Coca-Cola brings Indians and Pakistanis closer. Amazing!!!

Beautfull.. Love you, Coke! Of those campaigns I have posted here in a while, this idea hit me the most. Maybe because I relate to it. Maybe due to the simplicity in execution that delivered the message.

I will buy Coke for this once (am not a brand buyer) for such a lovely execution that happened to come from Leo Burnett, Chicago & Sydney.

This film shows that what unites us is stronger than what sets us apart. High-tech vending machines installed in two popular shopping malls in Lahore, Pakistan and New Delhi, India – two cities separated by only 325 miles, but seemingly worlds apart due to decades of political tension – invited consumers to put their differences aside and share a simple moment over a Coke. 

The “Small World Machines” provided a live communications portal linking strangers in two nations divided by more than just borders, with the hope of provoking happiness and promoting cultural understanding around the world. Coke and Leo Burnett used first-of-its-kind 3D touchscreen technology to project a streaming video feed onto the vending machine screen while simultaneously filming through the unit to capture a live emotional exchange. People from both countries and various walks of life were encouraged to complete a friendly task together – wave, touch hands, draw a peace sign or dance – before sharing a Coca-Cola.

Jackie Jantos Tulloch, Coke’s global creative director and project lead, compares the live simulcast experience to looking into a webcam, face-to-face with another person. “Your actions are literally mirrored,” she explains. “By adding a touch screen, it allowed us to play interactive animations so people could trace things like a heart or smiley face together.”

“Logistically, we had to coordinate two offices inside the Leo Burnett network and another three offices inside the Coke network, as well as several key suppliers,” says Andy DiLallo, chief creative officer, Leo Burnett Sydney. “We dealt with time differences, language barriers and cultural sensitivities. But we pulled it off, and that's what matters.”The project team overcame several engineering, infrastructure and logistical challenges over the last year to turn the Small World Machines vision into reality. The experience was scheduled to take place in January, but one of the machines got stuck in transit, and greater security challenges delayed the team's production.

After successfully setting up the two machines in March – and adorning each with flower arrangements and other culturally relevant decorations and colors – the team cleared a few last-minute technology hurdles before the cameras finally rolled. 

“We felt like the little engine that could at times and couldn’t at others,” Jantos Tulloch says.

Crews filmed through the night, capturing more than 100 interactions between people of all ages and from all walks of life. None of the people featured in the film are actors, and their reactions are completely natural. 

Coke's 'Small World Machines' provided a live communications portal linking strangers in India and Pakistan. First-of-its-kind 3D touchscreen technology projected a streaming video feed onto the vending machine screen while simultaneously filming through the unit to capture a live emotional exchange.

“The people of Pakistan and India share a lot of common passions and interests – from food and Bollywood movies, to Coke Studio music, to cricket,” said Saad Pall, Coke’s assistant brand manager in Pakistan. “What this project did was connect people who are not exposed to each other on a daily basis, enabling the common man in Lahore to see and interact with the common man in Delhi. It’s a small step we hope will signal what’s possible.”

Wasim Basir, integrated marketing communications (IMC) director, Coca-Cola India, added, “We wondered what would happen if people from these two countries came together, and the answer was clear: goodness and happiness."

Making Memories

The film features tender encounters, such as a young girl in Delhi touching hands with an older woman on the Pakistani side, as well as more spirited interactions including an impromptu dance-off between two men in their 60s that went on for several minutes. 

“We couldn’t get them to stop,” Pall said. “And when they finally did, they were both out of breath.”

DiLallo said hearing people share their stories made the experience even more special. “There was just a level of genuine joy and awe once the Small World Machines were activated,” he said. “Seeing a little kid run up to the machine and try to high-five it was one. Another person came up to me and said he'd lived in India his entire life and had never 'seen into' Pakistan. It was amazing to him to see what they wore. That's such a small thing you would never think about, particularly coming from the West.”

