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I would like to inform you that I want a Ferrari and shall wait for you all to make it come true. No, i’m not being silly.
Turns out that a man in the US got laid off by Yahoo and soon started to twitter about his unfortunate ‘day of firing’. This got many people involved and some thought of it as quite ‘engaging’.
Needless to say help poured in and now he not only has many job offers but a new business partner.
So now, where’s my ferrari?
Yup, starting now, I and a colleague are about to sacrifice our first lives for 72 hours in Second Life!
Goodbye mama, papa, simran, bruno (my dog).
Too bad you all don’t have a second life.
But don’t worry after 72 hours I’ll reclaim my first. I promise!
(more on our ‘experiences in second life’ later)
To put my misery in perspective for everyone, let me inform you that I work in Mumbai. A city which is about to face a nasty monsoon (they’re expecting 102% rainfall this year, whatever that means).
Last year was my first monsoon in Mumbai. Sitting at my desk in the basement I was quite paranoid about the rains since I’d heard plenty about Mumbai’s penchant for drowning.
On a rainy day during my first month in Mumbai, my colleagues from another unit from my basement started to pack up and leave at 3pm. Looking out I panicked as I saw the raindrops trickling down the little ventilator window.
Grabbing my umbrella and bag I decided that I would leave for home at that very moment (even at the risk of getting fired for taking an unauthorized ‘half-day’).
In my head, I was already revising my argument for leaving early.
I wasn’t going to let myself drown to death because of my job!! Enough is enough.
Okay, so basically it turned out the rest of them were leaving for a team party, and there was no threat of drowning to ‘death’ as I had imagined.
Yes, I returned to my desk and worked till 8.
In India we love our brands. We love them so much that we want them to have a family.
This is Espreet, Esprit’s Punjabi aunt.
Or this is Adidash, Adidas’ sprinter brother.
Once upon a time
Jensport and Jansport lived in the US. They were very close to each other and looked so much alike that often people confused one for the other.
When Jansport became really famous and started visiting countries across the world, jensport realized that she could do the same in India by allowing people to mistake her for her sister.
But this was not done for any personal benefit. In fact Jensport came to India much before her sister Jansport and helped build the ground for her sister’s success. Indians soon got to know that someone by the name ‘Jansport’ existed all because of Jensport.
Needless to say, Jensport’s frayed clothes and tattered ends helped people realize that Jansport (the pretty, colourful one) was the true star and they soon began to aspire to meet Jansport instead.
Soon Jansport achieved celebrity status without doing a thing. Sure sure, Jensport did make a quick buck and earn cheap publicity, but she did it all for Jansport.
May every brand find a sister as true as her. *(Love thy clone)*
It has come to our attention that digital natives possess the super power to automatically block any online banner advertising.
It seems at least 600 marketers have been fired, though reports coming in claim that the actual number is much higher.
Listen up all digital media specialists, marketers, offline-but-wanting-to-go-online-planners.
Sonal Jhuj reports: “While marketers are busy buying millions worth of banner space over the internet, news has just come in that all digital natives in fact have the capacity to ignore it.
Surprisingly they do not ignore online advertising consciously. It seems that this is an ability that functions without the individual even being aware of it.
This is a worrying sign for marketers.
i-spent-4million-on-banner-space-marketer says “How can they not see the banner! It’s ridiculous”
digital native, Ajinkya looks puzzled, “banner? Hmm?”
Keep watching, we’ll be back after a short break. Luckily for us, there exists no super power for you to ignore the TVC.
Muahaha
… Damn they found the remote!”
While I cannot claim to be a digital expert, I still do have a personal checklist for digital work. And it goes something like this…
1. Is there a brand connect?
Putting up a microsite with skimpily clad women might be just the thing for Axe, but if you’re going to chipkao (lazily replicate) your idea on another unsuspecting brand, it can be quite injurious to the brand’s health.
*Off-set the evil*
Just today a colleague introduced me to http://offsettheevil.com/ .
