Showing posts with label Brand Engagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brand Engagement. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Using secrecy to create a brand aura

Sean Brennan talks about how secrecy can be a potent tool in building brand aura in the age of information. Interesting point of view.

However, I have just one point to make:
A secret is not a secret when its revealed. Ultimate aim of a brand is to communicate and propagate its products and services to make profits through consumer connection. So how can a brand keep its offering secret? In most cases brands will use secrecy as a launch tool the way LOST or Gmail started or even some high-end designer luxury brands does - by invitation only but that remains a smart marketing move. Brands have used teaser campaigns to launch themselves since the early days of advertising to create an aura and hype. Therefore how different it is from what Mr. Brennan is trying to say?

I do agree that brands need to create an aura around them. I also agree that it pays to create a buzz of mystery around it. It pays to create a mystery which in turn can lead to premium pricing and the demand - supply game. But a brand cannot remain secret. There is a fundamental flaw in that argument. The purpose of a brand is to propagate hence secrecy can never become a long-term competitive advantage for a brand.

What do you think?

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Influence Index

Creating a benchmark or a measurement Index on the popularity and level of involvement of the most influential people in Social Media was long overdue. The need to quantify the kind of influence a person exerts in the social networking platform and understanding the breadth of a person's brand. The good thing is we do have an interesting Influence Index to refer now. However, the index needs further development to create a robust measurement model. Time Magazine recently conducted the most Influential People of 2010, who can affect our world.

The formula for networking index = (Twitter Followers) x 2 + (Facebook Connections) / 2

Now don't ask me what that's supposed to mean and how this calculation can give a precise Index of Influence but at least expert are working on it.

In my 2010 Atticus paper, titled "Do Good or Die," I proposed a measurement Index to understand the Return on Involvement of Brand in context to the level of Involvement a brand has with its fans, followers and people in Social Media. Now how do we go about doing it.

Step 1: Conducting a Social Audit of the Brand.
This audit includes understanding of the Digital Footprint of the brand where it gives us a clear understanding how deep the brand has managed to penetrate in the social media sphere, the Social Identity Audit that lets us understand how does consumer identify with the brand, then conducting a Social Engagement Audit that lets us understand how well the brand manages to engage with people on the Social Media. This leads us to understand the Social Capital Opportunity that a brand can gather in the Social Media platforms. The Social Capital of a brand is the most important component for a brand to play with.
Step 2: Engagement vs Involvement.
This step lets us understand the level of engagement vs level of involvement. It helps us identify and understand the process of involvement and where it arises from. Is it individual driven or community led process? Is is about collective responsibility or individual Maturity? Is it at the awareness level or concern level or at the edge to change consumer attitude/ behavior?
Step 3: The shift from ROI to ROIn
Return on Involvement is the measurement to ascertain the efficiency of a company's value in involving its stakeholders, shareholders and consumers to evaluate its social goals. To understand Return on Involvement of a brand we need to understand how transparent a brand is in it's entire value creation process. Second, how much Social Capital it can gather through collaboration and co-creation and finally how does the brand share its value to people of the world.
Step 4: Calculating ROIn.
This is conceptual formula to calculate Return on Involvement. Like most index and formula is needs more clarity and better statistical and mathematical model to create an universal unit as reference and measurement.

The Formula= (Total Audience Size on Social Media Platform/ Implementation cost of Social Activity) x Average Time Spent.

ROIn is a reflection of consumers' sense of belonging and feeling of being valued. ROIn is about bringing people together for a common cause that creates a ripple effect in the market place all contributing to social accountability. It is the measurement of the rate of productive output by collaborating with people on social media platforms.

Coming back to Influence Index, I think it will become an important measurement index in the near future as more brands join the social media platform. Just like TAM, GRP. TRP, INS etc, we do need a strong Index which will bind all social media activities and the level of influence and involvement a brand/ person has on the medium.

Please do share your thoughts and feedback. Maybe we can collaborate to create a robust measurement index for the Influence Ripple and Involvement.

Cheers.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Why can't you make the Angels more social

Facebook is indeed amazing. They've just introduced Sponsored Stories as part of their Marketing Solutions. Are agencies and clients in India listening?


