It’s that time of the year again. Conferences. forums and industry gatherings – some large scale and some niche ones.

ad:tech falls in the former category. For those within the digital marketing industry, it is not just large scale. It is BIG.

I have attended ad:tech events in the past and have shared my experiences. (Can’t believe its been a year since I wrote on this topic). This year, it opened today (in Singapore- 3rd June 2010) and what a bummer- I had to miss the first day.

However thanks to tweets from my group and the update emails from Si Ting Sng from Bite Communications (thanks!), I at least have a flavor of the event.

From one of the email updates- this section summarizes the event proceedings- reproducing verbatim:

ad:tech Singapore 2010 consists of 6 keynotes and 24 breakout sessions with over 30 exhibitors and sponsors including publishers and media owners taking part.  Among them, technologies and solutions from mobile marketing to analytics, e-mail marketing to Search Engine Optimisation will be showcased.

Seem to be everything I spend a regular day on. Hope to visit tomorrow- on the second day of the session and whet my appetite for Digital Marketing information.

What is also interesting is one full stream dedicated to advanced marketing and branding.  ‘Digital’ as a branding medium still has a lot of miles to cover- but really, that is the imminent future. Add to this the fact that leading brand marketers-  alongside consultants/agency representatives are now speaking on this topic- sends the right signals. Measurablity is an inseparable part of digital marketing – but the real power of digital will arrive when it moves towards a balance of brand metrics and hard RoI metrics (both of them dear to  me).

Consider this- the sessions started with this keynote:

• The Future of Brands on the Internet: Alex Hunter, Independent Brand Consultant

and the second day will cover a similar subject, though it seems more specifically in context of a brand

• Driving Marketing Excellence Through Digital – The Kraft Foods Asia-Pacific Journey

Keynote by Shawn Warren, VP Marketing, Asia Pacific, Kraft Foods: who will discuss the important role digital marketing plays in building power brands across Asia Pacific.

Great stuff.

Another thing I missed the first day- keynotes on ‘Digital in South east Asia’. I am a huge ASEAN proponent- and it sucks that I missed the first day keynotes on this topic.

But there’s always tomorrow. Hope to be there. And write about it if I do.

Think(ing) about it.

Shalabh

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

One thing I feel disenchanted about in Asia, is the fact that there is more “talking the talk” than “walking the talk” – when it comes to encouraging the start-up ecosystem.

Like many other things in life, people look at the West, marvel about how good the start up environment is (can the real slim shady please step up and explain- Silicon Valley is not ‘the West’). But when  it comes to supporting the start up ecosystem, hardly any one seems to put the money where their mouth is.

This seems to be true even in countries like Singapore, with a focus to foster entrepreneurship. There are loads of institutions for start up mentoring and support, but when it comes to seed stage or idea stage funding, there is more talk, than play. Many of these incubation institutions seem to be self serving tools for their founders (“I am a ‘mentor’/father figure for start ups”) than making any tangible real difference to start ups. 

Businesses need more than a garage and some computers to start with- though that makes for a nice story.  For a 50k grant, the expectation is that entrepreneurs will not have any earning and work full time to bring a product out in the market. Which is the reason why you see school/college kids starting up operations rather than serious, mature individuals. (and by that, I don’t mean grandpa). The ones who eventually do get something out of this, will probably be experienced individuals in the game of funding and ‘well connected’.

Most funding institutions have limited sight, angel investment is a rare thing, venture capital looks for (perceived) risk free/me-too projects (Online travel operator? tick. Online book selling company? tick. Online ad network? tick. Mobile ad network? double tick- because “you know AdMob got acquired by Google”) -you got the idea.

Yes there are incubation/funding institutions, but the truth is, it is too little with too much effort (to get at it- not the effort to make a successful company). Add the red tape (wait for 5 months for a 50k grant and still not be sure where you are)- and you are set for disappointment. (happened to some people I know).

This space has more action in words than deed.

Prove me wrong and I’ll dance with you.

Governments are largely reactive in nature. Things move with a heavy foot, there are processes to be followed, and ‘corporatization’ is frowned upon. By ‘corporatization’, I largely mean ‘marketing’.

