Newspapers - Do we need them anymore?

Newspapers - Do we need them anymore?

 You know, you may have a point there. I end up paying a cool Rs. 150-200 a month buying papers that I only give a cursory glance to every morning. Online news magazines on the other hand are for free and what’s more there are a plethora of papers I could read, more reliable, more targeted to a certain kind of audience. Online news come in industry -specific shapes and sizes and what’s more, as I said, they’re free. So why do I spend so much money on newspapers? 

I looked a little deeper into my spendthrift ways and this is what I found:

A newspaper gives me twenty odd pages of news a day, which would translate into over x number of newsworthy items a day, not repeated the next day or the next, with the editorials and the like coming in every day, a new view every day. While, in an online news magazine, an editorial comment or a blog by an established person of the industry decides to chip in his two cents on a subject affecting the nation, in sporadic spurts, one today, another a week later, whenever he deems it fit to write.

Sure I’ve read the news online, some as it happened with live video streaming, but if I were to want some more news on a burning issue, I would be disappointed. The newspaper on the other hand gives me the news in the first few pages with a 'link' to the issue on a subsequent page if I were so interested.

In a newspaper, there is something in it for everyone in the family. An online magazine is more specific, specifically catering to a particular type of person. I would hardly expect my daughter to read hbr.org, but she would most certainly be interested in knowing whether mobiles are indeed harmful to a person in the long run.

Even if the online news magazine was a general one, it wouldn’t provide me with local, or regional news in as much a depth as a local newspaper would. Or new articles every day would be too few and far between for me to be satisfied, and like an infidel I would look elsewhere for what was missing.

And, on a lighter tone, what better way to start your day, than with a cuppa hot coffee (or tea) and savour the feel and smell of crisp, newly printed paper rustling as I turn each page?

And if you are thinking what I am thinking, then the answer is yes. Yes, I do look at the ads in the newspapers. Sometimes, I dwell on it for a longer period of time and say to myself, “I wish I had written that!”

Are newspapers dying? Perhaps, but there are still people like me around that are still looking for and buying some cool newspapers.

And as long as newspapers have a decent number of fan-following, ads will follow with some great ads trying to woo the consumer into buying...

Experience vs. Youth

Experience vs. Youth

Experience or youth? Which of the two is more worthy in an advertising agency? That’s a tricky one and being part of the industry and one of the two I’d like to be diplomatic. Just kidding!

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that a good idea could come from either. We have examples of both: Our very own Piyush Pandey, an experienced hand (could anyone run O&M in India better?) and Marc Zuckerberg, a talented youngster who has fired the imagination of the world, with his Facebook, a website that has caught the fancy of old hands like me too.

If I were asked to make a choice between the two, I wouldn’t. But this I’d most certainly say: to the youth I’d say, listen to the elders, they’ve been through what you are just beginning to; to the older hand I’d say, look to the young and revive in yourself the passion you have lost somewhere behind.

Passion supersedes age or the lack thereof. Look for them that have a little something between their ears and you will never go wrong.

Passion for your job and the six inches between your ears will determine the importance of an employee; age has nothing to do with it.

 Perhaps you disagree? Do write in and let’s have a small chat, a little food to exercise our grey cells, perhaps?

If you are the best, you have no reason to fear the rest

If you are the best, you have no reason to fear the rest

It is human nature, no matter your social standing, if an online news magazine is free, there’s no better way to go. 

The ‘to charge or not to charge’ dilemma gains monumental proportions when established magazines also join the bandwagon of offering freebies. And therein begins an impasse. The writers are not for free, nor even can an established magazine sustain itself for long doling out handsome freebies for ‘the free addict’.

 Is there a way out? I don’t see one. The upstart online magazines will almost always give their content for free and will have a fair share of audience. Why? Because it’s free, never mind that it is not good. But it’s not them but the quality news magazines that I am concerned about and that forms the major focus of my intention in this write-up.

Any Johnny would tell you that if you are serious about fair and good content, then a keen reader in need of such content would not mind paying for it. The numbers may be smaller but the brand loyalty would be greater. But the burning question is do you want to be an exclusive magazine or would you like to draw the audiences away from other sundry magazines as well? Is it possible? Can you cut the cake and eat it too? Can you convert the roving eye into a faithful groom? Ordinarily I would think not, but if the established news magazines work harder at it, sure, it’s possible.