At the end of the nearly 10-hour shoot, both audiences cranked up the music, danced and waved goodbye to their new-found friends across the border. The crews behind the camera joined in, too, including the Coca-Cola teams from Pakistan and India.

“It was such a great way to conclude what I consider to be the highlight of my career,” Jantos Tulloch said. “Working on brand Coca-Cola is powerful enough because of the voice and scale of the brand, but when you layer a story like this on top, you realize that we’re not just telling aCoca-Cola story. We’re telling a bigger, more profound story about the happiness of the world.”

The experience struck an especially emotional chord for the Coca-Cola teams from India and Pakistan, who collaborated on the project. Ajay Naqvi, general manager, creative excellence,Coca-Cola India, said he got goosebumps the first time he saw the film. And the universal message will resonate with people outside India and Pakistan, he explained, “because cultural and social tensions exist around the world, and they exist for selfish reasons.

“But deep down – as this film shows – humanity is about togetherness and happiness.”

Via www.coca-colacompany.com

Postage stamps used to send a message across borders to stop consuming Rhino horns

There are 29000 rhinos left in the world and South Africa is home to 75% of them. Rhino poaching has increased dramatically in the last few years and hundreds are being killed each year for their horns. These horns are highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, where it is ground into a fine powder or manufactured into tablets as a treatment for a variety of illnesses such as nosebleeds, strokes, convulsions, and fevers. Their horns sell on the black market for more than $60000 per kilogram.

This demand has created a highly profitable and organized international poaching syndicates who deploy advanced technologies ranging from night vision scopes, silenced weapons, darting equipment and helicopters to carry out their mission. If it is not stopped, the world could lose African rhinos. "This is a tragedy we do not want to contemplate.” Dr Joseph Okori, Head of WWF’s African Rhino Programme. Despite abundant petitions and awareness campaigns, the numbers of our rhinos killed continue to soar. 

South African government needed to find a way to talk directly to those responsible for creating the demand and show them the impact of their actions. Thus emerged this idea of using postage stamps to communicate to people across the borders. The usual breathtaking imagery of African animals in the stamps were replaced by the carnage that poachers leave behind. Each stamp included a message in Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai reading: "say no to rhino horn."

They created a way to take the fight against rhino killing to those who were responsible for this demand. They then used these designs to create posters that were put up countrywide, rallying the South African pople to attach one to all letters leaving the shores to China, Vietnam or Thailand. They also created stamp booklets that were handed out to be used as inserts and direct mailers. This made sure that each and every stamp sent became a direct mailer from the South African citizens to the citizens of China, Vietnam or Thailand.

More info: “Rhino horn is largely made of keratin and will do nothing to treat cancer or help one’s sexual prowess. There are traditional medicines that have proven to be effective for treating a variety of ailments and symptoms and have saved millions of lives. Rhino horn is not one of them” said TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Programme Coordinator, Dr Naomi Doak. “Widespread lies, myths and rumours are fuelling demand and use of rhino horn.” Vietnamese citizens are being encouraged to stop buying or consuming rhino horn through a series of advertisements like the one below by WWF and TRAFFIC as part of their campaign against Illegal Wildlife Trade.

Apps that sell cars. Innovative campaigns from Jeep, Mercedes, Nissan, BMC and Volkswagen

Most SUVs never cross the city limits and venture into the wild. They satisfy their customers by simply showcasing them as adventourous than actually participating in adventure. In an effort to position Jeep, the iconic 4x4 brand, as a truly adventourous machine, its advertisng agency, Leo Burnett, created a mobile app 'GPS to get lost' for its Argentinian markets. The device allows Jeep drivers to literally get lost in nature. The "Get Lost" app on Jeeps' GPS device, guides the driver to unknown places in the midst of nature through offroading when it is pressed. Experience it from the comfort of your homes in the following video.

British Motor Company (BMC) used a fun mobile geolocation multiplayer reality game to engage with customers for the launch of Mini Countryman. The game gives its users near impossible challenges like: stay at least 50 metres away from everybody else in Stockholm city. And if they succeed they win the new MINI Countryman!! Check out the game and fun around it in this video. For more log on minigetawaystockholm.com.


