If you search “Social Network” in Google , instead of giving the results about the definition of particular term the first result which comes up is about a movie “The Social network” which even got 8 nominations at 83rd Academy awards and was praised worldwide.

Conclusion: There is a strong relation between “Social Network” and “Movies”.

Over a period of time this relationship between Movies and Social networking has evolved and that is the main reason why there has been an enormous change in the way films are being marketed nowadays. Filmmakers and producers have realized that if they want to pull in audience to theaters there are only two ways, first either create a controversy around the film, second design a social media campaign. Controversies don’t last long but Social media campaign if done in a right manner can boost the ticket sales immensely. After then it’s the content which decides the fate of a movie.

Traditional ways like airing promos on television, giving ads in newspaper and magazine still exists but due to cyber revolution in late 90’s and early 20s Digital and Social Media marketing have taken a front seat. Today almost two third of the world population visits a social networking site once in a week and that’s a major reason why all the big studios and production house around the world are spending substantial amount of their marketing budget for a successful online campaigns.

For example movies like Harry Porter, Inception and Avatar had spend huge amount of money to make sure that they reach to their target audience easily and stay connect with them 24*7. Today “word of mouse” is equally important as “word of mouth” for a film success which can be easily seen with hundreds and thousands of fans across the world joining the social online platforms of their favorite movies on facebook/twitter within minutes of their creation.Harry Potter’s facebook community only has close to 27 millions fans and counting. It always remains the “talk of twitter” pre and post release time.

Though not everyone who joins these online communities turn out to be the theater audience but these figures helps in spreading the word which effects the sale of tickets significantly in the opening weeks.

It’s not only the Hollywood studios who are going the online way to create buzz filmmakers from India too have realized the power of Social media and online platforms as the best medium to talk about their films. Studios like Yashraj films,

ALT entertainment (Balaji Telefilms) are already running high on social networking platforms whereas filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar boasts of huge fan following online.

These mediums can also act as a financier for your upcoming flick. Filmmakers like Onir took a step forward and used these platforms smartly to collect funds for his recent film “I AM”.

One thing which plays a pivotal role in a successful Social media campaign is “Audience engagement”. Tapping active users and engaging them smartly helps in creating the awareness which increases the fan base exponentially.

Ashish Patil Producer at Y-films (YashRaj) says “83% of the movie going audience is between 15-35yrs and spends more time online than any other medium. Hence Social Media and digital marketing was the first and obvious choice. We also premiered lot of our content first online and then broke it on TV.”

Reason: Digital marketing catches more eyeballs and cost less as compared to other mediums

During the release of their film “Love ka the End” they started India’s first ever Youtube video chat with the cast and crew which pulled close to 9000 participants.

Gaurav Mishra, Co-founder at Media Redefined, one of the top social media agency in India says “Marketing needs to be at the place where people pay attention and when 1 out of 3 people in India hang out on social networking websites it becomes necessary for film industry to have a strong presence on these platforms for promoting their films.”

With the change in time ,marketing strategy for a film need to be revised so that good content reaches to every nook and corner of the world. To survive in an industry which gives out more than thousand films a year, a good and excellent movie matched with a right social media strategy can do wonders at box office and achieve its aim of entertaining a wider audience.

Finally heat is over and winners for 56th National film awards have been announced for the year 2008. Some speculations got right while few winners completely surprised us . A complete list of all the winners

Best Feature film   —Antaheen

Best Director –Sh. Bala for Tamil film Naan Kadauul.

Best Actor — Upendra Limaye for the Marathi movie Jogva

Best Actress-–Priyanka chopra for Fashion

Best Supporting actress– Kangana Ranaut for Fashion

Best Supporting Actor –Arjun Rampal for Rock ON

Best Cinematography—Antaheen

Best Editing –Firaaq

Best Art Direction –-Firaaq

Best Lyrics –Antaheen

Best Male Playback Singer– Hariharan

Best Female Playback Singer —Shreya Ghoshal for Antaheen

Best Child Artist –Master Shams Patel for Thanks Maa

Best Film on Family values —‘Little Zizou’ (English, Gujarati)

Best Children’s Film Award—Kannada film Gubbachigalu

Best Costume Designer –Neeta Lulla for Jodha Akbar

Best Choreography –Chinni Prakash and Rekha Prakash for the song ‘Azeem-o-shaan shehenshah’ in Jodha Akbar

