Archive for category Phonethics
C&binet
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Phonethics on October 21st, 2009
‘The Creative side of technology and the technology side of creative’ – its not how usually people respond when you ask what they do for a living!
But earlier this year I met 9 other entrepreneurs, communications and media business – people from all over the world and I was delighted to meet someone who did exactly ‘that’. Crisscrossing The UK, on an insightful tour of the Creative businesses across the country, we chatted about the opportunities and business scenarios back home and compared notes. Inspite of the general doom and gloom (this was Mar 09, the nadir of the financial meltdown) all of us were extremely positive about the business we were in. Each one of us had great conviction in what we did. Some of us used digital tools to deliver unique products that were commercial and some used digital media as a tool for social change. The magic lies somewhere in the combination of the two.
If you think of digital delivery as a lens that can scale the reach of critical information the problem (of finding sustainable business models) suddenly becomes an opportunity. In the context of a large and diverse emerging economy glamorous digital businesses like news and music pale compared to the demand for educational and health based content. The Creative Economy program by the British Council creates the type of mini network and more importantly awareness which is needed for entrepreneurs to re-focus on ‘digital needs’ as opposed to ‘digital desires’ of their consumers.
Traditional news and music businesses have (much) bigger demons to fight, than the internet, to survive in the new world-media order. All that the rest of us have to do, is meet up! See you at C&binet 
Blog on TV = Blog.telly (another cool client of ours)
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Phonethics, Social Media, Viral Marketing on September 29th, 2009
Medianama has this insightful coverage of a new interactive feature from DEN. Essentially a service that broadcasts user comments to a wider TV audience. We are beginning a Social Media promotion for them now and the initial response is quite healthy though one does wish it would provied more than the warholian fleeting minutes of fame! We’ll be watching the campaign response quite eagerly since this project also marks Phonethics’ entry into the domain of ‘Media Consultancy’. Exciting times..
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Social Media Campaign for Cadbury Bournville by Phonethics
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Phonethics, Social Media, Viral Marketing, Visual Alphabets on September 28th, 2009
As far as Social Media marketing goes, content is intent. www.the-dark-truth.com is a content led campaign for Cadbury Bournville. We created a character called the Old Hound who blogged and also featured in a comic that took the audience through the Legend of the Bournville in action. The mystery led blog posts and curated content from across the web that was posted on the Facebook profile of the character Old Hound kept up the stickiness quotient of the community. It was fun to see people post their paranormal experiences online to share with the Old Hound. The audience participation was tremendous with folks also posting their own stories of ‘earning it’ ['you don't just buy a Bournville, you earn it - the brand's theme & catchline].
The blog has rec’d over 125k views uptill now and continues as one of our most successful content led campaigns (in terms of user participation) ever!
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Viral for Mak Lubricants
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Phonethics, Social Media, Viral Marketing, Visual Alphabets on September 22nd, 2009
Animation still remains a hot favourite with digital marketeers when it comes to making Viral videos, And Cricket and TV/Bollywood based characters rule the roost! This project was executed for Mak Lubricants (agency – Saatchi & Saatchi) under the creative supervision of Vishal Kashyap (Creative Director, Phonethics) and technical and ops support from Vikram Russell.
Watch it here
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How will you know when you’re successful?
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Articles, Enter'prize', Mobile Content, Phonethics, Visual Alphabets on September 16th, 2009
At the International Young Communications Entrepreneur’s forum in London, earlier this year, I was asked a simple question by Sir Chris Powell (the founder of DDB London & Worldwide), “How will you know when you’re successful?”
The question had me stumped. I gold-fished my way through the answer but the question stayed with me.
“How does one know when one is successful?”
100 more clients? 20 offices? Global product? Networks? million followers on twitter? A boat? private planes? Two divorces and three alimonies?
What?
How was I to know when I was successful? Would there be a sign or waving flags at the finish line? An invisible red tape that I could chest proudly? The problem is an enterprise is not a 100 metre run, it’s not even a marathon, more often than not its an entrepreneur’s lifetime. It’s a long enough time to get lost chasing short term goals and lose sight of the ‘big picture’.
The question had me thinking and prompted me to take another look at what we were doing and where we were headed.
To imagine ‘success’. What it would look, taste, smell, feel like!
The answer came to me as i prepared a case-study presentation for the National Entrepreneurship Network. I went through the entire story of how Phonethics was set-up, how our office got sealed off in Delhi, how folks did good and bad by us and how we went from a -40L to a 2Cr+ set-up in 15 months. It struck me that the journey is the reward! The very attempt to strike out, to do something different, challenge the status quo, create is an extremely powerful emotion! (the money helps and frankly there’s more of it chasing you when you no longer chase it)
I’m proud of this journey and of our goals, thankful to my co-travellers and the entire eco-system and determined to never confuse ’success’ with ‘intent”
great letter announcing very good news!
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Enter'prize', Mobile Content, Phonethics, Uncategorized on September 8th, 2009
C&binet (www.cabinetforum.org), a not-for-profit network created by the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was launched in 2008 to foster international dialogue about the creative economy focussing on the four main themes including access to finance for creative industries, new business models for online content, developing talent and securing creative rights.
The first annual C&binet forum on Nurturing Creative Content in the Digital Age is taking place on 26 – 28 October 2009 at The Grove in Hertfordshire and will bring senior creative business leaders together with policy makers and investors to identify and support the most effective means of protecting, producing and commercialising creative work.
The opportunity to attend this forum was opened up to several members of the International Young Creative Entrepreneur (IYCE) network.