Volkswagen has been at the forefront in using digital media for advertising. Featured below is a game produced by them to launch GTI that induces users to experience this vehicle.
And the result was - 485 million impressions in the first 6 weeks. - 200 cars were sold to registered GTI Players.


Volkswagen in Norway persuaded drivers of the benefits of a car, via print advertising, without getting them to do a real-life test drive through this app. It allows users to 'test drive' the car within a print ad, using Augmented Reality. The print ads appeared in some of Norway's most popular print publications. Having downloaded the app, readers held their phone over the print ad to make the car 'drive' and could test out three different features of the vehicle: Lane Assist, Adaptive Lights and Cruise Control


Nissan added some humour to promote Juke via an amazing comic application, Mission: Donuts. I wonder how many people will click on the ad. But the happy few will be very surprised. The "Juke Guy" walks through the first comic book iAd. There are five chapters in this app: turbo-charged getaways, hometown hotties, donut boxes, grumpy bosses and even bonus donuts with exclusive content - and if you complete all five you get a chance to win a Nissan Juke. Plus the bragging rights of finishing the mission.

[More: Best QR code Campaigns]

To mark the 125th birthday of the motor car Mercedes-Benz Singapore ran a QR Code Mercedes-Benz 125 race (featured below). Each weekend between 26 August and 18 September contestants had to find 5 Mercedes-Benz cars with QR Codes within designated areas in Singapore. The fastest to find all 5 will won a pair of Grandstand tickets to the Singapore Night Race and a weekend test drive with Mercedes-Benz. The overall fastest player for all four weekends got a pair of return air tickets to visit the Mercedes-Benz factory and museum in Germany.

Keep following this space to see more such innovative ways of marketing. Join us at our FB page by clicking on the corresponding widget on the right of your screen.

For now check out these 5 Innovative campaigns by car makers.

1] Mercedes uses QR codes to camouflage its new car

2] Ford's pinball game

3] Smart's campaign to prove that electronic cars are fun to drive

4] Volkswagen's 'The Fun Theory' campaign

Coca-Cola Pledges to not target children in its 4 Global Commitments

The Coca-Cola Company announced 4 global business commitments to contribute to healthier, happier and more active communities. Here they are from the horses mouth.

1] We Offer Low or No Calorie Beverage Options in Every Market

We believe choices come in many tastes, shapes, and sizes. With more than 3,500 drink choices around the world, over 800 are low or no calorie. Our most popular drinks are available in small portion sizes, and nineteen of our top 20 brands have a low‐ or no‐calorie version or are themselves low‐ or no‐calorie beverages. With many different sizes and packaging options, we offer something for everyone.

2] Provide Transparent Nutrition Information, Featuring Calories on the Front of All of Our Packages

We believe well-informed people make the best decisions for themselves and their families. Progress begins with information. That’s why we’re putting calorie information up front to help you make choices to meet your needs and those of your family, Our goal is to make informed decisions even easier.

3] Help Get People Moving by Supporting Physical Activity Programs in Every Country Where We Do Business

We believe being active leads to happier and healthier lives, which is the reason we support hundreds of programs worldwide that help people of all ages get moving.

4] Market Responsibly, Including No Advertising to Children Under 12 Anywhere in the World

We believe parents and caregivers make the best decisions for themselves and their families. That is why we do not directly advertise to children under 12.



The infographic below illustrates some of these steps in detail.

These commitments apply to the more than 200 countries where Coca-Cola operates. 

Will these committements change Coca-Cola's obesity associations and make it a caring brand? Will these decrease its sales or increase it? Can company goals and consumer goals go hand in hand? Let us know your thoughts at @playandthink

Data from Coke's Coming Together website

Posterous is getting closed - 2 days to exit... or loose data.

