Jelly in the time of boot-strapping

Mrigya has been going through some pretty tough times this past year. One thing that always puts me in a good mood through this is - jello! The Mrigya team whole-heartedly endorses jello as a valuable HR and team management tool.

In fact - on this particular day - Nik and I were having a rough day and it was one of those 'I can't do this anymore!' moments when we decided to have jello ASAP!

Two hungry and agitated engineers, one packet of Jello, very suspicious measurement techniques and absolutely no patience yielded rather ... interesting .... jelly. I am not sure I have ever seen this sort of consistency in jelly before or since. I mean - I don't think anyone has ever had to sip jelly off a spoon before!

I am pretty certain we made things worse by adding grapes! In fact we forgot to add them initially so after the jelly half set - Nik and I took turns 'launching' the grapes INTO the jelly! - with disastrous results on the architecture of the jellied mass but very positive effects on our mood.

(now that I look at these pictures -- I don't think I even got to eat much of the jelly --- lol!)

Here's to gelatinous memories - Mrigya times -- and great things in the coming year!

Happy Diwali!

Jelly in the time of boot-strapping

Mrigya has been going through some pretty tough times this past year. One thing that always puts us in a good mood is - jello! The Mrigya team whole-heartedly endorses jello as a valuable HR and team management tool.

In fact - on this particular day - Nik and I were having a rough time and it was one of those 'I can't do this anymore!' moments when we decided to have jello ASAP!

Two hungry and agitated engineers, one packet of Jello, very suspicious measurement techniques and absolutely no patience yielded rather ... interesting .... jelly. I am not sure I have ever seen this sort of consistency in jelly before or since. I mean - I don't think anyone has ever had to sip jelly off a spoon before!

I am pretty certain we made things worse by adding grapes! In fact we forgot to add them initially so after the jelly half set - Nik and I took turns 'launching' the grapes INTO the jelly! - with disastrous results on the architecture of the jellied mass but very positive effects on our mood.

(now that I look at these pictures -- I don't think I even got to eat much of the jelly --- lol!)

Here's to gelatinous memories - Mrigya times -- and great things in the coming year!

Happy Diwali!

Vodafone does it again!

Vodafone with the ZooZoos campaign really proved how effective marketing and brand building is not only about the large, expensive ads with big stars.

I just saw this new Blackberry ad - and it is perfect! Wonderful way to get across the message about Blackberry not being for the old office boys anymore. What is even better is that Vodafone has still stayed with the simple ad shoot -- one room - lots of people - simple dance moves - a nice jingle and very simple - precise - lyrics. See for yourself and tell me what you think.

Strange encounters of the Mumbai kind

In a big city like Mumbai where everyone is always moving, where the mode of address starts and ends with the jarring 'tu' (तू), where everyone is at once wary and unaware of you, the kindness of a stranger seems so out of place and bizarre. In this past year, I have had amazing experiences with absolute strangers who have helped me. I wanted to write two encounters that have stayed with me so I don't forget one of the many ways in which coming back home has been absolutely worth it.

About 6 months ago, I was stuck in an auto at the Juhu circle traffic signal near my house and a couple of hijras (eunuchs) came begging. I liked them a lot - they were dressed to the nines with a lot of attitude and were speaking in Tamil and passing hilarious comments on everyone. I understand Tamil and was enjoying their humorous swipes, especially at the men not paying them. When they came to me, they started commenting on my shades and how I looked like I thought I was a heroine (for my Tamil friends - Kallakitte -- was prominently used :) ). I started laughing and responded in my broken Tamil that they looked the same way and that their lipstick was REALLY kalaka . They stopped speaking for a whole 2 seconds and the auto driver just burst out laughing. Pretty soon they both broke out into excited exclamations and said that I didn't look Tamil. When I told them I was Kashmiri - they almost died! It was hilarious! They were so sweet to me! One of them got into the auto and started chatting about 'Sennai' and when I mentioned I studied there for 4 years - they just loved it. The auto driver was enjoying the entire conversation. Pretty soon they were asking me how I liked Mumbai and I said I did but I found it lonely here. They were super sweet to me and then as the cars started moving they both blessed me and wished me wonderful things. I know hijras are supposed to bless you only if you give them money - but this one was so heartfelt and genuine - the encounter made my day.

