Disgusting telecom Ad... will catch your attention

A great ad that not only catches your attention immediately, has viral value and finally you remember the the ad message... watch and enjoy....

Lightning Outdoors

Vlacom outdoors introduced this lighting posters to help the sale of liquor. These lighting techniques is being used on the massive advertising billboards and is already being used in the Netherlands. Click here to see the actual effects of the outdoor hoarding..

Exploding Outdoor Ad

In 2007, courier company Deadline Express treated their New Zealand patrons to a particularly evocative outdoor advertisement. It was a $14,000 billboard that featured a timer counting down to when it would blow up, proving "when Deadline Couriers gives you a time, they actually mean it." (courtesy: Gizmodo)

Innovative Outdoor... weighing your embarassment

While it would be ok to tell you weight in public in India, It would probably be short of blasphemy in Europe to reveal your weight in public... and this AD does exactly that... This Innovative Outdoor Ad for a gym, Fitness First, in Rotterdam (Netherlands) reaches your pocket via the embarrassment route. A scale in the seat displays your weight in public and while you are caught unaware, people around might have a good laugh... It probably would work against the Gym, as once bitten twice shy, a person would never trust the company who tres and humiliates you in public... nevertheless a great idea...

Promoting to India at the grassroot levels...

One of our core objectives in any promotion plan is to Ensure brand awareness in media dark and rural areas across the nation. This means going to grassroot levels in villages and ensure understanding of the product (with the help of product demos and literature) and communicate key features and benefits of your product. The first step is to prioritize markets, based on Buying power, Per capita income, agricultural output, Density of the population, Village / market population and Weekly markets then the next step is to further drill down and target based on primary parameters - Chief earner of the family, Working / non working male, and secondary parameters - Influencers, Kids, housewives and Others in the society (like Doctors, Sarpanch, etc.)... The next step is to put the activity list in place such as creating awareness through Touch and feel, doing Cross Promotions and finally Retail seeding...
The right place to get all this done is at public places such as Haats, Chaupals, Homes, C-operative societies, Banks, Kisan kendras, Mandies, Bus stand and Gram panchayats.
Another area of work would be in Strategic alliances for product placement, demonstration and selling through co-operative societies and professionally managed units like ITC E-Chaupal, Mahindra Kisan Kendras, Godrej Aadhar, Haryali etc. Farm equipment companies and Commodity exchange companies like Multi Commodity Exchange, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd. Pesticide and fertilizer companies are another good organisations to work closely with and work out rural marketing programs based on strategic alliances.

Finally to put the icing on the cake the marketing company can look at basic Interactive AV van activity, to activity Kiosk to Rural folk media (puppet shows etc) and StaticWall painting....

Keeping these basics in mind would enable you to reach your desired audiences in India at grass root level....

Society Activation Program

Society Activations is an old concept but doing it innovatively will enhance your chances of making a successful one... Wile the clear objectives are to create awareness about new offers, drive sales through focused channel and create TOM amongst more no's of household. The typical activity would be to get a Canopy/Umbrella installed in the premises at residential societies and place 1 or 2 promoter per residential society. You would essentially get a platform for Direct interaction with the customers and an opportunity to do a Door to Door leaflet distribution. To add that additional flavour and increase your effectiveness you could do the following:
1) Identify a specific day - such as the Independence day, republic day, Diwali, Christmas etc where the society anyways does a lot of activity... offer to extend your help to do the activity professionally, put in a magic show or games to involve the society and then finally do the same activity you would have done...
2) Engage a local radio station who will go to these societies with you and involve the residents through their programs... the idea of your voice being heard on air is very enticing...
Just doing these things would give you a guaranteed increase of 25-50% more revenues than what you would have targeted otherwise...

Rural promotions program

Here is an interesting demo van activity that we conducted to increase response from rural market in UP west region and increase Rural visibility through Promotion. the aim was additionally to Boost channel confidence. We went to 56 satellite towns coverage primarily for spot activations, order bookings, generate leads and get service related complaints resolved... The planning and execution was ably handled by Aakash. The cities included... Muradnagar, Siyana, Jhangirabad, Kurja, Pahasu, Shikarpur, Dibai, Narora, Jani, Siwalkha, Aminnagar sarai, Bhagpat, Tatiri, Chaprauli, Binoli, Rota, Sardana, daurala, Sakoti, Kila, Kithore, Shajanpur, Mawana, Ramraj, Haldour, Kiratpur, Najibabad, Kotwali, Jalalabad, Shanpur, Nagina, Noorpor, Chandpur, Mansoorpur, Shahpur, Budhana, Janshat, Meerapur, Purkaji, Chirthawal, rohana, Thanabhawan, Kandala, Kairana, garh, Bakshwar, Simbawali, Nagalia, Tigri, Mohrkka, Naogaon, Kaunkhera, halpura, Kailsa, Ramnath, masukmudi

