Online Agency Blog

App for iPad - A great example

2010-07-14T10:54:00.000+05:30

This seems like a wonderful example of the possibilities of the iPad - Kraft's rich application that educates young parents and children about healtful eating. And promotes the brand at the same time.

Customers are partners in creating marketing messages

2010-06-05T22:14:00.009+05:30

View more presentations from Graham Brown.

Graham Brown has a very valid point when he says that customers are no longer the destination of our marketing messages. There is no longer a 'they' and 'we'. In today's world, customers are partners in the production of marketing messages.

So are you (yes you ad agency, you digital communication expert) still telling stories about your brand or are you helping your customers tell theirs?

What would Google TV mean for website design and development?

2010-06-04T12:26:00.001+05:30

First off, it means that the community aspect of TV viewing and the search-is-king, personal aspect of the Internet is coming together. On the face of it, it might seem like the slapping together of paradoxes - privacy and the lack of it. Chalk and cheese. But only time will tell for sure.

Meanwhile, what does it mean for us in website design and development?

Primarily, like all things new, it would mean cutting out the frills and ambiguity and being simple. The frills can come later as a process of evolution.

Content will still be king

But instead of an individual centric build, you will have to consider how groups might use your website or application. You will have to consider how individuals could use your site or apps in a living room setting.

On a practical level, TV screens are wider than computer screens and the colours look different. So you will have to incorporate TV standards into your website. Highly saturated and very bright colors might not be the order of the day. You would also need to consider text - make it readable from a distance. And sound would be an integral part of the whole experience.

Simplicity will rule!

Successful TV interfaces are simple in both concept and design. Very simple in fact. You will have to see how well you can integrate habits people have developed on the web into those developed on TV. So the first thing that goes out would be abstract icons. Next would be vertical scrolling.

Navigation will have to be as easy as on TV

Users will quickly abandon a screen whose navigation frustrates them. Apart from a QWERTY keyboard, Google TV navigation would mostly be limited to up, down, left, right, and enter. (It's all about simplicity and a bit of familiarity, remember?) Users would surely be looking for interactions that are fast and easy to do - at a distance, with one hand, in the dark.

One would have to know how to take advantage of the widescreen. TV screens and computer screens differ in canvas size, aspect ratio, safe areas, resolution, cropping, and pixel shape.

There's also text size and presentation, sound (appropriate to the living room environment), handling of crashes and errors, coding and other details one needs to consider.

Read all about it here. FAQs are here.

But consider the prospect: Web developers can start taking advantage of the big TV screen. Yup! Google TV will bring developers into the living room!

Quick facts about Internet2 - the next gen network

2010-06-03T12:29:00.003+05:30

The incubator for many of the emerging technologies shaping the future is known as Internet2.
Internet2 is a not a single network, but a consortium of hundreds of high-speed networks linked by fiber optic backbones.
The network transmits data at speeds up to 2.4 gigabits per second - 45,000 times faster than a 56 Kbps modem.
This next-generation network went online in February, 1999, linking a number of universities around the world.

More information here and here.

Follow Internet2 on Twitter: http://twitter.com/internet2

Mo's Wakow!

2010-06-01T12:12:00.002+05:30

A hit no longer...

2010-05-17T10:34:00.001+05:30

The Friday Morning Meetings aren't being appreciated as much now. Attendance had dwindled. The meeting itself has been postponed thrice because of workloads and when we do have one... there aren't enough people around. Are we meeting next week?

This is still relevant, even if you are not a student now

2010-05-11T13:14:00.001+05:30

Luke Sullivan from Mediastash.tv on Vimeo.

So listen up. This is an hour-long speech by Luke Sullivan to students of the Miami Ad School. Warning: beep words included. As Luke himself says: "Where I got such a potty mouth is a mystery to me, because my Mom, she’s just as nice a lady as you could care to meet." That apart, this is a must-listen. So take an hour off. It could be one of your most productive hours in recent times.

Ignore! Ignore! Ignore!

2010-04-26T09:29:00.000+05:30

Rage at No.7

2010-04-21T22:58:00.001+05:30

A Google search prompt for the word 'rage' lists Rage Communications at number seven. Try it yourself.

Action buttons: Why you should stick to the familiar

2010-04-19T19:11:00.009+05:30

A rose by any other name smells just as sweet, huh? No Shakespeare. Not always in the online world. It only leads to rolling eyes, arched eyebrows and perhaps a dip in visits.

How often do we come across requests for mandatory tabs and buttons to be worded differently? Often you'd say. And so the request, for instance, would be for the 'Apply Now' button to be worded differently but say the same thing! The list doesn't stop there. In such times, what if you could gently put out a reminder that the buttons on TV remotes for example are labeled just the way they were labeled when TVs first came with remotes?

Play has always been 'Play', not 'Frolic'. Have you seen a TV / DVD remote with a Frolic button? Or a 'Catnap' button instead of a 'Pause' button? A 'Stimulate' button instead of a 'Power' button?

Know why? Because it’s used by mothers and grandmothers. Little children even. Now, even a little child understands 'Play' and 'Power' and even 'Pause'. And when he has finally broken his remote and his momma has gotten him a new one he looks for the 'Power' button not the 'Stimulate' button on his new remote.

So is the case online, except in deserving instances, especially in the case of themed, niche-audience websites where the construct of the website itself demands it.

Otherwise, it's best to remain plain vanilla and concentrate on the over all user experience. It’s experiences and a certain amount of familiarity with the nuts and bolts that get you repeat visits. The biggest example is Google. They're rumoured to be contemplating changes to their home page. But what's the bet that the Google Search button will remain the Google Search button? That the I'm Feeling Lucky button will remain just the same? Because Google knows that familiarity is part of the Google experience. If it's variety they want, the Google logo does the entertaining with seasonal and situational themes.

Listen to the post here:

Are you briefing your digital creative team wrong?

2010-04-15T14:36:00.005+05:30

Courtsey Dominik Van Jan.

That depends on how you approach your creative brief. If you are writing it from an advertising perspective, it could just be that you are.

