One champion for your business

On Saturday, Steve Rubel interviewed Jeff Jarvis’ about his new book, What Would Google Do? In the book, Jarvis breaks down Google’s practices into 12 distinct rules and then applies them to aging industries like media and advertising. Denuo/Publicis’s Rishad Tobaccowala points out how Google served an entirely new population of advertisers who didn’t have agencies and that enabled it to set new rules. Google sells performance instead of scarcity (a lesson the rest of media must learn in this post-scarcity economy). Because it rewards relevance, it encourages better, more effective advertising.

One number in your life

I picked up today’s newspaper and there’s Google again with its mega plans to unify the masses. Launched on March 5th, Google Voice is all set to revolutionize telephones.It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers and elevates text messages to first-class communication citizens. And that’s just the warm-up. Google Voice began life in 2005 as something called GrandCentral. It was, in its own way, revolutionary. More on it here.

One fellow to help you out on the web

If search wiki wasn’t enough, Google now has made available the “preferred site” option to all its users. The service allows users to overweight certain web sites in the search engine result pages. Once you sign up, Google recommends pages from your history that you tend to visit when searching. You have the option to make these sites (or any other) a preferred destination.

Without even getting into the whole business/ SEO/ SEM discussion, I can only hope that you can turn it off – Half the fun about search is the fact that you can find the “unexpected” and stuff you haven’t seen before. I mean what is “search”, if you know what you’re gonna get?

One person who knows you better than you yourself!

So you worried just about how your search data was painting a DNA of who you are? Google  released 11 software applications for mobile phones that spell a fundamental change in our lives. Among the applications were functions such as text messaging, web browsing, a diary, Orkut - the company’s social networking offering – and Latitude, a GPS-based service that tracks you wherever you go. Innocent enough, perhaps. But combined they would allow Google to know what you are doing all of the time. A truly Orwellian development that has been described by privacy campaigners as “a catastrophic corruption of consent”.

Far-fetched? Not at all. The mobile phone industry has for years seen the potential for a rich market to develop in location-based services if only it could get its customers to agree. Google, on the other hand, has decided to take advantage of that market and it has sought to do so by appearing to be helpful. The rationale is simple – offer a service for free and the customer will not notice that they have given a company the right to know where they are at any time.

So now – considering the above, what do you think?

1. Google is well on its way to create the “Empire“
2. Google is doing what all enterprises should do – consistently better their offering
3. Google is retrograding the whole “Internet” story it fed on by killing basics like “free spirit”, “openness”, “surprises”, “sense of wonder” et al

Digital or Die

By Rebecca Lieb, The ClickZ Network, Sep 26, 2008

One of the most crammed, standing-room-only sessions at MIXX this week featured the media directors of top agencies, including Digitas, Mediaedge:cia, Neo@Ogilvy, and MindShare. As they talked targeting and how they were spending millions of media dollars for their respective rosters of blue-chip clients, online media trainer extraordinaire Leslie Laredo leaned over to whisper in my ear, “Not a single person on this panel is over 30.”

Whether her observation is literally true is moot. The point is these senior agency executives are young, much younger than their typical counterparts on the traditional media side of the table.

Why? Are old dogs so adverse to learning new tricks? Because certainly at MIXX, as well as at OMMA last week, bemoaning the digital talent gap was a cry that emerged early and often.

It’s not just old-timers on the traditional agency side of the equation who are stubbornly resisting the shift to digital. It’s an issue across the media landscape. Their reluctance was perhaps somewhat understandable in the go-go ’90s and in the sober, austere, bleak era around 2002.

But now?

Still, I’m seeing traditional publishers cut back on digital endeavors (and digital staff) in a desperate and futile effort to sustain their flagging, dead-tree legacy brands. I’m seeing digital executives going to senior management with requests for back-end tools, such as content management systems and social media software, only to learn their corporate overlords have no idea what all that stuff is, much less what it’s actually used for or how it can benefit the business.

And I’m seeing some of those print publications flatline. Friends who have been print journalists for decades are panicking in the face of cutbacks, early retirement, consolidation, and plain old extinction.

