Tribal Goes Social

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...

What's your Digital Quotient(DQ)?

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

My2centsonsocialmedia

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

The Factory of the Mind

Most days i don't know when to shut the factory of the mind!

1. Work expands to fill the amount of time available.

2. Knowledge work has great elasticity.

3. Web 2.0 has collapsed all recognisable differences between work and play.

4. In an always connected world, when do you switch off? Do you switch off at the official hour which is a mere legacy of the factory days??

5. Why do I/ anyone get paid the same on their most productive days and the least...

Everything about the work-world has changed, but many things about the work-place remain the same!!

Shutting the mental assembly line now. Is it possible?

Sunday, Taglines and Virtual Worlds

Yet again I am in Delhi on a Sunday! Got an early morning client presentation tomorrow...Missed taking Neo to the Juhu beach and bandstand!! Waiting for breakfast...

A while back had written a post on the 'diminishing return on taglines'. I had largely meant those of the 'xyz de variety - hila de, pila de, ghumaa de!

Here's an article on adage.com in support of the enduring power of tag-lines. Have a read here...

A good article by Reuben Steiger of Second Life on 'Merging the Real and Virtual Worlds' again on adage.com here...

Reubens insights peppered with my own...

- Virtual worlds are a significant and fast growing market.
Okay in India, it might take a longer time because of bandwidth issues but we need to be mentally prepared for the virtual world to export our brand thinking when bandwidth sorts out...

- Virtual worlds are a subset of social media, which accounts for 30% of consumer internet activity in the US according to Comscore.
As I mentioned in my last post, in India the media participants are largely fence-sitters around social media. A layer of virtual world is perhaps too much change, too fast:-)

I think it's time to start a digital media adoption and first steps consultancy under Tribal...Must speak to my colleague Leroy on this!!

- Virtual worlds turn the web into a "place," allowing users to connect face-to-face in real time.

- Early data suggest that levels of brand engagement in virtual worlds are extremely high. Millions of Us has conducted some 60 engagements in virtual worlds for clients with engagement per user ranging from 2 to 24 hours.

- There are 550 million users of social networks and as users begin to put virtual "rooms" on their pages, the game will change significantly.
Agree, as I flipped through the A G Lafley and Ram Charan book, Game Changer on the flight to Dilli yesterday, was wondering on similar lines. Though, nobody has the idea of how exactly the real and virtual worlds will collide, mash up in the next 18-24 months, what is undeniably true is that the game will have further changed for brands, marketers, analog and digital agencies alike!!

Four toast, some tea and a badly made omelette has arrived:-)...Enjoy!

Great Indian Brand : Chandamama

Was returning from a client meet few days back when I noticed Chandamama on the pavement! Brought back childhood yaadein - Slouched on the bed and reading vikram aur betaal:-)

Picked it up for Neo. He was happy for precisely 5 seconds and then tossed it aside. Must read a story to him one of these days!!

Chandamama is turning 60 and digital. Check out this iconic Indian brand's web-site here...

You may wish to read a related story on HT here...

At retirement age, the once-fading title is poised to reinvent itself with an upgraded Web presence featuring interactive games and puzzles, downloadable wallpapers for cellphones and programmes on Worldspace radio!!

As a book, Chandamama has seen a revival too, going up to four lakh readers from 1.3 lakh in six months. To toast it, a 96-page comic book will hit the stands every four months from April 21.

Goafest - Day One

After a sleepy morning punctuated by a long breakfast, we huddled into a bus for the ad village at the Cavelossim beach!

I never remembered to take pics of the venue:-( Awesome arrangements guys! Goafest ver 3.0 is even better than the last two editions. Hats off to the AAAI and the team that has pulled it off!

Was looking forward to the talk by Jon Wilkins of Naked. (Sorry guys can't upload the seminar pics, haven't yet loaded the software on my new laptop:-(

Naked Notes(not in any particular order or importance)...
1. Communication media is a lot about language and behaviour today. The voice is extremely important.

In India, only a handful of clients and agencies are fanatically obsessive about the brand voice/ consistency. Hutch was a great example. Vodaphone still has a mixed identity/ voice!

