Yes, the World.

Sony Pix – The brand that could have been?

When I was studying at MICA, one of the projects that came to us was on Sony Pix (or Set Pix?).
We were told that Sony Pix simply could never match an HBO because it did  not have blockbuster titles. It did, however, have some award winning movies.

So they said ‘we tell stories’. ‘Wow’, I thought. That’s smart. Interesting.

We tell stories.
There was something so powerful in this line for an otherwise lackluster channel. The movies had no great stars but surely… it had some stories?

I just simply adored the idea of watching a channel that tells stories and doesn’t just show me Brad Pitt’s armpits. (this worked well for the aspirational angle too where you want intelligent and heart-felt cinema?)

The we-don’t-have-the-stars-but-we-have-what-matters approach sounded simply yum!

Missed the bus?
However I can’t help but feel that where a channel could thrive around the ‘we tell stories’ approach, it still hasn’t done enough to capitalize on it.

For example, if you told good stories but nobody had heard of their names, wouldn’t you want to catch people and engage them with previews of the stories instead of sad TV listings, where I’d rather pick an HBO’s MissionImpossible over you?

Also I can’t for the life of me understand how the tacky promos for Chicks on Flicks would gel with your stand on telling stories? How in the world would calling women ‘chicks’ and movies ‘flicks’ work for you? Are you Star Movies? Cmon, you’re more powerful than that. You tell stories, remember?

Why in your, otherwise lovely, ‘The Pix Story’ section, would you have Diamond Comics-like sketches in the corner to illustrate the point?

Bah! Nevermind. I’m just upset because I love Sony Pix and it’s becoming a brand that-could-have-been.

Thankfully during my recent visit to Crossword with Sonali and Meenal, I saw this Set Pix branding.

Now that makes sense! Cuz you tell stories. Would be nice if somehow one could know what those great stories are … could’ve added a link to your site there, but I’ll shut up

PS: Sony Pix or Set Pix? Which is it?

One online community for young-ambitious-SEC-A-males coming up!

Sit down. Take a deep breath. Know that this is not the end of the world. You will not lose your job over this. Another deep breath please.
It’s official – most of your branded online communities are doomed.

According to a recent Deloitte study that I read about here, ‘35% of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members despite the fact that close to 6% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects.’

Now before you scroll right down to comments and begin to stab at your keys, let me assure you that I am not against online communities. Now, who in their right mind would be!

But I do have an issue with brands deciding to just ‘create’ an online community in the hope of building a loyal fan base. It’s like they think online community’s their jackpot. As if those 100 people in their community are like zombies waiting to watch every piece of advertising they send out.

1. Add value
If you’re a client and your brief to your digital agency is ‘i want an online community for young ambitious SEC A males’ then let me assure you that you’re not going to get anywhere with this social-media-thing.
Any community must add value. Must provide info/entertainment that the person actually needs.
No, wallpapers and screensavers of your latest canned juice don’t help. No ambitious-SEC-A-male wants to stare at wallpapers of your often not-so-cool product.
And adding a ’send to friend’ link cannot help your cause if that’s all you intend to offer.

2. Know ‘why’
It’s really important to figure out why you’re asking for an online community anyway.
Is it because
- You want to do something with this social-media-thing
- You believe that people who join your community will just go nuts about your product
- Gang of Girls did it (personally i could write a book about why GoG isn’t a great case study, but whatever!)
- You just want one and that’s that!

If you want a community because your aim is to just spread the magical powers of your brand around, think again. Communities that are created without any clear value-add don’t really go anywhere. And if your community starts and ends with your brand then your entire process is oriented around how many more people can you attract, instead of what you’re giving to all those people who are already a part of your community.

Communities grow when people who are already in them decide that it’s a damn good place to be in and call-in their friends.

Couple of things you may want to do
1. Be specific. What kind of people do you want in your community. It’s great to want millions in your fanbase, but then often a handful of strong believers are better than hordes of drifters.

2. Or else just use existing communities to peddle your goods. Why create another facebook when it already exists. You don’t always have to start from scratch. Don’t reinvent the wheel as Manish always says.

And no, you cannot blame your digital agency if your community doesn’t pick up.
We’ll just re-direct you to this post!

Brand soundtrack or item number?

It’s a no-brainer that a good soundtrack can make people want to stick to the channel when your ad is playing. I did that for Parachute’s Gorgeous Hamesha and even the karo zyada ka irada for Max New York Life.

So it comes as no surprise that I am completely bowled over by the Discovery campaign ‘I love the whole world’. So much so that I want it as my ringtone, caller tune, soundtrack for life and whatever else there is!

The song makes me want to give Discovery a BIG hug and definitely adds to brand. In addition to being informative, discovery to me, is now totally lovable.

I can’t help but compare the rather expensive Hero Honda music video ‘dhak dhak go’. The video had its moments with people coming together and it perhaps even had some optimism about the future of our young nation… blah blah. But it didn’t really evoke any sentiment, much less a download.

Oh and you can download the official mp3 and video of I love the whole world from the discovery site. So you can viral it around. That’s something Hero Honda missed on their site. (I couldn’t find it, if you can then lemme know)

Sentiment vs Information vs Item Number
Music, to my mind, is about a sentiment, a feeling. And if you use it to just force your brand down someone’s throat you’ll be left with a B-Tex type of khujli ad and nothing more.
Though I must confess I am not sure how much good a soundtrack does to a brand in the long run, but it sure helps memorability of an otherwise run-of-the-mill campaign.
Of course one runs the risk of turning the soundtrack into an item number. Complete with background dancers, confetti and disco lights. And then just like with item numbers, another brand comes to replace yours the next week.

