Communicate 2
Kyoorius Design
Sunday 22 November 2009
More unassuming entrances... and an Ad agency
Pinstorm - the only one that looked like an ad agency!
Chandrankat Gharat - Jewellery Seller Elephanta Island
After having to buy an extra 10 tickets between 3 of us to get the boat to move anywhere, we finally set off to Elephanta Island from the Gateway to India in Mumbai.
Arriving at the jetty after 45 minutes, we stocked up on sugary drinks and snacks not knowing what was at the end of the long pier (so long there's a train on it to take you to the top). In the searing sun, we walked.
Chandrankat approached us, his arm laden with typical Indian tourist jewellery. 'No thank you, No thank you' we kept repeating. Then he just started to chat - was I married, did I have children, where was my husband, where did I live. Understanding my reticence, feeling like I was going to be guilted in to buying something, the communication was friendly, but not exactly 2 way. Then Chandrankat said 'Don't worry, you don't buy, we just talk'. And talk we did, all the way to the end of the jetty.
Arriving at the jetty after 45 minutes, we stocked up on sugary drinks and snacks not knowing what was at the end of the long pier (so long there's a train on it to take you to the top). In the searing sun, we walked.
Chandrankat approached us, his arm laden with typical Indian tourist jewellery. 'No thank you, No thank you' we kept repeating. Then he just started to chat - was I married, did I have children, where was my husband, where did I live. Understanding my reticence, feeling like I was going to be guilted in to buying something, the communication was friendly, but not exactly 2 way. Then Chandrankat said 'Don't worry, you don't buy, we just talk'. And talk we did, all the way to the end of the jetty.
He lived in the village, had been born there. His wife lived in Mumbai with his 3 daughters. He made the jewellery out of stones he bougt in the markets around Mumbai and sold them to tourists coming to Elephanta. We had a good old chat. When we got to the end, he pulled one of the necklaces off his arm 'Matches your dress, present from me, I like to talk, no one ever talks'.
Despite feeling I couldn't take his hard work, he absolutely insisted. And so I made a friend, Chandrankat. He came back on the boat to us in Bombay, it turns out he speaks Russian and Italian too. We chatted about the price of education, his family, my family... and when we docked, he went off for a beer, and I went off for my interview with Impact magazine.
He says if any of my friends or family need a guide on Elephanta, he would be glad to take you for R 250 (£3.50). He's always on the jetty, dressed all in white, selling his necklaces.
Mahesh Murthy - Pinstorm
Mahesh Murthy is one of those blokes that has made lots of money by thinking big and can’t seem to just sit still. Mahesh made his money in the heady days of mid 90’s Silicon Valley.
He didn’t just retire to the beach, he returned to India to launch and run Channel V, a rival to MTV until it was sold to News corp. Like Dilip Cherian, he seems to have an aversion to staying with the big companies, preferring instead to help start ups with investment and advice. He launched Pinstorm in 2004 with the express aim of making good money out of digital advertising.
What is unique about Pinstorm, is that they are remunerated purely on performance – something Mahesh feels you can only do with digital media. Working across search, display and social media, his team include search experts, media buyers, creatives and technology whizzes.
Working for clients from P&G to Hindustan Times, everything Pinstorm do includes a response – an e-mail address, a social media interaction, a form filled in… and you only ever pay for the end results. As an ex-creative director, Mahesh has a creative team to create ads that hit objectives, but the subjective view of creative is removed from the equation – clients have to go with what works.
From an integrated planner’s point of view I initially had lots of objections about the validity of e-mail addresses, value of those leads etc but it seems that this approach could enhance a brand building or awareness activity by providing tangible leads at the required cost per acquisition.
I wonder whether advertisers in the UK would be prepared to relinquish full control over creative approvals.
Mahesh’s team are totally transparent about where leads come from, just don’t ask them about their margin – it would put us all to shame! If they’re hitting the targets – what’s the problem?
He didn’t just retire to the beach, he returned to India to launch and run Channel V, a rival to MTV until it was sold to News corp. Like Dilip Cherian, he seems to have an aversion to staying with the big companies, preferring instead to help start ups with investment and advice. He launched Pinstorm in 2004 with the express aim of making good money out of digital advertising.
What is unique about Pinstorm, is that they are remunerated purely on performance – something Mahesh feels you can only do with digital media. Working across search, display and social media, his team include search experts, media buyers, creatives and technology whizzes.
Working for clients from P&G to Hindustan Times, everything Pinstorm do includes a response – an e-mail address, a social media interaction, a form filled in… and you only ever pay for the end results. As an ex-creative director, Mahesh has a creative team to create ads that hit objectives, but the subjective view of creative is removed from the equation – clients have to go with what works.
From an integrated planner’s point of view I initially had lots of objections about the validity of e-mail addresses, value of those leads etc but it seems that this approach could enhance a brand building or awareness activity by providing tangible leads at the required cost per acquisition.
