Brand IPL on the Blogsphere

Perfectly timed, hogging the prime hours of the Indian summer, IPL gave us more than one reason to stay glued to our television sets. This one sporting event has taken cricket as a game to a whole new frenzy. Cricket enthusiasts have become fanatics, and the cricket fanatics, well the less said the better. Even the grumpy grandfather, who crinkled his nose for crippling the game from the glorious matches straddling over days to a mere 20 overs joke, is smiling in approval. He is also secretly envious of the multitude of opportunities young cricketing talents have today. And with Bollywood showing generous amounts of interest, we as marketers will only be too glad to put our monies on the table without batting an eyelid.

Indian Premier League managed 16, 500 posts in 45 day.

Each of the 8 teams chosen to play, in the past month, has managed to exhibit certain personality traits unique to the team. The teams have managed to create substantial buzz on the blogsphere. Consumer Generated Media has been voraciously following everything about IPL form the fat pay cheques to Sachin’s injury to the skimpy skirts of the cheerleaders ;), nothing is being spared.

Clearly blogs and bloggers have their own biases, and some teams have been doing the rounds far more than others.

Despite not qualifying for the semis, Knight Riders managed to rake in maximum number of posts in the blogsphere. Is it the SRK Magic or Kolkatta's ardent support for their team?

Rajasthan Royals, the winner and the least expensive team of the tournament,

got noticed by blogs towards the last leg of the tournament. Fianlly their Stellar performance got noticed!

I made a few observations, some scary, some surprising and some just bowled me over

- A team’s performance alone is not enough for them to tide the blogsphere.
- Although ‘Eat cricket. Sleep cricket. Drink cricket’ still holds true, Bollywood continues to remain the unbeatable baap of entertainment
- An individual gets far more recognition than a team as a whole
- Particular incidents picked up by media, like SRK smoking or spending too much time with his team or Vijay Mallya firing Chaaru Sharma, can spike the trend chart.

The flamboyant Mallya and the bollywood king SRK have made bigger dents on the blogsphere than the shrewd Amabani

- IPL ads have also contributed to certain amount of noise on the blogsphere.

IPL or no IPL cricket will always be a favourite topic on blog. But this one event has created a lot of gossip value for the sport. Even non-cricket bloggers like me are blogging about it. From an extravagant opening ceremony to Bajji allegedly slapping Sreeshant, blogs and bloggers have been reveling in all the juicy details.

Do i need to elaborate this :)

A lot of brands are piggybacking on the noise IPL has managed to stir. It has positive influence on readership and viewership. Media has put the 45 day event on the front page and prime time of news channels. What’s more, it has decided to stay put there for the entire course of summer alluring readers and viewers. Despite all the degraded voyeurism, the sponsors are thrilled, as they are getting more than their monies worth.

Who is the popular Captain?

Thanks to Bollywood, IPL was executed in a rather filmy style full of action, drama, masala, and yeah we did manage to catch a glimpse of good cricket somewhere along the way. Without Bollywood’s fervent support the cricketing fraternity alone wouldn’t have managed to pull off a 45 days fanfare.

From Sassy to Plain Jane

With this year end I have decided to restore the template of my blog to the standard blogger template. The truth is, ever since I started Travel Tadka, I have been tempted by the easy features blogger templates offer. Grappling with long code turned out to be quite sticky. It would take eons for me to add a new widget for the code had to plugged in seamlessly and all the appropriate tags had to be closed. When something would go amiss, it would seethe to the surface defacing my blog and restoring it would be an excruciatingly painful exercise (clearly a non techie issue here). Finding an easier way out, I sold myself to blogger.

In the process of shifting or migrating I did loose links to many of my favourite blogs. The good part however is, the damage is not too sever. Thanks to Sakshi (She’s got a blog mine, anything happening on the blogsphere or Bollywood she’s the first to know) I was able to refurbish my blogroll with some really interesting blogs. It allowed me to delete blogs I had stopped following, or those that were outdated, deleted or stopped existing. I even managed to kick out some pointless widgets.

I would, sometime later, look for a template that is crafted for me and my inane musings, but for now and till I can afford a designer its going to be 'Hail Blogger'.

The new look is definitely a whole lot cleaner, chirpier and clutter free. The paper scribble look of the old template was chaotic; it did not support many functions and was not really blogging friendly. However, I do miss the energy and the kind of nonchalance it had. I am also going to miss the ‘oh so fantastic template’ comments. But I am nearly 25 now and my blog ought to stop looking like schools girl’s diaries (I know I am consoling myself). Although I wonder if people who really know would be convinced by a template change:).