But they’re not learning digital skills. A critic friend stays up nights over the fact his paper is due to shutter at month’s end. When I inquired about his online skills, he replied that even the most fundamental elements of a story, such as hyperlinks, were determined and executed by the online editor. He doesn’t know how to do any of that stuff.

An entrepreneur behind an online publishing startup, meanwhile, recently posed a hypothetical question: “If you could hire a top journalist with 20 years’ traditional experience or someone fresh out of J-school who knew the Web cold, which person would you hire?”

No contest. Hands down, I’d make the kid an offer.

New media is becoming old hat. It’s a fact of life. OMMA and MIXX were packed, refreshingly, with new faces. I’m speaking next week at MIMA in Minneapolis, another sold-out interactive marketing event. Newfound interest in and support for digital advertising is heartening, yet there’s still an astonishing degree of pushback across the media industries.

Across all industries and sectors, in fact. Veteran Web consultant and publisher Larry Chase related a story this week about rescuing a neighbor’s virus-infected hard drive (they’d let their virus protection software subscription expire). The relieved and chastised owner piped up that while they didn’t know much about virus protection, they had just learned how to create an e-mail attachment.

Clinging to Luddism and deliberate blindness in the face of the digital revolution (no understatement there!) may have been cute 10 years ago. Today, it’s inexcusable.

Those glib and somewhat arrogant aphorisms, such as “everything that can be digital will be,” have come to pass. In a climate buffeted by a tumultuous economy and tenuous job security, the advertising and media industries really have reached the point of go-digital-or-die.

The question, of course, is how do you change attitudes? How can media professionals be made to understand and convinced to embrace digital media and Web literacy, e-mail accounts, and the occasional Amazon order? It’s disheartening to watch friends and colleagues lose jobs — as well as their future prospects — before they wake up to this no-longer-new reality.

So what’s the answer? Some sort of digital Peace Corps? Community college courses? Should companies undertake in-house training initiatives?

What are you doing? Because friends can no longer allow friends to remain digitally illiterate. Or is the media and advertising landscape going to have to undergo a Wall Street meltdown before people start to change?

Originally submitted by Dabitch. Some mods added!

The advertising dictionary is useful for both adn00bs and adknowing and everyone in between.
Note: this ad dictionary was hosted in another place where you could add words before our redesign, created in 2001. I figure I’d simply repost it as a regular blog post now since submissions declined.
AstroTurf Marketing: Astroturf marketing is what you do when you post anything in a very (very!) popular blog and/or community blog simply to spread the word, like how great Pepsi Blue is, or how you like Terry Tate the office linebacker (with links) or whatever else you want to go ‘viral’.
See also Astroturf – From Disinfopedia, the encyclopedia of propaganda. :”Senator Lloyd Bentsen, himself a long-time Washington and Wall Street insider, is credited with coining the term “astroturf lobbying”.” In other words, astroturf began in the political arena and seeped out to the consumer arena…

Account Consecutive: These AE’s use the same dang plan and media mix for each and every one of their clients, no matter if they’re a small skateboard manufacturer or a national supplemental health insurance group for senior citizens. Also known as Coasters.

(an) Add: To add is what you learned in early math class, as in 2+2=5. It’s also how dyslexic copywriters and people who do not work in advertising thinks one spells “ad” as in “advert”. Well, it’s wrong, just to clear that up. Besides, in advertising we think 1+1=3, so you really shouldn’t be talking math with us.

Adland: this is common term for this website, including the subsites/subsections such as Badland, the Commercial Archive, the adforums and so on. We’ve called it that since 1996 and old habits die hard. I should know, I still smoke.

Adgrunt: I coined the expression here as a way to describe the audience that arrives, we are the sick twisted souls that use the remote control in order to find the commercials, rather than avoid them.

Borelancer: A freelance creative who spends his or her entire time talking about who they’ve worked with, what they’ve learned and how you could use it to become better at your job.

