Thinkonisms : April 2011

Thinkonisms is our way of looking at life. The lighter side of life. A deeper way of thinking, One liners in two minutes. Instant anecdotes and instant grins. Some questions with no answers. One answer to close all chapters. Simple observations. Honest facts. Exaggerated fiction. The larger than life dream of the common man. Some original, some not really so, ripped, pirated, flicked, translated, hacked, derived, assumed, unusual & imitated short takes on life. Everyone's smiling, isn't it. Still, this is our way of contributing to one extra smile somewhere on someone's face.
Read, Smile & Think. Think out of the Box. So, sit back, relax & enjoy...
Let's just uncomplicate...


At work, why is it always,
"There might be a better way of doing this..."   Vs   "This is the way it has always been done here.."


The hardest thing about business is minding your own...


"I don't want to see things as they were or as they are,
I want to see them as to what they will soon be..."


 "A bartender is just a pharmacist with a great inventory..."


"Lady luck never gives, she only lends..."


"When you dial a wrong number, 

                                     how come you never get an engaged tone..."

I was born this way, but mom says,
"Not to worry, god has plans for everyone..."
                                                                                             Guess i was Plan B.



"A sweater is usually put on a child, 
                         when a parent feels chilly..."



"A tear can say more than a hundred spoken words,
                                             but a single word can make you shed a million tears..."



" A tree never attacks a car, except in self defence"



"Maybe the grass is actually greener on the other side..."
  or maybe they just do it better.



That's all for now, more coming soon in May on Thinkonisms : May 2011.

Warm Regards,
Samit.

The Big Picture : Strike One, You're Out...

As a toddler, l was fed on a fodder of fairy tales. More often than not, none of it made sense and I did not believe in any of it. I was a very simple logical kid, back then. According to me, amongst the plethora of all those stories, only one fairy tale made sense, as if it were a gospel. It was the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The soothing tune of the pipe led a million rats to their watery graves, and when the city failed to comply with the piper, it spellbound the village kids. It sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it…

Just think about it…

Today, we come across millions of such pipers. We tend to dance to their tunes of fashion, beliefs, trends, hidden truths, blatant lies, and absurd rationales. Our blind faith in those pipers will increase our chances of reaching the graves a little quicker. But we do have a choice now, a decision which should have been taken a long time back by each one of us, individually. Either we follow the pipers or try taking a path less trodden.

Why Shrink, Let’s Think… Let's just Uncomplicate.

The current political scenario is no less than a Bollywood potboiler. One do-good protagonist fighting the whole system, making it to bend on it's knees and even bound to succeed at that with an entire audience, pretty sure of the outcome, just like in our movies. Anna Hazare has become the household name for splashing tar on the UPA sarkar and is causing ripples…sorry my mistake…tsunamis in the political circles. But consider this, five words "Ever heard of Irom Sharmila". With a record ten year hunger strike, a tube thrust in her nose and arrested if the tube comes out. The only common point between these two campaigns is "Hunger strike for a larger cause". A simple solution for a big issue.

Analysing & speaking in Marketing terms...

Product analysis : Anna Hazare

Pages can be written on this Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan & Rabindranath Tagore awardee including Education, Ralegaon Siddi etc. But considering that one initiative took off leads for further initiatives to take place needs to be taken into consideration. The latest feather in his cap would be the Jan Lokpal Bill

Product analysis : Irom Sharmila

Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize…now how many of us knew that…

Target Audience : Irom Sharmila

Sharmila has been fighting the brutal AFSPA that empowers armed forces to shoot anybody without any empirical proof. A massacre that killed an 18 year old Bravery Award winner triggered off her strike. She has been on a hunger strike for more than 10 years now. Considering the target audience, her target group was limited to the seven sisters, and the seven sisters being one of the most ignored areas in India, her fight was largely ignored

Target Audience : Anna Hazare

Anna Hazare fought in the limelight. He managed the press to take attention as well as got a battery of high profile followers. He even managed to rub shoulders with prolific politicians and took the biggest names to book including Sharad pawar. The common man could relate more to corruption, as he is the part of the process and AFSPA is something, we are thick skinned to.