Bollywood on the Blogsphere

Bollywood is probably the most bizarre, the most melodramatic, the most unprofessional and the most unorganized industry and yet between their song and dance sequence one could learn a lesson or two on marketing. A lot of debate has been brewing on the web about the big banner movies hitting the box recently, and I was curious to find out how much Bollywood has impacted the Consumer Generated media (CGM).

The results were surprising at times and predictable at most others. The cumulative marketing efforts by production houses and films had a trickle down effect on the blog. For instance Om Shanti Om(OSO) had started doing the rounds in the media almost a year before its launch. To top it all there were a zillion promotions, interviews, contests, 70’s line being launched at Shopper’s Stop and hype leading up to the day of its premiere. News like the release of the film across an unprecedented 2000 plus screens worldwide, and the Manoj Kumar fiasco further drove the film towards a box office success.The chart indicates the presence of both OSO and Saawariya in the blogsphere over the past 6 months and clearly OSO has had a head start over Saawariya. My guess would be the latter is here only because of the former.

Three month tracker of OSO and Saawariya starting almost 2 months before release on November 9th till 20th of November.

OSO and Saawariya have managed to get over 50% of their blog posts in the last month alone, a time little before and after the launch.

One can only applaud the Integrated Marketing Campaign since its ROI has been tremendous. Despite the lack of any real story the movie has been a box office grosser and it’s a buzz on the blogging space with a total of 7669 blog posts only over the last 3 months alone. Some say, a great story doesn’t need over the top marketing, but I say it wouldn’t kill it either.

Its rival Saawariya hasn’t been doing too badly either. My guess would be that the two big budget films were pitted against each other by the media and the drama that followed was exciting and saw a nail biting finish for both. The numbers also indicate that despite a more sober marketing campaign the media hype saw Saawariya to a great start and still sees about 53 blog entries a day. The Razzle Dazzle of Farah’s Om Shanti Om still rules the roost and the blog pulse is an indication enough.

Another flick, Jab We Met by Imtiaz Ali that hit the silver screen on 26th October manages to scrape an average of 38 posts. The film with its fantastic story line and music tracks came only third to Om Shanti Om or Saawariya.

In the last 3 months Jab We Met has lesser posts than what OSO had in the last month alone.

The Maduri Dixit starrer - Aaja Nachle has been averaging 10 blogs over the last 3 months, and this month alone the average has been 13 plus. Now I hope there is a change of tide and the numbers are just as racy as her Jhatkas Matkas. Not only is she looking better than where she left off personally, I feel she hasn’t lost her edge despite competition. Madhuri’s return and her being the mother of two is causing quiet and uproar. She has everything going for her; great looks, dazzling smile, and what seems like a great story. What better come back could the Ek, Do, Teen gal look forward to?

Aaja Nachle is likely to rake in more posts as its edging towards its release. One can only wait and see if it challenge the astronomical numbers of OSO.

Author’s Note: I have used two tools to do the tracking one is IceRocket and the other BlogPulse (a service of AC Nielsen Metrics). I liked different features in each of them and hence have used both. In Ice Rocket the results are neatly tabulated and indicate average posts per day, average percent of all blog posts and total posts till date. Where as, Blog Pulse allows me to see a trend over a longer period of time. However, what both the tools lack is the ability to track really old data, so one is unable to track the growth or trends that have impacted the blogsphere over a couple of years. These tools are really useful nonetheless.

Art Attack

Sprucing up my blog was always a big challenge for me. At coffee & conversation I can’t let the caffeine levels dip or the interesting conversation dry out.

I am constantly looking for alternatives to keep my blog bursting with energy and voila! I found another one of those small tools that’ll salvage it from monotony – Sketchacast! A fun way to animate a doodle and bring alive an idea or just add that little zing to your blog. So if you thought blogs were all about text, think again.

It’s simple and really cool to use. Just register, doodle and publish! There are very few tools to deal with, which makes in simpler. One could add audio as well while drawing and explaining something hence it conveys the message better than a long prose. A sketchcast can be embedded Youtube style on your blogs or the URL could be shared.

I attempted 2 such sketchcasts. I admit they look retarded and my creativity should not be judged based on these. The first one is ‘faces’, oh it was a struggle to keep the pen on the canvas.





