Hope you remember the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s breathtaking descent from over 24 miles (39km) above the earth! It was way back on October 14th, 2012 when the spellbinding feat was achieved as part of the Red Bull Stratos project, wherein the company invested 30$ million and raked in 500$ million through sales.
Now, here is an instance of Guerrilla Marketing from the makers of Tamil actor Suriya starring ‘Soorarai Pottru’ along the lines of Baumgartner’s astonishing 2012 feat. But, not exactly.
To be more precise, if it was Felix Baumgartner reaching the stratosphere for Red Bull, then it is a board containing the autographs of thousands of Suriya’s fans for ‘Soorarai Pottru’.
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The makers of the movie have orchestrated with a German crew to accomplish this ‘OUT OF THE WORLD’ task by fastening the board to an unmanned high-altitude balloon.
Suriya posted a brief video on this promotional effort, dubbed ‘Tribute to my anbanafans!!’ on November 11th, 2020 to his social media profiles.
The clip provides a glimpse of the board floating across space. Also, the altitude last shown in the video appears to be 35km above the earth! ‘Soorarai Pottru’, the first big-ticket movie from Tamil Film Industry to be directly released on an OTT platform, goes for a world premiere on Amazon Prime Video on November 12th, 2020! The latest Guerrilla Marketing stunt from team ‘Soorarai Pottru’ finishes the movie’s vigorous pre-release promotions on a high note.
Featured image courtesy:
2D Entertainment and Sikhya Entertainment
Servant leadership: In Hour of Need for Businesses in the time of Corona
Novel Corona virus has radically reshaped a lot of aspects in our day-to-day life. Businesses are no exceptions.
Recently, I went to a hotel situated in my locality to down breakfast. Dine-in space was blocked off. Only takeaway service was available. Customers could collect their food by waiting in the hotel’s facade.
Hotel’s owner was looking after the billing section. There were only three waiters who were busy delivering the food ordered to the awaiting customers.
And there came a customer who ordered coffee. When one of the waiter rolled up his sleeves to prepare it, owner asked him to look after the orders that are queuing up and got in the groove to brew the beverage.
In the past two months, I’ve stumbled upon few more servant leadership instances as above.
And then, of late, I read a ‘Fast Company’ article, which briefs the shift in the public perception of CEOs during the pandemic, based on a report by the WPP plc.-owned New York-based marketing consultancy ‘Group SJR’.
The report ‘THE CEO LEADERBOARD: COVID-19 REPUTATION RANKINGS’ unveils the ranking of brand perception across Fortune 100 CEOs – measuring how they were perceived before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic and how their reputation has changed in the subsequent weeks.
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The ranking is based on the assessment of the publicly available digital data, spanning across Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn posts, Instagram posts, YouTube comments, News Sites, RSS Feeds, Blogs, around the Fortune 100 CEOs between January 1st, 2020 and April 15th, 2020.
The LEADERBOARD lists top 25 from the Fortune 100 CEOs who came out on top in this most democratic and existential crises.
Also, it puts down the top 10 CEOs across industries like tech, retail, healthcare and finance.
The ‘Fast Company’ article concludes with the ‘Group SJR’ co-founder and CEO Alexander Jutkowitz mentioning that the leaders with highest scores in the ranking were those who were highly visible in the crisis, communicated clearly and been empathetic.
His statement, “Servant leadership really has come to the fore” vastly sums up the need of the hour.
With all is said and done, from the scenario that I observed in the hotel to the bottom line that the Group SJR’s Leaderboard underscores, servant leadership has become one conspicuous attribute of business leadership going forward.
Being movie enthusiasts, my father and I use to deliberate about them now and then. Recently, my father re-watched the 1967 Tamil mystery thriller, ‘Adhey Kangal’, produced by AVM Productions, on Amazon Prime Video. After watching the flick, he mentioned recollecting a then print marketing strategy for ‘Cinthol’ and A. C. Tirulokachandar’s directorial effort.
He said the production house or the Godrej Consumer Products Company Ltd (GCPL) owned brand had then strategized newspaper advertisements quizzing readers the number of instances on the brand name ‘Cinthol’ featuring in the movie. And, they were asked to mail their answers to the address specified in the advert. Likewise, there was a contest where consumers were encouraged to dispatch ‘Cinthol’ soap’s wrappers by post. Also, the advertisements carried an announcement on considerable rewards for winners of the contests. Thereby, prodding the readers to watch the movie as well as to purchase ‘Cinthol‘ soaps.
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It was a scene from the movie that enabled my father hark back to the strategy.
