e Magus

  This Diwali holidays, apart from the regular cleaning of the house, I also spent time clearing out old files, an archive of past pitch decks/presentations, from my laptop to save space. As I went through these remnants of previous efforts, one thing became clear: the pitches that resonated most with clients and were successful, were those that was anecdotal rather than data-heavy. Rather than charts, graphs, and research reports that dominated the slides, it was structured narratives, telling a story that clients connected with. What kept me thinking was, why do we instinctively lean towards stories, and why do stories often win over data? Our everyday interactions offer clues. Stories, whether in advertising, news, or casual conversations, are more memorable and engaging than standalone facts. Psychologists have long suggested that humans are “wired” for stories. Studies such as those by Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow , reveal the power of heuristic biases—me...

Being in advertising, one thing I keep hearing about daily is, the art of story-telling. All that we plan and do in terms of insights, culture, data analysis, personality sketch, mood boards, etc... all lead to the output of telling a good story. But, why do people love stories? Me thinks, it is much more than effective technique of communicating the content & the context; it is a question of fulfilling what we (or at least most of us) lack. The lives we live are mostly predictable - school till 17, then college, then higher studies, job, marriage, etc, etc.. as the days goes by, it becomes more predictable and monotonous. Thus our lives starts to become a staid repetition, consisting of same characters and same situations. Our lives are bereft of a good story. To satisfy this inherent want or need of good stories, is when we become receptive to good stories. Most stories that are successful (in popular terms) are those that do not reflect our lives, but those which...

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...

T o this day, I see many digital strategy presentations quoting this - “Content is the king”. Makes me cringe. Digital marketing has changed over the years, but seems like this quote stood the test of time.   So is just focusing on content enough? I dare say, no. Because Content, as a word and belief, is very impersonal, essence-tic, and passive. Content is good, but only good enough for artificial intelligence (bots) or a purposeful information seeker. Most of the digital marketing presence was created at a time when access to Internet was limited and expensive. Computers were physically wired onto the Net, the data charges were high, search results were limited, in such a scenario just plain content was fine. The content on the web evolved in the following manner: Information/Knowledge Entertainment & News Branded content Conversations In today’s immensely networked world, which is full of conversation - context is also crucial for success. And context are best put f...