Best First Film of a director–’A Wednesday’

Best Animation film–’Roadside Romeo’

Best Popular film—Oye Lucky lucky Oye

Best Special effects—Govardhan for Mumbai meri Jaan

8 Films were selected for the ‘Best Feature Film in each of the language

Best Assamese Film – Mon Jai

Best Bengali Film – Shob Charitro Kalponik

Best Hindi Film – Rock On

Best Kannada Film- Vimukthi

Best Malayalam Film Thirakkada

Best Marathi Film Harishcnadrachi Factory

Best Tamil Film Veranam Airam

Best Telugu Film – 1940 Lookagramam

Special Jury Award Malayalam film ‘Bioscope’

The award function will be held in the month of October,2010 in New Delhi.

The journey started 10 yrs ago in 2000 when Lakme and IMG came together to provide platform to some of the known designers in Indian fashion world to showcase their platform.The year 2000 was a milestone for Indian fashion, with the first Lakmé India Fashion Week being held at the Taj Palace, New Delhi. With this event, Lakme and IMG helped the country take its first step towards being recognized as a source of creativity and inspiration in the global fashion community.

After 10 yrs Indian fashion Industry has reached a state where it is now considered as the strong competent aside leading fashion capitals of the World.

This time LFW was presented with a vision to “Redefine the future of fashion and Integrate India into the global fashion world”.LFW is organized twice annually.

All these years LFW served as the premier platform to launch new designers and showcase India’s best, talented established designers and a place where domestic and international buyers alike interact with designers to support the business of fashion.

This decade of progress and evolution marks an important milestone in the Indian Fashion industry.As such, Lakme and IMG took this opportunity to reflect on the evolving fashion industry by bringing together some of India’s best known fashion talents in one show.

This show was a unique concept that encapsulated and illustrated the history and provided a glimpse into the future of Indian fashion through the artistic representations of key fashion influencers over the past 10 years.

This hallmark event showcased many of the past Lakme Grand Finale designers who have come together to produce one show that travels from “Then” to “Now” and ultimately to “Forever”.

With Lakme Fashion week spring summer 2010 which took place at Hyatt,Mumbai from 18-22nd sep. marking ten glorious years of Indian Fashion Industry this event  took us through a voyage starting from yr 2000 showcasing “Then” ,How fashion Industry looked like a  decade ago through a audio visual format and the transitions which took place over past 10 yrs to “Now” which is the designer’s representation of what that theme means today. and ultimately to “Forever”,i.e. how it is perceived in future with his or her “Forever” girl.

“An Apple IPod in hand keeps you away from doctor”This could be a catchy phrase in one of the advertisement of Apple IPod ,though it is not.But still Apple adverts manages successfully captivating the youth and music addicts with its some of the best commercials in digital music industry.Apple always follow a distinctive style of appealing its consumers whether its a TV commercial or a print Ad. Many a times we come across Apple billboards featuring dark silhouetted characters holding iPod in hand against bright-colored backgrounds and vice-versa.The silhouettes are usually dancing, and in television commercials are backed by up-beat music.Apple IPods are another synonyms to quality music and the same we can observe in their ad-films. Let’s have a look at some of the ad-films of Apple

Fifth-generation IPod featuring Eminem

At Macworld 2007, Apple debuted their new ad campaign,featuring Colored silhouettes with a dynamic, moving and multi-colored background.

In 2007 YouTube member Nick Haley created a fan commercial of the iPod touch. Apple was impressed with the commercial and then contacted him about putting the commercial on the air. He and Apple’s advertising agency TBWA then got to work on making a more polished version of the Ad which ran during the 2007 World Series on Fox.

A poster of silhouette of God wearing an iPod displayed on the wall of a Christian shop.

Image via  WorldbridgerMedia

Moreover silhouettes have become an icon for Apple ads. Even a commercial featuring a man walking past a set of silhouette posters, which came to life and danced when his iPod was playing, but froze when he paused it not only amused the audience but also the Apple management by its post ad sales graph.

Not only this you can also create your own IPod Ad using your own personal photo.

So more you listen to music ,more you feel good and better keeping you away from doctor.So let’s dance more vibrantly than silhouettes and who knows you could get a chance to shake your booty in the next ad-film of Apple.

