Victoria

The inaugural session of the symposium organised by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) got off to a rousing start last week. Dr Shashi Tharoor (in picture), the prize catch of AAAI, proved to be a great orator and held the audience spellbound.

Srinivasan (Sundar) Swamy, President of AAAI, pulled a bunny out of his hat at the last minute and produced Renuka Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Tourism, as the Chief Guest. She regaled the audience, proving to be a great entertainer. If only she could also come to a function on time. Arun Adhikari, Managing Director, Hindustan Lever (who was made Chairman, HLL in the brochure provided by AAAI!), provided an insightful presentation. Sundar Swamy, whose opening remarks were succinct, had reason to smile at the end of the evening.

Omnicom Vice-Chairman

Michael Birkin (in picture), Vice-Chairman, Omnicom Group (the largest advertising network in the world. Yes, it's not WPP), delivered a good speech on the second day of the AAAI symposium. He made it a point to say that the holding company would provide support and advice but would not actively interfere with the local brands. The policy will be to let the local brands flourish independently. Sundar Swamy (whose RK Swamy BBDO is an Omnicon network agency) had reason to smile even more.

Incidentally, Birkin expressed interest in picking up specialist agencies in India. Those interested in selling out may kindly apply forthwith.

Bruce Matchett

Bruce is Chief Creative Officer of JWT India. The most recent import into JWT Mumbai, he was born in Scotland, flourished in Australia and has been given a brief to make JWT sexy in the creative arena.

The soft-spoken gent gave a polished presentation, about switching the light bulb on. Just shows — if you have a great presentation, you don't have to make a great fuss.

Empire strikes back

There must be a delicious irony in Rajasthan Patrika entering the Madhya Pradesh market. Hark back to several years ago when a medium-level player from Madhya Pradesh, called Dainik Bhaskar, entered Rajasthan and dared to challenge the might of the established heavyweight there.

Dainik Bhaskar certainly stirred the desert sands and forced the Kothari clan of Rajasthan Patrika into some real introspection. It relentlessly marched on to become one of the biggest newspaper groups in India, spreading its tentacles to several States and in different languages, including Gujarati and English.

Now, after fighting back spiritedly in its home State, Rajasthan Patrika is entering Madhya Pradesh from where the whole story started many years ago. Prepare for a fierce battle.

Hum Hain Na

ICICI has really done a marvellous job of making `Hum Hain Na' an almost proprietary slogan. Well-made TVCs with a catchy tune have helped it do the trick. Then why has it ventured into the new series of TVCs where testimonials are used and the client ends up saying "Hum Hain Na"? Yes, yes, we know they are trying to make it even more proprietary, but considering the meaning of the phrase, it just does not fit.

Surprisingly SBI

Reminds us of the well made `Surprisingly SBI' campaign. The print ads are really quite striking. The sign-off `Surprisingly SBI' comes across refreshingly in these advertisements.

Then you have outdoor ads saying something like, "Do you know who has the largest branch network in India?" or "Do you know who has the largest ATM network in India?" or words to that effect and simply has the sign-off "Surprisingly SBI" under the line.

Quite frankly, that would have worked if you had said `Surprisingly Bank of India' or any other bank for that matter. The question with reference to SBI is a no-brainer, which confounds the meaning of that sign-off. Probably the only ones who were surprised was the agency. And us, that they got away with it.

Knowing India

Another outdoor campaign is catching peoples' eye very positively. The `Knowing India' campaign from Ogilvy.

The first hoarding we saw said something like, "Did you know that there are Rs 1,000 crore of foreign exchange remittances to Kerala?"

I guess the idea is to provide some interesting tidbits about India in a compelling way.

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