The narration of the scene sets off with the heroine and her friends shown indulging actively in social work. One among them bathes a couple of kids of the locality. A little one who awaits in queue for his turn carries Cinthol Body Talcum Powder (Probably!) and soap apiece, with the sides of both products carrying the brand name facing the camera. The lady who helps in bathing gets the soap from the kid. And then comes a close-up where the woman shows the brand name more prominently and then unwraps the soap’s cover.
In this day and age when product placement or embedded marketing has become more apparent even in TV News Channels – brand names affixed to laptop’s top cover – it is interesting to know of an instance in yesteryear and the print marketing strategy coupled with it.
Book Opinion: ‘LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI: Politics and Beyond’ by Dr. Sandeep Shastri
My father gifted Dr. Sandeep Shastri’s ‘LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI: Politics and Beyond’ on my 30th birthday i.e. on 11th January 2020 by mentioning the significance of the date in Indian political history. The date happens to be the demise date of India’s second Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. This very coincidence aroused my interest in reading the book.
After glancing through the blurb on the back of the book, I had a look at the dust jacket’s folded flaps on the book’s front cover.
I was surprised to know that the famous slogan, ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’, which I have been knowing all along from childhood, was coined by Shastri in his address to the nation in a radio broadcast on 10th October 1965.
When I started reading the book, it promised to be an account of a lot more traits, contributions, and accomplishments of the ‘Quintessential Gandhian’ that deserve to be marveled at, felt truly inspired by, and assiduously imbibed from!
In other words, the pages of the book appeared to serve as indexes to the various facets of the gem, Mr. Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Among the many aspects touched on, the chronicles on different virtues in Lal Bahadur Shastri’s leadership caught my eyes.
So, let me delve into three of such traits.
Consultation and Consensus-building:
All along in the book, there have been numerous references that outline one of his admirable qualities of being a staunch follower of setting in place a consultative mechanism.
As a follow-up to the mechanism, Mr. Shastri appears to have ensured in building a consensus that the author records as to be appearing his second nature.
The book highlights the riots, centered on the official language issue, in the Cachar district of Assam in May of 1961. The district saw a heavy concentration of Bengali-speaking population. There arose massive protest and a demand to declare Bengali as an additional official language. After heeding the inputs from all parties to the dispute, Shastri as Home Minister at the national level decided to bring out a compromise formula. And, thereby, he arrived at the popular and trendsetting ‘Shastri formula’.
In the Cachar district of Assam, the formula provisioned in letting the correspondence between the Cachar district administration and the Assam government to be undertaken in Assamese, Bengali, or English. And, both Assamese and Bengali could be used in the Cachar district administration and in educational institutions.
Gentle persuasion as a go-to approach:
To bring people in line with his thinking, rather than resorting to using authority, instruction or command, gentle persuasion seemed to be his go-to approach. As per the book, even Shastri’s sons, Anil and Sunil, in their writings, bear testimony to the characteristic.
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Being in touch with able and proven administrators as mentors:
To cultivate a skill like leadership, one of the best practices is to be in touch with people possessing the corresponding skills acquired via hands-on experience and then imbibe the same. In the case of Lal Bahadur Shastri, he had quite a few able and proven administrators, like Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, as his mentors. On the downside of having mentors, he ended up with criticisms that underrated his capacity of being decisive. But, he waited for the right time to showcase his capabilities and disarm his critics.
During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, Shastri strategized to occupy minimal Pakistani territory and then vacate the place after the satisfactory conclusion of the war. To sum up the decisive capacity and the inherent toughness of Mr. Shastri, Harbhaksh Singh, the then chief of Western Command had told Kuldip Nayar, the then Press Secretary of Lal Bahadur Shastri, that the army would never forget ‘this tallest decision by the shortest man’.
And, there is this statement in the book:
“Shastri’s approach, attitude and actions in the early ‘60s are relevant for political leaders even today.”
When it comes to the precedence that Shastri has set in terms of leadership, his approach, attitude, and actions are relevant for whoever is entrusted with leadership roles.
When all is said and done, it is important to note that writings emanating positivity, and boosting inspiration, are one among the many worthwhile pills to the growing and suffocating trend of hatred being championed.
‘LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI: Politics and Beyond’ is one such worthwhile pill. Give it a read!
Book available in the below link…
‘Jockey’ Celebrating 50 Years of Moon Landing…Nothing Fits Better!
During my visit to Vivira Mall, located in Navalur Chennai, I stumbled upon this ad in a Jockey showroom’s facade.
