Great Train Journey 2

Another long train journey in just over a month...This time around I had my wife too to care care of Neo. So did manage more sleep and few thoughts:-)

Some random observations in no particular order or significance...

1. The humble newspaper is the one true community product. Especially in a railway coach. This is perhaps the only place where people sometimes don't even bother to ask for the paper. They just take and browse. The thank you is implicit, seldom verbalised!

2. Adjust kar lenge. Is perhaps the opening line of most train journeys as passengers begin to arrange their luggage in the compartment. The sweetness of the 'adjust kar lijiye' is directly proportional to the available luggage space!

3. T-bags : the bland equaliser. Till the Taj Mahal and the Tetley tea bags came into circulation, different stations had their own tea flavours and vendors had their distinctive sales andaaz. My favourite was 'Choudhary ki chai' - the adrak spiced milk-tea that I used to get ahead of Bhusawal on train journeys to my college in Surat. Choudhary was a ritual we used to look forward to. He had amongst the most lyrical sales pitch that memory recalls. Had character. A big smile and most importantly good chai.

No disrespect to T-bags; but in one swoop, they have managed to homogenise the tea drinking experience. It's the same bland sugary stuff wherever you go!

4. Graveyard shift As I have gradually migrated to the AC 3/2 tier, the buzz of the sleeper is gone. I never realised that as a nation we are so sleep deprived. A majority of the passengers sleep for the better half of the journey.
Rarely have I encountered the loud conversations/ debates on national politics, cricket and other topical issues which were an essential part of the long 'sleeper' journeys of the past!

5. Purdah-hai-purdah. The other public obsession in the AC 2 tier is the attachment to the purdah(curtains). For an otherwise open, loud, display-friendly and sociable nation, I find this cocooning inside the train purdah quite perplexing! Any insights here? Reminds me of the 'purdah' people had in the good ole Ambasador!

6. The Charger as ice-breaker. Saurabh in his post had pointed out on the ice-breaking qualities of the Nokia charger! I too had first hand experience when a portly Auntyji intruded our purdah with a warm -"Beta tumhara charger kaam kar raha hai kya". And thus ensued a relay race. Between the saas and the heavily sindur-ed bahu, they charged 3 mobile phones! Like good train Samaritans, hum thoda sa adjust kar liye:-)

But for the techno-social effects of mobile phones, mp3 players and laptops...many of the rituals of the train journey are intact...

However, the journey itself has irreversibly changed. With the constant beep of cell phones and the tracking by anxious family members, you are never on your own/ alone.

Yet again I missed the timelessness and the lost in wilderness feel...Promise to myself - Will keep the cell phone switched off for all the 30 hours next time!!

Yet another GO...

Reshma sends me this...Does not have the spunk of Kingfisher...But interesting nevertheless!

One-upmanship

Sujit from gkk-mode mailed me these ads post the Kingfisher tactical advertising post. This one's a classic. Had heard about them. I hope they are real and not internet generated scam ads:-)

We Made Them Change

A friend of mine from Chennai mailed me this pix.

Says he - "Following the Jet-Air Sahara deal, Jet Airways went thru with a few
changes, one of them included a change in their colors - logo, uniform, etc

Last week, at many places across the city, big Jet Airways hoardings were
put up with their new punch-line, "We've changed."

Barely 36 hours later, KingFisher came up with an even bigger hoarding
declaring "We made them Change."

Seems like a war mirroring the Cola ones!"

Well, at least better than the advertising we have seen from Kingfisher till now except Yana of course...)

GoaFest : Absolut Patli Gali

I think I pronounced my judgement on GoaFest a day too early! After the impressive event, came the dampener. The actual award show was ABSOLUT SCAM-VERTISING!

As Trevor Beattie said in his interview - you could spot the scams from a mile!

Amongst the biggest scamsters this year was Rediff! There was almost nothing that they had done for their biggest clients - Airtel or Colgate! Most of the awards were won for vague clients like the Midland Second Hand Book Shop!!

The worst categories were print and out-door, where almost 80% of the work appeared to be SCAM.

What is particularly depressing is that as an industry we are endorsing and celebrating the scam culture! So little respite in the years to come either...

I sorely missed Ogilvy. I think Ogilvy alone at the Abbys had more authentic/ mainstream work than all the agencies combined at the GoaFest.

So, in the end I would give full marks to GoaFest - the event and spectacle. But if one has to see genuine work, one would still have to rely on the men in black!

Beattie FCUKs Scam Ads

For the official version on the Goa Ad Fest goto agencyfaqs! For the spice and straight from the trenches feel, stay tuned!

With a weak broadband link, its increasingly difficult to upload stuff...but I shall try my best.

