A New Blog...

I'm getting inspired by my classmates at Hult. Everyone has a nice blog that brings out their interests. I already have 2 blogs; this one and the one about NOAH... But that is not enough. As I said in my post "Where am I headed?", I am most interested in travelling and animal welfare. While one is a passion that I would not like to turn into a profession, the former is.

There are so many thing that I would love to talk about when it comes to travel, that I am seriously contemplating starting my own blog for it. Yup, you read right, I will start another blog. But this one will be different.

The only thing holding me back is the fact that I already have my feet in many boats (not just 2!). If I dig into something new, I may not be able to stay committed to everything. This used to be my chain of thought!

Now that I have seen the way my friends have been blogging, I changed my mind! I will give it a shot. I love writing and travel, so now I will blog about it.

Now to think of the name of the blog. Any suggestions?

Dogs are the cutest!

While walking to class today, i saw, what I would call the cutest site ever! I first saw a dog running wildly after something... The next instant i realised that he was chasing a squirrel! I slowed down.. Saw them play catch-n-catch (as we called it when we were kids) for a while. The squirrel finally ran up a tree, and the dog... No he did not stand barking below (dogs here never seems to bark!). He continued running... Up the tree! And then flipped back to the ground!

There was another little one just behind him... He stood below the tree waiting for the squirrel to come back down!

Dogs are just adorable! Everyday I see at least one or two 'babies' in either the bus or the tube or the park. But the best thing is that they always have an expression of some sort! They are adorable!

People wonder why I am so crazy about dogs? To be honest, I have no idea! I have always loved dogs... But with time, my frenzy for them has increased!

Till I was 3 or 4, I had a dalmatian in Calcutta (Kolkatta)... But then somewhere after we moved away from there, I became terrified of them (still don't know why though). So when did the fear end?

When we moved to Delhi, my cousin had a black lab. Whenever I went to her house, she had to lock up the dog in another room. I used to feel sad that he was locked, but at the same time, I was too scared to set foot near him!

Finally one day, she decided to let the dog out! I ran all the way out to the front garden! He came to me; her parents and my parents had come running out behind me... For a while it felt like i had paused all of Delhi with my shouting and running out! They told me not to be scared... And to remain still... I did... Within a few seconds, the dog just walked away... Back to my cousin... Ever since then, I was not scared of him! But then, I was still scared of other dogs...

My fear for other dogs went down with time... Today, the minute I see a dog, i feel like running up and cuddling it!

One of my friends had rightly said, if any man wants to impress me, all he has to do is make sure he has a dog (not that that's true!)... But ya, the second I know a person has a pet, my perception of the person does change! In a way you could say I am biased about people with a passion for animals, particularly dogs!

Whatever it is, I am crazy about dogs! And without a doubt, dogs are the cutest things in the world!

Understanding Digital Channels

We have a new task at hand... becoming an 'expert' in different Digital Marketing Channels! My topic for this particular assignment is iPTV, Webisodes, and Mobisodes. The funny thing is, I was one of those who would rather wait for friends to download movies or television shows and then watch them--and here I am trying to understand the world of online television!

It is not a tough topic--the problem is quite contrary... it is a very extensive topic! Webisodes, Mobisodes, and iPTV are three quite different channels used for more or less the same purpose. When you watch shows on iPlayer, you are actually watching iPTV. On the other hand, there some shows which are designed primarily to be aired over the web. These are then referred to as Webisodes (web episodes). The concept of Mobisodes is still in its infancy. With more and more people turning to smart phones to watch TV, the concept of Mobisodes is becoming popular.

While doing my research, I realised something, whenever I searched for information on Webisodes, I would end up with a number of TV shows and Webisodes but no information about them. I then realised that I need to play with the 'keywords'.

Finally I have sufficient basic information on the topic. However, to get primary sources (straight from the horse's mouth), I still need to find some resources. I should be able to find something soon, now that I know how to find it and what I am looking for!

One of the important factors to remember when understanding any digital channel is that each channel is designed for a particular use and is intended to be used by someone specific (customer, businessmen, organisations, etc). Identifying the target of the channel is probably one way of gauging the efficiency of the medium. For instance, I cannot say that the concept of webisodes have failed just because kids still like watching TV! The idea of a webisode is not to replace TV completely! Perhaps someday it will, just as someday paper newspapers will be replaced by digital papers!

I guess I still have a long way to go before I become an expert in webisodes and mobisodes! iPTV seems an easier bet! It was my search for information on iPTV that got me re-hooked to some of my all-time favourite shows!

Whether or not I become an expert in internet television, webisodes and mobisodes; I will surely become an expert in which is the best website for each show!

A New Beginning...

It's been 2 weeks since my second module at Hult started off! But the holiday spirit somehow doesn't seem to understand that! However, as all good things must end, so will the holiday spirit (now that our projects have started)

This term our projects are a step ahead of what they were last time...

...while in Module A, our projects focused on how quick and creatively we could think of marketing ideas, this term seems to focus more on how we use data to plan the future... whether it is in Strategy or Project Management or Customer Conversion, the theme of 'finding out what we don't know' seems to be a hot favourite! But then I suppose that is how real marketing projects are! You need to know and understand the client before trying to create an out-of-the-world marketing strategy for them!

In retrospect, we did analyse our clients even in the first term. However, that was never really our 'main goal' (if I can call it that). I guess we learnt at that time that we needed to understand them in-depth and therefore have now welcomed this module far more easily.

Most people would say that logically, we should first be taught how to build the strategy and understand the client and then be given assignments dealing with marketing them. To be honest, I thought so too.

Nonetheless, thinking of it now, as students, we seem to be far more enthusiastic to show our creative side than to want to waste time learning of the client's past/present. This is probably why the school used (should I say) reverse psychology on us and made us first realise WHY we needed to learn Project Management and Strategy and then taught the subjects to us!

Personally I am now happy to be learning it since I already know how projects would have been without such knowledge!

'We learn from our mistakes'... absolutely true! Now when we are being taught about these subjects, we can co-relate topics with what we did (or did not do) in Module A...

But this does not go to say that during Module A we would not have done a good job! Our projects at the time were such that they focused more on the plan; it is while working on the plan that we realised that we needed to understand other subjects too! The projects then focused on what customers liked, didn't like, and how we could use our knowledge of digital technology to rope them into things!

Now back to work, more on Module B later!