2. Jon talked of the Australopithecus Media Man- this guy is separated from the entire creative process(Oh I think I know quite a few of them:-)
- he/she is focussed on implementation(manzil ka ishaara lagey raho!!)
- gets his orgasms from 'pure number crunching' however irrelevant they might be
3. With the gradual and now exponential erosion of advertising power, advertising cannot be a lead discipline anymore.

4. The next evolutionary stage is the 'Neanderthal Media Man'
- this guy is an active activation partner
- he/she is also a partner in the creative process
(John showed an amazing Case Study on the 118 helpline number. Can read the details on afaqs here
- he believes in amplification through localization
- and deeper engagement(shared the hilarious and hugely effective Vindaloo case study. Tried to find the video on youtube in vain. Satish - help!

5. And finally at the fore-front of evolution is the 'Modern Media Man'. Yet to be born in India- my guess!
- this guy is a total brand communication thinker. Actually he/she may not be a media person at all.
- steeped into IMC- not as a word on power-point but into his DNA and thinking.
- believes into and roots for a core creative idea, not a media buyer, seller or implementation guy.
Jon shared a case study of a chai brand - Adventures in a cup(what a lovely idea)

Actually we will have to soon get back to a stage of the media rolled into the creative process, rolled into a department, perhaps rolled into one person era!

This whole new media game is about a brand theatre. Maybe finally the director in the job titles - Media Director, Account Director, Planning Director will have to mirror the skills and talent of a 'film director'!

- this new guy is all about 'integration thinking'
- focussed on the marketing task and not merely the communication task, through the correct channels

Loved his ingredient list for the House of Naked
a. The Warriors - the talented folks who will make the brand theatre happen
b. The Freaks - diverse talent pool
c. Dr. Zhivago - no vested interests
d. Talent Soup - mix em up, mash em up
e. Out-source everything but the thinking
f. Measure Everything. Clients pay great dollars for this.

Well, pretty much the stuff I ranted at my last agency to do in the digital space!!

Thanks Jon, we need more pirates like you at the cusp of the media and creative industries...

Saw the cyber, DM, print and TV work! To my disappointment, print continued to be scam infested. TV, thanks in large measure to Ogilvy had great stuff!

Will share the Scott Goodson notes in another post. In the evening there was a great party organised by Zoom! Food, booze, more booze...zzzz.

ActiveAds

A while ago while browsing through a WIRED issue had come across a Canon/Nikon ad(sorry can't remember which brand exactly). It was an example of what I term as an ActiveAd.

It had no fancy art, no tag-line, no hyped brand promise, just an equation of DIY features, some benefits and a link to know more about the product. Many tech brands I have observed follow this format of an ActiveAd.

Maybe we could follow the lead in FMCG, durables and other categories as well!

So what makes an ActiveAd.
1. Obviously it will lead the reader/ browser to some action.
a. Goto www.checkoutthisstuff.com
or b. Try the product demo at physicalspace.com or virtualreality.com
or c. Cut this ad and get 10%off at physicalstore.com

2. ActiveAds can do without taglines...They show the product, they talk about the benefits. They excite you about the technology without geek-speak!

3. Information is more/ equally important than the brand 'image' art/ layout. Don't keep on repeating the headline. Behave like a retail environment. Tell me more about the product ingredients, the underlying technology, the benefits, the sourcing story, the environment stand of the company, the packaging stories, etc. Throw me a new nugget/ factoid instead of irritating me with the same baseline...

4. Active ads allow participation. Our current TVCs are not active. They are passive bombardments on our senses. But with a little bit of imagination and digitisation, all advertising forms can be made more active!

and 5. ActiveAds aim more at behaviour change rather than worry about awareness and recall scores only.

These are still WIP thots. We should aim at making all the ads more active! It's better ROI.

If you come across any blog posts, articles around this subject, please lemme know!

Happy Holi...Maybe no more posts till Monday!

Are Advertising & the Web Disjoint Sets?

There is this excellent article on Adage.com about - Advertising and the Internet. Check it out here...

Notes to myself peppered with stray thots!

- When you look at how the media and marketing business packages the Internet - as just more space to be bought and sold -- you have to worry that the history of mass media is just trying to repeat itself.

