Advertising should create growth hackers!

There is a problem with advertising. Currently, the idea has taken a backseat, and designing is in the front seat. Advertising nowadays is more interested in writing a quirky copy or a cool-looking design. However, advertising should solve business problems. They should help businesses to grow. But rather than solving business problems, they are busy making creatives. 

If you look at the growth hacking scene, you will see many engineers. How come engineers ended up increasing a business's growth? It should be advertising folks solving business problems and bringing profit to a business.  

The work that advertising folks are doing doesn't solve business problems. 

The time for a change has come. 

The curious case of internet quotes

The internet is full of quotes. At first glance, they seem motivational and all good. However, if you dig deep, you will find out many quotes are self-contradicting. 

Like fake news, there are quotes available on the internet that are fake too. Last year, industrialist Ratan Tata debunked one of such fake quotes.  

The pressure to create more content without getting caught as plagiarised content is the main reason behind the fake quotes. A content writer picks an old quote from the internet. Then he tweaks few words of it so that he doesn't get caught in the plagiarism tool. And thus become a new quote. Finally, when he uploads it to the internet, he attributes a renowned name against the quote. 

What the suck - Commenting for better reach!

We all like to have connections on LinkedIn. We all want visitors on our profile. The way to get attraction on LinkedIn is to get active. People even hire writers to write on LinkedIn. Apart from writing a post, another way to get attention is by commenting. If you religiously comment, you are bound to get the attraction to your profile. We all know it right. 

But the funniest part is when people write 'commenting for better reach' in the comment section. It is like you have met someone and then telling him that you two have met. 

Writing 'Commenting for better reach' is a bad idea to get people's attention. It is better to write something which has some meaning. If a person has achieved something, then write a congratulatory note. There is no point in writing 'commenting for better reach'.  

Deconstruction of a Video Advertisement

The ad is about how to keep you safe from online fraud. A conversation takes place between an old man and a young adult through which we get to know the product. The ad features three people- two young adults, a female and a male, and an elderly male. The good thing is that both genders are portrayed in the ad in equal proportion. The old man is dressed in formal attire, making him look educated and corporate. The woman and man are wearing casuals.

The story of the ad is that two people, one male, and one female, are trying to cheat an elderly man over the phone by asking the old man’s bank details and OTP (One Time Password). Commonly, people cheat someone over the call by asking their OTP. However, at the end of the ad, we, the viewers of the ad realize that with the help of Airtel Payments Bank, the old man fools the cheaters.

The product of the ad is Airtel Payments Bank. The product comes quite late in the advertisement. And when the product is shown, there is no presence of the characters. I think this is a good thing.

The camera focused on two sides, young female and old man, in equal proportion. The ad has mainly close-up shots. The screen has been split into two sides- one side shows the old man and the other side the cheaters. The lighting part of the ad is really interesting. There is a right blend of natural and artificial lighting. The ad has extensive use of bright colors. One thing that catches my attention is the extensive use of bright colors in the characters’ attire.

The text comes later in the advertisement. When the text appears on the screen, along with the VO, we don’t see any characters on the screen. Apart from the VO, there are 3 voices present in the advertisement. At the time of product introduction, the VO arrives. The background sound of the advertisement is new-age and peppy. The advertisement ends with the popular Airtel tune.

The product of this ad is the Airtel Payments Bank which offers an added protection to its consumers to beat online cheating.  However, Airtel Payments Bank comes only one time in the advert. It would have been better if the name arrived at least twice or thrice.

It feels good that telecommunication companies are taking cognizance of online scams. The target audience of this ad is primarily old people. The first part of the ad shows old people is vulnerable to online scams. But at the end of the ad, it shows that the old man has actually duped the scammers. The tech-savvy and knowledgeable approach of the old man saves him from getting scammed.

The ad sends the message to those people who are most vulnerable to online fraud. It is interesting to know that the ad shows that women can become an apparatus of online crime.

Online fraud needs to be confronted. Only time will tell if telecommunication companies will bring new ideas to get rid of this problem.

                                                  (Source: Airtel India/Youtube)

Surrounded By Drugs

A few years ago one of my friends was diagnosed with psychosis. The reason the psychiatrist opined was cannabis abuse. The psychiatrist prescribed him various medicines which my friend has taken for 3 straight years. He was also advised to not smoking any marijuana. He released himself from smoking and drinking. He has become a teetotaler.

