The Smallness of Big B?

In my Oct 11 post, I had gushed my adulation for Amitabh Bachchan. But the recent event managed wedding of Abhishek and Ash and the loud noises made in/ by media left me puzzled about this great actor. Was wondering - is AB losing it?

No doubt, he is a legendary actor. But increasingly his close crony friends - Amar Singh and Mulayam, his less than credible endorsement of brand UP and his 'manglik' obsessions have left huge question marks in my mind!

Well, am not alone. The Outlook issue(May 7) has the artistic and literary community berating Amitabh's conduct during and before the Abhishek-Ash wedding...

Says film-maker Mrinal Sen - "The ritualism of so many temple visits is ridiculous. It's shocking that a person of Amitabh's stature should be indulging in this."

Voices the artist Paritosh Sen - "Amitabh has set a dangerous example by displaying superstitious beliefs. Because of who he is, the public watch and believe that much more."

The intellectual class is of the view that Amitabh's big-banner ritualism is a travesty of his father Harivanshrai's legacy!!

Of course one can blame the TRP hungry television media for the over-the-top attention given to a celebrity marriage but the fact remains that Amitabh has made a big public tamasha of a private wedding...And his overly superstitious doting father role has dented his image!

Great Train Journey 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another School. More Fresh Thoughts

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

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

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

jab mile thodi fursat khud se karle mohabbat

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

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

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

Haig : A Sunday Well Spent

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

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

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

New Age Brands Have a Different Ning!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flash Promos Ki Khareed Mein Samajhdaari Hai?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But I am becoming 'Flash Smart'!!

Let me be a train. No logo please!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What holds Bollywood scripts together?

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

Will Street Meet Strategy?

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

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

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

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

Big Idea : Finishing Schools for Rural Youth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The strands of DNA

About a year back, two newspapers were launched in Mumbai - HT and DNA! Contrary to my initial expectations, DNA outsells HT by a good margin...I guess DNA Mumbai was amongst the most hi-profile and expensive media brand launches in 2006!

I regularly read(okay snack) both HT and DNA and have been following the brand trajectory rather keenly. My thots on brand DNA(triggered by their new campaign)in no particular order...

1. The Dainik Bhaskar group(which co-owns DNA) has perfected the art of launching newspapers in new markets after doing a huge consumer research...Full points to people-led-marketing . It works.I think it helped DNA get its initial lead over HT in Mumbai. The marketing efforts also looked sufficiently distinct from the leader TOI.

2. I sort of liked the voice-of-people tonality of the launch campaign. Of course, it helped that HT had a totally ambiguous 'Let there be light' launch campaign done by Ogilvy!

3. On any given day, I have always found more content(in an absolute sense) in DNA than HT.

4. But what's perhaps lacking in DNA is a POV, a sharper articulation of what brand DNA is...On the other hand, HT under Vir Sanghvi appears to me a newspaper brand with a balanced POV. Though ironically it's Mumbai launch was with the cover story on the scandalous Salman - Ash tapes:-)

5. I feel DNA should have worked more on the people-generated content/ brand landscape. A more approachable, a more conversational brand. Not just in content but also in tonality.
Clearly the current campaign - 'Start a Conversation' is a bit distant and cold for the brand as I carry it in my head as a reader...

Conversations with strangers/ anyone often start with a degree of hesitancy, a certain languidness and a general warmth over chai/coffee tonality...
Which this campaign with its stark images sorely lacks even as it hits you from massive hoardings in the city.

6. As a reader I have felt more comfortable with the design/lay-out of HT. It's smart, it has an even spread of content...Neither too text heavy. Nor too visually indulgent. Just the right amount of information for a quick but relaxing browse.

DNA on the other hand chokes me with information even though I admire its attempt to feed me more news every morning. Relative to HT its not easy on the senses. I would have loved a little more naturalness in the lay-out rather than a sense of contrived exactness. The DNA layout appears a bit FMCG-ised...

The models in the current ad campaign are like that. Cardboard picture-perfect-caricatures...Like the product, the brand communication could do better if it loses its stiffness...

I think in the case of DNA, its a case of the product leading the brand...And a change of agency from Rediffusion-DY&R to Contract hasn't helped much.

The brand needs to focus on its DNA, which to me the reader appears to be a strand of collaboration, conversation, cause and of course good content!!

Brand Hype Vs Consumer Retaliation

Amongst the most hyped commodities in India is the Indian Cricket team. Other strong contenders being 'The Economy', 'Mumbai' and 'India's Software Prowess'...
Talking of cricket - the ads, the media crescendo and the moolah almost always outshines the actual performance of the cricket team...

Media of course gets the TRPs, either way! On the up-swing and the downward-spiral...
But the advertisers really get screwed when on top of the hype, the team fails miserably!

