2011 - A Year of Marketing

Meri Jaan, as we move into 2012, all I can think about is - What is this-what is this-what is this Kolaveri D?

This song probably broke all records of an absolutely-ridiculous non-musical-but catchy song. It had probably the highest audio and video downloads in just 30 days.

Apart from been attached to THE RAJNI - the big buzz that worked for Kolaveri was Marketing - and same goes for the year 2011.

This was a year of - Marketing, Marketeers and Musketeers !!

Globally, one of the most popular marketed event was 'The Royal Wedding'. It shut down offices, business and the country. The biggest marketing from the event was of the back side of the designer gown that Pippa Middleton wore.

D-amn, a gown took away all the hoopla of the grand wedding, well atleast for few weeks the Eurozone economy was on Back-burner.

If we just look at events in India - The ONE marketing event that shook the country, apart from Sunny Leone's entry in Big Boss (that just shook Ramdev Baba's dhoti) or the slap to Sharad Pawar (that just shook Mr. Pawar) was 'Mee Anna Aahey'!

What a wonderfully scripted and marketed campaign in a country ruled by corruption and corrupt people?

This event was so successful that even the FDI's could not stand in front of this front. Just like all marketing campaigns are created to promote that specific product, this movement was to market -Anna.

Now another campaign is been launched to re-market the same product - 'Jail Bharo'.

Damn - idhar bhi we had to copy the west - we used 'Jail Bharo' and not 'Deewaar-Sadak Bharo' !! (Occupy Wall Street anyone :)

Well, some politicians in India like Kalamadi, Kani and Raja really had a pre-feel of the 'Jail Bharo' movement and they participated pre-maturely to mature their A$$ets.

Similarly, some of the jump-on-maiD politicans, also did amazing marketing and diverted the attention in their countries from their corruption scandals to their personal scandals.

After 10, 15, 30 days and 60 days of jail term, they eventually got released to enjoy their jail-term bonus dividends and returns of 3000 crore+ scam money!

Well, atleast they all did a wonderful marketing campaign by staying in the 9-star jails for a few D-ays ! Woh kya kahte hain - Anna-dho main Kani Raja :)

A very interesting and baap-of-all-marketing campaign that actually shook the world was "Osama is D-ea-D". This mother-of-all-campaigns actually shook everyone because supposedly this person was captured and buried even before anyone knew about it. Damn - now no one knows if this was real or fictious?

How will anyone ever know if Osama was a bird or a person or just a paper character?? Hey, who cares, God Bless America's created characters !

Talking of characters - one character that really met his fate was Colonel Gadaffi. What a showman (oho- not Subhashiji - he is really busy in casting couch).

Gaddaffi was a real show-man and his audience was his-body-girls-ooh-la-la !!!

Talking about bodygirls and bodyguards - Desi Bollywood released some of the most hyped-and-marketed movies this year with Hamster Khan topping it off with RA-1 and DON-2 and now we have a Mannat-3. Mr. Ham-burger please stick with what you know best (make love stories and market your movies) and do it good, DONT-T try another DON - EVER!!!

Sallu Bhai also did an amazing campaign of 'Being Human' with his movies Rea-D and Bodyguar-D. Another bollywooD fare that was marketed exceptionally well was the ooh-la-la Vidya Balan starrer Dirty Picture.

While there were lots of other events, sad news on the Indian cultutral front involved passing away of the Ghazal Maestro - Jagjit Singh, Classical Lion - Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, The voice of soil - Bhupen Hazarika, Yahoo - Mr. Shammi Kapoor and the evergreen romantic - Dev AnanD.

Dev Anand changed the face of Bollywood Hero with movies like Baazi, Taxi Driver, CID, Funtoosh, Hum Dono, Jaali Note, Nau Do Gyarah, Munimji, Paying Guest, Kala Paani, Kaala Bazaar, Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hain, Guide, Prem Pujari, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Johnny Mera Naam and Des Pardes to name a few. May you RIP Sir !

So people while life goes on, what I observed this year is that world is truly changing - Climatic changes: the number of earthquakes and floods (Tsunami-Japan) this year have been abnormally high, Political changes: the number of public uprising against regimes globally is a reflection of coming times; Financial changes: With the economy playing see-saw, changes are bound to be carried over next year - no one can predict - good or BA-D; Technology changes: Paid services and Cloud are taking over - soon kids might be singing what is this ACD, VCD and DV-D?

Meri Jaan - while we all go through the events that will unfold next year, one thing is sure - 2012 is here, whether it is Happy-D or Dooms-D, we will all C!! For now Yenna Rascala MinD-it and enjoy Kolaveri-D !!!

Till we meet next, make plans and do-able resolutions for the New Year, enjoy precious moments with friends & family, and always-always Stay in LOEVE !!!!!

- Pankaj Purohit