Category: COLUMNS

By Sanjeev Kotnala

 

Happy New Year.

It is the time when you have so many brilliant thoughts. When you are dedicated to change things and be more positive. In some time, these thoughts mellow down and practicality sets in. Like a stretched rubber band, you come back to your original self, as if nothing ever changed. That is the stage when you give up on yourself. Think again.

We all are natural coaches. Check out your last three-month interactions and you will see moments where you have acted as a coach. Oh yes, you have been coached too. Here, I am focusing on a third dimension, YOU BEING YOUR OWN COACH.

Coaching oneself is such a satisfying experience. You enjoy the success. You live and appreciate issues. You give your 100% and more. However, there are instances when motivation is lost and energy drops. The signs are there to see. You lose interest. One of the primary reasons is the goals set at the start. It may have shifted, no longer relevant, seem too distant or impractical.

It is possible to enhance successful execution? Yes, if you understand the cause. If you can see what makes you give up their dreams? What stops you from self-improvement? Why do the resolution and the fire to succeed fizzles out? What is causing disappointment? Why are you not finding it effective? You will agree that the one person you completely understand and are in control of, is YOU.

CHECK 1. While being your own coach setting up those lofty resolutions, you have missed at some critical elements. Have you at the time of Goal Setting, Progress Monitoring and sustenance been as charged and disciplined as you should be? Have you underestimated and erred in time estimation, dedication, distraction, result and sustenance efforts required?

REMEMBER. It is you, who makes the change. It is not the plan and the dreams but the adherence, implementation and practicing that make the difference. Hence, every one of your effort is set to fail from the first day, unless you willingly subscribe to the idea, process and result. It is your responsibility to look inward than finding scapegoats and excuses outside.

SELF-MOTIVATION is one of the prime pillars for you to succeed in your endeavor of coaching yourself. You need to commit yourself to act. You need to believe in the process. And you have to be patient with the results. You do not start any act as a possible test ride. If you ever enter in that frame of mind, you will see it as an experiment and a formality. Soon, you will find that you do not own your objective and process, and you will give up.

SELF-COACHING is all about helping yourself. It is action oriented. It is aimed to achieve something that is inside driven. It is not something where you are imposing things. It has to be willful dedication to the cause, benefit and result. In case you find a flaw somewhere, it is better to redraw the path than to unwillingly drag yourself.

OVERSTIMATING capabilities and UNDERESTIMATING the time required is a genuine human problem. It is true for anything that we attempt. It is always at a later stage when we realise it takes longer. We are forced to re-evaluate the time-effort-output benefit. And here we do so from a biased viewpoint.This is where we most likely give up.

Take a VERY PRACTICAL VIEW of the possibilities and rightly estimate the time required to get the desired result and impact. It is essential that you take into account your own habits and work ethics, your behaviour and your decision-making process. Layer it with criticality and importance of the change you want and the result you are striving to get.

YOU CAN’T WISH THINGS AWAY. It has taken you so long to be wired the way you are. There is no real switch that you can trip to change the way you think and act. It is never easy to overwrite the already smudged slate.

We all also Like UNDERESTIMATE THE DIFFICULTY of the task, change and impact. Thinking wishfully, dreaming requires no efforts. Planning and execution are two different things. It may look too easy and simple while planning. However, it could be real tough to execute.

YOU DO KNOW. How easy is to stop smoking? It is about keeping a smoke handy. It is simply about not lighting one and not bending your elbow or not taking the drag. However, it is tough to do. Results are always long term. Expecting instant gratification is a fallacy.

EXECUTION NEEDS PASSION, COMMITMENT AND DISCIPLINE. Just the desire is never enough. Hence, you will do yourself a favor if you examine the difficulties at the start. Stop being casual in your efforts and taking too much on your agenda. Take delta steps but in the right direction.

REMEMBER ANYTIME IS A GOOD TIME TO START. So what if you failed, and your conviction on self is hanging by hope. Regroup your energies, think again, evaluate of goal, process, impact, time-effort equation, layer it with your behavior traits and redesign the perfect plan. Real changes require real efforts.

