Database-Led Communications - The next in thing

Ogilvy & Mather India (O&M), Draft FCB- Ulka Interactive, Mudra's Tribal DDB and JWT's RMG Connect are gearing up their operations to attain that edge in Rs 16,000 crore Indian ad industry.

O&M(Interactive) is offering the services for health care marketing, Ulka Interactive and RMG Connect are investing in tools and technology to upgrading their offerings.

All the above advertising giants have their USPs for their special offering, and this is definitely going to affect the general mass media marketing. Now the the advertising will be more focused and targeted, as these advertising will offer accountability for the ad spend.

I am sure you can already think of the sectors and the markets that it can completely take over!!

The kind of investments the agencies have made, well this better be the next thing.lolzzz.

The fastest growing digital agency ... Now in India!

UK-based advertising agency M&C Saatchi is now in India with its digital advertising and direct marketing agency M&C Saatchi Direct & Digital in India. M&C Saatchi London has won the inaugural APG 'Strategy Agency of the Year' award.

The man in action is Mr Sumantra Sengupta who joined the firm as the chief executive officer. The new appointed CEO was the senior vice president and general manager at RMG Connect. They will kick start from "Sadi New Delhi" and "Amchi Mumbai".

The agency will serve its existing clients and already has few new clients under its belt.

Source : AFAQs

Great news actually, as mentioned in my earlier post about the "big players coming in to India" the competition will now further increase. Just wondering, does India really have this kind of a business ?

Well I am sure every one out there is going to tell me about the success stories, the Indian Internet industry has seen in the past couple of years and yada yada......

I agree upon the fact that the industry has definitely grown and is moving ahead. The concern lies with the corporates who still have not seen this growing and don't have a strategic dept which can handle this medium. The people sitting at the top seats are still unaware how important it is to have a specialist group to manage the company's marketing and branding portfolio on the Internet.
As of now all these top honchos are busy playing the "me too" sports and are happy duplicating things.

I could give few good number of names of the companies which have great online presence in rest of the world but their Indian counter parts are still unaware "How to go about it" and they expect their offline marketing team to come up with strategies.
lolzzzzzzzz.

Think this post has become slightly long than expected, so will continue it in the next post. Untill then lets buckle up our shoes and work towards making this a movement, and make the corporates realise that specialist are important and having a team of strategists for the internet medium is the need of the hour.

Top Positions occupied in the month of March - April

So where do you want to apply? And who should you send that cover letter?

Id8 labs : The man for the company would be Mr. Vivek Saurabh. Vivek has been appointed as the new CEO for the agency. Vivek will be operating from Delhi and expanding the business in the nation wide.

Tanmay the COO and Sheetal has been appointed as the VP, they will continue to have their influence in Mumbai region.

Connecturf : Mr. Atul Hedge has comfortably taken the CEO position. He was a part of the team which set up Euro RSCG advertising in India. During his seven year stint with Euro RSCG, he moved up from a postion of a trainee to that of a vice-president. In 2003, he moved to Vyas Gianetti Creative to head the agency. During his tenure with VGC, he launched VGC Sports, a sports concept firm.

RMGconnect : This has been the max movement area, where all four from the DDB crowd decided to shift their tribe.

Rajeev Sharma takes up the digital wagon joining the company as the VP. Zeenia Mehta will do the creative supervisory. Anis Bude joins as the a creative director and Kamlesh Mehta has taken the position of the Sr. creative director.

Please let me know if there were any other movements I am missing. I would be glad to add it up :)

Orkut launches Social Applications in India

Facebook came first with the applications which could be used as media tools for marketeers. However in India Orkut has been the most popular social networking site(No. 2 site in traffic rankings)took a long while to enhance and come at par with Facebook.

16th April, Orkut launches its applications in India. Now you can make your application s using the orkut API.
Apps are integrated directly into your orkut experience. When you log into your profile, you will be able to add up to 25 apps to your orkut profile. Your friends will see all the apps you've added, be able to interact with them, and can add any apps they like to their own profiles.

