What Is An Insight? Samit Malkani's Advertising & Digital Marketing Blog

The Curious Case Of Dr. Pro And Mr. Troll

2012-02-11T02:00:00.003+05:30

Four months into a company that's heavy on social media, and there's one thing I've discovered that I never expected:

All of us here have split personalities.

Without realising it, we've all been acting as two people with the accounts whose social media profiles we manage.

Personality 1: Dr. Pro. The nice guy is the one who handles the Facebook Page or Twitter profile. Who creates engaging, nice, rather paavam content. Puts it up dutifully. Carries on conversations. And just generally generates the numbers that keep clients happy.

Personality 2: Mr. Troll. Between posts, our social media man turns into the social media troll. Tweeting out to the brands his fellow content writers manage, joking with them, even criticising them to some extent.

It's interesting how quickly, easily and often I've seen this change in behaviour online. Not just in others, but in myself too.

It's rather natural, actually. One, all of us who dabble in social media are expected to be influencers. We all use our personal networks to promote our brands. And we all try to be funny on Twitter so that we get more followers - just to say we're this much closer to Lady Gaga.

Two, when we're not posting, or thinking about posting, we're just being ourselves. As people, we have every right to express ourselves, even if it means cracking a joke or two at our brands.

And three, we also tend to talk to brands hoping for a response. So that a few of the thousands of followers of the brand will also follow us after being drawn into the conversation. That's my conspiracy theory, anyway.

The catalyst to write this post was a Twitter conversation I had with one of our brands.

This is hardly a conversation that should bother me. It was a joke, meant without malice, just getting cheeky with a boy band signed on to the record label.

The question is: at what point do we draw a line?

Let's not consider defamation and vulgarity. Any digital professional who defames or gets vulgar with his brand deserves to lose the account.

But are we allowed to criticise when we believe we're justified? Are we allowed to laugh at our brands when they say something stupid (through the keyboards of our fellow creatives)? How far can those boundaries be pushed? Do those boundaries change from client to client?

Do we get to play audience or do we have to stick with being admin? Am I allowed to tell a brand on social media - in an individual capacity - that I do not like its product, even though I may be directly or indirectly managing that account in a professional capacity?

I suspect there isn't a right answer to this question. And I'd love to discuss this. Do leave a comment, and let's carry on this conversation.

The Dark Side of Viral Marketing

2011-12-08T00:00:00.001+05:30

On 16th November, Jack In The Box kicked off what became India's (and possibly the world's) biggest viral campaign of 2011. By the time we took our foot off the gas, #kolaveri had covered most of the globe. The original video had gotten (at the time of writing this) over 25 million hits and spawned a whole bunch of cover versions. Dhanush was on billboards and news channels, and organising flash mobs at Churchgate Station. Amitabh Bachchan was tweeting about it. And Jack In The Box was getting a whole lot of phone calls and news coverage.

Kolaveri was a case study in viral marketing. It showed the world how great seeding and promotion could get a great piece of content to the right people, in the least time and the least cost. It showed the faith our client had in us - and the power of social recommendation.

Then, two weeks later, we got a phone call that made us painfully aware of the other side of social media marketing. The jugaad side. The dark side. The one that we've all been aware of, but chosen to ignore.

The Jedi Knights of social media do it the hard way. We identify the best channels to place the content, and seed it over and over again, each time giving the audience a new way to engage with it. We painstakingly identify influencers and engage with them. If we're crowdsourcing, we slave over getting entries in. We slave over curating them and putting together the final piece of content. We track, religiously. We optimise. We celebrate every thousandth like and every hundred-thousandth video view. We celebrate the people who make the content viral.

The Sith Lords, of course, are another story.

We've heard of the agencies - and clients - that pay money to buy likes on Facebook. The ones that pay people to create fake Facebook profiles and sit around all day clicking the Like button on all their Pages, creating an artificial spike in their Facebook Insights.

We know about the agencies - and clients - that 'crowdsource' videos and other content. The crowd is made up of agency employees and their friends. Of course, the film has been produced by the agency, scripted and staged to the last detail. And then passed off as videos done by fans in the real world.

The phone call we received the other day was one such request.

Why was I so pissed off?

Frankly speaking, we owe the client a lot for Kolaveri. They could've easily insisted we buy likes, we create 'crowdsourced' videos. They didn't. They trusted us to do our jobs and supported us in any way they could. The results are out there for the world to see.

Contrast this to a client who refused to acknowledge that we know what we are doing. Who refused to trust our judgement of content. Who asked us to fake something that could've been done better and for real. All this after Kolaveri.

Why fake an orgasm when someone is willing to work hard to give you a real one?

It all comes back down to two things.

One: The Measurement Curse. Clients are desperate for the numbers that will make their bosses happy and their bonuses fatter. Agencies are desperate for the numbers that will help them retain the business. It's a dirty business, really. As long as clients are going to be rewarding employees and agencies on the basis of quantitative measures - likes, comments, % virality, % engagement - this shit will continue to go down.

Two: The 'Know-It-All' Curse (I haven't blogged about that yet). Clients who don't understand audiences believe they are brighter and more creative than the agency they hire. They don't spend a tenth as much time as we do tracking trends. Or understanding what makes a campaign viral. Or learning about the platforms we use. Yet, they mysteriously always know better than we do.

I'm under no illusions that this rant will change things. But I just have one more thing to say to the Sith Lords of viral marketing.

Agencies can fool the client. Clients can fool their bosses. Agencies and clients can both fool themselves.

But ultimately, you can't fool the audience.

Return Of The (Long) Copy Writer?

2011-10-31T12:42:00.000+05:30

My love affair with long copy began in 2002, during my internship with Ambience D'Arcy. My then boss, Raghu Bhat, suggested I focus on learning how to craft copy. So during my next internship, I pestered my Creative Director, Elvis Sequeira, to teach me how to write, and never looked back.

All through my mainline stint, long copy was my - pun intended - long suit. I set myself a goal - every year, I would present at least one long copy campaign to a client. In a period when everyone wanted to crack a TV commercial, I became the long copy guy. A lot of work remained unpublished as clients showed ever-decreasing belief in print and long copy. But there were some memorable releases, and I fed off those.

Copywriting became a bit frustrating about three years ago. There wasn't much appreciation for the carefully crafted paragraph, or for print as a medium itself. Most long-copy ads were written as scam entries for Goafest, hung on the walls for an audience comprising twelve jury members and a few hundred festival delegates. Worst of all, it became impossible to find young talent that could actually put together a grammatically correct sentence in the Queen's English. Fewer still possessed the ability to vary their tone and vocabulary to suit different brands, the way David Abbott taught us.

And so long-copy advertising in India seemed destined to fade into oblivion.

Until the digital explosion came along.

Portals like Yahoo have long known what digital marketing professionals are just beginning to cotton on to - content, if interesting, relevant and well targeted, will be consumed, no matter the length or format. Long-form content, mostly text, keeps websites alive and audiences engaged. Millions of text-heavy blogs are consumed each day, read through from cover to cover. While video views are increasing rapidly in India - YouTube is the second most-widely searched site in India - bandwidth considerations mean that text is still the primary form of content online.

The other aspect of this is the explosion of social media. Brand engagement on Facebook and Twitter is growing exponentially. Each day, users' timelines are populated by a plethora of content from brands, be it long form or short.

Here's the rub. What I'm seeing right now is an explosion of social media content, but an appalling paucity of good writing. I see strings of cliches masquerading as headlines, reams of soulless copy packaged and labelled as blog posts. Take the line, "Winter fashion just got hotter!" How many times have you read this line, in print or online? Replace 'winter fashion' and 'hotter' with 'travel' and 'easier', and you have yet another bad headline. Look at brand blogs next, and you will see generic news coverage instead of engaging brand content.

Social media and branded content demand a mix of advertising and journalistic writing skills. The best-written Twitter account I've seen for a brand in India is the one for Hippo. It's run by the copywriters at Creativeland Asia, and brings a distinctive brand voice to popular news and culture.

The other problem with journalism in India is that ideas have become stale and worn, giving way to sensationalism and battles to coin a superlative. Every sale is India's biggest sale; every party is India's most happening party. What happened to the idea of positioning each piece of content to make it distinctive, impactful and memorable? What happened to the need for command over the English language? (If you'd watched the TV coverage of the Indian F1 Grand Pricks, you'd know what I mean.)

