On Being Creative 1

I have been struggling to write this first post of the year. Planners block in week one is not a good sign:-)

But I wanted to write about something happy, hopeful but most of all on the subject of being creative!

Luckily for me I stumbled upon Hugh MacLeod's(of the gaping void blog fame)this very old post(by life-on-the-web-standards).

Hugh is an ex agency copy-writer turned marketing strategist. But he is most famous for his cartoon-on-business-cards-concept(am a newly converted fan of his).

You can read the original post - 'How to be Creative'here

Here's my selection from the original spiked a little by my personal experience...

1.Ignore Everybody
And that includes EVERYBODY. Of course not all of them together and not all of them all the time!! LOL

Your spouse. Your parents. Your boss. The once-upon-a-time-mentor. The good-friend-who-always-thinks-good-of-you. The featured-in-the-Brand-Equity-Power List CEO type...

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.

2. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in nursery.

The silo system puts all sorts of department labels to shut you up. But never lose your voice. Don't under-rate your inherent creativity. Write with your heart about the brand. Think taglines while you think strategy or run errands. Better the body copy of the ad if you can. Romance your brand in words slapped on gettyimages!

Think media neutral solutions. Think fearlessly. Talk about them. e-mail them to other people. Blog about them.

As a planner I have written print ads for clients, read out TV scripts at new business pitches often throwing the CD in a fit of shock, have written 360 brand narratives in new business and more over the year.

It's bloody tough & frustrating at times. But it's doable. And there's always a way for the creative mind:-) Like they will call a planner ad a brand print and other such non-sense! But stay on course. Enjoy the game!

Listen to the little voice(of creativity inside you) or it will die... taking a big chunk of you along with it.

Life has a little box of crayons for all of us. We didn't fear them in nursery, why fear them now?

3. Keep your day job.
THE SEX & CASH THEORY: "The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended."

For me this blog is SEX, enduring endless-pointless-meetings CASH.
Leading projects like 'Future of Mobility' SEX, doing 'daak bangla' research CASH
Thinking about planning and creativity as part of my day job is SEX, living 3 days a week in Delhi CASH:-)and Jet miles LOL

4. Hang out with a Changing World
Some people are hip to it, others are not. If you want to be able to afford groceries in 5 years, I'd recommend listening closely to the former and avoiding the latter.

That means hanging out more with the really creative people not labels and visiting cards, the freaks, the real visionaries, than you're already doing.

Thinking more about what their needs are, and responding accordingly.

It doesn't matter what industry we're talking about- architecture, advertising, petrochemicals, journalism- they're around, they're easy enough to find if you make the effort, if you've got something worthwhile to offer in return.

Avoid the dullards; avoid the folk who play it safe. They can't help you any more. Their stability model no longer offers that much stability. They are extinct, they are extinction.

In the past year and a half, it's the conversations with people
outside my department
outside my company,
outside advertising,
outside India,
outside my comfort zone,
outside of what I know that have been really insightful....

The insiders haven't had much to offer:-)

5. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

6. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

7.The best way to get approval is not to need it.

In 2008 and beyond, we will have to get used to a world that will gradually not look like the world in which we have worked till now.

The agencies, our jobs, the power-equations, the concept of what's creative, the supremacy and primacy of 30sec commercials, creativity in the digital domain will require all of us to be more creative in whatever we do...

Related posts on the subject of creativity- The New Creative, Where's the Glue Around Here?, Open Source Creativity

Carnatic Music & Business Creativity

Odd combination but this is precisely what the workshop was all about! As with many such lateral diversions from my routine planner life, this workshop participation too was triggered by my friend Ram!

Organised by R. Sridhar( an Ogilvy veteran of 25 years and now an Innovation coach who runs IDEAS - RS), Bombay Jayshree(amongst the most sought after Carnatic musician and concert artistes) and T M Krishna(one of the leading figures of Carnatic music - a performer, teacher, composer, researcher)

When it comes to workshops in general. I am quite a cynic...I think they are largely corporate 'tamasha' and not much! But more about that in some other post...This one was different.

Between TMK and BJ, they played great soulful music. Even though I am a cipher when it comes to classical music, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The loose agenda was to learn from the lives of 7 great Carnatic Music maestros - Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar - who introduced the current day crisper concert format!!

