Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Cogito ergo sum


Let there be light

Filed under: musings

Create

I have always wished I lived in the time when all the great inventions were made. The ones we read in our science text books. It would be so fascinating to exist at a time when the telephone was invented. Yesterday there was nothing, today we have something that will change the world forever. It is just fascinating to see or experience something being created out of nothing. 

To me, every artist is the same. They are not artists, they are creators. Every musician. Every sculptor. Every writer. All they have is their imagination and vision. And just out of nothing, they create something breathtaking. Something so beautiful, it changes the course of lives. Lives of the creator and of those that have been touched by their creations. These are people with raw God given talent to create so called magic. In the way every piece of art, statue, music or poem begins slowly but surely and with every stroke, strike, note or word it lilts its way towards a magnificent crescendo and ends with a final swoosh of the brush, chisel or pen of the creator, it makes you feel as greedy as a man in an orgy. At the same time, it leaves you with a sense of understated achievement. A feeling that at some level, you have managed to understand the creator. For those few minutes that you are looking at a painting or a statue or listening to a piece of music, the art belongs to you. No one can take it away from you. No one else knows what it means to you. And it stays with you, forever. 

I wish I was as gifted. Enough to create magic out of nothing. I have been told the closest I have to having a talent is with my writing. I will believe it the day I write something that changes a life. Till then, I will keep trying.

This joint in time

As you sit on this balmy night,
Everything around you seems awry.
You just don't remember what is 'right',
Feels like you were hit by a lorry.

When was the last time you called,
Someone who would call you right back?
Like a software that wont install,
Its like all your brain needs is a hack.

You don't know what you want it to do,
If you want it to change time or stop it.
Maybe all you want is the hack to reset you,
So you are back at the start in a click.

But think about it, is it what you want,
To do everything you did, all over again?
Does it scare you my friend, does it daunt,
To know you will still do it all the same?

So maybe there is absolutely no point,
In asking for another chance ever.
What you do is pick today, now, this joint,
And make sure every moment you treasure.

Musing on nothing...

This might be one of my first blog update without any subject. I just feel like updating my blog.

When I started my blog, I used to think that I would never put something up on my blog just for the heck of it. I always thought that I would just update the blog with my stupid thoughts converted to words and typed out for the reading displeasure of no one. The disadvantage of this was that I would not always get the time needed to convert my stupid thoughts to scripted versions of what goes on in my stupid mind.

This created a problem that the few people who actually went through the pain of reading what I actually wrote, did not bother anymore to check the blog. They were just bored coming to the blog and finding the same update. This is a very important lesson in marketing - 'Out of sight means out of mind'. So whenever I did get the time to make any update, I did so and always knew that I would have to TELL my audience that I have made some update for your reading displeasure. This meant that I would have to 'spend on advertising'. So basically I would need to put in more efforts to keep the 'service' fresh and the 'consumer' interested so that I do not need to 'spend' a lot on marketing.

So, coming back to the fact that I am updating my blog just for the heck of it, it's not really for the heck of it. It is to make sure that there is some recall when someone asks for a blog of your friend's. I do not pledge to keep my blog updated hence forth, because a marketer should never promise what he is not sure he can deliver. So until next time, keep checking and you might see something new pretty soon.

Musings on Advertising

How many times has one seen the old adage of 'too much of a good thing....' come true?

Advertising has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. So much so that people now when discuss ads (more so those from TV), they have quite a few options to choose from. I mean, right now as I write this while watching the cricket match, I just saw a series of 4 good ads in a row! The new Bajaj Platina DTSi and the Amrutanjan ads are really well conceptualised. The Amrutanjan one is actually quite hilarious!

Coming back to the topic of this long overdue blog update, a couple of years back, NEO Sports I think it was who started with the concept of ads during the match. This was by way of zooming out from the match and displaying vertical and horizontal ads on two sides. It was brilliant! I mean, you don't miss the match and the ad is right there when you have the maximum attention on the screen.

Neo Sports had just signed a massive contract with the BCCI and were creating a revolution of sorts in the sport broadcasting industry. This was by way of innovative ways to sell their inventory of limited air time. They soon realised the air time was not enough to recover the millions they were going to pay BCCI. Necessity proved to be the mother of invention.

But, as has been happening forever, this brilliant idea has been turned into a not so brilliant one by overdoing it! I am watching the match right now, and I see these ads zooming in and zooming out after practically every single ball! It is being so overdone that they have succeeded in making it a blindspot! Now hardly is the content being read or the brand advertised being noticed.

However irritating the ads would have been as it hinders your viewing pleasure, it really was a great idea to target the audience at the perfect time. Until they messed it up that is.

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