Online Agency Blog

App for iPad - A great example

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:24:00 +0000

This seems like a wonderful example of the possibilities of the iPad - Kraft's rich application that educates young parents and children about healtful eating. And promotes the brand at the same time.

Customers are partners in creating marketing messages

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:44:00 +0000

View more presentations from Graham Brown.

Graham Brown has a very valid point when he says that customers are no longer the destination of our marketing messages. There is no longer a 'they' and 'we'. In today's world, customers are partners in the production of marketing messages.

So are you (yes you ad agency, you digital communication expert) still telling stories about your brand or are you helping your customers tell theirs?

What would Google TV mean for website design and development?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:56:00 +0000

First off, it means that the community aspect of TV viewing and the search-is-king, personal aspect of the Internet is coming together. On the face of it, it might seem like the slapping together of paradoxes - privacy and the lack of it. Chalk and cheese. But only time will tell for sure.

Meanwhile, what does it mean for us in website design and development?

Primarily, like all things new, it would mean cutting out the frills and ambiguity and being simple. The frills can come later as a process of evolution.

Content will still be king

But instead of an individual centric build, you will have to consider how groups might use your website or application. You will have to consider how individuals could use your site or apps in a living room setting.

On a practical level, TV screens are wider than computer screens and the colours look different. So you will have to incorporate TV standards into your website. Highly saturated and very bright colors might not be the order of the day. You would also need to consider text - make it readable from a distance. And sound would be an integral part of the whole experience.

Simplicity will rule!

Successful TV interfaces are simple in both concept and design. Very simple in fact. You will have to see how well you can integrate habits people have developed on the web into those developed on TV. So the first thing that goes out would be abstract icons. Next would be vertical scrolling.

Navigation will have to be as easy as on TV

Users will quickly abandon a screen whose navigation frustrates them. Apart from a QWERTY keyboard, Google TV navigation would mostly be limited to up, down, left, right, and enter. (It's all about simplicity and a bit of familiarity, remember?) Users would surely be looking for interactions that are fast and easy to do - at a distance, with one hand, in the dark.

One would have to know how to take advantage of the widescreen. TV screens and computer screens differ in canvas size, aspect ratio, safe areas, resolution, cropping, and pixel shape.

There's also text size and presentation, sound (appropriate to the living room environment), handling of crashes and errors, coding and other details one needs to consider.

Read all about it here. FAQs are here.

But consider the prospect: Web developers can start taking advantage of the big TV screen. Yup! Google TV will bring developers into the living room!

Quick facts about Internet2 - the next gen network

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:59:00 +0000

The incubator for many of the emerging technologies shaping the future is known as Internet2.
Internet2 is a not a single network, but a consortium of hundreds of high-speed networks linked by fiber optic backbones.
The network transmits data at speeds up to 2.4 gigabits per second - 45,000 times faster than a 56 Kbps modem.
This next-generation network went online in February, 1999, linking a number of universities around the world.

More information here and here.

Follow Internet2 on Twitter: http://twitter.com/internet2

Mo's Wakow!

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:42:00 +0000

A hit no longer...

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Mon, 17 May 2010 05:04:00 +0000

The Friday Morning Meetings aren't being appreciated as much now. Attendance had dwindled. The meeting itself has been postponed thrice because of workloads and when we do have one... there aren't enough people around. Are we meeting next week?

This is still relevant, even if you are not a student now

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Tue, 11 May 2010 07:44:00 +0000

Luke Sullivan from Mediastash.tv on Vimeo.

So listen up. This is an hour-long speech by Luke Sullivan to students of the Miami Ad School. Warning: beep words included. As Luke himself says: "Where I got such a potty mouth is a mystery to me, because my Mom, she’s just as nice a lady as you could care to meet." That apart, this is a must-listen. So take an hour off. It could be one of your most productive hours in recent times.

Ignore! Ignore! Ignore!

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:59:00 +0000

Rage at No.7

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:28:00 +0000

A Google search prompt for the word 'rage' lists Rage Communications at number seven. Try it yourself.