I believe that there are skills each discipline can learn from the other. But I also believe very strongly that if we can get the hardcore journalists among the social media fraternity to understand nuances of brands a lot better, we'll be in a happier place. After all, those nuances are what distinguish a Red Bull page on Formula 1 from ESPN F1.

It's going to take a whole lot of effort to train journalists to think differently when writing for brands. But at the end, my aim is that in my company, we blur the lines between the Content Writers and the Advertising Writers.

And then, perhaps, our people will truly deserve to be called copywriters.

Next Is What?

2011-09-02T17:50:00.002+05:30

Ever since I made the transition to digital marketing two-and-a-half years ago, I've spent my first two hours in office every morning reading. I catch up on social media news, tech talk and the latest in digital creativity from around the globe. It's a fixed routine, one that has helped me build my understanding and set the benchmarks for the work I want to do.

In the last few months, quite a few campaigns have caught my attention, and had me wishing I'd done them.

It starts with Old Spice. The online commercial that went viral, sparked a stunning Twitter response campaign and led to a YouTube war between the two Old Spice guys.

Three pieces of work stood out at Cannes: Rom, Tesco and Bing.

Before that, there was the world's largest concert.

Even further back, we applied for The Best Job In The World and blended the world's latest gadgets.

What do all these campaigns have in common?

Well, they're not quite advertising; they're not quite PR, direct, media innovation or activation either. They're not just social media; they're also content, SEO and online display advertising. They're not quite online; but they aren't mainline or traditional either.

What they are, put together, is a great showreel of integrated marketing. And an eye-opener for me.

My last post and several before that have pushed the cause of integrated, technology-led marketing. I realised about three months ago that I wanted to be out there doing this sort of work. Not just developing content and banners, not just posting Facebook and Twitter updates, but bringing into play all possible media and technology platforms to deliver results for my clients.

A fortnight ago, I resigned from my post as Creative Partner at Yahoo. And signed on to work with Roopak Saluja, Prashanth Challapalli and their merry men and women as Creative Head, Jack In The Box Worldwide.

Jack In The Box brings together digital marketing, mainline advertising, video production and content creation. The sort of mix that should, hopefully, result in work as good as the campaigns I've showcased above. I believe that there are few agencies in India that are doing this sort of work. It's a privilege to be associated with one of them - and an opportunity that's too good to pass up.

I'm grateful for my time at Yahoo. I've learnt so much, not just about the business but also about people and how to handle them. I've met and worked with some fantastic, talented folks, and done things that I never thought I'd do. It's been a shorter stint than I'd planned, but this is a step I need to take if I'm ever going to achieve my career goals.

I leave Yahoo on 15th September, and join Jack In The Box a month later. I have a good feeling about this (with a wee bit of nerves too, honestly), and am really looking forward to 15th October. There are lots of plans and ideas bouncing around in my head (and on emails and tweets with Prashanth)...but for now, the only thing I'm going to plan is my upcoming vacation!

Live Webcast: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 India Launch

2011-08-08T13:35:00.001+05:30

Catch the India launch of the most eagerly-awaited Android tablet ever - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1! The live webcast begins 20 August 2011, 1200-1400 hrs, at Keyboard And Ink.

The Digital Agency Is Now Obsolete

2011-08-02T13:16:00.002+05:30

It's strange to read an article with this headline in a period when digital marketing in India has just begun to take off. It's even stranger to write one.

I write this post with all due respect to digital agencies. I was part of one for a fair period of time myself, and am aware of and appreciate the steps they have taken to bring Indian marketing into the digital age. But I do believe firmly that most digital agencies - some of them established international networks - have stopped evolving. Here's why.

I've begun to believe that digital agencies are taking the moniker 'digital' too seriously. They're confining themselves to doing work for clients purely in the web and mobile space. To most digital agencies - and I've met quite a few in the last few months - building a website, doing some banner campaigns, running a Twitter profile and building a few apps is all that they should be doing. And they build their teams, their thinking, their presentations and their USP around this offering.

There's a missed opportunity here. The rise of digital media - especially social media - has ushered in a new paradigm of communication. Consumers drive the conversation. And, more than ever before, they're keen to interact with the brands they love and consume (or want to consume), in ways that are new and surprising.

Today's consumers are enthusiastic about Liking, tweeting, blogging and creating content for the brand as long as they're recognised in some way for it. They're also keen to get what they're paying for - a single tweet or blog post is often enough for a company to create a Customer Care division out of thin air!

Today's consumers are also looking for great content from brands, be it text, video, photos or apps. They're happy to spend more than thirty seconds with the brand, as long as they're getting something out of it - be it entertainment, information or gratification.

And sometimes, you have to go out of the mobile and web space to give them that. It's simple, really. Today's generation is armed with smartphones and GPRS connections. They carry their digital channels with them, all around the world. We always talk of going where our consumers are...so it follows that we need to be with them - on the ground.

I think 'digital marketing' needs to mean 'technology-enabled marketing'. When you think of it that way, a whole new world opens up in front of you. Suddenly you realise that social media is just a channel to reach your audience and promote your content to them, and that they'll come to your website only when they really have to. An instant later, you're seeing QR codes at train stations, 3D projections in bathrooms and augmented reality-enhanced streets. Soon your mind begins to conceptualise of a radical repackaging campaign and how to create a digital firestorm around it. (All this while stone-cold sober.)

This isn't to say that no digital agency thinks this way. But if you ask them for a run-through of their work, they'll showcase websites and social media. And offer no line-of-sight into this sort of thinking.

I've been screaming about integrated marketing on this blog for a long while now. I've even proposed a model for setting up a digital-enabled integrated agency. But few mainline agencies are ready, or even capable enough, to show the way. It's up to the digital agencies to take a deep breath and consciously evolve in this direction.

It's either that, or go the way the typewriter did.

Book Review: Love On The Rocks - Ismita Tandon Dhankher

2011-07-13T18:09:00.002+05:30

I just wrote a book review on my other blog, Keyboard And Ink, as part of the BlogAdda Book Reviews Programme. The book is called Love on the Rocks, by Ismita Tandon Dhankher. Do read, share and comment. And buy the book if you think you'll like it :-)

How To Influence The Influencer: Blogger Outreach

2011-07-07T17:30:00.001+05:30

There's no question among digital marketers that influencer marketing is a fantastic way to get your brand buzzing online.

The very nature of the social web points to this. It's a theory that Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and every other social network out there relies on.

Simply put, you're more likely to buy something if someone you trust - friends, family, peers, experts - recommend them to you.

Influencer marketing could take various forms. But the most basic form of involves reaching out to the blogging community to endorse your brand. What marketers hope to achieve through this can be broken down into three basic benefits:

Extend your audience by engaging with the community of loyal followers bloggers have.
Generate and share content around your brand - therefore generating SEO, traffic, social mentions and consumer conversation.
Build a network of bloggers around your category who you can reach out to over and over again.

I've had the opportunity to be part of two blogger outreach programmes recently, and conducted one myself. Here are some things I've learnt from all three.

The Standard Chartered Breeze Blogger Event
I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from the folks over at BlogAdda, inviting bloggers to participate in an event by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). I was one of the folks selected, and was then told that the event was being held to promote the bank's new mobile banking app - Breeze.

The luncheon was held at Escobar in Bandra, Mumbai. A swanky, pricey joint. Clearly the clients were leaving no stone unturned. There were screens all around when I walked in, with TweetDeck and Twitter open for all the attendees to see. I soon realised that the event was limited to 30 tech and digital bloggers - an influencer audience if I ever saw one.

It was great to see the clients walking around and spending plenty of time with each blogger. Not selling the product, mind you, but just getting to know them. As were the BlogAdda team. Both organisers were clearly working hard to engage the bloggers at a personal level.

When the presentation began, we were invited to tweet our thoughts during the presentation to the Standard Chartered Breeze account. These tweets were being tracked and projected on the screens in front of us all through the event. To encourage us to tweet, the SCB team were giving away an iPad 2 (for the most creative tweet describing the product) and a BlackBerry Bold (for the most tweets). Great incentive - a cherry on the top of what was already feeling like a slick, international-quality event experience. At the end of the day, all bloggers who attended were also given Sennheiser noise-reduction headphones as they left the event.

After the event, the BlogAdda team sent out emailers with the SCB Breeze press kit attached, and asked us to email them any post we may have written around the event.

My post on the app is here. And below is a screenshot of the analytics for that post, which has influenced about 1000 people since I posted it. (Keep in mind that this is a very niche blog with a limited following, and that most of the other attendees would probably have a higher reach.)

