Being Digital

Many years ago, I was sitting in the engineering college library. Dejected. I had just flunked in a digital related subject. (By the way, I have a Computer Engineering degree:-)

I felt getting into engineering was the worst decision I had ever made...I was reasonably good at theory but when it came to practicals and problem solving, my brain never worked!

I had reached the conclusion that engineering, computers and any thing digital was not my cup of tea!

And then I remember I read an inspiring article about/ on Microsoft(Back then Google and Apple were not the heroes!!) And I decided to give digital one last shot. Put in some rigorous hours. Slogged my butt off.

The results were mixed. I still managed some very average marks but scraped a distinction in the last semester!

But at least I had gotten over my fears of computers/ digital. I wisely decided to do course correction. Did an MBA and then quietly plugged into the analog world of advertising. But gradually over the years I kept my interest alive in things new media and digital.

I still have more interest in human psychology than plain technology. But the persistence gradually paid off. Recently, I got some additional responsibility to look after new media and digital in the group...

Actually on Saturday picked up this Nicholas Negroponte classic - 'Being Digital'(a must read for anybody interested in digital) and got swamped by this flood of old memories amidst the swelling Mithi...

Some Negroponte nuggets from Being Digital and elsewhere...
1. Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living.
2. Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy
3. Learning to program is a way of thinking about thinking, and when young people get into it, that way of thinking about thinking can change their perspective.
4. “I’m not interesting in training. Training is what we do for dogs, I’m more interested in teaching people to learn”.

Re-reading 'Being Digital' is actually turning out to be far more interesting than I had thot:-) Even after 12 years( first published in '95), it's quite mind-bending and lays a friendly road-map for surviving and prospering in the digital present and future!

How Not To Be A Digital Agency Part 1

Like many analog agencies ours too is trying to be digital. The process began early this year in the Temple city of Siam Reap in Cambodia. Then we had some very engaging digital sessions in Singapore...

These are still early days into Being Digital...Still have tried to collate the lessons learnt/ and observations from around in my first steps into digital!(Not in any particular order or hierarchy of thot).

1. The game's not just about technology, its still about human psychology! Far too many CEO's are shying away from digital because they feel scared/ numbed by the technology buzz around. It's a pity. It just slows the entire digital thinking in the agency.

2. It's not about learn and do. It's about do and learn.

3. It's not about strategy first, it's a lot about execution first as well.
Digital is a far complex strategy-execution inter-linked game anyways which analog
agencies have difficulty understanding...

4. Digital thinking cannot be brought about by forced collaboration between different departments. It's about genuine conversation between people who call the shots and people who get it.

5. It's not about top-down or bottom up. it's about both at the same time!!

6. The pit-fall is to make 'digital' the new epi-centre of creativity and snob
appeal within the agency.

Let's chew on these. The next installment should come soon...

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!!

Digital is Unevenly Distributed...

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

Big Congrats to them!!

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

You can check the full story here

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boot Camp - Day Three - UGC & Digital Media

Digital Sparks

I have maintained for some time now that 'digital' is less about the technology and more about the psychology(client's, consumer's, etc.)

And today's session was mostly about this. The morning UGC session by Ajit was quite kick-ass...Some of the main carry-away thots were:

1. If you really love your brand, find out your way of letting it go...

2. Brand thinking must accommodate non-linear thinking. The best ideas have an element of surprise. Strategy is tactics today!

3. UGC insight : None of us is as smart as all of us.

4. English is no longer the dominant language of blogs/ expression/ conversations on the web!More of our Digital SparksBetter lunch than yesterday:-)

5. Interestingly 'Letting go of content control' also sits with massive control of traffic/ content through web 2.0 tools and other technology.

6. The new media signals a shift from the age of deference to an age of reference.

7. Ad agencies need to be prepared for the fundamental shift from 15% commission to 15 minutes of fame of their consumers!!

8. Media is social currency. if it isn't worth forwarding it, it isn't worth much:-)

9. Kids/ audience don't need another web-site! They need content and applications to make the digital space their own.
Ajit in Action

10. We had a very interesting talk by Ian Stewart, the Sr. VP, Viacom as the guest speaker for the day! He made a crisp presentation on the new digital generation!The impressive 'sensor-based interactive display' at the Funan Mall.

A packed day ended at the Brewerkz...The local micro brewery-in-a-restaurant where we downed beerJohn and his indecisiveness:-)...

