumers for decades. Their commitment to forward-thinking and innovation along with the quality, style, and freshness they bring to the table is something I resonate with. The brand has established itself as a household name, and I look forward to this collaboration."

Speaking about the announcement of their new Brand Ambassador, Sidharth Malhotra, Navinn Seksaria, managing director of JG Hosiery, the parent company of Macho Sporto, had this to say, “The ‘Yeh Toh Bada Toing Hai’ campaign is at the forefront of a modern and trendy portrayal of our brand, Macho Sporto, and who better than a Bollywood superstar like Sidharth Malhotra, whose charisma ensures that he is the centre of attention wherever he goes, to be its new face. Sidharth’s charm and youth appeal perfectly reflect Macho Sporto’s identity and having him on board will bring a breath of fresh air to our new campaign, taking the brand a ‘Toing’ higher.”