Today’s women are no less than men and there are plethora of stories where ladies have won over gentlemen in various fields. To honour the women empowerment Forbes have introduced a new section Forbes Woman dedicated towards the professional and executive women who heads countries ,companies and various organization. Recently Forbes Woman came up with a list of 30 most influential women in Media.It reveals 30 of the biggest names in Television,Print and internet industry.

Ranking is based on four categories which determines their influence:Audience(determined by average Nielsen Media Research numbers for television ratings and net traffic for the past 12 months), Press mentions, earnings(from approximately July 2008 to July 2009.) and social media(followers on Twitter and facebook) outreach.

Oprah Winfrey reigning at top

The most coveted lady in media industry is none other than Oprah Winfrey who s spotted at no.1 position in the list. In terms of financial gains she surpasses other women in the list with a wide margin as she bags 275 mn$ whereas women at 2^nd and 3^rd position earned only 35mn$ and 30 mn$ respectively.

Diane sawyer

Diane Sawyer ,at no.2 co-host of Good Morning America reaches to 10 million viewers anchoring prime time specials .Recently on ABC’s she was seen interviewing Barrack obama on his health care plan.She pocketed close to 35mn$ in a year.

Barbara walters

Barbara Walters who is the 3^rd most influential women co-hosted programs like

Most Fascinating People of 2008, Patrick Swayze: The Truth and Barack and Michelle Obama–and 2009 Oscar special which reached to millions of viewers.

Ellen DeGeneres’ also host a talk show which is less popular but her earnings and enormous social media following (more than anyone on the list) pushed her to No. 4.

Tyra banks ranked 5 on the list hosting two hit TV shows: her girl-talk chat show and   America’s Next Top Model.

Social media outreach being one of the factor in deciding the most influential women in media clearly states the popularity of social media platforms among celebrities and media personality to reach to millions of internet users along with TV audience.For a complete list of all 30 Women click here

Forbes has also revealed a list of 100 Most Powerful Women in world.

Image source:aceshowbiz,movieeye

Forbes has recently revealed a list of 100 most Powerful and influential women in the world.Magazine looked for women who run countries, big firms or influential nonprofits organization for compiling the list.Their rankings are a combination of two scores: visibility in press and media and the size of the organization or country these women lead.

Angela Merkel ,Chancellor germany

First women who is the most powerful lady on planet is the leader of 4^th largest economy of world. German chancellor Angela Merkel is at no.1 for the fourth time in a row. Despite of Germany speculating a shrink in economy Angela expects to win for the second time in the national general election which is scheduled in the month of sep.

2^nd in the list is Sheila Bair who is the Chairman, rather chairwoman of FDIC(federal deposit Insurance corp.) She is adamant for restructuring the federal oversight towards financial industry. She was appointed to the post for a five-year term on June 26, 2006 by George W. Bush. Bair will also serve as a member of the FDIC Board of Directors through July 2013. Forbes described her FDIC office as “the last stop for capital-starved banks (and their insured customers) before going under.

Indra Nooyi at World Economic Forum

Indian origin Indra Nooyi ranked 3^rd heads PepsiCo. as its CEO believes more in innovation than acquisition. A re-launch of the energy drink Propel and “Refresh Everything” campaign, featuring Pepsi Natural, made with all-natural ingredients in an attempt to offer more healthful products clearly shows the widespread strategy she is following to lure consumer’s mind. Fortune magazine has named Nooyi no.1 on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in business for 2006, 2007 and 2008.In 2008, Nooyi was named one of America’s Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.

At no. 4 Cynthia Carroll is an American businesswoman. She is the chief executive officer of Anglo American PLC, a London, UK mining company.

Ho ching at no.5 is the chief executive of Temasek.Sonia Gandhi which is placed at no. 13 heads the Indian National congress which has formed the central govt. for the second time since 2003.One more Indian women Chanda Kochhar ,chief executive of India’s largest private bank ICICI is ranked at no.20

Here Goes the complete list of 100 Most powerful woman

The list clearly shows the dominance of US women as top brass of big companies as well as at eminent position in Federal govt.

Now from giving birth to a child to giving new birth to an organization by inculcating new strategies today’s women has proven her mettle in everything she does.

Jai Ho !!!

