Tuesday, July 14, 2009
New commers onboard.
In a sudden development we had more people join us. All from creative of course! In any case our conference room is big enough to hold an army. (Ok, a platoon, maybe.) For the sake of the new comers there was an 'orientation'. And that's that.Next week, we'll be back to business as usual. Each of us will be presenting channels that we've made on Youtube.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 5:36 PM
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Friday, July 10, 2009
Transformers - The Weenies
Aatchees made this five-legged wire head.
See that fuzzy head. We clicked it in time, before the transformation... What do you think it transformed into? link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:01 PM
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Thursday, July 09, 2009
A squirrel in office!
There's this fellow in our conference room. Hiding among all the wires and circuitry or behind the sofa, in turn. Wonder how he got in there. Maybe the next time we spot him we'll have our cameras handy.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:57 PM
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Monday, July 06, 2009
Ok, I'll do it. Please pass me my wine!
On 3rd July, we were supposed to discuss the winning entries (Grand Prix only) at the recently concluded Cannes Festival - Dark Knight, The Best Job in the World and Fiat Eco Drive.
It wasn't to be. Technical glitches... the less said the better. So we went on a tangent. A question was put on the table. "What if you were to do an advertisement or piece of communication for crab meat and you are a vegetarian who loathes even the mention of meat, let alone crab meat? How would you communicate effectively without even knowing what the product is?"
We had vegans among us who were already looking a bit put off. But they finally came around, perhaps in the spirit of the discussion and smug in the thought that this was just make-believe. What they came up with is in picture one. One actually said she'd eat it. We believe you!
Done with the shell fish, we moved on to wine. When it came to wine, most of us weren't ga-ga about it. Some liked it, some hadn't tasted it. And what if we had to promote a brand of wine, would we be able to do justice to it with all our not so ga-ga impressions about wine? That called for another animated round of discussions.
The answer might be elementary to most - but then what if some among your team haven't even considered communication on these lines? It's a 'bingo-moment' for them, a moment that one hopes would be significant enough to reflect in their work from then on.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 12:00 PM
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A Photoshop quiz and a farewell
June 26, Friday, was Kavitha's last Friday Morning Meeting day. She's been with us over a year now and as a farewell of sorts, we had a special meeting. The agenda for the meeting was suggested by Kavitha - a Photoshop quiz. On the day of the meeting though, the quiz became a forum as you can see in the pictures above.
The Visualizers picked up a couple of tricks from each other. Maybe we need to have such meetings once in a while too. We wound up with a song from Kavitha.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 11:25 AM
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Friday, June 26, 2009
Do products/brands have personalities?
Apparently, yes! Some are inherent. Ponds Dreamflower Tacl for instance. Some are built that way. Royal Enfield Bullet for instance. The latter could have been a deadbeat player by now considering its vintage and marketed on the pedigree platform alone, but machismo was deliberately built into the communication right from the beginning and today it is a cult brand.
Few know that one of the most noted 'manufactured' personality is Marlborough.
Marlborough was a woman's cigarette, to begin with. A product registering sad sales volumes. The situation was turned around by a re-branding exercise that positioned a dainty, woman's indulgence as a macho man's signature.
Like brands, all products have personalities, mostly inherent and therefore not conducive to personality manipulation. A cola drink has a fun, bubbly personality. A coffee shop has a laid back, relaxed personality.
When such is the case, would you want to break away from the personality type and project the product otherwise? Would you project a cola drink as a medicinal drink or medicine per se? (Believe it or not, Coke was at first sold as medicine. A bad idea in hind sight). Would you portray a coffee shop as a pious place of serious contemplation where you must always come in your Sunday best?
Then why do we do so?
Labels: brands have personalities?, Do products
link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:19 PM
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Looking up some good work
"This Friday, each of us will present EITHER the best press advertisement OR the best television commercial OR the best online banner OR the best poster we know of" went the mail that announced last weeks meeting agenda. "Any one of these only, remember" was the rejoinder.
- Ahila presented the Happydent TVC
- Lavanya presented the Arun Icecream commercial
- Sampath presented the Fevicol TVC
- Tanuja presented the Raymond's TVC
- Kavitha presented the Zurich Chamber Orchestra press campaign
- Suresh sent us all a mail of his choice of the Vodafone (pug) TVC
- So did Jaideep send mail of his choice of the Axion 'belt up' TVC
- Rajesh presented a poster for the movie Chicken Little
We've decided to do another round next week. We'll put in our combined learnings then.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 11:14 AM
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Who's stopping you? Just do it!
