25 Years of a Cult Classic

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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!!'

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!!

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mudra got 2 Cannes Bronze for this radio spot for Cycle Agarbatti! Really cute and simple stuff!

Cannes Lions 2008 : Envy, Jealousy, Humility

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

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

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

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:-)

CEAT : Born Tough. Died Unceremoniously

It's the season of random logo changes(or so I feel). First Shoppers Stop, then Godrej, then agencyfaqs and of course CEAT. And all of them have been big disappointments!!

CEAT has been the most beguiling, bewildering of all the logo changes. Ray & Keshawan have produced another characterless dud. My favourite Rhino has been killed!!

Of course the company cites some insipid research where consumers have said the logo is old and the rhino slothful. Alas the consumers were projecting their impressions of the company on the logo!

Anyways, once again Change is for the worse, Change is bloody expensive(apparently CEAT is burning 10 crores on the Ogilvy made ad campaign and Change is confusing as hell...

The Rhino and Born Tough were iconic emblems of brand CEAT. They could have been easily contemporised...

These days many clients brief design agencies independently on corporate brand changes without keeping the ad agency in the loop. The end result is often a disconnected change bereft of the brand history and context!!

You can read Harish B's related post on the subject here...

Here Comes Clickstreamers

Dentsu Communications, the Indian subsidiary of Japanese advertising giant Denstu has formed a joint venture with Mumbai-based digital advertising firm Connecturf. Read the story on DNA here

- According to Dentsu, about 46 million Indians were using the internet in September 2007, a jump of nearly 43% from a year earlier. It expects revenue from internet advertising in India to rise by over 3.5 times from current levels to more than $200 million in 2012.

- Rather than in-house development of talent for digital advertising, ad majors have ramped up expertise in this domain either through organic growth or alliances. For example, in 2007, advertising major WPP acquired Delhi-based agency Qasar Media and in March this year, Lintas and Pinstorm entered into a pay-for-performance alliance.

- I agree with Sandeep Goyal when he says - "A specialist’s expertise in the domain was essential. “These skills cannot be built in-house and it makes better sense to align with the best,”

Digital winds are blowing inside Indian agencies now:-)

Cricketainment : T20 Ishtyle

Reams have already been written on the T20 and its effects, implications and the aftermath...

Just thot shud do some tukbandi to add to the noise/ fun:-)

Yahaan cricket hai kum, entertainment hai plenty
Welcome to the BRAND new world of twenty twenty.

Alag alag team mein saare favourite star
Kisko cheer karen, kiska karun intezaar?

Ekta Kapoor ko laga hai gehra jhatka
Finally KSBKBT ka TRP hai atka!!

Dada aur SRK har din naya episode dikhayenge
T20 malik ab dressing room mein bhi jaayenge!

Bechara Charu Sharma, ho gaya raato-raat sack
Mallaya Saheb ka kehna - nahin tha business ka usko knack!

Sony ki dabi kismet, bahut din baad jaagi
10 sec ke 10 lakh, Sony ne ab maangi!!

T20 ka mausam itna ho gaya hai cool
Ki inflation ki maar bhi log gaye hain bhool!!

Cricket, entertainment, marketing ka yeh hai naya 'achaar'(pickle)
Pata nahin agle mahine se hum kya karenge yaar:-)

Ferment, Huddle and BarNone

When I took up my current job some two month back, one of the stuff that really excited me was the potential to integrate the 5 odd SBUs - in digital, OOH, data driven marketing, health & lifestyle and events & promotions...

The task needless to say is tough as hell but that's also the exciting part.

One of the things that I have been trying to do with the help of colleagues is to start conversation hubs within the SBUs.

The first modest gathering of three was BarNone - the mid-to-senior team conversations(actually to be honest still tweaking with the brand name). BarNone was held at Red Box in Bandra with Andee and Leroy as founder members:-) Happened in 3rd wk of Apr.

The next was for the young blood in the system. Planners and trainees and passionate crowd sourced talent. The first Huddle happened last Sunday - May 18th at Carter Road CCD.

In the words of my planner Sonal - "In between sipping scary looking blue slushes, some really cool initiatives were discussed. With conversations about music, virals, movies… and an impromptu performance by a guitarist member of The Huddle, the first meet was just like huddles should be – inspiring and fun."

And the last one - Ferment is going to happen with the SBU heads in June...

Our TQ(twtr quotient)/ conversation quotient is getting higher every month:-)

Why People Love Twtr

Just stumbled upon this video on why people love twitter...At 6m19s, its a bit long though...

