The promos of Charlies Angels are doing their rounds on Star World. So far I haven’t seen any brand associations.
Hope Axe sponsors this program to create a synergy with what the brand stands for. They recent TV commercial “Axe Provoke” Has the tag line: “Even angels will fall” will suit perfectly with the content of the program.
Just a thought… Hope the advertisers and their agency realize the relevance and brand it soon before an opportunity is lost!
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
and so on it goes…
A poem written by W.H Davies
I vividly remember having learnt this poem while I was in my 4th grade.
My English teacher made me read this poem over and over again to the point that I really hated the poet for having created such a complicated poem which I was supposed to by heart and recite in front of the whole class. I really used to hate those recitations in class in front of all my peers… All they used to do is find faults and correct us on our diction!
I found it utterly boring and ever so complicated.. it was then.
I am glad today that I am writing this post since I do have that time to stand, stare and ponder over those good ‘ol days where we had so much time to stand and stare, yet we were constantly told by our elders to do things that they liked and not what we wanted to do.
This post is about reminding you what you are, what you wanna be and what you wanna do with your life.
Take time to see where you really wanna be let’s say five years down the line.
You may be a professional, a student, a housewife any one for that matter! Each and every person should have a plan chartered out for himself.
As I am writing this I still don’t and I really wish I could actually know where I will be few years down the line.
Hence, I am writing this post. Maybe if not me atleast I could reach out to my readers who will get that spark and plan their lives well.
How much do we really need to earn?
How much do we need to spend?
How much money do we need?
Do we need to live only for others? Or ourselves?
Can we chart our own course in life?
Should we imbibe the same thoughts to our kids? Or give them enough space so that they can do all that we couldn’t?
So many questions come to my mind.
Whatever is in store can’t we accept that and live the life that we wanna live? I have had friends, acquaintances, colleagues who did what they were told while they wanted to be something, someone else.
I have actually met very few people in my life who did what they wanted to do and stood by their ideologies. This post is a way to salute them for what they have done with their lives. Realized their dreams.
I always wanted to take up architecture as my career. Build structures that are a reflection of what I am. Maybe that’s too much to even dream but hey why not?
Why have dreams that are smaller?
Why not dream bigger?
You know in the rush of things we tend to miss so many things in life.
While we are happy and focused we can grab a lot of things on the way.
It’s like taking a good hike and also enjoying some time in the wilderness!
Now imagine you are on a highway you never wanted, waiting desperately for a bus you never wanted to catch, but have you got a choice?
Someone has told you to take that road and catch that bus. Even worse, imagine what you missed while staying in the hot sun, drenched in sweat and cursing your fate!
I really wish at this stage of my life that I should do all those things that I ever wished.
Go on a long hike, run away for a few days with my wife to some place where we don’t know any one, get married with my wife all over again, do some social work, go on a spiritual journey, go to a rock concert and get fully drunk…a tattoo maybe! and many, many things….
It’s just one life that we have got.
And before we kick that bucket… shouldn’t we live life to its fullest?
Well, what’s your bucket list?
This post is written by Amol Mohandas. He writes regularly at http://puremarketingmajick.blogspot.com/
With the precipitous fall of advertising in the mainstream media some are starting to wonder publicly if advertising has once and for all run its course as an effective marketing vehicle. To this I say horsehockey. Advertising still works, always has and always will, what’s changed, however is that now good advertising works much better than bad advertising. I know that may sound silly, but back in the day, when you had one paper and three broadcast TV stations, bad advertising still worked pretty well and that’s what got the mainstream media and some advertisers in trouble today.
Now that consumers have unlimited ways to consume content and be entertained, they have an equal number of ways to tune out ads that do nothing more than interrupt them from going where they are headed. That, and the fact that online advertising, an industry that didn’t exist 10 years ago, is now a $25B business, is why mainstream advertising vehicles are shuffling. So, advertising still works very well, it just works in different ways – adapt, innovate and integrate and advertising can still be a killer component in your lead generation plans.
Today’s smart advertiser understands that advertising is less effective at creating sales, but very effective at creating awareness – awareness of what – awareness of education based, trust building content. Your advertising’s call to action should be one of permission, permission to teach. Even online ads, once a novelty, are starting to blend into the digital landscape when old fashion spinning monkeys are utilized. The most effective online ads are those that engage a viewer in an offer of valuable content from a trusted resource. Sending a prospect to get content that addresses a specific problem or want is the most logical way to allow them to sell themselves on your eventual solution, but it’s not a drive by, it’s a waltz.
Without advertising, without the effective use of advertising, to light the way to useful content, a great deal of it would never be created or found – that’s advertising’s true value. Where a sales pitch might not be trusted, an education based content campaign may be. I think that’s why the recent flap over sponsored content is garnering so much emotion. People tend to put higher trust in content that is seen as editorial – this power can either be harnessed or abused. Content producers must tread lightly, respect their readers, offer full disclosure and work their butts off to create content that gets read, spidered and talked about. Do that and the side effect will be organic search results, another highly trusted, free, but earned form of advertising in today’s marketing mix. (Google wouldn’t call that advertising, but I think you can make the case.)
