Experience Design and the 'Future of Cornflakes!!'

Was reading an article on Experience Design in the last issue of Contagious magazine.
Archiving some learnings...

1. The definition of what actually constitutes branding is increasingly broad. Branded touch-points now include everything from an online presence to a smiling customer representative and the band-aid solution of an advertising campaign is no substitute for a holistic, positive experience. If advertising is the end of the chain, Experience Design is the chain! - 'Jess Greenwood'

2. In today's world, any company that is working within products or services of any kind needs to stop this notion of expertise. the idea that they know best what the customer wants - quite a missionary stance, actually - and start creating with the very people they want to build products and services for. - Anna Kirah, a design anthropologist.

3. I have no idea whether the chemicals in Toilet duck are any good. I just like the fact that it's shaped like a duck. - Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group,UK

4. I'm convinced that some sort of Experience Design will become the master discipline for businesses that want to be good at selling stuff. - Russell Davies, freelance planner/ blogger

5. Looking around the work-arounds and self generated solutions that consumers create to navigate certain problems is infinitely more inspiring than sitting in a room with a one way mirror and saying "What's the future of cornflakes? - Paul Bennett, Creative Director, Ideo

Suddenly this reminds me of a packaging research amongst kids( I attended some 6 years back) where a fairly persistent researcher wouldn't leave the poor kid before he replied what story he remembered on seeing the Dabur Honey label...phew!!

These last two months I have tried to dig around a little(with my planner hat) in the conversation, social media space, the next two hopefully would be in Experience Design...

Ram Aur Shyam and the Power of Stories!!

Some time back I had promised myself that will pen this post about Ram aur Shyam!

Well, Ram aur Shyam were these two characters(detectives) created by the iconic India brand - Parle (Poppins) many decades back...They are not around anymore...The current Poppins tagline reads - Goli Rainbow Wali...Okay so why am I telling all this...

One fine day, as a harried father hassled for a different bed-time story every night, I decided to dig into memory and fished out 'Ram aur Shyam' from the attic of my memory!

- These Ram aur Shyam stories came as a serialised print ad on the back page of a children's magazine called 'Parag'(from the TOI group if I remember correctly, but went off the market more than a decade back)

- I loved Poppins(the differently coloured, button shaped candies - 10 to a pack) and loved these two characters who solved a crime using Poppins! Sometimes the Poppins trail led to the 'bad guy'. Other times the Poppins pack doubled up as a gun to hold up the baddie...

- Three decades later, on a whim and no particular reason, I decided to resurrect the two characters to satisfy the daily story needs of Neo...

- Little did I know that Ram aur Shyam would be an instant hit at par with Ben 10 and my rating as father which till then was trailing behind my wife by a mile would receive a shot in the arm LOL

- These stories are fairly interactive:-) Neo chooses the venue of the story every night(that's a whole new ritual)...Ram aur Shyam take a flight to that venue. So he chooses the airline as well...

- The success of these stories with my 5 year old son remind me of a sad truth : many Indian brands have often abandoned their well entrenched brand stories and carelessly moved ahead. Like Poppins did or like Ceat abandoned the Rhino story or like Air India fails to build upon the Maharaja mascot/ story...Onida had to ferret out the devil story from it's past to regain(well partially) it's voice again...

- The problem, I feel is never in the stories. It's almost always in the lack of belief in brand teams and the absence of imagination to recast them for the new times...

- Like I mentioned in the Ceat post, powerful brand narratives shouldn't be junked in a huff...There are ways and means to contemporise the plot and the characters.

- In fact the more the media gets cluttered, and the decibel level of brand hype gets raised, simple brand stories from the past might help communicate better.Stories will allow better conversation with the brand in the new social media eco-system that's getting constructed all around!

- I just hope with animation getting so evolved and games getting central to marketing to kids, maybe characters like Ram aur Shyam(and their contemporary avatars) will again find their way into the brand narrative...

Either ways, I marvel how a candy brand(mere zamane ka) came to my rescue in telling the daily bedtime stories:-)

P.S. Just couldn't find a copy of the old Ram Aur Shyam Poppins print ad...Hai kya kissi ke pass?

