Karthik 🇮🇳
@beastoftraal • 93,511 subscribers
Communications strategy consultant (see pinned tweet). Connect with me for corporate workshops on personal branding. No paid posts - my words are not for sale.
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Hahahahahaha... this is a brilliant way to use a celebrity in an ad 😂 Not only does not use Ranveer Singh (and Johnny Sins - 'Google' him!) in a totally unexpected (and hilarious) way using the much-derided Indian TV series trope, but it also makes the product category far more accessible to a wider set of people beyond it being used in hushed tones! Great job by Moonshot, the agency. #advertising #marketing #creative #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳3,011,324 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
"Usne Tum Logon Ko Ch****a Banaya. Jaante Ho Kyun? Kyunki Tum Ch****e Ho. Dharam Ke Naam Par Ch****e Ban Gaye Tum Log. Aur Bante Rahoge. Tum Bante Rahoge. Tumhe Maarne Waala Har Woh Hindu Bante Rahega. Har Woh Aadmi Jiske Paas Kuch Nahi Karne Ko, Dharam Ke Naam Par Ch****a Bante Rahega."
Karthik 🇮🇳483,856 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten
Such a badly made ad film, for a premium watch brand like Rado, and featuring stars like Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif! As you start watching it, observe the presence and absence (and changing hands, left to right) of the ring on Katrina's finger. Then, from 0:38 to 0:42, all I could do is a combination of LOL + cringe as it becomes completely apparent that the stars are not together in a shoot but were digitally (AI?) put together in a really bad way. The clumsy way the ad's makers have managed (or botched up) the 'eye contact' is both hilarious and sad. Couldn't the brand have spent at least a fraction of the fees paid to the two stars in getting a better agency to do a better edit where things are not so laughably silly? #advertising #marketing
Karthik 🇮🇳545,568 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr
On an IndiGo flight from Mangaluru to Bengaluru yesterday, the passenger next to me had pre-booked a samosa. When the crew came around, there was no samosa. He was offered the 'item of the day' - a roll. He politely pointed out that he had paid for a samosa, shown to him visually and in text while booking. The crew explained that the item keeps changing. They offered a sandwich instead. He declined and eventually said he’d seek a refund. IndiGo is 20! It has genuinely changed connectivity in India, particularly to some of the smaller cities where flying in is so much more convenient than other forms of transport. And I'm thankful for that meaningful change, captured beautifully in this 20-year-anniversary film (written in-house, produced by Hardcover) that bookends two moments in people's lives as the narrative device. But why isn't IndiGo doing more with food? At 20, IndiGo has phenomenal scale, enormous passenger volumes and hence, significant bargaining power with food brands and suppliers. But its onboard food feels like an afterthought with limited choices, often unexciting, and increasingly disconnected from where consumer food is headed (protein, lower sugar/salt/oil, better ingredients) and genuinely interesting Indian products. The answer definitely is not more choices. IndiGo's limited menu makes perfect operational sense. Fewer SKUs mean easier procurement, storage, loading, forecasting, faster service and less wastage. Much like McDonald's, operational simplicity is a tremendous advantage. But simplicity doesn't have to mean mediocrity. Imagine 5 or 6 'hero' products that are exceptionally good: a genuinely delicious 15–20g protein snack, a great Indian breakfast, a regional favorite that rotates by route, a really good indulgent snack, and a couple of excellent vegetarian options. Partner with ITC (YogaBar), TWT or the hundreds of Indian food companies innovating in this space. Let them make the product and IndiGo can give them access to millions of passengers. Isn't the opportunity bigger than food revenue? Imagine making passengers think: "I'll just eat on the flight"! That's ancillary revenue, customer delight and brand differentiation, without compromising IndiGo's low-cost operating model. After spending 20 years making flying cheaper and more reliable, perhaps the next opportunity is making one small part of the experience surprisingly good. And food might be the best place to start given how predictably bad it is now - the only way is up, if there's intent. #brand #marketing #positioning
Karthik 🇮🇳70,507 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
A new ad that managed to make me teary-eyed! Watch it first before reading any further, to avoid spoilers. 1/2
Karthik 🇮🇳320,194 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten
The same scene, across three languages: Revathi & Karthik, Mouna Raagam (Tamil, 1986) Neelam & Chunky Pandey, Kasak (Hindi, 1992) Prema & Shiva Rajkumar, Chandrodaya (Kannada, 1999) What monumental difference in staging, acting, and most importantly the power of background music (Ilayaraja, Rajesh Roshan, and Hamsalekha, respectively).
Karthik 🇮🇳759,810 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
This is beautifully done! Poignant narrative, excellent acting, and a lot of lived-in moments shine through in the writing. The point about deleting Instagram, the things that actually made her cry, the way the friend understands and says sorry instead... truly lovely! The brand's presence is also tastefully minimal, at the right point, in context. I couldn't find the agency behind this ad - would love to know.
Karthik 🇮🇳29,186 Aufrufe • vor 27 Tagen
Using a hugely touchy subject like food (particularly serving Karnataka-style sambhar to a Tamilian!) is usually very risky, but the agency Mind Your Language does really well here with the breakfast mix-up between the 4 stars, for a very good reason! Gently amusing, and fully in context! Great job! #advertising #marketing #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳50,188 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
BJP missed a great marketing opportunity in making Modi's meditation into an interactive event since they have already invested in such an impressive multi-camera set-up. They should have announced a 'Meditate with Modi' virtual event where they livestream the entire 45-hour meditation on Modi's YouTube channel and ask devotees (of Modi, that is) to join him in meditating (from the comfort of their own homes). Now, I hope BJP at least has the presence of mind to, a. Send the edited video as a nomnation for the best cinematography Oscar next year, and b. Release a 'Behind the scenes' video to showcase how impressive the camera work is.
