Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

The stithapragya framework for personal branding

February 2, 2024February 11, 2024 by Karthik S

You may have seen variations of this sentiment on LinkedIn quite often. I get this sentiment expressed during my corporate workshops on personal branding too. Someone may say: “I have no idea what works on LinkedIn anymore! I write something after researching…

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Colgate MinFresh

January 24, 2024January 24, 2024 by Karthik S

There are broadly 3 kinds of toothpaste advertisements in India: ones that primarily pitch strong and healthy teeth, ones that mainly sell sensitive teeth protection, and ones that primarily promise fresh breath. Colgate’s MaxFresh variant is the third kind. The product competes…

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Insure your career by paying periodic premiums

January 19, 2024January 19, 2024 by Karthik S

Personal branding is a form of insurance for your career. Not just your career, but also your identity. Most people not only confuse ‘personal branding’ and being an ‘influencer’ (See: ‘Personal branding’ vs. ‘Influencer model’), but also assume that personal branding is…

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A big bar of chocolate, all for yourself?

January 12, 2024January 12, 2024 by Karthik S

I have a confession to make: I have never—ever—eaten a full large or medium-sized pack of chocolate in one go. No, not the 5-star kind of bar. I’m referring to the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk kind of chocolate bar that has indentations on…

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The 10 best Indian ads of 2023

January 2, 2024January 12, 2024 by Karthik S

Year 3 of making this list. Here’s the list from 2021 and 2022. As usual, the caveat stays: this list is not about *effectiveness* since that data would be available only to the brand managers (and advertising/media buying agencies). Also, effectiveness is…

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Stanley and Samsonite – the pros and cons of freebie PR

November 28, 2023November 28, 2023 by Karthik S

A PR effort by Stanley, the maker of cups, bottles, and tumblers went massively viral recently. Here’s what happened: Danielle’s car (a KIA, as we can see from the video) caught fire and she posted a short video of the burnt car…

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Deepavali 2023 in Indian advertising

November 23, 2023November 25, 2023 by Karthik S

The closest in India that comes to the Western world’s Christmas-related advertising scene is the Deepavali/Diwali-related advertising. Unlike IPL—the other major advertising jamboree, but one that requires working officially with BCCI to talk about, in a branded context—Deepavali is an open festival…

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