There are many DISTRACTIONS IN LIFE. There are changing priorities that will place that extra pressure in your capabilities, passion and time. Things will be there that will pull you away from the path that you so brilliantly designed and had every intention to follow. You are human and a social being with a personal and professional life. There is no way you can possibly think of all the crisis, challenges and distraction. Hence, it is impossible for you to plan for all of them. You can’t build all the downtime you will require in your schedule.

You are aware if them. Maybe it is time that you do seek an FRIEND, COACH OR MENTOR, who in spite of your distractions will help you remain focused and committed to your plans. For this, downtime needs to be built-in the process. If you do so, you will realize coaches facilitate your efforts. They help you set up realistic timelines and ensure that you achieve the results.

You are EXERIENCED. You know what the biggest challenge is. It is not to think, plan and start. It is to maintain the changed process, habit, behavior or relationship. You would most likely have friends who have left smoking for a long period and then started again. And that is a good demonstration of what it is all about.

THERE IS NOTHING CALLED HALF-PREGNANCY. You have to remain focused and maintain the new desired planned process, habit and behavior. It is you, who has to be passionate and committed to it.

ONLY YOU CAN HELP YOURSELF.

Coaches have a definitive responsibility in telling their clients that it is they who have to do the work to get to the goals they have agreed. Coaches are just facilitator and nothing more.

 

Sanjeev Kotnala with 28 years of corporate experience is the founder of Intradia World; a Brand, Marketing & Management Advisory. His focus area includes Ideation and Innovation; he also conducts specialized workshops like IDEAHarvest, Liberate and InNoWait. For soft skill training, he follows SHIFT (Specific High-Intensity Frequent training), a process of continuous training with frequent shorter sessions. Email sanjeev@intradia.in tweet @s_kotnala web: www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com.

 

By Sanjeev Kotnala

 

There is an industry and then there are people who for reasons best known to them make every attempt to break the fragile fabric of star events. It holds true for Goafest and the Abbys too.

Are egos involved? The industry most likely will answer with a loud YES.

I believe in a simpler truth. They are like that only.

It is time we start valuing and accepting positive critique aimed at improvement and disregard all the static. It is not a MAdTech house of Bigg Boss we want here. MadTech, I like this word I read in WARC, it has the inclusiveness and reflects the growing importance of technology in advertising and marketing.

Let us stop unnecessarily raising dead questions like ‘Who is boycotting’ or not taking part. Such agencies will have their valid reasons. Why debate their open-eyed conscious decisions. Let’s celebrate creativity and the 25% growth in the number of entries.

Let’s also avoid questions like big v/s small jury. Who is and how are they nominated for jury duties?

There is ample transparency. Agency heads-nominated people are on jury duty. There is wide representation. Respected names chair the jury. There is a third party audit of the process. Discussing this is not worth spilling the free beer at Goafest. I hope we are continuing with the free beer and no one has taken my suggestions of 2016.

I appreciate Ramesh Narayan’s comment on ‘Bestmediainfo’ on this subject. He says: “I would urge all to look at last the year’s jury, which has the best people from the Indian advertising industry. If they are not fit to judge, then who are? If you have any names, then tell me.” I agree that the AGC is doing a great job. The jury selection ensures right representation. The process is transparent and fair. That’s what counts.

No doubt, there is enough transient damage and Ramesh Narayan is right on target when he says: “the biggest challenge for the Abby Committee is to preserve the equity of the Abby brand and grow it. It is something that has been nurtured over the years, and we owe it to the industry to enhance its cachet”.

I think we have a good team of seniors in the industry just trying to do so. “Remember, Most of the work done for industry events is from very busy people who give of their time, energy and money only to feel a satisfaction of giving back to an industry from which they have received so much. This motivation to promote an industry initiative comes from the heart”. Ramesh Narayan is again bang-on with this observation.

 

Nevertheless, as everywhere else, we too have armchair stalwarts, who find fault in every possible agenda. So, I go yeah and punch air when Ashish Bhasin says: ‘We are doing a damn good festival with a damn good award show. Our sole motto is to put up the best award show in the best possible way for India’.

