Sex don't sell anymore

In the latest issue of The Economist, I found this article very interesting. A challenge to the old adage, “Sex Sells,” Ellie Parker and Adrian Furnham of University College London carried an experiment which explains sexually enticing commercials don’t help people remember it.

They carried their experiment on 60 young adults and exposed them to a series of telly episodes which had both titillating materials and no such eroticism. During the commercial break the respondents were exposed to series of advertisements which again had both sexual implicit content and the ones without. It was found that men were most likely to remember sexual advertisements whereas women were more likely to remember non-sexual advertisement.

Now I don’t know how much of it holds good for us Indians but one thing is for sure ‘Sexing Up’ ads won’t work in the long run. Though we created Kamasutra, we don’t like too much of explicit ‘Kama’ on screen. The recent spate of Bollywood item numbers seem to have a dominating effect on every Idiot Box channel and it doesn’t go well when it comes to family viewing. Often slap-stick humour doesn’t work either.

We Indians are evolving. We are in a period of realism. Building aspiration through fantasy is no more the rule of the game. We are moving from being a value seeker to an experience seeker. Selling erotic dreams might not be an effective route anymore, especially with product categories like body care/hair care, fashion etc. Smart lines like, “Are you game?” “Get naughty” may not do the trick anymore.

Well, this is what I feel, what do you think?

Music for the ears

The Indian music industry is growing through sea-change these days. Traditionally a cassette and CD playing market, India is suddenly waking up to the potential of digital music. Recent example of digital music by films like KANK, DON, Jan-e-Mann, and Salam-e-Ishq are prime example of the growing demand in digital music. The crucial point is that promoting an album in the physical format is expensive, while the money that accrues from digital sales is all profit because it is one file that is downloaded again and again.

Physical sales of CD’s and tapes dwindled to Rs. 720 crore from Rs. 1081 crore in 2001. Though the number of CD’s sold has gone up from 10 million in 2000-01 to 36 million in 2005, the fall in the sales of cassettes has been drastic. On the other hand sales of mobile music – ringtones, true tones, full track downloads and video clips – have zoomed to Rs. 450 crore with 300 million downloads per annum. This figure is set to double over the next 12 – 18 months.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on entertainment, the mobile music industry in India will be the largest at Rs. 3600 crore by 2009-10.

India, with its mobile consumer base of 130 million, is witnessing a boom in the consumption of mobile music. This segment s likely to contribute Rs. 120 crore to the bottomline of music companies this year, while consumers will pay up to Rs. 450 crore for downloading music on their phones.

This is another reason why marketers should bank on this growing category. No wonder, mobile companies like Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson are increasingly focusing on music playing mobiles.

And how exactly can they benefit? Maybe start creating more memorable jingles, brand songs, memes, signature tunes etc. which can be downloaded as music on the move. Maybe create a database of consumers who like certain brands and send it as free gift.

Digitization allows music companies to cater to specific needs of consumers. For instance there is a significant market for old classical music by artists and consumers are willing to pay different amounts for multiple devices. Not to forget the advantage digitization allows in combating piracy. To check piracy now phones are designed such that once a track is downloaded, it gets locked on the handset and cannot be forwarded enabling any kind of revenue loss.

Digital music (online and mobile) will outsell physical music in India by the end of this year. It will be largely defined by the growth in the mobile music sector. With new delivery channels of music such as FM stations and WAP sites emerging, entertainment companies, music publishing companies, production houses and equipment manufacturers are waking up to a booming music market. This revenue stream has given lease of life to some very old music companies too.

After music, it will be the digitization of our favorite Bollywood flicks. What’s next? Mobisodes of K serials?? Podcast of Sri Sri and his meditation techniques???

Technology you’re truly transforming.

Crowd Pulling

Over the past few years, the advertising agencies in India are getting sleepless night on the 'talent crunch' issue. When it comes to looking for fresh new talents, agencies are headed nowhere. Everyone has their own perspective about this problem.