Posterous launched in 2008. It delivered its promise of making creation of posts easy and even beautifull. And this journey has now ended as expected. Twitter is notorious for buying and killing products. I am unsure if its a great strategy. But if you are sitting on a pile cash it doesnt matter. Luckily I stopped posting on Posterous when Twitter bought it. I shifted to Blogger. Today Posterous has communicated to me that I have 2 days to migrate my old posts out of Posterous. Maybe a bit too less, but you cant expect much from a team that has shifted to Twitter. "On April 30th, we will turn off posterous.com and our mobile apps in order to focus 100% of our efforts on Twitter. This means that as of April 30, Posterous Spaces will no longer be available either to view or to edit. Right now, you can download all of your Posterous Spaces including your photos, videos, and documents."

Here are the steps:

• Go to http://posterous.com/#backup.
• Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name.
• Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a .zip file.

"We’d like to thank the millions of Posterous users who have supported us on our incredible journey. We hope to provide you with as easy a transition as possible, and look forward to seeing you on Twitter. Thank you," Sachin Agarwal, Founder and CEO.

We are shifting
http://adayinthelifeofanindian.posterous.com/ to www.dayinlife.info
http://innovativeboard.posterous.com/ has been shited to  www.innovativeboard.com
http://plink.posterous.com/ has got merged into www.innovativeboard.com and www.dayinlife.info
http://playandthink.posterous.com/ has got shifted to www.innovativeboard.com

Branded entertainment makes a comeback

People are bored of ads. They find it a disturbance in entertainment. So why not make entertaining ads. Ofcourse this should be the principle for every ad, be it 10 secs or a minute. Brands have taken this thought further and created Branded entertainment in the form of longer and better quality entertainment with good scripts, great people and wonderfull production. BMW short films series, the Hire, was a success not only in US but even in India in 2002, the pre-broadband days. Now Jaguar has done something similar their new 13 minute film released yesterday. The length of this film named Desire is as excessive as the vehicle's million dollar price tag. But like the10 min BMW shorties this film manages to capature our attention with great storytelling, good production and strong performances from its leads.

(it takes time to buffer.. but its definitely worth the wait)

Branded entertainment is judged by audiences pretty much like a movie or a TV series. People want to see a moving story, that is well acted and directed. The brand gains when this film establishes the right image in the consumers minds and conveys the message that the marketer wants to.

Do you want to the BMW short film series? Heres the playlist.



Future success in this format will depend on the ability to initiate experiences that evolve, engage and to contribute to the consumers. It might not just be in the form of a film and could even be a video game or even an actual event or some innovation. Something that entertains and is owned by the brand.

Brands can find innovative ways to decrease the cost of production by outsourcing it like Schweppes did by creating a competition in which people had to submit films with their brand in it. Companies can even think of monetising branded entertainment like the Australian tourism department did by actually producing a film that could be sold to distributors and televesion channels. But then would a flop might mean a larger loss, both is terms of low visibility as well as in terms low returns on large investments. Isn't the risk of a flop present in any branded entertainment? Is it then worthwhile to invest as much in branded entertainment or does product placement serve better?

Women are beautifuI... But is Dove really beautiful???

Dove's decade long campaign on "Real Beauty" sells the idea of buying Dove soaps and shampoos to find the real beauty in a woman.. unlike the other brands which sell photoshopped and wrong notions of beauty, making women feel bad about themselves. This campaign won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2007. It celebrates normal bodies of women which the brand argues are just as beautiful as the pristine images of women displayed in media.



Pascal Dangin, an artisit who worked on the campaign, told The New Yorker that the "Real Beauty" campaign was itself retouched. Unilever has also been accused of having things both ways since its other brands like Axe feature the Photoshopped idea of beautifull women while Dove sells the beauty in ugliness portayed by Axe. Whats even more interesting is that there are many people who seem to be using both the brands as "it makes them feel good". To make the decision of buying Dove further easier for women, Dove also uses the standard idea of beauty in many ads across markets while using people a bit older or not fitting the standard mould  in their real beauty campaign.

