Thank you, Sir.

The Advertising Club presented The Mind Mining workshop with Madhukar Sabnavis, in association with The Telegraph at St Xavier’s College.
It was all about consumer insights and was a complete knowledge enhancement session.

Looking forward to such mind enriching seminars.

Source: http://www.adclubcal.com

'Unsocial'?

Scrambled eggs for breakfast, bad day at work, snide comments, indirect status messages, wishing even a good morning and wat's up is what one would usually see on the popular social networking sites. As everything, social media too has its pros and cons. The pros no doubt go a long way in being the individual we ought to be today. What worries me more is the cons. Are we losing touch with the real world? Are we drawing ourselves into a shell when it comes to being 'social' since we have created a comfort zone within 4 walls of our rooms in front of the screen? For some, may be yes. We find it easy to catch up, wish and communicate with each other through these sites. But is the personal touch missing in that case? Who talks about personal touch when the wife just finds enough time to catch a glimpse of her husband while she leaves for the day or a father gets to see his child only on a weekend? Social media is an add-on to what we have around us, it is not about putting what we have behind. My cousin is already an introvert who prefers keeping in touch through these sites. What should not be forgotten is to keep in touch with the real world within the possible time an individual can afford to spare.

Have we lost touch with our surroundings so much that we have to share our mental state with all those on our so called friend list? May be we are yet to utilize this medium to our advantage. We need to strike a balance between getting personal and extracting the best this medium is here to offer.

Attachments...

No this attachments is not about the ones we thinking of all the while at work when mailing. This one's neither the one with loved ones. This one's with inanimate things. Things that don't really speak (though I believe they do in their own ways). For me I have always been very attached to things around me.

I remember when our old and haggard off white ambassador car at my father's place was bidding us adieu and a new maruti 800 was going to replace it, I was not excited one bit at that point.

For me it was the innumerable memories I had with my basanti (my boy friend then and my hubby now used to call it basanti). That was our first car, hence overwhelming emotions attached to it.

Next when our Godrej refrigerator was reduced to a mere showpiece in the house, my parents decided to replace it too. The new kelvinator was never a source of happiness for me.

With Maruti 800 being replaced with the silver Alto and the Kelvinator getting replaced with LG and the black and white TV replacing with the LG; each time was equally emotional for me.

It is that strange kinda of attachment I feel with these inanimate things. As if they are saying that just because I can't speak, you think I don't feel a thing or what. Wasn't I part of you always, good or bad, sickness or health? The feeling and the thought is wierd but that's how I have always felt.

Having stayed outside my native place for quite sometime we also kept shifting houses. That too was equally sad for me. And now after marriage too we keep changing houses, staying away from our place. Though I have somewhat learnt to move on from these emotions with advancing age but the feeling is very much deep rooted within.

So much so last year we started celebrating Ganpati at home (we moved to maharashtra last year) and like everyone we too got and purchased our favourite Ganpati. After keeping him for 10 days the 11th day was when he had to say goodbye. Buy we decided to keep him with us forever.

Now this year too we celebrated Ganpati with our same idol we could not immerse because we loved him so much.

A Sad Realization

Just happened to see one of my agency's work on one of the advertising blogs. First reaction was a wow but as I read through it I realized that although if not more, I too worked hard on the account. Getting the account and coming up with the positioning as well.

But it's sad that the account person, the planner is not mentioned. Just the way it feels good to see the work, it feels even better to see your efforts acknowledged.

Wonder how fair it is!

Slaves of habits

Always thought it would be so nice when there would be nothing to do at all. Away from the daily chores - alarm rings, checking the time to clarify with one half opened eye literally watering due to an all time never complete sleep, somehow making tea, warming milk for hubby, making breakfast, packing lunch, catching up with ma and then finally dragging myself to get ready for office.

The same old tantrums of the auto rickshaw guys that they don't want to take me because it's a short distance and not good money for them. The same old way of me with a pitiful face requesting with eyes gleaming with hope for a yes as if a big achievement, all of this before my day at work starts and the many more events of the day - suddenly I realize that no, they were not so horrible, they were a part of me, a part of my identity, that is who i am... And yes i seem to be missing it now that I am on a month rest at home.

Strange as it may sound but doing all those small things and following the routine did give me peace of mind. I had a purpose and a reason to go through the day.

But since I got this phase in life, I am re-looking at me feeling like a slave of my habits and trying to do things my slavery would not have allowed...