While cleaning my desk today, I came across an article in the BusinessWeek magazine dated July 2006 on Crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the unofficial name of an IT enabled business trend in which companies get un-paid or low-paid amateurs to design products, create content even tackle corporate R&D problems in their spare time. According to Eric von Hippel, "user-centered innovation." But unlike open-source software, crowdsourced work is managed and owned by a single company that sells the results. Good example of Crowdsourcing is Gettyimages, CafePress, Goldcorp, P&G's InnoCentive.

Crowdcasting seems to be the new catch phrase of 2007. Sitting between Broadcasting and crowdsourcing is Crowdcasting. The process of crowdcasting uses a combination of push and pull strategies to first engage an audience and build a network of participants and then harness the network for new insights. These insights / concepts can include new product ideas, new service ideas, new branding messages, or even scientific breakthroughs. These insights are extracted from participants' submissions. To be most effective, crowdcasting usually takes the form of a competitive event with a compelling prize.

Can advertising agencies draw example from this to create an internal process/system which can bring in people to volunteer? In the long term can this become a HR policy for advertising agencies to tackle the talent crunch? Advertising agencies do follow another similar path. They hire freelances to do the job, well but that is restricted only to creative. Why not follow the same with other departments like servicing, planning, interactive, media, new media etc.

Here is an article Blaiq has written on the same topic recently. Manish has also shared his thoughts on the crowdcasting here. Do send your comments, would love to hear new methods of crowdcasting which can benefit both you and the agencies.

ON the 'Joy' Switch

In the latest issue of Economist, an interesting article on Human Emotion drew my attention. Dr. Tor Wager from the Columbia University in New York carried out a meta-analysis (after collecting fMRI studies on emotion) of human emotion thereby producing an emotional map of the brain.

Most neuroscientists recognise six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. Dr. Wager shows how fMRI can be used to see the link between different parts of the brain involved in the emotional process. The evolution and function of these emotions is bound up with an area of research called, "Theory of mind."

With my very little knowledge about the subject, after reading the article, I started thinking, we (advertising professionals) often try to capture the EQ of our consumers. Spend lot of money on research to find what motivates them. Maybe we shall in the near future also start applying these new technology and techniques. Will we be able to capture the emotion of the Indian public through a fMRI study (which tells us to hit the 'Joy' part of his left brain on the frontal lobe?) Can we ensure a change in his shopping behavior? Will he start buying into my brand? Question here is, do we see the picture through the eyes of our consumer?

End of the day, it is our 'Gut Feel' that needs to be communicated in the most entertaining manner and not images of a brain scan. I think my new year resolution would be to shun away from all FGD and spend time in understanding a person better. Out of a billion people, maybe I can manage to know 50 people inside-out in 2007.

Poverty in pooR_Planners' Country

(c) copyright, www.ifpri.com

Today on Sunday Times a very interesting article caught my eyes, "End of Poverty."

Few statistics from the article:

• 214 million people are living on less than $1 a day in East Asia Pacific
• In South Asia more than 437 million people live under similar condition
• 50% of the world lives on less than $2 a day
• 1 billion people across the globe cannot read or write
• 1.2 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water
• 35% of the world's poor live in India, out of the 1 billion population in our country 350-400 million people are below poverty level and 75% of them are from the rural areas
• More than 40% of India's population is illiterate
  
• 50,000 people die every day due to poverty related causes
• 800 million go to bed hungry every day

ITC's 'Sunfeast' & SRK has taken up rural rehabilitation. Not enough. Will we marketers, planners (including myself), agencies and Corporate India do something to eradicate poverty? Let 2007 be a new beginning. Let us all take up this noble cause and start contributing towards the betterment of our own people.

The Saga of Saya!!

Saya - The Receptionist (c) Copyright Washington Post

The Complete Star Wars Saga will be shown on Star Movies. I was thrilled. Let me tell you at the very beginning, I always fantasized extra-terrestrial beings and matters. Spend a major chunk of my childhood days thinking about how life on the Moon and Mars will be or an evening walk on Venus will be.

