Friends on the Rise, Brand Friendship on the Wane(?)

Read this interesting piece on 'Survival of Friendship' on the Edge.org site!

It led me thinking!

1. Friendship isn't dying out: it's just changing, adapting to the changes in the world. As a boy and as a young man or even 5 years back, there were not too many friends I had. I was a relatively quiet kind of guy. Self/work obsessed and quite boring. But the internet and the blogosphere is gradually changing that.

There are many more people that I open upto now. Hey, I feel I am reasonably extrovert in my virtual skin. It appears that the medium is changing my persona. After more than 3 decades, my buddy list is finally growing:-)

2. I today have friends whom I know only through e-mail/ chats who are as dear to me as my school friends; friends from my first job! And the funny thing is that geography and physical contact are not as important as I thought they would be!

3. This Edge piece also talks about - Throughout our lives we collect and store information about specific individuals, so that — just in case we ever run into them again — we will know how to act. We even store information about people we have never met and whose faces we have never seen.

However, when it comes to brands, I feel marketers and advertisers devote far too much time on consistency and repeating the boring facts everyone already knows. Whereas, if we want the friendship of people/ consumers, we must tell them, engage them with small tidbit about the brands. No coincidence that the best brands have a rich heritage and lots of small stories!

4. Many mobile service brands/ many brands(in general) in India talk about customer friendliness. But when they send their bill statements or the bill alerts or even supposedly personlised communication, the tone and voice are not that of a friend.
It's that of a self-obsessed manufacturer, an aggressive marketer or just a stiff uncaring voice!

Quite a few Indian brands have an impersonal voice(if they have a distinct one at all!!). I feel, they quickly need to loosen up in this new brand world! Because the eyeballs are:-)

5. Till the time we don't give up our obsession with war terms - target/ captive audience, capturing market share, etc., we will have a tough time making brand friends.

So it is ironical that while people are opening upto total strangers and making friends, brand friendship(at least in India) appears to be on the wane...Brand relationships are increasingly transaction-oriented despite the hype created by ads.

P.S. One notable exception in 2006 - the new age brand/concept 'Couchsurfing.com'

The Net Effect

John(Grant) is doing a workshop on 'How has/will the internet transform marketing and retailing?'. On his blog he is looking for thoughts, POVs, foresights...

Here's my 'chawanni' of thoughts...
1. With increase in internet penetration, will the www become one giant Superstore?

2. Will there be a global homogenisation of wants? Like everyone wants an iphone at the same time. Then a neo-moto...Essentially global fads...Glocal fads...

3. Since the sellers connect with buyers, would we need marketing at all?
Does marketing need to be obsessed now with only authenticity, how to make the sale interesting, tone of voice and ensuring that technology keeps its complexities out of the way!!

4. Will all shop facades have the signage www.allshops.com?
www.bademian.com, www.ruddalsamosa.com(my school canteen), www.fabindia.com...

5. Will parking rates at malls drop(incentive schemes) and real estate become cheaper?

6. Will payment gateways be the next giants?

7. Will RSS mean ‘really simple shopping’?

8. Will mobile internet > internet through PC

9. Will Google sense my needs(though my search/ click prints), take intelligent orders and do home delivery.

10. Will ideas be traded? Will more services like Yahoo Answers come up on the internet?

11. Will it be cool/ a lifestyle statement to be off the 'net' for small/ long periods? LOL

Its fascinating to think about the future today. Since all of it may come true sooner than we think. It may not have the same shape though:-)

Kaun Hai The Baadshah of Hearts?

Just read Kapil's and pooR_Planner's posts on KBC3.

And since I found myself in front of the TV almost a full hour before the show started, just thought I would pen down why I like Shahrukh so much(mostly- I hated him in KANK and some other movies)...

The last time I took some time to think about SRK-fandom was in Bandhavgarh in the company of Shyam Babu(Benegal) with a group of travellers on a special 3 day boutique package arranged by my friend Ram.

We had debated the immense popularity of SRK, whom the intelligentsia loves to hate!

Now SRK if you realise is a perfect blend of grey/ crossover. Perfect for the times that we have been living...

SRK is a blend/ rich brew of
The man on the street meets the King

Indian Diffidence meets Rising India (Long before India Shining happened)

Talent meets Jugaad

Hero meets Villain Darr

NRI aspirations meets Rural India Swadesh

Bollywood meets Cool (Remember, how cool was earlier reserved for Hollywood actors alone). Of course, the general aesthetic contours of Bollywood have changed. And guys like Manish Malhotra have an equal role in it.

Dil Maange More meets Wahi hoga jo bhagya mein likha hai(Most of his love plots, including Chupke Chupke)

Flaunt meets Family Value The man & his family life

Honest Muslim meets Hindu Wife

Love meets Arranged Marriage DDLJ

Romance meets Commerce His marriage, Mannat, His paid-for-dances at weddings

Somewhere, when I was younger, I liked this grey shade honesty in SRK. The intelligence and his voluntary playing to the gallery for money! And then his blatant honesty in admitting it.

I love him because he is himself. Most times. Long before India Poised happened, SRK had the cheeky confidence that I thought only Pakistani fast bowlers seemed to have in the sub-continent.

I like him because he is a family man and loves his kids.

I like him because he doesn't time his cause marketing efforts with the release of his films. I have a feeling one other Khan does that.

I like him because he is gizmo-saavy. He is the new-age face of an archaic but immensely powerful industry called Bollywood.

I love him because he(along with Karan) knows the value of creating and perfecting an image. Look at the way he has re-invented his look from Deewana to Don. (Actually all of them have - Aamir, Salman...)

I like him because with so little acting talent, he can get a Nation's love and adulation.

Okay, back to KBC. I wasn't disappointed. Loved him, music video, humour, ada/ idiocy and all.

I think he was true to himself! All style, little originality but no pretence as well.

In the age where celebs are part of the larger community, the hug makes him more accessible(its actually using the Munnabhai jhappi!). I was myself appalled at the hug idea at first, but on TV it wasn't that bad.

KBC is a borrowed and heavily templated concept, little room for deviation. In an atmosphere where the critics, AB fans are all out to take his ass, poor guy better stick to the AB benchmark.

AB is a legend, SRK is the reigning King of Bollywood and that should be left at that...:-)

Like AB, SRK is a meta brand. He needn't do much now to enjoy that status.

