WOR(L)DLY DUEL

World over brands use opportunities to take pot shots between them.Marketing history is flooded with stories of their one-upmanship.Check this out for a starter: There was a board reading "coco-cola: Fourth floor," outside one of its India offices.Just a few inches above was a Pepsi board declaring "Pepsi everywhere"! Similarly, cricket world cup,96:After coco cola grabbed the official sponsorship,Pepsi ran ads: that said : 'Nothing official about it'. On the skies, after fine tuning the image makeover, Jet airways put up several billboards in mumbai declaring "WE'VE CHANGED".Instantly,kingfisher put up a billboard on top of it,reading "WE MADE THEM CHANGE".Jet had to pull out the Rs.90 lakh campaign,but kingfisher tag line still stands and also relevant. Big Bazaar, came out with some spoofy acts on its competitors,one of their print advertisement reads, " Shoppers! Stop.Make a smart choice! Saree's Rs..." another one " Change your lifestyle" and "Keep your west aside". They were calling their shots against Shoppers stop, Lifestyle and West side. Welcome to the world of guerrilla,ambush and direct hit marketing.Post those tales which you have come across.

CRICKET NEW AVATAR

Cricket from pure plain white which was played for five days mostly for a draw(TEST Matches) turned into colors , one day, and with a definite result(ONE Day matches).Cricket is going through another new format the T20.It is all about time,speed, aggression,power,boldness,fun and jubilation. I prefer to term it as slam bang cricket. Twenty20 cricket is a huge innovation which should over time expand the size of the market. It is, to use the language of marketing, a breakthrough product. Like all variants, there are fears that Twenty20 will cannibalize other established products. It’s not clear this would happen.It is a new format and it is here to stay, It is an entertainer and a great treat for the audience for they have a variety of SIXES,music and of course the dances.Cricketing legends observe that it is a sure threat to test cricket and onedayers. But all the formats will exist like, Rahul Dravid,Ganguly and Yuvaraj singh. T20 will soon be introduced in Asian games,common wealth games and Olympics ..which means we will very soon watch Chinese, japan es, Koreans, Germans, Italians, French ,Cameron,Argentina,Saudi Arabia and so many other countries playing cricket.Cricket will grow greater heights until then let the sixes fly.

All about Twenty20 cricket

*Twenty20 cricket was introduced in the UK in 2003 as a professional inter-county competition. A crowd of 26,500 turned up for the first T20 match at Lord’s, the largest attendance for a county game other than a one-day final since 1953.

*India was the last of the 10 Test-playing nations to debut in T20, beating South Africa by 6 wickets in Johannesburg on December 1, 2006.

* The highest and lowest team scores in T20 internationals are 221 and 79, both by Australia against England.

*England and the West Indies scored 401 in 40 overs at the Oval on June 28, 2007, the highest T20 match aggregate so far.

*Graeme Smith with 259 runs in 5 matches is the highest run scorer in Twenty20 international cricket.

*Paul Collingwood, captain of the England team has taken 9 wickets which is the highest by any bowler in this unique game.

*Australian skipper Ricky Ponting’s 98 not out is the highest score in an innings by any batsman in Twenty20 international cricket.

*The Wanderers stadium, Johannesburg in South Africa has hosted 4 Twenty20 international matches which is the highest for any ground in the world. The World Twenty20 championship final is also slated to be played at this ground.

*Marlon Samuels of West Indies has the highest strike rate of 202.17 in Twenty20 international cricket.

The new rules

*A no-ball costs 2 runs and the next delivery is a free hit.

*Each innings has a time limit of 75 minutes. For every over bowled after that, the batting side is credited an extra 6 runs.

*If a batsman fails to reach the crease within 90 seconds after the fall of a wicket, the bowling side gets 5 penalty runs.

*Fielding restrictions are applicable for the first 6 Overs of the innings.

*There’s a bowl-out as a tie-breaker, with 5 bowlers from each side delivering 2 balls each at an unguarded wicket.

