— Notes on the Web

Yesterday was one of those weird days where I had contradicting conversations on the same topic in a matter of 3 hours with 2 different people. The topic was viral videos.

Here’s a summary of the two conversations:

Scene 1: Int. Two young men (Harsh and I) sitting at the Cha bar

Harsh: I think we can kill it with videos for Klip, like make some kick ass viral (stops presumably to correct himself), I mean, kickass and interesting videos that says what we want to do with Klip and why are we here best.. and keep making them.

Maneesh: Got that, but it would have been okay if you had said you want to make viral videos, I don’t subscribe to the thought that “you can’t make a viral video”

We then had the regular debate, you know how it works. I will certainly get back to telling what  I meant by my line, but before that you might want to read a conversation with a client of ours 3 hours later. 

Scene 2: Int. Smursh Office, Maneesh on the phone

Client: Why can’t we make a cool viral video instead of this one

Maneesh: What makes you think this can’t go viral?

Client: I don’t think this will go viral, there’s nothing in it

Maneesh: What would a viral video have?

Client: I don’t know, you know like the ones you see

..Debate about Kolaveri happens..

Maneesh: See a video is a video, a video becomes viral when you share it

Client: I know that 

The argument continued till we reached a settlement of sorts which is not pertinent to the point of this post.

I am sure if you are of any relevant position in the business of digital media you might have had one of these at some point as well.

I constantly see tweets of this kind, it is an altogether different matter that these come from people who have probably no clue of how to make good quality videos and who’s only connection to anything viral is tweeting “This shit is viral”. But you know what I mean here. The point though is about me (excuse the immodesty :) ), and how I told Harsh that we can make viral videos and how I told the client that no one can make viral videos.  I must quickly admit that the conversations above are not verbatim and I have used my discretion to pen dialogues that didn’t happen exactly the way they did for cinematic effects.

Read More

To tell you the story of Smursh, Klip and Clockwork. They’re very interesting for those who get fascinated by how things come around and take shape and reach for their ‘manifest destiny‘. They all lead to Smursh Media to what it is currently.

Read More

5 years back people and the message became the medium, a couple of years down the line they sort of also became the product in a blurry sort of way, but more or less the advent of social media ensured that defining media in silos became a thought best left forgotten.

There are of course many still left grappling the hooks of traditional media. And they will remain. The advent of social and the scope of digital wouldn’t change habits and existing reach. We’re not looking at a world that replaces print or television any time soon. However, their manifestation might be vastly different from how they are now. And this might happen far sooner than many anticipate.

And this change would be possible because of digital.

Digital media is now coming out of their electronic hard shells and moving about among us. Social Media made us the medium, the future in digital will make us more than just interactive as such a medium for a message. As agencies and digital professionals we can’t just remain managing useless copies on search results and fan pages and tweets. It needs to go beyond, the value would be more evident. That’s why we need a more-than-interaction role in the larger brand play whether our own or those of a client brand.

This more-than-interaction should/would be fueled by brands or any organization which wishes to engage and use the power of people for its survival. This activity that we are looking at is an experience, crafted by a not very complex yet not all too simple use of various elements that make a person a consumer and a medium at the same time. Digital helps craft this interaction as an experience. That is the future of this medium.

Experiences are cherished, memorized and spoken about. They mean a lot more than mere interaction or engagement. They involve a whole lot more and stay longer. Experience builds a bond a very visible one in how the person reacts to the brand thereafter. And as digital percolates into the mainstream through the devices that we carry and also around us, the experience is a lot different than just a feeling (the Internet of Things). The publishing part of digital media then becomes a storehouse (the new Facebook timeline for instance).

Like I said before these experiences need to be crafted, it requires craftsmen. Companies like mine will need to build an ecosystem that either brings craftsmen together while taking custody of the brand’s objectives or better still seeds and cultivates craftsmen. That is the future of the agency, knowing crafts and bringing their proponents together while their own individual craft lies in tying all this together and measuring and improving and learning. For the digital professional of this decade of which the first year just ended, you have two choices – either carry the vision or become a crux to implement it.