The latest ad from from Dove based on Real Beauty shows how women usually underestimate their beauty. Planned or geniune this ad has acheived the objective of making women feel good about their looks. And thus persuade them to buy Dove, brand that allows them to be more beautifull just through a change of perception. Easy .. isnt it. But wasnt Dove telling people that they are already beautiful. Maybe these women in the video didnt believe in Dove's earlier campaigns or they never used Dove's feel good prudcts.


Why women should be so concerned about their looks as the society (or brands) want seems to be lost in this mesmerising campaign about real beauty. But now it seems that more people are decoding the reality behind real beauty. Following is a funny take on the above ad.

In a way its nice to see brands standing for a good idea, like empowering women by building their self esteem. But its sad to see a brand like Dove only do lip service to these ideas than actually believe in them and build them. On one hand they run the real beauty campaign while on the other hand they air ads, even now, showcasing the same un-real and photoshopped standard ideas of beauty to influence women to spend on their products. The brand detests the photoshopped and unnatural beauty idea through its real beauty campaign but endorses it via its products and other campaigns . Lets look at a few Dove ads from India. They show white skinned thin and blonde women (in a nation where darker shades, black hair and cury figures are more natural) and impress on women this idea of beauty, show how hard it is to acheive, how depressed they are when dont have it and how they should spend on Dove to achieve it.

Women are beautiful? The real beauty campaign is interesting. But is Dove really beautiful???

Facebook gifts: innovative way to monetise personal occassions

Facebook has identified a new way to monetise its access to people through Facebook gifts: an innovative offering that makes gifting easier and social. Facebook has added a few options in this scheme that might even make it a preferred way of gifting unless online retailers adapt / copy it soon. Presently gifting is only allowed for users based out of the United States. But it should soon to roll out in other countries having good online retail networks. This can both be seen as an opportunity as well as a threat by the online retailers - an opportunity to retail their products in an omnipresent network while a threat in having to deal with powerfull middleman like Facebook and share margins with them.

Facebook first rolled out Facebook Gifts in September 2012 after its acquisition of gift startup Karma in May 2012. After trials its now been launched for all users residing in the US. Users just need to click on ‘Give a gift’ option on a friends profile to now send them a gift. This button might soon be available on the homepage along with the Birthday Wish option. Alternatively users can just access Facebook.com/gifts to gift their freinds and relatives. 

Facebook provides a wide variety of categories to choose a gift from — Gift cards and Digital, Food, Wine, Apartment & Bar, Beauty & Grooming, Style, Flowers & Gift Baskets, Baby & Kids, and Gifts that give back. 

There is also an option in the form of Facebook Card, a reusable Facebook-branded plastic card. The receiver will get this card in mail about a week after accepting your gift. Then they can use it to make purchases at the store or restaurant hes (his or her) friend gifted you. Facebook Card can also store balances at multiple businesses simultaneously. So the next time you receive a Facebook Card gift, the gift amount will be added to your existing Facebook Card. 

You do not need to provide a shipping address while gifting; your friend will provide that information when hes (he or she) receives the notification of the gift. On the final page, you'll enter in your payment information.  Weirdly Facebook doesnt allow existing Facebook Credits balance to pay for the Gift purchase. Doing this would have allowed Facebook currency to be valuable and maybe even a chosen way to pay online later. When sending a gift, you'll be required to complete payment using a credit or debit card. If a friend doesn't open the gift and enter a shipping address within 2 weeks of being notified, the order will be automatically cancelled and Facebook will refund the payment.

Once you've chosen a gift you can pick out a card to accompany it. The cards are searchable based on the occasion, such as holidays, birthday, thank you, baby, get well, graduation and wedding. After you personalise the card, which only you and the person who's receiving it will see, Facebook will take you to the checkout page. Here, you'll review the final details of your gift, including whether you want to share the gift on your friend's timeline. 