We may have our own impressions of the fest. However, this is the time to leave those prejudices and celebrate the fact that, The ‘Abby’ is the only awards for the industry, by the industry and of the industry. It is also the only wholly original  “Indian” award. Judged by Indians for Indian work.

ABBY CAMPAIGN. The current ABBY (print and digital) campaign is developed by Scarecrow. Remember it is all pro-bono work. So it makes sense when Manish Bhatt of Scarecrow says: ‘My attempt has always been to generate opportunities for everyone who work’s at Scarecrow to do the most meaningful work that they are proud of in their career, during their stint at Scarecrow. Doing something meaningful for our industry is noble. And it is very Scarecrow’.

Unfortunately, the 2017 campaign is not really awe-inspiring. At a basic level, it tries to tick all the boxes. I doubt, if it wins an award for creativity, even if there was an award for such work. Manish defends the current campaign with: “Abby 2017 campaign focuses on functional / tactical aspects of Abby… it re-introduces the award in its true glory… the campaign has allowed us to highlight great people this industry gave birth to, some really important topical things or some really memorable creative work… we feel it is a unique way of paying tribute to the industry”.

I find the campaign purely functional and not sure whether it will push entries. Manish Bhatt believes: “We need to make every piece of work hardworking but not at the cost of creativity. After all, it is for the hard-to -please creative fraternity of our industry too”. He adds: “Working with Raj Nayak and Ramesh Narayan is really inspiring… they are dynamic, sharp, fast decision makers. I cherish the liberty to bounce off ideas as soon we conceive them. And I get their reactions immediately… that helps the momentum going for the team.”

Though I am not privy to the media plan, AGC ascertains that the campaign media reach permeates into all areas where adverting emanates from. I doubt, but will play along on. Hopefully, the net is wide enough to reach Tier-II and III towns like Ahmedabad, Kochi, Madurai, Indore, Lucknow, etc

ABBY AWARDS. I have always wondered if there is a protocol on adding and deleting award categories. I am not sure, not that I really tried finding out. However, I understand that AGC reviews it every year. My point is to have clear transparent policies in addition to the review by AGC. It really offends when you hear a comment like ‘Creative awards are like cricket statistics, tomorrow you could win for launching toilet cleaner between 8 and 10 pm on TV in May’. A wide one that Ramesh Narayan rightly refused to comment upon.

Publisher ABBY is one of the such categories. Initiated in 2014, it has seen limited participation. The quality of entries has been good but can’t say that same about the number of entries. They have remained low. I have no doubt, there is good work done by many media houses and standalone publishers. Unfortunately, for some inane unknown logic, they do not enter. I hope, this year the story will be different. Otherwise, AGC should rethink.

NEW AWARDS. I welcome AGC, initiating Abby for ‘Gender-Sensitive advertising’ and the ‘Young Abby’ in 2016. This year we will see digital being split between Digital and Mobile, which makes sense. Also a relevant and deserving award: ‘CHAMPIONSHIPS OF EXCELLENCE’, established by the Advertising Club to honor clients who support great creative work, will make its mark.

Like the last year, there will be no ‘Best Agency Award’.

No bronzes will be awarded on stage, and that’s a promise Ramesh Narayan has made. I have raised this subject in the past. I am excited, as it will stop the discriminatory treatment in the last two years, where in for a few categories, bronzes were delivered in stage.

ON THE SIDE. Yes, I miss the BEACH part of the Goafest. And I know of the constraints. Not sure, what is the venue this year, but just dream that we have it indoor in a property that has a beach worth strolling? Bring in that GOANESS back in.

TRIVIA. Manish Bhatt, while he was at Contract did the Goafest 2008 campaign, including the Goafest logo and font. In 2016, he worked with AGC to sharpen the positioning to ‘For the industry/ by the industry/ of the industry…. Truly Indian Advertising Award’ and the #ThatsWhyAbby.

