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

AlphaBetting

A strange word or rather a coalition of words caught my eye in The Hindu this week. Someone, I don’t remember the author or the article, but it was about a statement by someone regarding a minimum qualification for journalists. People, well journalists in particular were not so pleased by that.  The word that caught my eye was Academic Inflation. It does raise one’s brow doesn’t it? I have this bad habit of observing words, vocab if you want to call it. I like to observe and think and rethink about meanings and reasons for use of certain vocab. I think I was 16 years old when my sister took me as a ‘subject’ for her psychology practical exam. I was given a test and in the end she announced that I had poor verbal abilities.

Ouch!

Years later, the CAT 2012 proved her right. 

OK so my vocab sucks, maybe that’s why I’m interested in looking more closely at words and that’s how this caught me. Academic Inflation. It really is something, and it’s happening all around. How many times have you heard your peers saying “one degree just isn’t enough anymore”? My sister herself took up masters because she thought just having a bachelor’s degree was worthless. (I’m not sure how much she loved the subject, lemme not get on her bad side over a blogpost)  My dad had also told me that I really need to pursue a master’s course. He too thinks one degree isn’t enough. Forget these people, I can point a finger at anyone in a crowd and say he has atleast 1 friend, if not himself, in the US studying MS. It’s the trend. Two degrees is mandatory. 

My nephew was being admitted to a school and the enrolment application form said that both parents need to have a master’s degree. Seriously?? OK parents being graduates is common these days, but PG?? Come on!! So the value for education is decreasing. Today your kid can get a school admission if you’re a graduate, tomorrow you need to be a PG and then a PHD??

In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Or a reduction in the purchasing power per unit of money right? So Academic Inflation would mean the reduction in credibility providing power per unit of education? Or something like that.

We’ve heard most people saying that they go for a master’s degree to add more value to themselves, but a degree is not a certificate of competence, is it? So what does that mean? The people who do masters are actually people who are incompetent to survive with just a graduation degree? Then doesn’t that make them less intelligent? 

With increasing popularity of Steve jobs and the kind; on the one side we have a propaganda about studies or structured education not being a necessity, and on the other we have people scrambling and swarming exam halls and classrooms because they want to be more credible. All these mean, the higher your educational qualification, the lower is your competence? 

 

So if we take a clean sheet approach where each person is stripped of their qualification or background, and graded based on their ability to think, work and other performance measurement criteria, then where would each one stand? Nooo we don’t want to do that… Cuz its just easy to throw around my weight cuz I have a fancy MS or a Phd.. but wait... So does everyone else in my country!! I’m gonna buy more degrees! Another Phd perhaps??

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!

Let It Count

Ever since I read Freakanomics, I've been up in arms with whatever is happening around me. I'm just so hell bent on finding reasons behind why anyones doing what they are doing. I mostly think of bringing down politicians or celebs, but in general I’ve been thinking a lot, trying so hard to find patterns and answers to all kinds of questions. Actually there are not many questions, I’m just conspiring things to frame my own questions. After all, it’s good to question right?

That’s what my dad kept saying… sadly for him it only sounded good until I started asking questions. 

Anyway.. So the deal with this post is my obsession with Freakanomics. Freakanomics generally means finding patterns or signs to explain economic, social or political decisions and happenings. I’m just posting a problem that I found while watching TV. I’ve cracked my head and come up with scenarios, but I still can’t find a solution.

Heres the problem:

Problem Statement: The latest trend in TV channels has been the addition of the timer. It started with movie channels and now can be found in all channels including news and music channels. The timer starts counting down from 2 mins with a board about it that says "show will be back in" or "movie continues in" or "more news is" etc.. the objective of implementing the timer is to hold the audience. If there is a timer then you will know that the show will be back in just 2 mins and will not change the channel.. therefore watching more advertisements.

But theres another angle...  if you know that the show will resume in 2 mins, then you will change the channel knowing that the show won’t start for atleast 2 mins.

Also, not all add breaks are 2 mins long, they are 5 or say 8 mins long and so.. the timer won’t show up till the first 6 mins are past. In that case, I will switch to another channel and just keep checking if the timer has appeared. So the channel is losing viewership in the first 6 mins. But will they have views in the count down period.

But as seen earlier, once the timer comes up, the viewer will switch to other channel because he knows that the show won’t return for atleast 2 mins

So, is this idea of having the timer good or bad for the channel? If you were the customer would you want your product to be advertised in the 2 min window or before that? Or is the idea itself retrogressive and will reduce the viewer ship during breaks in the long run? Think!

That was the problem which I couldn’t solve as I’m thinking too much from customer, channel and the viewer’s POV. So I thought I might get some help if I posted this on the blog. Not to mention.. some comments :P :D 

Keep digging!! You could just be right!