Meet Jensport, Jansport’s Indian sister.

shortchanged — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:37:00 +0000

In India we love our brands. We love them so much that we want them to have a family.

This is Espreet, Esprit’s Punjabi aunt.

Or this is Adidash, Adidas’ sprinter brother.

Once upon a time

Jensport and Jansport lived in the US. They were very close to each other and looked so much alike that often people confused one for the other.

When Jansport became really famous and started visiting countries across the world, jensport realized that she could do the same in India by allowing people to mistake her for her sister.

But this was not done for any personal benefit. In fact Jensport came to India much before her sister Jansport and helped build the ground for her sister’s success. Indians soon got to know that someone by the name ‘Jansport’ existed all because of Jensport.

Needless to say, Jensport’s frayed clothes and tattered ends helped people realize that Jansport (the pretty, colourful one) was the true star and they soon began to aspire to meet Jansport.

Jansport achieved celebrity status without doing a thing. Sure sure, Jensport did make a quick buck and earn cheap publicity, but she did it all for Jansport.

May every brand find a sister as true as her.

BREAKING NEWS: digital natives’ super powers discovered!

shortchanged — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:13:00 +0000

It has come to our attention that digital natives possess the super power to automatically block any online banner advertising.

It seems at least 600 marketers have been fired, though reports coming in claim that the actual number is much higher.

Listen up all digital media specialists, marketers, offline-but-wanting-to-go-online-planners.

Sonal Jhuj reports: “While marketers are busy buying millions worth of banner space over the internet, news has just come in that all digital natives in fact have the capacity to ignore it.

Surprisingly they do not ignore online advertising consciously. It seems that this is an ability that functions without the individual even being aware of it.

This is a worrying sign for marketers.

i-spent-4million-on-banner-space-marketer says “How can they not see the banner! It’s ridiculous”

digital native, Ajinkya looks puzzled, “banner? Hmm?”

Keep watching, we’ll be back after a short break. Luckily for us, there exists no super power for you to ignore the TVC.

Muahaha

… Damn they found the remote!”

3-point digital checklist

shortchanged — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:12:00 +0000

While I cannot claim to be a digital expert, I still do have a personal checklist for digital work. And it goes something like this…

1. Is there a brand connect?

Putting up a microsite with skimpily clad women might be just the thing for Axe, but if you’re going to chipkao (lazily replicate) your idea on another unsuspecting brand, it can be quite injurious to the brand’s health.

*Off-set the evil*

Just today a colleague introduced me to http://offsettheevil.com/ .

They made a violent evil game (condemned 2) and to showcase the experience of the game, they decided that to off-set the evil of the game one should visit http://offsettheevil.com/ . The site is cute, beautiful and happy. The game is now etched in my memory as bloody and violent. I suppose that is what they were hoping for.

2. Is there any brand ‘experience’?

Recent work done by Tribal for MTV Roadies is one of the best online brand experiences in recent times.

*MTV Roadies Auditions*

MTV’s reality show Roadies has one of the meanest auditions ever. And they took the mean judges online to recreate the show’s experience. Quite an interesting thing. Try taking an online audition here.

3. Are you involving me for WOM?

I’m a little concerned about the viral. No, I don’t imagine it’ll die or anything. Just that we’re pretty much taking the viral for an online TVC, which it is not.

Sure, you show me some weird flash video and promote your chips, but I see no reason why I would want to send it across to all the unsuspecting contacts in my address list.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on getting blocked by everyone I know!

*Elf yourself* by OfficeMax

This is best involving and therefore WOM-able piece of work I’ve seen recently. Within minutes my entire gtalk list was flashing their own elfyourself videos.

All you need to do is upload a picture, and watch your eflved self make some real cool moves.

Mine was particularly cute *blush*. But I didn’t save it anywhere. Watch this one instead.

It did manage a small peak in an otherwise declining graph for Office Max.

my avatar my life

shortchanged — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:52:00 +0000

I’m not big on avatars. I mean, I have my fun dressing up an avatar but I lose interest in it soon enough. (Though I must admit, the southpark avatars did catch my fancy.)

But obviously I am not a majority, since there seem to be quite a few people spending amazing amounts of time and money .. and *money*

NHN Hangame , a Japanese game portal, recorded revenue of US $36.8 million from avatar and related sales.

Avatars are pretty big in schools even in my hometown of Chandigarh. My kid cousins routinely change and re-do their avatars (though quite a few are too sexy for the 13 yr olds to sport).

why the avatar is big

The avatar isn’t just a doll you dress up. Unlike a Barbie, where we’re dressing up another ‘person’, we think of the avatar as ‘ourselves’ (even if it doesn’t sport the paunch we do).

