Monthly Archives

September 2008

http://helpbihar.in: Interesting Example of Viral Marketing

September 20, 2008

One of my friends forwarded me the link http://helpbihar.in which is a campaign for helping Bihar Flood Victims. Its an initiative started by www.planindia.org and the conceptualization and design is done by Quasar – an interactive online agency. This site asks you to fill answer for some simple questions and for each correct answer sponsors would donate Torches, Candles, Milk powder, Match Boxes, Chlorine Tablets, Nylon Ropes, Tarpaulin Sheets and Biscuits to Bihar Flood Victims. Sponsors name and logo is mentioned in the right hand side of each question and some of the sponsors observed by me were Godrej, Chevrolet and Cadence. For each correct answer you get to know what you have donated to help the Bihar Flood Victims. The more people answer the questions, the more donations go to flood victims.

Initially I had some doubt on the authenticity of this campaign and hence I directly asked it from one of my business associates who works for Quasar and he confirmed that this is very much a real campaign and the donations are being given by the sponsors to Bihar Flood Victims. The site has this message displayed on top – “The more people play this game, the more help goes to flood victims. So click here to invite your friends. My first reaction as a user after submitting the answers was to send this to all my friends and acquaintances. Me and many of my friends have donated money and clothes to victims as per our means and resources but when I sent this link to them not only did they answer the questions themselves but most of them have forwarded this link to all in their contact list. When I put this link in my status message in all chat engines, almost 50% of my contacts in my list pinged me and asked, “what is this link all about”. A very very effective viral marketing example I must say! This definitely has the power to encourage individuals to pass on this message to others and hence has the potential for exponential growth and influence. And the best part is that it immediately connects to you and sending it to others is very spontaneous and intuitive. I liked this concept a lot and I think Quasar has done a wonderful job as far as conceptualization is concerned. Its really good to see such innovative viral campaigns not only for product promotions but for serious social causes like helping flood victims etc.

BigB’s blog statistics – Bigadda or BigBadda?

September 17, 2008

I had written earlier about BigB blogging on www.bigadda.com and initially I had read some of his posts as well but then in due course of time I stopped visiting his blog. But today I dropped into his blog again mainly because of some noise in media about his recent posts and oh the look and feel has changed completely from what it used to be during its initial days but nevertheless this new look is quite impressive! And the first quote by Harivansh Rai Bachchan is as always soooo good! But what caught my attention was the fact the current post is of day 151 and almost everyday there is atleast one post posted on that blog. Wow, this is really regular and good! As I said in my earlier post if it is BigB genuinely writing these posts then it is praiseworthy. Even if he is narrating and some content writer from BigAdda is writing it on his behalf then too I think its commendable, though because of so much of personal touch I am forced to think that its BigB who is writing all these posts. What caught my next attention was the post of day 140 which mentions the traffic of his blog since April’08, here is a snapshot of some of the important figures available on his blog:

  • Unique visitors since April08 – 1,05,0,520
  • Unique visitor for Sept 08 – 37,509
  • Average number of visits per day – 16,000 +
  • Total number of visits since April08 – 2,37,0,000
  • Total page views since April – 1,14,00,000
  • Average page views per day – 100,000

For once I think Bigadda has not hyped up this figure much. Considering the number of comments which any post is receiving on this blog (on an average each post receives somewhere between 700-1000 comments), I am sure 16000+ daily visitors is sort of a real figure. And 11.4 million pageviews is a very striking figure considering its hardly a six month old blog. Not many websites also achieve this kind of figures in such a short span. Good for Bigadda, atleast they have one differentiator now which can bring more traffic to their website. Otherwise there was hardly anything on their website (apart from those “lets catch up” ads on which they wasted few crores to get some one time visitors, LOL 🙂) which can make anyone visit their site again. With a 16,000+ daily visitor count, I am sure BigB’s blog is contributing to a major % of their daily traffic. Infact recently bigadda has changed their UI, considering the % contribution and the fact that this is Bigadda’s only strong point, I am wondering if apart from UI, Bigadda should have gone for a re-branding exercise as well and change it to BigBadda 🙂

Overall very remarkable statistics considering its just a blog, but afterall its BigB’s blog!

BigB’s blog statistics – Bigadda or BigBadda?

