I just read news on the removal of all Hitler related parodies from YouTube.

There have been tonnes of those Hitler parodies online, especially those built on a scene of “Downfall”- the movie.

One of the initial Hitler parodies that caught my eyes was around Social Media (removed from YouTube it seems- though am sure someone can still find it if they look hard)

But the key is not Hitler, or the movie. The key is that that video/parody was produced by a Digital Marketing person/team- just like yourself. And that tells a lot about the way people are expressing themselves- even busy individuals are spending time to create content- and something with a limited appeal to their industry only.

Lately I have seen quite a few of these.

Though only those from industry would find them funny.

One of them is here- scene from “A Few Good Men”- only in this case, the characters take a different stance on the proceedings. The “You can’t handle the truth” dialogue/speech is probably one the most remembered and known dialogues of its time.

And this parody does a good job- production wise.

Tom Cruise plays the (Premium) Publisher; Jack Nicholson- the DSP (Demand Side Platform). Randall Rothenberg – the IAB President & CEO is playing…well..himself.

To put some ‘context’ to it- those who know me- know that I love to use that word while explaining something- here is the original scene:

That also makes me think- what are the DSPs doing in Asia? Are there any worth their salt?

And the second thing that I want to highlight is- when will my Asian friends start doing this stuff? In their own languages? There’s just so much that could be leveraged- Chinese? Malay? Tagalog? There are innumerable classic scenes and power packed performances from every country.

We need to use Video. Use it in a way that opens eyes wide.

Maybe I’ll do it now- sometime soon- whenever I get a spark.

Since I understand Hindi, I’ll use some examples here. Share some scene stealers from movies/episodes from your language.

One of the hot contenders would be- this scene from a bollywood movie- Shakti:

Or this epic one from Deevar:

Not just parodies. Meaningful, humorous and topical sizzles.

Think About It.

At the risk of reinforcing my (somewhat fallacious) positioning as a  ‘Social media’ guy (I am a digital marketing person- and a proponent of engagement led marketing), here is an interesting and relatively new (end June 2010) content on digital (mainly social media, I would say) strategy from a leading brand.

A session by Alexandra Wheeler- Digital Director at Starbucks.

Listing the video along with the presentation here- as noticed on the Digital Buzz blog

Some key points from the presentation (you’ve heard a lot of this before- and the reason might be that it is becoming standard practice now across many firms)

• Social media is about relationships and engagement- so be authentic and don’t outsource your voice (Hmm…not outsourcing your voice could be debatable- and I would argue it does not play with all brands across all situations)
• Digital within Starbucks fits within a larger integrated marketing strategy ( I like this statement. As someone exposed to all marketing disciplines- especially within the digital domain- no one can vouch for this more than me)
• Revisiting Starbucks digital (social actually) strategy- some key success areas were- building a coalition (finding a common cause with the community); making a commitment and acknowledging mistakes when they were made. Crowdsourcing ideas worked for them -the “Free WiFi”  idea came up from the “My Starbucks Idea” platform and an organic community build-up led to ‘real’ fans coming in contact with the brand
• I love the importance they laid to curating content. Content became an engagement vehicle (something I’ve been reinforcing the whole of last year- and continue to do so) Creating great content and seeding it meaningfully scored high points (what I have called GermFeeding and GermSeeding)
• We need to put resources behind digital/social- Completely agree. To make it a committed effort- this needs investment in right people, tools and processes.

Enjoy the talk and the presentation below:

Time flies.

Its been about 8 months since I last participated in Social Networking World forum Asia, the Asian chapter of the popular forum from the UK.

A voice over from my last year’s talk on “Video Social Networking” here and a post on it about a year back here

The Social Media World Forum (SMWF) Asia this year is scheduled for the 22/23rd September at Suntec, Singapore (before the F1 Singapore night race). The event will showcase the leading social media trends taking place in Asia through a combined conference and exhibition.

The good folks organizing this conference (Six Degrees events- thanks Ian, Richard and Dee) asked me to chair the second day of the conference – and of course it should be fun doing it.

The agenda of the conference could be found here

I am also on the panel of advisers for the forum and hope to contribute.

This time around, apart from the ‘big’ speakers and participants, we also have on-the-ground managers- people who are in the thick of the things. Expect a little more action.

A promo video to get a ‘feel’ of the event:

Enjoy, participate and contribute. Hope to see you there

Think about it

Shalabh

“Think About It”- Ideas shaping digital media and marketing in the new decade

The new book will be launched by mid February in both Kindle format and paperback format.

We had seeked your inputs and opinions on which cover design layout did you like the best.

Thanks everyone for not only helping us choose the right cover but also with your critique and suggestions for improvements.

We went through all the suggestions in detail and tried to achieve a balance. And that brought us to the final choice.

And the Winner is- Cover design no. 8

Of course this design will not be used as it is here- but with further changes and more cleaning up. Will keep you posted.

A whole lot of friends commented and decided us to choose the right cover- across platforms- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and emails.

Truely, a cover design chosen by you. Some of the responses here:

Excerpt from Twitter:

Excerpt from Facebook:

Some, like Maria, CEO and co-founder of Linqia from Barcelona- had some gems for all the designs

(We loved it!)- her comment:

=============================================

Dear Shalabh,

Hope my comments help in some way:

• Cover 8: Very clean, illustration offers insight into the theme of the book, great font
• Cover 7: Icons are effective showing humans however overused throughout the industry. Also the font doesn’t work at all.
• Cover 6: Warm design which weakens the overall affect you’re trying to achieve by making the statement ‘Think about it’. It’s also quite busy.
• Cover 5: The lines at the top make the cover too busy and conflict with the colorful people icons. Again – these icons are used heavily throughout the industry which could connote ‘another web 2.0 book’
• Cover 4: Very beautiful design however on first impression the book looks to be about financial matters
• Cover 3: Extremely busy! Too many design elements.
• Cover 2: The wireframe of the man is effective and would work well with typography from cover 8 with no additional graphics.
• Cover 1: Great colours. Strong typography. Lines are also strong in ‘thought’ and ‘landscape’

The 2 that really stand out and project a positive first impression are covers 1 and 8.

Maria

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I can’t put all the comments here- but some friends went to the extent of finding the right font and asking us to use those in the text instead.

It was great. We tried to follow as much as we could (and as much as our Art Director would allow us to)

Now just if the economics could allow us to collectively arrive at the cost of the book too.

Think about it

Shalabh

Twitter- @shalabhpandey

Keep in touch for further updates.