 

DISCLOSURE: I have been an ardent supporter of Goafest and Abby. And I have attended Goafest since inception. I have been there as a delegate, sponsor, gurilla marketer, enterant, winner, jury and media. I have enjoyed every moment.  I will be there this round too. Though most of my wishlist remain unfulfilled. The article draws from e-mail conversation with Ramesh Narayan (Chairperson, Abby) and Manish Bhatt of Scarecrow, the creator of Abby 2017 campaign. And few snippets from remarks that appeared in BestInfoMedia interviews of Ramesh Narayan and Ashish Bhasin (Chairperson, Goafest 2017) find their way.

Sanjeev Kotnala with 30 years of corporate experience is the founder of Intradia World; a Brand, Marketing & Management Advisory. His focus area includes Ideation and Innovation; he also conducts specialized workshops like IDEAHarvest, Liberate and InNoWait. For soft skill training, he follows SHIFT (Specific High-Intensity Frequent training), a process of continuous training with frequent shorter sessions. Email sanjeev@intradia.in tweet @s_kotnala web: www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com. The views expressed here are his own.

 

By Sanjeev Kotnal

 

Okay, now that I have done my annual pilgrimage to the Bigg Boss house at Lonavala for the third year, and we are in the final leg, it is time for me to reflect on the season. I have been an ardent and compulsive viewer of the show. I still harbour the dream of hitting the show as a contestant or a house visitor. May be, some day I will.

 

Last year, when at the Bigg Boss 9 finale, the channel promised Aam Aadmi a chance to participate in Bigg Boss10, it raised many questions. Has the channel taken an undue risk for rejuvenating the show? Will the audience that loved the format for its voyeuristic peep into discomfort of celebrities, now lap it with the same fervour? How will they be selected? It also gave rise to many hopes and doubts…

 

By now, some of these have been answered. To start with, in its restricted blinkered sense, it was a mixed bag of semi-celebrities and ‘Aam Aadmi’. They were branded in a very ‘racist’ way. The Aam Aadmi was christened ‘Indiawaale’. The divide was apparent. Bigg Boss had sown the first seeds of dissonance, which will pay the dividend throughout the season.

 

The channel played safe. Real safe. The Aam Aadmi was really not the awam ka saksh, but people with idiosyncracies and past histories. They were clearly the one who could and would create the desired drama in the show. You cannot fault the channel for it. Moreover, the channel and the Bigg Boss always held the trump cards like wild card, eviction and tasks allowing it to control the participant mix as the show progresses.

 

It is true that you need a mix of divergent, polarised, extroverted, expressive, explicit, scheming and smart set of contestants when creating a show like Bigg Boss. Raj Nayak of Colors said so in his interview with Indian Express. He said: ‘We take the contestant basis, their personalities and the contribution they can make to the show. BiggBoss is a show on human psychology. Whatever happens in real life, happens in BiggBoss. The only difference is that unless you have different kinds of people, it won’t be reality.”

 

The early evictions of Aam Aadmi representatives like Priyanka, Navin, Swami Om, Akansha and Lokesh must have put doubts in the mind of channel controllers and viewers. The sudden injection of four non-aam aadmi into the show was a kneejerk reaction. The audience sensed and assumed for their valid reasons that the show has a possible bias and unstated support for the so-called minor celebrities.

 

Something inevitable happened, the unceremonious exit of Elena, Shail and Jason. Yeh audience hai, yeh saab kuch jaanti hai, show banaati hai toh barbaad bhi kar sakti hai. This is the audience. It knows everything, if it can create a show, it can also break the show.

 

The performance of Aam Aadmi and more so the non-performance of the mini-celebrities was apparent in every episode. The tide had to turn. The sequential eviction of Rahul and Gaurav showed audience was an answer to  real Aam Adami wishes.

 

It was at this stage. Aadm Aadmi graduated to be a full Bigg Boss participant, but the divide had been inked hard. The camps and the lines were drawn. No efforts by the BiggBoss and the star host of the weekend, could change it.

 

This season was no different than the rest. It was a bit higher on the decibel level and some record creating silly stupid acts of participants.