Few of the Indian:


MyHangman:
It is the classic word game of Hangman and you can create one of your own on your favourite movies, music, TV shows and more. And the rest you know what to do.

This application is developed by C2W.

Chakpak Movies :

Chakpak Movies is a social movies application that lets you rate/review movies and related photos/videos and share your ratings and reviews with your friends. It also lets you organize movies by classifying them into ones you have seen, you own, your favorite movies and other similar categories.

The credits for this goes to Chakpak.com

India Dekha:

Make your India Dekha! Map and share it with your friends.

This one is done by Zoomtra


Teen Patti:

The all time classic game goes multiplayer.

This time the credit goes to Mingle Box which is another social networking site!!

Phew!! it was a tough job pitching corporates with Facebook Application, as every one was not convinced with its reach to the masses. Now they have what they were looking for and its just a matter of time and all the agencies would be called upon for making few of these application to poke, hug, kick, and every thing you can think of on Orkut.

Now you check out this video below.

A short note... possibly the last here

This medium that was named Internet knows no boundaries. The horizon is yet to be seen, and it's good that way. Keeps me going!

In the love or fascination of the medium, lot of us “internet marketing professionals” miss out on the key aspect – communication. I find it ironical how communication gets limited by the people who are in the business of doing it. It is very critical that we understand the importance of the fact that communication comes first. Internet, mobile, print, television, radio, outdoor - any medium can serve a communication effectively only if it is planned and formulated considering two very basic and essential aspects –

• Why is the communication required?
• Who is the communication meant for?

Once these two aspects are worked upon and the framework laid, come the next set which depend a lot on the medium,

• What has to be communicated?
• How will it be communicated?

This approach has worked great for me and has delivered almost always. It is for all people entering the business of communication and those who are lost in the mediums.

With this note, I bid farewell to A2B and hope to start scribbling soon… some blog, some subject, some night…

Blue-sky thinking

Bikes must be shown speeding up, doing anti gravity stunts. Washing powders whitens any thing comes their way, the shampoo has to introduce some extra terrestrial science to the human species. And there seems to be some law which says that "you have to show ladies in a soap ads in the minimal cloths possible and talk about how did they become that beautiful".

But chocolate advertising : It can either make us drool in anticipation of its deliciousness or inspire us with the sight of how people using the product change their mood.

In the below ad the chocolate brand doesnot say that " Chocolate is about joy and pleasure", instead it shows what joy is.
Hope you guys like it!

Watch out people! The Globalisation wave striketh...

I will stick to the industry I cater to "The digital ad world".

The Main Story:
Today internationally the digital advertising market is worth Rs 12,00,000 crores and in India the industry will soon touch the Rs 600 crores. Well as of now it looks like a Lilliput. Consider the rate at which it is growing, the day isn't far when it takes the shape of a whale.

The world is watching us grow and definitely wants a chunk of it. The recent news about "WPP acquiring a majority stake in digital agency Quasar", now if that doesn't ring a bell then what will! . The leading global conventional agencies like Aegis Communication Group, Euro RSCG and Publicis Groupe have aggressive strategies to launch their international brands in India.

Our Layman Story:

There is this tiny village market (Indian Digital advertising industry) and the small hawkers (Our Indian interactive agencies) are earning currency by selling vegetables and other edibles at a low cost and yet making good margin. Now what happens is that the Wal-Mart guys (The international advertising giants) aren't too happy about this. So what they plan to do is open super malls and offer things at a much lower price or, gives out free gifts or, may be give tickets to Disney land (whatever!).

The Consequences are obvious, the small hawker rolls out his stall and is home less in due course of time. Unless he decides to fight back.

Lets come back to our main story where the Wal-Mart is buying out the small hawker and naming it Wal-Mart India (hey comn, we can decide the name later).

