1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson, Mahindras,M-Seal

CREATIVE
The first three ads were part of a campaign. The first ad had the headline above the left visual showing the idol of Lord Shiva with a broken nose, which said "Shiva temple , Mumbai" and the headline above the right hand visual said "rebuilt". The two visuals indicating a "before -after" scenario with M-Seal adhesive as the saviour! Similarly, the next visual with the sculpture with the hands cut had the headline "Venus di Milo,Louvre, Paris". The after M-Seal visual had the hands returned and the headline went "Joined". For the third one it was "The Pissing Boy of Brussels" and the visual on the right showed the boy rather "inactive":), thanks to M-Seal and the healdine said "Leak stopped"!. Meetu and Paul did this campaign with Ganga and Nalesh supervising.
STRATEGIC RELEVANCE
M-Seal was faced with stagnating sales growth. Our attempt to rejuvenate this by identifying "new uses, new users" and increase frequency of consumption. The known benefits of stopping leaking pipes, rebuilding cracks in walls and joining parts were presented in unexpected situations and contexts. The body copy exhorted readers to send in innovative uses of M-Seal that they had discovered. It was aptly christened "Eureka" contest!!

The last ad was to promote M-Seal as a medium for art. The headline went without the alphabet i in "artist" The body copy urging the reader to discover the hidden "i" in themselves. Art with M-Seal was a means of self expression and discovery, argued the writer Cherry Koshy. Ganga and Nalesh got this released after working on this with the original team.

We pitched and won this account from Mudra the incumbent agency. We also did a film which showed a nervous thief breaking into a house and using M-Seal to stop all the nocturnal noises, leaking tap, a clock pendulum about to strike 12 and even a creaking open window from where he climbed in, closing all his exits!!
CLIENT FEEDBACKFeedback on Mseal, MRIDL others

1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson: Mahindras. Corporate

The ad at the top was done for a magazine that was published by the Mahindras called "Interiors and Lifestyle India". The ad showed the centre clip with all pages torn away. The line at the bottom simply said "Interiors and Lifestyle India. Every page is a collectors item." The Copywriter was Paul Menacherry and the Art Director was by Viren Kamdar. Ganga and Nalesh worked with them and ensured that the final product was world class. It indeed was because it won us our first statuette after numerous finalist nominations!!


The ad "Just a few lines in the fond memory of Mother Teresa was on her death.



This one was just before the New Year eve, when drunk driving accidents were at the highest in Mumbai and we got Lazor Digital Proab,Shirnaz Motors,GMS Group and QCPL to sponsor it.


The matchbox with the film poster of "Mother India" and matches with the colours of the flag were used to promote communal harmony and was carried in the souvenir that was published on the occasion of the MAMI Festival.




Nanhikali was a welfare organisation that helped girl children. The ad was for Christmas gifts.

 

Client Feedback

1996-98:PSLMcCann Erickson, Mahindras, Sports

Mahindra's were very much into promoting sports. The ad at the top was for corporate branding. the headline went : "You either have them or you don't" the visual of various "balls" completing the thought!! The body copy was more sedate and pithily said " Mahindras, a company that builds champions. On the field and off the field."

Golf was the favourite sport in the company board room. While promoting it, our attempt was to demystify the game and make it simple and interesting to the general public. The cartoon strip was actually placed on 4 corners of a page (10 col cms each) and first carried in the Afternoon Despatch & Courier. The ad was effectively 40 col cms but dominated the page!!!

The Squash event campaign involved a series of different interpretations of the word 'squash' appearing in successive right hand pages of the newspaper (Midday). The actual word and event were revealed in the 4th page!! This won us a nomination at the CLIO awards in 1997, the finalist certificate at New York Festivals in 97 and was featured in the Annual 6 of the New York Festivals.

The campaign was originally conceived in black and white by Zubin Driver and Meetu Mahabaleshwarkar. It was however rejected by the Client. I am proud that along with Ganga and Nalesh we resuscicated this work and got it released. It took a lot of selling but when done in colour the campaign looked different!

CLIENT FEEDBACKAnand Mahindra Feedback

1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson, Automotives

The automotive division of Mahindra's was handled by Enterprise Advertising. We pitched and won the account from them. The Voyager campaign was based on the feature of roominess. This was dramatically shown in the layouts above. The film featured a glass shell on a chasis so that the "big picture" or the dramatic rendition of the benefit could be carried across media.
The Great Escape was event for Mahindra 4 wheel drive owners who saw themselves as macho, adventure seekers. It was a drive which was across rugged terrain that pushed the driver and vehicle to the limits. The campaigns were done for various locations... the first one was in Delhi (cute cars wont make it... was a swipe at competition:)), the blockbuster cinema feel was for the Bhopal were films were the staple entertainment mode and then Goa and Mumbai.
Paul Menacherry was the writer on this with Ganga and Nalesh providing guidance. Ganga did the whole hog and converted the Delhi event creatives into a film using the ads as full supers interspersed with rally footage.

1996-98: PSL McCann Erickson: Automotives

An ad done to cue the fact that Mahindra jeeps were suited to Indian terrain and conditions and therefore were used by law enforcement, military and essential services. After all its a son of the soil.!!

1996-98:PSL McCann Erickson, Tractors

The ad above was a huge success at Mahindra's. It was backed with a clear cut strategic recommendation that suggested a shift from naming tractors on the basis of numbers like 575 etc to a completely different brand architecture. Three segments were identified with the top segment being offered heavy duty models and the payoff being "status". The brand name was "sarpanch" and the TG were mostly well to do farmers who would use it also as a personal transport vehicle on occasions. The middle segment were sold on performance and in hard soil conditions the"senapati" was to be the choice. The entry level segment was to be wooed with sipahi and the value for money proposition was the recommended route.
The ads previously used to feature the entire range. It changed after the sarpanch branding. Media wise too it gave us a lot of flexibility with sarpanch being featured in Punjab and affluent markets while the medium range was aimed at AP etc.
Ganga and Nalesh again did the creative themselves. The pagdi was illustrated by R.Vanmali.

1996-98:PSL McCann Erickson: Forester

The Forerster campaign was done out of the Mumbai office, though it was a Delhi client. Amit Srivastava used to fly down and coordinate work with Ganga and Nalesh. Ganga's untiring work in terms of research deserves mention here. After hours in the U.S. Centre Library, he knew more about the heritage and processes involved than the client! The campaign that he and Nalesh Patil came up with won us a Finalist Certificate at the London International Advertising Awards in 1997 and was featured in the Lurzers International Archive, vol 6, 1997. Nalesh's wood cut feel for the campaign gave an old world feel for the brand that was claiming a pedigree which was 127 years old!!
The strategy of pitching it against scotch whisky was intelligent and backed with this campaign which harped on the history and heritage of Americana, (which had a lot of takers in 1997) the results were there to see.
The law did not permit alcohol advertising, therefore reprints of wood cuts of Americana were used as surrogates to promote the brand!!! It all fell into place!!!

The next set of creatives were for an event done with Sony Music on the launch of title from Oasis. The headlines were interesting and were done by Paul Menacherry. For the visual of the guitar it said "A music show were fashion pulls the strings" and for the ad featuring a saxophone, it went "Fashion, drinks and sax, what more do you want?"