My2centsonsocialmedia

It's been a gap of two weeks from the blog...The longest in quite some time...Work, a few articles and general lethargy. No sublime or sacred reason to be away for this long. But actually the resolution not to blog from home might just be the reason:-)

Last Friday at our Media division's weekly meet, did a small talk on social media...These are the points I touched under the label - 10 Points to Mull About Social Media(For elevator pitches to clients, bosses and generally to impress other people:-)

1. It’s a Kick-Ass Learning Tool. Of course the price one pays is attention deficit...But if you can ride over it, you come up wiser! Am still struggling!!

2.Keeps you plugged in...I recently wrote an article on twitter and was rudely reminded by social media of the inaccuracy of some of the facts! Puts you on your toes all the time. One of the better researches I did for Nokia was using a college kid and her facebook account some months back!

3. Gives you a flavour of the new creative eco-system. More about that here...

4. Open Global Lab For Thinking. Don't exactly know how it's helping brands, but at the individual level all of us are growing because of the new connections we make every day!

5. Trend spotting. Often with a planning department of one social media and the web are the best trend spotting tools available...

6. Related to pt. 4 above, social media is a Gr8 Collaboration Tool

7. And of course a good( and equally bad) PR tool available to the individual, the brand and the company.

8. I have also found it very useful to Seed Strategic & Creative Content within the Agency and among Clients

9. It's a Fun Place to Be.

10. And my media team wud agree, it always displays - Signs of the changing/(ed) Media Landscape...

Maybe will try to thread them together into a more cogent piece later...

In case you want the presentation mail me at mannsinha@gmail.com

Be Born Everyday.

60 second commercial, 1 minute thoughts:-) Just saw the new Titan ad on youtube.

I liked the spot. My planner was harsher at 5/10. But Aamir is going the SRK way. Not that credible. Bit Preachy. 'Crafted-in-the-studio-reality'. But still better than what's on offer this month!

I was also grappling with the thought that 'naya idea nahin hai' but does that matter anymore!! And I felt 'Be Born Everyday' is a more powerful tag than 'Be More'. Hate this 'More' tag...

Teach India : Wish I Had Thot Of It

There often comes an idea you wish you had done it/ thought about it. The Teach India campaign from TOI is one suck kick-ass idea!

Brutally simple, yet immensely powerful and so sorely needed for India.

"Teach India" is an initiative by 'The Times of India' to help provide an equal opportunity for education to underprivileged children.

The aim of "Teach India" is to provide a platform to educated Indians to provide assistance in basic education to the unprivileged children.

"Teach India" will connect educated individuals with the specialist education providers.

'The Times of India' has tied up with select NGOs in the field of education in multiple cities across India.

Participants have to devote just 2 hours a day to teach underprivileged children, either in a formal environment or even informal teaching like story telling.

There were mote than 10K responses on day one. Some companies are volunteering batches of 50 employees for this...I just signed up!

Visual Thinking

I was there most of last week in Hongkong for a workshop! All the planners in the region were there...

For a change power-point was subservient to conversations. And there was loads of visual thinking! We drew and thought aloud and the other way around.

1. I was pleasantly surprised how powerful the medium could be in framing a strategic issue and trying to solve it.

2. It was a lot easier to co-solve problems when one thought in pictures.

3. What I liked most was that pictures allowed me to stay longer with the problem. I am going to adopt more of this visual thinking in my day-to-day work...

4. And would love to have a visualiser in the planning team. Or out-source one for planning!

5. It also saved a whole lot of time. Opened up time for thinking. We used this picture to make a point/ story/ thot thumb-nail about how planning can be made more 'influential'...

Motorola CrystalTalk

Good idea. Simple execution. Good use of YouTube! I wish Motos sold as much as Nokia!!

Here's a brand whose advertising and cool quotient leads the product...Whatdowedomoto?

Inkfruit : Design Democracy

It's been a week of meeting interesting people. After Aviator Simon on Monday, I met the IITian Navneet today! A designer and the co-founder of inkfruit.com.