As as I was about to end the post, my mother called me.(To remind me that it's Saraswati puja today)So, I asked her if she liked KBC3? She said she loved it. More than KBC 2. Because Shahrukh "khoob hasaya"(made me laugh). I agree. I laughed. Are those the jokes which a savvier, more intelligent audience would laugh at. Never. But KBC is to a different SEC. The SEC of mainstream India!

Which other star would have the balls to say on National TV that "Log kehte hain, main sirf style hoon, mujhe acting nahin aati hai. Sahi hai". (I am all style, no acting prowess) and that "Aap jo chahein main woh colour ka coat pehenooga, agar boley to petticoat bhi pehenooga"(I will wear any colour coat that you want me to. If you insist I will even wear a petticoat"

You can love him, or loathe him. But you won't be able to ignore 'The Baadshah' and he will drive the TRPs up for sure...Now Shahrukh don't let me down:-)

A Cocktail of Alleged Racism, Engineered TRPs and Resurgent Pride

Read this analysis by Vir Sanghvi of HT(Hindustan Times) in his Sunday column. I find him amongst the best planners(Indian) outside the advertising space. With decades of journalistic world-view, a well-travelled mind and a liberal POV, I love to see the world through his sharp lens.

This morning's analysis was on the Big Brother/Shilpa Shetty fracas! Was in two minds whether to write on it. But then John's(Grant) post on the subject made up my decision:-)

Below is a mish-mash of Sanghvi's opinions and my thoughts on the subject.

1. Sanghvi - "Lets not pretend the fracas is because Indians(in general) are concerned with racism in England. They can burn down an entire block of flats in the East End of London without a single educated Indian giving a damn about all the poor displaced Bengalis. They can beat up hapless Gujarati children in Leicester and it won't even make it to the Indian papers. Compared to the kind of racism that Asians in Britain sometimes have to face, the Big Brother abuse is kid stuff!"

myTake - Was not really aware of the extent of racism prevalent in Britain. In the wake of the Big Brother hue and cry, many skeletons are tumbling out of the closet.
But agree with Vir, Shilpa's case appears to be one of 'designed racism'- made-to-order for reality TV fare!!

2. Sanghvi - "The real reason we(read middle class India) are so shocked is because Shilpa Shetty is not a British Asian. She is one of us. And each time her housemates call her names, the slurs tap into the collective insecurities and resentments of English-speaking India."

myTake - Sanghvi has got it bang-on. This controversy(I can only pontificate on the Indian side of it) has little to do with racism in Britain. For glued-to-prime-time-TV-middle-class-India, the abuse comes at a time of resurgent pride and sundry accolades from the world. Calling names at a time of 'booming economy' and the season of great self-congratulation. And that's where it hurts middle class India.

3. Sanghvi - "Each abuse brings back memories of having to stand in immigration queues at Heathrow or JFK, never quite sure of how the official behind the desk will behave; of applying for visas and having to prove that we are not going to become waiters in some Southall curry shop"

myTake - Well, haven't been to the UK; so can't comment on the immigration queues and the sore points raised.4. Sanghvi - "This episode reminds us of the awkwardness we feel each time we meet a Brit or an American and they tell us they can't understand what we are saying because our accent is too strange; of the abuse the young people who work in our call-centres have to face when Americans realise they have been connected to Gurgaon or Bangalore.

myTake - Fortunately, in my limited interaction with Brits and Americans have never faced such a problem. However, am aware of the abuse faced by the BPO industry. But my guess is those incidents are few that are generally blown out of proportion and context for political mileage. But they need to be condemned nevertheless.

5. Sanghvi - "And at some subliminal level, memories of the Raj have been burnt into our DNA. We remember the era of Whites-only clubs, of having to defer to some British half-wit even though we speak his language so much more fluently than he ever will, and of sadly recognising that no matter how well we do, the white man will always think that he is better simply because he is white and we are not."

myTake - I was born into Independent India. So I don't quite have the Raj memories. But while growing up was acutely aware of the disparity between the 'First and the Third' worlds. And while Sanghvi is at his vitriolic best, a lot of his sentiments are sadly true. The furore in much of Europe over LN Mittal's take-over of Arcelor had less to do with commerce and more to do with the colour of his skin!
So, yes I agree with Vir, the Big Brother reaction is a cumulative reaction of a simmering middle class.

6. Sanghvi - "Over the last decade we have told ourselves that India is the flavour of the new century. And then suddenly we see one of our better actresses, being humiliated by white trash. When we(middle class India) take up for Shilpa, we are responding to centuries of humiliation and hurt. We are serving notice that the old days are gone and done with. This is the new India. And we don't take this kind of crap any longer."

myTake - But for the fact that this particular episode was engineered for TRPs, the lead victim has been paid a whopping Rs. 3.5cr, I agree with Sanghvi's observation.
A sharp back-lash from resurgent India was bound to happen sooner than later. This media blown event just proved to be the right trigger.

7. Sanghvi - "The Indian reaction is not about racism. It's about Nationalism. About our coming of age as a country. About a new pride in ourselves. Within a month the Big Brother controversy will be forgotten. But am glad it happened. It told us something about ourselves. And more important, it told the world that the new India will not allow itself to be messed with."

myTake - Yes, indeed this is not about racism. Indians, themselves are fairly racist!It's about the pride of being Indian. And its getting manifested through Bollywood - "Rang De Basanti' is a story of a Nation awakened; mass media(TV channels and newspapers are running sundry campaigns to celebrate 'Rising India'. And everywhere its this constant chant of 'India Shining'.

Of course this resurgence story is the story of just one amongst the many Indias. But this is the dominant India that's young, has money, goes to the malls, buys foreign brands, spends more than saves and watches reality TV.

As I said, this game is a heady cocktail of alleged racism, engineered TRPs & glocal non-events, big moolah for marketers and resurgent pride among the wallet-heavy middle class India:-)

Mumbai Marathon

It's that time of the year again. Mumbai will put on its shoes and run tomorrow! I won't. Missed the deadline...Not that I am keen runner:-)

Around 27000 participants, 1700 marathon runners, 7000 half marathoners, 17500 dream runners, 2500 60+ guys, 300 on wheel-chairs...

I had done this ad for the Standard Chartered marathon last year(unpublished)...