I wonder whether advertisers in the UK would be prepared to relinquish full control over creative approvals.
Mahesh’s team are totally transparent about where leads come from, just don’t ask them about their margin – it would put us all to shame! If they’re hitting the targets – what’s the problem?
Vivek Bharga - Communicate 2
Vivek runs one of the largest search marketing businesses in India. He’s got over 150 employees, 95 of whom are Google GAP qualified. He works for Indian companies and the big media and search specialists around the world, who get his team to ‘do the do’ out in India.
What was interesting about Vivek is that he is the 3rd son in an affluent family of musical instrument manufacturers. Having spent from the age of 14 travelling the world at international music trade fairs, his entrepreneurial eyes were opened – search engine marketing wasn’t quite what the family had in mind, but he has made a real success of it
Communicate 2 works with 70% of the banks in India as well as non Indian clients like Ealing and Croydon Councils! Communicate 2 are able to provide cost effective search solutions, ad copy management and have developed their own bid management software to make the process highly efficient, as well as being skilled in the usual suspects in the UK, from Dart to Kenshoo.
Search in India differs to the UK as with only the top 5% of the country regularly accessing the internet, search advertising automatically provides a filter for targeting. From an e-commerce point of view, search can deliver a positive ROI, even on more lateral terms like using ‘buy laptop’ as a way to sell loans. In the UK, there is simply too much competition and the searcher is too remote from the point of purchase to make this approach feasible.
Working across multiple markets Vivkek’s team see these national nuances, which are predominantly driven by how sophisticated consumers have become in their search habits.
What was interesting about Vivek is that he is the 3rd son in an affluent family of musical instrument manufacturers. Having spent from the age of 14 travelling the world at international music trade fairs, his entrepreneurial eyes were opened – search engine marketing wasn’t quite what the family had in mind, but he has made a real success of it
Communicate 2 works with 70% of the banks in India as well as non Indian clients like Ealing and Croydon Councils! Communicate 2 are able to provide cost effective search solutions, ad copy management and have developed their own bid management software to make the process highly efficient, as well as being skilled in the usual suspects in the UK, from Dart to Kenshoo.
Search in India differs to the UK as with only the top 5% of the country regularly accessing the internet, search advertising automatically provides a filter for targeting. From an e-commerce point of view, search can deliver a positive ROI, even on more lateral terms like using ‘buy laptop’ as a way to sell loans. In the UK, there is simply too much competition and the searcher is too remote from the point of purchase to make this approach feasible.
Working across multiple markets Vivkek’s team see these national nuances, which are predominantly driven by how sophisticated consumers have become in their search habits.
Rajesh Kjriwal - Kyoorius Exchange
We met Rajesh at his offices over looking the railway workers’ playground in Mumbai. One of the rare green spaces in Mumbai, dedicated for railway workers and their families.
Since we’ve been in India, we have met entrepreneurs and communications practitioners, Rajesh however, is a paper distributer. Back in 1999, he took on the contract for selling conqueror paper in India. It was by doing this that he realised how important design was to paper, and paper to design – how certain inks respond to different papers, colour reactions, foil inlays and embossing. As a media planner, this is something I have never considered.
Seeing the burgeoning Indian graphic design industry unfurl in front of his eyes, Rajesh realised there was not a single organisation that could get designers together for networking and sharing, so in 2006 he launched Kyoorius Exchange. A combination of the Indian word Kyoo, meaning ‘why’ and ‘curious’ in English; the platform launched to create a community of Indian designers.
http://www.kyoorius.com/
As a marketing tool for Rajesh, this has been fantastic – his name is now synonymous with the foremost design network in India, opening doors for conversations about paper. Genius! It’s not all about marketing though. He takes the profit from his paper business and funds Kyoorius himself which runs as a not-for profit organisation. He publishes a trade magazine Kyoorius Design Mgazine, runs exhibitions, awards and networking events, sponsoring students to come to conferences around the country to exhibit and network.
There’s definitely something in this as a responsible marketing strategy for his business, but he is also obviously passionate about graphic design and has a lot of fun working in the design industry, as well as the financial benefits of distributing paper.
Since we’ve been in India, we have met entrepreneurs and communications practitioners, Rajesh however, is a paper distributer. Back in 1999, he took on the contract for selling conqueror paper in India. It was by doing this that he realised how important design was to paper, and paper to design – how certain inks respond to different papers, colour reactions, foil inlays and embossing. As a media planner, this is something I have never considered.