Inkfruit is a web-based, T-shirt design co-operative!! Anyone can upload their T-shirt designs on the site. The winning designs get a prize and the designer gets his name printed on the T-shirt when it gets manufactured. You must check out this interesting site/ concept!

Am glad Navneet got in touch with me about a week back and today we met at the Inorbit Mall,Malad. I have been interested in design for close to a decade now. Well design and of late co-creation and community. So, I was happy that Navneet approached me to brain-storm on his project!

Every time I have stepped out of my little planning world, it's been very rewarding. Am sure, engaging with Inkfruit would be a similar experience...

Thanks Navneet for the free T-shirt(captioned Disco Fever '82)...

In the ride back to Bandra I also thought about my idea of starting a virtual creative content company based out of Mumbai, a book on co-creation, doing a design course(sometime soon)...

Earlier in the day wrote an article for Mint on the 'media snacking culture'. Turned out well...And a while back told Ram and Shyam story to Neo(the 20th sequel in as many days. More about it in some post soon:-)

Aviator Simon Wants to Fly

When we(my colleague Andee and myself) reached Mysore today, this Emirates Airways tag-line kept whirring in my head - "When was the last time, you did a thing for the first time"!

We were on a strange mission. We had come to Mysore to meet a young man who wants to build India's first home-made air-craft all by himself!

About a month or so back, he had sent an e-mail to Andee outlining his dream to him! Andee shared the mail with me and together we believed in the sincerity of his goal.

Many mails and phone calls later, here we were at Aviator Simon's city. He took us through his blue-print, his make-shift garage and the old decrepit air-craft in his college campus!!

His passion was infectious...I hadn't heard a voice quivering with excitement in quite some time...

Let's see how it shapes out. Simon doesn't need much cash for his experiment. All he needed was somebody to believe in his dream!

Later, Aviator wanted us to go to some happening disc. But instead we opted for ABHYANGA the Ayurvedic full body massage, followed by drinks at the Road, the theme bar at our hotel, funnily named - Sandesh the Prince!!

End of a memorable day...forever etched in our memories...

Voyeur : BBDO NY's work for HBO

One of the year's biggest integrated campaigns in the US, BBDO, New York's "Voyeur" project for HBO, picked up its second Grand Prix at Cannes today in the outdoor category. "Voyeur" has now won two Grand Prix in as many days after scooping promotions honors yesterday.

Part of an integrated-branding campaign many are expecting to also do well later in the week in the cyber category and in the titanium and integrated group, "Voyeur" involved projecting a massive video onto the side of a building in New York's Lower East Side.

Multiple points of focus existed within the projection, which imagined the building was cut away, revealing an interior rife with dramatic action that prompted viewers to visit the campaign website.

You can read the full article on adage here.

Jai Jagdish Radio - Cycle Agarbatti

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

Cannes Lions 2008 : Envy, Jealousy, Humility

The Lions have roared. And JWT India got the Grand Prix for Direct for the Lead India Campaign(TOI). Congratulations to Aggie and Team JWT. Great show!!

Here's the viral video by Craig Davis built-for-Cannes'08. I like his advice to the jury to trust their instinct while judging -"If you feel envy, give bronze; if you feel jealous, give silver. And if you feel humbled, the work desrves a Gold!"

What do we have today?

Summertime Rocks

Russell - from our old David Gang(now an agency left only in memories! Officially buried by Bates 1By1 last month)LOL, mailed me this link - a new song by Kailash Kher and a band called smoke! Quite kewl. Enjoy!

Youtube Insights : Applying Science to the Art of Viral Marketing

First read this article in HT Cafe Mumbai. Traced it to the original at Michelle Quinn's blog on LA Times. You can read it here.

After Google Analytics comes YouTube Insights - A feature introduced in March, gives YouTube account holders who have uploaded videos to the site a range of statistics, charts and maps about their audiences.

The data bring a little science to what has been the art of viral marketing, and the potential for big changes in how bands, television shows, movies and consumer products are promoted on the Internet.

Welcome to DIY marketing on the web. Insight is part of a trend on the Web. The social networking giant Facebook offers account holders a weekly report that, like Insight, is free -- and has a similar name, Insights. The information it provides is used by individuals and companies that have Facebook pages and want to hone their marketing.

