Author

Kanupriya

Internet rejuvenating Indian Art Industry!

August 2, 2008

Yesterday while just casually browsing through ET, one piece which caught my immediate attention was how internet is changing the face of Indian Art Industry. Indian Art and Internet, oh wow what a lovely combination as both happen to be my special areas of interests – art out of passion and internet out of profession J. I immediately stopped over to read the complete story and I was quite happy to observe the shift which is happening even in Indian Art Industry because of this overall internet revolution. Not only artists are using Internet for reaching out to different markets but they are also using it for expanding their canvas of inspiration. While offline stores and exhibitions give artists a chance to promote large number of creations at one go but at the same time Internet gives them a very wide avenue for promoting their work to right kind of TG across different geographies at a very economic cost. Most importantly you get to see work of other people, you can discuss and share feedback with like minded people as well as it provides ample opportunities for and artist to study and research the subject of painting thereby expanding his / her creative horizon. While downside of it is definitely there with more chances of plagiarism and piracy but as per me the positive aspects of it outweigh the negative ones.

Indian Art industry is moving ahead quite positively and thanks to the internet exposure that prices of Indian works are growing northwards. As per an estimate by the creator of The Fine Art Fund, Phillip Hoffman, the size of the Indian market has grown from $2 million to approximately $400 million in the last seven years and to add to that as per Yamini Mehta, director of modern and contemporary Indian art at the London-based Christie’s, “Indian art is becoming a part of international consciousness, why is why we have seen a spectacular growth in this field”. More and more people outside are looking out for Indian masterpieces and famous artists are getting unimaginable prices too. Early this year M.F. Husain’s “Battle of Ganga and Jamuna” sold for $1.6 million in New York! $1.6 million…this is seriously some money man :-).

As an amateur artist with a strong passion towards painting, I have always believed in the power of internet for promoting Indian Art to the right TG. Personally speaking I paint out of hobby and have never tried doing it commercially but I know of many good and senior artists who earn their living through art only and I know how difficult it is for them to meet their ends because of low potential in the local market. I know of this friend of mine who is a very good senior level artist but she was always confined to the limits of Indian Market. One fine day I helped her in building a website and we put her paintings in sites like e-bay etc. Though there was no miraculous result which happened immediately and of course she didn’t make any earnings in million dollars but results were not bad either. She started making money slowly out of online selling and atleast she gets lots of leads now through her website of people interested in learning painting from her. She has got steady income and now she keeps on telling everybody about power of internet and how it can help them in reaching out to wider sphere.

Reading that article in ET with the word “industry” suffixed everywhere after “Indian Art” instilled quite some hope within me. Wish like many other industries, internet revolutionizes Indian Art industry as well with more and more open minded artists who are willing to try out newer technologies and platforms.

That Special Weekend…

July 30, 2008

Have been planning to post this for quite sometime now but last few weeks have been hectic enough to do anything else. Well professionally and personally things are moving quite optimistically and work wise my new promoted role with larger responsibilities since last one and half month has been quite interesting and stimulating for me (TOUCHWOOD!). Got to do lots of interesting stuffs and I am enjoying every bit of it till today (hee hee hee, knowing me one may never know when I can get bored of anything including my job) except that this is really-really hectic and frenzied with quite some traveling too. But guess one has to pay this price in terms of schedule and time. But amidst all this, I had managed to sneak a very special weekend this month, thanks to planning and preparation of hubby dear 🙂 for my b’day which was luckily on a weekend this year.

We were getting that long drive itch since long esp. because our last drive to Pondicherry was in Feb’08. Hmmm considering our love for wheels, 5 months without any long drive is a long hiatus for us. Just one day prior to that weekend, hubby dear announced the plans for bday weekend and asked me to take Monday off so that we can have a 3 days weekend trip to Wayanad… Wayanad!!! My first reaction was full of exclamation marks and frowns, Wayanad in rains, now come on we all are aware of rains in Kerala esp. Wayanad where Lakkidi gets world’s second largest rainfall and wherever we have read its always mentioned not to go to Wayanad during monsoons…But well he was insistent on the fact that kerala is very beautiful and lets go to Kerala again (we have already been to some other locations of Kerala like Munnar, Allepy etc immediately after our wedding and it was an awesome trip). And so finally out of the strong urge to visit Kerala again, I also agreed and I must say it was a wonderful decision that we made.

