Britannia Timepass Machhas

Britannia Timepass – a  new snack product that was a  cross between a fried wafer and baked savoury. Moving away from the usual urban plan and implementations, an activation plan was drawn for Chennai city, with a social cause to boot. Christened Timepass Macchas (Tamil argot for ‘buddy’) we suggested empowering youth – college and unemployed to don a uniform and spread across the city offering Timepass packets to one and all.  Timepass activations and engagements were also added on to various college and youth hangout places as well as on the 2^nd largest beach in the world – Marina.

Europe sojourn for Hyundai Dealer Principals

New thinking, new possibilities  was the new positioning at Hyundai – as part of the Korean automaker’s aggressive stance for the global marketing. This theme and learning needed to percolate to their upmarket and high-networth dealer principals. Thus Amsterdam –became the focus of new thinking and Paris –rounded off the theme of new possibilities. A slew of activities included visits to Den Haag,  Madurodam, the Heineken factory and an exciting  trip on board the Thalys, a lunch stopover at Brussels, visits to the Louvre, la tour Eiffel, rounded off by the sheer excitement of the Moulin rouge. Delegates rated this trip as their ‘best ever’.

Anahata Sutra

Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida needed a theme for a faculty orientation programme. Among other ice-breaking activities, a visit to the Golf course and the F1circuit, a  pristine theme was unveiled. In Sanskrit!

Anahata Sutra -a series - unbroken, unfathomable, never ending. Knowing how teaching and learning has an ancient ring of culture and civilization, the theme fitted the programme like a glove. Several relevant sholakas related to teaching learning and applying life skills - were part of collaterals. And to think we call Sanskrit a dead , dormant and irrelevant language - of mere academic interest.

Ende avakasam

For ESPN, we had a challenging brief. Get viewers of Asianet in Kerala, to ask for their right to watch. ESPN. By pressurizing the powers that be at Asianet channel which has a monopoly on what they get to watch and why.

This took the shape of direct and indirect pressure groups, tactics and phone-in activities to the Asianet Head Honchos. We even recommended garbage trucks with the message: This is not cricket. Don't accept Garbage. Insist on your rights( to watch ESPN).

From giving way mosquito and fishing nets with messages to mall activations that included use of a wishing tree, radio spots that wished good luck, squeaky clean blank ads that talked about wishing the Asianet powers to Get well, soon were some of the other measures recommended.

Sundar Susheel Smart

For Micromax, a value for money RWA and neighbourhood activation – getting homemakers to pick from a wide range of handsets that look expensive and smart  like their spouses’ smartphones but cost a lot less.  A umbrella branding  and various engagement activities plus RWA promotional material and local market collaterals were envisaged.

Creative Cravings

Towards the first half of this year, there was a challenging assignment.

How to create a website interface for a boutique patisserie par excellence?

A pastry chef called Kishi and a company called Foodaholics. When I first met her at a party, I mentally resolved to go through the entire range of her offerings before I even sat down to do any problem solving. Soon we were exploring over meetings and eatings – her business model, her pricing (a little on the higher side) and her range of desserts (cakes, frozen desserts, puddings and more). Drool, Drool, Drool .

We finally sat down to understand, how her orders came in, how much time she’d take and how would deliveries happen – in a country where temperatures are always on the higher side.

Her USP is her unusually fresh list of ingredients and trimmings – imagine alphonso pulp, marzipan stars and edible gold on your cakes and you’ll know what I am arriving at.

So we moved from an introduction from her – a unusually thick round of media gallery to her company, her range, how to order, a hidden promise of a reward and finally payment options and contact details. Best of all, the chef insists on knowing more about the occasion, number of people and the kind of people who are likely to be in. The desserts could then be customized to your needs.

You could ask for a completely exotic combination or choose from a list of common flavours with a twist.

We even added a speak-up how you like it and hooked her blog up, where Kishi updates her followers with her doings through the times. Added a quality assurance section – catch the calorie-conscious and work on allaying their apprehensions.

She is on Twitter and Facebook too – but my warning for fellow foodies – you will have to exercise and work it all off – and the addiction will still not wear down.

The website and Kishi both, are doing decently and the pictures and the design alone will get you hooked – don’t watch on an empty stomach or you’ll find yourself looking for excuses to order and the flavours to order from the list.

Bon Appétit

Ethics and Ethos

Nothing remarkable about this job, would you say? And you are right, except for the fact that this job was done almost 4 months after the promo actually happened. The first time in my 12 year career, that I create a dummy like this. Apparently for accounting purposes. If you are shaking your head at the silliness of this, there's more...It had 2 round of corrections and revertals - after which it also got printed digitally. And duly filed.