IndiAdRant

Information vs. Inspiration

2011-05-01T22:30:00.000+05:30

I was at the adtech New Delhi conference couple of days back. An impressive constellation of speakers. Much to learn and network!

However, one familiar drone/ murmur amongst the audience was "not enough insights man!", the information shared is available in public domain - "not enough new information/data dude"!

I have a slightly different take on this. I believe the marketing fraternity in India is at par in terms of information access and knowledge accumulation. As a nation/ marketing fraternity we have a huge appetite for data. But once we get that data, our record in acting on that data is not quite impressive.

What we most need NOW is :

(a)To act on that information to create new products & services, to create a meaningful engagement with people, to create better service experience and so on...
(b) And not just wait endlessly for a constant stream of new insights but start using the ones that we already have!!

(c) Not be paralysed by analysis but take action steps & be prepared to take some risk
(d) We need to 'get inspired' by ideas, case studies, cross -category happenings. And we have enough of those on our collective hard disks!

(e) The TRUTH and many of the answers are out there. We just need 'big ears' and an honest intent on doing something about it.
(f) Nothing much will ever be gained if social media/ digital marketing isn't imbibed into the DNA of our company.

This small video of Ford Motor company is a great short inspirational clip of how even lagging Detroit used SM/ digital marketing to it's advantage. From a loss-making icon Ford really turned itself around. But for that it took some inspired steps - from the CEO to the shop floor engineer to the fans and the blogger community!

Digital Ecosystem for your Brand? Now what's that!!!

2011-04-17T13:38:00.004+05:30

Just came back from a 3 hour breakfast at Roots Cafe - great poha, chilla jasmine tea and early morning drizzle...And the sight of two cute kids wallowing in the small rain water puddle...Wish I was 4 again:-)

Penning down few thots in the head on digital eco-system...While consulting clients through my Social Media consultancy - Once Upon A Time, I very often try to explain the need for a digital/online/social media eco-system...

Of course they don't always understand the need for it, grown up as they are on a 'one-size-fits-all' mass media diet.

Here are few of the guidelines - some learnt by personal experience curating the content for Cinnamon Stays, my UnHotel brand and some from Guy Kawasaki's book Enchantment...

1. Is your brand/platform/POV worthy of an eco-system? Is your product, service, ideology boring/ bland - then try to fix it first!You cannot build an enduring community/ eco-system around stuff that people hardly care.

You can buy lots of online, SM ads and people may even like those so that you have a tidy fan base but that's all a mirage.

In the new world, spend the most time on having a worthy cause. Anna Hazare has one. He doesn't really need a SM plan, calendar!!

2. Create Meaning. Give consumers, readers something meaningful to do.

What does that mean - Take the very popular Vodafone ZooZoo campaign. Let's visit it's fb page. While they seem to have done a reasonably good job of a solid fan base and daily interactions! They have just about tapped the tip of the iceberg...

More can be done in terms of getting ideas from consumers who love zoozoos(crowd-sourcing). Ideas to improve customer service for eg.

We are heading towards Social media fatigue and the way to keep your fans and consumers engaged are not cute viral videos and contests only but a more meaningful exchange on a daily basis.

3. Welcome criticism. This one makes most clients go paranoid. How can we allow negative comments? Lets delete the dissatisfied consumers rant. Lets ignore him(he is anyways a statistical rounding off error!!) Or even lets punish him for publicly criticizing my brand!

Recently I spent close to 20 days getting a complaint resolved by a major telecom brand. I used SM to first complain and rant and later protest and berate the brand. Yet the over-all response from the brand was hopelessly unwelcoming!!!

I guess my lifetime worth for that brand is very high. No amount of mass media 'song-and-dance' interruptions will now ever change my stance. They just blew a big chance to engage and enchant a vocal consumer...The life-time damage of an ignored customer is very high in the new connected world.

So while many brands are very busy measuring the total count of positive and negative feedback on online platforms, they mustn't just be complacent by knowing the statistic on a nice power-point slide.

The strategy to deal with online criticism should be exactly the opposite.

Lets engage the dissatisfied lot(of course we can't do much about the non-genuine ones). Let's figure out smart ways to 'welcome criticism'. This requires a culture change at the company, not just sophisticated measurement tools!! That's what brand management 2.0 will largely be about - a culture of welcoming criticism(via Guy Kawasaki). What are you doing about it?

Jugaad Studio - the culture, craft and creativity mash-up!

2011-04-12T20:23:00.003+05:30

This project has been very close to my heart for more than 2 years now...After being in 'skunkworks' for a long time, Jugaad Studio - an ideas, design and merchandising company begins life on facebook TODAY 6:00pm.

Jugaad Studio is an ideas, design and merchandising start-up! There are two of us to begin with. My friend Yogi - the artist and designer and myself - the conceptor and curator of ideas - some cute, some quaint, some crazy!

There are so many good design studios around us. We will try to focus on the popular culture space - Bollywood, cricket, music, etc. And serve up delicious dollops of mashed up concepts - on tees, as posters, on mugs and the moon:-)

We will share & sell our ideas and finished products on the fb link above. Stay tuned!

I Want One Million Fans. I Want Them Now!

2011-04-07T14:07:00.006+05:30

If you are in new media/digital media/ social media, one of the briefs which you may get from some clients is - I want 1 mn fans! Having a large fan following in itself is not a crime:-) But few crucial questions that tend to be blatantly ignored are...

1. To Follow What. The bigger question to answer before the 1 million number is 'what cause to follow'? Is the product or the over-abused passion points - cricket, Bollywood, music worth following especially on say the facebook page of the brand.

You can use media monies to buy fans. But they won't be worth much if you haven't answered the central question of 'to follow what?' And this requires a deep think and strategic alignment with your long term marketing plans. Else it's a tactical gimmick.

Gloat over the short term gain. But that's where the game will end.

2. A Facebook Fan is Not Really A Fan:-) Facebook is a funny country. It works on lazy likeonomics. To unlike is too much of work. To be a fan is effortless. So fans accumulated like a bargain hunt don't really count for much if they are not truly engaged. It's obvious but often over-looked - when nurturing your fan base, go for quality and not quantity alone!

3. The New Definition of ROI. Just because Social Media has the word 'media' built into it doesn't make it akin to a mass media platform. It's fundamentally different. Because it's 2-way, people-to-people interaction and has a complex web like multi-way talk & feedback system unlike the fixed channels of mass media! The 'investment' must be in 'interactions'. A fundamental difference from our mass media upbringing.

What we should really be obsessed with is the 'level-of-interaction'. Once we have got our brand in the middle of the most interactive conversations, then an ROI on the efforts makes sense. But before that all talk of ROI is a lot less meaningful...

As businessmen, entrepreneurs and brand owners, let's obsess about making our brands social and not just do social.

For questions, queries, business please connect with me on mannsinha@gmail.com
I run a brand 2.0 consultancy called Once Upon A Time and use social media to promote my hospitality brand -Cinnamon Stays with small success! The lessons learnt are personal and over the last 5 years!!

Social Media is a lot like farming. It requires time, patience, perspective, nurturing and passion! The cold hunting instincts are less effective here:-)

PS. The picture above is that of the San Francisco Scooter Girls - a girl riding community. It was founded on the belief that women have their own place in riding culture that's very different from the traditional biker scene.

The SF Scooter Girls website features photos of each member showing off her highly personalized ride. Disco bikes. Flower-covered bikes.

And although these women can choose to ride any manufacturer's scooter, their passion for Vespa, even though they have no affiliation with the company, creates a strong brand statement on its own. Scooty - few learnings from here?!

Join In the Biggest Social Campaign of Our Time!

2011-04-06T23:33:00.005+05:30

Some facebook updates from friends, few tweets and I am getting absorbed into what could potentially be the biggest social campaigns of our time!

This isn't a social (media) based campaign but facebook, twitter, youtube are for sure putting this anti-corruption campaign on steroids. This is also a taste of the shape of disruptive change to come - a converging of social media, mass media(parts of it) and grassroots movement - the likes of which we witnessed recently from Egypt to Libya!

And why brands can rarely hope to achieve this kind of response is that it's really difficult to have a real, convincing unadulterated cause at the centre of a brand campaign - one that resonates. That people strongly feel about. That people can empathise with. Not the year end 'care for blind people', 'save the tiger' scam ads!

Hope many more marketing guys realise that social media works more for 'social reasons' and not solely as the media platform that they would like it to work as!

I also hope some of the biggest creative names in the country would lend their talent and support to this 'social campaign' and join in! It would be a pity if they waste all their immense talent on brrr, the beach in Goa and beer:-)

The Art of the Start

2011-04-05T17:19:00.008+05:30

That's the name of the Guy Kawasaki Book. Love the name - Art of the Start. Wish I would have thought of it first:-)

Anyways, what I want to share today are some simple lessons that I learnt running my(our - with my wife) start-up - Cinnamon Stays! Originally written as an fb comment almost a year back.

So here are some tips that you may find useful....

5+1 lessons that I would like to share (commonsense in hind-sight)

1. There is no right time to start a business. One can never be too early. In my case it wasn't too late either. The important thing is to take the plunge...That's half the work done.(Honestly)

2. Our degrees and fancy designations and the corporate egos we accumulate over the years are the biggest deterrents.

Think like the neighbourhood grocery store guy. Do not analyse too much! You can't get all the answers by analysis alone....

3. The brand can wait. It's maybe strange coming from someone having spent 15 years in agencies, around brands. What I re-learnt in past 4 months...
The brand is the clean loo...
The brand is the on-time pick-up...
The brand is the putting a 80 kilo 'barf ki silli' in the tank to jugaad fix the boiling hot water tank:-)
The brand is conversing with the guests and lending them the book you just finished reading. Your brand actually is quite different from what you read in a book...

The logo and the stationery can wait....

4. Belief is important. Belief that you will succeed no matter what - even when friends snigger behind your back, when family questions your intelligence, when you are down on the last reserves of some hard earned money

5. Ask for help. For contacts. For leads . For networking. There are cynics out there and then there are successful people who want you to succeed.

5+1. Social Media is not a fad. It works! It has worked for me!! We have spent negligible money on mass media(didn't have much anyways:-) But managing social media is an art more than science especially for start-ups. You can only learn by taking the plunge in SM....

Facebook, twitter, stumbleupon, LinkedIn, flickr, Trip Advisor have all contributed to building Cinnamon as a fledgling hospitality brand.

Today Cinnamon is rated No. 1 on Trip Advisor. We get business through Facebook, twitter and Trip Advisor...Did I have all the answers for Social Media marketing when I started? Certainly not! But I have learnt vital lessons along the way!

So for any entrepreneur, wanna-be-entrepreneur, individual, small brand owner I offer the Cinnamon lounge as a meeting place...930 to 530 weekdays and extended hours weekends:-)Happy to help with my SM expertise!

I can help jump-start your social media strategy through my second start-up - Once Upon a Time - a story telling and brand 2.0 consultancy. Happy to share - the art of the start!

Welcome Oberoi Gurgaon!

2011-04-04T12:58:00.006+05:30

Was chatting with my friend Girish from Webitude. The Oberoi Gurgaon fb page came up in the chat for some reason which I forget. Triggered off some thoughts...

While the Oberoi page is far better than many branded fb pages, 5 suggestions which I feel can make their fb storyline better.

1. There is little 'Oberoi' story on the page. Facebook is most effective when the conversation thread is like an episodic, gradually unfolding brand story. The page currently has a stream of PR statements:-)

2. I find the grandeur and warmth of the 'Oberoi' brand missing! Period.
Part design of the page, part the selection of the picture/(s). Would the brand have been this callous if they were designing an expensive brochure which few read these days!

3. Related point, I find no 'Oberoi' personality on the fb page. It's important for any brand. Critical if you happen to be a hospitality brand.

4. You now have a participative community not an audience. Treat them with respect. And that means making an effort to answer each and every query like a friend. Fans on fb are not mere numbers to be hoarded in your bank account:-)

5. Go local. Where's Gurgaon on your page? The best social media engagements are those that are personal, micro, local. It's simple but a point that many brands miss...

Nevertheless, am a great fan of the 'Oberoi' brand. Welcome to Gurgaon and I plan to visit threesixtyone - your all day restaurant!!!

Nestea - Embed some 'social' into this campaign!

2011-04-03T23:30:00.000+05:30

Like the new Nestea TVC... first squirrels(kitkat), and now Kangaroos(nestea)...what cutesy animal for Maggi now:-)

I guess the missing(till now) link here is the 'conversation between generations' that the campaign can evoke using digital media. With my limited knowledge about the brand, I still feel that real long-term success for Nestea will demand a behaviour change from consumers that mass media(read TV) alone can't deliver...

For the marketing team the key question will be - Think how you can embed 'social' into the heart of your new campaign....That will lead to an engaging, episodic storyline for the brand!

Once Upon A Time the World was Different

2011-03-31T14:02:00.006+05:30

Once Upon A Time I was just a happy planner doling out power-point slides by the dozen:-)

And then 'one day', actually over many days and a few months, the first idea - Cinnamon Stays(which had nothing to do with ads, or planning) took shape. Read the Cinnamon story here. Our small hospitality brand built through social media is rated No.1 on Trip Advisor now!

Emboldened:-) three weeks back I started my second company - Once Upon A Time - a story telling and brand 2.0 consultancy.

Once Upon A Time is a consultancy built for a branding/ marketing world that is changing faster than we can comprehend or make sense of. A world in which perhaps the old rules of messaging and branding are not working as well as before. A world where we may have new tools and metrics, but lack the required shift in mindset...Check out OUAT on fb!

OUAT will be a journey of shared learning and unlearning. And I plan to help brands(more small than big) discover their stories, their voice, their personality -one post, one conversation, one tweet at a time...

Through OUAT I plan to consult on stuff that I understand - strategy, social media, consumer insights in a digital & networked world and collaborate with individuals and companies on related stuff...

So, today I was happy about Swapan's (Seth) new company -ThisContent- a content and conversation management one. Similar to OUAT, sans (overtly) the story bit. Though I assume the story part would be implicit in it.

Happy that somebody of Swapan's experience launches a content and conversation company. Because many marketing managers/ brand heads still continue to be in these states -

1. What the f*** is social media state
2. Paralysis by ROI state
3. Get-me-fans, track-my-brand-name-mentions state and so on...

The deeper shifts to a conversation, dialogue, trust and recommendation-led consumer world is lost on many...But the future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed:-)

Contact me on mannsinha@gmail.com or call/ sms 9650400466 for (a)social media led projects, (b) social media consultancy assignments, (c)'immersion into social media' workshops, (d) 'branding on facebook' sessions and most importantly (e)a step-wise 'how to make your campaign/marketing/ brand social' guide!

What's Ching's Secret?

2010-11-05T00:00:00.006+05:30

There was an ET article on brands doing well in social media. True to mass media understanding of social media, it was a bit sketchy, a bit rudderless & reflected the general lack of understanding of the social landscape.

My friend & fellow digital road warrior - Shubho has done some analysis on his blog here...That in turn inspired me to have a dekko at Ching's Secret, Barista Lavazza and Just Dial Facebook pages...

Here's my analysis and ranking of these 3 brands on a 5 point scale where 5 - excellent and 1 - very poor.

1. Intent
Ching's Secret - The top management buys into social media. Lives and breathes it. The only brand to talk about the ET article on its fb page the same day!!
Rating - 5

Barista Lavazza - Looks like the social strategy is still at the marketing department level. Top management says - Lets see what happens, then we will scale up guys!
Rating - 3

Just Dial Social media for these guys is just another mass media channel. Judging by the quality of the strategy, it's still quite low on intent.High usage of the medium, low social intent of the brand.
Rating - 1

2. Content
Ching's Secret- Recipes is a great long running idea. Cooking is a bestseller conversation topic, immenselty shareable. Doesn't really matter if the recipes appear cut-n-paste. Content repurposing is part of the social media strategy.
Rating - 5

Barista Lavazza- The content is still small print ads dressed up insufficiently as conversation!
Rating - 3

Just Dial- Very boring and repetitive, It's a shame because with a product as engaging and diverse as Just Dial they could have really capitalised on content. Bollywood and sports however keep the people involved on the page...
Rating - 3

3. Engagement & CQ(Conversation Quotient)
Ching's Secret - Pretty high engagement and CQ. Is genuinenly a social brand and not a pretender. Not trying hard at all. The frequency of content upload matches the social vibrancy of both the brand & fb!
Rating - 5

Barista Lavazza - Quite average. Again promos pretending to be brand conversations & driving social currency.
Rating - 2

Just Dial- Below par. The comments by 'fans' are solely for/ because of Bollywood. Zero engagement with the brand Just Dial.
Rating - 1

4. Community
Ching's Secret - Lots of traction and not merely transactional.
Rating - 4

Barista Lavazza - Casual connect.
Rating - 3

Just Dial - Akin to people at a railway platform. High traffic. zero connect.
Rating - 1

5. Voice & Personality
Ching's Secret- Has a unique voice , has a sense of humour. Very human , very Ching , very consistent!
Rating - 5

Barista Lavazza- Quite artificial, very mass media tonality. Quite 1 way...
Rating - 3

Just Dial - The voice & personality of a bulletin board with pictures:-)
Rating - 1

While putting this post up, I commented on the Ching's Secret fb page a little before mid-night and pat came their reply...That's some impressive commitment to social media and consumers as people. These guys truly walk the talk!