Blogaganda: Exactly what you think it is, propaganda in blogs or blogs created specifically in order to spew propaganda. Term coined here 2004

Buzzard: You know this type – uses “utilize” instead of “use,” “proactive” in every other sentence, etc. Matter of fact, this type of person is so into it that they can use “paradigm” as a noun, verb and/or adjective.

Choppywriter: A jerkwad (usually a part-owner of the agency) who spends mebbe half a minute pretending to think deeply about a client, writes down three or four random words* on a piece of paper, and hands it down for somebody else to try and flesh it out into an actual concept – and of course takes full credit for the concept if the underlings actually develop anything from it.
*examples of word chop clusters…. “peanut, breasts, green, hair,” “boxers, hat, bananas, awning,” or “mutton, gremlin, ointment, eraser.”

Copy Wanker (Courtesy I am kidding.Really.) – the writer who sneaks sexual innuendo into anything including ads for laundry detergents, prescription drugs and disposable nappies with the motto “sex sells”.

Copywronger: An account manager who insists on telling people his or her embarrassingly bad copy ideas. See also Management Copywriter.

Clue by Four: unknown origin : something you’d like to smack a certain mediabuyer – who bought Mercedes newspaper ad space in conjunction with Princess Di’s death being reported – over the head with.

Creative Departed (Courtesy mochazina): a CD who is rumored to once have been creative but these days rides firmly on the shoulders of the creative department.

Demi-production head: A senior producer who refuses to be on the set before noon

Donuts: donuts – a prefab tv shell with the same ol’ beginning and end where you plop whatever the current promo is in the middle and call it a day. Completely forgettable lazy crap.

Do a Mahir: The Mahir phenomenon, aptly described in this article [salon], immediatly spawned a million “viral” Internet campaigns trying to ride a similar wave of “pass it on” hype. “Doing a Mahir” is to in essence, build a page equally naivly funny as Mahir’s, or in other closely related traits try to harness the same morbid curiosity of internet viewers. In other words, this is now the officially oldest viral advertising tactic, on par with traditional ad cliché propositions like “for all your [roast beef] needs.”
This is not to be confused with another type of “viral” campaign , which could be anything from the “use hotmail now” link at the bottom of each one of your sent hotmails, to a site that offers elaborate Ecards that you send your friends in order for the site to get traffic, to sneaky places like Ecrush that send out “someone has a crush on you” and make you type in a large amounts of friends real emails before they reveal who it is, if it even is anybody but their own email-harvesting machine…

Dupliclaims: it’s the word Tim cheif sloganmaven (r.i.p.) from adslogans.co.uk invented to describe Badland lookalike ads. The word stuck.

Endline : see strapline.

Fart Director: A staff designer who’s managed to parlay the last 12 years of a burnt-out career shuffling from design firm to design firm doing nothing but bitch about the coffee and the bathrooms and how the clients will NEVER PAY FOR A SHOOT AROUND HERE!

Friday: It’s not casual in adland. Friday is pink slip day. [friday is also silly link day on adlist.]

Hoaz: A hoax-person purposely designed in order to get net-wide and/or pressattention.
The press [legit] attention can be it’s only goal, the more elaborate one use the pressattention to flog a product. See examples such as Netochka Nezvanova [salon article link]. Bot? Person? Artgang? Software engineer? Troll?.
Expression coined to separate an elaborate Hoax-person/entity on the net from an elaborate Troll on the net with which a Hoaz shares many traits.

Hoarse Whisperer: An executive who read the intro to one of those body language books and speed-read through the rest, who now makes an ass of himself in every meeting with overexaggerated winks, eyebrow wiggles, staredowns, hand and arm gestures, and intentional intrusion of personal zones to display how “alpha” he is.

Junior Assistant Account Coordinator Planner Executive: Gopher

Layout – never an idea: The layout itself can do most of the ideas job, where it is placed, how it looks communicates more than its given credit. But a layout is not an idea. Stating “I used blurry fonts first – they nicked my idea!“, is better said as: “I used blurry fonts first – they nicked my design style“.
If blurred out fonts are used in order to communicate the need for new glasses and a visit to the optrician, the fonts are expressing the idea, but blurry fonts on their own aren’t an idea.
Otherwise, a layout carries the idea but it is never the idea on it’s own.