And what an utter waste of time, money and effort that would be. It's so very easy to escape banner ads and the ilk on the web. Am a fairly heavy user of the net and I have developed advanced screening faculties for every kind of conventional ad. On the other hand, when a marketer succeeds in engaging me through content or 'value-added-ads', I not just consume it but help seed it in my limited way!

-Rarely a fortnight goes by without some new bullish forecast for ad growth that works to stoke digital exuberance within media owners that often drowns out critical thinking about the medium itself.

Am yet to hear a conversation on digital/ internet advertising among mainstream ad folks in India. It just doesn't exist for them!! In fact an exuberant NCD of a large agency was quoted in DNA saying who needs digital? While the size of internet ad might be puny in India, the learning ground for the next level of messaging/ marketing/ communication has to be the web...

-Here's the issue: The internet is too often viewed as inventory, as a place where brands pay for the privilege of being adjacent to content, like prime-time TV and glossy magazines relics of the pre-blog days when getting into the media game actually required infrastructure and distribution.

The presumed power of that adjacency has provided the groundwork for the media industry for decades and long ago calcified into an auspicious economic reality the big media companies are trying to take with it to the digital future. For the media seller, ads and ad revenue might be all that's left.

- The marketer, once at the mercy of a locked-up media landscape, can now be a player in it.

- "The big difference is that marketers are in the same competitive set as media owners," said Matt Freeman, CEO of Tribal DDB. He cites Pepsi, one of Tribal's clients, as an example of a company that could be a giant media player if it wanted.

It doesn't want to because the big traffic it gets at its corporate websites has nothing to do with how it's valued. But the twist on media and marketing convention is clear.

"Before there was an investor and a recipient of that investment. I think today you have much more of a triangulation where marketers can invest directly in going to consumers, obviating the need for media owners. They are not necessarily the client of owners and, in some cases, they are their competitors."

- In other words, marketers can build website that do cool, useful stuff. There are any number of marketers, from Amazon to Papa John's, working to monetize their corporate websites traffic by selling ads there, but that, of course, is only the most mundane way. Better examples include Johnson & Johnson and its BabyCenter, a deep repository of information about raising a newborn that's a clear competitor to Bonnier or Meredith, the publishers of Parenting and Parents magazines respectively.

Nike Plus, whose sharp interface connects runners all over the world, is a real threat to any traditional media owners who wants to engage with that running population.

- Although Mr. Freeman often sounds like he's borrowing from the lexicon of PR, his idea of "earned media" or "earned engagement" isn't the same as landing a client brand in the New York Times. It's a more varied concept that encompasses everything from branded applications and services like the Nike-Plus program to videos passed along through sharing sites. These programs, now exceptions, could actually work to redefine advertising.

- "People have to think about advertising differently," said Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic, the interactive agency recently purchased by WPP Group. "Advertising is becoming not just about messaging but providing value to customers. Functionality has often not been the role of advertising."

I have been arguing with some of the brightest ad agency copy-writers. Think beyond 'taglines'. Think about usefulness. Make your ads 'active'. Give more information about the brand. When we repeat the messages, the consumer filters them all.

- For marketers and agencies it's a sea-change in how you do your business. "It's easy for clients and agencies to think about banners and email because buying banners is like buying outdoor and email is like direct," said Mr. Kaufman of ad agency Schematic. "That is very different than nurturing the community of your customers, providing great content or executing transactions."

- Web designer Jakob Nielsen adds -'The basic point about the web is that it is not an advertising medium. The web is not a selling medium;it is a buying medium. It is user controlled, so the user controls, the user experiences.'

Mobile Talk 1 : Rajesh Jain

Read a decent interview of Rajesh Jain, the man who almost single handedly brought on the dotcom boom to India after selling off his Internet venture, IndiaWorld.com, to Satyam for Rs 499 crore in 1999, on agencyfaqs.com!

Nuggets from the same...

1. Other than email, classifieds, trading and ticketing, not much has happened there. What I think of as the N3 web – Now, New, Near Web – hasn’t really happened. Part of the problem is that access is mainly from cyber cafes, so the Internet has not become a part of people’s lives.

2. There are two aspects to the Internet – the PC and the mobile. PC-based access is very much around the 'reference web'.

The mobile has the opportunity to be the primary mode of access and interaction for the 'incremental web'.