The question is "What the hell we doooo?"

Are we planning to fight back, do we plan to change our business model (may be start making shoes, hey thats a good idea!), do we sell off our shop, do we rent it out (that is one bloody indigenous idea, you have to agree with me on that, ok!), or, may be buy Wal-Mart (an idea, but don't see that happening).

The new soveriegn netizen 2.0

It is not the 'we' but the 'i' that matters

Digital technology has revolutionized media & brand consumption and all your time tested tactics might not get you the oh so coveted ROI u know! In the monstrously expanding virtual mediasphere, your brand might just get lost in the drift, become irrelevant and unrecognizable. All your 'About U(A)sses' can screech n bray without making the slightest dent in the constantly evolving user generated ecosystem.

Why do you want to go online? You want a jazzy, flashy presence that doesn't make any intelligent conversation but only massages your ego, makes you feel like RGV?
Rather inspire your consumers to interact with your brand, engage them in a dialogue dude! Self expression is the key (or at least the illusion of it!)Let them show off their personality, contribute & consume...

Social media sites like You tube, Flickr allow consumers (any one who partakes) to experience & interact with the Internet on their own terms. Call it folksonomy, social search or whatever you wish, they have succeeded where stalwarts have floundered. Your brand can make use of the new found (the hottest keyword in the known history of the Internet!) social intelligence. You can sponsor millions of conversations that take place in the virtual world as long as you respect the dignity, the privacy of the 'I'

Sketchcasting

Welcome the new soveriegn netizen 1.0

Crazy's last post encapsulates almost all the tentative notions (& premonitions!) that i have been deliberating on for quite some time. The Internet as the New Ecosystem (that's a killer coinage Crazy...patent it!) has evolved as a much more democratized space than any available in the Real world. For that matter, this distinction between the Real & the Virtual should be dissolved for once and all. The Virtual now offers more verifiable information about humans than all known parameters in the Real and is equally tangible and three dimensional.

Everytime i re-conceptualize my profile on any social networking site or everytime i set up a blog (and very rarely when i post any content!) i feed a very basic human urge perhaps - the need for significance. My preferences, my thoughts (conjure,contrived or stolen) are all significant - i enjoy network approved credibilty from all those who care for it. Millions of peer-to-peer conversations and dialogues occur daily through the Web everday. The impersonal, random algorithm of a search engine is not what i rely upon.

As a consumer - not as the narrowly defined TG in any marketing manager's dictionary but as a partaker, a participator - i download, upload, share, record, use, abuse products & services made available to me online. I also have the desire to create & control my consumption.

Consumers are individuals and not a demographic or a webographic lump. Let them contribute & consume as participators...welcome the soveriegn netizen!

Online Disasters - Part 2 - Flourishing the Ecosystem

"And you cannot tackle hunger, disease, and poverty unless you can also provide people with a healthy ecosystem in which their economies can grow." -- Gro H. Brundtland

Very aptly put Mr. Brundtland!

I believe the internet is now doing just that, providing people with an ecosystem in which economies are growing by leaps and bounds. Yes, The Internet is The New Ecosystem! In this ecosystem, people and ideas are the primary elements without which there will be a total collapse.

Today, the internet powers information in various devices and gadgets. Some that regular human beings like us cannot even imagine, even coffee makers! Don't believe me, well see for yourself. Just type "internet coffee maker" in Google and you will see [:)]. The utilitarian aspects of the internet are actually unlimited as it seems in the present age. Further, with the invention of wireless technologies such as WiMAX and 4G, the binary ecosystem is now even more stronger and larger in capacity.

The internet is getting crowded! Say that to a tech savvy marketing expert, and he will go, "damn! i better rush and send out all the email campaigns to all those spam hungry mail servers out there!", or better, "exciting! let me go and create that special community for people who want to buy blue pair of socks!". All sad and mostly deemed to fail attempts at harnessing the branding, marketing power of the internet. Obviously, winners are there as well. However, the number of failures far exceeds the number of successes in the internet space. I attribute this primarily to the low risk taking appetite of businesses. This has also resulted in fragmentation of the internet to a great extent, and sadly the trend continues.