Viral ad (related to Mahir, umbrella-term.): When first coined – Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper are credited with the term Viral Marketing in 1997 – the phrase “viral” was anything from those little sigfiles at the bottom of a hotmail mail to any other “wildfire” word of mouth.
These days the term Viral is more often used in regards to actual commercials that spread like wildfire across the web, some agencies make “made for web only” commercials specifically. Anything too raunchy, sexy or anything that was “banned from TV” (has the potential of becoming a viral film. Viral sites are the best way of promoting them, a great example was the Fanta Shokata website which allowed punters to create their own films and spread them to friends – thus both allowing users to create a film and email their friends.
Famous film examples: Lee & Rubberburner leaked films on the net via “Losers.org”and for us adgrunts Truth In Advertising tickled our funnbone extra much, both in 2000. Fred & Farid’s Xbox “champagne” 2002, Monster spoof “when I grow up” 2002, Ford Ka cat decapitation in 2004, the BIG ad and suicide vw bomber ad by Lee & Dan, 2005 – just to name a few.

Master Bait: An older suit with a once notable past in a certain industry who is hired and paraded around to increase the chances of successfully wooing a client in that same industry. Unfortunately, the wooing fails, so the agency is stuck with a disinterested, expensive and grizzled grumpbucket until the contract runs out.

Plannager : An account manager who really wanted to be a planner and who is constantly trying to prove that he or she would make a good one.

Posse Galore: When an agency principal goes on a long distance trip to meet with a potential client who happens to be male, there’s usually at least two from this group, typically female, young and attractive, who find out that their experience is required to make the visitation go smoothly as well as ensure success. Oh, and they have to giggle on cue and only speak when spoken to.

ROI???: Return Of Investment. Numbers for the number chrunching guys. DM – that is, Direct Marketing – are the media fellows that have the best track record in proving their ROI – they know exactly who they mailed and how many responded after all.

Rounder: Primary responsibility is taking the edgy elements out of an ad that make the account executive and/or client and/or focus group uncomfortable.

Sarchasm: – The gulf between the author of sarcasm and the recipient who doesn’t get it. Some people reckon we’re overly hash with our opinions here, but relax, it’s only advertising….

Senior Guinea Pig: The poor soul whose first task in the morning is to test the brown office beverage and find out if the caffeinated swill is palatable.

Slogan : see Endline.

SpaSMS: expression coined here back on 2000 regarding the SMS advertising/marketing messages texted to mobile phones to more accurately describe them.

Spamvertise: Expression coined eons ago, frequently used by places such as Spamcop to describe unsolicited bulk email advertising. There is no real marketing or skill or actual “targeting” to a specific group at play when peoplespamvertise just a million pissed off people who soon desert their email addresses in the vain hope that a new one, might stay spam free. In Dabitch’s humble opinion, any marketing on the net not expressively asked for should be banned and the fuckwads responsible flogged in public. Many share it since the receiver actually pays the bill for these “ads” in form of wasted resources, wasted time, and more often that you’d think, phonebill costs or “account is over the limit” bills. As far as I know, this is the only form of advertising where the receiver pays to receive something they didn’t ask for. [So did the now illegal Fax ads, that wasted away millions of rolls of fax paper and tied up office faxes all night long, but the cost of paper is usually smaller.]

SPIM: Spam sent over instant messaging systems IM. Could be a bot that just spews a short “conversation” before telling you about a URL that you must visit – could be a cruder bot that just says “Hi” and then SPIMs you immediately. Worse, it could be a bot trying to trick you into downloading adware or a virus. In any case, it’s annoying.

Strapline: positioning statement.

SudS: Many ads around the world are simply dubbed to fit into a new market without much consideration for how different different markets actually are. Getting an “adaptation brief” usually means that you’ll be translating and dubbing a soap advert or washing powder commercial . Now you know what they mean when they say “I’m working on SudS all week.” It means they’re bored.

Tagline : see slogan.

Tart Director (courtesy caffeinegoddess): AD whose sole goal is to work with the hottest chicks possible and try to nail them too.

