Crowdcasting - The Wisdom Of Crowds

In the latest issue of Business 2.0, came across this new concept - Crowdcasting! Actually, a while ago in his best-selling book, The Wisdom of Crowds James Surowiecki had explored a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications - 'Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant/ better the elite are at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future! 'Crowdcasting' is the real life application of the wisdom of crowds!

Companies like Amex, Whirlpool, GE Money and Mars are now occasionaly turning to B-School students to come up with innovative products and services by solving real world problems.

I think for a talent starved industry like advertising, 'Crowdcasting' is an excellent tool to plug into some of the youngest and brightest minds of India!

Even if we can't afford the IIM grads, maybe we can get some of them to solve our brand/ strategy/ agency problems.

In fact, for smaller agencies, it's a very effective and cheap alternative to say a large sized planning department, without sacrificing the quality of strategic thought. What say?

As we go into the future, we do not just need 30 sec TVCs and print ideas. We need a whole host of ideas - big and small across the internet. mobile and other emerging media space!

And bright minds who also are early adopters of the products and services would make great idea-founts.

At David, I have been using 'Crowdcasting' in a minor way! Ocassionaly I dip into the intelligence of young students. They have helped me mine insights, helped in new business pitches, served as virtual-planners, jointly built content which I have used in new business pitches...

And quite often, even the agency employees cannot match the content as well as the energy levels of these 'crowdcasters'.

Lets be ready for the future. As Business 2.0 said - "Turning one's business problems over to outsiders scares the shit out of most business leaders because it challenges the power base of individuals within the company. But that's exactly what needs to happen for a company/ industry to grow and change with the times".

If ideas had a valence level I would give 'Crowdcasting' 10 points! Same as this year's Grand Effie(India) winner Lifebuoy Little Gandhi campaign!

I've Just Been Tagged

As I was about to go to bed, just thought I would check my gmail and I discovered that I had been tagged by Neil Perkin- a marketing director based in London. Thanks Neil. Feels good to know that people whom I do not know(in person) have an interest in my thoughts, ideas and observations(often from the ordinariness of life around me). As I first discovered on John's(Grant) blog - “Tagging is this meme/viral that is going on for few weeks now where bloggers share 5 interesting personal stuff and then pass it on to 5 other bloggers.”

Before I tag 5 people I know, must download the few thoughts that are swirling in my head.

I have written in Blogs R Ushow blogs are changing our world, one tag/post at a time:-) and also about Blogging in India - Facts and Future.

Few new thoughts(and emotions), in no particular order...

1. Before Aug 18, '06 - the day I wrote my first blog post - Viruses of the mind, I was largely a lonely planner in a country where I feel there are plenty of planners but planning itself is in a stage of nascency. Well, we are planning to change that. Tomorrow might be a beer meeting(at Sports Bar)of at least 8+ planners(inter-agency). Looks like a first for Indian planners!

2. While there was Google and YouTube and sundry technology to get unfiltered and abundant data, as a non-geek, there was little I could do to connect with a global brain/ conversation/ POV(that's what I feel the blogosphere is turning out to be for me). And POV(new) is in short supply in the media space. Don't just go by the ra-ra press and mass media self-congratulaory gurgitations(of the media, by the media, for the media)!

3. I haven't read the James Surowiecki book - 'Wisdom of the crowds' beyond a few pages but funnily enough have written on the subject. And what a journey these last 6 months have turned out to be. The wisdom of the crowd through the blog world is a humbling experience. In the past 6 months, have gained/ gleaned more than I did in the last 6 years(maybe, most thoughts/ analysis these days are coloured by the recency effect.)

The blog world allows one to think like a micro-consultancy of one!

On Google amongst the millions of (lately badly matched data)pages, one still doesn't learn/ discover as one does linking through the nodes of the blog world.
It's like searching through the 'mind of people'(and it's more decent and fun and not as macabre as it may sound:-)

4. I haven't had much time to read too many blogs. Think am slow and am still low on experimentation. But John(Grant and Dodds), Russell. thotblurb are staple diet...
They keep me pre-occupied through the day and the week-end!

5. Coming back to the lonely planner syndrome. With the conversations in the blog world, I feel lonely no more:-)In fact, soon the problems might be of never being alone.LOL

Blogs are also the Low Cost Carrier of thoughts. They flit and travel at the speed of electrons. I feel there is so much positive energy all around. Some of the best minds are connecting and much good will happen sooner than later...

6. Why aren't more Indian planners a part of this. But that's one strange thing about many Indians(at least within the advertising/ media fraternity). We are too hierarchy driven(excluding the young planners on thotblurb:-). When I started my blog, I passed on the link to six of my ex-colleagues(no soured relations here:-) and 'three' of them didn't even bother to reply. The most enthusiastic response was from a planner friend who is at ChiatDay(therefore not in India technically).
I find most of the media guys(over 30) wanting in collaborative working. The few times when they do, its purpose driven. WIIFM(whats-in-it-for-me)variants!

7. The average number of thoughts I entertain on any given day has shot up dramatically. Does 'Technorati' measure that:-) I realise I also have become more observant because of my blog...And I sorely needed that...

And more aware of issues that I wouldn't have cared/ had the time to think about.

8. Blogs have also allowed me to discover my voice. It even forces me to be true and honest at all times. As a culture we find it difficult to retort and be aggressive(although we argue all the time - read the Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen). IndiAdRant has helped me release the pent-up emotions and thoughts...