TN Rajarathnam Pillai - who fought to give the nagaswaram it's rightful place

Semmangudi Srinavasa Iyer - who influenced not only Carnatic music but also its organisation and administration.

GN Balasubramaniam - whose style and bani generated a new kind of audience fervour.

Palghat Mani Iyer - the first and last word in percussion

MS Subbulakshmi - who gained Carnatic music a place within India and in the International arena!

and TR Mahalingam - the maverick and the genius who gave a completely new dimension to the flute!

What I loved most about this workshop was the music and the erudite articulation of TM Krishna. Among the finest communicators I have met in along time...

Some nuggets from the worlshop:
1. Ariyakudi's strategy of 'Stop the concert when the audience wants more"...I guess all news channels, most celebrity endorsers cam learn from this insight LOL

2. TR Mahalingam's strategy of 'Changing the instrument'. He made the 8th hole in the flute to enhance the music...I guess often we get trapped in models and the rigid structures of our business. This advice is handy to tool around with rigidity in thoughts!

3. To me Ariyakudi appeared to be a great planner!! As he understood the shift in the audience and culture in the 1930s...

From few listeners to many
From exclusive royal patronage to mass patronage
From elaborate improvisation to briskness and brevity
From eight items per concert to almost twenty!!
From pure reverential listening to concert ticketing.

4. The story of the ever learning MS Subbulakshmi. She would go to listen to a relatively unknown musician in Mylapore if she felt there was something to learn from him/ her...

A great attempt at an unusual mishram of music and business creativity. Hats off to Sridhar and team for pulling this off! The prototype beta version would definitely evolve over ver 2.0!

All in all I loved the humility of these wise musicians. There is a lesson for all of us in the larger marketing and communication community who are often arrogant in our ignorance!!The life and the lessons of the maestros has been captured well in the coffee-table like book Voices within Carnatic Music. Worth a read!

The Valence Levels of Creativity

I took the above picture from the magazine - Entrepreneur. Well, if you haven't ever read it, do read some back issues...I quite liked the selection of business stories and articles...

Coming back to the picture. A middle class mom(in the US) had this brilliant idea of a seat bag for her son...It's a normal cloth bag with two partitions where the kids can keep their books, pencil box and other stationery!

It's such an obvious stuff. Yet nobody had ever thought of this. First her friends, then the school, then some other schools in the neighbourhood started asking for the seat bag. This enterprising woman then decided to patent the seat bag...And in the process built a million dollar business around the seat bag!!

I have often thought and I guess have discussed on this blog about the valence levels of creativity...Often as we get immersed in the small 60cc ad or the 30sec TVC, we get so self-obsessed with our clever copy that we feel there is little creativity beyond our narrow silo. Well, maybe we can't compare creativity in communication/ media with creativity elsewhere...But then again, it's all part of one creative game!

What about attempting the valence levels of creativity. I discussed this with Bianca and asked her to put all things creative in concentric circles. The most creative at the core and the least at the periphery!(Actually the reverse of electron valence levels, where the electrons that lose energy fall nearer to the core!) Lets see what she comes up with...

Am creating my own valence set! And surely the seat bag will be near the core ahead of loads of advertising including e-Serve and Big FM:-)

Day 4 - Boot Camp Bytes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creativity for a Cause

This one's for a small group of people who have been associated with the iVolunteer project at David. That's Priya, Steve, Meraj and to a small extent myself!

Today, we went to Salaam Baalak Trust's office near JJ Hospital. Heena and Kavita (two of the 4 street children,the team above have been mentoring) wanted us to see their night shelter.(Meraj, we missed you!)

We managed to reach the shelter, a lil late...But we had a whole gang - Sangram-who tagged since he wanted to brief Priya and Steve on Radio One!!, Jigar and young Malhar.

Some observations...

1. I saw children and their genuine smiles. Honest smiles. We in the advertising business live with 'Close-Up' smiles of happy, good-looking families. But a genuine smile is so much more rare these days!

2. Mamaji sang from his heart. And Ashreen/Afreen( sorry I may have mixed up her name) sang beautifully. In fact she had penned her own song.Again the experience was so different from the choreographed music based shows on TV.

3. There was so much pride and honesty when Kavita was telling us about the shelter and their day-to-day mundane activities.

