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Posts Tagged ‘INDIA’

9 Jan

Paul Writer Marketing Booster Shot

Posted by Entrepreneur in Surinder Jaggi. Tagged: Aam Aadmi Party, Congress Party, INDIA. Leave a comment


Is B2B that different from B2C? This is the topic of a discussion on my LinkedIn page.  It used to be.  But, for example, if you’re buying a WordPress theme for your business website, it’s unlikely that you’d be calling a salesperson for a quote.  You’re more likely to ask around and buy it yourself – self-service in fact.  Same with a hosting solution for a corporate server.  So is online self-service the next big leap? And in that case, just like B2C, wouldn’t a lot depend on brand and pull-marketing rather than feet-on-street Sales? Will road-warriors be a thing of past as early as 2020?
In India there’s a new party on the political landscape and like all start-ups is going through growth pangs even as it shakes up the existing norms.  I couldn’t resist writing a brand blueprint for the Aam Aadmi Party – here it is.  (Next week am thinking of doing a take on the Congress Party – a mature brand.)
We’re working on our first CXO Roundtable – Jan 21st at Masala Library, BKC, Mumbai! It’s on how we can socialize business and is open to all CXOs – because it takes the whole organization to make the enterprise social.  As social commerce becomes a reality, it’s really important that CIOs, CMOs, CSOs, COOs and others sit together and figure out what’s required to manage the customer as an integrated entity.  On Jan 24th, you’ll see us at DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon at Made in Punjab, for the second in our successful CMO Roundtable series with Adobe. These are smaller format programs and to avoid crowding your mailbox we only send invitations to a limited number of people – so if you’re a CXO interested in these topics pls ping me.
Things are coming along nicely for our 2nd Annual Great Indian IT Marketing Summit on Feb 11 at the Leela Palace, Bangalore.  With ITSMA as our knowledge partner and with a host of CMOs from global firms such as Cognizant, HCL, IBM, iGATE, Infosys, Mahindra Satyam, TCS it’s the place to be for IT marketers in India.Register at our discounted price of Rs 5000 today.
I’m also excited to announce the launch of our first research report of the year.  Sponsored by SAP and with over 600 respondents it gives you a sense of the ground realities.  A surprise finding is that less than half are looking at customer experience as a key focus – the full report is here. January is the time for new beginnings – never too late to align your plans to the future!  And make the customer the real center of your universe.

Jessie Paul

CEO, Paul Writer

Publishing | Advisory | Digital Lab





12 Sep

22 Best Indian Social Media Campaigns Of 2012

Posted by Entrepreneur in Surinder Jaggi. Tagged: Business, INDIA, jaggi, jaggi.in, www.jaggi.in. Leave a comment

2012 was not only about Facebook campaigns in the Indian social media circuit; the space also saw some amazing well integrated social media campaigns. These campaigns were creative, driven by an objective and at the same time also made sure that they were integrated in a rational way to yield maximum reach.

So here is the list of 22 amazing Indian social media marketing campaigns that stood out in 2012, in no ranking order. Every campaign is a winner in its own way.

