Every time I meet clients ( prospective…existing…hopeful), friends, colleagues the one question that keeps popping up time and again is – Are mobile phones the best medium to reach out to the consumers with information and interactivity?
And my answer too is consistent….Yes it is!For we are seeing the emergence ofmobile as the medium on which all the types of media like Print, TV, Radio has to ride to become more effective, accessible and relevant for a consumer.
Today, traditional media is increasingly utilizing mobile as a part of their campaigns to drive the interactivity and flow of personalized information. Recently UTVi News has signed One97 to be the mobile partner of the Autocar event’09 being organized on the 7th January. One97 will provide a platform for information dissemination and interactivity for this event. This is but one exampleofevents that are using mobile as a medium for better reach and interactivity.
News is not always made in Delhi and Mumbai, a lot is happening in different parts of the country too. So why should news alerts be limited to news from these cities?
With this thought in mind we are working with leading media houses to provide relevant local news and information to mobile subscribers. The latest in this direction is our strategic parternship with Express Network Pvt. Ltd., promoted by The New Indian Express Group, to provide mobile users access to local news and information from South India wherever they are and at their convenience. The service will offer content of The New Indian Express, and its Web- site, www.expressbuzz.com, to mobile subscribers through SMS, using the content delivery platform developed by One97. The content will not only be personal and interactive but will also be current and relevant.
With this subscription based service , we now enable mobile subscribers across India to remain in touch with the local news from South India ( we have launched similar services with Deshonnati - for Maharashtra and Prabhat Khabar - for Bihar and Jharkhand).
Speaking to the media about this partnership Vijay (Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MD One97 Communications) said “Our constant effort has been to come up with services which benefit our consumers to the fullest and we hope to sustain it in the future as well. This partnership would assist us in our goal of enabling the consumers to select and receive information that is relevant and of interest to them. Effectively, people across India can subscribe to this service and receive the latest news and information from different parts of the country”.
Mr. Mayank Kabra, Assistant General Manager (Marketing,) Express Network Pvt. Ltd., adds, “The New Indian Express Group along with One97 has created a value proposition for consumers across India who would want to be abreast with the latest news from South India. Mobile phones these days are the best medium to communicate and enable us to make the print medium much more interactive. We are happy to associate with One97 Communications as our partner and believe that services like this would bring our newspaper closer to the customers.”
The One97 Gig’08 was really something! Enjoyment was all around us: people laughing, talking and dancing, drinking, eating and what not! Once97 has a tradition of celebrating its founders’ day every year. This year we celebrated it on 24th December at Vatika in Prgati Maidan.
We started with the informal session with Vijay, our Managing Director, followed by a formal brief presentation. It is always good to listen to him. He uses simple words in his presentation and makes you understand the most complicated things with ease. He talked about the early days of One97, now and future. He spoke of Challenge Vs. Opportunities, Customers’ need - our mantra, which he has also written about on this blog.
After this, was the turn of the culmination of the efforts made this year in our Annual Rewards and Recognition programme. We believe in rewarding performers. In this programme, we receive company-wide nominations for achievers, then they go through further selection to become our Rock Stars.
Starting from setting up the revenue share business model (first in the industry) to using the telecom device and network to deliver that extra value, I can never say that we have done what we wanted.
In a country of billions, where mobile user base will be 500 million, we are learning the needs of the consumer and best suited methods to fulfill them, first and fast.
We never needed to “get inspired” from any company’s business/idea. We set out towards our goal and saw many following the same route.
Instead of any one’s success we have tried learning from their failures and our mistakes.
I have been browsing through literature on the method and tools that people elsewhere use to come up with systems that wow us – the lay users. Great products irrespective of their engineering complexity are almost always very easy to use and understand - as one Philips ad said something to the effect that great technology is something that even my grandpa can use. How do they do it? I am still learning but one persistent theme that came up was the use of metaphors.
What is a metaphor then, one may ask? An English literature student will probably provide a technically more correct definition, but in simple terms a metaphor is a tool that explains the meaning of something unknown in terms of things known. Actually, when I say that metaphor is a tool, that itself is a metaphor! What is life? Life is an ocean! What is this world? This world is a stage. All these are metaphors that help us, or at least attempt to help us understand otherwise complex notions and concepts. Metaphors should not be confused with a somewhat similar concept of similes (see-me-lee). Unlike metaphors, similes use comparisons. So, when we say that life is like an ocean, it becomes a simile.
The desktop computer is a household phenomenon now, and we identify with the word desktop as a duck in water – a simile!
Desktop is a metaphor! Computers were expected to be used by people who did not know nor cared to know how a computing system internally worked – try explaining a 32-bit register to an accountant and he will not know. Ask him to manage his book-keeping without the tally tool on his desktop! In the desktop metaphor, the computer screen is as if it was indeed the desktop, on which we place our folders. Once the desktop metaphor is created, we extend it and keep extending it. So, we can have folders on our desktop, and within folders, we can have more folders and documents. Now we know why it is called the Recycle bin – we put our trash there.
Ever worked on DOS? You would probably know what a command line interface is. Much before that, there were punch cards. In computing systems, WIMP (Windows, Icons, Mouse, and Pointers) was first introduced by Xerox as early as 1973. It was however Apple’s Macintosh that popularized the desktop metaphor in 1984, and which became a standard for most if not all of modern day operating systems.
Metaphors are also used in the design of icons. When you see a bell, you know it has something to do with alerts. An envelope is a message. A button is something you push. Some metaphors such as the envelope have become so ingrained that using anything else might confuse or sometimes even irritate the user. So while they come in handy when you are trying to explain some difficult concept to your end user, you may end up doing exactly the opposite by not being careful in the selection of your metaphor.
Starting from setting up the revenue share business model (first in the industry) to using the telecom device and network to deliver that extra value, I can never say that we have done what we wanted.