4. Met Sonia - who had chucked up her Hutch job 2 years back and is now associated with SBT part time! Good to meet people chasing meaning not just money!

Coming back to creativity...And this part is relevant to all, beyond just the David iVolunteer team. Can we use our creativity to help children and other under-privileged sections of society.

Some action shoes...

1. Spoke to Misha. There is an opportunity to sponsor single parents. The project is near Bandra East. I am doing it. It would entail a cost of Rs 6K annually. Saurabh has also agreed to contribute. Josy was interested as well!

2. Sangram had a nice idea. The kids are really good in music. Can we ask our client Radio One to partner us in doing something for them. Raise awareness, reach out to sponsors. Spot some talent. Maybe make a small change in some one's life!

3. We also handle CNN IBN. Can we use Citizen Journalism to help the street children, prevent child abuse, do something special for the girl child!

4. Can we ask our client BBC to get some funding?

5. Can Tang do something for the SBT?

6. Intelenet also has an annual budget for social causes. Maybe Kumar can ask Sandeep to do their bit towards SBT...

If we all brainstorm, am sure we can come up with many more ideas.

It would be far more fulfilling to use our collective creativity for a cause...

Would be on leave for the next 10 days...So, most likely IndiAdRant would be shut from tomorrow. Happy Diwali!

Jab Gopinath Met Mallya

Am referring to yet another merger and brand name change. Good ole Air Deccan dons the new name of Simplifly Deccan. And here I had barely stomached the inane name change from Indian Airlines to Indian Airlines!

I love both the characters in the sky play - Vijay Mallya,love him for being the Indian Richard Branson(in flamboyance, attitude,business acumen, ambition and aspiration if a little less in business creativity). And Capt. Gopinath for making flying accessible to the common Indian( well the ET/TOI definition of the common Indian:-)

And likewise, their two airline brands are so very different. Air Deccan - simple, accessible, human(thanks to those lovely Orchard advertising), a lil earthy & maybe frugal and KF - reeking with flamboyance, class, excess, exclusivity, Yana Gupta and the dressed-in-red-air-hostesses..

Maybe Air Deccan had to change as Mallya no longer wants it to be a cheap-airline. Budget/ economy yes, cheap no! But why tamper with such a strong brand! Why merge its distinct identity into KF.

I feel the Deccan-KF design promiscuity might dilute the KF aura a bit...It's still early days, but I am not vey sure if this new Deccan nomenclature and 360 design synergy with KF was the best possible branding solution...

Where's the Glue around here?

I have often ranted at the lack of disruptive systemic level changes in the Indian advertising business...Be it a culture of open-source creativity or the subject of a creative-planner formalised partnership, Agency 2.0 and more...

Between Prasoon, Balki or Piyush - I have rarely heard them speak about the agencies/ creatives/ creative products of the future...In fact of the trinity, only Prasoon appears to be wired into the new world/ new media space. At least that's what I get from his heavily PRed thoughts...

However, a flat world ensures that one at least knows of the disruptive business models emerging in other parts of the globe. The Glue Society is one of the agencies/ creative fraternity that is at the fore-front of systemic changes in the way they approach the advertising business...

Came across this interview of co-founder Jonathan Kneebone at this website.

Capturing the essence of his thots peppered with a few of my own.

1. The Glue Society is a creative collective based in Sydney and New York comprising of writers, designers, art directors and film directors. Founded in Sydney in 1998 by Jonathan Kneebone and Gary Freedman.

2. "Rather than become an agency with permanent clients, we decided to work project by project. That way we would be able to ensure all the projects we worked on were those we were suited to and interested in".

I feel the planning fraternity in India could possibly adopt this project/ free-lance approach. Not all clients are worth the jet-miles:-) or the long hours...I would be happier building a domain expertise in my interest area rather than head a geographically demarcated client base.

3. "Rather than just come up with ideas then outsource them to other people to make, we decided to combine concept and execution into the same four walls".

Advertising is amongst the only industries where the central product(still the 30 cc commercial) is out-sourced to the producers...I guess its high time the concept and execution be combined together. It will be a viable, nimbler, happier model.

4. "Our catalogue of work tends to attract clients who are similarly interested in breaking down walls and being brave to new opportunities".


This piece of glue society creative is actually a sculpture(installation) at a beach. It depicts melting ice-cream!!