The fundamentals governing this thought process have ground in the fact that governments need to be largely ‘welfare’ units, ‘not-for-profit’ organizations. Which they should be- but with a broader perspective.

Marketing is so synonymous with greedy profit churning and pushy sales calls, that it is almost a bad word- and because of lack of hard data supporting usefulness of each marketing initiative, governmental organizations find it easy to leave it alone. Not to be touched. From a useful discipline that allows one to make their ideas reach relevant people, it becomes a cryptic, pseudo-relevant science.

There is little specialist talent, therefore, within governmental organizations to proactively take marketing initiatives.

Things, however, are changing. Not only do we see political parties and political candidates using the power of new age marketing techniques and tools, we also see some governments taking a pro active approach towards connecting with their stakeholders.

And from what I have seen in the recent few years, fewer government organizations have used new marketing  opportunities than those within Singapore.

Specifically from the ‘Social Media’/engagement standpoint, there have been some recent successes that I noticed- I will list some of them here- mostly from top of mind recall, but I am sure there are more cases out there.

Like most new things, these initiatives have not been without their share of criticisms (ample to find that in Singapore) and execution hiccups.

But the highlight is not about how great the campaigns were, how flawless the execution was or how measurable were these campaigns.

Many of these campaigns were none of these, and many probably failed miserably at achieving the desired results.

But what is worth highlighting is that they tried. It is BIG DEAL in governments. These are government or quasi government (aided or assisted with government control/stake) organizations. These are not nimble enterprises. The fact that they take this ‘risk’ of venturing into hitherto unknown territory and risk mockery or failure, is HUGE. To me, it is important enough that these campaigns saw the light of the day.

Time does not permit to dissect these campaigns, but I hope to, sometime in future. And also, my point of view on how they could have been better or what could be the next steps following up from where they left it.  As of now, just listing some details on these campaigns.

• Singapore Tourism Board (STB):
  • Aided by their agency partners, STB seems to have undertaken a few non-mainstream initiatives
  • STB Crowdsourcing Ideas from public: Following up on their roadmap to year 2020, STB launched a website asking the common person on their vision of how to improve this sector in 2020.
  • STB blogger connections: STB now has a section on their website featuring Blogger perspectives on Singapore.  Bloggers talk about new stuff, their experiences, and bring in a slightly different side of the life in Singapore- which could be of immense interest to the visitors who want to get the story from individuals not corporations.
• Reach Singapore: The organization entrusted with community development in Singapore, had launched early some basic steps in connecting and reaching out to the community, specially the youth. Setting up the ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter communities were basic attempts, but the fact that some initiatives were as early as 2008, is interesting to note.
• Senior ministers in the government now actively engage digitally- and participate in forums. This is seen even ‘offline’. Last year, at the omy.sg (a bilingual site in mandarin and english) Blogger award night, the Chief Guest was Mr George Yeo- Minister of foreign affairs in the Singapore government. Attending a congregation of largely teens or tweens!
• NTUC Fairprice : Less known as a “trade union corporation”, more as a supermarket chain, their facebook page now boasts more than 26k members. Frankly, it is quite basic, slightly unkempt (“What’s up” section has nothing inside (!)) and seems a lot more could have been done than promoting a contest and their TVCs. But still worth a mention.
• SingPost: This is what happens when an old school service tries to appeal to the new age consumers. Singapore Post or SingPost is essentially a postal service (actually they have a lot more to their repertoire) and here is what they tried:
  • In the wake of Youth Olympics in Singapore, they decided to undertake a stealth marketing campaign.
  • Some graffiti artists were hired and in full public view, were made to paint graffiti on Singpost postboxes. In Singapore, that is BIG DEAL. Any graffiti on public properties is treated as serious vandalization and is punishable by law.
  • The morning after effect assumed was that people would talk about it, it would spread- followed by Singpost admitting it was a publicity stunt -and all will be hunky dory. Only it went the other way- complaints and social media buzz derided the act as distasteful and counter to the values we should impart to the youth.
  • To me, it was Classic germFeed- created an opportunity to talk- bystanders created content- took videos/took snaps, shared it and commented on it.
  • Good or Bad- to get a postal service get talked about by the youth is a huge deal. I am not sure if kids nowadays would think of Post Boxes as something to be like a fire safety poles. If kids were all about sharing and compassion and love and the spirit of games- gaming and cinema would have died long back.
  • Could it have done in a better way? Sure it could have been. Was graffiti necessary? Sure it wasn’t. But the idea of doing a radical exercise- something out of the ordinary- by itself is worth a mention.

