Continue reading »]]> We are all coloured people, no matter what shade of skin we sport. Yes? or No? This is a debate playing out in my mind for quite some time now, and no, I am not talking about evil racism or issues of ethnicity!

I am talking about how our past experiences colour our thinking, and the way we deal with our present and our future.

I am wondering whether the journey we have traveled so far, actually strips us of “clarity of thought” and “real objectivity”, and influences our perspectives and interactions in the road ahead.

There is a school of thought, that strongly believes that the actions and reactions of people, is coloured by their history, their geography, their past lives, and most importantly their upbringing and the way their mothers were and the way they dealt with them.

This past of course, includes childhood memories, securities/insecurities, family finances, education or lack of it, youth, surroundings, peers and other influencers, first job, first boss, ex girlfriend, bossy neighbors… everything.

Yes, of course this is true! I whole heartedly agree with this thinking that our present is a summary of our past. And that the way we will deal with the future, depends upon what we learn’t in the past.

But wait a minute… is that really bad?? Does the fact that we may not be starting out on a clean slate of life, take away our ability to think straight, make correct decisions, and do the right thing?

And who decides which perspective is coloured and which is not?

Like a wise man once said “let the one who has never sinned, cast the first stone!” And the truth is, there’s not a single person on this earth, who can claim to be ‘not coloured by his or her past’.

Because, the learnings from our past, are actually what we commonly call “experience”?

So the questions really is, where does Experience cross the line, and become Negative Bias

To my mind, the crux of the matter lies in “intent”.

Where the intent is good, the perspective is uncoloured. People with ‘mutual good’ intrinsic to their intent, cannot be called coloured people in the negative sense.

But where the intent is laced with an agenda to deceive, manipulate or influence for selfish one-sided gain, it becomes a negative bias.

So the question to ask yourself when faced with a seemingly “colourful” situation is “can I trust the person? what is the intent? is it self serving, or mutually beneficial?”

If your answer is yes, you can trust the other person, because you do not believe the person would want to harm you, or cheat you out of the truth and mutual benefit – firstly, congratulations, because such people are rare to find, so hold on to them.

Then the question is, if you know the intent is good, but the issue is contentious, what do you do?

Again, the answer is simple, and a very important thing to do in relationships:
Separate the individual, from the issue at hand.

Yes, good people sometimes have crazy thoughts and can also do bad things. This doesn’t necessarily make them bad.

You need to target the issue, not the person involved in it.

Because if you don’t, you yourself run the risk of being coloured in your reactions and interactions. Because your own intent will be to challenge the person you trust, rather than the issue they’re raising!

In summary, yes, we are all coloured people. And the colour we carry, is what makes us human, and enriches us with experiences that make life beautiful and exciting.

Colour is what adds life, to what would otherwise be a boring, clinical, and black ‘n white existence.

So wear your colour proudly. And of course, share it wisely!

Continue reading »]]> Today someone forwarded me the following text, on my BBM (that’s short for Blackberry Messenger, for those not from this planet). It’s insightful, and makes people laugh ~ especially the die-hard Crackberrys!

How BBmessenger Has Changed Us:
~ This is sooo truee!!

• You check your phone before you even wake up
• Ignoring people has become your forte
• Living alone is no longer lonely
• You wake up from a long night partying with no memory but hey it’s okay! Your bbm has a record of what happened because
• you wrote to someone every time you did something stupid
• You now have typing as a skill on your CV
• No need for a high school reunion because even your second grade maths teacher is on your list
• Everyone’s a comedian all of a sudden
• Your thumbs developed new muscles!
• You now have a BBM boyfriend/girlfriend  to add to the list
• No one has time for you yet they can update their status every 3 mins
• Your social life just became a lot more social‎
• When your battery runs out you’ll sell your liver for a charger, heck you’ll even help them cut it out
• It is no longer necessary to read the newspaper or watch the news, they just can’t keep up
• Gossip travels at the speed of type
• You know every time someones taking a shit or feels like shit because regular status updates are a must
• Your legs go numb or your back starts hurting cause you’ve been sitting in the same exact position for so long BBM’ing
• You anciently laugh out loud in public
• AND facebook no longer seems so important! Who would have thought?

