Roadblock advertising

RoadBlock Advertising is going to be back in action soon. It is a powerful means of advertising and brands use it for different purposes.

The word roadblock is derived from the traffic roadblock, where the traffic is jammed on the road and people can’t see anything and get struck at one point. Similarly in Roadblock advertising, brands books advertisement slot for 24 hours  or couple of days and air their advertisements all the time.

There are lot of benefits like when some company wants to launch a new brand, in order to get 100% voice share, ads are aired all the time.  This is predominantly a TV medium but now print media and also online websites are capitalising this. In Nov, 2009 Volkswagen is reportedly paid 100 million rupees to TOI and published its advertisement in all TOI newspapers and in all cities. This was received with both positive and negative response as this was the first time that print media has moved towards to road block advertisement. But in one shot and by paying hefty amount more than 20 million viewers get to see Volkswagen new Jetta and Pasat cars. Since this is not a targeted medium of advertisement, one tend to lose lot of money but it is worthwhile gaining lot of eyeballs.

In a similar campaign in 2009 HUL roadblocked Star network and Zee network for 24 hours so which meant on all 25 network channels of ZEE, viewer will get to see only HUL brands. As the FMCG space is cluttered and fragmented. The move of airing advertisements for HUL brands was thus impactful, as the brands in question will get exposure on as many as 25 channels and 24 hours.

Recently, pizza chain Papa John's ran a roadbloack ad on Facebook promoting a free pizza for every user who became a fan of the brand on its Facebook Page. Thanks to the home page ad and an associated e-mail campaign, Papa John's garnered 131,000 new fans in a single day.

Following are the main features of roadblock advertising     

• 100% share of voice during the campaign period
• Can be booked for a single date, multiple days or for a week
•  Runs multiple ad units
•  Uses Rich media and creative formats are available

Now we will not be surprised if Star roadblocks its entire network to launch its new channel Star Action. Star is largely popular in Youth, Housewives and entertainment oriented audience. In order to get 100% voice share it is expected that Star will roadblock all its network channels, which is in way a good medium to launch new product/ brand . 

New logo of Star Plus

Star Plus unveiled its new logo, the Ruby Star, along with programming that reflects Rishta Wahi, Soch Nayi’ – a fresh perspective on life and relationships.

“The new logo is a ruby star which is feminine, strong, and full of energy and life. The white swoosh, lit from within and represents inner strength and quest for fulfillment,”

The nayi soch captures the evolving nature of relationships and is manifested in the shows currently on air. All content will continue to reinforce the nayi soch, a new perspective on life and relationships. Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India Pvt Ltd, said,

“Nayi soch is basically fresh perspectives, which will now reflect in everything the channel will do, from the point of creating content to creating brand solutions for advertisers, to adding value to our distributors, stakeholders and employees.”


In an attempt to experiment with its viewing pattern, the channel will launch its big ticket show Master Chef India hosted by Akshay Kumar.
“No cookery show has occupied a prime time slot on Indian television till date and this can be looked at as a bold experiment from our end. We are launching it as a driver show of the channel”, added the CEO, STAR Plus.

Along with Master Chef India, the channel will also launch a fiction produced by Rajan Shahi’s Director’s Kut titled as Chaand Chhupa Baadal Mein.

Uday on the occasion of a new beginning said, “Rarely something is created which has such spectacular reach and an all-round effect on almost everything in the society. STAR Plus decided to go Hindi 10 years ago and became an iconic and successful channel.”

New face of Airtel

Airtel has added new face to its advertising campaign. Sharman Joshi –he is new brand ambassador of Airtel. He is portraying his college guy image in Airtel advertisement.

When Airtel signed Sharman, his immense popularity that he got after the roaring success of 3 Idiots was cited as the main reason and also the youthful and bubbly image that he has and which Airtel also wants to stretch to its young TG. He is doing series of ads for Airtel. The series so far has 5 ads. - Roaming, Night calling, Mobile internet, SMS and STD services

Advertising agencies and corporate world did a lot of research before zeroing in to the face. They needed someone who is popular amongst their target audience, that’s why company selected Sharman who can easily connect with their audience.

Is it a right move for a brand like Airtel or not?

Pizza Hut Strategy

Once captain Gopinath mocked at airlines strategy to inflate air prices and earn 800 crore rupees @ 80% occupancy rate. He alternatively suggested to decrease the prices and earn 900 crore rupees @ 100 % occupancy rate. Obviously this strategy has its pros and cons.

To cater to 100 % occupancy, there would be direct impact on operations and there by increases the cost. But we can on the other hand apply economics of scale and achieve operational efficiency.