Saturday 12th July’08 we (me, hubby and one of our close friends alongwith his family) set on our jaunt to Wayanad…we started morning 6 am by fully loading our car with fuel, snacks, music and enthusiasm. The drive was wonderful and en-route we stopped at standard Kamat Loka Ruchi for a scrumptious breakfast, oh the idlis there are just so yummy…After clicking some pics here and there, we started again and the route was simply awesome, a driver’s delight so to say. And one can’t miss hubby’s and his friend’s fault finding in each others driving so that they get to drive through the maximum route possible… Hubby saying to his friend, “tujhe sharp turn theek se nahi lene aata, let me drive” and his friend replying “tera break pe control nahi rehta hai, let me drive” LOL! Here is one pic of the route to explain it further 🙂…

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Finally we reached Wayanad in about five and hours drive and oh wow what a place it was! Truly mesmerizing…greenery all along, thick dense coffee plantations…fresh air and absolute serenity! After settling down in our resort we set to move around in Wayanad and the best part was that there was absolutely no rains except for some drizzle which made the weather all the more lovelier. In two and half days, we visited places like Phokoot Lake, Lakkidi Point, Soochipoora Falls, and Edekkal caves etc. Out of all these, most fascinating ones were Edekkal Caves simply because of its mysterious ancient culture and Lakkidi because of its breathtaking view. Here is a pic of Lakkidi point, I must have seen many rainbows earlier in my life but something as vibrant as this…never!!!

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This pic immediately reminded me of a very old quote – “Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear”, this rainbow at Lakkidi was so bright and vivid esp. because it was appearing on a varied background, half of the mountains were having rains and half were having sun. I just loved it! That whole two and half days kaise beet gaye pata hi nahi chala and Monday noon it was time for us to hit back to the road to Bangalore. The details of my overall trip from travel perspective is available on my travelogue and the same can be read there.

Overall a mesmerizing trip and very sweet weekend amidst all the frantic work life and I would recommend Wayanad to all those who enjoy spending some time in tranquility away from city chaos. And yeah lastly whosoever said not to visit Wayanad in July is ##@@!!. Trust me roaming and driving around in that lush green carpet of nature was truly and amazing and rewarding experience.

Its all about the right packaging!

July 9, 2008

Same story, same climax, same end but still it was so fresh! There must be 100s of movies on a similar topic but there was something about “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na” that I just loved this movie. Watched it over the weekend and I found it to be a very sweet light hearted romantic movie which I am sure would be liked not only be teenagers and today’s generation kids but also by grown up individuals like me…It just makes you so nostalgic and brings back those sweet memories of school and college days J

It’s a story of Jai Sigh Rathore a.k.a Rats (Imran Khan), and Aditi a.k.a Meow (Genelia D’souza) who are best of friends and think their relationship is just friendship and not Love. Ummm you should have guessed the story by now, yeah you are right – same old saga of confusion between platonic and romantic relationship where the movie starts with a girl and boy who spend most of the time together but still think they are not in love and when they think they have fallen in love with different people then suddenly they start missing each other’s company, feelings like jealousy towards each others partners, anger and misunderstandings crop up and finally after some cute li’ll incidents the movie ends happily like a typical bollywood movie on an airport! Yeah airport, I mean even the end is so typecast but still as I said it’s sweet and different!

So, when everything is same about the movie then how come it’s different? Well the answer is packaging! Yeah, old wine served in a very new and interesting bottle J. Same story but delivered through fresh faces like Imran and Genelia and all other actors who have acted as their friends. They all were simply superb. I must say Imran Khan was very impressive considering this was his debut movie and Genelia fitted perfectly into a college kiddie role. Even artists in small roles like of Meghna (Manjari Fadnis) and Amit (Prateik Babbar) leave a lasting impression on audience. Am wondering if all of them are such super actors or it’s the outcome of director Abbas Tyrewala’s effort. A.R. Rahman’s music was as usual marvelous, songs like “Has de Aditi” and “Pappu can’t dance” are already craze amongst many. As expected from senior actors like Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin Shah, Anuradha Patel, Jayant Kriplani their performance was excellent…I loved Naseeruddin Shah’s role, though the idea of dead one speaking from photo frame is old but then it was Naseruddin who was performing it this time, so it had to be excellent.