Related post: Me Mumbaikar, Me Marathoner

Ads Everywhere

Had read some interesting pointers onJohn Dodds post - Madison Avenue RIP, few days back. He had commented on this NYT article. Essentially the article talked about this craze among marketers to sell ads on any/ all new space - be it a video screen in a taxi, a turnstile, the examining table in a doctor’s office or eggs!!

With all this globalisation and the consequent shortening of time lag in any marketing adoption, I feel India is not very far behind in this sensorial assault by marketers/ advertisers.

Was in Bangalore yesterday for a meeting. Between the airport ride and the time spent in Cafe Coffee day and even the bus ride to the aircraft parking, it was difficult to dodge ads. They were everywhere. In your face between the amusing to the annoying!

Here's a small sample!
There was this little boy dressed up as a Dalmatian in front of a retail store!! Ostensibly trying to attract traffic/ foot-fall/ buyers/ whatever.
I found it appalling. At par with the inhuman bill-boards at Mahim creek.Next was this 'message for Tata Indicom's Internet service' on the napkin holder in the restaurant at the airport.
Quite apt(since the airport and most parts of Bangalore support wi-fi connectivity), done subtly and therefore low on AQ(annoying quotient)

Then, there were these 360 units for the Bollywood movie 'Salaame Ishq'(a simple film based quiz on the table coaster and as an insert with the coffee bill) which I thought were quite interesting. However, since I am biased against this movie itself, there was little connect. However, the medium itself is quite good/ intrusive for very-short-shelf-life products like a Bollywood film.

And then there was this Bajaj Allianz insurance ad on the luggage tag. Absolutely the worst place to put an ad. It's not at eye-level. Once you put it, there is no apparent reason to look it over. It's too frivolous a medium to advertise a concept like 'insurance'.I guess in this game of 'ads everywhere' we need to keep in mind some basic rules.

My take - 1. Be the first to use a new medium but avoid duplicating. Step out before it is clutter.
2. Try never to annoy folks. They are leading busy and streeful lives.
3. Be authentic, not pushy
4. Appeal to the intelligence of the consumer and not treat them only as eyeballs
5. Always respect who the brand is and what the context is. What worked for Adidas did not work for that Bank in the NYT article...Be sensitive.
6. Avoid information/ communication overload.

We must remember Simplexity > Simplicity > Complexity...

Two Indias Among The Many

I love the new Times Of India campaign - India Poised. Gulzar's lyrics and the English version penned by Aggie, both are very good. Check out the videos on Indiapoised.com

There is no one way to describe the current growth/ phase of India. It's an interesting mish-mash of Elephant and Tiger paradigms...And therefore the two India route makes a lot of sense(and has been handled with a degree of sensibility)!

Definitely one campaign, I wish I had done.

Though, Amitabh in his nth commercial is straining the boundaries of celebrity endorsement. But he is a Meta Brand and can do no wrong:-) Gulzar saheb as always is awesome...

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\

The Mumbai Festival

14-28 Jan...It's on! Meraj/ Harshal - what's on offer this time around?

Video Police

Read in the TOI today that the Canadian police posted a nightclub surveillance video on YouTube, hoping to generate leads in the murder of a 22 year old concert-goer. 13 days and 17000 hits later, the police nabbed the suspect.

Both the Canadian and the US police have actually been using the YouTube for this purpose consistently. And in more than one case the suspects have turned in!

With upto 35mn visitors a month, the YouTube video travels far and wide. An ad on TV will have a frequency of 3-4, but on YouTube, the video stays as long as as one wants it to!!

So, while many youth brand marketers in India are still nervously waiting on the edge of new technology/ new culture, examples such as these from the other side of the planet teach us how to tap into popular youth culture to serve our needs!

Arranged Love, Love Arranged

I have written earlier on the subject of marriage portals and how these portals are more about family psychology than technology!

The Great Indian wedding is amongst the most colourful, engaging, furiously-reinventing, cross-over social concepts of our times. And therefore of utmost interest and curiosity to me. Found this very well written and researched piece by Tavishi P. Rastogi in HT Brunch.

I have tried to summarise the main points raised over this business of 'arranged love' or better still 'love arranged' marriages.

A recent survey of 603 young men and women in Delhi and Bombay(between the ages of 17 and 25) revealed that a staggering 93% approve of arranged marriages!!A generation ago, metro India rebelled against the very idea of arranged marriages. So, why does Gen Now want Mummy-Papa to find them spouses?
Many cultural/ societal/ individual shifts have been happening often at high pace that have resulted in this...

1. Defiance --> Compliance
Then - The caste/sub-caste restrictions on marriage were far more stronger; so young couples in love had to necessarily rebel.

Now - The new nuclear family parents are far more accomodating and relenting to inter caste/ even inter religion marriages...hence, love is accepted and complied with and almost invaribaly accompanied with the pomp and panache of an arranged marriage! I just attended one such marriage in Mangalore last week. In fact at the sangeet, the love story of the bride and groom was enacted as street theatre with the accompaniment of Bollywood music in front of parents, elders and close friends and relatives!!

2. Risk Takers --> Risk Averse
Then - Love was worth taking the risk of parental disapproval and societal flak.
Love marriage was an emotional decision!

Now - Career obsession by both partners, extremely busy lives and a comfortable lifestyle are too tempting to risk over the mundane but necessary subject of marriage.
Arranged Love marriage for many is a 'considered decision'.

3. Social Decision --> Individual Decision
Then - Part of the angst among young couples was that almost everybody(except the groom and the bride) had a role and decision/ veto power. Arranged marriages involved joint/ consensual decisions.

Now - Arranged love/ love/ love arranged are individual decisions, aided by the internet/ open source parents/ nuclear lifestyles. Diasporic joint families are more for props in the back-drop of a well choreographed sangeet than for 'decision making'.

4. Life Partners --> Lifestyle Partners
Then - Arranged or love marrianges were to get a spouse as life partner.

Now - Young men and women today are looking for perfect spouses/ complete packages/ perfect 10 partnerships that will complement their carefully constructed lifestyles.

5. Hi Tolerance, Lo Expectations --> Lo Tolerance, High Expectations
Self explanatory. Bound to happen when marriages are increasingly being treated as lifetsyle choices/ decisions!

