Blackberry .. cmon pick it up !

I have been for the last few years a big fan of blackberry since i feel that's the "the" device for email on the move. You can all flaunt an iphone but when it comes to typing a message and sending it across its hard to beat a QWERTY keyboard which does not appear on a touch screen !

But last week was pretty bad, both for BB users as well as the BB the company. e-mails not working for many hours across many countries in the globe and what not... it was a first of its kind. Will iphone have an issue like that, no .. bcos unlike BB it does not have its own email server ..

But what i am disappointed is the way BB is trying to deal with this thru the advertising channel .. in the last few days there is a BB ad which comes often on all channels, i have not seen this ad nor such a repeated ad from BB in such a short duration. may be they are trying to convey to the users that they still want to make a difference and be competitive ... but i don't think this is the right time to convey that and that too in the form of this ad (repeated many times in a day)... let me give you an analogy - When a kid makes a very mischievous mistake and if the parents happen to find it .. what does the kid usually do ? the kid for the next few days stays away from any mischief and more importantly the kid would want to stay away from the lime-light and not be visible that much to its parents .. the reason of--course is that the kid believes that if the parent does not notice the kid that much, then they get to think less about the mischief the kid has done and therefore the parents will ignore or forget the incident pretty faster than otherwise... But now BB is doing the opposite thing, it network was patchy for the last week and now they are all over the TV channels in the form of ads .. now this will make people to remember BB and therefore the issues which it has faced recently will continue to remain in the lime-light as well as linger in the minds of the viewers..

Value seeking Indian - The Maruti way -

This ad is the best among the series of ads presented by Maruti for the value-seeking Indian "Kitna deygi ? " (How much will it give ?)




The waiter's expression is priceless !

Number portability

The recent number portability had brought in a series of ads from most providers. With IDEA leading the way with their brand ambassador Abhishek. Their theme was pivoted around the one stmt "No Idea..get an Idea" ..

The Vodafone as usual came with their unique style of ad ... it deserves to be placed here ...

Good things about the Idea Ad

1. Easy to understand for all kinds of audience. it was very simple.

2. Reminded most users of why they would want to change

a. bad network reception

b. bad customer service

c. echo

d. always busy network (network overloading)

This was very important bcos, we all at various points of time would have had a bad experience with our provider and would have thought "wish I could move to a better network", but that feeling is very short-lived and as an when the issue got resolved we would go back to our normal non-complaint mode. These ads made sure that you just won't go into that mode as well as made sure that you re-collected some of those bad moments which happened in the recent past.

Good things about the Vodafone Ad

1. as most vodafone ads this one is also classy.

2. as most vodafone ads this was an universal ad, you could easily put this ad across the indian sub-continent, middle-east and mediterranean region, bcos the people/kids in the ad look very universal. So from an expense perspective the company saves a lot of money.

Bad things about the Idea Ad

1. none actually. except of-course you have a dislike for the Bachan junior.

Bad things about the Vodafone Ad

1. I don't think the mobile users across the spectrum might easily understand this with just the visuals. we all know the indian mobile subscriber base is huge across the rural areas as well.