“Dear marketing guru, I am not dead. Not so soon” – Regards, Television.

This post is inspired by “trash”.  There has been a lot of “trash” on the world wide web written by experts and gurus with regard to the death of mediums like Television and the dominance of digital. Yes, this is within the domain of marketing and advertising. The articles / posts have had titles like “The Television is dead” or “Digital is here to stay and TV is on its way out” and the digital marketing community of India has been witness to these. Sadly, this has not been the case. At least so far. I offer two reasons to dismiss the notion that one medium (in this case, the Internet) will prevail over another medium (Television).

1. Television has managed to attract both viewers and investors in the Indian market

There is no doubt about the fact that the Internet is a mass medium with 80 mn active Indian users. Sure it has grown in size from the days of an active base of 40 mn users in India. But due to various factors it hasn’t yet managed to reach the scale of Television that boasts of reaching more than 480 mn viewers in India (source: Hansa Research). As a marketer, one cannot think of not reaching out to an audience of this size. Even Google had to make TVCs to market ‘Google mobile search’ in a country like India – a behavioral pattern which almost comes naturally to us! Apart from viewers, the broadcasting industry has also managed to attract investors who are pumping in a lot of monies with the single objective of getting returns. Case in point, Mukesh Ambani’s deal with the Raghav Bahl-promoted Network18 Group. Experts are of the opinion that we will see more of such interests and acquisitions in the broadcasting industry. Interestingly, even in a market like the U.S., television still remains as one of the most popular mediums (Check this Nielsen report for a detailed analysis: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/mediauniverse)

2. Quality of content on Television

According to various sources, there are more than 600 TV channels in India and it is also estimated that there are around 6000 production firms producing content for its audiences. Apart from these we have shows based on international formats that are succesfully adapted in the regional and local languages. Add to these the content expertise of firms like Balaji Telefilms that make more than Rs.150 crores in revenues – clearly, making and distribution of content on traditional formats like television will not see any change soon. In the near future, I won’t be surprised to see if most of the content  that used to be hard-wired will be repackaged or replicated for the mobile screen. Also, with the rise of social-TVs and smart-TVs, Television has become the early adopter in recognising the potential of multi-media engagement and adapting itself to newer mediums.

Hence, there is no point in arguing whether Internet will kill the television as a medium for advertising and marketing. We are moving into an era where a lot of mediums will survive together. Understanding and exploring these mediums will be the key for marketers. And this will be very different from a more traditional approach where the main message is simply repeated across various TV channels.

Batman and Jesus

This post was long overdue. I happened to watch Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ for the second time and just couldn’t help noticing the similarities between Batman and Jesus Christ. I know its bizarre. And maybe even funny at some level. But, nevertheless it made me think about one of the subjects I’m very much interested in – storytelling. I am of the belief that ‘stories’ or ‘dramas’ have been produced by us, human beings for thousands of years. Having a keen interest in theology and religion, I’ve often indulged in very interesting discussions with my peers on the similarities and creative licensing employed by our forefathers in telling and re-telling, (thus affirming and reaffirming),  stories and myths about legends and Gods. There is no question about the fact that America is the single largest exporter of ‘culture’ in today’s world. And Hollywood stands as the single mighty operating force behind it. According to experts, the average studio or division in Hollywood has bought and is developing one hundred fifty to two hundred stories at a time! No wonder they have mastered the art and craft of storytelling. But the narrative structures of the modern storytelling in Hollywood is strikingly similar to those employed in the ancient dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and the stories mentioned in the holy books of Christianity. Cinema entertains us for sure and more often it contains grab bags of gimmicks, gags and gab. But it also tries to capture our shared hopes and fears, our longings and frustrations, our aspirations and failures. And we enjoy these plots of various stories, repeated again and again, without realizing the fact that most of the powerful stories share a similar narrative structure and characters. Here are the similarities between Batman Jesus Christ:

1. The Character

Both Batman and Jesus came from a well to do family and eventually gave up their comfortable life in search of something more bigger than themselves. Being a carpenter in an ancient Jewish set up meant that one had the skill and opportunity to build many things. It was certainly one of the ‘better professions’ to be in. Similarly for Batman, Wayne Enterprises was his father’s company. The lives of both Batman and Jesus revolved around a particular city – Gotham and Jerusalem respectively. And the citizens of these cities failed to recognize the efforts of its heroes. Both Batman and Jesus had a set of close associates and at least one of those associates rejected the principles of their heroes to tread in a completely opposite direction – in Jesus’ case it was Judas Iscariot & in Batman’s case it was Harvey Dent a.k.a Two-Face.  Both were misunderstood by their own people or by citizens of their own cities. And both were rebels in their own way – challenging notions and norms.

2. The Conflict

Both Batman and Jesus had conflicts within themselves about various issues and spent time in isolation seeking meaning. Jesus spent forty days and nights in the desert, all by himself – seeking, debating, thinking and fasting. Batman spends time travelling the world, learning the various aspects of the criminal mind – seeking, debating, thinking and training. At some point in time they even expressed doubts in their own self and capabilities. Eventually, they approach their specific missions with such a strong will that the thing they fear the most becomes a symbol of their identity – in Batman’s case it was bats and in Jesus’ case it was the cross.

