Hasta La Creative!

by Arjun Mukherjee
Arjun is a Creative Director with Bates 141 Kolkata

Sometimes you have this queasy feeling that sacrifice is such a bitch. As a strappy 22-year old one fine day I decided to chuck a bank job like one tosses an unwanted banana peel carelessly by the roadside. Ann Rynd got the better of me and like Ché crisscrossing the virgin countryside I decided to follow my heart. Jaws dropped, eyebrows took the shape of previously unseen arcs and discouraging words dropped like sharp icicles when I announced that I wanted to be an advertising copywriter.

Armed with fresh smelling resumes I started calling up advertising honchos and doing the rounds of big agencies. The rejections were quick and brutal. The drowsy secretaries bleated out the same answers and catching a glimpse of the Creative Director seemed as difficult as spotting a snow leopard in
a blizzard. After experiencing several such ‘push aways’ I resorted to lies, calling up as car loan agents, making appointments as book suppliers and several such cheesy disguises. The results as expected were disastrous and broke away big chunks from my fragile confidence.

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Creative duo Denesh and Anuj came together in 2004 after being introduced by a london headhunter. They recently picked up a creative excellence award from wpp’s john o’keeffe and have since been getting around some of the top ad agencies in london and amsterdam including BBH, Wieden+Kennedy and Strawberryfrog. Denesh 07966 473785 | anuj 07939 038929

Recession in advertising:

HOW THE CREDIT CRUNCH IS AFFECTING CREATIVE ADVERTISING. A DESI CREATIVE TEAM IN LONDON SHARE THEIR VIEW.

A loss of confidence has been breeding through London since last summer. At least the sun helped us all to feel a bit better day to day. But then came autumn and winter, as for you who know how miserable these British seasons can be, it only added to the snowballing currents of depression flowing from the City in the east to the media industry and the heart of shopping in the west end.

Now upon hearing the massive job culls in the financial part of town, then to the shop floors on high streets up and down the country, slowly and surely more and more people in advertising were being overcome with “depression”. It’s been filtering through all forms of communication, and when everyone talks about something, it’s hard not to believe it. But the thing is, so far it’s not been as bad as it’s been made out to be.

However global networks have set hiring freezes across their agencies, this has set the trend for others to follow, it’s purely about confidence.
It’s not just London either, the disease is spreading like the plague, “it’s gonna wipe people out”, that’s what we keep hearing. We’ve been in touch with agencies all over the world from the states to Australia and they are all talking about the recession, no one is sure about what’s happening and so no one is grabbing their balls to make a confident decision.

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Digital Marketer from Google, Bharti Airtel and Zdnetindia.com; Saurabh Pandey is a technology and media enthusiast. Saurabh runs his own blog at http://www.atomthought.com and is currently writing a book: ‘Social Media Marketing-Illustrated and Actionable Steps for Digital Marketers’.

Why are we on Linked-In but not on Apnacircle or brijj?
I guess it’s not just one single ‘thing’ but a mix of many factors that influence us to join a specific social media site.
In a nutshell, and in a more organised lingo, we choose to be on a social networking site largely because of:

1. Presence of Opinion Leaders
2. Presence of a large no. of Our Type of people,
3. Opportunity to Collaborate and Co-create or achieve an objective   and
4. Tools to collaborate and co-create efficiently and effectively

Once we are comfortable with the above we then slowly create our own network, and reputation within that Social Platform.
Now, creating a network and reputation takes time and effort. Remember how much time it took you to reach that 500 contacts landmark in LinkedIn?
That’s precisely why anyone would think twice before just latching on to just another social network. This makes things really difficult for any new entrant. And that’s why it’s important to be either the ‘first’ or the most ‘disruptive’ in order to win members.
So, what happens now in India? Now that there are already so many of Social Networks, how does a new Social Platform survive?
Needless to say Indian Social Networks have largely been ‘followers’ and have failed to create need driven technological innovation or disruption. This is sadly true in most of the internet verticals.
Anyways broadly I have always maintained that Social Networks should excel at making the conversations among users most efficient-through the use of tools, technology, applications and co-creation opportunities. There is still a gap here, and there is still an opportunity here!
We shall understand the above in slightly greater detail as we move further.

So what’s the story of Big Adda and Ibibo?
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