what an interesting story on business standard! SRK planning to cash out on his KKR investment of 300 crores, and looking to net as much in profit..in only the 2nd season! gosh where's all that trash about being serious in cricket, and buying for a long term plan etc gone now? in the end, its just about the money honey? almost like indian business groups applying for national telecom licenses, and all they needed was 1000 odd crore with them, in the big hope that a global major would buy out the license soon after they win it..remember unitech? so now, it would be tempting if anil ambani buys them out...BIG Riders, would it be? Or would it be BIG Indians? tempting...with sahara and nokia also being talked to, lets see who ends up as the new owners...but given the chemistry between ambani and sahara...it may end up as BIG Sahara.....KKR ko kaafi sahare ki zaroorat bhi hai!!
if only BCCI does not play spoilsport for Shah rukh khan, and decides to expand the number of teams next year to 16, 4 of which will be international teams....wait and watch!
Apr 30, 2009
Apr 29, 2009
y r indian companies shy of using social media?
broadly, there are 2 aspects of social media, as i understand it: pleasure and business (and i'm limiting my TG to only the corporate employees / companies and their employees)
the pleasure aspect is basically about the people we know and keep meeting daily. most of them were on orkut and most still are, but a lot many are migrating to facebook, and also creating profiles on linkedin and trying to figure out twitter...this set of people try to stay updated about what their pals are up to (though they get irritated by too many updates happening all of a sudden), and almost making facebook their home page, as fb is becoming almost part of daily things to do list. linkedin is more about future hope to find a better job through a connection...all that's fine, but if you ask these employees, if anyone in their office, either in marketing or in corporate communications team updates social media on behalf of the company regularly, then my guess wud be 80% not knowing much about it. as the companies in india have still not started using the social media effectively. they probably don't realize the potential of staying in touch with fans and foes, who have the liberty of giving instant bouquets and brickbats..perhaps that scares most companies away, the fear of getting ridiculed publicly....but why should we really be defensive about our products, services and decisions? why can we not tolerate criticism? why do the indian companies feel that 2000 fans are good enough, who can help get 10000 new customers to become fans, over a period of time? the viral effect of social media stays confined to releasing viral animations, but not everyday updates, which can help crate a brand salience...more of a longterm play than considering only short term gains....i mean look at how dell has used twitter to jack up additional sales of 1mn USD. amazing. 17 different divisions of dell are on twitter, giving deals news and discounts to people who really care. nice to read that kingfisher is now on twitter, but my earnest suggestion is to actually use it meaningfully. make people see value from it. promote new features, give discounts, make the followers feel privileged and special, and ensure its not only a one way communication. get prepared to listen, and implement suggestions. give them info and affection on facebook..make them see videos, photos and stories which otherwise the brand fans would never have seen.....its the way forward. and the sooner social media is adopted by brands, the better they stand to gain. ofcourse, in the long run...
the pleasure aspect is basically about the people we know and keep meeting daily. most of them were on orkut and most still are, but a lot many are migrating to facebook, and also creating profiles on linkedin and trying to figure out twitter...this set of people try to stay updated about what their pals are up to (though they get irritated by too many updates happening all of a sudden), and almost making facebook their home page, as fb is becoming almost part of daily things to do list. linkedin is more about future hope to find a better job through a connection...all that's fine, but if you ask these employees, if anyone in their office, either in marketing or in corporate communications team updates social media on behalf of the company regularly, then my guess wud be 80% not knowing much about it. as the companies in india have still not started using the social media effectively. they probably don't realize the potential of staying in touch with fans and foes, who have the liberty of giving instant bouquets and brickbats..perhaps that scares most companies away, the fear of getting ridiculed publicly....but why should we really be defensive about our products, services and decisions? why can we not tolerate criticism? why do the indian companies feel that 2000 fans are good enough, who can help get 10000 new customers to become fans, over a period of time? the viral effect of social media stays confined to releasing viral animations, but not everyday updates, which can help crate a brand salience...more of a longterm play than considering only short term gains....i mean look at how dell has used twitter to jack up additional sales of 1mn USD. amazing. 17 different divisions of dell are on twitter, giving deals news and discounts to people who really care. nice to read that kingfisher is now on twitter, but my earnest suggestion is to actually use it meaningfully. make people see value from it. promote new features, give discounts, make the followers feel privileged and special, and ensure its not only a one way communication. get prepared to listen, and implement suggestions. give them info and affection on facebook..make them see videos, photos and stories which otherwise the brand fans would never have seen.....its the way forward. and the sooner social media is adopted by brands, the better they stand to gain. ofcourse, in the long run...
passport nahi...ye hai durport!
what's the easiest and most recommended way to get your passport work done in india?
