The Big Social B

Blogosphere- A place for people to express their own feelings without recourse to their being edited by another person. A self-publishing medium. Where through the click of the mouse and a few minutes of hyperlinking, uploading and quoting, a writer can present as lucid a case as he wants on any subject that takes up his fancy.

Blogosphere- a deeply personal space, something held sacred by the people who write it as their place in the yard. They refuse to let other dictate what happens on it, well, sometimes they do. Mostly, there are minor changes to the kind of content being shared.

Blogging in India is still a very nascent trend. With a country where internet connectivity is dismally low, and a population that does not use the internet much except for functional uses (read email, social networking, search on random things- the most searched item in India was Katrina Kaif), blogging is taking on very slowly.

But as with every fledgling trend, there are a few high points. There are few journalists sharing their thoughts in an unedited manner, looking for things they are personally interested in, writing about things that the newspaper wouldn't let them write, and sharing stories about the industry in general. And lately, a few celebrities have also caught on to the medium. Aamir Khan was perhaps the first to get on the bandwagon, but his posts normally trend upwards when its time for a movie, so he is what we would call a marketing-gimmick-hungry-actor-who-became-a-blogger. There's Shobhaa De, who mostly reprints articles that she's written for newspapers across the country, amongst other things.

One of the most popular blogs however, belongs to the Superstar Amitabh Bachchan. He writes almost every day, without fail, and aims to create a real bond with his Extended Family (EF) as he calls them. He does this by responding to their comments (interactivity), providing them with details of where he's travelling, what he's up to, what things/people he saw/met (exclusivity), and by sharing his thoughts on various subjects in a very detailed manner (intimacy and bonding). Needless to say, his blog registers a very healthy no. of hits each day, and many of those who come spend a lot of time (stickiness).

The blog has off late received a lot of press due to the Slumdog Millionaire stand-off between Mr. Bachchan and the media. They twisted his statements around and Mr. Bachchan had to ensure that he replied to them through his blog. While the public opinion is still divided (due to the collective strength of the media, and their far wider reach), the blog as an entity, has managed to reach a even higher no. of hits. For an Indian blog, things have never been better before.

And here's where things went a little awry. The setting of the blog or the nature of the entries are not for self-promotion or promoting films featuring Mr. Bachchan or his equally illustrious family. He writes with rare candor and thoughtfulness, on an everyday basis. When a legend of Indian Cinema takes out time to talk to people (regardless of medium), people would like to listen. The setting is for these people to get together and talk to each other.

Would they really want to see Reid & Taylor there? A suiting company whose products he endorses, Reid & Taylor wanted to get presence on the blog. Fittingly, the blog's readers have protested about the presence of Reid and Taylor on the blog's masthead, and as per Mr. Bachchan, changes are being made. The suits are thinking.

Visibility for a brand is of paramount importance. It increases awareness, drives sales, brings long term loyalty amongst other things. But would you really want to see it everywhere? Where does the buck stop?

Here are a few things wrong with this entire 'want' of being present everywhere your ambassador is-

For Reid & Taylor-

1. The blog is an intimate space where the readers/audience are interacting with the Legend they only see at the Cinema(Films), TV(Film Reruns/Advertisements), Print (Interviews/Features), Radio (Soundbites/Interviews)- in short, all moderated mediums with no feedback possible. Viewers passively take all that comes at them. The Blog is where Amitabh Bachchan grants them a private audience. You have no place here. You belong to the other mediums but not here. This is like getting access to the private diary of Neil Armstrong and finding NASA recruitment ads all over it.

2. You've paid for being associated with the Brand Ambassador. It also means that you are associated for all good and bad things. While the TV and press may say something, they are momentary links to the personality. When Mr. Bachchan is writing something to refute allegations made by the press, there might be audiences who are trying to judge and maybe form negative opinion to what he says. After all, each statement is not being typed out by a PR-hack (We hope so), to ensure its political correctness and ability to convince. So do you really want to be present in this confused atmosphere?

3. How many of your TG actually visit a blog? How many of them visit Amitabh Bachchan's blog? Is there any research going into this? Or just the way most things go? By gut feeling?

For Mr. Bachchan-
1. Endorsements are good- for you and the brands, financially and image wise. We could write a tome here about it, but that for some other day. This is one place where you can put your foot down. For reasons mentioned above.

