A Day at a Digital Agency

Post spending the last few months at the Campus, we headed out for our Industrial visits and then on to our internships. It was a mixed set of feelings, leaving the confines of our home away from home, the campus and moving towards Industry, where we all plan to be spending the rest of our working life.

Our first stop on the 12^th of October was a trip to a digital agency, iProspect, who are a part of one of Asia’s largest advertising conglomerates, Dentsu Aegis. The office was a grand one, buzzing with activity and our 1^st glimpse into life in the fast lane! We were greeted by Mr. Benedict Hayes – Executive VP of Strategy,an executive who has a vast knowledge of technologies, systems, processes and tools which is the backbone of the Digital World. Mr. Hayes took us through a detailed presentation about digital India, and the opportunities which are available in abundance as a career choice as communication’s specialist. He took us through how India is changing digitally, and the promises it holds in the digital arena. 

On Mr Hayes, my batch mate, Ankita Kureel said “It was interesting to see a foreign national tell us all about the Indian digital scenario. That is something unusual but heart-warming how the World is looking at India as place with immense potential.”

Mr Hayes also took us through a presentation about Dentsu Aegis, its subsidiaries, and how they all work together. This got us thinking off all the sessions which we have had on IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication) and it began to make sense of how it functions in the World of marketing Communications.

While we were being taken through the part on iProspect – the digital arm of Dentsu, we had insights into some trailblazing campaigns done by the agency in the recent past. The digital agency has won eight awards at the 5^th Asian Customer Engagement Forum making it the Agency of the Year 2015.

Post lunch, we were taken to the iProspect office, a few buildings down the road and here we met the various heads of department which make a Digital Agency. We were then taken through the various departments – SEO, Creatives, Client Servicing and copywriting. There was also a room especially meant for brainstorming complete with a PlayStation console! I could see a lot of glee in some of my batch mates faces as they surely wondered how they would wish to work here! We met a few ex-Northpointers as well here, who interacted with us and patiently answered all our queries.

It is remarkable how it all makes so much sense when we mix theory, which we have been having at the campus and the practical real life experiences of visiting an Agency. Suddenly there were quite a few of us who started to view Digital as a serious option for our specialization.

We were surely impressed by iProspect’s work. Like Rishi said, “I was particularly amazed by the work that the company has done till date. I liked how Mr.Hayes explained how the company functions and what it’s like to work there.”

The day was well spent and we had a lot to take in by the end of it. Northpoint would like to thank Mr. Hayes and the entire Dentsu team for making this possible for us. It was indeed a great experience.

Pallavi Dhote

PGP MarComm 2015-16

pallavi.dhote@northpointindia.com

The People Who 'Cry Wolf'

  Social responsibility, practical joke, social experiment whatever you may call it, you see these videos popping up on the internet about rape, women empowerment, social response to a crime and wonder if there actually exists more crimes than fake viral videos of it. Now we're all for educating the world about empathy and creating an ideal world where people act as parts of a well-oiled machine called 'the society' over the new and exciting medium, we remain skeptical as to thinking whether 'crying wolf' is the best way to go about a social revolution that the world is desperately crying out for.

    While there are several reasons for us to strongly condemn this supposedly genuine act of social responsibility, we’re not planning on elaborating the obvious just to prove a point. From a more logical point of view let’s start off by admitting that these poor attempts at social reforms are in all respects for entertainment purposes and plays absolutely no part in changing the way people live, think or act. From a standalone perspective of the matter it cannot be considered to be acts of social responsibility since it is purely commercial at heart, cause if these videos or social media posts actually did share something common with it, poverty stricken Somalian children would be billionaire driving their Mercedes and enjoying the high life based on the attention it commands over the new medium.

The viral nature of such videos increases the likelihood of an actual person who may come across an incident such as rape viewing the same, furthermore, be influenced by it when faced with an actual scenario, not necessarily in a good way, since this to them is nothing more than a prank by bored adolescents trying desperately to create a viral video that nobody wants to be a part of. 

The fight or flight response triggered by the human brain when faced with an unfamiliar social situation is purely instinctual and situational. Our point being that by creating a fake scenario in a video all they accomplish is showing how an average brain would function under the prevalent stress of the simulated situation, which isn’t necessarily the ideal solution to the problem we are facing right now. Aside from the fact that it is only done for pointing fingers at people who might not function well under stress. Let’s not forget the all too familiar social and judicial repercussion an individual is faced with on a genuinely heroic attempt to fight the ‘social malice’. We’ve seen it, read about it and at least some of us have questioned the integrity of a person who tried to help out a girl being invaded or a wounded guy by the sidewalk. Could we be blamed for thinking so? With the world being so twisted as it is who could be trusted?

Basic human behaviour is the social infection here and that is something that exists within the system. Our efforts to cure this infection is compromised by the fact that we ourselves are working within the system. Adding commercialism to the mix doesn’t help the cause either. For those of you who are supposedly helping the cause by capitalizing on it, we suggest you help by not helping such that the true heroes of our society are open to do their jobs without being tainted by influence of this unfiltered medium soiled by human thoughts, selfishness and whims. It might be the innocence of a kid who is unable to fathom the seriousness of a dangerous situation or a helpless old man crying out for aid for a fellow being being wronged that could save the day.

With hopes that the hero that exist within each one of us could rise up to the challenges set by the society and the mechanical mob behavior, we leave you with nothing more than information and influential thought, not videos.

Jugal Joseph

PGP Marcomm -2015-16

jugal.joseph@northpointindia.com

Northpoint Centre of Learning