Idea (the telecom arm of Aditya Birla Group), has decided to go digital with its successful “Use mobile, save paper” campaign. The campaign which spreads awareness about our exhausting environment has become a hit amongst all age-groups. The brand has tied up with Tribal DDB India to create buzz in the digital space.

Dinesh Swamy, associate creative director, Tribal DDB India said, “Idea wanted to broaden the campaign in the digital space with a fresh look and feel. Hence was born www.usemobilesavepaper.in – an entity that merged the physical and virtual world. The creation became a perfect blend of idea, art and technology.”

The campaign revolves around nurturing a seed into a fully grown tree. An individual after registering would receive a virtual seed, which has to be nurtured. This has to be done by spreading more awareness about the campaign via free SMSes that can be sent from the website and sharing the site with friends. A user with maximum no. of trees would be eligible to win BlackBerry phones every day.

Max Hegerman, president, Tribal DDB India added, “Our challenge was to create an online design that would spread the message and create memorable experiences for the users. The numbers suggest that within 20 days of the campaign, more than 8 million people have visited the site and a whopping 13.3 million SMSes have been sent via the website.”

Earlier, the brand had also tied up with Barista and Café Coffee Day to spread the word for its green campaign through a mobile application. The app would allow people to download the menu card and bill on their mobile phones, eliminating paper-based menus and bills.

Have to say, “What an Idea, Sirjee?”

Digital Direction, RK Swamy BBDO’s digital arm has been on a winning spree since the last three months. The agency has bagged more than 15 accounts in its kitty.

The digital agency has partnered with brands like Basecamp, GPI, Hamdard Safi, Hindustan Times, HT Mint, Karvy Private Wealth, LIC Endowment campaign, Mercedes C Class launch, Mercedes E class launch, Mercedes Auto Expo, Raffels, Ranbaxy Revital, Raymond Corporate Wear, SBI Car Loans, SBI savings, Shriram Finance, and Siemens Awareness Campaign.

Saurav Chakraborty, GM, Digital Direction, spoke about the growth of the agency, “Growth in terms of billings is directly proportional to the scope of work discussed with the client. If clients continue to see digital media as a ‘banner pasting platform’, business will remain pretty static and linear.”

He further added, “The need of the hour is to use the ‘BPI approach’ (branding/ performance/ innovation) across all digital campaigns. This ensures ‘Awareness’, ‘Engagement’ and ‘Participation’ among the target audience, and makes the campaign a runaway success. In the last two years, Digital Direction has done many contextual campaigns creating platforms/ content plugs/ interaction touch points for Siemens, SBI Bank, LIC, L&T Mutual Funds, Pedigree, Karvy Private Wealth, and that is what is fueling our growth. Talking in terms of pure numbers, Digital Direction has seen an 80 per cent growth in terms of billing between FY09 and FY10 and we are not in a mood to slow down the drive.”

“Digital media in India today is clearly an amalgamation of ‘Internet’, ‘Mobile’ and ‘Social Media’. While banners (especially Rich Media) can act as good enticers to a campaign, it is the micro site where the audience spends most of his/ her time interacting, submitting, uploading and tagging. With mobile penetration and social media growing a breakneck speed, the immediate future will see every digital plan containing applications, SMS 2.0, Bluetooth marketing and video advertising in a big way. What we are trying is to surf through this new big wave and reap the benefits.” concluded Chakraborty.

Digital Direction offers services such as the development of digital media strategies, integration of offline and online media, audience tracking on online media, initiatives for online customer dialogues, planning and buying and also the creation of online media properties.

India is my (reluctant) country. I love my country (much less than I love western ones) and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage (but just not enough that) I shall always strive to be worthy of it. I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders respect and treat everyone with courtesy (if they all speak in English). To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion (but I might as well fly away if I get better prospects abroad). In their well being and prosperity alone lies my happiness (…not).

That’s the Gen Next’s pledge. And therein lies the essence of this article. We are Indians just for the namesake. In reality, we are on the verge of becoming Un-Indians.

The problem with us Indians is that mostly, we are a bunch of foolish wannabes and hypocrites. And if not wannabes, we are ones with just one track mind. Fit in a particular stuff inside our mind and bang, we start aping it many-a-time mindlessly. Another problem- we are obsessed with the west.

Okay, I am no Shri Ram Sene or Shiv Sena activist. All I am saying is we have this mentality of wanting to forget our culture, our own good points and ape the firangs. Why? Because that’s what is supposed to be ‘cool’. “English is in man.” We take pride in talking English, walking English at the cost of forgetting our own languages, our own culture.
Let me start bit by bit.