Positioning : Irom Sharmila

Sharmila- A common woman fighting for a cause

Positioning : Anna Hazare

The Gandhi cap, A cavalcade with the likes of Swami Agnivesh, big names, venues like Jantar mantar, Anna is a marketing managers delight. Sharmila was arrested at Jantar Mantar and a tube thrust in her nose for ‘attempted suicide’

We can go on & on about this and the analysis will soon lead to paralysis. One simple thought here. An agitation of this magnitude needs a lot of funds. The press won’t print a letter without amounts exchanged and powerful influential hands backing any agitation. If things were going hunky dory, Sharmila would have been on the front pages ages ago and the AFSPA repealed and she would have been married with two kids today.

What are these influences, why is this ‘specific’ agitation gaining momentum, who are the political beneficiaries…The UPA as the benevolent rulers or the NDA for getting most of the ruling behind bars…Maybe both, Maybe not.

Think again.

Think Out of the Box... 

 Since 4th November, 2000, Irom Sharmila from Manipur has been on a political fast demanding the Government of India to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA). On 6th November 2000, she was arrested by the police and charged with an "attempt to commit suicide", which is unlawful under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code. With her determination not to take food or water, her health deteriorated tremendously; the police then forcibly had to use nasogastric intubation in order to keep her alive.
She has been in that state since 6^th November 2000.No bill has been passed against the AFSPA till date…

Regards,
Chaitanya Joshi
Copywriter
Think Out of the Box

Think out of the Box begins...

An idea can change your life...
No, we aren't talking about one of our clients here. The management of Think out of the Box has decided firmly on this one and i wouldn't dare to go against it. We would strictly not be discussing work on this blog. This blog simply aims at simplifying simple things.
Let's just Uncomplicate...

There are a million ways for an ad agency to be termed as a Big Ad Agency...
Extensively appropriate N.B.D, Reverse disintegration, Maximum utilisation of available resources, Existing client delight. Widespread cost-effective publicity, Capitalising on successful campaigns, ingenious concepts, cheap prices, quick flawless artworks, sweet talking client servicing executives, heretic copywriters, Timely vendor monetary gratification, Enormous expansion this list is endless. We probably use each and every nook of the book called, "How to be a Big Ad Agency".
That's my job. That's my promise.

There are two people, two indiviuals in Think Out of the Box comunications Pvt. Ltd. that believe "To be a big ad agency, we simply need to Think Big, Think Out of the Box..."
This is their story...

"I think it's time we start something of our own", Suhail said. "Are you sure it's the right time", Suhas asked. Suhail thought for a second, he knew the answer but chose to remained silent.

He trusted Suhas's word as much as he trusted his own instincts. This session of Suhail's question &  Suhas's counter question had survived a long time. Usually, the conversation of a brilliant idea starts with a bang, then continues for some time, then there's analysis, followed by discussions, more analysis continues, followed by predictions & projections, then some more analysis and finally everybody suffers due to "Paralysis of Analysis".

Suhail had the uncanny knack of popping this question when least expected by Suhas. Over the phone, while chatting on messenger, during smoke breaks, at 12:09 am on new year's eve and once even while changing a flat tyre. He never gave up.

Suhail had found the right busines partner,
Suhas did not seem convinced but Suhail never gives up...

Suhas, on the other hand, is more calm and composed, very difficult to convince, very orthodox yet creatively very strong. He will let you take the first step, but he'll silently always be behind you. Through thick & thin, in ups & downs, he will tell you that a left is right if that is the way it actually is. He has seen a lot. Had seen all there was to see, in the last 12 years. 12 years of advertising. the bright side, the dark side & the grey side. Who else would know, that forming an advertising agency is not just an idea. It is a process...

The glamour, the unlimited expense accounts, the exhilarating lifestyle - all these popular portraits of working in a big advertising agency are all misleading. Advertising is demanding, challenging, hard-work. It is may be interesting and fulfilling at times but advertising always requires a mix of personal abilities, considerable business skills, and an ability to work under tremendous pressure to meet deadlines and that's just the beginning. Suhas Knew all this.

Suhas had found the right busines partner,
Suhail was in a hurry but Suhas was patiently waiting for the right time...

"I think we should start our advertising agency now" said Suhas, "Great, i have a name in mind", Suhail promptly replied. Was it Suhail's Business acumen & never give up spirit or was it Suhas's experience, accurate timing & enormous support which ignited the fire to start this company, we shall probably never know. It was 27th February 2007. Think Out of the Box was born...


