“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about” – Oscar Wilde.
Benetton took the world by storm in 1984 with its ‘All the Colors of the World’ campaign which later evolved into the ‘United Colors of Benetton’ trademark. The ads started with the theme of racial equality and later went on to address a host of other burning issues. Their controversial and hard-hitting portrayal often landed them in trouble but more often than not, they also managed to be heard and thus make their presence felt. …

[This article was contributed by Gokul Badrinarayanan, a second year Post graduate student at IIM Calcutta. Marketing is both his interest and passion and he is especially interested in Social media and movie marketing. Movies have been a life-time indulgence, with interests varying across various genres and eras of English, Tamil and Hindi cinema. He is a fresher from Anna University. You can read more of his posts at casualstrokes.wordpress.com]
Imagine this scene.
Its late at night, so late that its almost the next day. There is a closed gate, and outside …

Before I begin this article, all credit to Mr. Chandra Deep Mitra, faculty at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta for introducing us to this phenomenon. Most of the following examples have been taken from his lecture.
Back in 1915 Earl R. Dean, who was working at the Root Glass Company, was given a brief to design a bottle, which firstly could be recognized in the dark. And then, even if broken, a person could tell at first glance what it was.
The result was a, today ubiquitous, bottle sporting red & …

It’s time for Waka Waka. People not even remotely interested in the sport of soccer are debating whether Cappello is responsible for England’s mess or whether the vuvuzela is a boon or an evil. Such is the impact of this gigantic international event on everybody’s mind that marketers would be foolish to not associate themselves with this event and capture some of the mind space. Expectedly, all of them have been feverishly working on it and believe it or not, more than 7 billion USD have been spent on advertising …

Waka Waka fever has gripped the world and people from across the globe are tuning in every day to see who would go on to raise the FIFA World Cup trophy on the 11th of July, 2010. Given the magnitude of the event and the global reach of every game, it is a marketer’s delight. In any such event, the coveted ‘official tournament sponsors’ position usually draws stiff competition. However, every tournament of this magnitude also draws a number of so-called ‘unofficial’ sponsors – the ‘ambush marketers’. Call them smart …