Doing something like nobody else does or has ever done before, calls for:
- the willingness to make mistakes, first and foremost
- the enthusiasm to experiment- the prudence to allocate time for your experimentation and managing it efficiently
- the keeness to follow up new trends, techniques and technologies
- an undying curiosity to find, seek, break the mould...
- a nose for finding the connect between the seemingly incompatible
- and above all loving what you are doing
Which means that you need to attempt doing something that is close to your heart. Because there'll be times when you won't be firing on all cylinders, for whatever reason. If it's something you love, something close to your heart, you'll pick up to speed soon enough. And, remember, in all this you must never forget to "ask" when you "don't know" or when you are "stuck".
So now who's stopping you from doing what you want to do? Just get out there and do it!
Labels: Who's stopping you? Just do it
link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:18 PM
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
We Have Enthusiasm - We Make Anything
Here's what a London agency did when one of their employees asked around in office if anyone wanted to make a music video for his mate's band - We Have Band.
The agency was thrilled to bits and they immediately decided to do a 3 minute stop-frame animation of face paint for the band's single 'You came out'. It took them two whole months and 4816 photo layouts. But in the end, look what a stunner! Their Flickr page has all 4816 photographs, if you're interested.
Have enthusiasm - make anything, what? Ok, it's not just that, but it's a start, right?
link | posted by Rage Communications at 6:06 PM
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Monday, June 08, 2009
That isn't a existential question, though it might appear so. Seth Godin has this wonderful post about meetings. Think you agree?This is a simple mantra that is going to change the way you attend every meeting and every conference for the rest of your life.
You probably don't have to be there. No gun held to your head, after all. So, why are you spending the time?
Do you have an agenda? It might be to change the agenda, or meet someone who will become a client or to learn something that will help you at work tomorrow.
Well, if that's why you're here, tell me again why you're just sitting there? If the only reason you came was to avoid the office, you need a new office. Quick, before the boss decides that for you.Surely you have a question you can ask the speaker. Surely you have something interesting to say to the person sitting next to you. Surely you can do more than just sheepishly hand someone a business card they have no reason to save or remember or use.
If there isn't a good reason, go home. If there is, then do something. Loud, now and memorable. Productive too, please.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:34 PM
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Nowhere Complete
Those posters we talked about last week are nowhere near complete. Well, yes, we do have the beginings in place, but now we need to get serious about completing them, cleaning up design, crafting copy, trimming the flab. We do have our constraints, but hey, is it not possible to put in a couple of hours on weekends to complete them? We have a Saturday and Sunday to ourselves.The meeting on 29th May was centered around these posters. Since this post is a wee bit late, we forget what really transpired at that meeting. (Or is it because nothing really transpired?)
We did learn one thing though: that at our Friday Morning Meetings, it's better to get everyone to disect or discuss a piece of work. We've done that successfully for the past few weeks and learned quite a bit from the exercises too. Guess we need to get back to that.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 3:54 PM
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Posters - Putting ourselves to the test
Last Friday, May 22, we discussed posters.Actually, we designed posters to spread awareness about Global Warming. Most of us came up with reasonably good work. Then while each of us were presenting, more ideas fired up. It was a good learning overall as we learned that:
- two heads are better than one, more the merrier and more productive
- discarding ideas even before they are full blown is bad strategy, you just might see your own discarded idea come to life in someone else's hands
- research pays
- earnest research pays handsomely
- getting the brief clear is half the job done
- posters by their very nature demand cursory but arresting attention and should therefore be designed keeping this in mind
- any copy on the poster must be well crafted
Yes! We learned quite a bit that at the end of the meeting we decided to take another look at our posters and clean them up. Chip away at the flab and litter and make them more attention-worthy.
We've even decided to print them and have them placed around office which means we better be scrupulous with our cleaning up and review at the next meeting.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 3:55 PM
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Sparking Breakthrough Creativity in Advertising
"It works!" say most people who have read it and applied its principles. And many of these people have been from outside advertising - poets, painters, engineers, scientists.
James Webb Young describes the workings of the creative process in 5 simple steps.
1. Gather the raw materials - do your research.
2. Go through them meticulously and get your mind to absorb them.
3. Then just let go! Let your unconscious mind work on them.
4. Soon, you'll have your "Eureka!" moment - your idea will reveal itself.
5. Now sit down and give shape and form to your idea.
If you've known or suspected this all along, you must get your hands on his book right away. Here's what one reader says: "Highly recommended for anyone whose profession requires novelty, new ideas, and creativity. Buy - don't borrow - read, re-read, and dog ear this little gem!"
James Webb Young describes the workings of the creative process in 5 simple steps.
