Offscreen Street Surf
By Sabina Singh, Creative Director, The 120 Media Collective The other day, on my way to work, it was pouring and I was complaining. It got worse and a quick look in the rear view mirror revealed the return of the hair frizz. Noting all the disasters one by one, I look at the autorickshaw windscreen and fret at the car fumes, when out of the overcast grey, up pops an umbrella. It’s magically dancing, up and down, meandering about, twirling clockwise and then the other direction with no owner in sight. It’s a bit surreal. My thought blurb now changes to “Hey, the person under this is so happy… I want one!”And suddenly the man holding it appears. He is selling it for a price. Pure selling technique from someone who didn’t even go to school, leave alone a B-school. Product visibility check, effective selling check, amongst our noisy world of online pop ups, a fresh breath of something better than live neon sign, check. You walk out on Linking Road, thinking of the discounts and sales at the XYZ store when a guy with a flute starts walking with you. He plays something and looks at you, “You want?” Umm No, I don’t want because I don’t know how. So he makes you hold the flute, you make sounds as if you are stoking a fire, while he simultaneously plays and an awesome sound is heard. He nods excitedly, “Very good, see, you play!” And you are thinking, “No way. That wasn’t me.” So he says, “Try again.” You try again but this time with a thought that maybe you can, and by some stroke of whatever, you do sound better this time around. Flute sold! Then on some days you take the Mumbai local. In here it’s all about beating the noise and bad acoustics. You try muffling the sounds when in walks a fruit seller, with chaos written all over her. She sells as she yells, “Cheeeekuuuu.” You try to figure the Marathi but all you can hear is a controversial hush mixed with giggles. “Hey lady, these are sweet enough to sugarcoat your love life. You eat one and your husband won’t stop kissing. You can thank me as he clings to you, darling. These smell better than you and your perfume put together.” The Saas and the Bahu are squirming in their seats and I am thinking, “Wow! I don’t think Sex and the City covered this.” You see, she gets it. That voice and that content will do better than a radio spot for her B2C model. She gets your attention and you get… well, fruits! If we didn’t look at “20 things you can do to boost your sales” and instead went by what some of the greats have said, which is to keep your eyes and ears open and soak up the sights and sounds around you to see how life and the people in it work for real. Feedback: sabina@the120mediacollective.com
Tags : Backbeat