Cheers and Happy Diwali

JohnAbraham.com

2010-10-19T13:19:00.004+05:30

Just stumbled upon what appears to be the promotional website of the UTV film (Jhootha Hi Sahi)- JohnAbraham.com...

I quite like the simplicity and the peek into a celeb's life content. In one video John talks about his Tulsi chai(he drinks some 40 cups every day!!)

There is a very simple idea of 'pairing with John' where you can upload your picture and be paired with John:-)

I guess where many brands struggle to understand the conversational nature and playful content of social media, this JA site gets it right...Am bookmarking it for reference...

The Sign of Our Times

2010-09-06T09:35:00.004+05:30

Source: Blaugh.com
Source : Hubspot.com
Source : weblogcartoons.com

Logan Loves India But Does India Love Logan or the Ad:-)

2010-07-09T15:28:00.000+05:30

The new TVCs of Mahindra Logan are so bad that it makes the car look good in contrast! Honestly, for a solid ugly car that was doing good mostly in the taxi circle this new found love for India is laughable...Need Hajmola Sir!!

From Social Media to Social Conciousness

2010-04-02T23:18:00.006+05:30

It's a nice long weekend and Neo and I are at Cinnamon. Him drawing on some clay pots! And me trying to unwind and forage for ideas and inspiration.

One of the things that has niggled my mind for some time is how to better use social media for social causes, community service, bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots, create a better work environment, create more meaningful work for everyone, make more meaningful connections and not just the quantity of connections...

So, in the morniing when I stumbled upon this profound and brilliant article by Umair Haque on the HBR site, thought of sharing it...

He talks about the "message" of the Internet's social revolution as being more meaningful work, economics, politics, society, and organization. Social media promises radically more meaning: to make stuff matter, once again, in human terms, not just financial ones.

Yet, Haque points out most "social media" strategies have one or more of three goals: to "push product," "build buzz," or "engage consumers." None of these lives up to the Internet's promise of meaning.

They're just slightly cleverer ways to sell more of the same old junk. But the great challenge of the 21st century is making stuff radically better in the first place — stuff that creates what he calls thicker value.

Umair talks about the 7 social strategies that are turning yesterday's zombieconomy upside down - Character, Creativity, Control, Culture, Clarity, Cohesion, Choreography - They're what he looks for when evaluating investments, innovations, and ideas across the social mediascape.

A must read, immerse and act!

Merchant Clark, Cecil Hotel and a 30 year dream...

2010-02-11T03:28:00.011+05:30

It's been a hell of a long time away from the blog. I feel guilty, anxious...and the fingers feel a bit rusty!! So where was I and what kept me so busy for almost 4 months!

Here's the story. A story of a small dream that first took root in the eyes of a 6 year old/ maybe 5. That's me. A dream that sort of has had a gestation period of 30 long years!!

Merchant Clark. When I was of Neo's age(that's about 6 yrs) I had learnt a new word Merchant which I thought was a cool word(cool and merchant sounds weird I know:-) and there was this 5 star hotel in Patna called Maurya Clark. So my little innocent dream was to open a hotel for travellers called Merchant Clark which would be the finest hotel in the country.
I don't think I ever shared this story with anyone. Locked in my head for 3 decades...

And that's where the dream/ desire stayed for the next 30 years. School. College. Engineering. Servicing. Creative Planning. Consultancy. The journey through life. But the dream like the stickiest of post-its never left me. I had ideas but no money. Ideas but no time. Some money but no team. Team but no consensus. And the dream gathered moss...Thick green, slippery moss...

Dare to dream. And then I read this fascinating biography of Rai Bahadur M. S Oberoi by Bachi Karkaria some years back. Of how Sr. Oberoi dared to dream. As the hotel bell-boy had the audacity and ambition to pawn his wife's jewellery to buy the Cecil hotel from the gora owner.

And the dormant thoughts of starting a hotel/ service brand again floated in my mind...I remember finishing the last pages of the book in the wee hours of morning. Warm tears on my cheek. Of life passing by. Feeling inspired. But that was the max that happened again. Work. Life. Sceptics. Naysayers. More work. Energy sappers. More Life. I-know-why-it-won't-work well-wishers...Tum to planner ho. Business-pehle-kiya-hai gyan!!

And then when I shifted to Gurgaon mid last year, between lazy beer sessions and some back of the napkin calculations, the truncated idea of a service apartment/ brand(prequel to the grand hotel) started taking shape...

It took a dedicated/ passionate team of four, four months and a couple of lacs to turn the 30 year old idea into a small reality! Our service villa - it's an apartment in a villa called Cinnamon Corporate Stays(it's got 5 interesting rooms - Green, Grand, Unwind, Doodle and Puraani Jeans and a bit of story everywhere.) Far from perfect but it's happened...

Cinnamon for us/me is a story of belief. Belief that stuff happens when you push it hard enough. Stuff can happen when you really wanna make it happen. That stuff happens not in a grand planned way but in the most random way when you least expect it to happen...

It took me/us a lot of time to convert the idea into reality. To convince a small team to move ahead when budgets and time were huge constraints. It's still some months to break even. But it's there. Our first brand/ service. Not to a client's brief but to ours. And it has been sweat, passionate obsession and bloody tiring. Especially with a full time day job! But immense lot of help, support from my team.

Along the way, I picked up a couple of lessons in brand building. This time around not between the pages of a book, but between visits to Lajpat Nagar and worrying about the leaking tap and the 'garam chai'. But more about that later...

Today I just wanted to share that it's important to hold on to your dreams. However, weird, wild and wishful. And sometimes it may take up to 30 years for a dream to shape up...But don't let any one's laughs or cynicism get you off-track.

If you really want something bad enough, the universe conspires to help you...Paulo Coelho saheb was right in his book Alchemist...At least even if I fail. I will have a story to tell my grandchild around the fireplace...LOL

You could check us out here. But in case you are travelling to Delhi/ Gurgaon and want to stay in a cosy little place mail us at cinnamonstays@gmail.com

We would be happy to host you...Cheers

Hip Hop Grannies and Generational Mash-up

2009-10-10T11:12:00.006+05:30

One of the entities under The Futures Company is Yankelovich - a leading consumer research company that has helped marketers understand consumer values and behavior since 1958. It has also done pioneering work in 'generational marketing'!

It's pretty cool that I am now working on projects with the Yankelovich dudes and getting a hang of 'generational marketing'.

Now one of the concepts on which we are currently working has to do with generational mash-ups. The grey zone where generational values, attitudes and behaviours seem to be cohabiting.

The 'Hip Hop Grannies' from China are a good example...

Generational Mash-ups. Maybe marketers for Lifestyle brands, travel, well-being should study this space of 'generational mash-ups' to unlock new spaces!

Cool Grey/ Silver.There also is a market for cool stuff for the elderly. From spectacles and watches, to hi-end fashion, the wallet-rich elderly are good targets not just for expensive but 'expensive and cool' stuff. It's just that we seldom look at them in a mashed up way! My 65 year old father has started wearing 'shorts', is now comfortable wearing the colour 'red'(no longer just greys and khaki for him) and I think sometimes uses the word 'cool' when he speaks to Neo!!

Baba Ramdev & AOLCloser home Baba Ramdev, Shri Shri Ravi Shanker and others are already transforming the lives of the elderly. And while they aren't exactly hip-hopping, there is a sea change in their attitudes and aspirations which mainstream brands may not be tapping into.

The kapal-bhaati and anulom-vilom have energised the minds of the elderly. They might be willing to experiment more than we imagine. Mascots - Zohra Sehgal. Amitabh!

Power of TV. While one of the most powerful media of our times - TV has been chained to saas-bahu and now the reality trash, there could be a welcome space for subjects around generational mash-ups...

Every time somebody or something crosses a neat boundary or silo, interesting/ provocative things happen/ can happen...

Kreatve Inside

2009-10-09T19:26:00.010+05:30

At my company, am a part of a 'creative committee'...Currently, we are doing an all office audit of what are some of the creative stuff we have done in the recent past... Since the entire exercise was about being and acting creative...tried making a video out of it. It hasn't come out that well though. Limitations of the video making site!

But found playing with video and images liberating. Thanks animoto.com! It also helps sell the ideas better. Planning to tool around a bit this month. Maybe start with a video for Neo's birthday, a short film(maybe) on a story I wrote a couple of years back, a creds for the Millennials study that I am working on and also some new business video conversation-starters... But first maybe a video post on 'social media fatigue':-)

Anti-boredom Dawai!

2009-10-05T13:52:00.006+05:30

Friend of mine sent this...Cute and funny!

Sending it to my mother!!

Finally the Outliers!

2009-09-30T07:05:00.006+05:30

Finally I bought my own copy of the Gladwell book - Outliers! I just waited endlessly for the paperback and a discount(both together). Blink had made me cautious! Just managed to read some 3 chapters in a moving car!

As with the Tipping Point,interesting observations replete with loads of stories, often repetitive to perhaps make the book fat enough for 200 pages:-)

I loved the point(in hindsight quite obvious) that he makes about the highly successful guy in any category investing in about 10,000 hours of practice compared to the not-so-successful(but equally talented) guy putting in half the number of hours...

Picked up a few quotes from the net which Gladwell Saheb has made:

1. The closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play!

2. When I wrote Tipping Point, my expectation was it would be read by my mom and that was it ... I had no notion I was creating a kind of public document. Now I realize I have a bit of a podium, so it seems silly to put the podium to waste.

3. At the end of the day, I'm just a journalist. I spend my time talking to people who tell me things, and then I write them down. I'm necessarily parasitic in a way. I have done well as a parasite. But I'm still a parasite.

4. People are experience rich and theory poor. My role has been to give people ways of organizing experience."

And a lot of the experts are theory rich and experience poor:-)

5. No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.

Well am 1 month into it(rising around dawn). Feeling rich a little...am I?

6. Hitchcock began making his best movies in his late 50s. Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and many others did their best work very late in life. Sometimes success isn’t recognized until late in life. That’s not uncommon.

Javed Akhtar, Gulzar Saheb too!!

7. Google is the answer to the problem we didn’t have. It doesn’t tell you what’s interesting or what’s important. There’s still more in the library than there is on Google!!

So true...okay will leave it at that!

Tweet What You Eat and Other Thots

2009-09-27T12:55:00.007+05:30

Was having an end of day quick chat an with ex-planner-colleague on twitter. She is a great user of the service, I an on-and-off user/critic/admirer:-)

And then in the morning discovered this small factoid about 'How Twitter may help you shed some extra kilos!'
Slim people worldwide are now posting their healthy food diet on 'Tweet what you eat'! Suddenly some ideas pop up in the mind on how we could use twitter(maybe they already are being used)

A ramble at the end of the day!

1. The Great India Discount Tweet. Tell where the biggest discounts are. With where it's convenient to park:-)

2. The 10pm what-movie-am-I-watching-tweet. One always keeps looking for people to do some post-movie-chat!

3. The weekend 'where-am-I-lunching-today' tweet or what's-great-on-the-menu tweet

4. The know-your-gadget-better tweet for the tech-challenged. Learning about the new gizmo one tweet at a time!

The trick I guess is to be more useful in a less and less obtrusive way

Faults of Argument and Parallel Thinking!

2009-09-24T01:11:00.007+05:30

One of my colleagues had a great argumentative mind. He would impeccably find 'fault' with every concept and idea. And yet, having found the 'fault' in reason/concept, he would fail miserably in building something new.

As I look back at many of the professional relationships I have had in Indian advertising, am amazed at how good many of us are at finding faults in other people's arguments and how little time(in relative terms) we devote to co-creating some idea/ concept!!

In case you are interested in this line of thinking, you could browse through Edward De Bono's book - Think! Before it's too late.

De Bono says...

1. With the traditional argument or adversarial thinking each side takes a different position and then seeks to attack the other side. Each side seeks to prove that the other side is wrong. This is the type of thinking that was established by the Greek Gang of Three (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) two thousand four hundred years ago.

2. Adversarial thinking completely lacks a constructive, creative or design element. It was intended only to discover the 'truth' not to build anything.

Value is never really created by only the adversarial mode of thinking! You get an ego boost. That's all about it...

3. But there is another, more constructive form of thinking called 'Parallel Thinking'. With 'parallel thinking' both sides (or all parties0 are thinking in parallel in the same direction. There is co-operative and co-ordinated thinking. The direction itself can be changed in order to give a full scan of the situation. But at every moment each thinker is thinking in parallel with all the other thinkers. There does not have to be agreement. Statements or thoughts which are indeed contradictory are not argued out but laid down in parallel.In the final stage the way forward is 'designed' from the parallel thought that have been laid out.

4. A simple and practical way of carrying out 'parallel thinking' is the Six Thinking Hats method which is now being used widely around the world both because it speeds up thinking and also because it is so much more constructive than traditional argument thinking.

5. As you may already know, the "Six Thinking Hats" is a powerful technique that helps you look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives.

While we all know these things, rarely do we put them into practice! The different hats and what they stand for are here...Am meeting a friend for some idea-generation for his new venture, so let me wear the yellow(positivity) and green(creative) hats and meet him...cheers

50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet

2009-09-18T23:00:00.005+05:30

We the technology-awed populace always view all technology as being better, faster and taking us to a better place. The internet seems like no exception. Yet, every new technology also takes away something...

Stumbled upon this interesting article 50 Things That Are Being Killed By the Internet at PSFK. Have a read...

Gleanings enmeshed with my thots on some of them...

1. Punctuality. Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up for lunch on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudeness of the connected age.

This is going to be a huge conflict area between generations. My father runs his life by the hour, I am far more comfortable keeping things fluid all the time!

2. Memory. When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the "mere" storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity.

Today, if you have a story, the facts and the props are available for free on the net. However, as an agency planner and now a trends and futures consultant, I find this aspect liberating!

3. Dead time. When was the last time you spent an hour mulling the world out a window, or rereading a favourite book? The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist.

All former dead-time is now pottering time - twitter, flickr, youtube, fb, sms, mobile chat, gtalk...And we are more busy than ever before, our reflection time has dropped to an all time low!

Just because the pipe of our conversations is broader and the flow 24X7 hasn't guaranteed that better stuff is flowing through those pipes. Although, the more plugged you are, the more you can scan the global brain for ideas and inspiration.

4. Mainstream media. While in India, print might be growing and TV getting higher TRPs, for some of us mainstream media has been quietly marginalised over the last few years.

- We don't miss the week-night news. In fact haven't watched the weekly bulletin which were so much a part of life a decade back.

- Right now we are consuming a mash-up of mainstream media and new media. This may be the intermediate step before some of us totally migrate to newer forms of digital media(personalised, customised, on-demand)Already, in the Western markets, free news and the migration of advertising to the web threaten the basic business models of almost all media organisations.

Mental post-it : What else is being killed by the internet, new media? Isn't it an interesting thought to stay with for a while...

Brand New From Bagchi

2009-09-15T23:19:00.003+05:30

Just ordered the new book by Subroto Bagchi- The Professional on flipkart.com. Triggered by reading an ET interview of Subroto - How do you align knowledge with customer needs? Bagchi says - There are three layers of knowledge - technical, experiential and existential.

Most Indian firms and professionals are very good in technical skills. You are given a set of specifications and you deliver the best project, but that’s about it.

However, if you look at what Nissan did years ago while exploring to enter the European markets, they were focused upon the experiential aspect of knowledge. Nissan sent some 200 engineers to Europe with each driving almost 2,500 kilometers across different roads to understand what it takes to be a motorist in Europe. The engineers came back and then defined a design. This is like stepping into the shoes of your customer.

But this is not all. You also need to get into the mind of your customer, which is all about existential knowledge. Companies such as Sony and even Narayana Hridayalaya are great examples of such companies. Since each of these knowledge layers is separated by a glass ceiling, we need to break free.

Looking forward to reading the book...

Thums Down!

2009-09-06T12:52:00.005+05:30

Thums Up 'Got It' from Campaign India on Vimeo.

This post had been languishing in the draft mode for a while now. Am talking about the now-not-so-new Thums Up TVC.

As a fan of the drink(surprisingly a very infrequent drinker) and it's commercials over time, I found this new departure from the usual action-packed thrill quite uncalled for.

Unconvincingly elucidated by the team behind it on afaqs and campaignindia, I failed to see what's so excitingly different.

Akshay doesn't quite know whether he has to play the action hero or the comic man. The battered BMW with billowing smoke is a total waste even on the 36in LCD! The orgasmic oohs and aahs after every sip of TU is quite irritating. The extras in the story all need lessons in acting...I can imagine Akshay laughing all the way to the bank without performing any stunts...