Sponsored Stories from Facebook can open a floodgate of opportunities, if only marketers are willing to invest and involve themselves in this platform. Social Media is an essential part of the marketing mix but most brands from India who have a Facebook fan page for some reason restricted themselves to stupid status updates. Here's an example:

Axe started Axe Angel Club with more than 1,117,965 people liking the initiative. But when you look at the activities, you just cant stop and laugh. Mindless trivia and questions to get people to respond. That's hardly involving people to start a conversation. On the other hand if Axe started recruiting Angels among the 1117965 fans, it would have created more buzz than the brand could ever imagine. Now thats Return on Involvement. A great example of right brand, right medium but wrong message or maybe the digital agency of Axe India is too naive to think of better ways to engage their fans. Anyways. Facebook page of a brand is not to send stupid status updates but engage fans in a more meaningful way. Especially when you've created such a wonderful property called Angel Club.

Good Luck. Cheers.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Ferrari World - The World of Brand Experience

Brand is an Experience. Brand as an Entertainment. Brand that excites people and bond them together with unmatched experiences are brands that creates sustainable value for themselves in the long term. Kudos to Ferrari for creating Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Idea vs Ideal

Media fragmentation, emergence of new media, clichéd communication message, consumers paying less attention, sea of sameness at retail and finally, the need to stand out; Indian marketers have too many things to fight when it comes to building their brands.

Increasingly, consumer engagement is becoming more relevant and effective in a changing environment. Engagement here doesn’t necessarily mean an activation program or a retail promotion or social networking or fan community etc. It is much beyond that. People willingly come forward to participate when there is something meaningful to do. It is an ‘act of doing’ something good, a larger goal that really connects people with a brand. And if you really look closely, we in India hardly do anything meaningful to keep people truly engaged with a brand.

Am sure you know all those brilliant examples better than I do, but unfortunately there aren’t many examples coming out from India. Where is the Indian equivalent of Real Beauty, Run London, Legoland and Innocent Village Fete…

This is where, I think, agencies have a bigger role to play. It is about Brand Ideal versus an Idea. I mentioned here previously about 'the ideal not the idea' stuff. Ideal is ‘an ultimate object of endeavor, a goal’ while an Idea is 'a concept developed by the mind, a thought or an opinion.'

Honestly, Brand Ideal is something which is truly missing in most brands in India. It is according to me translating a true life insight into a bigger brand goal that eventually brings people together. To give you an over used example - Dove’s championed a cause – Real Beauty. People took notice of these simple life insight and instantly connected and actively participated. In case of Pond’s, “Miracle Happens” is just a communication idea. Pond’s used high media exposure/ carpet bombing to ensure that people get the message and start buying their products. So after sometime they realized the need to move on, hence communicate, "Miracle Happened." Absolutely no connection with people and no reasons as to why they should be a part of Pond’s Age revolution. And you cannot qualify the 7 Days Challenge as a bigger brand ideal. Now they might be extending the idea by setting up Miracle Boutiques which is nothing new. Lakme has it, L’Oreal has it… right? So where is the “ultimate object of endeavor”?

Similarly, when Big Adda says ‘Friends Stay’ is it really doing something to build stronger friendship bonds? Here’s another good example of finding a Brand Ideal that helps in delivering better connection and results.

Brand engagement has the same meaning as an engagement ring - A vow to stay together ever after. Isn’t it something worth spending more time thinking about?

Friday, November 30, 2007

moods please

Moods - 'My Man' is very hot these days. Err... I mean , they're doing a good job in the digital space. All new website. Interactive. Interesting. And playful. Moreover Olivia promises to answer all your questions. Pack of condom that comes with a vibrating ring. Ha. I'm lovin' it. Check it out here. Finally marketers in India are waking up to the digital medium. They are experimenting with new stuff. I say the future looks bright.

Do share some more examples (ofcourse in the Indian context) if you come across.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

is facebook the new play ground

Sure you've a profile on Facebook. Your friends poke you. Now how can brands sit alone. So they've started poking too. Facebook is the new playground. And social networkers ain't complaining.

Have a look here. Also read Iain Tait's post too. It might just make sense for you - Brand Managers of India Inc. to get on board, since young Indians are getting crazy about social networking. Especially young Indians from Tier II/III cities are joining the bandwagon. It's fun and excitement for them. They're spending several hours "adding friends" and being part of "communities" at cyber cafes. A brilliant opportunity for you to connect. Now just find the right way to approach them and they might love you. But careful, don't misuse the platform or else you've to face a social wrath.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Diwali SMS (Simple Mind Semiotics)

Morning newspaper says, "Average noise level in Bangalore yesterday was 122 Db." Authentic news and I can assure you that because no amount of ear plug, muffler, sound masking or closed window could help me reduce the noise. Isn't Diwali supposed to be a celebration of light not sound? Anyway, "We Are Like This Only."

