I must say that it was a good read but then I agree to disagree with the comments made by Senior Members of the industry in the last article HOW NOT TO SAY ‘I’ am NO 1.  ( this article appeared in Brand reporter )

Life in professional B2B communication is not as simplified or totally logical as one would like to believe and that is one of the prime reason for communication being LOUD, CLEAR  and FACTUAL  in saying ‘Number 1’ so much that it gets comments like  ‘Just better than Tender advertising’ or ‘Straight out of Power Point slides’.

Could there be a better way; YES I would like to believe that but then that is true for any communication. I doubt if the Brand while attempting a BETTER EMOTIONALLY CHARGED or LAYERED communication would continue to effectively drive home the main message. I would love to be proven wrong.

I agree with RAVI that ‘Number 1’ communication can be better treated, can be more exciting and may not state the facts straight. Client is not endowed with the requisite talent and skills and depends upon its agency to show the creative possibilities. Many a clients try being the copy and ate art directors on such communication but that is purely when the agencies fail to deliver something interesting enough. Sridhar has a point in the need to establish the point and communicate what makes you Number 1. I personally would love to see something that is does this, remains interesting, holds attention and at the same time clearly establishes the final message of Brand being Number1.

There is a saying ‘as a client gets the creative he deserves’ and the corollary to that is ‘an agency gets the freedom it deserves to experiment’.

Let us be honest; if all Business decisions were logical and there was never trade-offs to balance the reach-frequency-cost equation these communication would have ceased to exist.  It not being so,  it is  essential for the brand to project their status/ achievements;  which implies a benefit for the advertisers and seek a re-evaluation from the agencies when they are drawing their media plans its advantages and benefits. The brand by this communication tends to give a reason to its readers of being associated with the right title. NO it is definitely not meant for a reader to start buying two copies but maybe impress a non-reader with a Good Enough Reason to experiment with the title.

There is not a fear for confusion on claims. Not every publication or media house rightfully can claim to be Number. Most of these are based on the Third party results and Industry Surveys. The data is available with all and when ever any Brand flouts the rules the competition does not waste time in taking up the cause with ASCI. Unfortunately by the time ASCI decide the offending communication has done the damage. Will Trade Publication and media along with agencies be strong enough not to accept communication which does not use the right data and if ASCI reprimands some brand for misleading communication, refrain from carrying the brands communication for some fixed period. 

I have in my 8 years of handling Media Brands; first from an agency perspective and now from client perspective seen through thousands of ways this ‘NO1’ has been communicated. It now seems difficult to devise one-more way to say so. The cause for this could be the brief, business objective, opportunity, insight or the creative process being followed. If there was a better creative which works more efficiently why a client would not buy that?

I for one do not buy the IMMEDIACY argument. Yes there is a need to react fast, everyone wanting to be off the block but trust not all such communication is developed overnight. Many Brands work in advance on possible scenario. I believe at the agency these are not seen as a opportunity to demonstrate creative excellence as these creative find their way into  self publications, B2B print, internet, mailers and in rare cases outdoor. Blame this on clients too; who may be buying a creative for any other reason than believing it would work.

At the same time, clients rightly believe that there is no relationship between money spent and impact-full creative. Clients are placing enough media weights and yes they tend to use existing visuals or visuals from Photo-banks but is that something wrong? They might not be wanting or willing to invest into Photo Shoots especially for these communications. Is Creativity not about bringing the best within the defined resources; where has the typographic treatment, illustrations and other such art forms vanished when it comes to the Loud, chest thumping, right at the face and facts in the headline communication?

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If Dhoni has killed our World Cup chances, we are all co-accused in the murder

Guest Column Newsmanic: June 19, 09

 ( Its not really lethargy- but what I found great reading thought of sharing it. Hopefully I am doing the right thing by giving the right credits )

BV Rao

And suddenly there is no cricketer worth being reviled more than Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Here are some Monday morning headlines, hours after the national calamity:

 AajTak: Mahi ne machayi tabaahi; Kis kaam ke bade khiladi; Team India ne katayi naak; Bagaawat ki bu-siyasat ki bu (Mahi has destroyed us; What use these big guns; Team India has shamed us; Signs of a revolt, signs of dirty politics).