Now lets see the best part of Facebook gift, your friend has an option to swap it for an item of equal or lesser value that hes likes. You wouldnt be notified and the gift you sent would continue to be shown on the timeline. But your friend will get a product that hes likes more. Facebook too is happy that it gets to keep the difference between the two gifts. Still a nice option. Other online retailers should also find a similar way to allow people to swap their gifts. Yes, there is the gift voucher option. But its too boring. Rather allow the sender the pleasure of choosing the gift and the receiver the pleasure of receiving what hes wants while keeping his friend hes friend happy.

So will you use Facebook to gift someone. Let us know @playandthink.

Info source Facebook.com/help/gifts

Solo uses a Message in a Bottle to take over the world

Solo soft drink is currently restricted to Norway and a few American markets. Now they want to go across the seas and get their brand and its message to newer markets. Or they want to convince their current consumers that people around the world will believe that 'Solo is the best soft drink' as they do. This led them to this 'messsage in a bottle' campaign. This campaign surely enthrals audience, keeps them engaged, provides positive WOM and allows Solo to deliver its message that it is the world's best soft drink. In true Norwegian spirit Solo built a boatle, the world's largest boat in the shape of its bottle with a message, filled it with Solo and released it into the sea off the Canary Islands.



Now, supposedly, the wind and ocean currents will determine who gets a taste of Norway's national soft drink. To keep the audience hooked Solo has a few rewards for guessing where bottle will finally end up. So if you have some insider knowledge of where they intend to launch their brand next you have a good chance at winning these rewards. Or maybe this campaign is just for their Norwegian market as the site and videos are made in Norwegian only. But a similar campaign would have been an amzing way to launch the brand in a new promising market, like India. This campaign will have surely raked up great press coverage, if planned well, when the boatle ends its journey in the Indian shores.

The floating Solo boatle has an AIS, lantern, web cam and radar reflector. It will be monitored throughout by the team and subsequent videos and pics would be posted on the microsite and their social media properties. This adventurous boatle could mirror the success NASA's cyber celebrity - Mars Curiosity as Solo updates the boatle's journey on its twitter handle while garnering followers for future shares.

To see more details of the making of this boatle see the following video. Move forward to 1.10 min in this video to skip the introductory video that you saw above.

To see the boatle launch in detail move forward to 1.00 min on the following video.


How did you find this campaign? Tweet us your thoughts @playandthink.

Dove extends its Real Beauty campaign

Unilever, the company that markets Dove soap with a promise of "real beauty" launched a clever app to draw attention to the way professional photographers retouch photos in Photoshop to make models look skinnier, less wrinkly, and more muscular than they really are. They launched the Photoshop Action, an app that one can use in Photoshop to apply an effect to an image with a single click — on Reddit, claiming it "helps to enhance skin tone and gives skin a beautiful glow while hiding all the imperfections." Aimed at art directors who may be creating such ads, its a downloadable file that applies an action with a single click. The action, which was disseminated on Reddit and other places where Dove thought such art directors might visit, promised to add a skin glow effect, but actually reverted the image to its original state.



This App is in continuation to Dove's decade long campaign on "Real Beauty" that sells the idea of buying Dove to find the real beauty .. in women even without the Photoshop effects .. as if looking in a mirror wasn't good enough. "Real Beauty," which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2007, celebrates imperfect and aged bodies of women whom the brand argues are just as beautiful, if not more so, than the pristine images of women usually displayed in advertising. 

However, the brand has dealt with its own allegations of abuse of Photoshop as the audience would imagine. In 2008, artist Pascal Dangin told The New Yorker that the "Real Beauty" campaign was itself retouched. Unilever has also been accused of having things both ways since its other brands like Axe feature the Photoshopped idea of beautifull women (if not men) while Dove sells the beauty in ugliness portayed by Axe. Whats even more interesting that there are many people who seem to be using both the brands as "it makes them feel good".

Women are beautiful? The real beauty campaign is interesting. But is Dove really beautiful?

This discussion is continued in the next post (click below) written after the succcess of the Dove's Real Beauty Sketches campaign

Women are beautifuI... But is Dove really beautiful???