6. Then : Arranged = The arrangement of finding a nice match(status & family compatibility) done by elders

Now : Arranged = The convenience of a finding a safe match(individual compatibility and parental acceptance)

For an increasingly consumerist culture, the market forces are bound to intersect personal spheres. Therefore, marriage contracts, arranged loves, and lifestyle partners are it's natural fall-outs...


Of course no trend completely replaces the earlier patterns or basic human needs, values and aspirations...

Truth Well Told - About what we do and not about McCann

Saurabh has this interesting post on How to explain to your Nani(granny), what planners do...Do read it! A problem all of us face at some point/ all times...

However, for some time now, I have held a contrarian view on the subject...

Why do I need to explain what I do to my bua, or nephew the way 'planning' is...

Does a NASA scientist or somebody who worked on the 'Genome' project or a professional bird watcher do that. Maybe/maybe not...

Why this insecurity/ anxiety/ constant need to justify what we do? Lets Chill!
The more convoluted the world thinks our job is, the better - the sundry accusations of self-indulgence notwithstanding!

Well what do I say to my circle of influence/ dependency(currently)

To my father - National Planning Director(guess he loves the words - National and Director). He still hasn't fogiven me for not sitting for the IAS:-)

To my mother - consumer research bordering on psychology..she is a psychology prof!!

To my brother - even paced life, okay money, a career I am passionate about. Don't think these days he cares(he is 22 and at P&G)

To my wife - no need to tell, she now knows an equal measure and though she is in HR, at times she is quite analytical like a planner...read - little room to BS her!

To my distant relatives - neighbour to SRK. "I must be doing sth good" LOL

To my nephews and nieces. I make the ads you see on TV. Truth(part) well told:-)

To my friends in marketing. You have the money, I have the time/fun...

To my son. My office is as good as your play-school. The only time he loves his planner papa more than his mamma...But then I am lucky with my office design...

To my students/ any student...account planning is a sexy career. You do what you want. Even some creatives/creative types now want to be planners LOL

Lets enjoy the art-n-craft...

Keep it simple and yet mysterious...
Pensive and Passionate
Gyan and Guts
Power and Power-point
Sensitivity and Soft power
Strategy and Tactics

The more I think the more I feel, Account planning is a huge continuum between 'Being a Rockstar' and 'Being a loser'.

Any thots/ vehement disagreements/ convivial convergence on the last comment!!

Grey Worldwide - Life not the Agency

While flipping through the India Today Special Issue(Jan 8 - 2006 Year of Remixes),these two images struck me most! And once again there was this acute sense of realisation that no part of our world/ brand world is black and white any more. Just about everything is a shade of grey...

For many years now, grey has been the dominant colour of popular culture. And in most of the lingering images of 2006, it's position in our lives and in mass media has been cemented.

1. Sanjay Dutt, the likeable star(the 'bechaara son' of Sunil Dutt and Nargis) of the years biggest block-buster-Lage Raho Munnabhai and the proponent of Gandhigiri is actually facing conviction under TADA! Similar fate awaits the darling of the Bollywood fraternity- Salman Khan...

2. News TV, founded on the values of 'Sabse Tej', 'Sach Dikhate Hain Hum', Haqeeqat Jaisi, Khabar Waisi' has actually become 'Tamasha TV in it's relentless lust for TRPs and sticky eye-balls.

So, every jhatka of a dance bar girl, the macabre child deaths in Noida, the unfortunate fall of a boy in a ditch make for 'Breaking News' and high-decibel coverage!
News TV is the new grey zone between reportage, activism, sensationalism and ludicrousness!

3. Politics has always been in the grey zone of 'criminalisation' and 'vote bank politics'

4. Prime time entertanment(saas-bahu serials) has been in the grey zone of 'slick-and-high-decibel-marketing, 'idiocy', idea-bankrupcy' and 'regressive themes'.

5. The newspaper brand that starts the year with a 'Let there be light' slogan ends the year with 'I will get into scandals' resolution!! It's a strange variegation of light and darkness here. LOL

6. Colas have now been in the grey zone of glamour, pesticide controversy and credibility-under-question celebrity endorsements.

7. Consumer behaviour has been in the grey zone of 'brand indifference' and brand-slutness as Marian Saltzman calls it!

8. Companies are invading the blogosphere as well. Flogs-fake blogs are grey!
Few silly corporate attempts to penetrate Youtube, myspace, orkut are grey marketing examples...

Funny, how living in this 'Grey World' we still create 'pure' brand worlds/ brand keys and virtuous brand values laundry list...

Fig. The ad for Suzlon in ET today(the wind energy guys). Look at the pure world they are alluding to. A world that today exists only within the glossy pages of a magazine often not read!!(Suzlon is here just a representative example.)

- Would a grey world need a new brand thinking lens?

- What would today's kids call grey when they grow up?
Will it matter then?

- Will grey work in the long term or will there be a backlash...

- What is the threshold limit/ boundary of a grey world?

-Is this a meaningless question in an India Poised(the new TOI campaign) - that's drunk on its youthful exuberance, new found envy from the West and a general middle class(biggest market) self congratulatory mood?

- Once again Bollywood found its grey icon long before corporates or advertsing did. SRK in his various roles in movies like Darr, Baazigar, Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Don2 has been the Grey Baadshah for a decade now...

The public has accepted him. Will the consumer do the same? And aren't they anyways the same:-)

Guys, if you get the time do rack your grey matter on the grey world!

Related Post : McHealth and Brand Grey Zone

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

Watermelon and Rinku Master

Often knowingly or unknowingly I end up comparing my childhood with that of my 3 year old son Neo.
And wonder, gape, marvel, cringe, ponder, meditate at the differences and very often the similarities!

And this week-end when I took him to the kid-salon - 'Watermelon' in Bandra, I couldn't not think of 'Rinku Master' - my default childhood barber in Patna.

Some comparisons I made in my groggy head as I sat for Neo's turn.

1. Watermelon is quite a hip place on the top of a kids apparel shop called Ruff Kids on Hill Road, Bandra. It's got chairs shaped as toy cars and personal TVs for the tiny monsters while they get their hair-cut.

Rinku Master was a 8X8 place with few wooden chairs, dirty towels(by my new hygiene standards imposed on me by my cleanliness obsessed wife and MNC office environs) and Vividh Bharati on radio.