One of the brands that repeatedly doesn't learn from this is the lost-its-sheen-a-long-time-ago Pepsi in India...

And when the hype gets punctured, the consumers get back at the brand and the endorsers...Earlier it used to be localised conversations and pent up anger. But UGC(User-generated-content) has taken over.

Today, consumers talk back, make fun and de-pedestal their icons almost instantly and then share with the world!! Technology is a great tool to retaliate against the hype...Sample this( got it on mail just a while ago).

Snacking on English

Saurabh had this interesting post on thotblurb on the exploding market for self-help books(in English) in India!

Since like many others, I have traversed the path from small town India to Mumbai, the city of dreams, I have lived through this fast-track booming India and its fascination for self-help. My addendum to Saurabh's pointers...

1. India may not be unique, any fast-track economy will have a huge demand for 'fast-track literature'!

2. I disagree with the premise that most of the non-textbooks till now have been bought for leisure reading...a visit to any wheelers book-store even a decade back wud have revealed a fat proportion of 'kaamyaabi kaise paayein' books! Competition Success Review has been a best-seller since the 80s...

3. The new change has been the translation of English sub-titles into Hindi/ regional languages...but a change under-way for at least a decade...It's of course accelerated with the economy. I myself have been a sucker for such books for a long time:-)
I had an old copy of 'How to win friends and influence people' in Hindi which i read and re-read although studying in an English medium school!

4. The real change that has happened is the SEC C-ization of the English language...the language of success & station. Nothing new here as well...just deeper penetration...the net is doing its own bit in democratising the access to English.

5. Yes Meraj - I too have read somewhere about the rise of the Hindi/ regional language blogs and other portals of indie expression...

6. I feel one of the primary reasons why self-help books are in great demand is their snack friendliness. Long fiction is not. In an attention deficit economy short tips on anything > twists and turns of long narrative...
Picture: The famous Wheelers bookstall at 'Katni' railway station during the great train journey...

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans

John Lennon's famous words...As I took time out from the busy Bombay buzz into the slower groove of Patna, going to the zoo, the circus(Gemini) or spent time at the century old Bankipore club along with my diasporic joint family, I just realised the importance and the neglect of my other life...This trip with Neo has been well worth the little extra effort!

Just had time to do a little surfing everyday...Discovered adobomagazine - this ad creativity website from the Philippines!

Few excerpts/ facts from a Neil French Interview on the web-site - a man whom I had heard more than I know about...I like his bluntness:-) and strong POV especially relevant in the Indian context where most ad guys have nothing original to say and when they it, they do it in the blandest possible way!!

1. In his roller-coaster life, Neil French has been a rent collector, account executive, advertising manager, waiter, singer, matador, beach bum, pornographer, bouncer, debt collector, concert promoter, nightclub owner, Judas Priests’ rock band manager, copywriter, art director, creative director, film director, actor, television station owner, worldwide creative director of Ogilvy and most recently, Godfather and worldwide creative director of WPP.
Now which department does he belong to?:-)

2. On BBH and Mother - "They're not so micro, actually! And what they bring to the party is freshness and an absence of what can only be described as bureaucracy. What clients want increasingly is an idea that will grab the audience. The question remains to be answered, whether the clients themselves will allow the leaps into the unknown that the step involves. It's too soon to tell, but the worst thing that could happen is that they get a smaller version of what they already had..."

3. On now his infamous comment that "women creatives are crap!" - Of course, I didn't say “Women are crap;” that's just the press getting hysterical and as usual failing to do any checking. However, men can't bear children and women can. If a woman in the early stages of her career decides she can do both jobs well, and that there's no price to pay, she's mistaken. I've had forty years of experience in this job, and there are NO exceptions. Nobody has a God-given right to a job or a job-title; it takes hard work and commitment. I'm all for sexual equality, but that means equality...not a free ride on the basis of gender, or for that matter race, religion, or whatever.

4. On long copy ads - Long copy has always been the most effective way of selling in the press. The 'direct' business has always known this. A reasoned argument will always beat a snappy headline with no backup. The present fashion for a big picture and a logo was started by agencies in non-English-speaking countries who realised that they were at a disadvantage in award shows. The format was adopted by everyone else because it seemed easier and required little in the way of actual work. It's one of the reasons that the press is now regarded as a second-class medium. That is sad and needs to be re-addressed. But the growth of the net is a good sign...you must be able to read.

5. On his future book - Haven't thought about it. Unless I get a decent advance and a contract, I'm not interested. Lots of publishers want to put something out, but unless there's money involved, why would I bother?

6. On the future for Asian Advertising - Nothing very exciting. Asia is no different to anywhere else, I have to tell you. If anything great emerges, I'll be delighted, but do remember that agencies all over the world are beavering away as we write.

