Diesel Knee.J

Objective: To come up with an in-store promotion idea to run along with the ‘Sex sells. Unfortunately we sell jeans’ campaign to help increase sales.

Solution: We created the Knee.J, a spoof sex toy of sorts that would be given away at the store for every customer that ran a bill above $ 150. The product was displayed and people were informed through posters and e-mailers.

It was an instant success. The store saw a great increase in walk-ins with many queries for the Knee.J. The product got so much publicity, it was taken to all the stores in the country. Last we hear, customers were spotted kneeling at the store.

Credits:

Creative Director – Praveen Das / Kartik Iyer

Art Director – Praveen Das / Pradeep Kumar

Copywriter – Sanaa Abdussamad

Illustrator – Rishidev

Studio Head – Ramakrishna R

Account Manager – Ravi Bhat

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Lee – Never Wasted

Brief:

With the relevance of eco-friendly initiatives increasing every day, Lee wanted an innovative solution that would display their affiliation towards the same and also spread the message amongst their customers.

Solution:

To drive the message home in a fun and effective way, we went for something a bit more inventive than just a bag made of recycled paper. The ‘Never Wasted’ shopping bag – a bag that can be used and reused in one way or another. Some for fun, some for function, but nothing ever goes into the trash. Not only did this make the idea longer-lasting and interactive, but also conveyed the message in a fascinating manner.

Credits

Creative Directors – Kartik Iyer / Praveen Das

Art Director – Viduthalai Raj

Copywriter – Athul Chathukutty

Illustration – Vinayachandran T

Studio Head – Ramakrishna R

Account Executive – Neelima Kariappa

http://designtaxi.com/news/33990/Lee-Jeans-Unveils-Truly-Recyclable-Bag-Design/

http://blog.epromos.com/creative-promotional-products/lee-never-wasted-promotional-shopping-bag/

http://designtaxi.com/news/33990/Lee-Jeans-Unveils-Truly-Recyclable-Bag-Design/

http://popsop.com/43003

http://creativecriminals.com/direct-marketing/lee-never-wasted/

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2011/2/9/lee-never-wasted.html

http://adsoftheworld.com/media/dm/lee_never_wasted

http://9gag.com/gag/77335

http://www.lbhat.com/design/seen-and-noted-lee-never-wasted-bag/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasso1981/5431532128/

http://designhey.com/lee-never-wasted/7412/

http://www.advertolog.com/lee/print-outdoor/never-wasted-14161655/

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Board meetings.

Lunch is usually followed by desserts. But at Happy, desserts happen over a game of carrom. Ram leads the way followed by Kartik. The others join in. Cries of  ”shot machaa!” and careful instructions of how to shoot follow. If however, it’s one of those Chennai Vs Kerala matches, things heat up. Viduthalai becomes the sole custodian of the Chennai flag, while Gopi holds up a coconut. It’s nothing short of war. They might be ardent fans of football or cricket otherwise, but while playing carrom, they’re professionals with just victory on their minds. If you happen to be walking past our office on one such day, don’t let the loud cries frighten you. It’s not a violent client meeting or flying tempers, it’s just a game of carrom in progress.

The girls however don’t find the game too engaging. But on the good days, decide to come and cheer their favourite players. Talking about favourites, Michael Stanley a.k.a Vimal is a champ. The Striker. His team always wins. Kartik is the underdog, whose winning streak has got many wondering if his position (as the boss) has got anything to do with his success. He denies it with the kind of conviction he would sell an idea with. He believes that there cannot be a fluke winner in a game of Carrom. Viduthalai startles every time Kartik says that. Praddy comes early to office these days to practice Carrom, and hopes to overcome his colour blindness when it comes to coins. But he has definitely identified his retirement plan already.

The game has become so addictive, the ‘regulars’ at Happy are planning a Carrom competition very soon. As if the loud cries weren’t enough. Arathi is checking with vendors of sound-proof windows. Kartik is planning to talk to the lawyers about a possible anticipatory bail. Meanwhile, Ram has declared that there will be a Doubles event too, and now Vimal is flooded with ‘offers’. As for the Singles event, they are planning to run a Contest for the spectators – to guess who will come second.

P.S: Sponsors are invited for the Annual Happy Carrom Tourney. For details, get in touch with the ‘Board’ of Directors.

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Back to blogging.

No, it’s not what you think; we hadn’t shut down. Nor had we gone under cover to escape the Swine Flu epidemic. The last two months have just been crazy. So crazy that Rakhi Sawant’s Swayamvar seemed normal. Hell, even the auto drivers in Bangalore looked at us like we were the crazier ones. New accounts, new wall colours, new Happy people. We even got a new maid (one who would actually show up). Shoots in Mumbai, South Africa, Chennai. Some of us almost got divorced. And one of us got engaged. We made a fortune out of selling empty Old Monk bottles. Not to mention having to work out of Blackberries and Bluetooth technology, thanks to the Internet connection that took a 12-days-11-nights cruise to the Bermuda Triangle. But we survived, and we are back on the wagon. Or are we off. Watch this space for all that you missed. The sweat. The making of. The madness. We’re Happy to be back.

