Hi folks! So 2011 is finally coming to an end and as expected the last week is snail-like, thanks to the holiday mood having set in! Nevertheless it’s important to be your super-active, workaholic self (well, look it at least) and also set the tone for some good cheer and happiness ahead.
10 tips on how to look busy this week!
1. Hold a cup of coffee and pace up and down the office, ideally with a pencil in hand.
2, Open your cheque book and keep it in front of you and start calculating how much all the cheques you have issued total to.
3. Repeat Step 2, this time without a calculator. Notice how it will take you hours!
4. Dial 0000 from your landline and keep trying to get through. Curse once in a while too.
5. Make a comprehensive list of all that you need to do – including booking a cab to drive you home post the party!
6. Start making a flow chart on your scribble pad. Don’t bother about filling in the boxes. Just draw the lines.
7. Browse a news website. Keep refreshing the page every five minutes and then spot the difference on the page each time.
8. Now shut down the browser, use the clean disk utility on your machine and start all over again.
9. Search the internet and find 50 one-liners which you can use every day on your FB page in 2012.
10. Stop reading this nonsense and get back to pacing the floor!!!
If it weren’t a slow week I doubt if you would have reached point 11 in this column. So better brace yourself, work on fresh ideas, keep positivity high and trudge along the path. Don’t you worry, 2012 will be super rocking and we will all do famously well.
Have an amazingly good 2012 with all your dreams coming to reality.
See you next year, same place, same day, new calendar in tow.
Remember, don’t drink and drive! It’s bad for the car, the booze, the rest on the road… and you.
Q: I am in sales and one of my new year resolutions is to move from print to digital media. However, I am told that the revenues are not too high in digital and my own growth and learning potential will get stunted.
This is far from reality, my friend. In fact the growth rates are far higher in the digital medium. I have in fact addressed this earlier too in my column. It’s certainly one of the fastest growing media, albeit the overall pie being largely skewed to print and television in view of the advertising rates they command.
Hence it’s a good move indeed, provided you get the right break and a solid online firm which will stand its ground, is well funded and has decent eyeballs.
Q: I was reading somewhere that many of the new newspapers are making huge losses and are simply building value for an eventual sell-out. Is this true?
Yes a lot of them are indeed making losses, but the final game plan and their ability to hang on is tough to fathom. There are some clear dents made in a few markets with these new entrants but growth rates are slow, since the small markets are seeing better overall trends. It’s a tough battle and I personally am not sure how long they can withstand both huge media monoliths and the pressure of new media like online and mobile.
As I see it the advertising pie will get more and more fragmented in favour of the newer, more interactive media, and this in turn will make the future of smaller print players interestingly tough. It calls for a huge understanding of how audiences have started to behave and how future generations will use their neural network and decide on consumption of news itself.
Q: What is the potential of a sales career in ATL as against BTL?
I personally feel BTL media are here to stay since audiences require more experiential seduction when it comes to purchase. Hence I see growth rates getting higher in this arena for sure. Audiences clearly need titillation today and conceptual thinking using below the line methodology will be far more effective.
Q: I have 17 years’ experience in print and broadcast. I want to get international exposure. Which country accepts Indian media executives and recognises their seniority?
A good place to start would be the UAE and Oman, where they do welcome Indian media professionals and also offer you good exposure given the clientele and advertisers there. Most media firms do hire from India and it would make sense to zone in on the big ones and approach them through their recruitment partners etc. The appointment pages of Gulf News, Khaleej Times etc also give you a good insight into the hiring happening there. Currently it’s low though, especially in the Emirates, but it is poised to take off in a few months from what I hear. Oman is more stable currently.