Tobias Briffa is a junior planner who has worked on campaigns for brands such as Lenovo, Nestle, Titan, U.S. Tourism, and The Farm. For Lenovo, he interviewed youth in India to understand their challenges and optimism about the future. His findings informed Lenovo's strategy to empower youth. For U.S. Tourism, he interviewed Indians and found distrust of the U.S. in the media that did not reflect America's natural beauty or culture. For Xylys watches, he found customers bought them to avoid convention, matching the brand's unconventional nature.

1. Tobias Briffa
Junior planner

2. • Mad Men Award for Best Idea, Lenovo-Ogilvy Awards 2011
• Ogilvy & Mather WW, India
• Ogilvy & Mather, Malta
• Brands: Lenovo, Nestle, Titan, U.S. Tourism, The Farm

3. Lenovo Worldwide
BRIEF: Our task was to create desire for Lenovo by building an emotional connect with the net-gen. Our
strategy was to target leaders of tomorrow: youth in emerging markets. Seven Ogilvy offices in the regions
gathered to compete in worldwide pitch.
RESPONSIBILITIES: I interviewed youth on how it felt to be leaders of tomorrow, and was in charge of
collecting and analysing fashion, architecture, icon and music trends in India.
FINDINGS: Youth in India were optimistic about the future, however they were also scared and confused.
They faced orthodox values, high expectations from parents and a highly competitive environment. Lenovo
needed to help the youth see beyond these challenges by empowering them.
OUTCOME: My findings recommendations were sent to Ogilvy Head Office NY to inform the strategy.
BIG IDEA: Lenovo Ignites passion.
Video link

4. Lenovo ThinkPad X1
BRIEF: Lenovo’s thinnest ThinkPad ever; the X1.
The brief was to move from rational appeal
(typical in B2B marketing), to more emotional
appeal. To do this, communication needed to
speak to the consumer’s aspirations by moving
outside the typical boardroom settings.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Develop strategy and brief.
SOLUTION: I created three characters called the
Birdman, the Architect and the Iceman. They
used their laptop to do extraordinary things
during and outside work. I made videos to
bring these characters to life and two of them
were presented along with an extension into
web and OOH.
BIG IDEA: Extraordinary people do
extraordinary things.
Links to videos: Birdman Architect Iceman

5. Rich media
interactive
The Birdman: Tri-vision OOH

6. U.S. tourism
BRIEF: U.S. tourism was facing declining numbers. My job was to find out what travellers in the emerging
markets felt about the U.S. as a tourist destination, and why they weren't coming.
RESPONSIBILITIES: To understand the Indian mindset I interviewed twenty Indians aged twenty-one to
fifty-one and wrote a report on my findings.
FINDINGS: On camera, respondents answered safely and made expected associations with Obama, New
York, capitalism, war and freedom. I questioned: were they uncomfortable about saying what they truly felt?
Off camera, they revealed a completely different side. They cursed the U.S. and showed distrust. Most
respondents hadn’t been to the U.S. yet they seemed to regurgitate images from the media. Nobody cited the
fascinating attractions like the wealth of iconic figures, the Blues and America’s vast, natural beauty e.g. the
Arizona desert.
SOLUTION: To attract tourists from the emerging markets, U.S. tourism needs to project images that are
dormant in the media such as America’s beautiful landscapes, the literature, the icons and history of its rich,
undiscovered culture.
Video link

7. Lenovo India
BRIEF: Lenovo briefed Ogilvy Bangalore and other local agencies to localise “For those who do” campaign
in India because they felt it did not resonate with Indian youth.
RESPONSIBILITIES: I was sent out to interview fifty net-gens and produce a summary on how they felt
about Lenovo and what computer they dreamt of owning.
FINDINGS: Most dreamt of owning an Apple and Lenovo was out of touch the youth. Most associated
Lenovo with B-grade actors like Reese Witherspoon and Bon Jovi, whereas Apple was cool like Johnny Depp
and George Clooney. The insight was that Lenovo is on “the duller side of the competition”.
OUTCOME: My findings were sent to Head of Planning Ogilvy India, and included in the strategy. We won
this pitch and now own the new campaign.
Video research Creative

8. Xylys
BRIEF: This unknown luxury watch wasn't doing well
against foreign brands in a growing market. We were
asked to come up with an idea to make Xylys more
desirable. This was a highly unusual brand: Swiss-Indian
Made, quirky designs, even the name and logo were odd.
How could Xylys compete against the likes of Patek
Philipe or Armani?
RESPONSIBILITIES: I visited stores, made customer
observations and interviewed ten Xylys customers. My
findings were used by the Head of Planning to inform
strategy.
FINDINGS: People said they bought a Xylys to avoid a
conventional watch. They didn't mind something new and
weren't conscious about its oddities. They, like Xylys,
didn't aspire to conventions and felt comfortable doing so.
BIG IDEA: Xylys is for those who don’t aspire to avoid
convention, but naturally do so.

9. The farm
BRIEF: Ogilvy asked us to do work for a struggling farm.
We had a miserable budget. The creatives and myself
visited the farm in Madras. Situated in the middle of a
tech highway, like an oasis in the desert, it was where
software engineers and managers from tech parks would
come a let off steam.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Analysing the business problem,
development of strategy and briefing creatives.
INSIGHT: “The grass is greener” - this was a place for
mental sustenance on the other side of work life.
SOLUTION: We used the insight and gave it a twist,
“the udder side”. The client loved it so we took it idea
forward with a 360 rendition into web, menu, signage
and stationary. The business also became known as “the
udder side”.

10. Creative briefing Illustrations for creative briefing

11. Creative Our simple two colour approach was inexpensive and
suited the client’s needs. We are in the process of
developing an animated website, OOH and other
experiential/guerrilla marketing tactics.

12. Bangalore road safety
This was for the Bangalore Road Transport
Corporation. The brief was to reduce
Bangalore’s road accidents as figures were rising
to 5000 traffic-related deaths per year. In
Karnataka, political scandals are rife, and the
main cause for budget deficiencies. In order to
effect real change, I proposed targeting
communication at politicians and civilians to
create a small stir and a resulting legal change.

13. Road safety brief
BRIEF
Every year in Bangalore, 5000 families face the horror of losing their loved ones on the roads, whilst scandalous
and corrupt politicians squander peoples money that should be spent on road safety. We are looking for a legal
response to an emotional change.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Partisans, who need to stand up and voice their opinion. They must clamour for change and not be cowed down
by status quo.
CHANGE IN BEHAVIOUR
Use communication to create an awakening. We want people to realise that politicians are doing nothing and start
asking questions and demanding answers; Where is our tax money going? Why is the system so bad? Why are so
many people losing their lives on the road? Why is there so much money in the politician’s pockets? Why is it not
being spent on road safety?
MESSAGE
Every day 20 people die on the road whilst politicians enjoy our money.
TONE
A calling for action.

14. Nestle
BRIEF: Conduct research on the childhood obesity
market in India, and come up with ideas for product
packaging for our client in London. I presented
findings on seven competitors including PespsiCo,
Coca Cola and Unilever, along with research on
governmental initiatives, community initiatives and
NGO’s, that were placed to tackle childhood obesity.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Desk research, store visits and
packaging recommendations.
INSIGHT: Health snacks needed to be small enough
to fit inside a tiffin, a type of lunch box that Indian
children use to carry their meals. Parents would
keep their kids happy and healthy.
OUTCOME: My findings were sent back to Ogilvy
London. My competitor analysis, in-store
photography and packaging recommendations were
presented to Nestle.