Never too late...

It's been after a very long time that I finally logged in to my blog and decided like always to make attempts to be regular with it.

It's one platform where you do not really have to construct your thoughts in a perfect fashion before sharing. So thought of making the most of it.

Won't really stick to any one topic henceforth.

To start with, working on saturday in an ad agency is not that bad. The atmosphere is not that of a hurry curry as on usual days. The music is on througout and you have the luxury to work at ease.

As for me, I started my day at work with a real estate site visit. Wasn't bad at all. Attention span was intact since the open air made me feel quite calm and at peace with myself. (unlike when confined in an A.C. enclosed four walls where I literally go squint trying to look into the eyes of the person talking or making the presentation).

Planning to take the rest of the day slow and get going with jobs I am trying to park for sometime now. Intend to do some thinking now!

Wow Women

Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and also a Women’s Day! We often feel all this is just a reflection of the western culture. Ways and means for the greetings cards and the gift shops to earn bucks. We never had these days before. But the good side of it, we women at least feel recognized on one of the 365 days. I really am proud being a woman. Not being feminist, but to come to think of it, I now am able to look deeper into the beautiful intricacies of being a woman.

It’s only a woman who can happily give up her career because of her new life or ‘coz of a new member coming into the life; leave her parents and friends back and accept the family and friends of her husband as hers to a large extent. It doesn’t’ go onto say that she severs all her ties with her loved ones, but she accommodates a whole lot of new individuals into her close knit circle. As though suddenly she needs to create some more space in her own small world, where till date she carefully picked up the ones she wanted to be a part of it, but not so anymore. She quickly manages to place the individuals in her world keeping the order of her world intact.

It’s amazing even to think of it as to how we women can do all of it happily, without a frown. At least now we are blessed with more understanding and loving husbands who treat you as an equal but think of the times when our grandmothers would make such sacrifices without realizing or being acknowledged for their selfless contribution.

I just happened to come across an article today on organizations introducing flexi working hours for women so that they can strike a balance back home and at the workplace. I really hope more and more organizations introduce such policies. We can’t deny that there are some incredible women professionals who are assets to the organizations. Therefore in the interest of the organization and the nation as a whole these policies should be actively implemented across industries.

We are blessed; let us create opportunities that would spread success, happiness and fulfillment!

Glorified Peons??!! The challenge is tough…

Every account manager has come across this phrase at some point or the other. There are times it feels really thankless but you got to work towards making the difference I believe, and that’s what differentiates you and prevents you from being called a glorified peon.

Unlike a person in the creative department whose nature of work naturally gives his image an edge, the profile of account managers especially at junior levels is such that people automatically tend to refer to you as peons, unless you add that big extra bit to your work.
So, it’s the profile not me…(That makes me feel better).

I hate it most when people refer to Account Management as Servicing. It makes me feel like an A.C. servicing guy who visits us to find out if all’s working fine.

Question is how do you add that extra bit to all accounts? Not all clients are interested in proactive presentations which have often been referred to as gyan. End of the day a client is happy with more and more and more options of layouts. There are times they don’t even want the explanation with the creatives we present. Although they have a strong logic there, that they don’t present explanations and rationales to our consumers when they view an ad.

So what more? When I come across ads or news articles of competition then at best I scan them and pass it on to my senior. I am often confused does the client appreciate receiving a scanned copy of what competition is up to. Wouldn’t he think I know my category the best and I do keep a track of what’s happening… Confusion again!

I always wonder why aren’t there awards for the best account manager of the year, award for the most patient account manager of the year, award for the most organized account manager of the year and the like…Or do they exist?

That one boat ride...

Growing up outside Kolkata, I have never really been exposed to the Bengali culture completely. Off late, strangely I find myself quite fascinated with folk songs, baul and the like. I pine for a boat ride at dawn.

A time when most of us are fast asleep. The shutters are down. All you hear are the birds and may be the cycle bell of a newspaper or a milk vendor. It’s a lovely sight when you get to see the day break. That’s when I wish for a boat ride.

The boat rider will be gentle while asking me to make myself comfortable and address me as didimuni. (Unlike the grumpy cab or auto drivers, I start my day with). He will ask me, didmuni theek kore dhorey boshechen toh? (Didimuni, hope you are holding on). From a distant I wish to hear a placid and a faint baul song. (Quite like an old Bengali film).

