Category: Brand

  • Reach out

    Last week, I read an article that gave the ‘share of the pie’ picture of different media in India. As expected, print is still king, though TV is fast catching up. Internet is still fighting to touch 2%. Meanwhile, something else i read quite sometime back says how an online video ad gives an 84% recall as against a 54% for the same ad on TV. So, why wouldn’t brands be more digital than TV?

    I might be over simplifying it by putting it that way, but the power of the medium seems to be only measured by its reach. And that’s when the marketing gurus (including self proclaimed ones) are crying themselves hoarse saying that engagement is the key (at least until we get the new term). So, then, is everyone trying for a balance? Similar to Nikhil‘s comment on a post a while back, are marketers using offline for reach and online for stickiness? You wish. Thats generalisation, but there are too few examples for me to not generalise.

    While it is claimed that it is the lack of broadband penetration that is preventing the web from manifesting its true potential, I think, from a marketing standpoint, its also the mindset. If engagement was the mindset, don’t television and radio also offer some opportunities, at least some, if not the multitude that the internet provides? Interactivity still means SMS contest, without context.

    So, its all pointing to the fact that different media are used with a simple logic – x numbers of my TG can be reached through that medium. And what do we do after reaching them – Why, show them our ad, what else? And until that midset changes, would it really matter if our broadband penetration suddenly zoomed?

    until next time, reach out, engagement in?

  • EnGROSSment

    Yesterday’s, and for that matter today’s big story has been the apparent ‘Daraar’ in the Malaika-Arbaaz marriage, and the subsequent revelation that it was some sort of half baked PR gimmick for a skin cream. Poor Mumbai Mirror had to even apologise to readers, though thats okay. Why? Because it throws light on the fact that the divorce of a star brother and an item girl morphed into reality show judge can make the headlines. You can read all about it here, here and everywhere. But that’s not what this post is all about.

    I’ve already written about my views on endorsement. While i understand that it makes sense in some cases, the above skin cream debacle makes  endorsements look really gross, but that perhaps is only a result of the reader’s/viewer’s obsession with  the lives of others, but then again, is that media created?  Also, why am i digressing??!!

    While stars endorse brands, they themselves are brands. So like every brand, they have a lifecycle, and like every good brand, they try to leap onto the next growth curve and avoid the decline part, by constantly updating and upgrading themselves and sparing no effort in trying to make themselves constantly relevant to the audience. The sports stars can only do it with performance. And they all get slotted – Dravid with stability, Sachin with stability and sheer brilliance, Dhoni as the new Indian spirit and so on. Movie stars have it slightly easier as the kind of movies they are seen in and the kind of activities they are seen doing (remember SRK and the whole OSO promotion hungama during the cricket match) all contribute to their brand attributes. But over a period of time, the kind of ads they do also decide their brand image, which is perhaps why stars are increasingly choosy about the brands they associate with. It also explains why an SRK would do a ‘Panchvi Pass’ to reach the highly monetisable kiddy brigade which Aamir (TZP) and Hrithik (Krrish) have already tapped.

    Which brings me back to the girl who danced on the train, and increased her star power. This gimmick would’ve heavily reduced her credibilty factor. So, while this stunt created  buzz once, would the public believe it the next time she endorsed a toothpaste with that toothy smile? (that’s in case they were believing it all this while). Arbaaz doesn’t have to worry because no one asks him to endorse anyway. The ‘stars’ are now blaming the tabloids and the PR guys, but the damage is done. This might be a good lesson for the stars who agree to act out brand scripts that clearly impinge on their personal lives, and its most definitely a lesson for the brand guys who resort to such half baked gimmicks, that clearly take the consuming public to be sub moronic.

    The best comment i got on this issue was when i broke this news to a twitter friend. She said, “Are you sure it’s for a skin cream? Would’ve made perfect sense for Fevicol”. 🙂

    until next time, are endorsements only skin deep? 😉

  • Appy times

    And that much talked about day is finally here. The Orkut applications have started their invasion. When I logged in today, what do is see beneath my daily fortune – ‘New! Add applications and customize your profile with songs, games and much more. ‘ With the launch of MySpace slated later in the evening today, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Was that by design? 😉

    Though these days, orkut has been relegated to a routine daily check, i dived in to see what’s on offer. A lot of stuff seems to what a Facebook user would be familiar with – Horoscopes, ILike (music), Teen Patti, India Dekha, TopFriends, Slide TV, Flixster, iRead, IPoke etc. But there are also stuff which i have not seen – Chakpak, an application from the website with the same name, based on Bollywood, and Typeracer, which is a typing speed testing game.