3. The Hero and the Villian

Oedipus, Medea, Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth and many other protagonists in world drama are flawed and vulnerable characters. Just like Batman and Jesus. Both of them deny themselves a ‘heroic status’ in their society. And in both of their cases, the villian was a villian long before the hero arrived on the scene and the hero had no part in turning him into a villian. The hero doesn’t become a hero simply because he takes a stand against the villian; he becomes a hero because he stands for something. This can be justice, a cause, his family, friends or community. Invariably, while the villian stands for himself, the hero stands for something beyond himself.

4. Transcendence

Both Batman and Jesus sought power and challenged the existing law makers / law givers. But it was never for their own self-aggrandizement. It was for something beyond the self, something that is higher and more valuable than one’s own pleasure or even one’s own life. The transcendent cause they struggled with was bigger than themselves.

5. Attachment to people

Both Batman and Jesus were attached to people – especially the friends and family whom they loved. And both of them struggled to explain and deal with this attachment. Eventually both of them learnt to outgrow the attachment and sacrifice it for a bigger cause. Thus, Bruce Wayne becomes ‘The Batman’ and Jesus becomes ‘The Christ’.

Disclaimer: This post is a comparison between Christopher Nolan’s cinematic adaptation of the fictional character ‘Batman’ created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and ‘Jesus Christ’ as depicted in the various holy texts of Christianity.

Technology propels Loneliness. Is it true?

Firstly, we are living in an age of social networks. We are certainly living in interesting times. Everyone is connected to everyone. To such an extent that new research sponsored by Facebook out of a Milan computer science university shows that the old adage of there being six degrees of separation is no longer accurate. Today there exists only 4.7 degrees of separation instead. As an observer and an eternal student of culture, I’ve noticed that one of the biggest shifts happening right now is that we don’t make friends anymore – we ‘friend’ people. Its quite different if you analyze carefully. To ‘friend’ someone means that we try to create a connection with them and them to our social sphere even if we might not know them personally. We add them to our social graph purely on the basis of (a) the knowledge that he/she might be a friend of a friend OR (b) we might have briefly interacted with them online / offline OR (c) we simply like the information that is accessible to us on their profile page which includes – name, photograph, interests, likes, etc and would like to associate ourselves with them. The fact is that the more people lead digital lives – we take pictures, we tweet, we write a blog post, we update status messages – the more the simple act of ‘friending’ becomes closer to offering a subscription to all the content created by us. This leads to an interesting aspect – even the word ‘friend’ is changing. It is fast becoming less of a noun and more of a verb! And when this happens it gives us a delusion that we have a lot of ‘friends’. That is precisely why you would find that people have 2500 friends on Facebook but lead very lonely lives personally. In such a situation the scope to engage in meaningful conversation might exist, but even loneliness exists. Thus we can say that in a socially networked world – loneliness is the opposite of connection.

 Secondly – we live amidst a lot of personal devices and gadgets. We are living at an age where there has been a surge in the number of personal devices. To the point that, according to a study, half of consumers surveyed (48 percent), “feel high-tech manufacturers bring new products to market faster than people need them.” This means that we can access any content, on any device at any time and in any place! Its crazy! It means that our experience of reality will only vary in terms of what we are currently doing on the screens that are available us (iPod screen, mobile screen, iPad screen). Traditionally products were designed and packaged for specific uses in certain places. Movies were viewed only in cinema halls while VCDs and DVDs were meant of consumption at home. But now, access to content is more fluid – thanks to the rise of devices and technological integration. Thus, linked by our personal devices to global server farms – we tend to have continous access to personalized world of the web – as a result, we tend to spend a lot of time… really a lot of time.. with our devices. And that makes us more lonely because we are constantly hooked to our devices and may not find ourselves having a meaningful conversation with people. There is just so much of news, status updates, photographs, videos, movies and other entertainment related programs and packages vying for our attention. With so much to do and so little time, do we end up giving priority to our gadgets and the endless world of information links and bytes over real people and real relationships?

 Based on the two points  shared above, can we conclude that maybe the abundance of communication media does spurn loneliness and at some level it stops us from having meaningful conversations with our immediate real world? What do you think?

dis.placed.

sensitivity

is what i have lost

a gaze

one or two

here and there

that could lead to

a thought

a line

a situation

and a reminder

of our own vulnerabilities

and fragileness.

to all the strangers

beautiful and displaced

in their own way

for whom i couldn’t write a single line

couldn’t spare a single thought.

 

when?

 

i’ve got this urge to fade away. everyday.

sometimes stunned. mostly still.

it occurs to me that life is indeed a drug. that stops working on a cold winter night. like today.

i’ve been waiting. my fingers have gone fat. my guts have gone soft.

like any traveller from a ruined land, i tried to adapt.

where did i go wrong? what did i misread?

and when will you reply? to my eight hundred and thirty two words.

