I discovered Screenplaying (Mark Knopfler) in 1996, via a music recommendation in India Today (?). I usually don't buy music because a magazine asked me to do so, but something about that little review prompted me to go out and do so with this one. Screenplaying went on to become my all time favourite (Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits being favourites anyway). I often joke that I am perhaps the single largest individual buyer of the album in the country, having gifted a copy to all those who are dear to me. Copies have increasingly become difficult to locate and I just pick them up when and where I find them. They come in handy! Screenplaying is a complition of Mark's works from the movies - among those rare works that can make people cry, smile or laugh just depending on their mood at the moment.

A CEO (Boman’s voice?) is addressing the shareholders meet (this is financial results time in real life too). Against all trends from a booming market, the company has made a loss, the CEO informs us, quite pleased with the achievement. But what is this (?) –shareholders are cheering him with a thunderous applause. Even as the news goes from bad to worse, the applause only gets louder.

The CEO sums up the performance by announcing that company has gone bankrupt- shareholders are overjoyed.

Even as I wonder which company is advertising its product, the voice-over reminds us “Mirchi sun-ne wale always khush!”.

Smiled all through the promo- great voice, tremendous surprise value (at least the first time you listen to it).

Mirchi at its irreverent best.

Originally posted on my blogVerbum.

Part of an ad campaign from an online matrimony site.

I found this quite funny. As compelling a reason as any, to get married. Go on, support a noble cause :).

Knowing what is the customer/ user saying about you is very powerful input for a marketer to improve user experience, and that tracking blogs allows us to do that quite easily is something that I have believed for long.

This episode shows how easy it is, and why more companies should be doing so:

I wrote this post on my blog sometime ago, to which someone added a comment, saying...

"Why don’t you consider writing about some of the new “India 2.0” sites that are creating a little buzz as well?Eg: www.ilaaka.com and www.onyomo.com "

(Update: Nikhil informs me that our friend who posted the above comment has been spamming everyone with this message :) ).

I did that and wrote ...

"...Onyomo is a nice concept too and the sms option is great but success depends on how comprehensive is the service - for eg. I searched for Seeds and plants - got none. Searched for riding school and got an eatery. But, that will get sorted out over a period of time I think."

A couple of days ago, someone who works with Onyomo, googled his company name and found my comment.

Addressing the points raised by me, he left a note

"Hi Rajesh,

We at Onyomo have been working hard to build a useful and innovative service. Even though the things you searched for are not yet covered by our search engine, sooner or later our search will cover these categories. We're always on the lookout for suggestions regarding the data that people may want to search...

... However, as you noted correctly, these problems will get sorted out sooner or later.We've also launched an SMS Search service in Delhi/NCR and Bangalore where you can search from you mobile phones on the move.

I sincerely hope that you'll like our service..."

I was mighty impressed with the proactiveness shown by the team and visited the site again, posted another comment on my blog, in which I also asked the gentleman, were he to visit my blog again (wanted to see if he did), to drop me a line for a few suggestions that I had.

This morning, he had obviously googled 'Onyomo' again, visited this blog soon afterwards to read my newest comment and promptly dropped me a line.

I have just replied back to him. I do not know how useful my suggestion would be but I am richer for the experience.

A fabulous Diwali it turned out to be, rained briefly and the temperature has come down- mornings chilly, afternoons pleasant, evenings breezy. Delhi is the place to be in right now.

Noticed the strong fragrance in the air- evenings-Saptaparni is blooming in abundance wherever you go.

Saptaparni (image: www.astro.caltech.edu )

We walked the Asola-Bhatti wildlife reserve last week, on an invitation from Rekha. Right here in Delhi, an opportunity to see Black Bucks, Neelgais, Jackals, a variety of birds etc. in somewhat natural surroundings. Our lead introduced us to Dhau, growing low - like a shrub- but about 15-20 years old - he said that the tree has a natural tendency to grow in this manner when grazed upon. The walk was supposed to begin at 5.00 pm but could only begin at 5.45 pm and it was dark soon, so we walked about 7 kms through the forest to finish by 7.30 or so, by which time the moon was out. Planning to go back again, with a different group, later this month or early next month.

Coming down the Railways Museum flyover, the Belgian Embassy & the Rose Gardens on your left, you hit my favourite round about (at the moment) at Shanti Path. Floss Silk is abundant and in full bloom. Pictures can't do justice - go visit!

(image: www.coralsprings.org)

My 'blogs for business and public relations' journey started about a year and half ago and soon thereafter I penned this article (first published for our internal newsletter at Genesis Burson-Marsteller where I was employed until recently). So much has already changed for the Indian blogosphere that many things that the article mentions sound dated. Each day has been new learning.

Anyway, I was invited to speak at a seminar yesterday on 'Blogs for Marketing'. It was great fun to work on this presentation. As luck would have it I was gifted a copy of Naked Conversations (Robert Scoble/ Shel Israel) by a friend and that was very useful too.

