WHO IS THE MOST EXTREME MANCHESTER UNITED FAN IN INDIA?

This one's for the ultimate, most fanatical, the craziest of crazy fans of the Manchester United Football Club. No, it's not one of those run-of-the-mill contests. It's what guarantees the devout fan, a trip to the Mecca of football fanaticism, Old Trafford!!

The contest invites the most ardent fans to participate by filling in a form and sending 1-5 photographs to showcase their passion for the team. This is perhaps because at Nike Football and Manchester United they believe that a story needn't be worded at all times. The contest invites one of the biggest fan fights of all times. The fight for sure goes with the very spirit of the game!

In case you are one of those football maniacs who swear by Manchester United, then this is your one chance. Go, make that dream, of watching your favourite players battle it out in the middle, come true!!

Logon to http://extrememanufan.nikefootball.in/ for further details.

Contributed by Neha Srivastava and Manish Tilwani

Lifeinlines.com - India's multiple-point access Twitter spin off!

As the Social Networking phenomenon buzzes along, here's looking at another website joining the bandwagon - www.lifeinlines.com. Put together by IIT-IIM students Ankur Gattani and Maninder Gulati, Lifeinlines is supposedly about recording those million lil moments that make up our lives.

To key in your moment, Lifelines requires a registration - but to browse through other Lil moments you can get started right away! A spin-off from Twitter, Lifeinlines takes a few steps more- your moments can be keyed in via SMS, a g-talk message, an E-mail and even a phone call. And, that's what makes it really cool. It's like taking Tribal India's BIG Voice Scrap onto a larger interface; you can even hear other users' million lil moments!

Lifeinlines comes with privacy settings, you can choose to keep your lil moments out of the public eye. This link should help you learn the ropes: http://lifeinlines.com/flashtour.php and give you an inkling of what they're doing differently whilst using the SNS platform to produce not just another scrap-and-share site.

Once registered, a Lifeinlines user can add friends off Facebook and Messenger lists besides the usual E-mail service providers taking it a step above the others in its category. The downside of Privacy concerns of course, needs a mention. To express your self, you can pick a location, a mood and even your happiness level.

The writer in you might cringe at some of the lines used across the website. But, Lifeinlines still comes out on top.It scores because it's really about remembering where you've come from, no matter where you're going. So, I'd say let's keep those LIL moments keyed in!

Alexa.com ranks LifeinLines at number 6,378735 as per Traffic records in India. You can find a quick numbers chart here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/Lifeinlines.com

Gatorade Ball Girl Viral

Watch the Gatorade Ball Girl Video here...Unbelievable!! Isn't it?

Well, it is indeed unbelievable: The clip is a masterwork of "viral" marketing, essentially an ad aimed at touting Gatorade, but without actually mentioning the company.

This video has had 1.5 to 2 million views on YouTube!! The ball girl video was posted on June 3, and Advertising Age published a glowing review of it a few days later.

"Ball Girl" was posted on YouTube by a filmmaker affiliated with Element 79 Partners, the Chicago ad agency that created the spot.

The original Ball Girl post had a clear reference to Gatorade in the text describing the video. But the video was copied and shared several times over without mentioning the Gatorade connection.

The video gives only the slightest nod to the beverage. When the ball girl sits down after the amazing catch, there's a bottle of Gatorade near her feet.

It's subtle!! But the real payoff is the buzz generated by the video. Including this post:-)

The lesson for marketers - Anytime their brand enters into popular culture discussions, it's going to benefit.

Even though many viewers thought the outlandish catch was somehow a fake—which, indeed, was the result of special effects—they were still entertained by it.

The 'Bindaas' Search Engine!

I 'm loving it... The coming days in the digital space would be full of action and most importantly take digital innovation to a completely new level. Imagine a search engine that combines Yahoo and Google search together, displays alexa ranking and categorizes it based on Tech Cruch posts, Web screeshot views, simple text views, Timeline views, site information view, video x3 view, 3 D photo cloud view and so on. Yes.... the new search engine viewzi does it all.

Viewzi offers a very interactive, innovative way of exploring internet which takes the entire search experience to the next level. The insight behind this new offering is simple - one size can't fit all. The vast information on the internet can't be presented in a boring text format, the way google and Yahoo do.
Try this new search engine, you need to see it to believe it.

Experience Design and the 'Future of Cornflakes!!'

Was reading an article on Experience Design in the last issue of Contagious magazine.
Archiving some learnings...

1. The definition of what actually constitutes branding is increasingly broad. Branded touch-points now include everything from an online presence to a smiling customer representative and the band-aid solution of an advertising campaign is no substitute for a holistic, positive experience. If advertising is the end of the chain, Experience Design is the chain! - 'Jess Greenwood'

2. In today's world, any company that is working within products or services of any kind needs to stop this notion of expertise. the idea that they know best what the customer wants - quite a missionary stance, actually - and start creating with the very people they want to build products and services for. - Anna Kirah, a design anthropologist.

3. I have no idea whether the chemicals in Toilet duck are any good. I just like the fact that it's shaped like a duck. - Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group,UK

4. I'm convinced that some sort of Experience Design will become the master discipline for businesses that want to be good at selling stuff. - Russell Davies, freelance planner/ blogger

5. Looking around the work-arounds and self generated solutions that consumers create to navigate certain problems is infinitely more inspiring than sitting in a room with a one way mirror and saying "What's the future of cornflakes? - Paul Bennett, Creative Director, Ideo

Suddenly this reminds me of a packaging research amongst kids( I attended some 6 years back) where a fairly persistent researcher wouldn't leave the poor kid before he replied what story he remembered on seeing the Dabur Honey label...phew!!

These last two months I have tried to dig around a little(with my planner hat) in the conversation, social media space, the next two hopefully would be in Experience Design...

Beware Google: Cuil has arrived

Cuil - pronounced as 'cool' (it's just a starting, get ready to be bombarded with the names of new Web 2.0 tools which don't sound like the way they are spelled!!), was launched on 28th of this month with a lot of hype around it. Last time, this kind of anticipation was seen during the launch of the i-phone.

Cuil.com is a search engine that provides a never-seen-before search experience. It gives you option to see search in 2 or 3 columns with relevant details. It shows thumbnail size images along with the links, however, their is no option for image search. The search engine backend, depending on the keyword, automatically categorizes the search under various headings.

Despite getting a volcanic start, Cuil is up against the giants like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL who have successfully maintained their oligopoly over the years. As of now, Cuil has not monetized its services, the way Google does through adwords. Therefore, it needs to be seen how it performs in the long run. The biggest challenege is to have a dedicated pool of users for the advertising campaigns once it launches its ad-displaying services.

Understanding Viral Marketing

There is so much spoken on viral marketing and there is always a constant search for the successful ones to showcase. Additionally, for most of us creating a viral is a challenge, more so considering the rates of failure we experience. Everyone of us is always is on the look out for some insights in this space. In the constant quest to learn more I chanced on this post by Mike Laurie of Ship's Biscuit this morning. Follow the link below to see 21 patterns in succesful virals. Interesting learnings to pick up from.

Viral Marketing Review: Using and Identifying Design Patterns