I have been reading this book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and I must say that its one of the most inspiring books on how how basic instincts actually are right in most times whether you are about to enter an examination hall or as a cricketer you are padded up and about to get into bat, or you are ready with a presentation to convince a client, or you are about to hire a resource, or anything under the sun where you have certain instincts that push your adrenalin to either excitement knowing very well that you are about to be successful in that particular endevor and any decision you make therefore is more to do with that instinct than logic.

Its also a phenomenon where we know something without knowing why, I mean you would never know or wouldnt have learnt it before but you still know without knowing the reason of why? Its about that snap judgement, which has more of gut feel and basic instincts than any logic, which could be far more effective than making a cautious decision, thats what sets apart certain decision making that you would have otherwise not done.

So trust your instincts in certain cases whether its a client closure, or forecasting because its you who knows what the real feeling is when you make the decision through an instinct because you are the one who actually have been in that meeting when its got to do with sales for example.

A lot of people in Marketing go by the laws that are laid by the most renowned authors and professors of marketing, sure they hold true but certain decisions are done by gut feel and has no reasoning whatsoever but just that instinct that tells you that you are doing the right thing, I am sure a lot of marketing fellow collegues in business would agree to what I am saying, sometimes they hold back their gut because the organisations does not permit you to do things on instinct and gut feel however go ahead and make that decision when you know that you have a strong sense of success through that instinct you have on that particular idea/execution.

People who havent read this book, plz go ahead and do it right away, the best I have read in recent times.

So “Blink”

Ram, Sandy and I were on the terrace of our Mumbai office discussing Sales Strategy yesterday when Ram saw a hoarding of the movie Kurbaan and said, ‘Let’s all go for Kurbaan today’. And while some non-fussy people agreed immediately, a few fussyheads (me included) weren’t sure. I had a reason though. I had to go with Sonal (my wife) to the gurdwara.

However, amidst major confusion about who is coming and who is not, with Prapti (Sandy’s wife), Poonam (Harmeet’s wife) and Kunjal (Jiggy’s wife) having dilly dallying statuses, Rajeev made use of his good offices with the BookMyShow team and got the tickets booked. It was Ram’s largesse that he said he would pay for the tickets but his largesse almost had a stroke when he got to know that 10 tickets cost 2600 bucks.

And then we decided to spend some time in office watching some youtube videos of old hindi songs. There were songs like Hawa Hawa of Hassan Jehangir, its lift in a Hindi movie by the name of Don-II, Muqabla (Prabhudeva), Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast (Mohra) and danced some. Ram and Rajeev also in a very complicated move that even Govinda would envy, managed to put to rest the doddering door of the small cabin in office. Half the glass door came crashing down and almost fell on Ramesh, our office boy but with amazing sprightliness, he jumped out of harm’s way. Quite a potboiler shot, that was.

Anyway, cutting the long story short, it was time for the movie and in the meantime, Sonal (my wife, remember?) had already been to the Gurdwara and that meant I didn’t have to go. So with the permission of the member who wears the pants in the family (Sonal) I also went for the movie. And if she hadn’t been to the Gurdwara herself, would I have been able to be there? No Sir!

The best part starts now. After the movie, instead of going to a pub, we decided to go back to office. And boy! Did we have fun or did we? We used the conference room and the OHP to project the same shady numbers that we were earlier watching on to the screen and create a big screen experience.

Pallavi officially declared me as the shadiest person she knows since I happened to know the lyrics of some of those awesome from choreography and direction ploint of view songs. We were in splits watching the two versions of Hawa Hawa and also enjoying songs like Jumma Chumma, dialogues from Agneepath, Rajnikanth songs, etc. But the cherry on the cake was the Sunny Deol-Karisma Kapoor song ‘Yaara o yaara’. I am still grinning thinking of Sunny Deol’s antics and Ram’s imitation of him.

And we sang a lot of songs. Before one song was over, a quick search for lyrics of another song would happen and another song would be ready by the end of the first. And quite a few songs were converted to remixes a la Mika and his nasal twang with a Punjabi accent ending with ‘wahoo wahoo wahoo’ from Love Aaj Kal. This was done by Harmeet, the master imitator. We would pick up the saddest of songs and that would end with Wahoo Wahoo Wahoo.