5. "Bad advertising agencies have a tendency to copy the latest fads or mimic other popular things. This simply won't wash anymore. Why would someone spend time with a fake piece of entertainment, when they can spend time with the original. The industry is being forced to change by the realisation that everyone is creative (something we've long believed)."

6. Advertising is like art in some respects - in that there's a hell of a lot of crap and some things that resonate. The difference for me between the two is at the conceptual level. Advertising tends to be where we solve other people's problems. Art tends to be where you get to solve your own.

I wish we had more thinkers like Jon Kneebone & Gary Freedman closer home...

This is the famous Chicken Sandwich world championship work conceptualised by CP+B and directed by the Glue Society!

Expectation Management in a Brand Fatigued World

I remember at the Carnatic Music & Business Creativity work-shop that I attended some time back, my friend Ram had posed a question to Sridhar if brands can create excitement by controlling the supply.

In the past few days, two cult brands have demonstrated it. The first one is the most over-used power-pointed case study in the world(ipod) and the other the greatest 'children's rage' of the century(the Harry Potter series. Both have immaculately created an unprecedented hype around their launch!

It's a clever use of pre-launch PR and expectation management...
The Harry Potter count-down poster at the Crossword next to Neo's day care!

The iPhone fan-atic in NYC!

Agency 2.0 : Refresh to Rule

Many of us know of the zen story of a pompous student who goes to the zen master for learning. Instead of listening, the student starts blowing his own trumpet. The master then asks for tea and when the tea arrives, starts pouring a cup for the student. He keeps pouring into the cup without stopping. The cup overflows and the tea spills onto the table. Irritated, the students says -"Stop, can't you see the cup is full?". The Master smiles, "And so is your mind. Unless you empty it, what can you learn".

I feel many of us in the ad industry are full with ideas of the way things should be done. And are brimming to the top with fixed notions of:
- the way to manage talent
- the definition of what is an agency
- the business model of an agency
- the definition and possibility of new media
- the capability and effectiveness of new media
- the relationship between old media and new media
- notions of the power of the 30 sec TVC
- the definition of creativity
- the value chain of the creative product
- the role of account planning
- the need for young blood and different blood groups!
- the need to diversify the search for agency talent
- the pricing model of our services
- the range and menu of our services
- the use of technology to increase productivity
- the way the different departments function in a agency
- clients' expectations from us
- training and skilling as a tool for competitive advantage
- the need to think about the larger business context and not just the next budget

But,in a flat & fast world, we need to empty our minds of old ideas and THINK anew. Because, if we don't the ground will slip beneath our feet. Digital, animation, design, Bollywood, mobile and gaming companies among others are all eating into our business! First in small nibbles and then in big chunks! The leaders need to refresh their thinking. Replace vendor thinking by bold, lateral, thinking!

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!

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:-)

Where are the Wow-ers? And how do we hire them?

A mid-sized or small ad agency in India today generally doesn't have an HR department. Even if it does, the HR person is more a recruiter and administrator than a talent spotter and trainer!

As we lose our capacity/ intent to dole out fat salaries, We must think out-of-the- box to spot good talent, hire them, train them and then keep them excited!

And this is the duty of every senior/ mid-level manager in the agency. I often dig into Tom Peters for inspiration in such matters...

Here are some nuggets from his book'The Circle of Innovation'.

1. "Expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you are doing" - Steve Jobs
The original Macintosh team was a marvelous mix of artists and engineers. Their aesthetic interests were as strong as their techie interests! When was the last time, we tried creating/ fostering communities of interest in our agency?

2. "It's the cracked ones that let light into the world."
Are there enough wild guys in our agencies? Are we chatting/ having coffee/ inviting them to our agency? Often enough.

3. "Experience is out. Inexperience is in. It may make a lot of middle-aged businessmen very uncomfortable, but it's a fact of life." - Alan Webber, founding editor, Fast Company
Have you tried giving an important project to the junior most guys in your agency.
I tried recently for a major assignment. The results have been stunningly impressive!!

4. "Good ideas come from differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxta-positions. The best way to maximise differences is to mix ages, cultures and disciplines." - Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director, MIT Media Lab
Shall we attempt making small diads of copy-writer & planner, servicing and art director, CEO and management trainee, planning director and summer trainee...We may be surprised at the value we might create by this re-mixing!! Let's try creating hot-groups for new business pitches!