While the promise of showing - 'Action in the imagination' might look appealing on paper/ power-point, this rendition is a dud!

Hope the next ad brings the action back. Guys I want to see the action. People love carbonated sugared water brands only for the action and imagery(at least I do). Don't believe what a few morons say in an FGD sitting in a dark b-grade hotel room:-) And I feel so strongly because TU is amongst those rare Indian brands that we have managed to build and consistently sustain over the years .

It's so easy to mess with what you have and take it to 'the next level'. The really difficult task is to stay exactly where you are and yet have engaging stories to tell time and again!

Why we don't have iconic youth brands?

Pi-shaped Talent

2009-09-03T09:26:00.010+05:30

As I wade through the workplace, transitioning from agency planning work to consultant work there are interesting shifts that are taking place in the sort of work that I do. And also in the way that work happens. More complex work - with a fine balance of 'analysis', 'logic', 'creativity' and 'ambiguity'. Geographically spread out work. Talent hot groups. Being a part of many such groups at the same time...Some you lead; in some you learn. In most you collaborate and build upon each others work. Multi-tasking, learning, forgetting...

And all this work requires a very different sort of talent than needed in the past! Eduardo Braniff in this Adage.com article describes beautifully these pi-shaped talent that's needed in this creative collaborative economy.

Pi, the Greek letter, describes talent that is broad in its interests and expert in two areas, if not more. As a decimal representation, pi never ends or repeats which, when used to describe talent, means no two "pi talents" are alike. And, as a circular constant, it is inherently about well-rounded talent. Though a constant mathematically, the only thing constant about "pi talent" is the rate at which their attention changes and ambitions evolve.

Excellent article. Do read it and share view-points...

What's age got to do with it?

2009-08-31T23:36:00.005+05:30

In the afternoon today, I got a full primer on PlayStation from Neo(age 6)(who lectures me regularly on mobile and video games, thinks am way behind on the learning curve...) and then a lil later my father(age 65) wanted me to help him install skype!! My younger brother is quite a blogger and a web 2.0 expert!! Quite a digital savvy family balanced only by the combined tech-unsavviness of my mother and mil:-)

As the Internet turns 40, our one preoccupation that all technology products and services will only have the youth as early adopters, practitioners and evangelists will be put to test regularly...Just when I was mulling over these thoughts over a crazily busy fortnite, my planner buddy Meraj sent me this NYT link - Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens. Worth a read and some reflection...

Archiving some nuggets from the article..

1. Surprisingly(actually not so surprisingly, if you pause to reflect) many teens in the US(do we have data for India as well?) are not that heavy users of twitter. As one of them says - "I just think it’s weird and I don’t feel like everyone needs to know what I’m doing every second of my life". Well am not teen by a wide margin but have similar thoughts about twitter...

2. Though teenagers fueled the early growth of social networks, today they account for just 14% of MySpace’s users and only 9% of Facebook’s. As the Web grows up, so do its users. The notion that children are essential to a new technology’s success is now proving to be largely a myth.

3. Adults have driven the growth of many perennially popular Web services. YouTube attracted young adults and then senior citizens before teenagers piled on. Blogger’s early user base was adults and LinkedIn has built a successful social network with professionals as its target.

If I look around at my digital habits and behaviour and many of my friends, the digital adoption curve doesn't always co-relate to our age in some simple linear fashion...On the other hand, India will be different because we are crazily young in age and outlook(as far as statistics go).

On another note, this reminds me of my interview with Javed Akhtar in Bombay when he brushed aside all this fanatical obsession of marketers with youth - "Aap logon ne youth ko hauaa bana rakha hai. Youth ko yeh chahiye, youth ko woh chahiye. Arrey saheb, youth ko toh khud he nahin pata ki usko kya chahiye:-)"

A trip to Chanderi

2009-08-20T09:03:00.002+05:30

Few days back, I spent a day in the sleepy 'kasba' of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh. A 'kasba' famous for it's 'Chanderi sarees'. It also has lot of Rajput and Mughal architecture. It's the birthplace of Sangeet Samrath - Baiju Bawra (1542-1613) a dhrupad singer. and the court musician of Raja Mansingh of Gwalher...It was nice ,this journey back in time...

My Son's Father : 5 Things I Re-Learnt From Neo

2009-08-15T23:21:00.009+05:30

I was a bit apprehensive how my son, Neo would adjust to this city shift - Bombay to Delhi. He took less than 24 hours!! Children are that adaptive...I have tried to spend more time with him these last two months...It's amazing how you can learn/ unlearn/ re-learn tons of stuff from your kids. In their innocence and curiosity they often make profound comments and observations....Here's what I picked-up!

1. Look beneath/ look around. I remember it was one of the first few weeks in our Gurgaon house, he ran upto me to show something, Dragged me to the 'backyard' and asked me to look at 'the thing'. With my well trained planner eyes I kept searching for 'a thing' a 'big physical thing' while Neo wanted me to show how tall the grass had grown!!

He often stops me and shows me an unusual flower, the full moon, a bird on the wire, ants in the bathroom...

2. Play and learn. Like all kids, he has an insatiable appetite for play. Kids want to play in the morning, while eating, while studying, before going off to sleep...In play they learn. Playing UNO, snakes and ladder, cricket, ludo and Monopoly has made me wonder how we can inject more play at work. Increasingly a lot of work that we( at least I do) is conceptual and creative. Being too serious and working like a factory shift has diminishing returns beyond a point. It's the play value at work that adds that extra bit!

3.Do you know my friends?It's important for him that my wife and I remember all his friends names(often I fail miserably)- Bombay school friends, Bombay Ashiana building friends, Gurgaon school friends, the colony friends, the school bus friends...

What I feel is in all the lip service that a lot of marketing pays the DM mailer often reads - Dear loyal customer, the call centre guy often calls up from your mobile company to find if you are a post-paid or a pre-paid customer!!

If it's a relationship you care, remembering names is important. Period.

4. M and H.The other week-end I had taken Neo to the Qutab Minar(achcha tower hai he kept on saying), he suddenly points out to some similarity he found between the Hindi letter 'mm' and the English alphabet - 'H'. I wondered why this thought never came to me.

Is it because our analytical minds have been trained to spot the differences more than focus on similarities...Kids are good at recognising patterns. And it would help if we could learn to relax our grey cells and hunt for patterns in unlikely places.

5. Deliver-what-you-promise. It's very important for Neo that I walk the talk. If you have promised a bedtime-story, it must be told. Neo would wait upto an hour with sleep-filled eyes to hear a 'Ram-aur-Shyam' story from me.

Kids I have realised can teach us an awful lot...Next time before we brush them aside - Accha chup raho, abhi tum bache ho - maybe it would make more sense to lend them a ear!

P.S. The picture is that of a 'digital drawing' that he made on my laptop:-)

Truth Well Sold(?)

2009-08-10T01:11:00.008+05:30

I had avoided 'Sach Ka Samna' by default till I was caught in the cross-fire of a water-cooler conversation at office and therefore decided to watch a few episodes. And I was hooked onto the show for the next 2 nights...

As NYT described it's original Fox US avatar -'Moment of Truth' - this is indeed a cash-prize competition that is neither a game of chance nor a test of knowledge. It’s a pseudo-psychological trial by ordeal in which the contestants trade candor for money.

1. Of course the show has rocked the parliament and the MPs have made high decibel noises and sung the familiar - hamari sanskriti, hamara samaj' song. I guess the film-maker and nominated MP Shyam babu(Benegal) made the more sensible comment -

“Sach ka Saamna is demeaning to human beings and obviously has high TRPs. It is like someone stripping publicly to get paid for it, spectating in these cases is involuntary, like pornography it is demeaning to your own sense of self-esteem. When an act is in private it is different but TV is a social medium watched by public at large and 90% of it is about family viewing.

However, government must have no serious role in this, we need to create a self-regulatory body of channels with equal number of people from the civil society, TV industry and the casting vote should rest with civil society,” he said.

2. I quite agree with the 'personal pornography' part of it. I mean in the 3 episodes that I watched, the cross-dresser(Bobby Darling), a middle class HW(who it appeared as if she came prepared to dump her husband on national TV) and a UTD(uncle trying to be dude) who owned up to being unfaithful to his wife and in the process lost all the moolah as well - seemingly normal people were hell-bent on stripping themselves on national TV and on 2/3 of the cases got zero money for all their 'reveal'!

3. The way the questions get tougher and 'nosier', no sane guy can ever reach the booty of 1 cr without losing his/her spouse, alienating most of his/her family...I would love to know the actual motivation of the studio participants or maybe I am just too old fashioned for these reality-shows...

4. Dressing up. All game shows are by definition mercenary, but producers go to great lengths to try to dress up contestants’ greed as altruism(that's the facade that the public loves).

A man wants the money to buy his wife the diamond engagement ring he could never afford. A young woman wants to help her ailing mother buy a home.

These shows also use loving-wives, aging parents and smiling-siblings as advisers or cheerleaders to add some human warmth and humor to a prosaic and dumb contest.

5. No matter how profound Rajeev Khandelwal tries to act(in his new hair-cut that makes him look more like Apurva Agnihotri) and bandies casually - Yeh hai 'Agni ka hawan kund', 'aapki agni pariksha' and other such lofty pronouncements...SKS is plain crass American programming at it’s best.

This made-for-TV-and-TRP show is junk, voyeuristic, highly manipulative and addictive. Like a cheap porn mag, it’s good for limited use but eventually ‘people like us’ would drop out or so I think:-)

Already after a diet of 2 episodes on TV and another 2 on youtube, I think I know what the fare will be...Evenings are too precious to be squandered on people’s dirty linen washed in the national bathroom!

The danger is not what SKS does to viewers. It's a late-night show and one has the freedom to not-watch-it; the real danger is the precedent that it sets for future programming. And while Mr. Benegal thinks that our TRP obsessed TV channels are capable of self-regulation, I seriously doubt their intentions!

Big Idea : Nano Ganesh

2009-08-02T22:38:00.007+05:30

Had read about Nano Ganesh a couple of days back in ET. The relevance and the desire to share the story got amplified post a telecom client mtg!

It's a story about the leap-frogging India. The other India(read rural)that is also growing exponentially in technology adoption and aspiration but often doesn't feature prominently on the radar of big media!

It's a story of innovation amongst farmers in Anand’s Sojitra, a village cluster, about 30 km east of Ahmedabad. On a sleepy summer afternoon in Sojitra one Bhavesh Patel makes a game changing call from his Nokia E-75, but says nothing and hangs up. “Will it come?” asks one of the villagers. They were all eagerly waiting for water to flow into their fields from a reservoir 10 km away. Patel had just activated the pump set at the site by making the call.

The inventor of this mobile-phone enabled gadget however named it Ganesh first and them prefixed it with ‘Nano’ after Tata Motors decided to relocate its Nano factory to Sanand, near Ahmedabad.

Santosh Ostwal, the Pune-based founder of Ossian Agro Automation has developed the gadget that’s revolutionising irrigation in farms across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Around 7,000 farmers are already using Nano Ganesh. Ostwal hopes his impending north India launch will take the number to one lakh in two years.

Ostwal is taking advantage of low mobile tariffs and handset prices. Among many of the USPs of the device are its price tag at $15 - 55 apiece, and ease of use.

The idea has its roots in Ostwal’s childhood when he spent time with his grandfather, a farmer who grew oranges. His village didn’t have a television set; even electricity was a luxury. The senior Ostwal had to walk deep into his orchard late at night, with a stick and a flickering oil lamp to water the trees. “He developed infections on his feet and had to lose one of his legs.

That set Ostwal thinking whether he could do something for farmers so that they wouldn’t have to walk into the fields to water the saplings or plants!

A good education helped him become an engineer and got him a job at Telco. He quit in the mid-eighties, and started working on his idea. 10 years later he had developed the 'Nano Ganesh'.

Ostwal’s simple application is already winning him accolades the world over. Nokia recognised his work at the All Innovators contest in Barcelona last year with a cash prize of $25,000 and promised to distribute his mobile application to consumers worldwide!!

Big Idea : From Jayanti Janta Express to Soleckshaw

2009-07-30T08:05:00.006+05:30

The big breaking news on Brand Equity yesterday was the scam-ovation by Publicis. Anyone who had spare time for such inanities(and that includes me:-) would have read the article/ expose by Brand Equity written in a breathless adolescent tone!

Anyways this post is about a quiet and real innovation that I found tucked as a story in the newly launched India edition of Technology Review - the MIT's magazine on innovation!

The story was about a solar powered rickshaw - perhaps the only non-polluting commercial vehicle in India and the sole means of earning a livelihood for over 5 million people!

After 100 years of the rickshaw era, scientists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) New Delhi have found a pollution-free solution to end the bane of this large population by developing the Soleckshaw.(All this rickshaw talk reminded me of the rickshaw that used to ferry me to play-school - it was branded Jayanti Janta Express branded on the train that ran between Howrah and Delhi passing through Patna!!)

Soleckshaw is driven partly by pedal and partly by electric power supplied by a battery that is charged from solar energy. The initiative has come as a small step towards improving the life of 800 million people who are living below the poverty line, including 5 mn rickshaw pullers.

Though the good ole 'autos'(driven on fossil fuel)are also an economical means of transport and used by millions, Soleckshaw with its zero carbon footprint promises cleaner environmentproviding quality of life for rickshaw-pullers without any reliance on fuel...

Hope the Soleckshaw happens. Hope it gets the requisite push by the govt. And some corporate good Samaritan also takes up the cause...

And hope the conversations in big media are a little more about game-changing innovations and a lot less about scam-ovations!!

P.S. A piece of trivia - this is the chaar sau beeswan post of Indiadrant:-)

Conversations with Consumers

2009-07-20T07:28:00.005+05:30

Working around shifting is a moving goal post! As soon as one completes one area, a totally new one stares in your face and quietly takes the weekend away.

Last week, I attended many FGDs for a client project. While I am not an ardent admirer of this research tool, a lot of our insights are mined this way. Was giving some tips to my junior. Sharing the same...They are not in any particular order/ emphasis.

1. Capture more verbatims(as many as possible) - the actual consumer quotes. There are two purposes it serves.
(a) it's more evocative /rich/ has a nuance which may have been overlooked earlier
(b)it helps you later to weave a better narrative...

(Remember the first notes are like an FIR. Just write all the stuff, don't analyse at this stage or try to give structure to the discussion/ thoughts.)

2. Even before one enters into a GD as observer/ moderator, it's important to have a POV. Don't be rigid on your point of view(POV) but ask questions to vet it/ or drop it.

3. Compare stuff - with what you know before the FGD and what gets said during the FGD. I believe research is a dynamic, on-going conversation which we must have with consumers/ people. Also they are just 6-8 normal people in the room. You don't have to treat their word as gospel. They are capable of lying, speaking rubbish, rant because they are bored...Over time, one learns to separate the wheat from the chaff!!

4. The Importance of the Deviant/ Stray Comment
- Never underestimate the importance of the small comments, stray comments. They can lead you to places your original discussion guide couldn't have/ never intended!

5. Stories
Capture real life stories as vividly as possible. They are rare. They are true. They often are stranger than fiction...They give you a glimpse into the shifts and the drifts as nothing else can.

Then later during the analysis phase try to find out what - the motivations were
- Why they recounted those stories.
- Any hidden/ deeper meaning.
- What could a brand/ your brand learn from that story.

Good researchers and planners are story collectors and raconteurs!!
Keep mulling over the thoughts. Reflection when the FGD is done is very important. Research(any research) is not a power-point to be made, presented and archived...It's an on-going conversation with the consumer and with oneself!!

Osianama and gymming the mind

2009-07-12T19:29:00.006+05:30

Just came out of a four hour brainstorm with a friend. Am helping him start a new creative venture! It has been a serious Sunday so far:-) But starting this week am signing a no-work-on-Sunday bond with myself and then stick to it...Had bookmarked this interview of Neville Tuli yesterday in ET where he was discussing this art show Jashn Osianama in the capital! You may want to browse through the interview here!

Jashn-Osianama — is Tuli’s curating effort and is a new festival for the visual arts which juxtaposes, some of the world’s most refined, subtle and expensive art works with simple artifacts of popular culture; with Japanese Samurai art, Tibetan Thangkas, Rajasthani and Pahari miniatures, vintage world film memorabilia, political propaganda, magic memorabilia, antiquarian and modern photography put alongside modern and contemporary art from the Indian sub-continent.

Most of the stuff that Neville talked I found very interesting. Sharing it with shards of my random thoughts.

1. He focussed on the need to create an 'art space' which everyone feels “is ours”. Intellectual intimidation should not be to a point of making people feel insecure about even entering a space where art is on display.

For a generation which is almost lost in the labyrinth of malls and commercial space, it may not be a relevant question:-) but I guess some body's got to think of the museums and not just the malls!