I am sure you must be wondering, what the hell is this guy talking about? The answer follows in the lines to come.

There are bound to be disasters in an ecosystem, however, in real life we take numerous measures to prevent them. Well, then why not online. Brands across the globe spend fortunes building websites that would serve as a social networking platform for their potential consumers. Did you get that? Yes (Ok you are the smart one!). Well if your answer is No, then let me remind you that associations or groups of people created using a common interest and being utilized for selling products has never worked out, and will definitely not on the internet. Internet is all about empowering people, giving them the freedom of choice. Social networks should primarily be serving the 'socialization' purpose, rather than commercial interests.

Let me give you an example. If there was a large university where students had varying sports interests, and you were to choose a certain number of students from this university who loved to play soccer so that you could promote your company's soccer merchandise. What would you do? Would your company start a new university "meant only for students who love soccer"? Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? I guess as a wiser alternative you would form a soccer club!

Exactly my point when it comes to the online medium. When there are so many social networks out there sprawling with people, why do you want to create another one for all those people who love to wear a blue pair of socks! Just form a club in an existing network for people with specific interests - and if they are interested they will come in. It is always about letting people choose, and if you have the right appeal you will be the chosen one!

A recent example is what NOKIA did by creating a NOKIA Zone on Friendster [and how could i miss out on the very important fact that the NOKIA Connections zone was designed by the agency I work for!].

... and thus the ecosystem flourishes!

Online Disasters - Part 1

We have been writing about a lot of serious stuff in a very serious manner... and that's not how I generally am. So I thought, I would just add a little humor to the blog!

Here is a chat between a BD guy from an online marketing agency and a prospective client who wants his agency to develop a website for their new brand...

BD Guy (smiling): Hi! It is great to know that you are planning to launch a new online campaign...

Client (proud): Yes.. I know. Although it is a little late in the game, but hey.. better late than never!

BD Guy (happy): Yeah! So tell me about your brand

Client (excited): Ours is a cool brand that appeals to the 18 - 25 TA

BD Guy (mutters to himself): wow! tell me something I dont know... another sad case of lost identity!

Client (thoughtful): Did you say something?

BD Guy (bluffs): Yeah I was saying that it's fantastic! The TA is very happening, internet aware etc etc

Client (in sync): Right... we want our website to have that special something which would make the TA stick to it.. you know!

BD Guy (definitely not listening): Yup... before we get into that, could you share your brand objectives, mission etc

Client (with a "what the hell does this guy want" kinda look): why not... as I said, ours is a very cool kinda brand, which the TA easily relates to in their day to day lives. Our brand is about their life... blah blah blah...

BD Guy (trying his best to smile, and show excitement): Hmmm... that sounds interesting

BD Guy (mutters to himself): Damn! now what... another online disaster...!!!

Client (sudden joy!): ... and you know what! the most exciting thing about this brand is that it is specifically for the 18 - 25 TA, which is a very cool generation!

BD Guy (still muttering): ... oh yea oh yea... this is a major screw up for sure!

BD Guy (I am not listening): Wow! You can probably provide me some brand literature and stuff which would help us understand the brand better... Talking of the website, what according to you will be its primary objective?

Client (damn! why is this guy asking the same kinda question again??): Umm.. mainly it should serve as a platform for the TA to hang out, interact with each other -- you know a community..

BD Guy (muttering... now biting his teeth): oh... f*** another community!!! noooo.... why dont these people get real!

BD Guy (breathe in, breathe out, relax): Yeah, we are experts in creating communities. I am sure we will do a wonderful job for you. However, the website being a hip community could not be the primary objective, it is just the medium... could you elaborate a little bit on it?

