What happens in the social media scene

Something cool I did when I got some time.

I know there are spelling errors – came to know of it later. I was a little too enthu I guess!

forgive and forget

Media hyped brain

I can’t get over this clause!

Wrong assumptions for net behaviors

I really thought I can pretty much make out what people of my demographic would be doing on the web. Guess I am wrong!

1. Online video is not dead people. It is just on the rise. Yes, I like to keep myself busy on the web with the easily accessible written information and get out of the wait for the Youtube video to render itself (and the slow net speeds too – it kinda sucks that way).

2. I was already of the impression that it is the time for FF vs. Chrome debates. People are still enthu on IE. And the dinosaur versions that too. Firefox is still a long way for them. Chrome is “that new thing”.

3. People still have faith in the media – a lot of it. High IQ individuals still watch MTV. There are enough things happening there minus the music that finds its people.

These three observations makes one inside the media umbrella think again. Logic does not really work here. This is mad!

Shah Rukh Khan, Jet airways and youtube. how?

Ever seen lame ads with famous people saying “Imagine”?

Saw a report on Livemint with sort of a case study on SRK. He comes across as a dude who comes on tell you to imagine things that could happen on a Jet Premier flight.

Idea is to shoot SRK take an 8 hour flight from Bombay to London and to shoot the entire trip on camera (“hidden” of course to use the word). SRK could eat, sleep, read, flirt with the hostess, wake up, look out, stretch, work out etc. for these 8 hours.

Now 8 hours equals 480 minutes equals 240 “2 minutes”. Put these two minute shots on youtube and air it directly from the corporate site. Send it across to dudes who can fly (company paid or self paid) premier flights. You may convert a few and maybe manage to kick the ‘guest’ idea

Facebook faces recession too!!!

I have noticed myself becoming a Facebook critic in a way. Well, I do possess an account and log in on a daily basis. Still!

Was following the Social Media scene for some time now. “Lets get the crowd first. Money and Business Plans shall be rolled in later” principle did see quite a few me-too SNS fall on its face. Facebook looks like the next one. Sad but true.

Mark Zuckerberg – THE poster child for 25 minus wannapreneurs did see himself a bit above what was worth it.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Facebook’s value has jumped dramatically with every investment, from $100 million in 2005, to $550 million in 2006, to $15 billion in 2007. The drop has been almost as sharp.

Right now, they stand at $1.3 billion.

Moral of the story: Stick to awesomeness. Open Source and access to all may sound juicy. Start bugging people with sub standard run by the night applications which later qualify as spam can hit you hard faster than you expect.

Frequency debate

Reach x Frequency = Gross Rating points.

Fellow formula lovers – The above formula pretty much helps you crack most of the media decisions taken irrespective of the medium. However, e-marketer seems to have taken this formula a little above the mark. Cluttering the available header space with the same message thrice may not really qualify as thrice the frequency. Does it?

One good banner ad.

I always used to think banner ads were a complete lame idea. 

However, I stumbled on a neat example of how banner ad could be used

Cyanide and happiness  is a really cool comics site with focus on being as “gross” as possible. Possible violence, sex and drug abuse in the comics.

Right place to advertise for TOEFL. People fresh out of under graduate college, looking for a post graduate cours, 21 – 25 years of age etc..

Meaningful creative too

Pop Media is a hype machine – be safe

I have been keeping to myself for the last one month. Plan to do so for some more time, the exact period of which is not known to anyone. Been gorging on newspapers (Mathrubhoomi in Malayalam and The Hindu in English) and the internet all this time. Have been catching glimpses of TV in the evenings. My parents have become complete TV addicts. They show withdrawal symptoms on mega-serials.

Media is a bitch. 

Media has the tendency to over hype things and miss out on the details. The Mumbai terror episode is a classic example. As if Mumbai exists inside the Oberoi Trident and the Taj. And that this is “India’s 9/11″. Considering the fact that channels are available around the globe and sucking up to the Americans in November 2008 is not much of use to anyone has been comforatbly forgotten. 

I like The Hindu though. It is a mature newspaper. Talks about news – the interestingness, the depth and the relevance of events around us. Sad that you would need some time to read the stuff though. Gory third class pictures of a few people seen on TV is not their policy. It is truly kick-ass to realise that this newspaper could guard its fort and not fall into the pop – media bracket and is available for cheap.

Found this on Overcompensating. Neat comics for daily consumption. Highly recommended

TV reporting sucks fat ass

Bombay got to see some bad days from those terrorists. I had no net and no computer for the last four days. Was feeling like a bitch too. Had to watch TV very painfully. No burst of TV watching exceeded 30 minutes at any point in time.

1. The young reporters need to be fired.
2. The reporters sure are doing a great job of being near the firing scenes at Taj and Trident. Good work. It stops there.
3. You got to be a reporter. So speak clearly. 10 minutes of listening to these people talk can give you some serious headache and no clear information passage.
4. Opinions of reporters are not necessary. Calling up the foreign minister of Pakistan and asking him “should WE not think TOGETHER” – Well, I never asked for the reporter to take charge any day – did I?
5. The layout on TV looks somewhat like this

Which part of the screen are the people supposed to see above.
6. Surprisingly and unfortunately and due to lack of choice, these news channels get maximum leverage.

Politics and Advertising

1. Political parties get go ahead for using FM radio for their campaigns from the Election Commission
2. Professional national level ad agencies pitches for accounts of BJP, Congress and such rich parties
3. Barack Obama proves a point using mass media and the internet in the U.S.

Quite a noteworthy trend of politics moving out of the lower strata. It wouldn’t be far when the IT and BPO crowd could be discussing politics aside the latest movie to catch. I think this is a very neat move.

Mass Media could have a lot of restrictions on political advertisements – remember cigarettes, alcohol and such? However, it should be interesting on the web. With some good agencies and neat creatives backed with experienced media professionals, we could be looking at Search ads, display ads and social media action with Sonia Gandhi or a Lalu Yadav. Wonder what conversions these guys could be having.

Personally, I have never bothered much about a party or elections. I have not voted also. However, the recession and hard times as these could have us looking at the political administration for some hope.