MY HERO

My favorite hero of all times and the person whom i admire the most ?! I always admire respect and recognize talents. All of us should have come across variety of talents with different people. BUT I have come across a person who is the most talented person I have ever seen in my life. He was not just talented in one field; let it be sports, music, arts, theatre, poetry, photography,literature the list goes on. In sports he was a champion in Hockey, Table tennis, Discuss throw, Shot put and cross country race. If it is music he was trained in classical and western music and can play guitar, keyboard, violin, mandolin, and mouthorgan. When it comes to arts he is an artist whose paintings on nature is all over his room. He had staged a dozen stage shows and portrayed his acting skills. In the literary field he had published five book of poems the first one had the forward from the former president of India Mr.Zakhir Hussein and Dr.Radhakrishnan, he also published a collection of short stories apart from the books he published on communication and technical writing. He is an excellent orator who had won innumerable prizes at various forums. His colleagues nicked name him the WALKING Encyclopedia and LIVING Dictionary. He loved his teaching profession and was a born teacher. He was known for his determination, perseverance, simplicity, honesty and his profound knowledge. He lived for his family and always would sacrifice anything for his children. Am I not lucky to be born to this great man who was a class apart right until his last breath? He chiseled all of us by grooming the way we wanted to be. What I am today is because of my dad and mom. He is an integral part of all of us. He was and will be my torch bearer and shadow all through my life. He was always a thought leader and his foresightedness had made many of them raise eyebrows. I am proud to be the son of this multifaceted genius. MY DAD MY HERO.

CONVERGENCE

I...I...I....not ipod, it is steve jobs iphone. In the USA iphone created a ripple or a Storm ? .Either way apples iphone is the latest sensation, in a world where mobile phones and mp3 is used like wallets and car key (most essentials ?!).All of us are obsessed with phones and music and we are entering into stage where we can live without anything but not without a phone.The iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device... to know more about CONVERGENCE...surf brandthinkmarketingdo.com

SIVAJI-THE BOSS

14 June 07 ,Talk of the town..nai,..TALK OF THE COUNTRY was about the style samrat of Indian movies, the young n energetic 55 year old super star.Sivaji is not just a treat for frenzied fans of the super star but for all.Shankar the most stylish director of south is one who always takes a very common subject and presents it in an uncommon way.The Rajini/Shankar combination and the viral marketing they adopted caught on like wild fire.From a 1 year old to a 65 year old everyone responded to sivaji alike. Every one wants to go to the movie and they want to go in the first week.On the first three days, the movie was screened close to 20 hours. The last show of the day ended at 3.45 am and i was one of those who drove back home at 4 am .It is stunning to witness the buzz created for SIVAJI. Some of the IT firms had purchased tickets paying more than a lakh and had given it to their employees - the HR guys claim that to be a strategy adopted to remove the stress and of course a motivational technique.The media played its part very well by creating hype and caught the attention of the viewers eyeballs.The price of the ticket being so high is not an issue for many.Hold, i never came across anyone asking for a pirated video version.Going to Sivaji is like going to a carnival.Hats off to shankar.. he is one of the best brains who has understood the marketing game very well and is using all the techniques to capitalise the power of Rajni. The superstar is blessed with a magical power with which he is able to cast a spell on even a year old kid,this had fetched him the super brand title of Indian cinema. Who else in Indian cinema could fetch 17 crores for a single movie(Big B n King Khan earns less) and who else has the audacity to say if there is a loss he will repay the money.Now i have got a great subject to delve into , it is MOVIE MARKETING. Sign in your views on SIVAJI -The boss.

REEL ESTATE !?!

An average Indians big dream today is to own their own house...from a match box apartment to a palatial bungalow, it varies from person to person. Everyone just need their own shade n shelter. A couple of years back i saw flashy advertisements from the nationalised banks to the private banks chasing the customers to provide them the loans to build their dream house. The Real estate got up from its deep slumber to cash the dreams of the average Indian.The MNCs , Software Parks, Slimy brokers, Raising cost of materials and increasing bank interest had made the dreams to remain just as dreams.I tried to sneak into the real estate to gain the first hand information and found it to be shocking.A double bed room flat 900 sq.ft was quoted 75 lakhs not in mumbai...it is down south,yup..Coimbatore. With some predictions and media hype every single space of Coimbatore is quoted at an exorbitant price. The costs are sky rocketing and the real estate has turned out into REEL ESTATE.I hope in the next election the focal point of the campaigning for many political parties is to bring down the land/flat prices or are we going to be offered free flats.Waiting for the bubble to burst. Wish to have your views towards REAL ESTATE.

EYEDEA !!!!!

Brilliant ideas work well in every space of our life. Creativity makes life lot more colourful. In an age of my space, you tube, email , mobile and all other techno jingo...here is a brilliant work from the Australian post... to know more about EYEDEA !!!!!...surf brandthinkmarketingdo.com