In a world where most consumer interactions are rapidly taking place in complex digital ecosystems, consumers engage with brands on a much more intimate level. Digital is not just another communications channel anymore that can serve as a message carrier. Digital finally is an environment where customers experience, consume, create, play with, re-purpose, re-format, share content, etc.

Yet, most creative briefs ignore digital's ubiquitous nature and mix it with the other, less interactive media. How did we get into this situation? By sticking to the guns we know and creating briefs for advertising, rather than looking at the potential of digital and writing creative briefs for experiences.

In order to create digital marketing that works, we need to build relevant scenarios, situations and experiences for consumers and have them discover a message in a—more or less—guided way. Take for example the simple but effective Fedex Launch a Package.

Doing digital briefing right requires that planners know about user interests, needs and most importantly behaviors in a variety of online and mobile media, as well as understanding the technical potential of the medium in order to be able to move from a communications / advertising brief to an experience / discovery brief. Social media, adds an additional layer to building digital experiences, which, too, needs to be considered in a creative brief.

Read the whole post here.

The Twitter Song

2010-04-15T14:09:00.002+05:30

Really! A song about Twitter. Now that tells us just how much Twitter has changed our lives. Or does it? While you decide on that one, here's the vid. Can you imagine, this song is also available as an iTunes download?

How to fill in the holes in your idea. But first fill in the blank below Art Director or Copywriter.

2010-04-06T14:34:00.003+05:30

Did you pause for a moment? Did you smile? Were you about to turn away disgusted? That's because the blank above is open to suggestive interpretation.

This is how open to interpretation your idea is when you don't fill in all the holes in it or don't fully explore all the avenues your idea can travel.

So the cardinal rule to rejection-proof your idea before you rush it to your client or your higher up is this: send it around the agency for an 'opinion walk'. Remember that you are not looking for praise here. You are merely getting a second opinion so that you can iron out any wrinkles that you didn't notice. The trick is to send it to people who will be objective. That could include your pantry-help, if he fits the bill.

But take it around to see how it's being received. You'll suddenly see a hole in your idea where there was none apparent before. Better that Mr. Objective spot it than your client or higher up, right?

Should you make that factory visit? Should you not?

2010-04-05T09:29:00.003+05:30

It was Bill Bernbach who said “the magic is in the product.”

He was of the staunch opinion that you’ve got to live with your product, be steeped in it and get saturated with it. Simply put he was insisting on a visit to the factory, to begin with.

Visit the factory, given a chance, and experience the product. Ask all the questions you are itching to ask. Yes, even the silly ones; for it’s the silly questions that often turn out to be selling points because in that silly moment you are actually airing the customers mind.

And never mind if you are not minding your own business with the questioning. It’s only so that you can help them make more of those products! You’re here to help. So ask and read every bit. Get steeped in the product.

As a copywriter or art director, your grasp of the client’s product has to be as good as your Account Manager’s. Seriously. It’ll pay off well.

No it won’t!

O-oh! Here comes conflict.

You are not paid to think like the client. He is already doing that. Why should you do it on his time and money?

You are being paid for your outsider’s perspective. So don’t ever, ever take the factory tour. You need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes instead, you need to voice his reality – the customer doesn’t care what happens on the factory floor. All the customer wants to know is what’s in it for him. All he wants to know is what the product will do for him.

Which side of the argument do you buy?

Mo's Wakow!

2010-04-04T19:12:00.002+05:30

How to become that ideas man. Or make a fair beginning.

2010-03-30T17:24:00.003+05:30

Just how many of these things have you done? Or done lately?
- Read a cook book
- Volunteer at an orphanage
- Try a hand at pottery
- Assist a child with her homework
- Try your hand at interior design
- Go out on a photo walk
- Go out bug hunting
- Make a comic book
- Make wine
- Spend time at a mechanic's
- Go on a trek
- Watch Cartoon Network
- Visit your SPCA
- Play make-believe

You get the drift, don't you? You can make your own list of things to do that immerse you in varied experiences. Because it's these experiences that are the fertile soil for ideas to germinate.

So what will you begin with? A trek? Reading a cook book? Or something not on this list?

Mo's Wakow

2010-03-26T13:09:00.003+05:30

And so we watched a few commercials

2010-03-26T10:01:00.006+05:30

Because Yuvaraj who was to make a presentation on Flash Papers couldn't make it for the meeting. We watched a few Super Bowl commercials and found out that the latest round of commercials aired during the 2009 event were no match to the great commercials we've seen earlier. Or maybe expectations are way too high. Everybody expects an 'Apple 1984'. Either way it was a good start to a Friday. Yuvaraj will be presenting the week after Easter.

Is this how you make a great product placement in the digital world?

2010-03-25T10:53:00.008+05:30

Absolut Vodka recently premiered a documentary about Jay-Z. The film focuses on the rapper and his September 11 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.

If you notice, the product placement in this 15-minutes long video is subtle. In agency terms, the word Absolut appears twice on the video. Then towards the end, the rapper and his entourage are seen celebrating with Absolut Vodka - not in an in-your-face way, but in a very natural way. So natural that you'd almost miss it. The Absolut bottle is shown for just a split second on a tray. And this is at the very end of the 15 minute video, a couple of minutes before the credits start to roll.

Clearly, this one is targeted at the fans of Jay-Z, a huge base at that. And the video is unmistakably fan centric, not advertiser/product centric. But Absolut comes through shining bright. This must be one of the best product placements in a long, long while. One worth emulating?

Does turning off comments, stop a conversation build up?

2010-03-24T15:38:00.011+05:30

Apparently not as Apple found out. The official version of the Apple iPad ad - Meet iPad - that was released on Apple's Youtube channel had comments disabled. But that didn't stop a conversation building around copies of the ad.

What does this tell us?

In very plain language, it tells us that in the public domain of an increasingly digital world where everyone shares everything, you cannot control or channel conversation about your brand. In other words, turning off comments on your blog or channel does not put a stop to a conversation building up around your brand. Especially if it's an icon brand. Or a cult brand for that matter.

How fast can a cake disappear?

2010-03-24T08:06:00.006+05:30

Very, very fast. Gone-in-60-seconds-fast as we discovered at Ahila's farewell.

Now you see it. Now you don't.