We drank, ate, laughed, sang and had so much fun that none of us wanted to go but had to because by the time we were done, it was about 4:30 am.

In the end, Ram sang a few songs solo (Khilte Hain Gul Yahan, Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si, Chehra Hai Ya and Yaara O Yaara - from Benaam, not the same Sunny Deol masterpiece). Harmeet sang one non-filmy song, with good lyrics and as always happens, due to Ram’s farmaish, I sang Chitthi Aayee Hai. Everyone downed their last drinks, last bites and last puffs and finally got up to go.

This kind of an outing is very rare for me because I almost never stay right till the end of a do.

Just before leaving we had a small photoshoot and then everyone dispersed. When I returned home, my wife opened the door, saw the time and said ‘Paanch Baj Gaye Hain?????’

And as the title of my blog says - I almost missed it.

“What’s the next big thing in marketing?” Convergence, Engagement, and Accountability, all made possible by Agency

A question I am often asked is, “What is the next big thing in marketing?” We have seen an amazing evolution in marketing in the last decade, which is accelerating with the ubiquitous use of technology in our everyday lives.

The classic parody of evolution showing man evolving from hunched-over monkey, to man walking upright, to man hunched over a keyboard, says it all. It’s where we have come from and where we are going. But the image has it only half right, because we continue to evolve. We are now upright (again) — mobile, social, unique, identifiable and looking to be engaged like never before.

Traditional agencies (let’s call their model “Agency 1.0”) have had a good run. People consumed based on what mass media told them to consume. These agencies got fat, rich – and a bit complacent – selling their expertise and exercising control over the primary media channels of the day, with tightly controlled messages in TV, print, outdoor, etc……..

But… because of technology, in the last decade the power has started to shift to the consumer, and therefore to interactive agencies who can offer accountability. And this evolution has seen traditional agencies going up against interactive agencies in the battle for budgets.

Traditional agencies have tried to maintain a semblance of control in the evolving market by repurposing their creative for emerging channels. They preach to their clients that traditional advertising is still the best tactic and should be the primary driver of their overall strategy. Often this move is more in the best interest of the traditional agencies than their client’s. As much as traditional agencies have tried to discount digital as simply another channel to be controlled and used like other mass media, the evolution of marketing has passed the tipping point. Digital is now central to all marketing strategy and tactics.

During this evolution clients are faced with a difficult dilemma:

1. Trust a traditional agency to develop and manage an integrated strategy – though they have limited knowledge or appreciation of digital strategy.

2. Or, enlist multiple agencies, often working independently, to handle various aspects of their marketing requirements.

In the process business objectives, budgets, and marketing effectiveness have suffered. So when asked “What is the next big thing?”, I say it’s an agency that is more rooted in the future than the past, that understands brand, marketing and technology, and that knows how to create engagement at macro and micro levels.

The next big thing is the Agency 2.0 model. This is an agency that is idea-driven, media neutral, and accountable. An agency falling under this model employs a united team that can create and maintain brands, leverage all communication channels, crunch data, and understand and achieve measurable business goals. It has strong traditional skills, but its DNA is digital.

In this new model, there is no traditional or digital, there is only media convergence and digital engagement. Digital allows brands to create ‘prosumers’ – consumers who advocate and create on behalf of a brand. Prosumers are becoming central to business and marketing strategy. 2.0 agencies will become trusted partners — extensions of their clients and integral to their marketing and operations.

Some 1.0 agencies are making the leap to the 2.0 model through acquisition and restructuring. A few have evolved from the primordial digital marketing ooze to become fully integrated agencies that embody the 2.0 model.

What is the definition of Agency 2.0 you ask? Agency 2.0 is the next-generation model that many Advertising/Marketing agencies are actively seeking. It promises to heavily influence how a brand is “marketed” and experienced across a variety of customer touch points and channels.

There are times when you know that there is some magic about to happen, a drinking session gone wild, a trip to the himalayas, even professional instances like the time i joined Yahoo! or Networkplay. You know at the back of your mind, there is a good vibe, the people, the work, the challenges and assignments ahead

Today when I see a good friend and an ex boss joining LinkedIn, I can see the magic brewing there. Both having worked closely in my previous assignment at Myspace and briefly prior to that at Yahoo!, I am really excited to see Hari at the helm with LinkedIn in India. Given the experience I had with him in MySpace, I am sure he will do more than justice to this role in making LinkedIn a must surf for audiences and must buy for trade partners in India.

