AD WISE

The three best ads of 2009 are...

Enough has been said and written about of the economic slowdown and its effects. However, there was no slowdown in the agencies’ creative thought processes and the year saw more than its fair share of some really interesting ads.

And who better than the ad honchos themselves to rate what they think were the three best ad campaigns of 2009. They also give their reasons for selecting the ads that they liked.

Josy Paul, Chairman & NCD, BBDO India
You’ve asked me for the top three ads/campaigns. It’s an interesting question, one that’s quite difficult to answer, because there were some significant developments in the world of communication in the year 2009. And it tells us where advertising is going.

Creative breakthough:
Firstly, it was a year of creative breakthroughs. Secondly, it was a year of great creative collaborations that resulted in advertising that was newsworthy, use-worthy and action-oriented. And thirdly, it was a year of interesting and visible work on television.

According to me, there were two creative breakthroughs. These were:
Vodafone ZooZoos
Tata Tea ‘Jaago re’

They both broke new grounds, they challenged the past, they were bold and audacious, and they threw the rule book out of the window. They created new codes in the category and for advertising.

Integrated campaigns:
Secondly, and as importantly, is the beginning of a new language in advertising, which is based on action, and is newsworthy, use-worthy and involves the community. These are integrated campaigns that have several touchpoints and are created in collaboration with several partners working together with one purpose – to create action, not words.

Some impactful examples of work that is being celebrated worldwide as the new language of advertising are:

Tata Tea ‘Jaago re”
Quaker Oats ‘Mission to Make India Heart Healthy’
Gillette Shave India Movement
The ‘pink chaddi’ campaign

Television:
Thirdly, there were some really impactful television work that were part of conversations and helped the brands create marketshare. These were:
Surf Excel Daag Achche Hai ‘child-dog’
7Up ‘sone ka nimbu’ offer ‘Bappi Lahiri’
Idea ‘Walk and talk’

Prathap Suthan, National Creative Director, Cheil Communications

Vodafone Zoozoos:
What an amazing campaign it has been. And from the looks of it, it seems to be continuing. It's quite simply in a completely new space. It created a whole new dimension to advertising, and blew up the very concept of how a campaign was defined.

Tata Tea Jaago Re:

What a great idea and connect! Positioning something that truly wakes you up, to awakening our social consciousness. With the kind of problems and issues that India and middle class India deals with on a day-to-day basis, this is such a rich field to harvest. More amazing, is the normally quiet and noncommittal Tata client to get into a social space.

Fevicol Moochwaali:
I like it for Piyush's (Pandey) moustache! I mean, this was something staring at his face and to think it took Fevicol to unglue it from his face! But what a delightful commercial! Beautifully executed. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it.

Agnello Dias, Co-founder & CCO, Taproot India
Before speaking on the three ads, there are certain trends that I would like to showcase. On the creative front, depth will make a comeback. Deeper insights will prevail over time-pass superficiality. High gloss stylisation will lose out to realism. The auto sector will be forced to find differentiated communication over the catalogue advertising that they are doing now. Number portability may well overhaul our idea of what communication actually worked/ is working in the telecom sector.

There will be increased pressure from global agencies on their Indian counterparts to deliver. We may see an influx of top expert management in some of these agencies.

All in all, it will be an even more interesting year than last year, because we are about to witness a change in the way the corporate world looks at the bottom line.

These are the three best ads of 2009 according to me:
Vodafone ZooZoos: For the sheer buzz it created.
Tata Nano: And I am talking about the whole launch in which PR easily overshadowed advertising.
Congress Campaign: Particularly in Uttar Pradesh, where they went at it alone.