 

Love and strong friendship have been a constant factor at the Bigg Boss House. Season 10 was no different but remained a bit low in it. Nitibha exited the show without getting her answer from Manveer. Bani and Gaurav friendship was headed nowhere. Manu Punjabi and Monalisa are very tenuous as they walk into the last phase. Poor Rohan does not know what to make of the makeup Queen Lopamudra. If you have been watching the show, you will realise how interesting the evolution of relationships is.

 

No Indian drama can be without villains. Swami Onjee and Priyanka Jagga rewrote the definition. Swami Om would have made a record for the show of having been evicted or stepped out with regularity on Day 21, 48, 78 and 81. Priyanka Jagga first stay ended on Day 7 and the next which started on Day 42 just lasted until Day 69. Both were evicted without being nominated on ground of excessive bad behavior and attitude. Having them on the show was both, a source of fun and disgust.

 

People may see it as a failure of the channel show in selecting the participants. I doubt it. Such polarised, vocal, drama queen and kings have been in every season. They are needed. Meethey ka swaad janney keay liyeh khatta khana zaroori hai (To taste and appreciate sweetness you need to taste the sour). This time, they just crossed the undefined line. In reality, If you remove Priyanaka Jagga and Swami Om, Bigg Boss 10 has been very low in its drama quotient too. And may not get the same following. They were the surprise packet. You never know to what level could they go.

 

New meteorites took birth in the show. Manu and Manveer. Audience favourites are now celebrities in their own rights. One who could benefit a lot would be the Bhojpuri star, Monalisa ( Antara Biswas ) who found herself a miscast among the Mumbai mini-celebrities and has been riding the friendship wave to remain alive in the show. Lopamudra came across as a very sensible person though with her own quirks. Bani decided to be the pulsating stars. Nitibha was warming up to the game too late in the show, and her exit closed the chapter.

Truth is rarely has someone gained long-term from the show. However, the show does give a new boost and wide familiarity to the engaging participants. This year is anyway the first with aam aadmi.

The audience strongly sees Manu Punjabi and Manveer as the potential winner. Bani, audiences feel has an external support of channel and star host, as someone who could spoil Manu Manveer party. Lopamudra has been as deserving. Monalisa and Rohan are the two aberration, that the loyalist uses to demonstrate channel fair and just voting system. Whatever may be the doubts, the final five strongly reflect national choice.

Bani has been a let-down to her fans. A section of audience still doubts that the channel manipulates the vote count. They believe Bani has some kind of understanding and support. The rumours will be fueled if she becomes the final winner.

There is a huge time lag between what happens inside the house and when it is telecast. Today, with the news leaks in social media, it has taken away the mystery and charm of watching the daily telecast. The time lag is irritating. Ten years is too long a time for a reality show version to remain paralysed with its constraining format. It is something that channel, and the format owners need to rethink.

When, I started writing this column, Color’s app was launched. It was primarily positioned and promoted as the live voting device for another singing reality show. Today, audience is unsatisfied without instant gratification. They demand not only greater participation and control but also greater transparency in vote counting which anyway remained a state secret. I was thinking, what if the channel used it in Bigg Boss.

I was pleasantly surprised on that on Jan 14, when in an effort to extra boost the app downloads, Bigg Boss decided to go live on voting. A sensational moment in Indian reality show history was lost. The experience was bad. The live was just a question about ‘How many see a contestant to be in the final’.

The app did not work well. I have many loyalists sharing their disappointment. If the picture wall in the show was any indication, it showed a poor response, someone from the channel could have better managed it.

With such an experience, there is nothing wrong if the audience sincerely believe that LIVE was a farce, the in-show audience (like Jhalak) voted. Live to them in Bigg Boss would mean the changing bars as the votes come in. Possible!

If at all the channel was doing a large-scale test run for ‘Rising Star’ which is dependent on this disruption, then it did not go well. This is purely based on the experience of my friends, family and me. Large enough sample size for me.