Perhaps like Airtel and Puma (Paulo Nutini’s ‘New shoes’) more brands need to look at their soundtrack more seriously. It might just allow their brand to live well beyond the measure of media spends.

A PR story?

I have no clue what this new milk brand (Sach) in the market is (see image). I’ve been away from the net/newspaper etc lately. But I did go to Big Bazaar and see this new milk with Sachin’s photo and signature on it.

 

Is it PR or just a coincidence that there has been news of an award to Sachin for his good health and his love for milk before a match?

“tendulkar likes hot milk with turmeric before a match”

“Sachin Tendulkar is healthiest and happiest person in India”

“Milk is the secret of Sachin’s fitness”

 

 

Maybe it’s pure coincidence or have I become too cynical?

Fly from left

How do you go back?

How do you prevent all that’s happening at Mumbai right now? I for one have no answer. Not yet anyway. For now I just feel numb.

After over a hundred people have died, security officers killed and India held at gunpoint…

How does one go back to work to sell soaps or deodorants that make such little difference to the nation and our collective future?

CC: The Best CYA trick of all time

CYA is an in-built program that runs in every professional’s lazy-ass body.

It’s short for ‘Cover Your Ass’ and it’s just the thing to employ if you’re too scared of getting into trouble. (which by the way makes you a wuss according to me)

CC is great when you want to say something to someone but think it’d be a good idea for others to overhear just so that everyone’s on the same page.

But sample this….

ME is sonal
CHA is the man Covering His Ass and CC-ing 5 people who have absolutely nothing to do with the project.

—
MAIL1: 13:02pm
me: Please confirm that this is okay. (nobody CC-ed)

MAIL2: 13:10pm
CHA: Please add these images, they’re missing. Let me know if you need anything else. (CCs 5 ppl + CEO for no reason whatsoever. Did he expect the CEO to take my case for not adding those images?!)

MAIL3: 13:11pm
me: Thanks. I’ll be taking care of the final prints and submissions tomorrow. It’ll all be within deadline. Will send you a copy. (had to CC those 5 +CEO. sigh)

MAIL4: 13:13pm
CHA: Just to check, you’ll incorporate the images in the final prints right? The ones I just sent you! (5 ppl CC-ed + CEO)

—

I’m thinking GAWD! of course I will. I just replied to your mail!

By now I was pulling my hair out because there was no way I was going to CC 5 people to just say “yes”. So I just called him up and replied.

This is a typical exmaple of CYA where you feel safer about your ass knowing that the big fish know you did your bit and did it on time. You know… lest some scumbag try to pin the fault on you.

Tch. Tch.

Wuss!

CorpTalk can be all Ha Ha Hee Hee

‘Bad, server. no donut for you’ or something like that is what you get when orkut screws up. Or ‘oops…’ when gmail acts up.

I love a company with a sense of humour so here are a few examples I came across that I’d wanna share…

Mable’s shows you this when the page’s not found. Quite cute.

Sample this. Dilmah tea has it’s CEO picture and a line that says “one CEO who makes his own tea”

Any others I don’t know about yet?

Who cares who the advertising is for!

We advertisers hate to face it, but it’s true – we don’t know shit about the consumer.

Well we may know… but when it comes to describing the people who are most likely to buy our product, we fail miserably.

We describe stereotypes. Not people.

We think ‘youth’ is an ipod-toting, yo-ing, french bearded teenager in shorts-that-run-to-his-ankles.
Of course we could not be more wrong. Surely the youth of the country don’t fall into this category.

Sample this shopping cart that a middle aged, lower middle class family checked out at Shoprite. (accompanied by their 2 young children)

1. 3 Lux soaps
2. 1 pair of brown socks for the kiddo
3. 1 Dove soap
4. 1 pack Kamasutra (x20)
5. 1 Gatorade
6. 2 Amul Kool’s
and more…

Now for the life of me I’d have never figured

• They’d prefer a Kamasutra over the more mildly advertised Moods

• That the lady would refuse her daughter a small pack of pencils but splurge on a much more expensive Dove soap presumably for herself

• That they’d be the sorts to buy Gatorade (what with their kids not having any say in the purchase process, from what I witnessed)

So maybe we ought to focus more on making our ads more appealing rather than spending too much time defining that ideal target consumer. Because there sure as hell isn’t one.

I found myself a new job

If there’s one thing that really makes my blood boil, it’s people littering city as if the world’s a garbage dump.

On a recent train journey to Pune a lovely young (seemingly educated) couple threw a whole lot of stuff out the window into the ‘universal dustbin’ that is the world around us.

I thought to myself… (even though it was bloody hard to think with my temper rising by the second)

‘Maybe I should just stare at him and he’ll get the hint.’

So I gave him the stare. But he just looked confused

‘Maybe I should wait till he decides to chuck something else out and stop him then.’

So I sat and waited for him to start to chuck something out again. God! Those were the longest minutes of my life as he slowly munched his food on his soon-to-be-out-the-window-paper-plate.

Just as he reached out the window to chuck his plate I screamed

“WAIT-WAIT. DONT-THROW-IT-OUTSIDE!”

and I reached for his plate in an attempt to force it out of his hands and throw it in a dustbin. (totally filmy I tell you!)

So basically he apologized, and took it to the dustbin himself (I think!) and went on to tell another kid in our compartment to do the same and not chuck junk out the window.

He said to me

“Thanks for reminding me”

( which of course caused a big smug grin to surface on my face which I tried my best to hide with a book I was reading)

So I’ve decided that since I’m probably not going to be doing anything great for India, I might as well just take on the job of a cleaner.

Last evening I picked up two ticket stubs that this lady threw on the compartment floor. She noticed my clean-up-act but didn’t say anything. As for me, I was happy that 2 less ticket stubs littered mumbai last night.