3 years have gone by but he is still under the influence of medicines as prescribed by the psychiatrist. Meanwhile, he suffered from relapse twice in these 3 years. This means that he lost ‘normalcy’ twice irrespective of taking medicines. Recently, he has changed his psychiatrist with the hope of no more relapses in the future.

Let me clear on one thing that this piece is not a rant against doctors or modern medicine. My friend is fed up with surrounded by drugs every day. The psychiatrist, whom my friend is consulting currently, said that my friend is suffering from OCD, not psychosis.

This has made my friend completely puzzled. Currently, he has no other option than to trust the current psychiatrist. The only reason behind this is that he doesn’t want to go back to where he was 3 years back. The previous psychiatrist did make him well in two relapses happened also.

                                                         (Source: Flickr)

Budget-Friendly Device For Your Budget

Last Sunday I went to a grocery store with Rs. 1000 budget. The moment I entered the shop, I started doing mental accounting. That means the moment I picked up an item I started calculating the cost. After Rs. 850 I lost the interest to calculate. And understandably the final figure crossed Rs. 1000 mark. This has prompted me to find a solution to stop doing mental accounting and keep the purchase within the budget.

Attach a device to the bag which will show the price of a product when you drop it inside the bag. The more items you put in, the device will start showing the total amount of the purchase. In that way, you can always get to know how much you have spent.

The process would be really simple. Before dropping an item into the bag, you have to touch the barcode on that device. After that, the price of the product will flash on that device’s screen. Follow the same procedure for as many products you want to put inside the bag.

                                                                      (Source: Pixaby)

I’m Lazy

After one and half month gap, I started blogging but I still think I’m not yet started. The procrastination has gone to such a level that I’m sick of it. I need to break this chain of procrastination immediately. I’ve started over-sleeping. I’m sleeping around 10 hours a day. I also need to end this. I’ve few plans in mind. I need to improve my writing. I need to blog every day. I need to write 10 ideas every day.  Yes, 10 ideas every day. No matter how rubbish they are. I haven’t written short stories for a while. I need to restart the process immediately. The time starts now.

                                                   (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I Hate Scripted Interviews

I have a total of 12 years of work experience. I’ve been to many interviews. During my initial days, I used to answer everything that the interviewer used to ask. But over the years, I’ve realized that there are some problems with the scripted interview formats. Scripted interviews limit the chance of finding the true potential of a candidate.

Let me explain how. If you’re an interviewer and ask a candidate to tell them about themselves then that person will only parrot what is written in their resume. That person will never be able to reveal their true self. However, if you interview in a friendly manner then it would be really easy for them to answer.

This way you can understand their temperament and also check their creativity. The best thing about conducting a friendly interview is that when the interviewee leaves the room you have already created an impression on them.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Blogs Are Important

I’ve been writing blogs for the last 8 years. I’ve written various types of blogs for industries like education, marketing, technology, etc. I wrote those blogs mainly for SEO purposes. I intended to bring more traffic to the website. Those were mainly non-promotional blogs to educate readers.

Though I’ve written many blogs in my writing career but never realized the importance of blogs. Yes, it makes me sound like an idiot but it is what it is.

A week ago, I was writing a script. The script was related to travel & tourism. And believe me, I was completely dependent on blogs. The research work that I had done was heavily dependent on the blogs available on the web. I couldn’t have been able to write down the piece with the research work. I also took help from the blogs to write the script.

I couldn't write a script without the help of the blogs. I never imagined that blogs can be used to create a different writing form. We generally use blogs to get information. While writing the scripts I realized that it was the blogs that laid the foundation of my script. 

                                                     (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

                                                 

Writer’s Block

Many say that there is no such thing called ‘Writer’s Block’. They believe if you start writing things will start to work out. But now I'm realizing that writer's block is real.  I call it ‘Idea Block’.  Now, I’m completely out of ideas to run this blog. I can’t generate new ideas to write. The ideas that are popping up inside my head are not good enough to share. Some are ideas not at all.

But I have to run this blog. I can’t stop this blog. So I’ve decided to write on writer’s block. The last three blog posts that I wrote were a spin-off of news shared on LinkedIn. But I don’t want to do this type of work. I want to share my ideas; tell my perspectives.

I don’t know how to get out of this situation. I also don’t know how long it will continue. Should I travel? Have sex? Meet new people? Or just do other stuff to get out of this stupid situation. I don’t know.

Is this a result of doing repetitive work? When I started this blog in September, I had many ideas to write. But now I'm feeling things have just stopped. 

However, I’ve decided to write no matter what it is. I’ll just WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. Sounds stupid but can't help.

                                                (Source: Wikimedia Commons)