get hold of a contact who is with the government, and senior enough to push your papers across....so you avoid any hassles. if you don't have any such messiah, then god bless. i, for instance, got my original passport made in a week's time, in 2001, when infosys mandated us software engineers to have a passport ready...just because my uncle was a top IT official in delhi....however, 8 years hence, when i wanted to get it edited, so that my baby's passport could be made, it has already been 4 months, and i am trying to figure out what the government status messages mean..sample these, and let me know if you can relate to this morse code status highlighted in pink:
some of my woes:
1. applied for passport updates etc in december for dad, wife, daughter and myself
2. the government decided to act gentlemanly, and despatched the passports of the 2 ladies within a couple of months
3. dad and i have been waiting and waiting, with weird status messages like service already rendered, passport made, despatch under way etc
i wish the online systems that our beloved ministries so lovingly put in place move out of the hello world and shopping cart mentality, and face the music. i wish to see a politician in charge who outsources all the government websites to companies who understand internet, and not only to those who bid high enough to get the contracts, satisfying the babu bellies in the process, and then do such shoddy work of the sites, that you end up hating the internet in the process...
get hold of a contact who is with the government, and senior enough to push your papers across....so you avoid any hassles. if you don't have any such messiah, then god bless. i, for instance, got my original passport made in a week's time, in 2001, when infosys mandated us software engineers to have a passport ready...just because my uncle was a top IT official in delhi....however, 8 years hence, when i wanted to get it edited, so that my baby's passport could be made, it has already been 4 months, and i am trying to figure out what the government status messages mean..sample these, and let me know if you can relate to this morse code status highlighted in pink:
some of my woes:
1. applied for passport updates etc in december for dad, wife, daughter and myself
2. the government decided to act gentlemanly, and despatched the passports of the 2 ladies within a couple of months
3. dad and i have been waiting and waiting, with weird status messages like service already rendered, passport made, despatch under way etc
i wish the online systems that our beloved ministries so lovingly put in place move out of the hello world and shopping cart mentality, and face the music. i wish to see a politician in charge who outsources all the government websites to companies who understand internet, and not only to those who bid high enough to get the contracts, satisfying the babu bellies in the process, and then do such shoddy work of the sites, that you end up hating the internet in the process...
the outdoor behind sabeer bhatia's invention
love india for its idiosyncrasies...just keep bumping into them here and there, every day of my life...god bless the age of camera phones which lets us capture so much, which otherwise got lost somewhere within us.....now looking at this outdoor advertisement, i wonder if sabeer bhatia happened to pass by...ist a different issue that this one says hot male served..while sabeer served us hot mail!
mahalaxmi paradies!
just a random post...got an emailer, clicked on the link, and visited the site which was advertising..and found some glaring spelling mistakes, which are such basic mistakes, that i am alarmed no one thinks of them, in a hurry to put up content on the site...i mean how can a project named paradise be spelled paradies?
check for urself!
check for urself!
find x: can revisit this li'l cartoon everyday!
isn't this so cute??? i really wish i could restart my education, and develop a lateral thinking mind as expressive and brilliant as this little piece of genius suggests!
Apr 28, 2009
thanks vodafone, for the respite in the form of zoozoo!
i've said this earlier, and am willing to shout out yet again. vodafone has done a brilliant job of unleashing its zoozoo on the indian audience, this IPL. some positives for me:
1. voda continues to evolve, in its quest for marketing moksha, displayed so brilliantly earlier through hutch campaigns, and after the yummy happy to help campaigns of ipl 2008, they've gone a step further through their stunning series of zoozoo ads..and to think that only 10 have been released so far, with 15 more to go by the time IPL 2009 ends..yummy
2. finally, marketers in india have realized the impact a good tournament or tv event can make, and voda chose to launch its campaign when it knew tv audience will peak, as it did in 2008. excellent strategy.
3. voda is supplementing the zoozoo craze well, through facebook...with 8000 fans already (i remember 5000 fans yesterday..) the social media is being used adequately well to sustain the interest...in fact i got to know of the species name thru facebook
4. there's not much to do this summer in india...with the producers and multiplex slugging it out, with heat piling on to our collective agony, the regular tv shows getting on to the nerves as usual.....and in between comes the big hope yet again, as it did last year and blew away every other channel...its probably going to end up the same this year too...fortune has favored the brave...and in the midst of all this, vodafone has managed to release a campaign which actually brings in more smiles and better entertainment that the histrionics being played out on the field! commendable.
Finally, the reasons for this campaign to stand out and be talked about so much: super concept+simplicity+fine execution+super timing+unimaginative competition
luv ya, zoozoo. please do reserve the best 3 of your creations for the last 3 days....nothing else will get you bigger bang for your buck. can barely wait to see how the "beauty tips" concept can be bettered by the zoozoos!
