Juno - A movie

Just saw a movie “Juno” … a story of a 16 year old girl, who gets pregnant with her friend, on their very first intercourse.

Movie was quite different, where this girl, a teeny weeny girl, gets pregnant and decides not to undergo an abortion. Instead, she decides to have the baby and give it to a deserving couple who could take care of the little one.

In the US, it’s quite common to have sex at the prom night…but it’s quite gutsy to actually give birth to a baby, especially when it’s coming from a 16 year old kid. The scene in which she tells her family that she’s pregnant gave me a shock.

Juno also searches for a couple who she decided to hand over the baby; and opts for closed adoption – where she would never come back or the couple would never send her updates about the baby.

Imagine this happening in India….if an Indian girl goes up to her folks and tells them that she’s pregnant, her parents would freak out. No one would allow their girl to give birth to a baby at that age (or maybe age is not a factor here, they would not allow her to be an unmarried mother).

Does that make us less daring? or makes us more conscious of society? Why do we care so much about what people would say if this happens?

It’s not that kids in India do not indulge into all these activities. They do….there are surveys that have proved that school going kids do have sex at an adolescent age. But they do it in closed doors – it’s hidden and private. Also it seems that they are more informed and take precautions while indulging in sex.

Back to Juno, some scenes in the movie were so touching….when they show the love a mother has for an unborn child. It captured the emotions so right!

When the baby kicked his mother in the womb, there was a dazzle in the eyes of the mother, and her emotions expressed that she just cant wait to hold the baby in her arms.

The movies show motherhood so well, and at times, it just gets tears in eyes.

Overall a good movie – and can be seen at least once, with no regrets.

iCrossing lost another account…Ouch!

Just read this news article that came up, that stated loss of a contract by icrossing.

The project included search engine optimization for HMV.com, which was won by OMD UK (Omnicom agency).

The company won this contract, while competing with specialists such as iCrossing, Latitude and HMV’s retained digital agency Code Computer Love

Click here to read the article

I believe this is a trend amongst clients not to renew their contracts with their earlier vendors, and try the new ones. HMV did not pick its old vendor – Code Computer Love, and decided to try another vendor. Similarly, couple of months back, Bank of America revoked its annual contract for 2008 with iCrossing for Neilson.

If iCrossing keeps on losing accounts like this, it’s going be really bad for me…! :(

Words or Actions??

In any relation, what constitutes to be of more importance – Words or actions???

If someone says that “you are not the one for him” – by this I mean “not the one to spend the entire life with and he has no plans of being with you for a lifetime”

and on the other hand, he longs to meet you, spend time with you, wants to spend an entire day with you…..wants to be romantic with you, treats you well, showers his love on you, cares for you, waits for you for hours, and makes you feel wanted and so special….

In this situation, what should one look at – his words (too crude) or his action (so much in love)?

Few words

Few lines that I wrote couple of months back:

On the shore

By the wind

Cant u hear

My heart sing?

Let the thunder roar

And the breeze blow

All I need is

A sweet surrender!

Valentines Day - 2008

This valentine’s, cupid had actually struck me and I did something really funny…or should I say “cute”.

I have a friend, working in Times of India, and he was designing the Valentine’s day page for Delhi Times. Out of blues, he pinged me on gtalk and asked if I have a message for anyone…and obviously I said No. However, he insisted that I should write something and send it across.

So I drafted a message for someone special….and the friend of mine in TOI got it published…that was the longest message in the entire page….and he got that published in all city editions of TOI.

My message read as:

Dear Teddy Bear

Thanks for the lovely one year. We've seen so many ups and downs; however we've managed to sail through this together. Looks like, time has come to say goodbye and move in different directions…but I'm surely gona miss you…will miss you in chilly winters; will miss the long walks in December, gazing at the sky – looking for constellations; will miss our innocent fights and the warmth of your hands; will miss the look in your eyes, that send shivers down my spine; will miss you when I listen to "Doorie" of Aatif or "Six feet from the edge"…

"Something's are just destined to happen…wish I could change destiny"

Love you buddy..!