Rin ya Tide? Which one washes the whitest?

2010-03-22T19:03:00.011+05:30

Not many television viewers had missed the Rin vs Tide advertisement that aired for almost a week recently. And each must have asked themselves one or all of the questions below:

1. Is such direct and explicit comparison legal?
2. Is such comparison good strategy?
3. Is such advertising ethical?

Legality:
The law is very clear. And it upholds that advertisements cannot compare brands without supportive evidence of concrete and verifiable facts and statistically valid data. If we don't see this advertisement on TV anymore is it because the advertiser did not have the above said data and because the law did take notice of the fact and brought out the whip? This brings us to the second point.

Strategy:
Was this circus a good enough strategy? Or was it juvenile and myopic? Did the advertisement increase numbers for the advertiser and dent numbers for the competitor? Did it tilt the market in favour of the advertiser? Only time and actual numbers at the end of the quarter will tell. But doesn't the whole exercise leave a sour taste in the mouth? Is that good for the brand in the long run? When Pepsi loudly proclaimed "There's nothing official about it", that was good strategy even though it was a frontal attack on Coca Cola without provocation. How does the current scenario even compare? And what would be the fallout?

Ethics:
The purpose of any advertisement is to establish the superiority of a brand and thereby influence consumer choice. But is such overt and explicit comparison morally and ethically correct?

The answer is obvious on all three counts. The advertiser scores in the negative.

Yet, all said and done, the desired outcome might well be met. So post the advertisement, which detergent washes the whitest? Rin or Tide?

Mo's Wakow!

2010-03-19T13:38:00.004+05:30

One banner please!

2010-03-17T16:48:00.003+05:30

Ideas don't come off the rack. So how do you cope, when the demand is for off-the-rack creatives?

Answer: You don't cope. Because 'cope' itself means compromise, in this case.

And compromise means, you give lesser. Your skills are portrayed in poor light. The client is forced to pay for stale, derivative creative. The creative hardly performs because it can hardly stand out to grab attention. The agency gets a black eye. And gives you one in return.

Now here's the worst part of all this chain reaction. It all started with YOU deciding to cope. Cope with the brief timeline to execute the creative. Cope with the lack of a proper brief. Cope with everything not conducive to produce a good piece of result-oriented creative. But cope you did. And a black eye you did get.

Honestly, if your job were on the line would you display this get by mentality? If you just answered in the negative, from now on, treat each brief as the last one you'd be working on if it didn't deliver positively startling results.

How can you bring down the death rate of a viral?

2010-03-15T14:27:00.002+05:30

Last week, we'd suggested that perhaps the way to handle a ‘viral’ when you're plainly told to make one is to follow the pulse of the people like movie makers do. And then some.

So what do movie makers do?

- They base their story on a sentiment they can tap over and over again. It could be feelings of tenderness, sadness, nostalgia, euphoria, unadulterated joy, personal experiences, physical feelings, secrets, power, triumph...

- They give it a totally different take - reverent (The Godfather), irreverent (Life is Beautiful), inspiring (Gladiator), light hearted (Click)...

- Then put their heart and soul into making the best movie in all aspects - script, direction, cast, camera, lighting, music, editing...

- And for all this they take their time. At least for the successful ones. Time to better. Time to redo bits. Time to chop off the irrelevant. Time to tighten the story. Time to re-enact.

- It hits the screen only when everything is hunky-dory. And when it's had a pre-screening where the audience reaction is carefully monitored and acted upon.

- Oh... and the name of the movie doesn't appear permanently on screen in some ostensibly unobtrusive corner.

- You don't get occasional pop ups on screen to remind you that the movie is made by a certain studio. The studio actually downplays itself, but for the dazzling special effects animation of its logo, right at the beginning. And a whisper of a logo at the end when the credits have rolled by.

- You are not reminded overtly of the numerous successful movies that the studio has made.

- Instead, every genuine attempt is made to convey a single message as lucidly and powerfully as possible.

- Once the Saturday movie is over Judy gushes about it to her friends, she blogs about it. And the first thing she asks on a Monday morning is "Have you seen.... (enter movie title here). Judy drives her friends to the studio. Her friends drive their friends and family and so on.

Tada! A viral!

Could this be done for a viral, to actually make it go viral and serve its sole purpose of being? Is this a possible way to reduce the appalling death rate of a viral?

Can you make me a viral please!

2010-03-12T12:25:00.006+05:30

Virals. Those chimera digital properties that create a life of their own once they capture our imagination, was the topic of debate or rather Bhavna's topic for her presentation today.

After the usual wrestle with the laptop, which we're all used to by now, we came to the conclusion that:

Virals are not made. As in, you can only hope to create something viral, something that people would appreciate. (For that matter, would it be right to know the pulse of the people and feed that pulse like a film producer or director does, so that one is surer of the viral effect of a viral? This calls for another post.)

Virals must never look like advertisements, which is why most so-called viral marketing efforts fall flat on their phoney faces.

Virals must be endearing, it must make you laugh or it must inspire you or make you go 'wow'. It must be worth another watch and another.

Virals can be anything. A movie clip. A parody animation. A letter. A photograph. It can be just about anything.

And then Bhavna pulled a plug giving us a black screen to stare at till it was up again after which we went through examples of virals. And more virals.

Read another post about virals here.

Gyan

2010-03-09T10:44:00.002+05:30

How can one be font-blind?

2010-03-08T15:38:00.017+05:30

We were talking about fonts and character last week. (Something which quite a few designers take lightly.) So here's a quick visual tour of what's out there and the magic you can conjure up with the right font. We're using the humble Paint - Microsoft Paint Version 5.1 - here.

There! If a non-designer can opt for so many delicious, crunchy, munchy fonts on Paint, imagine what a designer can do if only he or she would step out to explore the fascinating world of fonts and type and not turn a blind eye to font detailing! As this blog has always maintained, a good start would be a visit to this movie posters portal.

Are you a passionate advertising creative?

2010-03-03T13:58:00.008+05:30

That's a tough question for most. Because 'passion' isn't a very definable quality. Or rather there are various levels of passion. I know this guy who was so passionate about cricket that he used to mumble cricket in his dreams. And quite loudly at that. Do you dream copy? Do you dream design? Then that's extreme passion. But let's talk about passion on a more manageable, down-to-your-workday level.