It’s a BB world now…:)=)) =D
Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone

Okay, so that’s the fun part, insightful and being forwarded and shared via BBM even as we speak. However, I am not here to praise and laugh. Rather, I am here to play spoil sport, and ask some uncomfortable questions, point out some very obvious negatives of BBM’ing..!

Here’s my “How BBMessenger Has Really Screwed Us” or BBM truths you need to know!
~ This is sooo true

• You are constantly checking your phone, and not allowing yourself to relax
• You have a misplaced sense of urgency that forces you to respond to BBM no matter what you are doing or where you are
• BBM’ing when in company is as bad as talking on the phone when in company
• People are not interested in talking to the top of your head
• We now know that the incessant buzzing in our ears, is not a house fly, but someone BBM’ing in the vicinity
• Accidentally laughing out loud in public is not cute or funny after the first couple of times
• You can spot the real losers in your life by the amount of time they have, to BBM you, especially during work hours on weekdays!

There you have it – my issues with BBM. But don’t get me wrong, I am not trashing the technology. Because technology is only as good or bad as the people who use it – or misuse it!

So BBM this if you like, to all on your list, and even “conference” it. See who smiles and agrees; see who whacks you and loses “contact” with you!

Related Post: From Mike LaMonica’s Blog ~ Would You Answer a Text During Sex?

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Yes, Sure! I can talk to you anytime!

It’s amazing how this basic courtesy has all but disappeared in the world of mobile phones today. The courtesy of checking whether the person they’ve called, has nothing else to do, but to talk whenever the callers wants to. And god forbid, if you don’t take the call because you are busy, they will call back again and again until you click the green phone icon on your handset. Their assumption is, that if you are carrying a hand phone, you are doing nothing but just waiting to respond and chat with whoever, whenever they call!

Or is it not about you waiting with bated breath to answer calls, but about the self centered, self important delusion many people today strut around with? People – acquaintances, parents of your kids classmates, clients – they all naturally exude the irritating quality perfected by pesky telemarketers, and jump right into what they have to say, the moment they confirm it is you on the line “Hi Nosh, this is Soandso Whatever… what I wanted to say is that blah blah blah…”

And this can happen in the middle of a working day, early morning, sometimes even late at night! I have clients who call persistently at a certain time every morning, just to check if I have received their email sent half an hour back. I have clients who call at eight thirty every evening, after they’re done with their day, and are driving home so decided to dump all their questions and stuff they forgot to input during the day..! I have moms who call me ten times in the middle of the day, to make plans for our sons to get together and play (No Arati, I don’t mean you… I love your polite SMS, and other moms who insist on speaking should learn from you)

Interestingly, this problem is acute with junior people, and restricted to senior people, who despite their fancy designations are just “pappoos” in their organisations. They are like horses that shoot out of the starting gate, charging ahead, with blinkers on not looking left or right, just obsessed with their goal – which in this case is saying their piece irrespective of what the other person is doing!

Thankfully, senior or really important people in life and their own business, and even in the relationship, have the courtesy to check if you have the time to “talk right now“. I guess only these people, who actually do some serious work and value their own time, recognise that others too would need the same courtesy and respect as they do. And I can say this without exception – my biggest clients check if I am free without exception, even during the most urgent times and biggest issues… while the little ones are the most annoying!

So here are my tips for those who don’t recognise the value of the other people’s time:

1. Hi, Can you talk right now? Should always be your first question, no matter how important you think you are, and no matter what time of day you are calling.

2. Rediscover SMS. If the person doesn’t answer the phone, send them an SMS, don’t go redial crazy! If you insist on speaking despite the person not answering to your 7 calls in 3 minutes, please take the effort to text what you want to say, and if it is really important, the other person will respond via text, or even call back!

3. Have phone will talk is not an adage. It is a delusion of empty minds. The mobile phone is for mutual convenience, not self importance. Also phones have SMS, many now even have email. You’ve paid a lot of money for the handset. Use these other features as well.