I immediately recollected a piece that I read a week ago in The Economic Times‘s Wednesday supplement, Brand Equity. The article contends that with Red Bull having made their brand’s voice heard all over the earth from stratosphere and Indian knitwear brand, Rupa mounting its flag on Mount Everest, all that’s left for brands is to plant their flags on the moon to break through the clutter. Also, the write-up states that one brand has come closer to one such marketing feat going by the brand’s claim on its official website. The brand is none other than the 143-year old American undergarment company, Jockey.
Here is what the company proclaims as one of its milestones of the 1960s in its website…
“Due to Jockey’s unmatched reputation for quality and innovation, NASA commissioned Jockey to design undergarments for the first manned mission to the moon, Apollo 11.Jockey engineered & designed the product such that it would remain unaffected by gravity, and was worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.“
Jockey commemorating 50 years of Moon Landing:
Now, we are in the 50th year since the landing of the spacecraft, Eagle on the moon on July 20, 1969, by the American crew comprising Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Hence, the American brief brand Jockey commemorated the historic moment by reminiscing its contribution towards the same by rolling out a campaign. The advertisement, which I noticed in the showroom’s frontage, is an offline leg of the drive.
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On July 17, 2019, Jockey India’s twitter account tweeted the below posts!
You’ve heard about mankind’s greatest voyage, but what made it possible? Keep an eye out to find out. pic.twitter.com/BbEsaQLCO4
There’s a lot that happened down here on Earth to send men to the moon. Stick around to find out how we helped engineer greatness. pic.twitter.com/Tn8FrWBAHH
The video is available in the brand’s YouTube Channel as well. Watch it below!
Like Twitter, Jockey India shared its excitement over the campaign, along with the clip, via its Facebook page and Instagram account too.
Apart from the aforementioned contents, Jockey India collaborated with Discovery India to produce a documentary titled, Apollo: The Forgotten Films. The Discovery network broadcasted the film exclusively at 9 PM on July 20, 2019.
Below is a teaser for the same!
It took the brightest minds of a generation to send three men to the moon. Find out just how they did it with 'Apollo: The Forgotten Films'. An in-depth documentary from the @DiscoveryIN in collaboration with Jockey. Tune in on July 20th at 9 PM to see just how history was made. pic.twitter.com/B5vWENyb3U
Last week, I and my wife planned to purchase shirting and suiting from a Raymond store. Thus, we visited an outlet in our locality, Adyar. Upon entering the store, we were able to spot only ready to wear clothing. We couldn’t find fabrics, which we intended to purchase.
Then, there came a person to attend us. From the attendant, we ensured that the store is a ‘Ready to Wear’ outlet. Also, he went on to add that the store provides ‘Made to Measure’ service too.
For context, as per Wikipedia, ‘Made to Measure’ (MTM) typically refers to custom clothing that is cut and sewn using a standard-sized base pattern.
As far as Raymond’s MTM is concerned, customers willing to avail the service will have to visit the store to consult their advisors. Try out dresses of various sizes and select the one that fits best. Choose from a range of fabrics and pick personalized elements like embroidered initials and cuffs and collars.
Measurements and preferences gathered from the customers will be fed into the system to be utilized later to craft the customized garments. Dresses, in finished condition, can be collected from the respective stores in 12 days.
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Apart from the aforementioned information, the attendant conveyed that the customers could avail either ‘Made to Measure’ or ‘Ready to wear’ service from the stores similar to the store that we visited i.e. We will not be able to purchase fabrics here to be stitched elsewhere or use just the tailoring service here, after purchasing fabrics from some other place…not even from another Raymond outlet.
To better understand the services of the stores under discussion, he briefed us the branding of both i.e. The ‘Ready to wear’ stores are assigned with the logo, present in the below photo…
Whereas, the stores that sell fabrics are characterized with the name, ‘The Raymond Shop’ and by the logo, present in the below picture…
We are in an era where brands are trying out to enhance customer experience by incorporating technological innovations that incur a substantial cost. At the same time, brands are also attempting to pan out cost-effective means of innovations. Of late, I came across one such economic strategy i.e. utilization of a dual-purpose matching glass, deployed by the Indian branded fabric and fashion retailer, Raymond.
Recently, I and my father visited one of the Raymond outlets in Chennai, to purchase cloth materials for a pair of formal shirt and trousers.
Firstly, we selected a couple of shirtings.
Then, we selected a set of clothes for pant. To facilitate us in rounding off our activity of selecting matching cloth materials, the store assistant placed the shirt cloth above that of the trouser and placed a matching glass over them, as below…
The matching glass has been created in such a way that the shirt and pant parts of the glass are transparent. So, every time when the glass is placed over a set of shirt and pant clothes, the consumer can get to know how well they appear on a person.
