New media art is a body of artworks that innovate and experiment with non-traditional mediums, say digital art, graphics, video, animation, interactive art, avant garde performance art. Artists move beyond the painted image to rach out to a larger audience. They may work between media, say video and sculpture, internet and painting etc. New media has no fixed definition in today’s climate of constant change. New media is generally associated with video. However, this is not new media. In new media the protagonist is the technology. What is done in the medium is at the cutting edge of technology.
Author: Shabbir Chunawalla
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Lovemarks
Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi wrote Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands in 2005 to claim that ‘brands are running out of juice’ and propounded the technique of lovemarks to rescue them. Mere products command neither love nor respect. Fads attract love, but no respect, and hence have a passing value. Brands attract respect, but without love. Lovemarks command both respect and love, achieved through mystery, sensuality and intimacy.
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Universal Design
Ronald L. Mace, an architect coined this term in 1985. It is an environment that allows all people equal access, regardless of their level of mobility or disability. Accessibility must be incorporated into building design. Developers are not sensitised to this concept. Anyone can be subjected to a circumstance where accessibility is required, e.g. an accident, temporary disability, permanent disability, age-related issue. At times, we have to sacrifice space to make this happen. How a person enters a building? How he navigates the different levels or use common facilities? To negotiate levels, we must have ramps. The tactile surface on which people walk should also be considered. The door knobs, light switches, lift panels must be within reach. A friendly wheel chair or a car or a stick with GPS — all this must be designed properly. Velcro and Google electric truth brushes are examples of universal design.
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Cell Phone Advertising
Cell phone advertising reached an estimated Rs 144 crore by March, 2013.Cell phone ads include :
Browser Ads : These ads are seen when we visit any site on the cell phone. They are currently 75 per cent of cell phone advertising market.
In-app Ads : The ads we see on free applications. These account for 20 per cent of cell phone ads.
SMS Ads : There is a clampdown on unwanted SMS ads. SMS advertising enjoys only 5 per cent of cell phone advertising.
The new trends in cell phone ads are :
Near Field Communication (NFC) : Here push notifications are sent to cell phones when they are near a certain billboard or shop.
Bar Code Scanning : It allows the customers to scan bar codes placed in newspapers, billboard etc which open the relevant information on the cell phone.
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Pitching for Business in IT Industry
In a $ 146 billion IT industry, clients are sought by pitching since each project is worth millions of dollars. A client requests for proposals, is called RFPs. Generally pre-sale team of engineers write the proposal in a dull and dry manner, mostly doing a copy and paste work drawn from some past proposals. Actually here what is required is imagination and creativity. Instead of engineers, you could utilize the services of design thinkers, MBAs and business analysts. Proposals have to be strategic, and the approach is to be that of a consultant. It should focus on outcomes. Why should there be an RFP? It is a battle lost. It should be a conference like brainstorming session where various possibilities and outcomes emerge. A potential solution is wireframed.
There is a technological shift — automation, cloud services, outcome centric measures. These should be factored in the solutions. It requires a new or modified approach. Infosys has made a new proposal creating team, to be headed by Shabana Khan, a California-based design thinker who was formerly with SAP.
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Finances of IPL
Team owners earn money from :
- Ticket sales
- Team sponsors (local)
- Merchandise
- Programme tie-ups/events
- In-stadia ad
- Prize money
- Share of broadcast rights fees from BCCI – BCCI retains 20 per cent for first three years, then30 per cent, from sixth year onwards 40 per cent. The remaining amount is shared between the teams.
- Share of IPL sponsorhip from BCCI
Team owners have to spend money on :
- Player salaries
- Stadium leasing
- Team advertising
- Administrative costs
Each team has paid franchise fees to the BCCI.
BCCI earns money from:
- Central sponsors — retains its share
- Online partners
- Theatre rights
- Broadcasting fees from the broadcaster retained as its share
BCCI spends money on :
- Umpire salaries
- Prize money
Broadcaster earns revenues from the advertisers and spends on production cost, and payment of broadcasting fees to the BCCI.