1. #MakeHellCool: Fastrack, the bold and definitive youth brand that emphasises on ‘moving on’ in life, came up with an exciting campaign to target its young consumer segment. The campaign called “Make Hell Cool” is based on the end of the world prophecy by the Mayans where the world would be ending on the 21st of December. Beginning a week prior to doomsday, the campaign urged youth to sin as much as they want so they could be a winner in hell! Make Hell Cool had a dedicated website that served as a one-stop location for the campaign, along with an integrated presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Read the entire campaign here. 2. The Straight Hair Experiment: Unilever owned Sunsilk launched a one-of-its-kind campaign called ‘The Straight Hair Experiment’ during the season of winter chills and dry frizzy hair. Sunsilk involved bloggers and its Facebook community with the idea of sourcing crazy hair straightening ideas with a blogging contest and had integrated the campaign with Facebook and Twitter as well. Read the entire campaign here. 3. Food Housie: Faaso’s – the brand that has always been synonymous with wraps and a brand that loves social media recently launched the ‘Faaso’s Food Housie’ game. Fans were invited to play the age old housie game on social media every two weeks and win coupons from the brand. The campaign was not only unique and engaging but we are sure that it was a smart way to bring some sales too! Read the entire campaign here. 4. Secret Diaries: Unilever owned FMCG brand, Dove launched its new hair fall treatment product via real women sharing their experiences with the product through videos and blog posts, in the Dove Hair Fall Rescue Diary. The campaign used YouTube as a major social media channel along with its global Facebook page to run an exciting quiz around the stories. Surely a cool campaign for a product launch via social media. It managed to build ample curiosity and moreover offered the product as the prize to quiz winners, thus completing the cycle. Read the entire campaign here. 5. Drive with MTV: MTV and Tata Nano created history by organizing India’s first 21 day social road trip called “Drive With MTV’ where 4 teams formed out of 16 participants, had to undertake a road trip of 2500 kms in 21 days, armed with a Tata Nano and Rs. 50K each. Each team had a social media engagement score based on the likes, comments, video views, etc. accumulated by posting content on social media sites and driving engagement through their social network. Winners were decided not only on the tasks performed but also on the social media engagement score. Read the entire campaign here. 6. Shobhaa De’s ‘Sethji’: Penguin India the publishers of Shobhaa De’s ‘Sethji’ designed an innovative storytelling campaign ‘Who is Sethji’ for the book launch on popular social media channels. The 360 degree marketing promotions for the book launch had interesting pseudo-sting operation YouTube videos and the content on Facebook shared sneak peeks of the characters from the book. At a later stage a blog was launched that revealed shocking secrets about the characters. A complete delight for fans on social media. Read the entire campaign here. 7. Action Starts Here: Blackberry India launched a 360 degree marketing campaign named “Action Starts Here” in the month of August. The essence of the campaign was to find out what does Blackberry stand for and the answer was “Action” and the action starts right away from Blackberry. Hence, the campaign focused on “Action has a symbol” and the brand line was “Action starts here”. The brand created a presence on all social media channels and started a pledge campaign for fans. The pledges that turned into action stood a chance to win a cool BlackBerry device. Read the entire campaign here. 8. #BraveTheStorme: Tata Safari, the Indian auto giant, the pioneer in introducing SUVs on the Indian roads, striked gold with it’s  launch of Tata Safari Storme. Social media grabbed a bigger pie in the product launch and possibly the only Tata car to do so. Facebook and Twitter created the pre-launch buzz among fans. If the pre-launch was not enough, the brand made sure that the hype doesn’t set off early. Later the brand launched a contest on its microsite – #BraveTheStorme which could win you a brand new Tata Safari Storme. Another cool social media product launch campaign. Read the entire campaign here. 9. #Thunderbird500: Royal Enfield, the Chennai-based manufacturer finally launched the Thunderbird 500 on 11th October, 2012. The brand made sure that it created enough pre-launch buzz and going by the times it made sure that enough thumping was made the social media way. With a very strong online community, the manufacturer not only decided to run a teaser on YouTube, revealing bits about the beauty but in parallel there was an optimum buzz created on Facebook and Twitter too. The brand not only created a cool micro-site revealing the latest bull but timed well with NH7 weekender giving fans a live demo and hampers. Read the entire campaign here. 10. Save With Subbu: Kotak Mahindra Bank launched ‘Save with Subbu’, a campaign where users can co-author a ‘Smart Savings Book’ along with the brand mascot, Subbu by sharing their saving tips through Facebook or Twitter. Save with Subbu was a smart campaign with a well-aligned objective, highlighting the benefits of smart saving and banking with Kotak Mahindra. Read the entire campaignhere. 11. The Samsung Useless Bid: Samsung Mobile India launched a new integrated social media campaign “The Useless Bid” to create buzz about it’s 7 inch Samsung Tab2 310. Users were invited to participate in bidding on the useless products considered by Samsung and stand a chance to win a new Tab2. The campaign integrated YouTube with an interactive microsite and then buzz was simultaneously created on Facebook and Twitter. Read the entire campaign here. 12. One Tank, 1500Kms, One Classic Story: After re-badging ‘Ford Fiesta Classic’ as ‘Ford Classic’, the company rolled out its first variant – Ford Classic Titanium. On August 10, the company launched a social media campaign with respect to the new launch – “One Tank. 1500Kms. One Classic Story.” The campaign was about chasing the one dream that you have been passionate about all your life along with the new Ford Classic Titanium. Thus started the dream for 11 passionate people from various fields and interests who were divided into 8 teams accompanied by a cinematographer, who would capture the entire journey in her lenses. The story that is most engaging and popular will provide a chance to  the cinematographer to win Rs 100,000. The campaign was well integrated with all major social media channels. Read the entire campaign here. 13. Tweet-A-Tab: Reliance Communications launched a unique treasure hunt for its latest