The following are some of the ways this could be achieved:

Give the run-of-the-mill stories that perhaps every online magazine would come up with for free. You still have the edge as you are established.

 Keep the rest of the articles - your carefully gleaned research findings, your special news, the case studies, matters close to the industry but which other magazines haven’t picked up – under wraps.

 So how do you get them to pay?

You don’t.

As you know, the freebie generation are succours for all things free. As that’s not always possible, meet them half way. Give them a slice, a blurb of what to expect from the article which you can read completely only if you subscribe to it. I think some of the magazines are already doing that with, may I add, modest results.

Let me illustrate the point: I am a casual reader of Harvard Business Review (hbr.org). I read what interests me online. And bless them, it’s for free. But hold on a second, not everything is. You have to be a subscriber to avail of some of the more interesting articles.

If hbr.org had made everything for subscribers only, they would have lost loyal readers like me, but by making some of the content available only if I subscribe, they invite me to subscribe, making me wish I had the money. 

They have not lost me and although I might go to other management sites (Are there any better? Are you kidding me?) that are free, I’d swear by the news that hbr.org provides. It’s just that it may take them a little more time to convince me to buy...

Would I pay if online news came bundled in a bouquet of other worthy news magazines? I’m not so sure. Why should I pay for something I have little interest in back home in India just because it comes in a bouquet of websites? I think I would resent having to pay for all when I want to read, or have time to read only a few.

If I may add a little something more: I think the reader would be very grateful if you could gauge the depth of his pocket before charging what he might feel is an exorbitant price for a (yes, I know) quality online news magazine.

As long as there’s no dearth of quality news, there will be no dearth of discerning readers.

To put it more succinctly:

If you are the best, you have no reason to fear the rest.

Er... Work - Life Balance?

Er... Work – Life Balance?

For an Indian working man (women too, only the analogy doesn’t quite work here!) balancing work and life is like having two wives; you can’t please one without hurting the other!

Countdown to Cannes

COUNTDOWN TO CANNES

 Now that the Goafest is over, it’s time for the international biggie at Cannes. Would it be as satisfying as Abhijit Avasti said it had been winning so many metals in Goafest 2011, or would it disappoint some as it did Prasoon Joshi, remains to be seen.

For now, let’s concentrate on some of the big ones here and now. If I have missed out on some, you know where to find me. So, pick up your pen and write away, and I’ll have them featured right here with your name and opinion right under it.

So, here goes:

THE CONTENDERS

1.-2. Coca Cola – The invisible bottle and Shadow – McCann Erickson

Out of sheer weakness of my frail heart, I’d first go for the Coca Cola ads. Refreshing even now, almost one year since its release, it’s romance (am I a succour for romance?!) so youthful... ah, how the voice of the youth beckons!

A coke from the billboards on the one hand and satiating your thirst over a shadow of a coke, on the other? Is it even imaginable, let alone possible? Let me in to your secret – how do you nourish your brain? Where’d you get the ideas, guys?

 Bring home a metal, guys! You’ve got a winner! Good luck!

3 - 4.  LMN - Tap and Water hose – Creativeland Asia

Two simple stories superbly told. I never tire of seeing these two ads. It’s like watching it for the first time, every time!

You can, too! Creativeland Asia, this one is for you. Grab a metal, quick!

5. Cadbury Dairy Milk – Shubh aarambh (Bus stop) – O&M

While O&M won a Grand Prix in the Goafest for Cadbury’s, I’d go full throttle for the bus stop ad. It’s the cutest and most romantic. Romance in a bus stop? To steal another brand’s line Impossible is Nothing.

Bring it on, O&M, the metal is yours.

6. ­– 7. Adidas – Bowler and fielder – O&M

While the whole series was inspirational, I must admit being torn between having to choose a couple, short as I am for time and space.

Amazing script! Watch it all ye hungry-for-success, guys! Could teach you a thing or two about attitude. (Agencies scouting for talent, now you know whose brains to pick! Hint, hint – not mine!) Must admit I have to learn a thing or two about attitude from you guys, spineless as I am!

O&M rocks!

Is it surprising they won five gold metals and one grand prix at the Goafest?!

Have the stomach to take in some more? Then watch this space for more of the same tomorrow. Until then, keep counting... (Our metals, silly!)

Adieus!

What's your Excuse?

What’s your Excuse?

Advertising is one exciting field to be in, at such a time as in ‘now’. 