Well, this movie again establishes the fact beautifully that it’s all about the right packaging. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is a kind of movie in which you know everything including the end which is too predictable but still when the movie ends it leaves a very sweet smile on your face simply because of the way it has been presented to the audience. It’s a total entertainer and full paisa vasool. It definitely has some nuances like in current era parents fixing marriage of a 21 year old girl(!!!) but guess those can be ignored on overall basis. I would recommend it to everybody who just want to go for some light and fun flick. And take my words, it will surely remind of your good old student life days and suddenly after coming out you will feel like either talking to your friends or talking about your friends 🙂

Bollywood Promotion – Other intersting examples

July 5, 2008

I had written post about bollywood marketing earlier as well, I must say things are getting innovative day by day. The most talked about two recent releases are “Love Story 2050” & “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na”. Both are releasing on today i.e., 4th July’08 and both these films are marketing their stuff quite aggressively. Though both are quite hyped up movies but guess Jaane Tu…has managed to grab more pre-release attention because of its super aggressive PR plans and 360 degree marketing approach. After observing different promotional strategies of these two movies, I think the two key catchy promotional strategies which I noticed are:

  • Marketing Tie-ups: Both these movies have managed to get big brands roped in for their movies. “Love Story 2050” has got Lux, Xbox 360, Tata Indicom and Sun Microsystems interested for branding and marketing tie-ups whereas “Jaane Tu…” has secured marketing alliances with Zee and Sony, and is expected to sign Coke and Toyota, brands endorsed by Aamir Khan. Not that tie-ups like these are something new but the fact that now-a-days such tie-ups are covering the overall production cost of even huge budgeted films like “Love Story 2050” is something really fascinating. “We have covered 20% of our production costs through brand and marketing tie-ups. But if we combine the money that we have earned through merchandising and distribution deals, it would cover 100% of the costs. Anything that we will earn from now on would be profits for us,” says Rowena Baweja of Harry Baweja Productions. Love Story 2050’s production cost is an estimated Rs 50 crore (Source: ET online, dated 23rd June’08). 50 crores getting covered through tie-ups and merchandising, wow, really interesting!
  • Increasing online promotions: Next important thing which caught my immediate attention today was promotion of these films in online world…most of the popular sites are splashed with “Jaane Tu…” promo today, not sure if they had started their online promo earlier but it struck to my eyes today only and more so because of this very catchy ad on msn India homepage today.

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(Brief description for the benefit of those who have missed out this ad: As soon as you go to msn India home page, suddenly you see Imran Khan walking all over the screen very coolly and then he suddenly knocks the screen and goes back to that Jane Tu Box). I have seen some other ads earlier as well like this but somehow the presentation and background score of this ad was too good! Apart from this they have other interesting banners on facebook, AOL bollywood etc and a very trendy website as well. It’s cool, vibrant and think can establish a good connect with their youth TG. Hmmm, movies are seriously investing in websites these days!

Well, the fate of these movies as well as the return on investment will be decided today but one thing is sure – movie marketing is definitely becoming an interesting field in itself.

Death of Hindi Literature!

July 3, 2008

Recently my mom had come to visit my place for few days and unfortunately some days out of those three weeks were very hectic professionally for both me and my husband. So, we were not able to take her out or spend much time with her during weekdays. I thought of arranging some entertainment activities for my mom so that she doesn’t get bored at home and considering my mom’s hobbies, the two most obvious choices were movies and books, with books having higher preference. Well, books and movies by term look so simple to arrange but nah it’s not that easy to arrange these stuffs for my mom. Well, she definitely loves to read but not the kind of books which me or my husband read, rather she likes to read those very old classics of Hindi and English literature. I thought of ordering some books of her choice from some popular online shops as generally they offer good discounts on books. Well, my mom’s wish-list consisted of some very old hindi classics by writers like Shivani, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Jayashankar Prasad etc. And when I told her the benefits of ordering online, she was all excited and gave me a list of 7 names to be order immediately.

