Pratap Bose’s cut of awesome and awful brand activations (Coke Ind-Pak campaign is brutally shot down)

With a supposed funding of $10 Million into his newly formed agency, The Social Street, Ex-DDB Mudra COO Pratap Bose has over two decades of experience in advertising up his sleeve. The new agency has already bagged some serious clients, one of which is Britannia Good Day that is rolling out a rather ‘exciting’ campaign later this month, assured Bose as he addressed the convention of event managers in Ahmedabad on 10 October at EMF ACE 2015.

Speaking about what he knows best, Bose delivered a presentation on how brand activation has evolved over the years,moving into a series of examples that he thought were simply brilliant, and those that, well, sucked!

Here’s a look at the winning cut first:

Launch of TV Channel TNT in Belgium



Budweiser Buddy Cup



Nike Chalkbot at Tour De France



Dominoes Pizza Emoji



Carlsberg Cinema experience



And the losers are…

Brooke Bond Red Label activation



Bose explains that the sheer number of Indian’s residing in Dubai took away from the novelty factor of the Brooke Bond Red Label campaign. He calls it a very ‘desperate’ communication to convince the consumer to feel a certain way about the brand.

Coke Ind-Pak vendingmachine campaign

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts_4vOUDImE

To our surprise the Coke Ind-Pak Small World Machine was also on the loser’s board! Bose explains that even though the entry won multiple Golds at Cannes Lions, the sheer fact that no one ever saw this campaign happen, in either India or Pakistan, proves that it was only filmed. And filmed very well. Sure the video went viral since it was high on emotional content but the activation doesn’t qualify as a brand ‘experience’. Therefore as a jury member at Spikes Bose knocked it right out ensuring it doesn’t win a single Gold.