BlogAdda and SCB did everything right. They found the right bloggers. They engaged successfully (and very classily) with them. And, judging from the response on Twitter, enthused them to broadcast Breeze to their own audiences.

The BlogAdda Book Reviews Programme
I started engaging more with BlogAdda after the SCB meet. And discovered their Book Reviews Programme. Being the speed-reading bookworm that I am, I promptly filled up a form and waited for their reply.

It wasn't long in coming. An email arrived, informing me that I'd been picked to review a book called Love On The Rocks, by Ismita Tandon Dhankher. My book was on the way, and I was asked to post my review within 7 days of the book reaching me.

The first thing I noticed about the book was that the author (who writes a poetry blog) had handwritten a poem on the first page. A small personal touch that made me feel more connected to her, and more eager to start reading.

The book had some pages missing, and I've since written to BlogAdda requesting a new copy (I'm yet to get it, though). But I wanted to highlight two points here.

The personalised touch that the author - the brand owner - added that made this so much more appealing.
The very idea of a first-time author turning to social media and influencers to promote her book. Not just relying on professional critics in the press and online, but getting an opinion from the only people who matter - the ones who will buy (and get others to buy) the book. Understanding, and willing to risk, a negative backlash.

I love the way the Internet has changed the face of marketing communication!

The Yahoo! Real Beauty Blogger Contest, Powered By Dove

Nearly a year ago, Yahoo launched a fantastic property called Real Beauty, sponsored by Dove. Yahoo Real Beauty is a reflection of the Dove brand philosophy, and brings the conversation around beauty online. I began working on this property shortly after I joined Yahoo.

In May, in partnership with Indiblogger, we launched a blogger contest for Yahoo Real Beauty. We invited bloggers to answer the question, "What does Real Beauty mean to you?" The incentives? Cash prizes worth Rs. 3.5 lakh, and the promise that winning posts would be featured on Real Beauty.

The results were staggering. The Yahoo Real Beauty contest became India's biggest blogger contest till date, with about 360 entries. The quality of content was top-notch - we had poets, authors, bloggers, journalists, writers and just about everybody entering. Even a great-grandmother! I cannot share the numbers for reasons of confidentiality, but the reach and influence figures are absolutely unbelievable.

Here's what I feel set us apart from the crowd.

We didn't just look at taking the traffic and content that the bloggers gave us. We offered to give the bloggers the exposure, credibility and traffic that only India's leading online content destination can provide.
We promised to read all 360 posts to determine winners. Not just the ones that had the most Likes. Content, not canvassing, was the determining factor.
And, of course, the prize money was a huge draw.

There isn't a formula for influencer marketing through bloggers. Neither are these examples going to change the world. But if you're taking your first steps in the field of influencer marketing, then you might want to read this post all over again.

The Power In Your Pocket

2011-06-20T16:52:00.000+05:30

It seems that, almost a year after my last post on the subject, people are finally beginning to believe in the power of the mobile phone.

Of course, a lot has changed in the past year. Google's Android OS has blazed a new trail, opening up the market for a generation of affordable smartphones with multiple hardware manufacturers. BlackBerry has sold handsets purely because of BBM. iOS has evolved and grown in India, bucking the global trend. As a result, normal folk - the late adopters - are Facebooking, Tweeting, Whatsapping, Instagramming and what not, all on the go.

As a result, clients, digital agencies, publishers and media agencies, all want to build mobile apps. These days, I get at least a couple of requests a month on mobile apps (and pitch at least half-a-dozen more).

The intention is good, but there are several reasons why many mobile apps from India have failed to get traction.

One: The interfaces aren't up to international standards. They lack the polish and smoothness of their international counterparts.

Two: A lot of apps depend on content. And fail when they don't have that content.

Three: They're not promoted well enough.

Four: They're tactical, almost campaign-based, rather than strategic and long-term.

Five: They don't offer the user enough beyond the initial experience or utility. The makers of the app don't look for deep user/consumer insights.

That's why it was a relief (and a delight) to experience Standard Chartered Bank's mobile banking application - called Breeze - last weekend.

Breeze is - for real - like carrying your bank around in your pocket. It lets you do everything you could from your Netbanking, and then some. Check your account and your transactions; transfer money; pay bills; book cinema tickets; book flight tickets; yeah, you read that right!

In keeping with today's audience, Breeze uses extremely simplified language. "Bank Balance" is replaced by "What You Have"; "Credit Card Outstanding" by "What You Owe". So simple.

It's also integrated with Twitter. And locates ATMs using Google Maps. But what really sells it for me is its unique Wishlist app. Here, you can allocate an amount of money every month towards a goal - be it a trip abroad or an iPad 2.

I could go on, but I'd like to conclude by judging Breeze by the parameters I outlined earlier.

One: The interface is gorgeous and simplistic. The app has been built by teams working around the globe, and the experience in mobile interface design shows.

Two: With travel and cinema bookings comes great additional content.

Three: The promotion is excellent. I saw the app at a blogger meet organised by BlogAdda (more on that in a later post). This is the third meet StanChart have organised in the APAC region, and judging by the bloggers' response, it was pretty successful. And I'm sure it's just one part of the marketing communication mix.

Four: It's a strategic tool, a long-term initiative. A tool that might tempt some digital-savvy consumers to shift accounts. A tool that's definitely worth some advertising dollars too.

Five: By going with additional functionality like bookings and Wishlist, the Breeze team has shown great understanding of the modern, young consumer. And from what I gather, there are more features to come. What's more, Breeze works on over 500 devices across multiple platforms.

I'm not going to be downloading Breeze - but that's only because I don't have a StanChart account. But this is a fine example of how Indian brands can build mobile apps.

To download Breeze, just visit the Breeze website.

Disclaimer: I reviewed Breeze at a BlogAdda blogger event sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank. Neither BlogAdda nor Standard Chartered Bank paid me for this review.

How To Use Surrogate Advertising As A Template For Digital Creativity

2011-05-11T13:32:00.002+05:30

He'd wondered why, after several drinks,
he could still pronounce
"she sells sea shells..." correctly.

Apart from the fact that alcohol lubricates brain cells and leads to better ideas, there's something else we digital worker bees can learn from booze manufacturers' surrogate advertising campaigns.

If you think hard enough about it, surrogate advertising is the tried and tested foundation of digital engagement strategy.

Let's break down what we do when briefed on a digital engagement campaign. (When I say 'engagement' I don't mean product-led banner campaigns; though this Pringles banner will beg to differ.)

Typically, we will come up with one or more of the following: a microsite, a Facebook app, a Yahoo! content property, a theme for a YouTube channel, a mobile app, etc. In some way or another, these properties will revolve around the brand positioning and eventually link you to the product website.

Then - and this is where you must pay attention, children - we encourage the client to spend media money driving traffic to the property you've built, rather than to the product website directly.

Isn't that exactly how surrogate advertising works? Launch Kingfisher packaged water to eventually drive you to buy more Kingfisher beer through brand recall and imagery?

This isn't a theory - this is how several cutting-edge campaigns have worked.

Take a look at Tourism Queensland's Best Job In The World campaign. Instead of directly writing banner ads telling people about the various fish you could find in the seas off Queensland, they ran a surrogate campaign to build imagery and recall for Queensland.

Look at what we at Yahoo! are running for Dove. We've built a co-branded content property that brings conversations around Real Beauty online. Real Beauty, of course, is the philosophy of Dove worldwide. You will find very few mentions of Dove on this site - but you can't miss the brand either.

Ben & Jerry's used the theme of Fair Trade to create surrogate branding with fairtweets.com. They created a microsite, mobile site and Twitter plugin to promote their support of the Fair Trade movement, in turn building salience for their ice-cream.

Heineken's Star Player is an excellent example of a brand giving users a fantastic experience. What the app has to do with beer, I have no clue. Once again, great surrogate work.

Approaching digital creativity this way might be a simple way to break down what people think is a very complicated field.

Of course, your job's not done until you have a killer idea in your head...

Have Toys, Will Play (Part 2)

2011-03-21T12:14:00.001+05:30

For all those who read and enjoyed my last blog post, Have Toys, Will Play, here's an update. A couple of more ways ordinary folk are using digital media and taking it mainstream. How could I have forgotten these in the first place?