Since these books were quite popular titles and so I very conveniently assumed that these would be available in almost all book stores. And then my hunt started, first site, second site, third site…ohhh little did I know then that it’s gonna be such a difficult task to find those famous old hindi classics online. Well, none of the popular stores were having those titles…so tired of net surfing, I thought I will stop at landmark (a very popular book store at Bangalore) tomorrow while coming back from office as it would be easier to find it there. With all hopes I reached Landmark next day only to be disappointed to find that only 1 of those titles were available…having no other option, I took that one book and with lots of difficulties managed to find another one in an online store. Mom was ok to get atleast two books of her choice but was damn amazed to realize that these books are not available in most of the stores online as well as offline, she surprisingly said, “lagta hai logo ne hindi ki kitabein padhni band kar di hai, tabhi itni famous kitabein bhi nahi mil rahi hai”.

I also felt the same that maybe people in India have stopped reading hindi novels and books and hence its not easy to find those in regular shops or e-stores. But well my hypothesis didn’t last for long as last weekend I was surfing some US specific e-commerce sites. One of the popular sites was having section of books by Indian writers. Out of curiosity I entered the titles suggested by my mom and lo’ all the books were available in that book store with even reviews and author profiles completed! Felt surprised as well as sad – I was not getting those books here and all these are available in a US site as best rated classics! Stunning!

Though Hindi is our mother tongue but I hardly know of anyone from today’s generation who reads hindi books these days. Honestly speaking even I have not read lots of hindi books but yes I have definitely read some of the very popular ones and have really liked those a lot. Reading as a habit was seeded in me by my mom and she used to suggest me all good novels irrespective of the language be it English, Hindi or translated version of very famous regional books. So, as a child I have read variety of books including real good hindi classics as well. But guess with lots of other things getting lost in rut of life, I lost touch with hindi literature as well…Though I love books by Indian writers but almost all the current books released by Indian writers are written originally in English and so that’s what I read mostly these days. I wonder about current generation as in younger people who are currently in schools, I doubt if most of them are even aware of hindi classics or treasure hidden in our own literature…Do they even know that these books are rated as best classics from India globally? I wonder if Hindi literature is on its way to extinction in India!

Death – so callous, so brutal

June 18, 2008

I was out on an official tour to Mumbai and suddenly I get this call at 3 am in the morning…in that darkness of hotel room I further got psyched to see my mom’s name displayed on my cell! Zillion thoughts flashed through my mind in that fraction of second. Mom was not keeping well for past so many days, she was having very high BP and we all were insisting her so much to come and stay with any one of us. One thing which I really feel guilty about my job and career is leaving my mom all alone in that small city. Many times me and my brothers have asked my parents to shift with any of us, but they are not at all convinced about leaving everything in our hometown and coping up with a hectic lifestyle like us in metros. And for last few days I was just so restless about my family that this call at 3 am totally shook me up. Muttering prayers and gathering courage I picked up the phone, and it was my mom who said “hello”….thank god, she is fine! But something else had definitely happened, she was crying hysterically…I kept on asking her “kya hua, mumma bolo plzzzz”…and finally what she said totally shook me up…this was never expected by me even in my dreams. How could this be possible, Amitesh Bhaiya is no more!!! I couldn’t believe my ears and told there might have been some misunderstanding, but no, the news was correct and he died in a flash of seconds in a road accident that night. Police had called from the highway where his bike was hit by truck to confirm the news! Out of sheer shock and numbness, I just packed my bags and reached airport to take the next flight at 4:30 am to my hometown. I can’t describe how I managed to control my outburst throughout the flight and then the scene after that was just toooo heartbreaking and devastating! Couldn’t believe my eyes that a person who was just like us was now lying lifeless drenched in blood on the floor. Though Amitesh Bhaiya was not my own brother but he was nothing less than that. Since his own mother had died when he was hardly 10, so he had literally grown up in our house with my mom taking care of him as her own son. And then the age factor, he was just 1 year elder to me, so he was not only my closest cousin but one of my closest friends as well.