1. Gather the raw materials - do your research.
2. Go through them meticulously and get your mind to absorb them.
3. Then just let go! Let your unconscious mind work on them.
4. Soon, you'll have your "Eureka!" moment - your idea will reveal itself.
5. Now sit down and give shape and form to your idea.
If you've known or suspected this all along, you must get your hands on his book right away. Here's what one reader says: "Highly recommended for anyone whose profession requires novelty, new ideas, and creativity. Buy - don't borrow - read, re-read, and dog ear this little gem!"
link | posted by Rage Communications at 3:53 PM
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Mo's Wakow!
Here's what Rosser Reeves says:
"Let's say you have $1,000,000 tied up in your little company and suddenly your advertising isn't working and sales are going down. And everything depends on it. Your future depends on it, your family's future depends on it, other people's families depend on it. Now, what do you want from me? Fine writing? Or do you want to see the sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?"
What's your take on this?
link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:01 PM
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Friday, May 15, 2009
Zoozoo Branding: Being an egg head helps break brand clutter, what?
Today’s meeting centered around one of the cutest characters ever made for television commercials - Zoozoos. Someone mentioned that these egg-heads were supposed to be birds. Birds! Imagine! Could birds have been just as endearing?
At the meeting, each of us was supposed to discuss the commercial we liked the best in the series so far. And then trade in related interesting information. This time round the learning was of a different kind.
Most of us came up with bits of information that the others did not know about the Zoozoos. We learned:
- to do our homework!
- that homework helps us contribute meaningfully to a meeting
- that this kind of contribution will win respect
- that we must follow with the homework bit for every meeting, no matter which meeting
We also learned that:
- brand promotions in the age of advertisement clutter must be stand-out-different and not the me-too aping that we see all around
- to be different, the brand promotion must discard limp status quo and explore various means of interesting communication
- exploring uninhibited comes when there are no sacred boundaries or sentinels
- that boundaries are meant to be broken when it comes to effective brand promotion
Actually, being an egg-head, oblivious of branding dogmas helps in thinking outside the box, doesn't it? Is that why a famous agency exhorts its staff to 'walk in stupid' each morning?
Here are examples of out-of-the-box branding; shot live by brand guru Martin Lindstrom.
Labels: branding, egg head, martin lindstrom, zoozoo branding, zoozoos
link | posted by Rage Communications at 11:03 AM
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Comic Perspective - Continued
Perspective. Depth. Mood. Detail. It's all in here. Remember we talked about it before?
link | posted by Rage Communications at 1:13 PM
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Two to Ponder
There are these two pieces that exhort us to come out of whatever that's keeping us from our best. One says 'Think Big'. This one's a poster on our pin up board that's remained there, ignored, for most of the time its been there - which is over a year.
The other one is a wallpaper on our lap top, the one we use for our meetings. It says the obvious - 'Time is precious'. Isn't it sad that we need to be reminded of the same? link | posted by Rage Communications at 11:55 AM
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Comic Love: Do comics give you an eye for perspective?
The I-didn't-get-a-chance-to-present presenter.
The confident presenter. (No choking up this time). Bravo!So, do comics give you an eye for perspective? Yes. We think so.
Take any of the great comics and the first thing you'd notice as a designer is the depth of mood and the perspective feel to the whole layout that tells a story of its own even before you read the text. All in a little square space.
That's what we were discussing over our meeting last Friday. We were asked to choose strips and then make a presentation answering the following:
1. Why you like the comic strip.
2. What you learned from it.
3. How you will be using your learning in your work.
This, again, was a learning. We learned:
1. that we must creat the right mood with whatever design we come up with.
2. that we can creat the right mood only if we know what is being conveyed by the design and to whom.
3. that perspective is very important in conveying a mood, especially when you have to bring in even the tiniest bit of detail into your design.
4. that detail is what creates the mood in the first place.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 11:43 AM
2 Comments
Thursday, May 07, 2009
"How to sell more Coke and popcorn"
Does subliminal advertising work?
The first purported case of subliminal advertising was in 1957.
During a screening of the film Picnic, an American market researcher, James Vicary, projected the words ‘Drink Coca Cola’ and ‘Eat Popcorn’ on to the screen for a fraction of a second. The duration of the image was so infinitesimal it could only be picked up subconsciously. During the intermission, the sale of Coke and popcorn rocketed. It appeared that by appealing directly to the subconscious, marketers could change people’s behaviour.
Later, genuine studies have supported James' finding that subliminal messages do have an impact on our subconscious.
A Harvard University experiment, conducted in 1999, showed that simply flashing the words ‘wise, astute and accomplished’ on a computer screen (while playing a computer game) to one group of senior citizens, and the words senile, dependent and diseased to a second group, affected the way the volunteers subsequently walked.