The second and most recent encounter was with the most interesting person I have met in Mumbai thus far. Just this past Friday, I had a meeting at 10 am in Worli and the skies opened up in Andheri around 8 am. At 830, I was not able to get a single auto and all the local taxis at the stand were booked. I was sure I would be very late to an important meeting and returned to the taxi stand to ask the drivers where I was likely to get a cab. They directed me and as I turned around it suddenly started pouring. My blow-dry had long since wilted from a respectable CEO-type professional into a geeky engineer and now my clothes looked like I had ironed them in vain. I was not looking forward to going into a swanky office late and looking like that! One of the cab drivers then called me back and offered to drive me to the next available cab for free. He was jovial and just said that he couldn't bear to see me in the rain trying to get to work on time. I was of course super grateful and just happy to be out of the rain and moving in the general direction of the meeting.

After about 3 Kms of not finding a single cab and me nervously wondering when the favor would run out - the cab driver just turned around and said he would just take me to the meeting if I came back the other way with him as well. Since I needed to get back home right after the meeting I was happy and extremely grateful for the offer. He actually requested a friend to take his previous reservation and shrugged off my gratitude with a 'I could not see a young lady in the rain'. I mean -- wow! does anyone think like that anymore?

I had noticed he had spoken in Gujarati to his friend and I asked him if he was from Gujarat. He said that he was a 'Gujarati-Marathi'. I asked him a little facetiously how that was and if the MNS let him use terms like that. He said that his father had lived in Mumbai for 50 years and after getting hassled by the MNS goons one time he had gone home and calculated all the tax that his father had paid to the Maharashtra government. According to him, the combined taxes paid were around 40 Lakh rupees. He also said that since he regularly paid his own taxes including the car tax, road tax and petrol tax he had more rights to call this city his own than some dude who had maharashtrian parents. It was flawless logic and quite awesome to hear after all the MNS jingoism.

I noticed a VCD of the movie 'Khuda Ke Liye' jutting from his glove compartment and asked him if he had seen the movie. He proudly said yes and said that he always keeps the VCD in his car for the times he meets radicalized muslims. He said that he always gives them the movie to watch so they understand how muslim youth are being swayed and fooled by radical elements. It was amazing to hear him expound on the qualities of media and how he wished there were more films made in India that better communicated these messages in a classy and real manner in India. Not to play into stereotypes - but here was a Gujarati muslim taxi driver claiming to be part maharashtrian and wanting to fix basic issues of understanding religion through media and education. And to top it all - he said that he loved reading and was currently reading Chanakya's Arth-Shastra!!! .. and that his favorite book was Osho - Volume 2! It was just the most wonderful taxi ride I have ever had and Irfan-saab's number is of course saved for any future long distance commutes in Mumbai.

Say it isn't so! ... now Desi Twilight!

I have been following Star One for a couple of weeks now as I think they are the only channel in India that is doing a good job of understanding their target audience and sticking to content for them. It is my belief that in the race to become the highest rated Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel), the broadcasting companies are making a major mistake of generalizing their enormous and diverse audience and losing out on opportunities to capitalize from proper segmentation. But - more on that later - in a more serious post. This one is about a promo I just saw ...

There is a very nicely done promo doing the rounds for a new show --- with a predictable tagline - 'dark luv story' (yes, they spelled it like that). The show description on the website reads "A contemporary, visual, and visceral Romeo and Juliet story of the ultimate forbidden love affair - between a non human and a mortal". I thought - good for 13-30 types looking for romantic, guilty pleasure -- suitably stern looking hero -- flighty looking heroine .. etc etc...

This promo was a little generic, but the new promo makes it look suspiciously like 'Twilight' !!!! I couldn't find a link to it yet -- but essentially our 'slightly' more buxom bella is walking around with her internal voice wondering why 'he' keeps following her but never talks to her. Our hero is meanwhile shown in various brooding poses that all look suspiciously the same..... enter car and bad cgi and hero saving buxom bella.... this might even end up being Ed-Wood-esque fun .. :)

[Finally found the new promo -- check it out and tell me if you think this is Twilight ]

Okay - so besides the fact that we have absolutely no mythology around the vampyre or concept of immortals walking amongst us (unless you count the saptarishis which have long since gone away from popular lore) -- it will be damn interesting to see how this show plays out on desi toob. I have to say - at least the pouf and the lipstick that poor Rob Patz has to put up with is missing here....

