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...

Bhagwan Aaye Bluetooth Se

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

Visual Thinking

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'...

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!

C.I.D - Co-creation, Integration and Digital

Hey guys, have just moved to Mudra Marketing Services. Will be handling strategic thinking for their digital agency - Tribal DDB, the OOH group called Prime Group, the promotions and events company Kidstuff, Mudra Health and Lifestyle and the DM agency Rapp Collins!

It's gong to be somewhat different. Hopefully more co-creation, more integration, and more digital(C.I.D)!!

And hopefully as a planner an equal daily dose of action shoes and thinking hats:-)

Indiadrant will have a more digital flavour to its raves and rants in the next few months...

Digital Media - Banyan Tree

The world's biggest agency groups are battling to expand their presence in Asia's fast-growing digital industry. After a series of big-money deals and big-name hirings, who is leading the pack?

Check out the complete story on DigitalMedia website here...

Digital is Unevenly Distributed...

On Monday, Jan 21st, Tribal DDB Worldwide became the first Digital Shop/ agency/ global digital brain to Win the Ad Age Global Agency Network of the Year!!

Big Congrats to them!!

This marks the first time in history that a digital company has won this honour!

You can check the full story here

Maybe, things will change from a 30sec obsession to more digital solutions in India as well...

Although, have you ever heard a Balki, Piyush, Pops, Chax, Aggie, etc. talk about the internet, new media, digital, UGC...I haven't! LOL

Prasoon might be an exception. He did talk about Second Life in a ET/ DNA article last year...

The digital lead is already being taken by the likes of Tribal DDB, Webchutney, PC Webwise, Pinstorm, Quasar, Creative Avenues, etc.

Later WPP, IPG and Omnicom companies will buy them at fat sums:-)( Quasar was lapped up by WPP Digital a short while ago)

At the moment, digital is unevenly distributed - the thinking, the creatives, the planners, the urgency, the talent and the CEO priority...