2. Creativity is a birthright and is a part of every mind but it takes a little effort to trigger this creativity? Viewing opportunities, where prior knowledge is definitely not a pre-requisite are critical. Once that opportunity is grasped, people will slowly begin to realise that a visual is like a piece of text, it needs to be read because it has its own grammar and language. This reading requires learning and education. Since visual is not text and is therefore not equated to knowledge they become an easier form to seduce a newcomer into the art space

It's a fine point. I think I have refrained from entering art spaces on many a occasion because of this intimidation that Neville talks about. That and the self created expectation and pressure of prior knowledge!

3. Tuli believes there is an urgent need to build new institutions to occupy the energy of people, to ensure that their families participate, so that there is no numbing of minds, give opportunities to occupy the mind which is a muscle after all and if not exercised will rust. “There is so much boredom in daily Indian life, edutainment is the new ‘fashion’ word across the world but India has not even begun this process. Right now what is the choice you have? Kambakkht Ishq?

And perhaps we need it the most in 'Kambakkht Gurgaon' where the malls and the 'firang sounding' towers and the ubiquitous theka do not leave any/much space for art spaces for the community!

Bye Bye Mumbai, Hello Delhi

2009-07-05T23:25:00.006+05:30

After 6 years of a sort of dream stint in Mumbai, last week I packed my life and belongings in 105 cartons and headed north to Dilli!!

It's been a busy week settling down in Delhi(actually Gurgaon)! One needs planning skills of a different kind getting a new home started...Finally this evening I am connected to the web again thanks to Airtel broadband.

Trying to catch up with the world having missed much of the debate and action around Cannes, the run-up to the budget and Wimbledon!!

While I chug back into the blogosphere, read a nice post recommended by blog-buddy Neil Perkin on Creative Paralysis by Dave Trott. I love collecting stories like this in my head. Here it is...

When Bill Shankly(one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers)managed Liverpool he had a very gifted young striker playing for him. This young star worked hard, trained hard, and studied the game.

In one particular high-pressure match he found himself with the ball at his feet and only the goalkeeper to beat.

He thought about everything he’d learned.

Should he wrong-foot the keeper and go round him?

Should he bend the ball around the keeper into the top corner?

Should he try a power shot and hope the keeper can’t hold it?

Should he hold up the ball so he could lay it off to someone in a better position?

While he hesitated a defender took the ball off him and booted it upfield to the other end of the pitch.

When the young striker eventually came off the pitch, Shankly asked him what had happened.

The striker said he’d been trying to pick his best option.

Shankley said, “Look son, if you ever find yourself with the ball at your feet and just the goalie to beat, stick it in the net and we’ll discuss all your options afterwards.”

I often think advertising is like that.

We’ve got young copywriters and art director getting confused by concentrating on complicated things that aren’t their job.

So they can’t do the simple job they should be doing.

Instead they spend all their time thinking about brand theory, new media, cultural memes, and social latency.

Now maybe brand theory and the all rest has some relevance for planners.

But that’s their role in the team, not ours.

It’s our job to stick the ball in the net.

And that’s simple, or it’s nothing.

Now, I don't follow football at all and I have recently left advertising, but loved this story for it's simple and powerful lesson...

Looking forward to Monday and the start of a new and exciting journey! Must rummage through my notes for some other post ideas.
Neo's Ben 10 overlooks our packed samaan:-)And while I hardly drove my old war-horse Lancer, felt nostalgic about selling it off:-( I was particularly fond of its blue-green-silver colour and the front grille. I don't know why I am sharing it, but I guess it was important to say it one last time! And our new home...actually a small independent house in Gurgaon, quietly redefining my Bombay sense of space!

Big Idea - Green Livelihoods

2009-06-15T18:22:00.007+05:30

It's been a hectic fortnight. Looking for a flat/ house in Gurgaon. Sometimes you can be spoilt for choice:-)

At the airport, leafing through the latest Outlook Money with the cover story on 30 businesses under Rs. 5 lacs, stumbled upon this innovative 'green company' Bamboo House India!

Bamboo House India, a social enterprise, started by two First Generation Entrepreneurs, Aruna Kappagantula & Prashant Lingam in 2008 aims to use Bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural & tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector through market linkages.

BHI is striving to create a chain of bamboo showrooms across the country which shall promote & market all bamboo based products under one roof starting from Bamboo pens to Bamboo Housing Structures!
Do check out their products here!

Their vision is to create a long term sustainable non-migratory business model for rural and tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector by using locally available raw material i.e. bamboo and develop contemporary life style products to suit the market tastes and demand rather than being consigned to age old basketry items.

I am trying to get in touch with Aruna and Prashant. Starting this month, I plan to devote 10-15% of my time to support, help market and evangelise such efforts. In case you know of any social-enterprise that is in need of marketing, strategy, branding, design support, please direct them to me. I would be happy to help them!

Wish BHI best of luck in their innovative and sincere effort to create green livelihoods!

Jonathan iVe - design sutras

2009-06-04T23:30:00.008+05:30

Read this piece on the world's 100 most creative people on fastcompay.com on my feed-reader! Perhaps predictably the fabled Apple design head Jonathan iVe tops this list.

This week as I slip into a new job and a project on the Millenials, for some strange reason, I am pulled towards design and design related thots.

Few design sutras from the article gleaned from Jon's profile.

1. Design According to Ive - "There's an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there's real simplicity. This looks simple, because it really is." (Wired)

2. Referring to the Apple design team - "The memory of how we work will endure beyond the products of our work." (Interview for Design Museum,2003)

3. "Very often design is the most immediate and explicit way of defining what products become in people's minds." (Interview for BBC, 2002)

This is such a profound revelation. Often in most agencies, planners(me-in-the-immediate-past included) waste a lot many hours unlocking the meaning of the brand only to discover that the design maybe at variance with the meaning. More frightfully, the design and the brand communication happen in separate silos. Brand communicators and the design guys are frequently not in sync with each other.

4. "With technology, the function is much more abstract to users, so the product's meaning is almost entirely defined by the designer."

And it's so strange and sad that product design in many companies is totally delinked from marketing's hunt for meaning.

5. "Something like the iPod is a melding of design and user experience and marketing and pop culture, and you don't achieve that without coordination throughout the company. And for that you need a CEO who gets it."

Mental note - Must catch more of iVe's interviews on the www.

iShift

2009-05-29T16:51:00.005+05:30

I was planning to hold this post till sunday night when I would have blogged my departure from Mudra/ Tribal DDB.(Not that 48 hrs makes much difference:-) But since DigitalMedia already got wind here...here are the details!

Sometimes, mid-way through a job, your role starts mutating in a way which may not be to your liking! So, I decided to hang my digital boots which were getting a bit sooted(I hope there is a word like that) with analog dust.

I am joining The Futures Company as Principal Consultant. The Futures Company has been formed by the coming together of Henley Centre HeadlightVision and Yankelovich. This WPP entity is a pretty cool global trends, futures research and consultancy company. Got offices in the US, UK and India!

And am shifting base to Delhi/ Gurgaon. Will start the Delhi innings from July 1st week.

The blog stays, the rants stay...even though I may not be privy to agency insider information:-) Banking on my small group of friends inside agencies. And while I don this new hat of a consultant, I think I will remain an account planner(in spirit). The hats are quite interchangeable!

Room 16

2009-05-27T11:22:00.006+05:30

Have been away in 43deg heat of Delhi and then the much cooler environs of Bangalore over the past two weeks...Away from the keyboard and therefore Room 16 has had to wait!

Essentially, it was a chance comment from a young friend of mine at BBH India that has led to this post. Apparently, BBH internationally has a day when John(Hegarty) and Simon (Sherwood) meet the youngsters in the agency and discuss the business, the future, trends, technology, life and more...

It's the day when grey hair learns from young grey matter. In fact at RMG(David) Josy, Kumar and I regularly used to interact with young students(mostly from Xaviers) and used to discuss new business pitches, difficult campaigns and other stuff...

All of 'us' learnt a lot from 'them'. I remember using our David play-school to crack the Flying Machine and Excalibur campaigns and even a couple of new business pitches.

At the rate at which technology is changing and stuff is happening around us, it now pays even more to learn from the 21 and the 16 year olds. And therefore Room 16 or 21 is a must for the Rooms 36, 46 and 56...

So what are the thumb rules for interacting with Room 16/21.

1. Experience needs to learn a lot from curiosity and play. Today the flow of knowledge between experience and the inexperienced can almost be the same. Agencies can learn a lot from a formal Room 16 day! Unfortunately the sr. management at many agencies at most times is insulated from the Room 16/21 guys!

2. It's okay for Room 36/46/56 to admit "I don't know!" Can you teach me? At work I continue to learn a lot from junior planners and young students. Young bloggers and designers. Often they are more connected. They come across more 'cool stuff'. They are invariably closer to the 'edge', the stuff at the periphery!!

3. Access to Room 16 is not restricted to a room. Even if one is running a very small agency, today one can connect with Room 16 virtually. Room 16 is available on gmail, fb, linkedin...It just needs an honest ear and some patience...

4. Room 16 Yellow pages. The folks in HR must have a sort of yellow pages for the diverse and invaluable talent of the Room 16 to 21 guys. Imagine the gains that the company can make if it taps into this for client projects and more. And believe me it is not a very costly affair to manage this! But of course it costs a lot of time and precious attention.

5. Room 16 are digital natives. This fact alone makes interacting with them a big plus for Room 36 and beyond. In fact recently I got sound advice from Room 6( my son Neo) who proudly stated that - "Papa ko toh computer game khelne ke liye kitaab padhna padta hai, lekin humko toh khelne se hi pata chal jaata hai!!"

While I was putting this post, read this article by Rishad Tobacowala in Brand Equity today. Do read it here if you haven't already!

Rishad makes a couple of very important points.(Putting him almost at the top of my growing interview list)
(a) (the Room 16/21 guys)are highly energetic, motivated, and driven individuals who are creative, accountable and hungry to learn and they have very high standards they hold themselves to.

They want the answer to three questions on any assignment.
Q1. What are we hoping to achieve?

Q2. Is there a better or cheaper way to get the same outcome?

And Q3. How can results, outcomes and they themselves get better? Answering these with a) because we have always done it this way, or b) we cannot do it that way because that is too much work and will change our business or c) the boss says so, are not considered answers worth considering.

(b) Provide access to information and tools.The Room 16/21 guys can access information and opinion with one click on their web browser or phone in their personal lives and they expect this open access to information and empowering tools at work. Anything that slows down or anyone that hoards is resented while those that provide access are celebrated.

(c) Run the workplace in some ways as a model University. There is a reason that more and more companies call their physical locations “campuses”.

This is because in many ways an ideal workplace for the Room 16 generation represents a continuation of their University days. It is a place for them to continue to learn, to contribute and to grow. And like any great University they want access to superb facilities, good mentors and teachers and strong fellow students.

In school the end result may have been grades, passing examinations, dissertations and learning. While at work it is revenue, profits, new products, patents and more. They want an environment that is challenging but also one where they can challenge the status quo.

The Room 16 generation thinks differently, behaves differently and has already started to demand big changes in the way society, business and individuals interact. Is your company/ agency prepared for the Room 16 generation? Is mine:-)

How many 16 year olds do you know/ understand? How many do I know/ understand!!!

Kuch Aur ZooZoo...

2009-05-14T14:22:00.007+05:30

My friend Reshma sent me these making of the ZooZoo pix and Shubho wrote a note on the Zoozoos on fb which triggered some more zoozoo-istic thots!

- Conversations once started have a life of their own. You can't CONTROL them anymore...You can only(maybe) guide their course. You can't own the beta tape of the conversation. Nobody can...

- The more content you give-away, the more they get used, recycled/ threaded back/ enmeshed into the conversation. Here we need to think like Bollywood. The trivia around the actors/ stars, the shooting, the making of the ZooZoo DVD all become a part of the conversation.

- But why the hell would a brand(in this case Vodafone) with stuff to sell and a life beyond this one campaign to be lived invest so much thought into sth which would have a short shelf life in the larger scheme of things?

- Maybe in this converged increasingly digital-at-the-upper-crust era, there is space for small ancillary companies that can make a living out of fanning the branded conversations - the T shirt makers, the zoozoo-sodes guys, the zoozoo-phics(graphics maker), the zoozoo short films, the zoozoo games/ widgets.
It's like the ipod and it's eco-system...

- What we are witnessing is a mass ripple of adulation. Not so much for the brand but for the cute quotient of these funny characters, which can be digitally aggregated at digital hang-outs like facebook, youtube, etc. We now need companies and smart people to make use of this hanging out.

- What's the paid-for-coffee in the zoozoo barista? What's the top-up:-)

Next post - Room 16!

Sorry, Not Much Fizz!!

2009-05-11T16:44:00.008+05:30

Read the write-up on Appy Vs. Grappo Fizz at afaqs...

Quite like the on-air TVC, the digital effort is trying a bit too hard to be cool. You can check the site here at appyvsgrappo.com ! (BTW, my friend Russell tells me it should have been Grappy and not Grappo; somewhere the sound of Grappo is not quite right and I agree with him)

I find it has a done-in48hrs-to-add-onto-mere-pass-bhi-digital-hai kind of feel! Creating engaging digital content requires far greater thought and craft skills...Or perhaps I am a bit too harsh on the effort.

While on the subject, stumbled upon this raging debate on the BBH Labs site - Why isn’t there more great work in the interactive space? and a response post by Tim Malbon - How to be Better at Digital or Interactive or New Media or WhateverTF it's called here...

New Heads for New Hats

2009-05-09T11:03:00.007+05:30

Read this post on New Roles in Advertising at Scott Goodson's blog...Am reproducing the 'new heads' with a few comments of mine...

Digital Presence Strategist
This person is a hybrid web strategist with curiosity about new technologies and a familiarity with mobility applications. This is not a media strategist or a technologist.

I have played this role to some extent at Tribal. But then again, a lot more can be done. A lot more conversations need to happen between the agencies and the technology companies. The tech companies are ready and raring to go, the agencies are sadly not...

Let me add the hat of Synthesizer to the list- Last Sunday, was having a chat with my friend Josy(Paul) over breakfast and I did share with him this need for a synthesizer. This guy, has to be a creative strategist who has this ability to both look at things from a helicopter view and also should be able to handle the micro details. But most importantly, he can synthesize the brand idea, the social/ cultural environment and the available new technology to create impactful communication and to engage people. Synthesis skills perhaps need to replace/ augment the traditional planning skills.

Idearator
This is an idea generator who has a legacy in the digital space but is broad enough to come up with ideas that live in all media. This person must play across many disciplines. This role will become increasingly important because the emphasis, the value, and the fundamental business model for agencies has shifted away from a focus predominantly on execution to a focus on ideas.

The way I look at things the art-copy team of the past will gradually get replaced by the Idearator-Synthesizer duo in the future facing agencies!! Of course, in India it's still conceptual. The creative fiefdoms at legacy agencies(and we have mostly those) will stomp the idea in the womb.

Partnership Director
Partnering with ‘best-in-class’ individuals and firms is what enables agencies like StrawberryFrog to leapfrog the traditional legacy corporate agencies. This person’s role is to continuously manage the agency’s partnerships and be able to draw on the world’s best talent, tailored to a client’s specific needs. While all agencies work with outsourced talent in some shape of form (some more openly and overtly than others who hide this fact), this is now becoming a mainstream way of working in the evolving media revolution.

I had written about 'the networking quotient' of employees here. I totally agree with Scott, just like great product/ brand ideas like the ipod evolve an eco-system of ancillary companies, ideas around itself - accessories, itunes, docking stations even massage chairs with ipod holders!! The partnership director must focus on evolving an eco-system of small and big ideas/ products/ marketing around the starting idea.

Social media-whatever
But anyone with any expertise in social media has been important for some time now, and this area of expertise will only keep growing.

I think generally the guys who can translate any piece of communication into conversation will be invaluable.

I was having lunch with Madhu Mantena, the producer of Ghajini, sometime back. And he mentioned that once the movie was ready, he and his team looked at creating a 100 conversation points for the content. And lo we had a 250cr block-buster. Maybe, folks from Bollywood, the avant-garde PR guys and people with large personal and professional networks could be tapped for this role.

Thanks Scott, once again you got me thinking...

Mere Pass ZooZoo hai!!

2009-04-30T13:00:00.013+05:30

Amidst all the IPL hoopla, the new series of Vodafone ZooZoo ads stand out. You can read the entire story of the making, the production, the props and people involved in the campaign here at afaqs... Ads on youtube here.

Was speaking to my friend Kumar @ Ogilvy after browsing through the zoozoo fan club on facebook(it's got > 26K fans!!) a while back and then generally thought about the zoozoos...

1. Talk Value. It's a great example of awesome creatives generating a natural buzz for the brand in internet time. With the top end of the audience now digitally immersed, they are commenting on, participating in the zoozoo conversation.

Also the brand is giving back enough stuff - wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, IPL related offers, special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds(Zoozoo laughter and music tracks, ad previews, Twitter updates etc.

