Category: Advertising

The design field is primarily divided into two areas — industrial design and communication design.

Industrial design covers product design, furniture design and interior design. Engineers (mechanical) are suited for product design or transportation design. Architects are suited for furniture and interior design.

Communication design covers graphics, animation, film and video design covering print/TV media. It generally caters to the field of advertising and promotion. Fine arts graduates are suited for this field. Communication design is further expanded to cover user interface design and new media design. Communication design applied to fashion industry is known as fashion communication.

Product design applied to fashion industry is known as life style accessory design.

Murphy, a radio company, way back in the 1970s and 1980s advertised with a baby called Murphy baby. That baby was a Murphy mascot, just like Air India’s Maharajah or Amul baby. The original Murphy baby was a girl who expired. The makers then approached Kagyur Tulku Rinopoche in Manali who was 3 years old then to be the Murphy baby. Later this boy was in a monaestry for 20 years, and did not pursue modelling. He happened to marry Mandakini, the star of the 1980s. He currently resides in Andheri. Both of them shifted to Mumbai 17 years ago. They are in the process of co-direcfing a film.

While the 1970s and 1980s were mainly jingle-driven, the 1990s and 2000s to a large extent concentrated more on selling concepts. The jingles hibernated for close to two decades. They have reappeared now. AirTel’s Har ek friend zaroori hota hai and Hero’s Hum mein hai Hero have become very popular. AirTel’s jingle meant for young audience and office goers has been given a colloquial feel. Har friend has been kept a hook line. Ram Sampath set it to music. Coca Cola created Umeedon wali dhoop, sunshine wali aasha, written by Prasoon Joshi and composed by Shantanu Moitra.

It is necessary to give importance to the Human Resource Management function in the advertising industry. Many talented people leave reputed agencies for the other professions as they are not satisfied. According to Anuja Chauhan, former Creative Director, JWT and now an author, advertising does not give importance to people anymore. Anuja is responsible for some creatives such as There is nothing official about it (1993), Yeh dil maange more (1999), Mera number kab ayega (2001) all for Pepsi.

In 1964, payment for a ramp model per show was a measly Rs. 150- Rs250. In 2011, the figures have reached the sky with payments for a show being Rs. 45000-50000. To begin with modelling was not a profession. It was just a hobby. Those who modelled held full-time jobs. They were drawn from the Parsi and Anglo-Indian communities. Choreographers doubled up as designers. Fashion shows featured the latest fabrics created by top mills in India such as Bombay Dyeing, Simplex, Khatau, Tata Textiles and Binny.

The reigning ramp queens were Pamela King, Shirley Kennedy, Erica Lal, Laila Mehta, Parveez Rustomjee ( now Agrawal ), Zarine Katrak ( wife of actor Sanjay Khan), Iona Pinto Vaz and Katayun Baxter.

In the mid-60s, the ramp models were the late Persis Khambatta, Caroline King, Shobha Rajadhyaksha ( new De ), Marcel and Lise Jones, Sheila Jones, Salome Aaron and the late Anjali Mendes ( Pierre Cardin’s muse ).

The 70s and 80s had names such as Anita Reddy, Veena Prakash, and the Bredmeyer sisters- Indira, Anna and Ulrika.

The Ensemble opened first fashion store in India, and with that from 1987, the era of high fashion designers started. The curves were replaced by tall and slinky models like Nayanika Chatterjee, Madhu Sapre, Shymoli Verma, Achala Sachdev, Marielou Philips, Svetlana Casper and Mehr Jessia.

Lubna Adam, a choreographer and model trainer, walked on the ramp for top designers between 1983-91 and modelled for Vimal, Raymond and Kodak. As a beginner, she drew Rs.250 per show. She was paid Rs.10000 per show when she left. Achala Sachdev, now a choreographer, in her days between 1990-2000 received Rs. 15000 per show. She was the winner of the Navy Queen contest too. She was a Pan Am air hostess. She also acted in the film Kamasutra.

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, models could hardly live on their modelling assignment’s earnings. In 2000, the Fashion Weeks arrived. Models have now become independent professionals.The top names in the business charge Rs. 45000-Rs. 50000 per show. The top names today are Candice Pinto, Carol Gracias, Sonal Rawat, Kavita Karaiyat, Binal and Pia Trivedi, Joe Mathews, Sanae Shaikh, Himadri and Rachel.