September 17, 2008

I had written earlier about BigB blogging on www.bigadda.com and initially I had read some of his posts as well but then in due course of time I stopped visiting his blog. But today I dropped into his blog again mainly because of some noise in media about his recent posts and oh the look and feel has changed completely from what it used to be during its initial days but nevertheless this new look is quite impressive! And the first quote by Harivansh Rai Bachchan is as always soooo good! But what caught my attention was the fact the current post is of day 151 and almost everyday there is atleast one post posted on that blog. Wow, this is really regular and good! As I said in my earlier post if it is BigB genuinely writing these posts then it is praiseworthy. Even if he is narrating and some content writer from BigAdda is writing it on his behalf then too I think its commendable, though because of so much of personal touch I am forced to think that its BigB who is writing all these posts. What caught my next attention was the post of day 140 which mentions the traffic of his blog since April’08, here is a snapshot of some of the important figures available on his blog:

  • Unique visitors since April08 – 1,05,0,520
  • Unique visitor for Sept 08 – 37,509
  • Average number of visits per day – 16,000 +
  • Total number of visits since April08 – 2,37,0,000
  • Total page views since April – 1,14,00,000
  • Average page views per day – 100,000

For once I think Bigadda has not hyped up this figure much. Considering the number of comments which any post is receiving on this blog (on an average each post receives somewhere between 700-1000 comments), I am sure 16000+ daily visitors is sort of a real figure. And 11.4 million pageviews is a very striking figure considering its hardly a six month old blog. Not many websites also achieve this kind of figures in such a short span. Good for Bigadda, atleast they have one differentiator now which can bring more traffic to their website. Otherwise there was hardly anything on their website (apart from those “lets catch up” ads on which they wasted few crores to get some one time visitors, LOL :)) which can make anyone visit their site again. With a 16,000+ daily visitor count, I am sure BigB’s blog is contributing to a major % of their daily traffic. Infact recently bigadda has changed their UI, considering the % contribution and the fact that this is Bigadda’s only strong point, I am wondering if apart from UI, Bigadda should be have gone for a re-branding exercise as well and changed it to BigBadda 🙂
Overall very remarkable statistics considering its just a blog, but afterall its BigB’s blog.

Aamir in Tata Sky Ad

September 16, 2008

I had written earlier in July about Jhingala’s counter strategy and now that Aamir’s ad is out, I have a mixed reaction. Not that I didn’t like the same but at the same time it’s not something which made me say wow! The ad as we have seen features Aamir Khan in a half man half woman (ardhnarishwar) role. Here is a short description of the ad & the video from youtube:

Aamir plays the role of a Punjabi bride AND groom who are fighting over which satellite connection to have? Bride says if he will not get the SKY connection for her, she will go back to her house in London. They fight over TATA or SKY and then dramatically groom says, its India where Tata and Sky are already married to each other and hence by having TATA SKY the consumer not only gets the world class technology from SKY but also reliability and best service from TATA.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUv9HlMpkI]

Well, as a consumer I think it has definitely caught my attention but I think it has its plus and minuses.

  • Message: I think the message is clear and emphasizes the strength of brand very clearly. I’m sure not many people were aware that TATA SKY is a 80:20 joint venture between Tata Sons and BSkyB, a Rupert Murdoch company and this ad very subtly conveys this message thereby accentuating the tech supremacy of the product.

  • Creative Idea: Hmmm, for this I do have a mixed reaction…Am wondering if there could have been any better creative idea for this campaign. Well, starting was sort of ok but I didn’t like the cheesy bollywoodish style ending of the same and the ending line which sounded something like “jo family dekhe Tata Sky saath who rahe hamesha saath saath”! Ummm knowing the excellent creative ideas which Rediffusion DY&R comes up with, I think it could have been bettered up.

  • Execution elements: I think this was brilliant! Whatever the creative idea was Aamir has lived upto it beautifully. Once again you can’t resist from praising Aamir’s acting and performance in this half man half woman role. BTW I think he is looking quite cute as Punjabi bride, LOL :). The ad definitely has got a recall value because of its execution and presentation style.

The ad is making noise all across, now its time to wait and watch if this brand campaign boosts up the figures of Tata Sky as against DishTV whose last campaign (SRK announcing Set Top Box Free!) was pure n pure sales promo campaign.

Aamir in Tata Sky Ad

September 16, 2008

I had written earlier in July about Jhingala’s counter strategy and now that Aamir’s ad is out, I have a mixed reaction. Not that I didn’t like the same but at the same time it’s not something which made me say wow! The ad as we have seen features Aamir Khan in a half man half woman (ardhnarishwar) role. Here is a short description of the ad & the video from youtube:
Aamir plays the role of a Punjabi bride AND groom who are fighting over which satellite connection to have? Bride says if he will not get the SKY connection for her, she will go back to her house in London. They fight over TATA or SKY and then dramatically groom says, its India where Tata and Sky are already married to each other and hence by having TATA SKY the consumer not only gets the world class technology from SKY but also reliability and best service from TATA.

