Tag Archives: Research

A Comparative Analysis of Social Media Usage in BRIC Countries

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

At my official fellowship blog — How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies — I use data from Wave 3 of the Power of the People Social Media Tracker by Universal McCann (PDF/ Slideshare) to do a comparative analysis of social media usage in BRIC countries.

Here are the top level highlights –

- The total number of active internet users in BRIC countries (101.2m) is higher than the number of active internet users in US (100m).

- Significantly more users from BRIC countries than US engage with social media tools, both in terms of content consumption and content creation.

- Even as percentage of active internet users, social media usage in BRIC countries is much higher than US across content consumption and content creation.

- At the country level, China leads in blogging and podcasting while Brazil is the leader in social networking and online video.

Do join the conversation at the How Global Values Shape Communications Technologies blog.

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I’m the Next Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet at Georgetown University

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Quick Summary: I’m totally delighted to announce that I have been selected as the Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet for 2008-09 at Georgetown University.

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I’m totally delighted to announce that I have been selected as the Yahoo! Fellow in International Values, Communications, Technology, and Global Internet for 2008-09 at The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD) associated with The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University.

The fellowship is funded by the $1 million Yahoo! Fund on International Values, Communications Technology & the Global Internet, which was established at Georgetown University by a gift from Yahoo! Inc. There is only one such position open for each academic year and I’m the second Yahoo! Fellow.

The Yahoo! Fellow is chosen from applicants drawn from the government, corporate, non-profit and academic sectors with interest in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Two graduate students from the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program at the SFS are also selected to as Junior Yahoo! Fellows to engage in research associated with the Yahoo! Fellow. Part of the research done by the Yahoo! Fellow is also incorporated into the MSFS program as guest lectures, special seminars, case studies and/ or course modules.

Read More

Filed in 30 by 30, Flat or Not, Noteworthy, Social Media | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (23)

Check It Out: The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out my new book-as-a-blog ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, a year-long experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.

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The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Why would a twenty-something, single, eligible, IIM-educated, upwardly mobile marketer on the corporate fast-track in India’s business capital decide to go ‘off consumption’ for a year?

Will a year off consumption (no eating out, no going out for movies or music or plays, no television or newspapers, no shopping except for necessities) leave him ill-equipped to handle life and work in Mumbai?

Or, will it leave him with invaluable insights into what drives us to consume, or not, into the nature of consumption, into human nature itself?

‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is a blog in which I document my year off consumption. It is also a book-in-progress, in search of a publisher with a multi-million dollar advance.

Do spend an hour reading it, do subscribe to it, and don’t forget to tell me that you absolutely adore it. :-)

Filed in 30 by 30, Marketing, Noteworthy, Trendspotting | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sex and Advertising

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

From a study reported on Science Daily -

People are less able to recall the brand of products advertised during programs with a lot of sexual content, than if the advert is placed in similar program that has no sexual content.

Men had higher recall of the brand of products whose ads contained sexual images than ads that did not. Women on the other hand were actively put off by sexual content in ads.

So, if you are selling something almost exclusively to men, like sports cars, make a sexy ad and put it between non-sexy content to ensure that it stands out by contrast. But if you are selling something that is not so narrowly targeted, like bathroom tiles, please don’t use sex and turn off the women.

Guy Kawasaki wonders if the findings are also applicable to websites. Of course they are! If I’m looking at sexy women, why would I look at ads anyway! :-)

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