I have experienced few deaths earlier also in my family but they were all of elderly people who died after some sort of illness…not that those were less painful but this sudden death of somebody so close and almost my age is one of the worst and most painful experiences life could have given me. I had never imagined that death can be so brutal, so callous and life can be so short. We all are running after some or other thing, career, money, physical luxuries, happiness, success etc…but anything and everything can just come to an end in a fraction of second by this superpower known as death. And then you keep on thinking, “wish I could have spoken last night to this person” or “wish I could have done this for him” or “wish, I can see this person again in life”…but you can’t as the person has gone forever now! You are left with only those sweet moments of togetherness and beautiful memories to reminisce for your whole life…After this accident, all I want to do is spend as much time as possible with my loved ones as you never know when someone will go away! Loss of my friend can never be fulfilled by anything in life and I will miss him forever now. But I believe that death can only end a life and never a relationship! He will be in my memories & thoughts eternally.

Enough of friends, movies and music…now its turn for ghosts!

May 22, 2008

I still can’t believe this :-), quite interesting I must say. Initially when I had read this news in March, I just couldn’t believe that someone was actually thinking on this line and I was almost sure that it would be some sort of media rumor, but no I was wrong. It actually is true that now there will be a social networking site for ghosts and aliens! Oh yes, Steven Spielberg is actually launching a ghost / UFO centric social networking website which will be for people who would like to share and discuss paranormal and extraterrestrial experiences.

Speculations are still on about the name of the portal. Some say it will be called “Ghosts”, some call it as “Ghost Town”, latest update being that the site is perhaps going to be called “The Rising” or “Rising”. Apart from networking angle, the site will also have original video content focusing on alleged ghost and UFO stories. Now we all know the connection between Steven Spielberg and paranormal experiences. Who can forget movies like E.T The Extra Terrestrial, Close Encounter of the third world, Jurrasic Park etc which are one of the highest grosser of all times at box office! Steven at many occasions has also narrated some real life chilling experiences about his encounter with ghosts and supernatural forces. Well, don’t know to what extent his experiences are real but he definitely claims that ghosts and aliens do exist and because of some real life experiences, he got inspired to make movies on this subject.

After general networking, vertical specific networking was definitely slated to be the next big trend in community industry but being niche to this level following a specific vertical is definitely some disruption I must say. And though I don’t believe in such phenomenon (rather I don’t want to believe I guess :-)) but still there is a large chunk of people who believe in such clairvoyant experiences. And for such TG this kind of open forum will be definitely great wherein they can discuss and share their views with like minded people and know more about it. Hmmm, so looks like enough of networking sites for friends, dating, movies, music, college reunion etc etc, well now it’s the turn of ghosts and bhoooot!

Heights of Craziness

May 9, 2008

I have watched four-five movies in past two months in theater as well as on DVD but didn’t feel this strong urge to express my views for any movie as much as I felt for this movie…I guess this is one of the worst movies I would have ever watched, completely baseless and crazy…yeah I am speaking of Krazzy4. The only right thing about this movie I guess is its name “Krazzy 4”, yes, it’s capable of making you crazy with all its 4 elements – story, acting, direction and dialogues! How can Rakesh Roshan go sooo wrong in this film?