Also uploaded the post of Delhi Times…

WOM - How it affected my decision to purchase

Just recalled something that substantiates my above post… “power of recommendation”

I had been planning to buy the book of Avinash Kaushik- Web Analytics: An Hour a Day, but wasn’t very sure about if it’s a good buy.

However, just 2 days back, I asked someone about that book and if he has read it – and if he would recommend anyone buying that book.

This person said Yes – he has read the book and it’s a great buy for beginners. The person who recommended this book to me is working as a “Senior Analyst – Web Analytics division” and quite a blogger. I’ve read few posts of his, and somehow can trust his advice.

I finally decided to buy the book, and I believe that it should be a good buy for me. Will blog about that as and when I start reading that book.

WOM

WOM refers to Word of Mouth Marketing technique.

As Wiki defines it: “Word-of-mouth marketing, also known as buzz marketing and viral advertising, can be highly valued by product marketers. Because of the personal nature of the communications between individuals, it is believed that product information communicated in this way has an added layer of credibility. Research points to individuals being more inclined to believe WOMM than more formal forms of promotion methods; the receiver of word-of-mouth referrals tends to believe that the communicator is speaking honestly and is unlikely to have an ulterior motive (i.e. they are not receiving an incentive for their referrals)”

This again boils down to topic – why is WOM so important? When marketers have already allocated their ad spend on print and TV advertisements, why should they worry about anything now? If their product is good, its gona sell…!!!phew

Now, I have very interesting facts to share:

• Only 18% of TV ads generate positive ROI
• 84% of B2B campaigns resulted in lower sales
• 100% increase in ad spend results in only 1-2% increase in sales
• Only 14% people trust ads
• 69% interested in ad blocking technologies

Source: Napa Consulting

With the above facts, it’s very difficult for marketers to generate positive ROI for their companies. Resorting to WOM can generate business for them….”recommendations” do work – be it product or otherwise.

Who can recommend?
Average Customers
Clients
Consumers

How – Natural route?
Peer to peer talking
Social Media tools
SMSing
E-mail
IM
Blogging
Vblog

How – asking the influential people to recommend their brands.
Connectors
Connectors are key people who have the power to influence others in a particular direction
They normally blog about one particular topic and are experts in that field
For example: Brandon Mcgee is a known name for Mobile Banking – He’s termed as the “Mobile Banking Guru”

Key Opinion Leaders
Individuals to who most people refer to for advice and recommendations.
If we look at the diagram below, it has various nodes that refer to how various people are connected via Social Media; and finding the “most influential” person of all.
048 is the KOL as most people look up to him for opinions and advice

Connecting through Social Media

I never knew how easy and interesting it is to “connect” with people via Social Media. I’ve lately started downloading podcasts and pdfs on SEO, Social Media and Web Analytics.

Most of the podcasts that I listen to are on “The SEO Advisor – Search Engine Marketing” by Paul Stanton….basic 10 minutes lesson on SEO.

The podcasts starts as “Every one wants it, everyone can afford it, and anyone can do it…end of story….PERIOD”…I find this start as too catchy and was tempted to visit the website ww.seoadvisor.com….ever wonder, how much traffic would this website generate, thanks to its advertising in the podcasts.

Back to the topic, while surfing I came across the blog of Avinash Kaushik, the author of the famous blog – Occam’s Razor. Out of curiosity, I looked for this guy on Facebook and found someone with that name who was based in Seattle. I just dropped in a note asking if he is the same Avinash who I had been looking for.

He replied back in affirmation, and we exchanged a few messages on Facebook…and now he’s also on my friend’s list! :-)

I also met a few other interesting people in Web Analytics group, and all are so courteous and dedicated to their work….the one thing I learnt that people in the field of Web Analytics love “connecting”

I met Manoj Jasra online, and he even offered me to be a blogger representing India on his blog. Another interesting person I met was Anil, who is working in Web Analytics division in a company in Bangalore.

Hope to learn a lot from all these people here.

Lovely rose