The day just whizzed pass!!!

Blabnote : The World's 1st Vocal Social Network

Conversations, social media, ferments within my company and social experiments have taken/ are taking quite a lot of my time. But am enjoying this social school.

Pawar - the Mican trainee who is doing a project on digital media sent a link for blab-note - the voice-only social network a while back! Check it out here...

Blabnote, a British start up that is currently in private beta, has created what may be the world’s first “vocal social network.”

The product is far from perfect but it's the first step towards a voice-enabled-interaction future...The keyboard must now have a clear expiry date:-)

Twitter. Thwitter. Reflection Time

A variation on twitter. Thwitter will ask one question - what are you thinking now?. You gotta answer in no more than 140 characters.

I guess there is a tremendous need for a thwitter in our creative/ knowledge economy.

1. Between two blog posts I have 10 other ideas which I fritter away...Now I will thwitter away:-)

2. Thwitter might force us to step back and reflect more often than merely do stuff...I have to remind myself to think hard, to step back and thwitter on any given day!

3. Maybe the underlying search-and-match software can help put me in touch with all the people who are thwittering on the same topic at the same time...

4. One can look at the thread of weekly/ monthly thwitters and see what one's mind was upto at the thweet level...

5. Maybe I will use less post-its with thwitter by-my-side...

Any thwitters on thwitter:-)

The Anaesthesia of Unconcern - 2

Guys, I managed to get in touch with the father of the little boy in coma, Mohammed Manzar, a labourer. Just called him on his cell: 9324371628.

The boy, Mohd. Javed is currently in Hinduja Hospital, bed no. 37 on the 7th floor. He is responding a little. But perhaps will take months before he recovers completely.

In case you want to help him, please call his father. I just did a while back!

Mumbai owes it to this innocent victim of the petty politics of hate!

Jara Sochiye Aur Channel Badalye

Zee News changed its logo and the baseline few minutes back. The brand is close to my heart coz I co-created the last baseline - 'Haqeeqat Jaisi Khabar Waisi' along with the Leo Burnett creative Kosty in 2003 or so...

Few months back I had also pitched for the business from Bates, although I don't think it was my contribution that won the business:-)

The re-launched logo has a black back-ground instead of red. Big deal!!The launch TVC looks tired and has a sense of deja vu. Too many brands have done similar executions...

The hyperbole is still there. The programme - Badi Khabar at 10pm was sensational but disturbing for family viewing!!

Going back to my lo-fat diet of Indian media!! Soch liya...

The Anaesthesia of Unconcern

Before the story gets buried in the debris of a hectic life, I wanted to do something about it.

Mohd. Javed, a 7 year boy was stoned while in a train to Bihar by our reality politician - Raj Thackeray's misguided goons. Because this boy is poor, a Muslim and from Bihar, there will be no more media mentions of him. Read the story on e-TOI here.

No candle marches. No NDTV sponsored sms frenzy. No 'Prince-styled-boy-in-a-ditch' drama!

A life might be lost while Mumbai police watches Raj tapes and gleefully finds nothing wrong!

A week later, there will be another rabble-rousing rally targetting north Indians.
The anaesthesia of unconcern dulls us all.

Drop in STD rates, liquor at 5-star hotels to be cheaper and sundry such stories jostle for our attention and Mohd. Javed is already forgotten by the city!!

Have mailed Mateen.Hafeez@timesgroup.com(the journo covering the story) to get the boy's contacts. He needs about 50K. Maybe we all can help him! Although Raj Thackeray should foot the hospital bill for Javed if he is a saccha Manoos(Marathi or otherwise).

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?

Cuteness Can Kill

Hey guys, this cute Vodaphone Pug ad, which comes after every over during the IPL matches is now killing me with its repetitiveness!

Or am I the only one? Vodaphone and Ogilvy have yet again cracked a cute script and gone back to the Hutch days.

But somebody restrain their media spends. I loved it. My wife loved it. My son adores it. The bai, dhobi, driver all of them love it. Now chill guys and pull back some monies for different stuff.

Overdose of anything is bad for health/ brand health/ viewer sanity!!!
Any more dosage, and a cute ad will turn pug-noxious( or at least pug-rritation)...LOL

Twitter Frees

Read this story few days back about James Buck, the US student who got out of the Egyptian prison after his solitary tweet activated his strong US network! Read the story here...

I had never really understood the social utility of twitter. And therefore had stayed away from what I felt was a micro-blogging wasteful effort!