Imagery:
Are you a designer who goes in for the very first image that appears in search? Or do you search high and low until you arrive at the perfect image for your design? (In these times of ready online image availability, we're talking about image search online here). If you're the latter, you're passionate. And you don't need this post to tell you that you are.

Briefs:
Do you insist on a written brief before you start a project, be it design or copy or both? Do you insist on having a clear picture of where you are going? In which case you have added to your 'passion' quotient. Briefs are your stage. You don't want to sweat it out on stage, move for elaborate move, only to find out that you are playing to the wrong audience or an empty auditorium, do you?

Copy:
If you are a copywriter, do you quickly string together a few sentences that you get off your desk? Or do you spend time putting together the right words, rather the PERFECT words, reading and re-reading what you wrote out loud, to get a feel of how it sounds. And further, do you let it lie for a while, a day or two if possible and revisit it to fine tune, before you are happy to let it off your desk? If you are the latter, no one would doubt your passion.

If you're a designer, do you take time out to actually read the copy and even sit with the Copywriter to find out what she had in mind while putting words to paper? If you feel that the direction or presentation can be better, do you let the copywriter know? Or would you rather cut and paste copy onto your layout including the directions put in by the copywriter and not visit it ever again? If you're the former, you're passionate. Oh yes, you are. If you're the latter, God help you.

Research:
Do you do a significant amount of research before you give concrete shape to your ideas - talking to people, searching the web, visiting libraries, trying out the product or service yourself, visiting the factories, showrooms? Or do you shun all forms of research, even the laziest kind, and just rely on what your Client Service and their brief tells you? If you just nodded for the former, you pass the passion test.

Doodle:
Do you doodle before you commit your idea to a fresh PhotoShop page? Do you commit to paper first? Do you own a scribble pad? Is the scribble pad your best friend? Vigorous nods for all these questions? Excellent! You may pat your passionate shoulder and congratulate yourself because, sadly, doodling is a dying art and consequently so is finesse in layouts. (Since this is the subject of a book and not just a post, or a post within a post, let's just leave it at that).

Writing long hand:
And writing drafts. Do you write long hand? If you notice, writing longhand and then transferring it to a Word Document itself significantly improves the out put because you are actually keying in your second draft. Drafts give you the scope for improvement, tremendous improvement. You agree? Ah! Your passion is showing.

Alignment and proportion:
Are you very particular about alignment and proportion in your creative output? Do you keep working at your layout till you get your proportions right? Do you move around elements in your creative to give them the perfect placement where they can 'shine in all glory'? You do? Let no one tell you that you're not passionate.

Colour:
Do you love experimenting with colour? Do you pour over magazines on interior design, painting and photography to understand nuances of colour or simply to find new combinations you have never tried before? And actually try them out at the next opportunity? Only someone passionate would do that.

Fonts:
Do you believe that fonts speak their own language? That each font has a personality? That fonts can be sad, cheerful, frightening, firm and a lot more? And for that very reason, they should be selected carefully? Bravo! That's passion!

Mo's Wakow!

2010-03-01T11:21:00.004+05:30

A quick meeting after much waiting

2010-03-01T11:10:00.008+05:30

St. Ennui is still in reign or so it appears from the thin attendance the Friday Morning Meeting has been getting in 2010. Are we due for a change in format of the meeting? Is it percieved that this particular meeting is a mere waste of time? Is it largely felt that there are better things to do at that particular hour than attend a sterile meeting on a Friday morning?

Guesses and more guesses.

Meanwhile, we had another thinly attended meeting preceeded by a thirty minute wait in.

OMG!

2010-01-25T10:06:00.002+05:30

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T16:22:00.003+05:30

Do you hear Rudolph and Snowman singing for you? No? Come closer. You still don't? Ok. That was clumsy. But that is the last frame of our corporate Christmas card. It comes with no less wishes and good cheer... Merry Christmas everyone!

And wish you all a very happy holiday season.

Jingle Bells Indian Ishtyle

2009-12-23T15:47:00.001+05:30

Jaideep sent this by mail a few days ago when we were ideating for the Rage X'mas card. This one's brilliant really. But you decide that...

Fear of bad ideas

2009-12-21T18:20:00.004+05:30

Another brilliant post from Seth Godin. This one would resonate well with anyone in the ideas business.

A few people are afraid of good ideas, ideas that make a difference or contribute in some way. Good ideas bring change, that's frightening.

But many people are petrified of bad ideas. Ideas that make us look stupid or waste time or money or create some sort of backlash.

The problem is that you can't have good ideas unless you're willing to generate a lot of bad ones. Painters, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, chiropractors, accountants--we all fail far more than we succeed. We fail at closing a sale or playing a note. We fail at an idea for a series of paintings or the theme for a trade show booth.

But we succeed far more often than people who have no ideas at all.

Someone asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, "none."

And there, you see, is the problem.

What should brands be in this Age of Conversation?

2009-12-18T14:18:00.007+05:30

Social media is the rage, not just because it's a current trend. Oh no. Not to the serious players. What must your personality be in this digital word-of-mouth environment that we call social media? Here's an interesting summation by Peter Friedman of LiveWorld.

He exhorts us to ask a few questions to clear the air before we make the plunge. Would sound more like Ogilvy-era gospel, but it's so much more relevant now.

1. If you met your brand at a party, how would you describe it?
2. What voice should your brand speak in?
3. From within your company, who would be a good archetype for that voice?
4. Is your brand more likely to engage in conversation or help others do the same?
5. If you could invite your customers over, what would you do together?
6. What social causes do you care about?

Raining...

2009-12-15T16:31:00.004+05:30

Been raining almost all day. And the week has just begun. BBC Weather tells us it will be raining all week, Sunday even!

Really! Is Flash THAT Easy?

2009-12-14T15:16:00.005+05:30

After a couple of aborted attempts to get the Friday Morning Meeting going we finally had a presentation. Actually, Sornavel's presentation almost did not happen when the laptop we use regularly turned stubborn and acted up. But what had us that morning was a line in the presentation that went - flash does not require programming skills and is easy to learn.