Today, being at Networkplay handling the Ad sales responsibility for LinkedIn, it will be a third form of dealing wit Hari (after Yahoo! and MySpace) and i am really looking forward to something like this. Given my experience of bringing out the best from his employees, I am sure will bring out the best of our partnership with LinkedIn in India in times to come.

Here is toasting to a wonderful partnership between Networkplay and LinkedIn and more importantly to Hari’s new assignment.

Cheers!

Indian Online Ad marketplace and Ad networks.

The article brings insight into competitive scenario of Indian online ad network industry which recently has been flooded by the new entrants to get into the share of the overall online space in the marketplace. If we look at the figures for the overall online market place it will reveal that with the year ending 2008-09, the Indian Online industry had recorded a growth of 20% reaching an annual turnover of Rs 720crores divided into performance and brand. Although there one player who is dominating the market place with 50% market share the other 4 players in the market have witnessed change in dynamics on yearly basis to complete the top 5 players in the industry i.e. the competition mix and the pricing mix have been the point of contention here. The single dominant player in the Indian market being Google with 50% market share and Yahoo! And Rediff at 2nd and 3rd at 12% and 11% of market share of the online marketplace.

The Ad network market in the overall online market place takes home 5% of the market share and is mostly concentrated on the performance side of the business. In the past couple of years the market place has witnessed a lot of new players entering the market and existing players changing the game. But one of the outcome of such increased competition is that the Ad network marketplace is now no more just performance oriented.

Introduction of Various Theories and their Linkages

One of the key fundamentals of strategy that I would be linking the marketplace to would be “the red queen effect”. This refers to the red queens’ in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass in which she says, in order to stay in a (competitive) place you have to run harder whereas to get anywhere you have to run even harder. Such an effect can prove detrimental with the conditions such as: new players entering the market, limitations in improvement and intense head to head competition (as rivals in the industry have adapted and become stronger competitors).

First Symptom – New Players Entering The Market

The condition of many players entering the market, a prominent characteristic of red queen effect, where the market players are in the business with homogeneous offering and similar pricing and the increase in competition instead of expanding the market starts to kill the competition itself, the competition is said to be perfect but not for indefinite period. To attain a competitive advantage in such a marketplace the scope of differentiation is very low and thus the only way to succeed is to follow a blue ocean strategy where the chances of survival and success are a direct measure of the market place that is created.

In 1914, F.W. Lanchester developed his famous equations, which have been made relevant to business by Nobuo Taoka. The basic approach is to mathematically equate the loss rate of market share taking into consideration the market share of the competitor(s) and the ability with which the competitor(s) can either sustain or increase its share.

Another useful law, that’s worth mentioning, is “Escape law”. The latter with reference to a battle in the military context states that in order to vanquish a competitor, you should always established a winning position; an escape route to hit the competition very hard and with full force. In the context of “Escape law” the competition being intense in the ad network space led to overlooking at the more profitable route where a new network positioned itself. Thus came into force “NETWORKPLAY” - India’s first brand ad network.

“One night recently my Friend, Frankie, was showing me an aquarium full of tadpoles. She had purchased a whole bag full of them for her children to watch grow from tadpoles into frogs. It was fun watching all of those little wiggly creatures swimming around in the aquarium! It brought back many fond memories of my own childhood, playing with “critters” down at my grandparent’s house. I noticed that there was a big rock in the aquarium. When I asked her why she put a rock right in the middle of the tadpoles’ environment,

Frankie told me an interesting story. It is good and “life-essence saturated.”

Frankie said that she was instructed by the Pet Store Salesman to be sure to “put a big rock right in the middle of the aquarium.” He explained that “the tadpoles must have this obstacle to give them the incentive to climb up and thus split their little wiggly tails so that their legs can begin to develop. If they have no rock or obstacle to climb up on, they will never turn into frogs. They cannot learn how to hop by just swimming around in water. They must have something causing resistance to give them the incentive to leap forward.

