CRED takes subversive advertising mainstream. But there’s a flipside to the rise of Credvertising

In hot pursuit of virality, the last few months of 2022 saw brands using various tactics, gimmicks and pranks to garner attention and likes on the internet. The objective is to create curiosity and push consumers to look up for a product or service being promoted. The execution and idea can be a fake fight, meme or bizarre execution that hardly resembles an ad. (Still from the ad)

While there is no defined law on such kind of advertising, ad industry watchdog Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) can take suo moto action against the advertisement.

Viral CRED Ad: Masked as whacky classified newspaper ads, CRED’s new campaign goes viral

The company's recent campaign features Anil Kumble, Jhulan Goswami, Sunil Chhetri, MC Mary Kom and Viswanathan Anand who are disappointed when they realise that they have been asked to read a simple script telling the viewers that they can pay multiple bills on the CRED app.

The ads are being rolled out in the form of newspaper listings, announcements and apologies. The catch is they barely look like ads except the fact that each listing mentions CRED.

The Great Indian Ad Battle: Unheard stories of Perfetti Van Melle-owned brand Happydent’s Palace commercial

The Happydent Palace commercial was chosen as one of the top 20 ads of the 21st century by the international Gunn report. Image Credit: Illustrations by Animagic India’s Chetan Sharma.

Perfetti Van Melle India’s Rajesh Ramakrishnan, McCann Worldgroup India’s Prasoon Joshi, and Equinox Films’ Ram Madhvani get nostalgic.

Clutter Breakers: Cadbury Dairy Milk and Ogilvy India develop algorithm to deliver happiness

Cadbury Dairy Milk along with Ogilvy have created a new social media algorithm that automatically filters and finds videos with happy hashtags that have low views counts and likes. These videos are then available to see on Cadbury's Instagram handle under a special section.

Cadbury Dairy Milk along with Ogilvy India have created an algorithm that boosts videos with happy hashtags that have low views counts and likes.

Meme Marketing 2023: How memes become weapons of virality in a brand’s marketing arsenal

Meme marketing, is an increasingly popular category that brands have begun to focus more on in the last couple of years as a result of the forced digitization due to the pandemic. In India, the number of internet users grew substantially during the lockdown. With nothing to do other than consume tons of content, memes gained immense traction and became a dependable source for marketing. (Representational image by Justin Lim via Unsplash)

With social media roles requiring meme creation as a necessary skill and with the growth of meme marketing agencies, can memes become a key mode of marketing communication for brands?

Throwback: When Lalitaji shielded Surf from redundancy

The commercial was meant to be advertised on cinema screens. In the words of veteran ad man K S Chakravarthy, the 1984 Summer Olympics caught the eyes of Lintas’s client. Since airtime was already bought by the client, Surf’s Lalitaji debuted on the television screens in 1984, for Lintas didn’t have a backup commercial in hand. (Stills from the ads)

The 1984 commercial of Surf reinstated the brand’s position in the detergent market, which was threatened by Nirma. A large part of that credit goes to Lalitaji, an iconic character of Indian advertising, whose clutter cutter persona justified the price point of the brand due to the greater satisfaction derived by its use.

Big Tech’s ad business can be a monopolist threat: Standing Committee on Finance

The report said, “It should provide advertisers information on a daily basis, regarding price paid by the advertiser and the remuneration received by the publisher. It should provide advertisers and publishers with access to the performance measuring tools of the gatekeeper and the data necessary for advertisers and publishers to carry out their own independent verification of the advertisements inventory, including aggregated and non-aggregated data." (Representative Image: Aman Pal via Unsplash)

The committee also recommended that the government should consider and introduce a Digital Competition Act to ensure a fair, transparent and contestable digital ecosystem.