I’m happy to say that Saurabh Gupta, Founder & CEO, Phonethics from Mumbai has been selected to attend the forum next month.
Saurabh was the India Finalist of the International Young Communications Entrepreneur Award 2009 and was awarded a special commendation at the UK ceremony for his commitment to innovation and his strong sense of the global potential of his business.
thai m(e)ssage
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Phonethics on August 26th, 2009
We had the pleasure of shooting an ad film with a Thai crew in and around Bangkok recently. The quiet efficiency of the the crew amazed me. The one thing that the Thai are concerned about is ’sanuk’ ; losing face and Vikram (my colleague) had to work overtime to ensure they felt comfortable and assured about payments etc (you’d be surprised, or maybe not, at the number of producers from india who’ve defaulted on payments!)
day 1 of the shoot started at 5 am in pattaya at the marina. we’d rented a yacht and the crew was set-up and ready to roll at 5.45 (an hour ahead of schedule). It helped that the director (Ayhan: Smiling Buddhha) and the DOP (SUnil Pillai) were patient, helpful and great fun. The thai crew wears t-shirts to demarcate deptts – lighting, grips, camera etc. this is a practice we’ve been trying to start for the last 5 years! on a boat this saves not only time but potentially lives!! Excitement – So, i missed the boat at the marina and turned up an hour late (6am) by which time the boat had already sailed
(literally). Maew (matronly, superstar Line producer from Thailand) rushed me to the Pattaya beach, bullied someone into handing their speedboat over and we rode into the sea full speed. 10 miutes in and we realised that none of us really knew which way the big boat had gone! Some tracking and locating with frantic calls andwe found the boat. of course i couldn’t get on it immediately since they were ’shooting’. so we trailed behind for a bit before i could hop on!
the same day we travelled back to bangkok and shot a chroma and exterior sequence including a super ambitious shot which involved hauling a jib on top of a bungalow. the shot was completely set-up and ready to roll when we got there. each sequence was ready and the art-work (with options) was done. the only hitch – someone had cancelled the catering. so maew to the rescue again – super noodles and rice in lunch-boxes. the thai crew had a rolling lunch (on job lunch) without any requests from us in the evening the client (Naqash, 25) was embarrassed with a HUGE cake. It was the sweet man’s birthday and we thought it was the least that could be done considering he’d spent the netter part of the day between lights, camera and ACTION. after the shoot a long drive to a hotel somewhere mid-way to the next day’s location.
the next day we turned up at this magnificient 18th century structure in khao sayi. pity we were shooting only interiors here the exterior was framed against rolling green-blue hills with mist gently rolling down the entire day. a lake and a super-fab restaurant completed the experience. by now we’d shot in a heritage location on two days and the sensitivity shown by the crew to the location and it’s material was impressive. i’m talking tennis ball buffers on light stands, card-boards spread across the wooden floor and rubber wheels on ALL equipment. Specially loved the ‘apple-boxes’ for the director and assts to perch on.
A beer party for the crew at the end of the shoot and a quiet dinner at a river side restaurant made for a splendid ending to the entire trip. Maew, full of super-delicious thai food, talked about her ‘dream’. She’s adopted 10 kids and is buying land to build a hostel and school for them. She asked me if people in India don’t notice the poverty and if it’s mostly about money money money (she did say it 3 times).
i’m still wondering. Will we ever learn to be efficient? on time? respectful? human?
Letting go..
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Enter'prize', Phonethics on August 3rd, 2009
We’re producing an ad film and i’m not directing it. This statement means nothing if you don’t know that Phonethics started as ‘Ethics’ a small 3 people production house working out of a small office in Mehrauli, Delhi on top of a banana godown. The ad film in question was won after months of presentations and many rounds of meetings. It doesn’t gel with our current range of products at Phonethics but we decided to do it because of the complex animation and stylish post production involved. We will have to trust an outsider (not really, but then everyone who doesn’t wear the uniform is an ‘outsider’:) with the final execution and most importantly, creative vision. It’s something we haven’t done before. We nearly decided to ‘do it ourselves’. But it’s an exercise in growing up. As an organisation. As Creative people. We’re letting go..
Friends, Employees, Partners, Lovers
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Enter'prize', Phonethics on July 9th, 2009
A start-up needs them all.
Friends who will self-lessly provide connections, introductions and listen to you at the end of a dark day when it’s all working against you. Who will be honest yet compassionate as they test the Beta. You cannot (or at least should not) take them for granted.
Employees, who will (hopefully) deliver at least what they’re being paid for. Maintain confidentiality, perform as competent resources and believe (reasonably) in what they’re (and the venture is) doing. They are critical to your success but don’t brood over some you lose along the way – there’s always more where that came from.
Partners, who will share risk, stand by you come hell or high water, be open and bring on the table distinct value creation abilities. These have to be chosen wisely. The success of the venture and your personal health (as an entrepreneur working in infra strapped India) depends on these people.
Lovers, will be the most difficult. These are the folks who feel just as passionately about the idea as the founders. They will kill, maim, beg, borrow and die for the ’cause’. They will also be the most difficult to
manage and please. They are the self image of the entrepreneur and will demand the confidence and attention that can sap ordinary folks. Don’t (and you can’t) cheat them. Unfortunately, You don’t choose them, they choose you!
Every organisation has all of these within. Sometimes people will switch from being one to the other as they spend more time or change roles, grow older or simply come to ‘believe’.
The challenge for the entrepreneur is to figure who s/he is dealing with and respond accordingly. Everyone else please figure who you are.