The second one is a scoop of popcorn and a film reel which I intend to use for all the movie reviews.





There’s more to come soon. But in the meanwhile, you can review my doodling. I should try a yoga sketchcast that would depict the yoga asanas Well that’s for another rainy day.

Agony Aunt 2.0

The WWW has been around for a while, and has grown to become our pillar of support of sorts. Our best friend (as corny as it may sound) to be precise. Its incredible how one can turn to the net to complain, to whine, to celebrate, to connect, to reach out and to make a difference. And, in return, the internet has shown its relentless support by listening. Sadly marketers haven't explored its potential, they haven't been able to put their finger on the thump that is getting stronger and louder.

True the internet has propelled a whole lot of things, but it has also been a favourite medium for grouse. I did a rather juvenile search ‘hathway sucks’ (now that would clearly spell out my intentions). There were some 100 odd groups bitching about the service provider, while I was contemplating which one to join I searched for many other such angst portals. There are like a zillion of ‘this is terrible’, ‘that is horrid’ websites. However, there is not a single platform trying to play aunt agony. There are too many conversations but no one listening.

Today almost any service provider promises a great customer experience that is for keeps. I often wonder if ‘customer delight’ is their chosen pursuit or is it just a sexy term straight out of a management textbook. There is hardly any delight in dealing with the customer care officers, for starters they rarely ever get on the phone, which is extremely frustrating (especially if you have to lend a ear to the tireless electronic voice). And when they do get on the phone they are rude and insensitive.

Blogs, social media and communities are mushrooming all over the internet and consumers are splashing the pages with their angst. It has become critical for corporates to hear what is being said about them more than just pretty PR articles. I chanced upon a BusinessWeek article that made me write this blog and conduct many childish searches. A brand like DELL truly found itself by listening to blogs. The ROI of blogs and social media has been proved without a doubt, atleast in my head. All corporates need to do is put a little money and ear on the thump to plug the hole.

Image source: We Blog Cartoons, Geek and Poke

Bangalore Bloggers Meet Part 1- Prelude to the Barcamp

With two bloggers meet being organised simultaneously (initially, both oblivious of each others existence) the blogging junta found itself in a confounding situation, clearly questioning the motives of both these meets. Nonetheless, this confusion lend itself as an ice breaker for the bloggers meet on Saturday evening, the gathering had a good laugh over it.

Before we were through with that we found ourselves in an even funnier predicament. The venue, café coffee day flatly refused to accommodate the overwhelming response we received from the blogging community. As people started trickling in it was evident for an impromptu meet the number was looking really promising. Then we did a little walk to Koshy’s and finally settled at Koshy’s Chill out (yes not the best of places, but we were getting a little desperate after having spent 40mins hunting for a place).

This meet was a prelude to the Barcamp Bangalore 4 (BCB4). So after initial round of introduction, Hari, BCB4 organiser introduced many of us to the Bar camp concept. He further went on to explain that this year a bloggers collective was being introduced at BCB4 and that it was upto us to take it forward. Bangalore Mirror, July 8th 2007

There were a lot of concepts thrown back and forth. One thought in particular that hogged most of our time was how the bloggers need to probably be more socially conscious. Sridhar on that note suggested we start a web NGO. Interesting, the idea could be explored and would probably even get support from many non bloggers.

Also how Non tech bloggers like Sanjukta and myself be given a few lessons about the web and the various tools we could probably use. I agree with this one, I find so many bloggers doing really neat stuff with their blogs and would really like to use a few on my own.

We had reporters from the Times Group - Niranjan & Balanarayan attending the meet besides the following bloggers.

Sanjukta – who also organised the meet
Hari, Prayank, Sridhar, Anand, Sukumar, Ram, Jothi Vel, Amith, Vinu, Cipson (I hope I haven’t missed anybody)

Like expected I was a part of the minority one of the only 2 girls and one of only 2 non techies. However, Hari did go out of his way not make us non techies feel a little more important..

I was amazed how 13 strangers had so much to share and discuss. Frankly, I loved the attitude of these bloggers everyone wanted to use this medium of blogging to bring about a positive change. And in my opinion that’s a great start. Thanks Sanjukta for organising this one

The next meeting on July 21st at Brewhaha will be to freeze the agenda for the barcamp, we are hoping to see a lot more people.

To join kindly edit this wiki page – http://www.bangalorebloggersmeet.pbwiki.com/

I will update photographs once people send it across to me but I have put up what Bangalore Mirror had to say about the meet.