More Aliens Invited in Facebook

In 2012, facebook directs more and more strategic moves by entering into IPO, acquiring Apps Support companies.

For Sharing Photos, mark Zuckerberg has acquired Instagram and employees of Instagram has come under the shades of Facebook. With the Instagram team joining Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is very much optimistic that growth would be more mutually beneficial giving greater experience for the facebook users in sharing photos in their domain.

Another big strategic move by facebook is buying Tagtile, which will give Facebook more expertise about how to approach businesses and convince them to use a valuable service for engaging with their customers. If it can tie its online offers to Tagtile’s service, it will give businesses a way to redeem those offers in-store and show them how effective their offers were. But I’m not sure how much of the acquisition is really about the TagTile box long term. NFC phones are coming, and you can already establish a user’s location inside a store and reward them with QR codes. Foursquare is doing this through check-ins and Shopkick is as well through its dedicated audio hardware.

Thums Up replaces Akshay Kumar with a group of four led by Telegu superstar Mahesh Babu

Akshay Kumar has been endorsing Thums Up for eight years on a trot; he's now 45. Some 30% of Thums Up consumers are women. Andhra Pradesh is Thums Up's biggest market in India.

And some 47% of Indians are under 20. Throw all these seemingly disparate data points into a bottle, shake it vigorously and pronto: you have a brand new fizzy recipe, not for Thums Up itself but for its advertising and promotion.

As brand consultant Harish Bijoor says: "Brand-endorsers age. Brands don't. Brands have two choices. They can either age with their brand endorsers, or they could change their brand endorsers." The marketers of Thums Up are clearly in no mood for the former.

So out goes the ageing Bollywood macho man. Replacing him is a group of four highenergy dudes - one of whom is a woman - and led by Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu, who has been the brand's face down south for five years now.

Suddenly, all those bulleted points at the beginning of this article don't seem so incongruent any more. Akshay and his adrenalin-pumping action on building tops and down sharp cliffs to grab a bottle of his favourite soft drink is passe.

Thums Up has to appeal to - with apologies to Pepsi - Youngistan, the girls included. And if AP is where Thums Up sells the most, Mahesh Babu fits the role to a tee.

It all began a year ago, when Thums Up and Leo Burnett, the creative agency for the brand, brainstormed on the next big idea for the cola brand that would ensure it stayed ahead of the global big boys, Pepsi and Coke. Spools of research tape revealed GenY's upbeat mood and aspirations.

These range from a guy from Gwalior who, after studying engineering, decided to start his own business; to another middle-class Joe from Jhansi who wanted to take up dancing as a profession despite family opposition. Led by such insights, the new summer-campaign of Thums Up released recently moves on from the one-man army that was Akshay Kumar to a story of four friends and their version of daredevilry amidst the highrises of Bangkok.

Justifying the shift, Srinivas Murthy, director - marketing (flavours and Thums Up), elaborates : "The new code of masculinity for Thums Up - real, contemporary and more social - is borne out of their (GenY's ) affinity to do things in groups and lead from the front."

The earlier positioning of the muscular caveman guy who was larger than life is less relevant now, adds Murthy. To put it simply, the attempt is to continue with the position of masculine icon albeit in a more refreshed avatar.

Says K V Sridhar, national creative director, Leo Burnett: "The youth of today belong to a generation that likes to explore , and does it with a level of confidence. They are not looking at becoming the leaders of the world but are happy within their group.

Pepsi Co Extending the Line

With the season started, Pepsi Co has started introducing new Lines and adding SKU lines to the existing brand, say for example Mirinda has been released in 3 flavours - orange , orange masala etc.,

And also other food products like lays and all being released with different flavors endorsed with the cricket players as the cricket fever has started.

In addition with extending Mirinda, 7 up is also planned to give brand endorsement to nimbooz in the name of 7 up nimboo which will directly take the brand credit of 7 up.

With the season in phase, many variations is expected with fresh juices into market from pepsico.