2. Watermelon to my horror had at least 8-10 hair-cut options ranging from the humble back-to-school cut to 'mellow-spikes' and 'action-spikes'!! Between Rinku master and my conspiring father, there was only one-cut through large tracts of my childhood. It was called 'katora(bowl)-cut'.

3. All the cuts cost an average of Rs 150 at Watermelon. Rinku Master charged me Rs. 5. I guess he still charges Rs 5. LOL. The only inflation proof economic activity in India other than the price of 'Raddi'(old newspapers sold by weight)

4. It was my father who invariably accompanied me for these joyless hair-cuts to roadside saloons. And the brief was always one-line and fixed in stone - "Ek dum chhota kar dijiye", "Hero cut nahin chahiye bachche ke liye"

Cut to Watermelon in Bandra. Except Neo all the kids(and now its a more gender balanced salon with cute looking girls in the waiting play area as well)
are accompanied by their Moms(what a welcome change!).

And the one-line brief has been turned on its head. It's the moms who are egging a hassled barber(ok hair expert) to give their child one of the 4 'spike-cut' options available on a proper designer menu!

5. Rinku had all duplicate brands. Maybe 'Godrej' cream and hair-dye were the only original products he housed. The rest were all cheap local imitations. Even the dettol was a diluted, dirty and unreliable concoction! Watermelon has all the fancy brands, which would cost more than the brands which a middle class father would use for himself!

6. I had my first plastic at the age of 25 when I passed out of B-school. Neo had his first loyalty card at age 2! And the first loyalty bonus reward of Rs.75( at Watermelon) at age 3!! It would be interesting to plot his plastic-engagement over the years:-) I have a feeling by 25, he might just renounce plastic/ or nano-embeds or whatever...LOL

7. But with all the technology, the hair expert never even bothered to ask Neo's name or smile even once( maybe he just had a bad morning/ hadn't crapped); on the other hand, years later when I had stopped going to Rinku Master, he still enquired about me. Through my father, he kept a track of my studies, and my first job, and then my wedding and once confided to my father that he wanted to cut Neo's hair as well.

And all this without a well-designed loyalty card and advanced tracking mechanism:-)

8. Like any child I hated getting a hair-cut and so does Neo. Some things will never change!

These and many thoughts keep swirling as I engage in many activities for Neo that I had done years ago. When the world wasn't so branded. And people talked less of loyalty and consumer delight and satisfaction surveys. Yet many-a-time delivered on all those parameters...

In the meanwhile, Rinku Master lost many of his clients who climbed the aesthetic and the make-over and the hygiene consciousness curve!

But the brand stays in my heart years after I stopped using the service.

Maybe it's nothing more than middle-age nostalgia about the 'good ole days'. Or maybe it's the beginning of the need for 'Simplexity' - well more about it later in another post:-)

Happy New Year to everyone and especially fellow planners, friends, family and colleagues!

Bekaar and Bekaar

I have been wanting to rant about the Brand Equity 'Best, Bekaar' poll and BE in general for some time now. Yesterday's cover story on SRK Vs Amitabh provided the right fodder.

SRK vs Amitabh, for starters is an idiotic comparison. Even otherwise, it's received it's share of coverage as a 3 part series in Financial Express and the cover story in India Today this fortnite! To top it, the BE article hardly had any new point to make on a rather irrelevant subject!

Increasingly I think, barring the odd syndicated articles from Wharton school, Campaign, Economist etc., most of Brand Equity reads like a Stardust of Ad World rather than analysis of major brand/marketing related issues...
True, it does have data, fancy charts and odd comments from experts but the rigour of research and editorial analysis is largely absent!!

I do remember till sometime back, it used to have much better editorial quality(of course relative to the BS Strategist).

It is becoming too page 3ish. And major stories read like racy thrillers rather than sound argument/ analysis. And a large number of stories would fall under the category - Bekaar!! It's a pity that the nation's premier(?) advertising supplement must abandon quality in favour of sensationlism.

Which brings me back to the Best-Bekaar column(which slots new TVCs under the two slots). I don't know who the panel is, but often their judgement is erratic and devoid of any advertising sensibility! Would put the column itself under permanent 'Bekaar':-)

I guess BE should go for a change of nomenclature to suit its new pg3 positioning and content!

Kool Kareers @ Bollywood

With so much of Bollywood around us, it's impossible to ignore it. In ET today there's an article on the cool careers that stars are role playing on-screen. One did have a feeling that unlike the 'berozgaar hero' of yesteryear's that did the rounds of offices in chappals, with his 'degree and certificates' in a file under his arm, hunting for 'naukari' to help his 'booddhi maa', stars are at the cutting edge as far as their on-screen careers are concerned!

Cut to the new millennium, we have stars all with jobs, living in palatial houses( even in Bombay), engaged in cool jobs(including advertising:-)

In Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Preity is a fashion editor, hubby SRK is a foot-ball star turned coach, Abhishek is a top PR guy arranging hot parties for dad - Sexy Sam!!

In Don2, Arjun Ramphal is a 'hacker'; in Krrish - Priyanka Chopra is a TV producer; in Lagey Raho Munnabhai, Vidya Balan is an RJ; Saif is an architect-turned-celeb-chef in Salaam Namaste and girl friend Preity is a med-student turned RJ!!; in Hum Tum Saif was a cartoonist and Rani was a fashion designer and SRK as a NASA scientist in Swades...

Some in-the-pipeline-films from UTV have the star as a footballer(Goal), as a call centre executive(Metro), etc.

It's difficult now to decide from the pace at which Bollywood is adopting 'hatke careers' what is driving what! Is Bollywood driving real life or vice versa.

Looks like once again Bollywood is at par with advertising(Wagon R, Saif in the Royal Stag ads)when it comes to depicting cool careers or maybe ahead of the curve yet again...And even in real life, you have a Karan Johar who is a film-director-cum-producer-cum-chat-show-host-cum-entertainment-channel-CEO all rolled into one!

Then again the comparison may not be fair. As ads have a shrinking time-compressed aperture of 20-30 secs whereas Bolywood has the luxury of 3hrs.

You could also check out - The Future of Bollywood

The Argument Continues...

The dust-storm raised by Santosh's interview on agencyfaqs has had a sequel today. Top admen have ranted...Rarely do Indian admen speak their true mind!

As always, I found Arvind's(Sharma) view-point to be the most fresh, the most holistic and future-ready...I have worked with him in the past and I found him a bloody good planner!