Pack Your Bags

Flight Tracker for Android

My sister-in-law's husband is the very definition of the term 'frequent flyer'. He travels every other week, very often to small towns whose names we insist he's making up. So, to help him in his voyages, he's bought - I repeat, bought - two applications on his iPhone, which he now absolutely swears by.

Flight Tracker helps him check the flight status of any flight, on any airline, anywhere across the world. It's also helpful when he has to receive people at an airport - the app even tells him when a flight has left the departure gate!

Indian Railways for Android

The other app he bought is the (unofficial) Indian Railways schedule and status app. This one has detailed timetables, information on delays, etc. Invaluable for someone who spends nights travelling all across the country from one meeting to another.

Honestly, there's no better way to stay updated for a frequent traveller than on his mobile. And this is a trend that's only going to get bigger.

Home Shopping Network, Anyone?

Buying a home is never easy. Buying a home in Mumbai is even tougher. And buying a home that's under construction directly from a builder is sort of like attempting the twelve tasks of Hercules with your eyes blindfolded.

The private Facebook group for
Runwal Greens homeowners

That's why a group of people who have bought (or are thinking of buying) flats at Runwal Greens, Mulund, have banded together to create this group. Here, they discuss everything from parking allotment letters to agreement clauses, upload photos fresh from the site, and generally discuss the opportunity.

The tone of the group's discussions are honest, helpful and transparent. People freely voice their opinions, express doubts, counsel doubts and offer advice. It's a true reflection of the helpful, social nature of the Internet today.

Have Toys, Will Play

2011-03-15T14:17:00.003+05:30

And just a year ago, he used to open
windows only to let the sunshine in.

You know a trend is becoming an accepted way of life when the most ordinary of people begin to adopt it.

It's amazing how even those who could barely handle a desktop computer are today showing off their app-loaded smartphones and tablets, flocking to Facebook and Twitter...and finding new ways to use them.

Here are a few ways in which ordinary people - not geeks like you and me - are taking advantage of the digital revolution.

Doctor, Doctor (Part 1)

Whatsapp for Android

My wife suffered a burn on her arm quite recently. She self-medicated for a few days, but then got concerned about some yellowing on the wound. Unfortunately, our friendly neighbourhood doctor - Techknowdoc, he of the medical misadventures - lives about 15 km. away, and it was late at night. What to do?

Enter Whatsapp, the cross-platform messenger app! Whatsapp allows users to send texts, images, videos and locations over their data connections. So my wife took a picture of the wound on her iPhone and sent it to our friend. Within minutes, she had a diagnosis and a prescription. Her follow-up treatment, a few days later, was also over Whatsapp. (And for those interested, all is well.)

Long-distance medicine isn't new. But, as my wife and doctor showed, all you need for it now is in the palm of your hand.

Doctor, Doctor (Part 2)

Speed Anatomy for Android

Techknowdoc, as the name implies, is a card-carrying member of the digital revolution. He uses Twitter to promote his blog, network with other medical professionals. And even uses his mobile phones to educate his nurses!

He's downloaded an app called Speed Anatomy for his nurses to play with. Here, they have to do something as basic as identify parts of the human anatomy at high speed, and earn points. (Techknowdoc himself plays with it when he's bored at the clinic.)

For a nurse, who hasn't had the same amount of education that a doctor has, there really isn't a more fun and engaging way to learn. And if you can make learning fun for the student, that's half the job already done.

Planners Love Insights

Google Insights

If they didn't, how would the presentation decks they made have enough slides on it to show the client that they have indeed been working?

But often enough, agency folk don't have time (or finances) to conduct researches. This is especially true during pitches, when the deadline field in the brief generally has yesterday's date on it.

Enter Google Insights. A tool my teammates use frequently, and very, very well. So well, in fact, that the client often tells us that our research of search trends online actually mirrors what's happening in his marketplace on-ground. Often, clients are quite astounded by the depth of insight we showcase in presentations - especially considering that we weren't given that information in the brief.

It's not a surprise either. More and more people are researching products and services online before making their final decision. What people search for is an accurate indicator of how they perceive the category and the brand. Making Google Insights a great consumer research tool even for mainline dinosaurs.

Sing Along

Shazam for Android

Nearly two years ago, my sister-in-law got an iPhone. And spent a lot of time showing it off to me. She was slowly figuring it out, discovering apps and uses, painfully getting familiar with the more intricate functions of the phone.

We were at Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai, when she liked a song she was hearing for the first time. And, just like that, she whipped out her phone, clicked on an app called Midomi, and a minute later showed us the name of the song that was playing.

Midomi has long since been overtaken by Shazam and other apps. But entertainment is still high on the list of priorities for modern smartphone buyers. (Angry Birds isn't one of the hottest-selling apps around for nothing.) So even if you're not concerned with checking work email all the time, a GPRS connection is a must - just so you know that the song you're listening to is When They Come For Me by Nickelback.

#CNG

Twitter reflects the pulse of the city.

As I write this, Bombay is suffering a public transport nightmare. A burst CNG pipeline has resulted in autorickshaws and cabs running out of gas. So commuters are scrambling to call private cabs, hitching rides and all but falling off overcrowded buses.

And on Twitter, hordes of Bombayites are tweeting under the hashtag #cng. They're cribbing, cursing, sharing news updates and offering solutions to the problem.

CNG is currently a trending topic on Twitter India. Because of ordinary folk reacting to an ordinary problem. Using what they've come to accept as a perfectly ordinary medium.

Like Art?

PoppadumArt is just one
of the new breed
of Facebook entrepreneurs.

There's a entrepreneurship epidemic breaking out in Bombay. All around me, people I know are quitting their (fairly) high-paying jobs to start up companies based on their hobbies and interests.

In their previous lives, they were accountants, advertising account managers, bankers, marketing managers and salespersons. Today they own brands - brands that exist on Facebook.

Artists. Retail outlets. Comic book libraries. Fledgling ad agencies. Dating websites. Content curators. Medical professionals. Freelance writers. Culture companies. Filmmakers. These entrepreneurs can't comprehend life without a Facebook Page for their brand. Better yet - they have developed (or are developing) an instinctive feel for how to use their little patch of owned media.

None of these ideas might come as new news to you - they certainly don't to me.

But we're seeing a trend here. That digital media, long perceived as the province of geeks like you and me, is quickly going mainstream.

The Measurement Curse

2011-02-18T15:41:00.000+05:30

That night, she learnt that size wasn't everything.

It's hugely ironic that what was being touted as the USP of the digital medium has now become a noose around our necks.

It all began a few years ago, when fledgling digital agencies and publishers - all eager to attract new business - began to tell clients, "It isn't just cheaper - it's more measurable. See?"

The flood of subsequent slides overflowing with page views, unique users, repeat users, average time spent, most popular content, average pages visited, bounce rate, page views by country, referring URLs, number of Twitter followers, number of Facebook fans, average number of comments on a post, average number of likes on a post, retweets, number of conversations, amount of influence, impressions, click-through rates, eCPMs, male/female ratios, et al, were usually more than enough to sell a client on the efficacy of the medium.

There's no question that measurement tracking works. Good tracking helps us sell (the medium and the product/service) better, optimise our ads to increase performance, modify content on-the-fly to get more page views and much, much more.

It's no surprise today that an advertiser's key metric of success is, in a nutshell, more of everything. More visitors, more leads, more clicks, more searches, more page views, more likes, more fans.

I've even been in presentations where the numbers we bandy about become the basis for the client's approval or rejection of the concept. It's a fairly well-known fact in the Indian digital industry that if you promise better numbers than the next agency, you'll win the pitch. Just read the part in this article where the client talks about why she hired the agency.

But is measurement all that our medium should be about?

And is 'performance' all that measurement should be about?

I believe that we owe it to ourselves to convince clients to examine the performance of digital in a new way - by the quality of interactions rather than the quantity. To focus on (and track) brand salience rather than ROI.

An interesting case in point is the recent Audi A8 3D integrated campaign from Creativeland Asia, where they built a website that showcased the A8 in 3D glory.

At first I didn't quite get it. How many Indians own 3D glasses? Why would you do a campaign that would be so inaccessible to people?

So I reached out to Creativeland Asia founder and creative head Raj Kurup. On an early morning phone call, Raj told me that there were only a few thousand people in India who could afford the A8 (Audi's most expensive car in India). And each of them would soon be receiving 3D glasses in the mail, so they could enjoy an exclusive, immersive and highly sophisticated experience.

What Raj and Creativeland Asia have effectively done is build a case that getting fewer hits is often better than getting more hits. Because the quality of those hits will count far higher, as they're from the right people the brand wants to reach.