IBN7: Flop ho gaye captain cool; Yeh kya kiya Dhoni (Captain Cool has flopped; What have you done Dhoni). India TV: Dhikkar hain, dhikkar hain, dhikkar hain….; Bas naam ke dhurandar; Inhe sharm bhi nahi aati. (Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you…, World-beaters just in name; These guys have no shame)  Star News: Shok Ho! (as opposed to Jai Ho, the name of their show, ‘shok’ is grief)

Their English cousins were gentler in the headlining, but Times Now and Headlines Today were in as savage a mood as the Hindi channels. While HLT dismissed Dhoni’s apology to the nation (“we don’t need your apology Dhoni”), Times Now suspected “if he looked sorry enough” while apologising. And that was just the beginning of their tirade.

We know our channels only too well to be surprised by their over-the-top headlining and frenzied anchoring. They have to individually feel the pain and grief of each one of those one billion fans (who did the census, I want to know!) and reflect their collective anger on national TV, so we understand. Our channels take any defeat badly but cricket defeats are especially personal. Not only are the endless hours of hype wasted, the channels are shortchanged on easy content by a few days. Criminal dereliction of national duty on the cricketers’ part, I must say.

One look at the war cries on TV will help you figure out what I am referring to. Here are some names of the T20 World Cup shows: IBN7: Maha Yuddh (Great War, IBN7) India TV: Vijayee Bhavah (Victory be yours) Aaj Tak: Bees Ka Boss (Boss of T20) Star News: Jai Ho! CNN IBN: Mission T20.

That’s not all. Headlines Today had to abort their “Mission World Domination” and Times Now is upset with the violation of a simple order: Bring back the Cup!

Having done so much ground-laying, I don’t know if the channels were angry with Dhoni because he looked stupid or he made them look stupid for not countenancing defeat even once. Even then, we must concede them the right to a post-mortem. The problem is what they have done with that post-mortem.

It does not take hard boiled experts to figure out that Dhoni goofed and goofed big. While giving Dhoni what he got, no channel, not even NDTV 24×7 and CNN IBN which were not shrill in Dhoni’s condemnation, expand the scope of their inquiry to include the BCCI and a certain Lalit Modi.

Every channel raised the “too much cricket” question, but mostly to paper over it or to mock at coach Gary Kirsten’s fatigue-and-niggles theory. And that was easily done. Rajiv Shukla, a BCCI vice-president, was at hand. Without saying much he insinuated that the fatigue theory was a load of you-know-what, and that the BCCI had already told players they could opt out at will because there was a “huge talent pool”. Channels are generally grateful for the byte, so they don’t ask too many questions when a willing subject grants them 10 seconds of audio-gold.

All the channels did their own version of Mr Shukla’s byte but not one reporter asked him a few crucial questions:

1. Sir, what talent pool are we talking about? You couldn’t find a replacement for Sehwag to last four innings…

2. For argument’s sake, if Zaheer, Dhoni and Yuvraj had asked to sit out of the World Cup, would they have been allowed? And who would you have replaced them with from that rich talent pool?

3. Is it not the BCCI’s job to ensure that the best team, in the best shape, represents the country in tournaments of pride?

These questions were necessary to probe the depth of the BCCI’s argument or, actually, to expose the hollowness of Mr Shukla’s nonchalance. You organize a bone-cruncher of an IPL up to a week before the team’s call for national duty and then you say it’s up to the players to decide which they want to miss, money or honour? Do you seriously think they would want to miss either?

Mr Shukla said IPL cannot be blamed and that was that, the gospel. The channels just let it pass. They were not even willing to shoot from the shoulders of Gary Kirsten. The national coach, not one to shoot his mouth off, risked his assignment with a retributive board to point fingers at Lalit Modi’s IPL (Blasphemy!).

There were enough reasons to probe the coach’s line. It was no secret that the team did not have enough recovery time before the Cup. It was no secret that the coach had to regularly let the team skip training sessions. It was no secret that many of our top guns were carrying injuries. It was no secret that of all the international teams, ours had been on the road and the field the longest. It is no secret that Indians’ fitness levels being what they are, we need longer turnaround time. (Rahul Kanwal on Headlines Today came closest to analysing the Board’s complicity in the defeat, but just about. He stopped way short of any stinging criticism of the Board).