What would I have done? Here is what I would have done- stick color codes or Augmented Reality code stickers on all Post boxes- promote it across media channels- encourage people to snap it with their camera phones- wherever they saw the boxes and create engaging content to engage with it. Maybe show the journey of a parcel,maybe show profile of Youth Olympic atheletes- tonnes of things to surprise people with.

Actually, as I said, none of these are examples of ‘great’ initiatives. But if they evolve from hereon- it is what will make the difference. If they continue trying it is then they will make that difference.

They have had their share of criticisms, let us allow them to entertain and engage us.

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

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

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.

RAPP is a leading marketing services agency. RAPP in Singapore, is bringing to town in what looks like a cool event.

They call it Business-Evangelism.

The promos say… BE 2010 promises to be an event that will change your perceptions of business, culture, and life.

And in their words, this event is for you -

If you’re a marketer looking to understand where tomorrow’s consumerscape is headed…
If you’re a professional hoping to tap into the minds of today’s change agents…
If you’re an academic wanting to immerse in thought-provoking discourses…
If you’re an entrepreneur hungering for new knowledge and ideas…
If you’re anyone wishing to be inspired…

Sounds exactly like I could use to describe the potential readers of my new book

The price tag for attending is hefty- and surely is for the select few.

But here’s the good news. You will get straight 10% off if you give my reference with this code: “Shalabh_Rapping”

Send an email to me (shalabhpandey at gmail dotcom)

Or for any more information/booking to Valli (CEO at RAPP Singapore) at (vall.l at rapp.com.sg) with code “Shalabh_Rapping”

Disclaimer: Oh! yes- and I don’t get any commissions or payment for this post. Just 10% off for readers of ChasingTheStorm.

Here are the speakers:

So have fun and keep your evangelism on.
Think About It
Shalabh

In part 4 of this 4 part video brainstorm, we discuss how to market a start up.

Start ups usually do not have the luxury of huge advertising spends- and this pushed the boundaries being creative and using only the most efficient mediums for maximum bang for their buck.

Thorben highlights how he uses the Influencers (what I call the MicroInfluencers) to gain traction.

I had lots to discuss- but this was about them- and some good points were made .

Enjoy

Shalabh

In part 1 and part 2 of this 4 series video brainstorm, we discussed Orsiso and Advertising on social networks previously.

In Part3, we discuss whether downloadable appplications have a significant advantage over browser based or web based applications. Also another point- the funding story- the issues- what do investors look for, and the like.

In part 1 and part 2 of this 4 series video brainstorm, we discussed Orsiso and Advertising on social networks previously.

In Part3, we discuss whether downloadable appplications have a significant advantage over browser based or web based applications. Also another point- the funding story- the issues- what do investors look for, and the like.

Enjoy

Shalabh Pandey

We featured Orsiso in Part 1.

In part 2 of the discussion between myself (Shalabh Pandey) and Thorben, amongst other things, we discuss advertising on social networks, its significance and nuances.

Enjoy!

Are you into Social Media Marketing? Want to go beyond Social Media overview and get your hands dirty with ‘on-ground’ hacks and processes?

“Building Facebook Fandom” is an eBook that might help you get an overview of what works inside the walled gardens of Facebook.

Afternote: Just got notified that It will be available in a few days- but you could register at the site now to receive it later.

Written by Ryan Lim of Blugrapes marketing, the ebook is about how to utilize Facebook to the maximum for marketing advantage. Of course, the ebook serves as a marketing material for their services- but I have always believed that giving something of value to your audience always works as a win win.

