Like many budding bloggers, I too have read several tips on blogging. Most of the advice rang true for me, especially after a few months of regular blogging. I may not offer anything new, but herewith an unsolicited listing some of the most relevant lessons: 1. Be clear on why you blog: this may seem obvious, but is a fundamental question that needs to be clarified in your head. I started off like most people…
Woke up from sleep at around 3am the other day. As if on auto pilot mode, I reached out for the mobile phone, checked time and clicked on the ‘new messages’ link. And what, pray, were the new messages waiting for me to see? An email from mediabistro, a daily news alert from Reuters, assorted promotional messages and spam. All very earth shatteringly important and urgent. Such ‘trivialization of time’ has become the norm in…
This article appeared in Brand Wagon, the advertising & marketing supplement of Financial Express, today. Is advertising most effective when it changes attitude or changes behaviour? The debate is as old as advertising itself. It is believed by many pundits that an ad that leads to a specific call for action and changes behaviour is far more effective than one that merely changes perception. In other words, getting consumers to fly an airline is better than…
The death of the AE has been predicted for decades now. There was a time when the Copy & Art guys were assiduously kept away from the client. The media team’s interaction with the client was limited. The onus was on the AE (and I use the term to refer to Account Management in general) to understand the clients and also sell the agency point of view. God help the AE, if he failed. I…
‘When the thrill of blogging is gone’, an article from The New York Times, struck a chord. As someone who got his first blog setup some 7 years ago but managed to maintain it with some semblance of regularity only for the past year or so I could empathize with it fully. The article asks: Many people start blogs with lofty aspirations — to build an audience and leave their day job, to land a…
The other day I was chatting with a friend of mine who could be labeled as the ideal target audience for an iPhone: gadget savvy, iPod user, upwardly mobile, higher income group. When I asked him if he is going to buy the iPhone, he said a firm ‘no’. Reasons: his Nokia phone has a 5 mega pixel camera (versus iPhone’s 2 megapixel), his phone has an accelerometer (referring to the Accelerometer Plugin for Nokia…
Amul has a rare distinction among brands: its hoarding are looked up to, literally. While the magic is in the topical themes and the execution, I recently heard the story behind the campaign – and its a shining example of client-agency relationship.
Presentation skills is perhaps one of the most neglected aspects of training in advertising agencies. Ironic, since it is a business of persuading people to agree with your point of view. Depending on the agency culture, the suits get to make presentations to client either at middle or senior management level. Either way, the presentations are going to be boring. The common approach to handling a meeting where an idea or a proposal is to…
The debate on scam ads continues. Sreekant Khandekar, the editor of agencyfaqs has articulated his views extremely well. Clients too have joined the debate and have disowned scam ads and the resultant awards. Client opinion on awards and scams come in different shades. There are those who mistakenly equate any creative award with ineffective advertising. For them, safe advertising is the best option out and they justify the work that they approve by saying ‘Hey,…
Bullz-I, a firm in the ‘business of finding and developing business leaders’ has posted an interesting article in its blog. The topic: ‘learning’ and age. (Aside: I thought Bullz-I’s description of its business was interesting – more on that later). Having reached the category of ‘old’ in advertising life, I could relate to the topic very much. When I joined advertising, there was an unwritten rule about experience: the more experienced you are, the bigger…