Seeing the burgeoning Indian graphic design industry unfurl in front of his eyes, Rajesh realised there was not a single organisation that could get designers together for networking and sharing, so in 2006 he launched Kyoorius Exchange. A combination of the Indian word Kyoo, meaning ‘why’ and ‘curious’ in English; the platform launched to create a community of Indian designers.
http://www.kyoorius.com/
As a marketing tool for Rajesh, this has been fantastic – his name is now synonymous with the foremost design network in India, opening doors for conversations about paper. Genius! It’s not all about marketing though. He takes the profit from his paper business and funds Kyoorius himself which runs as a not-for profit organisation. He publishes a trade magazine Kyoorius Design Mgazine, runs exhibitions, awards and networking events, sponsoring students to come to conferences around the country to exhibit and network.
There’s definitely something in this as a responsible marketing strategy for his business, but he is also obviously passionate about graphic design and has a lot of fun working in the design industry, as well as the financial benefits of distributing paper.
Friday 20 November 2009
Second impressions of Mumbai
There is no doubt that Mumbai, with it's bumper to bumper taxis, heat, colonial architecture and high rise buildings, is an assault on the the senses. As I settled in to my hotel, looking out of the window from my pristine room, with enormous bed, the hotel with its fantastic facilities, pool, spa, garden retreat ablaze with torches, the serene sound of water features accompanying the beeps of Bombay behind the high walls; the contrast of wealth to poverty is astounding, but an accepted part of the city's landscape.
The slums and chawls as seen from the 7th floor window of the luxurious Mumbai Four Season
Above: sea view from the 30th floor, skyscrapers and slum area
The slums and chawls as seen from the 7th floor window of the luxurious Mumbai Four Season
Above: sea view from the 30th floor, skyscrapers and slum areaBelow: The swimming pool with view of chawl block (left)
First impressions of Mumbai
A wall of heat hit me as I stepped off the plane, accompanied with a smell that I had expected an Indian city to smell like. Heat, people, rubbish, fumes merged to create an ‘aroma’ that was quite different to Delhi.
But Mumbai is a much neater city. It has a prettiness that Delhi doesn’t. I thought, having read City of Djinns, that Delhi would shock me with the conditions people lived in, but it really wasn’t apparent, a few roadside tents, but nothing that I felt extreme from what I have seen in Saigon, Caracas or Bangkok.
I thought the initial impact of Mumbai would be of shanty towns in my face, but it was more like approaching Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge.
But Mumbai is a much neater city. It has a prettiness that Delhi doesn’t. I thought, having read City of Djinns, that Delhi would shock me with the conditions people lived in, but it really wasn’t apparent, a few roadside tents, but nothing that I felt extreme from what I have seen in Saigon, Caracas or Bangkok.
I thought the initial impact of Mumbai would be of shanty towns in my face, but it was more like approaching Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge.
Sunday 15 November 2009
Kahn Market - one of Delhi's shopping destinations
This is the Burmese Cafe where I had lunch with Rajesh
Judging a book by its cover
I know the entrance to our office is not much to look at, but what’s been interesting about where we have met people here has been that the exteriors have no branding on them at all. There’s no swanky reception with beautiful, fashionable people behind a desk.
Perfect Relations was the closest, but only once you got inside. On the outside, it seemed like we were popping round to someone’s house for tea. Only the frosted glass with the perfect relations logo etched in gave away the sophistication on the inside. Quicksand and 20:20 however, were literally like popping to someone’s house.
20:20 Social entrance
Quicksand entrance
Perfect Relations entrance
Perfect Relations was the closest, but only once you got inside. On the outside, it seemed like we were popping round to someone’s house for tea. Only the frosted glass with the perfect relations logo etched in gave away the sophistication on the inside. Quicksand and 20:20 however, were literally like popping to someone’s house.
20:20 Social entrance
Quicksand entrance
Perfect Relations entrance
It was only once I’d met Shahna that I began to understand why. She told me that commercial space is so expensive for start-ups that they are pushed in to residential areas. She said this suits her as it means she doesn’t have to trek across the city from her home, which adds expense and time. So she has her office near where she lives. However, there are significant restrictions on signage in non-commercial areas, so even if they wanted to, they couldn’t set up the exterior as a space to show their design fare.
Rajesh and his colleague and I, met in Kahn Market, Delhi’s luxury shopping hotspot. Like all things in Delhi, you can’t judge a book by its cover. The pathways are dug up, the entrances are dusty and small, but once behind the curtain the shops and restaurants sparkle up, glitzy, well presented and expensive. We had lunch in a Burmese café called The Kitchen. Gloriously tasty fresh vegetarian food (though slightly difficult not to spill all over oneself!)
Rajesh runs the first social media agency in India – Blogworks. He has an extensive background in marketing, from client side to PR. It was during his time at BM that he started to play around with social media as part of a PR programme. He wanted to specialise in it completely, but there were no roles out there that allowed him to do this full-time, so he set up Blogworks.