I had met Ryan earlier and he discussed about his eBook. The subject is topical- given the volume of conversations around this topic, and there is surely some interest from agency guys- media planners and account executives alike.

Another good thing is that some observations apply to all the social media platforms. The Facebook platform has its own nuances and restrictions. And for anyone attempting to undertake a marketing exercise, it would make a huge difference really understanding the medium.

The eBook is free (as I mentioned earlier, BluGrapes specialize around Facebook- so this also serves as marketing material for them- this is what I call germFeed) to download as pdf from this site

It is an easy read for those looking at harnessing the power of Social Media marketing (I call it Social Reference Marketing)- specially Facebook.

As a critic, I expected the book to be more visual (with more images/screenshots) and feel that it could have been much more impactful if the content delivery was through video. I have one such video demonstrating the nuances here.

But then again- this is short, handy and written in easy prose. So if you are someone concerned with utilizing FaceBook as a platform to build a community (a fan page or a group) or for reaching out to your TG (Social Ads), some tips can be quite useful.

Some handy tips pointers and my critique from the ebook (available here for download as a pdf):

• Ad fatigue: 2 weeks is a good time to refresh your Social Ads. After this, the ads might start getting fatigued (I would have loved to see some real life examples or case studies supporting this fact)
• The right threshold for viral?: To achieve the viral effect, scale itself is important. On Facebook, a 1000 member fan base could be the magic number before you start going really viral
• Social Proof: People are more likely to be a fan of your page if 4 of their friends are already fans of your page (no examples – but seems they have arrived at this figure using some of their previous campaign analysis)
• Day parting: Best timings for your status updates? Very interesting stuff from an operations perspective- though not with numbers to boot. This attempts to look at which is the time of the day that the users are most likely to receive your status message.

Enjoy!

Shalabh

PS: I am not related or affiliated to BluGrapes and this is not a incentivized plug. I am happy to receive and disseminate such information and material for all the readers, inspite of this being marketing material.

I am putting together a resources section on the site- and will hopefully have more such content on the site. Keep watching this space.

I was on a panel at the Social Networking World Forum Asia  held in Singapore recently.

Posting the audio podcast here- will soon follow it up with the video version.

In case the above player does not work for you- here is the direct link to the audio to play online or download to your players: Shalabh Pandey at Social Networking World Forum Asia

The Panel’s topic was

Home entertainment, broadcast television and social media

and the topics covered were:

• The marriage of online video and social media
• How communities can help develop better TV programming
• Using social networks to engage new audiences and expand reach
• Integrating social media within the Television proposition
• Developing pay-tv with web 2.0 applications.

Panelists:

Thorben: CEO Orsiso

Nicolas Colinos, Deputy Sales Director, Eurosport Asia

Shalabh Pandey, Digital Marketing Thinker and Strategist, Singapore

Chaired by Euan Wilcox from The Upper Story (Who did a great job in steering conversations)

The premise or build up was thus:

Premium content and advertising is fast becoming a key strategy allowing social networks to monetize their sites. Viral content distribution has created a valuable new inventory for advertisers and a new business model for the entire media industry.

We look at at content services, the strategy behind there delivery and how this can be developed.

In the audio clip, podcast and video, I have basically cut down the talk to my opinions – so apologies to the rest of the panel members- I will take the first opportunity to upload entire content (runs into 3 GB+ and it is a pain- so had to cut down)

Think about it

Shalabh

Whew!

We did this about a fortnight ago. A (apprx) 40 minute discussion caught on video- on Start ups, funding story and advertising on Social media- amongst many other things. Between me (Shalabh Pandey) and the CEO and co-founder of Orsiso- Thorben Linneberg.

I finally managed to clean up the video and uploaded the final video brainstorm- after about 2 weeks of having shot it.

Featuring the entire series in 4 parts- so enjoy this over the next few posts.