Well, as a consumer I think it has definitely caught my attention but I think it has its plus and minuses.

Message: I think the message is clear and emphasizes the strength of brand very clearly. I’m sure not many people were aware that TATA SKY is a 80:20 joint venture between Tata Sons and BSkyB, a Rupert Murdoch company and this ad very subtly conveys this message thereby accentuating the tech supremacy of the product.

Creative Idea: Hmmm, for this I do have a mixed reaction…Am wondering if there could have been any better creative idea for this campaign. Well, starting was sort of ok but I didn’t like the cheesy bollywoodish style ending of the same and the ending line which sounded something like “jo family dekhe Tata Sky saath who rahe hamesha saath saath”! Ummm knowing the excellent creative ideas which Rediffusion DY&R comes up with, I think it could have been bettered up.

Execution elements: I think this was brilliant! Whatever the creative idea was Aamir has lived upto it beautifully. Once again you can’t resist from praising Aamir’s acting and performance in this half man half woman role. BTW I think he is looking quite cute as Punjabi bride, LOL :D. The ad definitely has got a recall value because of its execution and presentation style.

The ad is making noise all across, now its time to wait and watch if this brand campaign boosts up the figures of Tata Sky as against DishTV whose last campaign (SRK announcing Set Top Box Free!) was pure n pure sales promo campaign.

Again – Now its Delhi serial blasts!

September 13, 2008

Being a Saturday today, I was just sitting lazily with my evening cup of tea and planning to watch this new DVD which I got yesterday. Suddenly my phone rang and it was my mom on other side speaking in an absolutely panicked voice, “beta did you see news, serial blasts in Delhi and that too one in Barakhamba road and I can’t get through Kishu’s phone, have you checked if Kishu and Pintoo are fine?” The only reaction I could give that moment was “Oh again, let me switch the television right-away”. And worried as I switched on television I got further psyched to see one of the venues being shown on the television which was just opposite my brother’s (Kishu) office and even my brother in law’s (Pintoo) office was also hardly few hundred meters away from that building. I started frantically dialing their numbers but as expected they had jammed the phone lines! Finally got through Pintoo’s number after almost 30 mins who informed that both of them are safe though one of them was just few meters away from the venue where one of the blasts took place! I immediately informed my mom and in-laws and thanked god for keeping them safe. But then when they were showing the Barakhamba Road venue, suddenly shivers ran down through my spine after seeing the images of injured and dead bodies being carried by Police, one single thought flashed across my mind – Oh god, it could have been Kishu or Pintoo!

5 blasts have rocked the capital today and as usual these bombs were planted in very prime areas like Connaught Place, Barakhambha Road, Karolbagh, GK. Not only this, more bombs have been defused at some other key places like Regal Cinema and India Gate. Seeing these dead bodies and bloodbath once again in India, I feel so disturbed and terrified like any other normal citizen. I am feeling helpless and insecured and like any other Indian citizen, even I am thinking the same, “Am I safe and when will this all end?” “Varanasi, Lucknow, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, next what?”

Since I was not able to contact my brother and brother in law over phone, I had opened my laptop to see if they are online so that I can get to know of their well-being but as I am watching the news channel I couldn’t resist myself from expressing my feelings and distress. While I am writing NDTV is switched on in front of me where Barkha Dutt is doing a live coverage and the latest count as of now is 20 dead and 92 injured! So, it has become 92 from 6 and 20 from 0 which they said at 7 pm. Hope this count ends here only and hope our leaders do anything else apart from CONDEMNIG THE BLAST! As I am surfing timeofindia.com, I get this picture of Barakhamba Road, I can even see the building of my brother’s office and the same thought again flashes across my mind – Oh god, what if instead of these two poor fellows it would have been Kishu or Pintoo! Thank god for keeping them safe and god please give courage and will-power to these two guys to cope up with such disaster!

Rock On ROCKS!!

September 12, 2008
I had seen this movie first weekend itself but somehow never got the time to post this one, was caught up in too many things L…Well, if I have to summarize this movie in one word, I will just say it ROCKS! Yeah, Rock On truly rocks and after a long long time I think such a movie has come in Bollywood which I feel like watching many times, otherwise there are very few movies which I feel like watching twice.