So, I can use the mobile to find directions and similar day to day activities. There are life's 'empty moments' and life's ‘know now’ moments. When you are waiting for someone, for example, you are in an empty moment and you can use your mobile to check stock quotes or text someone. In the ‘know now’ moments, you want to know something immediately instead of going and searching on the web. Now, if you can overlay mobile services with permission, you can give consumers only the information they want.

3. I think in the next few years, when you mention the Internet, it will primarily mean the mobile Internet.

4. Just like on the Internet, the search box has become the starting point for user interaction and monetisation of the web, my belief is that on the mobile phone, it’s going to be the SMS subscription with a brand of your choice.

So, if there’s a special promotion at the mall in the neighbourhood, you want to know. It's called 'invertising' – advertising that consumers invite into their lives. This is a marketer’s dream (come true). For example, if you buy a new Nokia phone, you can get free updates from them about the features of the phone and about upgrading to a new model

5. Why not enough innovations in the mobile industry? Because something has worked very well in the industry... because ringtones, wallpapers, Bollywood, cricket, etc., have become a Rs 4,000 crore industry, where users are spending on consuming this content, we are not looking beyond.

6. SMS subscription is the best way to provide bite-sized content.

7. As we think of roads, airports and power, we need to start thinking of the digital environment as core infrastructure for this country. I think there is no reason why we cannot have state of the art innovation in services here in India. That's going to spur entrepreneurship and will create the next set of large companies in India. Once we make that happen, it’s better for advertisers, marketers and businesses.

The Danger of Getting Dooced!!

Came across this word - Dooced at the Urban Dictionary

dooced : Getting fired because of something that you wrote in your blog.

"Blogger Heather B. Armstrong coined the phrase in 2002, after she was fired from her Web design job for writing about work and colleagues on her blog, Dooce.com" (Source: Yahoo.com)

Last October, Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was fired, she said, for what her supervisor called a misuse of uniform. Simonetti had posted on her personal blog, Queen of Sky (now called Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant), pictures of herself, in her uniform, on an empty plane. Her blog also contained thinly veiled work stories.
(Yahoo! News)

Thank God for low internet usage and lower blog readership in India!! LOL
Picture Source : www.blogwriteforceos.com

What do the advertisers get in exchange4media?

Well above is the screen grap of exchange4media...Since there is hardly any content on this page, I have never really bothered to look at any of the ads...

I think the scientific term for this is inattentive blindness:-)

Dainik Jagran, Vanita, Radio One, Radio Dhamaal, Big FM, Dainik Bhaskar, Jagran Solutions, Sahara One, Radio Mirchi, Outlook - that's some 10 brands trying to get my in-attention...LOL

Clutter is as bad in virtual real estate as in the real world!

I feel it's the worst designed media web-site...But maybe exchange4media has high-resolution retinal scan to measure effectiveness and eyeball-enthusiasm:-)

Mobiquity

Just put the finishing touches to my paper for Atticus this year.

Called Mobiquity = Mobile + Ubiquity, it's an attempt to look at the near future impact of the ubiquitous mobile phone!

Zillion thanks to Reshma, who did the quali research for the same & co-wrote it...

We looked at the device, the interface, mobile through an emerging market lens as well as the techno-social impact of the phone!

This surely ranks amongst the coolest research work I/ we did in a long time!

Will soon write a column to share the findings in the public domain!!

Kick Ass Manifesto

You can read it better here!

Stumbled upon this kick-ass manifesto of Webchutney, amongst India's hottest/ coolest digital full service agencies...Have a dekko at their blog here!

Don't think any Indian traditional offline agency has a blog yet! Correct me if I am wrong!

You can find 3 real cool webchutney virals here...(viral classics like Thakur Ka Inteqam, Makkad-man and Ali Baba(done for the Airtel ring-tone) LOL

How Not To Be A Digital Agency Part 2

I had promised myself to stay away from the screen, the web and most things that connect back to work:-)...Am away on leave in Kerala(today in Munnar). Just came on the web for a while...

Okay lemme just post the second part of the 'How Not To Be...' thots...

7. It's not about the digital department or wing or cell. It's about the
digital projects. Before you do the department and cell, get the projects. Somehow/ anyhow.

8. It's not only about learning. It's an equal dose of unlearning everyday. And believe me, the un-learning part is tougher!!