Action buttons: Why you should stick to the familiar

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:41:00 +0000

A rose by any other name smells just as sweet, huh? No Shakespeare. Not always in the online world. It only leads to rolling eyes, arched eyebrows and perhaps a dip in visits.

How often do we come across requests for mandatory tabs and buttons to be worded differently? Often you'd say. And so the request, for instance, would be for the 'Apply Now' button to be worded differently but say the same thing! The list doesn't stop there. In such times, what if you could gently put out a reminder that the buttons on TV remotes for example are labeled just the way they were labeled when TVs first came with remotes?

Play has always been 'Play', not 'Frolic'. Have you seen a TV / DVD remote with a Frolic button? Or a 'Catnap' button instead of a 'Pause' button? A 'Stimulate' button instead of a 'Power' button?

Know why? Because it’s used by mothers and grandmothers. Little children even. Now, even a little child understands 'Play' and 'Power' and even 'Pause'. And when he has finally broken his remote and his momma has gotten him a new one he looks for the 'Power' button not the 'Stimulate' button on his new remote.

So is the case online, except in deserving instances, especially in the case of themed, niche-audience websites where the construct of the website itself demands it.

Otherwise, it's best to remain plain vanilla and concentrate on the over all user experience. It’s experiences and a certain amount of familiarity with the nuts and bolts that get you repeat visits. The biggest example is Google. They're rumoured to be contemplating changes to their home page. But what's the bet that the Google Search button will remain the Google Search button? That the I'm Feeling Lucky button will remain just the same? Because Google knows that familiarity is part of the Google experience. If it's variety they want, the Google logo does the entertaining with seasonal and situational themes.

Listen to the post here:

Are you briefing your digital creative team wrong?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:06:00 +0000

Courtsey Dominik Van Jan.

That depends on how you approach your creative brief. If you are writing it from an advertising perspective, it could just be that you are.

In a world where most consumer interactions are rapidly taking place in complex digital ecosystems, consumers engage with brands on a much more intimate level. Digital is not just another communications channel anymore that can serve as a message carrier. Digital finally is an environment where customers experience, consume, create, play with, re-purpose, re-format, share content, etc.

Yet, most creative briefs ignore digital's ubiquitous nature and mix it with the other, less interactive media. How did we get into this situation? By sticking to the guns we know and creating briefs for advertising, rather than looking at the potential of digital and writing creative briefs for experiences.

In order to create digital marketing that works, we need to build relevant scenarios, situations and experiences for consumers and have them discover a message in a—more or less—guided way. Take for example the simple but effective Fedex Launch a Package.

Doing digital briefing right requires that planners know about user interests, needs and most importantly behaviors in a variety of online and mobile media, as well as understanding the technical potential of the medium in order to be able to move from a communications / advertising brief to an experience / discovery brief. Social media, adds an additional layer to building digital experiences, which, too, needs to be considered in a creative brief.

Read the whole post here.

The Twitter Song

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:39:00 +0000

Really! A song about Twitter. Now that tells us just how much Twitter has changed our lives. Or does it? While you decide on that one, here's the vid. Can you imagine, this song is also available as an iTunes download?

How to fill in the holes in your idea. But first fill in the blank below Art Director or Copywriter.

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:04:00 +0000

Did you pause for a moment? Did you smile? Were you about to turn away disgusted? That's because the blank above is open to suggestive interpretation.

This is how open to interpretation your idea is when you don't fill in all the holes in it or don't fully explore all the avenues your idea can travel.

So the cardinal rule to rejection-proof your idea before you rush it to your client or your higher up is this: send it around the agency for an 'opinion walk'. Remember that you are not looking for praise here. You are merely getting a second opinion so that you can iron out any wrinkles that you didn't notice. The trick is to send it to people who will be objective. That could include your pantry-help, if he fits the bill.

But take it around to see how it's being received. You'll suddenly see a hole in your idea where there was none apparent before. Better that Mr. Objective spot it than your client or higher up, right?

Should you make that factory visit? Should you not?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:59:00 +0000

It was Bill Bernbach who said “the magic is in the product.”