Like Gaurav Mishra at 20:20 Social (unsurprisingly, they are good friends), Blogworks takes a very academic approach to social media. When, where and how to engage with potential customers, and what to do with that engagement. He works with international clients on India only business, such as Samsung and Global clients who want them to run a programme across all English speaking countries outside the US. The difference with Blogworks is that their theories have started to be proved.
I took him through our social media project New Look TV, which he found interesting, but his one comment was ‘it has one step further to go, when does that feedback from those participants feed back in to product development?’
He seems to be facing similar challenges to us – he says everybody who’s out of work is setting themselves up as a social media expert, because that’s the buzz word. Where have I seen that before? Like me, he feels that it will be a few years before real social media experts are cutting through, as right now, everyone’s experimenting – and so they should be. The backbone to his success, seems to be that he is a stickler for measuring and proving the concept - if it doesn’t work, that’s fine, but we need to set up clear objectives to ensure we are measuring the right things fro that client. In their social media guide blah,blah blah they outline 17 potential metrics, of which the client chooses 3, and they rigourously measure it.
As with Shahna, I really enjoyed talking to him about what it’s like to be such a young business, starting at the beginning of the recession, managing an overhead and trying to get ahead. He passionately believes in not compromising on quality, proving the concept, hiring great people (all his team apart from him have post-grads – he says he learnt the hard way!) and trying not to do too much.
Rajesh runs the first social media agency in India – Blogworks. He has an extensive background in marketing, from client side to PR. It was during his time at BM that he started to play around with social media as part of a PR programme. He wanted to specialise in it completely, but there were no roles out there that allowed him to do this full-time, so he set up Blogworks.
Like Gaurav Mishra at 20:20 Social (unsurprisingly, they are good friends), Blogworks takes a very academic approach to social media. When, where and how to engage with potential customers, and what to do with that engagement. He works with international clients on India only business, such as Samsung and Global clients who want them to run a programme across all English speaking countries outside the US. The difference with Blogworks is that their theories have started to be proved.
I took him through our social media project New Look TV, which he found interesting, but his one comment was ‘it has one step further to go, when does that feedback from those participants feed back in to product development?’
He seems to be facing similar challenges to us – he says everybody who’s out of work is setting themselves up as a social media expert, because that’s the buzz word. Where have I seen that before? Like me, he feels that it will be a few years before real social media experts are cutting through, as right now, everyone’s experimenting – and so they should be. The backbone to his success, seems to be that he is a stickler for measuring and proving the concept - if it doesn’t work, that’s fine, but we need to set up clear objectives to ensure we are measuring the right things fro that client. In their social media guide blah,blah blah they outline 17 potential metrics, of which the client chooses 3, and they rigourously measure it.
As with Shahna, I really enjoyed talking to him about what it’s like to be such a young business, starting at the beginning of the recession, managing an overhead and trying to get ahead. He passionately believes in not compromising on quality, proving the concept, hiring great people (all his team apart from him have post-grads – he says he learnt the hard way!) and trying not to do too much.
Shahna Garg - Dbar
I met Shahna for coffee in Defence Colony in South Delhi. (More evidence of Delhi’s love of coffee!) Shahna is a designer – educated in and trained in New York, she started her own studio in Delhi 2 years ago. She’s doing well, but like the guys at Quicksand, she finds there’s a misunderstanding of the potential of design at the moment. One of the most resonant themes I’ve noticed from all the entrepreneurs established and start-up, is that Indian businesses are reluctant to pay for strategy and planning, they want to pay for execution only… not that different to the model we’ve been working to in the UK for years.
What was interesting talking to Shahna, as a practitioner turned business owner, like myself and Simon, was the challenges of growth, training, recruiting and trying to do everything all at once. I mentioned that I don’t think I could do it without a partner, to which she said she’d like one, but she hasn’t met anyone with the same ethos and international expertise as herself with which to share the load.
One of the things I found most compelling about Shahna, is despite her frustration that there is no networking organisation or in her eyes, good training schools for designers, is that she is looking to the future to actually fill those gaps herself. This ‘can do’, ‘if it doesn’t exist, I’ll create it’ attitude is something common that all the people I’ve met have been like, they’re not looking for anyone else to solve their problems, but trying to find a way of solving them themselves to protect their vision and expertise.
What was interesting talking to Shahna, as a practitioner turned business owner, like myself and Simon, was the challenges of growth, training, recruiting and trying to do everything all at once. I mentioned that I don’t think I could do it without a partner, to which she said she’d like one, but she hasn’t met anyone with the same ethos and international expertise as herself with which to share the load.
One of the things I found most compelling about Shahna, is despite her frustration that there is no networking organisation or in her eyes, good training schools for designers, is that she is looking to the future to actually fill those gaps herself. This ‘can do’, ‘if it doesn’t exist, I’ll create it’ attitude is something common that all the people I’ve met have been like, they’re not looking for anyone else to solve their problems, but trying to find a way of solving them themselves to protect their vision and expertise.
