Friends Watching spree, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher Novels, Ocean’s Thirteen Review

I am on it again; watching Friends episode-by-episode. It has been more than a couple of years since I last did that and man is it fun. The only thing is I have been staying at home during this (mostly) awesome London summer. Remember Joey looking at the deck of cards in the episode where their apartments get robbed, saying “Oh man, they took the 5 of spades too!!”

I also read two of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher thrillers in the last week. Jack Reacher is an anti-James Bond character, the rough-and-tough detective/investigator who always prefers being away from the limelight and is very ungadgety. But in some ways he is Bond-like: as the tag line says “Jack Reacher. Men want to be like him. Women want to be with him” (Cheesy I know) I shy away from standard fiction these days, but I like Jack Reacher novels somehow. “The Hardway”, one of those I read this week is really good; its twists and turns keep it enthralling. The other one, Tripwire , however is not quite up to the mark. I have read quite a few Reacher mysteries now and The Hardway is easily the best and The Tripwire easily the worst.

I went into Ocean’s 13 expecting the worst. But it turned out to be quite a good movie. A lot of reviews are saying how they have got the crispness and pace of the first one back after a miserable sequel, and that’s true. In fact, this one is great fun just for the scale of the heist they pull off (impossible as it may be in the real world). It has a great example of backward vertical integration!!   In fact, some of the tricks they pulled were not that easy to understand straight away and the three of us who saw had to discuss with each other!

 

An advertiser’s views on China

A group of us are doing a project for Profero, one of the world’s foremost digital agencies. We met with the UK management today, and afterwards went out for a drink with the MD Nick Blunden (who blogs here). Profero has a significant Chinese presence, and we all got discussing China (du-uh)!

Nick’s comments about the single grandchild of 4 grandparents got me thinking about the Fortune article from 2-3 years ago (Sorry can’t find the link after a lot of attempts). This social aspect of revolutionary change is sometimes forgotten amidst the 1-billion hype. First, it clearly shows how delays can be loooooong. The policy of 1-child was encouraged/implemented in 1960s!  Second, relative disposable income per child is huuuuge, especially in the dual-income families. Thirdly, and most importantly, this is leading to children growing up in a certain way: behaviorally (get what they want, thus stubborn) and their macro-view (China can only grow fast). Social implications of what I would call this waiting to explode volcano are anyone’s guess. I am not underestimating the strength of the Chinese to re-align; however, economic growth pangs always come with social ones – but these are real unique.

How does this lead to advertising – well such children and youth of China are much more digital than in developed nations (as a percentage); they get all the gadgets from their families and have a lot of spare time to spend on it. All of this started from the discussion of a Internet-dance game (adapted from the arcade step-to-dance game) in China that has 36 million registered users and almost 34-million of those are active!! Talk about an available market for advertising baby and move over Second Life!

I must go to China soon, my dad also keeps insisting

 

The best advertisement… probably ever

This 1-minute TV advertisement has got to be up there in the best ads ever (ya the title of this post is a bit gimmicky). Have a look, believe me, you will love it. There are two huge things about this ad: 1. it’s extremely creative; makes you laugh, makes you remember it (so recall of presentation is high) and 2. it actually serves the business branding purpose superbly; you actually think of the message being given by the company and wonder if it’s true by relating back to their own memories; most people realise it is true (so recall of the message/content is also high)

On the sidelines of this topic: I obviously went to YouTube to search for this ad first. It’s almost a reflex. But within a few seconds spent there, I knew it would be difficult to find it there (too many Toyota ads, too dependent on user tags, lost concentration in checking other videos) . On the Visit4Info site above (a dedicated advertisement search service), I entered the brand name, the product category, keywords in the ad, ad medium and the ad was the only search result I got. Once again,  if you are searching for a specific thing, it’s better going to a specialist search engine.