Wardrobe Wench: Primary duty of this stereotypically female staffer is, whenever a PLC (potentially lucrative client) is to be in the agency within the next day or two, to make sure (via email, voicemail, post-its, group meetings and one-on-ones) that every creative in the shop knows that they are supposed to wear clothes and underbritches that are clean, relatively inoffensive and in tolerably good condition (by executive standards) on that particular day. In case of failure, she has a stock of button-down shirts and pullovers embroidered with the agency name and/or logo to throw on the worst offenders at the last possible minute.

White space : White space does not communicate. But it sure is purdy.

Usage rights : Legal permission to reproduce copy, photos, logos or other intellectual property. Nobody understands this these days so everyone yells “fair use” at the top of their lungs instead.

More Smelladvertising:

VIA (the washing powder) ran a poster campaign in Stockholm and Malmö which..er..actually smells!

Push the little spout at the bottom of the poster and you’ll sniff a sample on how the washing powder smells. Or how clean clothes smell after being washed with Via.

HOT!

So, smell some fried chicken, and if it gets too much, there is always the refreshing detergent smell to wash it off! Anyone for coffee beans?

More examples? Look at how newspapers are using smelladvertising to regain lost commercial revenues…here

This time, Google created something, that they call “a unit of knowledge”. In words of Google, a knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic. In first look, it might appear as a simple Blog. Here you create articles as you do in Blogs, but they are consolidated as in Wiki. There can be contributors, collaborators and community members. You can edit, or just suggest an update. Moreover, you can have revisions. You can review Knols, post comments and reply to comments. So this makes it more like forums.

What’s in the box?

Here you will find topics like Heart Attack, AIDS, Prostate Cancer, Name Verification, Installing UBUNTU and millions more. But that’s not all, you can add your own Knol and enhance the knowledge base.

How Authentic is the content?

Knols are pieces of knowledge, written by authentic people from respective fields. Moreover, Google verifies members, so anything they post is genuine. Besides, people can flag your content or update it as in Wikipedia.

What else?

If you think that this is a nice initiative, then wait for more surprise. Google has linked AdSense to it. Google allows you to link any existing AdSense account or create a new one on the spot. Then you are given option to display ads on your article. You can chose it for all Knols you publish or on selective Knols.

But the part, that interests me most is License. Google Knols offer three license types.

• Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
• Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
• All Rights Reserved.

And did I mentioned Collaboration Model. They are giving three collaboration Models…
• Open Collaboration model, where any signed in user may edit the Knol
• Moderated Collaboration model, where any signed user may suggest edits to the knol, but these needs approval from an author before being published (Now here they take over Wikipedia)
• Closed Collaboration model, where no outsider is allowed to play with your knowledge.

Still More…

You can import doc, xls, pdf, txt and other documents. You can have your profile page and there is still more to be explored…

Check out…

http://knol.google.com/

If you think the sun shines out of your arse – try using an energy saving instead!
Voiced by Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).

Overview

Scientists have developed what they claim is a small scratch on a piece of glass, which could make the internet nearly 100 times faster and give users unlimited, error-free access anywhere in the world. Lead researcher at the University of Sydney Ben Eggleton while making the announcement said, initial testing of the technology showed it was possible to achieve Internet speeds 60 times faster than the current Telstra network. But if developed further, the circuit could reach speeds 100 times faster, he added.

What is ‘The Scratch’ all about?

“The scratched glass we have developed is actually a Photonic Integrated Circuit. This circuit uses the ’scratch’ as a guide or a switching path for information – kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another – except this switch takes only one picosecond to change tracks…this means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times. We are talking about photonic technology that has terabit per second capacity, we [now] use electronics for switching and that has been okay, but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there is a demand for instant Web gratification,” Eggleton said.The University of Sydney has developed the scratch in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark and financial support from Australian Research Council.

How it works

The new device, called ‘scratch’, uses tiny scratches on a piece of glass to guide information along optical fibers rather than using electronics’ to do the same job.

Information travels through the internet coded through a series of light flashes which are generated by lasers.