As I write this column, it is 10 am on Sunday morning, and the app still shows Nitibha as a contestant nominated, where as she was evicted around 10 pm last night, which the show shot on Friday. The channel cannot afford to take such liberties. App = tool that is instant and updated.

The host holds the show. The host has a very Counsellor – teacher – friend and parent kind of relationship with the participants. BiggBoss has a history of good hosts. I found, Arshad Warsi and Amitab Bachchan to be a great host. Shilpa Shetty managed to keep the tempo. Only Sanju Baba and Farah were minor aberration at the edge of being classified failures.

Salman Khan is someone audiences love as the show host. There are moments where they do questions some of his antics and apparent bias in his addressing and supporting delegates. They even see it as channel interference. Salman finds appreciation for his more-than-vocal support for women dignity and his love for mother. He, in his own special way, continues to charm the audience over weekends.

Brand association and sponsor’s interface is a business reality. This time at Bigg Boss it crossed the line. Are we just milking the star cow before it becomes non-performing asset?

Tasks are an integral part of the show. They are interesting to watch. They are the fuel and the catalyst for the discussion and imbalance in the otherwise peaceful house. The show is being unimaginative and lacks innovation. Tasks have been repeated. Other than for the Iggolo and the Planet task, there was an utter lack of originality and newness. They need to InNoWait for the next season.

The tasks seemed repetitive and mismanaged. They became interesting and if I can use the word entertaining only because of the sad influence and highly irritating TRP garnering influence of the ‘Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karunga’ Swamiji.

Bigg Boss seems to be losing the command of the show. Or is it planned? The omnipresent Bigg Boss was impotent with participants challenging his authority. The discipline in the house found its own low. Participants did not think twice before taking a nap, found escape routes for every possibly conceived agenda and some of them used English as a dominant language. The participants gave no respect to Captain and hardly listened to the BiggBoss. This is a huge erosion to the concept and viewer expectation.

These issues cited may seem trivial, but to an ardent fan, they are upsetting and alienating. They want newness. They want real people and a real representation of life. They want right entertainment.

I hope and feel that Bigg Boss has few more seasons left in it to entertain us. And I am sure that the team at channel is aware that the TRP success is not the only yardstick of a reality show’s success and is deeply concerned about the real entertainment quotient.

Long live, Bigg Boss! Note, I am taking no calls between 9 and 11 pm on January 28, 2016. All said and done, one cannot miss the finale of Bigg Boss Season 10.

Sanjeev Kotnala is a senior marketing and media practitioner and consultant. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily represent those of MxMIndia.com

 

By Sanjeev Kotnala

 

The world is fragmented more in its media space than in its like and dislikes. The consumer touchpoints have been multiplying exponentially. The attention span is decreasing at an alarming rate. However, the global village allows you to pace your activity. A delta movement (not momentum) can be amplified across the globe to the brand’s advantage. Scaling-up is not really a necessity and the business viability not a deterrent. The brand is more at ease with experimentation than ever before.

Innovation opportunities not only exist in the manufacturing and delivery space but also in the experience, excitement and influencing.

Beverage giant Coca-Cola has been one such company that has been playing with a range innovation from small to large canvas. It is evident in the way they are interacting with the consumers, the design and communication. The basic module of Accessibility, Availability and Affordability is now expanded to Experience, Innovation and amplification.

At first, the timeless contoured bottle created in 1915, seems more of a barrier than an opportunity to innovate. However, when innovation becomes a habit and a culture or business philosophy, then the brand starts seeing opportunities everywhere. It is the ‘InNoWait’ zone.

The brand has been doing great exciting work. There has been numerous innovative outreach programmes, simple modifications, a different perspective in and around delivery and consumption process. In process, every unit has been broken to its last possible managing unit and then explored for opening happiness in its holistic understanding.

Coke has been one company that seems to believe in ‘InNoWait’. That is no waiting for innovation. They have used  team work and challenging deadline projects to  forces innovative solutions. The best part is that such solutions  have neither remained on paper, nor have they found their way to the dustbin. The brand seems to be a compulsive experimenter, a necessity for following ‘InNoWait’ as a philosophy.

