e Magus

T he other day, during the story-telling time to my 3 year old kid, I was saying stories from Ramayana. I tried telling him the exploits of Rama sans the villain - Ravana (because, I thought it will be hard to explain to a 3 year old about a man with 10 pairs of hands, 10 heads, abduction of Sita, etc); I just stuck to the other stories - Like Rama as a young Lad, killing demons who troubled the Sages, The killing of Golden Deer (Marica), Cutting of Soorpanika’s ears and nose by Lakshmana, Killing of Vali, etc... It then occurred to me, that other than killing the main anti-protagonist, Ravana, there is nothing much in the popular stories, to write back home about. I mean, other than above, stuff like making Sita walk over flames, banishing her from his kingdom, a war with couple of kids (his own) for capturing a horse, are not the stuff attributed to a God, especially a Hero. While many argue and find various sub-plots that negate these ‘bad behaviour’; but I think, that the c...

A person who has never voted in the past 20 years, since the time I became eligible for voting, writing this article is oxymoronic. Looking back, I can justify that I had been shifting places so regularly that I never found time to register myself. That the process of registering is cumbersome. But nothing can hide the truth that maybe I was plain lazy..to get up, get going and vote. It could also be that I never believed the political class doing any good for me and why I should waste my time. With NOTA option available this time, I lose this argument too Apps in their true sense are nothing but access points to specific information or interaction that will satisfy a specific need. For any app to be successful it is necessary for us to identify the actual need of the user and then go ahead and fulfill that need Need identification: Why do people vote? A wonderful article by Satoshi Kanazawa ( Satoshi Kanazawa ), an evolutionary psychologist at London School of Economic...

Dear Remarketers, You have been one of the early adopters of this technology innovation in media - Remarketing. It is wonderful to see that 'performance' metrics drives your online campaign. As a digital marketer it is heartening for me to note that more and more of you are joining this band-wagon. Here is what I've experienced over the past couple of weeks. I was searching online couple of toys for my 3 year old son. After the necessary search and browsing, I zeroed on and the purchased items on the Amazon of India - FlipKart. Now I get bombarded by remarketing messages from FlipKart on the same toys (and another one which I browsed, but did not buy). Why? No clue. For God's sake!  I'm not a 3 year old with a credit card It should have been a simpler story for the website: I came, I saw, I bought. End of story. In case you still want to engage with me, go for sequels or with 'what-if' scenarios..but stop following me with non-relevant messages As...

Just checking few html codes for embedding into posts Facebook Post by E.G. Santosh . Twitter In Digital Marketing, the role of 'Digital' have always been more than the role of 'Marketing'. Its time for a role reversal — Santosh (@santosheg) November 19, 2013

In Physics, we have all learnt that black-holes are created by a dying star, and is a place where even light can’t escape its pull. Similar is a situation in the online space. When information comes to you (as a company/brand) but do not get actioned or in extreme cases do not even get acknowledged, then it is sure sign of the brand becoming a dying star. My past couple of digital experience makes me believe that many companies are yet to grapple with data that comes through their digital marketing. Direct responses/interactions to the company (@VodafoneIndia) like a Twitter messages goes into a loop of standard responses, without any logical end. More intriguing is submitting information in the online form (Airtel - MyPlan) also disappeared into the black hole.  Since actionable queries themselves are not actioned properly, I’m sure that data generated that need analysis for action (website data, campaign data, etc) are directly transferred into the black hole after the...

I n the ancient world, temples (yes, the ones we people go to pray) were the center of all things. Of course, they were considered sacred and people believed that the all-knowing and powerful entity lived inside the temple portals. It was also a place that imparted learning for students, gave employment to few. It was also a place where people congregated regularly and most people frequented and spent their free time in its premises. Temples were also a place that provided opportunity for cultural growth – be it the dances, the sculptors, paintings etc; The temple neighbourhood always brimmed with business – people selling their wares – flowers, food, pottery, clothes, jewels, etc.   Yes, temples played a significant role in terms of social, economic, religious, political, cultural, educational purposes in those times While some of these roles were soon taken over by big manufacturing industries, there was no clear consolidation of one entity that was the driving force be...

In this connected world, you are no longer anonymous. Be it through virtual connections – social platforms or professional networks; or identifying your device through IP address, you can be easily pinpointed to the last click you’ve made online. Still most of the online behavior people have, shows signs of anonymity. The feeling of anonymous gives rises to both positive and negative behavior online.   On the positive side, people tend to be more candid since the other person is not face-to-face. Many decisions can be taken at a rational level since the ‘influence’ of other factors like body language is minimal Another thing the feeling of anonymity being online brings forth is Type A behavioral traits. Some of the familiar Type A behavior patterns that can be seen online are hostility, competitiveness, hurry, impatience, restlessness, aggressiveness, etc... People with strong Type A behavior struggle against the pressure of time and the challenge of responsibility. ...

I n the   social psychology   of groups,   social loafing   is the phenomenon of people deliberately exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a   group   than when they work alone. (Source: Wikipedia ). However, I’m going to put forward my views of social loafing from the prism of online The time spent of social networking platforms is increasing phenomenally.   This can be attributed to 2 factors mainly driven by technology advancements – -        Accessibility -        Time on hand However in an effort to stay relevant and active in the platform, people are resorting to a different kind of social loafing… The popularity of ‘like’ button compared to the ‘comments’ is a wonderful example. The reason is the ‘liking’ a post or pic takes less effort than to create a comment Similarly are the social sharing buttons on websites, and other features like ‘sh...

E xcept for HPTOs (Home Page Take Overs), it seems as if re-marketing drives the entire online display advertising. Be it OTA ads, e-commerce sites, review sites, or even some corporate websites, everybody seems to be riding on this bandwagon. It must be effective and hence the rush. I’m told that remarketing ads gets an average CTR of above 0.75% where as a similar communication through a plain display ad would give a CTR of about 0.25%. A 300% increase in CTR, coupled by the fact that the conversion from such traffic also will be high (can safely assume double the conversion). Such effectiveness will surely keep the interest level high amongst marketers and advertisers. However, like most people, I am being ‘stalked’ by these salesman-ads. Be it a review site that I had gone to, or checked out ticket price and availability on an OTA site, these salesman-ads with standard copy flyers keep popping up in almost all the sites that I visit. For me, after a few repetitive messa...