Finally, if you’re in my phone book, and are reading this and thinking I am accusing you particularly, you are right. I am. And if you have a problem with that, call me anytime. You will? See I told you!

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Having read and heard all the hype around Walmart’s cash and carry route into the Indian market with Bharti, two colleagues and I decided to check out their spanking new Best Price outlet at village Paragpur on NH1 between Jalandhar and Phagwara in Punjab.

It is a large swanky building with huge branding that prominently displays the word “Wholesale” – which has not deterred hordes of families trooping in for some “new kind of mall” experience (Viva Collage mall is next door). A “wholesale cash n carry” concept is alien out here (oye!! ay ki hai??)

Of course, they, and we, are stopped at the entrance, saying we need a Membership Card to get in. Turns out, Membership is only available if you are a retailer, which means you have to show certain documents (Sales Tax, Registration, etc) before you can enter the mother ship, and take off with goodies at wholesale prices, to further sell them to customers at retail prices, keeping your margin, and paying up the requisite taxes to the government.

Hmm. The only claim to being a retailer I can make, is the fact that my grandfather and his father before that, owned one of the largest retail outfits in north India way back in the early 1900s. So we did the next best thing we could do as good Indians – we made some calls and tada – we were inside in ten minutes!

Now the place is massive by Indian standards, but puny by international standards of even malls and places like Ikea. But the products and prices on offer were very impressive. From a considerable thousands of rupees on air-conditioners and shoes (yep, thousands on shoes!) to a few hundreds on everything, including good brands of shirts. I was of course, disappointed by the tiny margins on my favorite Gillette Mach 3 razor blades.

But hey, who am I kidding – our contacts may have got us inside, but they couldn’t get us to be able to shop

But that was not the case with the other Pappaji, Mummiji, and chota Pintu and Montu who were inside – with Membership Cards. They were all around the place, as were other aunties with bachchas, buying a jhadu, one pair of shoes, some tee shirts, and of course, sabzis.

Funny, out of the hundred odd people in the place, no one seemed to be really buying “whole sale”. They seemed to be just treating themselves to “great products at great bargain prices” without the bargaining!

Unless they were just buying “samples” and would come back later and pick up 5000 jhadus and 2 quintals of tamatar.

Trick or treat, only time will tell.

But at the time of exiting the place I noticed our parking ticket serial number was 648, and the parking attendant clarified it started at 001 with the opening the day before.

On a busy highway in the heart of vibrant Punjab, is that a good figure for visitors on day 1 & 2? Go figure.

PS: Noshtradamus has nothing to do with Bharti Walmart or Best Price. We are neither their representatives, consultants, pr, advertising, digital or any kind of communication agency. Nor are we their help desk. So we cannot answer any questions related to them, their operations, or anything else to do with them. To know more about them, I suggest you look here.

Continue reading »]]> hello anusha remember me?

say hi to your hubby… i knew him too, once. and he’s next on my ‘add’ list

Continue reading »]]> It’s been three whole months since I wrote my last post. During this time, I was busy, and then I was on holiday While I might not have been writing, I have been watching. I have been watching everything that’s going on around us in our world, and in the advertising n marketing world in particular. And I am sure, that’s what you have seen too.

Here’s a summary, in no particular order:

We have seen Indian agencies, led by JWT rock Cannes with brilliant work (it is real work, for a real people)! And we have seen that McDonald’s India continues to turn out crap in the name of advertising (the obnoxious, dum-witted TVC with the “flight attendant mangta kya” reaches a previously unimaginable low in creativity and sensibility!) 

We have seen the first chance of having a woman as President of the US, fading to the first chance of having a black man as President of the United States (note: this is positive+positive)

We have seen retrograde communist ideology (ego?) come in the way of Indian nuclear (and other forms) progress, even if it means bringing down the government! And we have seen supposedly retrograde politicians come to the rescue of the same nuclear and other agreements.

We have proudly watched Indian companies take over international big names like Land Rover and Jaguar… And we have been saddened to see an Indian company sell out to the Japanese.