He was of the staunch opinion that you’ve got to live with your product, be steeped in it and get saturated with it. Simply put he was insisting on a visit to the factory, to begin with.

Visit the factory, given a chance, and experience the product. Ask all the questions you are itching to ask. Yes, even the silly ones; for it’s the silly questions that often turn out to be selling points because in that silly moment you are actually airing the customers mind.

And never mind if you are not minding your own business with the questioning. It’s only so that you can help them make more of those products! You’re here to help. So ask and read every bit. Get steeped in the product.

As a copywriter or art director, your grasp of the client’s product has to be as good as your Account Manager’s. Seriously. It’ll pay off well.

No it won’t!

O-oh! Here comes conflict.

You are not paid to think like the client. He is already doing that. Why should you do it on his time and money?

You are being paid for your outsider’s perspective. So don’t ever, ever take the factory tour. You need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes instead, you need to voice his reality – the customer doesn’t care what happens on the factory floor. All the customer wants to know is what’s in it for him. All he wants to know is what the product will do for him.

Which side of the argument do you buy?

Mo's Wakow!

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:42:00 +0000

How to become that ideas man. Or make a fair beginning.

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Just how many of these things have you done? Or done lately?
- Read a cook book
- Volunteer at an orphanage
- Try a hand at pottery
- Assist a child with her homework
- Try your hand at interior design
- Go out on a photo walk
- Go out bug hunting
- Make a comic book
- Make wine
- Spend time at a mechanic's
- Go on a trek
- Watch Cartoon Network
- Visit your SPCA
- Play make-believe

You get the drift, don't you? You can make your own list of things to do that immerse you in varied experiences. Because it's these experiences that are the fertile soil for ideas to germinate.

So what will you begin with? A trek? Reading a cook book? Or something not on this list?

Mo's Wakow

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:39:00 +0000

And so we watched a few commercials

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:31:00 +0000

Because Yuvaraj who was to make a presentation on Flash Papers couldn't make it for the meeting. We watched a few Super Bowl commercials and found out that the latest round of commercials aired during the 2009 event were no match to the great commercials we've seen earlier. Or maybe expectations are way too high. Everybody expects an 'Apple 1984'. Either way it was a good start to a Friday. Yuvaraj will be presenting the week after Easter.

Is this how you make a great product placement in the digital world?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:23:00 +0000

Absolut Vodka recently premiered a documentary about Jay-Z. The film focuses on the rapper and his September 11 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.

If you notice, the product placement in this 15-minutes long video is subtle. In agency terms, the word Absolut appears twice on the video. Then towards the end, the rapper and his entourage are seen celebrating with Absolut Vodka - not in an in-your-face way, but in a very natural way. So natural that you'd almost miss it. The Absolut bottle is shown for just a split second on a tray. And this is at the very end of the 15 minute video, a couple of minutes before the credits start to roll.

Clearly, this one is targeted at the fans of Jay-Z, a huge base at that. And the video is unmistakably fan centric, not advertiser/product centric. But Absolut comes through shining bright. This must be one of the best product placements in a long, long while. One worth emulating?

Does turning off comments, stop a conversation build up?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:08:00 +0000

Apparently not as Apple found out. The official version of the Apple iPad ad - Meet iPad - that was released on Apple's Youtube channel had comments disabled. But that didn't stop a conversation building around copies of the ad.

What does this tell us?

In very plain language, it tells us that in the public domain of an increasingly digital world where everyone shares everything, you cannot control or channel conversation about your brand. In other words, turning off comments on your blog or channel does not put a stop to a conversation building up around your brand. Especially if it's an icon brand. Or a cult brand for that matter.

How fast can a cake disappear?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:36:00 +0000

Very, very fast. Gone-in-60-seconds-fast as we discovered at Ahila's farewell.

Now you see it. Now you don't.

