Insight: The New Face of Marketing

I was excited to be a part of the thought leadership event organised by the ITSMA with InformationWeek as the media partner. Knowing that this one was positioned to give out insights on where marketing is headed had me more curious about what was the discussion going to be like. There was a good mix of representatives from several IT firms and its always great to be in a room full of marketeers!

The event started off with a session by Dave Munn, who elaborated on the top priorities for marketeers. Interesting stats shared indicated that only 9% of CEOs actually use marketing data. But, on the whole the perception of marketing has improved for this year as nearly 78% of the audience they survey voted in favor, 20% had the same view and only 2% had a lowered perception. Now, that is the challenge i see whenever i’m talking to any other function. Marketing always needs to emphasize on the value they are driving for other business units/functions. Some of the top priorities for marketeers this year are:

1. Building thought leadership & dissemination of the content created for this

2. Managing brand reputation

3. Aligning sales & marketing

In terms of the budget being allocated for marketing, content creation took the top spot. For digital marketing the priority of allocating monies was: Website, Search, Online Advertising, Online Communities & Social Media. Digital marketing was also one of the key marketing areas that saw an increase in budget allocation. Most of this was taken out of the cuts in sponsorship,  direct mailers, advertising or public shows. A remarkable point was that nearly 25% of the overall marketing budget goes out to external agencies as fees/payments. Dave also listed the 5 mandates for marketing this year:

1. Measure & communicate metrics: Its important for marketing to contribute to business outcomes & provide predictive insight.

2. Become data & technology frontrunners: Invest in skills, build omnichannel marketing, foster the potential of data & analytics and lastly increase awareness with the c-suite.

3. Improve relevance & personalisation for the customer: Track for insights, provide customised marketing and make use of personas. This involves rendering different treatment when you talk to CMOs/CFOs/CIOs.

4. Enable thought leadership selling: Use sales teams to provide insight about client needs, enagagements and discuss challenges with marketing. Marketing also needs to manage & train SME’s to increase the awareness of our offering.

5. Build adaptive culture in marketing: Marketing needs to be proactive & collaborate within the functions. Companies should build a reward based culture to value business contribution from marketing.

The later session by Ramkumar Ramamoorthy was also rich in terms of the takeaways from his experience with the sterling work he has done at Cognizant. The impact of investor and analyst relation teams cannot be discounted. The last session was a panel discussion with key members such as Jyoti Singh (Genpact), Lavanya Jayram (Zensar Technologies), Kulwinder Singh (Synechron) & Sujit Janardanan (Amazon Web Services). Key takeaways from this discussion was about how marketing ROI is being measured (metrics differ everywhere), value being added through marketing (engagement matters on social & business matters in place of leads), investments matter in place of cost as that can be used to justify customer retention value over time.

Overall, i think it was an excellent session as it refreshed some of my own learning to reinforce the same. On the other hand, we picked up some good examples that were good to know and i also bumped in to some people i worked with earlier! All in all the new face of marketing looks good to be worked with in the future 🙂

Kejri-Wal: Another Brick in the Wall

“We don’t need no education”. The opening lines of this Pink Floyd song, instantly signal a need to overthrow oppression & signal individuality. Something i think Arvind Kejriwal has been trying a bit too hard off late. The point is if you interpret Another Brick In The Wall, you would see that Pink Floyd doesn’t mean to say that education is not needed. The lyric has don’t & no in the same line effectively nullifying the argument. They mean to say that education is needed & to oppress the system needs you to be a part of it. We’ve heard that before, to change the system be in it. Contribute to change rather than being the clogging hole.

Arvind Kejriwal is spearheading the Aam Aadmi Party that was formed out of the India Against Corruption Team. They started out on a good note, recruiting just about anyone. The idea was that this is a democratic party and anyone can help in running the state. Nearly 50,000 volunteer registration receipts were handed out as farmers, whizkids, corporates and activists jumped on the bandwagon. Populist measures? I think so. It’s one thing where traditional parties get singers or film stars to join a party when they have no knowledge of the constitution. Apart from knowing what’s wrong in their suburb, how much would the average indian know about the same constitution? I don’t think much. At least, i don’t have a clue.