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Social media is the next thing. Everyone wants to be on this interactive medium. There are ways to do it, and be successful about it. But can you please wait for 10 years before all relevant TA get a computer, learn how to use it, get reasonable internet connectivity and go beyond the social networking space.

And don't try to monetize blogs. You don't belong here. Not today. Not ever.

Dark Days, but Smiles across the Oceans

Ok, so the title is very ambiguous. Let us clarify. Since like most Indians we are bound to follow the events in Mumbai on the news channel. Since most of them are going on about minute-by-minute reporting, we thought to move on to our own news sharing platform- twitter.

There was something very interesting to note once we got beyond the oh-my-god-another-rumour phase. Twitter search enables you to see the top trending topics. Another day and time and things would have been ok, but this is amazing.

The top three topics are of known importance at this time. Thanksgiving is an occasion celebrated across the hemisphere. And hence its mention in tweets across the board are fine. Its where WalMart came in that we were perplexed. And the curiousity, even in times like these, got the best of us.

The tweets, all of them about the only non-essential topic within the top 5, is about the things people are getting to see on Black Friday.

About Black Friday:

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Since Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday may be as early as the 23rd and as late as the 29th of November.

Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employees take the day off, which increases the number of potential shoppers. Retailers often decorate for the Christmas season weeks beforehand. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 am or even earlier) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. Although Black Friday, as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving, has served as the unofficial beginning of the Christmas season at least since the start of the modern Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the term "Black Friday" has been traced back only to the 1960s.

The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit).

The news media frequently refer to Black Friday as the busiest retail shopping day of the year, but this is not always accurate. While it has been one of the busiest days in terms of customer traffic, in terms of actual sales volume, from 1993 through 2001 Black Friday was usually the fifth to tenth busiest day. In 2002 and 2004, however, Black Friday ranked second place, and in 2003 and 2005, Black Friday actually did reach first place. The busiest retail shopping day of the year in the United States (in terms of both sales and customer traffic) usually has been the Saturday before Christmas.

In many cities it is not uncommon to see shoppers lined up hours before stores with big sales open. Once inside, the stores shoppers often rush and grab, as many stores have only a few of the big draw items. Electronics and popular toys are often the most sought-after items and may be sharply discounted. Because of the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, many choose to stay home and avoid the hectic shopping experience. The local media often will cover the event, mentioning how early the shoppers began lining up at various stores and providing video of the shoppers standing in line and later leaving with their purchased items. Traditionally Black Friday sales were intended for those shopping for Christmas gifts. For some particularly popular items, some people shop at these sales in order to get deep discounts on items they can then resell, typically online.

We have a lot of things to say about this. Since they fall outside the purview of this space, we shall let you do your own thinking.

Happy Thanksgiving. Our prayers for the people in Mumbai and the worldover who are affected by this tragedy.

Peter Schiff had it right

One of the main reasons we started rhetoric69 was to say things no one else would talk about. Though with time, we've found more people who have similar ambitions, and learned from them, we have yet to adopt a stand that cuts through the bull-crap that people can come out with.

Adage and Bnet, two substantial industry portals, have come out with some guns firing in criticism of The Ad Contrarian, a blog run by the CEO of Hoffman/Lewis, a chicago based ad-agency. Not in real time, but these stories are very similar to the video that follows. The industry heavy weights are claiming the same thing as the market pundits did when Peter Schiff was on with his 'tirade' against real issues in the US financial market.



We have been following TAC for a long time, delighting on its take on the rhetoric that's out there. Read the adage story here, and the BNet story here.

Ofcourse, none of them have the decency to link to his blog. Wish they have to delete these entries from their archives just as the other financial pundits are out there washing their own linen.

Rock On, Bob. Hope the gaffes are caught in time. The only thing is, with communication, everything can be washed over.

The Missing Link

Indian Oil is one of India's biggest oil marketing companies. State-owned, the company has seen better days back when crude had not scaled up as it had. And then disaster struck, but things have calmed down somewhat.

So, this is not about their fortunes. This is about their karma. Now, there are only so many ways you can sell your company once you're done peddling your propane-boosted special petrol. You can even get a brand ambassador, or you can keep harking about your lubricants (the automobile kind) or choose to do a CSR-cum-brand-building campaign.