Demo van Activation

One of an interesting activity that recently happened in our Maharashtra region was the doing a Mass activation program by taking a demo van to over 102 towns, cities and villages in 73 days. The activity involves a mix of product demonstrations, skits, crowd involvement and booking orders and lead generation... The channel partners were involved too to make the event... the Maharashtra team (Rajeev, Shrini and others) did a great job in execution... The locations included in the route were: Pune, Chakan, Talegaon, Lonavla,Khandala, Khopoli, Karjat, Pen, Alibaug, Chiplun, Khed, Mahad, Ratnagiri, Kudal, Kankavali, Malwan, Vengurla, Sawantwadi, Mapusa, Porvarim, Pernem, Bicholim, Panji,Ponda,Marcel & Vasco, Cancona, Margao, Cuchorem, Vasco, Kolhapur, Sangli,Miraj,Vita, Karad,Koyna, Satara, Pandharpur, Solapur, Osmanabad,Tuljapur,Paranda, Ausa,Latur,Udgir,Umraj, Parbhani,Jintur, Nanded, Hingoli, Kalamnuri, Washim, Karanja, Yawatmal, Pusad,Wani, Nagpur Local, Ramtek, Gondia, Aamgaon, Bhandara,Tumsar, Chandrapur, Gugoos, Ballarpur, Gadchandur, Nagpur, Katol, Kalmeshwar, Amrawati, Badnera, Partwada, Akola, Murtizapur, Akot, Buldana, Chikli, Malkapur, Malkapur, Bhusawal, Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar, Malegaon, Aurangabad, Waluj, Jalna, Mantha, Beed, Ambejogai, Ahmednagar, Shrirampur, Rahuri, Shrirampur, Rahuri, Nashik, Sangamneer, Akole, Bandardhara

AVEXPO

Almost forgot about this event that I did last year in Chennai and Delhi....
A special interest event meant for Audiophiles. Audiophiles peoplewith enhanced interest in music and the sound of music... An Audiophile typically would e interested in the low-mid and Hi tones of music and hence makes it imperative for them to invest in high end audio systems ranging from 1 Lakh to 50 Lakhs... the event was a big success especially in chennai which saw over 20,000 footfalls on the 3-day weekend and over Rs. 50 crores of business bookings...
I ran the magazine AVMAX that catered to infomration needs of this community.
Here is a small article on the event filed by Hindu in their newspaper...
http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/09/stories/2007120958710200.htm

Good Viral - www.madeforeachother.com

Here is a very good Viral - www.madeforeachother.com I came across.... The website has been launched by Fritolays for their new product - dips and chips (Lay's creamy dips, Tostitos salsa, Frito's bean dips), to bring about the concept of being made for each other comination... The webiste innovatively involves the surfer into pairing objects and characters on the screen wo are made for each other.... However, one area the website falls short of expectation is the loading time... it takes more than ages to load the site completely and is frustrating... it is more suited to people with 1 mpbs broadband connection and above... dial-up guys beware....

In Shop Demonstrators

One of my favorite topics on increasing sales at retail level, is the use of in shop demonstrators for pushing your sales ... while it is a know fact on why one should use the same, here are some points that I reiterate to ensure the right use of ISDs for optimum results.... lets reenact a retail scenario...

1. A Customer walking into a retail outlet is in the frame of buying
2. He is influenced by our or competition ATL activities and is in the frame of mind to purchase a DTH connection
3. At the retail end, the conversion depends a lot of the last mile convincing by the ISD
4. An ISD goes beyond the basic expectation of sales

The primary role of an ISD would be to...

1. Welcome Walk-In Prospects at retails stores in response to the ATL communication
2. Capture prospect details – Database
3. Effective product presentation with full knowledge product features, customer benefits, technology, competition comparison, etc
4. Live Demonstration of BIG TV
5. Conversion to Sales
6. Superior Consumer buying experience
7. Create Funnel – Generate Interest, Give demos, Convert to Sales, Hot Leads for follow up
8. Competition track – Consumer and Dealer Schemes, Offers, Price changes, Product launches, Competition Sales
9. BIG TV Sales Performance v/s Target
10. Provide Value addition in terms of market share, average selling price, brand visibility for BIG TV
11. Brand Visibility – In Store, On Shelf, Outside Store and POS Management.

There is a lot more research gone into the right formats of Dairy to be maintained and the reports for daily weekly and monthly monitoring to take right actions to increase performance of the activity..

Photo Imaging Asia

One of the largest Photogrpahy Exhibitions in the world and the biggest in India... this is the event that was organised in December 2006, dedicated to the photography community. Like the Auto Expo, this was the mecca for amateurs and professional photographers alike...
The event was held at Pragati maidan in Hall No 3,4,5,6,7 and sperad across 12,000 sq mtrs of gross space... practically each and every company worth their salt, in the field of photography were present at the event... The event also had close to 16 workshops in the backdrop based on various photography topics. The events was inaugurated by Sheila Dixit, CM, Delhi.