Around 4 pm, my mobile started beeping continiously, some 70 SMSes in one go. Felt enlightened on the festival of light. SMS is a great subject for semiotic studies.

So here are few observations and my take on the human psyche:

Type 1. "Wsh u vry hppy Diwali n prsprs Nu Yr" or "Thnks wsh u da same" - Good understanding of the medium. Heavy user of the medium. Technophobics. Non Experimental. Boring. Single. Nanominded (believes in short and simple) Less emotive. Individualistic. Schizo. Busy. Talks straight and less. Politically (grammatically) correct. Non-multimedia phone owners. One to one communicator (P2P).

Type 2. "Wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali and Prosperous New Year" or "Our best wishes to you and your family for a most blessed and prosperous diwali...x, y, z1, z2" - Straight. Simple. Happy-go-lucky. Understands the medium but value conscious. Uses the medium on only purpose. Mostly group message senders. Techno-ambivalent. Feature driven. Narrow-minded. Family oriented. Very emotive. Lazy. Fun loving. Talks more. Non Multimedia phone owners. One to many communicator.

Type 3. "You received a Flash File SMS/ Picture Message/ Emoticons (.flv .swh .jpeg)" - Creative. Expressionists. Confused. Energetic. Image conscious. Heavy user of the medium. Technophile. Experimental. Gizmo freak. High Sociability Quotient. Late adaptor. Possessive. Multimedia phone owners. Many to many communicator.

Type 4. "Bursting cracker in front of the house. Have a blasting Diwali. MMS (.mpg.4)" - Heavy user of medium and features. Creative. Technophile. Experimental. Gizmo freak. Trend setters. Early adaptor. Family oriented. Thrill seeker. Gamer. participator of group activities. P2A, A2P communicator, oops many to many communicator.

Well, this is how I did a quick classification/ segmentation of the 70 SMSes. As a planner, I think this small observations and mental notes help is developing hypothesis that can be later used to validate brand problems. VAS (value added service) is the highest revenue generator ($ 1.2 bn) for service providers yet not many brands are utilizing this medium effectively. So, how can a brand talk to these four types of SMS users. Which brands will talk to whom? Only HSBC, RR City Taxi and Airtel were kind enough to send me a Diwali wish. Where are other brands present in this medium? No one will sue you or get offended when you send a good wish unlike your irritating messages like buy now, discount on immediate purchase, send SMS to 4455 etc. Now, isn't this an interesting hypothesis?

Do discuss.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

what makes them famous

I don't know why but recently I've been thinking a lot about Brand Engagement. Well, Brand Engagement is not about Activation or On-Ground Activity. There are several definitions and books and articles and speeches by eminent marketing/advertising guru on the same topic that will give you better perspective. Anyway. I've been thinking more about the "Stickiness Factor" of Brand Engagement. By 'Stickiness' I mean methods of bonding better with the audience. Some brands really do it better. Since you're all so knowledgeable, I thought it would be better to share some examples rather than give gyan on Stickiness and Engagement.

Lego:


Lego is doing some awesome stuff inviting artists who engage consumers with their artistic creations. Phenomenal positive response. More images of Lego Art.

Lynx:

Lynx is another brand that has always found innovative ways to engage consumers. This time it's Manwash. Male-scrubbing by stunning Manwashettes that leaves you pure once again. Ha.

Absolut is brilliant case study. They have done every imaginable engagement stuff possible to make their brand sticky. Remember Nike Run?

Planners need to slowly transform themselves as engagement officers. Ha. If you have some good examples, do share.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Brand not Bland

A friend of mine has this unusual habit rather hobby of collecting airlines Check-in tags. Those small tags that you tie in your hand bag with a rubber seal on them; Yes, I mean those. Interesting isn't it? And he has been doing these for ages.

Anyway, the point that am trying to make here is how every single touch point helps in building a brand. On the left is a tag from Qantas which say things that are important and on the right is a similar tag from Virgin which makes the same point quiet distinctively. Which one do you like?

Brands need to engage consumers. Don't we all know it? But not many brands think that way. Marketing 2.0 is how to surprise not repetition. Marketing 2.0 is not giving information but the experience.