    The latter already seems to be making waves, if I am to believe the various tweets that i have heard. I confess that it is quite addictive :). Interestingly, C2W also has an application, based on Hangman. Wonder if there’ll be copyright issues like Scrabble. Though I am yet to try it out, what’s cool is that apparently one can one’s own version based on fave movies etc.

    I’m not quite sure how this would affect Facebook, them specially becaue apps has been one of their USPs. For all those who grumble about Facebook being confusing, Orkut with apps might be the answer. For the regular Facebook users, it does have a huge first mover advantage, which Orkut will take some time to overcome, if it does, at all. And where will MySpace and the desi versions figure in all of this?

    until next time, go apply yourself 🙂

    PS. Looks to be a big day for Indian social networking. Big B going to blog, i read here.

  • Social Panchvi Pass

    A few days back, Dhanashree pointed me towards a new app on Facebook. This is based on the about-to-start show on Star Plus ‘Kya Aap Paanchvi Pass se tez hain’ ( which is the desi version of ‘Are you smarter than a 5th grader?‘) The show has been promoted heavily on TV, and the application has been conceptualised and created by RMG Connect.

    I’m not sure if I’ve seen any online ads for the show, and a google search took me to the homepage for the show. Before we get into the application, my first take is that the site as well as the application could do with a bit of cross promo help, not just with each other, maybe even with the TV ads, and on mobile. I didn’t hear about it until i got the link. Of course, all that depends on how much stickiness they want for the site/application. Some of the winners get a chance to go on the shoe, but if the only idea is to push viewership, then maybe not.

    As Dhanashree mentioned, the very idea of an app based on an SRK hosted show has the potential of a viral. So, the concept in itself would get some takers. For instance, i added the app, and sidestepped the ‘invite friends’ part, but noticed that by the next day, 3 of my friends had added it too. But, IMHO the finish could’ve been slightly better, not just in terms of looks, but also the jerkiness of showing the next question, and the spelling mistakes, for instance. The ‘contest rules’ is almost hidden, i didn’t see a quick 3-5 step up guide on how to play, and in general, the navigation is a tad unfriendly. I did like the box design though, on the profile page, though I’m still a toddler 🙂 (thats even less than first standard pass).

    I wonder if they’ll use the kind of stuff that say, Text Twist does, which pushes itself at you saying ‘XYZ has beaten your highest score’. But the very fact that they built a facebook app itself is a good thing that has to be commended

    until next time, passing standards

  • Share Market

    The success of youtube and the mega deal had spawned a lot of wannabe sites locally – Apna Videos, Video Dubba, Desi Lassi etc. There was even one called SuckooBai, though i don’t know its current status. A fairly comprehensive list can be found here. Though the sites have attempted a lot of localisation, I’m not sure how much of traffic they’ve been able to manage. Its actually a bit of Catch 22, isn’t it? As a user I’d like to share it on a platform where it gets maximum exposure, and as a visitor, I’d visit the site where i can expect maximum content.

    The last couple of days, Rediff has caught my attention, purely on content merit. Rediff, as a site, has massive traffic coming in because of various things. It has been updating itself on a regular basis for a long time now, news, mail, blogs (I started blogging thanks to them), shopping, images, classifieds, air ticket comparison, stocks…These are diverse things, and rediff, in my view, is using its existing equity quite well to leverage its new products. But, we digress.

    What caught my attention yesterday was the trailer of Sarkaar Raj, followed today by one of Spiderman 4, though the latter has many fake versions on YouTube already, so…  I also remember the c2w april fool video finding its way here, and as the day’s top blog. Not to mention the trailer of Love Story 2050. Rediff is increasingly encouraging content providers across media platforms to use its iShare. Desi content creators most likely will have a limited understanding of digital media, and would be more than happy to share the content on Rediff’s platform. And it’s not just videos, its also pictures, music etc. And over a period of time, there’s no reason why it cannot become a stand alone brand.

    I can already see one snag though. A lot of us started blogging with rediff, but when we became familiar with blogging, moved on to blogger/ wordpress/ live journal/ typepad etc because rediff was nowhere close in terms of user interface design, technology etc. If they learn from that, and keep updating themselves on the tech front, they stand a good chance in the share market 😉

    until next time, if.. rediff