(Note: This ad kick-started our Toyota case discussion today for Adv. Marketing Strategy)

 

Surrealism by Dali and Market Research by Hardie

One way to make use of a miserable London early-summer day (temperature: 5 degrees!) is to stay indoors and explore one of the museums. Did that yesterday, visited the Surrealism exhibition at V&A yesterday.

Surrealism seems to be very interesting; somewhere between contemporary and modern art, it can be best defined as fantasy bound loosely by reality. Think of the old woman-young woman whom do you see picture; that is surrealism. But so is a lot more things. And this exhibition takes you the stages of development nicely. On the exhibition home page link above is the photo of the lip sofa; a sofa in the shape of lips deliberately made as glassy as possible by Salvador Dali, the biggest name of the surrealist movement. There’s also the arm chair (chair with the back’s edges in the shape of arms), lobster home phone (old-style circular dial phone with a lobster as the talking piece) and jewelery representing lion’s face sprawling out diamonds.

What I really liked was how surrealism was commercialized in interesting ways; by patrons yes, but also by advertising agencies, fashion designers and interior decorators.

And then today, I put myself to work for the marketing research assignment by Bruce Hardie, one of our really-good marketing professors. Gosh, he has made me sceptical about everything! I mean everything, I wonder if I will ever believe a market research result again. But beyond all that, an interesting bit of info for those who didn’t know (I surely didn’t before this class): Research findings by Forrester, the famous and oft-quoted technology market research firm, is not believed by serious academics and professionals because they do not publish the methodology undertaken to collect the data. Only when you know the methodology can you identify biases (talking to a non-representative sample) and sampling errors (not taking a large enough sample size for the given confidence) in research, and if you can’t do that, how do you believe what they say. So much for my using their data in many, many presentations over the last two years! Oh well, well-learnt for my future.

 

Movie Reviews – Cheeni Kum: must-see; Pirates 3: ok-ok

Amitabh and Tabu in roles that suit them to the T, in a storyline that is as unconventional as it is arguably mainstream,  an NRI-based setting where London is on display in a bubbly manner, a side-story involving a sweet-and-sharp that is gripping and finally crispness that is, simply, refreshing.

If Chini Kum was 15-20 minutes shorter than it is, it would be in one of my fav films. The second half is draggy by about 15 minutes; otherwise, this is what a good movie is all about.

The crispness of dialogs and in general, of Amitabh and Tabu’s relationship, was the highlight for me. The way they understand each other through this crispness is, for me, one of the themes the first half is trying to project out nicely and non-blaring loudly. Zohra Sehgal plays her part to perfection, and the little girl plays it beyond perfection. Tabu.. she is way way ahead as an actress of anyone else in India, and being (not just playing) the character she is portraying.

About Pirates 3, I haven’t seen the second and only bits of the first, but I agree with the reviews that I read after I saw it. Johny Depp is bloody darn good, but I think it may get repetitive if I was seeing the same style for the third time in a setting that is getting more and more random. However, the special effects were certainly special and some bits were real witty; but overall lacked something to bind it together. It was almost like a collection of smaller bits within the movie.

 

Talk by Tim Davie, the Director of Marketing at BBC

Tim (http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/executives/timdavie.shtml) is a good speaker; his presentation  slides were very picture-heavy and that makes for a good discussion-style talk. It was during the QnA however, that Tim showed why he is considered one of UK’s top marketeer, answering with  style,  substance,  clarity and insight.

Lets ponder over a few interesting points that he stressed on:

• Doesnt matter what role you are in, you gotta love content if you want to be good in the media business
• the strategic question “what business am I really in”, as per the media value chain, is the question every senior management is asking themselves – and the answers are not easy.
• Quality becomes even more important for this wide choice and easy control  world; 6/10 just wont do, you need 9/10
• BBC  has always delivered great-quality content suitable for the long-tail; so mobile is a synergetic channel
• The test for the under20 generation is “do I want to share this media piece”
• Cross-media measurements are becoming crucial to have
• BBC’s business model is “great quality content” + “trusted guide”; backbone-d by the best unbiased News worldwide

I can see that I am not being able to capture the ethos of a good session in bullets here; more to come in a day or two on this

 

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars

(Quote by Oscar Wilde)

The London Business school Summer Play this year was a very good selection of scenes from three classics: Daisy pulls it off, The Graduate, Midsummer night’s dream. There were many witty moments, very well captured by the talented cast; some of whom are worthy enough to go to bigger avenues.