-YouTube is becoming the world's biggest focus group.

-What's distinct about YouTube Insight is the immediacy of the information and the discovery element -how viewers found the content

-Ideally, the data provided by YouTube Insight will help identify better who true tastemakers are. What really sparks a viral campaign? What is the match to the flame?

P.S. The picture above is from Neemrana Fort, built almost 600 years before the youtube:-) About 100 odd km from Delhi where I was last week digging some insights on OOH communication.

Creativity 2.0, In-Game Advertising & TeliBrahma

I have to make a presentation to a bunch of creatives(of the ad agency creative department variety) on creativity 2.0 on Sunday!

Well have a host of ideas. Can share with anyone for a 'beer' and good conversation:-) While on the subject, read this article on in-game advertising in ET today. Chk out here...

Some nuggets from the same:

1. Gamers notice the brands that catch their eyes in online games. Music, chocolate, pasta or noodle lovers are likely to try the brands they see in the games they play.

2. The Zenith-Optimedia study says in-game advertising of various products contributes as much as 35% of the total revenues for gaming sites! Popular gaming portals like Zapak.com, Contests2win and Kreeda are looking at the model more seriously.

3. In-game advertising offers the advantage of understanding the profile of the gamers, which further helps in highly-focused communication with the right message to the target group.
Mental post-it - "I need to sit with a gamer over coffee once again".

4. The study found that all the gamers do take note of the brands being advertised in the games, but in-game advertising is influential for trials only among the chocolate, noodles and music lovers!!

5. Though online gaming is predicted to be $7-billion business by the end of 2008, it still remains a higher SEC phenomenon in the country. Of the total population of gamers, 41% belong to SEC A2, 20% to SEC B1 while just 9% belong to SEC C. Predictable.

6. If you think it is just the college going youth that is hooked to games, think again. The major chunk of gamers belong to 22-25 age group followed by those in the age bracket of 26-30 years. Apparently, women have no interest in the virtual gaming world. The study notes that 99% of the gamers are male while only 1% are female gamers.

7. Cricket is the most popular on-line game followed by chess, road fighter, boxing, FIFA, counter strike, pacman and football.

Does anybody have more bytes from this report??

The other early morning conversation I had was with a VC interested in Telibrahma! Got some understanding about localised blue-tooth marketing...

Must create a space for blue-tooth marketing in the creative brief from now:-)

CEAT : Born Tough. Died Unceremoniously

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here Comes Clickstreamers

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

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

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

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

Digital winds are blowing inside Indian agencies now:-)

Cricketainment : T20 Ishtyle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ferment, Huddle and BarNone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why People Love Twtr

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

The day just whizzed pass!!!

Blabnote : The World's 1st Vocal Social Network

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

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

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

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

Twitter. Thwitter. Reflection Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any thwitters on thwitter:-)

The Anaesthesia of Unconcern - 2

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

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

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

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

Jara Sochiye Aur Channel Badalye

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

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

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

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

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

The Anaesthesia of Unconcern

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Factory of the Mind

Most days i don't know when to shut the factory of the mind!

1. Work expands to fill the amount of time available.

2. Knowledge work has great elasticity.

3. Web 2.0 has collapsed all recognisable differences between work and play.

4. In an always connected world, when do you switch off? Do you switch off at the official hour which is a mere legacy of the factory days??

5. Why do I/ anyone get paid the same on their most productive days and the least...

Everything about the work-world has changed, but many things about the work-place remain the same!!

Shutting the mental assembly line now. Is it possible?

Cuteness Can Kill

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

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

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

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

Twitter Frees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Pie of Obsession

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

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

Think Something New

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

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

You can read the story at afaqs here...

Monday + Meraj + Mission + Marketing

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

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

You can read the entire story here...

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

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

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

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

Sunday, Taglines and Virtual Worlds

Yet again I am in Delhi on a Sunday! Got an early morning client presentation tomorrow...Missed taking Neo to the Juhu beach and bandstand!! Waiting for breakfast...

A while back had written a post on the 'diminishing return on taglines'. I had largely meant those of the 'xyz de variety - hila de, pila de, ghumaa de!