5. Hire for attitude. Train for skill.
Hire bright students from design institutes, history students, bio-tech students...Give them creative assignments...Woo them. Woo their colleges. Network with their faculty!
Let's raise the lust quotient of our agency...

As Andy Grove said, we need to create 'waves of lust' for our product - in this case our agency brand!

The wow-ers are unevenly distributed! Are we doing enough to hire them?

Image source : Gettyimages

Prose is for Lazy People

Read this very absorbing interview of Prasoon Joshi in Tehelka. Am becoming a big fan of both Tehelka and Joshi Saheb!! You can read the interview here

Thot post-its from the same...

1. We don’t choose ideas. Ideas choose us. We can’t grab a thought. A thought grabs us. You have to be receptive, ready to receive thoughts.

2. In Rang de Basanti there was no place for the song, “Lukka chuppi.” The scene is a son’s funeral and his mother experiencing a terrible loss. Rahman and I used the idea of a mother and son playing hide-and-seek. The sad reality is the son is hidden forever.

3. If there’s a particular word that doesn’t fit the tune, I tell him: No, I need this word. It’s important. It’s like a paperweight, if you remove it, everything will fly away!

It is rather crass of me to compare poetry with presentation/ power-point. But for a recent pitch, we were adamant on 'one' word. And it did make all the difference. We won the business. 30 slides, 40 units of creative all hinged on that 'one' word...Okay that was an unseemly detour.

4. The finest creativity is when you draw a dot and yet everyone can see the circle. If you allow the listeners to participate, they will complete the thought.

5. "I like writing songs featured in the background. What is happening in the mind of the character, but he’s unable to express."

6. It’s important to understand the overall context and then forget it. The mind has absorbed the essential. If you continue to refer to the lead-in situation, you start to mirror it, whereas your song must add another dimension to the narrative.

7. How does poetry express thought better than prose? Through its economy. Take this example: Navak andaz jidhar deeda-e jana honge/ Neem bismil kai honge kai bajan honge (Wherever the eyes of my beloved fall/ Some are wounded, others slain).

The idea is so precise. If you had to explain this in prose, you would have to write an entire page. And prose allows less participation.

8. Why do you think prose is more loved? Because prose is for lazy people. Poetry is for people with a fertile imagination.

Poetry is like a buffet. You must serve yourself because the meal will not be served at your table. It’s a pity we have mostly lost the passion for poetry.

Joshi Saheb, you make me want to read poetry in my attention-deficit, time crunched corporate life...And pick up the threads of the long buried dream(under the debris of trivial pursuits) of learning Urdu all over again!

Being David - A Spirit Rarer than Tanzanite

It's a special day and a sad one...As I write this post, there are packers all around me, wrapping the last remains of a small agency called David.

It's funny how much I have got attached to this agency in just over 12 months!

Are we the creative hot-shop that the world(well, part of it at least) calls us?
Maybe we are not.
Are we radical in the way the edgier agencies in the western hemisphere have adopted new media?
No again...

But, I can say with certainty that Brand David as it stood and shone is/ was culturally the richest agency brand in India!

Before it was decided to merge it with Bates Asia. Because it makes sense to have a stronger mid-sized network in the region...

But in life and in business what makes sense may not always be right!
Cultures are about shared dreams. They need more nurture and less merger!

After my initial anger and resilienece, the planner in me has bought into the merger.
David hasn't.

You may ask, if we aren't edge-ily creative or new media mavericks...what makes us so special...

My list wud include the following.

1. Josy Paul - the maverick guy who along with Madhukar Sabnavis and now Kumar started it all.

2. I don't know about the other 5 years but in the last one year while I have been a David, Josy has helped create a culture of creative strategists...

Creative in the new millennium is not about 'silo thinking'! The best work comes from a seamless integration of creativity and thinking! And we have here in our play-rooms and on the WallOfDavid.

We have done brave thinking...The results may not match to our efforts...But in our thinking and culture, we may be as edgy as W+K, Mother, Naked, et al...

3. David's model of senior guys hands-on everything and lots of energetic young Davids worked for us!

4. We have possibly the best training program in the country...It was called endless converstaions between youthful energy and passionate experience...
No closed doors, just windows of opportunity for everyone...