Similar strategy is used by pizza hut, now a days. 3 course meal @ Rs 99 during weekdays. This is awesome way of using unutilized space during the weekdays.

Pizza hut, being positioned as a place for any event normally remains vacant during weekdays. Through ATL(above the line) promotion, company has tried to push its brand and its usage when the company wants them to use.



Most of these strategies are normally used by airlines, hotels and theme parks.
Hope, pizza hut achieve 100 % occupancy soon,

"Get More from us"- Anchor

Anchor,  India’s leading  manufacturer of electrical materials like switches and wires, is running a huge branding exercise, largely visible in Mumbai. The major punch line is “Get More from us”, we are now Anchor by Panasoic.

This campaign is certainly a high visibility and high impact exercise in Mumbai, if someone visits the city, chances are very less that he misses this campaign. As Primetime outdoor agency, which is a OOH agency of this campaign has put in all efforts to place this ad at every possible visible area.

Surprisingly this campaign is launched in more than 100 towns and cities and announcing company’s association with the parent brand i.e. Panasonic but somehow as compared to Delhi, Mumbai seems to be major spending area of the company as Anchor ‘s headquarters in Mumbai. The major objective of campaign is to show that the brand is associated with more products than only Switches .

The company has very smartly used outdoor media to promote various products at the same time saving the cost of print or TV. Using outdoor media, they can certainly launch various message statements and target the large audience at the same time.

Primetime Outdoor used a wide media mix including hoardings, unipoles, bus back panels, bus shelters, station branding, gantries, Meru Cab branding, utilities, 

Metro station branding, wall wraps, LED screen, in train branding, kiosks series, and many more to give the brand a lavish spread.

"Why Grow Up" Frooti

“Why Grow Up” was a campaign started by Parle Agro to give Frooti new look and new positioning. The campaign was started in 2009 and now when we look back, it seems that creative agency has done a wonderful job in creating this campaign.

Advocacy is the most powerful means of creating goodwill and thus creating stronger brand. In all these advertisements, company has used common people and they are seen playing around with large, non-symmetrical, funny mango.

This is a great strategy in which brand has given preference to common people over celebrities and stars. The new campaign gives a new, young, happy and funny look to brand. “Why Grow Up” campaign is conceptualized by creativeland .

This is a part of long term strategy of company, as per the news they want to take brand to new heights and associate it with young and aspirations of audience. The company has even incorporated the new designs in the packaging with a small change in logo and brighter color of tetra packs.

The company has gone aggressive with smaller packs of frooti and gave a heads on collision to other fruit juices and aerated drinks.  People have spent their lives growing with frooti and now when they are part of their new brand strategy .

The creator of ad has used candid cameras and captured the surprise impact of the participants who are playing a game and which in turn is made an ad. This is a very unique concept and highly appreciated by the audience. All people not only children but adults who still long for happiness in their lives love the advertisement.

Frooti is considered to be a cult brand and in some sense a category name also. Mango is considered to be king of fruits and brand company has done a great job in understanding the strengths of the company and revamping the identity of brand thus keeping its heritage intact.

Big Bazar's new tactics to lure customer

Big Bazaar has launched new promotion offer “Trial Offer”, obviously this is not the name which they are promoting. But the offer says that if customer tries one apparel, the customer is entitled to get 100 rupees voucher, which she can redeem at fashion bazaar.

In some store of Big bazaar, as many as 300 trial coupons were distributed and around 50 are redeemed. This shows how impulsive is Indian consumer, any offer which hits on the floor is bound to be popular.

On the other hand company says that the objective of this offer is not sales but the better relationship between customer and floor staff, better engagement and better revenues indirectly.

The management wants its employees to spend time with its customers and know them better. This is a part of customer service but it seems that it will in one way impact directly sales as chances of trying one T-shirt, Shirt as many times by just going out and in will entitle you those many vouchers for free. This does not ensure the overall objective of the campaign and it defeats the purpose of relationship management.

On the other hand this campaign will run for more than two months and in all fashion outlets across the country. Try a cloth and get money. Companies are trying different ways to lure the customer and this new way of paying him without even purchasing is all together a new tactic.

This campaign is just one day old and started on April Fool’s day and only time will testify its success.

Starbucks

On Tuesday, March 8, Starbucks marks its 40th year – and as part of the celebration, we’ll start rolling out the new logo we announced a few months back.

The first place you’ll probably see the new logo is on the cup of your favorite beverage. It could be a while before the signage in your neighborhood store is changed – it takes a while to update 16,500 stores!   