Here's an article on adage.com in support of the enduring power of tag-lines. Have a read here...

A good article by Reuben Steiger of Second Life on 'Merging the Real and Virtual Worlds' again on adage.com here...

Reubens insights peppered with my own...

- Virtual worlds are a significant and fast growing market.
Okay in India, it might take a longer time because of bandwidth issues but we need to be mentally prepared for the virtual world to export our brand thinking when bandwidth sorts out...

- Virtual worlds are a subset of social media, which accounts for 30% of consumer internet activity in the US according to Comscore.
As I mentioned in my last post, in India the media participants are largely fence-sitters around social media. A layer of virtual world is perhaps too much change, too fast:-)

I think it's time to start a digital media adoption and first steps consultancy under Tribal...Must speak to my colleague Leroy on this!!

- Virtual worlds turn the web into a "place," allowing users to connect face-to-face in real time.

- Early data suggest that levels of brand engagement in virtual worlds are extremely high. Millions of Us has conducted some 60 engagements in virtual worlds for clients with engagement per user ranging from 2 to 24 hours.

- There are 550 million users of social networks and as users begin to put virtual "rooms" on their pages, the game will change significantly.
Agree, as I flipped through the A G Lafley and Ram Charan book, Game Changer on the flight to Dilli yesterday, was wondering on similar lines. Though, nobody has the idea of how exactly the real and virtual worlds will collide, mash up in the next 18-24 months, what is undeniably true is that the game will have further changed for brands, marketers, analog and digital agencies alike!!

Four toast, some tea and a badly made omelette has arrived:-)...Enjoy!

MySpace is Full. What About Yours?

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

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

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

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

Agree with you on that one Mahesh!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great Indian Brand : Chandamama

Was returning from a client meet few days back when I noticed Chandamama on the pavement! Brought back childhood yaadein - Slouched on the bed and reading vikram aur betaal:-)

Picked it up for Neo. He was happy for precisely 5 seconds and then tossed it aside. Must read a story to him one of these days!!

Chandamama is turning 60 and digital. Check out this iconic Indian brand's web-site here...

You may wish to read a related story on HT here...

At retirement age, the once-fading title is poised to reinvent itself with an upgraded Web presence featuring interactive games and puzzles, downloadable wallpapers for cellphones and programmes on Worldspace radio!!

As a book, Chandamama has seen a revival too, going up to four lakh readers from 1.3 lakh in six months. To toast it, a 96-page comic book will hit the stands every four months from April 21.

Sunday Snapshot

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Main pointers from the article:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Goafest - Bajate Raho!!

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

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

Goafest - Bajate Raho

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Power of Sub-titles

I had to write about this.

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

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

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

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

You can read the rest of the article here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spoof-istaan Meri Jaan

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

Goafest - Day One

After a sleepy morning punctuated by a long breakfast, we huddled into a bus for the ad village at the Cavelossim beach!

I never remembered to take pics of the venue:-( Awesome arrangements guys! Goafest ver 3.0 is even better than the last two editions. Hats off to the AAAI and the team that has pulled it off!

Was looking forward to the talk by Jon Wilkins of Naked. (Sorry guys can't upload the seminar pics, haven't yet loaded the software on my new laptop:-(

Naked Notes(not in any particular order or importance)...
1. Communication media is a lot about language and behaviour today. The voice is extremely important.

In India, only a handful of clients and agencies are fanatically obsessive about the brand voice/ consistency. Hutch was a great example. Vodaphone still has a mixed identity/ voice!

2. Jon talked of the Australopithecus Media Man- this guy is separated from the entire creative process(Oh I think I know quite a few of them:-)
- he/she is focussed on implementation(manzil ka ishaara lagey raho!!)
- gets his orgasms from 'pure number crunching' however irrelevant they might be
3. With the gradual and now exponential erosion of advertising power, advertising cannot be a lead discipline anymore.

