Communication Workshop 26-27th October 2010

This was the most interesting communication sessions that I had attended.

- No handouts
- No theory
- No powerpoint
- No movie clips
- Only discussion and interactive sessions

I didn't come out of the workshop "Empowered" with a new theory but with self-realisation of my potential strengths.

In the age of digital technology and flashy powerpoints, this was a new discovery...

- 93% of the communication is personality driven. People make decisions (within first 30 secs) about you

- 7% is the content, which needs to be meaningful. The listener shouldn't decide whether he/she wants to listen to you or no. The communication should be compelling enough.

- Silence has immense power. Helps to elicit response and exercise control over delivery. The use of effective silence was another great discovery.

- Use of notes, though maybe old fashioned, but is always recommended. It is a great way to gather content and self confidence.

I didn't know it was all that easy! All you have to do is not to use powerpoint as the communication medium :)

To my dear Petroleum Minister- Ideas on How to Book LPG Cylinders Online!

Dear Petroleum Minister,

I hope you are doing well.

I realized yesterday that the LPG cylinder booking in Delhi is automated and can be done only through IVRS or through an SMS. Let me first thank you on the initiative as I found the system to be very novel and convenient. The process requires one to register the phone number (the one that you will be making the calls from) and input a bunch of other information such as ones distributor's phone number and customer id.

The very next day I had a cylinder delivered to my home. No more of following up with the gas distributor.

Phone may work well with the masses and I have no doubts about that. I have a request to this system online. Internet has many advantages and will help you win few more accolades...

1. email based registration: Phone numbers may change, however, the email id does change that much. Other information can be also be stored on the server such as customer id, dealer etc.

2. usage summary: The interface can also have how many times have you ordered the refill. You will know intuitively where all can you optimise.

3. request a refill: fill in the required fields such as your dealer id and your customer id to order a refill. Advanced systems can show whether the dealers have sufficient stock. If now, when is the dealer likely to get the stocks.

4. register complaints and satisfaction ratings: the channel can become an interface with customers, which you don't have now. You will also get ideas how to better the service.

5. changes dealer: if not satisfied with the current vendor one can look for a better one with better customer rating.

6. order refills online: enable payment through a debit card/credit card.

7. gprs based phone application (some day soon): so that you need not always sit in front of a machine to order the refill.

I hope you find this idea engaging and thank you for listening. Will look forward to hear from you soon!

Yours Sincerely
Dushyant

CommonWealth Games 2010, Book Your Tickets Online Now!

It is good to see governments belief in utilising Internet for distribution of Commonwealth Games tickets (expects to sell 17 Lakh tickets with 60-70 crores). IRCTC, India's largest e-commerce site is the official channel for distribution.

The tickets will also be available on phone (1800 2001294) and retail outlets. Hence ensuring that the fulfillment is multimodal and therefore a wider reach.

It remains to be seen what the activity does to India Internet Space in general.

Be careful while searching, as the space is full of domain sqatters & clones on Google.

• www.cwgindia.org/tickets-for-commonwealth-games-2010/
• www.2010cwg.com/2010-commonwealth-games-tickets.html
• 2010commonwealthgamesindia.blogspot.com/
• www.thecgf.com/

The search on Bing is much better, which has wikipedia page as the second link.

Cheers!

Dilbert Application for Mobile

One of the most addictive applications, that i have downloaded is the Dilbert's Mobile application (should be available in App world if you use a blackberry). Bookmarking is a cool feature!

Check this one as well!

Cheers!

The Brand is Dead, Long Live The Brand!

It was late on Saturday night and I was in the middle of an intense discussion with my friend, Sujith, who heads Account planning for FCB Ulka, Delhi. Sujith was pessimistic about advertising, "There are not many good people joining advertising these days", he said. More importantly, taking about campaigns, we could count only handful which could be called "Creative" so to speak (Vodaphone "ZouZous" and Fevicol were the ones that came to my mind).

It was a different situation 10 years back. I was an account executive with Lowe; being in advertising was coveted, fueled by passion. As an AE (in advertising parlance) would look forward to ads by Pepsodent, ICICI Prudential, Hamara Bajaj. Brand Marketing was sure fun then and I believe that it may still be for another 4-5 years. Brand will be soon be dead or at best, a niche, limited to categories which are very sensory oriented, say soaps, shampoos, deodorants etc and time such as IPL.

I have my reasons...

The first glimpse of such transition was during my US trip last year. When I saw ads in TV i was bored to death during the breaks- "Come buy from us because we give you 20% discount. 5% additional if you quote this number". "Limited period offer log on to the website for more deals". Promotions & discount ruled the scene, benefit related and very "tactical" contrary to what we see here (Mr. Reeves would have been happy to see this set of communication). Recall my agency days, I would hardly recommend this route to my clients. Promotion was a separate brief. Discount is short term, used to propel the sagging sales; diminishes the "Brand".

Hmm. i guess those were good days. Mass media also needs to be accountable now, and needs to add to the balance sheet; not just move the consumer confidence index.

