Maps and teeth

We ate too much. We drank too much. We laughed too much. And, naturally, we will do this again. This was my tweet on a party I attended at Ajay Juneja's house last weekend. To celebrate Diwali (the Indian festival of lights) and in general, shining happy people. Ajay is a friend, but he's also a Specialist Prosthodontist, and a very good one. I met him over a very casual root canal, and now we're friends doing Diwali. So, you know he's good. Normally, the guy who does a root canal on you isn't quite on a 'make friends with' list. But Juneja was fab. And, no I'm not plugging him either (he does practise at the Dental Studio in Jumeirah, and since I am not plugging him, you'll just have to google it).

We arrived late that evening because Ajay decided he'd send us a map. Not one he printed off google maps, but one he had drawn, scribbled, corrected, sent a wrong one first, then a right one, and by then we didn't quite know right from wrong and left from right. He's very very good at making your teeth look very very Hollywood, but at maps? Challenged.

But that's what makes it all fun. He's good at teeth. And he's particularly good at what one of my favorite writers Jeremy Clarkson calls 'American teeth'. Clarkson once famously wrote "There are four different types of teeth. There are canines which are used for tearing of lumps of meat. There are incisors which are used for cutting it. There are premolars for crushing it. And there are American teeth which are used for appearing in Hello! Magazine" and while I I'm 100% that Dr Juneja is good at all four, I'm told he's an award winning dentist at American or Hello teeth. But not maps. So, I offered to do him one.

However, I know he already has one at home. All his wife's friends showed up on time, because she simply used a google map. But men don't do maps, don't do directions – give or take – and the Ajay set were all lost and late. But stylishly, and Hello-ishly to say the least. Cheers Ajay.

The Gemas Effies 2010

This year’s entries were fairly balanced. Some of the categories had very strong, result driven entries which harnessed solid strategy unfolded via creative executions. On the other hand some categories were hugely disappointing – and we were reluctant to honor the entries in those.

The successful and awarded entries were clearly the ones which had relevant insights, specially local insights – something special that the brand and the agencies picked up and worked with – and reaped the results in the market place. Today’s informed consumer recognizes a good product and resonates to a good campaign built around solid consumer insight. The winning entries reflected this.

Overall, this year, we saw a huge paradigm shift in consumer engagement. The most successful entries were (not surprisingly) ones that used the power of 360° engagement – and most often digital engagement played a key role in those campaigns. With today’s consumer ever increasingly being engaged, entertained and empowered by brands in the digital and social domains, it wasn’t at all surprising to see some of the winning entries being pivoted around where today’s consumer is playing – in the digital and social fields. (Clever) Local insight combined with 360° engagement – with an emphasis and a nod to digital – that’s what 2010 has been about.