• We have seen Indians fight for equality and honour all over the world… and we have seen Indians fight among themselves over communal issues, and for lowered, reserved status in our own country.
• We have seen women doing well in day to day life, and in the corporate world. Yet we continue to hear of sexual harassment of women by men all around, and in the corporate world.

• We have been held ransom by politicians and mobs in the form of mindless protests and bandhs over subjective issues like “cultural sensitivity” and “hurting sentiments”. We have seen the same politicians and mobs turn a blind eye to real, criminals cases and unequivocal violations of human rights.

We have seen a the wonderful sport called cricket, turn into pure entertainment, for 40 packed nights. We have seen the same entertainment interrupted and blacked out by intrusive and disturbing ads in every broadcast.

• We have seen the arrival of the National Creative Directors and Executive Creative Directors. But we are still to see the arrival of one decent professional training program for people in ad agencies.

• We have seen the internet and mobile world explode with new ideas, technologies and forms of entertainment. Yet the only “new media innovations” we from most brands are “a website!” and “a website”!!

“We have seen lots of lists like this… but not in the middle of the year…

(to be continued… perhaps)

Continue reading »]]> As I was writing the post below, it suddenly struck me how I automatically used the terms “Agency Heads” and “Corporate Leaders”.

I then realised that they’re part of common parlance, and how we in the advertising and marketing business, including related media, address the people at the top of their respective entities.

So Agency CEOs are just “heads” and not “leaders”?And Client CEOs are “leaders” not “heads”?

Are we subliminally saying ad agency CEOs rise to the top, but then sit back while someone else does the leading? Or worse (shudder) agencies are actually leaderless and their work and culture is dictated by clients?

Which brings me to client CEOs. Are we subliminally saying that they may be leading the team, but they’re not necessarily the head of the company..?The real head (or line manager) is someone sitting in Hong Kong, Singapore, London or New York?

Heh, heh… don’t take me too seriously… just think about it

Continue reading »]]> As Finance Minister P. Chidambaram revealed the Budget 2008 in the Indian Parliament yesterday, an expected lot of reactions were heard from politicians all around. Without naming names, here’s some of the key comments and a tongue-in-cheek take on what they really mean:

When they say:
It’s a populist budget, aimed at the elections
What they really mean:
Damn. It’s a good budget, and they’ve screwed our chances at the next elections!

When they say:
It’s against the people
What they really mean:
It’s against the people in our party

When they say:
It’s against the common man
What they really mean:
Damn. It will help the common man rise above the common. Hard work will actually get rewarded.  And people will no longer get government sops and goodies by just shouting and protesting!

When they say:
Too little, too late.
What they really mean:
Wow. I never thought they’d do it. Now I’ll have to find another argument against them.

More later…

Note: I fully endorse this budget. I am glad there’s focus on the core of issues. I am glad that people will have more disposable income. I am glad cigarettes will be more expensive. I am glad that it is a budget for progress, even though it sounds like one for politics. After all, if I have more money in my bank, and cheaper stuff to buy on shop shelves – who am I to complain?!

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Someone invented “Email Delivery Reports” and “Return Receipts” for a reason. And for good reason, I must say.

These two little gems use technology to eliminate the uncertainty of “did he get my mail…?”, or “should i call her and find out if she knows when we’re meeting..?”.

They are the technology equivalent of common courtesy we (hopefully) extend in real life by saying “I hear you, I will get back to you shortly”.

Yet I find a lot of people pulling the plug on this gem of a feature in our emails – either by blanket ban of “Do not ask me about sending return receipts” or worse exercising the option of “Allow me to choose/Ask me before sending”

This I believe is extremely rude, and usually covers up a deception prompted by either inefficiency, laziness, or pure evil intent. Because the moment the “Delivery Report” goes out, the person on the other side has put the ball in you court – and you don’t want/cannot handle the ball! (besides of course, you cannot delete the email and later say, “really? I didn’t get your mail..!”)

