Centerfresh and the Viral Factory

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...

Dil Peechha Karta Hai Dil Ka....

Watch the video here!
Tere ishq mein apni manzil ka...thus goes the new viral video from SimplyMarry.com! Watch it here on FireandIce.co.in

Simple, clean, hummable track with cute animation - dil karta hai forward karene ka... Ab yeh 'Youngistaan Hai Meri Jaan!'

The Future of Entertainment

Just read my blog friend Neil Perkins's detailed post on the 'Future of Entertainment. Since many of the trends 2008 pieces in the Indian media-sphere have been quite vapid and vacuous, catching up on this post was quite a relief...

Neil, allow me to quote from your post and salt & pepper it with my India-centric thots.

1. Entertainment is becoming more fluid and flexible, interactive and active, individually defined, networked, varied in time, location and place...

2. Growing affluence underpins higher expectations. Even children have increasingly sophisticated demands. They are not confined by traditional constructs of consumption!

Just this morning, my 4 yr old son, Neo asked his Nani for a 'real mobile'. He was specific & assertive - 'Khilona nahin chahiye. Baat karna hai'!! Our own expectations from customer service, vacations, lifestyle, fashion & technology brands have grown exponentially and continue to do so...

We are all on a hedonistic consumer treadmill. We need better experiences to give us the same or less kick!

3. There is a powerful role for the shared collective experience (seen currently in the growth in live music, and strong demand for sports viewing).

This is one area where we cud spend some time in 2008. Brand conversations, activities and planned actions largely happen with a one-to-one marketer mind-set.

4. Networks of communication are already ubiquitous but our understanding of their full potential and operation is still pubescent. But huge potential exists beyond the blogging phenomenon and current popular networking sites for evolving forms of creativity and expression.

Ad agencies will take a while understanding the potential of community communication here in India. My guess is that media agencies, digital out-fits and new web based entrepreneurial companies, small and mid size will show the path. Then maybe the large networks will wake up and shake up!

5. A growing proportion of the population is and will be consistently multitasking. According to this research, people are currently fitting in more than 7.2 hours of additional activities into the average day!!

- How do I calculate how many more hours did I pack in my day in 2007??
- So do we do MGFs(Multi Tasking Group Discussions) now to elicit new behavioural patterns?
- And how do we measure attentive eye-balls!:-)
- How does it impact the 30 sec commercial, or the viral video.
- Do we need a new guy, say called the Media Landscapist to do the thinking around this subject...

6. The ‘new meaning of luxury’ is about time oases and getting away from it all. And reinforces the long term demand for the ‘bring it on’ realm of media-delivered entertainment on TV and magazines, as well as creating interesting links to the ‘cult of the home’ with home as primary site for downtime, in our busy, choice-overloaded daily lives...

- Hey, this trend I had predicted in 2002-03( pre blogging days). Had written a piece called the 'Division Economy' back then. Maybe it was ahead of its time. LOL
- Will this new time oasis be age dependent?
- Is it a big enough business to leave my planner job and jump into? LOL

Thanks Neil for getting me thinking as always and Happy New Year buddy!

Evolution of our Business

It is heartening to see Dove "Evolution" - Ogilvy, Toronto's viral-video-turned-commercial that re-creates the multi-step process of turning an average beauty into a billboard-worthy babe win the film Grand Prix at Cannes yesterday...It's unarguably a great idea, greatly executed!!

Apparently the TVC first entered in the viral video category...but then the jury took a call and shifted it to the film category as they felt real strong about the idea!

Was reading the write-up on adage.com a while ago. Picked up these...

1. The spot also earned the Cyber Grand Prix earlier this week.

2. "We moved it from one category to another [corporate image] because we felt that strongly about it", said Bob Scarpelli, film jury Chairman.

3. Redefine the categoryScarpelli also suggested that awarding Dove the top honor could possibly lay down the groundwork for redefinition of the film category itself.

"It's interesting that this particular piece of film actually started out as a viral video on the internet," he said.

"It didn't sway the jury one way or the other, but we thought it is indicative of the way our industry is changing. Someday viral films, mobile phone films, should be in this category, because it's not the television category, it's the film category. Maybe that would be more reflective of reality today and in the future."

I feel Evolution was the right choice. Would have been disappointed if Sony Paint had clinched it. Feel 'Paint'is a bold re-enactment of the 'Balls' film...Great craft but somewhat rehashed idea.

Lets hope to see more viral and mobile films here in India as well where at the moment a very substantial part of our creative fraternity is still obsessed with big banner films where the definition of better = more expensive films!

Inch by inch our business is evolving towards a mash of multiple platforms, media neutral, un-silo creative solutions...And it's coming faster than we anticipated.

Next step in Evolution. Revolution:-)