Googlenights

Semantically speaking

2010-02-12T01:53:00.000-08:00

Advertising, marketing, communication, brand building…there was a time when these words were enough for me to live on. And live rather well, I must gratefully add. Of late, though, I’ve been having second thoughts on my staples as they have not been enough to nourish me or my clients.

Without going into the reasons for the marginalization and the irrelevance of my, and perhaps my industry’s approach, I was keenly aware that some fundamental rethinking was required if I had to make any impact at all on the brands and businesses that I was asked to work on from time to time.

I must confess that the alternatives were not clear in my head, except an urgent need for one.

As we sometimes do, Suresh Ramadurai (former managing director of TNS India) and I were parsing thought and time over rasam and rice while we gently found ourselves in the unfamiliar but strangely compelling world of behavioral sciences.

A quick look through wiki convinced us of the validity of our thinking, and suddenly the pennies started dropping like an epileptic one armed bandit.

Was it possible to look at all that we have been doing, all that was asked of us, and all that we wanted to do through the behavioural prism? Has the field developed enough for us to apply the theories and templates to the kind of situations we are confronted with, to come up with interesting solutions?

Perhaps some people have known these things all along but for both of us, it was a bit of a eureka moment when we realized it could.

Can we really try and build a robust ‘behavioral solutions’ company that is not just an advertising agency repackaged but one that is able to bring a method to the madness? One that can deconstruct business and brand aspects from a behavioral standpoint, and come up with more insightful and interesting solutions?

Do join in the conversation.

Sailing in halfmast.

2008-11-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Scene saver

2008-11-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

Subprime Insecurities

2008-11-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

This one's sparking a riot. Apparently, there are people who have taken offence to Heidi Klum dressing up as Kali for Halloween. While, my first reaction when I saw the picture, was, like, 'Whoa! So cool!'. And I'm a TamBram, born and brought up on Kali Amman Koil Street, and I think I have earned the right to take on those effigy-burning, fatwa-issuing, fragile philistines who take offence at anything that remotely touches on their core beliefs. When I see instances of our religious or philosophical concepts, metaphors and imagery capture the world's imagination, it only reaffirms the belief in my faith, not lessen or cheapen it. Unfortunately, the rowdies are gaining ground in this battle. I really think the more intelligent amongst us should speak up in a more forceful fashion against such insecure outbursts. If we let this trend continue, we will continue to be in the same cesspool. I would like to invite all liberal art lovers to post their views, comments, observations, pictures and ideas in this forum so it creates at least some support for the exploration and evolution of art.

"I'm feeling lucky"

2008-06-12T14:59:00.001-07:00

Instead of 'I'm feeling lucky' it should perhaps read as 'To let' or 'Break open in case of fire' or something. I've always wondered about what is probably the most valuable, but under utilised real estate in the world currently. I'm willing to take a bet that that piece of real estate can add another 20- or 30 billion dollars more to Google's market value.

I mean, think about it.

googlenights 1.

2008-05-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

It's so easy to ask deep, meaningless questions.

Tendulkar

2008-05-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

*S Tendulkar b Sharma 12 16 1 1 75.00.
The greatness of Tendulkar is, when we see a scorecard like that, we still see the potential of the same 16 year old that walked into the game of cricket 18 years ago. It's like the opening shot of a Rajnikant film. A slow pan-up that begins on the tip of the shoe and ends in a happy state of goosebumpy anticipation. Fresh hope, every time. The alter-ego of the collective Walter Mitty.

Haiku

2008-05-14T10:10:00.001-07:00

Sent at 10:36 PM on Wednesday
Vishwas: ok
bye
god night
good

Ironically,

2008-04-22T00:47:00.000-07:00

Wiki has very little to say on the subject of 'conversations'!

2008-04-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Here's proof that I care.

On 4/8/08 12:08 PM, Suresh Manian wrote --------------------

2008-04-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

I think it was Mao Tse Tung, back in the 1940's, when a reporter asked him as to what he thought of the french revolution. Mao replied, 'it's too early to tell':). India's rise has still to be seen in a slightly larger context. My biggest fear is, India is blindly aping the US in its economic thinking, where we socialise the cost but privatise the gains (not my own words). It's like turning a public park into a golf course. Still green and beautiful but one that can only be enjoyed by a far fewer people. Shall continue our discussion.
Regards, Suresh.

2008-03-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

2008-03-18T14:22:00.000-07:00