The small black and white idiot box arrived in our house during the early eighties when the only channel was Doordarshan. On Sundays from eleven in the morning the TV was completely mine. “Star Wars.” No matter what, I used to be glued to the television set. Darth Vader and Ric Olie were my heroes. Again on Wednesday evening at 7.30 the idiot box was just mine. “Johnny Sokko & His Flying Robot.” Robots are still one of my special interest. Errr…its humanoid more than robots now.

For decades, popular culture has been enthralled with the possibility of robots that act and look like humans. Research is moving towards developing commercial humanoids that will cook for us, clean for us, become our best friends, teach our children, and even fall in love with us. . Like many new technologies, these early generations of commercially available humanoids are costly curiosities, useful for entertainment, but little else. Yet, in time, they will accomplish a wide variety of tasks in homes, battlefields, nuclear plants, government installations, factory floors, and even space stations.

Till now humans adapted technology. In the future it will be the opposite and technology will adapt to us. And the way we interact with machines will undergo a humongous change which in turn will impact our lives. With billions of dollars being invested on the development of robots which will alter our daily lives, the ‘age of robot’ will see an early dawn. Japan is leading the pack mostly so because of its unique societal needs. Low level of birthrate in the country which has the longest lifespan on earth, Japan is fretting about who will staff the factory floors in years to come.

For robots to be profitably integrated into the everyday lives of humans within military, commercial, educational or domestic contexts, robots must be able to interact with humans in more meaningful, natural ways. As artificial agents inundate our lives, it will be increasingly important to enable multi-modal, intuitive modes of communication that include speech, gesture, movement, affect, tactile stimulation and context. Body dictates behavior, and if we want a robot to relate with and learn from humans, it must be able to map its body to our own.

Humanoid Robotics also offers a unique research tool for understanding the human brain and body. Already, humanoids have provided revolutionary new ways for studying cognitive science. Using humanoids, researchers can embody their theories and take them to task at a variety of levels. As our understanding deepens, we will be prompted to freshly reexamine fundamental notions such as dualism, will and consciousness that have spurred centuries of controversy within Western thought.

Current Humanoid projects:

Cog: Developed at MIT AI Labs. Cog is equipped with a sophisticated visual system capable of saccades, smooth pursuit, vergence, and coordinating head and eyes through modeling of the human vestibulo-ocular reflex.

Kismet: A Robot designed to assist research into social interactions between robots and humans at the MIT AI Labs.

Wendy: (Waseda ENgineering Designed sYmbiont) is being developed by the Waseda University as a robot that has the ability to perform co-operative tasks.

Hadaly 2: A Humanoid Project by the Waseda University for interactive communication with human beings.

Ursula: An entertainment robot developed by Florida Robotics to amuse crowds at Universal Studios

ASIMO: A new humanoid developed by HONDA that uses the walking technology developed over the past 20 years at HONDA, but in a smaller, more affordable package

Fujitsu has developed the HOAP-1 (Humanoid Open Architecture Platform).

Sony has developed the SDR-4X that can sing and dance.

Most likely, we will never fully understand, much less recreate everything that it means to be human. As the frontiers of our self-understanding expand, humanoid robots may simply follow (and, at times, propel) our continuously changing conception of what we are

This leaves me with only one thought; how will marketers in moon in the year 2050 deal with branding. Maybe the surface on Moon will have large format interactive LCD screen displaying only your favorite brand message as you walk past them along with Saya hand in hand.

Do let me know, if you come across any interesting information about humanoids.

Mouthful of words

A new research from the Keller Fay Group has found that the average American mentions specific brands 56 times during approximately 100 conversations in a week's time (via advertising age).