1. voda continues to evolve, in its quest for marketing moksha, displayed so brilliantly earlier through hutch campaigns, and after the yummy happy to help campaigns of ipl 2008, they've gone a step further through their stunning series of zoozoo ads..and to think that only 10 have been released so far, with 15 more to go by the time IPL 2009 ends..yummy
2. finally, marketers in india have realized the impact a good tournament or tv event can make, and voda chose to launch its campaign when it knew tv audience will peak, as it did in 2008. excellent strategy.
3. voda is supplementing the zoozoo craze well, through facebook...with 8000 fans already (i remember 5000 fans yesterday..) the social media is being used adequately well to sustain the interest...in fact i got to know of the species name thru facebook
4. there's not much to do this summer in india...with the producers and multiplex slugging it out, with heat piling on to our collective agony, the regular tv shows getting on to the nerves as usual.....and in between comes the big hope yet again, as it did last year and blew away every other channel...its probably going to end up the same this year too...fortune has favored the brave...and in the midst of all this, vodafone has managed to release a campaign which actually brings in more smiles and better entertainment that the histrionics being played out on the field! commendable.
Finally, the reasons for this campaign to stand out and be talked about so much: super concept+simplicity+fine execution+super timing+unimaginative competition
luv ya, zoozoo. please do reserve the best 3 of your creations for the last 3 days....nothing else will get you bigger bang for your buck. can barely wait to see how the "beauty tips" concept can be bettered by the zoozoos!
100 Mbps in US...2 Mbps in India!
a snippet from Om Malik's writings:
"Cablevision, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable and Internet service provider, has continued its tradition of being a cable industry innovator by introducing 100-megabits-per-second service in Long Island. The service, dubbed Optimum Online Ultra, utilizes DOCSIS 3.0 technology to deliver the ultra-broadband experience over cable’s wires and comes with ability to send data upstream at 15 Mbps. It starts at $99 a month, will be available starting May 11 and will be the fastest service from a cable provider anywhere in the U.S.'
I'm sort of amazed at the gap that continues between what happens in US and what happens in India at the same instance....with news of 100 Mbps connections pouring in from US, i happened to see a BSNL ad on TV, advertising unashamedly about their super-fast 2 Mbps service! Even Airtel's out there with a 16 Mbps speed advt, and just wondering how out of place BSNL would be feeling, as it tomtoms about 2 Mbps speeds! But, having said that, price was and continues to be the biggest challenge. even though we say we're ready for super internet connections in india, how many of us will pay 5000 bucks for the same? what will be the price barrier that gets broadband rolling in india, like never before?
500 rs for 512 kbps unlimited usage?
1000 rs for 1 Mbps unlimited usage?
3000 rs for 10 Mbps unlimited usage?
We'll never be willing to pay more than this, which means such speeds will not find many consumers, to make it appeal to the masses...unless, ofcourse, our TRAI comes up with a solution that ends the broadband woes of india...
"Cablevision, the Bethpage, N.Y.-based cable and Internet service provider, has continued its tradition of being a cable industry innovator by introducing 100-megabits-per-second service in Long Island. The service, dubbed Optimum Online Ultra, utilizes DOCSIS 3.0 technology to deliver the ultra-broadband experience over cable’s wires and comes with ability to send data upstream at 15 Mbps. It starts at $99 a month, will be available starting May 11 and will be the fastest service from a cable provider anywhere in the U.S.'
I'm sort of amazed at the gap that continues between what happens in US and what happens in India at the same instance....with news of 100 Mbps connections pouring in from US, i happened to see a BSNL ad on TV, advertising unashamedly about their super-fast 2 Mbps service! Even Airtel's out there with a 16 Mbps speed advt, and just wondering how out of place BSNL would be feeling, as it tomtoms about 2 Mbps speeds! But, having said that, price was and continues to be the biggest challenge. even though we say we're ready for super internet connections in india, how many of us will pay 5000 bucks for the same? what will be the price barrier that gets broadband rolling in india, like never before?
500 rs for 512 kbps unlimited usage?
1000 rs for 1 Mbps unlimited usage?
3000 rs for 10 Mbps unlimited usage?
We'll never be willing to pay more than this, which means such speeds will not find many consumers, to make it appeal to the masses...unless, ofcourse, our TRAI comes up with a solution that ends the broadband woes of india...
SRK: pepsi and coke in the same bottle??