Client (arghh... same question again!): Oh yes, you are right. Well the primary objective is to get more and more people involved in the community and to ensure that they stay

BD Guy (now going bonkers. mutters): arghh... sigh.. www – wild wilder wildest

BD Guy (smoke.. smoke .. smoke!!!): Great...! I think I understand what you are talking about. Do you have any budgets allocated for this project?

Client (hmm.. smartass!): Budget is not a problem... we have a good budget

BD Guy (jackass!!!!): Could you be more specific? Give me a range etc? Communities can cost you anywhere between XX and YY you know... I want to make sure that we give you the right kind of solution.

Client (what the f*** is his problem): That will not be a problem

BD Guy (mutters): damn! dude does not even have a clue!!!

BD Guy (I am dead): Let me discuss your requirements with our creative team, and we will come back to you with a proposal

Client (puzzled): Can you show us some designs?

BD Guy (dead man talking): I am sorry, we can do that only after you have signed us up for the project. I can show you some of the great work we have done!

Client (lost in thoughts…): No no.. I have seen them already...

BD Guy (the day of the living dead): So how do we take it forward from here? I suggest that we will provide you a concept or two along with costs and timelines

Client (delighted): So you will provide us designs great!

BD Guy (dead man dying.. dead man wanna smoke): No no... not design. Concepts... written concepts

Client (sad): Ok… alrite, but please send the concepts asap!

BD Guy (dead man gone bonkers): I will let you know how soon I can get back to you. When do you plan to launch this campaign?

Client (I wish I knew that... what do I tell him...): ASAP

BD Guy (dead man totally f***ed up): Still ... something you know... for example 6 months, a year, 2 years (in an intimidating tone)

Client (scared as hell): no no.. ASAP

BD Guy (gotta rush!): Oh in that case I better rush!

Client (thank God!): Yes yes! Please feel free to call me if you have any queries…

BD Guy (mutters): Dude! you let me outta here right now! … am dyin for a smoke!!!

BD Guy (smoke... smoke sssssssmmmmoookkkkeeee!!!!): Of course. Thank you very much for your time. We will get back to you with the proposal.

To be continued....

Brands(please be)in the Internet and appear on the desktops too.

Most of my friends, by now, are in touch with me at my new address of the digital Ad company which wants me to go fishing all the time.

Let’s come back to our passion and talk about marketing and branding . In the past me and Crazy have talked about how big brands fail in their campaigns (sometimes of course) , and how sometimes small budget marketing campaign do wonders. Now every brand wants to go online, and that they would do eventually. But imagine , when every one (who wants to matter) has a web site or may be micro sites and do multi fold marketing in terms of viral marketing, corporate blogging and other such things, what will be the USP ?


Why dont they
1) generate valuable traffic
2) have traffic but don't attract repeat visitors.

Will that not create a nice cosy problem? Sure , it won’t be the content - it would be the context. All promotional sites have already have the elements which caters to popular content mix: video, blogs, games and calendars.
Unfortunately those sites will ultimately be hampered by the limitations of being inside the browser in the first place.and secondly from endless competition and varied browsing requirements (bandwidth, browser type, et cetera) and internet viewing habits of their core audiences . It is no wonder that coming time will be hard for these well-executed but simplistic sites(especially when you are in Asia where the speed and the bandwidth is a big question mark).


Branded desktop applications (BDAs) could be one of the solutions for consumer brands . Because, at the most fundamental level, they don't need a browser for making an interactive presence separately from any behavior attached to the browser space. The ability of push button technology (instantaneous communication) and seamless versioning (changing content without interrupting the user experience) -- two BDA basics -- and consumer brands can finally begin to realize the true potential of their work on the desktop.

These BDAs get you :
: regular audience for your promotional messages.
: deliver a customized experience.
: bring in the brands to a more tangible, easily accessible position in the daily life and habits of it’s core audience (for whom the bell tolls).