But this incident and a few others have finally made me realise that twitter is awesomely useful.

1. It's like slicing and opening up my brain to the world. And similarly sharing the thoughts of hundreds of people...

2. Twitter is still an attention-killer but the social utility over-rides all negatives I feel.

3. Twitter isn't the wisdom of any crowd; it can be the wisdom of a carefully-selected crowd. This and other nice thoughts on why twitter isn't such a waste of time by Sheila Scarborough here.

Late in the day but I am getting it:-)

The Pie of Obsession

So much of the news print is wasted on such predictable stuff! It sucks!

Thank God it's Friday...Off to Karjat tomorrow morning:-)

Think Something New

Shoppers Stop has changed it's logo under a campaign called 'Start Something New'. It has a heard-it-somewhere-before ringtone. I think thoughts like - Start Something New work better in action than in image. So will reserve judgement till the next store visit.

I find the new Ray & Keshavan logo quite bland and sans character...In fact I like the older logo. Maybe they should have asked all their customers before changing the logo. And the gold/ platinum card customers could have had veto rights...LOL

You can read the story at afaqs here...

Monday + Meraj + Mission + Marketing

As I opened my inbox, there was yet another of those weekly mails that Meraj sends me. Some link to his post or some article on NYT. This time it was the story of James Harley - the marketing evangelist at struggling Ford who was a star at Toyota.

Ford - the brand is special to me as well. I started my career servicing it in Chennai. I was the happy owner of an Ikon till last April! And among the brand logos that I admire, I love the blue oval:-)

You can read the entire story here...

It's the best piece of copy/ the best story I read in a long time. Maybe it's good PR. Maybe, its well crafted corporate spiel. But it is still a story of a man's courage, values, belief, rooting for a cause in the market-place.

And what a coincidence Meraj, just last night I was reading about James efforts and the website Ford BoldMoves...

Marketing needn't be full of B.S or hype or all marketers needed be liars(as Seth Godin insists). Marketing and communication can be intense and meaningful. And evangelised like James Farley is doing for Ford. The new CEO could actually be the CMO!!

The story also reminds me of Robyn Putter( the creative head of WPP) exhorting us all at the Bates Cambodia conference last year of putting our energies behind aBig Ideal and not just about a Big Idea!

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!

MySpace is Full. What About Yours?

So, finally MySpace sets up shop in India. Read the story at DNA here,!

Methinks, they are a bit too late. Orkut and Facebook have the first mover advantage. Mahesh of Pinstorm had this to say...

- MySpace in India has to establish itself in a territory where Orkut is the king with over 8 million users —that’s about one-third of all Indian youth online — a greater share than even Star Plus has of this demographic on TV.

- Too many of us are on too many networks — and it’s too much incremental trouble to get on to another network for very little incremental benefit.

Agree with you on that one Mahesh!

- No Indian social network has yet gained any significant advertiser confidence. Of the Rs 600 crore spent online in India last year that Pinstorm tracks, barely 1-2% went to social networks.

Well on this one, I feel Indian media mostly doesn't understand social networks.
To understand it, you got to do/be social not just understand/ know social and behave like big media/ big company!! We are still a heavily hierarchical company-media-network.

With my limited exposure, I find that media(print and magazine)in the West are trying hard to integrate the 2-way social aspect into their medium but in India it's largely lip-service or a blind eye.

Generally speaking, the Indian mediascape and clients are sitting at the periphery of social media, lusting at ways and means to monetise social media w/o realising what it is.

Thoughts like conversation, engagement, influence, participation fade in the back-drop of shouts of monetising the eyeballs, ROI and advertising potential and reach of the social media...

Coming back to MySpace - well myspace is full. Am happy with LinkedIn and Facebook!! But as a platform for musical bands, I think MySpace has a great positioning! One more grand threat to music companies!!

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.

Sunday Snapshot

Skipped the morning treadmill, lazed around longer...The Sunday Indian Express is getting better. If only they cud make their weekday paper a little more lively, would once again switch to IE as my first newspaper.

Read the story on Mangesh Hadawale - the marathi film-maker, whose debut film Tingya is the toast of the festival circuit and headed for Cannes this summer. For a farmer’s son and a one-man theatre troupe—this is just the beginning. Check the full story here.

Another good read was the 'Beautiful world of the back-bencher' by Manu Joseph in the Sunday TOI.

