Just when we thought Social Media was raising its head high enough for everyone to sit up and take notice, we got to attend a workshop conducted yesterday by Vijay Singh and Rajesh Ghagte of 141Sercon on Non-traditional Media and Below-The-Line Marketing at IIM Lucknow. It couldn’t have come at a better time – The PGP1’s (first year students at IIM Lucknow) are studying Marketing Communication as a part of the MM-II (Marketing Management-II) course.
It’s a session that I personally enjoyed a lot and in general, they did end up creating a certian amount of ‘buzz’ about the workshop. My take-aways from the session were specifically in an area that has been of particular interest to me – which is precisely what the workshop was about: Social Media Marketing: as a subset of Below-The-Line marketing (BTL) activities undertaken by a company. Specifically, if I were to summarize:
Earlier consumers used to follow the AIDA path – Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. They no longer do that.
While Above-The-Line (ATL) activities are more in BROADCAST mode (Television, Print, Radio, etc)., BTL activities are more personalized (NARROWCAST).
There are no ’standard’ metrics for Social Media: For instance, there are no universally agreed upon metrics like ‘TRP Ratings’ in case of Television of ‘Readership’ surveys in case of Print Media.
ATL – No specific ‘Call to Action’.
BTL – There is a specific ‘Call to Action’ – which can be in the form of ‘BUY’, ‘TRY’, of ‘REFER, among others.
ATL: The most important Question is “WHO” are we targetting!
BTL: The most important question is “HOW” do we target – What is the specific campaign about?
What also came out of the workshop is that most marketing managers – especially, the ones who are still focussed entirely on traditional media & ATL, tend to have the opinion that -
“Ok.. Let us have a social media presence, but if there is anything negative that comes up, we will pull out.”
Something that is not possible in a place as open and transparent as the internet. Which is why, most of these managers eventually end up putting just their television commercials (TVCs) on Youtube – that’s it, nothing else! Social Media is democratic andwe have to live with it, if we want to ‘be’ in it.
2,00,000 PLUS Hits.. and 3 years after I started blogging on TalkingTails.in, I finally am getting down to launching something I had planned long back - a GUEST Blog section!
The first Guest Blogger on TalkingTails.in is Priyanka Dalal – and she is going to review Sherlock Holmes – The Movie.
Priyanka Dalal is a social media enthusiast by profession based in Mumbai. She blogs her work insightat priyankawriting.com. She is also an avid reader of all sorts of books and a movie buff. In fact she has started a Fiction Book Club, do join if you are into reading!
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Brief
I have read a few Sherlock Holmes books, but I did not know what to expect from the movie. Both the actors Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man fame) and Jude Law (Cold Mountain fame) are two that I think can do some real good work. They along with the old London setting full of carriages, hat wearers, women wearing those big skirt gowns and ongoing construction of the tower bridge have created a very vivid and engrossing movie.
The banter between Holmes and Watson is well written. (BTW the quote ‘elementary, dear watson’ which has become a symbol for this duo is not to be heard in this movie. It was never part of the books either. It only became famous in the previous movies’) There are substantial parts played by Watson’s fiance Mary and the elusive love of Holmes, Irene Adler.
What was however a little unexpected was the plot. From what I recall of the stories I have read, they tend to be lighter while this movie script is basically a dark drama of black magic and necromancy.
In depth (Story line and some small spoilers)
The movie is about a Mr. Blackwood who is caught doing rituals that involve sacrifice where the victim is sent into a suicidal trance. He is apprehended by Holmes and jailed. Since then his dark powers only grow and he claims that he will resurrect after 3 days of his hanging and then conquer the world (of course only after driving Holmes insane).
Soon, Watson declares Blackwood dead after being hanged, but after 3 days the gravestone is broken and Blackwood is seen rising from his grave. This is also when Irene Adler contacts Holmes and commissions him to find a missing person. Irene was herself working under another mysterious but dangerous guy who was also after Blackwood but for different reasons.
As the story unfolds, the three: Watson, Adler and Holmes are bound together in a gripping tale trying to thwart the ‘magical’ murders by Blackwood and his plans to rule the world. All the while of course, Watson is just trying to leave Holmes to get along with his marriage preparations and Irene Adler plays her own deadly games with Holmes. (Did someone say all women are trouble? :p)
As the saga goes on making us think that Blackwood is invincible, I was busy thinking that this is not like Sherlock Holmes stories at all, it is all too scary. I was however proved wrong as at the end, the story takes a complete shift and we have Sherlock Holmes having solved the case and explaining his actions… thats when I remember this trait of the books, where the reader is left only guessing and bewildered Until and only Until the great Sherlock Holmes chooses to explain his reasoning!