PR in India insights
Spokesperson training
Perfect relations do a lot of training for spokespeople and politicians. More and more of the country’s politicians are becoming more media savvy, but Dillip does say, that with a naturally garrulous personalities, Indians sometimes need someone to tell them when to stop. (He does all of this with a subtle joke and a wink sometimes I thought he was perfectly serious and it turns out he’s just teasing.)
Social PR
Using relations with the press to change both government opinion and push education seems to be a passion point for Dillip. They face challenges with 27 different languages and different state policies across the country, but causes like water sanitation, oral contraception for women and other challenges that we take for granted are championed via the press and lobbyists.
Getting national coverage
There are around 20,000 PR practitioners across the country, but they are mainly centred in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. They have over 700 dailies across the country and 27 languages, so they need translations and PR representatives in all those areas. Most PR operations have ‘reps’, freelancers who are their contacts in those regions, Perfect Relations however insists on having their own people to ensure quality and protect clients’ privacy… one of the perks, says Dillip Cherian, of not having to worry too much about what a shareholder wants
Perfect relations do a lot of training for spokespeople and politicians. More and more of the country’s politicians are becoming more media savvy, but Dillip does say, that with a naturally garrulous personalities, Indians sometimes need someone to tell them when to stop. (He does all of this with a subtle joke and a wink sometimes I thought he was perfectly serious and it turns out he’s just teasing.)
Social PR
Using relations with the press to change both government opinion and push education seems to be a passion point for Dillip. They face challenges with 27 different languages and different state policies across the country, but causes like water sanitation, oral contraception for women and other challenges that we take for granted are championed via the press and lobbyists.
Getting national coverage
There are around 20,000 PR practitioners across the country, but they are mainly centred in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. They have over 700 dailies across the country and 27 languages, so they need translations and PR representatives in all those areas. Most PR operations have ‘reps’, freelancers who are their contacts in those regions, Perfect Relations however insists on having their own people to ensure quality and protect clients’ privacy… one of the perks, says Dillip Cherian, of not having to worry too much about what a shareholder wants
Saturday 14 November 2009
Dillip Cherian – Perfect Relations
Thursday was a day for influencers… and you couldn’t get two more different men, from Anurag’s affability to Dillip’s chic, soft spoken charm. Both of them seem to be highly influential in the communications industry in different ways, and such contrasting personalities.
Arriving at the corporate HQ of Perfect Relations, it was the first agency environment that we had come to that had some of the superficial trappings of prestige. Sitting in the boardroom, presentation set up, Dillip and two of his team Dev and Poonam came in. Dillip welcomed us with his smooth openness ‘we must have some samosas, it’s 12 o clock, we must have food.’ So we had samosas, paneer and pistachio biscuits and more coffee (I thought India was a tea nation… from what I’ve seen India seems to run on coffee!) I think this is a practice we should start at Trinity – though I don’t know anyone in the UK who makes samosas that good.
Dillip and his team, Dev and Poonam, took us through an overview of the Indian marketing space. We talked about the challenges of e-commerce amongst a nation of customers that ‘likes to squeeze it before they buy.’ Where these guys really came to life was their heartland, PR. The PR industry in India is thriving business, grappling with the same issues with the internet and online PR as we are, but where I found them most interesting was in how important PR is in alcohol and tobacco marketing (where there is an ad ban) and lobbying, for which Dillip himself leads the charge.
Having run a very successful business for over 20 years, I found Dillip’s insight in to managing his overhead concise and inspiring. 1) Reward the people who hit the spot. 2) Don’t carry the people who don’t. 3) Don’t sell to Martin Sorrell where suddenly you have to worry about EBITDA every year. 4) Make sure you’re having fun.
Dev & Poonam from Perfect Relations
Arriving at the corporate HQ of Perfect Relations, it was the first agency environment that we had come to that had some of the superficial trappings of prestige. Sitting in the boardroom, presentation set up, Dillip and two of his team Dev and Poonam came in. Dillip welcomed us with his smooth openness ‘we must have some samosas, it’s 12 o clock, we must have food.’ So we had samosas, paneer and pistachio biscuits and more coffee (I thought India was a tea nation… from what I’ve seen India seems to run on coffee!) I think this is a practice we should start at Trinity – though I don’t know anyone in the UK who makes samosas that good.
Dillip and his team, Dev and Poonam, took us through an overview of the Indian marketing space. We talked about the challenges of e-commerce amongst a nation of customers that ‘likes to squeeze it before they buy.’ Where these guys really came to life was their heartland, PR. The PR industry in India is thriving business, grappling with the same issues with the internet and online PR as we are, but where I found them most interesting was in how important PR is in alcohol and tobacco marketing (where there is an ad ban) and lobbying, for which Dillip himself leads the charge.