Marketing 2.0 is about I & E. I stands for ideas, imagination, intuition, insight, inspiration. And E stands for empathy, enchantment, excitement, edge and emotion. If it's Bland it's not a Brand.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Warhol's BMW

BMW has decided to sell art not car in India, Ha. Well, not exactly. As part of their marketing strategy, BMW is promoting 'Art Cars,' the works by great artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to attract the right audience. For a brand that believes 'Ideas are everything' this is a must attend event for both car enthusiast and art lovers.

Question that arises in my head, why did they feel it makes sense to bring art lovers and car enthusiasts together? Will car enthusiasts feel inspired by the art or will art lovers book the car? Whatever.

I think it is a brilliant platform to bring together the right target audience and experience a brand. Brand engagement is the new operating tool for marketers in India. In this case its about being true and relevant to the BMW values of 'Inspiring Ideas.'

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The road to Electronic City

It's a 30 km stretch from Hosur Road- Koramangala junction to Electronic City in Hosur at Bangalore. On the way you'll come across several billboards of big Indian IT companies proudly announcing what they do, what they stand for, mission statements, vision etc etc.

A closer look and you'll find this big, bold statements in every piece of billboard:
(Logo) Creating Innovative Solutions
(Logo) Experience the Difference
(Logo) Creating Value
(Logo) Enriching Lives
(Logo) Enhancing Values
(Logo) Empowering People
(Logo) Discover Passion
(Logo) Experience the Exotic

Probably they are doing so, probably they are not. But what I fail to understand, do this two word- three word statements make your company unique? Do people really see value in it? Are young software techie's enamored by these thoughts? Or is it a "Just do it" - "Impossible is nothing" phenomenon that's being Indianised. Or is it another hygiene factor for the Corporate Communication team at work?

Every company is creates or enhances value, every company empowers people, every company aims at enriching lives, every company tries to create innovative solutions. So where the bloody difference?

"Think different" you guys and gurls inside your air-conditioned glass buildings. The architectural design of your building says more than your billboards. Do create value but do it with conviction. Do it creatively.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Extreme Communication

Yet another example of Extreme Brand Communication from Levis. Agency - BBH, London



People in Reykjavik were shocked rather than being surprised.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Old Idea, New Inspiration

I'm sure you must have noticed the ad above in the Times of India off late. Lux Coffee Table Book is all about the gorgeous Divas of Indian Cinema. Lux is a soap for the Cine Stars. Bollywood Diva's have endorsed Lux for ages in every piece of their communication. The Coffee Book from Lux is an extremely beautiful way to engage consumers. Though an old idea but in the Indian context it is really a great thinking from the agency and the marketer and executed in a brilliant manner. Suddenly Unilever seem to be doing all the right marketing tricks to woe consumer in India. Isn't it?

Honestly, it feels good to see the marketing guys at Unilever pushing the boundaries of traditional media and creating cutting edge communication. Well, what's next is my question. After the Lux Coffee Table, will they explore other avenues? For example, a Photography Exhibition of Bollywood Diva's or create a Lux Diva Museum which has all memorabilia of the Stars etc etc.

Good work and do keep it up. Consumers today want more of what you are doing.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Get the glass

Am sure you all remember the famous Got Milk campaign by Goodby Silverstein . Now the latest campaign from California Milk Board is this new online Interactive Board Game called Get The Glass.Brilliant. And everything centered around life without milk. Now this is a real good example of interactive web2.0 work by a brand. All kudos to Goodby.

Our very own Amul can do so much. Huge potentials looming large. The Amul Girl is such a wonderful brand property which can be taken to new heights. Alas they don't think like me ;-) Maybe you (Amul) should hire my agency and give us the task to create something interesting.

Mail me soon. Am waiting.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Caffeinexperience

Found this interesting kiosk at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet in Bangalore. The Smart Digital Jukebox allows you to choose and play a song of your choice in the cafe. An interactive touch screen interface where you can browse from tens of thousands of songs and list them in the player. Then get back to your sit, enjoy your coffee and relax.

Cafe Coffee Day as a brand is very popular and enough has been written about them. Innovative marketing approach by CCD aka the 'Indian Starbucks' has made Coffee Day, the meeting, mating, greeting, relaxing, chilling zone for youngsters.

Probably the most innovative marketing programme of Coffee Day is doing co-promotion with other brands and space selling within the store. Coffee Day runs several successful in-store promotions for popular brands like Levi's, Fast Track, Radio City, Airtel and Sony Ericsson just to name a few.