2. Stories. But is that enough? Perhaps not. Maybe there is space for an entire zoozoo world with zoozoobeings with their zoozoo antics! In a digital world, the digital creative has an infinite life and therefore if you have great creative content like the 'zoozoos' one could look at creating more stories for niche consumption and popular culture seeding. Of course vodafone has done good stuff through the zoozoo quizzes and contests!! But there is scope for much more.

3. Conversation Creative.Zoozoos are a great example of a new creative style - the conversation creative where the TV creative generates great and ongoing conversations in the digital world(and of course the offline world as well). The 26K+ fans on facebook, the 84 comments on the afaqs article, the twitter fan following are all adding on to the conversation.

While I quickly scanned through the comments on afaqs, stumbled upon some zoozooisms- "Mummy mujhe zoozoo lagi hai", zoomply great, keep zoo zooing, zoo che!!!

This is a new strain of co-created conversation creative that is being created in real time and the agency and brand team can brainstorm how best to make use of it...

It is interesting content which can either die a natural death or put to better use!
Also, is the brand bold enough to open up the Zoozoo creative for the consumers to play! A campaign that can create 26K fans in a short time has great UGC potential.

4. Amplification. The other area where brands need to put more focus is amplification of the 'core idea'. A great and viral-ble idea like the zoozoos should now be amplified and seeded into popular culture. Of course the facebook, twitter stuff is good but perhaps it needs to be amplified through the mobile phone to really blow up the idea in a big way!!

5. Surprise is the new consistency. In the consumers-are-bored-and-networked era, brands must learn to surprise their followers rather than needlessly bother about consistency. Zoozoos have nothing in common with the pug(apart from the simplicity and cuteness quotient) or the Vodafone boy-n-girl, yet they make for arresting memorable stories. The consumer mind has evolved to a stage where he/ she can store these multiple stories and enjoy them and connect them back to Vodafone.

We shouldn't worry too much if the Zoozoos get more Talk Value in the short term than Vodafone itself! Zoozoos, the pug are cute characters , obviously they will get talked about more than the brand name...

Once again, some inspiring stuff from Ogilvy and very digital-media-friendly creatives...

Fake IPL Player, Real Conversations

2009-04-27T16:11:00.007+05:30

Spent the last 30 minutes browsing through the Fake IPL Player's blog . It's incriminating, it's salacious, it's bawdy gossip at it's best/ worst!

Now whether it's a (a)real fake guy, or (b)a marketing ploy(I hope) or (c)an actual player blogger(rarefied chance), this guy/team knows how to create smutty buzz and generate conversation! Aren't you amazed at his site traffic and the thousands of comments from visitors and followers!

For quite some time, I have been arguing the case for conversation as brand content. But it mostly goes over the head of body-copy-only guys. Well the fake IPL player comes to my rescue.

Here are a few random thoughts which are floating in my little sleepy mind post lunch...

1. Context is Everything. The fake IPL player's blog gives a lot of inspiration to creating engaging alternatives to vapid 'Hilaa Denge', 'Dhikha Denge', 'Bataa Denge' ads on TV. He/she shows how gossip, locker room talk, the management vs. the player jibes can be engaging content as well. Maybe brands like Sprite, Levis, Axe can do more niche social media stuff which can draw lessons from this guy!

2. Don't Control the Conversation.Most Indian brands try to control/ avoid the conversation in the blogosphere/ social media and read too much into the controlled conversation(read FGD). This guy's posts have a thousand plus comments!! Comments by readers, visitors are part of the conversation. They add flavour/ spice to the conversation(even though here it degenerates into uncontrolled bitching:-)

Maybe brands like Mentos, Sprite(again), some of the bike brands(Pulsar for instance) could encourage a more intimate conversation with their niche audiences instead of merely pummeling the great looking, expensive ads. (Okay, I love the Tarsem(?) made Pulsar ad, but after the 13th viewing I now reach out for the remote/ or better still close my eyes. Instead guide me to the making of the ad web-site or the making of the bike(to the more engineering inclined DTSi variety)

3. Celebrity is One Of usWe knew(for some time now)that celebrities are not always on a pedestal. They lost some of their halo when they signed their 10th brand contract:-) But didn't know really that he/she is merely one of us.

The celeb can be reviled(SRK is called Badshah Dildo on this guy's blog- now how worse can it get from here). In contrast,the big brands largely treat celebs in an anachronistically sugar-coated way replete with a fake smile, fake swagger and fake talk!!

And the funny thing I feel is that all this bad talk and gossip from blogs like these won't really harm the celebs. But they will just make the Dish TV, Hyundai and sundry other badly made fake-talk-fake-smile ads even more boring for some of us!!

Celeb bashing might be more interesting than celeb grovelling!!

Well hats off to the fake IPL player and his blog!. You are giving us all real-time lessons in generating conversation(even though it's smutty). We need more brave brands and a mutant strain of journo-copy-writer-gossip-columnist to perfect this art for Indian brands.

BMW Vs. Audi Outdoor Skirmish

2009-04-20T11:04:00.007+05:30

Ajay, our Tribal planner mailed me this nugget. It seems new fighting between BMW and Audi has started in Santa Monica, USA!

AUDI hung up a commercial on the main street with the text: "The entirely new AUDI A4. Your move BMW."

BMW thought about it for a week and hung up on the next building a much bigger advertisement hoarding, "Checkmate!"!! (source: interesting-thingz.blogspot.com)

GreenMango.com : Big Idea

2009-04-19T08:32:00.010+05:30

Pix. McCarty & Nandini
Stumbled upon this cool business venture while browsing ET.
Greenmango.com - a Hyderabad based local small business listing on the web started by two women entrepreneurs - Yasmina McCarty(a former advertising manager)and Nandini Narula(a former Silicon Valley techie) both with a passion for microfinance and social enterprise.

Greenmango.com gives an address and provides a place-holder for service providers such as carpenters, tailors or plumbers who remain virtually anonymous outside their immediate localities, since they do not (and often cannot) reach out to potential customers through advertisements.

The site isn’t a typical classifieds service. It provides rich, detailed data on local businesses in an organised manner with interactive features like public ratings and user reviews...

With 25,000 registered businesses, GreenMango has done well for itself in its first year. It also offers ‘concierge’ services to customers and will soon expand to Bangalore,Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata!!

Good luck to Yasmina and Nandini. It's a real cool service and a Big Small Idea!
Also a good example of maybe the long tail of small local service...

If only they had this service before, I could track down Kalim, the handyman who made our kitchen in my first flat and did all the painting and electric work. A most reliable and honest soul..

Pepsi : The Recycle Video

2009-04-17T16:06:00.001+05:30

Somebody mailed me this a while back. Probably their best video in some time:-)

Good Tea & the Future The Way We Want It To Be

2009-04-12T09:30:00.007+05:30

Just finished my second cup of well-made Darjeeling tea in my favourite white cup! Ah the small pleasures of life...Getting ready for a long day of book research and writing after a two week hiatus...

Had read this post by Scott Goodson, the Strawberry Frog CEO on the different agency models and the need for extreme agility and adaptability among agencies in times of recession/ slowdown. You can read it here...

It also got me thinking about the need to adapt as a worker-ant/ employee/ networked knowledge worker/ creative portfolio worker...Thots not exactly in order...

1. The department must die. I feel the rate of our contribution dramatically increases with our ability to collaborate across the blurring boundaries of department. I am talking strategy, creative, servicing, digital media, OOH, research, brand identity...Though there are no visible signs of 'the department' dying in an Indian agency any time in the near future. Long live the fiefdoms!!

2. Employee NetworksThe agile companies must respect, use and reward employee networks. At 437 LinkedIn connections, I am perhaps a little more useful than I was a year back:-)This is a social network. But it's also a knowledge and personal network that can do great stuff together, solve issues, share experiences. Suddenly, the sum of all these employee networks can become a potent force for the small agile company!

3. Portfolio Working. I had been wanting to do it ever since I first read about the concept in Charles Handys' book - the empty raincoat! As we increasingly get hurtled into the ever closely knit creative-knowledge economy, opportunities to do portfolio work(not just for pure creatives) but everyone has risen through the roof...

4. Make New ConnectionsWhile the economy has slowed down dramatically, the potential to make new business connections has never been greater.

Take 1 jar of open mindedness and enthusiasm + add a full saucer of environment scanning + heat it a little + shake it with new thinking + add 1 table spoon of new ideas and approaches and hey you have a new business idea or model or new portfolio friends...

eg. A specialised Bollywood/ A/V content Marketing Agency*, Youth Marketing Company, Personal Branding Consultancy, Low cost SOHO brand building packages(this one came as of yesterday as I was approached by a London based company for a guest blog post)

Gmail, LinkedIn, Skype ensure that this souffle comes for FREE!!

5. Re-skillingMost of us(all of us) sit on a few kilos of unused talent. A minor re-skilling can polish up those and can be gainfully employed in a portfolio way. In the past 3 months or so, at a personal level, I have discovered that I could be a trainer, executive coach, youth/ culture/ Bollywood film marketer...It's just that we sit on our asses waiting for things to happen(at least that was my case) Whereas the environment is right for re-skilling and creating new revenue models(both for the company and personal)...

6. The Un-Company ManWhen I was looking for a job two years back, a very senior media person(ality) said that I wasn't much of a company man(the spirit of the remark was a wee bit pejorative)...However, if we look at the debris of corporate America and the loss of jobs closer home, the company as the sole provider of financial security and stability no longer exists. It's both a scary and a liberating thought. In fact now may be the best time to finally come out of the life long shackles of the COMPANY.

The company will definitely exist; but that will no longer be the sole/ desired work model. Like I said, (a) portfolio working, (b) greater degree of employee entrepreneurship, (c) company as a employee collective, (d) virtual creative/knowledge worker networks and more are/ will emerge stronger...

I feel the time, the tools and the environment is just right to create the future the way we want it to be!!

The Evolution Of Communication

2009-04-02T21:18:00.004+05:30

Source : Mike Keefe's cartoons

Firaaq -Kuch Der Se Hi Sahi

2009-03-31T11:18:00.005+05:30

I saw Nandita Das's Firaaq about 10 days back, in a rather empty theater. It is not often that one is numbed by a movie these days. But Firaaq made me quiet for the day. I was overwhelmed by the way the movie captured the tension, fear, the violence and the psychological scars of a city...

There were many thoughts that traversed in my mind that day - sad, poignant, disturbing images, lingering anger. And yet like most bogged-down-by-personal-livelihood-problems men, I carried on the week. Often a fleeting image from the movie would cross my mind...

I would pause for a moment and then go back to the pressing personal crusade...Yet once again this morning images from Firaaq came to haunt me as I read a powerful write-up on Firaaq by Shoma Chaudhury in Tehelka...

Shoma captures the film, the reason why civilised society must never forget the Gujarat riots and the apathetic unconcern of people like us evocatively here. Do read it even if you haven't seen the movie.

And notes to myself from Shoma's article...
- OF THE many crises of our age, the most helpless perhaps, are the crises of word and image. Bludgeoned in ways it’s never been before by an excess of information — the entire compact of sight, sound, emotion — the human race has not just become inured, it seeks inurement. Obliteration. When everyone is desperately seeking inurement, how is one to evoke? All the old descriptions are dead. “Awesome” is no longer something terrifying or aweinspiring; it is just a good ice-cream.

Into this opacity of meaning, occasionally, something slips. Briefly breaching our fortifications. Briefly triggering a healing disquiet in our being. Nandita Das’ directorial debut, Firaaq is such a moment. To say something new about the horror of Gujarat 2002 is almost impossible, to evoke empathy for it is heroic. But Firaaq does that.

- Emotionally taut, self-assured, pared, Firaaq is a searing exploration of subterranean poisons unleashed by Gujarat 2002. Guilt, rage, self-hatred, suspicion, the brutalisation of survivors — Nandita reminds us that the legacy of violence is more dangerous than violence itself. In one of the film’s most disturbing moments, the little boy in search of his father smacks an ant dead with sudden force. “Maar diya sale ko,” he says with unexpected vehemence. He has borne witness to vast and tiny cruelties. Now, he is a premonition of a new generation.

- Says Nandita Das - "I wanted to take small ordinary incidents so that people who watched could not hide from themselves by saying, ‘Oh I would never do this kind of thing’.” Among other things, this is what gives Firaaq its disturbing charge. It reminds you it is not just the 2,000 dead that makes Gujarat such an indelible rupture in our national life (though that ought to be reason enough). What makes it indelible is that the riots were just the most horrific face of a prejudice that runs much wider beneath the skin.

- For all this, Firaaq should have been a moment of great gratification for Nandita. A moment of recognition and animated discussion. Instead, this quiet, thoughtful gem of a film has come unheralded into our multiplexes. In all probability, it will slide unnoticed out next week. The director’s great conviction is unmatched by her producers. This shameful neglect is just one of the many creeping crises of our time.

Sixth Sense - Game-changing wearable tech

2009-03-24T11:01:00.003+05:30

Friend of mine sent this video of a wearable tech device that's quite 'minority report' like in it's potential and delivery!! Do watch the video. It's about 9 minutes. But worth every second!!
This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz at TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.

Pranav Mistry is the genius behind Sixth Sense - this wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

Next is what!!

Recession Hit Logos

2009-03-23T11:47:00.011+05:30

Fresh from my morning e-mail oven:-)

Sinatra Test, Safexpress and the Power of Stories(yet again!!)

2009-03-22T09:22:00.007+05:30

Was doing some research for my Bollywood book. Essentially trying to figure out why certain things, stories, anecdotes on celluloid stick, others don't. In this context, had ordered the book - Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath sometime back...

There is this interesting sticky story in one of the chapters of the book that I wanted to share. It's called the Sinatra Test.

In Frank Sinatra's classic - New York. New York, he sings about starting a new life in New York City and the chorus declares -"If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere!". An example say the authors pass the Sinatra Test when one example alone is enough to establish credibility in a given domain.

Safexpress, a family owned shipping/ courier business used the Sinatra Test to it's advantage. Sometime back it was very keen to win the account of a major Bollywood studio. The competition were the likes of FedEx, UBS!!

For Bollywood, piracy is a major concern, so distribution is mission critical. If the film gets in the wrong hands before release, bootlegged versions show up at the street corners within days...

Fortunately, Safexpress had a powerful credential ready. Safexpress had successfully delivered the 5th Harry Potter book recently. Every Potter book in every store had been delivered by Safexpress. The books had to be delivered by 8 am on the day of the release. Not too early, or the bookseller would be tempted to sell and the story would be out. And not too late or the store would have had to face irate customers and loss in sales!!

This one credential story was enough for Safexpress to get the Bollywood studio account. The Harry Potter story passed the Sinatra Test. Safexpress could have used statistics that 98.84% of all it's deliveries arrived on time or it could have given an external source of credibility from the CEO of a big MNC company!

But there is something extraordinary in being the company that delivered Harry Potter on time!! It passes the Sinatra Test. It sticks. I am sure I will remember Safexpress and this sticky factoid years from now.

This 'stickiness power' comes from the concreteness of the story rather than from numbers or authority! The story makes one believe - If Safexpress can deliver it there, it can deliver anywhere...

Hasn't Grown Up!!

2009-03-14T20:37:00.001+05:30

Just saw this new Frooti film on Bhat's blog - http://www.lbhat.com/advertising/frooti-slurp-ad/.

One of those clever, slickly produced ones which get talked about in the ad frat. I didn't quite like it. Don't think it will end up doing anything substantial for the brand.

Frooti has a perception(kiddie drink) problem. (Actually, that may not be such a problem after all) And in a related sense, it's got a design(read packaging design) issue.

But over the years Parle has been trying in vain to solve the two problems by merely making 'different ads' be it the Digen Varma one or the 'India has changed, Frooti hasn't'(last year sometime) and now this...

Fruit drinks have been historically subservient to colas in image terms. Don't think it's quite bridgeable...except maybe some design(packaging) turnaround is possible.

I found 'Why grow up?' quite an unconvincing stance for a brand that's been around for decades!!! For me, it's brand Frooti that hasn't really grown up with the times:-)

Have no clue how the sales are but this flip-flop every year is not quite helping Frooti! This one too will be forgotten among the ad debris...Sad, as Frooti is amongst the few classic homegrown Indian brands that's still around with all the MNC onslaught...

What 'Sarkar Ki Duniya' can learn from homeless in Houston

2009-03-10T11:23:00.014+05:30

Read this news item about a homeless guy in Houston, Tim Edwards who thanks to an Internet marketing campaign has become the face of homelessness in the US to thousands of online viewers...Check out the website Pimp This Bum!!

1. The site hosts regular web casts on Tim. One can ask questions about Edwards' life and his slow fall from office manager with a home, a car, and a future to a homeless guy on the street short of hope.

2. The website also is a place where visitors can donate money, services and goods to help Edwards yank himself out of homelessness.

3. I don't know enough behind-the-scenes story about this case to comment whether this is yet another case of marketing stunt rather than substance but if an online forum can get a guy some money in his hour of need, it's a good effort!