You can even rate if you think Vivian DSena will make a good vampire on his fan page:

http://fanclub.indya.com/FanClub.aspx?cid=281

But seriously will there be any sunlight issues -- or garlic -- or the cross ??? all of this is based on Christian lore -- or perhaps this is a jain vampire -- no garlic --- lol! OOOH! and will they introduce werewolves? I am very interested in how the creative team works with this. It will even be more interesting if this ends up doing better commercially than the real Twilight. The books and the series have a HUGE fan following in India, but unfortunately the films are always released with absolutely minimal marketing - really sad.

Just from a purely personal perspective though -- I wish they hadn't chosen twilight to showcase some super-natural fantasy content. There is so much fantastic regional lore to tap into in India. It would have been so cool if they had created the story around a region and built characters from the lore there -- I mean -- the Northeast, Kerala, Jharkhand, Bengal ..... so much opportunity and the potential of creative content might just get limited to teenage sighs for a desi vampire :). I cannot help but see the business potential being missed here -- imagine a teenage supernatural romance with characters built on regional Indian lore. As long as the writing is good and the show keeps the audience coming -- the potential for alternative revenue streams -- comics - weekly magazines - fan fiction - merchandising - content in regional languages .... so much opportunity... well! am going to wait and watch how this one goes.

Becoming Indian .... from milk to 'milak'

I was talking with my uncle last week and in his dear Kashmiri accent he was asking me if I at least got a Dairy 'milak' for raakhi from my miserly brothers. It made me think about how mithai has been replaced by the chocolate bar and especially the Cadbury's Dairy milk bar. Of course the reasons are obvious -- when was the last time you bought one or two pieces of sweet? Chocolate is cheaper, easy to carry, has better packaging and some might say is even healthier. But - keeping these practical reasons aside, just the jump from mithai to chocolate is pure marketing magic.

Cadbury's is one of the few brands that has taken a generic product like chocolates and truly crossed over to make it an Indian brand. The entire concept of presenting chocolates as a replacement for the ubiquitous sweets in India is genius! Making Cadbury's a part of the Indian culture and specifically festivals is something Amul chocolates have never been able to do - or perhaps they have always had the constraint of cannibalizing their other milk products which fit in better with the traditional sweets like Srikhand.

The new Cadbury's 'Shubh Aarambh' (meaning a blessed beginning) marketing series is just fantastic! It is a perfect culmination of all those years of 'kuch khaas hai' and 'kuch meetha ho jaye' series. I was thinking about growing up with these ads and how well the dairy milk bar has been represented --

from our national obsession with cricket (and according to this ad - celebration after the match more than the match :) ) ....

to the wonderful ad about mehndi -- something every Indian girl understands ...

.. the 'Celebrations' boxes for festivals - especially advertisements that always come out for Raakhi and Diwali:

and the brilliant Shubh Aarambh campaign -- just pitch perfect! The two ads - one about the cheeky but adorable teenager asking the girl out with a purely indian line (and bringing his mum into it -- aww!) and the other about the middle aged lady wearing jeans for the first time. For me - the second ad is perfectly done - and hits the right note across middle class India where I am sure there are women in every house who would like to try a pair of jeans and this ad just brings out their apprehensions about walking out and their idea of spousal support .... my ad for the year!

The campaign by Ogilvy India has hit the right note in using the concept of something sweet in anticipation of something good that is about to happen. For the Indian ethos this translates into almost everything - from the sweet we eat before we embark on a journey (tie-ups with travel industry perhaps) to the sugar my mother makes me eat before I leave for every exam to the check-up .... so much opportunity ... and such a nice concept!

The NRI audience VS the Single screen

Having been assaulted with marketing for the two big movies releasing this month - Karan Johar's We are Family and Arbaaz Khan's Dabangg -- I am actually very interested in how successful each is going to be. The way I see it, Family represents what the Chopra / Johar camp farm as 'urban-sensibilities' - aka - 'What NRIs want to believe the Indian urban sensibilities represent' and Dabangg represents a no-apologies milking of Salman-bad-boy- status along with corny and probably tired story.

While Karan has officially bought the rights to the Stepmom story and adapted the screenplay - a first - I am just not excited about the movie. I am willing to bet that each and everyone of the characters is uni-dimensional - Kajol probably plays the mother who is about to die (Kajol will give another example of strong 'natural' and 'instinctive' acting with her crying into the screen --- didn't we just see My name is Khan?) and Kareena the hot girlfriend (er.. ok just think of the past 5 movies) with Arjun probably with no room to emote in his sometimes cool boyfriend and sometimes cool dad (this is easy -- think ALL his films besides Rock On and Don). But most of all I actually shudder to think about the kind of dialogues the Johar camp will force the kids to spout --- ewwww! --- probably either saccharine sweet (think Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) or WAY beyond their years. The Indian film industry's inability to depict children properly is an entire blog posting by itself..... (right now I'm imagining 'sexy' from Cheeni Kum) ... shudder!