As marketing gets more scientific, matrices become more traceable (not just through pre and post researches), we would tend to see more rational coming into marketing. One of the better definitions on marketing that I have come across is "Marketing takes care of all those items which are not present in balance sheet, such as brand, customer creation, demand creation etc.". I'm sure that this definition will change soon.

• Social media has potential to measure the response within a quick span of time, influence brand and word of mouth.
• Search engine marketing and affiliate are being used as viable sales channel. Coupons are being used effectively to sell.
• Lifetime customer value is becoming increasingly more important.

Marketing is changing at a very fast pace, CMO's job will be more measurable now. The gap between the gut and rational is increasingly becoming thinner. Brand will now be supported with more rational and measurable thinking and manage the quarter end pressures.

Marketing will no longer be dominated by brand, but by communication. The new marketing landscape will keep innovating with new technology integration, making it more accountable, increase consumer control and thereby increase it's effectiveness.

Brand will be dead soon, Long Live Marketing ROI!

Cheers!

Read related article>
Rule of 70:20:10
How long does a CMO live?

When will we move over to Online Insurance?

About two years ago, I received a number of job offer requests from "Insurance" sector. I thought is was interesting, as no other category has been able to move online, other than travel. The believers argued that Insurance was in a similar of evolution as travel and the portal will help consumers "compare" travel policies. The idea was to create a direct channel, that will help eliminate high cost of DSA. I guess the idea was ahead of its time in 2007, interesting model nonetheless.

I'm a non-believer and I still don't know how many people actually compare insurance policies before buying one. Or we buy policies only to invest. Until I saw my colleague demonstrate an example. My colleague wanted to buy a term policy for his home loan and used one of the comparison sites. Only HDFC StandardLife responded to his query and won his business.

Motor insurance, Health, Travel Insurance and Policy repayment are the easy catchment areas for Insurance category and would be the first ones to migrate (I pay my policy dues online and use the website for contact information).

Complex products are difficult for move completely online. Life Insurance, Endowment etc are best left as features on the website to be compared and most likely to generate a contact and should be followed up by sales representative for demonstration and explanation (this should reduce the irritating calls by the contact center executives)

When I run a search on Google, I get a handful of sites. Importantly, most of these sites, that i come across, are for the first time, hence i don't know how many people will trust this space. ICICILombard is the only know player and has been putting effort in getting people online (heard their jingle on radio today). Even a 2-3% of the overall marketing spends in the right digital initiative should help build this slow preference and will have gains in the long run.

I guess a trust of digital as a viable business model needs to be firmed up for the senior management and case studies that will help more experimentation.

In the meantime we will have to entertain the annoying calls from the executives, sad!

Cheers!

In those lonely hours...

Of late, and after moving up in life, we decided to keep a driver. I realised that life was much more lonely and there was more free time at hand. Now on my way to office, I could work, browse and talk with the fear of being caught. These are the days when I got most "pal-ly" with my BB (6 months back got the latest 8520 curve).

Out of sheer ennui (of only boring office mails), also started using the mobile browsers and fiddled around the phone more. Tried a couple of browser (inspired from blogs)... Opera Mini, Mozilla and Blackberry browser. After using Opera mini a couple of times, I stuck to the good old BB browser. The experience was no way near using an iPhone, however good none the less in those lonely hours.

My life changed and for the first time I felt like a geek and i realised i was more social with a mobile than otherwise. Thanks to these applications and sites...

1. UberTwitter: Even after the launch of "Twitter for Blackberry" I have continued using Ubertwitter application, as Uber is very addictive for Twitter freaks.

+ves: Intuitive UI, fast and doesn't eat too much of space. One can clear cache periodically. The photo twit is fantastic. Just shoot with your mobile and tweet

-ves: The location function doesn't work properly (I guess more to do with our chaotic IP management than the application's). Also doesn't let you update the Facebook and other social applications simultaneously.

2. Facebook: I have never been a Facebook addict, till i got hooked on to the mobile application. This application like UberTwitter is fast and addictive.

+ves: Facebook is best left at a free time, when one doesn't have much to do ( so that one doesn't have to waste productive hours at home or in office.) And this application lets you do that. One big positive is that the application is a simplified version of complicated website and yet one doesn't have to compromise on the functions. Very simple UI.

-ves: Takes a long time to update feeds and is very slow. The chat function is missing, which I feel is a great plus with FB. Moreover, if you get hooked, toying around with your phone in the night might send wrong signals to your wife.

3. gTalk: For people like me, who don't have much to say, one/two letter chatting is a great option to catch up with people.

+ves: As simple and as fast as the orginal application. The notification as an email is a great feature.

-ves: Ensure that you log off each session, else you may get messages late in the night and might cause animosity with friends for not chatting. Also, there is no option to check GMAIL through the gTalk application.

4. BlackBerry Messenger: BB Messenger is a super option to save money. Best use is in case of international travel, where you could use the tool to connect with your professional friends (however, please ensure that you don't use the such as twitter/facebook which use huge amount of data.

+ves: Reduces sms charges and is pretty fast.