What's more, they've created a sheen of exclusivity around the brand through the very nature of the idea. Going against the very nature of the 'open' web to do so.

While Audi is an ultra-premium brand with a niche audience, there's no reason why advertisers who target the digital mass can't learn from this. And set in place new metrics to judge their campaigns.

Another aspect of this is the lack of sentiment tracking done for online campaigns. Sentiment tracking can tell an advertiser how his brand is perceived online, and is a fair indication of brand salience.

I've been reading through several case studies by Indian agencies. Their claimed performance data is impressive - number of Facebook fans increased from 100 to 1000, number of followers on Twitter grew by 150%, search queries increased by 300%, and so on.

But nowhere do they say things like: the number of positive responses on Facebook grew by 180%; the number of positive blog comments increased by 105%; more than 70% of Twitter mentions showed that the brand was now younger/cooler/better/worse; comments indicate that 70% of the online audience believe that your detergent washes best.

To show you how easy it is to get an overview, I took 30 seconds just now to get hold of the following statistic:

http://twittersentiment.appspot.com

And there are plenty of other tools out there that will help you get a deeper understanding of the sentiment around your brand. Tools that will track brand mentions and comments on websites, blogs and various social media platforms, analyse them and throw up a comprehensive picture. Which will give an advertiser a real indication of how his campaign is doing.

To sum up - there will always be a place for measuring numbers in our business. The CPL/CPS/CPA/CPC campaigns so popular with the travel and finance industries bear testament to that. As do the brands that take great joy in achieving 100,000 fans on Facebook.

But there's a bigger role that measurement can play. It can help position digital as a medium that can build brand salience and positive sentiment through high-quality consumer interactions.

And then, finally, we can turn our weakness on reach into a strength.

Agencyguy In Publisherland

2010-11-30T19:05:00.001+05:30

"It's different!"

Shortly after I began my stint at Yahoo, my friend Nishad from Contract Advertising asked me how it was to be working at a publisher.

I couldn't give him an appropriate answer - it was too soon, honestly. So, a short while later, he asked again. And so did almost everybody else I'd worked with in my previous life.

Now, four months into my journey at Yahoo, it's time to answer his question. Here, in no particular order, are my ten key discoveries after diving into this strange new world.

The first thing to realise at Yahoo is that, as a creative person, you don't take centre-stage. Agencies live and die by their creative product, and thus treat their creative teams like demigods. The team I lead exists purely to help sell our media properties, which is the core of any publisher's business. We do so by adding value to brands through cutting-edge digital solutions. It was a tricky adjustment for me to make - but once you realise your place in the system, once you let go of the attitude, you can figure out how to do the work you want.

The second thing that hits you about working at Yahoo is how knowledge-driven the place is. We know stuff about the web, about our users, about tools, about activities that would stun you! Hard numbers! Not surprising, really, considering Yahoo is one of the places that has literally powered the evolution of the Internet, and is continuing to do so. Even better - what we don't know, we find out. If agencies had the wealth of digital knowledge that we at Yahoo do, they'd be churning out some seriously brilliant stuff. I guess that's why clients see us as the digital experts.

At number three is my one bugbear. At Linteractive, I had pretty much the freedom to develop a solution wholly based on Facebook, or a micro-site, or QR codes, or whatever. At Yahoo, I'm tasked to develop a solution based primarily on Yahoo. Thankfully, it isn't as restrictive as it sounds. Yahoo has deeply integrated with Facebook (you can access your Facebook account from your Yahoo home page) and we openly use social media connections on our properties. We also do mobile, apps, on-ground, the works - but all of them rest on Yahoo and its properties.

Number four is something I'm really proud of. We at Yahoo are proud of who we are, what we do and what we know. Yet, we don't have the ego traditional creative agencies do. An example: we were recently stuck on a particular brief. Like, really, really stuck! And the pitch was the next day. We needed help - and asked for it. The team spent six hours with the media agency handling the account, running them through our pitch presentation, taking aboard their perspective. The next morning, we rewrote the entire presentation...and won the account later that afternoon. Can you imagine an agency creative team doing that?

Number five is a spin-off from number four, and is more personal than general. In my short stint here, I've met and collaborated with a number of people from different walks of life. These include media agencies, cutting-edge digital and social media agencies, copy editors, game designers, techies and many more. My world isn't as insulated as it used to be.

Number six - Yahoo is a global company...and acts like it! We interact with our global counterparts on an almost daily basis. Insights are shared. Ideas are critiqued. Help is offered. There are no barriers to collaboration.

Number seven is every geek's dream. We're a digital company. So everything here is digital. Every system, every report, every form, every tool - it's all on our company Intranet. We don't circulate Excel sheets with everyone's extensions on them - we just look 'em up! We use VoIP phones, Adobe Remote Connect and British Telecom Bridges to get together remotely (anyone decipher what I'm saying?), all without first calling for IT assistance. And if our Internet connections were F1 cars, they'd leave Sebastian Vettel eating their dust. I'm in heaven.

Eighth on the list is how accountable we hold ourselves. We're always tracking, measuring and optimising our campaigns. When banner clicks drop, we develop more creative renditions overnight. When pageviews slide, we make an aggressive editorial, social and promotional push. This partly comes from the nature of digital as a measurable and quickly modifiable medium - but mostly it comes from a hungry, positive attitude.

Ninth is a lesson I should imbibe if I ever start up my own agency. The first position I'll fill is that of New Business Director - and I'll hire a salesperson from Yahoo to fill it.

Finally, number ten. I now work in a company that believes that life isn't all about work. A company for whom the phrase 'work-life balance' isn't just something out of an HR manual. On normal days we come in at 9 and leave at 6. By 7, the office is deserted. By 8, the lights are off. On days that we have personal errands to run, we log in remotely and work from home. I still don't get it sometimes...but who's complaining!

It's a whole new world, Publisherland. I don't know yet if this is the last job I'll ever want and I don't know how long it'll remain new and fun and exciting. But for now, my amazing journey through the rabbit-hole continues.

How To Manage A Brand’s Social Media Conversations

2010-10-03T17:04:00.003+05:30

Every brand wants to be on social media.

After all, when ad agencies, digital agencies, online publishers, social media agencies, brand consultancies and just about everybody on Twitter is shouting on and on about social media, brand managers are eventually going to listen.

There’s no question that social media is exciting. That it’s a platform for deep, meaningful engagement with the consumer. Or that it reduces CRM costs. And increases customer satisfaction and retention.

It’s one thing to get on to social media to create meaningful conversations with one’s consumer. It’s quite another to manage it.

To decide who will manage social media conversation for a brand, we must understand two things: who the stakeholders involved are, and what the aspects of a brand’s social media are.

There are several entities that need to work together to build a brand’s social media effort – the client, the agency, the digital agency (sometimes the same as the agency), the social media management (SMM) agency, the media agency and, very often, the online publisher.

Similarly, there are several aspects to a social media campaign. Some of these include viral marketing, engagements, announcements, CRM through online conversations and website promotion. And, whatever the objective of the social media effort, it requires the brand to speak with one voice, that’s in keeping with the brand’s tone in mainline media.

The challenge? When every stakeholder wants to use social media to support its work on the brand, who will ensure that the brand presents a cohesive, coherent and consistent face to its online consumer?

Sherlock Holmes once said, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer.” I’ll apply the same principle to figure out the answer to my question.

We’ll begin with the online publisher. Typically, an online publisher makes money by selling advertising space, branded editorial content and, in a few cases, offering creative solutions for the same. It needs social media to promote the content it creates for the brand, but that’s about all. A publisher is generally too occupied with managing the campaign’s efficiency to get involved in managing conversations – and neither is it set up to do so.

Next up, the media agency. It’s close to the brand, understands the business and the consumer, controls where the money is spent. But creativity has never been a media agency’s strong suit – and getting people’s attention on Facebook and Twitter takes a certain amount of creativity. So, we cross the media agency off our list of possibilities.

Now for the social media agency. These guys would make great partners in theory, but I have three problems with them. Firstly, they don’t understand the brand’s voice very well. You can see that in the case of brands like Tata Tea. Jaago Re has a voice of it’s own – distinctive, youthful, fresh and provocative. I don’t see that voice in its social media effort on Facebook. And, after having devoted three years of my career to Jaago Re, it hurts.

