Praval's Musings

Valentine’s day and the entire week of roses and chocolates just got over. “Love is in the air”. You would have probably read this, if not experienced it everywhere you’d have been. It’s more like, the whole world will conspire to make you feel so.

Thanks to St. Valentine. Hats off to the marketers.

We’re living in an era where consumerism is a function of media spends and discounts. Especially for days like these. Marketers are smart enough to know the consumer behavior and journey to ride on us in an attempt to maneuver the buying habits.

The roses would sell for more, stuffed toys which would otherwise be valuable for kids, suddenly looks at different demographics. Chocolates and the whole new branding around them. Facebook apps and games, Campaigns (Check out AT&T’s campaign) around public display of affection, malls painted red and pink with heart shaped balloons which would run short of gas with 24 hours. The list is long.

Having said that, every year, more and more people fall for it. Only if, love needed a day to be expressed differently. Why not everyday or every week? Why not on your anniversary?

While I write this, I can see love birds in the park, down from the window of my 6th floor house. Under the sun and above the greens. Maybe, they’re not the mall types.

Hail Marketers!

Image credits: Eric731 & Dan Winckler

While Social Media agencies continue to work for brands to create strategies and leverage social media spaces for them, there is a need to bring up media literacy, promote best practices and stay up to the trends. Social Media Club is a platform that facilitates these and more while helping industry practitioners connect and engage offline.

Social Media Club’s primary mission is to promote media literacy, promote standard technologies, encourage ethical behavior and share best practices. We bring together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators.

If you’re interested to know more about the Social Media Club initiative, you may check the global website.

Social Media Club has 230 chapters worldwide with chapters in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in India. Last week, SMC Delhi had it’s February’2011 meet at NASSCOM office in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

I’d like to thank Rajesh, who talked about IndiaSocial, a community of social media practitioners in India.

Rajesh took us through how, when, what, why, where and more on the IndiaSocial Community. It was inevitable to know how unbiased the community is with folks from fellow agencies contributing avidly to it by writing articles on social media trends, events and case studies in India.

In an interesting fashion, Rajesh gave away 2 copies of the India Social Media Report 2010 which is also available for sale on the website. I am thankful to him for passing on a copy to me as well.

I’d like to thank Gaurav and Avinash for reviving the spirits to bring up this session. We missed both of you this time.  It was great meeting Rahul Narvekar – Co-founder at Fashion & You, Sumit Goyal – Editor in Chief at Food & Nightlife and others who came up for an amazing discussion during and after the meet.

We’re looking forward to see more action at the next session of Social Media Club, Delhi which is tentatively scheduled for 4th of March’2010. We’ll have Rabi Gupta from iDubba as a speaker for the March session. You may check out iDubba review on Pluggdin.

We’ll soon have the details up for RSVP. Follow SMC Delhi on twitter to stay tuned!

I would request all stakeholders to participate actively, spread the word and help revive the community.

See ya!

Last month, when I came across the whole idea of ‘Diesel Island’ campaign, I was always looking forward to experience it. I am grateful to receive an invite to the ‘Diesel Democratic Party’ at the Lap, Hotel Samrat, New Delhi, last week.

What’s with the Island?

The idea was conceived by the agency, Santo (a unit of WPP, which also bagged the AdAge International Agency of the Year award, last week). Here in, the ads have a mythical island populated by models/ fans. The whole idea is further extended to belief via online games, videos and a facebook app where fans can interact with the island and its imaginary population. What more, there’s even a fake Wikipedia entry that will be updated weekly as the island grows!

According to Riccardo Bellini, Diesel’s global vice president of branding and marketing, the Diesel Island campaign can be described as – “Think ‘Lost’ but with nicer clothes and no polar bears”.

The #DDP (Diesel Democratic Party) had DJ Gordon Edge who flew in from UK for this event to play some great music, complemented by a fashion show and a lot of page 3 celebs. The list included Jas Arora and Rohit Bal. Cricketers Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan were amongst the invitees, but were never seen around!

The fun elements included the Diesel Island anthem and official haircut of the party called the ‘Mohawk’. Men and women of all ages were found sporting it and getting clicked! I could also spot Darshan Mehta, President & CEO, Reliance Brands Limited, but not with a Mohwawk!

It was nice meeting Abhishek Baxi, Bharat Joshi & Naina, Aman & Akansha, along with my very own Media Redefined gang!

You may want to stay tuned with what’s up and next at Diesel India on Twitter!

Thank you Priyal and the entire Nex Sales team for inviting me to the event and pulling it off in a great fashion! Cheers.