The channels were more eager than Mr Shukla to ensure no blame was attached to cricket’s new cowboy and its new cash-cow. They cleverly put up Dhoni’s quote (“no international player can give fatigue as an excuse”) against Kirsten, made fun of the latter and exited. Again, no interest to dig deeper. Firstly, what Dhoni said is what any player would have to say, with big brother BCCI watching all the time. And secondly, if indeed there was no fatigue, why would just one or two players turn up at the nets for “optional” training sessions and why was it that Dhoni granted his mates so many training-holidays in the middle of a prestigious tournament?

The problem is, cricket is moving in a new direction and all our arguments and debates are getting outdated fast. The question is not anymore about how much cricket to play, whether to play for money or honour, etc etc. The success of IPL last year and the encore this year, has settled that question. From next year, IPL is going to be two times over in one year. Other nations are planning their own versions of IPL and our stars will be playing there, too. This year’s “crammed” calendar would seem like a leisurely holiday, next year. And don’t even try to look beyond that. T20 will claim calendar space from the one-day game so future cricketers won’t be juggling multiple formats.

We, the fans, the board and the media, made IPL1 such a roaring success and set off an explosion in the world of sports marketing. Team Dhoni is T20 laboratory’s guinea pig generation, absolutely central to its evolution. No other generation will have to go through so much testing and so much change in such a short while. We want them in IPL, we want them in the World Cup and we want them for every other regular cricket engagement. And yet, we will refuse to acknowledge fatigue because well-paid cricketers should not complain even if everybody else is making the mega bucks by flogging them dead!

If it is true that Team Dhoni killed the aspirations of a nation, it is also equally true that all of us are co-conspirators to the murder. We all wrote a part of that script.

What say? Shall we drop charges?

(Venkat, as the author is called, thinks the media was extra harsh on Dhoni because it had to be extra soft of the BCCI. The IPL has just helped their bottomlines in a bottomed out market, you see. The views expressed are the columnist’s own and not those of the editors and publisher of exchange4media.com)

My answer to question from DAVID BORGES rated as Best in Linked in forum.

His question: What are the “must-haves” of an internal/corporate relationship marketing platform?

“Most of the Internal Corporate communication plans fail as they are designed from the organizational point of view, full of information and details that are not handy day-today or are available at the other sites/links the employee already has association with.

Most damaging they do not give enough reason and do not really answer the basic question- IF I do visit this or If I do not visit this what will I gain / Lose, how will other who Visit this be better than me. A motivational POP up-simple Thought of the day- List of achievements- appreciation- B’day and other important dates that allow employees to strengthen their operational networks are simple and expected icons now.

If you use this as an important message delivery mechanism- common meeting pointers and listing- that are critical and information on it is not available at any other place- you are creating a forced pull but then all employees must have the same level of access to this platform.

Add on things that employees may need even infrequently but which may be very tedious to get from within the organization- In India even an updated List of H’day, PF details, Pay slip, B’day Listing, Wishes cards and Leave Records have helped interaction and stickiness. Training update, How to do, how to react all are minimal tools you could have.

But if this platform can in some way assure the user that technology is not meant to replace the face-to-face interaction and may actually be the right medium to enhance it- they are more likely to follow. Add to that- a direct access plan to important people (that delivers results) - Product service trivia that helps them deliver on their KRA easily- Their own data bank management tools help. None of the suggestion can work with same efficiency in all organizations.

Solutions have to be found independently many times with trial and error. But one process does seem to work like Magic- is when you can make them believe that it is they who are designing and implementing it. Take their ideas (open research) on what they would want. Have a rotating membership committee for review and deciding what is important; validated and moderated by expert hands which will always get the group to decide in the desired direction.”

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ADD on POST: Most of the internal Internet based programs are started with best of the intentions but as an added responsibility to some-ones current job profile and that is like committing suicide at step 1. It must be handled separately and not allowed to grow like a hydra tentacles so as to keep on including everything that is possible to be communicated or need to be communicated in mass within the organization. It will just create a very big but lethargic and non-focused program which will only become a barrier for information flow.

Best is to clinically ask yourself a question- why are you doing this and do you have the intent to refrain from bastardizing the program. If yes- best of luck- just go ahead and experiment.

My answer to an query by ROBIN ABRAHAM on linkedin that he rated as a best reply.

His question: How can I ensure that my brand’s Wiki on Wikipedia does not publish false information?