The film is all about 4 mental patients Raja (Arshad Warsi), Mukherjee (Irfan Khan), Gangadhar (Rajpal Yadav), Dabboo (Suresh Menon) and their doctor Suman (Juhi Chawla). The so called story tries to show the emotional sensitiveness of these patients towards their doctor and respective relationships with their partners. I’m just wondering is it worth to go ahead describing the plot of this movie…well honestly speaking there is no plot at all. The story starts with something, then suddenly Juhi Chawla gets kidnapped, then suddenly you see Rakhi Sawant grooving in her typical style on “dekhta hai kya” number…oh the song ends and after few movements here and there on the screen you suddenly see SRK shaking his legs unnecessarily on the much hyped song “krazzy 4”. By the time one keeps on wondering as to why SRK has danced in THIS film, you see these 4 mental patients saving their doctor by god knows what kind of acts! And lo the film comes to an end with the most pathetic speeches by the patients as well as the doctor to the media. Trust me the last dialogues are the worst dialogues ever written in the hindi film industry! And of course the last scene of scrolling star cast is having the tragic misfit of Jr. Roshan wasting his dance talent just like that. It clearly looks like Papa Roshan’s strategy of capitalizing on the best dance talent of the industry.

On a scale of 5, I would love to give this film a rating of -5 but for Rajpal Yadav’s acting sake I can still reconsider my thoughts and I guess I will give it a 0.5 rating on 5. Very poor plot, hopelessly bad dialogues, even very good acting talents like Juhi, Irfan, Arshad and Rajpal Yadav have been completely wasted and the songs are…I guess I’m running short of critical adjectives. The much hyped item numbers are the best examples of oddity! I will not recommend this movie to anybody at all for watching, oh yeah but if you want to take revenge with someone, just buy a ticket of this movie and lock the person to watch this movie in a room J, make sure the person doesn’t come out without watching this movie completely, LOL!

BTW of all the movies which I watched in last two months, I liked Jodha Akbar and U, Me aur Hum a lot…lovely movies with beautiful direction. I missed out on writing reviews for these movies because of paucity of time but do watch both these movies. Hrithik is outstanding as Akbar and Ajay Devgan is simply superb considering that U, Me aur Hum is his first directorial debut. Hey I also watched When Harry met Sally (oh yeah I watched it after sooo many years) on DVD, a very sweet movie with a cute love story. Must watch for those who like to watch light romantic flicks.

Season of makeovers

April 29, 2008

Well, looks like it’s a season of makeovers going on currently. Oh, I mentioned makeover and you are already thinking of some new style statement for women? Hmmm, I’m, sure most of you must be, but nah I’m not speaking of some new hair coloring trend or new apparel style in vogue…I’m speaking of the latest trend in Indian Marketing Industry – the trend of Indian brand makeovers.
Two weeks ago, I saw the new logo and communication of Godrej, then last week it was Shoppers’ Stop and now it’s CEAT which has gone for a hip & happening colored logo.
Honestly speaking I was just shocked to see the 112 year old Godrej logo changed. Having worked in their brand management team earlier, I know how rigid Godrej rules were as far as changing corporate logo was concerned. They strictly wanted to adhere to only traditional color (earlier it was blue then it became red) and despite every new brand manager convincing about a funky logo, the top management never allowed to experiment with it. So, suddenly a bright colored nice looking new logo was a very pleasant sight for my eyes. Here is the official statement of Godrej which states that the re-branding exercise was undertaken as it felt the old brand was not as relevant to young India.(source: moneycontrol.com). As a consumer as well as marketing professional, my take on this – I liked this change J. Estimated money (mentioned in official releases) to be spent by the company in communicating this makeover: Rs. 100 crore!
Now speaking about Shoppers Stop logo change…I am absolutely confused as to why this logo change and what major difference will this new logo design bring to the company? I mean its same black & white color except that it’s rectangular in shape as compared to the earlier elliptical one. Well, from brand perspective I understand that it has been done keeping so called international designs in mind but well, but to a normal consumer I’m sure it must not be looking like any major change as such. And they are spending huge money in communicating this change by advertisements, hoarding etc. Here is the official statement available on agencyfaqs, for this makeover: “Change is essential. Our consumers are changing, their preferences are constantly evolving. They are getting younger. And so, we have to change along with them.” — B S Nagesh, Customer Care Associate & Managing Director, Shoppers’ Stop. “The simple but classic new logo without the old elliptic ring, which has an international look and a timeless appeal, carrying the new baseline ‘Start something new’ prods customers into taking a step ahead to upgrade themselves to the next level in life.(source: indiaretailbiz.com). Well, well doesn’t it look like somehow fitting in a justification for this change? As a consumer as well as marketing professional, my take on this – It looks almost similar to me as in no major change at all as compared to the previous one. Estimated money (mentioned in official releases) to be spent by the company in communicating this makeover: Rs. 20 crore ($5 million)!
And the latest one in race, CEAT logo change? Oh why did they do this? The logo was created in 1958 & this is the first time since then that the company has changed its logo. But do they really needed to change their earlier logo? Here is the official statement for this change: Paras K Chowdhary, chief executive officer, Ceat, says, “The new logo symbolises the strategic transformation at Ceat. It also reflects the fact that though Ceat has a long and proud heritage, the attributes that bring it to life for our customers are as fresh and new as ever. It represents the company’s vision of leading the industry in delivering best in class products, innovations and services to consumers.” (source: agencyfaqs.com). Well, even if they decided to change the logo thinking to bring in some freshness and strategic transformation, they can’t go this wrong in deciding the creative representation of it. I think the earlier logo was very expressive and clear about the message which CEAT wanted to communicate for its tyre brand – born tough. New one just looks like another “me too” logo. As a consumer as well as marketing professional, my take on this – The new logo is NOT good, new font and color are ok, but please bring back that rhino and “born tough” line. No info available on money to be spent on communicating this makeover but year lots of TV ads are airing on prime time television.