The Baul song will talk about how we all think of the uncertainties in our life, not get answers to the same and move on expecting the desirable. It will talk about the positive energy and how there are good things, good people, good deeds still happening in this big bad world. (don't know if there's a song like this. If I were a lyricist, would write a song like this).

The boat will sail closer to the hanging branches of trees full of chirping birds on them. I wish to listen to it while I am sailing through. It will be almost like sailing though the ups and downs of my life in that one boat ride.

Stayin' Alive

I believe there are 2 kinds of bloggers -
The habitual ones, the other (very few I suppose) are those who blog only when there’s something that has probably made some difference to their daily life, needless to say I belong to the latter.

Life has got so numb that most of the things around us tend to go unnoticed. But guess to keep our souls alive, we really need to condition ourselves in a way where our surroundings touch us in some way. Else the numbness is fast spreading and each of us will end up cocooned in our own mind space.

It feels nice to observe things happening around, the smaller bits building our daily lives. It’s a breath of fresh air in our overcrowded clustered minds.

The Shinchan in her

Chit chats in office are my favourite. It gives me the zeal to get back to my workstation.

The other day a friend of mine came to me and we actually started with discussing one of our brands. A dummy was kept aside that reminded her of how as a kid in school she was taught to make a drum (dhaak).

Then she went onto telling me a series of incidents from her childhood. Frankly I found them hilarious. Her family members would literally tear their hair when my friend would go around the house beating the drum she made herself. (…it’s like literally beating her own drum!)

She observed exactly how her grandfather would lie on the bed for a nap in the afternoon. She would go and stick a chewing gum exactly at that position. When her grandfather would get up in the evening he actually would get up with the entire bed cover stuck onto him.

Sitting next to him watching TV she would suddenly pour chilled water on her grandfather’s lap from a bottle she had been holding on for some time.

The most hilarious thing I found was when she said as a kid she was quite short and she found the cows in her backyard quite scary when she stood in front of them. Once when she was up to her usual mischief her mother picked her up and put her in the tub from which a cow eats. Finding a kid in the tub instead of his usual food the cow found it quite strange which got it closer to her. She said it was a horrifying experience for her to see the cow’s head bending towards her with its jaws moving up and down.

Listening to her I now miss being a naughty kid. It’s fun being mischievous I am sure. it's fun being a Shinchan at heart!

Always on a lookout

Off late I was getting a headache every evening. After procrastinating for long I finally decided to visit the doc. With every lens the doc slipped into the frame for checking I confused him more and more with what my actual reading was.
I got so fed up with it that I started mugging up the letters they would ask me to look from at a distance and read. The doc would call his assistant and shout at her as to how every time she is giving a different reading to the doc. So I finally decided to cooperate and the doc told me I have cylindrical power.
I got my glasses in less than a week. But hated wearing them and had already decided to take contact lens. The doc said I would have to go for rigid and not soft lens due to the kind of power I have.
He said I have to come for regular sittings for trials with the lens. There I met this lady who taught me the tricks of the trade.
We got talking every evening. I had to leave office early every day. During the trials my phone would surely ring at least once. One day she asked me so where do you work?
The moment I said for an ad agency she enquired if there’s a vacancy for her. I was quite surprised thinking why would an eye specialist want to shift to an ad agency? Her expressions said it all.
I wondered the frustration was so high that an eye specialist was ready to move onto an ad agency or is it the love for the industry?

My empty letter box

Running down the staircase to check if Grandparents sent a letter or if a friend has sent few words for me is something I miss so much. Agreed that the internet is faster, better & makes more sense. But somewhere deep down I miss receiving those handwritten letters from my close ones.

A mail in my inbox, a sms or a scrap somehow still doesn't touch me the way a handwritten letter did. I miss the personal touch in them. You almost feel the person's presence while reading through the lines.

Modern things have the good & bad both. Guess getting nostalgic about receiving letters is not something we even have the time to sit back & think 'coz the positives of the internet & the telecom is so high that probably this is too small a think to even make us think about.

But I still miss the inland letters & the postcards...

The poet comes alive...

Hai talaash mujhe uss ek sunahre pal ki,
Jise ho mujhme yakeen ki hai mujhme bhi woh baat
Ki sirf katein hee nhi par phul bhi ban sakte hain humsafar mere
Hai talaash mujhe uss ek sunahre pal ki…

Too much... everywhere!!!

Be it a shopping mall, a metro station, a food court everywhere there is an intrusion to your mental space. It’s tougher to get rid of mental intrusion than the physical one.