Hrump!

That line is deceptive. Besides, the presentation was tepid and that's being kind. Only the copywriters would have learnt a thing or two while it was a case of re-inventing the wheel for the others.

Question: Should topics for presentation be so shallow as to be easy to wade through without much thought being put into it? Surely not. So why aren't we more careful in choosing topics? Next week we discuss the 10 best flash websites so far, so we've been told. Is that a good, healthy topic that all can learn from? Perhaps.

What's a Viral? This is a Viral!

2009-12-14T14:31:00.005+05:30

Teuxdeux.com is a viral.

Why so? Because the moment this author chanced on it and got familiar with it, the URL went out to almost 30 people by mail. And a hell of a lot more via Twitter.

This is vintage viral:
-- It's simple, way too simple to understand and built with insight.
-- It's interactive in the sense that you want to immediately check out the bells and whistles of this piece and find out more. In this case there' isn't very much to find out by the very nature of this website.
-- It makes a difference to you, even if it only brings on a smile. In this case, it's way more than a smile. Try it here.
-- You know for sure that a lot more people other than yourself would genuinely appreciate it.
-- You like the fact that a majority of the people you intend to send this to will be getting it for the first time.

There you have it. A viral!

Mo's Wakow!

2009-12-09T11:40:00.000+05:30

We didn't have a presentation... But we met all the same

2009-12-04T16:02:00.007+05:30

"Noooo!"

"You don't understand a 'no'? Ok. Talk to the hand then... and let me finish up on the phone while you do". Or so says Shobhana when this photographer passed by on his way to the conference room to take a tepid shot of a TV. His idea of representing a 'no meeting'.

We didn't have a presentation this time since we didn't have a laptop, the usual one being unavailable. But we did have a little session on the importance of catching up in this fast changing digital world.

This was last week.

We didn't meet today either as the presenter wasn't available. So we meet next week. One wonders who would read a post about not having a meeting. If by chance you did, would you leave a comment too? Just a smiley would do.

Just how prepared are we?

2009-12-04T12:44:00.005+05:30

Never mind who Stratopheres, above, is. Or what his ten commandments are. But there's a new year coming and with it a deluge of innovations in digital space. Dig this - December is online gaming season in India. At least that is what the trade has to tell us and they aren’t usually wrong.

That's just one of the little things that are happening in digital space. Come to think of it, everything is so little and momentary in digital space. So much so that the One Club has launched quarterly judging for the One Show Interactive Awards. (Psst – Meanwhile Ashton Kutcher is preparing to be the next media mogul if you believe the media. Insane! Or not. Depends on how you see it.)

In this world, going digital with a vengeance, and everyone wanting a piece of the pie, just how prepared are we?

No cash. But your client has just woken up to online potential. What now?

2009-12-03T18:00:00.004+05:30

Here's an interesting post from Seth Godin courtsey his blog:

Is it too late to catch up?

What if your organization or your client has done nothing?

What if they've just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they're ready and they ask your advice? And, by the way, they have no real cash to spend...

Here's a list of my top ten things to consider doing:

-- Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
-- Use a free website creating tool or even Squidoo to build a page about your company. Nothing fancy, but list your locations, your people (with addresses) and make it clear you want to hear from people.
-- Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
-- Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It'll take you about a year to catch up.
-- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
-- Have the president post her (real) email address in every invoice and other communication the company sends out, asking people to write to her with comments or questions.
-- Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
-- Do not approve any project that isn't run on Basecamp.
-- Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.
-- Don't have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to
fail, then you can improve.
-- Refuse to cede the work to consultants. You don't outsource your drill press or your bookkeeping or your product design. If you're going to catch up, you must (all of you) get good at this, and you only accomplish that by doing it.

The problem is no longer budget. The problem is no longer access to tools.

The problem is the will to get good at it.

How to effectively communicate with a developer

2009-11-17T15:10:00.003+05:30

An interesting post from Junaid Bhura. And a very vaild one too.

I’ve worked in a branding and design firm and was surrounded by designers. In fact, I was the only technical person there. Apart from all the attention I got there was of course, a clear-cut separation between our different schools of thought.

Developers like to be organized and categorize and re categorize their work… and thought! They even communicate in a very step-by-step way.

Designers don’t like to be organized. They like to work how they want and wait for a “creative spark” to hit them and “let the creativity flow”. It’s hard to describe what creativity really is, and this is a highly debated topic.

What designers must understand is that a good developer is a highly creative person. Imagine what it would be like if you had to write a line of code and picture what that might do to something in connection with another thing in connection with another thing in connection with another thing… So on and so forth. It requires foresight, experience and the ability to come up with something extremely… Poetic.

“Code is poetry” – WordPress

Having understood this, a designer has to communicate with a developer; as sad as it is to admit, like a machine. It is important to understand the limit to a developers understanding. Myself, having worked with several designers and clients understand what they want because I understand their language. For a developer who doesn’t get out much, this could be a problem and could lead to many iterations and going back-and-forth on a project.

Smashing Magazine had this really interesting post which specifies just that.

Fonts tell a story all their own

2009-11-13T12:25:00.005+05:30

Goofy Designer is a goof. And he's not heard of Count Dracula among other things. So when he was asked to design a poster for the next celluloid interpretation of Dracula (this one, again directed by Francis Ford Coppola), he came up with this font, this typeface that was so dainty for a Dracula.

Lord almighty! Has Dracula gone shy in his old age? Gone pansy? Has Coppola flipped? Or has Goofy Designer who hasn't the faintest idea about the usage of fonts, and doesn't care a fig if it matters, goofed as usual?

Meantime, here's what Passionate Designer came up with.

Now isn't that a fantastic representation of Count Dracula in all his glory?

Fonts speak a language all their own. Even in isolation, devoid of imagery, fonts can tell a visual story. Don't think so? You only have to check out posters made for movies to change your mind.

Go here: Movie Posters at Allposters.Com

A Font is a Font? WRONG!

2009-11-13T11:32:00.013+05:30

Been a while since a post, but that's not because there wasn't a meeting or a presentation at the meeting. Mallika and Ahila are done with their presentations already. Only it wasn't reported.