Case closed!
Awards
This movie was nominated for Critics Choice Award category at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards. It WON the Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Robert Downey Jr.
Have you seen this movie? What are your reviews/reactions?
Played around with converting PPTs to Flash (using a free software called iSpring) and the Flash onto a Video for Youtube (through authorSTREAM).
Had made this PPT for internal promotion of the event within the IIM Lucknow campus I’ve learnt quite a few random skills while doing these little things for the Alumni Commottee, IIM Lucknow – of which I am a member. It’s amazing how much fun ‘playing around’ is!
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.. And this (the one below!) was The Official nostaLgia 2010 invite video sent out to the alums -
The title of this post is ‘loosely inspired’ from the movie ‘Sex, Lies & Videotape’ – just like 3 Idiots is ‘based on’ the novel Five-Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat.
Film-makers love controversy around their movies. So do the audiences. We like to ‘talk about it!’ The recent altercations between Chetan Bhagat and Rajkumar Hirani feed fodder to the ‘controversy-mongering’ minds of ours. For the uninitiated, here is what happened:
STEP 1 of CONTROVERSY: Chetan Bhagat, in his blog (& elsewhere in the media), alleges that he was not given ‘appropriate’ credits during the film. In fact, I also remember one of my batch mates commenting on my review of the movie saying that the movie is good, but ‘proper’ credits had not been given.
STEP 2 of CONTROVERSY: Rajkumar Hirani comes out with an ‘official’ video (from the user: ‘3idiots’ on Youtube)
justifying the stance.
Let us try and understand the entire ‘issue’. And, I am guessing this would appeal to fellow rational minds. But before that, I would like you all to check out the official video in which Rajkumar Hirani ‘tells-all’ – his end of he story!
The fact is – that there IS NO ‘issue.’ And the reasons are as follows:
If Chetan Bhagat was the ‘first’ person who Mr. Hirani went to with the script (once made!), didn’t get also show the entire movie (along with the credits?) to Chetan Bhagat? And if he did, how come Chetan Bhagat realized it only ONE Week POST the release of the movie that he hasn’t been given due credit? Why didn’t he point it out THEN? . Why create a fuss NOW?
The answer to “Why not THEN?” and “Why NOW?” could possibly lie in the power of Social Media. The makers of 3 Idiots (the whole bunch!) know that 3 Idiots is basically targeted at the urban / semi-urban youth – people who spend a LOT of time on the internet and who ‘buy’ gossip on Social Media platforms. Besides, it is easy to share with friends / discuss / dissect and have opinion centres all over. What I am basically getting at is – this could well be a marketing-gimmick and an attempt to fully exploit the power of Social Media towards marketing the movie to the youth.My opinion was reinforced after watching this Rajkumar Hirani video and Chetan Bhagat’s blog – ‘Closing Remarks.’ Aye Aye sir, the buzz is already generated – time for ‘closing remarks’, eh?
A few might argue that an ‘Aamir Khan’ flick doesn’t “NEED” any marketing. Agreed – it might not. But controversy always helps. That’s what BUZZ MARKETING (in Social Media parlance) is all about. And that is exactly what I see happening here!
It’s holiday season. We just completed our Term 2. I didn’t really do much this term break – except for revamping my blog (check the NEW sidebar! ) and getting myself back to serious blogging again. However, the term break after Term 1 was slightly more eventful. I had gone with my mother for a trip to Nainital, Kausani, Rudrapur and Binsar. I have already written about Rudrapur. Kausani had mind-blowing views of the Himalayas – maybe I will write about Nainital and Kausani in a separate post. Right now, we will look at BINSAR!
Binsar is supposed to be a wildlife sanctuary, nestled in the Himalayas, located in the state of Uttarakhand. It is at a 2-hour drive from Nainital. It is located at an altitude of 2450 metres (approx. 8000 feet) and beyond a particular point, you have to leave your car and either trek up or be taken in their All Terrain Vehicle along the rocky, hilly road up to where the resort is located. From Binsar one can see the 300 km panoramic view of the Himalayan peaks like Kedarnath Peak, Shivling, Trisul and majestic Nanda Devi from a place called ‘Zero Point’.