Part 1 of 4:

This is our first time doing a video- and the quality is a bit low. The video was on analgue tape- and I had only Windows Movie Maker- to help me with the editing. There was a time lag between the video and the audio- which was proving impossible to curate in WMM. And hence the quality is still not up to my satisfaction, but after having spent close to 25 hours or more on this- I thought I’d better get this up and running now.

The problem with me is I cannot compromise on quality of end product- and that pushes me to do as much as is within the outer boundaries of my limits.

But I believe web video is the future- and there are learnings for the next time.

• One learning has been that even though you can manage without the best equipment and software- it is not advisable to do so. You end up spending too much time and effort just cleaning the whole thing up.
• Another learning for me has been- in the absence of external mikes, speak up! My voice is a bit soft, and I also have a bit of a hunch- and since video is about presentation, it shows. Tip to remember next time.

Overall, it went off well- we had some help too- from Orsiso’s side- we had Laurent Roux- Business Director- helping co-ordinate- and from ChasingTheStorm we had some great help from Mohd Hisham with the camera set up.

The objective was to introduce Orsiso and alongside also have a little discussion session around the Web landscape of today.

In the first section, we discuss largely about Orsiso- how it aggregates various social networks and organizes your social life on the internet.

In the second section, we move on to discussing advertising and social networks

In the third section- we discuss whether downloadable applications are back or the browser based applications?

And in the last section, we discuss How to market a start up- basis Orsiso’s experience.

Enjoy!

Shalabh

Sometimes we in advertising and marketing suffer with such a “follow the trend- en masse” thing that even a genuine concept starts sounding tired and cliched.

The entire Spikes Asia festival 2009 in Singapore was spankered with this one buzzword- Engagement. Every speaker or panelist worth their salt (BTW why are people supposed to be worth their salt and not sugar…or vinegar?) was emphasizing upon this one fact that you have to talk ‘with’ your customers not ‘to’ your customers.

Guys please. We know it. And since all people attending the festival was talking the same thing- why do we all tell the same thing to each other?

But in all fairness- everyone had their own way of telling their own stories- I had fun learning from some of the sessions and meeting industry veterans. And yes- clicking photos with my college time advertising heroes- like Piyush Pandey.

Some highlights of the festival (not in any order):

• Quote from Rob Campbell- A panelist at one of the sessions, advertising blogger and runs ‘Sunshine’. Was also blogging for the media magazine. One of the better quotes I have seen- you can read the full story of the ‘angry Rob’ here
  • …and putting a TVC on the web is NOT digital … it’s called putting a TVC on the web
• Prasoon Joshi (eminent advertising personality- McCann Ericksson Exec Chairman and Regional ECD APAC; and more importantly, one of my favorite songwriters)
  • IN 2008- at AdTech in Singapore- On being asked about the Social Media phenomenon: “…just because you give a mike to everyone does not mean Karaoke can replace professional singing”
  • In 2009- at Spikes Asia in Singapore- “Consumers are changing the way we create ads. They are creating content themselves and want us to engage with them…”
  • Of course this is not verbatim- nor to portray anything else but the fact that this phenomeon is resonating at the pinnacle of creative decision makers
  • Another one: The west’s ideas of creativity are now tired. This is a new wave where Asian Creativity will come to the fore with its vibrancy, colors and unique nuances.

• “…concepts should not start from Ideas- they should start from people and insights into their behavior and motivations”
• Ahem.

• Microsoft: After half an hour of discussing “How you should have a dialogue with the consumers and not just show ads to people”, they showed a nice ad on “Microsoft’s vision of future” to a captive audience.

• David Droga:Founder, Creative Chairman -Droga5- and one of the world’s most awarded creatives
  • “…I made advertising as a career because of one incident. I was having a heated one hour discussion with a client on a creative idea. Suddenly, I elevated myself from the conversation and pondered over what were we arguing about. I was explaining a radio spot were a banana was talking- and the client did not agree with the voice of the banana. And I thought to myself- what a wonderful industry this is. I am getting paid to convince someone about how a banana sounds. And the rest is history…”

• Frederic Haaren, Founder- interesting.org:
  • “No idea is original. All ideas are a combination of two or more than two previous ideas/innovations”
  • Difficult to argue. But me thinks there is something more in here. Need to research more.

