Dense commentary on social media, PR, marketing, advertising and branding.
Remember what happened on November 8, 2016? Of course, you do! Remember November 9, 2016? You may, or may not, but Vijay Shekhar Sharma surely would. That was the day Paytm took out splashy front page ads thanking the Indian Prime Minister…
On June 24th, Priyanka Chopra shared a video on Instagram (besides Twitter), along with a lengthy note endorsing American skincare brand Obagi. What was conspicuously missing is a disclosure that it was a paid promotion. Priyanka could still be Indian (NRI? I…
I came across two nostalgic reminiscences recently that offer a lot to think about and learn from. The first one was by none other than Bill Gates. At an event recently hosted for founders by the venture firm Village Global, one of…
The new Fogg ads that sell ‘Perfume ka top-up’ offers an interesting case study in positioning. There is no doubt that Fogg shook up the deo/perfume market in India with a value-based positioning of ‘no gas perfumes’. It was the equivalent of…
Narendra Modi is tweeting in Spanish, Russian, French, Arabic, Chinese… besides English, today. Why? To promote Yoga. This is incredibly smart and astute – to speak to people in a language they know/love, to promote Yoga to the world! Very, very well…
Dettol launched a new range of bath soap and handwash recently, called ‘Dettol Co-Created with Moms’. Yes, quite a mouthful 🙂 The ads (by McCann) were on air during the India vs. Pakistan match too. It looked remarkably non-Dettol’ish and significantly more…
I recently stumbled on a post on LinkedIn about Akshay Kumar being signed as a brand ambassador for the Massey Ferguson brand of tractors. Now, I have always been fascinated by tractors, like that has recently become very vocal on social media…