Author: Priyanka Nair

Inspired or copied? Google’s new Mr. India ad called out

John Thangaraj, group chief strategy officer, at FCB Group, responded to Krishna's post on LinkedIn. Thangaraj wrote that their film is inspired by a scene from the nineties film Mr. India which starred Anil Kapoor, and if at all there are any similarities in the two works, it is coincidental. (Stills from the Google ad)

A former creative director of Pocket Aces pointed out that FCB India, maker of Google’s latest ad, is frame-by-frame similar to an animated video he created in June 2023.

GroupM introduces comprehensive post-cookie readiness program testing Google’s privacy sandbox

1.5 Flash excels at summarization, chat applications, image and video captioning, data extraction from long documents and tables, and more. (Representative Image: Lauren Edvalson via Unsplash)

For advertisers who might not be fully prepared for the deprecation of third-party cookies, this program gives participants an opportunity to pave the way for how brands target, optimize, and measure without them.

Fine dining, fast food, and live counters. What’s that got to do with the state of advertising?

"The world had changed so much from the days of the leisurely old diners. Meanwhile customers would often complain while eating at fast-food joints ‘I still remember those amazing meals I used to have at those diners,’ " writes Jitender Dabas while comparing old diners to large networked agencies. (Representative Image: Tim Mossholder via Unsplash)

An analogy between the restaurant and Indian agency businesses that’s alarming and thought provoking at the same time.

Is brand purpose finding a new meaning in marketing playbooks?

For the longest, Unilever, one of the world’s largest advertisers, has been associating itself with social and environmental causes in its products and marketing campaigns. However, Unilever's CEO, Hein Schumacher observed that not all brands can seamlessly embrace this concept. (Representative Image: Markus Spiske via Unsplash)

Not all brands can or should be champions of some purpose or the other. Brands have to integrate individual, planet and societal benefits more strongly and recalibrate the weightages from time to time, opine brand experts.

Festive ad spends would have been dull without Cricket World Cup

he platform will exclusively live-stream Celebrity Cricket League Season 10. Spread over four weekends, and with 20 matches that appeal to a wide audience cohort beyond cricket fans, the tournament will be live-streamed, starting 23rd February 2024, exclusively on JioCinema. (Image source: @IndianCricNews via X)

Ad industry mavens say certain consumer tech sectors such as edtech, fintech, foodtech, and e-commerce have reduced ad spending, and without the Men’s Cricket World Cup, this festival season would not have been very vibrant for the industry.

Why is Diwali advertising important in the brand marketing calendar?

The window of Diwali shopping started changing a decade or so ago. From a full month, the window narrowed to a couple of weeks (readymades replaced the tailored dress). One particular year it became just one weekend. Retailers held their breath hoping for a blockbuster weekend to save their bacon. (Representative image by Anshu A via Unsplash)

Festivals like Diwali reduces ‘consumption guilt’. It brings in a sense of urgency and immediacy. Brands also believe that a good Diwali sales push helps brand momentum, dealer confidence and word of mouth, writes Ambi Parameswaran.