Every Indian young or old had sung the National Anthem thousand of times from school assemblies to college gatherings ,during inaugural sessions and everywhere to honor and give respect to  our nation.It was first sung at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress on 27 December 1911. Jana Gana Mana was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on January 24, 1950.But we just sang except few of  those elan’ patriotic who actually understands its meaning.Well its not our fault,its been written in such a highly Sanskritized Bengali by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore that we couldn’t translate it except the name of the states(Punjab,Sindh,Gujarat,Maratha) and rivers(Ganga.Jamuna,Yamuna)which comes in between.Today after completing 62 years of glorious independence  many of us still don’t know what “Jana Gana Mana”  entails.This article is a small effort to make more and more Indians understand the true meaning of National Anthem.

National Anthem in Sanskrit

Jana ga?a mana adhin?yaka jaya he  Bh?rata bh?gya vidh?t?
Panj?ba Sindha Gujar?ta Mar??h?      Dr?vi?a Utkala Vanga
Vindhya Him?cala Yamun? Gang?    Ucchala jaladhi taranga
Tava ?ubha n?me j?ge                  Tava ?ubha ??i?a m?ge
G?he tava jaya g?th?                Jana ga?a mangala d?yaka jaya he
Bh?rata bh?gya vidh?ta

Jaya he jaya he jaya he
Jaya jaya jaya jaya he!

National Anthem translated into English

O! Dispenser of India’s destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, the Maratha country,
in the Dravida, Utkala and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
it mingles in the rhapsodies of the pure waters of Yamuna and Ganga
They chant only thy name.
They seek only thy auspicious blessings.
They sing only the glory of thy victory.
The salvation of all people waits in thy hands,
O! Dispenser of India’s destiny, thou art the ruler of the minds of all people
Victory to thee, Victory to thee, Victory to thee,
Victory, Victory, Victory, Victory to thee!

Rabindranath Tagore himself translated Jana Gana Mana from Sanskrit to English and also set it to music in Andhra Pradesh way back in 1919.The Jana Gana Mana video was released on January 26, 2000 to mark the 50th year of the Indian Republic. It has the distinction of being released by the then President of India, in the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament.

It was produced by Bharat Bala and Kanika Myer and published by Ministry of Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.Bharat Bala and A. R. Rahman worked together to create this historic album.

Information Source: Wikipedia

Friend in need is a FRIEND IN DEED

In 1935 USA govt. killed a man on 1^st Saturday of august. The very next day his best friend committed suicide in his memory, so USA govt. decided and declared 1^st Sunday of every august as Friendship day. Following the popularity and success of Friendship Day in US, several other countries adopted the tradition of dedicating a day to friends.Celebration doesn’t only last for a day but goes for the whole week and for many years we have been celebrating Friendship Week  Today celebrating the 72^nd anniversary of this day Outofbox has come up with few ideas to make your friends feel special.

1)Take them to a surprise celebration party. As most of us expect a surprise birthday or wedding anniversary party, this surprise will surely strength your bonding.

2)Giving a card or flowers is somewhat materialistic and everybody does that, a better way is to cook your friend’s favorite dish. Make sure you give your best in kitchen which would be enough to please your friend.

3)Make your friend aware about his positive and negative sides. Everyone praises their good friend but there is always a corner for improvement. Show your friend that weak corner.

4)Send your friends SMS composed by you and don’t forward other’s feeling. Even a single line written by you is far better than 100 words of another person.

5)Try to find out one thing  that your friend always wishes to do and play an important role in getting that wish fulfilled.

Though many of us celebrate friendship day throughout the year, in this fast pacing world of commercialization and globalization we struggle to find time for our own friends and closed one. These days are only excuses to make your friends feel that you’re always there with them holding each other’s hand through thick and thin.

Image via Topnews.us

Remember MSN search or ever used it. I won’t be surprised by a negative reply.Microsoft’s repeated efforts to build a credible search engine had fallen flat for many years.Since 2006 for almost 3 years they banged their heads in Microsoft Research lab and the finally their hard work is paying, BING Microsoft’s another search engine launched just 7 weeks ago is moving up the ladders of success everyday capturing close to 11 % of the search engine market ,which is worth $12 billion in the United States alone according to market sources.

