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. …
Why humans like the thrill of the chase by Nandita Paul, Senior Strategist
What do people want?
Nothing like a loaded question to shake off those mid-week blues, eh?
Ahem, sorry, let me try this again.
What motivates people? (Better? Okay.) Anyone’s best guess would be money or power. A behavioural exploration of the question would underscore the human need for achievement or a sense of belonging. However, all these inferences are subjective; cultural differences, generation gaps, external influences, or regional nuances might make these findings sound a lot more ‘possibly true’ rather than ‘there’s an insight’.
In the pursuit of figuring out why humans behave the way they do, the most fundamental truth is often overlooked: we are all human. In our most basic form, we’re a body, a mind, and a heady concoction of chemicals and hormones that is driven by simple physical and chemical motives. …
The journal of an agency couple living-in through the lockdown and managing to survive
Words by Pooja Manek, Associate Creative Director; Art by Tanya Paul, Group Head ‐ Art.
They say lucky are those who got quarantined with their lovers, confined in the abyss of romance, with all the time in the world to gaze into each other’s eyes.
Cut. Cut. Cut.
Dream’s up. Here’s a slice of reality — an anecdotal and unfiltered peek into how the two of us made space in the relationship, even as the walls closed in. …
A plea by two copywriters. Fine. A copywriter and an ex-engineer: Pragya and Ben, our Copy Supervisors
Are these copywriters thought leaders? Lol no. You wish.
Have they done enough research? Idk. Ben was kinda reading an article on his IG feed.
Are they social experts? Pragya hasn’t read a newspaper in 4 years.
Industry shapers? Ben hasn’t updated his LinkedIn profile since he landed this job.
Uhm. So why should you continue reading?
Because what Pragya and Ben have is countless hours of writing, rewriting and rewriting (please consider feedback) for industry leading, modern, 21st century brands. And they’re bad at keeping secrets.
They are here to let you in on a secret. So read closely.
Brands may seem like confident giants from the outside, but they are basically really nervous, confused giants trying not to offend someone ALL the time. …
An explainer on the world’s latest gaming obsession by Ananya S Rao, Strategy Associate
Over the past few days, I often found myself explaining to people why I’m suddenly hooked onto an online game called ‘Among Us’. Let me tell you, I have never, ever played anything close to an online game before with an exception of Club Penguin, of course. But this one particular online game got the world sus‐ing everyone around them. Sus? What’s sus? Don’t know what that means? If you were playing the game right now, you’d be the sus aka the suspect.
Before I go on and on about the game itself and its lingo, let me give you a brief idea of what the game is all about. …