Childhood:

It starts with the parents. Some are from not so prosperous background. They want their kids to learn English because “That’s how the world works, beta. You know English, you can do anything. You can blend with the “high society” people and be respected.” Why, are our Indian languages inferior? And how exactly do you define high society? Ones who go to pubs, blow their father’s money on smokes n drinks, sleep with girls don’t remember their face next dawn? Others, who are from the rich families, for them, English is the way of life. They’ll talk to their kids in English all the time, just to show ‘we compose the high society people’.

School days:

Mostly, all are enrolled in English medium. No objection with that. They make you talk English in class. No problems there either. But what’s with you wanting us to speak English in corridors, in lunch breaks, while we board our buses and punishing if found talking in regional languages? Don’t you think that it might stifle the expression of some not-so-fluent-in-English students? Its not that every student coming out of such schools goes on to become a Stephen King. We do this at the cost of Indian languages and then, we celebrate this ‘Hindi Day’ in our own country.

Interaction with friends:

In the peer group, an English song listening, an ardent Hollywood watcher gets looked up to.
“Hey have you seen the recent SRK…”
“You watch SRK? Are you retarded? Where does he stand before the legends of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.”
Firstly, you wannabe, these are not legends. Secondly, SRK is as great as any of these. Perhaps, even better. I don’t think Tom n Brad can dance around trees.
Dr. Jean Folkerts, professor of honors and of media and public affairs at George Washington University, writes in his book The Media In Your Life-
“The Indian film industry is known to produce cheap, low quality films. However, recently, an Indian filmmaker decided to compete with Hollywood in production quality. Devdas cost $11 million.”
What right do these people have of inciting us and stripping Indian film industry naked? Low budget is equivalent to low quality? Ironically, this person is a well renowned Professor.

Music:

Again you see conversations of Linkin Park, Green Day and Akon abound. I remember a conversation that my friend had with another wannabe.
My friend (MF): Hey, what songs do you listen to?
Wannabe Friend (WF): Ah, mostly English.
MF (interested): Oh yeah? Which ones?
WF: Hmm. You know Celine Dion?
MF: Uh, ya, duh.
WF: My heart will go on. That one.
This was year 2008.
Do you not see? MF is an ardent English listener. That’s his taste, so no qualms about that. But just so that he can ‘match to MF’s ‘standards’, the WF made a complete fool of himself. Why people, why do you have to do that? Why be embarrassed if you don’t listen to English? Is it a crime?

Apparel:

Ask a random person to dish out some of his dream brand names. High probability is he’ll churn out Adidas, Reebok, Levi’s as his dream list. Ask him name of an Indian brand, more often than not, he’ll be clueless. Tell him about Tantra tees and he’ll start wondering when this brand came into existence.
Now, ‘Fashion @ Big Bazaar’ is quite famous thanks to its smart marketing. What’s more, it’s Indian too. Quality wise, I haven’t had a reason to complain and price-wise I have had every reason to rejoice. But no, the brand followers wanna hit you there too. “Big bazaar? Dude, that’s for beggars.” Just because I mind spending 2000 bucks on a shirt which I can more fruitfully spend on, well, even fruits, I become a cheapo? Adidas and Nike come to India, demand prices that would make your eyebrows touch your hairline and we are willing to pay. Tell you what, its not always good quality. I recently bought a red Adidas tee and even after washing thrice, it’s still reddening the wash-water.

Literature:

Another illustration using a conversation I had with a friend:
Me: Why don’t you read any Indian authors?
Him: WTF men? What good do you think can come out of those morons? What can they write about? Corruption, poverty, how India sucks, that’s it na?
A sigh at the ignorance. Ever heard of R K Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Arundhati Roy?
Me: Let me start the dissuading process. Take for instance the pop literature, say, Chetan Bhagat.
Him: No, thank you. His’ is pulp fiction. No standards at all, that guy has. I’ve seen the film Hello.
Me: Oh no, the movie sucks…
Him: And so does Bhagat.
Turned out, he hasn’t read Bhagat’s best and the only best- Five Point Someone. Now anyone who likes Dil Chahta Hai loves FPS too. In fact, the book is likened to FPS.
Turned out, this guy loved Dil Chahta Hai!

You see, there are 2 kinds of people in such contexts. I’ll go back to the movies:

1. People who find West cool but know they are not the West. This is the earlier stage, the most curable one but the most irritating too. They’ll pretend they are omniscient on their knowledge and boast of knowing English movies. They’ll want to hate Indian movies or maybe they’ll want to make a show of it.