Today it was Jaideep's turn. He chose to talk about Fonts, no Typefaces, no Fonts... whatever.

But did you know that fonts and typefaces are two different things? Perhaps Jaideep will clear that in 'comments' once again as he did at the meeting with a great presentation.

Zoheb

And Yuvaraj, joined us for the first time. Welcome aboard!

XML... Mind It!

2009-09-25T16:30:00.009+05:30

Today we had an interesting and engaging meeting, where Karthik enlightened us with the possibilities of XML or Extensible Markup Language and certain scripting tools.

But the meeting actually started with OMG! stares and stifled yawns. Actually a PPT did it. The presenter had done his homework.

That's pretty much how all of us were sitting at the meeting.

Until this!

OMG! Can you believe that this bit of work is XML coding? Most of us couldn't. There was even a 360 degree rotating image of a room that Karthik slapped us with. Vidhyavathi was kind enough to explain that all you need to do this is 6 perfect photographs. One each of the four walls, one of the ceiling and one of the floor. It is then stitched together to give you a 360 degree view of a room!

‘Interesting’ is putting it mildly. When we left, most of us were excited. Why, we even thanked Karthik.

..........

Correction: The face thing is done using Away3D and PixelBender. The room that's mentioned in the post is done using Papervision3D.

Taking a leaf from entrepreneurship

2009-09-23T12:47:00.006+05:30

Communication skill isn't the perogative of only those in the communication industry. It is also a life-skill for entrepreneurs. And we in the communication business could learn a thing or two from them. Below is an article that appeared in NEN Online.

What is the most important skill for entrepreneurs? Story-telling. Using a few words to engage, enlighten and inspire. How else do you get people to join your team? How do you get a customer to buy from you? It's not your track record. It's your ability to sell. It's your ability to tell a story.
Telling a story well requires more than a silver tongue. You need to impart critical information, in a structured manner, in a very short time. Ideally 3 minutes or less.
Topics to cover:
- Who are your customers and what is their problem that you plan to solve?
- How big is the overall problem?
- How are you planning to solve the problem - specifically! Don't say something like, "We plan to - provide rural healthcare."
- What is the benefit to the customer?
- How much will it cost?
Can't do all that in 3 minutes? Check this out: 2 minutes and 48 seconds of the best "pitch" we have seen in years. And it's not even a company.

My 30 Minutes - Caught in the Loupe

2009-09-23T12:22:00.010+05:30

Friday, 18th saw Shobhana giving us a presentation on Print Media. It was actually about printing technique rather than about print creatives, though she did touch upon it.

Above you see everyone facinated by a lens - called a loupe.

That's the way you use a loupe.

And that is the loupe (pronounced loop).

In offset and flexographic printing loupes are used frequently to carefully analyze how ink lays on paper. Pressmen use them to check registration of colors, estimate dot-gain, and diagnose issues with roller pressure and chemistry based on the shape of individual dots. Blah. Blah.

The take from the meeting? A look at the ofline media techniques. Some of us did profit.

My 30 Minutes - A presentation on Scripting

2009-09-17T14:44:00.004+05:30

Last meeting we'd decided that each of us would make a presentation on a subject every week. Accordingly, this week was Vidhyavathi's turn. She spoke about scripting and how things would be so much more easy if animation can be split into different sections/levels instead of being executed in the same timeline.

She'd been facing a host of such issues lately and she used the platform to articulate what can be done to make everyone's work so much more easy and ensure speedier delivery to the client. We're talking productivity here.

Suresh interrupted the meeting many times with his views and opinion gathered from years of flash scripting experience too. Was that a welcome interruption Vidhyavathi?

Next week we'll be listening to Shobhana.

We've Been Re-christened

2009-09-17T12:14:00.008+05:30

36 Degrees is bang opposite our office, though you need to go all around a median to get there. So we order from the place. Often. The food is good here.

The last time we ordered, we got a bill with 'Rehej Commintal' written on it. It isn't a first. We've been re-christened many times over. Most call us Raagey Communications. And other such names. But a 'Rehej Commintal' is a first.

We watched some good TVCs. While we waited.

2009-08-28T14:19:00.007+05:30

9:00 am.

9:10 am. Hello where's everybody?

10:00 am. We're still way short of attendance. Maybe we must give away little gifts to all attendees. Might work. Till they are bored of getting gifts.

Our individual blog initiatives are still languishing, incomplete, somewhere in ether. Will next week see some blog presentations at the meeting? (So soap opera-ish. Don't you think? All this dithering and waiting...)

Punished?

2009-08-25T16:12:00.001+05:30

We're loosing steam...

2009-08-24T17:17:00.010+05:30

9:25 am. The meeting should have been half way over.

9:30 am. We have three attendees, including the photographer.

9:45 am. We're almost done. We discussed blogs, their build, their functionality. And the ones present (our meeting suddenly had slim attendance - due to the big holiday weekend maybe?) agreed to present their blogs next meeting.

And then the next meeting didn't happen because some of us spent the night over. So the blog presentation will happen this week.

India Social Media Survey

2009-08-10T11:45:00.006+05:30

Don't be put off by the cramped presentation style. Use the full screen option to go through this presentation.

View more documents from rajeshlalwani.

Courtsey: exchange4media.com and blogworks.in

Using Social Media? Here's a Tip!

2009-08-07T12:03:00.004+05:30

Here's one good example of how it's done. For more visit here.

View more documents from Rohit Bhargava.

Sarjana's Song

2009-08-06T17:03:00.002+05:30

Ambika's little baby Sarjana sang this absolutely cute song for us.

Experimenting with Youtube Channels

2009-07-21T14:44:00.002+05:30

Last week each of us were assigned the task of creating Youtube channels. And this is the result. Which do you rate the best? Which do you rate the worst?