Caught up with Shekhar Kapur's interview on the Director's Cut on Zoom TV. Kabir Bedi is atrocious as a chat show host!! Shekhar as always was brilliant. Managed to capture a few stray thots...

- "Once the camera rolls, there is no difference between Hollywood and Bollywood for me as a director. Getting to that point is different".

- "I resent the idea of the studio system which is a collective over-seeing of what essentially is a highly individualistic style of creativity!"

- "I am not a professional film-maker. I would like to call myself a professional NOTHING. Okay a professional explorer!"

- "At 24, I took a decision to drop career from my life".

- "New media bahut democratic media hai. What it means is somebody from Dharavi with an idea and a cheap handycam can get to show-case his/ her film at Cannes over the established movie icons!"

Perhaps he gets new media better than most people in our business...

Took Neo to the Imax dome for a lovely film on Dolphins. Father son competed on the Pepsi and Popcorn:-)

The Grandest Brief : Make India's Children Creative & Innovative

Read this piece on the National Innovation Foundation's efforts to ensure that the creativity within the child prospers with time and not vanishes! Read the article on www.livemint.com here!

Main pointers from the article:

- The initiative is called Ignite '08 NIF wants to instill confidence in children and help them grow as citizens who do not live with unsolved problems, but find their own unique solutions to the problems.

- Anil Gupta, executive vice-chairperson of the National Innovation Foundation and a professor at IIM, Ahmedabad speaks of the four segments of the Ignite '08 campaign.

- The first being creative and innovative solutions developed by the children. Every student would be motivated to try and develop original solutions to various problems around them during the summer vacation.

They can also submit ideas if they have not been able to convert them into physical projects. The NIF will give financial and mentoring support to complete the projects.

- The second segment consists of children identifying the problems and inefficiencies in everyday life. For instance, the cooking gas gets exhausted without any advance warning. Why couldn’t there be an indicator telling in advance how long the gas will last? They will submit these problems with possible solutions.

- The third segment is the rich traditional knowledge of India related to health, child care, women’s problems, clothes, cosmetics, haircare, construction, food processing, etc. There is an erosion in new generation’s knowledge in these areas because of lack of connectivity between grandparents and grandchildren. We will encourage children to document such knowledge.

- Finally, it’s not enough to be creative. We have to learn to appreciate others’ creativity and innovativeness. Students have to scout for the innovations and outstanding attempts to solve problems, even if unsuccessful, in the neighbourhood. It does not matter whether the innovator is educated or a school dropout.

What a laudable grand effort by the government and NIF!! Check out the nif web-site here...

Goafest - Bajate Raho!!

There was a huge ruckus created in the Indian advertisingscape over an article by afaqs Sreekant Khandekar on wednesday. Read the 'Rant Against Scam' article here. You may want to read my last year's post on Goafest here...

Had scrbbled some lines on the flight back from Goa...Sreekant's rant inspired me to complete the 'tukbandi'. Here it is!!

Goafest - Bajate Raho

Teen hazaar se jyada delegate, pachason agency
Last year se jyada thi excitement ki frequency

Mausam tha great, arrangement super-fine,
Daaru was flowing, one only missed good wine!

Zoom party thi hot, so was the rain dance
Youngistaan mein 40+ bhi le rahe the chance!

Hoodi baba, Balki ka is baar bhi tha kehna
Goafest se humme door hi hai rehna!

Joshiji ka convincing nahin tha bahana
Jhooth bolne ka ab nahi raha zamana!

Entry nahin thi to scam hi kartey
Sab ne jam ke kiya, aap kyun the dartey!

Last year ka scam king Rediffusion raha peechey
Lagta hai midland book-store ne budget kiya neeche!

Is baar Burnett ne jeeta scam king ka khitaab
Lintas ke client ki chura li poori kitaab!

Jury ne mil kar Ogilvy ki kheechi taang
Pandeyji ne 3rd umpire se ki appeal ki maang!

Wahi puraane chehre, mostly puraani sound byte
Logo ko chhota karo, reduce font ki height!

Goafest hoga har baar goa mein, CM ne diya vaada
Lagta hai chadhai thi do peg jara jyada!

Ek aur beeta saal, ek aur Goafest
Mind mat karna doston, this was half in jest:-)

(P.S. The picture you see on top is that of Goafest 2007 and not 2008.)

Power of Sub-titles

I had to write about this.

Girirajsingh Natubha studied up to Class 2 in Jamnagar. All his life he struggled to read simple words. A few years ago, however, he found to his surprise that he had begun to read.

