AD Agencies
FB-WPP to nurture mobile-first creativity tools
MUMBAI: Facebook has hosted the creative ambassador programme for WPP creative agencies in Mumbai. The programme was aimed at educating WPP Creative agencies in a scaled way and empower them to develop award winning, mobile first creatives that exceed their clients’ business objectives.
As the adoption of mobile accelerates in India, it is transforming the way people are discovering, experiencing, sharing and connecting with people, ideas and organisations that matter to them. With the “Creative Ambassador Program,” Facebook is focused on helping partners develop ideas that intrigue and engage for the mobile world. The program was launched in Asia-Pacific in June last year and has been rolled out in Hong Kong, Singapore and now in India.
“Mobile is the future of consumer and brand interaction. Nowhere is such opportunity more evident than in Asia and in particular, India with smartphones fast becoming the device of choice for spending,” says WPP India country manager Ranjan Kapur.
The program was launched in Asia-Pacific in June last year and has been rolled out in Hong Kong, Singapore and now in India.
Facebook India and South Asia managing director Umang Bedi, said, “Creative agencies have always been at the forefront of every award winning creative work and we see great potential in working together to make rich creative expressions on Facebook and Instagram. The Creative Ambassador Program will help us bring together and educate creative talent to leverage the Facebook targeting tools and personalized marketing at scale to build brands and produce best in class work in a mobile-first world.”
The two-day programme was run by Facebook’s Agency team, Creative Shop team and Blueprint team. It kicked off with a deep dive into different segments of the creative journey with Facebook and Instagram on the first day, and was attended by top creative directors, planning directors, copywriters and client leaders from WPP agencies across India. Day two of the program included partnering with the Blueprint team to run Blueprint Live, a bespoke version especially for Creative Agencies that helps them to come up with “the big idea” and creative concepts.
WPP chief digital and strategy officer Scott Spirit said, “WPP agencies are constantly reinventing ways in which clients can reach out to their audiences. By partnering with Facebook, WPP agencies will have access to the latest technology and knowledge that will enable them to help clients stay ahead of the curve.”
This global programme was co-created by Scott Spirit, Global Head of Strategy for WPP and Edel Horgan, APAC Lead on WPP for Facebook. The partnership program will be expanded to Australia this year, followed by New York to ensure people are up-to-speed on everything Facebook and Instagram has to offer and ensure creative agencies never miss out on new opportunities.
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