On winning the Delhi polls, only chaos unfolded. There were raids, FIRs filed against prominent corporate houses and individuals. Cuts in water & electricity rates when the nation is running fiscal deficit. Not too good for our economic health. Here we are trying to cut out subsidies and Kejriwal ups the ant by subsidizing it further. Maybe, he was keen to earn brownie points really fast in to the game. But following that up with a Dharna to simply get the some policemen suspended? There is a process to be followed, that’s how governments all over the world are run Mr. Kejriwal. To his defense, he said that the constitution doesn’t state that a minister cannot protest. Fathom this, the country’s prime minister getting down to a dharna. Doesn’t it sound like Kejriwal’s interpretation is flawed? Presumably so.

Testing waters were always running rough. Outrage on twitter has become the rage with Kejriwal’s antics. The last straw was the passing of the Jan Lokpal bill. Tabled for discussions, the bill couldn’t be passed and this led to Kejriwal & some his parties representatives resigning to protest. In this world, there can’t be absolute black/white. I think they could have waited more & be a part of the brouhaha to get the bill passed. Quitting was a premature idea according to me. Now they are fired up for another rally, Jhaadu Chalao Yatra because apparently roaming around with broomsticks in 24 states by cleaning schools will help in cleaning corruption in high end places. Sounds completely illogical to me. I think this will only be an avenue to recruit more members for the party as Arvind Kejriwal sharpens his claws for the Lok Sabha elections. I do hope the AAP is able to deliver some promise as its got so many hopes pinned on it. Till then, i leave you with this funny video that has humorous take on all that Arvind Kejriwal has been up to.

Flappy Bird Away!

This addictive yet frustrating game had me intrigued since i first saw it mentioned on Twitter. Not on to be left behind, i thought let me check this out. But tap, tap, tap its really hard to get a good score. Most of the time i kept thinking that “Darn, this is so simple.. How can i not crack this?”. That’s precisely where the hitch lies.

Flappy Bird was such a simple game (it kind of reminded me of 8-bit games). There’s a hopeless bird who can’t fly and all you have to do is to keep it flapping away. My best score: 1. Like, seriously! I could never get past the second pole. At times, i was seconds close to throwing my phone in some random corner. Only to pick it up & try all over again. Simplicity is the key to getting users hooked. People tend to think that its so simple, i have to crack this.

What was most surprising was the announcement by Dong Nguyen to take it off the app stores. His reasoning was that the game got him too much attention and he didn’t seem to like it. It’s baffling to note that the game had nearly 50 million downloads and the Vietnamese fellow made close to $50,000 USD a day through the game. Then why pull the plug? I reckon this is just another gimmick. Probably, he wants to keep people guessing what could he be coming with next. I mean, frankly if you have played the game, there really isn’t much you can add on to basic one like that. All you got to do is save the cursed bird who can’t flap. I think Dong is hardly done yet. He has amassed enough media attention to keep people guessing what the next game could be. Like all other trends, i sure hope he beats himself to whatever he come up with. If not, then well we can just pass it off as another trend. Like the harlem shakes or miley at the VMA’s or back in India, the number of times Arvind Kejriwal has threatened
to resign!

 

My Top 5 Productivity Hacks

Let’s face it. It’s mid-afternoon & you’re perplexed about the 3 mail drafts opened on your mail client. You’re trying to balance it out by running a quick pivot to get done with your analysis & in the meanwhile coffee is on your mind along with the 3 meetings you have lined up before 5pm. Looks like little will get done for you today and anxiety is causing you to scream murder!

What happened to my productive time? You wonder. Pretty sure many of us are in similar situations and seem to be stuck in a rut. So here are my top 5 productivity hacks that help me get by. Maybe these could help you too:

1. Prioritize, prioritize: Much has been said about this before. I think the challenge is keeping up with your list of priorities. You have them listed up but one minor distraction & you’re drifting already. The hack is to start using notes, get an app that will keep reminding you about key tasks. Apps that are helpful are Any.do, Reminders on Evernote or even Google Play can help you with this.

2. Toughie on your table? Eat that frog! : A popular book, “Eat that frog” talks about finishing the tougher tasks in the beginning in the first part of your day (no matter when that starts). Once you’re done with the uphill tasks, you can slide on the easier ones downhill as you wind up the day. Finish it off with a treat?

3. Put that phone face down: This is a good trick & so simple to implement. Scores of time, you’re in a meeting and notifications begin to pop up. Not only are you swaying from the discussion, but if at your desk your productivity will go out the window for 10 minutes at least. So respect those around you & your time by putting the phone face down when you need to stay tuned to the task at hand.

