Karthik S | beastoftraal.com

VW CEO’s opening gambit on Twitter

January 25, 2021 by Karthik S

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess joined Twitter in December 2020, but his first tweet was posted only on January 20, 2021. In his few replies so far, he has confirmed that the tweets from the handle are his own. What is truly interesting…

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Appointment viewing is dead.

January 22, 2021 by Karthik S

This is a follow-up to/continuation of Ambi Parameswaran’s recent Business Standard write-up. Appointment viewing, by definition, is “setting time aside to watch particular television programs”. If I move it beyond TV, it would be “appointment-based content consumption”. A good example is the…

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Embellished reviews

January 21, 2021 by Karthik S

Usually, product/service owners use reviews they get as a way to further market the product to more people. This is most common in products like books and movies. Authors/publishers and movie producers show their content/products to a select audience (usually from the…

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Secret, surprise, and a lesson in framing

January 20, 2021 by Karthik S

Danny Boyle was entrusted with directing the London (Summer) Olympics opening ceremony, titled Isles of Wonder (inspired by Caliban’s speech in Shakespeare’s The Tempest). The show was supposed to be a tribute to Britain through the ages. The ceremony, on Friday, 27th…

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Your attention, please

January 19, 2021 by Karthik S

From being a ‘second screen’ (to a TV or laptop/desktop being the ‘first’), the smartphone has comfortably become the primary screen for everything these days. We have the phone next to us when we are watching TV, when we are reading a…

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Tata Motors and Tesla ke charche

January 18, 2021 by Karthik S

An interesting and over-enthusiastic gaffe by Tata Motors’ EV division. The first tweet has since been deleted and Tata Motors handle issued a clarification. As early as January 11th, there have been rumors in the market that Tesla was planning to sign…

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Questions. Questions.

January 15, 2021 by Karthik S

Two ads. Both from France. Both from October 2020! The connecting thread?Questions! First off, Mustela, a skin-care brand meant for babies, children, and pregnant women. Their ad film, by the French agency Fanfare, uses questions as a narrative device to propel the…

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