For communication professionals and design nerds like me, this is an exciting time. Watching the reaction to any new logo is fascinating, because people can hold such passionate attachments to these marks. The comments on our Facebook page and blog posts were decidedly mixed – some of you don’t like the new look at all, some of you think you’ll love it once you get used to it. (Honestly, that was pretty much the reaction we were expecting.)  The verdict from the design community has generally been more positive, and even the voice behind the hilarious (but fake) Gap Logo Twitter account lent support. 

For those of you who aren’t sold on the new mark, all I ask is this: give it time. As you start to see it out in the world, I hope you’ll start to appreciate the simplicity and elegance of the new design. I like the new mark because I feel that we’ve unleashed the Siren, a mythological figure who represents the romance and creativity that inspired the founders of Starbucks 40 years ago. I hope that unleashing that energy – that mojo – will keep us (and you) inspired for the next 40 years.

Courtesy: Starbucks official website

T24 Mobile

T24 is a mobile service launched by Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) & Future Group. There are many aspects to this partnership and offering.

Firstly, seeing the growth of mobile penetration, traditionally retail companies like Future group has entered into this space. The Indian industry already has more than 15 mobile operators and share more than 600 million subscribers among themselves. The need of hour is to improve service and connectivity but instead there are new brands which are getting launched. Though T24 aspires to capture 10 million subscribers in the period of 3 years, which is very less as compared to its target audience. Future group has various retail formats in all parts of the country and having launched in 18 circles, it could get more subscribers, if they offer better service.

Secondly, the positioning which T24 has taken is on price. UNPAID, is the key word which company is promoting as customers get free talk time when ever they shop in future group. Future group has more than 1000 stores in 120 different locations and they touch base with more than 200 million customers in a year, which makes Future group the largest retailer in India. The market which is already very price sensitive, and players like Videocon offering call rates at 0/paise has opened new fronts for companies to fight. No doubt this is very innovative idea where retail company has ventured into this space and Future group with Big Bazaar its flagship chain portrays itself as a retail outlet of common man. But the challenge of TTSL & Future group would be to ensure the service and hence they will be able to retain the customer.

Thirdly, the marketing and promotion which T24 is doing is aggressive. They have taken big hoardings in mumbai, pune, hyderabad, chennai and other big cities. Once you walk down the streets of Mumbai, you will find almost every second bus shelter painted with "UNPAID" message. That's an irony, the cities which already have tasted the service of big players like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance etc. will take some time to try this new service. Though free connections in the retail stores will get them to sell their connections but success of T24 depends on recharging. 

Cocoberry

Cocoberry is a food chain that serveQs frozen yogurt. These small pink and chocolate color outlets are in the market since last 2 years but somehow have become very popular in last 8-10 months or so.

It has opened various outlets in high class malls, shopping complexes targeting young crowd. There are few outlets in some metros near university and colleges. The product is priced around 40-200 rupees.

Cocoberry is a right example of perfect 4P model. Product sold in these outlets is a great alternative of ice creams and other desserts. Though many companies have tried to sell yogurt earlier in Indian market but somehow it has never picked up. Frozen Yogurt topped up with fresh fruits is highly popular among girls and young crowd.

When any product is launched in Indian market, price point is always a key growth driver and also keeps proper check against competition and Cocoberry is very aggressive on this front. Small yogurt is priced at around 40 rupees which is comparable to various ice creams, donuts, pastries and other desserts.

Cocoberry outlets are majorly found in Delhi and NCR, well there are outlets in other Indian metro and Tier A cities. The company plans to open 50 outlets in next 2 years. Early adopter of this product is generally a college going student, early job earner and audience having good disposable income. So In Delhi/ NCR one will find Cocoberry outlets in DLF mall Saket, Ambience Mall Gurgaon, Khan Market, Kamla Nagar and other happening places of the city.

The fourth P, which determines marketing strategy of any company is promotion and one will find only BTL activities around these outlets. Though the company has used the more effective way of communicating with its target audience and what else than digital World. Cocoberry’s facebook page has more than 100,000 fans which is a testimony of great brand in making. You can check berry club (FB fan page) http://tinyurl.com/5wamrrp . It engages its fans with lot of quizzes, regular updates and offers. Cocoberry will soon celebrate its second b’day and it is expected that the company will float many offers to thank its loyal customers.

The company has even won various awards like the most innovative concept and best frozen yogurt. The one interesting fact on cocoberry’s website is that it changes its flavors once every two to three months which is commendable in this industry.