4. Social media sidenote: Yes, many of us have the habit to drift away in unending timeline updates and newsfeeds cluttered with wedding or baby photos. The new one is that facebook 10 years video (i’m tired of it). But the hack here is to time yourself. You can check it but maybe set a limit to say once in 2 hours. Rather than checking every hour & loosing 15 mins of your time, you can minimize the time lost by widening the time limit.

5. De-clutter. Your desk & your mind: I’m an ardent fan of the minimalist approach. A clean desk not only shows you as an organized person, it actually helps you work better. I feel that an empty space helps me focus more on the tasks i’ve prioritized. It helps me feel i have this in control. Maybe you could try it out & see if this helps. Sure helps me keep a clear perspective!

So that’s about it. These simple hacks help me do more & achieve most of my work goals. There are days when you can use these hacks to save up to 2 hours of your work day. So finish that day faster & head back to have a great dinner or a nice drink to wind up the day!

Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Thank You.

As everyone reacts & outrage spreads over the recent Rahul Gandhi interview, i think I’m pretty sorted for the election choices this year. It’s interesting to see a potential leader of the nation fumble, blink and digress over the topics he’s being grilled over. But what’s more interesting is that he never has a clear answer on anything! Aside from repeating certain keywords at regular intervals, Rahul Gandhi has probably caused more harm to his reputation by appearing on TV. And this is just the beginning of his appearances!

Point to note is even after a 10 year internship with congress, he has only learnt to digress. I mean, where are Gujarat riots linked to women empowerment? I was pretty enraged by the middle of the interview yelling, “Why won’t he answer one question directly?”. Now any important media interaction is always scripted. Most politicians / key executives always are aware of the questions they would be asked. Reporters do tend to dwell a bit more on a subject at times. However the interviewee always knows what is coming his way. Despite knowing what he was in for, how could he seem so under-prepared? In case this was a job interview, i’m pretty sure the interviewer would’ve thought, “Heck, this person is not coming to the point. Should i really recruit this guy?”. Anybody in HR can validate.

Coming to the campaign he’s starting off with. Roping in a big media group like Dentsu, his boys must have thought they would have this figured. After all, Dentsu is a pretty kickass japanese media group and a 500 crore deal is only going to get the juices flowing. But centering on his “Main nahi, Hum..” message, i’m not sure i’m convinced. Rahul Gandhi kept talking about processes and how leaders are elected. He talked about getting more people involved. Now, even though we are a democratic country i beg to differ. More people means, more opinions, more reasons to not center on any concrete decisions, more camps within a party and what you’re left with is a big mess. It’s like a summer party where a lot people came, made a lot of noise, created hot mess and no one knows who did what. The results would be like that of a hangover the next morning. You’re sitting with headaches and don’t know who to blame. That’s the state congress is in right now. Corruption, scams, politicians going berserk & no one’s paying the price apart from people like you & me.

Rahul Gandhi talks of himself in third person most of the time. That is Illeism which indicates that he is pretty narcissistic & as wikipedia will tell you its a tact used by idiosyncratic & conceited people. Linking this trait to his point of getting people involved & most people who’ve worked with self-centered folks will tell you that its where a saga is waiting to unfold. Taking a leaf from Aam Admi Party will only serve as inspiration  for Arvind Kejriwal. Rahul Gandhi, sincerely you need to do better than hypothesize.

Lastly, it would be nice if congress could have a coming out of sorts. I mean look at your own brother-in-law, Mr. Gandhi. Robert Vadra’s wealth grew from 50 lakhs to 300 crores with funds that don’t have a clean source! How do you plan to win the trust & faith of lakhs of common folk when everything looks so convoluted? You could consider a start. And no i dont think this : http://engagedino.com/askrg qualifies as one. You need to be out there, drop your guard and engage in public forums to get to the grass root level. Till then, thank you for lifting the aura over your mystical persona. It’s been an eye opener. For sure.

Confessions of the Bride

Marriage season. Festivities. You’re the bride. So many of us have been there, but being so close to the D-day it sure is more than just butterflies. You see that’s the simplest answer the bride can give to everyone asking “How does it feel?”. But its a lot more than that.

It’s a whirlwind. You’re seeing the days pass you by at a lightning pace. Now you always knew the date and were counting it down every time you meet friends. Besties would go a step further and remind you anyways.”So! 1 month left for the big day. All ready?”. “Well not quite, you see there’s so much!”