It is an amazing place – actually it is hardly a place. It is a jungle – and the best part is that there is Nothing there! … There are just 4 resorts which are built inside the jungle – we stayed in one of them – Binsar Retreat! .. and Boy! are we happy with the service they offered. The people are extremely congenial, the food is simple, homely but tasty – just what the doctor ordred after all the junk food we subjected ourselves to at the Mall in Nainital. The service was meticulous, impressively personalized and this particlar resort totally rocks! This video I took captures the resort as well as the place.
There’s no eletricity at Binsar, so you can imagine how ‘virgin’ it is. There is a solar powered CFL Lamp which gets charged through the day and serves you in the night. There are kerosene lemps to power the distance between tents and also the attached washroom should you need to use it after dark. Overall, we were quite happy with our stay – it was a ‘getaway’ in the truest sense of the word – no electricity, no internet – all things that are ubiquitous were suddenly ‘missing.
Also ended up meeting a couple of interesting people at Binsar -
- A doctor from Kolkata - an anaeshetist by profession and a bird-watcher by hobbyist. He told me about the various bird-watching clubs that have sprung up in the last few years – KolkataBirds.com, DelhiBirds.com, BengalBirds.com. They apparently organize ‘bird tours’ once every few weeks to train novices (like me!) on the nuances of both bird-watching as well as photography. For starters, ‘daktar babu’ helped me spot a couple of East-Eurasian Jays right outside our tent perched on chestnut trees.
- An environmentalist and writer who writes on the environment. She was here at Binsar Sanctuary to basically cover some stuff on camera and maybe just sit back and think about subjects to write about.
There’s something about.. err.. Aamir (Mari?) .. I feel like reviewing every movie of his after I watch it. probably because of the amount of effort he has puts in behind making each of the movies. Since I started TalkingTails.in about 3 years ago (it has over 2,00,000 hits now!), Aamir Khan has 3 releases – this being the third – and I have reviewed each of the 2 that preceded this one – Ghajini (Read Review) and Taare Zameen Par (Read Review).
Aamir Khan is like the Tom Hanks of Bollywood. Never ceases to surprise us with the range of characters that he can execute. In 3 Idiots (adapted in parts and of course, in CONCEPT, from Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone), Aamir plays the central character – by the name of Ranchhordas Chhanchad a.k.a. “Rancho”. I also remember seeing a direct adaptation of this book in ‘theatre’ format during an event at IIM Calcutta. This was produced by Evam (Read Review Here).
I am not going to give out too many details about the plot, etc. because:
Either, You have already read Five Point Someone – and therefore, might have some sort of an idea;
Or, You haven’t – in which case, it is worth watching it anyway – rather than me narrating a meandering story of fun-loving college-goers taking on LIFE!
I’d rather present 3 observations on 3 idiots, followed by some general rambling on it. So here goes.. My 3 observations:
OBSERVATION #1: Emotions are overdone in the movie. Unlike Dil Chahta Hai, where the emotions were more in the form of subtle under-currents rather being dramatized and more in-your-face, 3 idiots chooses to tread the latter path. Most of the emotional scenes are a little more mellow than the ones in DCH. I am not saying one is better than the other, all I am saying it is different from DCH.
OBSERVATION #2: Protagonist inspired (also!) by Munnabhai MBBS While that was not how the central character was modeled in Five-Point Someone, ‘Rancho’ in 3 Idiots is almost like the proverbial ‘Messiah who solves everyone’s problems.. keeps everyone happy’. I’d like to believe that the ‘concept’ is as inspired by MunnaBhai, as it is from FPS.
OBSERVATION #3: Music – scores an average!
The Music (sadly!) has not done justice to the script / flow / characterization of the movie. Not only are the tracks themselves not ‘up to the mark’, I can’t even relate all the songs to the situations – which doesn’t really speak volumes about the way the songs have been embedded into the script.
Overall, the performances are good – I did not think anyone was extra-ordinary in the movie. They were just good. The 2 strong messages that came out of the movie were -Follow your heart. Do what you like best. And success shall follow you. And secondly, education is about the ‘learning’ not marks.
No wonder, one of the status messages of a GTalk contact read – “3 idiots – a must in every academic curriculum” .. I am sure many would agree with it – only that they would refrain from having it on their status messages for fear of being crowned “CORNY!”