7. On future plans - Oh, my blood is flowing. I just checked. Advertising isn't the only thing in life, you know. And it's not the only way to make a living. It just happens to be the thing I know best. As I said earlier, I'm not actually dead yet, and the amount of response I've had from ad people throughout the world has been very flattering. My problem is not what to do next, but what NOT to do!

A bit sad that after a long career in advertising he will probably be remembered most by two quotes "women creatives are crap" and "death by blog."
You can read the complete interview at the adobo website

Neil French’s website is http://www.neilfrench.com
Picture Source : www.kleinerfisch.com

Open Source Creativity

Was chatting with a fellow planner who said she is 1/4 copy-writer, 3/4 planner...Well I too think/ feel/ believe to be part copy-writer-part planner:-)

This reminded me of some print ads that me and my friend Shantanu had done while at TBWA - the agency where I think I was the most prolific!



Agency : Open Source
Ideators : Shantanu + Manish
Art : Prashant

This is roughly how I think it happened.
1. We were at a TBWA party, getting drunk and bored.
2. The discussion somehow veered around to the subject of 'Tsunami'. A spirited
Shantanu mouthed this nice line - 'Duniya Se Dard Mita De'. We
felt we had to use it somewhere!
3. Next morning, we exictedly plugged it to a creative team.
4. Waited for about a month. Nothing much happened. More dard:-)
5. Then I had this Bollywood idea.
6. Roped in Prashant - the art guy...who gave this look!
7. Then Shantanu left and we waited another 2-3 months before we presented these
ads to the client along with a media plan! Ambrish was a great help!
8. The client liked and approved the ads.
9. Then I quit TBWA.
10. The ads were given a quiet burial...End of 'Open Source'

Shantanu - Apne dard ki kya dava hai??LOL

Happy Holi

Had a great Holi today! Few thots before I hit bed...

1. It's the best Indian festival for a 3.5 year old...As you can see, my son Neo freaked out!

2. Increasingly the diyas for Diwali, the small Ganesha idols for Ganesh Chaturthi and now 100% of the pichkaris for Holi are made in the factories of Guangzhou...
BTW, the ecosystem of colours, pichkaris, etc. around Holi could be a possible candidate for a 'flash brand'.
So, flash meets a flat world:-)

3. My father, a late adopter of new technology(not because he was slow, but because technology was slow when he was younger) but a 'fast-and-furious' learner sent this 'Holi Game' though SantaBanta.com:-) And Neo had the best of the physical Holi and a taste of the digital-Holi.
End of day best scores...Baba(255), Neo 310 and me(410):-)


4. Many of us are life-caching our experiences with a vengeance. This post, the e-mail I just sent to my parents are part of my digital auto-biography...Even 5 years back, it would have been beyond my radar or reach!!
Hope all of you had a great time...

The Future is Copyright:-)

Every time I have spring-cleaned my eclectic cartons of 'sundry collectibles/ scraps/ physical thot blurbs from the past, I have always discovered real gems...

Must hone it into a planning tool soon...LOL

What you see is a BPL corporate print ad made by Rediffusion DY&R from the Jan 2000 issue of the magazine The Week!

The copy reads...
Chillers of the Future!
Will your refrigerator converse and calculate calories?
Will it be made of titanium, or kryptonite?
Will it freeze air into food?
Only one thing's for sure...it will be BPL
The future is copyright BPL!

With the benefit of hind-sight and the continued stress of the myriad problems that have plagued BPL, brand BPL has been the only unsurety:-)
This print campaign was a visible one(of its time). In fact the BPL - Believe in Yourselfcampaign with Amitabh was perhaps ver1.0 of the 'India Shining/ India Poised story!

Is it available online? Possible to get that campaign? Meraj? Your agency...

How T-Shaped Are You?

I discovered Paul Isakson's blog today...He is a planner at a small agency in Denver, US. A click at his blog-roll led me to Giles(Rhys Jones)'s blog who happens to be a director at Ogilvy London! Giles has this very interesting blog on interactive marketing trends, a subject that I am very keen to explore and have 0.5 people around me to talk to!!

That's the thing I like the most about the blogosphere. I can escape the tyranny of 'proximity'. I can operate like a department of one. More about it sometime next week...

Now Giles has this interesting post on Mr.T-shaped People! A small search on wordspy.com led me to this ...

"T-shaped" communications planners, with a background in media, have a deep understanding of media, and a broad understanding of the other disciplines within the marketing spectrum. They might not have a deep understanding of the minutiae of direct marketing, but they would broadly understand the repercussions of its inclusion in a through-the-line campaign.

To continue the alphabetical analogy, if the ideal communications planner is "T-shaped", then a classic media agency employee is "I-shaped" — with a deep understanding of their discipline, but not necessarily of any other — and a classic client-side employee "hyphen-shaped", their role requiring a broad understanding of many disciplines rather than specific knowledge of one.

