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A quick take on 2010 & wish you a happy new year!

December 31, 2010

Well, a lot has happened in 2010 for Indian Marketing and Media industry. While I will come back with detailed posts on some of the brand case studies which created impact this year, but as of now here goes a quick take on my “likes” & “dislikes” for marketing incidents that occurred in 2010

  1. A rebranding which I liked : Indian Rupee Symbol
  2. A rebranding which I disliked: Airtel
  3. A marketing trend which I liked: Social Media becoming mainstream, few predicted this but not many were sure or convinced about it till last year.
  4. A brand which completely wowed me: Flipkart
  5. A brand which always delivered what it committed to me: Indigo
  6. A new product /service which I started using in 2010: Online luxury shopping portals and totally addicted to FashionAndYou.com
  7. A old category coming out with newer marketing techniques: Books, wow what innovative marketing stories in Indian Literature Industry.
  8. An ad which really created a buzz: Volkswagen Vento talking newspaper ads
  9. An ad which I hated : IBIBO, JK Cement Swimming Pool ad
  10. Ad which I liked for its social messaging: ”’Tata Tea Choti & Badi Patti’ and ‘Tum Chalo Toh Hindustand Chale by TOI‘

I may update this list later if some more related points come to my mind, till then do drop in comments about the stories which you liked or brands which you hated in 2010.

With this last post for 2010, here’s wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year! May you have a rocking & great 2011!

Quick Bytes: A “Don’t” in Social Media

December 29, 2010

Dear Brands,
It just does not make any sense to put an icon for Facebook or Twitter in print ad without giving your URLs or official page titles for readers to find you quickly. I saw this big ad in TOI today with one of the call for actions being “Follow us on Twitter and Facebook”, despite the space being available to mention the URLs or official handles, there was just no mention of the same. To add to that the name is common enough to generate enough pages if you go ahead and search for it.

I recently observed even a television commercial doing the same – a prominent chocolate company ad on television stated “participate in our contest on Facebook and win prizes”, well the screen with this message lasts for few seconds, but all it mentions about the location to participate in contest is a plain “F” icon for Facebook. No mention of the page URL at all. And if you go ahead and search for that brand on Facebook, there are enough pages with that brand name to get you confused about the identity of the official page.

Please remember it’s not a web or interactive digital ad in front of your customers where they can click the icons and land up on your page. Won’t harm (esp. when you have space to utilize) to mention something like @yourname or /yourname near those icons. Easier for your customers to reach the right location quicker!