Here's my own 'chawanni'(again!!!)on the brouhaha that refuses to die-down!

From Manish — Tue 26 Dec 2006 02:23:14 PM (As commented on afaqs)

I agree with Arvind(Sharma)...The year when TIME magazine names 'YOU( the ordinary guy on the street) as the Person of the year...is the year that announces 'democratisation of creative'. And the declining power of the experts and the specialists.

And advertising is not facing unique challenges alone! Journalism is facing threats from blogs, marketing is facing threats and challenges from web 2.0, Bollywood is inpinging on hollywood and vice versa!

The world ain't what it was just a few years ago...And, we need new leaders, new thinkers/ planners to chart new roads...to places that may not even exist on the communication map today!!

Long term planning/ strategy benefits has been under attack by the likes of Mintzberg for long, consistency is under threat by engagement and surprise and what makes up a brand( globally or nationally) is itself under question and constantly being re-invented and re-imagined...

I think it's absolutely the best time to be in the 'communication business' as seen by Google, Youtube, Star and Zee, the digital players, most big agencies,...and the small cutting edge ones like strawberryfrog and 180, and CP+B and W+K and Mother!

India is integrating with the global economy and the smallness of thoughts or 'exhaustion' of individual efforts is likely to be over-taken by the aspirations of a hungry Chindia and a 'world that is coming to it' rapidly...

Absolutely the wrongest time(at least for the reasons cited) to hang up boots for anyone!

Related post : Why Now, Santosh

Merry Christmas

Yet another visual symbol of New India...A strange, sweet concoction of the old and the new, East and the West, elephant and tiger speeds, bizarre and the beautiful...

And young Neo with cousin ved on the trail of Santa marketing with occasional chants of Santa Ki Jai...LOL

Trial Room Pitching

For a middle-age, middle class(okay upper middle class) couple week-ends are increasing about 'Mall Crawling'. There in the glitz, glass-facades, you tend to(momentarily)forget the week's hard slog, the guilt of having not spent quality time with your only son and wife.

Malls are middle class/urban India's attempt/short-cut at buying happiness straight off the shelf! It's also an island of 'India Shining'. It helps one forget much of the chaos, drudgery and poverty all around. It filters out butt-brushes with only our kind of people(the right SECs)...

Sorry, I am in a foul mood(for no particular reason). Forgive me, Christmas is a time for merrymaking and stuff like that! Over to my planner/ marketer/ the world-as-a-commercial-ship mode:-)

Anyways, the point I was trying to make was that with odd exceptions, I have found most trial rooms to be virginal white and pure - devoid of commercial messages...

This is one place which needn't fret about permission bombarding...The guy is already in a mood to splurge and is trying to lose some wallet-weight. A little nudge ain't all that bad...Yes, I understand we don't want to put too much clutter in the mirror, but still it's worth a try!
Remember, in space-starved Mumbai, this is 4X4 square feet of quiet time(the queue outside notwithstanding)

How about...
1. Diet/ weight loss/ wellness/ fitness companies unfolding their packages while you unzip your pants LOL

2. Grooming salons and makeover plans for the gentleman and ladies?

3. How about perfume sniffing-strips and pitching that Hugo Boss one has been dilly-dallying for much of summer...
4. How about reminding to buy a shirt for your father? Ride on the guilt of buying for oneself alone.

I am generally not in favour of push-in-your-face-marketing but the trial room ain't the sanctum sanctorum and deserves better usage...Maybe, I am not that well-informed. And marketers of different hue have already raided this space. Do share your experience of trial room pitching!!

Related Post: Buyers, Shoppers, You and Me

Just Chrome, Steel and Endless Possibilities

In the December issue of Communication Arts, came across these Harley print ads...What craftsmanship! I wish we saw more of these closer home!

Build Yours.
Individuality as expressed with a wrench. Harley Davidson

Build Yours.
Every custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle is a reflection of the rider who created it.

Build Yours.
No right. No wrong. Just chrome, steel and endless possibilities. Harley Davidson.

Merry Christmas Guys!!

Why Now, Santosh?

By now, its highly probable that you would have read Santosh's Rant on agencyfaqs! In an industry already troubled by dropping intellectual capital, a major voice leaves. In fact, in the pre-blog/ net/ e-mail days, his was the lone planner voice that one heard in India...Sad, unfortunate...

My only question to Santosh is why now?

Of course, as a planner and as an ad guy who has himself been in the Indian ad business for about 13 years, I can identify with each of the points that Santosh has raised. They resonate. The frustrations, the angst. The smallness of people all around us. But isn't the worst behind us...

In the morning, I read an optimistic post on the state of media by FINK at ThotBlurb. And then I read this slightly bitter farewell note from a guy who most young Indian planners look upto!

Frankly, in the interview, Santosh doesn't tell anything new( rare for him)!
His rants are the familiar ones. What surprises me is that he was the CEO of a fairly influential agency. He was in charge. So, he could have initiated much of the changes he so desires a Pied Piper to champion! At least at McCann...

1.I feel the Pied Piper won't come from other industries. They are playing a much larger game. Having more fun than us in a gung-ho economy! House-cleaning is best done by the inmates!


2. Santosh also commented on the mediocre talent that the industry has and the problem of talent retention. Again I don't think McCann had a better scorecard against the industry standard.

Of the few bright, smart kids that we hire, many work in Vietnam type sweat-shop conditions and salaries(with a little dollop of exaggeration, it's true)...AE salaries in many agencies are only marginally more than the salaries of the drivers( with over-time) of the CEO in the same agency!

Many of the agencies today generate substantial profits for the big holding companies. If that's the case why is attracting talent so difficult. Of course, I have never run a business unit. So, I may be a little naive on the business and growth compulsions. Do forgive me for that...

3. On his specific comment that -"Admen get disproportionate media coverage, leading them into believing they’re 'big, hot and happening' and that “Advertising is too self-obsessed, judging by the number of awards we flank ourselves with..."

Well, I feel we should be grateful that with the small market capitalisation of our industry we still manage to dominate many col cm of space in media! We can't wish away the glamourous( at least the image/ perception) of our business. Bollywood gets disproportionate share of attention too! And they are the poster boys of the economy!