2. Morons who stick themselves just to the West whether movies. These people already hate Indian stuff. And why? “Because all Bollywood has is running around trees.” I say, show me one movie which had such scene in last 5 years. And I mean good movies only because you apparently respect Hollywood because of its content. But Hollywood has its share of tripe too. It’s just that they never see the Indian sun.

Music:

A wannabe’s opinion- “Indian songs are all mushy and romantic shit.” Oh ya? Avril is a big stud girl, isn’t she? And what about The Fray, Pussycat Dolls, Snow Patrol…I can go on and on.

Next whine on the Indian media. Let’s take a look at a youth channel. Take MTV. What do you find? It has crossed Hinglish. Its now Henglish. Why the change? Coz ‘Henglish’ has 1 letters standing for Hindi. That’s the % of Hindi they use on their shows. I might be exaggerating but take an excerpt from the show Rock On.
VJ: So guys, are you ready? Chalo then, lets begin.
That is how goes Hindi in such shows, complete with an accent. What’s sad is on this show, genuine musicians from all over the country are featured. Some are bumpkins but they are treated to firang VJ.

A disclaimer here. I am not at all averse to English or western culture. Biggest example- this article is in English. A chunk of my own conversation is in English. I like English music and movies. Hollywood has plenty of originality and you have to give them for that. It has plenty of its merits. My problem- aping it without applying mind, maligning Indians and Indian culture just because it doesn’t consist a pop culture, how does that make sense? You are in fact deriding your own value. Wake up, people. Its high time.

Signing off, another excerpt from a conversation I can’t ever forget.
MF: Maharashtrians are bloody retarded bumpkins, aren’t they?
Me: Dude, you too are a Maharashtrian.
MF: I know, I know. But still…

– Omkar Khandekar –

Here is an excerpt from a not so rare conversation one gets to hear in the canteen, the library, platform and many more places.

ABC: Did you watch ‘A Walk To Remember’ last night?
XYZ: How could I miss out my favorite romantic flick? Yes! I did watch it.
ABC: Indeed the movie rocks, yet Segal’s Love Story is a class apart.
XYZ: Yes! I have read the book infinite number of times and Ryan O’Neal
is just so perfect as Oliver. I am smitten by his smile and looks.
ABC: Hey! Did you read the novels by Sparks?
XYZ: Sorry! Didn’t get you. Who Sparks?
ABC: ‘Who Sparks?’ Are you kidding me? You don’t know NICHOLAS SPARKS?
XYZ: Would you please care to enlighten me instead of simply mocking at me?
ABC: Yes! Most definitely. He is the author of ‘A Walk to Remember’,
your favorite romantic movie.
XYZ: Don’t tell me! How could I ever miss out on his novels?
ABC: Just as many others like you do!

Aah! That last line makes sense big time. One can very well declare the immaculate writer, Erich Segal as the stalwart of the Romance genre of the fiction. But, the other fact is that if Segal is the stalwart, Nicholas Sparks too is one of the best among the contemporary romance writers. On one hand, if everybody has wiped away the tears while sympathizing with Sheila in ‘Man, Woman and Child’, on the other hand, who has not cried their hearts out while turning the pages of ‘The Notebook’? The popularity each of them has gained is definitely poles apart but their works never fail to tug at the heartstrings and the adaptations of Sparks’ novels can be definitely included in the list of the best romance films of all times.

Sometimes when I ponder about their success and their popularity, I do wonder why the critics couldn’t appreciate Sparks’ works instead of attaching the label ‘It’s similar to Segal’s works!’

The immediate thought that comes up in my mind is why does literature do not have any schools like Psychology? Psychologists like B.F Skinner and Ivan Pavlov are not criticized for lifting the perspectives from each other. Instead they are considered to be a part of the behaviorist school of Psychology. But, the critics almost never leave a chance of blaming Nicholas Sparks for copying Erich Segal’s thoughts.

The truth is and will forever remain that Erich Segal and Nicholas Sparks incredibly draw emotional pen pictures for their readers. Though Segal may be at an escalated pedestal, Sparks has just begun his journey and has already touched millions of hearts across the world. They both have their share of familiarity as far as their poignant thoughts go and they even have their differences in the way they portray the heartrending tales on paper. Sparks and Segal, in all of their works present to us an impeccably woven tapestry of emotions and fabricate a magical intermingling of relationships. Indeed their works are for all seasons and all reasons, for every age, for every tender heart that feels and cares. Segal and Sparks have gifted the world with the best of tales about the trials and tribulations an individual faces during his life so instead of undermining any of their works, why don’t we cherish their stories forever.

