How was Diwali?

Firstly, wishing you all a very belated Diwali. Hope you all had your fair share of fun, sweets & crackers. I celebrated the festival of lights with my paternal uncle's family in my hometown in Trichy. Have been drowning in a pool of sweets n chocolates even before the festival began with all the vendors showering us with gifts. Some of my colleagues even got an iPod (Can u believe tht? I had to pinch myself to ensure that I'm in this world).

My Diwali began on the 7th of Nov & ended on 11th Nov. I had a very long diwali with my folks & relatives. Its always good to celebrate this festival with everyone of your close relatives. I kind of felt very happy during those 5 days. All I was required to do was to eat, sleep, watch television and enjoy my time which i surely did. We also had fun pulling each others' legs.

At the end of 5 days, I felt very unhappy returning home. Its moments like these when you actually feel time travelling very fast and all those fun and happy days comes to an end.

I am waiting for the next Diwali....

Random Posts (cont'd...)

I know what you are thinking....What took this guy so much time to write something on his weblog?. Over the last 2 months, I've been quite busy with my interests - gaming, downloading torrents especially new hollywood releases which havent even been released in India. Also I was busy in the process of enjoying myself during my notice period with my previous organization (me2w). Yeah...I'm now back in Chennai as a Biz Exec (no fancy desigs... :-D) with GroupM (Mindshare Interactions). Suddenly I get a message from my former colleagues asking for my CV & BAM....I'm having a chat with one of their group heads & am given an offer immediately...no interviews, no questions other than "Are you interested?".
This got me thinking....If i'm going to stay with the current profile, I'd always be generating leads for someone...literally a secondary DSA. WTF? I aint here to do that...I could have done that when I was selling insurance for a short time 2 years back...
So I took the offer without any expectations on payhikes (me coming back home to chennai would have made up for that). But the offer was better with a hike & an opportunity to work on Brand Building campaigns. WOW! What a relief!
After breaking the ice with the then current agency, I was asked to extend my notice by another 2 weeks which I did coz I felt I am responsible for a brand & I need to do justice to it by doing a complete handover to someone who can replace me.

The last few of those days made me feel good. I was given a spot bonus (which again wasnt expected for all the screwup that I had done) & lotsa praises from by boss & the client.

Its been 10 days since I've taken up my new assignment. So far, there hasnt been much work though a campaign of mine is currently running. One major difference between lead gen & brand building campaigns is that there isnt much target pressure in brand building campaigns as compared to lead gen. Right now I'm feeling like I'm missing the action and excitement which I had when I was handling citibank & lenovo. I hope I'll change this or I shud better get used to this. Also it could be sue to the fact that I am still an amateur in brand building. Only time will tell...

Adios for now!!

Random Posts

The week so far had been prety hectic. Client calls, reports, followups have taken their toll on me. In the midst of all these, there is also the followup with my builder on my land registration documents. Yup...I've finally got my own apartment, which for me is something like a personal record.
Just 2 years into the online industry, started with Tribal DDB India in May 2007, prior to which I was one of those, on the road investment advisors, who was trying to sell financial services which I, in my personal opinion, do not trust. This happened just after I had completed my MBA from ITM, Chennai. Though I was interested in advertising/media, I was not sure I would make it into this industry until I actually did. The positive aspect of this was the fact that I did not take the opportunity at Tribal DDB out of desperation & I picked it from various other options. That tells me that I did take the right decision to wait & not hurry things up.

7 months at bangalore office of Tribal DDB - I started with website projects from Madura Garments & small media campaigns for clients like Juniper Networks & Epson. I also did a campaign for Intel which was stopped midway. That when the chennai branch got the entire Citibank biz & I was transferred back to chennai. 10 months of Citibank would teach you more than you expected. Thats where I learnt my basics of internet advertising; mostly by screwing up campaigns. However, the one advantage, rather disadvantage with citibank was that the agency does more of media ops than planning. Also the fact that you get pampered by your vendors with unbelivably low rates.

After 17 months with Tribal DDB, I moved back to bangalore to join Media2Win as a media planner. The profile which I wanted to do more than just execution. However, the scenario was pretty much the same. We just had one big client with us - Lenovo. The team was just set up (only one servicing resource was previously present while the rest happened from Mumbai). Thats when I was thrown into reality: the hard reality.

To be continued.....

Microsoft Turns to Students to Launch Live Messenger Campaign

Microsoft has launched a word of mouth campaign on 35 campuses across the country in order to tout its new "i'm Making a Difference" campaign.

Working with RepNation, Microsoft enlisted 70 college students to create and launch their own campaigns on college campuses, writes ClickZ. The "i'm Making a Difference" campaign encourages students to sign up and use Windows Live Messenger, which will then donate a share of ad revenues generated by the instant messaging client to one of nine causes.

Ambassadors were given a budget and asked to create a marketing plan that would target individuals or groups. Some chose to partner with campus chapters of the organizations that would benefit from the program. Ambassadors also organized campus and local radio promotions using Windows Live Messenger, and some gave class presentations.