Secondly, most SMM agencies today aren’t organised very well. They don’t have the resources or, very often, the domain knowledge to execute all that they promise. Plenty of them are startups trying to jump on to the bandwagon, or fly-by-night operators. I’ve been on the receiving end of a poor SMM agency…and it isn’t a nice place to be.

Thirdly, SMM agencies are not yet very high up on the pecking order for marketing managers. You can judge that by the irregular stream of updates on certain Facebook Pages and Twitter profiles. It means the marketing manager isn’t updating them very often on what’s going on in the company…and a brand that doesn’t tweet very often is as good as a brand that doesn’t tweet at all. Knowing what content to put up can be an SMM agency’s bugbear.

Next we move on to the creative/digital agency. They understand the brand and its voice. They know what’s going on, and hence what to tweet. Sounds good? Yes, except for one fundamental problem. Agencies handle multiple clients. Which generally means lots of work on the plate. In the rush to meet deadlines and expectations of clients and accounting executives competing for their time, creative folks simply don’t have the bandwidth to handle consumer conversation in a timely and effective manner – which is what social media is all about.

That leaves us with only one option that ticks all the boxes – the client. So how do you help your client manage his social media conversation?

What the agency needs to do is this: hire a dedicated resource on behalf of the client to handle his social media conversation. This resource will be a print journalist, someone who knows how to spark conversation with his/her news headlines. He/she will be paid for by the client, and sit at the client’s office, embedded into the marketing team. He/she will be trained by the agency to understand the brand’s tone of voice, and will liaise with all the brand’s stakeholders to provide social media support to their marketing innovations.

Several brands have started doing this. I have had fruitful interactions with Jet Airways and Le Royal Meridien Mumbai, to name a couple. The former resolved a query relating to their frequent flyer programme in a matter of hours. And the latter created a relationship with me, incentivised me and eventually made me a paying customer.

It’s not so surprising, really, that the responsibility for social media conversation is best rested on the client’s shoulders.

After all, who better to speak for the brand than the brand itself?

Are Advertising Agencies Speaking The Right Language For Digital?

2010-08-19T17:39:00.001+05:30

A few days ago, we went to meet someone who’d be a massive and extremely prestigious client to have.

And the senior client opened the meeting with a statement I will never forget.

“Eventually, I plan to pull out all mainline advertising for brand XXXX and do only digital advertising.”

What the…!?!?!

Make no mistake here – this is no lala company we’re talking about. This is a brand (I obviously can’t mention the name) that’s a quintessential part of Indian womanhood. No Indian woman goes through her life without interacting with this brand. ‘Nuff said.

And what this brand has just said is, “Our mainline communication isn’t doing the job for us. We may be selling brilliantly, but it’s not taking us where we want to be. I’m willing to pull the plug on my mainline agency, my brand custodians, my strategic partners, and bet on a digital shop. They may not have the biggest creative minds, or the most well-known planners. But they understand my business, where my audience is and what drives them – and they can make it work.”

That’s huge.

I’ll stick my neck out and say that if this client tastes even a hint of success, more will follow. Leaving their mainline agencies in the lurch.

Now, it’s tough to imagine this client going to the digital wing of a mainline agency. Because few mainline agencies look beyond the 30-second television commercial. And fewer still have account managers, planners and creatives who actually like, use and understand digital.

So how do mainline agencies make sure they retain business in a post-digital world?

Most agencies – the large ones especially – are trying very hard to integrate. But I can think of only two that have got it right – DDB Mudra and Contract. Because, IMHO, they’ve got the definition of integration right – sharing brand custodianship across multiple verticals.

They’re speaking the right language.

Better minds than mine have developed, implemented and rejected better solutions than this. But here’s an idea how a large mainline agency with multiple verticals can pull things in tighter. Keep the best brains on the brand even as it shifts focus to digital.

The structure can be used across Creative, Account Management and Account Planning. I’ll use the Creative Department to illustrate it.

At the top, a Chief Creative Officer (CCO). Reporting to him, a National Creative Director (Mainline) and a National Creative Director (Digital). Let’s call ‘em NCD-M and NCD-D.

NCD-M has an army of Creative Directors (Mainline), each of whom commands teams of mainline copy and art personnel. NCD-D has an army of digital creative personnel, copy and design.

Now here’s where the fun begins. Each CD-M has, seeded into his team, a digital copy-design team. Said digital creative team works with the CD-M on all his brands and briefs. They sit in on all briefs, working with mainline to crack the big idea, all of that. Except that they’re focused on bringing alive the digital solution while the mainline creative teams grapple with the TVC.

Once the ideas have been cracked, this digital creative team reports in to NCD-D. Their work is vetted by him before making it into the presentation.

CCO, of course, overlooks both mainline and digital. And thus needs to be up to speed on the digital medium, and enjoy working in it.

The same structure can be expanded to include verticals that churn out fresh work every day – like PR, for example.

What works well for this structure?

Firstly, each member of the chain has clear and distinct roles and responsibilities, and is yet tightly integrated with other disciplines. Which will work beautifully when, a few years down the line, digital will be thought of as part of mainline, as both teams learn invaluable skills from each other.

Secondly, and most importantly, each and every person on the brand will be a brand custodian. He or she will be thinking on the big idea from day one. No disconnect between what mainline is doing and what digital is doing. Imagine the cohesiveness, the integrity of the communication solution!

One more function needs to be taken care of – production. Agencies already have print production teams in-house, and get films outsourced. I believe agencies also need in-house digital production teams, up to speed on the latest technologies. Specialised work – animation, augmented reality, digital outdoor, etc. – can be outsourced, but daily jobs need in-house teams. Such a team would be headed by a Production Director (Digital), who’d report to NCD-D.

I believe that this could be one potential way to take agency integration. And I would love to know what you think.

Where Digital Agencies Are Fucking Up

2010-07-28T17:03:00.003+05:30

There are too many logical, long-winded, argumentative ways to say this…so I’m just going to say it straight.

We’re fucking up because we’re ignoring India’s most pervasive digital medium:

The mobile phone.

Statistics reveal the depth of our ignorance. (Sources: Wikipedia, IAMAI)

Parameter	Internet	Mobile Phones
Total subscriber base	81 million (2009)	617.53 million (May 2010)
Annual growth	14 million	178.25 million
Monthly growth	1.2 million	20.31 million

The way we operate is to take a brief and straightaway start thinking along the lines of a microsite, social media, sharing, etc. And completely ignore the facts.

It’s stupid, ignorant, arrogant, blinkered, narrow-minded and absolutely unforgivable.

Make no mistake – I’m not just castigating others, I’m casting the first stone at myself.

A lot of this ignorance is because we haven’t yet opened our minds to the power of the mobile phone and what we can do with it. We have limitations to work around – 3G isn’t here, smartphones are only now beginning to catch on and data plans are pricy.

Even then, we have opportunities:

SMS, the old favourite. While outright unsolicited push SMS is technically banned (‘technically’ because the ban is seldom enforced), one can reach consumers who’ve opted to receive messages.
MMS, another old favourite. Till date, MMS has been used primarily to spread sex (scandal) videos. But the potential is there, as more and more phone manufacturers crank up multimedia capability.
Voice, the key thing we ignore. Voice content is huge in India. Prepaid users in small towns pay as much as six bucks a minute to dial a number and listen to a joke. Six bucks a minute! For people who recharge in increments of Rs. 50! Unbelievable potential…if we can get the content and context right.
Audibles. Ringtones and caller ringback tunes. There’s a lot we can do with these if we just put our minds to it.
WAP sites. They’ve been around for a while, and are generally rather minimalist. There’s a lot you can do with them, though. I just saw a demo of 3D product displays on a WAP site…and I’m sure that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Augmented Reality, the new kid on the block. Layar is proof of the concept, and it’s even released in India. QR codes are gaining traction. One caveat though – this is a technology for Internet-enabled smartphones only.
Social networking is on mobiles too! A large chunk (I don’t have the exact stats) of logins comes from Blackberries, iPhones, Snaptu, Social Hub and the ilk. Phone manufacturers are helping – most phones today come with pre-packaged Facebook and Twitter apps.
Location, location, location. With GPRS connections and GPS-enabled phones on the rise, there’s an opportunity to tap into location-based services without going through network operators. Location is the flavour of the month – global operator Foursquare has just crossed 100 million check-ins…all of them from mobile phones.
And surely there’s something I haven’t thought of yet.

Apart from the creative jollies we’ll get developing engagements for mobile phones, there’s a damned good business reason for us to get our heads out of the sand.