“I will take from your statement that you have decided to join the group of Brand that have their own WIKI or WILKIPEDIA entry. I am not here to judge your reason for that. Now having done that- you want to control what is written in that publicly open source site. As the very reason for its success is it being open to be written by anyone- you cant control that. Having said that what you can do are following.

1) Have such detailed information on your brand that everyone who wants to contribute has nothing to contribute.

2) Keep it updated and is willing to be transparent in your updates

3) Most likely the wrong entries will come from people /organizations with inherent business need to do that. Unfortunately you would know only when its already happened. Hence you need to assign someone the task of regularly checking and cross checking. Its like the soldiers in SIACHIN- there is no activity but what id there is - and this attitude must keep you smartly alert

4) Do not just edit- place citation requirement- third party details and show create an example for others

And once again- Back to the reason for having a brand entry in Wilki- your reason and your call- and if you are sure you want it- safeguarding its virginity of content is your full time responsibility.”

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Addition post : Personally I would prefer a brand to have an updated well managed page on Wilkipedia- as more and more people are expected to take this easier route when they want to know about your brand

The blast continues and I am getting reoriented into poetic verses.

Sometimes I beleive that it is must to complete some unfinished business and is that what is keeping this alive ? Maybe maybe not. I better be careful with myself and not sway with the wind where it may want me to lead

So here is the bit I got now

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bahut muddat ke baad aaj aaina dekha humne
teri khushboo se aaj khud ko phir khelta paaya humne
yeh iptida hai ya phir intehaa hogi
khuda jaane kab dil ki tanhaiyon mein phir mulaqat hogi

 tum aabad ho…shukr khuda ka
kissi roz mujh par bhi to us khuda ki inaayat hogi
yakeen ho chala hai taqdeer par humein
ab dekhen kahan kiss morh par khadi qayanat hogi…

 gumnaam hi reh jaayen to acha hai, yeh khwaab
naamon mein meri jaan waise bhi kya rakha hai
pehchaan gar dilon se ho to shaayad jee jaaye, is zamane mein
naamon se jo pehchaan ho
uski waise bhi kya umr, kya bisaat hogi…

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The feeling that I get a few days before the readership survey is the same I got when my children Prateek and Preetika were born.

It repeatedly pushes the parents - already under pressure - and the doctor for the date of delivery. At times, false alarms change travel plans abruptly. Finally, everyone waits eagerly to catch the sound of the soothing cries of a new born baby.

I’ve witnessed quite a few rounds of IRS from the time I was handling media at Mudra Communications. I must admit that the feeling hasn’t changed over the years. The moment arrives. It is certain that this time the ‘pains’ are real and there is a rush to have the baby (the CD) in your hands. And once you get it, the scenario is similar to what I went through when my son’s ICSE results were to be announced.Now, it is the expectant father, who is waiting with anxiety as someone outside the family has evaluated the results of his son’s efforts. He wants to know which subjects (areas or editions) the son (title) has scored, what are the growth patterns and how well has he performed compared to the peers in his class (competitors) and then in the category (across areas).

However, the IRS, with its pattern of sampling, really holds no surprises. It’s like the lull after the last set of crackers explode on Diwali Night. There are no volatile differences. Trends are smooth and most of the time you finish with the same old story. Next, it is time to present the bride (results) to the potential suitors (media planners and clients) to attract the best. The matchmakers (agencies) are kept on standby to create the best possible match. They are also trying to find different ways to say the same things every time. The first reaction is to take out the same creative rejected last year and make a case for why it is so apt this year. The agencies would have really appreciated if the results were dramatically different which would have at least allowed them some scope of creativity. The clients (media houses) push them to find new ways and challenge them to realise that creativity is not about working in a vacuum but under constraints.

Resumes (communication pieces) are created. Possible ways to influence and create awareness of its achievements are then experimented with. And thankfully for the agency, some simple creative finally sees the light of the day. This is when the dholwalas (media trade publications and portals) have their best time. They are in demand. This frenzy goes on for a few months. By the time you have made enough noise, analysed it to the core, the wait starts all over again. 

(This appeared in Brand reporter- in response to what are the personal feelings near the time of IRS results: Featured on the site and in the magazine. I think I could have done with a bit more and maybe crafted it better- but now that it has made appearance- I would let it remain as first original draft )