Big B n blogging, another marketing gimmick?

April 24, 2008
The news is everywhere across media, and almost every channel and website is speaking of this new entrant in blogosphere. Big B has taken to blogging now!!! Well, we were aware of Rahul Bose, Shekhar Kapur and Aamir Khan being pro bloggers but now Amitabh Bachchan too. This is really surprising but what’s more surprising is the blog site which Mr. Bachchan has selected. Umm, his selection surely doesn’t look natural. Doesn’t a thought come naturally to our minds as to why BigAdda? Now come on, don’t ask why not a wordpress or a blogspot or his own personal URL and why www.bigadda.com ? I think it’s pretty simple to guess. Arrey still didn’t get it…after all bigadda is a reliance entertainment company yaar & we all know the strong connection between Big B & ….!

Looks like BigAdda’s cores & crores of money on advertising with hoardings (yes they actually took huge hoardings across cities for promotion of an online social networking site, LOL) & on TV (ROLF, yep there were long television commercials too reminding of friends and networking ?) etc have not worked at all and now they have decided to take one final shot at one of their products viz., blogs. With Big B endorsing their blog and each posts of Mr. Bachchan having comment counter close to 400+, I’m sure atleast one of BigAdda’s categories will surely get noticed now. And the kind of effort which bigadda team is taking for this, there is no second thought that this looks like a planned promotion strategy of BigAdda. Here is an excerpt from Big B’s blog which can make things clearer further:

“The bigadda.com team came over. I educated myself more on blogging and its ‘finer qualities’. As per the advice of some of the fans and ‘co bloggers’ we got into the process of setting up a team to assist me in working my blog more efficiently”.

A team to assist on working on his blog more efficiently!!!!!! Whoa blogging is becoming really serious man! Hmmm quite a strong promo hook by BigAdda team, lets see what mileage they get out of it in future.

Now speaking of Big B’s blog http://bigb.bigadda.com, honestly speaking I liked the content of this blog and the way Mr. Bachchan has written it till now. Though I’m not a die-hard fan of Mr. Bachchan & not sure if he is himself writing the posts or somebody on his behalf is doing it but if he is himself writing it then I must say good effort! The way he has highlighted the contribution of Anil Dharker for his book Icons or the way he has pulled Headlines Today for telecasting Abhi-Ash for 15 mins and still criticizing them or they way he has responded to some of the comments on his posts is quite noticeable & praiseworthy. I just love the poems of Mr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan and the beautiful usage of those poems in Big B’s posts is another highlight of his blog.


Though the idea of Big B blogging on www.bigadda.com looks very artificial and definitely some sort of marketing gimmick but the content of the blog looks natural. So, hope Big B continues expressing his thoughts like this on his blog and BigAdda gets at least one product right amongst all its failed ventures!