4. Closer home, it's a pointer for reality show programs like 'Sarkar Ki Duniya'(the new kid on the block) on the newly launched channel 'Real' to take a cue and do some meaningful stuff and create some goodness rather than waste national time and attention on choreographed inanities that strain to get diminishing TRPs...

5. What Tim Edwards and Pimp This Bum show is that even in a low attention span economy - content, commerce and real life can come together to produce an engaging story. Can we create stories around struggling farmers, unrecognized artisans, slum kids and use the tremendous power of the Internet to mobilise public opinion and funds...

6. The Internet has this amazing power to connect the dots - between loneliness and friendship, between problems and possibilities, between scattered stories and a fragmented audience...

Am sure a lot is being done but a hell of a lot more can be done if people in media and marketing can connect some dots outside our narrowly defined jobs...

Ganpati, Street Installations and Ghostbikes

2009-02-17T16:59:00.006+05:30

My colleagues Varun and Bheda have created this masterpiece - a Ganpati made up of cycle parts. They had shared the thought while it was still a thumb-nail. At that time, I never fathomed it would come out this awesome!! It was displayed at the Kala Ghoda festival. You can read more about it here...

While all the praise and adulation coming their way is well deserved, perhaps the greatest words of wisdom came from a simple street-side urchin. “Bangaar se bhagwaan banaya!” (They made God from junk!) he exclaimed. Here’s wishing the duo much luck in their ‘divine’ bicycle mission!(Mumbai Mirror)

Wikipedia defines Street Installations as a growing trend within the "street art" movement. Whereas conventional street art/graffiti is done on surfaces/walls "street installations" use 3-D objects/space to interfere with the urban environment. Like graffiti, it is non-permission based and once the object/sculpture is installed it is left there by the artist.

While on my hunt for street installations I stumbled upon ghostbikes.org. Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.

The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in nearly 75 cities throughout the world.I feel street installations have the innate ability to create Talk Value for brands. They straddle between the commercial and art worlds quite ambidextrously...The hand crafted installation gives the brand a more authentic voice. One just hopes it doesn't get over-abused by clients and brands in the future.

NDTV (Reimagine)

2009-01-26T10:19:00.007+05:30

Like many people I have gradually been edged out of TV viewing by a combination of inane content and crass packaging...But once in a while I do end up watching some TV.

So last evening I was watching "Oye, it's Friday" on NDTV Imagine. Honestly, the show needs to be rebranded - "Oye, it's Everyday" as I suspect it auto-repeats itself after every 18 hours or so.

In the hybrid genre of chat-shows, this show is everything you want/don't what it to be. A chat-show meets cheap skits meets bad jokes meets celebrity guests meets Q&A sessions replete with the now ceremonial band and canned audience participation.

Anyways, this post is not about the intrinsic quality of the show. I don't see too many of these to be able to compare or benchmark. Neither do I have the inclination nor do they deserve an analytical appraisal!

What hit me in the gut was the sight of "cheerleading girls" before every break. How I wished my 36inch LCD would shrink so that the gyrating pelvic thrusts wouldn't fill half my bedroom. And when young Neo sauntered into the room with the well-honed sense of ill-timing of a growing kid, I had to holler him out.

Have we become so void of quality content that the only recourse to boosting TRPs is to thrust heaving bosom and gyrating bottoms into national TV??

To what level would the TV channels stoop to shore up their TRPs!! What is worse, just one channel needs to introduce such irresponsible stuff before they become the norm.

Next we can expect, cheergirls in News Channels and maybe even in mythological soaps...And by year end maybe, it might even win the 'Media Innovation of the Year Award"!!

Please log onto www.makemyTVwatcheableagain.com to post your comments...I am afraid such a site doesn't exist at the moment but very soon we might have to reimagine!!!

Walk the Talk with Salim Khan

2009-01-24T10:36:00.006+05:30

Last Sunday after a long time was taking a morning walk on the Bandstand promenade. Halfway through the walk, my wife spotted the celebrity script-writer of yester years Salim Khan(Salman's father) walking towards us.

I gathered myself to speak to the legendary Salim Khan of the Salim-Javed fame. Over the next 10 odd minutes, I could mentally jot the following nuggets which am sure to weave someplace into my brands and Bollywood book.

1. He was particularly peeved at the media-grabbing attention seeking lifestyles of the newer writers and directors...Said he - "Ab Ashutosh ko hi le lijiye. Achchi film banayi, par aajkal jyada waqt ribbon kaatne mein ya TV pe discussion karne mein nikaal deta hai". "Main maanata hoon ki Art is nurtured in isolation and exhibited in public".

2. Salim saheb had watched Chandni Chowk to China the previous evening with his friends and was still reeling under it's effect:-) He blasted the writer..."Ab Bollywood story likhna koi atom bomb banane jaisa nahin hai, phir bhi aaj kal ke writer mein woh sensibility nahin hai aam zindagi ko capture karne ki".

3. Writer ko patience chahiye. Bolye kam, suniye jyada...

By this time we had walked off to one end of the premenade. He then started reminiscing about his younger days, his love for fast cars and a fast life. How Salman recently gifted him a Triumph 500. What made "mere pass ma hai" work the magic and get into popular culture.

He was sweet enough to give me his ghar ka number. So maybe a chai with Salim Khan may soon happen...As I pen this post, the vortex of a thought seizes me - "Maybe one should never meet the legends and the greats once they are past their prime. Because reality may end up diluting the myth in the mind!"

How many ARTISTS are there in the room?

2009-01-12T23:48:00.005+05:30

Just started reading Daniel Pink's best-seller : A Whole New Mind. There is a wonderful anecdote in one of the chapters on 'Design'.

Gordon MacKenzie, a longtime creative force at hallmark Cards, often visited schools to give talks about his profession. He'd open each talk by telling students he was an artist. he'd then look around the classroom, notice the artwork on the walls, and wonder aloud who created the masterpieces.

"How many artists are there in the room?" MacKenzie would ask. 'Would you please raise your hands?"

The responses always followed the same pattern. In kindergarten and first-grade classes, every kid thrust a hand in the air. In second-grade classes, about three-fourths of the kids raised their hands though less eagerly. In third grade, only a few children held up their hands.

And by the sixth grade, not a single hand went up. The kids just looked around to see if anybody in the class would admit to what they'd now learned was deviant behaviour!!

Perhaps, it's even more true in our culture. There is a touch of sarcasm in most people when they say - "Yeh toh thoda artist types hai", "Artist hai bhai, isko duniyadaari kya aayegi", "Chhor do yaar, yeh artist log aisen hi hote hain"... Emphasising that the creative, the artist is a deviant.

Society still collectively conspires to pull down the many raised hands in kindergarten grade one and later...

Therefore, I was thrilled when my wife asked Neo(my 5 year old son) the other day while he was painting- "Aur tum kaun ho?". And he smugly said - "Main artist hoon"...I hope he always raises his hand...

Adultdost.com?!!

2009-01-08T18:12:00.003+05:30

Just saw this simple web creative for a DTH brand in line with the main TV ad...

Very simple. Very effective:-) Just log onto www.adultdost.com

Image Vs. Algorithm

2008-12-30T23:14:00.002+05:30

I was there at the Mandrem beach in North Goa sipping Caipirinha a fortnight back. There was a debate with a friend about the origins of the cocktail Caipirinha. She fished out the blackberry, got to Google and that settled the debate.

On a languid summer afternoon near the warm beach, search was still as effective!! Later that week, I dwelled upon a little more on search and its growing impact on the business of brands!

Born Sep 15, 1997, the day google.com was registered; Google is still an 11 year old. But the new kid on the block is changing the brandscape like no other tech development in the new millennium.

Thanks to search, the consumers today can easily peep behind the image and the make-believe façade of brands. Search can pull the cover off a million dollar marketing hype, the hidden brand agendas and uncover the real truth behind carefully orchestrated celebrity brand endorsements.

And so what if the consumers can’t recall the brand name(aided or otherwise), some of them increasingly say – “we can search what we want, why then do brands keep repeating the same old story?”

Is 'Brand Image'(as we have known) finally giving way to the power of the Search algorithm??

A creation of the packaged goods and advertising industries, “brand image” was pre-supposed to be a key ingredient and driver of purchase intent across many categories.

But in reality many people paid/ still pay more for things because they don't know better. A lot of brand behaviour is driven by habit, lack of sufficient information and sheer inertia which may be wrongly attributed or labeled as brand loyalty!

In contrast, the Google page rank algorithm, the by-product of the quest of the "perfect search engine," defined by co-founder Larry Page as something that, "understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want" democratises the brand world. And under a second provides access to information around not just the brand but a whole list of related keywords.

Do a Google on Tata Sky and you get not just the official web-site, but all the new DTH packages, a comparison between Tata Sky, Dish TV and Big TV, the Wikipedia entry on Tata Sky, how to order Tata Sky online at sify.com, discussion forums on indiabroadband.net and mouthshut.com, a Business Standard entry on the DTH industry losses in 2008-09. And we are still on page 1. One can troll 3.23 million entries for Tata Sky in under 0.05 seconds!!

A consumer can start his search at Tata Sky or DTH and end up ordering Big TV. Almost always, a bit wiser, a lot informed and without ever having to remember any ad, the tagline or the TVC.

If you have related thoughts on how search is altering brands and our buying habits, do ping!! Happy New Year...

Aamir - the blogger Khan

2008-12-15T16:02:00.005+05:30

There is a sliver of a chance that I may get to meet Aamir(Khan) for my book. One of my close friends has promised. Maybe post the release of Ghajini...

So, while I keep my fingers crossed, I also decided to google all his interviews and other facts and trivia. He is a meticulous man I gather and I better be prepared.

And so I spent about an hour on his blog yesterday. I had stayed away from these celeb blogs earlier because in my own mind I just couldn't reconcile the Bollywood stars(so used to fame and manipulating mass media) with the simple, democratic and conversational act of blogging.

But alas I was wrong as far as Aamir's blog is concerned. This khan gets it. I mean he really gets blogging!! While many of my clients and few of my digital savvy colleagues(from past and present)still don't get it:-)

1. The posts are written exactly in the manner one would imagine Aamir to talk in say an interview.

2. The posts sound real. He talks about his anger and helplessness at the Mumbai blasts. How he felt screening TZP in Seattle for the IDA (International Dyslexia Association). Even the fact that he couldn't sleep one night because of ants in his bed:-)

Now this isn't rocket science. The being real part. But brands and brand managers seldom get it right.

3. It's okay to make mistakes.Blog posts are never meant to be perfectly crafted messages. Often they are random thoughts. They are the first opinions. They are amateurish. They might reveal mistakes and flaws. They can have spelling errors. Aamir's posts have spellos. He even spells the movie Memento as Momento and later acknowledges the error:-) Brands too must learn and adopt this degree of humanness when they want to converse through the medium of social media. It is more important to be human and share honest feelings than to be correct and share dessicated facts...

4. Inviting feedback. Bollywood stars or any stars for that matter have largely communicated from a pedestal. That's part of their mystique. Yet when one blogs one has to be receptive to feedback. From the commoner. The audience of One. Aamir does. Even the micro-feedback of giving indents in his paragraphs for better readability:-)

5. Contextual. Again brands arrogantly assume their primacy all the time. That they are the centre of the universe/ conversation. Whereas when you blog(the general sort of blog), context is everything. The content is a variegated play of life, your work, the important and the trivial thoughts...Again, I have found it difficult for clients and their brands to appreciate the context when it comes to any form of social media.

So, if nothing else, star bloggers like Aamir can teach marketers how to converse with their audience. One on one...

However, on the content front, I was largely disappointed. I don't think he has articulated his thoughts as well as he acts in his movies:-)( on the basis of the 4-5 posts that I read randomly...)

You may want to read a few of his posts - 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'It's a bird, it's a plane' - by Abbas Tyrewala, 'Ghajini'...Ah, you will will have to register and then log on...a bit annoying!

Burrowing in the Book : Talking Films

2008-12-07T20:11:00.006+05:30

After a week of mild depression(triggered more by 24X7 TV news, screeching Barkha, over-bearing Arnab and high-strung Rajdeep than the terror attack itself), like the rest of the city I have got back to work in almost full steam. Both at the day job and in my role as the week-end writer:-)

On my book front - All the googled information in the world is of no use, unless one is able to crystallise an argument. And that's a bloody difficult task, especially if you have to do it over 200 pages!!

Moreover, am struggling to find meaningful articles on Bollywood. Either frivolous actor interviews/ film reviews float on the internet or there are these academics who dwell upon such arcane themes around Bollywood with so much academic mumbo-jumbo that's it's of no real help!!

Within such constraints, one voice that has guided me in the past and continues to do so now is that of Javed(Akhtar) saheb...Right from his book Talking Films - Conversations on Indian Cinema compiled by Guru Dutt's niece - Nasreen Munni Kabir to his many interviews, Javed saab shares his nuggets on Bollywood...If only I could get some quality time with him and soon...

Stumbled upon this interview of at Glamsham.com. This one's okay...with a few worth a bookmark comments!

1.Are you convinced about remaking films like SHOLAY and DON? Please don't be politically correct just because Farhan has remade DON.
Let me tell you the backdrop of the original DON. That will help you get your answer. DON suffered despite an interesting script since it was made on a shoestring budget. Producer Nariman Ali could, somehow, complete the film. The remaking was justified as the film deserved it. As for SHOLAY, I don't think there is any scope or need for improvisation in the film. There is nothing new or original that one can add to the film. It's all there.

2.When are you directing a film?
Writing is an addiction and once you get addicted to it; it is very difficult to concentrate in other things. It makes you lazy and no job seems more interesting than writing. Often I think I will do this and that but ultimately land up with my pen and paper. I am too lazy to make films.

3.There is always a critical comparison between your and Gulzar's poetry. Would you like to comment on this?
I respect Gulzarsaab a lot. He is a true icon. So it will be unfair to comment on his poetry. But I can talk of my art form. I have always aimed at making poetry understandable even to a person who does not have the remotest idea of the art. If I can't communicate my lines to people what's the use of making it public? Some poets don't realize that. They go on writing abstract poetry and say they don't care if people understand them or not. Ambiguity forbids simple expression. This is definitely not my genre.

4.After spending over 30 years as a lyrics writer I am sure words reside at your pen-tip. Isn't it?
Now-a-days I don't have to try hard to fit in the words to the music. But that doesn't mean that I don't have to do my homework regularly. I have my own set of vocabulary that needs to be upgraded every day.

You can read some nice excerpts from the book Talking Films here...

So, what do we do Mumbai!!!

2008-11-29T12:15:00.007+05:30

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

2008-11-23T19:49:00.008+05:30

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

2008-11-21T23:56:00.004+05:30

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

2008-11-17T18:28:00.005+05:30

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

2008-11-05T23:25:00.004+05:30

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...

Roadshow Romeo : 5 1/2 Thoughts

2008-10-29T15:58:00.007+05:30

Didn't really think could get around to doing a post during Diwali break. But here I am...typing hard on the clanky keyboard while Neo sleeps...

1. Saw Roadside Romeo yesterday - Neo, his mama and myself in a theatre in Patna called Ashok - Rajdhani Ka Gaurav. It's a 59 year old theatre that doesn't hide it's age. Musty, somewhat smelly but full of happy memories from my childhood!!

2. You can read a quick review by Subhash K Jha here...

3. I enjoyed the movie and so did Neo. Though not sure, who liked it more...LOL. Technically, (with my limited exposure) I feel it's perhaps the best made Indian animation fillum till date. The Disney magic touch is definitely there. And the arranged marriage between Yash Raj films and Disney has worked!!

4. Though it's a bit difficult to slot the movie for any particular age-group. It's needlessly romantic/ syrupy for a kiddy film. 5 year old Neo was yawning through the second half...Too simplistic and linear for the movie buff. Too Bollywood for the animation purist. But I guess this is the first of a new wave. The Bollywood effect on animated movies has just begun. Maybe this is how Bollywood could enter the global movie market.

5. Javed Jaffrey as Charlie Anna is just too good. His seasoned voice brings great vigour and vivacity to the slum-lord's role!! Maybe there is life beyond the movie for Charlie Anna.

51/2. Neo has declared he will watch it again on VCD, so there you are - the TG has given a thumbs up! But the Rajdhaani Ka Gaurav didn't have pop-corn(Unpardonable)!!!

Big Idea : CauseCast

2008-10-23T18:20:00.006+05:30

Yesterday received this RSS feed from TrendCentral.com It's about social media meeting cause. A site named Causecast.org!!

Trendcentral says 85% of youth today think it's important to make the world a better place (The Cassandra Report, May 2008), and Causecast is looking to reach these socially conscious consumers by acting as a powerful online social medium that connects nonprofits, leaders, brands, and individuals to those who want to make a positive impact on the world.

Boasting a roster of well-recognized celebrity activists and leaders, and 30 nonprofit organizations, Causecast is a one-stop-shop for philanthropy, including a social network, news outlet, and entertainment source.