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Apart from providing a preview of a shirting and trouser cloth, the matching glass promotes Raymond’s custom tailoring service.
You could notice the hashtag, #TailorYourStyle, Raymond logo and the text, CUSTOM TAILORING inscribed over the glass. Wherein, the hashtag and text refer to the brand’s service, Raymond Custom Tailoring. According to Raymond, the service offers customized shirts, trousers & custom suits made using high-quality fabrics with assistance from experienced stylists.
Watch below the advertisements for Raymond’s custom tailoring service…
When clothing companies like American Apparel are letting customers watch videos of models wearing the brand’s clothes in its Augmented Reality app, Raymond’s approach of using matching glass appears to be cost-effective and at the same time, serving dual-purpose.
It’s a rarity to see a flick in a movie series, generating massive frenzy all over the world before its theatrical release. Now, when I try to recall one such rare movie, Avengers: Endgame of Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), pops up without a shadow of a doubt.
Since the movie, Avengers: Infinity War ended in a suspenseful manner, fans were left with utmost anxiety as to not miss the film’s sequel. Also, as the sequel, Avengers: Endgame (22nd movie of MCU) being labeled as the last movie of the franchise, the eagerness among the fans got immense. These aspects laid the groundwork for the “last installment” of one of the most memorable franchises of Hollywood to ride high.
For brands looking to promote their product/services, the movie appeared as a significant vehicle to unleash their prowess in marketing. Thereby, we have been observing various brands impressively riding the Avengers: Endgame wave either by associating themselves with the movie or by ambushing the same.
What appeared more interesting in these strategies was a movie doing a marketing ambush at Avengers: Endgame. Wherein, the ambush extended beyond the universe…SHARED UNIVERSE!
Before describing the movie’s marketing ambush, let me brief about a series of promotional contents shared by Marvel Studios for Avengers: Endgame.
A month before the release of Avengers: End game, a series of character posters featuring the MCU superheroes were shared on social media. Superheroes, who survived the snap of Thanos like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, appeared in full color. Whereas, the heroes, who turned to dust such as T’Challa, Peter Quill and Gamora, appeared in black and white. Also, each poster featured the tagline, ‘AVENGE THE FALLEN’. As the Hollywood Reporter puts, the tagline offered a new definition of the Avengers title and a callback to 2012’s first Avengers movie, wherein Tony Stark told Loki, “If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.”
The Curse of La Llorona‘s marketing ambush at Avengers: Endgame:
On 25th April 2019, the day before the release of Endgame, the following poster was released in the social media of the movie, The Curse of La Llorona…
The poster featured the titular character, La Llorona looking off camera and the tagline, ‘AVENGE THE CHILDREN’, rephrasing ‘AVENGE THE FALLEN’. The tagline appeared in a similar font and carried the spark effect from the original posters.
The rephrased text makes more sense to the movie’s crux as La Llorona persistently tries to drown children. Also, the social media post carried the text, ‘Twice the scares, half the time’ with the hashtag, ‘#LaLlorona’.
When all is said and done, it’s really impressive to notice The Curse of La Llorona, the sixth installment in The Conjuring Universe doing a marketing ambush at Avengers: Endgame of Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Of late, I’d lunch with my family, in one of the outlets of Dindigul Thalappakatti in Chennai. In the restaurant, below every diner’s plate, I noticed paper placemats imprinted with the below advertisement…
On seeing the ad, two aspects made me glue to its content. Firstly, it’s the advertisement’s striking design. Secondly, it’s the predominant yellow jersey sported by the two human batting figures featured in the ad.
After going through the paper placemat, I realized that the promotional material did not feature any of the names, which a cricket fan in Tamil Nadu would easily relate to, such as…
IPL
IPL 2019
Indian Premier League
CSK
Chennai Super Kings
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Dhoni
MSD
But, via this strategy, the restaurant was able to tap into the emotions of a Cricket fan.
Considering Dindigul Thalappakatti circumventing the use of the above-mentioned names in its promotional materials and at the same time, trying to capitalize the excitement around IPL 2019, the strategy could well be quoted as an ideal example of Ambush Marketing!
Recently, I read the Adweek article titled, Burger King’s Week of Being Misunderstood Just Ended With Advertising’s Best Reunion in Years. In addition to providing an overview of the Burger King’s commercial, All By Myself, the write-up showcases a glimpse of the history behind the fast food chain’s viral marketing mascot, Subservient Chicken. As history appeared interesting, I jumped on to read more pieces on the character. In the process of reading, I was enticed to know about Burger King’s primary mascot, The King. Apart from being interesting, its evolution and longevity suggested ways in which a brand can incorporate its mascot in the marketing strategy.