I know most of you would have seen this movie by now but still I would not like to divulge the story for the benefit of those who are going to watch it soon and trust me its one movie which you should NOT miss out at any cost! The name “ROCK ON” surely gives the impression that it might be one of those yippee kind of movie meant only for teenagers but this is a movie with which anyone can relate to, be it of any age group or any sex J. It’s not only about Rock or Music rather it is about living your dreams. It’s a story of four friends (Farhaan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny and Purab Kohli) who are very passionate about music but how their life transforms and how they have to compromise with their dreams to adjust in the practical life and how their same passion unites them again at a later stage in their life. This movie reminds you of your good old bindaas student days where every one has got big dreams and passions and how with time and reality of life, practicality takes precedence over passion and career plus money takes primacy over innocent dreams. I’m sure most of us could relate to some or other situation like this 🙂

As far as other aspects of movies are concerned, I will just say great! Abhishek Kapoor as a director and all the actors have done an amazing job – I have never seen Arjun Rampal better than this, infact I couldn’t believe his acting talent, one can’t do more realistic role of a stressed out wife as done by Shahana Goswami who played the wife of Arjun Rampal, she was just great, its very difficult to imagine VJs like Purab and Luke doing such sensitive role, they were awesome, Koel Puri had a small role but very noteworthy. And now coming down to two important characters who debuted from this movie – Prachi Desai and Farhaan Akhtar; I remember how I used to hate that ever crying face of Bani played by Prachi Desai which my mom used to watch…arghhhh but I can’t write how much I liked her in this movie as a wife of Farhaan Akhtar, though she had not much to speak but her eyes and expressions were enough to let you believe her acting talent and potential. And for Farhaan, I don’t have any words left I think…this man is simply superb! How can a single person be such great director, producer, actor as well as singer!!! He is a powerhouse of talent and just outstanding! Hats off to him and his stupendous performance both as actor as well as singer. Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Lyrics by Javedji are as always one of the best. I am so much in love with the songs of this movie that they have broken all the records as far as frequency of song played in my iTune is concerned J.

This movie is one the must watch’s from bollywood and I would recommend it to everyone. It just tells you very beautifully that life without dream and passion is nothing.

Hi-tech Ganpati

September 8, 2008

Just came back from an official trip to Mumbai last week and what a nostalgia it was to be in Mumbai after all these years during Ganpati Festival. Mumbai was full of music, dance, colors, vibrancy and fun! I anyways love festivals and ganpati festival of Mumbai, oh wow!!! The merriment and feelings are just unexplainable in words. After work, every day I went for Ganpati puja at night to the nearby pandals. While the divinity remains the same but like many other things, even Ganapti Festival has undergone sea change in all these years. Well, every festival is getting commercialized but Ganpati is not only commercialized in Mumbai rather has gone completely high-tech too 🙂. Marketing and tech suaveness of these events just left me amazed. Here are some of the interesting incidences which I observed in Mumbai:

  • No more those yellow or pink pamphlets with black ink which were printed for puja and arti schedule. The residents of the colony where I was staying have received interesting html mailer invites with schedules and details. Not only that, even reminder emails are being sent for the key events.

  • Even a localized pandal like that of the colony was quite jazzy and full of sponsorship banners. Ah quite interesting banners and standees having interesting ganpati messages followed by promotional offers and almost all of them starting with “this ganpati bring home XYZ…”. Noticeable one was the ending messages after the arti songs in the CD which was also in the tone of arti song only (in hindi), “for success and prosperity, start your day with ganpati aradhana and mantras, buy now and avail N% discounts. Offer valid till ABC sept’08”

  • Move out in the city and there is not even a single brand who is not giving you Ganpati wishes including my company :P. Every other hoarding, bus shelter, bus back and posters are full of Ganapti messages followed by promotional messages establishing the connect between the festival and the need to buy that ABC product. Looks like today’s consumer needs to buy everything on this earth to have an auspicious and prosperous ganapti.

