From Airtel’s Har ek friend zaroori hota hai to TVS Wego’s Body Balance to Vodafone’s Facebook ad, here are the 10 most entertaining commercials of 2011 - picked solely on their fun quotient
Advertisements are meant to catch the consumer’s eye and draw people to the concept of the advertised product or service. While creative guys wrack their brains to devise new and effective ways to appeal to the consumer, one of the strategies that always works is entertainment in ads. The fun language or jingle of an ad is talked about, adopted in common parlance and often carried beyond the life of the ad itself. If the audience laughs at or sings along with a commercial, it goes without saying that they will remember the endorsed product or service more readily.
There were some very funny and entertaining ads in 2011— from Airtel’s smash-hit Har ek friend zaroori hota hai to Cadbury’s Kuchh Meetha Ho Jaye to TVS Wego’s Body Balance to Vodafone’s Facebook ad, audiences got enough to remember the ad world by. At the risk of offending marketers, we may say that the selling became secondary to entertainment in these ads. So, these may not necessarily be the top grossers, high on RoI or business value, but these certainly made people smile.
Our basis for picking the ads we have listed is solely entertainment value - campaigns that have stood out as entertainers. For this, we conducted a dipstick survey involving the industry’s top creative persons, and collated the findings to come up with this list. We thank the participating ad gurus for their contribution.
However, judging creativity is an entirely subjective matter; therefore we have refrained from ranking the ads in any manner. They appear here in alphabetical order of client name. Have fun!
1. AIRTEL – HAR EK FRIEND...
AGENCY-TAPROOT,CLIENT-AIRTEL,TEAM-AGNELLO DIAS,SANTOSH PADHI, TAPROOT CREATIVE TEAM
Airtel’s friendship song which was penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya with the idea of creating a college anthem, actually spread like wild fire among various age groups. The commercial helped brand Airtel revive itself from the not-so-impactful makeover it went through last year and made it more contemporary and youthful. Created by TapRoot India, the film has been directed by Ram Madhvani of Equinox Films, while the music has been composed by Ram Sampath. The TVC depicts a sweeping scenario of a large circle of friends…..all types, but they are your friends, after all!
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zEH6KFonIUg
2. CADBURY – MEETHE MEIN KUCH MEETHA HO JAAYE
AGENCY-OGILVY INDIA,CLIENT-CADBURY,TEAM-ABHIJIT AVASTHI, MANOJ SHETTY, VIJAY SAWANT
Cadbury has made itself synonymous with desserts by positioning itself into everyday endearing situations. Under the broad umbrella of ‘kuch meetha ho jaye’ it came up with a new positioning of ‘shubh aarambh’ in 2010 and took it forward with ‘meethe mein kuch meetha ho jaye’ this year. This series of allowed the brand to reinvent itself among the younger audiences and cemented its place as an exciting alternative to traditional sweets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2wBnjt mmg8&feature=relmfu
3. CEAT - IDIOT SAFE
AGENCY-OGILVY INDIA,CLIENT-CEAT TYRES,TEAM-ANUP CHITNIS,VIVEK KAKAD, NITIN PRADHAN, NAVIN TALREJA, AJAY MENON, APOORV SAIGAL
In order to unveil its new range of bike tyres CEAT took the insight of perils of driving on Indian roads and positioned its tyres as being ‘idiot safe’. The TVC executes the idea and objective impressively by taking real reasons in which one has to apply breaks and steps away from the usual approach of showing toughness, avalanches and landslides. It helps the brand own the property of good road grip. The film has been directed by Shyam Madiraju and the production house is Magic Hour Films India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFPns4-z29Y
4. IDEA – 3G PE BUSY
AGENCY-LOWE LINTAS,CLIENT-IDEA CELLULAR,TEAM-R. BALKI, ARUN IYER, ASHWIN VARKEY, CARLOS PEREIRA, VIRENDRA VILANKAR, TANVI PHADKE, LINESH DESAI, SUBODH MENON & JAYWANT DABHOLKAR
Taking forward its focus on social responsibility, Idea Cellular positioned its 3G service as something that can plausibly ease the country’s quandary of overpopulation. The creative team at Lintas used old style poetry by infusing the rhyming of ‘TV’ and ‘biwi’ and ‘no aabadi’, ‘no barbaadi’ in the ad and as always, took a humoristic approach to avoid being preachy. Shot in three different locations- Mumbai, Kokatta and Karaikudi (Tamil Nadu), the ad-film was spread over a six days period of production by Chrome Productions and has been directed by Amit Sharma.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqtBIaeEo8
5. PEPSI – CHANGE THE GAME
AGENCY-TAPROOT,CLIENT-PEPSI,TEAM-AGNELLO DIAS, SANTOSH PADHI
Pepsi’s ‘Change the game’ campaign for ICC World Cup 2011 became a huge success and clearly stood out of the clutter of various World Cup campaigns. The series of ad films synchronised cricketer’s style of playing with routine situations in life, helped the brand celebrate the new and popular face of modern cricket. Along with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s ‘Helicoptor Shot’, Kevin Pietersen’s ‘switch hit’, Virender Sehwag’s ‘upper cut’, Harbhajan Singh’s ‘doosra’ and Tillekratne Dilshan’s ‘dilscoop’ were made famous. Taproot India deservingly won the ‘Grand Effie’ at the recently conclude Effie Awards 2011 in Mumbai. The film has been directed by Prasoon Pandey of Corcoise Films
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGNTu2EcDA
6. TATA SKYPOOCHNE MEIN KYA JAATA HAI
AGENCY-OGILVY INDIA,CLIENT-TATA SKY,TEAM-ABHIJIT AVASTHI, MANOJ SHETTY, VIJAY SAWANT
Tata Sky campaigns have always been around product-related offerings, with the ‘Poochne mein kya jaata hai’ campaign the focus was on service/value proposition for the brand. Along with it the campaign urges consumers to shed inhibitions and quiz retailers about various options, packages and offers available. Created by Ogilvy India, the film has been directed by Vivek Kakad of Curious films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXzHGdQ4aEs
7. TATA SKYPOOCHNE MEIN KYA JAATA HAI
AGENCY-OGILVY INDIA,CLIENT-TATA SKY,TEAM-ABHIJIT AVASTHI, MANOJ SHETTY, VIJAY SAWANT
Tata Sky campaigns have always been around product-related offerings, with the ‘Poochne mein kya jaata hai’ campaign the focus was on service/value proposition for the brand. Along with it the campaign urges consumers to shed inhibitions and quiz retailers about various options, packages and offers available. Created by Ogilvy India, the film has been directed by Vivek Kakad of Curious films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXzHGdQ4aEs