• Thomas Kim: Creative Director,Global Creative Team, Cheil Worldwide
  • Digital Storytelling is different from analogue storytelling in three ways:
    • First, it doesn’t just provide product information, but also creates a brand story.
    • Second, if analogue storytelling is a closed structure requiring linear thought, digital storytelling is more like an open structure that resembles the infinity symbol.
    • Third, the storyteller should be a “show host”, not just a myth maker

This is getting such a specialist oriented industry. Like every other industry. Kodak stall promoting “Films” rather than digital photography and Massive Music promoting custom music with the right mood for an ad film- and using music as a marketing medium (Sonic Marketing) were far ahead niche than “in-game advertising” concepts.

After all this ranting, I have probably screwed all my chances of ever getting a job in advertising. (Oh! The pain).

But really, it was wonderful as ever watching these geniuses and interacting with them. At the pinaccle of their careers and decision makers to the most creative works in the world- they are unassuming, humble, full of humor and every bit worth looking up to.

What I really really missed was :

Attending Neil French’s (considered one of the pioneers of advertising in Asia)session and Sir Ken Robinson’s (renowned champion of creativity and innovation and author of “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything”) session.

Sorry Rob- you could say- et tu…

You can see the photostream and some ads from the event on my Flickr here.

Shalabh Pandey (@shalabhpandey)

A quick peep into the first day at Spikes Asia in Singapore Day1- with some images and some short points :

• The goodie bag: The bag itself was of good quality- and rather than a polythene bag- they gave a proper sling type bag which was good. Some stuff inside was crap, as is usually the case. That makes one wonder- what were these companies thinking? They had one opportunity to market to the smartest creative brains in the region- and they probably blew it off. But some others were quite cool as well. Like Ogilvy with a Smirnoff miniature- with an invite to their after festival party.
• What is an idea? Workshop by Frederic Haaren of Interesting.org: I have covered Frederic earlier- and it was a good chance to meet him and see him in person. Good session but as it started getting a bit heated, I had to leave to catch on to something. I contributed or rather stirred the discussion in the room by choosing the debate on the formula of
  • X ideas=p(k+i) i.e. Number of ideas equals number of people multiplied by the knowledge they have and the information they have access to.

• Digital Storytelling in Korea:Interesting examples from Korea on digital Storytelling. Though examples from Nike Women were around the creative rendition of “Impossible is nothing” the one I really liked was the Digital interactive commercial (again from Nike women)- where a digital diplay outside a showroom is placed. A celebrity (I think Tae-Hee Kim) is shown doing exercises. When someone comes and touches the screen with their palm- the celebrity suddenly walks over- in the video and touches the screen thus establishing a physical connect with the person. It is a great concept (winning has the same feeling as love- or something like that) and is extremely scalable. Also the cool factor makes people talk about it- which is one of the main purpose. Quite engaging marketing.

Koreans do some cool work across the Digital mediums and one does not get to see or hear much of it. So quite cool to get this stuff.

• Bands, Brands and Fans: Use of music in marketing: Another workshop- this time on the use of music in commercials and how brands could make use of it. Conducted by Diederik van Middelkoop of Massive Music and Archie Hamilton of Split works. The ads shown were way cool- the only problem was the programme became less of a workshop and more of a company creds sales presentation. Considering their target audience was right there- they did pull of a coup. And because it was on music everyone seemed to be enjoying it as well.
  • I have myself done some music based brand marketing- with conceptualizing, writing, composing and singing a musical piece for a brand a few years ago. Posted it here and here. Ahead of times?

Two cool slides on Music in Advertising:

Research on Asian consumers and music consumption habits:

• Panel discussion on the vision of future: I took the photos in a cool wide angle with Sepia tone- and they came out really well. On the discussion, well let us say- what was substantiated- was what everyone is saying nowadays- engage your customers and think customers before your interests.