Followed by a round of beer at Crazy Elephant...and another in John's room...

10. The 1% rule is all pervasive. 1% of the guys create content, 90% are passive viewers. The film maker, the critique and the viewer: the rules haven't changed much...Maybe they will never!

It's zzzzztime again!!

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

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

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

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

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

Are Advertising & the Web Disjoint Sets?

There is this excellent article on Adage.com about - Advertising and the Internet. Check it out here...

Notes to myself peppered with stray thots!

- When you look at how the media and marketing business packages the Internet - as just more space to be bought and sold -- you have to worry that the history of mass media is just trying to repeat itself.

And what an utter waste of time, money and effort that would be. It's so very easy to escape banner ads and the ilk on the web. Am a fairly heavy user of the net and I have developed advanced screening faculties for every kind of conventional ad. On the other hand, when a marketer succeeds in engaging me through content or 'value-added-ads', I not just consume it but help seed it in my limited way!

-Rarely a fortnight goes by without some new bullish forecast for ad growth that works to stoke digital exuberance within media owners that often drowns out critical thinking about the medium itself.

Am yet to hear a conversation on digital/ internet advertising among mainstream ad folks in India. It just doesn't exist for them!! In fact an exuberant NCD of a large agency was quoted in DNA saying who needs digital? While the size of internet ad might be puny in India, the learning ground for the next level of messaging/ marketing/ communication has to be the web...

-Here's the issue: The internet is too often viewed as inventory, as a place where brands pay for the privilege of being adjacent to content, like prime-time TV and glossy magazines relics of the pre-blog days when getting into the media game actually required infrastructure and distribution.

The presumed power of that adjacency has provided the groundwork for the media industry for decades and long ago calcified into an auspicious economic reality the big media companies are trying to take with it to the digital future. For the media seller, ads and ad revenue might be all that's left.

- The marketer, once at the mercy of a locked-up media landscape, can now be a player in it.

- "The big difference is that marketers are in the same competitive set as media owners," said Matt Freeman, CEO of Tribal DDB. He cites Pepsi, one of Tribal's clients, as an example of a company that could be a giant media player if it wanted.

It doesn't want to because the big traffic it gets at its corporate websites has nothing to do with how it's valued. But the twist on media and marketing convention is clear.

"Before there was an investor and a recipient of that investment. I think today you have much more of a triangulation where marketers can invest directly in going to consumers, obviating the need for media owners. They are not necessarily the client of owners and, in some cases, they are their competitors."

- In other words, marketers can build website that do cool, useful stuff. There are any number of marketers, from Amazon to Papa John's, working to monetize their corporate websites traffic by selling ads there, but that, of course, is only the most mundane way. Better examples include Johnson & Johnson and its BabyCenter, a deep repository of information about raising a newborn that's a clear competitor to Bonnier or Meredith, the publishers of Parenting and Parents magazines respectively.

Nike Plus, whose sharp interface connects runners all over the world, is a real threat to any traditional media owners who wants to engage with that running population.

- Although Mr. Freeman often sounds like he's borrowing from the lexicon of PR, his idea of "earned media" or "earned engagement" isn't the same as landing a client brand in the New York Times. It's a more varied concept that encompasses everything from branded applications and services like the Nike-Plus program to videos passed along through sharing sites. These programs, now exceptions, could actually work to redefine advertising.

- "People have to think about advertising differently," said Trevor Kaufman, CEO of Schematic, the interactive agency recently purchased by WPP Group. "Advertising is becoming not just about messaging but providing value to customers. Functionality has often not been the role of advertising."

I have been arguing with some of the brightest ad agency copy-writers. Think beyond 'taglines'. Think about usefulness. Make your ads 'active'. Give more information about the brand. When we repeat the messages, the consumer filters them all.

- For marketers and agencies it's a sea-change in how you do your business. "It's easy for clients and agencies to think about banners and email because buying banners is like buying outdoor and email is like direct," said Mr. Kaufman of ad agency Schematic. "That is very different than nurturing the community of your customers, providing great content or executing transactions."

- Web designer Jakob Nielsen adds -'The basic point about the web is that it is not an advertising medium. The web is not a selling medium;it is a buying medium. It is user controlled, so the user controls, the user experiences.'

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.

