WPP Atticus 'Under 30 Essay' Contest 2009 entry

“The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up, 1936. Do you agree with the statement? Or disagree? Or both? Please be as specific as possible and limit your answer to 1000 words.

Understanding the context -

Before debating the degree of agreement with the given statement, it’s important to step back and analyse the circumstances under which F. Scott Fitzgerald had made this observation. An established, well-acclaimed author witnessed a steep downfall after years of literary stardom. His personal problems along with his alcohol addiction further catalysed the southward process. This resulted in a physical and mental breakdown, which forced the author on the path of self-expression and public confession through his writings.

Fitzgerald always imagined himself among the top literary personalities. Despite his continuous downfall, he brought alive his imagination through his writing skills and determination. In his own words, he saw the improbable, the implausible, often the “impossible”, come true. His observation - The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function – was inspired by his own life. He managed to see the light at the end of the never-ending tunnel of sadness and despair. Whether it was a reality or an illusion, he decided to chase it. Oscillating between emotions and thoughts as varied as success and failure, illusion and disillusion, dream and nightmare, Fitzgerald managed to walk towards the literary nirvana.

Dissecting the statement -

Fitzgerald’s observation needs to be analysed in two parts. Firstly, the ability to hold two opposite ideas in the mind at the same time reflects an individual’s capability to think rationally. Secondly, retaining the ability to function requires eliminating one of the ideas in the given context and determination to implement the other.

In other words, despair and opportunity can co-exist. It’s all about leveraging those opportunities. Remember, the half empty glass is always half full.

The opinion -

Having discussed the context, judging an individual’s intelligence on the basis of his/her capability to hold two opposite ideas and still retain the ability to function is not suggested. The first part signifies the ‘rationality index’ of an individual whereas the second part requires will power and determination. Is there is no correlation between rationality, determination and intelligence?

One of the brilliant corporate examples of rational thinking combined with determination is Nokia. In the late 80’s Nokia diversified into several new fields, mostly by acquisitions. However, in the early 90’s, the company ran into serious financial problems due to heavy losses posted by its television manufacturing division and other diverse business units (footwear, wood products etc). The situation changed from bad to worse when a suspected total burnout probably contributed to the suicide of Kari Kairamo (CEO, Nokia) in 1988. The situation worsened further when Finland underwent a severe economic depression in the early 90’s. It impacted Nokia as well.

Nokia decided to divest itself from all the diverse businesses and focus solely on the business of future – telecommunication. Today, the brand Nokia is worth more than $35billion. It required a great deal of risk-taking ability and determination for Nokia to convert a hopeless situation into an opportunity of a lifetime.

Managing two conflicting ideas is a challenge. If done successfully, the existing norms and beliefs are shattered and a more evolved and relevant belief system emerges. More recently, the established economic models of the West, once considered as the benchmark, gave up to the recession. What survived were the lesser mortals – India and China. The perceptions have changed and the Asian economies are more respected than ever before.

The alternate perspective -

Not every competitive frame of reference is black or white. On several occasions, two opposite ideas need to be analysed in the given context. Be it a graduate’s dilemma to choose between a high paying job and an opportunity that ensures steep learning curve, or a brand manager’s compulsion to focus on short-term profits rather than long-term brand building, these are few real life situations where both the options have their own pros and cons. In such scenarios, it’s not about elimination. It’s about selection. It’s about ‘constructive destruction’.

Fitzgerald’s observation also ignores people with high emotional quotient. Two opposite thoughts like ‘I am a nice person’ but ‘I was compelled to do a wrong thing’ result in emotional side dominating the rational side of an individual, thereby determining subsequent action. These actions can’t be benchmarked to judge the ‘intelligence’ of any individual.

Conclusion –

Fitzgerald’s observation needs to be analysed through three lenses – Context in which the observation was made, rational and emotional quotient of an individual, the process of elimination vs selection. Having done that, I believe that the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function can’t be a testimony to an individual’s intelligence.