These flashes are then converted into electrical signals which the computer uses to form what is seen on the screen. But there is only so much information the electrical components of a computer can deal with at any one time.

To get around this obstacle the researchers created a filtering device which uses tiny narrow lines to filter the light into 64 channels, delivering much more information in a way which doesn’t overload the electronics of the computer.

Scratch circuits would be installed where information is served from, such as on the computer of an internet service provider.

General view

According to the Centre for Ultra-high bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) at the University’s School of Physics, the scratch will mean almost instantaneous, error-free and unlimited access to the Internet anywhere in the world. Eggleton said that up until now information has been moving at a slow rate, but optical fibers have a huge capacity to deliver more. The scientists have claimed that this ’small scratch on a piece of glass’ is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies “could revolutionize society…with this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,”

Conclusion.

The general opinion about the Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) is of a positive revolutionary turn in the world of internet. Networks that are potentially a hundred times faster than the already existing services without costing the consumer will positively change the face of the internet across the world.

. This ‘Scratch’ gives the world an opportunity to get a lot done in less then a second and can take business on the internet to sky rocketing levels, especially online marketing.

Resources

http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jul/10net.htm

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/A_scratch_to_make_net_100_times_faster/articleshow/

www.techworld.com.au/article/252361/photonic_switching_beckons_100x_internet_speeds

www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23995523-948,00.html

www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=2411

kooladda.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/a-scratch-to-make-net-100-times-faster

Paris, June 25, 2008 – Publicis Groupe today announced the launch of VivaKi, a new
strategic initiative designed to significantly improve the performance of advertisers’
marketing investments as well as boost Publicis Groupe’s growth in the context of rapidly
expanding digital markets. VivaKi will be led by Managing Partners Jack Klues and David
Kenny, both members of Publicis Groupe’s Management Board.

VivaKi will take advantage of the combined scale of the autonomous operations of Digitas,
Starcom MediaVest, Denuo and ZenithOptimedia to develop new services, new tools, and
new partnerships. The strategic move reflects Publicis Groupe’s conviction that a totally
new and more integrated organization of the  media, interactive, analog and digital
universes is necessary in order to leverage scale and technological innovation, the key
determinants of future success.

Maurice Levy, Chairman and CEO  of Publicis Groupe, commented: “The explosion of
digital over the last ten years has led to a revolution without precedent in economic history
– in terms of the incredible speed of change, its geographical reach and its depth (the
world today has at least 1.7 billion Internet users).  Our societies are being transformed
before our very eyes: the way people are  educated, gather information, entertain
themselves, meet each other, dialogue and  do business is being  profoundly influenced
around the planet by the digital, interactive and mobile phone environments. Our business
is undergoing equally vast changes. We are witnessing the creation of new global giants
(such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo) as well as a redefinition of our business models
thanks to the blurring of boundaries: geographic, professional, as well as between content
and distribution or  roles regarding content generation.

In order to help our clients rethink their marketing and improve the performance of their
media investments in this new world, we have built a leadership position by integrating
digital capabilities in all our agencies, by acquiring Digitas and through striking innovative
partnerships with new players such as Google.

We are today taking a decisive and transformational step by profoundly modifying the
Groupe’s organization, by redirecting investments toward digital and by instituting a
significant change in our professional approach. All these changes will make our agencies
and networks even more competitive and will help our clients build better connections with
their audiences by increasing the efficiency and productivity of their marketing
investments. In reinforcing our leadership in  these new areas, we fully intend to benefit
from the surge in this sector’s growth  and to win substantial  new market share.”

The VivaKi Difference

VivaKi is sharply differentiated by four essential elements:

1. Scale – this is a key factor unleashing value for our clients as they face large new actors
in the media landscape. Publicis Groupe today has the necessary size for global
leadership in its sector. The Groupe is now further leveraging its scale by aligning
resources and the power of its operations under VivaKi.