4. The next evolutionary stage is the 'Neanderthal Media Man'
- this guy is an active activation partner
- he/she is also a partner in the creative process
(John showed an amazing Case Study on the 118 helpline number. Can read the details on afaqs here
- he believes in amplification through localization
- and deeper engagement(shared the hilarious and hugely effective Vindaloo case study. Tried to find the video on youtube in vain. Satish - help!

5. And finally at the fore-front of evolution is the 'Modern Media Man'. Yet to be born in India- my guess!
- this guy is a total brand communication thinker. Actually he/she may not be a media person at all.
- steeped into IMC- not as a word on power-point but into his DNA and thinking.
- believes into and roots for a core creative idea, not a media buyer, seller or implementation guy.
Jon shared a case study of a chai brand - Adventures in a cup(what a lovely idea)

Actually we will have to soon get back to a stage of the media rolled into the creative process, rolled into a department, perhaps rolled into one person era!

This whole new media game is about a brand theatre. Maybe finally the director in the job titles - Media Director, Account Director, Planning Director will have to mirror the skills and talent of a 'film director'!

- this new guy is all about 'integration thinking'
- focussed on the marketing task and not merely the communication task, through the correct channels

Loved his ingredient list for the House of Naked
a. The Warriors - the talented folks who will make the brand theatre happen
b. The Freaks - diverse talent pool
c. Dr. Zhivago - no vested interests
d. Talent Soup - mix em up, mash em up
e. Out-source everything but the thinking
f. Measure Everything. Clients pay great dollars for this.

Well, pretty much the stuff I ranted at my last agency to do in the digital space!!

Thanks Jon, we need more pirates like you at the cusp of the media and creative industries...

Saw the cyber, DM, print and TV work! To my disappointment, print continued to be scam infested. TV, thanks in large measure to Ogilvy had great stuff!

Will share the Scott Goodson notes in another post. In the evening there was a great party organised by Zoom! Food, booze, more booze...zzzz.

Goafest - Day Zero

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

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

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

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

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

Agency Planners vs Brand Consultants

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

Got me thinking. My two pence on this issue.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Money for process, solutions for free:-)

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

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

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

Maybe this topic needs a re-visit sometime soon!

The Week That Was

If I had any notions that I would travel less in the new job, they got blown away in week 1 itself. With trips to Delhi and Chennai(actually the lovely beach at Mahabalipuram) looks like 2008 would be a near repeat of '07!!

The week-end itself was most memorable for some blue-sky chats with a close friend on 'new business ventures' in the 'hospitality space'...Something to really look forward to in '08...

Saw Rajat Kapoor's Mithya. Quite enjoyable. Ranbir Sheorey is very good. Though, I found Naseer Saheb & Vinay Pathak wasted in smallish roles. But Naseer was enjoying himself as the flashy gangster with snake-skin shoes and red glares!!

Read a nice write-up on the return of Chitrangada Singh by Nisha Susan in Tehelka(please subscribe to this mag if you haven't). You can catch up on this story here!

And finally Hal Riney, the maverick ad legend passed away earlier last week at 75. Check out Jeff Goodby's finely written piece as he reminisces about his mentor's friendship, complicated nature and 'The Moment' at adage.com here. Another write-up on the creative giant here...

Funnily, while re-arranging the stuff(physical, emotional, transactional) of my life to fit into a new job, the blog plays the role of that stable repository of thoughts and feelings that's contiguous. A placeholder that knows no boundaries of WPP or Omnicom...LOL

This week - Goah!!

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...

Digital Media - Banyan Tree

The world's biggest agency groups are battling to expand their presence in Asia's fast-growing digital industry. After a series of big-money deals and big-name hirings, who is leading the pack?

Check out the complete story on DigitalMedia website here...

Lin-storm : the new digital model!

Among the first signs of a formal analog and digital media company courtship(to my knowledge) is the tie-up between Lintas Media Group and digital agency Pinstorm.

Linstorm will offer a pay-for-performance model for digital platforms like the internet and mobile phones. This will mean that the client will pay for the advertising only if the campaign meets pre-determined targets which could be in terms of the number of clicks, impressions or conversions.

You can read the complete story here.

Mahesh Murthy, founder, Pinstorm, had this to say- “The idea is to bring the share of digital in the total Indian advertising scene to the tipping point of 7% from its current levels of 3-4%.”