BDA can have a versioning by which brands could switch from fall promotion to holiday campaign seamlessly. It can change the habbit of it’s core audiance completely as they can glide from features to graphics without having to move a finger.

Second Lifeis indeed a very popular site. One of the main reasons of it’s attraction is it is not a website. Second Life is a BDA. It is a downloaded application that relies on the web for it’s real-time content.

Orkut , as everybody swear , is a very popular community website acquired by Google in the recent past , also understood the power of having an application set on the desktop . Addedly , it silently reminds you of it’s community without any interruption. Incase of Orkut the application was Gtalk which extended the power of the premise on the desktop with a single feature and makes this community connection a daily habit for the user.


And my personal favorite ExpressFashion

is a web site whose approach to online is all about persuading the audience to come into the store. To that end, they have embraced the online changing room.
Moving the window to the desktop delivers the crucial ingredients of utility which community web can't provide. Buttons like "e-mail a friend" and "print" hint at expressed hope which men/women will do ultimately to close the loop and further a decision-making process. And on the desktops this facility spreads as a viral.





Have I scribbled a bit in excess ?
Now onwards me and you shall watch and observe how a tiny presence on the desktop can change marketing plans and the business.

Yet again I say Brands wake up!!!!!!!!!!

Web 2.0 award announced for 2006

Category	1st Place	2nd Place	3rd Place
Blog Guides	Technorati	Blogniscient	Bloglines
Bookmarking	Blummy	furl	Spurl
Business, Money, and eCommerce	LinkedIn	Basecamp	Side Job Track
Classifieds & Business Directories	craigslist	Judy's Book	PageBites
Collaborative Writing & Word Processing	Writely	Rallypoint	Thinkfree Office Online
Communication: Email & Chat	meebo	Campfire	Slawesome
Digital Storage & Remote Access	eSnips	Avvenu	YouSendIt
Mapping	Wayfaring	Frappr	HousingMaps
Mashups & More	The Supreme Court Zeitgeist	Ning	liveplasma
Music	Last.fm	MusicStrands	Upto11
Peer Production News	Newsvine	Digg	gabbr.com
Personal Organization	HipCal	Planzo	voo2do
Photos & Digital Images	Flickr	Slide	Zoto
Podcasts	Odeo	podOmatic	Loomia
Real Estate	Propsmart	Zillow	Trulia
Retail	Etsy	threadless	Wists
Social Networking	Facebook	Consumating	MySpace
Social Tagging	StumbleUpon	Blinklist	Del.icio.us
Start Pages	Pageflakes	Google Start	Live.com
Trusted Search	Rollyo	swicki	Truveo
Video	Dailymotion	YouTube	MetaCafe
Web Development & Design	CSS Beauty	Performancing	Mint
Wikis (Hosted)	Wetpaint	Jotspot	pbwiki

Web 2.0 Content Management System

Now a days companies are looking at their existing content mangement system. Content is structured entities, its not about traditional layout. To make website interactive people are using various rich internet applications like Ajax, tag clouds, RSS feeds, flash etc in their website.

The new model is based on web 2.0 and it is totally different from old websites. People wants to share their ideas, experiences online. If a old content management system not address the audience demands, definitely websites will loose their audience.

Tips to upgrade and improve your existing CMS:

1. Your CMS should support User generated Content


2. You can use third party tools separately to support RIA like Ajax etc.


3. CMS should support mulit-tier architecture

Quote: The Machine is Us/ing Us

Viral Marketing: How big can it make ya? - Part 2

A JUST STATEMENT: We still need to make a few more to know whether the viral marketing ideas coming out of India match up to the global standards

FACT: We need to do a lot more than just making a few more ads! Read on…

However, there are a couple of factors that drive the success or failure of a brand’s viral marketing campaign, namely: the actual deliverables versus the hype created by the viral and the mindset of the consumer.

Let us not even get into viral concepts, let us first look at the regular marketing promotions being carried out in India.