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One more in the Happy family.

As one leaves our crew, we have another one on the team – Neelima Sargam Bajaj (as we like to call her). Fresh out of Symbiosis, she comes all the way from Coorg with a bag full of chilli pork and a whole lot of good spirit. Having interned at Happy last year, she’s not new to us at all. We know she can sing, and we know she hates the sms generation.

Bhavna’s happy ‘cause she’s finally got one on her team. Rishi’s so kicked that he comes to office earlier these days, and Praveen can already taste the panni curry she will bring for lunch. The rest of us are just happy to see the family growing. In her first week, she got wooed by Loki with a welcome song, harassed by laptop servicing men over internet access, and got introduced to all our clients. We wish Neelima Kariappa (her real name) all the best and hope she finds a wonderful future here at Happy.

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Rajesh goes back to advertising. Happy goes back to school.

Last week, we had another reason to take a break from work, football and recession, and just play like kids again. A farewell party for Rajesh. Now when all of us had thought bubbles about ol’ monk, potato chips and chicken, Praveen suggested we have a costume party. And promptly Kartik suggested a theme of fantasies: Back to School. We had just about half a day to get our stuff together, and man, did we get our act together the next morning! Sharat’s family got blacklisted by the apartment committee. Auto drivers fought to give Bhavna a ride. Jayan’s face looked like skinned chicken. Praveen got stopped by traffic cops. And our neighbours kept their kids indoors. None of us could wait for the evening. We all sat at the edge of our seats like we were all forbidden our bathroom breaks. Rishi and Sanaa flew paper planes. Loki kept polishing his shoes. And Jayan fought with Pradeep over a Lollipop. For those wondering where the man of the hour was, we are still not sure where he went. Rajesh went missing during lunch and showed up 4 hours later – high-spirited and mad. He hugged the innocence out of every school kid and brought the Happy house down with his ridiculous amount of cheer. And then the bell rang. All the kids lined up for the class photo. Rajesh gave not one, but a hundred speeches – about Happy, about Kartik, about Praveen, about Ogilvy, about Iyer and Das at Happy. Overwhelmed from all the nursery rhymes dedicated to him, Rajesh got up on a chair, stood tall and sang the English alphabet song and almost got it right. No one knows whose bright idea it was to have an arm wrestling tournament at 11 at night. But in 15 seconds we were all on our knees, wrestling it out for the top prize: Respect. Loki beat a football star. Sharat let Sanaa win. Kartik forfeited. And Ram remained the undefeated arm wrestling champion, giving him enough reason to do what he loves best – dancing. All of us joined him indoors to save the neighbours from further damage. Praveen danced with the wall clock. Rajesh bumped into everyone. Pradeep rocked it with Jayan, forgetting the Lollipop incident. Some things just never get old at Happy. Whatever said and done, Rajesh will leave a void at Happy. Of roadside noodles, bad jokes, trekking stories and the general (infectious) enthusiasm. We wish him all the very best for his next big journey at McCann-Erickson and may he always be happy.

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Happy News!

Whoever said that Thursdays are boring, clearly didn’t write the script for us Happy folks. A pleasant surprise awaited us this morning when we stepped into our office.

Bhavna’s prayers were answered. Rajesh’s hopes had come true. The world of ideas had a reason to celebrate. Happy had made it into the D&AD 2009 shortlist!

Our ‘Skinny Jeans’ entry in the ‘Packaging Design’ category was selected to appear in D&AD’s 2009 Annual. And this feat feels even more remarkable because only 7% of the entries were selected to appear in the annual this year. To get our own creation chosen by the prestigious D&AD jury as a definitive record of creativity for the year 2008 is an unbelievable high for us.

So kudos to Kartik, Praveen and Ram for giving us this chance to celebrate with them.
Even though this validates all our efforts over the last year, it also drives us to push ourselves more, break more barriers and search harder for that elusive perfection, all within ourselves.

Meanwhile, let’s bring out the ready-mix. Vimal!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Happy hours.

Food takes up a hallow spot in the list of priorities for the Happy folk.

We don’t think of food as a mere nutrition provider; forget bare necessity. We elevate it to a status of a religion. It brings us together, binds us together and pretty much gives us the drive to kick the football around in our room. The way to a man’s heart might be through his stomach, but for us the heart resides in our stomach. We clutch our stomach when we have a heart ache, ala Das.

The show of camaraderie on our Round Happy Table would put King Arthur’s to shame. We, of the Order of the Bulging Waistline, may not be the quickest to rescue a damsel in distress but we would definitely be the quickest in recommending the best beef fry joint for her!