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Breakout Nations
Ruchir Sharma’s new book Breakout Nations considers expectations of growth while deciding the breakout nations. A breakout nation exceeds the expectations. Another component he considers is the per capita income. If India grows at 4-5 per cent, it is underperforming since its per capita income is $1500. As against this, if Korea grows at 4 per cent, it is a huge achievement since its per capita income is $20000. India needs to grow more to get out of poverty because of lower base of per capita income. All countries are not able to sustain the bursts of growth, and become developed countries. That happens because nations driven to the wall adopt reforms and grow, but soon abandon the same very reforms.
The period between 2003 and 2007 was unique, where every single emerging market did well, and India too rode a global liquidity tide accelerating her growth rate from 5.5-6 per cent to 8-9 per cent. The expectations got too high, and India mistook the boom as being something unique to her.
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Definition of an Innovation
Raghunath Anant Mashelkar defines innovation as the successful exploitation of a new idea. The new idea could be new here new here in India or new abroad. Exploitation involve the actual use of the idea by the end customer. The idea must move to the field.The word successful indicates three factors — speed, scale and sustainability. The idea must move quickly from mind to market place. The innovation must sustain on its own — without any props or subsidies.
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Paytm — Mobile Wallet for Payment, now M-commerce Platform
One 97 Communications operates Paytm, that is payment through mobile. It is a payment platform, a secure digital wallet in which one could store money and pay for services on Uber, Makemytrip etc. People put their money in Paytm wallet for mobile top ups, booking tickets or to pay for bus, auto and taxi rides. Many users come to Paytm frequently for several low-value products and services.It is a dominant wallet in the country. It has the power to disrupt. It has the potential to become the biggest application in the world with about half-a-billion users. Its customer acquisition cost is zilch since it has already 50 million users using its digital wallet.
Paytm is planning an alliance with Alibaba in China. They want to exploit the two platforms — Paytm and Alibaba/Alipay. They want to become the largest m-commerce player. Paytm customers will get access to products sold on Alibaba in other markets. Paytm is thus planning to add slices of digital commerce to its pay engine. Other e-commerce companies first built the market place and the payment engine later. Paytm to begin with starts with a base of 31,000 merchants which will expand to one lac by the end of 2015. Paytm model differs from other e-commerce operators. Paytm acquires customers for its wallet. They use the wallet for multiple things — utility payments, transfers of money, travel, tickets and now grocery. It is an open market place which connects buyers and sellers. It does not own warehouses and takes0.8 to 2.5 per cent margin per transaction. E-commerce rivals own warehouses and manage their own logistics. Paytm distinguishes itself from other e-commerce players by building a zero commission market place. In other words, the sellers on the platform do not need to give a commission to Paytm on sales. E-commerce players work on commission-based model. This model is similar to Alibaba’s Taobao which works on similar lines in China.
Paytm now clocked a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $ 1.5 billion. It aims to reach $ 4 billion by the end of 2015, and $ 10 billion GMV by 2016.
Paytm now proposes to replicate the Indian model abroad, and would like to go global. It expects to start trial operations in Singapore and West Asia by end of 2015.
75-80 per cent Paytm sales come through app or mobile phones. Paytm has tied up with Samsung, Microsoft, Micromax, Lava and Spice for pre-bundling their app on handsets of the manufacturers.
Paytm has to get 1 million Chinese merchants on its e-commerce platform and about 100 million SKUs through its tie up with Alibaba.
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Deepak Sawant — Make Up Man
He has worked as an apprentice under Pandhar Dada Juker. During the shooting of Raste Ka Patthar, Amitabh asked Deepak at Mehboob Studios whether he would like to work for him.He worked as a make up man for Amitabh except for a brief period in the 1980s when he got associated with Smita Patil. He also runs a beauty parlour. He has produced a Bhojpuri films also.