Typically, digital in India has been adopted by brands that reach out to the higher end of the SEC/LSM strata. What do members of these strata have that their lower-SEC/LSM counterparts don’t? The answer is easy, frequent Internet access.

And that’s where the mobile phone can come in – as a truly global, pan-SEC/LSM digital platform. It can allow us to finally sell digital as a medium that will truly augment reach. It will allow agencies to present – and clients to buy – campaigns for the Ghadis, Bagpipers, HMTs, Lifebuoys, Cycle Agarbattis and Fevicols of India. It will allow us to discover and engage with a new audience.

And it will allow us to (finally!) push Indian marketing into the digital era.

It’s time to get our heads out of the sand.

How To Take Digital Offline

2010-06-20T13:23:00.001+05:30

I’ve been thinking for a while about the impact digital can have on a brand’s consumers, and it’s led me to a conclusion that quite a few digital professionals might find hard to swallow.

I’ve begun to believe that digital shouldn’t always be about ICE (yes, that same old, much-abused ‘Information Communication Entertainment’ buzzword).

It’s great to develop a digital engagement that meets one or more of the ICE parameters. It may be bang on brief. It may be a never-seen-before execution. It may become the biggest viral of all time. It may create fantastic online saliency for the brand. It may even result in a measurable rise in sales.

And while I want to achieve this, no doubt, I also want to create an engagement that has a powerful real-world impact. On-ground, offline.

I believe that what we do and experience online can drive us to do something to enhance that experience in the real world. The incredible viral spread of social causes online has proven that time and again. Because online causes are creatively packaged to entertain, inform and communicate; and eventually drive the user into making a real-world impact.

If we were to apply the same principles to digital brand marketing, we’d be creating engagements that spilled over from a computer or smartphone screen into real-world events and impacts.

As a digital creative, you will often be asked the (sometimes justified) question, What’s digital about it? when you come up with an offline idea. Here are some ways to help answer that question.

Can you throw some technology into it? QR code posters, pressure-sensitive touchpads, interactive kiosks, what have you. Volkswagen did just that with its ‘Fun Theory’ campaign (videos here, here and here). They then filmed people enjoying the experience offline, and went viral with those videos online.

Can you build a community online? Then continue those discussions offline with tweetups. Tweetups aren’t a Western phenomenon – they happen in India as well. Taking an online, anonymous discussion into an offline setting can have fabulous results for the people involved. I know people who met online and are now married. I know others who networked online, and struck deals offline. Online engagement, real-world impact.

Can digital be used to promote offline engagements and generate participation for them? What’s more, the after-videos could easily go viral. It’s a great way to build buzz on a low budget. Groups like Improv Everywhere have used the Internet to build a considerable fan following (not to mention willing volunteers). It’s not strictly a digital/interactive/new media engagement – but I believe there’s nothing wrong in suggesting an offline idea on a digital brief if digital would be more effective and efficient in seeding and promoting it. And if you could throw some tech into the engagement…you’re golden.

Can you use technology to bring fiction to life? One of the finest mixed-reality engagements I’ve come across was DDB’s work for Monopoly Here & Now. They turned the city of London into a giant Monopoly board, bringing the classic board game to life. They also threw in a real-world, Monopoly-style benefit – the winner would have his/her mortgage paid for a year. There was minimal digital engagement for the user…anathema for many digital professionals. But the results speak for themselves.

So the next time you get a digital brief, don’t aim for an award, or for recognition, or to impress your boss.

Aim to make an real-life impact…and the rest will follow.

Frog Blues (Or, How To Screw Up On Social Media)

2010-05-21T15:26:00.001+05:30

Being a digital communications professional, I get very excited to see brands I like or use establishing a presence on social media.

Unfortunately, not every brand knows how to use social media appropriately. Neither do they realise the damage they can do by misusing it.

Here is a story that’s more a personal experience than a case study.

Blue Frog is on social media. They have a Facebook Group(many in fact, to keep up with their numerous members) and a Twitter account. A quick visit to their social media pages will show you that they use social media to:

Announce schedules and upcoming gigs
Give out further information on said gigs
Share good music
Drive people to Blue Frog with incentives and contests
Respond to conversations

Keep in mind that last one. ‘Respond to conversations’.

Now for the story.

The wife, a friend and I heard that Indian Ocean were playing at Blue Frog. Being longtime fans, we decided to go. It was too late to book a table, so we figured we’d just go hang with other general janata.

The line stretched really far back. Then we overheard someone asking a bouncer, “How many people are in already?”

“400,” replied the bouncer.

“And how many do you plan to let in?”

“700.”

We shook our heads, dug fingers in our ears to make sure we’d heard right. 700 people packed into that (relatively) tiny space?

We had.

When we entered, there was no room to move. We dug out a space at the bar and hung on for dear life. The concert began. People kept entering, squeezing past us in tight confines, smelling of sweat and booze and stale cigarettes. Others went out for a smoke, and came back in, pushing and shoving on each leg of the journey.

It was so bad, we could hardly focus on the awesome music Indian Ocean was playing. It was like listening to a CD in a car.

Irritated, I tweeted.

I waited for a response. After all, @thebluefrog had tweeted something just nine minutes earlier. Surely they could not ignore this message.

They did.

A girl standing beside us began to feel claustrophobic, and sat down on the floor, leaning against the bar. A spontaneous group formed around us, with the guys trying to cordon off some space using our bodies to block the relentless crowd.

And still the gates remained open.

Now I was bloody upset. Blue Frog isn’t cheap. The ticket cost Rs. 300, and the first round of drinks (a beer and a martini) set us back Rs. 1400. And it just wasn’t feeling like an experience worth paying for.

No response.

The band announced that they’d be back on Sunday for all the fans who couldn’t get in. Blue Frog tweeted about the repeat gig. Apologised for the long lines. Apologised to individual tweeple who tweeted about not getting in.

And somehow missed out on apologising to me.

An hour-and-a-half into the concert, we decided that it wasn’t worth it. We left. Before the band had played Kandisa, their signature song. And before we left, I lashed out on Twitter for the last time.

Needless to say, we didn’t.

How did Blue Frog goof? You might say that they did apologise, they did plan a repeat gig.

But I say that they focused (and continue to focus) on reaching out to prospective consumers, enticing them, wooing them. And completely ignored those of us who had already bought the product and weren’t happy with it.

@thebluefrog continue to sell on Twitter, announcing gigs, responding to praise. “All is well,” to use a much-abused line.

But unless they begin to respond to all conversations rather than just the happy ones, they’re gonna have a social media fire on their hands…sooner rather than later.

The Truth About Internet Virals

2010-04-16T15:05:00.001+05:30

A few short years ago, a small digital agency called Webchutney stunned (and entertained) India with a series of short, animated viral videos.

And in doing so, they screwed us all.

When we watched Pankaj Udaas, Thakur Ka Inteqam, Dilwale Dulhaniya Kaise Le Jaayenge, etc., we all wanted to do the same sort of stuff.

Webchutney had made us all – advertisers and agencies – believe that:

Viral means viral film.
Viral film means animated viral film.
Animated viral film means Bollywood spoof – Sholay, DDLJ, Ghajini, what have you.

Dreams were coming true all around. Copywriters got TVC scripts that were rejected for being too insane animated and turned them into spoofy virals. Clients were happy to shell out Rs. 500,000 for a viral that would run forever (complementing a Rs. 5,000,000 TVC that would run for a month).

But then every viral started to look the same.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. Reliance. ADAG. OK Tata Bye Bye. The list was endless.

Naturally, effectiveness began to drop. I’ve stopped forwarding most of these animated virals. As have many friends and colleagues.

They’re simply not cool any more.

But clients don’t get it. And agencies are at fault for continuing to propagate a dying fad.

Clients today believe virals should be cheap and spoofy. So when we develop ideas that require great production, and therefore cost more, it’s a really tough sell.

When clients ask for virals, they mean films. Whereas the true meaning of a viral is something that is passed along from user to user. It could be an engagement idea. A micro-site. An e-mailer. A joke.

Somewhere I feel we’ve failed to realise the potential of Internet virals. As we continued to churn out clone after clone, we were just left behind.

Western agencies realise the true nature of Internet virals. They don’t treat them as callously as we do. Even when they’re thinking of viral films, they think of ideas for great films – not ideas for animated movie spoofs. They produce them beautifully. They seed them actively. They realise and tap into the human desire to share something memorable.