Another form of content advertising (I’m expanding the classic term, but I personally think it applies) is growing daily on sites such as twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Through careful participation, marketers are growing networks, creating awareness and eventually driving traffic to their content and profit making initiatives. When Brian Clark @copyblogger (great blog, I recommend it all day) tweets this – “Check out today’s Landing Page Makeover Clinic at Copyblogger – http://tinyurl.com/d98yqt is this not an ad? Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfect, it’s brilliant, he’s earned the right with his followers and the public to draw people to his content. That’s why it works, advertising pure and simple, only the mechanism and implementation has changed.
Use your advertising to start conversations, create content that builds trust and community and you’ll harness the ever effective power of advertising for generating leads and sales, you know, until the next new thing comes along.
What drives viewership these days? I sometimes really wonder. Is it the content or just anything in the name of entertainment?
I will not really vouch for content since you can count them with your fingers some good number of programs and the rest you have to just thrown them all out of the window.
What in the name of TV programming are we watching today? Why are we having so much crap to add to our misery?
With time and mainly with the advent of CNN broadcasted ME war in the 90’s there started a trend of satellite invasions into our lives and the rest as we know is history…
Forget programs, imagine the laundry list of TV stations… I think if you take the current scenario in India, there is a good 600+ TV channels available in your set top box… Phew! Is it enough or do you need more?
Programming on Indian telly scene has gone an enormous change.
You take the 80s and before, it was a real boom time for the viewers and the producers alike. With little investment, they could come out with amazingly produced TV programs. There was no competition then! We still had the best programs we could ask for… Malgudi days, Bharat Ek Khoj, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Buniyaad, Hum log, Karamchand just to name a few… There was good mix of drama and comedy based programs which are being talked about even today and have so much relevancy even today!
During the 90’s it was a boom time for producers to make programs for the satellite channels and hence there was a lot of focus on drama based content mainly with programs like Tara, Banegi Apni baat, Hum Paanch, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Zabaan Sambhaalke, Saanp Seedhi, Shriman Shrimati, Quiz shows and the likes
So what really sells these days? Let’s look at what drives a program’s success?
1. Use the big news makers
Use the big news in your program. Audience yearns for the big news. They are no longer the viewers who will take your ideas seriously. If today you are putting an actor on screen who has had a brutal past and he/ she was in the public eye, just use them and your content is ready (For whatever crap that maybe)
I would like to cite examples here:
o Monica bedi who had an alleged link-up with gangster Dawood Ibrahim is appearing everywhere now. First it was Big brother, then some stupid dance program, then she’s also doing some movies down south. What a time for her!
o We heard that apparently Osama Bin Laden’s sister was on reality television
2. Create a news!
When you have run out of ideas and don’t know what do, then create a bizarre situation and let the audience then decide what to do next. Even if they hate it… they will still talk about it!
Like what happened in one of the dance programs aired recently. Imagine sport legends like Mohinder Amarnath, Baichung bhutia dancing to the tunes and being judged by some stupid judges. I would still imagine using these legends in promoting a certain sport so that there is enough awareness about it. But who has the time for all that nonsense!
3. Have any concept and sell it!
I mean these days anything sells on television. Seriously.
So many programs in the name of reality television
4. Over dramatize it!
Look at the programs of today. Serials et all. It’s pure drama in the name of society and culture. They say that these serials reflect our culture and the social fabric of this amazing nation called India. That’s purely bull shit. Can you relate to any of these characters these actors portray on the telly? No way. I can imagine the highly affluent lot but when we talk about a broad Indian scenario it has to be the medium/ below average audiences. All these drama that we see today is so highly overrated.
5. When you have nothing to tell…
Yeah, when you have nothing to say just drape all the sets, cast, episodes with some amazing make over and you have a program that is as rich and vibrant as India. Really? You name it and you can create an episode around it using the date and situation to your full capacity like Holi, Diwali and what not… you could just go on and on and on…
6. News is not news anymore…
I mean seriously, news is not NEWS anymore. Look at the news channels today. They just keep on harping the same stuff and to add further salt to our wounds they will give you enough masaledaar (I mean spicy) news about some celebrity or even worse a round up on what’s happening on some reality show as if you are just dying to hear the status of the contestants and what will happen thereafter
7. Child sentiments…
I agree children can sell anything. Any Goddam thing in the world. Use their innocence to the extreme. Even at the cost of your TRPs (Television Rating Points) Make them sing, dance, cry, laugh whatever and let the money keep pouring in! I can imagine a child reality program, but what if you mix them up with adult participants and make them dance with them. Whatever politics and stakes are involved with the older participants, let them be passed on to the kids too! Yeah, that’s a good show!
8. Age of remakes
What we are about to witness is just the beginning of a never ending saga of remakes and more remakes. First it was Sahara one who roped in Raveena to do the remake of Sahib bibi aur Ghulam serial remake. Now it’s the turn of NDTV Imagine to bring in the twin dramedy “Seeta aur geeta” which is currently being promoted by Hema Malini herself.
Talk about novelty will you? This will only continue even further and there will be more to follow
I seriously think this will only get worse in the coming years. What our kids would finally see when they wake up in their teens is a different concern altogether.
Until then I am pretty happy watching MTV, FTV or even NGC or a discovery and you be happy that you just got your kick out of a T20!