The 4 E's of Digital Marketing

While going through a power point presentation, I came across a very interesting perspective on Digital Marketing. By virtue of being a two-way medium and the advent of Web 2.0, the way we approach traditional marketing doesn't find place in the realm of digital consumer engagement process. It is important to see Philip Kotler's 4P's of marketing through the digital lens and see whether they pass through the digital filter.

The 4P's need to be replaced by 4E's in the basic digital marketing framework.

Product vs Experience: Unfortunately, digital is often used as a lead generating medium without any focus on brand building. Digital, if used judiciously, can be used to create an unforgettable brand experience that entices and encourages the consumers to not just consume the product but develop a long lasting relationship with the brand. A delightful brand experience can convince a consumer about the role of the brand in its life.

Price vs Exchange: The internet works on the basic principles of 'community living'. You share, I share. Its similar to the age-old barter system. You can't put a price to the content. Its available abundantly. More you share, more you would move up in the social hierarchy in the digital space.

Place vs Everywhere: Once your content/communication is out, it's everywhere. You don't select the touchpoints, the commmunity does it for you.

Promotion vs Evangalism: That's a dream of every marketing professional. You don't promote a brand on the digital space, you search for the brand champions.

ZooZoo-ism is the new religion

Finally, I have decided to write about the latest sensation of the advertising world - ZooZoos (not sure about the origin of the name but I quite like it). The day I saw the first ad (click here to see all the ZooZoo ads), the planner inside me got curious to know the creative brief that the planner on the account must have given to the creative team. Whatever the brief might me, its creative manifestation has ensured that Vodafone continues to enjoy the consumers' affinity in the 'post-pug' era (click here to see the ad). ZooZoomania has taken over the imagination of the people. After a long time, I saw people waiting for an ad to come on TV .

As they say, if advertising is the religion, ZooZoo's are the God :)

Thankfully, O&M, the creators of ZooZoo, extended the thought beyond the mass media and built communities and fan groups (click here) on the social networking sites. The official fan page of ZooZoo on Facebook has more than 3lac fans. (Shahrukh Khan's fan page has around 2.5 lac fans. Click here).

The challenge, however, is to carry forward this euphoria and ride on it as far as possible. Few top of mind options-

- Advertising is nothing but creative storytelling: ZooZoo's became popular because everytime they appeared on television, they had something fresh to tell. People waited for those new 'stories'. Use digital media to tell new and innovative stories about ZooZoo's, by the ZooZoo's. Nothing stops Vodafone to tell interesting ZooZoo stories in 140 characters. That could in fact, attract people to create their own ZooZoo stories. Did I just hear ZooZoo comic?

- Offer what consumers want: People love those 'irrational noises' - the ZooZoo talk. Is there a possibility to do something around that? Can we take it on to the mobile platform? How about ZooZoo based VAS offerings?

- Come out of the television, get in to their homes (and hearts): Indian answer to the 'firang' Barbie. Believe me, its gonna be a hit.

All said and done, one thing needs to be taken care of in the long term. Hutch (and Vodafone) streched the whole 'pug' story too far. From 'pug-o-mania', it went on to become 'pug-o-phobia'. Avoid that in this case.

Waiting to see more stuff on ZooZoo. Hope the entertainment continues.

Brand Busting in One minute

Brands cannot be created overnight. It takes years to convince the consumer about the role of the brand in its life. A single-minded focus is what is required to build a brand. A brand needs to identify an emotional truth about the consumer that it can associate itself with. This emotional truth or emotionale helps the brand to connect with its target consumer. If the consumer experiences that connect then the journey towards advocacy begins and ultimately that consumer becomes the brand champion.

However, if the brand doesn't do justice with its loyal consumers in terms of their expectations then the consumers never forgive the brand.

