Just a few months ago when i was in college i remember very clearly that I had a bias against a few of my classmates who were social media trainees at that point of time. I never considered anything they did as work, to me it seemed like all they ever did was log in to Facebook and while the time away. I may have even been slightly envious or intrigued but instead I chose to ignore social media as a career option and put all my effort into writing and ideating. However as time progressed and I started working I slowly began to realize the error of my ways. One simply cannot sit back and let opportunities pass by without at least giving it a shot, its best to get into the thick of things and give it a go first and then consider if you are capable of being creative across the board. So when i got my chance to write content for social media I had a go and I am glad i did because I can say quite honestly that I am in love. And it’s no puppy love either it’s an almost obsessive stalker like love that i feel for social media. I am enamored by the depth of things you can achieve via a social media platform, the reach is incredible and the results are quite staggering. You can have a constant interaction with your fan base and can get to know them on a personal level. Social Media to me is like a love child of advertising and marketing. It combines the best of both worlds and leaves out all the boring bits. To make it even better you know if you’ve succeeded in captivating the attention of you’re fan base or if you’ve ticked them off instantaneously, traditional advertising does not allow you this liberty.

Owing to my new found love for social media I have also begun enjoying statistics, I wish i could go back in time and tell myself that someday statistics would thrill me and be more than just a bunch of squiggly lines on a graph that determines the number of oranges on a tree or something of the sort. I am spellbound by the stats and i compete with myself every single day to get the graph to hit new highs and at most times I find myself bitterly disappointed that I couldn’t get a new like or my clever bit of writing was only noticed by my girlfriend. Irrespective of whether social media will reciprocate my love or not I will keep trying to woo her. I may or may not succeed but what’s important is I will end up learning a whole lot in the process.

By  Wayne Mathias
Author is a Copywriter at Merry Men and has promised to contribute regularly to this blog.

Bell Bajao, one of our clients asked us to come up with an idea to coincide with 16 days of activism by UN, from the 25th of November to the 10th of December. Seeing that Bell Bajao’s influence on Twitter was relatively poor as compared to the following and influence they carried on Facebook, Merry Men came up with the idea of 16 days of Tweetism. A special hastag was created for the occasion: #16dot and we started to seed the tag amongst social influencers on Twitter. We also created a special logo for the event and threw in some limited edition t-shirts (shown below) for interesting tweets. We then got in touch with influential bloggers who blogged regularly on the issue of women’s rights or domestic violence and have them write 16 different pieces for everyday of the activity.

The idea was simply and catchy. People following us or following #16dot would read interesting tweets from around the world on the issue of domestic violence for the 16 days. They could join in the campaign by either retweeting these tweets or by writing an original tweet.

In just a few days of launching it became obvious that we had struck a nerve. Tweets started to pour in from all over the world. At last count over 500 tweets have been accounted for in just 7 days! The blog to which people were redirected has received so far over a 1000 page views and over 600 unique visitors. And Bell Bajao has added over 50 new influential followers whilst being upgraded in Twitter’s opinion to an ‘influential person’.

You can follow the tweets by typing in #16dot on twitter search or by following @bell_bajao.

Start ups are not like other marketers. More often than not, they have an amazing product but not the financial firepower to promote it. However, marketing is still critical to them, as it validates the brand offering and is a surefire route to scaling up.

Upstart is a unique product designed by Merry Men exclusively for start up brands and small marketers. In keeping with their needs, Upstart offers effective but low cost marketing solutions that can be measured against benchmarks.

Also being a 3 month closed ended marketing program Upstart does not require the promoters of the brand to make major long term marketing commitments. Upstart is designed on a ‘build and transfer’ model, wherein we train a team on the brand’s inside to handle the various brand platforms created and transfer the reins to them seamlessly at the end of 3 months.

How it works:

The rise and rise of digital and alternate media has proven a boon for small and start up brands. We cleverly combine the use of viral marketing (social networking platforms) and other digital media platforms to deliver a marketing solution that is both effective and light on the wallet.

Once you sign on to Upstart, we chart out the activity plan for the next 3 months. This is done in close conjunction with the promoters of the brand. The plan will cover the span of what we want to achieve in the next 3 months, how we propose to do it and lastly, how we can measure the results.

Mails at regular intervals and monthly reports help you keep a close eye on how Upstart is performing for your brand. This also allows for any course correction in case of any changes in environment.

Deliverable:

1. 3 month activity plan
2. Increasing the brand’s digital footprint by using social networking sites and other platforms
3. Seeding the brand’s content in various forums.
4. Monitoring the activity constantly and regular updates via mail and reports
5. Training your team on managing the digital brand activities initiated and smooth hand over to them at the end of 3 month

Cost:

Upstart has been designed specifically keeping (often) cash strapped start ups and small marketers in mind. We charge a fixed fee of Rs 60,000 (excl. taxes) which is split into monthly payouts of 3 months.

Other advantages:

Upstart is powered by Merry men, a media neutral agency run by seasoned advertising professionals which works with a host of well known brands. It helps them with advertising solutions across the board, from print and TV to digital. Once you sign on to Upstart and believe your marketing program needs more support like in the areas of website designing or creating print and TV ads, collateral, etc, then Merry Men can offer you those services for an additional discounted fee.

