Piggybacking? No its just BBM on Android.

In one week I saw more than a hundred people post their BBM pin on their fb timeline. A few of them sent me their Pins on my whatsapp too. Some of my friends asked me what it was and some asked me what my BBM pin was. Well, I’m not gonna install BBM on my phone yet, but I’ve got to say, I’m really surprised.

I tried to look up on it and searched for it on twitter and on google news. Suddenly, BlackBerry is all over the news! The BlackBerry Z10 launch wasn’t even half as famous as this! And it was supposedly the flagship!! It hit me! Piggyback marketing!

 

My friend Akshay had just started freelance photographing for friends. He took small projects like mehandi rituals, children’s portfolio etc., this was one such child portfolio for a friend. He wanted about perfect photos of his 4 year old angel. Akshay had clicked about 6 photos and apparently he wasn’t comfy with the money part. No wants to pay 3K for 6 photos, especially if the photographer is a friend. So I was sent to deliver the photos and extract money from him. Akshay had told me to get atleast 1.5K from him, and also spiced it with the line ‘I’ll give you an envelope, 10% of what you bring from her is yours.’ btw  I was also a friend to that guy mind you. 

I stuck to my guns of praising the baby and telling him how much Akshay would like to work with the baby again. I didn’t ask him for 3K. I just said ‘Akshay sent me here to deliver the photos and collect the money.’  He knew how much he had to pay, if I opened my mouth I would just ruin what’s cooking in his head.   

Did he give 3K? Well you know how we are… He put 2K inside an envelope and wrote something about paying the rest when he comes back for the next session or something. The point is, I was scared, out of place, and so totally awkward about asking money from a friend, but I rode on Akshay. He and his photos were selling high, I just had to cling to him and do the job to collecting. And that’s all I did. Akshay later said that he got much more than what he’d expected and I got well… not the 10% but I learnt Piggybacking. 

Now the main point, Piggybacking is what BlackBerry did unknowingly. More than 10 Million app downloads, twitter and news coverage from all over the world and here’s more, there’s even a scandal about fake app reviews. They couldn’t have got this much publicity even if they’d planned it. 

The concept is again simple, Android is selling high, put BBM on Android and you’re famous again. One line! 

Could this mean the big bosses of BlackBerry will get their heads together and try more piggybacking? Well that depends on how desperate they are. Piggybacking can be a taboo when you’re someone as big as BlackBerry. Wait, what about BBM on Apple? Is that be just as popular? Well people who use Apple already have lots of chat services that are cooler than the average Android messaging apps.. so… we’ll see.

My dearest Nokia tried it with Microsoft windows phone, but you don’t piggyback on something new, you’re pigs gotta be big right? And in case of Microsoft, the problem is Microsoft isn’t doing that great by itself, plus windows phone is new… so it’s like Nokia tried to ride an amputee pig with a new artificial leg! Ok you try making sense of that! Bye :P

Hermit at the office

An interesting thought crossed my mind when the speakers started talking about their ‘past experience’ in the orientation program at my college. ( well yeah I’m back in the class room.. so you can expect more posts from me.. or lets see) they all said, I have 15 years experience in corporate world, I’ve learnt things for 30 years in a Bank or I have 6, 10, 12 years experience in the teaching profession . I said OK.

After a while it just occurred, if I do a BA in 5 years or an MBBS in 8 years or an MBA in 4 years, does that mean I know better than my friends who passed out in 2 years? No right? It means I was a poor student and I have less to credit myself. Here, more is less. But while speaking of work experience, more is more. Does it really have to be that way?

Why can I not learn how things done in 2 years? Or say 3 or 5 max… why do I have to do the same job for 10, 15 or 30 years to know all about it? Does that mean whatever I am doing each day is so less that I need to spend a long time to learn what I actually call my job? On the one side we are sacrificing so much in the name of work and then we realize that we have done and learnt so little then where’s the point of taking up such a job? Or living such a life??

If you are interested in collecting a vast experience base spanning over years then you’re aim is not to be the owner or leader of your business, it is simply to be the hermit, a hermit who has seen a lot of success over time and has learnt a lot, but only to end up as an old hermit with stories of his glorious past.  

Well, my regular readers might be thinking why the sudden change in attitude… well I just feel that if you are training me to run in a rat race, then stop feeding me tales of the hermitage on the hill and teach me how to run faster! Thank you very much!