It happened quite amazingly after he began watching Chitrageet, a Gujarati television programme of film songs, which had subtitles at the bottom of the screen.

Since he knew many of the songs, he could anticipate the next word. When it appeared he would read it unconsciously and sing along, karaoke style. Soon he found he was able to recognise words in the bazaar and before long he was reading headlines in the newspaper.

A brainchild of Dr Brij Kothari, a social entrepreneur and an IIM Ahmedabad professor(now at Cornell), 'Same Language Subtitling' is a simple but powerful idea which is proven to improve literacy among adults and children.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Dr. Kothari won the $250,000 global innovation prize from the World Bank, which he has used to pay for the cost of subtitling.

For the past five years, every Sunday morning, 15 crore persons have watched Chitrahaar and Rangoli with subtitles. A Nielsen-ORG study, conducted in 2002 and 2007 to assess the impact of subtitling, showed that only 25% school children could read a simple paragraph in Hindi after five years of schooling.

However, this jumped to 56% if they were also exposed to subtitling for 30 minutes a week on Rangoli. Equally dramatic results were found among adults.

Is there a way to micro-fund Dr. Kothari and his efforts. And not just in money. Imagine, all the Internet connected people, the active user base of 20mn volunteered to sub-title the TV content for a literacy movement in India!
Far better than mere burning candles to support causes!

Could Infosys, Wipro, or some company volunteer their computing capacity to help in this endeavour. What better way if some of us can help all of us!

Dr. Kothari gets the Grand Prix for his big idea!! How do we help such social entrepreneurs guys?

Spoof-istaan Meri Jaan

Finally a Sprite spoof on the stupid Pepsi TVC. Youngistan shud now be offically buried...LOL

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.

Goafest - Day Zero

For me and a bunch of 'newly acquired' colleagues, day zero(from late afternoon)was largely about beer, singing SD Burman songs and a not-so-bad Dainik Bhaskar party at Blueberrys...

The coming together of Abbys and the Goafest is a great beginning. Now if we have managed to lower the scam quotient of the awards, it wud be sone pe suhaga! But maybe I said it too early and maybe I am too naive in believing a change will happen soon.

Check out the conclave speaker notes if you haven't- 1. Agencies need to be active partners in brand building!

and 2. Agencies Not Bringing Value to the Table Why do we(ad agencies) berate ourselves so much!!!

Looking forward to an early morning splash in the pool:-)

Agency Planners vs Brand Consultants

Some days back, a planner friend mailed me this old post by Richard Huntington on agencies vs brand consultancies. You can read it here...

Got me thinking. My two pence on this issue.

I agree with Richard and my friend that agency planners short-change themselves. Rather agencies short change their planners. And there are a whole host of reasons for the short-change!

1. In life we don't get what we deserve. We get what we negotiate. And the agencies(many of us) are lousy negotiators when it comes to pricing our thinking and solutions.

Agency thinking is like web 2.0 services. Mostly for FREE!! LOL

Historically, the price tag on planner thinking has been Rs.0!!! And that explains why we are often not taken that seriously.

2. Specialists vs Generalists. The specialists almost always get taken more seriously and paid better - be it doctors, engineers or lawyers. Our biggest asset actually works against us. Because we give a breadth of solutions to an ever bigger array of communication/ business problems at an ever faster rate, planners become extreme generalists. And therefore never paid that much or taken that seriously.

3. Process over Solution. Many agencies have s simplistic triangle model for a brand solution. Little rigour, little research( for lack of time or money or both). So, even though our solutions may actually work better, and we may be far faster, we get paid lesser.

Money for process, solutions for free:-)

4. Analysis vs Creativity. Historically, the clients and our society has paid greater emphasis on analysis. Analytical skills were/ are still sought after. Creativity was restricted to smaller circles! Where we lose out to the brand consultants is that we are perceived less analytical and more creative in our approach than them. Therefore smaller fee cheques!

5. Investments vs Milking. The little that I know of brand consultants, they invest their monies in their tools, in learning upgrades, in building case studies. Here again, agencies(most) are far less committed. They are far more engaged in juicing the few good planners they have than in investing in the department. In the knowledge economy, learning is a capital investment.

and finally 6. Unbundle. Agency planners can get paid more if we unbundle ourselves from the agency creatives. Well, the danger is that we may end up being more brand consultants than planners but if we can manage the decoupling without losing our creative edge, I think we can up our thinking fees!!

Maybe this topic needs a re-visit sometime soon!