So, always remember…

Every ‘LOVE STORY’ happens ‘AT FIRST SIGHT’, has ‘A WALK TO REMEMBER’ and definitely some ‘ACTS OF FAITH’. Cheers to Erich Segal and Nicholas Sparks. You both rock, big time!

– Arundhati Chatterjee –

Genelia D’souza seems to be on endorsement signing spree these days. The latest was her association her LG mobile phones, but not until now. She has been signed by Fast Track as their new brand ambassador.

Genelia has also finished shooting a commercial for the brand. She made this announcement public through twitter, “Hey tweeps… yup I am officially the new brand ambassador of Fastrack… just done with shoot and it was fantastic….” she tweeted.

The company officials also chose to make the announcement through twitter. A post from Fastrack mentioned, “Just to make it a little more official, we’re singing it from the rooftops – Genelia is our new brand ambassador.”

Genelia appears to be the hot favourite among brands which are associated with the young generation. Though her movies have not been doing too well on the Box-Office, she surely knows how to get noticed.

Her current endorsements include Fanta, Garnier light, Cadbury Perk and LG.

Coca-Cola, a global leader in the beverage industry is all set to launch three fruit-based drinks during the summer. Two of these fruit drinks will be launched under the Minute Maid brand, whereas the third would be a mango shake in the dairy segment under the brand Maaza.

The Coca Cola officials confirmed the news, “Coca-Cola India is currently test marketing Minute Maid Apple Juice and Minute Maid Mixed Fruit juice in Kolkata. Based on the response, we will take a call to roll it out in other parts of the country.”

The company has not yet set its foot in the dairy segment, and thus the launch of mango shake in the Indian markets would act as a testing ground for the company. Also, the company has partnered with the upcoming Common Wealth Games to launch its fruit-based drinks.

Industry sources believe that the move just reflects the consumer’s need for a healthy life. The juice market in India is expected to be approx. Rs 2,670-crore market, which seems to be nearly 18% of the carbonated drinks market.

FMCG companies have been launching health related products in the past few months to cash on the healthy living concept adopted by their consumers.

Posterscope India, the leading OOH communication agency recently won Marks & Spencer OOH account. The decision was made after a multi-pitching process.

Posterscope India is a part of Aegis Media. Ashish Bhasin, chairman India and CEO South East Asia, Aegis Media spoke about the development, “The spectacular success that Posterscope India is experiencing highlights the latent need for a quality OOH agency, which has world class tools and systems as well as brings in transparency and professionalism. We are thrilled to welcome Marks & Spencer, YouTube, Nestle, Colgate and a host of other clients and are confident that like in the UK, Posterscope will soon be acknowledged as the best and the most professional OOH agency in India.”

Posterscope India has won a lot of account in 2010. You Tube, Nestle, Colgate, Bharati Axa, BMW, Tata Housing, Essar, Shapoorji Pallonji, CNBC and Go Cheese are among the few. The company boasts of having more than 50 brands in its list of clientele.

Haresh Nayak, country head, Posterscope India, concluded, “The tremendous response from our existing clients like Philips, Adidas, Future Group and others enthused us to offer our services to a larger client base and we are amazed to see such a fantastic response.”

M&C Saatchi India has launched ‘id’, a specialized company meant for brand designing. The company will be based in Mumbai and Delhi (with approx 10 people team in each branch). id will specialize in brand designing, creating brand design strategies, design architecture, design implementation, building a brand identity and working on collaterals and packaging.

The company will be headed by Hemant Sapre, who has been with M&C Saatchi since 2 years and has also worked with brand design units in RK Swamy BBDO and DMA Branding. Suranjan Das, Executive Director, M&C Saatchi India, will also act as the business head of id. Amardeep Singh will work as the brand design director for the Delhi office.

Suranjan Das spoke about id, “Design is where it all starts and more and more clients are realizing the importance of brand design with time.”

Sapre added, “id is short for identity – that is the face of any brand, that is the simplest way to recognize and recollect a brand… and at M&C Saatchi, we believe in Brutal Simplicity of Thought, and our name reflects this. Also, id could be interpreted like ‘id’ from Freud’s structural model of the psyche, where the ‘id’ comprises the unconscious part of the mind, which is based on instinct.”