Anthony Bourdain need not travel the world to taste the different cuisines of the world. He just need to come to one of our lunch sittings. From thatte idlies to thai green chicken curry, from roadside egg pepper noodles to fish biryanis, there are very few things that has given the Round Happy Table a miss. And if the range was not enough, we mix ‘n match with our food to come up with new cuisines like Chindian, Malayatinental, Philipinadu to name a few.

The session normally begins to Jayan’s bellows or to the roar of Ram’s stomach. Our lunches are anything but a sub-100 decibel affair. It’s a melting pot of anecdotes, jokes, impromptu mimicry, novel business proposals (like Rajesh’s Gourmet Curd rice business) and much more. We also do think up the days to observe, like ‘Shouting Day’ for example, as Bhavna unfortunately found out. Deep discussions about the shortcomings of chicken cooked with skin are held here. Followed by impromptu decisions to have ice-creams of a radio active color.

Food is not shared here; it is plundered off other’s plates and lunch boxes. Everything is fair in Food and War. The Round Happy Table. It’s the closest we have for a war room and we sure do love it. The fact that it’s always been made sure that everyone has lunch together everyday adds to the charm. It gives us a chance to comment on the day gone by and ask other’s opinions on the asinine things one had to endure.

The Round Happy Table is one of the bedrocks we have in our office. It has witnessed Karthik’s rise from an Easy to Medium level in Guitar-Hero. It lent firm support while we wrapped and sent off all our entries to the One Show, D&AD and Goafest. And saw quietly while we polished off many an Old Monk.

Everyone and anyone is welcome to the Round Happy Table. Even the aunty next door – who’s in love with Ram.

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One small Song. One small Video.

The world has become a difficult place to live. Joy, peace and freedom is at the risk of being overshadowed by fear and insanity. It’s not just the terror attacks that threaten our world today. Everywhere you go, you see corrupt minds, indifferent attitudes, naïve rules. Somebody has to change the world. A little act of kindness. An honest attempt to care. One small love.

When Thermal & A Quarter (TAAQ) came up with the song, we knew it wasn’t just a song; it was a strong message. We insisted that we do a music video for the song, something that captures the very emotion behind the words. Going by the pain and suffering the world is being subjected to, we thought it was just about time to put the smile back on everyone’s face. A gentle reminder that if we make an effort, we can make the world a better place to live. One small step.

TAAQ was off to Jakarta for a show, so we had to get the first cut for approval before they left. So we had a few hours to crack a concept, one day to shoot the video, another day to edit, limited resources and a non-existent budget. The Happy team of Rajesh, Praveen, Kartik and Jayan decided to pull it off, come what may. Ashwin Naidu of Avakkai Films was given the SOS alert. He came with his camera and crew in no time. The video was shot the following day, across Bangalore. The Offline was done at Format Studios, Bangalore and Online at Seven Crest, Chennai. In between all this, TAAQ appeared on a talk show on NDTV where they hummed a few lines from the song (The show was hosted by Barkha Dutt, and was in connection with the Mangalore incident). TAAQ set off to Jakarta after seeing the first cut. After 10 years of penning down some brilliant songs, here they were – running out of words to express their joy. Their way of approval was a big, happy smile.

For Happy, it was the first music video produced in-house. The excitement was palpable. The whole team celebrated with the customary Old Monk (One small gulp is all it takes in a tired world). And three cheers to the TAAQ team of Rajiv, Rzhude and Bruce for producing an inspiring song in times like these. Way to go, guys.

At the time of writing this, some 200 people have been mailed/ scrapped/ messaged with a teaser – the words from the line and a cute snap of the yellow smiley ball. The video will be promoted through Facebook and Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgeXAfSK1z4. Not to mention Thermal’s website. http://www.thermalandaquarter.com

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Sanaa’s wedding invite – A Viral Success

A couple of weeks ago Sanaa, Rishi and Sharat created her unofficial wedding invite. Primarily created for few of her closest friends in Bangalore to beat the ‘straightness’ of her formal wedding card. The ‘Told Mum’ card created in a replica form of the iconic old monk rum bottle was found on our desks one morning. Our reaction to it was instant. Everyone burst out laughing the first time they saw it. To the eavesdropping neighbour the laughs might have sounded like a series of explosions moving around the floors of the Happy office. The same day Sanaa also forwarded the picture of the same invite to friends living across the globe, so they could also be let in on the fun. What happened after that has been an even more amazing story. The invite started to make its rounds among the ‘cool’ mallus across the world. Sanaa started getting calls from lads in the UK and Dubai asking if they could come for the party. But the biggest one of all happened this morning. The invite actually made it back to me from a cousin living in Dubai. It was part of a chain mail that included more than a 1000 e-mail ids. And all of them had only one this to say – Hilarious! In this age of viral communications, Sanaa has actually created a viral piece that is a true exhibit of what a Viral piece should be – fun, involving, engaging and most of all forward worthy.  And why did she do it? Just for kicks. Will a brand ever have the guts to do that? Congratulations Sanaa, you have been awarded with Shamim for your efforts. Enjoy your new life. And your old monk.

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