Tag Archives: india

in english

New HSBC emerging markets campaign

HSBC has been running its In the future campaign for some time but only in my recent trip to Mexico was I exposed to it as they have no presence in Finland. The core message is an evolution of their classical “The world’s local bank”. Now that their audience should know that HSBC knows how to make business happen in different markets they bring home the fact that while the developed world is undergoing the Great Recession, people in emerging markets are still doing well, thank you very much, which is changing where business opportunities come from, how they develop and scale, and what kind of new flexibilities the smaller entrepreneur would need.

The campaign touches on themes such as emerging market growth, technological startups, currency hedging and the fact that, obviously, HSBC is the bank to help you make it all happen. Having just visited a country that is expected to grow 3.7% this year and 3.9% the next, the message really resonated.

The only sad part is that their touchpoint strategy seems to be focusing on a very traditional marketing mix with plenty of media buys, but then again, I wouldn’t expect a totally revolutionary campaign from a bank 😉 .

in english

Chatroulette!

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chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

The video above (via alt1040) explains Chatroulette better than I would.  My experience with it has been mixed, but it reminds me a lot of the old BBS/ICQ free-for-all 10 years ago.  I’ve read metaphors comparing it to TV zapping with people, but I think it’s more akin a people player in shuffle mode.  Some of the nice people I’ve found (after nexting all the flying male body parts) included:

  • A bored Filipina (at 3 a.m. her time) asking what music was I playing (Nortec Collective, of course).
  • A Dutch law student with a great sense of humour.
  • A German dude interested in banking for development (we were chatting about Muhammad Yunus)
  • Random male stranger asking questions on existential philosophy (my conclusion is he had watched The Matrix too many times).
  • A Texan in his 50’s very interested to know my views on the Mexican drug violence situation.
  • A French literature student just interested in a chat, also with a really nice sense of humour.
  • A young Indian female doctor waiting for her night shift to start who gave me a couple of nice suggestions of Indian indie after I mentioned I collect “local rock” from all over the place.

Serendipituous, yes. Extreme, sometimes (but you can also next them or even better report them, jerks!). An interesting study of the human condition, absolutely.

in english

Against the World Music category

Anybody who knows me a little bit (or has seen my profile at Last.fm) has probably realised that my musical taste is quite varied.  On any given day I could be listening to raï, ranchera, punk, samba, rock, jazz, metal, classical music, ska, axé, or electronica from Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Algeria, France, Belgium, Israel, India, Canada, Argentina, Egypt, China, etc… which if they’re not your usual Anglo-Saxon pop-rock will usually be clumped together into World Music, with very awkward results.

For example, with the current version of iTunes you have a “Genius” feature that promises to make perfect playlists for you.  However, the database they use seems to have been made by the record companies instead of users, so when it does find the music I have (which is less often than I would expect), if I ask to create a Genius playlist out of e.g. one of my favourite Mexican rock bands it will put it together with Mexican & Argentine traditional music too since they’re “Latin”, something akin to lumping James Brown together with Enya because they come from the English-speaking world.  It gets even better when I try it with some of my favourite samba artists, as they will be lumped together  with salsa, raï, Bollywood and tango acts because they are “World Music”, even if I do have plenty of MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) to make a list with.

David Byrne said it best: he hates world music.

in english

The great economic shift

What does this mean? What we are seeing is the shift of economic power from the United States & Europe to markets elsewhere, and especially China, India and parts of the Middle East are in good shape to reap the rewards.  However, since the system is built around the countries of the G7 with the US as the main motor of worldwide consumption, co-operation between all countries is needed, or else the rise of protectionism will amplify the current situation.

I wouldn’t be surprised if in case the crisis lasts long (hopefully not) China ends up bailing the US so that its own economy can keep on growing…