9. It's not about geography & branch turfs anymore...The digital agency must function across geography as a seamless talent hot group connected by technology. It's about structural tweaking. Get the CEO on your side...

10. It's not about creative and strategy and digital dudes. It's about 'problem
solving and creation using digital tools and platforms...Sounds obvious, but one hell of a tough task within the agency!

11. It's not about telling. It's an equal measure about selling. Internally, with clients. Digital Evangelism needed. And as many teachers as students:-)

12. Digital is not a technology or a platform or the debate about organic and
inorganic growth.

Digital is our business. The short term and the long term of it. Period.
P.S. Okay back to my holidays. Indiadrant will be back in full force around Dec 17!
Cheers
(Tried to add some lovely Kerala pix but failed 6 times. I give up!!) Later...

How Not To Be A Digital Agency Part 1

Like many analog agencies ours too is trying to be digital. The process began early this year in the Temple city of Siam Reap in Cambodia. Then we had some very engaging digital sessions in Singapore...

These are still early days into Being Digital...Still have tried to collate the lessons learnt/ and observations from around in my first steps into digital!(Not in any particular order or hierarchy of thot).

1. The game's not just about technology, its still about human psychology! Far too many CEO's are shying away from digital because they feel scared/ numbed by the technology buzz around. It's a pity. It just slows the entire digital thinking in the agency.

2. It's not about learn and do. It's about do and learn.

3. It's not about strategy first, it's a lot about execution first as well.
Digital is a far complex strategy-execution inter-linked game anyways which analog
agencies have difficulty understanding...

4. Digital thinking cannot be brought about by forced collaboration between different departments. It's about genuine conversation between people who call the shots and people who get it.

5. It's not about top-down or bottom up. it's about both at the same time!!

6. The pit-fall is to make 'digital' the new epi-centre of creativity and snob
appeal within the agency.

Let's chew on these. The next installment should come soon...

Day 4 - Boot Camp Bytes

And today, finally the meat of the boot camp. The often mis-understood, mis-managed, and 'black-box' subject of digital creatives...

Just came back meeting my college friend and his cute 3 year old son Yash. He reminded me of Neo!!My friend's adorable son - Yash. High-point of the day- Yash's squeal of delight upon seeing his new toy car...

Back to the workshop...Some of the key observations/ learnings of the day, in no particular order...

1. Digital creative, UGC, content in general forces us to ask the question - what business are we really in? Or more specifically what business do we want to be into...

These convergence days are exciting times. Bollywood meets MTV meets advertising meets Web 2.0 meets mobile content meets UGC meets PR meets something new every day! So, where do we want to go today:-)Paul and Brian from RightClicka, the social media experimental lab epicentred on music!!

2. As an industry and as my specific discipline(account planning), we have always been obsessed with the study of popular culture. But now with digital technology and democratisation of creativity, there is this huge opportunity of inventing popular culture...But are we ready as an industry to harness it. Don't think so:-(

3. The digital creative companies of the future need to be open-sourced. Their structures must be more collaborative and experimentative. And they must model themselves on software companies - projects, teams, constant learning and open to out-sourcing!

4. Digital Creative also demands that many of us wear multiple hats. Strategy and creative hats, project management and IT hats, strategy, creative and tech guru hats, project management and story telling hats. Successful models will have to burn their silo walls is what I feel.Our two Chinese interpreters for the day(at the back). I am liking the multi-culturalness of this boot camp...

5. We need 'cool scouts' - guys who are constantly on the look-out for 'cool content' & 'Cool Inventors'. And many of our current agency creatives may not be the guys who can invent 'cool'. These guys are scattered in music, movie, gaming industries...We need to hire/ work closely with them on digital projects.

6. I also strongly feel that 'the One Line proposition' led thinking has to give way to 'Multiple line/ context conversation' led briefing...Small ideas will coalesce to form the Big Idea! Digital Creative might also be of a 'Shoot-then-aim' mould!

This is the most complex topic as any real change demands structural changes in our business without disrupting the regular work and revenue streams. Balancing deep change with quarterly revenue targets:-) Tough task because as an industry, with all the back-slapping and PR around new tools, our fundamental structure( am restricting myself to mainstream agencies/ networks) hasn't changed in decades...

