Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

Exploring the fundamentals of meme marketing

January 9, 2023 by Karthik S

Let me start by confessing that I did like CRED’s new ad campaign for Bidblast where they made use of The Times of India’s classified section. It’s not a new idea, and other brands like Zomato have used it before. But the…

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Competence is not a prerequisite for personal branding

January 6, 2023 by Karthik S

To be clear, competence is not THE only criterion for personal branding. To link competence as a prerequisite for personal branding is a failure of imagination. A recent article in the Financial Express, by ad industry veteran Ambi Parameswaran—also the author of…

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What next, after returns and refunds?

January 4, 2023 by Karthik S

We order fresh vegetables often via BigBasket’s BB Daily which allows us to place the order by night so that it can be delivered along with the milk in the morning. So, my wife and I decide on the food for the…

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The 10 best Indian ads of 2022

January 2, 2023 by Karthik S

Year 2 of making this list! Here’s the list from 2021, for context. Let me reiterate: this list is not based on ad effectiveness. Effectiveness metrics, in whatever way it is measured, would be available only with the people who made the…

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Vim throws the kitchen sink at men

December 12, 2022 by Karthik S

Hindustan Unilever recently stirred the kitchen sink with a dishwash product meant only for men (campaign by the agency MullenLowe Lintas). How do we know that the new Vim is only for men? Well, for starters, it says so, on the pack….

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Monster India’s mass employee exodus that wasn’t

November 23, 2022 by Karthik S

Shorter version on audio: YouTube: Spotify: Full version: Update: Such use of renaming/rebranding for a campaign/surprise is not new, of course. As pointed out by Bobin James in a Facebook comment, back in 2005, when the Indian arm of the ad agency…

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Matchmaker Sima Taparia’s half-hearted career pivot

November 21, 2022 by Karthik S

Shorter version on audio: YouTube: Spotify: Full post: Sima Taparia is a real, full-time, professional matchmaker since 2005. But her fame skyrocketed after the Netflix series, Indian Matchmaking, in 2020. Sima is on Instagram with over 117,000 followers and this is no…

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