Designer - Find out if you are Selfish, Smart or Dumb?

A serious, humorous and freakish view on how a designer lives life. After going through the strip, let me know if the thoughts expressed are real, utopian, serious, humorous or freakish. Or even better - so what!!

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Design Critic #7 & 8

Here comes the final 2 in the lot... Seriously which one are you ;)

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Design Critic #5 & 6

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Design Critic #3 & 4

The next 2 design critics are here...

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Design Critic #1 & 2

According to us, there are 8 types of design critics... presenting the first two today... others are on the way!

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Who cuts the oxygen to your Ideas?

Wonder why great ideas are always booed away and shoed away?
Because it creates fear in the minds of people around you - peers and managers! They don't want your idea to challenge their pay cheque or authority or cosy zone.

In most corporates, most of the ideas are rejected for selfish reasons!

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Creative Autopsy

The Creative Autopsy is a simple improvement technique we use after a creative or a design is done. Most often I find that the ‘Creative Autopsy’ shreds our work into bits and demands us to pull our socks up and re-energize us to build a new idea – a brand new one!

What actually we do is: keep the design aside on the monitor and in the mind and ask ourselves these 3 slicing questions:

1.    What exactly looks and communicates good in it?

2.    What design goals we failed to attain?

3.    Is there a scope for improvement... and where?

This screeching dissection of your work puts fantasy, ego and realities into perspective. I personally believe that ‘Creative Autopsy’ wakes up the dead and boring designer in us and urges us to create fresher and livelier design.

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

COKE : Setting the Record Straight ?

New Coke Ads titled `Setting The Record Straight’ will run tomorrow in major Australian newspapers such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Courier Mail and The Australian.

What’s the big deal about this? Well…Coke is expected to publish corrective advertisements in Australia after a panel said the soft drink company could have misled consumers with ads saying its products won't make them fat or rot their teeth.

Now the confession: The world's biggest soft drinks maker, said it did not intend for its ads to be misleading and it should have been more clear. “This process has reinforced in our minds that even where advertising messages are well-intentioned, it is important to consider the overall impression that the messages may convey,'' the new ad said.

So does Coke contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay? The proof of the pudding is in drinking!!


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

IPTV - Pulls Consumers

From Govt regulated Television to Cable to DTH to IPTV.

As of now there are only approx 12,000 IPTV subscribers compared to DTH’s 11 million. But the trend is catching up.

What is most striking about IPTV is that it will not depend on 'Push' advertising but on 'Pull' advertising. That is, Advertising on demand ;)

What is 'Pull'? - you can select from a given category, say second-hand cars, choose the brand, click to know more and the best part : you can simply navigate through the video clips on A-Tube and decide for yourself. On other mediums, you look at the brand, get convinced but still the 'buy action' needs to wait. In IPTV, you just press the button. Red-hot call to action. Money spinner.


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Airtel Digital TV ad - what is digital about it ?

Celebrities sell products. Here the celebrities become the product.

Bharti and JWT (Creative Agency) had roped in 10 celebrities as products to advertise Airtel Digital TV. But sadly, they are not seen as products by the target. I keep hearing the same comment from wannabe consumers : “why do they spend so much money having so many celebrities for this ad” Boom down goes the concept. Nevertheless it makes a ‘cluttered’ impact ;)

Just to take you through the commercial… here is the flash back – swaying and fading out monotone TV ad of Airtel… Madhavan and Vidya Balan accompany yet another business executive in a luxury car to his home. Cricketers Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and a few other sports icons (and who are they..?) welcome the dad of a 5 year old into the lift. As he reaches his house, the door opens to reveal Kareena Kapoor. Rahul’s wife makes an appearance and ushers him in, where AR Rahman plays piano. And Saif Ali Khan is there to welcome him too.

Now the big question : Is ‘Digital’ TV all about cine and sports celebrities? Give us a break.


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Art Vs Copy

One of the never ending debates : copy or visual? content or art? Which rules? At what share? On being on either side of the fence, I have heard and keep hearing the inside stories and arguments. But ever hardly managed to make a whole lot of writers or art directors to see the other side of the wall.

I am taking another shot at it armed with latest facts !!!

Authors Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin in their book Neuromarketing report a finding by the 3M Meeting Management Institute that "effective visuals" reduce the time required to communicate a concept by 40 percent.

Hurray! I can hear a shrill dash of chiselled crystal mugs from the 'art' camp.


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Human body as a billboard !!

Crazy!! Human body is the next target for marketers!

New Zealander James Stewart is taking guerrilla marketing to a new level by selling tattoos as advertising space on his leg in a bid to raise NZ$1m (£384,000).

Stewart, a 24-year-old geology graduate, is promoting a website for local artists and will sell tattoos for NZ$500 per square centimetre.

His left leg offers 2,000 square centimetres of ad space in total and he has already confirmed the first tattoo will be a 10 x 7cm image of a seated fairy on a striped background.



~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

PR Agencies Versus Advertising Agencies

When it comes to 'seat-share' in a boardroom or 'spend-share' in a marketing budget -I have seen that the advertising agencies eat a bigger pie compared to the PR agencies.

Public Relations professionals often shy away from asking their clients to enhance their pockets of budget in the marketing mix. Why? Are they unsure about their strong points?

But things are changing with the advent of blogs and social media. My thinking is that the PR agencies might overtake the ad agencies in the new media zone. That is, only if they recognize their strength and play up to it.