The trick is to ‘Do it because you want to, not because you think you must. And most important, do it right and go crazy. You will do such experiments, when you truly believe that the world today is a chaotic always in flux place. Here the past success is no guarantee for future success’. (Coco-Cola Company)

The consumer is more demanding and there is a more intangible than tangible association that make the brand gain the growth momentum.

 

The Innovation thought is not only about thinking differently.

It is also about being able to see the idea in its full-grown version and then supporting it with detailed defined execution.

And the journey really starts by defining what you stand for and how o you see the brand-consumer relationship.

Here are some of the NOT-SO-ADVERTISING innovations by Coke that speak about its intent. They reiterate the need to be innovative as a philosophy, ‘InNoWait’- not waiting, taking the idea, experimenting and scaling or amplifying in the global arena.

 

 

TWIST CAP To open this cap, you must find another bottle. The specially designed cap does not open, unless it is rightly paired with another identical cap. So, to open your bottle and take that deserving sip, you must interact with other coke drinkers. The experience is shared on social media. Now this twist could have happened with any bottle with a screwed cap. A brilliant example of experiential consumer marketing that most likely would have been laughed at and shot down in many brand ideation sessions.

 

 

2ND LIVES CAPS. Everyone laughs at this somewhat silly solution toward reducing the environmental challenge. However, Coke took this consumer inclusive idea forward. It asked the consumer to lend a helping hand in delaying the bottle journey to the landfill. Give the bottle a new 2nd life.

In Vietnam, 40,000 caps were distributed free. These 16 special red screw-on-caps gave the used bottle a fresh utility. They converted it into the spray-bottle, Baby-rattle, dumbbell squirt gun, lamp, paintbrush, sharpener, etc. The campaign was rightly titled “What if empty Coke bottles were never thrown away?”

 

PLANT BOTTLE. In 2009, Coke introduced the Plant Bottle. 100% recycleable. And it aims that by 2020 it will start making all its pet bottles with plant derivatives; simple crazy innovative thinking. It is touted to be the first-ever fully recyclable PET plastic beverage bottle made partially from plants, but has a lighter footprint on the planet and its limited dwindling resources. Being committed to the thought, coke has been sharing the technology with non-competing companies and products.

 

 

PUSH THE THOUGHT. The 100th anniversary of the famed bottle was celebrated in 2015. Every brand looks forward to maximising such opportunities. Coke went a step further. The Coca-Cola Bottle: An American Icon at 100, an exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta is an example of such leveraging.

 

 

IDEA EXPANSION. Coke seems to be entirely a source neutral company for ideation, as far as time, process and ownership are concerned. As the story goes, Cannes Lion ad from Germany took birth as an idea with the Tom Farrell, global design director brushing his teeth and using his finger to trace on his bathroom mirror.

It may be post-rationalisation, but as per Coke: “The connecting of hands from different people various socio-economic levels, races, religions and nationalities is a reflection inclusion and optimism, core brand values – all connected by Coca-Cola”. The simple, authentic and a somewhat unique idea grabbed attention is referred as the film titled “TOGETHER”

 

 

JOURNEYXJOURNEY, OPPORTUNITY WITH CONSUMERS. Coke mobile publishing storytelling mission ‘JourneyXJourney’ is a three-week 20-plus stop 40-ft motor home with capabilities to create, and curate consumer generated content that should lead to high reader engagement.

Since 2012 it has become a global platform social media channels with more than 3 million followers combined. The Coca-Cola Journey is one of the initial innovators in the area of brand content publishing and amplification.
Doug Busk, global group director, social media and digital communications at coke reflect; JXJ allows us to get into the real world where the best stories – and the people and communities behind them – live. The stories aren’t coming to us… we’re going to the stories.

 

ASAP: ‘Affordable Small Sparkling Package’, the 250 ml bottle addressing the issue of affordability and availability is driving growth in India. This bottle was designed with an aim to minimise gas loss. It took two years to develop. It not only maintains the original pleasing look but ensures that it remains fresh and the ‘biting taste’ is not lost due to loss of carbonation during transit.

