What’s a big idea? Some would say, an imaginative but practical thought. And who can argue that. After all, what good is an idea if it can’t be implemented? But the truth is, that’s the horse shit we have been giving ourselves for years. A poor excuse for dull minds. No idea, bold or innovative, came without ridiculous leaps of imagination.
Last week a cycle called ‘Precious’ started riding across America for charity. But this is no ordinary cycle. It literally has a mind of its own.
Thanks to technology, an onboard device captures all of Precious’s experiences, analyzes them and meshes them to send out up-to-speed tweets. Breakfast, the company that helped make this possible, says on its site that it loves to hear ideas that just can’t be done.
As for Livestrong, the foundation that gave us Chalkbot and now Precious, it shows they get it. You can no longer just take a cycle and ride across America to get people’s interest. You need more in these times.
Would love to hear what you think of the “precious’ Campaign.

Put three people: a famous movie star, a strange looking plump man and a suitably hot woman in an office room. Keep the camera locked in and give them 30 scripts to enact, each no longer than 20 seconds. Throw in a few props to add some variety to the mix. And there you have it, a “Same Set, different story” formula.

This year, the IPL has seen this formula regurgitated by many brands, including some that normally churn out good stuff. IDEA, Max New York Life and Vodafone are some that come to mind immediately. The SSDS formula was first made popular by the Zoozoos in the first edition of the IPL, where everyday there was a new commercial on air. The viewer was thrilled to not only be treated with respect but also entertained.

But sadly, what was a case of many things coming together (in the case of the Zoozoos), has been reduced to a media strategy circus. Some of the brands mentioned above have a new commercial/edit on air everyday, which makes an already bad idea stretch painfully longer. The desperation to be seen has unfortunately lost out to the need to be remembered.

We’re pleased as punch to welcome two brands that would have any agency licking their chops in delight. Though housed under the same roof, Rubberband and Industrial Playground have different flight paths and Merry Men will help them both chart their future course.

Rubberband is a new concept of living and working. The brand proposes a range of smart designed products. The pieces in their collection are genuine tools, flexible, versatile aids to living. The uses you put to them are not predetermined: you can adapt them to your personal needs. Industrial Playground on the other hand is a range of industrial furniture that pushes the design envelope using play as a central theme.

Merry Men will handle the entire communication (traditional, digital and social media) for both the brands. Watch this space for work on the brands and updates.

Where does the bodycopy in an outdoor ad go? For years, we’ve been enslaved by the medium, that stubbornly refused to put a word more than what a reader could grasp while passing in a few seconds. But the latest campaign for Economist in India has broken the rules. It has managed to make a brand that stands for information, put information in a medium, that doesn’t allow too much information. Brilliant.

The outdoor ads are a series of visual puzzles, a whale with a bicep and factory inside its stomach, and so on. At the bottom of the ad is the gateway for curious minds: a phone number to sms and interpret the visual above. Your sms journey ends with a prompt reply that contains the  relevant information. An excerpt almost from the magazine, the sms explains the connection between the three seemingly unconnected objects. The whale ad for instance, narrates how Japanese whale fishing has led to shortage of food in Japan and over industrialisation. We love the idea and the brilliant use of multi-media.

What’s a good brand event+PR, is a question that bothers many agencies. But when i turned out like thousands on the Worli Sea Link to watch David Coulthard sign donuts with car tyres on asphalt, i think i understood how brands can milk events. I walked away from the once-in-a- lifetime experience, wondering whether it was all worth it for Red Bull? Running pillar to post for permissions, bringing Coulthard and his huge entourage down, inviting a galaxy of stars and media. It’s hard to quantify. But what i liked the most about the event is how it attracted RED BULL’s target audience in droves and what that means for Red Bull. Action brands like Thums Up, have a tough ask to keep following one good film with another. Plus, there are hits and misses along the way. Red Bull’s advertising in this case, played out for 2 hours, left everyone in the audience thirsty to grab a Red Bull by its horns, and clearly set the brand apart as a youth tonic. They threw in a few gimmicks like overspeeding and a hefty fine, and the event went mainstream, with thousands reading about it next morning in the papers. “Is it sticky?”, “does it break the clutter?”, are overused expressions in ad agencies. Red Bull wouldn’t have to worry with stuff like that.