Social Media is content driven and PR agencies' strength lies in 'content' messaging. Whereas, ad agencies thrive on 'call-to-action' or 'glamour' messaging.



~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Be a contrarian

Creating a meaningful and sustainable brand experience matters to every organization whether it is big or small. But SMEs find it tough to create superior brand awareness and value in today’s cluttered, saturated, and price-driven marketplace.

The best branding approach for SMEs would be to move away from ‘Unique Selling Propositions’ (USPs) to ‘Unique Buying Tribes’ (UBTs). At Aspire Systems, we have successfully formed a unique tribe called ‘Producteers’ - they are not just software developer but specialist product engineers. It has worked remarkably well for us. There are talents from biggies and giants of software industry joining us now.

SMEs should shatter the myth that brand-building is a complex exercise that involves lots of funds. Brands may start out small, but their power and reach is only limited by our goals and creativity. At Aspire Systems, we have rigorously used one brand building tool with consistent results – and that is to be a ‘contrarian’.


~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Stories Happen

Pizza Hut undergoes a grand brand transformation exercise. Even though they are tinkering with the outlet looks to top-up menu, my post will just restrict only to their new logo and brand positioning.

Pizza Hut's positioning has evolved from ‘Treat You Can’t Beat’ to ‘Good Times, Great Pizzas’, and now finally, ‘Stories Happen’.

It wants to become a fancy dine-in experience where people can spend a lot of time, as opposed to just a place where one comes and goes. Probably it is taking a leaf out of Barista's Brand Book.

Human interaction evolve when you provide the right environs, a relaxed ambience and loads of time on your hand. So this is a clear move away from the 'fast food' tag that is normally attached to Pizza Joints even thought that is not the case.

The new tag 'Stories Happen' syncs well with its earlier tag 'Good Times'. Between the two brand phases, the brand positioned on 'Great Pizzas' for a while and to my mind that was off the mark.

On the new logo : the mascot 'hat' is retained but tweaked a bit. A safe transformation!

~ Satish Chathanath
Call : 9884011654
Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Communications during Recession

If the US recession is for real... Communicators should get ready to do MORE with LESS. Or should it be MORE square with MORE!

Recession means less consumers.
Declining consumer base means less demand.
Inadequate demand means more efforts to stimulate demand.
Inadequate demand means Marketing & Advertising needs to work harder.

Traditionally, organization worldwide toe this line - when people buy less, spend less on marketing, branding and advertising. According to research firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, advertising in the US dropped 9% in the 2001 recession and Internet advertising specifically fell 27%. This applies to B2B communicators as well, because as consumer spending drops the businesses that sell to those consumers reduce their spending as well.

But shouldn't the advertisers be doing the reverse - spend more on advertising when the going gets tough? Please share your opinions?

Refreshing Change in Print

Government forces Liquour brands to innovate!

Deprived of promoting liquour products directly, companies had for long taken recourse to surrogate advertising — commercials on soda, packaged water or playing cards with the same brand names. Of late, the government has tightened the screws on this form of advertising as well.

As a result, companies like United Spirits, Diageo and Bacardi have designed innovative packaging to push sales. United Spirits has decided to roll out 180 ml tetrapacks. The new packs have been designed by packaging major TetraPak of Sweden.

Customer Benefit : A tetrapack is unbreakable and is easy to carry and dispose.

Other dizzy innovations :
Diageo has introduced Red Label in an ice tray pack. Its Black Label VMM pack is inspired by the shape of the MP422 Formula 1 car. Bacardi's high-end premium gin brand, Bombay Sapphire, has been introduced in a giant gemstone -shaped bottle. Named ‘Revelation', it is available as five handmade crystal bottles individually decorated with sapphires and diamonds, priced at $200,000 (Rs 86 lakh) each.

Celebrating Tamil Creativity - Interesting

Spark, the annual advertising award show of Ad Club Madras, which was not held for the past couple of years due to lack of entries, is all set to return in a brand new format. According to R Seshadri, Managing Director, Anugrah Madison Advertising, and newly elected President of the Advertising Club Madras, the Club, after a series of brainstorming sessions, had zeroed in on a unique format that would celebrate Tamil creativity across the world.

“Yes, we have plans to re-invent the Ad Club awards this year. After a series of ‘brainstorming’ sessions, the Executive Committee came to the conclusion that the Ad Club Madras awards needs to be unique in order to attract participation from not only local agencies, but also some national and international agencies who have stayed away during the last couple of years. Hence, we felt that the need of the hour was a change in format – a format so unique to Ad Club Madras that it cannot be replicated by other Clubs. Thus, the concept of ‘Tamil Advertising Awards’ was frozen,” Seshadri explained.

“There is a huge body of work created in Tamil, not just by agencies but by radio / TV / Internet and feature film companies that is unique and deserves to be celebrated and awarded. Currently, there is no forum which identifies and recognises this kind of work. The Ad Club Madras, with its roots in Chennai, is in a unique position to implement this concept, which the Club hopes will appeal to even other national and international agencies (especially in Sri Lanka and South East Asia), who target Tamilians,” Seshadri added.

Non-intrusive !! Really ??

Engage your customers like never before they say !! I think it is a double edged sword, you could disengage your customers with this intrusive medium. Unlike TV, Mobile is considered very private. And hence doubly intrusive. Do customers see value in SMS advertising? What product categories would fit in here?