Headlines Today "Right to be Heard"

The "Right to be Heard" campaign by Black Pencil India for Headlines Today of the India Today group. A nice campaign that voices the sentiments of the Indian youth today. The campaign seeks to provide a platform to people to speak about their grievances and make sure they are heard.
Headline Today has also created a website: Right To Be Heard, where people can upload their videos, comments and issues they want to raise. There is also a hotline number they can call and record their messages at. The channel’s team will get in touch with them to highlight and resolve their issues. The channel has launched two new shows in sync with this campaign – ‘Right to be heard show’ and ‘Right to be Heard Town hall show’.
According to the channel, the campaign would encompass OOH, TV, print and digital. 

Vintage Print Ads

Many of us follow advertisements. But do we know that how did some advertisements of yesteryear's look like? They were socially acceptable then, for sure. Have a look at some vintage ads!

Disclaimer: Some image(s) or text(s) may seem to violate today's social acceptance norms. Please understand that these are of a different era where different norms existed. I am deeply sorry if it hurts sentiments of anyone. :)

Is Your Boss Rude?

Rudeness, Indifference, Bullying.
In the recent years where sexual offense has taken the front seat of in-company questionable behavior, these actions have blossomed in it's shadow. 20 percent say their company or boss doesn't care how people treat each other. A whopping 60+ percent in India say so. Complaints aren't taken seriously, and we've often heard that those who speak up pay the price. Some people say, no matter how strict the policies are, or how fancier the steps taken to curb those actions be, these people will continue committing such deeds. So how would one need to do to counteract these behaviors?

For Organizations:-

• Make civility a priority and set guidelines.

People are busy, but how long does it take to smile, say "hi," or refrain from a zinger? A healthcare organization in the US has an interesting policy. The 10/5 Way. It says that if you're within ten feet of someone, you must make eye contact. Within five feet you say hello. Such companies surely report greater patient satisfaction and an increase in patient referrals.

• Provide training.

It just might help. Behavioral training sometimes is the best solution for such cases, say people are constantly quitting an organization because of the rudeness of the boss.

Individuals can:

• Walk away.

Ideally, people will speak up and management will respond, but I know that speaking up isn't always realistic. In those cases, the best response is a measured one. If a boss/manager keeps shouting at you on an issue, you can tell him, "Sir, let's talk in a civil way on this issue." If it's a peer, you can also walk away till he is cooled and ready to talk again. Leaving the conversation until civility is restored is often the only solution.

• Learn from it.

When somebody's being rude it's tempting to give back the same or take it out on somebody else. But it might be a learning opportunity. Rudeness hurts both the giver and the recipient. That's why it's better to act as calm and possible.

Allen Solly, Twitter, & Tweeples!

Calling it the country’s first ‘tweeple-powered’ collection launch, Allen Solly created a ‘live’ hoarding at a Bangalore mall which unveiled itself with more and more tweets. Hosted by an emcee and displaying the tweets real-time on a big screen, the hoarding claimed to have been connected to a computer-powered ‘solenoid’ (coil) which would push a shirt off it with more tweets. Through the event, the shirts began falling off, being rewarded to lucky tweeters. Behind all the shirts emerged a promotional visual of the new collection.

Allen Solly, one of India’s long-serving apparel brands has targeted professionals through the 90s and 2000s through sharp visuals of free-spirited casuals. Not to take away anything from this campaign, the brand already enjoys a neat recall among its target audience – the upwardly mobile urban pro, also a reason why the tweeple (Twitter users) here didn’t mind associating themselves with it. The idea isn’t new, really. The west has seen great outdoor campaigns for web-savvy customers using QR codes, Wi-Fi and social networks; but in India, the agency’s best bet was perhaps Bangalore, with its young IT crowd, and it seems to have worked.

The ‘Tweet to win’ route is boring, but turning that into a live event was the scoring point here. A high footfall zone(Garuda Mall) ensured high Twitter traction (not everyone’s on Twitter yes, but people wouldn’t mind signing up to win a crisp shirt!) Also, this event was an offline integration of the campaign’s online initiatives. The others were a website that gave 52 Friday dos and a Facebook page that had a card game going. Not bad syncing at all.

Overall, this was one of a kind for India, and surely a good bet for Allen Solly.

Did You Notice These New Logo(s) in 2012?

Logo is the identity that's fundamental to building a brand and communicating with the target audience. Many well-known corporate brands change their logo to achieve the perfect identification because the identity’s creation is not an occasional activity, but a permanent one.
However, a brand identity has to represent the ongoing trends. That is why a logo has got to change & evolve over a period, keeping with the present context.

Some of the biggest brands in the country ditched their old logos for new ones this year, mostly due to the reasons of evolving, to look younger and more human, and to communicate in a better way about the brand.

