Macs on Air

Since my 5th headphone of my mp3 player has broke down,i switched to the FM in my mobile (only good thing left in it).Due to this I got two issues to talk about.

1. My favorite stations – primarily Radio Indigo and occasionally Radio One simply because of the language –English & Hindi.Two Tips to Radio Indigo –

• learn the sound quality from Radio Mirchi and Fever 104 .Except for the theme music, songs sound dull.
• plzz change your selection of morning songs.I don't want to listen gangsta rap , explicit rap or depressing alternative rock.Oldies and classics will do.This is the reason I switch to Radio One and not the ads between the songs

2. Coming to more serious issues –the ads.I have learnt some concepts in developing print and visual ads and I have tried to apply it too in my assignments.But I think Radio Ads is totally a different ball game.I don't understand the logic of telling the phone number breathlessly in the end .Why or How would the listener remember the telephone number? (only a really good fancy number has the slightest chance) .

Ads I like to hear are

• Tuborg –fun starter nights (btw its a beer ) good music, nice voice and she does not mention its a beer,but we get the hint..
• GRT stylus jewellery – a slow ,long,nice song, sung in style.
• McDowell's Accessories – starts with cheesy French lines followed by really classy voice bringing the international feel and “Paris” helps a lot.

Ads which are not worth hearing:

• Open magazine – just what the hell is the magazine about ??,I am sure the magazine sucks big time just like the ad.
• Mac Ads (this has nothing to do with my MS bias) – first of all i am surprised to “hear” ads for Macs-And the so called confessions neither sound cool nor realistic.

Best of all they finally say the cool dudes say thanks mommy for Mac and thanks daddy for the Mac.Aren't Macs supposed to be owned by cool dudes??

I am not disrespecting their love or gratitude for their parents but i don't picture any college guys with Macs,showing off “look My Mom bought this really cool Mac for Me” . Do bike ads or mobile ads feature guys say “thank you Mommy”??Either be cool or cute don't try to be both,but if u really want to people to switch, be logical, at least for technology products.

Other Ads weren’t worth remembering :P

If there are any basic rules or framework for radio ads kindly let me know,I will be most obliged.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DENOVOS !!!

  THIS AUGUST MARKS

THE FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSAY OF

 DENOVOS

THANK YOU ALL

FOR YOUR

LOVE & SUPPORT :)

E-MEDIA edges Mass Media

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s recent report “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013” says worldwide advertising spending will reach $421 billion in 2009.This is a serious drop in ad spending as the total stood $479 billion in 2008.

The ad industry is expected to start recovering only in 2011 and yet the projected figure of $467 billion for 2013 is still lesser than 2008 total which means tougher times are ahead.

Not so surprisingly, Television stands at top maintaining status quo while print has declined and expected to decline further, while Internet advertising is expected to have a positive outlook.

Interestingly,Video games advertising, although in the last position, has grown considerably and is expected to grow further proving its the not the least among the ad medium lot.If one had followed the last US elections,they would be aware that Obama’s ads featured in Burnout Paradise and Madden 09.

Moreover recession has forced companies to be more strict on ROI from advertising ,which has lead to a rise in BTL campaigns.

Vibhor who works for a marketing firm tells me that, recession has indeed helped them.Since many companies are favoring BTL campaigns , they are tuning towards cost effective marketing solutions provided by his company rather than mass media.

With the amount of clutter rising in all types of media, its indeed a major challenge for firms to design their media mix within their promotional budget. Market segmentation has become very critical than ever before

Chrome OS? Oh Yes….

We knew it was coming .It was just a matter of time.And now the time has come.Unlike for many others, it was not a surprise for me,As I had blogged about it earlier.However i was indeed surprised that instead of extending android to laptops,they are developing Chrome as the OS.

When Google officially announced it ,everyone was like “Google to crush MS,windows RIP” and all other stuff.

Its plain stupidity. why??

simple reason- Chrome is not a substitute for Windows nor Mac,because Windows is a client /server based OS while Chrome is browser based.Unlike Windows or Mac for that matter, Chrome would be useless without 24/7 internet connection.I can give you another hundred reasons in the same lines citing safety,security,stability,support etc etc.

So MS need not worry? NO it should ,yes this is indeed a big move by Google and yes it has indeed increased the competition between the two giants. MS has also put big bets on cloud computing and is developing its own browser OS (MS GAZELLE) and its hold on it will be threatened by Google Chrome.

But net book prizes may not go down drastically,Windows wont die and MS wont go bankrupt.Ironically since Chrome is going to be free,its the Linux net books which will take a hit which again is debatable.

While going thru the discussions in the web,one comment had summed it up well

“Chrome will create its own niche market of Browser OS and will monopolize it” I think this is true.Google has indeed revolutionized many areas.And if succeeds,Chrome OS will also be a revolution but there wont be a OS war at least with windows.

Btw this cartoon make more sense than ever before :P

B.T.M. BITES

Severe time crunch,limited electric supply and almost a decade old desktop are my top 3 excuses for the brief hibernation of blog.

