May 15, 2009

Digital Media – is destination the over-riding decision?


Your brand needs a digital media presence. That is the new medium. That is what people read, watch, where the new gen consumers hangout these days. If you don’t have a Facebook page and don’t send tweets to your 340 friends or consumers, then you must surely be from another planet. Everyone including my grandfather is on facebook…aren’t you?

Some such spiel by a digital media ‘expert’ typically leads to a flight (I don’t how to get on to this social media space and so I’ll just stand back and watch) or fight (let me find out the most popular social media tool and create a page there) response.

Lately, the utterly butterly delicious Amul decided to get itself a digital media presence and how? Through Second Life!

There was buzz around Second Life a few years ago and predictions how half the world is going to have a second life id by 2019 but then one day the buzz waned. Second Life expected me to download an application once I created an account and buy linden dollars. I wanted to do neither. Besides I didn’t see much sense in creating and avatar and hanging around second life.

It is surprising then that Amul’s foray into digital media ‘to be seen where it mattered’ happened via Second Life. Amul for sure has a digital presence thanks to that, though how it would enhance the brand’s visibility is a question I grapple with.

Its topical witty campaigns are so popular that I have often come across those campaigns do several rounds of my mailbox. And like a good sitcom each time I see them, I enjoy them. Converting these hoardings to virals or creating virals afresh would have been a natural extension of making the brand visible in the digital world. Refreshing their site, bringing it to date, making it more interactive with users would have made a more meaningful connect with people than a presence on Second Life. There is a lot more that can be done with their orkut page and blog which currently only has information on the Amul Vidyashree Awards – nothing more!

Rather than asking yourself WHERE I need to be in the digital media space, what makes sense to me is to ask yourself WHAT I wish to do while I’m there and then work the digital media strategy backwards from that point.

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May 11, 2009

Blog URL Update

The blog is back on its parent host - blogger

Please note the updated URL

http://onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/

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cheers :)