The avatar therefore ends the classic struggle between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’.

In reality, we have a self (towards which we may feel love, hatred etc) and the ‘other’ who is everything the self is not (which again we may like or dislike). The differentiation between the self and the other is essential for one’s understanding of oneself.

The avatar puts those two together, allowing us to create that which is us and at the same time is the other. Much like an actor. Only this time, the virtual is almost real (second life marriage).

stages of your avatar-ed self

The ‘connect’ stage is really the same as ‘discovering online chatting for the first time. There is a tendency to be all that you aren’t. Saying things you otherwise wouldn’t. Experiencing freedom from your physical self.

The ‘merge’ stage makes for a curious study. Here the virtual avatar begins to reflect the real self as one slowly becomes comfortable with oneself and opens up to the virtual world.

It is perhaps this mix of the ‘self and the ‘other’ in one, which merges the boundaries between the real and virtual

William Gibson said:

“One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real. In the future, that will become literally impossible. The distinction between cyberspace and that which isn’t cyberspace is going to be unimaginable”

the microsite invasion

shortchanged — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:06:00 +0000

Want to do a promo?
Want to engage the customer?
Simply don’t know what to do online?

Do a microsite. D-uh!

With millions of microsites floating around it’s obviously an idea that client’s are willingly accepting.

While a microsite’s great for..
1. creating some short term buzz
2. providing some superficial brand experience
3. encouraging a reluctant client to step into the digital space
4. an emergency pitch

One should really watch out for..
1. Non-WOM-ability (non-viralability)
2. Flash games and things in which we’ve forced the brand
3. Requirement for major offline support

I’m not saying I hate microsites. But is that all digital’s good for? Virals and microsites?

While they surely gets the numbers and are perfect for short term brand promos and experiences, one can’t help feel that it’s a short cut solution that’s so easy that we don’t bother taking the bigger leap.

Why the viral will not die

shortchanged — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:41:00 +0000

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and many marketers are sick of hearing the ‘let’s do a viral’ idea. Most are convinced that since everyone’s doing it, they shouldn’t; or worse, everyone’s doing one, so let’s! But the truth is, a viral is not something that has been done to death. And, a viral is hardly something you can ‘do’.

What is a viral

Viral: A self-propagating practice. It could be a video, image, text… any message.

And in that ‘self-propagation’ lies the excitement and the misery of a marketer. While a true online viral means limited marketing spends, it also means that netizens decide its worth and love or trash it at will.

No, a 2 minute video that a marketer believes is funny and releases to a bunch of netizens, is not a viral. It is a ‘viral-to-be’ and the power to make it viral rests with the viewer.

Not again!

While most marketers are yet to warm up to the idea of a viral, ‘do a viral’ is becoming quite a boring brief that keeps coming one’s way. Simply because not every brand can and should be viralled.

Why the viral will not die

Virals are fun

They entertain. And considering how everyone around me is ‘so bored’ all the time, I guess virals help.

They make people feel important

People love to be the ones who know things and can tell others about them (“Oh! You didn’t know that! Let me tell you.”)

They make people feel like they had something to do with it

This is perhaps the best part of a viral. In the act of forwarding a viral leads the forwarder to believe that he/she had something to do with it. Forwarders almost believe that they play a part in the viral (and they do!) and it allows for the coolness or funniness of the viral to rub off on them.

‘Popular by association’ is the name of the game.

Even the lazy ones can share

It takes just a click. Serves the lazy ones well.

What will die

1. Patience with poor virals

Show me one more annoying viral masquerading as an attempt at ‘engagement’ and I vow to not use your brand!

2. Marketers patience with the digital medium

They’ve only just warmed up to our medium and there we go giving them virals that never viral. Ladies and gentlemen say goodbye to your digital budgets.

The viral will not die (no matter how much we wish the ‘do a viral’ brief would).

But really, a viral needs to viral.

unbelievable – lingo kid

shortchanged — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:09:00 +0000

This is by far the most amazing video I have ever seen.

I have often been accosted by young children selling flowers at road crossing who mouth a ‘good evening, buy one flower for 10 Rs’. But I’ve never seen anything like this>>>

God bless him!

He’s popular as lingo kid on youtube by the way.

Cuddle Party: everyone’s invited

shortchanged — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:04:00 +0000

While we’re busy turning all our phones, watches, TVs to touch screens, some people have decided that enough is enough. They would just like simple human touch please!

While people are busy debating if these non-sexual stranger-hugging-n-cuddling parties are creepy or cool, those attending are fulfilling their need for human touch.

I suppose we’ve shut ourselves out from the world so much, that we yearn to find comfort in anyone’s arms, even it means attending a weird stranger-hugging party…

For those interested, visit www.cuddlingparty.com.