Recently, I had a very disappointing experience at McDonald's. I went to McDonald's Mumbai Central outlet (station premise) and ordered potato wedges. That day McDonald's was running a promotional scheme under which they promised that if they failed to deliver the order in one minute, they would give away a coke free. Great!

But to my disappointment, just to ensure that they don't cross the one-minute benchmark under any circumstances, they were serving cold, stale stuff which was already kept ready.

My reaction - A big thumbs down!

How can they serve someone cold potato wedges/french fries?

- Never forget the fundamentals: Quick service is not the necessity but quality food is. McDonalds can offer a quick service but not at the cost of the quality. Consumers go to McDonalds to have a quick bite, not to have food that is prepared in 'quick time'. Quick service is just an add-on.

- Don't chew more than what you can: Dont make promises if you are not equipped to fulfill them. Either you install more equipments or get more employees to keep your words. If you can't, then don't make unrealistic promises.

- Understand your consumer: Understand what's important to your consumer. Any promotion or offering should be properly analysed and then only be implemented. It doesnt make any difference to consumers' life if it gets its order delivered in one minute or one and half minute.

It takes years to build a brand but just a minute to bust it.

Me-too Blogs!

Having watched a lot of me-too ads, me-too brands and me-too products over the years, I wasn't surprised when I saw a 'me-too' blog. Following the stupendous success of the Fake IPL player's blog (click here to see), another blog called 't20worldcupmole.blogspot.com' (click here to see) has come into the limelight. The author claims to be a part of one of the teams participating in the T20 World Cup.

My initial reaction - hmmm...let's wait and watch.

The initial response to the blog is nowhere comparable to the FIP blog. This blog only has 2 followers and hardly around 100 comments. But passing any judgement at this point of time about the popularity/following of this blog would be too premature. Once the World Cup begins, then only we would get a clear picture.

Few random thoughts on 'Me-too' stuff -

- 'Differentiate or Die' Or 'Diferentiate & Die': Its all about cracking that 'insight' basis which a branding idea is developed. The insight/branding idea for two different brands may be silmilar, the execution needs to be different and obviously better (Sorry, Mr. Jack Trout). Differentiating your brand just because your competitors' have already postioned themselves in a certain way is definitely debatable. Two different brands can own the same idea and still execute them in a completely different way. Two brands can still survive without infringing into each other's territory.

- Trust your consumer : You don't need to get defensive in case their are any similarities between the two ideas. Recently, Ad-pundits have pointed out lot of similarities between the latest Loop mobile campaign and the Vodafone (then Hutch) campaign. So What?? How does it make a difference. Leave it to the consumers to decide. If the consumers find a better emotional connect in the recent campaign compare to the earlier one, they will accept it otherwise it would be forgotten just like most of the other campaigns.

Take it lightly!

A very simple yet effective WEBSITE created by Ogilvyone India for the brand Cadbury's Perk. Click here to see.

P.S: Don't miss the loader

World's smallest 'learn-by-earning' University

Yes..you read it write. Sumit Roy (my Account Planning teacher at MICA) runs world's smallest learn-by-earning university called Univbrands. Check out his website here. Read an article on 'Aha' trees - A tool devised by Sumit for doing brand research and generate consumer insights. Click here to read the article.

Digital News Lifecycle

Read an interesting post about the Digital news lifecycle. It talks about how breaking of the 'breaking news' on the social media platforms is no longer a news. In fact, these days, if a news appears in mass media before it is twittered, then definitely its a matter of surprise.

Few excerpts:

The Digital News Lifecycle -

1. Twitter Alert: A bystander (accidental citizen journalist) will break the story via Twitter.

2. Blog Post: News organizations and bloggers will pick up the story and write a quick blog post about it, often with a link to the tweet or the photo.

3. Article/ Package: News organizations will convert the story into a 300 word newspaper article or a 3 minute TV story.

4. Context: Bloggers, news organizations and Wikipedia contributors will quickly start compiling background material on the story.