I did a quick dipstick with my Inbox, and checked with a couple of friends and associates. This is what I found:

1. Most senior people send Delivery Reports and Read Receipts!

Amazingly, almost all people at CEO level have no qualms in sending out these common courtesies, and have it on “Always Send” mode.

Which goes to show they recognise their responsibilities as well as decency, knowing fully well that if they take time to respond the other person will understand that they’re busy, and may require a reminder!

2. Middle Management people are selective about their reports

Interestingly, the people who are supposed to be on the job all the time, and are at the front end of communication are least interested in common courtesy, and are afraid to acknowledge that the ball is now in their court!

In my experience, this bunch includes people who have little or no say on the matter contained in the email, and are usually conduits to senior people and larger tasks!

3. Friends almost always send Read Receipts

This is true among all those I know and with people in my peer group. Friends always get the courtesy of “hey, i got it… i’ll reply when i can!” (except of course, if they’ve got the automatic option turned off for “official reasons”)

4. Self important, pompous as****es will always yank your chain!

This applies across the board of senior, middle and junior management, as well as among friends’ circles! They’re usually the people who in real life are always playing games, doing wrong things, not doing things right. Ironically, they are people you’d rather email from afar, than actually speak or connect with in person!

With these folk, connect at your own peril and uncertainty!

In the end all I’d like to say is this – extending common courtesy in today’s day and age, especially in a professional relationship is not an option, it’s a given. And if you don’t extend it, you’re only exposing yourself as weak or devious.

…you read me..? 

Continue reading »]]> Last week I was putting together an online campaign for a client of mine. And during the course of this, I engaged with a couple of pretty large firms specialising in “Search Engine Marketing” or “SEM”.

Five minutes into conversations with the folks at these companies, I got the feeling that everything they did in SEM, involved Google and only Google. A bit surprised and thinking I was nuts, I probed further asking ‘so what else would you do, besides covering Google?’

Amazingly as I had suspected, they didn’t offer anything more than Google. Google Adwords was what they’d use… something which I or anyone could, if you logged into the relevant place on google and signed on with a credit card!

‘We also monitor it for you…’ one of the SEM firm reps told me sensing my surprise. ‘Yeah right, I thought, you’ll just send me the reports which google sends you and call that monitoring?’.

This got me thinking, and it got me worried.

Admittedly Google is the biggest force in SEM in the world today. And optimising your site for Google, is like taking out a life insurance on your online campaign. But does it make sense for companies to put all their eggs in one basket… that too, blindly as these folk were suggesting?

I decided to probe a bit further and remembered a book I’d bought a couple of months back and hadn’t got down to finishing – “The Search“ by John Battelle. The book is about How Google and its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

I pulled it off my bookshelf and flipped open a page, like I always do, as if looking for a sign or a celestine hint... and unbelievably, there was the sign – on Page 155!

Google Giveth, Google Taketh Away said the subhead, in the chapter called The Search Economy.

The section went on to describe how way back in 1999, a gentleman named Moncrief built a huge business from nothing, simply by selling his products online, and by optimising his site for Google’s search engine. Then one morning in 2003, just before the big holiday season when his sales would peak, he woke up to find his business wasn’t showing up on Google anywhere!!

It later turned out, in order to foil search engine spammers Google frequently tweaked its search engine algorithms. And while doing away with illegal search engine spamming, unfortunately the change in the algorithm also swept Moncrief’s business out of the Google search results!

To cut a long story short, in order to get back into Google search results, Moncrief ended up buying ads on Google, as against the free ride he was getting through top results in natural organic searches. But by the time he was back up and running, his main business season was over and his business took a big hit.

Now this may have happened four years back, and we’re today better equipped to handle the unpredictability of the internet, the key message I got was this - when you put ‘your everything’ into the capable hands of the world’s best, you are also leaving ‘your everything’ to its mercy.

If tomorrow it decides to rock the boat by changing the way it operates, will we be ready and equipped to manage the change? And do we  have other options which we can turn to?

I believe while we all work hard to optimise our sites brilliantly, and pay good money for our brands to show up alongside organic searches and in the right context, we also need to think really hard about other options.

Even though we may never ever use them.