MAM
Discovery, Interference’s creativity for ‘Shark Week’
NEW YORK: This is news that should give our broadcasters some pause for thought! Discovey US is continuously thinking of unusual ways to promote its specials. Earlier this year it used the ad agency Interference Inc. to promote Walking With Cavemen which was its collaboration with BBC Worldwide.
That initiative saw 30 “cave people” taking a tour of three key cities – New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. More recently to create buzz around Shark Week, which aired in the US from 10-17 August, the network again embraced the alternative outdoor advertising medium.
Work done for Shark Week (Picture courtesy mediapost.com)
A Mediapost report indicates that the cities targeted this time were New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Orlando. The out of home (OOH) ads that intereference Inc. created supported print, TV and outdoor advertising. Noteworthy was an underwater ad in the shape of a great white shark approaching from below coupled with details of when the show would air. The decal, measuring 6,500-square feet, was placed on the bottom of the world-class wave pool at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas from 1-10 August.
A similar underwater ad, measuring 1,000 square feet, was installed on the pool bottom at the Royal Pacific Resort Hotel in Orlando. Another highlight were the shark bite media. Here common objects such as cars, surfboards and trashcans appeared as if they had been victims of shark attacks. The objects were placed in high-traffic areas such as Times Square and Grand Central Station in New York and Santa Monica Pier and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The basic message was “Shark Week Is Back.” Interference has dubbed this unique marketing style guerilla campaign.
The Cavemen campaign
Such a campaign often involves face-to-face interaction at times and places when people are most receptive to hearing about the brand. These times and places differ depending on the product, messaging, desired result and consumer mindset. Guerrilla and alternative marketing also manifests itself in unique ways for consumers to encounter a brand message. These encounters are usually media spaces that are created for the purpose of the message distribution, not traditional ‘ad buys.’ Examples include feet on the street, product sampling, publicity stunts, random free shuttle buses as well as random acts of kindness. Guerrilla Marketing is effective as it is able to deliver a relevant message to a desired individual, at an appropriate location, in a time when they are most receptive to it by any means necessary.
Coming back to Discovery, the agency claims that the Cavemen campaign was a huge success. It managed to stop traffic in almost every location. Consumers took lots of pictures with the cavemen. This translated into on-air ratings. It remains to be seen whether or not the Shark Week campaign drew a similar response.
MAM
India wins big at the 2025 Global Best of the Best Effie Awards
The Womb and McCann India take home Global Grand Effies, putting Indian advertising on the world map
MUMBAI: Indian advertising just had its moment. At the 2025 Global Best of the Best Effie Awards, the most rigorous test of marketing effectiveness on the planet, two Indian agencies beat out campaigns from over 130 markets to claim Global Grand Effies, the sport’s equivalent of a world championship medal.
The Womb won for Piramal Finance with a campaign called “NEEYAT: India’s Real Credit Score,” a purpose-led push that took direct aim at systemic bias in the credit sector and reframed how creditworthiness is measured. McCann India won for ESAF Small Finance Bank with “Saving Her Savings,” a campaign centred on financial inclusion for marginalised women. Both wins came from a shortlist of 47 contenders, all of whom had already won gold or grand prizes in their home markets. Only 11 Global Grand Effies were handed out across seven markets. India got two.
The highest honour of the night, the Iridium Effie, awarded to the single most effective marketing campaign in the world, went to eos Products and Mischief @ No Fixed Address for “Women’s Shave.” Remarkably, it was their second consecutive year taking the top prize.
Other global winners included Oreo and Mondelez International for “Oreo Codes” in commerce and shopper marketing, Flamin’ Hot and PepsiCo for “Poker Face” in experiential marketing, and ALDI Australia for “Shop ALDI First” in retail.
The Best of the Best is no ordinary awards show. Entry is restricted to campaigns that have already won a gold or grand Effie at a national level, making it, in effect, a champions’ league of marketing effectiveness. Indian agencies are no longer just brilliant at cracking local markets. They are now setting the global standard.
The world’s best advertisers had better start paying attention.