The man went on to tell her that last year a school teacher came back to the store and complained because none of her tadpoles had ever turned into frogs. She had put all of them in an aquarium and let them swim around but they never became frogs. He asked her if she had put a big obstacle, like a rock, in the middle of the aquarium. She said that she had not. She did not know that a tadpole will remain a tadpole unless it faces some obstacle or barrier that forces it to grow. Neither did I, but it makes perfect sense. So, my friend was excited to show me all of the tadpoles swimming around the rock. In time, they will begin to try to climb up it and eventually they will make the transformation into a more fully mature creature. Well, I was amazed and delighted to hear that story.

It helped me better to see, once again, why life presents obstacles and barriers in front of us. The barriers are not there to hinder us, but they are there to cause us to grow. It is not so much what the object is in front of each one of us that matters as much as it is our attitude towards it. If we realize that the obstacle we are facing is really a gift that has come our way to help us grow and mature, we will be much more likely to face it in a positive manner.

Since I watched those tadpoles the other night and saw the big rock in their
Aquarium, I have begun to see the obstacles I face in a different way. Instead of being rocks in my path, those obstacles have become stepping stones to help me leap forward in whatever situation I find myself…

I know that those little tadpoles have no idea what is going on. They just are not that smart. The truth of the matter is, neither are we?

Most of us have no idea what all is going on in our lives either. We don’t understand that the barriers and obstacles, challenges, difficulties and hard times that come our way each day are actually there for a purpose. There is no way we will have the incentive to grow, or to become better, or to strive harder, if everything in life is just a simple situation. I know the harder I work at anything, the more profitable it is for me, not only financially, but personally, in my own heart and character as well.
So, the next time you see a frog hopping around, smile at him and thank him for the lesson, remembering the struggle he has gone through to get where he is. Perhaps out in the wild somewhere, he faced a difficult rock or barrier in his life, but rather than swimming away from it, he just crawled up on it and began to develop his personal strength until he eventually matured to become the frog that you see hopping around.

I have a whole new appreciation for tadpoles and frogs. Don’t you?

Moral: Obstacles are there to help you.

So the first time I ever heard of this company was in 2005 while I was at Tribal DDB and to be honest I did not know that this was a mobile ad network, I thought that here is a bunch of people calling themselves MOB and coined the word with advertising and so are known as Admob. LOL but this is the truth however the same evening I remember going to their website to know what they were and realised that they are a mobile ad network.

Like many others I have been vocal about the mobile opportunities that is going to dawn on us sooner than later and Google’s acquisition at a whopping 750M USD (I guess even Yahoo dint pay so much to acquire Right Media) but this transaction has clearly put the space in the high octane fuel and I am sure there is going to be tremendous traction going forward. However, what clearly is visible is that there is no magic mantra on any companies valuation for god’s sake, sometimes it just baffles me on how people take bets for the long term and in this case because of the kind of success Google has had in it’s product endeavors and the brilliant minds at Admob who tirelessly work on innovative ad solutions through applications (thanks to Iphone the game has now changed worldwide) I am sure that it is just a matter of time before a big wave descends on us.

Now I know why in India too everyone is behind the mobile space though there has been no clarity on how the space is going to shape up but I am sure that in the next 3-4quarters, Google will integrate this business in total to ensure that offerings are made available in the emerging markets including India and I wont be surprised if they evangelise the space in total for us to follow the pied piper.

Over all it is going to help the ecosystem and I am sure with the kind of mobile penetration India has to offer, India sure will be a focus market for Google to unleash Admob’s capability in a brilliantly packaged manner that will drive the growth in this space.

The herd mentality that the VCs have I wont be surprised if I see a couple of investment announcements in the mobile start up space in India, its so funny the way things actually take traction but the truth of life is, Google’s acquisition clearly is a way forward for the mobile industry simply because of the lack in direction setting that was so crucial for this space.

Thank you Google for acquiring Admob, the world will now wake up

BTW - NP is launching its mobile offerings this quarter too, watch out for some smart announcements round the corner

My colllegue Sunil’s post below talks about all the impossible thats possible when its Rajni!!!

I am his biggest fan in this whole world (off course self acclaimed) and I hate it when his name doesnt carry the right suffix, its SUPERSTAR Rajnikanth and bow down everyone.

My favourite and his all time best performance is definately in the movies mentioned below:

Thalapathy, Mannan, Annamalai, Uzhaippali, Veera, Baasha, Muthu, Arunachalam and Padayappa.

Baba and Sivaji The Boss is in their league of their own.