And our open-source training programme 'SchoolOfDavid' was amongst the most 'fun-and-play' modules possible in our industry.

5. A while ago I read in BusinessWeek that the metal Tanzanite is rarer than even diamond. As it is mined in just one small dusty town of Tanzania...I may sound utterly soppy and nostalgic, but the spirit of David is a rarer metal than even Tanzanite...

I think I was a David before joining David and believe that all of us(Davids) will retain a part of it where we go next...

It's very easy in today's world to buy technology, sometimes even market shares but it's next to impossible to buy or create BELIEF...

I feel David was a network/ agency with a great belief and energy eco-system...

It's unfortunate that it had an abrupt end. But what is important is that we lived the life of Davids...And hopefully will always retain it...

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 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!

50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet

We the technology-awed populace always view all technology as being better, faster and taking us to a better place. The internet seems like no exception. Yet, every new technology also takes away something...

Stumbled upon this interesting article 50 Things That Are Being Killed By the Internet at PSFK. Have a read...

Gleanings enmeshed with my thots on some of them...

1. Punctuality. Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up for lunch on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudeness of the connected age.

This is going to be a huge conflict area between generations. My father runs his life by the hour, I am far more comfortable keeping things fluid all the time!

2. Memory. When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the "mere" storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity.

Today, if you have a story, the facts and the props are available for free on the net. However, as an agency planner and now a trends and futures consultant, I find this aspect liberating!

3. Dead time. When was the last time you spent an hour mulling the world out a window, or rereading a favourite book? The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist.

All former dead-time is now pottering time - twitter, flickr, youtube, fb, sms, mobile chat, gtalk...And we are more busy than ever before, our reflection time has dropped to an all time low!

Just because the pipe of our conversations is broader and the flow 24X7 hasn't guaranteed that better stuff is flowing through those pipes. Although, the more plugged you are, the more you can scan the global brain for ideas and inspiration.

4. Mainstream media. While in India, print might be growing and TV getting higher TRPs, for some of us mainstream media has been quietly marginalised over the last few years.

- We don't miss the week-night news. In fact haven't watched the weekly bulletin which were so much a part of life a decade back.

- Right now we are consuming a mash-up of mainstream media and new media. This may be the intermediate step before some of us totally migrate to newer forms of digital media(personalised, customised, on-demand)Already, in the Western markets, free news and the migration of advertising to the web threaten the basic business models of almost all media organisations.

Mental post-it : What else is being killed by the internet, new media? Isn't it an interesting thought to stay with for a while...

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

The 'Soviet Union Model' of Agencies

Read a small note on Gary Hamel( the strategy guru who wrote 'Competing for the Future' among other books-do read the book if you haven't already!) in today's TOI where he talks about the Soviet Union model of Innovation - completely top-down, central command, and so on!

The article then talks about the contrasting 'innovation model of silicon valley' - a hot-bed of bottom-up innovations! Google, a bottom-up-driven-organisation for example is organised into 300 teams working on a variety of projects.

There's much to learn from the Silicon valley model for an ad agency. The rants in no particular order.

1. Most Agencies follow an 'innovation/ creativity apartheid'. Only the creatives are allowed to participate in the 'actual' creative process. Okay occassional sops are thrown where non-creatives participate in 'brain-storming'and other niche sports but then when it comes to the 'big-ideas-game', its a NO ENTRY sign for the rest of the agency.

2. Most agancies spend less than 1% of their annual time(am talking about company time, not individual time) on thinking about the business. Improvements in the creative process/ model. The changing media landscape. Fringe studies. Fringe imports. Self funded knowledge/ skill upgradation projects.

3. Silicon valley thrives on collaboration. Apartheid needs segregation! Again many agencies pay lip-service to collaboration. The creative egos generally are too huge for most team endeavours!

4. The smart young guys( brimming with new ideas and creative energy) from account management are mostly handed out low-end jobs and 'follow up' tasks. The bulk of their time is spent in covering up the inefficiencies of the people, systems or the 'Soviet Union Model' of creative management. Little wonder that these smart, young guys are moving in droves away from the 'Soviet Agencies' to the 'Silicon Valleys of 'retail', 'new media' or 'new technology'.

The agency's unwillingness to look hard at it's Soviet Model reminds me of a Chinese Proverb - "If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed." :-)