Rin ya Tide? Which one washes the whitest?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:33:00 +0000

Not many television viewers had missed the Rin vs Tide advertisement that aired for almost a week recently. And each must have asked themselves one or all of the questions below:

1. Is such direct and explicit comparison legal?
2. Is such comparison good strategy?
3. Is such advertising ethical?

Legality:
The law is very clear. And it upholds that advertisements cannot compare brands without supportive evidence of concrete and verifiable facts and statistically valid data. If we don't see this advertisement on TV anymore is it because the advertiser did not have the above said data and because the law did take notice of the fact and brought out the whip? This brings us to the second point.

Strategy:
Was this circus a good enough strategy? Or was it juvenile and myopic? Did the advertisement increase numbers for the advertiser and dent numbers for the competitor? Did it tilt the market in favour of the advertiser? Only time and actual numbers at the end of the quarter will tell. But doesn't the whole exercise leave a sour taste in the mouth? Is that good for the brand in the long run? When Pepsi loudly proclaimed "There's nothing official about it", that was good strategy even though it was a frontal attack on Coca Cola without provocation. How does the current scenario even compare? And what would be the fallout?

Ethics:
The purpose of any advertisement is to establish the superiority of a brand and thereby influence consumer choice. But is such overt and explicit comparison morally and ethically correct?

The answer is obvious on all three counts. The advertiser scores in the negative.

Yet, all said and done, the desired outcome might well be met. So post the advertisement, which detergent washes the whitest? Rin or Tide?

Mo's Wakow!

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:08:00 +0000

One banner please!

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:18:00 +0000

Ideas don't come off the rack. So how do you cope, when the demand is for off-the-rack creatives?

Answer: You don't cope. Because 'cope' itself means compromise, in this case.

And compromise means, you give lesser. Your skills are portrayed in poor light. The client is forced to pay for stale, derivative creative. The creative hardly performs because it can hardly stand out to grab attention. The agency gets a black eye. And gives you one in return.

Now here's the worst part of all this chain reaction. It all started with YOU deciding to cope. Cope with the brief timeline to execute the creative. Cope with the lack of a proper brief. Cope with everything not conducive to produce a good piece of result-oriented creative. But cope you did. And a black eye you did get.

Honestly, if your job were on the line would you display this get by mentality? If you just answered in the negative, from now on, treat each brief as the last one you'd be working on if it didn't deliver positively startling results.

How can you bring down the death rate of a viral?

noreply@blogger.com (Rage Communications) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:57:00 +0000

Last week, we'd suggested that perhaps the way to handle a ‘viral’ when you're plainly told to make one is to follow the pulse of the people like movie makers do. And then some.

So what do movie makers do?

- They base their story on a sentiment they can tap over and over again. It could be feelings of tenderness, sadness, nostalgia, euphoria, unadulterated joy, personal experiences, physical feelings, secrets, power, triumph...

- They give it a totally different take - reverent (The Godfather), irreverent (Life is Beautiful), inspiring (Gladiator), light hearted (Click)...

- Then put their heart and soul into making the best movie in all aspects - script, direction, cast, camera, lighting, music, editing...

- And for all this they take their time. At least for the successful ones. Time to better. Time to redo bits. Time to chop off the irrelevant. Time to tighten the story. Time to re-enact.

- It hits the screen only when everything is hunky-dory. And when it's had a pre-screening where the audience reaction is carefully monitored and acted upon.

- Oh... and the name of the movie doesn't appear permanently on screen in some ostensibly unobtrusive corner.

- You don't get occasional pop ups on screen to remind you that the movie is made by a certain studio. The studio actually downplays itself, but for the dazzling special effects animation of its logo, right at the beginning. And a whisper of a logo at the end when the credits have rolled by.

- You are not reminded overtly of the numerous successful movies that the studio has made.

- Instead, every genuine attempt is made to convey a single message as lucidly and powerfully as possible.

- Once the Saturday movie is over Judy gushes about it to her friends, she blogs about it. And the first thing she asks on a Monday morning is "Have you seen.... (enter movie title here). Judy drives her friends to the studio. Her friends drive their friends and family and so on.

Tada! A viral!

Could this be done for a viral, to actually make it go viral and serve its sole purpose of being? Is this a possible way to reduce the appalling death rate of a viral?