Ahila - Ashues 26
Bhavna - Bhavna3112
Jaideep - BT Insight
Jaikumar - Rage Cricket
Lavanya - 87 Lav
Mallika - Mallika Rodrigo
Rajesh - Channel 7
Sampath - Nimbus 3D
Shobhana - Sonuph
Sornavel - SRM Anthem
Suresh - No Pain! No Gain!
Tanuja - Jacko 58

Effective Engagement: Lesson From Hollywood

2009-07-21T11:23:00.001+05:30

Attention is fleeting. Momentary. This simply means that you only have that ‘moment’ to engage. And for effective engagement, we could take inspiration from the movies. They do a real good job of it.

You must have noticed fleeting moments in movies that lingered on even days after you've watched the movie. Moments that were so 'momentary', so short lived but powerful in their impact. Let's take the movie Gladiator for instance. What are the fleeting moments of maximum impact that come to mind?

- The severed head rolling to a stop in the opening battle scene
- Blood mixing with water as Russell Crowe washes his hands after the battle

You can go on and on. If you watch the movie again you'd come up with many more such fleeting moments. The thought, however, is this:

If you want your prospect to click on a banner, or press the replay button, wouldn't fleeting yet arresting visuals that are relevant, that tell a story and answer a need, prompt the desired action? The keyword here is 'fleeting'.

And we're talking visuals only here because copy can never be fleeting.

Question: Is this the answer to effective engagement and immediate action by the viewer? The use of powerful, fleeting imagery that weaves a quick story, without copy interruption or only the most minimal copy display?

New comers on board

2009-07-14T17:36:00.005+05:30

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.

Transformers - The Weenies

2009-07-10T16:01:00.007+05:30

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?

A squirrel in office!

2009-07-09T16:57:00.003+05:30

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.

Ok, I'll do it. Please pass me my wine!

2009-07-06T12:00:00.005+05:30

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.

A Photoshop quiz and a farewell

2009-07-06T11:25:00.006+05:30

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.

Do products/brands have personalities?

2009-06-26T16:19:00.001+05:30

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?

Looking up some good work

2009-06-23T11:14:00.003+05:30

"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.

Who's stopping you? Just do it!

2009-06-22T16:18:00.003+05:30

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!

We Have Enthusiasm - We Make Anything

2009-06-10T18:06:00.001+05:30

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?

"Why am I here?"

2009-06-08T16:34:00.003+05:30

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.

Nowhere Complete

2009-06-03T15:54:00.003+05:30

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.

Posters - Putting ourselves to the test

2009-05-27T15:55:00.001+05:30

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.

Sparking Breakthrough Creativity in Advertising

2009-05-22T15:53:00.006+05:30

"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!"

Mo's Wakow!

2009-05-19T16:01:00.003+05:30

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?

Zoozoo Branding: Being an egg head helps break brand clutter, what?

2009-05-15T11:03:00.008+05:30

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.

Comic Perspective - Continued

2009-05-14T13:13:00.003+05:30

Perspective. Depth. Mood. Detail. It's all in here. Remember we talked about it before?

Two to Ponder

2009-05-13T11:55:00.005+05:30

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?

Comic Love: Do comics give you an eye for perspective?

2009-05-13T11:43:00.009+05:30

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.

"How to sell more Coke and popcorn"

2009-05-07T13:21:00.003+05:30

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?

Innovation in the time of Recession

2009-05-06T10:04:00.004+05:30

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.]

Truth and lies about why we buy

2009-05-05T12:23:00.006+05:30

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.

Why Skill Upgrades Are Not A Luxury

2009-04-29T10:26:00.015+05:30

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

Mo's Wakow!

2009-04-28T10:43:00.001+05:30

Making commercials for the web

2009-04-27T16:40:00.011+05:30

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.

Presentation Skills 'n' Some Thrills

2009-04-24T14:04:00.002+05:30

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.

5 things exceptional. And a laptop that wasn't.

2009-04-23T15:04:00.005+05:30

This Friday, 17th April, we had all agreed to choose a website we think is exceptional, in our opinion and find 5 things that make it so.

Aruna chose: IRCTC

Suresh chose: The Matrix

Lavanya chose: Peter England

Sampath chose: Mercedes B-Class

Kavitha chose: LG

Ahila chose: Tropicana

Thanuja chose: M&M's

Jaideep chose: National Geographic Expeditions

(Click on the links to take you to the respective websites)

Between all this, our meeting got delayed over a stubborn old laptop. That there above is his offending self in person.

Revived!

2009-04-22T14:29:00.010+05:30

Set for the meeting.

Jaideep tries to make the laptop behave.

The meeting in progress.

One of our work in progress. (Actually, we're trying to show off our new TV.)

After being in hibernation for many months - months that saw us piled high with work, that we couldn't take time off for meetings during working hours - the Friday Morning Meeting is back. We've suddenly found time! Time off work! We begin our meetings at 9:00 am now. A half hour before official working hours.

So we gathered at our new conference room on Friday, 10th April. The agenda included a debate on the pros and cons of a website - each of us had to spell out what we liked and disliked about the chosen website. That took a really long time. But we did learn a new trick or too. The first being that you cannot be too observant - you'd think that you've covered all, when you really haven't. The second is that it's better to have more views and opinion on a subject than one. Fly loose. You can always structure later.

71% of Internet users live in Non-metros

2009-04-10T13:02:00.004+05:30

Internet research firm, JuxtConsult, has released the findings of its annual study, India Online 2009, which tracks the usage and preferences of Internet users in India.

Total number of Internet users in India has gone down from 49 million in 2008 to 47 million in 2009.
Of the 47 million users, 39 million stay in urban areas and 8 million reside in rural places.
While 29% of the 47 million live in metros, 24% stay in tier II cities and 47% live in tier III cities and villages.
About 5 million also surf the Internet on mobile phones.
About 80% of the users are in the age group of 19-35 years.
The most popular activity online among regular Internet users is searching for travel products.
The second most popular activity is job search.
Among the most used websites are Google and Yahoo – 35% and 25% respectively.
Rediff and Indiatimes stand much lower and are used by 4% and 1% respectively.
YouTube is used by only 0.5% of regular Internet users. Orkut is used by 7% of 38.5 million internet users.
Yahoo is the preferred site for email (45% users), instant messaging, online news, net telephony and mobile content.
Gmail is also among the most used sites for email (44% users).
Google is the most used website for information search in English, search in local languages and cinema tickets.
Orkut is the most used website for friendship and dating, sharing pictures, social networking, and professional networking.
Of the regular users, 24 per cent also prefer to use LinkedIn for professional networking.
Among the classified websites, Naukri is used by 44% of regular Internet surfers for job search.
Makaan is the most used site for real estate search.
Bharatmatrimony is the most used portal for matrimony search.
YouTube is most used website for video sharing.
Raaga is the most used website for listening or streaming music.
IRCTC is the most used website for online travel purchases.
Ebay.in is the most preferred site for non-travel purchases.
ICICI Bank’s website is the most used site for Net banking.
ICICI Direct is used by 28% users for online share trading.
Moneycontrol.com is the most preferred site for financial news and information.

