VoIP phones on today's woot !!!

sunil, the future is here awreddy.

today's woot features a two-pack of Atcom Voice Over IP (VoIP) USB phones.


how does it work ?


you send your partner one, and sign you both up for a VoIP service like Skype.
Calls from one VoIP user to another don’t incur per-minute charges no matter where in the world that other IP is. there’s a monthly fee, but it’s a lot cheaper.

and if the two of you live in the same city you can still use VoIP as a supplement to a your cell line, so you don’t pay for valuable daytime minutes.

all for a princely sum of US $ 17.99 plus $ 5 shipping.

for more comments on this product go here


sighhhhhhhh............

customer engagement

the longer you keep him with your brand, the better it is.
thats what engagement is.
with brands and brand experiences that are sticky.

and so this is how a few do it. by creating groups of involved, happily hooked conumers.


india's leading karaoke jockey KJ Subz does it by offering his fans the chance to turn rockstar. and so teeming crowds hang around waiting for their turn to belt out their opportunity from behind the mike.


vikas verma's Colour Factory at an upscale DLF mall in gurgaon is therapeutic, as i discovered.
at this DIY ceramic studio, one can pick a choice of pottery and personalise it, paint it, jazz it up. and eat and drink alongside while trained assistants attend to your queries and top up your colours and select paintbrushes for you.


so can't record labels team up with KJ Subz ? to do a karaoke evening of their music exclusively ? or promote the music of a forthcoming film by getting consumers to listen to it and sing along ? throw in a few simple quiz type questions for prizes and you have a winner.

and can't the camlins and the fevicryls of the world tap in to the world of the colour factory ? or even the juice or snack brands of the world may be ?

are we looking at fleeting levels of brand exposure which may or may not impact consumers ? or a guaranteed 2/3 hours of pure passionate involvement from them ?

take your pick brand marketers.

Matrix Revisited

Yesterday I was rapping as usual with a friend from the CellCos and ended up talking about how little the guys who decide what kind of content will reside on their GPRS portals know. Take some content to them and they will ask you how you would promote the same. (before hitting you on the head with a 50% revenue share they have dreamt up for themselves) The content provider has to bear the cost of developing the content, sharing rights fees with the original owner and media costs to promote the content. Net result - few content guys have the balls to be orginal. They simply cannot be innovative knowing that at the end of all this they will be left holding about 10% of the total value of the content. Dont blame them for treating content likse e onions - buy by the ton and sell by the kilo.

What if I had Satyajit Ray content - Feluda, The movies and everything else, would CellCos be interested? Yes they would be in West Bengal and BanglaDesh. Try talking to a Hutch guy in Mumbai and you will know what I mean. Now what if I were to get a media house as a partner? What if they push the content to ensure stickiness of their readership? Now does that change the game?

What if I use search marketing? Every true Bengali searching for anything to do with the language or the culture would come to the website. I get ad revenue on the webpage that hosts the content, get revenue from operators through whom my visitors download the content.

Now does it become interesting?
The art of working in the digital space is not in looking at components in isolation but in being the zubin mehta of creating a matrix of sounts that work together to give a symphony.

Are there any companies that you know of that is taking interactive and mobile along with brands and content and creating a unified solution? If you send me a list of these I promise to buy you a cuppa in which ever city you are located.

__________________

Interesting read

Blogging for Dollars

more magz...

hah !

the guys at business today agree with moi.*

my post finds an echo in their story "magazine mania".

the whole world and their moms want a price of the action.

forbes, businessweek, vogue, glamour et.al. could be gracing indian shelves soon.

and then new niches - magazines on pups and dogs. spas.

such fun, no ??

* subscription needed to view the link

Passion Drives...

Gadget geeks go here
News-hounds and gossip mongers go hereTechnology geeks go here

What’s common to woot which sells one sexy product “deal ” as it dubs itself.
And sells itself out only to re-invent itself every 24 hours.

To warfornews which quietly slips in to the world of today’s TV channel journalism and uncovers their deepest, darkest secrets.

To a barcamp, a concept which has originated in "saddi dilli"..surprise surprise and not in Bangalore. Where lovers and users of technology get together to rap and share ideas and visions of what they want to do with technology.

All of these are unique ideas which give groups of consumers what they are looking for.
It taps in to their passions and deepest desires.

So that apart from the initial effort …to drive traffic, the consumer gets hooked and keeps coming back for more and much much more.

And one more thing. Viral marketing has created the buzz around all these.

What now brown cow you may say ?

A desi woot avatar will work. Assuming the stuff up for sale doesn’t come from Chinese rip-offs or from grey market junk.. Rediff and Baazee are you listening ? Try and figure why that zircon pendant doesn’t sell despite 20 identical listings and a one rupee pricetag plus three hundred bucks delivery charges.
And why that Nokia handset doesn’t get enough bids. That’s because its cheaper at the nukkad store.

Some passionate soul who KNOWS gizmos can turn this in to a money spinner.

Rock music passions can open up another front. I keep telling my dear buddy Naren Kusnur to start his music blog. Given his exposure in the business and his contacts with musicians that’s a slot that he can do full justice to. Rise O Naren. History awaits you…

Then given our passion for gossip and Bollywood who will be the first to blog the darkest secrets of that world ? Film rags are pure childs play didn’t you know ?
This could be the worlds first pay to read blog. Mint millions.

The gaming world where game driven souls can meet, rap, play.

