Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

HUL dropping ‘Fair’! Have brands suddenly developed a conscience?

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 by Karthik S

A summary of recent major change in behavior by large brands around the world: 1. 2. 3. 4. And the most recent and popular example – HUL changing the name of Fair & Lovely! There are brands like Patagonia and Ben &…

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Toys and imagination

June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 by Karthik S

Two hugely imaginative campaigns, for two children’s play-things. Lego, by Ogilvy Bangkok in 2017. Play-Doh, by Ogilvy São Paulo in 2019. For Lego, they could have shown the kids building it from the outside. But, from the inside, it makes a more…

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Personal branding using paid advertising

June 25, 2020September 6, 2020 by Karthik S

When you notice ‘Brand Connect’ in a magazine (or a newspaper), what goes in your mind? Most people in the marketing space know that it is a euphemism for ‘paid advertising’. Instead of saying, “We paid for this space because we don’t…

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Would you pay for email and search?

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020 by Karthik S

My answer to that question – I wouldn’t. At least not yet! We are probably seeing very, very early signs of a movement away from advertiser-led business models to a subscribers-led business model. This is already evident in the media industry. There…

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Virtual walkouts by employees

June 23, 2020June 23, 2020 by Karthik S

Employee activism has been on the rise in recent times. With large companies, when a small number of employees visibly (digitally) protest, it doesn’t amount too much beyond minor damage in PR creds. In many cases, the employee (or the core group…

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OLPC’s pandemic-induced redux

June 22, 2020June 22, 2020 by Karthik S

Back when I was at Text 100 (now called Archetype), my largest client was Lenovo. As part of understanding the client’s context, I had done a lot of reading on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project by the co-founder and chairman…

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Don’t drink your own kool-aid in the name of personal branding

June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 by Karthik S

My ex-colleague from Ogilvy posed an open question on Twitter recently, on personal branding: This is a very fair ask. Most people do connect ‘personal branding’ to self-aggrandizing, or talking about oneself. And that’s mainly because most personal branding proponents have merely…

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