SchoolOfDavid : Open Source Learning

About six months back, at our small agency we started a learning program called SchoolOfDavid. We/I haven't been very regular but yesterday managed the 4th such session.

As always it was fun! This time it was different in two refreshing ways.
(a) It happened outside the agency, at my place and Candies - the quiet little eatery in Bandra! and (b) It had a truly diverse gene/talent pool...

One of the structural changes I have been passionate about in the agency is the formal partnership between the creative and the other guys(planner/ servicing). As against the norm of a department-led-silo-thinking/working! The topic of this session was 'Dinking' and was about the need to do 'boundaryless-thinking-n-action!

After a short gyan session by me, we got down to a role playing exercise loosely based on Edward De Bono's role playing exercises...

We had 3 teams. Each took on the role of a new company - M&M and Google(X2) and then went on creating a new agency...

I wasn't at all surprised at the strategic-n-creative spark of the young turks in my agency. I have tapped into it many-a-time this last one year! What they may lack in experience, they more than make up in sheer 'fresh-n-bold thinking'!

Some other musings:
1. We must tap into the 'talent pool' at the bottom of the pyramid more often...Fresh pairs of eyes is stupid to ignore!

2. Open-source problem solving can work wonders. In the past month, I have used it to create a campaign for a major client of ours! If the people at the top are committed, open-source-working is not very difficult to DO.

3. Informal sessions create culture. Formal ones don't.

4. To quote Yogi Berra - "You can observe a lot, just by watching."

5. I find in the digital age that we live in, 'worldviews'/ 'experience' is not directly proportional to age...

6. A remarkable way forward might be to create a 'shadow board' of young guys to get in the freshest ideas on board.

7. How you do the learning sessions is as important as what you do in them.

In case anybody is interested in conducting informal work-shops to create a 'creative play-ground' in their organisations, please feel free to get in touch with me!

cheers
M\
P.S. A special thanks to Russell(without whom SOD4 would have been highly unlikely)for baby-sitting young Neo!!

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!

2007 - Fifty Drifts

Happy New Year guys! Just back from a trip to Mysore, Nagarhole Game Park(a tiger sanctuary 100km from Mysore) and Mangalore(attending a beach wedding of a friend). The trip was exotic, relaxed and refreshing! Though on occasions, I did miss the blogosphere. But not much:-)

I wrote this post(hard copy version)in a restaurant called Machchli Mela(inside the Summer Sands resort) overlooking the Someshwar beach, Mangalore!

Actually was trying to summarise all my thoughts on all the things in 2006. Here's my list of swings, trends, run-of-the-mill observations, comments on agency life, life, world of brands, buyers, marketers, et al!

The list is heavily skewed to my way of thinking, pet obsessions/peeves, observations. No tall claims of trend forecasting here!( and in no particular order either).

Here are the 50 drifts for 2007...Some are happening, some may take a while longer and few are from the attic of my personal wish-list:-)

1. Foresight > Insight
2. Planner + Creative > Art Director + Copy Writer
3. Stories > Slides(power-point)
4. Brand Quirks > Brand Values
5. Many to Many Conversations > Dialogues > Monologue
6. Being Personal > Brand Personality
7. Design > Analysis
8. Brilliant Execution > Correct Strategy
9. Random > Permanence
10. Collaboration > Competition
11. Culture > Core Value
12. UAE(Unique Amiable Experience) > USP
13. Designers > Account Planners
14. Mobisodes > TVCs
15. I > We > I > We
16. Employees > Companies
17. Karan Johar > Prasoon Joshi > Santosh Desai
18. Outdoor > Indoor
19. Experience > Analysis
20. Consumer Psychology > New Technology
21. Pop-up stores > In-store branding
22. SRK > Aamir
23. Future Group > Bharti-Walmart
24. Time > Money
25. Attention > Time
26. Trust > Attention
27. Soft Power > Raw Power
28. Expertise > Experts
29. Pop(Everything) > Everything
30. Bollywood > Cricket
31. Krssh > Superman
32. Hanuman > Krssh
33. WPP(in India) > Omnicom(in India)
34. Air Deccan > Air India
35. Blogs > Flogs
36. RSS feeds > Newspapers > Breaking News
37. News TV > TV Soaps
38. Shaadi.com > Shaadi Points
39. Digital >> Analog
40. Tactics > Strategy
41. Relationship > Reason
42. Being Creative > Being Right
43. Surprise > Consistency
44. Vigour(Energy) > Rigour
In brand thinking
45. Simplexity > Simplicity > Complexity
46. KBC3 > KBC 2 > KBC 1(?)
47. Fashion > Features
48. Blink > Consideration
In brand choice/ selection
49. Beer > Cola
50. 2007 > 2006

I am sure there are umpteen areas I have over-looked...But am working on the next 50!
cheers

New Heads for New Hats

Read this post on New Roles in Advertising at Scott Goodson's blog...Am reproducing the 'new heads' with a few comments of mine...