Now, how can we put this to work on the web? For aren't we all, in one way or the other, trying to sell more Coke and popcorn?
Labels: subliminal advertising
link | posted by Rage Communications at 1:21 PM
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Innovation in the time of Recession
Now is the time for innovation!
It's what will see each one of us through in the coming days and pay us handsomely later, once we've sailed through this recession. Now is the time to say "Yes I can!" Now is the time to say no to all barriers. Now is the time to duck the committee, even if it is only a committee in your head, and get the ball rolling.
And why must you duck the committee? Because it's the biggest barrier of all. Because committees and innovation don't go hand in hand.
Committees
- do not have gut feel and no gut either
- want to play it very-very safe
- are afraid to think outside the box
- always procrastinate
- always pass the buck
- are mortally afraid to be wrong
And where there's fear, where there's passing the buck and procrastination, there's mediocrity and deathly inertia, which you can ill afford in trying times like these. That is no playing field for innovation. You know it. We all know it. So what do we do about it? The answer is simple.
Duck the committee! And get your show on the road!
If an idea is worth the while, no matter how radical, run with it. Run the whole mile with it! And then if you have to take the brunt, accept it willingly. If nothing else, you showed courage. Even if you've failed, you've paved the way for others and learned a valuable lesson yourself to make way for improvement and final victory.
If nothing else, you've shown that it's through people like you that an organisation breaks new ground, finds its unique voice, garners respect, wins admiration and thereby grows out of its set confines to blossom into a whole new vibrant entity full of energy and enthusiasm.
[This post is a topical improvement over the original.]
It's what will see each one of us through in the coming days and pay us handsomely later, once we've sailed through this recession. Now is the time to say "Yes I can!" Now is the time to say no to all barriers. Now is the time to duck the committee, even if it is only a committee in your head, and get the ball rolling.
And why must you duck the committee? Because it's the biggest barrier of all. Because committees and innovation don't go hand in hand.
Committees
- do not have gut feel and no gut either
- want to play it very-very safe
- are afraid to think outside the box
- always procrastinate
- always pass the buck
- are mortally afraid to be wrong
And where there's fear, where there's passing the buck and procrastination, there's mediocrity and deathly inertia, which you can ill afford in trying times like these. That is no playing field for innovation. You know it. We all know it. So what do we do about it? The answer is simple.
Duck the committee! And get your show on the road!
If an idea is worth the while, no matter how radical, run with it. Run the whole mile with it! And then if you have to take the brunt, accept it willingly. If nothing else, you showed courage. Even if you've failed, you've paved the way for others and learned a valuable lesson yourself to make way for improvement and final victory.
If nothing else, you've shown that it's through people like you that an organisation breaks new ground, finds its unique voice, garners respect, wins admiration and thereby grows out of its set confines to blossom into a whole new vibrant entity full of energy and enthusiasm.
[This post is a topical improvement over the original.]
Labels: innovation, innovation in the time of recession, recession
link | posted by Rage Communications at 10:04 AM
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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Truth and lies about why we buy
In his fascinating new book - buy.ology - that is creating waves the world over, Martin Lindstrom, takes a deep look at how consumers perceive logos, advertisements, commercials, brands and products. Lindstrom conducted a three-year, $7 million neuromarketing study that measured the brain activity of 2,000 volunteers from around the world. Some of the results confirmed marketing-industry hunches; others flew in the face of conventional wisdom.
Martin found the following:
-- Product placement only works when fully integrated. It works when Coke-bottle-shaped furniture is part of the set design on American Idol, for example. However, when a product is not integrated, such as FedEx packages appearing in the background of Casino Royale, there is no measurable effect with regard to viewer recollection of brand.
-- Cigarette warning labels do not deter smoking but actually encourage smokers to light up. The reason? The 'craving spot' in the brain, is stimulated by the sight of the warning.
-- Contrary to popular belief, sex usually doesn't sell products. But controversies about sex in advertising do Calvin Klein and Abercrombie & Fitch are some examples.
-- Traditional advertisements no longer create lasting impressions. By age 66, most people with a TV will have seen nearly 2 million commercials. That makes it hard for an advertisement to increase a viewer's memory of a brand, despite the millions spent.
-- Successful branding functions like religion and attracts zealous followers. Scans using fMRI technology showed that some viewers had the same neurological response to strong brands that they did to religious iconography. Simple rituals, such as putting a lime wedge in a Corona or slowly pouring a Guinness, give the brand added cachet.
-- Subliminal advertising can be highly effective. When watching an advertisement, viewers automatically raise their guard against its message. With subliminal advertisements, viewers' guards are down, so their responses are more direct.
