Social media is about accentuating the finer points of a brand to a level that people talk about it, associate with it and use it as a reason to buy the brand. At the top level, these finer points can be classified into 3 parts: Product Experience (Functional) Brand Experience (Emotional) Marketing Spiel (Fun) What […]
Today is World Health Day and the theme is “Depression: Let’s talk!”
It seems like everyone is suffering from depression these days (even the economy, the society, the morals and the ethics). But this blog is not to discuss any of these subjects.
I want to talk about the changing nature of the world and what I think are the larger aspects of this thing called depression.
What is depression? Under most circumstances it is the unwillingness (not the inability) to do something by the right side of the brain which the left side of the brain thinks is a must do. In that sense, usually it is a disease of the riches. It comes from a pressure of expectations (not of survival, rather societal pressures of failure in a very superficial manner.)
The reasons are manifold, but I prima facie want to boil it down to the inability of people to be able to talk things out. It’s the loneliness and the feeling of having no one around in a crowded world that kicks depression in.Continue Reading
Year 2007 Digital marketing started becoming a buzzword in the later part of the last decade. The ability to create a website and optimize it on Google search started driving technology savvy brands and brands looking for business in other geos where any other source of marketing wasn’t even an option. Year 2009 Next came […]
Imagine this: The real estate builders in Noida pool funds to create a social media campaign comparing the market space in Noida and Gurgaon to get the price difference between the markets bridged a little. The impact: The real estate game changes forever! Digital has not only broken down the barriers between countries and people, […]
“Itni shidaat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai, ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai. Kehte hain ki …… Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to puri kayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.” I love cricket, period. And I don’t just say this for […]
I am a cab company and am now entering into a contract with a toll wherein my passengers will not be charged toll. I will pay for it in lump-sum and my cabs would be allowed to pass through the free gates, without having to stop. Is it a breach of toll neutrality?
I don’t think we have evaluated and thought about Net Neutrality the right way so far. Net Neutrality simply says that all data on the internet will be treated the same way, irrespective of the source and irrespective of the content. Providing a choice to the source to make the payment versus a user to make the payment is actually a reasonable way to make the web available to everyone.Continue Reading
We have grown extremely intolerant as a society.
The recent Charlie Hebdo incident triggered a lot of conversations around the world and it got me thinking. Let’s keep the violence and killing aside for a moment, I can’t (hopefully nobody can) justify and/or support that.
But Islam prohibits anyone to draw any image and call it Prophet. There is no ambiguity, it is plain and simple prohibited. And it forms a very important tenet of Islam. Having said this, does a devout Muslim have a reason to be upset over violation of what they regard as their belief system and/or their religious rights?
To answer this, I shall quote Pope Francis who in a recent interview said, “You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.”
Some of you might argue saying that if you don’t like images of Prophet Muhammad, don’t draw them but don’t tell me that I can’t draw them. But the point that all of us miss here is that freedom of expression has its limits, especially if it involves insulting or ridiculing someone else’s faith.Continue Reading
7 years back when I founded OMLogic, online business was ruled by two major elements – keywords and technology but I was careful not to fall in this trap. I categorically placed the element of ‘communications’ while making the business and strategy plan. This step also led to the naam-karan of the company – OMLogic, bringing logic to online marketing.
Soon enough we had a team who believed the same and we continued weaving the communications part in the brands’ online approach until one day, we saw that the others were doing the same (which essentially meant that everyone was doing the same thing).
Forward 3 years and we transformed into a social media agency but our rationale was the same. We used the online medium for brand evangelism and to create engaging conversations with the desired target audience. We did wonderfully well but we saw the same trend across the board. Take any vertical and Facebook posts from any brand in that vertical (travel, fashion, beauty, real-estate, politics) and you can’t even distinguish which post belongs to which brand. EVERYONE LOOKS ALIKE. Although the online medium gives us the opportunity for ‘Brand Building’, the ‘Brand Differentiation’ element approach needs a lot of work.Continue Reading
Working in a Social Media Agency means witnessing instant feedback for the work you put under public eye. A very enthusiastic social media team at OML works for Oriflame and they love to get reviews on how they are doing. So, here’s how 3 reviews done by ‘Social Samosa’ were taken by them.
Oriflame’s social media presence has grown immensely over the last two years, with new campaigns on Facebook, the blog witnessing a traffic that was initially unexpected, a Twitter page where tweeple share their lovely feedback and hashtags that make it to trending topics in just 20 minutes of going live. With our team putting in generous amount of efforts in trying new concepts, language and strategies, it all paid off when Oriflame made a hat-trick on ‘Social Samosa’!
Being reviewed for its social media presence on the basis of recent campaigns and an overall approach on social, it was more than just a feature for the team that is always up with suggestions, advice and undying passion for the brand. It was no less than being featured on a page 3 column with our full sized photos, full names and no spelling errors. Considering Oriflame is a direct selling company and different from the regular league of cosmetic brands… The brand is all about looking great, making money and having fun at the same time.Continue Reading
The mistakes that brands and agencies make on social media have been talked about a lot. The problem here is not that agencies or brands lack something like a structure to deal with such mistakes; it is more to do with knowing what needs to be done in some unforeseen and undesired situations.
Social media is a place where the brands and services are most exposed to both appreciation and flak alike. The last thing one can do on social media is to remove negative comments on their pages and especially if you are a brand like Starbucks and have disgruntled customers talking about you. If there was a faulty service or a product, the best thing is to accept and promise to resolve. The agency executive or the social media manager may not know the exact reply but is there any person on the client side who may know it? It could be someone from the customer care team or the legal team or any other team who may be equipped to resolve the query in the most appropriate manner. We at our agency have created a simple process to seek the answers from the right people before going out there and replying! The key to resolving such issues is patience and the right intent.