 

My song for today

It’s a mystery to me
we have a greed
with which we have agreed

You think you have to want
more than you need
until you have it all you won’t be free

society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me

When you want more than you have
you think you need
and when you think more than you want
your thoughts begin to bleed

I think I need to find a bigger place
‘cos when you have more than you think
you need more space

society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me

there’s those thinking more or less less is more
but if less is more how you’re keeping score?
Means for every point you make
your level drops
kinda like its starting from the top
you can’t do that…

society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me

society, have mercy on me
I hope you’re not angry if I disagree
society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me

~ ‘Society’ by Eddie Vedder

the moving cloud

the moving cloud is happy,

selfless and free.

it doesn’t have a plan,

ego and purpose.

it owes nothing to the sun,

moon and the wind.

and i am not that moving cloud.

the she and the he: fiction one

 

she would be produced by the sultry summer. he would be produced by the wet monsoon. they both are quite opposites in a way. but at some level they needed each other. heat begs for water. and wetness is lost without heat. she was red. and he was blue. she never believed in love as deeds. he never believed in loving glances. hence, they would spend endless hours staring at the glass windows of the local coffee shop. she demanded attention. he hoped for recognition. both artists, caught in the web of each other’s shadows and opinions. she always believed that one must do the right thing. and called up her girlfriends at night to say that she deserved an award for doing the right thing. he always believed that every crime has a context. right and wrong were at the heels of this context. so he chose his dress carefully before he began to dig the grave of a stranger. she would devour chunks of literature. he would simply dabble in poetry – without much structure and more of subtexts – that would fuel his imagination. she had pictures of herself on the wall. he had pictures of his mother on the wall. she never moaned. he never performed. one balmy afternoon while they lay close to each other, he asked her, “you know that sense of wonder that at some point acquires the rift of the meanings spoken between two people or two passages?” she assured with a confident smile, “yeah dude. i know it. happens between us every time!” he pondered for a while and asked her, “are we in love?” quickly she snapped “no. we are in a marriage”. they faced their moment of truth. quite bravely. like adults.

Where is the big idea?

It was in the late 1930s that the American Advertising manager and writer Alex Osborn popularized a healthy technique for coming up with great ideas. It was called ‘brainstorming’. Surprisingly, if not tragic, it still remains as a technique that has more or less had its day. I have observed that everybody loves a ‘brainstorming’ session. But nobody knows how to do it. I personally call it ‘skullstorming’ sessions because we end up using every part of our body in these sessions, except the brain. And most of the time, big ideas are never generated over a single brainstorming session. Simply because our brains are not programmed to come up with instant solutions. We have to constantly attack a problem over a period in time, till we reach a stage where subconsciously our brain is gathering information (all that we have read) & experiences (all that we have sensed) & thoughts (all that we have pondered over). And then boom! The big idea happens. (That’s one of the reasons why I think bathrooms / restrooms are scared spaces).

Here I list down 4 important aspects which we must take into consideration before entering a ‘skullstorming’ session:

i. The Goal – Almost every great campaign or TVC shares a common feature: within a few seconds, an observer can produce a clear statement of their goal, encapsulating the strategy and message in a short sentence. And this can be done without the observer ever having to go through the brief. This shows how important it is to distill the complexities of the brief down to a single minded proposition.

ii. The Perspective – Great ideas happen when you look at the subject from a particular perspective. When you are aware of this, you can try changing the point of view to create new ideas and solutions. For example, you could imagine what it was like for people before the product existed in the market, or how their lives have changed after they have used it. Even more bizzare – how would extraterrestrial elements treat this product? How was a problem tackled in the past and how is it tackled today? How does the product appear to a woman and how does it appear to a man? How is the product viewed by its packaging or competitors or animals?

iii. Senses – Many campaigns are primarily dominated by visual ideas and tend to neglect all other senses: smell, taste, touch and hearing. Trying to adapt your ideas so that they work on a different sensory level can produce some great results. For example, does the roomy interior of a car have to be shown visually, or could you also bring it to life via sound – maybe by using reverberation or echoes?

iv. The medium and implementation – Many ideas are born free. But then they are locked into a format. I don’t think we can classify any big idea as ‘traditional’ or ‘digital’ as the boundary lines of both these spaces are blurring. It means that we constantly ask ourselves whether an idea can be more effectively realized in another medium. Finally it all boils down to implementation. A clumsy implementation of an idea can ruin a thought or a campaign.

Now, after having listed down these important aspects, you may ask me for an example that successfully captures all of these aspects from start to finish. Sure! I personally love the TVC made for BMW motorbikes. Its based on a single thought and it has been executed brilliantly on a digital medium where technology acts as an ‘enabler’ to drive the thought – unstoppable. Truly a big idea that has a goal, perspective, appeals to the senses, executed in an apt medium and implemented well. Watch both the videos. Enjoy.

Canvas of self expressions – Seventeen

“Attention spans have changed. The idea of going around to somebody else’s flat or house and sitting around in a comfy room and having a really good hi-fi system and listening to a whole album all the way through, then chatting for a few minutes, then maybe putting another album on…does that happen today?”