The other day I was quite shocked to hear the same kind of ‘noise’, (yes I would rather call it noise than music) in a reputed bookstore. This place, even a couple of years back was a place where even if your decibels were a little higher than the normal would attract unpleasant looks.

For many of us, shopping is a therapy but with so much intrusion it no longer remains a therapy but it ends up adding to the stress.

A little away from what I was talking about is the sales people, one more kind of intrusion, with due respect.

You don’t even stand for a while at a section & there they come with all the mugged up details of the ranges on offer. I won’t deny the information is useful, when asked for, not otherwise.

I have often noticed shoppers in malls who tend to get intimidated when approached by sales people. They actually move away from the section. There are some who get more than irritated.

The other issue is language. Language is supposed to remove barriers but in most cases it is actually creating one. Who says if you are in Calcutta & walking in to a Pantaloons or a South City, you have to communicate with the employees in these stores in English? They are your fellow Kolkatans & would definitely follow the language you communicate in.

Shopping is supposed to be entertaining & for some a necessity. So why make it a task? Use language to communicate, use language where necessary, and use language to bridge gaps not to create gaps…

Not so addy

My alltime favourite Bollywood dialogues -

Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hoten hain...
Kanoon jasbaton pe nhi, sabooton pe chalta hai...
Yeh din dekhne ke liye tumhe paal pos kar bara kiya tha...
Kalmuhee, karamjai ghar ka sara kam para hua hai aur tu baith baith kar muft ki roteeyan tor rahi hai...
Yeh sunne ke pehle mere kaan kyon nhi phat gaye, yeh dharti mujhe kyon nhi nigal lee, yeh aasmaa
Beta tu mere burhape ka laathi hai
Gin gin ke, chun chun ke mein badla loongi
Mera bhi din ayega ekdin shyam laal

Up above the world so high...

LG captured this long time back when they spoke about their picture clarity. A LG viewing kid could see the clouds forming an elephant whilst other kids couldn't.
It's so true. I am sure each one of us had this experience at some point. There's a similar thing that I do a lot. That's when you see water marks on the walls. Does that sound familiar?

Top 5 in the Print world

PRINT

Brand: The Leela Galleria
Agency: Bates 141
Category: Services

Brand: Silver Springs
Agency: Deepak Advertising Agency
Category: Apparel | Fashion and Lifestyle

Brand: The Economic Times Awards
Agency: Rediffusion Y&R
Category: Media and Entertainment

Brand: Lee
Agency: Alok Nanda and Company
Category: Apparel | Fashion and Lifestyle

Brand: LG Home Theatre System
Category: Consumer Durables

Source: Agency FAQ

Check out the Top 5 ads in TV

TV

Brand: Sony Bravia
Agency: Bates 141
Category: Consumer DurablesBrand: ING

Brand: ING
Agency: McCann Erickson
Category: Banking | Financial Services | Insurance

Brand: Asian Paints Royale Play
Agency: Contract
Category: Household Products

Brand: Kamasutra Condoms
Agency: O&M
Category: Health | Pharamaceutical Products

Brand: V.I.P. Nuovo
Agency: Lowe Lintas
Category: Household Products

Find out if your Brand is aging?

The 5-point checklist

1. Your visual identity is out-of-date
Every successful brand keeps its visual identity fresh, sometimes with changes that are so subtle they can hardly be noticed. Make sure that the visual identity of your brand looks current and contemporary.

2. Your product is not keeping pace
Is your product keeping pace with the market? Technology, design, packaging, even terms and conditions - they all play a role. Are you innovating in all these areas?

3. Your customer base is aging
Sometimes customers grow old with a brand. This is a good thing, but you must also continue to attract new customers to the brand. Do you understand the dynamics of your customer base? What secrets lie under your sales figures?

4. Your positioning is losing relevance
Where are you in the mind of the consumer, and how does that align with market trends? Is your positioning ahead of the market, gaining relevance as the marketplace moves towards it? Or are you behind the market, losing relevance as your market powers ahead of you?

5. Your touch points are not aligned with the market
Still supporting a costly retail network when you could be online? Still advertising in print and TV when you should be using digital channels? Still placing your product in movies, when your target market is spending more time gaming? You need to constantly align your touchpoints with the changing marketplace. Otherwise your brand won't be reaching your market, it will be somewhere else, and it will fade and die.

Source: Agency FAQ