5. Analysis: Bloggers and news organizations will offer in-depth analysis on the story, and news organizations will often interview the bloggers who have broken the story or provided the most context on it, as part of their analysis.

6. Conversation: The conversation will continue in the comments sections of blogs and news websites, on Twitter and on social networking, social voting, and social bookmarking websites.

7. Customization: The entire story, across multiple formats and sources, will be available as an archive that can be searched by tags, accessed in various formats, including RSS feeds, and recombined to provide context for future stories.

As the news story will move through its lifecycle, both the depth of the story and its reach will increase, hit the peak in the context or analysis stage, and then decrease thereafter, as the interest in the story decreases. The story will move from alert to analysis in an hour, a day, or a week, depending on the nature of the news. The conversation and customization stages will in the domain of the long tail and go on almost indefinitely, driven by search.

Click here to read the entire post.

Communication: Then & Now

Source: Mike Keefe Cartoons

Wolfram Aplha is just 'another' website

Yes, you read it right. All the hype and talk around the new so called Computational Knowledge Engine - Wolfram Alpha aka Google Killer is nothing more than a euphoria before every new launch. When Cuil was launched, it was also termed as the next 'in' thing. We all know what happened to it. Viewzi also died unceremoniously (well, almost).

After having experienced the new search engine, my point of view on it is very clear, Its just another website and nothing else. When you input any query, you get 'crap' and tonnes of it. The kind of absurd facts and figures that you get would be of no interest to any normal internet user. Take for instance, if you search for advertising. This 'search engine' shows you the input interpretation, typical word frequency, synonyms, narrower terms, broader terms and a complex looking synonym network. Click here to see. What the hell? Mr. Wolfram, I want to search the knowledge on the internet. What you have done is, you have converted a simple dictionary into a complicated looking 'search engine'. I don't need a mathematics based search engine to know synonyms or definitions. Disgusting!

Take another example, I wanted to visit Reliance communications' website. When I typed Reliance Communications, it showed the message - 'Wolfram Alpha is not sure what to do with your input'. See here. Hell. When I typed Reliance, it showed me some absurd details about a US based company. Click here to see.

My reaction - a big thumbs down.

The reason why Google has managed to capture the imagination of the internet audience is -

- Simplicity: Its not about complex coding and algorithms at the back end, the internet user cares a hell about it. You give me what I want, not what you want to show me. Filter the crap. Don't show me irrelevant stuff and most importantly, present it in a simple, easy to digest way.

- Innovation: Google always builds on its existing offerings and simplifies things further. Its ability to innovate has made it what it is today. Showing synonyms and definitions is not innovation. Its using high-tech stuff to take you light years back.

It would be interesting to see whether Wolfram Alpha would be able to compete against Google or not but one thing is clear, someone who prefers simplicity, would stick to Google.

Hail Google!

And the winner is...Fake IPL Player

I thought of writing this post when the news of someone called ‘Fake IPL player’ blogging about the inside stories of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ camp broke out. However, I managed to resist the temptation of blogging about the current superstar of social media (read Fake IPL player). Before doing that, I wanted to see how far the story would go, whether there would be any interesting twists and turns in this unconventional Bollywood type suspense-thriller and whether some intelligent brain, cricketing or otherwise would be able to catch the protagonist of the story red-handed.

To everyone’s surprise, Fake IPL player has become more popular than the celebrated cricketing stars. It seems Fake IPL player has got real intelligence (and balls).

A lot of people have been talking, writing and closely following each and every post that our blogger writes, I managed to bring out few observations which I believe were crucial to the success of this blog. Click here to access the blog.

- Content is the king: In my earlier post I have emphasized on the importance of having content which is interesting and meaningful to the target community. The digital audience is waiting for the content that they can talk about, share and most importantly contribute. Whenever they get such opportunity, they build on it, contribute with more related content, invite others to share their views and obviously react to them.