Truth is you will never be ready. No matter how much of a control freak you are. There is a little bit of knit picking in every thing around you. Some of my friends say they began preparations months before. However being the last minute fix-it persona I’ve been all along, everything can get done is my approach. In fact, there’s a solution for every problem i quip to family. But family, you see its more stress for them. While i sit in the corner and nibble away on small portions, i watch the grand opera unfold. So what is it exactly that I’m feeling?

Absurd. Excited. Attached. Nostalgic. Nervous. It feels weird to look around and think that just one day later, things will change. I’m not afraid of change, its always required and should be welcomed. I know that responsibilities will increase. There is a lot more at stake now you see. Given the traditions we are bound with there are a lot of expectations to be met. Every time i meet someone and they see the cross cultural affair (quite clearly a punjabi marrying a bengali), they gush “love marriage”? In most situations i don’t know what to refer to Arijit as. Sometimes i begin with ‘My fiance’ and other times ‘My boyfriend’. Elders remind, ‘Beta you must always say fiance’.  I don’t see how that’s always mentioned because any marriage is the coming together of two people and don’t couples in “arranged marriages” have a courtship period? I’m sure they find love there to actually go to the next stage! Different cultures always mean that the shaadi will come with its set of learning. You see, in the arranged marriage folks have it simpler since everything is understood. But here, we learn so much more with each custom & ceremony. The culture exchange is awesome. It’s going to be chaotic for some, but its more fun to me.

Leaving the family you grow up with is going to be hard. Growing older in one house and lamenting about the color of the walls to moving to a different house with a complete new setup is coming up sooner than you think. You know the annoying neighbors will be replaced by a new set of people. The local shops where they know exactly what you need will be history, the learning curve will start again. Relatives. Enough said, will have their own set of good advice. Which with all due respect, you must keep for your own good. Most importantly, Smile. As the hours go by, I’m rather confused about what’s the big deal really with marriage? To me it seems like the start of a new chapter. The book’s the same, only that there will be more characters and more to explore as we branch out. A larger family to go back to, a richer cross culture learning and a lifetime of bliss cementing a nine year long relationship is what i’m looking forward to.

Minus the butterflies 🙂

5 Reasons why i shifted back to iOS from Android

Yes, i’ve got the iPhone 5S and most of the observations stem from my usage of the phone over a week. Now you may well know the average phone junkie around you will be caught up in a grueling debate of which platform to choose. iOS / Android / Windows / Blackberry. Ok, lets leave the last one. You see, i was there too. My smartphone journey started with a Blackberry. Now, i didn’t quite like the feeling of being stuck in dinosaur years in the face of technology and made the shift to iOS. 6 months down, i shifted to Android and now i’m back to iOS. Pray, you ask why? Here it goes:

1. iOS7: The colors. I mean this is vivid. Its like Apple’s on an acid trip and everything looks colorful. Not just that, the notifications and controls are so much more easier. I used to chuckle over the ease of changing settings on my S3 in the initial days, but iOS7 just hit the pain point with the controls made easy.

2. Stability: DON’T get me started on the number of times my S3 crashed. Talk about random restarts, apps crashed and went boom in my face. I can’t even count the number of times i would have my phone freeze when i wanted to take a picture or just after taking one, trying to see how it looked. With my 5S, that’s a story of the past.

3. LAG: That’s in caps cause that’s what pinched and pricked me all along. Why samsung why would you load a phone with touchwiz? I mean where’s the darn value add? Everytime i had to pickup the phone to call, it would take 8 holy seconds for my contacts to show. Free Memory? Did that. Factory reset? Check. Go to android developer settings and change parameters. Figured out and did that. No help.

4. Customization: Now this is what you don’t get in iOS. But, once you’re done with those inane customizations and wallpaper updates, how frequently do you actually go back and keep changing. In fact, as you become busier or most accustomed to your device, you rarely change the display. If you’re on the otherside, then well you really are sorted in life to have so much time on your hands.

5. Security: No matter how much we bleat or brag about the closed OS that Apple has to offer, it no doubt keeps your phone secure. Also what can beat Touch ID? I mean the entire user experience is revamped in the 5S. App purchases and phone unlock are so much simpler now. All i need to do is add a fingerprint.

The typical android geek would love to root phones and try out different tricks and its oh, so open! But i have my reservations now and would rather prefer a stable, reliable and minimalist device as compared to the phablets and the shenanigans. Plus, the camera with the two tone flash? It beats everything on the market hands down. So yes, when it comes to android i could rattle on about how large the screen actually turned out for me in the S3 and the little benefit it seemed to offer. Plus battery issues and what not. Things are sorted and streamlined in iOS. So yes, this shift back has been simpler than i thought and i’m back to worship Apple’s holy grail of tech.