-ves: Adding people as contact is difficult. Best way to do that is by using PIN (rather than eMail).

5. Hindustan Times mPaper Application:I'm a HindustanTimes reader and therefore the bias for this application and also has section to read blogs of HT columnists- Indrajeet Hazra, Vinod Sharma, Vir Sanghvi among others, which in my opinion is HT's edge over any other news site.

+ves: Reader friendly, simple font and minimalistic design

-ves: Limited content, at times repitatitive between sections

6. Wap Sites: Following are the sites which I visit regularly...

a. Yahoo: I like the UI and is the best in the category. The font size is very decent and page is vibrant. I used it a lot during the IPL. One can also check mails and log into messenger from here. Almost like being on Yahoo. The site is unmatched.

b. Rediff: Very extensive coverage and minimalistic design (unlike Yahoo). Content is limited but updated, but is not as engaging as Yahoo.

c. LiveMint.com: Great site for financial news. Updated content and generally good reading for a non financial folk. I quite like the content under "Life" section. Font however is small and you can't read for long.

d. TimesOf India & Eco Times: Only if you have missed the morning edition of TOI. You will get pretty much what the Newspaper has to offer. Small font and not very reader friendly.

e. Moneycontrol.com, & In.com: The only drawback with this mobile moneycontrol is that the portfolio section may not work at times. On the other hand in.com has very regular content, the only section worth visiting is the IBNLIVE news section.

f. NDTV Mobile: Very rudimentary design, but updated content. Worth checking out the site.

Life has changed and not that bad. It's a new world. I still miss my driving and make up for it on the weekends. (I guess one has to discover "work-life balance" in his/her own way.) I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Can't wait to read reviews of Iron Man-2! Would love to preview on YouTube, however the speed on mobile sucks, big time.

Cheers!

Supporting Earth Hour Day 2010

Supporting Earth Hour Day 2010: "

Power cuts are pretty common in this part of the world especially during summers so most days are like an Earth Hour Day for a lot of people here. However, for the rest of us, power cuts don’t really affect work as we are lucky enough to have alternate arrangements in the form of battery inverters and diesel generators.

If you are in the latter category of lucky people, and I am sure you do, please support the Earth Hour day on March 27, 2010 (next week, Saturday).

All you have to do is switch off all the lights at your place for one hour starting 8:30 pm (your local time). That’s it!

Earth Hour 2010 is a WWF initiative and is expected to be the largest climate event in history – let’s make this one a huge success and you’ll feel good about it for sure.

Earth Hour Video

Supporting Earth Hour Day 2010

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

The IPL Top 5 & Flop 5 TV Adverts

Today newspaper have mention on Anil Kumble's Book "Wide angle", Kumble's display of his s alternative career. The timing is right, as the IPL is hot right now and Deccan Challengers doing really well (The game against Rajasthan Royals was a complete stunner, great strategy and execution).

Amidst Excitement are these small ad breaks; I have no choice but to look at them. Here's my list of Top 5 and Flop 5 of The IPL Ad Campaigns.


Top 5 (in no order of preference)


Idea Cellular
In a category which has Airtel and Vodaphone, it is difficult to create another entertaining commercial. The standards itself are so high. In this ad, Abhishek Bachchan with a sidekick and a hot secy invites the viewers to "Ungli Cricket". Quite funny, esp the side kick is hilarious esp the one on drinks. The sidekick gets high and starts slurring.

Airtel
"Baat Karne Se Hi Baat Banati Hai". Great script, but could have been complete without Sharman Joshi in it.





Coke
Finesse defines this commercial, has no story, but a memorable track and Kalki Koechlin appeal. Imran Khan sizzles. Superb execution!



Havel's
This time the "Shock Laga" makes the whole family twist. The other ads are also in a similar league- "Uparwala Bachaye Na Bachaye, Havell Fans will save 40% electricity".

Vodaphone
Some of the ads in the series are interesting- the one on Gaming. Masterpiece is created only once. I wonder for how long can they sustain this campaign.



Flop 5 (in the order of preference)

Pepsi
Ranbir Kapur is completely wasted. Have no other words. It's long, complicated and the edit version doesn't make any sense. The more I see the more i get convinced of my opinion.



Samsung
The one that I'm taking about doesn't have Amir Khan. It has two doors and some arbit action
between the two doors. Fast and absolutely incomprehensible! Luckily Samsung does have that
version on the net!

Max New York Life
The Kid has brilliant expressions, however still haven't understood the relevance of Shiksha Plan in the whole scheme of things.

Thumbs Up
Death defying commercial, I wish Akshay Kumar did that. In this new commercial, he is being chased by a woman. Must be a client driven initiative (something on the lines of get woman to drink Thumbs up, or a universal appeal blah blah). I guess the woman folks liked Thumbs up and until this commercial. The track also a drag...




Mountain Dew
"Dar ke Age jeet hai" doesn't make a connect (guess the edit version is too rushed). The thrill of adventure and being on the edge is not there in the commercial.

Slice is the only good commercial from Pepsi's stable.

Hope someone's listening!

Cheers!