Music is binding. It binds you. Takes you to another level. Of late, I got introduced to the Coke Studio series by Atul Shrivastava (a batchmate at IIM L, a wonderful guitarist and one of the finest guys I’ve met!) – Thanks Bro – For introducing me to a world of music that takes good music from the subcontinent to the world!
Coke studio is Pakistani TV Series where talented Pakistani musicians come to jam with an in-house band. Sometimes they bring together musicians from diverse influences and pick -up a popular track from any one of them to give it a completely different feel.
What I really like about Coke Studio is that their passion for music SPILLS OUT in the way every minute detail is handled. Whether it is the detailing in the camera work in the way the video is shot, in the sounds, in the effort that is going in behind EACH and EVERY Track, or in the sheer talent of the musicians who are making some absolutely amazing music!
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Musically, Coke Studio is easily one of the best things that have happened to me! I am picking up 5 of my favourite songs from COke Studio – with a few lines about each of them and links to the official videos. Just to get the “feel” right, I am writing about each of the songs while listening to the respective songs and adding the respective Youtube videos so you can watch the songs while reading what I have to say!
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So here goes – my TOP 5 songs from COke Studio, Season 2 – in no particular order.
1. Chup!
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This is the first Coke Studio song I heard and it has me addicted to both – Coke Studio and the song itself, every since. Chup is by a Pakistani Female Duo – Zeb & Haniya – immnsely talented both of them. WHile the original “Chup” song is nice too, this one has a very jazzy, waltzy feel to it. I especially like the way the dholak blends in with the earthy drum beats. A special word of mention for Louis Pinto – the in-house Coke Studio drummer. He is truly versatile and a pleasure to watch and listen to. Also, the guitar strumming is very 1960-ish if you know what I mean. Yet, it is timeless .. Chup!
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2. Saari Raat
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Well, athough I did not intend this to be chronological listing of WHEN i heard WHAT song in what order, this is pretty much turning out ot be like that. But I’m going to write whatever flows naturally – That is EXACTLY what music is all about – flowing it naturally. And one of the songs that truly “flows naturally” – is this one by Noorie, a Pakistani ROck Band, known for its raw energy. This song has some wonderful Sitar-and-Keyboard pieces. Not to mention the way the tempo fo the song picks up gradually. It moves from CLASSICAL – to SOFT ROCK – to LOVE BALLAD – to something slightly HEAVY – meandering along the way like a river in a farmland. Ali Noor’s fits the song like a glove. He is so “natural” in the video – Just look at him move! One song that I can listen to all night, really!
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3. Bulleya
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A slightly different song this. It is a version of a song done many times over by many artists (most of them Pakistani). The version that made this song famous in India was “Bulla ki Jaana” by Rabbi Shergil (A song that touched my heart pretty much as much as Coke Studio has, but I will write a seperate post about it some other time! .. This version is done by Ustad Riaz Ali Khan. Basically the lyrics, liek I said, are based on a a poem written by the renowned Sufi Poet – Bulle Shah and has amazingly deep meaning. This song can heal your wonds, quite literally! Anyway, you need not be the ’spiritual kinds’ to appreciate it. Enjoy!
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4. Mavi Ve
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Fusion music at its best! This by the Shafwat Amanat Ali (Former lead singer of the famed Pakistani FUsion ROck-band “FUZON”) & a band called Josh. JoSH is a Montreal-based Indian/Pakistani fusion band which draw fuses modern and traditional Bhangra beats. This, blended with some mind-blowqing vocals by SHafaqat Amanat Ali make this track a winner. Again, the dholak piece in the middle is what steals the show and how the song comes back to the tempo after the middle “dholak” lull. The lull before the storm. That’s a much-used line, but when it fitsd perfectly, it fits perfectly. A very contemporary sounding track – in total contrast to Bulleya – that is the beauty of Coke Studio!
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5. Rona Chor Dia
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Javed Bashir is a Pakistani Qawwali singer. One who can inspire, make and break by his sheer talent. Shireesh (one of my closest friends & an aspiring playback singer – more on him later), said he should give up singing after listening to this track! He was awed – just like most others (including me) that I have introduced this track to! This is another amazing song form the Zeb-Haniya duo (yes, the “chup” duo). However, it is Javed Bashir who adds a completely new dimension to this song. Javed can sing at ANY PACE, ANY SCALE. To me, this song conveys one thing – IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING! (Sorry, Adidas!)
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Like Coke Studio? .. Let me know what you think! .. Let’s talk!
Amit Haralalka is presently pursuing his MBA at IIM Lucknow.
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