Digital Presence Strategist
This person is a hybrid web strategist with curiosity about new technologies and a familiarity with mobility applications. This is not a media strategist or a technologist.

I have played this role to some extent at Tribal. But then again, a lot more can be done. A lot more conversations need to happen between the agencies and the technology companies. The tech companies are ready and raring to go, the agencies are sadly not...

Let me add the hat of Synthesizer to the list- Last Sunday, was having a chat with my friend Josy(Paul) over breakfast and I did share with him this need for a synthesizer. This guy, has to be a creative strategist who has this ability to both look at things from a helicopter view and also should be able to handle the micro details. But most importantly, he can synthesize the brand idea, the social/ cultural environment and the available new technology to create impactful communication and to engage people. Synthesis skills perhaps need to replace/ augment the traditional planning skills.

Idearator
This is an idea generator who has a legacy in the digital space but is broad enough to come up with ideas that live in all media. This person must play across many disciplines. This role will become increasingly important because the emphasis, the value, and the fundamental business model for agencies has shifted away from a focus predominantly on execution to a focus on ideas.

The way I look at things the art-copy team of the past will gradually get replaced by the Idearator-Synthesizer duo in the future facing agencies!! Of course, in India it's still conceptual. The creative fiefdoms at legacy agencies(and we have mostly those) will stomp the idea in the womb.

Partnership Director
Partnering with ‘best-in-class’ individuals and firms is what enables agencies like StrawberryFrog to leapfrog the traditional legacy corporate agencies. This person’s role is to continuously manage the agency’s partnerships and be able to draw on the world’s best talent, tailored to a client’s specific needs. While all agencies work with outsourced talent in some shape of form (some more openly and overtly than others who hide this fact), this is now becoming a mainstream way of working in the evolving media revolution.

I had written about 'the networking quotient' of employees here. I totally agree with Scott, just like great product/ brand ideas like the ipod evolve an eco-system of ancillary companies, ideas around itself - accessories, itunes, docking stations even massage chairs with ipod holders!! The partnership director must focus on evolving an eco-system of small and big ideas/ products/ marketing around the starting idea.

Social media-whatever
But anyone with any expertise in social media has been important for some time now, and this area of expertise will only keep growing.

I think generally the guys who can translate any piece of communication into conversation will be invaluable.

I was having lunch with Madhu Mantena, the producer of Ghajini, sometime back. And he mentioned that once the movie was ready, he and his team looked at creating a 100 conversation points for the content. And lo we had a 250cr block-buster. Maybe, folks from Bollywood, the avant-garde PR guys and people with large personal and professional networks could be tapped for this role.

Thanks Scott, once again you got me thinking...

Good Tea & the Future The Way We Want It To Be

Just finished my second cup of well-made Darjeeling tea in my favourite white cup! Ah the small pleasures of life...Getting ready for a long day of book research and writing after a two week hiatus...

Had read this post by Scott Goodson, the Strawberry Frog CEO on the different agency models and the need for extreme agility and adaptability among agencies in times of recession/ slowdown. You can read it here...

It also got me thinking about the need to adapt as a worker-ant/ employee/ networked knowledge worker/ creative portfolio worker...Thots not exactly in order...

1. The department must die. I feel the rate of our contribution dramatically increases with our ability to collaborate across the blurring boundaries of department. I am talking strategy, creative, servicing, digital media, OOH, research, brand identity...Though there are no visible signs of 'the department' dying in an Indian agency any time in the near future. Long live the fiefdoms!!

2. Employee NetworksThe agile companies must respect, use and reward employee networks. At 437 LinkedIn connections, I am perhaps a little more useful than I was a year back:-)This is a social network. But it's also a knowledge and personal network that can do great stuff together, solve issues, share experiences. Suddenly, the sum of all these employee networks can become a potent force for the small agile company!