 

 

SHARE A COKE. In the United States, when the campaign broke with Coca-Cola, Diet Coke or Coke Zero carrying names, people rushed to find their names. Off course, all names could not be accommodated. Many fans were dejected. However, in its next edition, more names were featured. A site allowed you to search if your name was on a coke bottle. Additionally, you could customise and order with your name from the e-commerce site. To top it all, ‘Share a Coke’ went across the nation on a 600 stop tour allowing customisation of mini cans. Taking it further, the new edition also had more generic names and occasions specific association like “Mom”, “Dad”, “Grad”, “Soulmate” “Hero” “Class of 2015,” “Team” and “Family”.

 

NO LABEL: On the one hand, you have customisation of the labels, and on the other hand, no label. In Middle East, Coke promoting is promoting the anti-prejudice, pro-tolerance message: “Labels are for cans, not people” during the holy month of Ramadan. Here, the limited-edition red cans had the white dynamic ribbon, but no logo. The brand believes that by urging everyone to remove stereotypes, happiness will be spread to a larger and wider community.

 

 

NO TWO SAME CANS. No two packs are exactly the same: just like those who enjoy Diet Coke. Working with HP Indigo digital printing technology and 36 base designs, coke experimented in Canada with Millions of unique and colorful Diet Coke package designs. It gives the consumer a choice and an opportunity to find the one Diet Coke bottle that truly reflects him/her ‘One of a Kind’.

 

SOLAR COOLER. Coca-Cola India developed “eKOCool” cooler, specifically for retailers in rural areas lacking regular electricity. The rooftop solar panels are linked to the chest-style coolers inside the shop, and as the sun goes up, the bottles start chilling. In addition, the “eKOCool” coolers are equipped with charging points fir lanterns and mobile phones, thus increasing traffic and allowing the shop to remain open after dark.

 

 

SPLASH BAR. It is the new hotspot in some Indian villages. Here, from a simple kiosk vendor dispenses ice cold Coca-Cola into small cups at an affordable price. The women in the rural area get employment opportunity, and the brand expands soft drink culture to untouched markets giving an affordable authentic experience. From a 31 Splash Bars start in 2013, now there are more than 30,000 such units. Additionally, it opens new avenues for future choices for the women. The earning can help feed family and provide education.

 

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING PAPER. So getting involved with the consumer. This time no catbonated drinks, But the paper to wrap the presents in. Not the best of innovation but yes true to its thought of open happiness.

 

 

CALL HOME. Experiment at Middle East: spreading that happiness, where the workers could use the coke caps as token for calling home! What those smile are worth. And how simple and relevant  the innovation is.

 

 

MUSIC FOR DEAF. This time the innovation was implemented in Pakistan after it was successfully tested at Bangkok. Coke studio helps hearing-impaired people to enjoy coke studio experience from a sofa embedded with tiny vibration engines and mood synchronised LED lights elevating the experience visibly. And the front screen displays the video. The ambience is completed with on-set guitars, keyboards and other musical instruments. Here is a connect by a deaf person who experienced it. “Whatever my body felt, whatever my brain thought, even though we can’t hear the music, we can feel it,”

 

 

Innovation is breaking down the elements. Rearranging. Reconfiguring and seeing things a bit differently.

Reiterating the thought that triggered it. InNoWait. ‘Do it because you want to, not because you think you must. And most important, do it right and go crazy. You will do such experiments, when you truly believe that the world today is a chaotic always in flux place. Here the past success is no guarantee for future success’.

Details and pictures from the Coca-Cola Company website

 

Sanjeev Kotnala with 28 years of corporate experience is the founder of Intradia World; a Brand, Marketing & Management Advisory. His focus area includes Ideation and Innovation; he also conducts specialised workshops like IDEAHarvest, Liberate and InNoWait. For soft skill training, he follows SHIFT (Specific High-Intensity Frequent training), a process of continuous training with frequent shorter sessions. Email sanjeev@intradia.in tweet @s_kotnala web: www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com.