Yeah, the last one sounds good. It does all those tingly things to the brand that makes the brand manager go weak in the you know what. So, IOC calls for a pitch. The agency, knowing what a rich old goat it has, decides to close in.

They decide for a plan where they talk about saving the world, through environmental conversation. So one of the angles they take on it is how the world would be dark in a few years if we don't conserve oil. Makes sense to me.

Then they place it, where else, but in their petrol vending stations. You know, prime real estate, large no. of people go to a petrol station each day, so we can share with our customers how deeply we feel about the environment.

There are a couple of lacunae. We print the flex, a huge 50X20 ft piece of CSR-speak. We place it. Where do we place it? We place on the inside corner of the petrol station. Where no one can see it. And then we light it up with 4 state-of-the-art halonix lamps.

And here's the post-err of the decade. The copy in Hindi reads- Maybe, in a few years, our bright world can drown in darkness (Literal translation). The real kick is the tag-line- Door ki Soch- Thinking Ahead.

Yeah, you are thinking ahead. By plotting media with lights on, about lights being off. Where no one can see it anyways.

The campaign features at IOC petrol stations all over the city. I've counted out atleast 13 such hoardings at different locations where they have done this. Just imagine the carbon footprint of this one!

Age Old, Brand new

JWT for Sulekha.com



The ad has a very kitschy and tip-of-the-moment feel. The instant gratification idea fits in too. We like!

Perception

Advertising at its best picks up clues from the ground, and amplifies them for placing brands in the right cultural context.

HBO launched a new show, based on an Englishman who comes to India to... run a call center. While the show is yet to be seen by us, this print ad has a hidden message-

Quality is an image we all want to portray. What's the image for quality though?

Even we couldn't figure a way out. Tell us of any ideas that you may have. For a country with a gazillion diverse languages and dialects, and slang on top, this is a conundrum hard to crack.

In other unrelated news, the strangely named kijiji.com, has been renamed Quickr.com. Thank god for we were thinking this was on the lines of the astrology-compliant ezeego1.com. With investors like ebay and VC fund Matrix partners, this would be interesting to watch. Just hope they can do something with their site. Looks going the same yahoo-ebay-cluttered-layout way.

In India, the main issue is getting real people online. To post. To contribute. All we have on quickr's second-hand car page, for example, are brokers and insurance agents.
Can someone think around this problemo?

Maybe?

Alternate Channels for Ad Agencies

Times are tough or so we are told. While this has meant a mixed bag of fortunes for some brands and agencies, some of them are turning things on their head. Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Mother are two international agencies that have turned to running businesses where they see a 'lag' in the customer expectations and brands available.

BBH has started two businesses through a new division- Zag. These are Pick Me Up vegetarian meals for 'bi-tarians'- people who are non-vegetarians but eat vegetarian meals as well, and Ila Dusk alarms. Both are managed by professional vendors and sold at UK's biggest retailers- Tesco and Marks & Spencer. Expected to be multi-million brands within the year, their initial openings indicate as much.

The other agency, Mother has been ON on this front. They've had multiple products such as books, shopping bags, candies and gourmet hot-dogs. While some of these brands are novelties, some have seen interest by VC's and other financial whizkids with their funds coming in.

In India, there's no example that we've located of such businesses or try-outs that have registered a blip. Agencies have so far been content on a ATL-heavy campaigning structure for big brands, with hardly any local brands achieving cult status on their own. Leaving out stand-alone restaurants, or local sweetmeat sellers Haldirams in north India, Jumbo King vada Pavs or MTR is southern India, we have hardly any niche local brands to speak of. And this is only the food industry.

While Mother and BBH are what can be described as 'boutique' agencies, the mainstream ones haven't really started anything exclusive, leaving out launching business specific agencies such as Emfatico (for Dell worldwide) or Altitude (for Jet in India).

It would be interesting to see if any opportunities arise in this sphere, in India. With a brand-starved, aspiring TG ready to look for brands in everything they do, this might be the big ticket for anyone willing to stick his neck out.

Tell us if you know of any agency-operated businesses in India or otherwise.

Pic Courtesy: Adage.com