  • But the best was the “bhagwaan aye bluteooth se” promotion of Cycle Brand Agarbatti. They have converted six bus shelters and a hoarding in Mumbai into mini-pandals, decorated with cut-outs of the Ganpati idol and audio tracks of aartis being played twice a day. The brand’s incense sticks are also being burnt from 8 am to 9 pm. Not only that, they have made the bus shelters Bluetooth enabled wherein user can download ganpati related wallpapers, ringtones, videos, audio tracks etc. Very innovative and creative OOH promo strategy from Mudra I must say. Have a look on this interesting pic

  • Like every year even this year the talk of the town was “Lalbaug Cha Raja” who is one of the most popular Ganesh idols of Mumbai. But unlike earlier years, this year Raja was discussed for very different reasons. Lalbaugh Cha Raja turned 75 year this year and for the first time in its 75-year history, Raja’s massive marquee have been insured for a whopping Rs.26.5 million (nearly $600,000). According to Sunil Joshi, president of the Lalbaugcha Raja organisers, the insurance cover has been taken in view of security considerations for the devotees – comprising people from all over the state, foreign tourists, VVIPs, top industrialists and Bollywood personalities. The Ganesh pandal – as the marquees are known, its decorations and lighting have been erected over the past two months at a cost of nearly Rs.26.5 million. In case of any mishap, this will be fully covered by the insurance company as per its usual terms and condition. Rs. 26.5 million for a Pandal, quite an insurance amount by any parameter :O! (Source of this figure: DNA dated 3rd Sept08)

Bhagwaan coming through bluetooth and emails and getting the pandal insured for the safety of his bhaktas! Isn’t that interesting :D?

Hi-tech Ganpati!

September 8, 2008

Just came back from an official trip to Mumbai last week and what a nostalgia it was to be in Mumbai after all these years during Ganpati Festival. Mumbai was full of music, dance, colors, vibrancy and fun! I anyways love festivals and ganpati festival of Mumbai, oh wow!!! The merriment and feelings are just unexplainable in words. After work, every day I went for Ganpati puja at night to the nearby pandals. While the divinity remains the same but like many other things, even Ganapti Festival has undergone sea change in all these years. Well, every festival is getting commercialized but Ganpati is not only commercialized in Mumbai rather has gone completely high-tech too . Marketing and tech suaveness of these events just left me amazed. Here are some of the interesting incidences which I observed in Mumbai:

  • No more those yellow or pink pamphlets with black ink which were printed for puja and arti schedule. The residents of the colony where I was staying have received interesting html mailer invites with schedules and details. Not only that, even reminder emails are being sent for the key events.
  • Even a localized pandal like that of the colony was quite jazzy and full of sponsorship banners. Ah quite interesting banners and standees having interesting ganpati messages followed by promotional offers and almost all of them starting with “this ganpati bring home XYZ…”. Noticeable one was the ending messages after the arti songs in the CD which was also in the tone of arti song only (in hindi), “for success and prosperity, start your day with ganpati aradhana and mantras, buy now and avail N% discounts. Offer valid till ABC sept’08”
  • Move out in the city and there is not even a single brand who is not giving you Ganpati wishes including my company :P. Every other hoarding, bus shelter, bus back and posters are full of Ganapti messages followed by promotional messages establishing the connect between the festival and the need to buy that ABC product. Looks like today’s consumer needs to buy everything on this earth to have an auspicious and prosperous ganapti.
  • But the best was the “bhagwaan aye bluteooth se” promotion of Cycle Brand Agarbatti. They have converted six bus shelters and a hoarding in Mumbai into mini-pandals, decorated with cut-outs of the Ganpati idol and audio tracks of aartis being played twice a day. The brand’s incense sticks are also being burnt from 8 am to 9 pm. Not only that, they have made the bus shelters Bluetooth enabled wherein user can download ganpati related wallpapers, ringtones, videos, audio tracks etc. Very innovative and creative OOH promo strategy from Mudra I must say. Have a look on this interesting pic:

  • Like every year even this year the talk of the town was “Lalbaug Cha Raja” who is one of the most popular Ganesh idols of Mumbai. But unlike earlier years, this year Raja was discussed for very different reasons. Lalbaugh Cha Raja turned 75 year this year and for the first time in its 75-year history, Raja’s massive marquee have been insured for a whopping Rs.26.5 million (nearly $600,000). According to Sunil Joshi, president of the Lalbaugcha Raja organisers, the insurance cover has been taken in view of security considerations for the devotees – comprising people from all over the state, foreign tourists, VVIPs, top industrialists and Bollywood personalities. The Ganesh pandal – as the marquees are known, its decorations and lighting have been erected over the past two months at a cost of nearly Rs.26.5 million. In case of any mishap, this will be fully covered by the insurance company as per its usual terms and condition. Rs. 26.5 million for a Pandal, quite an insurance amount by any parameter :O! (Source of this figure: DNA dated 3rd Sept08)

Bhagwaan coming through bluetooth and emails and getting the pandal insured for the safety of his bhaktas! Isn’t that interesting :D?