One of the best thing it has is its “hover” feature. Hover allows users to see an excerpt of the page by moving the mouse to the left.Currently Bing remains a distant third in the search race. It would have to triple its audience to catch Yahoo – and grow eightfold to tie Google but user interest in Bing has already been said to have “rattled” Google .

This time we share some finest piece of advertising which played a vital role in spreading and buzzing BING ,which says “Some of the important decisions of our life we make depends on the information we collect from different sources, majorly from web,Introducing BING – Your decision Engine.”

The ad shows the people lost in links, Institutions and firms collapsing everywhere,debt of organization increasing,banks on the verge of closure. It says “We don’t need queries and keywords if they bring back questions and confusion.”Right information to make the right decision as decisions helps us to be at right place at right time. The new BING-Decision Engine.

A new place, Dad asking boy to choose bet’n LCD or plasma ,Where to find cheaper tickets, Women revealing about her back pain at a hospital reception, and then everyone gets an irrelevant answers comprised of mixed and confused statements. Finally a question mark on us “What has search overload done to us”? Cure for a search overload syndrome ..Introducing a cure tool BING.

A lady asking “Did you find out what you can eat during pregnancy” expecting a simple answer from pregnant woman, but unfortunately a mind full of irrelevant information speaks out “Pregnant panda gives birth to biggest cub born in captivity”.

Can you imagine a more weird answer !!!

A gal asking her dad about her cell phone and she too got stunned after getting response from her mom and dad,all caused due to overload.

BING clearly says we are too confused to reply any answer or in other words overloaded with information to find out the relevant stuff from it. Therefore Microsoft suggests BING to wipe out all the confusions and irrelevant information and make the right decision by getting the right information.

There is a fundamental concept that is taught in every Management Temple ,concept of 4Ps,i.e.,

Product? What the Solution you’re offering

Price? Value ,what is the cost of your product

Placement? Access,Where can the customer find the Product

Promotion? Is customer aware about your products and its advantage.

Of all the above P’s the most important of them is the last one,Promotion.How effectively your brand is promoted decides the fate of your product to a large extent.

I am not a market analyst or for the matter a MBA geek so that I could comment on how to sell your product,but with a mere foresight one could easily say or perhaps plan as “How to sell a product”. Marketing a product is not as simple as it sounds as the same crop cannot be grown every where in the world because it has its own requirement such as land,climate etc.On the same line to sell a product  different strategies are involved.Most effective of all of them is to associate the product to the most popular sports of that country,an easy way to  reach million of consumers at the same time.

To start with this concept let take the example of PEPSI,soft drink giant. In India this drink is associated with cricket,the most popular of all the games.Cricketers are worshipped like God and hence fans love to sip nectar drinks endorsed by their Gods.Millions  are paid to cricket player for these ads.Today many brands are endorsing famous cricket players to sell their product.Latest is FIAT PUNTO who backs hard hitter Yuvraj Singh. Lays is another brand which allures its consumers  by showing Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni doing “Lime and masala masti”.Royal Bank of Scotland made a contract with Sachin Tendulkar who is soaring new heights everyday “making it happen”.Leading Tyre manufacturer MRF once signed three of the most popular player for their brand promotion Brain Lara, Sachin and Steve Waugh. It’s not only cricket that attracts all the endorsement,Tennis sensation Sania Mirza too have big  contracts in her bag.These examples truly reflects that “What is visible and more famous,sells more”.

A market analysis report shows that Pepsi sale rose to several times when David Beckham endorsed Pepsi for the first time. Similarly Roger Federer featuring in Gillette, Rolex and  Nike makes a significant contribution to the sale of product.

European Country like Spain, UK where the famous sports is Soccer signs team like Real Madrid,  ManU, A C Milan for their brand promotion.Beer brand Carlsberg has signed many top players of European football league team to promote their brands. Brand like Audi,Barclays follows the same path.

Talking of beverages Australian liquor giant Foster has many option like Cricket, Rugby,etc to promote their brand.The story is not constrained to only beverages. IT giant Accenture preferred Tiger Woods as his brand ambassador as both are delivering the highest performance in their respective field.BlackBerry phone has also signed formula one Player for its brand promotion.

The whole point to use the famous sports celebrity as their brand ambassador is that they face no issue in reaching million  of consumers.So more the fans follow any sport more they will be curious about the product their players endorse.