On the flip side over the years CCD has become too commercial a space and youngsters have started gathering at places like Java City, Mocha of the world. Therefore, the CCD coffee experience of 'A lot can happen over coffee' is no more unique. Java City for example offers great service, great ambiance and live music. Mocha offers great food and an excellent puff of Hukkah.

Smart Digital Jukebox is one of the many things CCD is doing to get people back. I was wondering in a service category like Coffee Chains there are so many me too brands, how can one differentiate and remain relevant to today's disloyal and cynical young ones. Coffee Day, Coffee World, Java City, Java Green, Barista, Mocha, Qwicky's are some of the popular coffee retail chains at the moment. Starbucks will enter India soon. What will these brands do then? Good Coffee, ambiance, service, food, music are generic and given for this category. Together they sum up as a 'great coffee experience.' What more can they offer? When everybody starts offering the same 'great coffee experience,' will price become a deciding factor. Or will chains re-arrange themselves as premium and value chains.

Any caffeinated opinions from anyone?

Monday, March 19, 2007

Eddfest of poor marketing

“Did you know 'The Beasts of Metal' are coming to Bangalore?” was one buzz doing rounds among music lovers, well, hard rock lovers to be precise in Bangalore. At last, VH1 and newspaper ads announced 17th March as the date of the great gig. Ticketpro.in managed to sell most show tickets. Early adaptors bought their tickets well in advance while the late majorities awaited until the last moment. ‘No tickets available’ was the next buzz and frenetic call from friends in Mumbai & Delhi forced me to press the panic button. I called up people in media, sponsors and friends working in agencies if they could help me with just two more passes for the show. No one is a real friend – no one in the media could help me with two free passes. Surprisingly, tickets were always available at Planet M, so without spending anymore time calling people for help, I picked up three tickets for myself and my friends. That was on Thursday, the 15th of March.

Image by www.hindu.com

Main sponsor of the show was Royal Challenge from the UB Group. Co-sponsored by VH1, Nokia, Reliance Mobile and Sanyo. Other sponsors were Levis, Pepsi, Radio Indigo and NDTV 24x7.

A look at the promotional materials and you could tell brands have just lent their logos to the event. Few Reliance Mobile, Radio Indigo and Nokia banners were all that I could see on the way to the venue. No one took the effort of creating a brand experience in sync with Eddfest. Probably, Levis was the only brand that managed to converse with the audience inside the venue. The Levis stall was selling official Maiden merchandise. Pepsi was official beverage supplier; thirsty head-bangers stormed the Pepsi stall to find all drinks over. It was Kingfisher bottled water instead of RC that was being served in the venue.

And mind you this isn’t the first time.

A captive audience of approx 40K gathered for 5 hours. What a brilliant opportunity lost for brands I wonder. So much could be done but I guess no one thought about it. Lending the logo doesn’t always help much.

  • Nokia: When you know music connects, why not use this platform to CONNECT. Well, N93i is an entertainment phone right? You could have made huge dummy of N93i screen for the live action. You could have announced an N93i Best Bootleg competition. (I could see almost everyone trying to capture the guitar gods on their mobile cam)
  • Reliance: You could have done so much beyond those banners. Mobisodes of Iron Maiden for all your mobile and broadband customers
  • VH1: Why no special Iron Maiden show/songs on the channel during the week?
  • Sanyo: You know you have so much to do to get a strong foothold in the Indian market. Your LCD panels were the perfect product to bring alive the experience. Several LCD panels could show the live action to audiences standing at far end
  • Indiatimes: Am sure Iron Maiden search in Google and Youtube was an all time high during the last one week. No brand have used web effectively. The show was powered by Indiatimes.com yet nothing much on their website except a banner ad. Webisodes is such a brilliant idea. Live webcast of Iron Maiden playing live at Bangalore for the world at large. Technology has advanced. Industrial compressions of video files is very much possible, why not use it as streaming video? Pay few dollars and watch it online as it happens

Well, all said and done, the show wasn’t worth the money spent. Only 90 minutes of Maiden on stage to hear 666, Fear of the Dark, Run to the hills, 2 minutes to midnight wasn't what the audience expected. Young rockers from Pune, Mumbai, Goa, North East, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Jakarta and Singapore were indeed very disappointed. They obviously expected more head banging. “You don’t’ need to wait another 17 years to see us again, we’ll be back soon,” was the only hope that Bruce Dickenson gave us all.

And before I end, hope brands which sponsors these shows from next time will try going, ‘Where eagles dare.’'