Tim Cook reflecting on Steve Jobs 2nd Death Anniv.

Steve Jobs has truly been a phenomenon that shook not just technology but the marketing and advertising world as well. I must admit that i have always been fascinated by his leadership style and he is known as a charismatic leader anyways. If you have read the biography by Walter Isaacson, then you would have heard of Steve’s “Reality Distortion Field”. Simply explained this was a way in which Steve would push his team members to achieve what they thought was ridiculous or at times not feasible as well. That’s also a reason why employees at Apple continue to surprise not just themselves but the markets as well till the time Steve was there rolling out innovative products. Here’s a tribute video employees at Apple made on his first death anniversary.

Coming to the second death anniversary (05th Oct. 2013), Tim Cook has sent out an email internally to mark what Steve meant to everyone and how they should dedicate themselves to the work he loved:

————————————————————————————————————————

Team-

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place.I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is no higher tribute to his memory. I know that he would be proud of all of you.

Best,

Tim

*Sourced from 9to5Mac

———————————————————————————————————————–

I feel that Steve had this unique capability to marry the arts, culture, technology and science in a unique way and present the end product in the most simplest form to the end user. Maybe a little to simple for someone like me. But, any Apple product comes with an interface so user friendly that you don’t need a user manual at the end of the day. Now that’s proving the utility value that comes with the product. No wonder people using the iPhone tend to spend longer time on their devices and are most likely to declare that you can call them or text back on their iPhone. As Jonathan “Jony” Ive puts it, this indicates how seamless and easy to use the products are. As for the ex-COO, Tim Cook was known to be majorly quiet with a fixed gaze during meetings. If anything, I’m sure the team with Cook, Ive and Frederighi will continue to innovate, “Think Different” and provide products that will keep people lining outside stores for weeks together and achieve record sales as they carry the delicious Apple in to the future.

*Image Source: Businessinsider.com

Quitting Your Job. In Style.

Most people think about it. Some talk of quirky ways they would resign. Those of you who have seen Jerry McGuire would recall the scene where he makes a speech and leaves with one lonely fish “flipper”. But, when you have had one too many coffees and pushed the gate beyond 1am to your office door (of course not when you choose to moonlight), there is a greater grit to display when you find the option to leave.

Now you could find quirky ways to do this, like sending a cake to your boss / writing a book / writing a poem / citing a funny inspiration as your trigger. But if you really want to make it viral? Make a video out of it. That’s exactly what Marina Shifrin did. On a much long night at work (Next Media Animation) she decided to do an interpretive dance to Kanye West’s “Gone”. Marina doesn’t say anything in the video, its just interlaced with dance steps and text. She’s dancing at every possible area she frequents in her previous work place in the short video. She’s edited it well too, since her job was to come up with viral videos that lacked quality but were high in quantity in her opinion. Here’s the video that actually did go viral and has more than 5 million hits:

But her ex-work organisation did not just leave it at that. They came up with an equally quirky video showing her boss and other work members dancing to the same song. They funnily are at the same work areas Marina dances in her video and look really happy (albeit we know why since its a video response). What’s more they show the swankier parts of the office and wish Marina all the best with a ‘We’re Hiring” message at the end. Here’s the video response:

This made me think about how easy it is becoming for individuals / organisations to put their perspectives out there. Take this case where an employee is making a video that could be brandishing for the company’s reputation. But, they choose to respond in a fashion that’s similar to the way Marina expressed her outrage. Countless people quit their jobs every year and some of them do rant about it on social media. In certain cases, former employees have started blogs / websites to portray their hatred for the work they did or the policies their former workplaces had. But rarely has an organisation responded back or clarified their stand. Now, there seems to be a change sweeping in. In my opinion this will not be a trend or an event to look out for. But, it does throw light on the power of social networks and how it is changing the hiring landscape. It also show how important it is to value the opinion of employees when it comes to organisations. You never know if they would choose to group up and make a quirky video about it so that the world at large gets to know. I think while the outrage may not be relevant to others, but in some aspect people tend to connect with it at some level and that’s what makes them share it. I’m sure Marina has become a viral celeb overnight and may have a lot of videos coming up where she could be more vocal than she was in the video she made. Whether this proves to be a win for Next Media Animation (her ex-employer), I doubt.