The panelists: Left to right: Richard Dunmall from Microsoft. Rob Campbell from Sunshine, Ashutosh Srivastava from Mindshare APAC and Anna Kirah from Kirah Consulting

Anna Kirah from Kirah consulting, who is also an anthropologist, had a small session- where she spoke on, well, how you should not focus on what you want- rather what the customer wants.

Want some more? I could post some interesting ads from the festival. Ping me.

@shalabhpandey on Twitter or shalabhpandey at gmail or facebook.com/shalabhpandey

Got my hands on this book- aptly called The Idea Book . Probably my first book review on ChasingTheStorm and an apt way to start a category considering this blog is also about Ideas and memes. Also, I am pleasantly surprised at the fact that I already practice a lot that is there in the book. Starting with documenting my ideas in a notebook- which has been a habit since childhood.

I do read a lot of books- albeit with my fragmented attention span- I usually take more time than others to finish them. And sometimes I read more than one book at a time. Will soon start listening to ebooks heavily- is what my guess is- they are more portable and handy while traveling. That is after I decide on which portable device to buy for that purpose.

The Idea Book is exactly that- a book on inspiring ideas and anecdotal evidences. You can visit the official page here.

Written by Fredrik Haren of Interesting.org and generously sent to me by Bastian Doehling- the book’s tagline says it all-

150 pages about ideas and 150 empty pages to write your own ideas.

The book is about being inspired and encourages you to write down your ideas. Inside the book.

Now one thing that is great about this book is – you don’t need to start it and finish it at one go. It works even if continuity is not maintained. Because it does not read like a story.

Read it, get inspired- jot down thoughts and do it all over again.

If you want to have a flavor of the book, a preview is available here.

Some of my favorite quotes/anecdotes from the book:

• Eat this: Edison had an Idea quota. A minor invention every 10 days and a major invention every 6 months!
• Have the courage to invent new words in order to invent new ideas. Now this is something that comes intrinsically to me. Read more of this blog to know what words have I invented
• High technology obeys the iron law of revolution. The more you change. you have to be willing to accept the fact that in this game the rules keep changing. (Bill Joy): So true of the industry I represent.
• Philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point however, is to change it. (Marx): ChasingTheStorm?
• I’m sure you have ‘intelligent’ people in your companies. The kinds that shoot down ideas and enthusiasm effectively by pointing what would not work. 2 quotes:
  • Every Fool can see what is wrong. See what is good in it (Churchill)
  • Imagination is more important than knowledge. (Einstein)
• There is a natural opposition to anything they havent thought of themselves (Barnes Walles; Page 97; The Idea book)
• If you don’t tell me how tall your house is, I’ll beat you to death with my barometer… (Ask me about this story)
• Everything that can be invented- has been invented (1899); Heavier than air flying machines are impossible (1895)
• Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over…(1931, Lincoln Steffens): In contrast to the previous quote, this is so true of the new world order that beckons us post the downturn
  

And many many more such gems. Already spent enough time and hopefully inspired you a bit in the process.

Now my part on suggestions for the book. Some thoughts on how could the book be more innovative:

• The book has inspiration and pages to jot down ideas. But what is missing- is a writing instrument. What would be really cool is -an innovative pen with the book- maybe one hanging with the bookmark thread. People end up reading books while traveling and- in case you get inspired, you need to have that pen around.

• Another more innovative way could be- have a carbon paper over each empty page- so you don’t even need a pen or pencil- any object (including finger tips!) would do for a quick jot down of ideas in that moment of inspiration. Very useful for those who get ideas in the bathroom

• Also, from a user experience perspective- I think the empty pages could be clubbed together. Helps in better continuity of ideas if they overflow from one page to the other and dives into the reader psychology. As of now each article is followed by a few empty pages- which makes it looks like there is an ‘exercise’ to do after each chapter in a text book (though it is not so)

They have a contest on the site- where people could submit photos with the book- and there are prizes to be won every week .

Meanwhile, I leave you with this TED talk as an apt way to end this post. Enjoy!

And let me know if you need some inspiring quotations. I am armed.

Cheers

Shalabh (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

Note: The link to buy from Amazon has my Associates ID