The "i'm Making a Difference" campaign is about 80 percent online.

Source: www.mediabuyerplanner.com

Mahalo Adds Hawaiian Punch to Human-Generated Search

Mahalo.com, a search engine powered by human input, launches today with the assistance of investors that include CBS, News Corp and Sequoia Capital, per a press release.

The site will appear in Alpha with 4,000 of the most popular search terms already completed. The Santa Monica-based company aspires to hit 10,000 completed search terms by year's end, at which point it will appear in Beta.

Calacanis explained, "It's my belief that humans can play a significant role in the development of search results and we're going to try to figure out exactly what that role is over the next couple of years. I am really looking forward to hearing what people think of the Alpha."

Mahalo, which means "thank you" in Hawaiian, is the first human-powered search engine thus far to be released for public trial. To monetize its service it will be trying different ad formats in the coming months.

The five-month-old firm has already closed two rounds of financing.

Source: MarketingVOX

Fantasy Keyboards and Mice for a Perfect World

Commentary by Lore Sjöberg

I recently discovered that you can buy a keyboard where each key is an individual LCD display. A completely blank keyboard is also on the market. At first I thought this meant that every possible input device had been created, but then I realized I was wrong.

There are mice and keyboards that I'd love to have, but nobody's making them for me. Capitalism hears all prayers, though, so maybe all I have to do is ask. Here's what I want to see, keyboard and mouse manufacturers.

Caps-Lock-Free Keyboard

Caps Lock is the worst key on the keyboard, and I'm including Scroll Lock in that assessment. At least Scroll Lock stays nicely out of the way. Caps Lock is right there next to A, making passes at your pinky and generally being a nuisance. It only serves two purposes. First, getting hit, so you go into a chat room and type in all caps accidentally. Second, helping the Greatest Generation send out e-mail in all caps on purpose. Forcing people to hold down the Shift key encourages them to keep the yelling to a minimum. I pry the Caps Lock key off all my keyboards, but that's unsightly and wastes space. Let's make the left Shift bigger, or better yet replace it with a more useful key, like Reload MetaFilter Obsessively.

Roomba Mouse

My mouse seems to suck up every grimy quark and boson on my desk and do something unpleasant with it. When I used a ball mouse, the dirt of course formed little gaskets of filth on the rollers that needed to be extracted with revolting regularity, but my current optical mouse either sucks it into the housing for the laser or just clings to it like a scared child with a stuffed animal. So as long as the mouse is going to be collecting dirt, why not do so efficiently? Pull the dust into a chamber you can empty. It could be set to recognize when you're not using it and cruise around the desk on its own, sucking up dirt, potato chip detritus and important receipts.

Speak & Spell Keyboard

Typing brings me down, and it's taken me 30 years to figure out why. My first experiences with inputting words into a computer were guided by a friendly, rounded electronic pal with a limited vocabulary but endless patience. I am, of course, referring to the Speak & Spell. At the end of every word it either rewarded me with a heavily digitized "you are correct" or encouraged me to "try again." That built a sense of entitlement that I've never been able to shake. The sound of a keyboard doggedly pronouncing every letter I enter and praising me every time I hit the Enter key would drive those around me into madness and frenzy, but it would make me feel good, and I think we can all agree that's what's important.

Invisible Mouse

No, this isn't a LOLcats caption. There are mice without the wheels, mice without the cord, even a mouse without the buttons. So why not a mouse without the mouse? I want some sort of sensing device about the size of a mousepad to the right of my keyboard. When I cup my hand and place it on the pad, it recognizes that I'm "holding a mouse." When I tap my finger, it recognizes that I'm "clicking the mouse." So, yeah, it's basically a huge trackpad, only you have to cup your hand. Because if you didn't cup your hand, it wouldn't be an invisible mouse, duh.

Edible Keyboard

You ever get so caught up in gaming that you can't bring yourself to go get something to eat? Well, why not buy a keyboard where the keys are made of delicious, nutritious, formed corn starch, using the technology behind Bugles or the Prius? Then when you need a quick carb boost you can pry off some of your less-used keys like F13 and Pause/Break. In fact, it becomes a game within the game: Can you still play effectively as you eat away at your own keyboard? Also, can you avoid thinking about the finger-oil buildup?

Source: Wired.com

Why Net Bytes??

I started blogging not because I am a good blogger. Its just the fever that caught on to me at that time. I started with posting trivial information, history of corporations/brands with the intention of providing information for business quizzers for I was one. After sometime I lost touch & gave up business quizzing for gaming & media planning.
As I've also subscribed for many newsletters from which I get to know about a lot of happenings in the marketing space, I thought "why not post interesting news & titbits??". Thus goes the story of this blog...
I am planning to update this blog with some interesting posts from time to time....

Do let me know if this blog interests you....feedbacks are welcome...

Cheerz...