-- Marketing isn't restricted to the visual. Many companies use smells to sell products. Fast-food restaurants and supermarket bakeries use artificial fresh-cooked food smells. Sounds also effect buying. A study showed shoppers purchased French or German wine depending on which nationality's music was playing on store speakers.
It's likely that the information in this book will be used in future marketing campaigns, so even if you aren't in the marketing business, read it.
Labels: buy.ology, fMRI, martin lindstrom, neuromarketing
link | posted by Rage Communications at 12:23 PM
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A wake-up article from Sean D'Souza at www.psychotactics.com.I've seen so many people wasting away their talents, because they insist on avoiding the upgrade.
This reminds me of a designer I worked with a while ago. There she was doing layouts in this archaic version of InDesign. Which is fine, but the archaic versions are archaic because they slow you down.
They do stuff the inefficient way. They make your process drudgery. And then you wonder: Where did the time go?
The time doesn't go anywhere. You and I refuse to understand that we need to upgrade. Upgrade our tools. Upgrade our skills. And not just once in five years, but on a consistent basis.When was the last time you went to a seminar? When was the last time you took three-four days off to learn a new program? When was the last time you took a nice big chunk of time to learn something, or get yourself the tools you need?
We're literally wasting our lives if it takes us two days to write a decent article. Or seven hours to do a waffly layout. Or eleventeen days to do a presentation that's mediocre at best.
You can't be the world's greatest rally driver in a crappy car. You can't be the world's greatest chef with crappy ingredients. You can't be the world's greatest computer whiz with Microsoft-DOS.
It's the equipment. A person that falls in love with the equipment falls in love with the process. They have to. There's little choice. Only a bad carpenter blames his tools. A good carpenter wakes up dreaming of using those magnificent tools to build a magnificent mansion.
And build it fast!
Read the full post here
link | posted by Rage Communications at 10:26 AM
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Mo's Wakow!
link | posted by Rage Communications at 10:43 AM
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Monday, April 27, 2009
Here's a wonderful post from Seth Godin:TV advertisers are finally discovering that YouTube + viral imagination = free media.
The good news for you is that money is not a barrier, which means that marketers of any size can play. But the rules are different, as they always are online.
Because media is free but attention is not (this is flipped from TV world) you need to make a different sort of ad for a different sort of audience.
1. Assume that the viewer has the attention span of an espresso-crazed fruitfly. That means slapstick, quick cuts and velocity.
2. Find a word or phrase that you can own in Google, that fits in an email, and that comes up in discussion at the cafeteria table or in the playground. Castrol gets both rules right in this inane commercial.
3. Length doesn't matter. 10 seconds is fine and so is five minutes. Media is free, remember?
4. Challenge the status quo, be provocative, touch a social nerve or create some other sort of interesting conversation. In other words, a commercial worth watching. Dove does both in this now-famous commercial.
Because of the power of free media, I expect to see a whole host of commercials that would never be deemed effective enough to spend big media money on, but that generate huge views online. Look for plenty of irrelevant slogans and catch phrases and off strategy content... anything for an eyeball.
Also, understand that this is out of your control. Once launched, what happens, happens. One commercial I know of caught fire and ended up with millions of views. The client then called the producer, screaming in anger. He wanted to be able to turn it off, to decide how it got used, who talked about it, etc. You can't. Once it spreads, it belongs to the community, not to you.
The biggest shift is going to be that organizations that could never have afforded a national campaign will suddenly have one. The same way that there's very little correlation between popular websites and big companies, we'll see that the most popular commercials get done by little shops that have nothing to lose.
Labels: Making commercials for the web, seth godin
link | posted by Rage Communications at 4:40 PM
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Presentation Skills 'n' Some Thrills
This meeting must have been an eye opener for a few - the ones who thought that as a designer you only need to cook up colours and shapes to fit a mould.
The agenda was to get each one to present their best creative, like they were presenting it to the client. 'Present' was the operative word. Isn't that enough to shatter set notions or the lack of any notion about what lies ahead? To say the least, we saw tears. Actual tears, mind you.
But then we all learnt a few things this Friday too.
- Presentation is an acquired skill.
- It needs us to be prepared with work we can defend.
- 'Defend' does not mean fighting for a lame-duck creative.
- To defend successfully, your work must be well thought out and executed.
- For the above you need to understand the brief correctly.
- If the brief is vague, question it, till you get the objective clearly in mind.
When we were presenting, we were all pulp. And when we were the ones hearing the presentation, we were all teeth and dagger. Chills and thrills, so to speak.
link | posted by Rage Communications at 2:04 PM
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