Having run a very successful business for over 20 years, I found Dillip’s insight in to managing his overhead concise and inspiring. 1) Reward the people who hit the spot. 2) Don’t carry the people who don’t. 3) Don’t sell to Martin Sorrell where suddenly you have to worry about EBITDA every year. 4) Make sure you’re having fun.
Dev & Poonam from Perfect Relations
Tradition in business
When I handed Anurag my red business card – a ritual start to introductions here, and his colleague Atol, my green business card, he said ‘but it’s the wrong colour, today is Thursday, today is yellow.’ He then went on to explain his uniform for each day of the week, dependent on colour according to Hindu tradition – apparently Thursday is yellow. He was duly dressed in yellow – even his socks, he informed us. Friday requires light colours (Anurag likes to wear pink) and the weekend is Black and Gold.
Page 3 but not as we know it...
When we met Quicksand, Ayush referred to ‘Page 3’ a couple of times, then Anurag did… I knew they weren’t talking about ‘Page 3’ Sun style, no, it refers to the Showbiz Bollywood society pages. More Tatler than Currant Bun.
Anurag Batra - Exchange 4 Media
On Thursday morning, Anurag Batra met us at our hotel. Sitting outside on the terrace of the Lalit hotel, Anurag commented on how lucky we were to be in Delhi with such great weather. The sky was practically on top of us, we were all wearing cardigans and I was wondering if we shouldn’t be inside. The legendary Delhi heat seems to have passed me by. I think it knew I was coming.
Anurag is a media mogul. Having been a media planner for JWT , moving to run Portland Outdoor in India, he made his entrepreneurial break to start Exchange4Media in 1999. Exchange 4 Media is a publishing house much like Haymarket, with Anurag contributing to all of his titles and websites, the leading ones of which are Pitch and Impact. He has created the most extensive network of advertising and marketing practitioners in India.
He estimates that his titles are read by the 70,000 marketing and advertising community of which 12,000 are senior marketing decision makers and 20,000 are students. A small, but highly influential set of people. He has pioneered marketing networking, creating awards, conferences for information sharing and best practice – not to mention news and gossip (he says his favourite pages are still the social photographs at the back of his magazines.)
He’s also made a lot of money. His website, Exchange 4 Media, is not a design classic, but is sold out of every space every month. It’s cluttered but his clients come back time and time again. He believes this is down to the quality of the journalism. He invests in good people, writers, sales people and managers, which he says has ensured that his titles can make money.
If I were to take what I could glean the ‘secrets of his success’ they would be:
1) Know everybody - he certainly seems to!
2) Discover up coming talent – he set up a school to train people in advertising and marketing called FMCC.
3) Make mistakes – he says he’s made loads, but he could afford to
4) Invest in quality staff
5) Always make sure you are making money
6) Invest time in new projects – he puts some of his mistakes down to not investing enough time rather than money.
As a personality he is at once humble and confident. He was immensely affable and interested in us and our businesses, at every juncture pointing out potential connections for us ‘you must connect with Rajesh’.
He firmly believes the future of his business is online. He says he would do away with the costly production of his magazines and focus all the content online. He says he wants to build communities online… and with that he took off, his PA reminding him to check he had his mobile phone, to go and take a look at his latest venture www.stylekandy.com.
Anurag is a media mogul. Having been a media planner for JWT , moving to run Portland Outdoor in India, he made his entrepreneurial break to start Exchange4Media in 1999. Exchange 4 Media is a publishing house much like Haymarket, with Anurag contributing to all of his titles and websites, the leading ones of which are Pitch and Impact. He has created the most extensive network of advertising and marketing practitioners in India.
He estimates that his titles are read by the 70,000 marketing and advertising community of which 12,000 are senior marketing decision makers and 20,000 are students. A small, but highly influential set of people. He has pioneered marketing networking, creating awards, conferences for information sharing and best practice – not to mention news and gossip (he says his favourite pages are still the social photographs at the back of his magazines.)
He’s also made a lot of money. His website, Exchange 4 Media, is not a design classic, but is sold out of every space every month. It’s cluttered but his clients come back time and time again. He believes this is down to the quality of the journalism. He invests in good people, writers, sales people and managers, which he says has ensured that his titles can make money.
If I were to take what I could glean the ‘secrets of his success’ they would be:
1) Know everybody - he certainly seems to!
2) Discover up coming talent – he set up a school to train people in advertising and marketing called FMCC.
3) Make mistakes – he says he’s made loads, but he could afford to
4) Invest in quality staff
5) Always make sure you are making money
6) Invest time in new projects – he puts some of his mistakes down to not investing enough time rather than money.
As a personality he is at once humble and confident. He was immensely affable and interested in us and our businesses, at every juncture pointing out potential connections for us ‘you must connect with Rajesh’.