- Its about conversation: More than 7200 followers, 110,000+ profile views, 13000+ responses to the poll and hundreds of conversation threads following clearly shows that the conversations are happening and people are enjoying them too. Initially, I thought that the Fake IPL player would keep the conversation one way and restrict himself to the posts about the KKR camp. I was wrong. The F-IPL-Player actually responded to the comments and queries posted by the people. Had he not responded to those comments, the blog wouldn’t have got the popularity that it has got. Atleast I think so.

- Relevance of the content: Given the hype-hulla around the event, the glam quotient and the million dollar underperforming babies, the blog became the central point to get all the information about the much talked event. Whether it’s the racial discrimination within the KKR team, the romantic encounters of Kishen Kanhaiya or the onfield antics of Appam C******, the blog talks about everyting.

Whether the Fake IPL player would reveal his identity, as he has promised, is yet to be seen but one thing is clearly evident, Fake IPL player is the real superstar of the social media.

My First Experiment

The verdict is out and it’s a success. After being in the digital communication space for more than a year and having talked and seen a lot of interesting stuff, I finally decided to create a viral on my own.

Given the nature of the online medium, you cannot control the message. Once the communication is out, you can just hope that you find favour among the people who get exposed to it.Any communication which is not viral-able, is a waste. With that rule in mind I started thinking of what possibly I could do that can become a viral.

Inspired by the recent Domino’s incident which took the entire digital space by storm, I chose Facebook to do the experiment. During my MBA days at MICA, I met and interacted with lot of talented people who were really passionate about MICA. Due to this reason, I chose to talk to this closed community of MICAns. For that I developed a Facebook application – Which MICAn are you? This application calculates your MICAn quotient based on few questions and tells you what kind of a MICAn you are. (application to be submitted to the directory)

Few thoughts that passed through while I was thinking –

- Don’t tell people what you want to say, tell them what they want to hear: MICAns cherish every single moment that they lived at MICA. Talking about those moments in some form or the other would definitely appeal to them. All the answers in the quiz reminds of those moments – be it the nights spent playing counterstrike or those pfaffy lectures.

- Never tell a person that he is an idiot, he wont pass that to his friends: There are lots of things, good and bad, which we want to tell people. If your message or communication or content offends them, they wont viral it. Make sure you convey the most offending thing in a lighter tone. E.g. You can’t tell someone that he is a womenizer but you can definitely say that he is a ‘palaash-gal’ lover (contact a MICAn to know more about Palaash-gal)

- Understand your TG, their likes and dislikes: As I mentioned earlier, MICAns are really passionate about MICA. No matter what, you can’t hurt their sentiments in any way.

- Positive or Negative Word-of-mouth – You can’t decide: Well, the experiment itself was a big risk. Talking about MICA to MICAns! I was lucky that the community accepted and viralled it. My job was to initiate the conversation, which I did, but beyond that I had no control over it. It was the community which took it forward.

Hope to do more such experiments using this interesting medium and share the learnings with everyone.

The latest source of inspiration - Youtube & Google Images

Of late, the way research is carried out in the advertising agencies has changed drastically. Two of the most popular sources of 'reference' that I use are google images and youtube. However, the reference is not just restricted to inspiration but can be seen explicitly in the creative output. Recently I came across an article that talks about the instances when the creative manifestation was very much similar to the orginal source of inspiration (read youtube). Click here to read the article.

Google 2084

When I saw this picture, it reminded me of one of the most atrocious movie of recent times - Love Story 2050...LOL :).

Given Google's dominance in the space and its capability to innovate continuously, the scenario reflected in the pic above is not very unrealistic. Hail Google!

Checkmate!

A smart one pulled off by BMW. Brilliant! You need not fill pages to prove your point. Click on the pic to enlarge it.

The other side of our Superheroes

Even the superheroes become mortal when the going gets tough. Recession has forced our superheroes to look for alternate careers :)

Be a Digital-Celebrity!