tablet, the V9A in a 5 days-5 cities campaign called ‘Tweet-a-Tab’ where fans had to locate the tab in a Google Map that zooms in with the growing number of tweets. Tweet-a-tab was a beautiful integration of Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps. The location was in a zoomed-out Google map of the city, which kept zooming in, along with the rise in tweets. The tablet location was finally revealed when the zoom on the Google Map was at 100%. Read the entire campaign here. 14. ‘Indian Food League’: Hippo, a brand that is often a favourite example of pundits at seminars was back again with the Indian Food League, a campaign crafted keeping in mind the IPL madness. Indian Food League (IFL) was funny, catchy and had been designed to capture the emotional rivalry amongst Indian cities, that creeps in during the IPL. So instead of saying that today’s match is between Delhi and Punjab, IFL called it Papdi Chaat Vs Aloo Paratha. A microsite followed with an amazing Twitter presence and a Facebook presence made sure that they spread the Hippo love everywhere. The contest was a no brainer one but it’s simplicity and uniqueness inspired us a lot. Read the entire campaign here. 15.  Diesel India’s 2 Anniversary Celebration: On completing its second anniversary recently, Diesel India planned to celebrate and so it organized an April sale for the employees and their near and dear ones. But they had a very short span to promote and Social Media came to their rescue. To gain maximum exposure, the brand along with its agency planned to do a flash mob on Facebook, which was happening for the first time on Facebook. The campaign had designed an amazing microsite which was connected with Facebook Connect and QR codes were used too. The campaign saw more than 5000 signs ups in a very short span. Read the entire campaign here. 16. ‘Once Upon A Vespa’: Once Upon A Vespa by Vespa India is one of my favorite campaign along with Diesel India till now. The campaign had just the right dose to educate Indians about the brand’s rich legacy and to do so it made an interactive microsite, well crafted Facebook presence and a Twitter presence. The microsite, which was a delight to see, was the centerstage for the contest but the answers were hidden in the brands Facebook timeline. Besides this Vespa India is one of the very few brands in India which has taken care to use the Facebook timeline effectively. A must read social media campaign and undoubtedly an inspiring one too. 17. ‘Brand New Day’: Society Tea’s ‘Brand New Day’ campaign invited four people to do new things each day in the course of 10 days. It was like fulfilling the small wishes that you always wanted to do but failed to do so and that’s not all, the participants also had to blog about their interesting activities. A very refreshing online campaign and well positioned with the brand. The campaign not only gave a chance to the four people to do certain things they might have wished for, but also created positive word of mouth around the brand. I was happy to see the brand adopting blog as a main strategic tool and then spreading the words from the blog to social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. A must read for marketers who are running behind number of fans. 18. ‘Time to Change’: Another stellar campaign from Stayfree targeting only females and the whole campaign was planned around the launch of its new product. The brand tied up with Indiblogger  and on Women’s Day, it launched the ‘Be the voice of change’ blogging contest that asked bloggers to share what they would want to change around them. Along with the blogging contest, Stayfree had also tried to run an interesting campaign for it’s community on it’s Facebook brand page. An app was created on Facebook called ‘Bring down the wall of irritation’ which is made up of issues that are irritating to say the least – from child labour, eve teasing and corruption to domestic violence, dowry deaths and begging. The campaign had many takeaways for brands who are engaging on social media. To know the entire story click here. 19. ‘Guess Whose Flavor’: The chips giant from Pepsico inc., Lay’s had started the ‘Guess whose Flavour’ campaign in the beginning of April, where six new flavours were introduced. The contest roped in MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Christopher Gayle, Adam Gilchrist and Kevin Pietersen, as the six cricketers who have co-created a flavor each and you have to guess which cricketer has created which new flavour. 10 lucky guessers can win a trip with a friend to the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 and enjoy the match from the premier stand plus a luxurious hotel stay. The contest had a dedicated website, a Facebook app as well as a wapsite. The overall concept, design and execution as well as the fun games in the app were worth a mention and to know more about the campaign click here. 20. The Greatest Indian: Infotainment channel, History TV18 in association with CNN IBN and Reliance, had launched a massive hunt for ‘The Greatest Indian’ using television and the digital medium via a poll, set to trigger a national debate on the one question, “Who is the greatest Indian after Independence?” The television show was aided through a website and drove massive engagement and debate through its Facebook and Twitter pages. Read the entire campaign here. 21. Ultrabook Race: The Ultrabook Race by Intel was a game of 4 Challengers fighting across 2 countries for $10,000 of prize money, armed with an Ultrabook and their social network. Intel offered four challengers from across the world a chance to go on an adventurous journey all by themselves and compete with each other in real time, in a range of tasks with the help of their Ultrabook and social networks. Apart from an experience of a lifetime, the winner also walked away with $10,000! A smart campaign to promote a product on social media via social media influencers. Read the entire campaign here. 22. She Can, You Can: Tupperware India, initially launched an ad campaign titled ‘She Can, You Can’, featuring real-life heroes Chhavi Rajawat, sarpanch at village Soda in Rajasthan and Saloni Malhotra, Founder and CEO of first KPO in rural India – Desicrew Solutions. Later on it extended the campaign on social media that was based on a crowd sourcing strategy of gathering extraordinary stories for the next Tupperware campaign. Along with Facebook, the brand focused on Youtube and Twitter. An interesting campaign that pointed to a new trend in brand endorsements that are roping in people whose real life story matches up with the brand’s vision. Read the entire campaign here. We hope to see more of such well integrated and path breaking Indian social media campaigns in 2013 that create benchmarks in the international social media space.