But if we need to change our core/ DNA to digital then we will have to disrupt our work, thought and administrative structures...Else the smaller, nimbler, smarter 1st generation digital shops will always enjoy a lead over the agency...

Of course much of this change might be messy, evolutionary, revolutionary...or forced upon by business imperatives...

But whatever be the outcome, digital content/ creativity/ market/ business model is an exciting playground. I am loving it!!

Boot Camp - Day Two - Digital Platforms & SNS

Brian Gyan
Actually missed breakfast...Mental note to myself...Web 2.0 surfing is addictive...Be careful!

The day was hectic but more interesting than Day 1. Morning was about digital platforms. Our colleague from Japan once again had some amazing case studies...DoCoMo's Tokyo rocks...Those mobile platform examples were really kick-ass and from another world!

Brian Tiong, ex MTV was the guest speaker for the day. Speaking on my favourite topic - UGC. He chucked his MTV Marketing head job some 18 months ago. Has been a portfolio worker since. Creative catalyst, trend analyst, strategist & new media evangelist as his LinkedIn profile says...Gave a brief over-view of the web 2.0 noise and action!

Curtis, from 141, then had a detailed presentation on DPOS( digital point-of-sale)...Again good cases and a systematic approach.
My colleague from 141 - Ajit, enjoying the hurried lunch-break...
Had scribbled notes...Here are some of my observations/ take-outs from D2...

1. I need to look at Japan more closely, more often for mobile learnings...Tokyo seems to be a decade ahead of everyone else...

2. We must try to hide the technology from people. Often that's the only difference between success and failure of a digital initiative.

3. Brian re-iterated the point - "the audience today is ahead of the marketer in many ways..."

4. He also touched upon the 4F's of marketing - the Filters, the Fanatics, the Facilitators and the Fire-Crackers...New labels but generally he captured the energy of the web 2.0 space...In 30 min, one can only paint a broad-brush-stroke...Some interesting web-sites to check out(zingfu, zwinky, mog.com etc.)

5. Interesting quote on adage.com -" Consumers are spending more money to reach media than marketers are spending to reach them" :-)

6. Very interesting take on Personal Circuits as an audience descriptor rather than the fast-losing-relevance SEC!!

Over-all a hectic Day 2...Saw this road-sign:-) on the walk back to Peninsula Towers.
Went to my cousin Neeraj's house for 'some ghar ka khana'! Was missing my daal-roti in just 3 days! Thanks Archana...

Digital Boot Camp and Beer

Arrived in Singapore this morning for the Digital Boot Camp...It's sort of a train-the-trainer programme. My friend, John Lambie,, who holds the lofty designation of Regional Integration Director is evangelising the show along with our CTO(T for Talent), David Meredith...

It's going to be 5 days of intense training. Had been looking forward to this!

Grabbed some sleep. Then roamed Beach Road and the area around the hotel with Ajit. After many square kilometres of walking and hunting for a digital bargain, Ajit finally picked up a 2GB stick:-)End of Singapore shopping...

In the evening, went to a small road-side eatery called Maggie Thai & Chinese Restaurant. There were about 20 of us. But the evening belonged to my colleague Lucy, the beer guzzling creative from our Shanghai office...

It was an interesting conversation. She doesn't understand much English and we didn't understand any Chinese. So, Tiger beer did all the talking:-)Johnny and LucyThe Digital Sparks
Tomorrow and the week ahead holds lots of promise...010101

Visual Post-Its

Since the time I got my Nokia E50, have switched to mobile life caching! My old faithful - the Nikon Cool Pix is lying mostly un-used. I guess it's the sheer convenience and a decent resolution that works in the favour of a camera phone!
Mayawati's fairly clear and ambitious vision statement on the road near Bandra Kurla Complex.
I hate both the term - 'Big B' and this senseless communication!
Neo's first digital painting! Little fingers fearlessly explore digital technology!The Lilavati Hospital lift-man and his ultra fancy cell-phone...Now what SEC is he?
Cell-phone ownership might be playing havoc with the traditional SEC classification in India! Looks like there is a decreasing/ un-predictable co-relation between the handset price and the MHI of the owner(at least in the metros)!

The table-top sticker at Barista. Simple and effective communication!