Other findings from the research include:

• Positive mentions outnumber negative mentions 6 to 1
• 92% of brand conversations are happening offline, of which 20% happens over phone
• Only 9% of conversations are "mostly negative"
• People are more likely to pass along good mentions than bad ones - so good news travels faster than bad news!
• 41% of conversations mention advertising
• 72% of opinions about brands are shared by family members and personal friends, 13% are shared by co-workers and 7% are shared by a professional or expert on the topic
• The Internet (12%), television (7%) and newspapers (5%) are the top three media channels most frequently referenced in brand-related buzz
• Email, instant message and online chat rooms/blogs comprise 6% of word of mouth

Wondering if things are any different with we Indians. We talk a lot, we have strong opinions and offline word-of-mouth spreads even faster in India . Any good example of "Brand Talk?"

Game On

Microsoft launched its new XBox in India. The grey market is already flooded with host of game console devices. You name it and you'll find it. PSP, Nintendo, XBox, Sega, Evo, Genesis are readily available at an unmatched price. The sixth generation consoles are ready to conquer the heart and soul of Indian Gen Z kids, their adolescent brothers, their 35+ fathers and their be-at-home-and-take-care-of-the-family grandpa's.

Sify launched the Game Drome (a decade ago it was their cyber cafes) a computer gaming zone across every city in the country. Game Mobile, an OOH promotional activity by Sify has taken Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi by storm. Before kids used to bunk schools and college for the latest movie show, now they drop their Organic chemistry class for an intense fight with Odysseus or Telemachus beautiful wife Penelope. MMORPG (Mom, My Online Role is Potty Greg) is a big hit in India now. Counter Strike, Ragnarok and the endless number of games, blogs, forums, discussion panels only points out that games are here to stay. A search at IDC, Info-shop will reveal numbers which will blow anyone's head. Of the 37 million internet users in India, 11% plays online game (not very good with numbers though).

Indeed, days have changed. I have came from a small < 1lakh population town to a big city to earn my daily bread. There was a time during our childhood days when we used to borrow Rs. 5 from dad and grandpa and sometimes employed elder cousin brothers to buy a Tennis Ball for a Saturday afternoon inter-para(neighbourhood) cricket match. Those were big events with all elderly, retired men from both the competing neighbourhood cheering, screaming, shouting and sometimes abusing (incase, the ball reached the boundary while trying a Jonty Rhodes stunt) for a three hour exciting extravaganza. Later, in the evening over a cup of tea heated discussion, crticial scrutiny and ball-by-ball projection of the next match used to keep people busy. As a big city dweller, only rational reason to console those bygone era is people in small town had nothing better to do then.

Theres only one question which is bugging me. Will Online game add up to the short-comings of India's search for real sports talent. We as a country are pathetic when it comes to sports. No matter how much we try to hype about our sports person the country has a serious shortage in supply of quality people. Cricket is niche, so kids from well-to-do families take it up as hobby. Do we have a national football team?? Hockey, well ... errr ... swimming, archery, athletics, kabadi ...

Don't worry, India Games is launching a new mobile football game in association with Airtel for all its mobile subscribers. So, go play!!

Think Opposite

Forum Mall on Hosur Road in Bangalore is the new destination for the city dwellers. Overcrowded on weekdays and jam-packed on weekends. You gotta be seen at The Forum.

Amidst the maddening crowd, I saw a little boy sitting on the footpath leading to the mall. He was selling books. My eyes caught on one particular book, "Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite" by the legendary adman Paul Arden. So, I picked up the book and started browsing the pages. Arden points out how counterintuitive thinking can bring sucess. What we think as 'Wrong' can be right. The book is filled with paradoxes and shows how 'Stealing' can lead to authencity. In one such paradox, he mentions "Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination." In another he says "Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable and originality is non-existent. So, Don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it."

The book got me thinking, how many times in our life do we actually steal an idea, execute it and celebrate it like the New Year Bash. It really doesn't matter where the idea comes from as long as we can make a Picasso out of it. So, a relevant insight can be used over and over to make an effective communication. If you need to steal the execution, so be it but only and only when you feel for it. Turn the wrongs into rights by asking yourself the question, is it relevant, is it worthy. You'll know the answer by yourself. Go ahead, start stealing!!