eBay to hire 1000 for its proposed development centre in Bangalore

Posted by Entrepreneur in Internet Era. Tagged: Bangalore, Chennai, eBay, General manager, INDIA, New product development, PayPal, Rajesh Ramachandran. 1 comment

Ebay to planning to hire 1000 people in Bangalore.

Good news for entrepreneurs

28.622331 77.363983





Vineet Nayar appointed JMD of HCL Tech for next 5 years

Posted by Entrepreneur in CEO. Tagged: Bombay Stock Exchange, Chief executive officer, HCL Technologies, INDIA, Nayar, Outsourcing, Vineet, Vineet Nayar. 3 comments Vineet Nayar – World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2009 (Photo credit: World Economic Forum)

HCL Technologies Ltd has appointed Mr. Vineet Nayar as the Joint Managing Director (JMD) of the India’s fourth largest locally-listed software exporter company, in a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company held on May 14, 2012. However, it is subject to the approval of the Shareholders, HCLT informed The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).





30 Apr


Posted by Entrepreneur in Internet Era. Tagged: Bhati, Bhatti Rajput, Haveli, INDIA, Jaisalmer, Maharawal Jaisal Singh, Rajasthan, Rajput. 2 comments

Jaisalmer, also known as “The Golden City” is a town in Rajasthan.  It was once known as Jaisalmer state and is the administrative headquarters of the Jaisalmer district.  It’s not a very large town, with a population of about 78,000. However, it has a charm of its own and is a paragon of beautiful culture and harsh climatic conditions.  Jaisalmer is named after Maharawal Jaisal Singh who founded the city.  He was a Rajput king in 1156 AD. “Jaisalmer” means “The hill fort of Jaisal”.