In an effort to increase popular interest in social causes, the site makes it easy for users to give back and do good on their own. Users can highlight their favorite causes by adding a widget to their own personal sites and profiles. Additionally, cause-related news from around the world is available at Causecast, as well as a weekly news show, with shorter segments available on the site's YouTube channel...

Need to create something like this closer home!!

Tribal Goes Social

2008-10-21T13:07:00.004+05:30

Tribal DDB London got into social marketing mode last week. It launched Radar DDB for social media. You can read the write-up here...

Till now, such services/ this space has been a place for smaller, independent agencies. Now Tribal DDB, one of the big three agency networks alongside WPP and IPG, is creating its own social media division to add to its UK roster…

Radar DDB, which already operates in Canada, is pegging January 1, 2009, as a start date. Radar DDB will focus on building brand strategy, social media monitoring and conversational branded content for Tribal clients, which include VW and Philips.

We have been working to create our own social media division for some time now in India. Time to get in touch with the London office for some tips and inspiration...

Schmidt Speak

2008-10-06T19:45:00.005+05:30

On adage.com, browsed through Eric Schmidt's interview. It's always fascinating to tap into the mind of this internet era sage...Some nuggets from the article.

1. The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives! Brands, therefore are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the internet cesspool.

2. Branding may be an essential element that helps people navigate the world. Brand affinity is clearly hard wired. It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component.

Interesting stuff...Chewable!

Sunday, The Book and Javed Saheb's Angst

2008-10-05T15:57:00.004+05:30

It has been a very busy and hard working Sunday. I am now in week 4 of writing my book - broadly around the theme - 'New Marketing learns from Bollywood'...

Writing a book does demand a very different level of conviction and attention. I thought my 2 years of blogging would be discipline enough but the book is a totally different monster...

Just managed to browse through the papers. Read this view-point piece on 'Terrorism and the Muslim community' by Javed Akhtar...

The problem of our times is that the best and the most learned and talented are silo-ing themselves from the real India - the angry, festering with violence(mostly engineered) India. So a departure from the normal rants on media and advertising...

Javed Saheb's angst ridden voice on 'Terrorism and the Muslim' in this DNA piece here made me restless...

1.'Muslims only get toothless commissions’ - Whenever they are killed, raped or burnt alive or their property destroyed, all they get is a commission which sits on the case for years, and ultimately gives a report. It may indict some people, but the report eventually finds its way into the dustbin.

2. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that the VHP and Bajrang Dal are behind the church attacks in Orissa and Mangalore, but somehow this is not discussed. After all, this is also terrorism.

3. I recently heard a TV anchor ask someone if it was time for the Muslim community to do some introspection. This is a loaded question, even if it was not intended that way. It suggests that the Muslim community is, in fact, responsible for the various acts of terrorism its members have been accused of. Would you say that since the Bajrang Dal is burning churches, the Hindu community should do some introspection? I won’t ever say that because I don’t believe that the Hindu community as a whole should have to bear the responsibility for the actions of some of its members.

4. In our country, ‘Terrorist’ seems to be a word reserved exclusively for Muslims. Those indulging in unrest from the border of Nepal to Andhra Pradesh are naxalites; in the Northeast they are insurgents. And in the case of the Bajrang Dal and VHP, they are ‘social activists’.

Couldn't agree with you more Javed Saheb. But we need many more angry poets and angry common men/ women in this country...

Wanted Entrepreneurs!

2008-09-29T11:39:00.008+05:30

Came across StrawberryFrogs'Scott Goodsons' blog entry - ADVERTISING NEEDS MORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MORE THAN EVER.

Says he - 1. The sign of a healthy industry is the state of its entrepreneurial spirit. The advertising industry as a whole needs more entrepreneurs. The large conglomerates that control and dominate the industry need more competition.

2. We need more entrepreneurs. A little backbone and a lot of ambition. Because this drives the industry forward. And the more people in the huge conglomerates see indies succeed the more they should think "hey if they can do it, I can do it too"!!

Scott's post made me think what's wrong with the big networks who have a fair share of talent and entrepreneurial spirit.

(a) It's not that the big networks don't have talent, it's just that there is not much incentive to do things differently. Failure is heavily censured. So, the brightest guys are afraid to deviate from the dotted line.

(b) Entrepreneurship grows when there is a small pool of like-minded people with shared belief and passion. Big networks seldom actively allow their brightest minds to pool their talent and energies together. Most often talent is locked in silos that seldom partner each other.

(c) The existing power-structure is so focused on the things that worked in the past and in servicing the current big clients that any new thought/ project/ venture never gets the attention, money and backing to lift-off...

(d) And many a time the best of the CEO's vision gets lost in translation as it has to pass though the fat layer of middle management and mindsets stuck in the past...

But looks like the winds of change are blowing hard:-)

What's your Digital Quotient(DQ)?

2008-09-23T13:16:00.007+05:30

Finally, we have our internal planner group-id/water cooler up and running! Last Thursday, I had asked to compile a list of Questions to check the DQ(digital quotient) of the planner group/ the agency executive...

Here's the compiled version...

1. Have you ever led an alternate digital life, such as Second Life? And for the moment ignore the duration of time spent!

2. Have you ever gamed online?

3. Have you ever used, supported or developed any alternate digital community space (such as Cydia/ Installer/ Applications on the iphone)?

4. When was the last time you actually experienced a completely new technological platform?

5. Do you actively seed/ leech from torrent sites? If so what do you seek?

6. Have you ever used your 'digital' world to guide you when you travelled abroad (locations, language translations, eateries, etc)?

7. To what extent have you shifted your bill payments/ ticketing/ movie bookings, etc online?

8. Has the digital world enabled you to work for profit with people whom you've only ever interacted with online?

9. Have you shifted a large part of your high-value purchases online?

10. Have you actively explored the various internet browsers on offer? If so, do you have a personal opinion on the same?

11. Do you read blogs? Which ones?

12. Do you have a personal blog? What's it about?

13. Do you participate in at least one social network? Which one?

14. Have you ever uploaded a video online? What did you use to do it?

15. What's your favorite search engine. Why?

16. Have you ever used an online classified service like craigslist?

17. Besides making phone calls—how else do you use your mobile phone?

18. Have you ever registered a domain name?

19. Do you use social bookmarks or tagging?

20. Do you use a feed reader of some sort? Which one? Why?

And once again these Qs make me realise am still a struggling Digital Immigrant:-)
( And I feel we missed some Qs for the mobile). We need to make a mind-shift from the PC to the mobile real soon...

P.S. DQ image source - derryquay.com

Talking To Mobisumers - some thoughts

2008-09-15T20:17:00.020+05:30

I have to speak at the afaqs Mobile Conversations seminar on Friday in Mumbai.

Actually, it's quite telling how the average analog ad agency in Mumbai/ India thinks so little about/around the mobile. And even when we do, we don't really factor in the mobile consumer( a whopping 280mn of us). Most of the time we trim our TV ideas to fit the small screen and 140 characters.

Just putting some WIP thoughts for my talk. Would look forward to any comments/ thoughts, suggestions, case studies, etc. Anything?
I think as an advertiser/ marketer communicating through/ to the mobile must be sensitive to the following:

1. Snackable - All mobile content must be snackable. We are limited by the constraints of 140 characters, a very small screen, a partially attentive consumer and intrusion into her personal space!

2. Shareable - Unlike TV communication/ marketing content on the mobile is shareable...Therefore, mobile creative content must capitalise on this.

3. Low Fat - We must not overload the information content in our marketing messages. Keep it low fat!! Send me stuff in two sms. Just tell me one fact at a time.

4. Personal - The mobile is a personal, often a private medium/ screen. So, beyond a point our TV intrusion tactics will not work/ backfire for brands. It's a one-to-one conversation that we need to have...Don't call me on a Sunday after-noon to sell some God damn credit card even if it's platinum!!

5.Informal - Brand communication on the mobile can/ ought to have an informal tone/ content. Can we have a Friday Dressing code for mobile marketing:-)

6. Anytime - There is no fixed time for the mobile marketing message. We don't have to wait for prime time or cricket matches or saas bahu soaps to start the conversation. And with the extended and 24X7 reach, it puts an added responsibility on marketing...

7. Talk Value - Because the medium is highly shareable, brands can generate a lot of Talk Value if they craft the content right and seed it properly. Consumers can generate a ripple effect of INFLUENCE for our brands...

8. Generation Less - Especially in the Indian context, where the mobile is often shared within the family, we must be sensitive that marketing communication might have to have an across the generation appeal...

That's all for the moment...Do write to me post Friday and will mail the presentation...

Bluetooth, Bollywood Aur Bihar

2008-09-06T14:30:00.008+05:30

There is so much happening around. Yesterday, was trying to get our Bluetooth bus-shelter up and running and then even ended up writing an article on Bluetooth Marketing...You can read it here...

This morning after a late start with some simulated fight sequences with my son, Neo came to the office to plug in few hours on my 'New Marketing and Bollywood' book. The blank page is scary...

As I was searching the web, came across Shekhar Kapur's post on Bihar Floods : Do we treat Bihar as a lost cause?

Actually my wife collected a whole lot of clothes and some money for the flood affected. She got in touch with an organisation called DoctorsForYou!!

Somewhere, Shekhar is right. There was more hype around the Arushi murder case in organised media than when 2 million people get affected in perhaps India's worst natural calamity!!

Bhagwan Aaye Bluetooth Se

2008-09-05T12:09:00.004+05:30

We are currently doing this blue-tooth enabled promo on bus shelters for our client Cycle Agarbatti in Bombay. Essentially one can download ring-tones, Ganapati wall-paper, the cute Cycle Agarbatti radio spot(it's got a non-commercial ring to it) on the mobile phone...The bus-shelter also plays the aarti tune twice everyday.

Grateful to Suresh, the CEO of Telibrahma and his team for being the technology partner on this...

In isolation, it's not a big deal/ promo but it's good learning to play with technology ...Next is what:-)

P.S. More about this promo here

25 Years of a Cult Classic

2008-08-24T18:07:00.010+05:30

After finishing my usual dose of 4 newspapers this Sunday morning in under 30 minutes I was absorbed into the latest issue of Tehelka!

Read an engaging write-up by Naseer on Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro!! It completes 25 years! It may be a cult film today. Back then, during the making of the movie, Naseer says it was insanity. Read the complete article here as Naseer looks back on the gritty elation of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro...

Jotting down a few lines that stuck...

1. In those days, the titles of films were not identified by abbreviations, we just called it “this f—-ing film we’re shooting now”. It was the pre-monsoon summer, the locations were the streets of Bombay...

2. The script of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro seemed to have been revealed to Kundan Shah in an inspired moment of transcendental, if not downright hallucinogenic, lunacy. I had never read or seen anything like it at the time, and while I was not absolutely sure that it was even coherent, I itched to have a crack at it.

3. THE FILM was not an immediate success, but over time it has come to have a sort of cult reputation. I think it has struck a chord with audiences because of the unassuming way in which it speaks of corruption and the struggle of the underdog. None of these themes were novel, but Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’s off-centre presentation caught people’s fancy.

4. What is not funny, however, is the question of why Kundan can’t follow it up. Talk has been rife for too long about a sequel. Only the man himself can answer why it hasn’t happened. And he’s not telling, but I think what he’s not telling is that to be able to generate that extreme and that intense an energy from that many participants takes some doing: it’s tough to summon that adrenaline on demand.

5. For those touched by it, the memory is goose-pimply, it causes sweat to break out on the brow, the blood to rush to the temples and the knuckles to go white. So actually, instead of vainly hoping for a sequel, let’s just give thanks that this one actually happened.
(From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 34, Dated Aug 30, 2008)

Made me want desperately to watch Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro yet again and soonest...

Phoonk and Ramu's Marketing Stunt

2008-08-22T18:54:00.005+05:30

I love Ram Gopal Varma for his crazy and scary movies!! Though I couldn't muster enough courage to see RGVK Aag(came back from the ticket counter:-)

I was not aware of this movie promotion for Phoonk! My planner, Sonal just pointed out! Apparently Ramu is going to give 5 lacs to the person who watches the entire movie all alone in the theatre!!

Some of the rules for the contest are: (1) The film will have to be seen from start to finish, without an interval.(2) No cell phones will be allowed inside the theatre, which will be fitted with cameras to monitor the contestant.

Read the details here...

That's some kick-ass marketing idea!! You can see the Phoonk Trailer here...And Phoonk's officla web-site is here...

That reminds me I worked on the online strategy plan for Farhan's Rock On earlier this month...But it's gathering dust at the moment(the plan that is:-)

Gatorade Ball Girl Viral

2008-08-21T19:15:00.001+05:30

Unbelievable!! Isn't it?

Well, it is indeed unbelievable: The clip is a masterwork of "viral" marketing, essentially an ad aimed at touting Gatorade, but without actually mentioning the company.

This video has had 1.5 to 2 million views on YouTube!! The ball girl video was posted on June 3, and Advertising Age published a glowing review of it a few days later.

"Ball Girl" was posted on YouTube by a filmmaker affiliated with Element 79 Partners, the Chicago ad agency that created the spot.

The original Ball Girl post had a clear reference to Gatorade in the text describing the video. But the video was copied and shared several times over without mentioning the Gatorade connection.

The video gives only the slightest nod to the beverage. When the ball girl sits down after the amazing catch, there's a bottle of Gatorade near her feet.

It's subtle!! But the real payoff is the buzz generated by the video. Including this post:-)

The lesson for marketers - Anytime their brand enters into popular culture discussions, it's going to benefit.

Even though many viewers thought the outlandish catch was somehow a fake—which, indeed, was the result of special effects—they were still entertained by it.

IndiAdrant is Two Years Old Today!!

2008-08-18T23:21:00.004+05:30

And this guys is the most amazingly consistent thing/work/writing I have ever done in my life! Pat on my back:-)(Small barely noticeable flutter/ blip in the blogosphere LOL) And here's the link to my first post Viruses of the Mind written on Aug 18,2006 in case you don't believe me...LOL

And the second year of blogging has been harder, more lonely! More repetitive(perhaps) but consuming lesser time...With RSS feeds taking away the sense of micro community the blog had once, it's been difficult keeping the momentum...

Also, often I feel sucked out. As if whatever I had to say, I have said earlier. And yet it's still addictive as hell! A week away from the blog and there is this gnawing desire to write something, anything to keep it going...As if it's a plant left unwatered or something:-)

It's the best piece of public narcissism devised by man/ technology. At the end of the day, even if nobody indulges you or humours you, you do it to yourself!

With about 355 posts,IndiAdRant has out-lasted a merger and a job change!! In the afternoon, I felt like cutting a cake for the blog:-) But then felt too lazy to do it.

What an atlas of my mind this has become! Maybe after I finish my Bollywood book next June, will hunt for a publisher indulgent enough to thread this atlas into a book...

I feel good and empty and lonely and happy and tired and energised and nostalgic and confident and lucky and knowledgeable and connected and good...

Goodnight!!
P.S. The small vase in the picture is my first pottery assignment!! Made after a sumptuous meal at the Taj property at Kumarakkam when we visited Kerala last December!!

IndiAdRant is 1 year old today

The Secret of the Web by Seth Godin

2008-08-11T17:55:00.006+05:30

Came across this nice post by Seth Godin, which I am reproducing here...

"The secret of the web is Patience.

Google was a very good search engine for two years before you started using it.

The iPod was a dud.

I wrote Unleashing the Ideavirus 8 years ago. A few authors tried similar ideas but it didn't work right away. So they gave up. Boingboing is one of the most popular blogs in the world because they never gave up.

The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly. You friend someone on Facebook and two minutes later, they friend you back. Bang.

But the strategy still takes forever. The strategy is the hard part, not the tactics.

I discovered a lucky secret the hard way about thirty years ago: you can outlast the other guys if you try. If you stick at stuff that bores them, it accrues. Drip, drip, drip you win.

It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web.
The frustrating part is that you see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed right away.

The trap: Show up at a new social network, invest two hours, be really aggressive with people, make some noise and then leave in disgust.

The trap: Use all your money to build a fancy website and leave no money or patience for the hundred revisions you'll need to do.

The trap: read the tech blogs and fall in love with the bleeding-edge hip sites and lose focus on the long-term players that deliver real value.

The trap: sprint all day and run out of energy before the marathon even starts.

The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that's how long it's going to take, guys."

Some good advice there...And oh, I spotted the book -'A Masterclass in Brand Planning: the timeless works of Stephen King' at Crossword. At Rs. 2500+, I am still toying about buying it though:-(

Abhinav Bindra, Facebook and Reactive Adulation

2008-08-11T17:01:00.007+05:30

Friend of mine just sent this Facebook link...

'Bhavneet invited you to join the Facebook group "Thank you Abhinav Bindra- India's first Individual Gold Medalist".

To see more details and confirm this group invitation, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=22391217967. Or click here.