SRK (Shah Rukh Khan) has been the brand ambassador for pepsi since eternity, right? and he hates coke as well, going by brand endorsement rules? well well...i was extremely surprised to see him endorse Sprite! As logic would go, it's all in the name of getting some much needed moolah for kolkata knight riders...the korbo lodbo jeetbo re tribe...but is he going overboard with brand endorsements for KKR, when they just don't have a team good enough to win more than a couple of matches in IPL? was the simple idea behind buying a team was to add a separate revenue stream through endorsements which otherwise would'nt have come to him? will we next see KKR folks, ganguly included, applying some Axe talcum powder on their bodies and going out to defeat delhi daredevils? (SRK sells us duniya ka sabse chota AC, right?). I think SRK is killing his brand appeal by trying to be everywhere. Getting desperate to make money, while the good times last. One of his mandates is to get red chillies as the producer in case he wants to be featured in any endorsement...whatever happened to the creative liberties of the marketing folks in the brand teams? sample the sprite ad here...
fanta ka signal loud: is bunking allowed?
without fail, all ads of the orange soft-drink, Fanta, leave me perplexed. they managed to create some horrible ones with rani mukherji, and now with genelia as their brand icon, the execution and the ideation have only got worse. fanta ka signal loud, bunking is allowed?? what kind of ideation and copyrighting is this? who on earth is the marketing head who gives an approval for such bizarre ideas? if you haven't seen the commercial yet, here it goes. watch it at your own risk...
Apr 27, 2009
tatasky actve services: pretty lame, r'nt they?
have you had the misfortune of sampling the actve services on tatasky? especially the actve stories or wizkids..extremely primitive and lame animation, which are, in most cases, nothing more than static jpegs with some music and voiceover thrown in for measure. given the advancements in animation globally, and the rising appetite of indians for better quality products, how can tatasky continue to dish out such a pathetic product? sample these 4 images, which were telling a story to us about three blind mice...extremely poorly executed. i could have browsed through a PPT rather than getting my kid and myself listening to it!
[gallery link="file" columns="4"]
Actually its a larger issue that i am grappling with. i find a number of companies using india as a dumping ground. cars, electronics, consumer durables etc are coming to india ages after they've been launched globally. though the trend has improved drastically when compared to the initial days of liberalization, but why should we be served inferior products? why should tata sky or other corporates take the liberty of assuming that we don't appreciate quality? would loved to be proved wrong on this...
[gallery link="file" columns="4"]
Actually its a larger issue that i am grappling with. i find a number of companies using india as a dumping ground. cars, electronics, consumer durables etc are coming to india ages after they've been launched globally. though the trend has improved drastically when compared to the initial days of liberalization, but why should we be served inferior products? why should tata sky or other corporates take the liberty of assuming that we don't appreciate quality? would loved to be proved wrong on this...
Apr 23, 2009
Apr 22, 2009
maya memsaab, i hate you
mayawati is now on the newsweek cover story, being compared to barrack obama..however, with a twist. though the rise and the early rise may have been similar, but her reliance on the caste politics is in sharp contrast to how obama has been playing all along...obama's promise was more about development of those who have traditionally lagged behind, while maya memsaab is about personal development, even while the caste she promotes continues to drag along. her rule is more about creating her statues wherever and whenever possible, in the hope that she will become immortal in the eyes of her followers, much much after she's gone....and she loves to see the glitter in the eyes of the poor when they admire her wealth and jewellery...but is that what ministers are supposed to do? incite casteism and rely on a stupid divide and rule policy to promote their personal wealth? what choices do the indian electorate are left with? the abject backwardness of SP manifesto? the casteism of mayawati? the goondaraj of bihar politics? the getting together of like minded people to form a third front, which can be used to haggle during horse trading to amass more personal wealth and ministries/portfolios to ensure a steady stream of income for 5 years?
what are we left with? congress and bjp? and then we have lead india and every single media unit doing their bit to promote the cause of voting in these elections? whom do we choose? why cant we have a double party regime in place? i dont want the likes of bsp and sp and rjd and so on to have any influence in the scheme of things. i just want our electorate to have 2 clear options to choose from, so they know what to expect, without leaving development to chance. will that ever happen? can that ever happen?
visit this link to read about the mayawati and obama story of newsweek
what are we left with? congress and bjp? and then we have lead india and every single media unit doing their bit to promote the cause of voting in these elections? whom do we choose? why cant we have a double party regime in place? i dont want the likes of bsp and sp and rjd and so on to have any influence in the scheme of things. i just want our electorate to have 2 clear options to choose from, so they know what to expect, without leaving development to chance. will that ever happen? can that ever happen?
visit this link to read about the mayawati and obama story of newsweek
Apr 21, 2009
vodafone beauty tips (white alien): brilliantly funny
when it comes to innovation in advertising, absolutely no one in india comes remotely close to the hutch/vodafone franchise. absolutely magical how they keep churning out blockbusters one after another. each series of their ads is a lesson for advertisers and marketeers, on how to stay on top of the game..how to keep innovating. sample these ones from the latest "white alien" series....absolutely brilliant.
Apr 20, 2009
myntfresh.com: theme changed and plugins installed
just to update: changed the theme from simplex to clean home. and experimented with some interesting plugins. let me see how the new plugins work, will update with a new post on my experience with them!
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