In the two days, Ad Fest has upstaged Abbys as the numero uno advertising awards. It's been organised like an International event. A round of applause to the AAAI. Well done guys! But for the heat it's been a spectacle.

The beach, the babes(!!!), the booze, the water sports, down to the msn bike-taxis ferrying people up and down the ad village, every thing's been well thought out.

Just came back from Trevor Beattie's one hour chat! The guy was full steam and theatre. And boy did he take the pants of scam ads!

Some quick fire Beattie bytes before I rush again for the awards...

1. "I think the world is divided into two camps - the ones who care and the ones who don't"

2. Scam ads should be called cheat ads as you cheat the clients, the consumers and most of all yourself!

3. "Let's be very clear. We don't do ART. We do COMMERCE"

4. I guess in the ad industry we all need to say something nice about someone behind their backs.

5. in my whole life I might have had just two BIG IDEAS...What we all need to take to clients are a whole bunch of small ideas that take the brand forward.

6. The great work will speak for itself...

That's all I can manage...Gotta rush to the venue!

Another School. More Fresh Thoughts

I have written about SchoolOfDavid, the open-source learning lab at David. Read more about it here...Post our merger, the school resurfaces under the brand name - Incubates.

I took my first session in Delhi earlier this week. Curious new faces! Generally got the impression that they liked this introductory session on 'what is account planning!'.

But the best reward was this e-mail I got from a Sr. AE today...
Hi,
Was listening to this song from the film life in a metro "in dino". there's a line in the song which says

jab mile thodi fursat khud se karle mohabbat

i think it's an awesome line and these days most of us have no time for ourselves...too apt for today's generation.
Let me know what you think of it.

I too think it's a nice line/feeling...
I am never surprised at the level of understanding and creativity inherent in the young minds of our industry, even as we berate the lack/ exodus of talent. But what heckles me no end is that most often we fail to tap into/ train/ motivate this reservoir of talent...

Hope, we will be able to make a small difference...Okay got to go. Got to pack my bags for the Goa Adfest...

Haig : A Sunday Well Spent

I love the shape and smell of old cars. But it took my wife's initiative to herd me for the Haig Vintage Car Rally yesterday at Kala Ghoda.

Neo had great fun. Thrilled as he was in the local from Bandra to Kala Ghoda and back. In fact, the beauty pageant of the Mercs, the Chevys, the Austins, the Buicks, the Hindustan 10 owned once by the Maharaja of Jaipur, the Maurice 1938( Mumtaz drove in it), the VW military tempo, the 1949 Maurice( with an all women team) and many others made it a memorable day...

I think it was a great promotion and branding idea from Haig - apparently the oldest Scotch guys in the world! Subtle, substantive and a sensory treat...

New Age Brands Have a Different Ning!

A little late in the day(48 hours back to be precise), I discovered the online social networking brand Ning introduced to me by my new digital partner and co-conspirator(John Lambie)!

Okay, back to Ning. After 48 hours I try to discover more about it. Google for the site but find that it's down for repairs. However, I still end up liking it. Because it's got a sense of humour and a message that's warm and human. It's also got a cute little bear trying to repair the site...

Ning like a person apologises for the technical snafu and directs me to the Ning blog and enthusiastically gives me an approx. timing when it would be up and running...

In fact this is what the message reads - At midnight tonight, we're going to take Ning offline to add a few new features. We'll be back in action by the time the bars in California close and you'll be free to resume your late night social networking.

Guys my 10 year old credit card company, 7 years old mobile service provider company, my 8 year old bank none talk to me like this - in a normal voice that's full of life, zest and quirkiness!

I like the brand feel of Ning...Here's the post in 48 hours for Ning...Never wrote one for my bank or the credit card, etc.

I guess as we step into this new age/ digital lifestyle era, brands even while they ride mass media vehicles need to have a human voice. Stuffiness of the analog, hierarchy driven marketing era won't get brands love marks from customers!!

Flash Promos Ki Khareed Mein Samajhdaari Hai?

When Flash Brands/ branding is here, would flash promos be far behind.

Flash promos are single day promotional(invariably price-off) offers. Often they might last for just a few hours!

I guess they stoke the growing acquisitive and impulse-led buying patterns in much of urban India.

Shopping for a small part of cash-rich urban India is now an acquisitive sport. However, under intense time constraints, there is no stamina to do a 'Lalitaji' kind of detailed 'samajhdari' purchase.

Instead, there is just enough time for a quick McPuchase. Enter the flash promos. When they are from trusted brands. They reassure quality. They entice with their slashed prices. And their 'buy-now-or-regret-later' proposition gives it the veneer of 'samajhdaari'.