Niches could tap in to karaoke, hacking, net usage, business games, brand developments, trend spotting… the list is endless

Enough people are passionate about many things

Cash in.

the secondary network of wonderful things

Cold media buying types occassionally gather together and speak in hushed tones about circulation numbers etc. They also chew on the bing bang that mainline newspapers can provide to brands that fall prey to their games. A couple of weeks ago I had a good friend try to explain to me the strategy behind the launch of a new service by a courier company. His solution was simple - full page ads in Times of India all editions, Economic times, BusinessWorld and TVCs across news channels. Money burnt - about 80 lakhs in one bloody day. I looked at him and blinked twice and gave him a look over. Was this guy for real? I wanted to check his pulse and poke him in his ribs to ensure that he was indeed alive.
It was then that my friend spoke in hushed tones about a secondary network of media that exists. This media network lives in the shadow of the biggies, it speaks local languages and is generally looked down upon by the Anghrezhi speaking types. But when you want to reach the grassroots, target the mass markets then you have to go to them. They are not expensive and they dont have flash value. No one will ever talk about them in glorious terms. But they do the job.
Think again - why the ^%$##$ did Hutch introduce vernacular Ads for Chota Recharge? And why do brand want to go local? The answer is that we city folks have reached media saturation, we dont look at ads

SO! can I be the first to lay claim to the future of Online advertising? Can I say that I intend to create a huge network of websites and blogs and forums and all that which cater to chota communities who are consumers? Can I tieup every small newspaper in the country and run their websites and drive visitors and thereby create value for advertisers? Can I therefore break the stranglehold of the bigg guys?

Can I do the same with the mobile phone?

Can I offer a potent combination to advertisers ? Mobile and online platform to reach the right consumer? Can I mine the data to know what patterns are emerging ? Can I link SBI Debit cards usage to predict when a family in Ludiana or in Vellambalam buys its next colour TV? Or tell Paramount Airways when Mr Parthasarthy from Chennai will take his next trip to coimbatore or When Mr Waghmare will fly to Kolhapur?

It is exciting times and by god the best to make history and not remain a footnote.

where all will you touch...

...your consumer ?

a quick visit to the washroom at delhi's turquoise cottage last night in the midst of rocking karaoke do left me stunned.

on the left hand side of the mirror. there was a nicely printed sticker. classy graphics too. saying that i was looking at a marie claire woman. and on the right of the mirror was pasted another sticker with a visual of the international marie-claire magazine.

i dont know if it was there by chance or deliberately put there. but pause now. think.

then there was this promo done by dettol handwash liquid soap in the washrooms of PVR cinemas where users had free bottles of the product for their use.

is this ten seconds worth of brand exposure in a washroom albeit in an "upmarket" what we are coming to ? imagine WC's with stickers saying they use harpic and nothing else !

there was this guy on e bay who was auctioning his forehead for a brand tattoo.
imagine if he was a co-worker or a family member.

sheesh !

move over SMS. MMS. inflight promos. pop-ups. in-film placements.

but the scrabble seems to be for newer and more innovative ways of brand exposure. in a myriad of ways. newer and innovative touch points.

the beauty is that now brands have people looking for that connect.

via podcasts. or message boards or discussion groups. or an online virtual walk through. or contests like this one which ask viewers to guess the ending of the movie "fanaa'. via gaming.
and yes even thru blogs !

so are there any more ways of touching consumers? capturing them while they remain willing slaves to a brands experience ?

possible areas could be around

movie seats
IM / chat browsers
search engine home page ( google allows you to brand the home page )
wiki
spa
at your shrink's office !
on your inflight movie screen
on your GPRS display screen
on your ice-cream cone


any one for any more ??

WiFi Zindabad

Over the last couple of weeks I have been travelling extensively between Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. Since most of the traveling is on short notice I end up with Air Deccan tickets, which almost everytime means that I am stuck at the city airports with two to three hours to kill. Till a few months ago this delay would mean that I would buy a few mags and read them, now with a wifi enabled wireless laptop I can get on to the net at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi (Mumbai is still in the backwaters).

I suppose very soon we will have sify, vsnl, bsnl wifi networks which cover every major building and maybe even cities. That brings us to some wonderful ideas:

1. If I am a VSNL wifi customer can I access a sify wifi network? Not yet, but imagine if such a thing was possible - it is possible if we build the system ( stupid!!) and extend it to roaming like we have in the cell phone domain. It would be wonderful to be online always via a laptop and be able to access information on a 15 inch monitor instead of a measly 4 inch Treo. I wish this happens asap and then it will open possibilities galore.
2. If there is a wifi network covering the entire city then why do i need a cell phone? can I have a handset which connects to the net via wifi? Have a skype equivalent on the handset ( some techies say that it is possible to build such a software) and lo and behold you can dial and speak to anyone using VOIP.

Is this the reason Google is investing in wireless networks in some cities? Can you begin to imagine what is going to happen?

sunil nair is famous !

read all about him here

pop the bubbly and make merry !!

magazines wanted

mala bhargava's take on how difficult it is to figure if a new mobile handset is for you, set me thinking.
plus my geeky buddy sanjeev sarma who lives with technology and tries to take us simple folk closer to it, had this idea.

a magazine on mobile phones.

i know IT and digital content publications do it partly. but there is now enough meat and enough consumers to make a go of this niche.

and then one more.
gaming.
and may parents, teachers all slaughter me. the truth is out there.
alongwith online gaming on PC's and at reliance web worlds , downloadable games for mobile phones and game CD's and cartridges for computers and Xbox and the PS series...

the websites which carry cheat codes for games ( shortcuts ) must be getting huge hits from lazy bones who want to get to the next level on their game without making the effort. so a real or a virtual gaming hangout would be BIG methinks.

does anything exist for the booming biotechnology and retail and entertainment sectors ?

then i am taken back to my salad days where a cult called Junior Statesman aka JS existed. once it closed down, no one has been ever able to re-create that magic.
perhaps today's youth may not even relate to a JS. but us youngat heart diehards surely would.

so it magazine time...wake up and smell the paper guys!!