Karthik 🇮🇳506,938 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
If I say, 'Liril Soap' and 'Laaa la la la la', many people may start humming the classic Liril soap ad jingle. But the shocker is that the jingle was not original, but "inspired"! The bigger shocker was that the original jingle was also made for a lime-based soap just like HUL's Liril - Henkel's Fa! Henkel's Fa ad campaign in 1968-69 by the Düsseldorf-based agency Hubert Troost Werbeagentur (usually called Troost) featured the 'Laaa la la la la' song. It was composed by the German composer Klaus Doldinger. The jingle became so popular that a vinyl single of the track (Listen: was released in 1969 under the pseudonym Paul Nero Sounds (one of Doldinger’s aliases for his more commercial/pop-oriented output at the time), explicitly tied to the Fa commercial: "Paul Nero Sounds (Klaus Doldinger) - Wild Freshness (FA Commercial)". It appeared on compilations like Pop-Shopping: Juicy Music From German Commercials 1960-1975. Liril's (the soap itself inspired by Fa) first ad was released in 1974, in cinema theaters. It featured Air India stewardess Karen Lunel, and was made by the agency Lintas, and directed by Kailash Surendranath. The jingle was credited to Vanraj Bhatia (even though he simply added some Indian elements like Sitar, as an interlude, the actual melody was a direct lift from the Fa ad jingle by Klaus) and was sung by Preeti Desai. That two lime-based soaps, across 2 countries, have almost similar visual devices (shots of the soap interspersed with bikini-clad woman bathing) and identical music, is no coincidence, and is probably part of the larger ethos of that time in India when Hindi film music too heavily "borrowed" from foreign sources without any credit. I should know, because I created an entire website listing original songs against many, many Indian film songs: (many of the song links may be broken but you can always Google the titles and find new uploads on YouTube). The Fa ad plays first, followed by the Liril ad. #advertising #marketing
Karthik 🇮🇳130,571 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten
This is such a Piyush Pandey-style ad that I was surprised when I figured out that it wasn't by Ogilvy, but by another agency, Fluid! It's a lovely idea all through. An FD is among the few investment options where the value doesn't contract with market movements. Stocks, gold, crypto, mutual funds etc. can all fall in value as well as grow, but an FD, if held to maturity under its agreed terms, gives you a predetermined return. You put in X at Y%, and you know the maturity amount in advance. From that perspective, depicting an FD as a human who keeps growing (and never reducing in height) is an excellent visual metaphor. It's almost the '1,000 songs in your pocket' iPod idea translated for FD and it helps that FD rates seem closer to human height :) And making him an extra-tall boy, towering over the rest of the villagers, is a memorable way to extend the metaphor to Stable Money's proposition around higher FD rates. But there's an equally interesting sleight of hand in the narrative. The FD-boy is shown constantly growing throughout the film. There's the “Badhte Jao” refrain, and the graph reinforces it with a series of increasingly higher (and unevenly spaced) growth markers. But FD's predictability isn't really about continuously changing growth. You invest X at Y% for a chosen tenure and, assuming you hold it to maturity under the agreed terms, you get Z. Visually, that is closer to a journey from point A to point B than a graph that keeps rising at different rates along the way. The actual visual representation would be more like the boy is born and the nurse informs the parents that he'd be exactly 6.25 ft in height as an adult. So the film's storytelling is beautifully simple: FD = something that only grows, never shrinks. But in making the boy keep growing throughout the story, the narrative perhaps sells a little more than what the product itself promises. The core metaphor is actually very precise. The embellishment is where it becomes slightly less precise. The ad gives us a thoroughly enjoyable visual language of continuous growth, whereas the product proposition is really predictable accumulation. #advertising #marketing #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳30,155 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha 😂 Fantastic use of a popular Diwali 'meme' in its Diwali 2024 ad by Zomato! Hands down, the funniest Diwali ad (while also being apt for Zomato) so far. Conceived in-house (says a lot about the kind of talent that exists inside Zomato) and produced by Ryde Studios. #advertising #marketing #diwali #deepavali
Karthik 🇮🇳358,597 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren
'Men will be men' with a wonderful twist! For the Swiss retailer Migros, agency Thjnk Zürich takes a refreshingly unconventional approach to showcasing fresh produce. The most predictable route would have been to feature two mothers competing to pack the most imaginative, healthy lunchbox for their kids. But that trope is tired, and wouldn't have made a dent at all. In fact, if it were two mothers, the narrative would probably lean into them exchanging recipes and happily shopping at Migros together. Instead, by putting two dads in the arena, the ad unlocks a hilarious, hyper-competitive dynamic. What starts as a simple lunchbox comparison quickly spirals into an absurd arms race of food art with cucumber crocodiles and carrot race cars to an all-out gourmet standoff at a neighborhood barbecue. It’s the petty, silent game of oneupmanship between the dads that makes the ad memorable, all while seamlessly driving home the brand's message: they have the widest range of fresh produce to fuel any culinary ambition. #advertising #marketing #creativity
Karthik 🇮🇳76,946 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten