Cheeka (dog)

Last updated

A still in which Cheeka follows a boy to a barber shop Cheeka1.jpg
A still in which Cheeka follows a boy to a barber shop

Cheeka is a pug who appeared in the "You & I" advertising campaign of Hutchison Essar's cellular service in India, along with the child actor Jayaram. The dog follows the boy to unlikely locations, prompting the tagline, "Wherever you go, our network follows." The duo first appeared on TV, billboards, newspapers and bus shelters in 2003. The campaign was created by Mahesh V. and Rajeev Rao, senior creative directors at Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai. The commercials were directed by Prakash Varma. The dog was born in the United Kingdom and is owned by Vishal and Lisa Bandekar in Goa.

Contents

Conception

Several telecommunications companies were competing for a share of the rapidly growing mobile phone market in India during the early 2000s. Hutch hired Ogilvy & Mather in Mumbai to create an advertisement campaign focusing on this theme. Mahesh V. and Rajeev Rao, senior creative directors at the agency, spent a whole night developing the idea. [1] "We did not want to talk about technology, and we consciously avoided showing people talking on the mobile", says Mahesh. [2] Their initial idea was a younger sister following an older brother. "On second thoughts, we concluded that a dog would be much less mushy", adds Mahesh. [3] This led to the slogan, "Wherever you go, our network follows", and the idea of a dog following a boy everywhere. "Man's best friend was the simplest analogy that could represent unconditional support", says Renuka Jaypal, National Business Director of O&M. [1]

The first television ad was shot as a 1-minute sequence in Goa. The role of the boy was played by Jayaram, who had already starred in four other ads. Cheeka was suggested for the role by an assistant at Nirvana Films, the makers of the ad. The campaign was soon followed by a print version for newspapers. Cheeka earned ₹150,000 for the campaign, [1] and appeared in Hutch ads, until the merger with Vodafone India, representing the network. [2]

Reception

The campaign was well received in India. "To me the magic of this campaign is its simplicity", says Piyush Pandey, National Creative Director of O&M. [4] "It impacts your emotional retina in such a way that you enjoy it while it is happening", adds advertising legend Alyque Padamsee. [1] "There was something about Cheeka that was very enduring and also there was an instant rapport with the kid", says Jaypal. [4] Padamsee adds, "You rarely see pugs in ads because they are ugly. This goes against the grain and that's why it clicks." [1] The campaign was ranked the Top Print Ad of 2003 and among the Top 10 TV Campaigns of 2003 in India by Business Today. [4]

The ad is similar to the approach used by Fido Solutions, a major mobile service provider in Canada. It is also similar to the concept of network technicians following the customer in recent Verizon Wireless ads in the US.

Legacy

The ad campaign increased the popularity of pugs in India, and the sale of pugs doubled rapidly, with prices going from roughly ₹10,000 to ₹60,000. [1] A few other ads also appeared in the following months, inspired by the idea of a dog following a boy. In addition, Cheeka was the wallpaper most often downloaded by Hutch customers onto their phone screens in 2005. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta-tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering. In Q1 2014, Google earned US$3.4 billion, or 22% of total revenue, through Google AdSense. In 2021, more than 38 million websites used AdSense. It is a participant in the AdChoices program, so AdSense ads typically include the triangle-shaped AdChoices icon. This program also operates on HTTP cookies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attack ad</span> Political ad meant to insult an opposing candidate or party

In political campaigns, an attack ad is an advertisement designed to wage a personal attack against an opposing candidate or political party in order to gain support for the attacking candidate and attract voters. Attack ads often form part of negative campaigning or smear campaigns, and in large or well-financed campaigns, may be disseminated via mass media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ogilvy (businessman)</span> British advertising executive (1911–1999)

David Mackenzie Ogilvy was a British advertising tycoon, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, and known as the "Father of Advertising." Trained at the Gallup research organisation, he attributed the success of his campaigns to meticulous research into consumer habits. His most famous campaigns include Rolls-Royce, Dove soap, and Hathaway shirts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogilvy (agency)</span> Advertising agency

Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City agency that was founded in 1948 by David Ogilvy.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is a worldwide marketing campaign launched by Unilever in 2004 aiming to build self confidence in women and young children. Dove's partners in the campaign included Ogilvy, Edelman Public Relations, and Harbinger Communications along with other consultants. Part of the overall project was the Evolution campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyque Padamsee</span> Indian actor

Alyque Padamsee was an Indian theatre personality and ad film maker. He played Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the 1982 British period film Gandhi.

Pappu (पप्पु) is a male given name in some regions of India. The name pappu is taken from the Hindi word pappu (पप्पु) which is a nickname for a small boy in India.

Throughout its history, the German automotive company Volkswagen has applied myriad advertising methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Targeted advertising</span> Form of advertising

Targeted advertising is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZooZoo</span>

ZooZoos are advertisement characters promoted by Vodafone Essar since the Indian Premier League Season 2 (IPL).
ZooZoos are white creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads who are used to promote various value added services of Vodafone. These characters are played by human actors in body suits. The ads were created by Ogilvy & Mather, the agency handling Vodafone advertisements.
The ads were shot by Bangalore based Nirvana Films in Cape Town, South Africa. Prakash Varma directed the ads.

Vodafone India was the Indian subsidiary of UK-based Vodafone Group and was a provider of telecommunications services in India with its operational head office in Mumbai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piyush Pandey</span> Indian businessman

Piyush Pandey is an advertising professional and the Chief Creative Officer Worldwide (2019) and Executive Chairman India of Ogilvy (agency). He is the recipient of the Padma Shri award (2016). Pandey is also credited with shaping a distinct indigenous influence on Indian advertising that was earlier under the influence of western advertising and ideas.

S. H. Benson Ltd was a British advertising company founded in 1893 by Samuel Herbert Benson. Clients of the company included Bovril, Guinness and Colmans. S. H. Benson was born on 14 August 1854 in Marylebone.

<i>Dove Real Beauty Sketches</i> 2013 film

Dove Real Beauty Sketches is a short film produced in 2013 as part of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty marketing campaign. The aim of the film is to show women that they are more beautiful than they think they are by comparing self-descriptions to those of strangers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telemetry (company)</span>

Telemetry was an independent online advertising security and optimization firm, with offices in London and New York City. In January 2017, Telemetry shut down amid declining revenues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Cleetus</span> American cartoonist, creative director

Francis Cleetus is an American cartoonist, painter, and sculptor. He is also a creative director, graphic designer, and copywriter, who has worked at various ad agencies including Foote, Cone & Belding, Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson and Doe-Anderson in India, Hong Kong and the US.

PubMatic, Inc. develops and implements online advertising software and strategies for the digital publishing and advertising industry. PubMatic's sell-side, real-time programmatic ad transaction advertising software puts publishers of websites, videos, and mobile apps into contact with ad buyers by using automated systems, while allowing users to opt-out of having their personal information collected on internet searches. PubMatic has a number of offices in countries around the world.

Rajiv Rao is National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather, responsible for the ZooZoo and Pug Advertising Campaigns of Vodafone. He also did many other creative campaigns. He had won several medals at Cannes, One Show, Clio, Ad fest, CA, Media Spikes and London International Awards for his Creative work. He worked on Vodafone/Orange in India has won ‘Campaign of the year’, 4 times in a row. The World Brand Congress also conferred Mr. Rajiv Rao with the Creative Person of the year award in 2009. He had also been invited to be a part of the jury at the London International Awards and Ad fest Asia Pacific. According to Economic Times India, he has been in the list of top Creative Directors of the country for the last 5 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahesh Murthy</span> Indian marketer, entrepreneur and investor

Mahesh Murthy is an Indian marketer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the founder of the digital agency Pinstorm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GTB (advertising agency)</span>

GTB, formerly known as Team Detroit, is an advertising agency based in Detroit, Michigan. It is the primary creative agency for the Ford Motor Company. GTB is a subsidiary of WPP, one of the Big Four advertising firms.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mitra, Moinak. Top Dog! Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Business Today, 7 December 2003, retrieved 24 November 2006.
  2. 1 2 IIPM Editorial
  3. ↑ Dobhal, Shailesh. HUTCH: You & I in this beautiful world Archived 16 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine , Business Today, 23 May 2004, retrieved 24 November 2006.
  4. 1 2 3 Thomas, Prince Matthews. You and I... The Week, 18 July 2004, retrieved 24 November 2006.
  5. ↑ Jaypal, Renuka. Going Digital in India Archived 15 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine , Viewpoint, May 2006, retrieved 24 November 2006.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.