As Twitter blogged- “Our new bird grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints, and simple geometry. This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles – similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends. (…) a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility.”
And Chris Brandon, a spokesperson of Domino's, tells, "We certainly remain a pizza company first and foremost—but people can now get so much more from Domino’s, (...) As shown by the way we have spoken to consumers in the past couple of years—it’s less about just a pizza and more about a relationship and an experience."
Have a look at these redesigned logos and brands.

                   

Content for You in 2013 & Beyond

Why has the importance of content grown all over these years? With the onset of social media marketing like never before, content has grown in value from a single person working before the curtains to over two hundred of them. I feel it’s critical to set the tone for content marketing, or any marketing for that matter. Marketing professionals from so many small and large businesses get so fixated on channels such as blogs, Facebook or Pinterest that they honestly have no clue of the underlying content strategy. What results is a mess of social marketing strategies that has no co-ordination. So lets set out on a hot trail of content marketing strategies required to strengthen the branding.

First, a content mission statement is a must. It can do wonders for the visitors. the statement should ideally be in the About Us part and it should include the following:-
a. The core audience target
b. the USP of the service
c. the result of the service
Fine Examples can be found here- MISSION STATEMENTS

For a change lets see this video.

This is a fine example of moving from creative excellence to content excellence. Coca-Cola has been a marketing leader for a long time, and here the brand again proves that it is more than qualified to play with the big boys.

Secondly, become the best informational provider for your target audience. Sure, you are creating content in dozens of channels for multiple marketing objectives. But is the mindset focused on being the leading provider of information for your customers? If not, why isn’t that your priority? You can google the strategies of P&G and Dove, and find a lot about how they are providing relevant information on different issues to women, their main target.

Thirdly, the utility to your customers is a key to success. Take a hard look at your content and see if what you are producing is actually useful for your customers. Is it making their lives better or jobs easier in some way?

Next, build relations with your customer. Talk to them, believe as humanly as possible, answer their queries, try to anticipate their expectations even before they ask you. The content opportunities that spring up from customer service and sales alone can support your content marketing strategy. Nike, and Dove are fine examples in this case.

The final and another important factor is co-creation of content. Make loyal customers and allow them to get involved in the company strategies and marketing as much as possible. The Internet has given customers ever-increasing powers to research, compare, and review brands, enabling both good and bad customer experiences to be broadcast to the world. Coca-Cola, Tata Group and MTV are good examples. These are the brands that understand the power of co-creating their brand together with consumers and tapping into the creativity of their biggest fans. For most companies, this also means encouraging--and actively participating in--reviews of their products/services and conversations around them, either on their own, or on third party websites. Reviews are one of the best types of UGC (user-generated content) to encourage, as reviews are closest to the buying process, and directly affect conversion rates and sales numbers.

So go out there and create some touching stories. Engaging stories set out to deliberately draw a conflict — a comparison of morality, or of fundamental change, or of good and evil. Start to feel like the customer. Of starting at a place where we don’t know how it’s going to turn out. This really helps the business to engage more customers. Otherwise, just keep on doing the boring promotions part and wasting your rupees.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 "Office Upgrade"

Samsung was on a roll last year when it came to its ads in USA, and from the looks of its newest spot for the Galaxy Note II, it looks like that trend will continue into the new year.

                             
Now that Christmas & New Year is over, it looks like Samsung is adjusting its Galaxy Note II marketing efforts from regular consumers to business men and women. Pretty intelligent positioning has led to this fine spot. The commercial shows two coworkers playing with their new phones, pointing out all the possibilities that the new "do two things at once feature" provides. Samsung features the Galaxy Note II in a comical office scene in which two employees discuss the usefulness of the device’s unique features, like Multi Window mode. One employee focuses on productivity while the other prefers to procrastinate. The spot then plays out in favor of the hard-working employee before closing with a new tag line – “The Next Big Thing for Business is Here.”

We see that Samsung is really pushing hard into the western market and is keen to win over more market shares. The heavy funding in advertisements and some great spots are surely helping it in the way. Lets see how far this goes in trying to disrupt the iconic Apple.

Finally a Windows Decline..

For years, people have been predicting the death of Microsoft's Windows dominance. And in the last two years, it's finally happened. The rise of iOS and Android have made Microsoft's operating system significantly less important.

Luckily for Microsoft, this hasn't meant the death of its business overall. Thanks to the strength of its Office franchise and its Servers and Tools business, Microsoft is still very healthy.

But, there's no escaping that Windows is what drives the whole company. CEO Steve Ballmer calls Windows, "the heart and soul of Microsoft from Windows PCs to Windows Servers to Windows Phones and Windows Azure." And that heart is beating a little bit more weakly today than it was in say, 2005.

This chart from Asymco earlier this year illustrates the decline of Microsoft's Windows monopoly as Apple has risen.

                    

Going into 2013, this will be one of the major stories to watch. Microsoft released Windows 8 in an attempt to reverse the decline of Windows' importance. It has touch elements which are meant to mitigate the rise of the iPad, and Android. But so far, it's off to a slow start. Can Microsoft reverse it in 2013? Or is this time different? Are we really, finally, seeing the end of Windows?