Dabangg on the other hand has Salman wearing a thin mustache in a cops uniform which screams 'corrupt' , a lady love who looks very cute and very 'innocent' and who is already spouting 'no exposure' lines in the media and a kick-ass Malaika rubbing Zandu balm on her sexy ahem! ... I mean .. ok call me regressive - but I am SO going to see Dabangg. Hell! give me the zandu balm over jailhouse rock anyday!

Just look at the marketing!! I have no doubts that Family will make some money, specifically from the NRI junta -- but a case in point is the film posters -- while family screams 'boring!' -- Dabangg screams 'watch with friends and popcorn!'

While Karan is coming to 'Entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega' with the 'family' and they're dancing to 'let's rock' ... (seriously?) and having tete-a-tetes with Kajol and Kareena on his talk show .. (is there really something we HAVEN'T heard before?) .. Dabangg I have to say is really employing smart marketing.

Just check out this Sallu promo for him on Emotional Atyachar yaar! -- that's a match made in heaven! ... Great way to reach out to young punks in cities who get their guilty-pleasure updates from the show ... just mouth-watering marketing ... :)

And ... brilliant! Sallu maama will make an entry in Colors' show 'Laagi Tujhse Lagan' to save the damsel in distress! Nice! The show itself is getting good TRPs and the story has also been written to accommodate this guest appearance. A very nice win-win for both the show and the movie with Sallu again reaching out to des and generally tapping into a lot of the single-screen audiences without leaving the multiplexes behind.



A Case in point -- just check out the promos for Sallu promoting Dabangg on 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' and Karan-Kajol-Kareena chat....' --- very clear indication of the sort of audiences both movies are targeting. Even the website for Family has overseas showtimes listed :) I am sure the NRI audiences are going to come running, but as for me -- I am also glad that there is a movie that is looking to the single screens and employing smart marketing to reach out to all audiences. From what I see Dabangg is not hiding behind a veil of sophistication and understanding urban India. I mean seriously -- forget Hollywood remakes, just watch 'Wake up Sid', 'Rocket Singh', even 'Mixed Doubles' and 'Metro' to get a clue about movies that can attempt to show slices of urban life in a manner that does reach out to diverse audiences.

While with a title like 'We are family' - the movie marketing ironically is keeping away standard audiences with the high school popularity brigade --- Dabangg just screams 'come hither - bring friends' ... and I think audiences across India are going to take up Dabangg on it.

For me - it is case closed! -- I am buying advance tickets for Dabangg with friends :)

The Spybot found us! ....

We have not launched our website properly yet - but the spybots have already found us! :)

mrigyaventures got its first spam message from a bot last night. I guess we have finally arrived!

world-wide-web domination here we come ....

Name: Arturo Abel

Email: anthonyburgess55@gmail.com

Message: We provide a complete range of internet marketing solutions to our clients. Our focus is to provide businesses across the world with world class web based solutions to enhance and compliment business needs. Let us know if you would like to increase sales.

It is sad and a little endearing that all three of us were a little excited about it ... :)

Speaking of robots - here is a really cute quote I found:

Just as some newborn race of superintelligent robots are about to consume all humanity, our dear old species will likely be saved by a Windows crash. The poor robots will linger pathetically, begging us to reboot them, even though they'll know it would do no good. lol!

Ryan Reynolds in his Green Lantern costume

One week prior to Comic-Con - Entertainment Weekly - a magazine that completely revamped themselves by moving from the small 'TV-schedule' magazine format to the larger spread did the exclusive reveal of Ryan Reynolds in his Green Lantern Costumer -- va! va! voooom! :)

The teaser First look released during Comic Con:

http://www.dccomics.com/sites/events/videobox.php?f=/media/_dcu/audio_video/Green_Lantern-480x270.mov&width=521&w=496&height=316&h=286

(an aside -- WHAT is that dress?! it moves - it breathes - its Lively -- ahem! I'm transfixed and I am sure the geeks went home happy -- carrying that chest-panel-less dress off without a wardrobe malfunction is simply fantastic -- kudos Blake!)

