Kalam-Musharraf conversation- please forgive my deja-vu!

I was fairly amused to read excerpts from former President Kalam’s former secretary PM Nair’s book via this report, which gives a real description of the conversation between Kalam and Musharraf as it happened.

 

“Mr President, like India you also have a lot of rural areas,” Kalam said, and put a poser, “Don’t you think we should both do whatever is possible to develop them on priority?” As Musharraf said “Yes”, Kalam wasted no time to detail his “favourite” subject of Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas (PURA). It took 26 minutes to brief Musharraf on PURA.

The duration of this meeting was 30 mins.

That kind of reminded me of my own post, done about a year back, which was titled,"Humour:A conversation between Presidents Kalam and Musharraf which never happened".

Musharraf: Mr. President, my entire country right upto every single child wants…. Kalam: Ah, children. In my last five years, I have met two lakh children every year and conveyed the value of science, human values and hard work. Infact, hard work can shape up your destiny. A girl from Meghalaya asked me recently…

So, now it is true, my post title is wrong – the conversation happened! Read my post here.

YouTube will Pale against Mobile Phones indeed?

I was reading with great amazement the stats revealed by the MD of Nokia India on India’s mobile revolution. But before I go to the statement, it ought to be noted that the MD of a mobile phone company was speaking at Goafest which is all about advertising, marketing and media planning. Read Saurabh Garg’s or Rajiv Dhingra for more . So what’s the relation between advertising and mobile phones?

The connection is content, as well as new emergent channel of 3G services of mobile, which allow content to be captured and shared with much ease. And when there is content and a channel, advertising cannot be far behind.

Now look at the slightly hyperbolic statement from D Shivakumar, MD of Nokia India.

“If YouTube is big, 3G services here will redefine the space. YouTube will pale into insignificance in the next few years with India user-generated content”

If you wish to point out that YouTube does not enable content creation, only dissemination, your point is taken. He too perhaps means dissemination alone. The beauty is, the same device will be able to do so quiet efficiently, once 3G services are rolled out.

But look at his following predictions. Scary ones!

By 2010, India will have 500 million phones.

Out of 500 million, 60 million would have video capabilities.

10 million would have music capabilities

200 million would have in built radio (Did you say the radio is dead? Think again)

250 million camera phones

250 million would have net connection

And 2010 is just seven quarters from now. And with 3G networks, you would have a capability multiplier added. The diversity of services being sold on the 3G network would be much more. Japan and South Korea are already more than 50% 3G network.

That set me thinking, what would happen few years down, if I send a freshly shot video clip to a friend of mine. Perhaps, a context sensitive ad would play before the real film plays? How would it know the demographics and psychographics of the recipient to serve relevant advertising, when all it knows are two devices?

At one level, it would be such a pain to be seeing the ads on mobile phones, something that has mercifully not invaded our phones yet. Like calling your wife and being forced to listen an ad before she comes on the line. An another level, the best brains are talking and there are megabucks. Looks like mobile excitement is not stopping so soon.

Resuming reading with Blink.

I have read The Tipping Point  by Malcolm Gladwell and even commented about it in passing. I did like the central point of that book and though been meaning to read Blink (Full title is Blink- The Power of Thinking without Thinking) but then reading has been a little low of late.

Finally I am resuming (with great hopes!) my reading for 2008 by borrowing Blink from my boss’ personal collection (I am blessed- he’s quite a bibliophile).

Meanwhile, do check out SR’s and prolific reader Heather’s impressions of this book. I shall come back with my thoughts few days from now.

Related post: Shelfari is a book lover’s delight.

Do we always need gurus to make good ads?

I clicked this picture in the parking outside my office -I found it simple and crisp. I am not talking more, let the ad talk for itself – see below.

 

The medium of communication – copy on a tyre – provides an instant connect with the service being promoted, which is tyre puncture (or flat tire) repair service with a mobility. The placement of the ad in the parking area is just apt.The ad is not loaded with unnecessary detail. I was amazed by this intelligent ad! Do we really need to outsource creativity or necessarily expect only gurus to come up with brilliant advertising?!!