He firmly believes the future of his business is online. He says he would do away with the costly production of his magazines and focus all the content online. He says he wants to build communities online… and with that he took off, his PA reminding him to check he had his mobile phone, to go and take a look at his latest venture www.stylekandy.com.
Thursday 12 November 2009
20:20 Social - Social Media India-side
20:20 Social are one of India’s only social media pure plays. In the UK, where every agency across the marketing landscape is figuring out how to engage consumers via social media, 20:20 are one of the only specialists in India. It isn’t that surprising given that less than 1m people (out of a population of 1.17bn) have fixed line internet connection at home. Most of the 30m regular users that 20:20 estimate access the internet each month tend to do so on shared computers – internet cafes, libraries, schools and colleges. Both hardware and broadband infrastructure seem to be a barrier to take up (but still 30m online, is half the UK population.)
The team’s background ranges from IT to anthropology. They take a very academic approach to social media strategy, building engagement architecture along side information architecture and creating models such as their ‘ladder of behaviour’ to assess the different levels of interaction along the journey.
They’ve only been going for 4 months and have 4 live projects. With an inherently social society and culture of openness and community, taking this Indian tenet online seems a very natural step. What I found most interesting is that 20:20 are not building Indian versions of social platforms like Facebook. Indians are already using Orkut (15m), Facebook (c.9m), You Tube (11.5m), Twitter (500k), Linked In (1.5m) and Worldpress blogging sites (c.9m). 20:20 are solving business problems with social media principles.
1) A spirits brand (there is no alcohol advertising in India) is using their ownership of a cricket club to engage their customers to interact, share their data and get closer to their brand via a social community hosted by the cricket club / brand.
2) They’re using social media to galvanise citizen action to push certain social issues.
3) They’re helping a big IT company nurture sharing and community among their developers – 4 months a go there were a small proportion of contributors sharing code and best practice, now they have created a virtual environment that emboldens developers to share and collaborate much more effectively.
I found their perspective on using social media to avoid having to use advertising very interesting, Gaurav Mishra, the CEO was particularly passionate about migrating media budgets to pay for social media activity. I have to say that I can see how development in content and community does wonders for customer engagement, as we have seen with our own project New Look TV (www.youtube.com/newlooktv), but we agreed that you still need traditional media and real world engagement to promote your virtual world, which is necessary even more so in India that the UK.
Check them out http://www.slideshare.net/Gauravonomics/2020-social-introduction-to-social-media-in-india
The team’s background ranges from IT to anthropology. They take a very academic approach to social media strategy, building engagement architecture along side information architecture and creating models such as their ‘ladder of behaviour’ to assess the different levels of interaction along the journey.
They’ve only been going for 4 months and have 4 live projects. With an inherently social society and culture of openness and community, taking this Indian tenet online seems a very natural step. What I found most interesting is that 20:20 are not building Indian versions of social platforms like Facebook. Indians are already using Orkut (15m), Facebook (c.9m), You Tube (11.5m), Twitter (500k), Linked In (1.5m) and Worldpress blogging sites (c.9m). 20:20 are solving business problems with social media principles.
1) A spirits brand (there is no alcohol advertising in India) is using their ownership of a cricket club to engage their customers to interact, share their data and get closer to their brand via a social community hosted by the cricket club / brand.
2) They’re using social media to galvanise citizen action to push certain social issues.
3) They’re helping a big IT company nurture sharing and community among their developers – 4 months a go there were a small proportion of contributors sharing code and best practice, now they have created a virtual environment that emboldens developers to share and collaborate much more effectively.
I found their perspective on using social media to avoid having to use advertising very interesting, Gaurav Mishra, the CEO was particularly passionate about migrating media budgets to pay for social media activity. I have to say that I can see how development in content and community does wonders for customer engagement, as we have seen with our own project New Look TV (www.youtube.com/newlooktv), but we agreed that you still need traditional media and real world engagement to promote your virtual world, which is necessary even more so in India that the UK.
Check them out http://www.slideshare.net/Gauravonomics/2020-social-introduction-to-social-media-in-india
First stop - meeting Quicksand
We were only an hour late for our first meeting. A) we overslept, reception hadn’t given us our envelope with instructions B) We got stuck in Delhi traffic C) The driver didn’t know where we were going… but it no one got that stressed, even the people we were meeting.
We met the MD of Design Agency Quicksand Ayush Chauhan and his team at their offices in a residential area of Delhi. Their office felt like a house, their ‘boardroom’ a dining room, their workspaces tucked away in bedrooms with Ninja the company dog lolling by some French doors into the garden.
Whilst the setting may have been laid back, the team that we met, whilst casual, were fiercely passionate about their trade, developing design and young designers in India. One of the aspects I found particularly interesting was the way they research products to help them design for the end user.