Anyways let me quickly run through the things i wanted to blog but couldn’t.(in random order)

• Bing is doing better than expected but Google still rules as the default search engine,but when comes to niche search Bing may shine better and since Bing now throws up Twitter search results, which may or may not be better than Google results but definitely different from it.
• Some brands just live forever ,like MJ(not me  but the original moonwalker).
  • Mass Media had a good week as  MJ’s “mystery death” was “breaking news”  for more than 2 days,tribute stories,special shows,continuous coverage,cover story…imagine the ad revenues for that two days.i heard even newspapers got sold out in some parts of US (newspapers are on verge of becoming historical artifacts esp. in US)
  • MJ’s sudden death also resulted in sudden surge in the sales of his albums.
  • “I Was At Glasto 09 When Jacko Died” T shirts were being sold the very next day of his death (i am sure the idea did not come from an MBA marketing)
  • But some MBA’s are already drawing up business plans to make his Neverland ranch into a music museum cum theme park which would “pop” profits. I am sure  this MJ mania will continue foe some more time because he was not just a pop singer  but a  iconic brand himself.
• When the world was watching US going Ga Ga over the new smart phones, a startup in Madurai(my hometown ) has  rolled out Red Chery , a Indian alternative for Black Berry.  Red Chery fetches corporate emails to your mobile which is what Black Berry is famous for.
  • Although the firm  says “Red Chery stands for 'Revolutionary (red) Change Enabled Reach for You’ it is obvious that it wants to be associated with  Blackberry one way or another
  • Rajiv and me have had many discussions about this type of branding using the opposites of the existing brand – (black-red;berry-cherry) –we think it will work if a brand wants to remain as a follower acting as an alternative (usually low priced ) –ideally it should be termed ‘reverse branding’ since it already has another definition, we could call it opposite branding or mirror branding(same but reversed).
• Videocon has a renewed logo,which I personally think is  not suitable for a consumer electronics company but looks like logo of a health food brand.
• Sony’s Walkman was named as the top music invention of last 50 years which is  like the first generation of portable media player
• I tried the new Opera.. nothing great.you can skip it… i recommend  the latest FireFox 3.5 RC.

Last but not least …

• Twitter’s potential was unleashed when US Govt requested the micro blogging site to postpone its weekly maintenance as Twitter was the only source of real time updates on Iran elections where news channels and other traditional media sources were restricted.Looks like Twitter has arrived….

I Phone Pre Phone U Phone??

It was mobile mania all again this week.Palm Pre hit the stores and made a record breaking sales (rumored to be more than 50,000 units in just 2 days!!).

Apple’s WWDC devoid of Steve Jobs still had something solid to show Iphone 3GS.  (faster better iphone ..but not very exciting as the previous ones).

Meanwhile Dhiru and Tiger took their blogging to a professional level after attending the Nokia N97 launch in India.

While Dhiru stands up for Apple 3GS (btw he is apple biased :p ) when compared to N97, I put my bet on the new Palm Pre which is considered as the first true iphone killer.It has a QWERTY keyboard which is one of things Iphone will love to have.The Web OS is the real deal which beats the iphone OS .The ability to run many applications at once,touch accuracy,mail,IM  notifications  while running any app,etc make it far superior even than the upcoming iphone 3.o. 

Still iPhone’s large application base,build quality,iPod scores over the Pre.But I think a large chunk of business  users may shift to Pre ,considering the cost advantage(refer pic),and business features like  MS exchange and Office.

As far i can see,the $99 iphone 3G will give the Pre a stiff competition than the iphone 3GS.

While the N97 with a price tag of $699,can kiss US markets goodbye..Asian markets is not much promising either.And with HTC planning to launch Android phones in India,they better plan something better.

Meanwhile I am trying to lose my Sony Ericsson “accidentally” and get  a Nokia  ..waiting for Nokia 2730-budget phone with 3G

And The osCAR goes to……

BMW has clearly emerged as the most favored luxury car in the Indian Market beating Mercedes and Audi.BMW has been consistently selling 240+ cars every month followed by Merc selling around 150+ while super cool Audi is just managing around 110+.

As one can see the difference between the sales figures are pretty high considering these are Segment F (luxury) cars.
Its is said that Merc one of the early entrants to India has lost its shine in recent years .Industry analysts say “Merc’s  offering of discounts has done nothing good except eroding its brand value”.   I personally find the Merc to be boring ,however the recent launches like S class and new E class are refreshing.

Audi which had been head to head with BMW in launching new models have lost in sales compared to BMW.While Audi has 11 dealerships across the country,BMW has been trying to expand aggressively from 12 to 20 by the end of 2009.(currently it has 15) I think this  aggressive dealership expansion has paid off BMW handsomely.

There was a billboard war  Audi vs.. BMW in US where Audi’s board said “your move BMW” and BMW replied in style.

After looking the sales figures,I think this probably fits here too.Now its BMW’s time to say       “Your Move Audi”