"The worry is that media agencies are trying to do a "T" job with "I" people." - Angus Bannerman, in Marketing Week, October 2, 2003

The earliest citation on T-shaped people is by David Guest in "The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing," (The Independent (London), September 17, 1991)
*This type of rounded personality is also sought in other branches of science which prize individuals known as T-shaped People. These are a variation on Renaissance Man, equally comfortable with information systems, modern management techniques with an unusual set of interests."

After the unbundling of media in India and elsewhere, I suspect, the creative and media agency systems have promoted the I-shaped guys...Many of the planners of the last decade I suspect are also more 'I' than 'T'!

At least that's my experience being a planner in a small agency! And now how do I cross my 'I' every day?:-) Any suggestions? Giles?

Flash Brands. Flash Thoughts

Like most of us, I have been privy to the out-of-work Bollywood actor Shilpi Shetty's bizarre turn-around in fortunes through the British reality show Big Brother! It's been a 100m sprint towards famedom for Shilpa...

From 'nowhere' to 'everywhere'
From relative joblessness to a flood of Bollywood offers(a report said 74!!)
From a 2nd rung Bollywood star to an 'overnight diva'
From an ill-dressed actor to an icon of 'fusion clothing'
From a 'dumb bimbette' to an 'Indian Icon'(of course debatable and with large dollops of media frenzy!)

Over the last 12 months, I have viewed few such Flash Brands, built solely by media who rise to prominence and share of mind and then fade away. But while they last they are a brand no less!

Some other flash brands( if I can say so) would be 'Prince'(the Haryana boy who fell in a hole and shot to national recognition, Budhia, the Orissa marathon kid who generated TRPs for close to a month for all the Indian news channels and of course Laxmi Niwas Mittal...

Unlike Shilpa, of course, Prince and Budhia did not generate commercial opportunities(at least I am not aware of). Was wondering if there could be a science/ art of the flash brand. In our attention-deficit world, can we create them...Or do flash brands happen only by chance?

I think flash brands might have the following traits...
1. They have a strong topical core. In the case of Shilpa it was 'Resurgent Indian Pride'. More about it here. Budhia = Super Kid Archetype...

2. Built by PR and media reportage and not by advertising.

3. Largely unpredictable. But the flash-timing has to be right. The media must be relatively free to build stories and feed the public. So. flash brands are unlikely to be created in the week preceding KBC's launch or the Union Budget week:-)

4. Indian Flash brands(Shilpa, Budhia, Prince, LN Mittal...) in the recent past have mostly been human. As opposed to the Western/ Japanese ones - Harry Potter(a fictional character), Rubiks Cube, Pokemon, Sudoku!!

5. Flash brands generally follow a story, a quick trajectory of facts, fiction and spice...They ride on a wave of media frenzy and 360 merchandise(Harry Potter, Sudoku)

6. While the origin of a flash brand might be serendipitous, it needs sustained interest by media to keep it going through its relatively short shelf-life...


7. Flash brands might happen with greater frequency today. In the digital age, with the democratisation of technology tools and creative expression, if a flash brand core has an appeal, it encourages an active participation from the masses rather than a passive, push-only communication strategy of most conventional brands...

Would love to hear of more examples, counter-views, other flash brand traits...

Shubh Vivaah : Media Planning & Account Planning

Today's Brand Equity carries an article by Ravi Balakrishnan on CCP(Consumer Context Planning) which looks like an attempted arranged marriage between Media Planning and Account Planning.

Media unbundling happened over the last decade in India. As somebody who has worked in the pre and post bundling era, I feel after the initial efficiencies of scale and cost benefits, the unbundling has pinched us all.

- The creative agency/ people lacks the much needed media perspective!

- The media agency has over the years often exhibited a trading house behaviour. The unit of creativity is traded like a commodity. Of course in the recent past, things are taking a positive turn...

- The clients have saved big money in the short run but now are gasping for a better engagement model.

Ravi Kiran(can't trace his blog), the diminutive but utterly dynamic CEO of Starcom South Asia elaborated on CCP:

1. An obsessive focus on rarely asked questions(by whom:-)

2. Partnering with academia in the fields of social sciences, psychology and anthropology.

3. Consumer panels which track not just brand choice, but also give insights into nascent trends.

4. 'Living with People' - an ethnographic study that has the CCP team spend time in people's home...being an unobtrusive observer of behaviour...

5. CCP aims to make the different disciplines work in a more seamless manner.
and the boldest of them all 6. CCP plans to work with parts of the creative industry that are more open to collaborations - be it in editorial content and programming!

Thanks Ravi, we need more guys like you...How about writing a post on this subject on your blog!