They made a violent evil game (condemned 2) and to showcase the experience of the game, they decided that to off-set the evil of the game one should visit http://offsettheevil.com/ . The site is cute, beautiful and happy. The game is now etched in my memory as bloody and violent. I suppose that is what they were hoping for.
2. Is there any brand ‘experience’?
Recent work done by Tribal for MTV Roadies is one of the best online brand experiences in recent times.
*MTV Roadies Auditions*
MTV’s reality show Roadies has one of the meanest auditions ever. And they took the mean judges online to recreate the show’s experience. Quite an interesting thing. Try taking an online audition here.
3. Are you involving me for WOM?
I’m a little concerned about the viral. No, I don’t imagine it’ll die or anything. Just that we’re pretty much taking the viral for an online TVC, which it is not.
Sure, you show me some weird flash video and promote your chips, but I see no reason why I would want to send it across to all the unsuspecting contacts in my address list.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on getting blocked by everyone I know!
*Elf yourself* by OfficeMax
This is best involving and therefore WOM-able piece of work I’ve seen recently. Within minutes my entire gtalk list was flashing their own elfyourself videos.
All you need to do is upload a picture, and watch your eflved self make some real cool moves.
Mine was particularly cute *blush*. But I didn’t save it anywhere. Watch this one instead.
It did manage a small peak in an otherwise declining graph for Office Max.
I’m not big on avatars. I mean, I have my fun dressing up an avatar but I lose interest in it soon enough. (Though I must admit, the southpark avatars did catch my fancy.)
But obviously I am not a majority, since there seem to be quite a few people spending amazing amounts of time and money .. and *money*
NHN Hangame , a Japanese game portal, recorded revenue of US $36.8 million from avatar and related sales.
Avatars are pretty big in schools even in my hometown of Chandigarh. My kid cousins routinely change and re-do their avatars (though quite a few are too sexy for the 13 yr olds to sport).
why the avatar is big
The avatar isn’t just a doll you dress up. Unlike a Barbie, where we’re dressing up another ‘person’, we think of the avatar as ‘ourselves’ (even if it doesn’t sport the paunch we do).
The avatar therefore ends the classic struggle between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’.
In reality, we have a self (towards which we may feel love, hatred etc) and the ‘other’ who is everything the self is not (which again we may like or dislike). The differentiation between the self and the other is essential for one’s understanding of oneself.
The avatar puts those two together, allowing us to create that which is us and at the same time is the other. Much like an actor. Only this time, the virtual is almost real (second life marriage).
stages of your avatar-ed self
The ‘connect’ stage is really the same as ‘discovering online chatting for the first time. There is a tendency to be all that you aren’t. Saying things you otherwise wouldn’t. Experiencing freedom from your physical self.
The ‘merge’ stage makes for a curious study. Here the virtual avatar begins to reflect the real self as one slowly becomes comfortable with oneself and opens up to the virtual world.
It is perhaps this mix of the ‘self and the ‘other’ in one, which merges the boundaries between the real and virtual
William Gibson said:
“One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real. In the future, that will become literally impossible. The distinction between cyberspace and that which isn’t cyberspace is going to be unimaginable”
Want to do a promo?
Want to engage the customer?
Simply don’t know what to do online?
Do a microsite. D-uh!
With millions of microsites floating around it’s obviously an idea that client’s are willingly accepting.
While a microsite’s great for..
1. creating some short term buzz
2. providing some superficial brand experience
3. encouraging a reluctant client to step into the digital space
4. an emergency pitch
One should really watch out for..
1. Non-WOM-ability (non-viralability)
2. Flash games and things in which we’ve forced the brand
3. Requirement for major offline support
I’m not saying I hate microsites. But is that all digital’s good for? Virals and microsites?
While they surely gets the numbers and are perfect for short term brand promos and experiences, one can’t help feel that it’s a short cut solution that’s so easy that we don’t bother taking the bigger leap.