Here are some of 2009’s top virals, as collated by Mashable.

Inspired Bicycles: A stunt-riding video
Schweppes – Signs: A sweet little love story
Boone Oakley: An ad agency that did it’s website as an interactive YouTube video
VW Piano Stairs: The video of an ambient media innovation, showing how beautifully a case study can be presented
Samsung Omnia HD: An engagement and a viral all rolled into one
MSI Computers: A kick-ass (pun intended) product demo

To reinforce the facts, here’s how our virals fare against those listed above:

Viral	Date Posted	Hits (as of 15th April 2010)
Pankaj Udaas	30th August 2008	15,964
Thakur Ka Inteqam	14th August 2007	462,335
Dilwale Dulhaniya Kaise Le Jaayenge?	21st May 2008	4,389
ICICI Prudential	10th October 2008	2,410
Reliance Sawaal	13th May 2008	3,032
ADAG	31st January 2008	118,559
OK Tata Bye Bye	24th January 2009	14,088
Inspired Bicycles	19th April 2009	16,801,063
Schweppes – Signs	29th January 2009	4,391,312
Boone Oakley	28th May 2009	912,524
VW Piano Stairs	7th October 2009	11,661,969
Samsung Omnia HD	7th April 2009	1,242,421
MSI Computers	10th August 2009	2,936,493

Numbers don’t lie. Even when you take into account Internet penetration, the difference in proportions (and the time taken to go viral) is staggering.

Webchutney moved on long ago. It’s time the rest of us – clients and agencies – follow suit.

Jay Ka Freelance: Youngistaan Ka Blechhh!

2010-04-05T16:42:00.001+05:30

A former colleague of mine, named Jay, and I used to have a running gag.

Every time we saw a shitty ad on TV or on the back of a bus or pasted on the train, we used to tell each other, “Haan, yeh tera freelance hai na?”

Over the years, that imaginary freelance portfolio grew rather heavy, packed with work that would get each of us NCD gigs in shops like Amar Advertising (all agencies mentioned in this post are fictional; any resemblance to agencies currently existing are purely coincidental).

In that spirit, I’m going to post the occasional affront to human dignity on this blog, in a category all of its own.

Welcome to Jay Ka Freelance. We kick off with the shittiest ad on TV at the moment, and raise a Coca-Cola in its honour.

If this one doesn’t get him that Amar Advertising, nothing will.

Syndicated

2010-04-04T20:19:00.001+05:30

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a mail from my friends at Exit Design, informing me that a post from this blog has been republished in their newsletter. The post they’ve chosen is Ten Commandments For Digital Clients. It’s the first syndication of this blog, and I’m hoping for more.

Digital And The IPR Conundrum

2010-03-22T17:05:00.001+05:30

The digital revolution has completely changed the way we communicate.

Unfortunately, the legal system has a long way to go to keep up.

We’ve been developing the agency website for a while now. And we’ve been driving ourselves nuts trying to figure how we can showcase the work we’ve done.

But legal opinion is against us.

The issue is this:

When clients commission a TVC, they pay for the right to air their work in television and broadcast media. What no contract includes – initially, at least – is permission to put the commercial online.

And when they do put it online, a problem arises because clients own the rights to the visuals of the TVC, and not the soundtrack.

Which means that – legally, at least – the composer, voice artists, singers, etc. are owed royalties. Because they can easily argue that the work has been posted online for commercial purposes – either to further build the brand, or to let the agency showcase its talents.

Now, every one of us has at some point or the other uploaded the TVC we’ve worked on to YouTube. Inadvertently putting the client – and perhaps the agency – at legal risk.

It would be simple, it seems, to solve this issue. Simply buy the rights to the soundtrack as well.

That’s right. But…

There is a body called Association of Voice Artists (India) – AVA, in short. AVA works towards protecting the rights of voice artists, and making sure they’re fairly treated and compensated.

According to data available on the AVA website, yearly licensing fees are ten times the unit fee charged by the artist. Similarly, the fee for changing the medium of the original recording is 50% of the artist’s unit fee. So, a VO that cost Rs. 3000 to put on-air costs an additional Rs. 31500 to put online. And considering that each film has (on average) three voices, that works out to a not-inconsiderable cost of Rs. 94500 – just to upload it online. For a year. The license has to be renewed annually.

And then, there’s the composer’s royalty. Which could be several hundred thousand rupees per film.

But the problem is not the fee. All professionals deserve to be paid what they’re worth. Clients who pay upward of Rs. 5000000 per TVC aren’t going to cry foul over another Rs. 100000. Especially when it’s reaching such a wide audience.

The problem lies in the medium.

Certain brands may not have an online audience. So, they wouldn’t put the film online and seed it.

However, there’s no telling who might.

Once again exposing the advertiser to legal risk.

So much so that we’ve even been asked to take down our portfolio blogs because we may be sued. (Unlikely, given the relationships agency folks share with voice artists and composers, IMHO.)

Our laws have a long way to go to catch up, and there’s no guarantee that they will for another five years.

So, we need to make buying out the soundtrack as well (in perpetuity, across all media) a standard operating procedure. This would mean an agreement on rates between AVA and an industry body that would represent agencies and clients – perhaps the Advertising Agencies’ Association of India (AAAI).

That would let us put up our agency showreel for the world to see. And let me reactivate my portfolio blog.

Until then, we’re guilty as sin.

How To Temporarily Paralyse The Indian Economy And Miss All Advertising Deadlines

2010-02-24T18:19:00.001+05:30

Get Sachin Tendulkar to take strike at 199*, poised to be the first man to score 200 in an ODI.

As if he hadn’t made enough history already.

Ten Commandments For Digital Clients

2010-02-10T13:38:00.001+05:30

It feels nice to be giving commandments to our clients, rather than being on the receiving end of them. Even if it’s only on the blog.

So here goes…ten commandments for digital clients, derived from my experiences at Linteractive thus far. (Excuse the slightly irritated tone.)

Thou shalt not ask for digital unless thou wilt do it. Yes, digital is the new 360-degree. But, just as a fat woman can’t pull off a tight top, not every client can pull off digital. First decide if you can pull off digital. Don’t make us work if you’re going to turn around and say, “We’re not going digital this year.” I could’ve spent more time with my wife instead of working on your never-to-be-released campaign.
Thou shalt not brief without knowing what thy seek. If you go without knowing where you’re going, you will get very lost. Be very clear about what you want it to do for you, what your desired ROI will be. It’ll help us understand your needs better, and develop a campaign that truly kicks some ass.
Thou shalt not keep secrets from thy digital agency. If you’re doing an offline campaign, tell us about it!!! Don’t make us crack a contest idea, develop the micro-site and all communication elements, and then change it the day before we were due to launch – just because it’s not in sync with an offline campaign we didn’t know of.
Thou shalt not argue unreasonably thy digital agency’s timelines. Give us the same amount of time you’d give your mainline agency. Just because a website loads in 30 seconds doesn’t mean it takes just a week to make. Great creative and flawless coding need time. And we’d like to get it right the first time around.
Thou shalt not be parsimonious. Open your wallet. Digital isn’t as expensive as making a TV commercial. But it ain’t cheap either. Not if you want something really good. What’s that old adage? Good, fast and cheap…we can give you two out of three.
Thou shalt not covet thy competitor’s technology. Digital’s a medium where it’s easy to get carried away by technology. Just because you saw some brand do some great augmented reality work doesn’t mean you should too…unless you have a better reason than, “My wife and I really like this stuff.” Evaluate the idea, not the technology behind it.
Thou shalt not disappear. If you like a concept, and you tell us to flesh it out, we do, and we give you three scripts, don’t disappear for two weeks. And tell us who you’re getting to execute the idea we’ve cracked. And don’t resurface a month later demanding the finished product in three days.
Thou shalt not hide from thy agency thy level of commitment. If you’re commitment-phobic, stay away from social media. Everyone loves knowing which Friends character they are. But unless you’re willing to pay for a dedicated writer to update your Facebook Fan Page, Twitter profile and blog, don’t get into it. Social media is a long-term strategy, and not for everybody. If you can’t handle it, tell us in advance. We’ll do something just as creative, but use some other channels.
Thou shalt not make wrongful use of digital.Digital is an engaging, interactive, user-driven medium. You need to do what’s right. Aim to do what your brand needs – get your fundamentals right before you move ahead. There’s no point doing a brilliant contest if what you need to do first is revamp your website.
Thou shalt not be boring. The most important commandment of them all.