LIFE OF A DIGITAL PLANNER

Wake up Sid:
The morning of a regular person sets out either with the cry of an alarm clock, or with the cry of his folks or that of a crow (the least possible chance). But for a digital planner it starts with a hazardous phone call (the client called up to check, if the campaign which was to go live, has gone live already on all the desired portals or not!) and the “Day long Road Blocks” that was scheduled gave him a long buzz. Fortunately, the media plan was approved (over the phone) the previous night itself, while he was driving back home (though there is no formal approval yet) and the deadline for our Digital Planner and his team was to go live by 10:00 AM that day. “I should be able to show a smiling face to my Boss, when I enter office today,” thought the client (the Digital campaign will be going live; it’s another bonus as the Appraisal Season is approaching). But what about our Raghu, the DIGITAL Planner, who slogged the whole night (hardly slept, eyes… still burning), made the Strategy/the Plan and negotiated the cost with all the publishers/vendors and finally could pull it to go live, could not even relax for a while after burning the ‘Mid Night Oil’. This is life and it goes on whenever there is a new campaign on the plate.

Satisfied customer is the best business strategy:
The whole day goes into nattering, thinking (or pretending to), ideating, discussing with the client (in short playing meeting-meeting). But there is the million-dollar question from everyone in the AGENCY as well from the CLIENT "Where is the Strategy"? (ab kise pata ye kaun si khet ki muli hain). Then the presentation session starts but you can hardly predict when it will end. Raghu’s stomach starts aching (elephant jumping) out of hunger, but the big IDEA & the STRATEGY is averting him to even take in enough oxygen. But as the clock started setting alarm that it’s getting super late, the Big Idea appeared out of the bolt with all data supports, after long hours of number crunching, and the 360 media integration started thumping on those mini-systems because all of them have to be in sync. The back-bone is not supporting anymore (giving a feel to be as old as 90) and just that moment a voice of a devil came aloud “Need to Change the Overall Strategy”, as the Brief has changed. Hence, they planned to meet the following morning for a brain storming session (in short the whole day got wasted after all those herculean efforts put together).

Pack Up troubles:
It’s now so late that you wish to just stay back in office itself (no more energy left to even drive back). Raghu just wishes to pick up some food on the way and then have it with some chilled beer at home and sleep tight. But the almighty has planned something more interesting for our Digital Planner. The other client, who has been active with Social Media campaigns wants to have a review meeting after a day as their Global Marketing Head is coming to town, at their regional headquarter and the regional team (so many of them & each one have separate demands) wants to showcase multiple Fancy Presentations. So chilled Beer does not chill Raghu well, instead he needs to grill himself with the mid-night oil for another long…really long night.
My Tip to our Digital Planner: Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Marriages are made in heaven….and Connections over Internet

The largest convict Internet is an Angel in disguise: One of the nicest things you can say to your partner, "If I had it to do over again, I'd choose you: Again." In the 21st century it can be easily rephrased as, “If I had it to do over again, I’d never choose the same way: Not Again.” Seema’s would-be in-laws blessed her from Chandigarh, as she touched the edge of the webcam from her Los Angeles flat. Seema Kohli, creative head of a leading advertising company and Kaustav Singh, the LA based entrepreneur have decided to tie-a-knot close to December and hence the formality of introducing Seema to his parents was a mandatory. Well the “saath janam ka rishta”…yes marriage was a real heck for the love birds and a trauma for arranged birds or fowls (they can decide it themselves). ‘Beti tum gaana to gaa leti hona na?’…’Tumhe khana to thik thak banana ata hain na?’…These are a few sample Saas-Bahu questions asked by the in-laws (who appear to be Mr. Amitabh Bachchan of Kaun Banega Crorepati) during their visit to her place. While the bride-to-be sits on the hot seat with immense exasperation amidst many aliens, hoping to counter correctly (only she wishes to get at least 4 options with few life-lines). So for Seema, the internet comes as an angel in disguise. She had two lifelines for immediate help….Google the God of Search & off course her would be: Kaustav to help her answer all those queries like cooking, dancing, singing etc. from her mother-in-law.

Marriages are made in Heaven…But so is thunder and lightning: We surely don’t want to decide that. The only concern is that we are in the digital generation and at the click of a mouse, we can find just about anything, including that elusive marriage affair. It’s the most creative way to find, meet and set the plot for even the most difficult social union. And why not; when we can buy the most expensive gadget by trusting the brand and the portal blindly, we can even do the same for our son and daughter. We can believe what our groom-to-be or bride-to-be has to say about themselves over the webcam (they can also sneak-peek at those elaborate profiles on those networking sites). While they are nicely dressed and well behaved in front of that mini camera, we surely don’t take the guarantee of how he behaves in person or how her food tastes when cooked. But it surely gives them a chance to escape the sheer embarrassment. Save a little money each month and at the end of the year you'll be surprised at how little you have; as for Seema and Kaustav, it’s all about saving time, but for few others, who stays in various parts of the globe, visiting their in-laws can be an expensive & time consuming affair before the “marriage”. Nevertheless, who wants to meet their in-laws so often?” After-all Indian marriages are an expensive and sometimes real expensive affair.

Well it was just a single outlook how the digital communication & connectivity have made our personal relationship & marriage affairs so simple and smooth; the positive attributes of this digital space cannot be covered in the small space of this blog at a time so I will share more such facets as well in coming days. Hence in today’s generation, it’s rightly said, “Marriages are made in heaven…and Connections over Internet”