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Transmedia in action

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Monday, March 05, 2007

Web Power

Finally marketers in India realized the potential of worldwide web. “Something interactive karna hai,” is the common cry in all client corridors. Most big agencies have set-up their own interactive department and clients are very excited the moment they hear interactive. Therefore, communities building, post a blog, share a picture, post an opinion, invite or send to a friend etc. are fast picking up, marketers and their advertising agencies have decided to do something meaningful with the medium.

The latest in the bandwagon is Mentos. Quirky but err interesting.

Gang of Girls was a break through piece of interactive work while Being Girl was an immediate answer from P&G since they didn’t want to be left behind.

No doubt, the web is a powerful branding tool. Since there’s lot of information about it on the internet and several books by renowned branding gurus, I thought I’ll let you know few practical things to keep in mind (which I learned while working on an interactive project) while creating a powerful brand experience on web:

  • Express the brand’s personality as effectively as possible. Being an interactive medium it actually gives you that freedom
  • Think about the content first, technology, html, flash etc. can wait
  • No one likes to wait for eternity for your page to open. Try to grab the attention of your visitors while the home page is being downloaded
  • The website should reflect the brand’s core values because it gives that opportunity to the visitors to forge a meaningful relationship
  • Give out interesting information about the brand which will keep your visitor engaged and allow them to dig deeper
  • Try to put photographs of real people. Gives authenticity to the message
  • Feedback is important, it provides you with valuable information about what they like and what they not

Axe is one brand which has always been at the forefront of web experience. They have always managed to keep visitors engaged.

Nike is another brand which offers a similar experience. TicTac in USA is another good example.

Marketers in India are truly experimenting in the virtual which is a good sign. Well, will someone also try experimenting in the real world, please?

Monday, February 12, 2007

Are you engaged?

Things are moving fast. Internet speed to speed dating. IM to IP (Instant pasta). Movie Mania to Maggi Mania. 110 TV channels to choose for two hours of viewing in a day. Ten financial newspapers and 20 English dailies with the same news, yet time for reading is just 15 minutes. Debates, documents, dialogues, decisions, work life is diabolical; personal life, demonic.

Going to a party and enjoying a good time depends on when you need to reach office next day. That’s why you never forget to pop ‘Party Smart.’ You go for dinner at a restaurant and expect food to be served as soon as you place the order, you chuckle, watch the person next table gorge, look at your wrist watch 3 times, if it’s more than 10 minutes, you call the manager. Fast food is junk food; your inner voice reminds you. And how can you ever think of not carrying your Blackberry on a weekend trip to the jungle resort some 60 kms outside the city.

Stress is the biggest lifestyle disease and urban Indians don’t have a remedy yet. (I know there are spas and gyms.) But we are happy with health clubs and happy hours. This lifestyle disease seems like a mixture of a chronic and complex virus of contradiction, confusion and chaos. When your (we urban dwellers) attention span have shortened, surely you are affected by the virus.

So, one day advertisers decided to engage people at a marathon meeting in their confusing conference room. How? Go guerilla, do digital, promotion pooh-pooh, attention ambient. Eventually conduct events. Call it 360, holistic, disruption; all you need to do is brief specialized agencies. Boom, the engagement plan ready for implementation.

Here is an example of true consumer engagement (It there for a week, alternatively you can download the same from here.) Yes, you’ll argue Standard Chartered pulled a similar stunt in Mumbai. But let’s be honest, how many will remember it as a SCB Run. You may say Hutch did a better job in Delhi. I’ll agree with you. Atleast it was better coordinated engagement. But still it was a copycat idea. Isn’t it?

So here’s my take on some engagement ideas for some brands:
Barbie: Doll Shows at all girls school. Get them to be more creative
X-box: Interschool Annual X Day for boys aka Annual Sports Day. Button it out
History Channel: Live the Story at our Heritage Sites. True stories come alive. Write your experience.
Excalibur: Lessons on corporate etiquettes at Business schools by industry leaders. Power dressing for the future leaders
Heinz: Throw Tomato Day. Smash it on the face like you do on Holi.

How about theatre, stage performances in semi-urban or rural areas? Brand theatres. Instead of TVC, why not enact the script with real people on a real stage?

Engagement is education. Engagement is encouragement. Engagement is exciting. Engagement is entertaining.

So, next time when someone tells you about engagement, you now know what to be done. Do share with me if you have some good examples.