An honest account of how hobbies are leveraged by both individuals and brands alike by Anchit Chauhan, Strategy Director
Chances are that by the time you read this piece, you would’ve forgotten your New Year resolution just like me, and gotten back to your usual way of living. Multiple studies show around 50% of people keep New Year resolutions and 90% of them forget about them within the first few months.
In fact, no stats are needed to prove this to be true, just look around your own home. How many of us have DSLRs lying around, the shutters of which haven’t let in any light in years, or bicycles that have turned into rusty old cloth stands, guitars with broken strings that broke not because we played them too hard, but out of boredom, baking equipment that lies somewhere at the back of a kitchen cabinet, fitness gear that’s itself grown unfit because it never got any exercise, running shoes that never got to run more than a few miles, and books, yes books, decorating that bookshelf in every home, longing for someone to set a crease and turn a page. …
A letter to myself, to survive another year of working from home by Shreya Arora, Senior Visualizer
As someone who entered the advertising industry in 2020, I am writing this letter to myself as a newbie and a veteran at the same time. After all, between lockdowns, working from home, and early morning video calls, my first 365 days working did feel 8 years long. These new normal resolutions are my humble attempt at making these unprecedented times feel precedented again.
1. Get bored more often. (And I don’t mean on Zoom calls.)
Between leaving home for college, 5 new cities in the span of 4 years, endless summer internships, moving back home, and beginning work, the last six years were spent dealing with constant change. Then came 2020.
No more crowded commutes, no more rushed office canteen meals, not so much as sitting in a cab for an hour to shell out a week’s pay for watered-down drinks in bars. After spending years not knowing which city I’d be in 6 months later, 2020 forced me to confront that I was going to be in the same environment, around the same people, staring into the same screen for the foreseeable future. For the first time in my adult life, I had the opportunity to get well and truly bored. …
All the amazing work from other agencies we’re begrudgingly amazed by this year, in one place
Over the course of this year, we witnessed some absolutely brilliant advertising work. So much so that they also (to be very, very honest) made us at Dentsu Webchutney go green with envy. So, in no specific order, here are 12 fantastic campaigns from 12 wonderful agencies, both in India and worldwide, which made us swallow our pride and go, ‘ugh, dammit, wish we’d done it!’.
PS: The campaigns on this list were nominated, compiled & voted for by very jealous representatives from across our creative, strategy & servicing teams and this process certainly wasn’t the favourite part of their year. …
We’re experimenting with our first ever 10-day winter break from 24th December to 4th January
If there’s one thing we’re deprived of while adulting, it’s the holidays at the end of the year. There’s nothing like the end of the year, especially this one. It’s when we’re counting our blessings, meeting up with extended friends & family while distancing, and catching up with a bucket list of books (topped by Gautam’s latest for us).
This year has been different™️, of course.
Meanwhile, we’ve tried to adapt and wound up doing things differently. (Scroll the archives of this blog if you’re wondering what we’ve been up to.) …
Unraveling the secret behind India’s love for South Korean culture by Angira Lahiri, Associate Planning Director
Ask any 90s kid what K drama means to them; and they will start to roll their eyes & talk incessantly about how obsessed everyone was back then with soap dramas, all starting with K, where Indian plastic surgeons set standards for the Kardashians to follow.
I particularly remember the overwhelming chants of “Bring back Mihir Virani” by Indian aunties, including my mother sadly. Those were the days! However, the obsession with everything K is still very much persistent today in India. Just that this time we have spread our love outwards, more precisely eastwards, like a ‘Dynamite’.
Well, the influence of Korea in Indian consumerism has been evident with the rise in popularity of brands like LG, Hyundai, Samsung & more recently Kia. But, the love for Korean cinema, music, art & food remained as a subculture in India. …
How Whirlpool grew brand awareness & consideration through cricket integrations in partnership with Dentsu Webchutney
Ah, the IPL. No matter who wins the match, the IPL has made itself a winning partner to brand managers over 13 editions. Whether brands choose to outright sponsor the IPL, work with specific channels, or buy the rights to a team, there are bajillion permutations and combinations to make a mark at the marquee sports event.
What makes the cricketing event so gripping is that a marketer can really get the most out of their dollars, no matter where they speak, simply by association. And that’s what’s exciting to us. India finally has its Super Bowl moment.
As long-term brand builders for Whirlpool, we bridged the gap between our right & left brain as we so often get to do. We brought creative and media planning together to deliver an impactful campaign which further suggests the value of integrated communications from one agency. …
Why I Stopped Listening To Music During The Lockdown by Anirudh Venugopal, Copy Supervisor
Retracing my steps back to the middle of March, when the realization of the pandemic had yet to sink in, I remember being relieved yet slightly dismayed. Home was the place to chill, while work was the place to crush it with the bunty-log.
But that was still fine. WFH previously stood for a holiday with responses to some work texts or at least that’s what I thought before it transformed into ‘the remote office concept’ that we are familiar with today.
Fast forward another 6 months, and work was going well. Our tech-hungry souls had no problems adjusting to being imprisoned in our homes. But something still didn’t feel right. And while finally getting to reorganize my inbox, I found my very firrrsst resume. …
The art of how-to and when-to say ‘NO’ by Prashant Gopalakrishnan, Executive Vice President & National Business Head.
As advertisers, we all wear our hearts on our sleeves. We love to react (and to see reactions). And this COVID life or the ‘New Normal’ has just amplified our need for reactions. It’s made us impatient and less tolerant. Closed, to things around us. To the people around us. Our days can become far less complicated if we know how to react right. Tact: that’s the key. We, Gen Z, and millennials value our social media skills more than our social skills. Dealing with empathy, understanding each other’s perspectives, talking rather than texting, figuring our differences, and reaching an understanding — not a compromise, but an understanding is not our priority. But to put our POV out there for the world to see, definitely is. …
Attempts to set the mood on our office floor without being on the office floor
The most common compliment/complaint we hear from any visitor to any of our offices is simply how loud it is.
These incorrigible muckrakers include our own client servicing teams channelling their inner speed walker on call with clients; it includes clients who visit our offices who are, unknowingly, entering a discotheque; it includes our strategy folks who think of their work as deep work.
Yep. The analogy which strikes you when you leave our offices is that it’s more a concert setup with 5 different stages, each with its own genre convoluting the soundscape, instead of an office. …
The impact of our surroundings on our personal growth by Kushagra Tayal, Account Executive
‘Body is what the body is fed. And by the same token, the mind is what the mind is fed’ — David Schwartz
Taking from the words of David Schwartz, I have often pondered over the idea of success. What makes people successful? Is it their surroundings? Their network? Their work ethic? Or just good old plain luck. Curious, I set out on a journey to explore and understand, what truly enables a person to attain success.
After being inspired by prominent individuals, I noticed there was a constant in all their lives: the people around them, at every phase of their life. …