Slideshow:

Do write me your feedback so I could imbibe that into my future sessions. I am not able to share the Blog/Works proprietary methodology as I hope to retain that as a differentiator.

Update: Am replacing the presentation and only a sampler is up now. Write to me if you are interested in the entire presentation.

From the time that Alok first mentioned it to me; to reading his post; to the time that someone sent me a link showcasing a virtual demo on it; to the time that I finally logged on to test it out myself, Second Life has compelled me to think more and more about the future.

Second Life is quite surreal - a virtual world where you choose who you are, meet real people (behind their chosen avataars), test out real products (in a virtual environment), spend real money to buy virtual money that allows you to buy not just virtual land and virtual stuff but lets you conduct real business and also convert the virtual money, you may have earned, into REAL money. Fascinating but also a bit scary.

I signed up, but haven't ventured in, yet. There are reasons - let me share:

I think of Second Life as Sims meets the Terminator series- vision of a future that is dominated by techonology so much that there are two classes of people - one who understand technology (rulers) and others who don't (slaves) :). Second Life makes it very real. Growing the way it is, the day may not be far that to succeed in business you have to be on it? A marketing device that you cannot do without! I don't know.

My points:

1. People who do are not comfortable with technology have a distinct disadvantage (but then, like someone said just now, that's true even today :) ).
2. The economy of the future will be controlled by a 'company'? How powerful will that company become.
3. I have been reading about 'game-like elicitation methods' of research (which I am quite fascinated with) - you think you are playing a game but your mind is being mapped; movement patters sharing with the researching party who you are, what you may buy. Doing so with virtual money on Second Life gives the company much more power to read the mind, spending habits, so much other data - all the time that one is on it. Wow - how may it be used?
4. Even as we are beginning to wonder about work-life balance as we find it difficult to cope with demands and rigours of our present day life. It doesn't seem to likely to get any easier and then another life that demands more time and attention (which it will get because it promises to earn us more money).

I am not sure about what else, but I haven't stopped thinking about the implications and am still coming to terms with it - though I must confess it is the most powerful one that I have come across lately.

Ajay and I have been discussing a proposal and he suggested we meet at Choko La,Basant Lok Complex. I haven't been to the Priya Complex in a bit and had missed out the place until now - what a discovery. Ajay informs me though that the place has been around for over a year now.

From the moment I entered the outlet, the romance was evident - rich, warm interiors, a professional touch about things that told me that I could trust their quality. My focus was clearly on the desserts and I reversed the sequence and ordered a Philadelphia Cheese Cake before my soup.

There are very few places in Delhi that can claim to do authentic cheese cake. This one clearly was - texture, flavour, sweetness - Perfect. Much better than anything I have had in the last 3 years, at least.

I also packed a few French Macaroons - Mango and Raspberry. At slightly less than Rs. 20/- a piece, these were clearly expensive and a huge let down for me, a friend and my father who tried them- excessively sweet and nothing else.

Am going back, soon and telling my foodie friends.

BTW- we also discussed the proposal :).

Magic appears to be a favourite name with Radio stations!

Delhi now has 8 FM stations. 5 of these sound like they were clones of each other.

Three new stations have launched in Delhi, in quick succession. Hit 95 that came a couple of months ago, New Big 92.7 from Adlabs and Radio One 94.3 were launched last week. My two bits:

Radio Mirchi

Which has been the undoubted leader, for long, has seen a few things change for it recently - star RJ Nitin, moved to Red FM a couple of months ago (he still doesn't sound like he's settled though. Have people actually switched to Red FM to listen to his morning slot would be difficult to say at this moment but a loss for Mirchi nonetheless.

In the short term, the new launches will impact Mirchi most - particularly New Big 92.7 (more about that ahead)

Radio City

Status quo on programming - nothing new after they introduced Mehak in the morning slot and Life ki Dhun, a show with Sonu Nigam sometime ago.

Red FM

Significant gains in the last one year (but):

Had been losing out to Mirchi and Radio City on advertising as: The 'listnership' surveys conducted so far have really taken into account 'brand recall' and not really actual listernership.

And Mirchi had significantly higher recall, as did City. Red suffered on share of advertising coming to it.

However, has got Nitin now (quite a coup), but unless it quickly associates his presence with the brand, an average listener may still associate him with Mirchi and RED may actually 'contribute' to Mirchi's recall. Tricky :)

Has added 'Superhits' to its name in a loose manner - Superhits Red FM 93.5. Great move. Will it bind it tighter, we will see.

Has benefited from these and many other new initiatives (much more advertising support and general buzz), but remains number 3 and now there's new competition to battle.

AIR FM Rainbow

My favourite - varied programming, ranging from music in several genres - western, jazz, western classical, oldies et al, to interesting talks and stuff. Lovely voices, who come prepared (even if sometimes read from a script) and are a delight to listen to. However, not commercially driven.

AIR FM Gold

Infotainment and India -news, analysis, talks, Indian music - film, classical, folk, carnatic etc. - not commercially driven again but channel for the masses - takes feed from AIR I think.

The new players

New Big 92.7