Case Study: Times Global Village
The Times group launched it for a short period of 30 March 2007 – 30 April 2007. It was primarily meant to be a global consumer trade fair, with some joy rides etc to engage the consumer. The marketing guys @ Times Group were apparently totally out of sync with the operations guys (which I realised when I visited the place). The adverts that were distributed via billboards, newspapers etc. promoted the event as a major international fun fete. Things such as 150 dancers, and cusines from various countries etc. were highlighted as the USPs of the event. The average Indian gets pretty excited by these, and he did. The consumer landed @ the Times Global Village to find what – most international stalls were empty, and remaining were occupied mostly by ‘the Janpath’ of various ‘phoren countries’!!!! The event had run into legal hassles as it was set up on the ‘dry bed’ of the river Yamuna!!! To add to the agony, there wasn’t a single dancer to be seen (as contrast to the exotic images chosen by the Times marketing team) and food stalls were none other that our very own McDonalds, a few local favourites and just one stall from Pakistan serving popular Delhi food !?!?!? A complete failure, a blunder!!! (Wish I had heavier words …)

Relate this to a viral campaign: If a viral campaign is over aggressive and enthusiastic as compared to the actual deliverable, the brand behind will definitely end up getting a tonne of negative branding, resulting in a disaster.

I feel that marketing as a whole in India has not matured to that level yet – It is not just the advertising agencies that are responsible, it is actually the brands that are mostly unsure of what they exactly want. Focus should be laid upon the initial market research, comprehensive analysis of consumer needs and expectations etc. before even strategising the viral campaign.

A globally successful viral marketing ad from India is still a far fetched dream it seems.

Crazy Tips

For consumer brands: WAKE UP!

For advertising agencies: Please mature, and give your clients a bite of reality!

In the meanwhile... Crazy lives for making this dream a reality... watch out!!!

Viral Blogging ~ Multiple Blogging

In my previous post I mentioned... 'How?' the big names and the upcoming names need to look at marketing before they launch their viral marketing campaigns or any sort of marketing stunt.
Today businesses are realising the power of the consumer and how their opinion matters in terms of various aspects of an entity, that is there in the market to fetch a price. Now we understand 'why it is necessary to blog?, tag, bookmark and do all that eBuzz stuff'. Now every marketeer wants to go blogging, start up with a niche segment and accumulate content on a single topic.

This definitely sounds like a plan, but just think about this - if you could have other blogs diverting to your main blog ... well it is a tough ask as it would involve a lot of logins and logouts as you would go blogging, blogging every where. This is exactly what the Biggies are talking about 'Multiple Blogging'!

What? Logging in, logging out all the time gets to your nerves?

Relax, there is a solution...

All you need to do is configure your blog settings in the software and blog, edit, tag, bookmark etc etc which require multiple logins.

I KNOW YOU WANT TO CLICK ME NOW!

Tags: a2b, multiple blogging, software, viral, marketing

Viral Marketing: How big can it make ya?

This particular thing has been there in my mind for quite some time by now... Which one? Viral or, folksonomy? Well they both have their pros and cons, but again the question is which one?

'Viral' has been there since the day 'modern internet marketing' came into existence; be it 'HONDA's latest campaign' or, 'Nike'. If we look at it carefully, does HONDA need any further buzz for its name or does Nike really want to scale its popularity? If the answer is yes, then I need to shut up right here and get lost.

If you think there is a tiny possibility of the answer being a 'No', you should read on.

We believe it is high time that these names which have already become the so called brands need to move up the ladder and and transform into a tribe, a religion. Make the customer loyal to the name and its products, give him / her a chance to say how he or she feels about it, what would it take to make the product better, give the consumer the power to decide for himself / herself, tell him / her that his / her opinion matters and 'YES IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE'.

Some of the companies have spent more money than my salary, from doing celebrity campaigns to the most outrageous ones - just to draw more attention. Look at some graphs for a long period of traffic to a website, you can see the difference between creating a Community Marketing program versus a Viral Marketing effort that will be like the " pet rocks" of the late 70's.