Contact:

If you’d like to enlist for Upstart or need more details then call and speak to Kartik on 9870014333 or email us at kartik@merrymen.co.in

We’d also like to hear your feedback on Upstart and if you think there are any features we should add or improve in the product. Use the comments feature below to let us know.

What’s a big idea? Some would say, an imaginative but practical thought. And who can argue that. After all, what good is an idea if it can’t be implemented? But the truth is, that’s the horse shit we have been giving ourselves for years. A poor excuse for dull minds. No idea, bold or innovative, came without ridiculous leaps of imagination.
Last week a cycle called ‘Precious’ started riding across America for charity. But this is no ordinary cycle. It literally has a mind of its own.
Thanks to technology, an onboard device captures all of Precious’s experiences, analyzes them and meshes them to send out up-to-speed tweets. Breakfast, the company that helped make this possible, says on its site that it loves to hear ideas that just can’t be done.
As for Livestrong, the foundation that gave us Chalkbot and now Precious, it shows they get it. You can no longer just take a cycle and ride across America to get people’s interest. You need more in these times.
Would love to hear what you think of the “precious’ Campaign.

Enjoy the viral video we created for ourselves and was uploaded to Youtube and Facebook recently.

This year at the venerable Cannes awards, as usual the best of advertising from around the world got a standing ovation. But what stood out was how many ads refused to look like one. Or rather what we are used to seeing them as. Messages boxed into 100 cc spaces or a 29 inch tube. Something we at Merry Men have been talking about for sometime now.

Take for instance the winning entry for the digital category. Which to start with is a giant mix of ambient, technology, event and a strong idea. A few years ago, we wouldn’t have known what category to slot it in, let alone award it.

The Chalkbot by Nike is an inspired piece of creativity. But the question is, is it an ad? Yes, absolutely. Just like any ad, this piece of creative had a brief, a target audience and other advertising parameters of judging success. Yet, we fail to see it as something that must come out of an agency. Someday, we hope a Chalkbot comes out of ours.

Yesterday was a big day for Home Review Designquest, our maiden project. Against the backdrop of the gorgeous Tote bar and restaurant, the winners of Designquest were announced, by the MD of Hansgrohe India – Nicholas Matten. In the words of Nicholas – Designquest is the first of its kind contest (in the world) being organised for Designers, by someone from the publishing industry. And that he was stunned such a concept (using mainly online and social media to generate participation) was coming out of India and not  a fully developed economy! A proud moment for Merry Men and team Home Review.

What certainly started out as a contest for designers and young architects, has blossomed into a vibrant community of over a 1000 fans in facebook alone and growing everyday.  Read what DNA had to say about the event and the entire process.

We can help your brand also come up with a winner like Designquest.  Drop by  for a coffee if you’re in the neighbourhood or just send us a mail.

Gandhi used non-cooperation to infuriate the Raj. Lowe India, pulled out of the ad festivals many years ago to protest against the judging process, but if they continue with the same policy even today, its because it has helped differentiate them from the award-hungry agencies. And recently Pepsi America showed non-participation in the Superbowl can be just as effective in generating a viral hit as buying a spot on prime time sports.

It becomes apparent that in a world of undifferentiated products, non-participation  when used effectively can be a strategy in itself. Will non-participation in the IPL be someday a calling card for a big Indian brand, like say Sahara? Can boycotting expensive traditional media for digital be turned into a brand event?

Love to hear your views.

Put three people: a famous movie star, a strange looking plump man and a suitably hot woman in an office room. Keep the camera locked in and give them 30 scripts to enact, each no longer than 20 seconds. Throw in a few props to add some variety to the mix. And there you have it, a “Same Set, different story” formula.

This year, the IPL has seen this formula regurgitated by many brands, including some that normally churn out good stuff. IDEA, Max New York Life and Vodafone are some that come to mind immediately. The SSDS formula was first made popular by the Zoozoos in the first edition of the IPL, where everyday there was a new commercial on air. The viewer was thrilled to not only be treated with respect but also entertained.

But sadly, what was a case of many things coming together (in the case of the Zoozoos), has been reduced to a media strategy circus. Some of the brands mentioned above have a new commercial/edit on air everyday, which makes an already bad idea stretch painfully longer. The desperation to be seen has unfortunately lost out to the need to be remembered.

I hate using this blog to rant about personal experiences. But this has to be an exception because it is about a company that otherwise produces iconic advertising.

For the last month and a half i have tried my best to get the attention of a certain Mr. Simon, a Malayali gentleman who is listed on Pidilite’s (Dr. Fixit) website as one of the applicators of their products for my area. But Mr. Simon is too busy to even listen to my problem, let alone come down and take a look. Frustrated with his behaviour i finally did what every angry consumer would: threatened to report his ways to the company. After all he was listed on their site! But Mr. Simon didn’t break into a sweat at the thought of being hauled up. He told me to go right ahead and slammed the phone down. The cheek, i thought.

So again i did what every angry consumer would. I called up Pidilite to speak to the consumer care department. After being shunted around, from one extension to another, i realised why Mr Simon was not bothered by my threats. Customer care was the last thing on this brand’s mind.  And as long as they keep making one fantastic ad after the other for brands like Fevicol, who cares?

Mr. Simon, you win.