And now let me get back to the tagging business. Okay 5 interesting facts about me...
Although as I trudge through the web, I realise every day how boring I am compared to the rest of you! And Neil, you make me look even duller:-)

1.I believe am as good(or bad)a creative as a planner. But agencies in India stuck as they are in the narrow silos are unwilling to buy my creative services LOL
This piece of creative strategy won us the account at TBWA Mumbai. Of course the great rapport which the branch head enjoys with the client had helped.

2. My favourite planner is Javed Akhtar and the planning book(Indian) is Talking Films - Conversations with Javed Akhtar(he is amongst the best Bollywood script-writer, lyricist and poet of our times!

3. I have changed my career 4 times in the last 12 years - from a 'network marketer' to a 'school teacher', 'computer engineer' to a 'creative strategist'.

4. On my current to do list, the most exciting item is to start a picture blog for my 3 yr old son - Neo.
5. Sometime soon, I want to start a social communication agency. Looking for partners and some funding! I might call it SCAM - Social Communication And More LOL

Okay now to tagging 5 of my fellow Indian planners
Saurabh Sharma(Inquiring Eyes)
Roop Mukhopadhyay( Tissue Issues)
Meraj Hasan(On Movies books, music, poetry and life)
Fink
Pooja Nair(Seeing Things Clearly)

cheers
M\

Twitter Frees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GreatWayToHaveAWebsite.com

Some days back, Rob (Mosley) from a small London creative agency Nonsense wrote a mail to me...

He and his team are putting together their web-site...High Time We Had A Website
In a bigger agency set-up, few suits would have gotten together and created a brief and then it would have been delegated to the IT department/ their vendor and periodic status reports...

I think hightimewehadawebsiteis an example of online presence meets agency POV/ creativity meets WOM meets wisdom of the crowd!

Mental note : Must do something on these lines in the next 6 months...In fact the learning would be really useful for a co-creation project that I am doing(for some reason I don't like the sound of this word Co-creation though, sounds too mechanistic)

And guys...Do visit this site and vote...There are just 14 days before voting closes!!

Will Street Meet Strategy?

Was speaking to David, our regional training head in the morning. Predictably like most non-Indians he too was struck by the vibrant colour and diversity of our country.

Later, on board the flight to Delhi, came across a feature on street art in the in-flight magazine JetWings!

There is so much ingenuity in the street. Something which we must capture while we tell our brand stories. The 'Street' is far more original, colourful, messy and alive than the manufactured images in most of our ads...Picture from Jetwings : Paining on a house wall in Calcutta by the popular local artist, Ajay Kar
Picture : Paintings on the bodies of trucks
This is a really unusual cross-over of ethnic cultural motifs and practical messages. A medium which has barely been tapped into by big brands.
The format is very Indian, very street and the content 'very native Indian wisdom'!Picture : A mural at Bandra Reclamation
Any form of street art not only produces a gallery of colourful images but also provides a platform to explore regional variations.

Will commercial communication tap into street art or will we just allow homogenised electronic-age images to smoothen all our diversity into a blander, uniform landscape...

Department of One

After Meraj left to join Rediff, I have been pretty much functioning as a department of one...

And managing it reasonably well(that's what I feel)! I have realised that small planning cells in small agencies could do well with a lot of crowd sourcing...

At times, I have opened up problems and tapped into the wisdom of the community/ blogosphere. Totally, unimaginable few years back/even last year!

John(Grant) for macro issues; Neil, Thotblurb for idea bouncing...Reshma, Dina for research learnings...
The nodes of interaction/ learning are expanding every day!

However, this also has meant putting in a lot of trust in people!
But the experiment seems to be working...

The Future of Futures

Around this time last year, I was busy trying to predict(in my little, limited way) the possible trends for 2007. Have a look here(2007 - 50 Drifts)...

This time around, I have had the benefit of staying connected with online networks and the global wisdom for over a year and I find the world more complex and chaotic than ever before...

I don't feel the courage or the necessary talent/ wherewithal to even attempt a look into possible futures:-)

However, I came across this nice read on economist.com on 'The Future of Futurology'.

The message is simple : Think Small. Think Short.(SHUT UP)and Listen!

Image : Courtesy - gettyimages.com

Ganpati, Street Installations and Ghostbikes

My colleagues Varun and Bheda have created this masterpiece - a Ganpati made up of cycle parts. They had shared the thought while it was still a thumb-nail. At that time, I never fathomed it would come out this awesome!! It was displayed at the Kala Ghoda festival. You can read more about it here...

While all the praise and adulation coming their way is well deserved, perhaps the greatest words of wisdom came from a simple street-side urchin. “Bangaar se bhagwaan banaya!” (They made God from junk!) he exclaimed. Here’s wishing the duo much luck in their ‘divine’ bicycle mission!(Mumbai Mirror)

Wikipedia defines Street Installations as a growing trend within the "street art" movement. Whereas conventional street art/graffiti is done on surfaces/walls "street installations" use 3-D objects/space to interfere with the urban environment. Like graffiti, it is non-permission based and once the object/sculpture is installed it is left there by the artist.

While on my hunt for street installations I stumbled upon ghostbikes.org. Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists' right to safe travel.

The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003, and they have since appeared in nearly 75 cities throughout the world.I feel street installations have the innate ability to create Talk Value for brands. They straddle between the commercial and art worlds quite ambidextrously...The hand crafted installation gives the brand a more authentic voice. One just hopes it doesn't get over-abused by clients and brands in the future.