So, what do we do Mumbai!!!

Now, that the last of the terrorists have been gunned down and the 50+ hour ordeal is over(well not for the families of those killed and injured), there is a deep sense of anguish and anger that can be sensed in the city...

24X7 televised terror is more scary than one without the TV. To that extent, I don't know whether it's a good thing or bad. As I pull myself together from the shock at the periphery, within the warmth and comfort of my family...I chanced upon this piece written by Suketu Mehta in NYT here. Worth a read!!

Says Suketu - 1. In other cities, if there’s an explosion, people run away from it. In Mumbai, people run toward it — to help. Greater Mumbai takes in a million new residents a year. This is the problem, say the nativists. The city is just too hospitable. You let them in, and they break your heart.

2. The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever. Dream not just of Bollywood stars but of clean running water, humane mass transit, better toilets, a responsive government. Make a killing not in God’s name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder.

3. If the rest of the world wants to help, it should run toward the explosion. It should fly to Mumbai, and spend money. Where else are you going to be safe? New York? London? Madrid?

4. So I’m booking flights to Mumbai. I’m going to go get a beer at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus doesn’t have to be just economic.

I guess he is right. We must not run away from saving people...We must give our blood to Bombay and not just stop after fwding smses and wearing black!! We have to get back to work and slog harder as if nothing happened...And we must actually vote(this time)good men/women into power who can protect the city better and not just be TV citizens and armchair voters!

You just can't derail this city for more than 48 hours. Bombay is wired differently. It just is...

Interviewing Alex Bogusky : From Boulder On Bollywood

On Friday I finally managed to speak to Alex Bogusky - the rock star creative head and chairman of the US ad agency Crispin Porter Bogusky(CP+B) for my 'Bollywood and Branding book...

1. I had found some similarity in how Alex approaches work and the way a part of Bollywood thinks.

2. While over the years I have done my fair share of interviewing consumers in numerous focus groups, but interviewing the head of the edgiest ad agency in America made me a lil conscious...

3. An hour before the interview I changed my questionnaire...After going through many of his interviews on the net.

4. Here's a sample of what I asked Alex - (a)It seems till now advertising and branding has had a formula, a plan, a roadmap but going ahead with the infinite touch points that we have created will branding become pure art?

(b) I have read you saying that your agency's basic philosophy is to take a brand and make it famous. Does this principle apply to all brands?
Can the average soap brand also stand a chance of becoming a mini celebrity? What's the process like?

(c)Is surprise the new consistency?

(d)In this age of 24X7 global connectivity, and the fact that digital creatives like the BMW films have an infinite life will the size of the media budget cease to matter?

(e)How do you plan ( Burger King, VW) to lead the conversation in a category,in the culture?

(f)Tell me something about your strategic planning department? With sociologists, anthropologists and investigative journalists.

and a few other Qs...

5. It was supposed to be a 30 min interview but Alex gave me about 50...spoke like a clairvoyant with humility and brilliance.

6. One of the things I have often wondered about is the extreme elasticity of the Bollywood stars - SRK for example endorses close to 25 brands - from the sasta Nav Ratan Tel to Tag Heuer yet we don't have any problems understanding him. He/ Aamir/ Amitabh still manage to give meaning and stability to brands.

What I never figured out how they manage to do this so effortlessly. And I deal this in one of the chapters in our book.

Alex had an interesting take - he said people take ingredients from brands not consume/ believe the whole of most brands. So, under this ingredient theory, the 30brand SRK is easier to understand.

7. We talked of Paris Hilton, the return of the 30sec commercial and the changed role of mass media...

8. I liked both the sound of the questions and the texture of his answers...It was a thrilling experience.

Next on the list : Balki!!

The Madness Starts at 9

My friend, Vinay(Kanchan) has written this hilarious book - The Madness Starts at 9!!

The book is a satire on the corporate world. It is set in an agency, and is a humorous take on many events that happen in the life of the agency!

1. Vision Impossible - elaborates on the mind numbing nature of vision meetings

2. True Lies- looks at how in a interview process, both parties celebrate the 'creative distortion of the truth'

3. Wait Until Dark - is about how office parties can be used for furthering your career graph:-)

4. A myth called performance appraisals - is well, the name kinda says it all :)

5. Stumped - shows what happens in an organisation on the day when India plays a cricket match

6. I know what you did last summer - demystifies what really happens during summer internship

7. Murder by Numbers -dwells on how we inherently are intimidated by numbers, even though they have a critical role to play

and so on...You can get the Hindu review of the book here...

All the best Vinay! Hope you have a best-seller!!

BBH Zags Again

Just received an invite from the Ad Club Mumbai for the talk by the BBH boys(okay men) - John Hegarty, Nigel Bogle and Simon Sherwood on the 19th at Taj Landsend!!

And coincidentally read this article on adage.com about BBH's innovation division - Zag!

1. As the economic downturn worsens and agencies everywhere cut costs, Bartle Bogle Hegarty is doing something really different: diversifying into products such as vegetarian meals and personal alarms!!

2. Through Zag, the agency's brand-invention company, BBH's London office is creating its own brands and bringing them to market with joint-venture partners. The idea is to identify "brand lag" - areas where consumers are active but there are few brands.

3. Zag was launched in 2006 in the UK!! And recently opened a Zag office in New York.

4. And these are not pet projects. BBH hopes that Ila personal alarms will make $35 million a year in retail sales within three years, and that Pick Me vegetarian meals will be a $15 million retail business within a year!!

Great 'Zag stuff' and good inspiration for all of us...

Reach Out and Other Stray Thots

Day before, I got a mail from a planner in Delhi. Nothing unusual about that. Except that I didn't know that planner and it was a 'reach out' e-mail. The e-mail wasn't for a job or a LinkedIn introduction or plain networking...It was just one planner reaching out to another - across cities, across agency networks...A simple, honest reach-out!!

The planner just wanted to talk to me...It felt good. Today we had a longish chat on the phone. Smuggled some time from the 'effie case preparations' that's keeping me and sonal bogged down!! One stray thot led to another...

1. It's so easy to reach out today. Through social media and a connected world. And yet in our small Indian ad world, we don't do that enough. We had a small planning collective - ThotBlurb - but unfortunately it died out after a few months...

2. There are few regular planner meets or ad forums.(Or maybe I am clueless about them or too old and therefore denied entry)

3. Is there something wrong with the Indian ad fraternity. While trying to get people to interview for my book, I have found it easier to reach Alex Bogusky(haven't made this up) than an Indian CEO(ex-boss, 4 mails, zero replies:-)
Why are we(ok, so many of us) so stuck up? So, hierarchical and designation-obsessed in our dealings and so incapable of reaching out...

4. On the positive side, today is the best time for communication people. It's so easy to stay in Mumbai and think with Boston...There is no lag time in global idea downloads. It's all there to be scrutinised, made sense of, to be re-purposed.

5. But I guess Internet and social media still hasn't really penetrated our bottled up mindsets, our un-sharing nature, our silo-workings...

6. Or maybe some of us are waiting for 'pehle aap'!!

Resolution - (a)To increase LinkedIn connections to 500 in the next 12 months!!, (b) To revive SchoolOfDavid(okay SchoolOfMudra:-), (c) Revive ThotBlurb, (d) Be more regular with the LikeMind Mumbai meets...and (e) Find time to do all of the above...LOLAnd this is the old file photo of a SchoolOfDavid:-) Miss you guys...