I felt good in the morning that our individual Gold jinx has been broken. But this sudden out-pouring of enthusiasm and adulation on the mobile and the Internet is so typical of our reactive stance and arm-chair participation. Or maybe I am plain old cynical:-)

Congratulations Abhinav Bindra!!

K.I.L.B : Mixed Feelings

2008-08-08T17:24:00.005+05:30

Am glad they revealed it. These K.I.L.B bus-shelters/hoardings were now irritating the hell out of me(and my guess is I wasn't the only one...)

At first I thought it might be Vodaphone, then I guessed it could be a new TV soap. Fellow blogger Praneeth had a nice post on how the client/ agency frittered the online search opportunity. And you are directed to Big Adda here!!! Cute...

Hold your breath, The BIG Brand Reveal is actually AEGON Religare Insurance!! You can get an update here.Insurance was the last category that would have come to my mind. But then again, if the work managed to get so much attention, guess it worked:-)

But guys upload your TVC onto YouTube(it's free)...Tag it well(that's free as well)When you generate interest, please know how to channelise and engage that interest!

Else it is K.I.L.B - Kill Interest, Lose Buyers...or Kill Interest Lose eye-Balls(sounds better:-)

Centerfresh and the Viral Factory

2008-08-08T16:53:00.003+05:30

Geetanjali just mailed me this Center fresh viral. Very cool!! Wish we had done it...You can watch it here...But it got me thinking...

1. Most virals of Indian origin look as if they have been manufactured at a Central Viral Factory.

2. Same art, similar narrative styles, same measured portions of quirkiness...

3. It's as if the clients are saying - mujhe bhi ek viral bana do exactly pehle jaise wala...please please and the agencies(y) comply...

4. But virals are a very good example of the 'new creative' - spicy, mashed up with popular culture. No great burden to be 'entirely original'.

I must lay my hands on the 10 ways to make a viral article that Leroy promised...

Experience Design and the 'Future of Cornflakes!!'

2008-08-05T19:02:00.004+05:30

Was reading an article on Experience Design in the last issue of Contagious magazine.
Archiving some learnings...

1. The definition of what actually constitutes branding is increasingly broad. Branded touch-points now include everything from an online presence to a smiling customer representative and the band-aid solution of an advertising campaign is no substitute for a holistic, positive experience. If advertising is the end of the chain, Experience Design is the chain! - 'Jess Greenwood'

2. In today's world, any company that is working within products or services of any kind needs to stop this notion of expertise. the idea that they know best what the customer wants - quite a missionary stance, actually - and start creating with the very people they want to build products and services for. - Anna Kirah, a design anthropologist.

3. I have no idea whether the chemicals in Toilet duck are any good. I just like the fact that it's shaped like a duck. - Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group,UK

4. I'm convinced that some sort of Experience Design will become the master discipline for businesses that want to be good at selling stuff. - Russell Davies, freelance planner/ blogger

5. Looking around the work-arounds and self generated solutions that consumers create to navigate certain problems is infinitely more inspiring than sitting in a room with a one way mirror and saying "What's the future of cornflakes? - Paul Bennett, Creative Director, Ideo

Suddenly this reminds me of a packaging research amongst kids( I attended some 6 years back) where a fairly persistent researcher wouldn't leave the poor kid before he replied what story he remembered on seeing the Dabur Honey label...phew!!

These last two months I have tried to dig around a little(with my planner hat) in the conversation, social media space, the next two hopefully would be in Experience Design...

Ram Aur Shyam and the Power of Stories!!

2008-07-24T22:18:00.009+05:30

Some time back I had promised myself that will pen this post about Ram aur Shyam!

Well, Ram aur Shyam were these two characters(detectives) created by the iconic India brand - Parle (Poppins) many decades back...They are not around anymore...The current Poppins tagline reads - Goli Rainbow Wali...Okay so why am I telling all this...

One fine day, as a harried father hassled for a different bed-time story every night, I decided to dig into memory and fished out 'Ram aur Shyam' from the attic of my memory!

- These Ram aur Shyam stories came as a serialised print ad on the back page of a children's magazine called 'Parag'(from the TOI group if I remember correctly, but went off the market more than a decade back)

- I loved Poppins(the differently coloured, button shaped candies - 10 to a pack) and loved these two characters who solved a crime using Poppins! Sometimes the Poppins trail led to the 'bad guy'. Other times the Poppins pack doubled up as a gun to hold up the baddie...

- Three decades later, on a whim and no particular reason, I decided to resurrect the two characters to satisfy the daily story needs of Neo...

- Little did I know that Ram aur Shyam would be an instant hit at par with Ben 10 and my rating as father which till then was trailing behind my wife by a mile would receive a shot in the arm LOL

- These stories are fairly interactive:-) Neo chooses the venue of the story every night(that's a whole new ritual)...Ram aur Shyam take a flight to that venue. So he chooses the airline as well...

- The success of these stories with my 5 year old son remind me of a sad truth : many Indian brands have often abandoned their well entrenched brand stories and carelessly moved ahead. Like Poppins did or like Ceat abandoned the Rhino story or like Air India fails to build upon the Maharaja mascot/ story...Onida had to ferret out the devil story from it's past to regain(well partially) it's voice again...

- The problem, I feel is never in the stories. It's almost always in the lack of belief in brand teams and the absence of imagination to recast them for the new times...

- Like I mentioned in the Ceat post, powerful brand narratives shouldn't be junked in a huff...There are ways and means to contemporise the plot and the characters.

- In fact the more the media gets cluttered, and the decibel level of brand hype gets raised, simple brand stories from the past might help communicate better.Stories will allow better conversation with the brand in the new social media eco-system that's getting constructed all around!

- I just hope with animation getting so evolved and games getting central to marketing to kids, maybe characters like Ram aur Shyam(and their contemporary avatars) will again find their way into the brand narrative...

Either ways, I marvel how a candy brand(mere zamane ka) came to my rescue in telling the daily bedtime stories:-)

P.S. Just couldn't find a copy of the old Ram Aur Shyam Poppins print ad...Hai kya kissi ke pass?

My2centsonsocialmedia

2008-07-23T16:41:00.008+05:30

It's been a gap of two weeks from the blog...The longest in quite some time...Work, a few articles and general lethargy. No sublime or sacred reason to be away for this long. But actually the resolution not to blog from home might just be the reason:-)

Last Friday at our Media division's weekly meet, did a small talk on social media...These are the points I touched under the label - 10 Points to Mull About Social Media(For elevator pitches to clients, bosses and generally to impress other people:-)

1. It’s a Kick-Ass Learning Tool. Of course the price one pays is attention deficit...But if you can ride over it, you come up wiser! Am still struggling!!

2.Keeps you plugged in...I recently wrote an article on twitter and was rudely reminded by social media of the inaccuracy of some of the facts! Puts you on your toes all the time. One of the better researches I did for Nokia was using a college kid and her facebook account some months back!

3. Gives you a flavour of the new creative eco-system. More about that here...

4. Open Global Lab For Thinking. Don't exactly know how it's helping brands, but at the individual level all of us are growing because of the new connections we make every day!

5. Trend spotting. Often with a planning department of one social media and the web are the best trend spotting tools available...

6. Related to pt. 4 above, social media is a Gr8 Collaboration Tool

7. And of course a good( and equally bad) PR tool available to the individual, the brand and the company.

8. I have also found it very useful to Seed Strategic & Creative Content within the Agency and among Clients

9. It's a Fun Place to Be.

10. And my media team wud agree, it always displays - Signs of the changing/(ed) Media Landscape...

Maybe will try to thread them together into a more cogent piece later...

In case you want the presentation mail me at mannsinha@gmail.com

Be Born Everyday.

2008-07-09T16:49:00.001+05:30

60 second commercial, 1 minute thoughts:-) Just saw the new Titan ad on youtube.

I liked the spot. My planner was harsher at 5/10. But Aamir is going the SRK way. Not that credible. Bit Preachy. 'Crafted-in-the-studio-reality'. But still better than what's on offer this month!

I was also grappling with the thought that 'naya idea nahin hai' but does that matter anymore!! And I felt 'Be Born Everyday' is a more powerful tag than 'Be More'. Hate this 'More' tag...

Teach India : Wish I Had Thot Of It

2008-07-09T13:36:00.005+05:30

There often comes an idea you wish you had done it/ thought about it. The Teach India campaign from TOI is one suck kick-ass idea!

Brutally simple, yet immensely powerful and so sorely needed for India.

"Teach India" is an initiative by 'The Times of India' to help provide an equal opportunity for education to underprivileged children.

The aim of "Teach India" is to provide a platform to educated Indians to provide assistance in basic education to the unprivileged children.

"Teach India" will connect educated individuals with the specialist education providers.

'The Times of India' has tied up with select NGOs in the field of education in multiple cities across India.

Participants have to devote just 2 hours a day to teach underprivileged children, either in a formal environment or even informal teaching like story telling.

There were mote than 10K responses on day one. Some companies are volunteering batches of 50 employees for this...I just signed up!

Visual Thinking

2008-07-07T18:01:00.005+05:30

I was there most of last week in Hongkong for a workshop! All the planners in the region were there...

For a change power-point was subservient to conversations. And there was loads of visual thinking! We drew and thought aloud and the other way around.

1. I was pleasantly surprised how powerful the medium could be in framing a strategic issue and trying to solve it.

2. It was a lot easier to co-solve problems when one thought in pictures.

3. What I liked most was that pictures allowed me to stay longer with the problem. I am going to adopt more of this visual thinking in my day-to-day work...

4. And would love to have a visualiser in the planning team. Or out-source one for planning!

5. It also saved a whole lot of time. Opened up time for thinking. We used this picture to make a point/ story/ thot thumb-nail about how planning can be made more 'influential'...

Motorola CrystalTalk

2008-07-01T21:06:00.001+05:30

Good idea. Simple execution. Good use of YouTube! I wish Motos sold as much as Nokia!!

Here's a brand whose advertising and cool quotient leads the product...Whatdowedomoto?

Inkfruit : Design Democracy

2008-06-28T23:24:00.005+05:30

It's been a week of meeting interesting people. After Aviator Simon on Monday, I met the IITian Navneet today! A designer and the co-founder of inkfruit.com.

Inkfruit is a web-based, T-shirt design co-operative!! Anyone can upload their T-shirt designs on the site. The winning designs get a prize and the designer gets his name printed on the T-shirt when it gets manufactured. You must check out this interesting site/ concept!

Am glad Navneet got in touch with me about a week back and today we met at the Inorbit Mall,Malad. I have been interested in design for close to a decade now. Well design and of late co-creation and community. So, I was happy that Navneet approached me to brain-storm on his project!

Every time I have stepped out of my little planning world, it's been very rewarding. Am sure, engaging with Inkfruit would be a similar experience...

Thanks Navneet for the free T-shirt(captioned Disco Fever '82)...

In the ride back to Bandra I also thought about my idea of starting a virtual creative content company based out of Mumbai, a book on co-creation, doing a design course(sometime soon)...

Earlier in the day wrote an article for Mint on the 'media snacking culture'. Turned out well...And a while back told Ram and Shyam story to Neo(the 20th sequel in as many days. More about it in some post soon:-)

Aviator Simon Wants to Fly

2008-06-23T23:07:00.010+05:30

When we(my colleague Andee and myself) reached Mysore today, this Emirates Airways tag-line kept whirring in my head - "When was the last time, you did a thing for the first time"!

We were on a strange mission. We had come to Mysore to meet a young man who wants to build India's first home-made air-craft all by himself!

About a month or so back, he had sent an e-mail to Andee outlining his dream to him! Andee shared the mail with me and together we believed in the sincerity of his goal.

Many mails and phone calls later, here we were at Aviator Simon's city. He took us through his blue-print, his make-shift garage and the old decrepit air-craft in his college campus!!

His passion was infectious...I hadn't heard a voice quivering with excitement in quite some time...

Let's see how it shapes out. Simon doesn't need much cash for his experiment. All he needed was somebody to believe in his dream!

Later, Aviator wanted us to go to some happening disc. But instead we opted for ABHYANGA the Ayurvedic full body massage, followed by drinks at the Road, the theme bar at our hotel, funnily named - Sandesh the Prince!!

End of a memorable day...forever etched in our memories...

Voyeur : BBDO NY's work for HBO

2008-06-18T18:41:00.003+05:30

One of the year's biggest integrated campaigns in the US, BBDO, New York's "Voyeur" project for HBO, picked up its second Grand Prix at Cannes today in the outdoor category. "Voyeur" has now won two Grand Prix in as many days after scooping promotions honors yesterday.

Part of an integrated-branding campaign many are expecting to also do well later in the week in the cyber category and in the titanium and integrated group, "Voyeur" involved projecting a massive video onto the side of a building in New York's Lower East Side.

Multiple points of focus existed within the projection, which imagined the building was cut away, revealing an interior rife with dramatic action that prompted viewers to visit the campaign website.

You can read the full article on adage here.

Jai Jagdish Radio - Cycle Agarbatti

2008-06-18T18:40:00.001+05:30

Mudra got 2 Cannes Bronze for this radio spot for Cycle Agarbatti! Really cute and simple stuff!

Cannes Lions 2008 : Envy, Jealousy, Humility

2008-06-17T13:58:00.001+05:30

The Lions have roared. And JWT India got the Grand Prix for Direct for the Lead India Campaign(TOI). Congratulations to Aggie and Team JWT. Great show!!

Here's the viral video by Craig Davis built-for-Cannes'08. I like his advice to the jury to trust their instinct while judging -"If you feel envy, give bronze; if you feel jealous, give silver. And if you feel humbled, the work desrves a Gold!"

What do we have today?

Summertime Rocks

2008-06-11T13:21:00.001+05:30

Russell - from our old David Gang(now an agency left only in memories! Officially buried by Bates 1By1 last month)LOL, mailed me this link - a new song by Kailash Kher and a band called smoke! Quite kewl. Enjoy!

Youtube Insights : Applying Science to the Art of Viral Marketing

2008-06-09T21:14:00.010+05:30

First read this article in HT Cafe Mumbai. Traced it to the original at Michelle Quinn's blog on LA Times. You can read it here.

After Google Analytics comes YouTube Insights - A feature introduced in March, gives YouTube account holders who have uploaded videos to the site a range of statistics, charts and maps about their audiences.

The data bring a little science to what has been the art of viral marketing, and the potential for big changes in how bands, television shows, movies and consumer products are promoted on the Internet.

Welcome to DIY marketing on the web. Insight is part of a trend on the Web. The social networking giant Facebook offers account holders a weekly report that, like Insight, is free -- and has a similar name, Insights. The information it provides is used by individuals and companies that have Facebook pages and want to hone their marketing.

-YouTube is becoming the world's biggest focus group.

-What's distinct about YouTube Insight is the immediacy of the information and the discovery element -how viewers found the content

-Ideally, the data provided by YouTube Insight will help identify better who true tastemakers are. What really sparks a viral campaign? What is the match to the flame?

P.S. The picture above is from Neemrana Fort, built almost 600 years before the youtube:-) About 100 odd km from Delhi where I was last week digging some insights on OOH communication.

Creativity 2.0, In-Game Advertising & TeliBrahma

2008-06-06T17:23:00.005+05:30

I have to make a presentation to a bunch of creatives(of the ad agency creative department variety) on creativity 2.0 on Sunday!

Well have a host of ideas. Can share with anyone for a 'beer' and good conversation:-) While on the subject, read this article on in-game advertising in ET today. Chk out here...

Some nuggets from the same:

1. Gamers notice the brands that catch their eyes in online games. Music, chocolate, pasta or noodle lovers are likely to try the brands they see in the games they play.

2. The Zenith-Optimedia study says in-game advertising of various products contributes as much as 35% of the total revenues for gaming sites! Popular gaming portals like Zapak.com, Contests2win and Kreeda are looking at the model more seriously.

3. In-game advertising offers the advantage of understanding the profile of the gamers, which further helps in highly-focused communication with the right message to the target group.
Mental post-it - "I need to sit with a gamer over coffee once again".

4. The study found that all the gamers do take note of the brands being advertised in the games, but in-game advertising is influential for trials only among the chocolate, noodles and music lovers!!

5. Though online gaming is predicted to be $7-billion business by the end of 2008, it still remains a higher SEC phenomenon in the country. Of the total population of gamers, 41% belong to SEC A2, 20% to SEC B1 while just 9% belong to SEC C. Predictable.

6. If you think it is just the college going youth that is hooked to games, think again. The major chunk of gamers belong to 22-25 age group followed by those in the age bracket of 26-30 years. Apparently, women have no interest in the virtual gaming world. The study notes that 99% of the gamers are male while only 1% are female gamers.

7. Cricket is the most popular on-line game followed by chess, road fighter, boxing, FIFA, counter strike, pacman and football.

Does anybody have more bytes from this report??

The other early morning conversation I had was with a VC interested in Telibrahma! Got some understanding about localised blue-tooth marketing...

Must create a space for blue-tooth marketing in the creative brief from now:-)