Anchal Kumar ,the winter of the Gladrags Mega Model (1999 ) is very much in demand. Sucheta Sharma too is much in demand. Sucheta Sharma too is much in demand. Reha Sukheja is the first runner up of the Miss Universe India 2010 contest organised by Sushmita Sen. Anjum Fakih hails from Saudi Arabia. Sheela Tiruchi is an established model in the fashion world.

Copy of an ad meant in a broad sense the whole of an ad, with words and pictures and other elements. In a narrow sense, it means the written communication in the ad, omits the visuals. A copy writer thus writes the copy, and is a key player in creating an ad. He works in an advertising agency, or as a free lancer. Copywriting is a creative profession, and quite a challenging one too. A copywriter has a flair for language just like other creative artists — like a poet, a novelist, a short-story writer or an essayist. However , he is not free to express whatever comes to his mind like the other creative artists.His communication is integrated to the business objectives of the company for which he is writing, and achieves the tasks the brand manager or advertising manager has set in his briefing. Copywriting is thus not mere by artistic attempt. Copy may or may not have literary merit, but it must meet the advertising objectives. While doing so, if it also has literary merit, well and good. Many literateurs have attempted to write copy, but have failed. Copywriting is thus a combination of skills — linguistic skills, business acumen and the ability to turn out good copy under the pressure of short dead-lines. It is thus very challenging, and at the same time very rewarding profession.

Copywriters have individual styles and approaches. But one thing is sure, it is sheer hard-work. It involves a tremendous amount of planning by interacting with a number of professionals — account executives, client, art directors and research specialists.Besides, we have to do and re-do the copy till it becomes acceptable to the client. But whether doing and redoing is really possible under the pressure of dead-lines is a moot point.

The copy that we see in the ad relates to the head-lines and the body copy. Besides these, copy extends to writing a lot of promotional material such as posters, catalogues, press releases, radio copy, TV commercial’s audio part etc.

One who writes an ad is a copywriter.She/ he should

• be fresh in approach, and avoid cliches.
• not use distractions which take away from the basic sales message.
• make the message relevant for the target audience.
• keep it focused, simple and brief.
• give the audience a reason to go through the copy or listen to it or watch it.

Consumers are going to place their money  behind the brands that are made by companies whom they regard as having social and environmental consciousness. The marketing era that lasted for 30-40 years is dead now. The brand is being managed by the customer. What the company does now is to manage the relationship with the customer.

Retailer recommendations, TV advertising ( powerful influencer through mid-70s until the 1990s ) have lost their appeal. Facebook and Twitter are becoming powerful mediums, and are going to be the most powerful communicators and persuaders.

There is a decline in male modelling. The number of fashion shows using male models are fewer. The fashion designers have their own personal choice. Male models must have a height between 5′ 11.5″ and 6’2″. He should ideally be buff and lean. Many male models in India over exercise. They become too bulky for the designer garments. A new model gets Rs. 5000-8000 per day for ad films. An established model for ramp show charges Rs. 25000 to Rs. 30000 per show. However, the shelf life of a male model is very short — two to four years. Male models do not have as many opportunities as their female counterparts. There are problems of high cost of living in the cities, inappropriate demands by the designers, the required networking in social circuits, and image maintaining efforts. Reputed fashion weeks use female models and tend to pick only a handful of male models. There are alternative careers now available — vjaying, anchoring, rjaying which give a steady source of income. Male models can just have a fling with modelling. They do not have a relationship with it.

These are the people who bring the consumers and the brand together. They do the research and strategic thinking. This is not as simple as it sounds. Here we have to synthesize multiple inputs from culture, politics, history, mythology and everyday behaviour. The inputs come by spending time with the consumers. They are distilled into brand communication. However, these are the days of digital communications which are interactive. Do theses make account planners irrelevant? These days we have to engage the consumers. Planners work away from other functions like creatives and client servicing . Such isolation may not survive for long.  Prior to the arrival of planners, the accounts and creative people did it all on their own. Planners came as specialists. Specialisation creates its own problems. The issues become complex. Planning is to advertising what consulting is to business. Planning is useless if it remains in the hard disk. It must be able to push the creative product to the next level. The trend now is the advent of independent agencies which fuse planning into other mainstream functions. They do cutting edge planning and cutting edge thinking.