They use a combination of video diaries and footage with photography to show their clients ‘how’ people are using their products and what design needs to do to help them get the most out of them. We saw a video of a man putting together a water filtration… but it wasn’t just a man, it was a man and his family. It was obvious from the video that the kids played a massively important role in the assembly of this product, if not the primary role. So, they concluded, the product design, instructions etc needed to address them as well as ‘dad’.
What also struck me from a passion perspective was their fierce protection of design as an industry and art form – not to let the bureaucrats and the ‘trade bodies’ hinder development. Their passion also for collaboration, if they don’t have the skill themselves they’ll bring and friend or consultant who does have it. They want to work with other people to make things happen. Their motivation for interesting things outside of work see http://blottin.blogspot.com/ has brought them new business from the likes of coca-cola, who wanted to work with them after they realised one of the team was at the cutting edge of the nascent Indian electronic music scene. I just love their concept of ‘basic love of things’ (BLOT).
I left the meeting impassioned and inspired about their business, the way they work and their drive to use design to push the social agenda as well as a great way to make money and have fun.
We met the MD of Design Agency Quicksand Ayush Chauhan and his team at their offices in a residential area of Delhi. Their office felt like a house, their ‘boardroom’ a dining room, their workspaces tucked away in bedrooms with Ninja the company dog lolling by some French doors into the garden.
Whilst the setting may have been laid back, the team that we met, whilst casual, were fiercely passionate about their trade, developing design and young designers in India. One of the aspects I found particularly interesting was the way they research products to help them design for the end user.
They use a combination of video diaries and footage with photography to show their clients ‘how’ people are using their products and what design needs to do to help them get the most out of them. We saw a video of a man putting together a water filtration… but it wasn’t just a man, it was a man and his family. It was obvious from the video that the kids played a massively important role in the assembly of this product, if not the primary role. So, they concluded, the product design, instructions etc needed to address them as well as ‘dad’.
What also struck me from a passion perspective was their fierce protection of design as an industry and art form – not to let the bureaucrats and the ‘trade bodies’ hinder development. Their passion also for collaboration, if they don’t have the skill themselves they’ll bring and friend or consultant who does have it. They want to work with other people to make things happen. Their motivation for interesting things outside of work see http://blottin.blogspot.com/ has brought them new business from the likes of coca-cola, who wanted to work with them after they realised one of the team was at the cutting edge of the nascent Indian electronic music scene. I just love their concept of ‘basic love of things’ (BLOT).
I left the meeting impassioned and inspired about their business, the way they work and their drive to use design to push the social agenda as well as a great way to make money and have fun.
First impressions - Delhi in the Dark
I wish I had been able to photograph the moment that I walked out of customs - a neat line of Indian taxi drivers leaning on a barrier holding placards with travellers' names. I think the barriers are their purely for that purpose - leaning that is, not for channelling wayward passengers to the exit. Families and relatives held back discreetly for the welcoming committee of taxi-wallahs.
The night air had a misty haze that seemed to permeate the airport, so it was misty inside as wellk, which I think is quite a feat.
In the dark empty roads, (it was about 4am by the time we landed, had been checked for swine flu and got our bags),our taxi driver gave us a whistle-stop tour of Delhi sites from the Rajpath - Indira Gandhi's house, which was poinganat as I've never knowingly been that close to where a world leader was assassinated (I don't think Strawberry Fields counts.) We then saw Sonia Gandhi's house and the India Gate, camoflagued in the mist, looming orange at the end of the boulevard.
We pulled in at our hotel the Lalit. http://www.thelalit.com/the-lalit-new-delhi/overview A Tuesday night disco was pumping out San Antonio euro-trash, while we waited for a German tour group, marigolds (flowers not rubber gloves) strung round their necks, to check in.
Finally in my room, no idea what time we had to be up or where we had to be by when, I got in to bed, closed my weary eyes, only for the 5am commuter train to honk it's horn signalling arrival in Delhi... excellent.
The night air had a misty haze that seemed to permeate the airport, so it was misty inside as wellk, which I think is quite a feat.
In the dark empty roads, (it was about 4am by the time we landed, had been checked for swine flu and got our bags),our taxi driver gave us a whistle-stop tour of Delhi sites from the Rajpath - Indira Gandhi's house, which was poinganat as I've never knowingly been that close to where a world leader was assassinated (I don't think Strawberry Fields counts.) We then saw Sonia Gandhi's house and the India Gate, camoflagued in the mist, looming orange at the end of the boulevard.
We pulled in at our hotel the Lalit. http://www.thelalit.com/the-lalit-new-delhi/overview A Tuesday night disco was pumping out San Antonio euro-trash, while we waited for a German tour group, marigolds (flowers not rubber gloves) strung round their necks, to check in.
Finally in my room, no idea what time we had to be up or where we had to be by when, I got in to bed, closed my weary eyes, only for the 5am commuter train to honk it's horn signalling arrival in Delhi... excellent.
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