Archive | July, 2011

Facebook Fatigue

22 Jul

I am not the most active soul on Facebook, it’s not that I am anti social but somehow  find the idea of constant updates from my friends not the most appealing thing to spend time on. In fact, the web is already redefining relationships which could include people we’ve just met, once met and even the ones we’ve never met; I was talking to this friend of mine who told me that most of his real friends were actually not his Facebook friends and I started thinking how true it is for me…

I log on to my Facebook page and come across a barrage of updates that scroll on and on featuring each little detail of what we’ve all become used to sharing on the platform. On checking with some friends I realized that they no longer even care about those updates … I thought of checking if we were already seeing a trend here?

I typed “facebook popularity” on google and here’s what I see…

FB users in the US have reduced from 155.2m to 149.4m in the month of May, there are similar figures in Canada, Norway and the platform is now known to wane across the western world. Facebook’s growth that averages at about 20m a month worldwide reduced to 13.9m in April and 11.8 in May this year. Quite a contrast from the 2007 Time’s article that portrayed Facebook to be exceeding Porn as the most prominent activity online.

Meanwhile Mexico, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines and many other emerging markets have registered strong growth. But we understand from our work across markets that the web is creating a homogenous psychographic across the world and feels like there is already a “Facebook Fatigue” with its early movers anywhere in the world. Trendy Marketers, beware – we might just be round the corner for a new trend on the web?

Data Source: PC World, Al Jazeera

-Deepak


When you’re NOT selling, I’m sold

13 Jul

For those who know Hugh Laurie, you’ll love this one; for those who don’t – watch it anyway, see if you can make sense of it.

Fact is, this insanely funny man happens to be L’Oreal’s new male ambassador.

You know, when I first started watching ads on YouTube, I really enjoyed it. Only later did I figure why – It’s because I choose to watch them.

Television ads on the other hand are so imposing and formulised. They have the same damn thing to say over and over again and honestly, they don’t even care to variate the format in which they’d say it. It’s always about this pseudo aspirational world that we all supposedly care about and want to live in, with overpowering technology and superhuman qualities these products have to make our lives better.

Coming from an ad film maker, I think it’s kind of important to quote him when he says, “No one takes commercials seriously, neither the consumers nor the producers… It’s a concept companies have bought into and don’t want to go beyond. Almost lame to an extent where they’d make ads because they have a yearly media buy budget and they can afford it.”

What they don’t realise or maybe do realise and not do anything about is the fact that the damn space is cluttered and consumers are overloaded with information that barely makes sense. Brands in India or the ad film makers’ communication has hit a plateau and probably don’t see the need/urgency to go beyond.

Which is where, ad films like these have managed to tap into a space which is SO unique. It has the shock-value…before I give it away entirely, you MUST watch it to know what I am talking about…


Does this happen to you to? Fall in love with ads that are probably not even acknowledged as ads by the larger audience?

As a ‘content stylist’ for a digital communication agency, I am happy to finally be able to say – THIS is the kind of content that stands out – Its stylish, has a very high entertainment value clubbed with very smart product placement.

The beauty of this ad lies in the fact that its real – Even if this were a set up, having watched Hugh Laurie, I believe it’s not staged. There is no cinematic dramatisation of the product. Hell, there is barely a mention of the product or what it does.

I think I’ve said enough, now just tell me you love it as much as I do…

-heli

The dreaded fortnight @ a new workplace

8 Jul

Mental Conversation: Before the most dreaded – first meeting!

Ah!  I Wonder – how my co-workers are going to be? How long will it take for them to like me and me like them? I wonder if they think I’m snooty…(its usually because I am shy) ? Will all the girls at work be right out the “mean girls” movie? Will I ever understand their “private” office jokes and how long will it take to be part of the “inner group”? Argh!

TO MY PLEASANT SURPRISE

My first catch up was an invitation to the office to meet the team over a drink in the evening- I thought to myself – hmm…interesting!

Next- a phone call to enquire what kind of drink I would prefer…..wonderfully surprised, but my suspicious mind says, ‘its too good to be true- what’s wrong?’

Then the fearful entry – Hardly! The office had an informal air though I had walked into the middle of  a formal discussion. It just so happened that there were 2 of my future colleagues who had a little time to spare and indulge in a conversation with me. 10 minutes later, I was laughing with them like old friends – it only got better from there! Few drinks with the team and my aching mind and my racing heart was finally at peace!

The following two weeks was a mix of Soaking up and Learning

New ways of working

Company philosophies

Personal traits (I think I’ve kinda figured them out now)

Office politics (which doesn’t exist- damn! hehe)

My first assignment

My core project

Offsite Lunches

After work “follow up” discussion @ WTF

Mid afternoon dance session

Invitation for a weekend getaway and

An after work party

2 weeks later: I feel like an old furniture at drizzlin in a good way – its’ an awesome feeling to be so involved and to be an intrinsic part of a new team.

Thanks guys for the perfect welcome. It’s been lovely meeting you all and I look forward to working with you.

Cheers

- Rajni

Facebook! What’s up with you?!

6 Jul

It’s quite strange for me to repetitively come across instances of facebook pulling down Brand pages in India.

I recently read an interesting post by WILLIS WEE on Penn Olson Blog where he took the effort to pen down the reasons why.

Okay… if you aren’t still aware what had happened- here are few known cases from the past:

Pizza Hut, Cadbury Bournville, FCUK, Kingfisher and Fastrack’s official Indian fan pages had been pulled down by facebook!

The reasons being- mysterious, nobody knows clearly what happened and I assume they’ve had run some contests/sweepstakes on their wall (which is supposedly violative or spamy)

Most interestingly enough, when Cadbury Bournville page was disabled it turned to into Google buzz (how strange?!) 

                                                   image courtesy: www.penn-olson.com

I’m in complete agreement on the violation of “facebook promotion guidelines” by brands/businesses (both large and small) which is increasingly happening today.

But, my questions being:

- Shouldn’t facebook at least have warned page admins before powering-on their disable button?

-Shouldn’t facebook be answerable to the fans on those pages? (Google buzz citing is not funny!)

- Shouldn’t that important, must-read “facebook promotional guidelines” be made more visible/prominent to page creators/admins?

-Shouldn’t it also flush-out most lame apps (like- today’s horoscope, friend of the day etc. that we/our friends use) that spam our news feeds every day if contests by (renowned) brands are considered  spam?

Perhaps the number of fan pages are growing because more and more big/small companies have started seeing it as a free medium to connect with their audiences.

But, I feel its now the time for facebook to clearly draw a line for their premium and free offerings. Be more responsive, helpful and not just flaunt an attitude of being “the number one social network” in the world. Peace.

(Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion. The views expressed above are mine and alone and does not not relate and/or reflect to any thoughts by Drizzlin Media.)

-Sabir

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