Dream11 IPL 2024, Decathlon brand identity & more: creative ideas of the week
Every week, I curate a list of compelling creative ideas. Most of these are traditional adverts while some maybe great marketing ideas. This week, ads from Dream11 for India Premier League (IPL) 2024 and some creative marketing ideas from Tata Motors, among others.
Dream 11: IPL 2024
The Indian Premier League is compared by many to the Super Bowl in terms of being a marquee advertising event. To an extent, the comparison is fair – in the sense that many advertisers see IPL as a platform to create brand awareness and some buzz. However, the Super Bowl is different because the buzz around the ads for the event starts weeks or even months ahead of the event. The Super Bowl event itself is for a few hours – it’s the buzz around the ads which start and last for a long time. The one-time airing cost of a Super Bowl ad is also huge. In contrast, the game of cricket itself is designed for ad breaks every few minutes. Moreover, the IPL lasts for weeks which gives advertisers lot of time to create memorability through high-decibel advertising that’s repeated very often.
However, just the fact that there are many ‘opportunities to see’ doesn’t that guarantee that the campaign would be memorable. Merely repeating a boring ad doesn’t increase the chances of it being noticed or liked. But just watching a well-made ad once can create a positive reaction and brand affinity. That’s likely to happen with this spot from Dream11 who have been consistently showcasing the theme of ‘team play’ over the years – presenting different facets of it. In this year’s ad, the idea takes the shape of ‘rivalry’ among those who play as a team for the country. The situations and dialogues are fun (especially the ones on Shreyas Iyer) and it’s quite a feat to get so many celebrities to act so naturally. Overall, great fun.
Agency: Tilt Brand Solutions
AICP Awards: call for entries
The pain of client feedback and the resultant re-work is all too familiar to those in ad agencies. In fact, the process and the ‘typical’ feedback of ‘client loved it, but wants these minor changes’ is often fodder for jokes. Testing of ad concepts among consumers through focus groups is also the butt of many jokes. Both these form the plot lines for ads inviting entries for the AICP Awards.
Agency: BBDO
Kahlua: St. Patrick’s Day
A big brand ‘monopolising’ a particular occasion or event presents opportunities to challenger brands. Guinness is strongly associated with St. Patrick’s Day. Recently, Kahlua has been trying to present itself as the unusual but cool alternative to the ‘usual stuff’. A tactical ad for St. Patrick’s day is a smart extension of that thought. Loved the visual play between the familiar stout and a glass of Kahlua.
Agency: W+K
Amazon UEFA: the grit
‘You bring the grit, we bring the stuff’ is a lovey tagline for Amazon who is partnering with the UEFA Women’s Football in Europe.
Decathlon: brand transformation
‘Move People Through the Wonders of Sport’ is the new ‘purpose’ of Decathlon as they revealed a new brand identity. Maybe end consumers may not immediately recall such but the brand’s logo was just the wordmark. Now the ‘new logo consists of two elements, our wordmark and our new symbol, known as the Orbit‘. Leaving aside the ‘deep meaning’ behind such elements I liked the new effort. The logo acts as a memory aid and works in contexts like app icons. Importantly it’s a welcome departure from the spate of ‘blanding’ efforts we have seen of late – even with iconic brands.
Agency: Wolf Ollins
Campbells: pAIntings
In the 1960s Andy Warhol created works of art depicting Campbell’s Soup cans. These are considered iconic and helped the brand attain a status in popular culture too. In Canada, the brand has undertaken a fun project where, using AI, they have created images of the can of soup likely to be painted by other famous artists. Such stuff will not result in immediate sales but brighten the halo around the brand.
Agency: Zulu Alpha Kilo
Tata WPL 2023: dot balls
For the uninitiated, a ‘dot ball’ in cricket is a delivery where no run is scored. These are normally marked on the score sheet with a green dot. The Tata Group announced that they will plant 50 trees for every dot ball. A clever announcer of this initiative is doing the rounds on social media.
Agency: Ogilvy
Tata EV: shattered glass
As far as brand associations go, I think Tata Motors has extracted great mileage by giving their cars as prizes during the IPL. A car is prominently displayed at the venue and commentators often refer to it too. In one of the recent matches at the WPL, a shot from Elysee Perry smashed the window of Tata Punch, a new introduced EV. It was smart of the marketing team to capitalise on that moment by creating a plaque out of those shattered glasses and hand it over to the player as a memento. Clever moment marketing.
Apple TV+: St. Patrick’s Day
‘Bad Sisters’ is an Apple TV series set in Ireland. For St. Patrick’s Day they released a fun promo video anchored around the banter between the show’s stars on ‘who is the most Irish?’ of the lot.
Denver for Men: successful men
I am not a big fan of celebrity advertising especially when there is no idea in the script. Denver a fragrance brand for men, has typified the jaded use of celebrities in the past. Their new ad is different and breaks the category code by first not showing a woman swooning over the perfume. Second it casts Shah Rukh Khan as himself in a situation which is quite relatable. The link to the brand maybe tenuous but a noticeable ad nevertheless.
Jindal Steel: the steel of India
A montage of visuals showing the plural nature of India, full of vignettes from everyday life, set to music is not a new format in advertising. We have seen it in VIP’s ‘Kai chi aah bhi’, Hamara Bajaj and more. But there’s something riveting about this ad: it’s a visual treat with some great sound direction.
India’s immense sense of pride comes from the ubiquitous steely resolve of its people. The silent, unseen strength of steel empowers each one of us to stride forward, beat by beat, with every step we take. Here’s to the bold voice of a proud nation. Here’s to celebrating the force of steel that fans our fire within.
The print ads (two full page ads in a newspaper) were a bit of an indulgence but do break the clutter.
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in.