It took Warner a while to green-light (ahem!) the Green Lantern project despite fans trying all sorts of ways in which to drop broad hints at wanting to see a movie. One of the more famous - a fan-made trailer with Nathan Fillon in the title role. This trailer is so well made that it had a few people fooled and became a big internet hit with even Nathan endorsing the trailer - lol!

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2009/05/26/fan-made-green-lantern-trailer-receives-nathan-fillions-endorsement/

Green Lantern cometh

I would like to start on the poster blogs with the absolutely brilliant campaign for the forthcoming movie - 'Green Lantern'.

Let's think about the movie --
1. Hot Cast - Ryan Reynolds and little known 'Gossip girl' Blake Lively - CHECK
2. Not widely known superhero (outside of geeky and US circles) - CHECK
3. Silly costume - CHECK
4. Cult following - CHECK

The budget of the movie is a very healthy $150 Million, which means that DC Comics and Warner Bros are hoping to have another superhero money-spinner on their hands. Green lantern is a relatively unknown superhero. Besides crazy fans like yours truly - most people are not aware of the intergalactic police force monitoring the universe. Compare this budget with the 2006 film Superman Returns' budget of $200 million and you see that Warner is expecting to make quite a lot of money (and sequels) from a Green Lantern franchise. In order to maintain a long-term franchise it is very important to get 'family approval'. From past Batman debacles, movie studios know that the fans MUST be sated. These are the guys who will line up at midnight and will stay with a franchise when all others leave.

Keeping that in mind, Warner Bros picked the best possible time to release the marketing campaign - Comic Con in San Diego. This was an audience of hard-core fans who are - most importantly internet-savvy and very internet-verbose. Within hours of the first look posters being released, the blog trails lit up and the word-of-mouth on the posters started. Ryan actually did not say the Green Lantern oath out aloud until he was arm-twisted into it by the cute-kid brigade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJl9cnQAsIk

http://io9.com/5596819/ryan-reynolds-recites-the-lantern-corps-oath-for-the-littlest-green-lantern

In fact, the WOM on him taking the oath was so good - I tried searching on google using the term " ryan reynolds + green lantern + oath" and got 5 million results! That is just fantastic, considering that the movie is out NEXT Summer! that is a year away! Imagine the buzz around this movie by the time it releases.

On to the posters then - they are just FANTASTIC! These are the perfect 'teaser' posters for this film. It has enough insider stuff to keep the fans happy and feeling superior.

The colours are the typical lantern green with darker tones - very mysterious, adult and signifying a darker storyline. The usage of Hal Jordan's oath "... in brightest day, in blackest night. No evil shall escape my sight ... " - se super!

Ryan Reynolds introduction as Hal Jordan / Green Lantern:
(Sorry - can't help myself ---- "Whoop!" I mean I thought Ryan had potential in Blade Trinity and then definitely as Deadpool in X-men: Origins, but honestly I was not a believer of his Hal Jordan - but I am SO converted ...)

Blake Lively as 'good' Carol Ferris / 'evil' Star Sapphire





















Mark Strong as Sinestro and Peter Sarsgaard as Hector Hammond
(Though poor Mark has become type-cast s the villain now, it is good to see someone recognize Peter's potential for super-villainy)

These are the posters joining to form the rings -- one with good and the other evil --- very - very - very nice design!



I don't know about you -- but this teaser has me super-excited about the movie already. I think it will be fun to see how the DC guys keep the marketing going for the next year.

There and back again ....

It has been a while -- a year almost that I have blogged about anything.
I have wanted to -- many, many times but I find that an entrepreneur lives in fear of everyone so the whole 'writing about my company' is never going to happen. Besides really boring procedural blogs, all the gossip and the interesting encounters will have to remain as coffee-table conversations.

The one thing I figure I can blog about is my passion for posters and credits. Actually this was suggested by Nikhil and Ashutosh and I think it is a brilliant idea.

I love - LOVE - to analyse movie marketing campaigns. I think the ones in India are SORELY lacking. It is such a pity to see so much potential wasted because the producers did not understand the last mile. This statement of course does not include the smart marketing campaigns conducted by the Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar and Amir Khan camps. But, even their marketing campaigns are targeted only at the audience in the cities.

Marketing movies to India is like marketing to many different countries. There are so many types of audiences that in creating a generic, vanilla campaigns, the producers lose out on majority of the potential of the movie. I am going to blog about the movie marketing campaigns that I really like and why and I hope that you will comment/respond and let me know whether you agree.

Tchuss!