Last month, I was almost pulled into one such offer from HP. A heavily discounted flash offer from HP on a Laptop + Printer combo. Even though I had no real need for the printer!

But for the lack of a convenient physical demo of the product, I would have been a victim of the Rs. 39,999/- flash offer!

It's just as I flipped the Mumbai Mirror today, I once again saw the HP flash offer -'Hurry, offer valid between 8am and 8pm today only':-)

But I am becoming 'Flash Smart'!!

Let me be a train. No logo please!

I am sure many of you must have read about the decision by South Western Railways to auction the rights to have a train named after brands!! So guys, brace yourself for Kurkure Mail, Pepsi Express, LG Rajdhani, Ujala Local and more...

The initiative, called Brand Train, basically entails the use of a train as an advertising space, where the brand name would feature in all of that particular train’s announcements, reserved tickets, reservation charts and so on. As of now the deal is limited to certain summer specials, but if successful the experiment could be enlarged to embrace more trains.

In fact there was a debate in the TOI on this...It's one of those stupid marketing ideas that have no concern for environment sensitivity. Yes, It may earn the railways some money but at the immense cost of 'aesthetic, visual and cultural pollution'.

1. Argues an emotionally charged Kautilya Kumar( don't know who he is, as TOI doesn't believe in sharing details about its writers and contributors)- What’s in a name? A lot, particularly if the name invokes an imaginary space rich in culture and geography.

Imagine the Netravati Express being renamed after a soap or a sari? Or Rupasi Bangla being prefixed with the brand name of a coffee or a condom?

Netravati and Rupasi Bangla stimulate our imagination. The former, a river that cuts through the Konkan, invokes a world that is lush, green and fertile.

The name captures the sound and the silence of a river that links the Sahyadri to the Arabian Sea. Rupasi Bangla celebrates the memory of a great poet; it captures the landscape of Jibanananda Das’s evocative poetry. A train thus becomes a bridge connecting a traveller to the cultural memory of a people and the natural wealth of a place.

2. Train names reflect geography, culture; make us realise our diversity...I don't think there is any space or sense for marketing/ advertising to enter anywhere near a train.

It's an utterly ill-thought, idiotic idea that must be protested against and nipped in the bud.

Also, with the laws of diminishing returns having already set in the over-stimulated out-door landscape, we need more surprise and sensitivity in the creative expression of commercial messages.

Mere plastering the logo won't sell more soap, sandals or saris!

The Great Idea Myth - Simon Solves It For Me

I have always believed it to be true. At least for the last 10 years. Ideas are easy to produce. A dime a dozen. But I don't think anybody would have agreed with me. Least of all some 'creative types'(in an agency). Who routinely hide behind plumes of smoke, frequent breaks, large egos, being rude to servicing, being undisciplined, etc.

After all these years, I read Simon talking a similar language. What a relief! My hypothesis has been verified by this sample of one:-)

Buy why this myth that ideas are difficult to produce, in the first place?
Great ideas are. But then they are rare anyways! And most of them happen outside of advertising!

1. Our industry has an abundance of mediocre minds/ idiots who just have a creative designation/ swipe card. They are actually young and old farts who wouldn't get a job anywhere else. Their idea productivity is sub-optimal. And I suspect they are present in decent numbers in every agency in India today!

2. If you say ideas are easy to produce, you take away the glamour/ the black-box syndrome!

3. Maintain that ideas come with great difficulty and you can buy a ton of time and even manage to waste most of it.

4. Perpetrate and protect the myth that only the 'creative badge wearers' can get those elusive ideas. And you protect your job and the fat salaries.

And I love what Simon says next in his post - "Ideas might be difficult. But not the coming up with ideas part. The truly tough part is knowing what to sacrifice and what not to when protecting the idea, coming up with more ideas to help 'sell in' the idea, having the tenacity to constantly tweak and shape and develop the idea (crafting). being sure enough to know your idea is strong enough to be done on a smaller budget, being mature enough to be able to see beyond awards, being generous enough to know that the idea isn't yours at all, but is owned by many."

5. By rubbishing every idea that doesn't originate in the 'creative department(gawd, how I hate this department word), the creative types have succeeded in breaking the confidence of young minds(in servicing or planning or traffic, wherever it is applicable).

So guys, lets write, create, paint, draw, post-it, posterize it, art direct it.
Believe that good ideas are simple to get.
That everybody is creative.
And that with practice ideas are even more easy to get.
It's the creative apartheid within an agency that's the difficult part.