2. Innovation – by building the VivaKi Nerve Center at the heart of the new entity, Publicis
Groupe is fulfilling several objectives:

•  Creating the world’s largest center for developing the new technologies necessary
to our clients’ future growth

•  Making the resources of the VivaKi Nerve Center available to all Groupe entities,
including our creative agencies

•  Bringing our clients the best solutions to improve performance marketing, relations
with platforms (MSN, Google, Yahoo) or social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc),
as well as integrated media solutions  and the optimization  of data analysis and
return on investments.

3. Technology – the approach of Publicis Groupe rests on Open Source systems giving it
access to all available innovations and solutions. Proprietary tools will however be
developed, such as Navigator® and Insight Factory®. Links will be developed with digital
platforms, cable operators, telcos and media  supports to improve exchanges and to
benefit form leveraging scale.

4. Talents – with the shaking up of our industry, new more flexible and more diversified
talents — liquid talents — will be critical. Finding and developing such talent will be a core
competency of VivaKi, through the new training and career development programs offered
by its Talent Development Platform.

The different entities (Digitas, Starcom MediaVest, Denuo and ZenithOptimedia) will
continue to develop solutions specific to each of their clients, in a totally independent way
– all supported by the VivaKi Nerve Center and the Talent Development Platform.

The VivaKi Management Teams

Jack Klues and David Kenny are Managing Partners of VivaKi, functions which reflect a
shift from a traditional hierarchical management approach.

Within VivaKi, David Kenny will focus on identifying advantages linked to scale (VivaKi
Nerve Center, Talent Development Platform and Technology); Jack Klues will be
responsible for growing and developing brand-specific solutions.

According to David Kenny: “VivaKi’s scale creates unparalleled advantages for our clients.
It allows us to invest in training and developing the best talent, to sustain the strongest
open-source technology platform, and to provide strong and impactful solutions to our
media partners.”

Laura Lang is promoted CEO of Digitas replacing David Kenny.

Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo will continue to be led by their current
CEO’s – Laura Desmond, Steve King, and Rishad Tobaccowala.

Curt Hecht will lead the VivaKi Nerve Center.

Renetta McCann will organize and activate the Talent Development Platform.

Said Jack Klues: “Starcom MediaVest Groupe, ZenithOptimedia and Digitas will take what
they need from VivaKi to strengthen their existing operations. They will continue to operate
in a completely independent way, developing customized solutions for clients. At the same
time, these clients will benefit from VivaKi’s ability to deliver proprietary tools as well as
advantages of scale — helping clients reinforce links to consumers in a more cost effective
way.”

The VivaKi Name

The name VivaKi is derived from the word “viva” which means life, and “ki” (or Qi) which is
often translated as energy flow.  According to Lévy, the Groupe sought a name that
signified a new frontier – a new lead solution in the digital era.

Amul, which established its presence in Second Life in March by setting up its virtual parlour, is now working to expand its presence in the virtual world.
Trimensions, a Gurgaon based company, is helping Amul to develop its existence on Second Life. Rahul Dutta, chairman and managing director, Trimensions, says, “Amul is planning to buy eight-10 islands, equal to 160 acres of virtual land, in Second Life to set up a simulation of its production and distribution facility. The objective behind launching a virtual setup is to demonstrate its functioning to the consumers, and experiment with any change in the production or distribution system virtually before executing it in the real world.”

Screenshot of Amul Ice-cream parlour

Dutta adds, “Setting up ice cream parlours on Second Life was actually a pilot project. It will take around six months to launch the virtual Amul setup on Second Life.” The Amul ice cream parlours showcase topical ads of Amul starting from the late 1990s, Amul TV commercials and product displays.
Before Second Life, Amul’s presence in the online world was restricted to Amul.com (a corporate website), Amul.tv (showcasing short films and TVCs related to Amul) and AmulIcecream.in (to sell ice cream).
Second Life is an Internet enabled virtual world in which users can create their virtual identities. These identities can move around, interact and socialise with other users. Members of Second Life can participate in individual or group activities and create and trade items like virtual property and services with each other. A member has to pay for the space he purchases on Second Life. Second Life is developed by Linden Lab, a company based in the US.

Around 13 million users worldwide, including 50,000 Indians, are registered with Second Life.

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