As the url of this blog - 'Are you a brand' suggests - it's all about creating a niche for yourself, whether in the real world or the digital world. Creating a brand out of oneself is a long term proposition which requires a carefully thought out plan and its meticulous implementation. A Digital Celebrity in the virtual space is same as a brand in the real world.

How to be a Digital Celebrity or How to create Brand 'You'?

Owning your share of real estate in the virtual world is the first step towards achieving the stardom. Be there on Orkut, Facebook, Twitter and what-have-you and let people know about your presence. The logic is simple - Be visible. These destinations help you create your own circle of influence, which might create the ripple effect, if used judiciously.

In the Digital space, everything is public, be sure what content you are putting up on various social media platforms. Every picture that you upload on flickr or every video that you share on Youtube tells a million things about you. Be careful!

Engage yourself with various communities. Be active and contribute constructively. Let people get exposed to your way of thinking.

As the rule says - Low risk, Low return - High risk, High return. Do not hesitate in voicing your opinion in public forums and on socially (or otherwise) relevant issues.

Last but not least, own a domain name (www.yourname.com), if possible.

When Social Media turned pink...

A lot has been written/talked about the 'Pink Chaddi Campaign' which was launched in India by a group of youngsters against the anti-valentines day forces. The campaign got tremendous support and momentum primarily because of the reach of various social media platforms. Such was the impact of the information disseminated through various social media avenues that a large number of people actually sent 'Pink Chaddis' to the Sree Ram Sena office, thereby helping the objective of the campaign.

I have put together some info about how social media amplified the impact of the campaign and made it hugely successful. Enjoy

The Earned Media

You don't need to be an advertising expert to deliver result worth Rs.10 after spending the same amount. The challenge is to earn that extra bit which adds to the final effectiveness equation. The clients' money can be used either to buy media or create 'owned' media. However, an effective advertising campaign generates 'Earned Media' or in simplistic terms 'Word-of-mouth' which differs it from other vanilla campaigns.

Putting it mathematically,

Earned Media = K x (Bought Media + Owned Media)

However, it is necessary to keep in mind that this word of mouth or Earned Media doesn't come for free. The initial push required to create that talk value needs money to be spent judiciously. The best example of Earned Media that I have ever seen is the all time bollywood classic 'Sholay'. The movie made using a lavish budget of Rs.2crore (in 1975) was trashed by the critics as soon as it hit the theaters. In fact, it was labeled as 'Choley'. What led to this movie becoming one of the all-time grosser was a strong word-of-mouth. Thirty Three years down, Sholay has already earned more than Rs.400crore (adjusted to inflation).

The foundation of any advertising campaign is a media neutral branding idea which cuts across any given medium. A good branding idea generates a good amount of word-of-mouth. In fact, this could be used as a yard stick to gauge the effectiveness of the branding idea. However, quantifying word-of-mouth is still a long shot.

Consumer is still the king!

For all the advertising, brand promises and marketing budgets, if the marketers don't get their fundamentals right, their beloved brands are bound to get screwed in the long run. What marketers fail to understand is that just by spending zillions of dollars on advertising won't get them near to their targets. All the marketing efforts go in vain if the end consumer is not satisfied.

Few days back, I saw Aegon Religare Pension Plan's latest TV commercial. For all the clutter and undifferentiated offerings in the category, the brand actually took a very fresh and innovative approach. I immediately SMSed the customer care to get in touch with me, so impactful was the communication. Fifteen days down, nobody called me. The bubble got burst and I decided not to engage with the brand anymore.

A marketers' interaction with the consumer can be divided into three stages: Pre-Sale, Sale, Post-Sale. Unfortunately, the entire marketing thrust is on Pre-Sale and Sale and the Post -sale period is completely or partially ignored. Probably, the concept of Customer Lifetime value is not an exciting proposition for them. Just a lil bit of 'Hi-Hello' with the consumer after receiving the cheque from him could go a long way. After all, the cost of acquiring a new customer is much higher than the cost of a new customer acquired through referral by an existing customer.