India Online 2009 is based on a land survey conducted between December 2008 and January 2009. The respondents comprised 135,000 individuals from 16,000 households in 40 cities and over 12,000 households in 480 villages, spread across the country. The Internet usage dynamics, such as the time spent on the Internet, frequency of usage, and how consumers access the Internet are based on a sample of over 50,000 active online panel members with JuxtConsult. Findings on popular online activities and website preferences are based on an online survey conducted in February and March 2009, among more than 12,500 respondents of the 50,000 active online panel members of JuxtConsult.

GoaFest 09 - A Win By Proxy!

2009-04-06T11:19:00.023+05:30

To us in the ad fraternity, Goa takes on a more alluring, if temperamental, sheen around March each year. It's suddenly about awards and not just about beaches and wicked cocktails. This year, Rage had reason to celebrate too, albeit by proxy. It was a gold win for jallikatu.com in the Interactive Digital Advertising and Website category at the GoaFest '09 that brought smiles all around. Jallikattu.com is an initiative of Times of India, India's premier newspaper.

The concept and design for this gold-winning website that debates the pros and cons of jallikattu, the age old bull fight that rivals the one in Spain for it's sheer energy, was executed by JWT. Rage handled the tech bit to get it up and running. Congratulations JWT!

What's your take on jallikattu? Are you for it or against it? To vote, logon.

Tasting Blood Young

2008-11-14T11:24:00.002+05:30

Just after his first few months in advertising, Ogilvy took advertising in a new direction. A man walked into Ogilvy's London agency wanting to advertise the opening of his hotel. Since he just had $500 he was sent to the novice - Ogilvy. And what did novice Ogilvy do? He bought $500 worth of postcards and sent an invite to everybody he found in the local telephone directory. The hotel opened with a full house! "I had tasted blood", says Ogilvy in his Confessions.

Are actions like these still possible today? They are warrented, no doubt. But are they possible?

Das Great Escape

2008-11-13T10:06:00.001+05:30

Two hillarious spoofs. One's below in the previous post.

A few Good Creative Men

2008-11-12T15:10:00.002+05:30

The elephant and the mouse...

2008-11-05T15:24:00.003+05:30

Every now and then, we have this cute visitor who accompanies her mom to office. And while her mom slogs at her desk, the little visitor engages herself in scribbles and squiggles. Like the one above. That's a mouse carrying an elephant across a little stream.

You can see the little visitor here.

Raining...

2008-10-24T16:00:00.010+05:30

Was raining cats and dogs this noon. That's the temple right outside our office, washed clean in the rain.

Perhaps here you can see the water about.

That's our corridor on the first floor. Looks rather hospital-like, don't you think?

Internet Trends

2008-07-31T18:35:00.003+05:30

This one will make you sit up. Click here to read more.

Mo Has Company

2008-07-17T14:05:00.006+05:30

He shares cabin space at our new office wing and assists Deepthi with copy.

Are You 'Copying' When You Are 'Referring'?

2008-07-16T16:21:00.005+05:30

Reference is a dirty word for most in our profession. Everybody does it and yet it remains a dirty word.

You get this brief. And then you get into gear, into ideating mode. To help you along, you sneak into the library to look up books and websites. Sneaking is fine when you are doing something you shouldn't be doing. But when you are doing the right thing, why must you slink into the library or walk into one under any other pretext? Walk in there and do your referencing openly.

Looking up references:
- Helps you get into a creative frame of mind.
- Helps your mind drift unbound (provided you are doing all that driftin’ under the influence of nothing stronger than an inspiring creative brief, as opposed to a verbose yet hazy client brief or other such mind-altering substance).
- Opens up possibilities you could never have imagined.

Looking up references:
- Is not copying. Skin the rat that suggests you might be copying unless your immaculate intention was to brazenly copy a creative in the first place. If so shame on you. And yes, you must continue with the "slinking into the library" bit that you have perfected into an art form by now.
- Is not beneath you since people from all creative professions; advertising, film, art do so and get the most of it in terms of creative output.
- Is a smart thing to do, especially in our times when one form is combined with another to bring out a brighter, smarter offspring.

So go out there and do your bit of referencing more often and not just when you are constipated for ideas. And do it openly, without pulling a hood on. You are only trying to bring out the best in you with a little help from books and websites that shift you into the right creative gear for the task ahead.

We'll Be Back, New York!

2008-06-04T15:51:00.005+05:30

We didn't make it to the finals of the New York Festivals. It's always a little disappointing, to put it mildly, when we don't achieve what we've gone out for. But this is the right time to ask if we did go out far enough to get what we wanted.

- Did we really, really work to stir the world with some exceptional piece of creative?
- Did we stretch beyond our concieved limits?
- Did we welcome enough participation to make the idea a winner?
- Were we open enough to see the other person's perspective?
- Did we work towards a truly out-of-the-box idea without thinking how it could be 'executed'?
- Did we really stay open to the kind of work that happens world-wide today?
- Did/do we appreciate the importance of an international festival?

Well, did we?

Five Seconds Faster

2008-04-04T13:01:00.003+05:30

Here's something to think about. Think of all those times when you have closed a website or banner that didn't load fast enough...

Our blog in graph

2008-03-26T17:04:00.006+05:30

Cool huh? This is how the (OMG) It's Friday Morning blog looks like in graph form. You can try find out what your blog or website looks like here.

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2008-03-26T16:46:00.001+05:30

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