Devina Joshi
Advertising

<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>Countdown to Abby 2006:</B></FONT> Everest ‘expecting the unexpected’ from ING Vysya?

Everest Brand Solutions is counting on its memorable campaign for ING Vysya’s LION Fund, ‘Expect the Unexpected’, to fetch it some metals at the Abby Awards

Judgement day has finally arrived for the Indian ad fraternity. This evening will decide the fate of several agencies when the Abby Awards 2006 draws to a close. Everest Brand Solutions has armoured itself with four strong entries in the Film category and several others in the Press, Radio and DM categories.

Everest has entered its ‘Expect the Unexpected’ ad for ING Vysya’s LION Fund in the Film: Financial Advertising category. Aniruddha Banerjee, COO, Everest Brand Solutions, has pinned his hopes on this ad. “Not only was this campaign creatively exciting, it also had a profound impact for our client. I think it deserves to be a winner,” Banerjee, aka Onnie, says.

Since the commercial rolled out, ING Vysya has been able to collect Rs 300 crore with the help of 42,000 investors. The creative showed a mini skirt clad airhostess on a state transport bus full of villagers. She gives out instructions in clipped tones, just the way she would if she’d been aboard a plane. Next, the bewildered villagers are served hot towels, just like in a plane. The voiceover then connects the shot with the product by saying, “Expect the Unexpected with ING Vysya’s LION Fund.”

Everest has also sent in two films made for Parle Monaco titled ’10-Rupee Note’ and ‘Railway Station’ in the Film: Food and Beverages category, a film for Fair One, ‘Mosquito’, in the Film: Healthcare, Household Care, Toiletries and Cosmetics category and a film for CNBC’s programme, ‘Storyboard’, ‘Don’t Miss the Popular Spots’, in the Film: Media category.

Onnie is quite hopeful about the CNBC TV18 ‘Storyboard’ ad, too. The show had invited a few agencies to deliver pitches and make an ad to convey that the programme was celebrating four years of existence. Everest came up with the winning creative, which was aired on the channel for quite some time.

The ad goes like this: A wife is cheating on her husband while he is away. When the husband returns, the wife and the other man are sleeping in bed. The husband, mad with fury, looks for the other man everywhere in the room, except the bed. The punch line goes, ‘Don’t Miss the Popular Spots’, and then the commercial explains how the programme covers everything in advertising.

“This is a very tongue-in-cheek, lateral kind of advertising, which we hope will be a winner,” Onnie remarks.

In the Press category, Everest has sent its work on The Intercontinental (for its Sea Food Festival and Non-Vegetarian Festival), Parle-G, Fair One, Siemens and Tortoise (which was a winner all the way last year).

Onnie and his team are especially counting on Parle-G to cinch the Press category for them. The press ad shows a blackboard in a classroom, with the words, ‘I will not point out my teacher’s mistakes again’, written all over it in chalk several times. The tagline goes: Parle-G. ‘G’ mane Genius.

In the Radio category, Everest is betting on ING Vysya LION Fund, Parle-G and Monaco.

In DM, however, the agency is again counting on its work for ING Vysya, in which a kaleidoscope was sent to potential investors. On inserting a coin in the hole provided, one could see the coin multiply and form the image of several coins, thereby stressing on the message that here’s a mutual fund that offers good returns.

So clearly, it’s the ‘Expect the Unexpected’ campaign that Everest has great expectations of today.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

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