3. Portfolio Working. I had been wanting to do it ever since I first read about the concept in Charles Handys' book - the empty raincoat! As we increasingly get hurtled into the ever closely knit creative-knowledge economy, opportunities to do portfolio work(not just for pure creatives) but everyone has risen through the roof...

4. Make New ConnectionsWhile the economy has slowed down dramatically, the potential to make new business connections has never been greater.

Take 1 jar of open mindedness and enthusiasm + add a full saucer of environment scanning + heat it a little + shake it with new thinking + add 1 table spoon of new ideas and approaches and hey you have a new business idea or model or new portfolio friends...

eg. A specialised Bollywood/ A/V content Marketing Agency*, Youth Marketing Company, Personal Branding Consultancy, Low cost SOHO brand building packages(this one came as of yesterday as I was approached by a London based company for a guest blog post)

Gmail, LinkedIn, Skype ensure that this souffle comes for FREE!!

5. Re-skillingMost of us(all of us) sit on a few kilos of unused talent. A minor re-skilling can polish up those and can be gainfully employed in a portfolio way. In the past 3 months or so, at a personal level, I have discovered that I could be a trainer, executive coach, youth/ culture/ Bollywood film marketer...It's just that we sit on our asses waiting for things to happen(at least that was my case) Whereas the environment is right for re-skilling and creating new revenue models(both for the company and personal)...

6. The Un-Company ManWhen I was looking for a job two years back, a very senior media person(ality) said that I wasn't much of a company man(the spirit of the remark was a wee bit pejorative)...However, if we look at the debris of corporate America and the loss of jobs closer home, the company as the sole provider of financial security and stability no longer exists. It's both a scary and a liberating thought. In fact now may be the best time to finally come out of the life long shackles of the COMPANY.

The company will definitely exist; but that will no longer be the sole/ desired work model. Like I said, (a) portfolio working, (b) greater degree of employee entrepreneurship, (c) company as a employee collective, (d) virtual creative/knowledge worker networks and more are/ will emerge stronger...

I feel the time, the tools and the environment is just right to create the future the way we want it to be!!

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!

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!

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

Mobile Talk 1 : Rajesh Jain

Read a decent interview of Rajesh Jain, the man who almost single handedly brought on the dotcom boom to India after selling off his Internet venture, IndiaWorld.com, to Satyam for Rs 499 crore in 1999, on agencyfaqs.com!

Nuggets from the same...

1. Other than email, classifieds, trading and ticketing, not much has happened there. What I think of as the N3 web – Now, New, Near Web – hasn’t really happened. Part of the problem is that access is mainly from cyber cafes, so the Internet has not become a part of people’s lives.

2. There are two aspects to the Internet – the PC and the mobile. PC-based access is very much around the 'reference web'.

The mobile has the opportunity to be the primary mode of access and interaction for the 'incremental web'.

So, I can use the mobile to find directions and similar day to day activities. There are life's 'empty moments' and life's ‘know now’ moments. When you are waiting for someone, for example, you are in an empty moment and you can use your mobile to check stock quotes or text someone. In the ‘know now’ moments, you want to know something immediately instead of going and searching on the web. Now, if you can overlay mobile services with permission, you can give consumers only the information they want.

3. I think in the next few years, when you mention the Internet, it will primarily mean the mobile Internet.

4. Just like on the Internet, the search box has become the starting point for user interaction and monetisation of the web, my belief is that on the mobile phone, it’s going to be the SMS subscription with a brand of your choice.

So, if there’s a special promotion at the mall in the neighbourhood, you want to know. It's called 'invertising' – advertising that consumers invite into their lives. This is a marketer’s dream (come true). For example, if you buy a new Nokia phone, you can get free updates from them about the features of the phone and about upgrading to a new model

5. Why not enough innovations in the mobile industry? Because something has worked very well in the industry... because ringtones, wallpapers, Bollywood, cricket, etc., have become a Rs 4,000 crore industry, where users are spending on consuming this content, we are not looking beyond.

6. SMS subscription is the best way to provide bite-sized content.

7. As we think of roads, airports and power, we need to start thinking of the digital environment as core infrastructure for this country. I think there is no reason why we cannot have state of the art innovation in services here in India. That's going to spur entrepreneurship and will create the next set of large companies in India. Once we make that happen, it’s better for advertisers, marketers and businesses.