My journey from traditional marketing to digital...

Having spent close to 12 years in the marketing and communications business i have always had a insightful understanding of the emerging developments, technology and trends of the various communication vehicles, be it advertising, direct marketing, activation, in-film, out-of-home, public relations, online, mobile, digital sigage etc.


However, simmering deep within, was a growing void in the professed confidence. The void was in the lack of my understanding of online trends, in its entirety. For me online just meant website, banner ad's, micro-sites, digital mailers etc.


When i first read that google was an emerging media agency, i laughed it off as some journalists quest to find a different angle. When i started reading about 'search' driving advertising revenues, again i was dismissive considering it a short-term trend. Considering that the online penetration in India is still very low, the aforementioned fads and journalistic creativity (i thought) were just not important enough. More so, looking around me i did not see other marketers spend any decent amount of time or money in the medium. I could not have been further from the truth.

I was an example of the proverbial, man with the knowlege blinkers refusing to acknowledge change. Actually, to be honest, more than a point of view the reason i was dismissive was one because it did not fit into the traditional means and approach of reaching the consumer and two, i simply did not understand what was happening. The language and terminology being used were completely konkani and adivasi (i am tired of using greek and latin), to me. Widget, SEO, SEM, Metatags, indexing... gosh, i have grown up understanding Brands, Creative, Artwork, Layout, TVC, Print etc. Reading about it was one thing, but suddenly there was this division called Neo, within Ogilvy where there were these guys talking completely new terminology. What were geeks doing inside an advertising agency. And the worst thing was, try as i might, i could not become a geek. Added to this, I have been hearing/reading about how every advertising agency was busy going digital by either acquiring digital agencies or setting up new digital divisons. For god's sake in my eight years of investing i have not invested in any technology stock, through thick and thin. I never ever thought that i would have to get into the deeper end of technology but here was the deeper end of technology getting into what i was doing. The confidence about me continuing to be on the top of the communication knowledge chain was shaking.


But again i was under estimating the power of change and transformation permeating into all our lives, subtly and not too subtly.

While all this was happening in the professional side, on the personal side i was beginning to flirt with a lot of things in the digital space. What had started with email and messenger, gradually began to creep into (connecting) birthday alarm, yahoo groups, plaxo... (social networking) ryze, Xing, facebook, sulekha, linkedin, big adda, orkut... (blogging) Rediff iland, blogger etc. i did not embrace all the above naturally. It has taken me more than five years. I get into one... say Ryze, then i chance upon xing (earlier openbc), which looked like it was better. Then i read that Linkedin was the best, so went there and created a profile. Though i hated the fact that i had to create so many virutal identities, the good thing was that i was comfortable with the medium. it came to me natrually. Even this blog, which i started very reluctantly, has added to my learning curve. From a tentative start about the kind of conent that i should post, have graduated to placing google ads, widgets, (please make note of the adivasi terms that i earlier hated), customising polls, enabling followers, etc. I feel a certain degree of control.

A couple of weeks ago, my reality altered and everthing fell into place beautifuly. I attended the digital masterclass on the nuances of online advertising, specifically SEO/SEM, organised by TiE. The class was informative, but at the end of it a blindspot opened up for me... that the best way to understand a technology was by the impact it has on the lives of the people it touches. I claim proficiency in communication not because of the structural understanding of the advertising mediums, but because of the consumer insights that i approached the solution from. So the minuite i put myself in the consumer shoes and looked at what the other consumers were doing, suddenly the picture was clear, i didn't feel outdated and everything was fine with the world.

The end of every journey marks the potential for the beginning of a new one... and i set-forth with confidence, thrill and a sense of adventure into the new digital vista that has opened up for