Every time I see these plays, I feel I should have done these things during my MBA; then again, I have done quite a few things.

 

English-novel reading population in India

How many people in India can comfortably read English-novels?

in other words, whats the market size

I think it should be between 50 and 100 million people (rural vs urban India, basic English vs. good English, literate vs. university educated are some indicators), but doing some geographical segmentation and estimating based on that might yield different results. Another method could be magazine circulation adapted to passing around that happens in India

Just to be clear, this is not about how many would be interested in reading or enjoy reading novels, rather about how many can technically read it

Comments, anyone?

 

Good night, and Good luck

I have been lucky with my choice of movies lately. Picked up Good night, and Good luck tonight after dinner. And saw it to completion even though was dead sleepy. A black and white beauty released in late 2005, it’s written, directed and acted by George Clooney (though he is the supporting star). It’s the story of the Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looking to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950’s. Stellar performance from David Strathairn as Murrow, articulate dialogues from the entire cast, and a strong no-bullshit social message on what we should expect from the media and how we should act to get that.  At just 90 minutes, it’s crisp. Only complaint, the ending’s a bit oh-ok, but check this one out if looking for some  good stuff on US politics or journalistic ideals.

 

A great play, 3 movies, good London food but ohh the weather

This post should be long but interesting:

1. Finally saw Les Miserables at the West End.  This play was special, well it is the longest running play (some 21-odd years)  so it should be I guess.  There were some unique elements about it: (A) it was a very “acting” focused play (B) the theatre seating was, well, unique (C) the lighting was superb and (D) the circular stage dias was used very effectively.  Let me elaborate – the play did not deal in grand stage settings or props (so there was no liquid in the glass when they had wine, or no water when the protagonist splashed his face from a pond). It was a musical but very focused on human emotions through facial, body and tonal expressions. (hence A). The theatre had such a slope that I sat scared in the first 30 minutes honestly (hence B), can’t explain lighting in words it was so well done though. And finally, the stage was used for travel indication, the actor just moved along the circumference of the circular dias to denote going from one place to another (helped by great lighting effects). The story is quite popular, of a convict and his maturing amidst the French Revolution

2. Brought home 3 movies after getting sick of my 2nd year MBA project: Wall Street, The Queen and Kabul Express.  The last two are fantastic movies, Wall Street was too dated to enjoy and too similar to all books and movies about greed in the financial services industry. The Queen has some stellar performances from Helen Mirren (Her Majesty) and Michael Sheen (Tony Blair), it’s a movie I highly recommend. The tagline “Tradition Prepared Her. Change Will Define Her.” is apt. Helen Mirren of course got the best actress Oscar. The story is incredibly recent (1997)  relevant (the death of Princess Di) so can be related to. There’s a dialogue the Queen makes to Blair (when he respectfully suggests she might be out of touch with the masses) about how one day he might find himself in a similar situation, when suddenly out of nowhere, the way you have always done things and people have agreed turns against you. Think Iraq!!

3. Shola, on Edgware Road, serves the best Indian food in London (for the price it charges anyway, around 6-7 GBP for a dish).  Check it out when you are around there. Its at 130 Edgware Road, phone number 020 7569 3091, and no I do not hold a stake in this company! I just love their food a lot, and this coming from an Indian who doesn’t readily like being served restaurant Indian food. 

However, the only regret is its May and it still is too windy for Summer; for god’s sake my Cap was blown away from my head  yesterday.  But it’s expected to turn around and I have my first cricket match of the season on Saturday