Just when I had thought that the guys at Tata Sky and Rediffusion-DY&R were a bunch of geniuses themselves, having managed to break away from the clutter in the CAS/ DTH space with their "...Einstein jaisa genius" campaign, using Active Whizkids to leverage the 'edutainment' positioning, as against the competition, which had been crying hoarse over the number of channels viewers can watch. Now which parent doesn't want her child to be like a genius (let's not get into authenticity that claim holds, for advertising ceased to anywhere close to the truth a lonnng time ago - ok, most advertising!).

But then I saw the service's new 'World Cup' burst featuring Hritik! Sigh! What a waste of a great face & name!

 

Here's why I don't like this one, one bit:

1. Oye Pappe? Oye Pappe? Can you visualise Hritik uttering those words? I just cannot. It is so unlike his positioning as a suave, urbane dude
2. So what that you may have named that strange character - wrapped in grass, holding a pack of popcorn - Pappe? Pappe is the name of this character? What a waste - I am sure there is research backing up the name and the concept - there always is....
3. The expression on Hritik's face says he may well have just finished watching one of his most forgettable movies or did we lose a game? Semi-finals? Well, in that case I don't think anyone wants to watch the finals anyway - with or without Hritik. Where is cricketing passion in this pic?
4. Poor copy and too much of it; the character's in the back seat (not with Hritik) - does he represent the customer? The customer is not the hero?

Disappointed!

Search is here, search is big!

I moderated a panel discussion yesterday on 'Internet in India - the role of search' hosted by exchange4media.com on occasion of the launch of their first book - Gold Sift – Leveraging Online and Search Engine Marketing, authored by Vikas Malhotra.

Even though I generally played a good boy, my formidable panel didn't disappoint. On the panel were 3 brand owners/CEOs from the Internet space (Niti Batra,Dinesh Wadhawan and Sanjiv Bikhchandani; 2 successful Internet entrepreneurs - Alok Mittal, now with a leading early stage venture fund and Sidharth, who leads a prominent interactive agency, and the author of the book Vikas.

For me the conversation was a learning. I am not summarizing what was said as you can read it here and here.

I wish someone from the media planning and advertising fraternity had shared their perspective on my audience question " How do planners and advertisers (particularly the offline brands) see search marketing and how are they planning to use it".

My key take-away - there is an opportunity in vertical search - like that thought.

Vikas shared an interesting statistic - only 8% of the Internet is presently searchable - opportunity? Challenge?

Much as I have wanted to, haven't been able to post anything in over a week - just been running around chasing assignments; spoke at another seminar at FMCC; moderating a session tomorrow and partly because I hurt my neck (in all probability attempting a headstand during yoga :) - fine now, though I was a bit tentative in class this weekend). The last made me wonder, how it must be for the really popular bloggers... what if they are not well and can't post :)!

Anyway, a short break from blogging never hurt anyone I think...lol.

The first in our series of Social Media Workshops' is tentatively scheduled for Friday -23 March, 2007 in New Delhi. There are a few details that still need to be finalised though. This offering would allow individual (and group) representatives from corporates, advertising and public relations agencies (anyone interested) to not just understand but also give them a touch and feel experience through a 'do it along' tutorial.

Discovered www.chacha.com (as in the dance form) via team webchutney at the talk- check it out - a 'real' person will help you refine your search. First of its kind? Will they make it paid? How scalable is it? Many questions I have, will write soon...

I learnt about this really cool feature just now from GeoGreeting via this post at Diva Marketing Blog and felt tempted to share it straightaway.Punch in your message and see every alphabet come alive as satellite image of a building, somewhere in the world.

No buildings from India, yet, as I tested and found. For example, my 'I Love Delhi' has its 'O' from China :). (Click I love Delhi to see what happens)

St. Valentine's Day Greetings via GeoGreetings!!?? Enjoy!

I am not a great fan of mobile photography, but this one caught my attention:

BBC News is hosting a South Asia Photo Competition. Theme of the competition, which invites you and I to click pictures around us, is My Changing World. The competition is open until 31 March 2007 and selected entries can win Ipod video, digital camera etc. There are also BBC prizes every week.

Read details here and start clicking straightaway I would say! :)

UPDATE: I seem to have missed seeing this post from Nikhil who wrote about this 2 days ago on ContentSutra. Check it out.

We have been receiving queries for a workshop format that would allow executives in leadership; marketing; communication; HR and others, to help understand social media concepts and tools and evaluate business impact and benefits. Based on feedback, we have formalised a day long workshop that tries to achieve this and covers:

1. Concept clarity on of web 2.0, social media tools etc.
2. Impact Utility of blogs and other emergent social media tools on/ for corporates and brands.
3. How To! Practical walk-through on setting up some of the important tools.

Write in for the proposal at conversations@blogworks.in

Do write in with comments/ inputs/ workshop requests :).

Cheers!

A Google Alert landed this post from Rohit Bhargava in my inbox this morning and immediately caught my attention.

It's about the US arm of Mahindra using a blog to sell their tractors. Life of a Farm blog is part of the strategy to take on Deere - the American agricultural equipment company.

Jonathan, who led the initiative, says:

MahindraUSA sells tractors. They’ve got, in all honesty, great products at relatively low prices. The challenge was to get the word out to the large amount of small farmers and ‘hobby farmers’ - those who do farming on the side. Mahindra hasn’t had great name recognition because they’re relatively new here in the states.

They seem to be getting traction...good going Mahindra.

Can what works for Tractors, work for an SUV? I think so - people love their cars and love to talk about them (1,2,3).

I would love to see a Mahindra Scorpio Blog! :)