The entire city is built out of yellow sand and yellow sandstone due to which it came to be known as “the Golden City”. The old city was completely encircled by a wall but much of it has crumbled sadly for want of building material in recent years. Just like all the other cities in Rajasthan, Jaisalmer also has its own glorious past. According to the legends, the then Rajpur ruler of Jaisalmer, Maharawal Jaisal Singh founded the city at the behest of a local hermit named Eesaal, whom he respected a lot. In order to ensure his safety he built the fort on the Trikut hill because its location made it quite inaccessible and he could keep a watch on his surroundings. This helped him to know the movements on his enemies well in advance. The main source of income of the Bhatti Rajput rulers in the past was through the collection of taxes from the passing caravans. Jaisalmer was situated on one of the very important routes which connected India to several counties including Persia, Egypt, Africa and many western countries. Thus, it was a very busy business route and provided ample opportunity for the Bhatti rulers to collect taxes and amass huge wealth. Due to its peculiar location, it remained out of bounds of any invaders for a long time. Only when the Bhatti Rajput rulers dared to loot the imperial caravan carrying treasures of Ala-ud-din Khilji, the Sultan of Delhi, they incurred this wrath. He led a siege around Jaisalmer to concur it and the siege lasted for 9 long years. In the final battle for their independence, the then ruler of Jaisalmer, Raja Jaisimha ‘s son Duda died while fighting the forces of the sultan. In the subsequent years, the rulers of Jaisalmer maintained good relations with the Mughal emperors. However, they did not accept the British rule easily. In fact, Jaisalmer rulers were the last to sign the Instrument of Agreement with the British Government. Besides being a place of historical importance, Jaisalmer is still a living town and a major tourist attraction in Rajasthan. Unlike other forts, a quarter of the town’s population still lives inside the fort. This spectacular fort houses a royal palace (Raj Mahal), Jain temples and many sites worth visiting. The walls of the fort are constructed out of red sandstone which assumes a lovely honey-gold hue as the sun sets. The people of Jaisalmer are very hospitable and are gifted with a lot of folk music, dance and art forms. The main means of transport in this part of the country are camels. One can enjoy a camel ride during a visit to this place. Jaisalmer has also got a rich cultural heritage and to display its rich past, the place has got a museum dedicated to the many artifacts used in the by-gone era. People interested in history would definitely enjoy a visit to this Government museum. In addition, there are mansions known as Havelis which used to the abodes of the rich, famous and powerful people belonging to the Raj Darbar of the rulers. These beautiful havelis were very well-crafted and are a piece of art and architecture of that time. Some of the most famous havelis are Patwon-ki-Haveli, Salman Sigh-ki-Haveli, Nathmalhi-ki-Haveli and Haveli Shreenath. A visit to these havelis will give you an idea of how lavishly the rich and powerful of that era lived. People of Rajasthan are mostly vegetarian but they do prepare, serve and enjoy a variety of delicacies in their everyday life. A visit to Jaisalmer will definitely be satisfying to your culinary appetite besides capturing you with its magnificent sites and architecture. A visit to Jaisalmer will definitely prove memorable in all respects.








Posted by Entrepreneur in Internet Era. Tagged: INDIA, Kargil, Kashmir, Khardungla, Ladakh, Leh, Leh-Ladakh, Srinagar. 3 comments

If you’re a fan of adventure, then Ladakh is the place for you. One of the most exciting ways to explore the landscape wonders as well as the remote areas of Ladakh. Crossing the Khardungla pass, considered to be one of the highest motor able roads in the world is a high like never before. Moreover, Ladakh is also a paradise for trekking and mountaineering due to its high peaks and mountains. You can also take part in and enjoy a number of fairs and festivals like the Losar festival, Hemis, Ladakh festival and tak-tok festival.

Ladakh is a part of Jammu & Kashmir in the north of India. It consists of two districts Leh and Kargil.

The district headquarters is based in Leh. Leh district consists of Leh town and 112 inhabited villages and one un-inhabited village. The total population of Leh district is 1.17 lacs. It is the second least populated district of Jammu and Kashmir, after Kargil. There are several ways of reaching Leh but it depends on the route that would be open. Srinagar and Manali are the two major gateways to Leh Ladakh. Ladakh was under the administration of Leh until the 1st of July, 1979, when the Kargil and Ladakh administrative districts were created. Religion had been the cause of a lot of distress between Buddhists and Muslims since the late 20th century and was one of the main contributors of this division. Tibetan and Buddhist cultures have prevailed for centuries now in these two places of India. A lot of Buddhist monasteries are prominent pilgrimage centers in the country. Its colorful gompas have attracted devout Buddhists from all over the world. Travelers flock to this beautiful destination from all over the globe. It has plenty to experience and explore. The most impressive is the royal palace known as Leh Palace. The palace, which overlooks Leh, has a certain mystery to it. It was constructed by King Sengge Namgyal in the 17th century. According to history, it was later abandoned as the Kashmiri armies surrounded in the mid 19th century and the royal family that was residing here earlier moved to Stok Palace on the southern bank of the Indus. The palace comprises of nine stories of which the upper floors are meant for the royal families whereas the lower floors function as stables and store rooms. Exploring the palace from the inside will make you reminiscent of the days gone by. Leh is the second largest district in the country with an area of 45, 100 square kilometers. It is at an altitude of 3524 meters. The district is constrained by Pakistan occupying Kashmir in the west and Ghanche district, China in the north. Aksai Chin and Tibet are to the east, Kargil district to the west and Lahul and Spiti of Himachal Pradesh to the south. Leh-Ladakh is truly a voyage into the most magnificent peak and religious zone of the world. The best time to visit Lakadh is from the months of June to September which are its summer months. 





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