If our blown-up image adds to our influence as an industry, I think its a good thing. If the reference is specific to Prasoon Joshi, then it's a personal matter:-)

3. “Who knows? Someday, my love for advertising may pull me back!” .
And that's the point. Santosh's move appears to me more triggered by the ego clash with Prasoon and the new power equation at McCann than the accumulated frustrations from the advertising industry.

Each of the points raised by Santosh is undeniably true! But the fact remains when most of the World's biggest brands are making a bee-line for India. When the 800 pound gorilla called Omnicom and muscle flexing Publicis are gunning for India.
When the economy is Talking 10, it can't be the worst phase of advertising!

The worst I believe is behind us. Santosh, when the industry most needed guys like you, you have chosen to leave! Why's that?

Citizen Brand : Pashupati Nath Singh

It's funny how some of the best weekly articles surface in the Sunday TOI - a newspaper brand which I love to hate. Some of the write-ups on insights, cultural shifts, trends are good Sunday-reading-for-planner-types!

Came across this nice write-up on Pashupati Nath singh - a story about one man's efforts to mould under-privileged children into self-reliant beings.

65 year old Singh, runs the Patuck High School, tucked away behind rows of road-side shops and a well-kept garden at Vakola(Mumbai). Singh's students are largely under-nourished, under-privileged slum children often with severe learning disabilities. The courses here go beyond bookish knowledge and very often are centred on giving them confidence.

Pashupati Nath Singh, is a former director of Voltas. His 'Leaders of Tomorrow Project', aimed at bright children from Mumbai's slums is immensely popular among the slum/ street children near the airport, Mahim, Malvani, Dadar and Bandra.

Apart from reaching out to 3000 students in 26 schools in the city, Singh also annually adopts 32 poor meritorious students from the ninth grade for his India Scholar Award, a scholarship that ensures that these students are groomed by Singh and his academic partners till they graduate.

If interested, you can dig into the complete write-up in Sunday TOI(Dec 17). Meraj - you stay closest to Singh's school. Maybe, you can dig up the details if you wish...

I think if we can convince some of our clients to dole our money or to adopt the school, it would be a really great 360 project! Somebody like Bournvita(?)

I plan to compile such inspiring( relatively unknown) citizen brands. With the huge disparity between the classes, urban-rural divide, pg 1 and pg 4-6 lives,the only way India can truly shine is by supporting such grass-root citizen activism...And all of us can do our little bit. Any volunteers? Lets talk...

I strongly feel Planners need to be sensitive - not just to the tracking figures of cola/car/ cosmetic brands but also to the societal changes all around us! Often our lens is too focussed, our vision too narrow, our thinking too self-obsessed...Blue sky thinking -->Real 360 brand thinking should be about enveloping the consumers/ people at the fringe, bettering their lives. Cause branding has to be a big part in the new marketing/ 360game...

The End Of A Century

On Tuesday night, Lower Parel's(Bombay) Century Mill had it's last shift. I of the India Shining generation, I of the 10% GDP, sensex tanking at 14K generation have little to do with the mill and the lives supported by them. Except for the fact that my agency is in a former Mill(Kamla) compound...

Yet, this article by Soumitra Ghosh in HT on Thursday made me pause and think. Don't know what else can a feeling of one achieve...

Some heart-felt comments/observations from the article...

1. On the last day, as the mill was about to be closed forever, ironically the only source of light for the workers wanting to read about labour rights and exploitation, came from across the street - from the lifestyle store NOSTALGIA!

2. The worker in the picture above - Jagannath Ganpath Kamble, a resident of Chawl no. 14, with a partial disability had this to say -" I joined the mill as a fitter when I was 20. Now. I am 52. In 1982, I lost part of my middle finger while greasing a machine. but I felt a strange sense of pride when I saw the blood rolling down the machine, That is what the mill meant to me."

3. "How come we are making losses? This(Century Mills) was the only mill that was continuously modernised in the country. Clothes are always in demand. Are we headed towards a naked civilization?" asks a 54 year old worker, who has been working at the oldest and the biggest mill in the city for the past 36 years"

4. "Yeh company zabardasti ko voluntary bolna sikhaya. Jaisa murder karke log khud kushi bolta hai", says a 47-year old mill worker and one of the 6000 to accept VRS.

5. The government decided to allow the mill owners to sell the lands(600 acres of prime property in the heart of the city) so it would draw in sky-high real estate rates.

But the sale(of mill lands) has only pushed the prices upwards, making the mill lands graveyards for the workers and vineyards for the super rich -says a worker.

6. "Just as one stops feeling any emotion the day death visits a loved one, I too don't feel anything," says 32 year old worker Santosh Parab, in a whispering voices.

As I said earlier, I don't know what I/we can do apart from looking at the razed mills as I/ some of us cross the Lower Parel fly-over every day.

This is the grim other side of the retail boom. The stories of lives affected adversely, buried in the inner pages of the dailies while the Walmart-Bharti/ Reliance Retail and the Future Group grab column cm on pg1.

Research Can Be Refreshing

I have been trying to collect, glean, comb, forage, rummage, scan, scout:-) stuff on celebrity endorsements and the Future of Bollywood!

In the process, I had sent a set of Qs to many friends I knew...What I had not bargained was the depth of response I would get...A glimpse into the nuanced relationship that people have with everyday brands and celebs...A voice that very often gets sifted out of more organised and formal research...

Here's a rambling from a young friend of mine...His intelligence, his grasp, his understanding of advertising matches any of ours:-)Refreshing...

Hi - guess by now you'd have many responses. So I'll just give you my opinion which I think is far from the median point of view on this subject.

Well, first are there any icons from Bollywood? I guess for me this would depend on how well they do their work - which is to act! Therefore for me SRK will never be an icon because I think he cannot act.

I know there are many who worship him just like there are many who worship Rajnikant. These men have been part of movies that have earned crores and have won awards to fill a small apartment...but the trouble is that in my opinion they have done all this without really acting (again its my personal opinion.)

But yes I agree they are icons, but then again weird things happen in India - ask yourself, would Dhoni be as popular if he looked like Dinesh Karthik even if he played the same kind of shots?

Hmm now the question of celebrity endorsement. I agree with your data - they must work. Afterall its been going on for ages.

