A recent article in the Economic Times quotes Unilever’s chief executive Paul Polman, saying, “Indian Innovations relevant in Europe now”.

On the same page in a separate article, I read about PepsiCo losing market share to local players such as Haldiram, Balaji Namkeen and ITC who are not only upping volumes like Pepsico but also expanding their Indian brands to western markets.

India, which once looked to the west for new inventions in any sector is now causing sleepless nights for those very same companies. Globalisation coupled with recession in the developed world have turned the tables for emerging economies in the area of innovation. The Indian models of ‘smaller size packs’ or sachets to try products is gaining traction in the West where recession is forcing people to spend less. This model allows them to stay with their preferred brand at a more affordable price point.

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On Friday, Orange launched their contactless payment system, Quick Tap, in conjunction with Barclaycard, on the Samsung Tocco Lite handset.

There are at least ten other distinct brands involved in Orange’s leap into new territory. Nine are working together:

• Orange, and Quick Tap’s leading partner, Barclaycard
• the providers of the handset technology, Samsung, and
• at least six retail brands supporting the initiative by taking payments via the new contactless system

In Orange here’s a brand, driven by developments in technology, assuming a new role as banking provider – virtually, as far as consumers care.

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Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?

My eye was caught this morning by a story on the Financial Services Club website about Nationwide Building Society working with BT to become ‘more agile’.

BT has published a downloadable case study about the contract which is available here.

Nationwide has signed a 7 year agreement with BT Network Services that is planned to have the effect of ‘aiding business transformation while reducing costs’.

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A favourite quote from testing-and-data deity Avinash Kaushik.

His blog – Occam’s Razor – is a must-read if you want to understand web analytics and testing.

The UK Government is hoping to crowd source ideas for policy and cost-cutting through Facebook.

Cameron and Zuckerberg discuss the initiative in this video (warning; not for the squeamish)

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You’ve probably heard about the ‘Life in a Day’ project.

Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void and One Day in September) is the high profile director and Ridley Scott the higher profile producer, who together will be boiling down what promises to be a huge volume of submitted video content into an “experimental documentary film”. An interesting editing challenge for sure.

Most coverage has headlined YouTube, Macdonald and Scott, but… there’s a brand sponsor in there too : LG.

“LG believes in enriching people’s lives through technology and saw complementary objectives in the Life in a Day project,” says Dermot J. M. Boden, Chief Marketing Officer at LG Electronics (quoted on LG’s UK blog).

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Cathryn Sleight urges marketers to “light more fires”

Source: Marketing Week | Author: Joe Fernandez | Published: 29 June 2010 13:20

“Taking chances and lighting small fires using digital media can  really help add extra value to brands in the long run, without the fire  having to catch and go wild. Done correctly, it has the ability to  increase brand affinity and engage audiences wherever they are. These  advances are making the digital space much more exciting,” she said.

We agree about lighting small fires – the concept and the language used to describe it – but it isn’t just about the digital space…

Why do we like this campaign?

It’s surprising, contemporary, experimental. From a big brand, but feels handmade, authentic and real.

The ‘messy edges’ of a community-based initiative of this kind should provide some very interesting learnings; insights and hints for the future that traditional market research and NPD wouldn’t necessarily uncover, at least not as quickly.

Have a dig around on the Pocketgame site. What do you think?

Lisa Donohue, CEO of Starcom USA spoke at the iMedia Agency Summit in Austin, Texas this week

Donohue talked about a crisis in innovation, and how agencies – and their clients – need to embrace entrepreneurialism: she also stressed “the need to consider data to be an aid that can unlock insights into our creative mission, rather than an impediment.”

Hear, hear!

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There’s  an interesting article in Adage today: ‘On-the-Fly Advertising Swiftly Becoming More Commonplace…’

‘On-the-Fly Advertising Swiftly Becoming

More Commonplace. Social-Media, Willingness by Marketers and Agencies to Make Quick Changes Boost Adland’s Real-Time Approach.’

Here’s an excerpt: ‘in a growing number of cases even the biggest marketers in the world, such as Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever, are adjusting creative and media plans on the fly within days, weeks or even hours based on changing events or the shifting tides of social-media feedback.’

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