Know more about Rajni:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajinikanth

Rajni is the greatest LOL - Serious

Apologies for anyone thinking that this is a serious/work blog. Here’s a forward I can’t resist putting up. This is on our very own Shivajirao Gaikwad or who is popularly known as Rajnikanth.

. Rajnikanth makes onions cry
· Rajnikanth can delete the Recycle Bin
· Ghosts are actually caused by Rajanikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
· Rajnikanth can build a snowman….. out of rain.
· Rajnikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
· Rajnikanth can drown a fish.
· When Rajnikanth enters a room, he doesn’t turn the lights on, he turns the dark off.
· Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajnikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
· Rajnikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
· Bullets dodge Rajnikanth.
· A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Rajnikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
· Rajnikanth’ calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajnikanth.
· Rajnikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
· Once a cobra bit Rajnikanth’ leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
· Rajnikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
· Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajnikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
· There is no such thing as global warming. Rajnikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
· Rajnikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life… unless it gets in his way.
· It takes Rajnikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
· Rajnikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, “Bang!”
· In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajnikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
· Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajnikanth.
· The square root of Rajnikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajnikanth, the result is death.
· When you say “no one’s perfect”, Rajnikanth takes this as a personal insult.
· Outer space exists because its afraid to be on the same planet with Rajnikanth.
· Rajnikanth has counted infinity–twice.
· Rajnikanth doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
· The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikanth kicked one of the corners off.
· Where there is a will, there is a way. Where there is Rajnikanth, there is no other way!
· Rajnikanth can eat just one Lay’s potato chip.
· Rajnikanth can slam a revolving door.
· Rajnikanth can divide by zero
· The grass is always greener on the other side, unless Rajnikanth has been there. In that case the grass is most likely soaked in blood and tears.
· Rajnikanth is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis.
· Rajnikanth ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
· Rajnikanth frequently donates blood to the Red Cross. Just never his own.
· Rajnikanth’s tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
· If paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, and scissors beats paper, what beats all 3 at the same time? Answer: Rajnikanth
· If you want a list of Rajnikanth’s enemies, just check the extinct species list.
· Most people put their pants on one leg at a time, Rajnikanth does both legs at once.
· Rajnikanth does not use spell check. If he happens to misspell a word, Oxford will simply change the actual spelling of it.
· There are two kinds of people in this world - those who are dead & those who have yet to meet Rajnikanth

Baba!!!!

Why do people spend billions of dollars every year on advertising or buying anything available on this earth? The Answer’s very simple: Because they have needs & desires.

However, a need or a desire to own or represent a product should be stronger than a buyer’s natural instinct to hold on to his money. And, of course it’s the sales guy’s job to persuade the buyer to exchange money for the respective product or services. If, I’ve to put it in simple words, the salesperson must make the client recognize their needs & desires.

He should always understand the motive that makes one buy. Without such an understanding, selling becomes simply a guessing game – a hit or miss proposition – and at times a con game. Only when you understand the real motive that makes people buy, can you begin to build on the customer relationship & sell your product in an effective way. It’s very imperative to understand the objective of the buyer, rather than pushing him to buy something which doesn’t even meet his/her requirements. There are lot sales professional’s around us who make the same mistake each time they meet the client to showcase their offerings, merely trying to fit in something in the plan and the intention to squeeze out some monies out of him in desperation spoils the entire concept of selling and end up facing ignorance from the client.

Pushing game always backfires badly on the sales person and company which he represents. The sales representative is the image of the company; it’s the sales guy who makes a lasting impression in the clients mind irrespective of the factors such as company’s background, strength and its management. The buyer may never even meet another sales person from the same company and his perception of you – favorable or unfavorable – will greatly influence his attitude towards the company. There will always be certain questions arising in the buyer’s mind while he’s planning to spend such as – What kind of service will I get? Is the salesperson only interested in my dollars OR he is truly professional?? Will the salesperson help me out during any situation??? We being the sales people will most likely resolve all the answers.

Hence, it’s very significant to understand client psychology and his approach towards your offerings so as to persuade him to buy it, instead of pushing him to get business once and then none. This will not only help in closing the deal but will also create a long lasting impact in the client’s mind and eventually one will earn respect from the buyer as well as internally from his colleagues