But I'll just give you my input. Now just like a Karan Johar movie is bound to succeed even before it is conceptualised. An ad with Hrithik, AB, SRK and Sachin will grab eyeballs too. It cannot be denied. But there in lies the difference, I guess once a celebrity is on board the ad makers are complacent with their work, just like Karan Johar is. I know the Indian audiences will love a Boost ad where AB races a cheetah and emerges victorious, which is only as far fetched as a Karan Johar movie.

Just like many of us are sick of Karan Johar, I'm sick of ludicrous ads that put all these 'icons' to mindless use. Fine - if you want to use them, put some thought into it, come up with something intelligent.

Case in point - Santro, what are they thinking?? The only reason I remember it is because I'm bombarded with it every now and again. If they have all that money and SRK, couldn't they come up with something better?

And what has Cadbury done to a perfect legacy of good ads by this entirely hackneyed and stupid cow ad with AB. On the contrary Aamir Khan (who by the way is my icon) in both Titan and Coke (paanch) was a delight, because that was some ad maker or Aamir himself giving his work due respect. That's some ad I'll always remember.

Internationally the entire Honda campaign concentrates on the cars and comes out with ads which really qualify as art(which is what I would do if I made ads)...GAP used to have all these pretty women in its clothes and lost millions every year till it changed its policy kicked their pretty asses out and came out with a nice series of ads!

okay - that's my take...if you want any more opinions then let me know.

Also I think that any intelligent person will not base his buying decision simply because a cricketer entices him to do so. In fact just to reinforce his intelligence he'll go try something else(probably?)

But intelligent people have hearts and have a taste for music and humour and appreciate art so give them a nice ad with a catchy tune and sensible idea along with a nice product (vvv imp) and they will be lining up before you.

For example I love the Sony ad for its Walkman phone...if I had to buy a phone tomorrow and had the money I'd buy them. And I'm trying to do stupid things like say hello like the European does in the end. And I'm supposedly intelligent(?!) :) and stubborn and too proud and sensible to buy something only because my favourite actor endorses it.

But I guess that's the power of a good ad. Also my father bought the Motorola phone recently - think the ad had a role to play in the decision...his face lights up every time the biscuit falls into the tea cup.

Blogs R Us

Few days back, I had shared some facts and POV on blogging. Yes, its a niche sport:-)Many planners in India are into it...We(Iqbal, Kajal, Saurabh, I...) just started thotblurb, the thots and musings by planners on hopefully everything under the sun!

However, blogging within the larger Indian advertising fraternity is still seen with amusement(that's what the research-by-one suggests),'passing-fad-hai glances', indifference, etc.

A friend of mine who is reasonably senior in account management refuses to see the reason why anybody would blog. And somebody who is nobody to that anybody would read!!

Another creative guy I know refuses to acknowledge blogging/my blog/ any blog...Yet another long-time ad veteran is reluctant to blog. And the sharing of private thoughts in a public domain doesn't seem to be the reason for his hesitance!!

What's the big deal about blogging? There are 100mn of them...

It's just a medium to express yourself, sans the filter of mass media censorship...It's a digital store-house for thoughts-never-penned-by-you, ideas-from-the-attic-of-the-mind, dreams-hidden-in-the-heart...

In my case also provides the space to share few-old-ads-as-brand-prints-languishing-in-powerpoint/hard-disc:-)

In contrast, a young friend of mine shared her thots on blogging...What a whiff of young thots...Here it is.

I knew of a professor of English Literature who used to wash dishes to vent frustration. She had told us that she imagined each plate, bowl, spoon to be a face of one of the myriad mischief-makers of the class. And when she explained the poem, Two Tramps in Mud Time by Robert Frost, to us, I realized that my habit of releasing pent up emotions on the last pages of my notebook wasn't exactly without reason. The poem begins with a man chopping wood to destress, I knew then that the pen was my axe!

Over time this pen has turned into the keyboard of a Compaq Presario M2000 and my notebook into, well, still a notebook but a digital one. Everytime i have a particularly gratitude-worthy day or a moronically frustrating one I get myself some coffee and chocolate and let the juices flow.

Everytime I learn from an especially stirring experience it's converted into a new page in my digital novel on life. The experience need not be a great loss like death or a happiness like a new life into the world. I don't have them, not too often at least. What I mean by 'stirring' is slight turbulence in my equation with those around me. Sometimes the most subtle of things can teach you an invaluable truth which you failed to see while floating on clouds of happiness, your sight distorted by the mist that had settled on your judgement.

Blogging is free therapy...and with demands for psychiatric help skyrocketing, blogging is a relief to the economically challenged. Personally just writing down my troubles is such a weight off my head, it's like having spoken to Oprah about it. And the comments you get from anonymous well-wishers is another bonus.

The "Blogopolitan" is a place where there's room for every intellectual, every moron, every terrorist and every zen aathma. 'Your opinions are your's and no one can change that' is the principle that the blogging world flourishes on.

Devdas drank himself to death to beat frustration, Hitler destroyed half the earth and Marilyn Monroe popped pills. I blog. Sweet addiction, isn't it.

Well, I wish my suit friend and the creative guy read this! Other stray thoughts/ rant/ hope...

1. I think marketing must soon realise all those years of lip-service that they paid to 'Consumer is King' has found a voice...Now we can't fool everyone all the time...

2. Authentic is in. Hype is out.
Conversations are in. headlines are out.
Content is in. Pretty pictures, expensive films devoid of ideas are out.

Brands with attitude/ rough-edges/grey shades/unique voices are in.
Brands with just USP/ only smooth edges/ standardised voices are out...

3. Advertising can wait at the periphery a lil longer or join in...

4. Looks like it's the beginning of the end of only templated advertising/ communication. CGC will hit India hard...

5. It's the beginning of the era of CEO/ brand manager as blogger.

6. It's the beginning of the democratisation of creativity...

As I approach the magic figure of 100 posts, I can tell, I have deeply gained from blogging...It has been a creative outlet for me...I have learnt a lot from everybody else...

It's been a humbling experience...I have become Nikon-friendly, I chat a lot, I enjoy my work more and have discovered new voices, friends...

Brands are like people. I think if they start a conversation, they can build more authentic, bigger brands, one conversation at a time...

It's very tough I would assume. There are no operating manuals at the moment. But I believe it can be done. It needs brave and honest attempts and loads of creativity!

BTW, Rithika has made the board for the Valence levels of creativity. Will upload it shortly...cheers