Consider this: you are a copywriter or art director who also moonlights in a career you are passionate about. Which other industry allows you to earn your bread by day, so you can chase your dreams by night?

Yes, it’s one big fun place to be in advertising; just don’t forget what brought you here in the first place!

GoaFest, 2011 - My Tentative Pick of Possible Award-winning Ads...

GoaFest, 2011 - My Tentative Pick of Possible Award- winning Ads...

 Would you agree?

Coca-Cola Ad – Shadow

 I’d put my money where my heart is and that is on Coke’s Open Happiness Campaign by McCann Erickson Worldwide and its team of men, some of whom include:

Prasoon Joshi,  Tirtha Ghosh, and Ashish Chakravarty.

Shibani Kashyap is the voice behind the remix song “Aaj ki raat...”. The song was first heard in the movie Anamika (1972) starring Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri (Bachchan).

 Any ‘treatise’ of an ad would be incomplete without a mention of the production team, and in particular this ad, ably led by Dibakar Banerjee of Freshwater Films, for a superb orchestration of the concept. A brilliant effort by Dibakar and his team. 

The man behind the camera deserves a separate page by himself. Watch this space for more on this amazing talent and his production house.

That’s how perhaps I’d summarize the performance of the key players in the conceptualizing and execution of a brilliant idea.

A little history would not hurt:

 It is alleged that 300,000 consumers had downloaded and  previewed the campaign on digital media. The website also claims that at the time of publishing the details of the ad, there were nearly 90,000 referrals for the ad online. Amazing, isn’t it? Especially when the claim was made even before the ad was made public in the mass media. 

And now to juggle your memory. This is that ad that has Imran Khan as the protagonist who is in the process of shifting to a new house. As he lowers the last of the cartons and wipes the grime and sweat from his brow, he notices a shadow of a young woman working away on her laptop and with some brilliant play of light and shadow attempts to have a sip of her cola. And that forms the base of a possible romantic overture between the two. 

The ad ends with a lot unsaid, allowing us to surmise the possible outcome of the meeting of two perfect strangers over a shared bottle of a cola. That is the concurrent theme running across both the Coca-Cola ads I have discussed at length with you.

A bottle of Coke opens up possibilities to strike up a conversation even between strangers is what both the ads seem to be telling us, true to the tagline: Coke khule toh baat chale.

Not sure you have got the ad right? Then here it is just to juggle your memory:

And as a parting shot I have this to say:  A good ad always sticks in your memory, and if not, a little nudging brings it all back, as it did me.

GoaFest, 2011 - My Tentative Pick of Possible Award-winning Ads...

GoaFest, 2011 - My Tentative Pick of Possible Award- winning Ads...

 Would you agree?

As promised, I begin this week with one of my favourites - The Coca-cola ad.  I would like to add that there were many ads that were good but as only three can be selected, and as I am pressed for time, I have chosen my favourite few only. Hope you agree with my choice. Enjoy!

Coca – Cola – Invisible Bottle Ad

Unbelievable as it may sound, two strangers sharing a desire for a drink to beat the heat find common solace in a shared bottle of coke.

The handsome youngster Imran Khan and an alluring Kalki Koechlin of Dev D fame make for the handsome though unlikely pair in this ad.

 Superb story told simply, and ably crafted with some amazing creativity, this ad never fails to put a smile on my face. A repeat after repeat of the ad generates the same delightful response in me.

 The voice of Carlyta Mouhini belting out the old song, “Tum jo mil gaye ho...” from Hanste Jakhm starring Navin Nishchal and Priya, and directed by Chetan Anand, has given the lovely song a new dimension.

I see much promise in this ad and hope it wins a metal.

In case you cannot remember, allow me to refresh your memory with a clipping of the ad:

Creatives: Prasoon Joshi,  Tirtha Ghosh, Nakul Sharma and Ashish Chakravarty.

Directed by Dibakar Banerjee of Freshwater Films.

Make who stick, the Client or the Consumer?

Make who stick, the Client or the Consumer?

As a copywriter, a huge responsibility rests on your shoulders: a) to present your client’s brand in the best possible way, and b) to offer a benefit to the consumer without resorting to puffery or being fake.

When put that way, it is difficult to please both. So, I would rephrase that by saying offer a genuine benefit to the consumer and make him aspire for the product.

 When the consumer is happy, you can safely assume the client will be too.