Four years ago, we started with four people in a one hundred and forty square feet rented place.
Today, working in a 700 plus squarefoot office comprising of four distinct depatments and five different divisions. After multiplying our business seven times over in the last four years...
We still think we have just started...

Regards,
Samit.

Suhas Parte, Suhail Syed, Mrs. Zainab Suhail Syed & Mrs. Megha Suhas Parte 

at Suhail & Zainab's wedding on 28th October 2010.

Prelude to Think Tank...

It started on 7th November 2008. This feeling of "Let's do something about it" was present even before then. However, everything has a time and there is a great need to do everything on time. Not before, not after, just right on time. When we do something before time, it may sound amateurish, unconvincing and not properly thought of. As against, when we do something after it's time has passed away, it simply loses it's importance. Everything has to be done just right on time.

This is not an easy task. A lot of thought and planning has to go into doing things on time.
A lot of "Think, Commit & Deliver" has to go into meeting deadlines effectively without compromising on the desired end result.

Think, Commit & Deliver.
This concept holds true to every possible situation in every persons life.
Be it a Marketing manager motivating his team or a father discussing with his son his future plan's or be it a housewife deciding what she will make for dinner tonite or a common man thinking what to do about his impending retirement, house rent, increasing inflation, daughter's marriage, younger son's education or that ever increasingly floating interest rate on his home loan.

Think, Commit and deliver simply means that we have to think before everything. Think before every spoken word and every action. Realise the pro's and the con's. Then we commit, if we have thought of the situation then the commitment of a solution to the issue seems relatively easy.
Trust me on this one. Commit only what is possible. It is better to commit less and deliver more than to commit the sky and give huge mountains. Mountains are huge, reaching the top of a mountain transcends into reaching the pinnacles but the mountains will never reach the sky. How about committing some hills and delivering a huge mountain. Sounds better.
Then comes the delivery. This is considered the most difficult task. We have a saying here in India " Bol Bachchan, Baat karna aasan hain, kaam karna mushkil".
Meaning, it's easier to talk and difficult to put it into action. "Easier said than done". We believe that if the thought process is clear, committing is easy and delivery is even easier. Simple.

Here at Think Out of the Box, i am not a copywriter. Infact, i can't even remotely write, I could have just requested my copwriter Chaitanya Joshi that we need to get a blog, get a logo done for the same, have a baseline, write something interesting, somthing with a deep thought behind, this is our showcase and we need to just kill it. Chaitanya, we have to get this done in a quickie because everybody is in a hurry and we have to make an impression here "We just have to kill it"
"Ho jayega Samit, tension mat lena, main hoon naa..."
I am 100% confident that this would be his reply. He would have simply killed it and that too within the given deadline. So, let me introduce you to all the people at Think out of the Box who Think, Commit & Deliver. There were problems, there were issues, there were late-nights, there was immense pressure and there were strict and real steep dealines to be met and these folks just killed it...

Suhail Syed (Managing Partner)
Suhas Parte (Managing Partner)
Samit Samant (That's me there...)
Chaitanya Joshi (Copywriter)
Sahil Agwan (Client Servicing Executive)
Dhananjay Pawar (Senior Visualiser)
Pankaj Pardhi (Senior Visualiser)
Namdev Kamble (Senior Visualiser)
Nitin Kharat (Visualiser)
Sandesh Pawar (3D, AV concept & editing, Stalls & Events co-ordination & execution)
Riyaaz Sayed ( Printing & Merchandising, Finance Manager)
Taufeeq Sayed (Accounts)
Nilesh (Office Assistant)
Amol (Office Assistant)
Kishore (Office boy)

This is the Think Tank Team. People from every faces of life.
At Think Tank we will not start with dealing with "The bigger issues", "The larger concerns", "The let's make a difference phenomena" because everybody else is trying to do it since freedom, back then since 1947. Personally speaking, I think we should try solving small problems first because a large problem is just a number of small problems all clubbed together. We solve the small concerns and the larger issues will get solved automatically. This is just my view point. It may or may not hold true. But what is the harm in trying. What is the harm in thinking. What do you and i have to lose if we simply Think out of the Box.


Warm Regards,
Samit.