e Magus

There’s something almost comical about LinkedIn’s wisdom factory. The moment an ad catches fire - good or bad —like Cadbury’s Not Just a Cadbury Ad , which featured Shah Rukh Khan promoting small businesses—it sparks a frenzy of insights and human truths . Marketing folks (and even those far removed from the field) pounce on the opportunity, dissecting its brilliance, speculating on its success, and anointing it a case study of our times. It’s as though every marketer is on call, ready to declare the causality behind virality. On the flip side, a campaign misstep—like current Jaguar’s rebranding ad—draws an equally feverish response. It becomes a post-mortem free-for-all, with LinkedIn lit up by a chorus of “I told you so,” blaming everything from misjudged social cues, the brand director’s sex orientation to poor corporate strategy. Whether it’s Nike’s market dip or Trump’s election triumph, there’s no shortage of listicles, each purporting to unpack the ‘10 reasons’ behind these out...

Management's history is steeped in the rigid discipline of military order. I remember my MBA professor’s mnemonic— Manage/Men/Tactfully —a sly nod to management’s early roots in hierarchy and precision. F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific management , designed a system built on oversight and efficiency, where managers commanded from their thrones of polished mahogany. When I joined the workforce in the mid-90’s, the control structure was very much visible. The manager’s workspace spoke volumes: a cavernous office with a desk that could seat a small nation, side tables, a fridge laden with benevolence, and a sofa set that whispered exclusivity. In India, most meetings called by the manager, was called a durbar : audience in the royal court.   Control was about proximity. Managers were gatekeepers of information, issuing directives and reinforcing order with the close watch of an army general. In some companies, at the time of joining, they even required a conduct certificate, prov...

  Quite sometime back I had posted on LinkedIn an update mentioning, in the future, agencies will be offered value based compensation by clients. Few days back I met one of my ex-colleague and he gave his own POV and also asked me to elaborate on my thoughts. Albeit the delay, this long post is just that. Alright, so picture this: the ad agency game, a whirlwind of creativity and strategy. But here's the plot twist – the traditional billing method is feeling a bit outdated. For more than 50 years, everything in the agency has changed, except the retainer fee. It is like watching multiple seasons of a TV serial but with that one character who has not changed - in looks or in personality.   Having a retainer based fee is fine. I’ve nothing against it. It’s like trying to watch a blockbuster movie on a black-and-white TV. Sure, it works, but it's not quite cutting it anymore. The problem? The usual time-based billing doesn't always sync up with what clients really want – measu...

These are interesting times. With the lockdown and impeding near-recession scenario, agencies will be faced with challenges in terms of both revenue growth and being prepared for the new norm in a changed world. As advertising agency business is closely linked to client’s business and since most companies will focus on business continuity, portfolio sustenance, and holding to their market position thus impacting marketing spends…it will not be business as usual at the agency end.   Some of the answers that agency leaders seek are - Profit: Where are the growth opportunities for agencies? People: How do agencies retain/attract talent? Process: Will there be any change in the way agencies work? Growth opportunities: Going by the popular catchphrase - follow the money, we know marketers have and are investing heavily into Martech & data in a big way. Their future marketing actions would be based on these investments. As a marketing and communicat...

Pic sourced from Flexijobs I know that only a few of you will get to read this article. Taking a cue from the apocryphal Chinese saying, we are living in interesting times. It is really disturbing not being sure of how the future will be. With the virus out there and most people confined to basic travel and self-isolation, Work-from-Home might become the new norm. This article is future-gazing on the obvious and not so obvious impact, if working from home becomes common. The obvious impact would be seen in the commuting sector. There will be lower demands for automobiles, cab hailing services like Uber & Ola, and affiliated categories like fuel. The demand for commercial real estate would also decrease, with more manpower for lesser commercial spaces. Remote working pods will increase. Telecom - internet service providers would see increasing demand for data, smartphones and better computer devices that can be used for networking and collaboration would increase too...

Pic credits: Getty & Inc.com Recently, a friend of mine asked me, what are the skill-sets required for becoming a successful entrepreneur? Having walked in the entrepreneur/start-up journey for few years, I gave him some top-of-mind thoughts on what makes an entrepreneur successful. However, the question stayed with me and I tried finding few common traits and reasons on what makes some folks successful. I got links to various articles where people wrote about   passion, resourcefulness, willingness to listen, team work, inspiring leaders, etc. But is there something more than these common actions that these (successful) people have? Something basic but more powerful in shaping their success. As they teach in many management strategy lessons that there are 2 powerful forces that impacts any outcome - Internal (Strength/Weakness) and External (Opportunities/Threats); with this premise, I started my search for answers to understand the intrinsic and extri...

It is been a while that I wanted to write about digital marketing. Having attended various workshops and seminars on digital marketing, I realize that people were talking the same thing, using different words. The gist being that everyone was talking about digital marketing from a campaign perspective - Earned, Owned, Paid, Social Media. But Digital Marketing is much more than branding or campaign led... It is how we use the existing and emerging technology to create a positive impact on our business. My thoughts and trying to decode digital marketing The Digital Marketing overview is all about creating a seamless and effective Digital Experience (DX) for clients. The DX would address the business objectives through strategic initiatives that will address: - Speed/drive marketing objectives - Create positive impact on business objectives - Interact with the customers in a meaningful and insightful way - Future-proofing The 3 pillars that will drive DX are Cu...

Generally, I blog then tweet about it. Some instances are exception. Couple of days back, I put out a tweet  giving 5 building blocks for digital strategy.  5 building blocks for your #digitalstrategy : devices, channels, data, enterprise applications, & content — Zentosh (@zentosh) March 20, 2016 Many had DM’d me asking for the details of it. So I decided to give an explanation on why I considered them as key filters for digital strategy Every digital strategy starts with the customers: - Who they are? What they want? What they are expecting? How is technology impacting their behaviour? What interactions they are having with competitors, category, etc. How you want them to interact or experience with your brand…..and by customers, i mean not just consumers, they are also your employees, partners (suppliers, vendors, sellers, etc) Once the customer need-behaviour-experience is identified, then it needs to be looked through these 5 aspects: De...

Having been an entrepreneur for over past 2 years and consulting for various startups on their business and marketing strategies, I had gained a lot of real experiences about the startup ecosystem.. from ideation to fruition  We all know that startups thrive in places where there is: economic growth access to capital young and educated work-force favourable government policies But, where do people get ideas for startups? Ask any startup founder and they would say - personal experience, market trends, existing problem or questioning the status quo, etc to be the top reasons which ignites the idea spark in them. A careful analysis of the top categories of startups (mostly technology startups) shows us that startup ideas thrive in the ‘border areas’.  Business is nothing but a form of structure that delivers value to stakeholders. The structures are formed basis specific activities. Every sphere of activity has a boundary and with each different boundaries...

Happy New Year to you all.. While consulting for clients (especially, startups) during the past year, I realised that most of them have a basic query… Give us some tips on digital marketing. While the topic itself is vast, here are few tips, in random order, which I think will be helpful to marketers  Keep (Customer) experience strategic and campaigns tactical Have an ‘Always On’ digital activity (Search, Online PR, Affiliate Marketing, etc) Build database, as and when possible and keep it consolidated Move on, somethings will not work for your product/brand. There is a difference in ‘Be In Social’ and ‘Being Social’. Social should be way of life for your company/brand, not a channel Every campaigns should have ‘learnings’ as a KPI Always keep a minimum percentage of digital marketing budget for innovations. Try something new, else you’ll never learn Your digital marketing should have at least 2 members - One who is digital savvy, and the other who is similar to yo...