Here are my top lessons from the history of The Burger King mascot.
Incorporate mascot in the Fusion Marketing approach:
Like most of the big guys, Burger King has as well cooperated with brands, having the same kind of prospects and standards, in joint marketing efforts. In a handful of such fusions, the quick service restaurant has brought in its most popular mascot, The King.
The mascot appeared in the Burger King’s campaign for the film, Superman Returns in summer 2006.
In July 2007, The King featured in the commercials meant to promote the animated comedy film, The Simpsons Movie. Wherein, the character appeared with the show’s typical traits of four fingers, yellow skin, and an overbite.
Later, the mascot appeared in the tie-in promotion of the film, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and advertisements for a cross-promotion with the National Football League (NFL) and Direct TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket sports subscription package.
In summer 2018, the US brigades of Burger King and Budweiser entered into a partnership, which yielded a limited-edition burger, American Brewhouse King Sandwich and revived the American beer maker’s iconic campaign, Whassup. To top it all, The King, holding a set of the new burger in his hand, “spoke” in the spot. The advertisement supported the revitalized campaign.
By doing Fusion Marketing, the associated brands are expanding their reach but reducing their cost of marketing because they are sharing it with others. When such an approach incorporates a brand’s most popular mascot in a unique and engaging manner, the resultant campaign gets more appealing and its outreach gets more effective.
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Integrate mascot into different forms of content offerings:
Apart from using the mascot in numerous commercials, the fast food restaurant has leveraged the persona by…
Featuring an animated version of The King at the beginning of each episode of Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, a cartoon series created by Seth MacFarlane and released on YouTube
By integrating the mascot into different forms of content offerings as mentioned above, the brands are leveraging different channels to take their mascots to the audience. In the process of this integration, there is a likeliness for the existing audience to get entertained in a fresh manner, and for a new fan base to get roped in.
Make the mascot spearhead topical moments:
For Good Samaritan Day in 2018, Burger King treated everyone with a good-natured film. In the video, you see a car fire on the side of a highway. Alongside the car is a guy who appears to look up to travelers vrooming past him to lend him a hand. People who pull over to assist the guy are in for a surprise when The King, flame grilling Whopper, welcomes them. What appeared as an engine fire are actually the flames from the grill. The fast-food restaurant presented Burgers and iconic Burger King Crowns to the Samaritans. Watch the video of the one best Burger King marketing campaigns of 2018, by clicking here!
Here, I would like to recall a moment from Tamil Nadu, India. The below bespectacled and laughing character has been the mascot of the 93-year old Vikatan Group…
For decades, the old man has been symbolic of most of the publications and businesses of the group.
On 7th August 2018, when KalaignarM. Karunanidhi, an Indian writer, and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India for almost two decades, passed away, the Vikatan group customized its mascot as below…
Topical moments spearhead by mascots, as mentioned above, offer the audience with occasions that deserve everlasting remembrance.
Customize mascot to appeal to children:
Burger King has customized its mascot to appeal to children in various stages of its history.
In the late 1960s, Burger King introduced a small and animated king character called Kurger Bing in its children’s advertising, voiced by the American voice actor, Allen Swift.
In all advertisements, the character presented small gifts to children or bought them some Burger King Food. In many of the ads that featured the king, he recited the brand’s slogan, ‘Burger King, where kids are king!’
Later, in 1976, the Marvelous Magical Burger King, who ruled Burger King Kingdom (a fantasy world associated with Burger King) and performed magic tricks, replaced Kurger Bing.
The King appeared in the Burger King Kingdom commercials from 1976 to 1989. In favor of the Burger King Kids Club Gang commercials, the quick service restaurant discontinued its Burger King Kingdom ad campaigns in 1989.
An updated version of Kurger Bing later appeared in the Burger King Kids Club Gang advertisements during the mid-2000s.
Another case in point is on how the paint company, Nippon Paint India promoted its KIDZ Paint product by involving kids. In 2018, Nippon Paint India used its mascot, Blobby to promote its child wellness product, KIDZ Paint aimed at children in the 0-12 age group. Furthermore with each KIDZ Paint product came a free Blobby hand puppet.
The above examples perfectly illustrate that mascots could come in handy in marketing, especially when brands have the relevance of tapping the attention of kids.
And, here ends my article that maps the high points in the history of The King with marketing. Hope you enjoyed reading the write-up! Now, let me know the marketing lessons, which you have inferred from brand mascots, in the comments!