Saurabh Garg on The New New Thing

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If everyone is evangelizing new media and social media, then how come the same “evangelists” get excited about even a small and insignificant mention of their name in the most obscure of the newspapers and TV channels that no one bothers to read/see?

Dichotomy at its very best.

In this post I shall talk about brands as I understand them and as they are applicable to digital brands. Please note that this list is still in beta and will evolve with time. Your feedback would be really appreciated.

This is required because we need to stop looking at startups as just startups but serious businesses where branding plays a vital role. Often, the way you look at the business makes a lot of difference to way you work.

Coming to the point, I think there are three principles. Utility, Emotional Connect and Relationship that goes beyond just one product.

A: Utility

• Customers never talk about a brand they are going to use. They talk about the action they will perform. What problem does the brand solves?
  • I need to book and air ticket. I will use Cleartrip.
  • I need to upload slides and show them to friends. Let me use Slideshare.
• The brands that can make themselves synonymous to utility invariable become the leaders.
  • Can you Google the data on number of Internet users in India?
  • Can you Slideshare your presentation please?
• The utility could be functional, mechanical, emotional, psychological or any of those –al things.
  • Using Twitter helps me stay in touch with friends on the go.
  • I use FB because the elite Internet users in India are on FB.

B: Emotional Connect

• A customer will use a brand that he can associate himself with.
  • I like Apple products because they stand for innovation, user interface and simplicity.
  • Google stands for open culture. I am an open source evangelist and hence I will use and promote Google initiatives.
• If possible, the association with the brand should elevate the status of the user.
  • Google could have invited everyone when they launched Gmail. Limited invite was a way to get traction. All limited launches are like that.
  • Alltop gave away batches like “featured on alltop”. People displayed these batches because it was a way to show off that you belonged to the best of the category (as rated by alltop).

C: Relationship extending beyond single product

• The relationship should start with one product and when the company launches more products, I should be aspiring to buy them too. This is very important for creating sustainable businesses that go beyond one time relationship.
  • My relationship with Apple started with an Ipod. I have already bought a MacBook and have pre-ordered the iPhone.
  • I started using Google as a search engine. Then I started using groups. Then it was Gmail. And then calendar. The list continues.

Which one of the three things are valid about your brand? If it does only one, how can it do other things?

Please give your feedback to me at saurabh.garg+digitalbrands@gmail.com

Today India won their first ever Grand Prix Lion at the Cannes Lions. JWT won the award for their work on Lead India campaign for The Times of India Group. The idea was simple yet effective. JWT created a reality TV show to choose an Indian that can become a political leader in times to come. This campaign was executed on print, tv, radio, BTL, Internet, on-ground and almost all the platforms available to reach the consumer.

This Grand Prix is important because it marks the arrival of Indian Advertising on the global scene. Indian advertisers have now proved that they are at par with (if not better than) their counterparts from other markets. It is also important because Lead India was a very visible campaign (compared to other winning ideas that are hardly seen in main stream media).

Congrats to JWT and winning team. Hope this would give inspiration to everyone else in the Indian creative community to create more commercial good work.

UPDATE: JWT also won the Integrated Lion 2008 for the campaign. Two big wins for India in one year. Kudos.

Have renamed the blog as The New New Thing.

Why?
1. “Saurabh Garg talks” was really an inappropriate title. I am trying to collect interesting things here and “talks” is a boring, overused and abused word. Had to move away from it.

2. Although I never cared for what people make of this blog, I have realized I should. This marks a fundamental shift in the way I perceive my blog. Earlier I was writing because I needed an avenue to let out my thoughts. I have seen that blogging is an awesome way to meet new people and get more ideas. More and more people around the world are looking at blogs to express their thoughts and share what they know. Everyone has a publishing power that they did not have. Everyone has the tools to be able to gather audience. Everyone can now make fans. Time is appropriate to start using blog for professional reasons. And hence the change.

3. Why “New New Thing” and not anything else? Since I am always in pursuit of interestingness and that new thing, I thought this would be an apt title for the time being. Until I find the newer, better and more interesting name. Everything is in a constant state of flux. Things might change rapidly, slowly, in small steps but the they do change gradually. What is interesting today might now be interesting tomorrow. In all probability it will not be. No one can predict what would be hot. And hence the name The New New Thing. And as I have said earlier, I might change it again. (Advisory: Name copied from the book The New New Thing by Michael Lewis. Brilliant book. Must Read. My review is here).

We live in a branded world. Brands are everywhere and without realizing you come in contact with tons of brands. I am right now at Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. This festival essentially celebrates and awards the best pieces of paid for communication. Winning the lion is amongst the best things that can happen to anyone in the creative business.

I had an hour to kill that I utilized to finish some of my Google Reader list. Today has been an interesting day. The presentation on advertising in China by Saatchi and Saatchi China was ordinary to say the least. The workshop by Wunderman was brilliant. The Mindshare talk on Branded Entertainment was interesting. All in all an interesting day so far. Better than yesterday where none of the sessions was really impressive.

And for the lack of something really brilliant to say, I am right now in a lounge where free Internet has been sponsored by Microosft. From where I am sitting, without turning around, I can recognize following brands Motorola (Phone), Nokia (Phone), Blackberry, Coke, Macbook, RayBan (glasses), Puma, Adidas, HP (laptop), Evian (water). Not a large number by any standards but interesting thing is that all these are global brands and universally they stand for the same things.

Coming back to the festival, India has had some 20 odd shortlists so far. Haven’t had time to see the entries and work submitted by agencies around the world but will soon see and comment on them.

Wunderman left with a lot of food for thought and there are few ideas. Need to go back to Mumbai and work on them.

So far the festival has been very ordinary to say the least. Even things like scheduling is bad. Most of the sessions are overlapping and they could have better planned. For the second day in the row, the sessions are overlapping and everyone around here is been complaining about it.

More notes soon.