How to post something from time to time...

A Day in the life of the Internet; Wonderful graphic, done by these chaps over at www.onlineeducation.net


Created by Online Education

I don't usually cross-promote stuff. However, was surprised to see that the only presentation I had uploaded on slideshare has gotten some 1000 plus views, thought it might be good to put it in here as well.

psst: wanted to get a move on on the blog too, at least 3 full fledged unwritten would-be-blogposts await the reticent blogger!!!

What Is Roi For Social Media

View more presentations from Sudarshan Banerjee.

Relevance: Old yet New

I was recently watching the telly and caught an ad for Add Pens, a variant which they claimed has helped a few crore students write their exams. Nothing to write home about and couldn't find the commercial on any of the sites (they thought the same too, I guess). So why write a post about it?

The Ad went on to also provide a promo offer. Buy an Add pen and get an Add Save Tree Pencil free. Now that was something that caught my attention. "Save Tree Pencil" is essentially one of those mechanical pencils (also called the clicky pencil), which doesn't have the two pieces of wooden strips glued to the graphite stick in between. They used to be around, even when I was a student. So I looked them up, to find out how long they have been in circulation. According to wiki, these pencils were invented in Britain in, hold your breath, 1822 !! I was a little taken aback, and checked on when Pencils were invented, turns out sometime in the 1500s.

(image courtesy : wikipedia & www.staedtler.com)

Now here's the point. We've all been using the typical wooden pencil for many many years, ok, make allowances for making the big shift to pens when we moved to high school, but still for something or the other. Most of us would've used the clicky pencils too, for not wanting to sharpen the wooden pencil or for making us look good in front of our not so fortunate classmates. However, it has never occurred to people to portray it from a 'tree-saver' perspective (I could be wrong here, but I haven't come across this myself). Environmental awareness is all the buzz today; carbon footprints, carbon credits, etc are bandied about in casual conversation and such a simple proposition was just waiting to be taken: 'Relevance'.


The guys over at Add pens or their agency or whosoever could be credited with this, has no idea what they have with them. It could become seriously big if it touches the right chords.

p.s: While digging around, also learnt that, while The black core of pencils is still referred to as “lead,” it never contained the element 'Lead' and contrary to popular notions, putting it into one's mouth is absolutely safe :-)


(image courtesy - Thinker Labs)

Ambient Media - Getting it right!

I have this thing for Ambient Media. Have done several posts in the past , over at my older blog.

Had recently seen something very interesting done by the Delhi office of Euro RSCG India, which had taken my fancy and the reticent blogger in me had forgotten all about it, till I was going through my older posts and found something similar. It's not an inspiration story at all. Both the ideas are really strong and while the other idea is for an iconic brand like Ikea, this one is for a small consulting firm - the only thing common are outsides of buildings. However, fantastic usage of the medium, which is always the hallmark of a good ambient idea.

Here they are, Judge for yourself.

 

(The Ikea storage idea on balconies)

(The Euro RSCG idea - the clients in that building, you could get jobs with them) :-)

what else but ZooZoos

No. This is not the post I was wanting to write for a long time. (That was about effectiveness of the communication- about how even if the communication is superhit, the product might not move; Airtel VAS ads versus the Vodafone Ads).

The ZooZoos have pervaded everything. Fantastic 360 effort, must say! The ET/TOI masthead captures, the being in the IPL crowd thingy, the Brand Equity story about them and the no-relation-yet-there kinda presence. The umpteen ads on TV, a pre-launch on facebook everyday, et al. They are all over. In fact, somebody who works for hanung toys, called me to ask if I could get them a 'soft toy' deal done. Are you listening guys?

Everybody and their Uncle and their nephews (2.65lac of them only on facebook) have now been discussing zoozoos; it's funny when a communication/ad piece suddenly gets mainstream attention, when people send pics of their making over the mail, when mature individuals take what kind of zoozoo you are kinda quizzes on facebook, you know they are onto something.

When that happens, I think, suddenly, the responsibility of the creators go up. They ought to, IMHO, start feeding the social media public more and more about the creation, the stories, the origins, the inspirations, the barriers they overcame. Remember the yin-yang theory in terms of branding. Today's customer is more evolved, enough to know that nobody is perfect, including brands. They would love a brand more if they came out in the open and said 'we are trying something, we might have some short comings, give us an opportunity, sample us'. Gmail has been in beta for about 5 years now!

In the context of this, I came across today, something via twitter and promptly took a stance on the same. I realised later, with help from my friend @manuscrypts that it wasn't practically all that important. It wasn't. But, you know what, when one is seeking information, due to your superlative efforts, you should feed them the info.


Like a prof. had once said in PR class, back in the Univ : "your brand would form an image anyway, it helps if you've shaped it right"








(for more on the post I am mentioning- go here :
ZooZoos - Inspiration or Imitation?

Yet, nothing succeeds like success right? The zoozoos have gone on to bag the Ad Age's best viral campaign of the week. Go get 'em guys!

Adopt a pup!

Just doing my bit. Write in at the email in the poster. Give a pup your love.

 

Loved the poster enough to promote; love the pups as well, but can't adopt myself.

The theory of Evolution retold

Now I know; All guys take heart. AA be damned ;-)
Source: here (via email from Abbas)