The concept is still very new to Indian internet marketing & advertising companies like Webchutney, BCWebWise, TribalDDB, D'Zine etc. They have been in a constant race to create an animation or a video that would make it so big that the whole world speaks about it. But how many of them have been able to accomplish this? The answer is - We still need to make few more to know that. (LOLZ)

My point is " It is time that for us to understand that we cannot stand up on the tower, throw a ball, and then see how far it goes. Rather, we need to move with the ball and see where it has a chance to stop."

Technorati Tags:viral, community, marketing, a2b
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The Second Coming - Prelude

youtube,flickr,stumbleupon,myspace,secondlife,orkut > blogging, podcasting,wiking(?!),virtual gaming, ,social networking > user generated content...err..vc2 too!* > the spirit & ethos of web 2.0.


the drive towards consumer controlled media will continue to mushroom and the web, of today & the future, promises to be a democratic & decentralized cyberspace. wishful thinking? well all you skeptics tradapt it to wish-full thinking!

when blogging was just a buzz word, most of us dismissed it as a fad which greenhorns could indulge in. now organizations of all shapes & sizes keep a keen watch on the blogosphere & even hire professional bloggers to manage the show. everything you think,create,use,abuse is now negotiable. the power of user/consumer participation & involvement is beginning to define our economic & socio-cultural matrix.
in a congested & hyper-competitive market, how many of us are taken in by traditional media channels. 'hoo haa blaah blaah' ads?...WTF! Most of us research products online before testing them physically( read traditional store environment) & social intelligence, blog content,word of mouth have become more credible sources of influence.

More choice,more information,more direct & immediate participation...just how real is all this?

* we are working on a new lexicon to keep you abreast... & us too!

Add some AJAX to taste!

You will be really amazed to see what AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) can do for you! I have seen it and plan to use it strategically on many of the webistes I currently manage and the websites that I will launch in the future.

AJAX can be simply explained as many web pages converging into just one page. However, I would strongly recommend that you do not take the literal meaning and try to make your website a single page website - it will definitely prove to be a "killer" for all your search marketing activities.

Use AJAX tactfully to improve your product showcase, to offer more functionalities to your users - such as find product by price, by specific attributes, zooming and panning of displayed products etc. without causing the problem of content duplication! That's great news for Online Retailers!

Go Web 2.0 now!

Blogging for some honey and cheese!

Thanks to 'The Tradaptor" for revealing our secrets about keywords and their density $#@#!

Anyways, coming down to some serious money making activity.... read on!

With more and more people getting addicted to the internet via blogs, forums, online communities, RSS feeds, newsgroups etc., the world of web content is blooming and business of content aggregation is booming. But... (yeah of course a 'but' has to 'butt in' all the time!) what about intellectual property rights?

Cyber laws or laws in general are still struggling to keep up with the growing "violations" reported by people... actually it seems that a new cyber law is made everytime a new type of complaint is filed. You can look at it in two ways - 1. you are the "angel" that was born to clean up all that's bad in this world, so you take it up as a challenge, become an IPR attorney and save the world!... you definitely end up making tonnes of money in the process.. 2. You are the "devil" that was born to do all the bad things, so you get delighted after finding out that the cyber law makers are way behind the cyber law breakers... so you join the front runners, find the loopholes in the laws, and use them to your advantage...ultimately you do end up making tonnes of money in the process.

You might say... "there are actually more ways to look at this issue, definitely not just two...". Hey! but what the heck.... you gotta do what you gotta do... blog blog blog ... some people call it User Generated Content... and are planning to make a fortune outta it! Great... let'em do that! Let's just blog!

Wake up my fellow bloggers and start making some of that "extra" money for yourself... there are many blogs out there that pay you for absolutely whatever you write...

Check out the results of this Google search!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=paid+blogging