But walls are fast crumbling. In the digital era, there may be little room for 'mediocre minds/ idiots' or over-the-hill prima donnas! Neither is there any time to fret on the differences and 'the ideas are difficult to get' story!

Thanks Simon for bringing the topic up! While on the subject, do read Russell's post that sparked Simon's post!

You may want to read a related post...

Big Idea : Management meets Marxism

27 year old Chepuri Srikrishna from IIM A has created history of sorts by volunteering to intern at the CPI(M) office. He is the first guy in IIMs 46-year history to opt for this experience...

When I read about him in ET, I instantly loved his guts and 'thinking outside the box'. Says he - "The CPI(M) is not against reforms. They are against the pace of reforms. It is trying for industrialisation in West Bengal. The party stands for a certain section of people. It is not anti-people" He added that - " the IIMs are not anti-Left either".

Srikrishna had been impressed by Sitaram Yechury's speech and then set his mind on doing his intern at the CPI(M).

A self-proclaimed "left-of-centre" individual Srikrishna sees no alternative to economic reforms. "How to control the pace of reforms to allow the under-privileged sections to cope with change" is the challenge he hopes to meet partly through his internship at the CPI(M).

Maybe its time to do the reveres as well. Get some fire-brand young party workers from the heartland into advertising to shake up things a little:-)

Million Rupee Smiles Vs 2 Rupee Sweat

Two very different pictures stuck in my head over the week-end. The first was that of the three giggling Miss India's. Now a familiar annual photo-op.

Backed by an indulgent media, aggressive cosmetic companies and a desire to promote surface beauty above all else, this annual ritual of beauty celebration is the dumbest and amongst the most crass forms of consumerist imports from the West.

These women, supposedly represent India on a world stage. Qualifications include an intense and early aspiration, a beauty coaching regimen and a mechanical parroting of social conscience...These women then become the role models for a young and aspiring India!

The other far more liberating picture was that of these Tirupati women barbers who have stormed a male bastion.
Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam has broken away form an age-old tradition by allowing them to wield razors for tonsuring heads in the temple town, as part of the ritual of thanksgiving to Lord Venkateshwara for boons granted.

Currently there are 18 female barbers. They get paid a mere Rs. 2 for each tonsure. And they tonsure anywhere between 10-60 devotees a day!!

But of course, organised media does not have much space to show-case such grass-root changes! They are busy splashing manicured pictures of beauty. After all while the smiles are worth millions, the sweat costs a mere Rs. 2!

What holds Bollywood scripts together?

Kapil mailed me this Fevicol ad which is a good example of a hand-painted Bollywood poster. Thanks Kapil!

Will Street Meet Strategy?

Was speaking to David, our regional training head in the morning. Predictably like most non-Indians he too was struck by the vibrant colour and diversity of our country.

Later, on board the flight to Delhi, came across a feature on street art in the in-flight magazine JetWings!

There is so much ingenuity in the street. Something which we must capture while we tell our brand stories. The 'Street' is far more original, colourful, messy and alive than the manufactured images in most of our ads...Picture from Jetwings : Paining on a house wall in Calcutta by the popular local artist, Ajay Kar
Picture : Paintings on the bodies of trucks
This is a really unusual cross-over of ethnic cultural motifs and practical messages. A medium which has barely been tapped into by big brands.
The format is very Indian, very street and the content 'very native Indian wisdom'!Picture : A mural at Bandra Reclamation
Any form of street art not only produces a gallery of colourful images but also provides a platform to explore regional variations.

Will commercial communication tap into street art or will we just allow homogenised electronic-age images to smoothen all our diversity into a blander, uniform landscape...

Big Idea : Finishing Schools for Rural Youth

Often I find advertising ideas to be quite small. Mostly, that's a limitation of our trade...But many-a-time a reflection of the size of our thoughts. Shackled as many industry minds are by a 30sec structure and generally inflated egos!

Therefore, I loved this 'finishing schools for rural youth to curb attrition' idea of Azim Premji!(read it in ET).

Wipro has set up finishing schools in Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh on an experimental basis. Under this, students from interior parts are selected and given training in English and IT skills for 6 months.

These rural students are barely 10th/ 12th pass. Not typically eligible for any IT job. The 6 month training readies them for a proper job in the IT industry.

Wipro and Premji believe that apart from creating newer employment opportunities, the students from these rural finishing schools would be loyal, determined to prove themselves and a definite value-addition to the company.

Wipro, under another education programme imparts training to primary teachers and students. Till date, it has engaged in training 2.5mn children from the interior parts of 16 Indian states.

Both the efforts are great,laudable examples of the corporates giving back to society instead of merely creating islands of excellence...

Wish the communication industry too had the bandwidth, the vision and the money to do something similar...