We are in the age of digital, the age of experience.

Read More

I like to find things by myself. Brought up thus. And so I run a company, to find out for myself if what I have in mind has a chance, whether it can sell. I like to know what’s on people’s minds and knowing that I can sell makes me more assured of what I gather about people. I could do this elsewhere as well and I really don’t mind that. But I run the risk of being talked out of it. Opinions and judgments and not having a say in what one believes. Therefore..

Read More

I woke up to the news Steve Jobs passing away today. Kinda reminded me of that August Day last year when MJ pulled off a similar stunt. My mom woke me up with the news of his death then. She didn’t do much today and in fact I had to tell her about Steve Jobs. All I got was a puzzling expression mixed with a considerable notion of I don’t really care. Which was sad. Because Steve Jobs for me was a bigger rock star than the King of pop. And he deserved that someone like my mom knew him. That’s what we all strive for after all in someway.

But then, it dawned, Steve wouldn’t have cared too much. It wasn’t his dream to be loved and accepted by all. It didn’t bother him. That he changed lives through his art isn’t his legacy really.

Nor are the game changing products that were born out of his singular vision that people will (or perhaps should remember him by). That was just an output, and that isn’t of much of value. For if that was the case his genius would have stopped with the iMac or the iPod. His vision was what made him unique and what made him Steve Jobs. And that can’t be left behind, it just remains for people to see, not take.

And a legacy left behind is worth nothing until it is taken.

And that legacy that he left behind is his outlook to work.

We, guys like me, we owe Steve, for instilling a belief of what work ought to be. To inspire us to make things better, perfect. To believe in the extra ordinary and the will to create it.

It doesn’t matter if I am not an Apple fan. If I don’t understand why people act like little children every October over the things they bring out. It won’t matter what they do ahead without his bespectacled vision. It won’t matter if his products changed the world or not. It needn’t. For what Steve has done is to show young kids, far beyond the realms of Cupertino, a way. He has shown us what to do with our time in this world.

Illustrative Steve Jobs. RIP. 1955-2011

Read More

So watching the f8 last night was intriguing. For the first time ever, I actually liked seeing a Facebook revamp, which brings me to wonder if that’s a bad sign. For every time Facebook’s undergone a change it has met vocal resistance on how crappy it is before people invariably just end up using it anyway. It won’t be that way this time, except for the skeptics whose lives are built on being skeptical about everything new in tech. Most people are going to like this and that in fact makes me think it might actually backfire for Facebook. But this is just a wild statement born out of intuition and nothing more.

The point however that stood out for me is the lack of control of what I’m going to post on my wall or ‘Timeline’ once I start enabling apps.

Facebook is taking a shot at immortality here.

Read More

YouTube is going to be huge in India. There is an opportunity for those in web video to create classics that will define content on this medium in this country.

Web Hosting is going to get a lot of people rich and build a career they didn’t think existed like nearly a year back.

Online retail is going to build the next big names in consumer brands in this country in the coming decade.

Blogging is going to make a huge comeback as a point of influence and commerce in the larger media, advertising and PR landscape.

Mobile will not grow separately, the web and mobile will merge as media from a brand and consumer perspective..apps will become ubiquitous and platform/media independent. Invariably they will need either provide or power content. So the opportunity in the tablet and mobile world is two fold for the enablers and the creators.

Looking forward… [;)]

Read More

The will to write is more important than the skill to write.

Sometimes our own fancy standards hold us back from putting out what we ought to. Perfection is awesome, however it needs a polish of priority on it. Priority is the will while perfection is the skill. Perfection is the destination, priority the pit stops. Having an articulate strategy for both is vital. If in the quest for perfection you are not moving ahead you have already lost. If your priority is pushing you away from perfection you are losing.

The tussle between will and skill is the tussle for the balance between priority and perfection.

Read More