The Linstorm model would be interesting to watch for the nascent digital advertising market in India!!

ActiveAds

A while ago while browsing through a WIRED issue had come across a Canon/Nikon ad(sorry can't remember which brand exactly). It was an example of what I term as an ActiveAd.

It had no fancy art, no tag-line, no hyped brand promise, just an equation of DIY features, some benefits and a link to know more about the product. Many tech brands I have observed follow this format of an ActiveAd.

Maybe we could follow the lead in FMCG, durables and other categories as well!

So what makes an ActiveAd.
1. Obviously it will lead the reader/ browser to some action.
a. Goto www.checkoutthisstuff.com
or b. Try the product demo at physicalspace.com or virtualreality.com
or c. Cut this ad and get 10%off at physicalstore.com

2. ActiveAds can do without taglines...They show the product, they talk about the benefits. They excite you about the technology without geek-speak!

3. Information is more/ equally important than the brand 'image' art/ layout. Don't keep on repeating the headline. Behave like a retail environment. Tell me more about the product ingredients, the underlying technology, the benefits, the sourcing story, the environment stand of the company, the packaging stories, etc. Throw me a new nugget/ factoid instead of irritating me with the same baseline...

4. Active ads allow participation. Our current TVCs are not active. They are passive bombardments on our senses. But with a little bit of imagination and digitisation, all advertising forms can be made more active!

and 5. ActiveAds aim more at behaviour change rather than worry about awareness and recall scores only.

These are still WIP thots. We should aim at making all the ads more active! It's better ROI.

If you come across any blog posts, articles around this subject, please lemme know!

Happy Holi...Maybe no more posts till Monday!

Time-Poverty : Jame Raho!!

Got an early morning mail from Jo who now works for the Henley Centre Headlight Vision(the WPP global trends and insights company).

Anyways, few clicks later I was reading this post by Josh Hunt on the HCHLV site on time-poor consumers! Read the post here...

Marketers/ advertisers often lament about consumer time-poverty but the fact is most often clients and agencies are equally time-poor. Of course this is largely a case of self-infliction.

We have a chk-list in our minds and we want to tick-them off asap! Whither listening, whither deep probing, whither better questions:-)

Kas Ke Joota Kas Ke Belt, Khons Ke Andar Apni Shirt
Research Ki Chali Sawaari, Planners Pe Bhaari Zimmedari

Haath Mein Brief Man Mein Dum, Insight Nikaalke Rahenge Hum
Har Eyeball Se Takrayenge, Tas Se Mus Na Honge Hum

Research Ka Naara Jame Raho, Boss Ka Ishaara Jame Raho
Planning Ka Naara Jame Raho, Clients Ka Ishaara Jame Raho

Ye Sote Bhee Hain Attention, Power-point Ki Hai Tension
Mehnat Inko Pyari Hai, Process Bilkul Sarkaari Hai

Ye Research Par Hi Jeete Hain, Ye Insight Saare Peete Hain
Deadline Pe Sote Deadline Pe Khate, Taan Ke Seena Badhte Jate

Research Ka Naara Jame Raho...

(Sincere apologies for bastardising TZP lyrics...But hey it's UGC and I can surely get a reprieve and a laugh:-)

Unilever : Digital Khiladi No.1

Unilever is the Adage Digital Marketer of the year(2007). You can read the article here...

Post-its for personal archives...

-None of Unilever's campaigns was purely a digital campaign. Each was woven inextricably with other media and marketing tactics, such as TV spots, PR, content integration and shopper marketing.

- Digital is today a critical part of the storytelling for our brands - says Rob Master, the North American Media Director.

- The key to the digital efforts is what Rob calls "superdistribution," the idea of getting web programs, most often video, picked up by other media - most often for free.

- Reverse Repurposing : We used to repurpose things from television for the internet. Now the ideas we have are so rich and creative ... we're able to feed that into all these other channels from digital.

- A 30-second ad is a story we pull together for consumers on TV. Digital is an extension of that storytelling in typically longer format. And the richness of the stories we can tell is a very important part of the strategy!

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.'