hi guys I don’t matter as you can see
and as the so I’m going to do a little
bit of improv in this talk so there
might be a little arms and ass so let me
tell you a little bit about myself so
that you have some context to what I’m
going to base my talk around so unlike
other people who have come before me in
this stage and specifically for Ted
people who do these talks worldwide I am
NOT
I haven’t invented something that will
change the world
I am NOT a runaway success yet not
particularly good-looking my wife thinks
otherwise but but if you were to but but
I I have a certain idea that I want to
convey to you guys all of you were here
and to those who will be looking at this
video elsewhere an idea that can
potentially change your lives and the
lives of everybody in the world right so
it’s the age of the Internet and you
know so there was this something called
a resume a CV that we all have and we
all had but in this day and age perhaps
we need to change that format a little
bit right so a resume has all your
education your work accomplishments so
on so forth
but what if we sort of redesigned it so
that it has something a little bit about
your life as well right so what are your
hobbies what’s your family like what
drives you what motivates you this sort
of you know this sort of way all
encompassing sort of CV what would it
look like
so in this day and age my assertion is
that that would be something similar to
your Googler ability right so when you
put in and we’re all guilty of doing
this from time to time the narcissistic
ones at least that you put your name in
in Google and you see all that this
person has done and this is what it’s
like this is what he thinks these are
what his opinion says this is what he
tweets and you know his – so on so forth
so keeping that in mind I I don’t
a very impressive CV yet so I only have
582 followers on Instagram which kinda
sucks but then again this is who I am
right so but let me tell you about a
story about my story and then let me
convey this idea to you that I think
will impact everybody around us right so
so I am as inter said so I’m an AG man I
work in advertising but I wasn’t born
and bred to be an ad man I fell into
this industry purely by accident so I’m
some of very few of you will know that I
am an economics and political science
major what has that got to do with the
advertising I have no idea but you know
when I went to lungs everybody was doing
it and I was not smart enough to get the
proper economics degree so they said you
know what economics and political
science carlo and that’s fine for you so
I did that and when I when I was
graduating I was I’m really really bad
at math so I could not get into the
coveted FMC geez the Unilever’s the pngs
and so on so forth
and I found I did a couple of
internships at a few banks I found them
supremely boring to the extent that I
would take two hour long washroom breaks
find a nice spot and sleep there right
so I but you know if the fuckin I I
managed to email a couple of ad agencies
by in sheer desperation and one of them
seemed to respond to my email and they
gave me a job not very high paying job
but a job nonetheless and I began to be
interested in the world of advertising
right and and a year and a half later I
thought I was turning 25 at the time and
I was getting married so I thought you
know what this is the time to take a
risk otherwise I’ll be able to do it so
I quit that job and I started my own
agency and we’ve been doing that for
about seven years so why this is
necessary is because you have to
understand my context I am NOT
classically trained in advertising or
marketing I mean I’m an insider outsider
so while now I’ve learned through
experience what the ins and outs are I I
like the formal training right so
I can see it from both sides of the
equation and I’ve come to realize
fortunately or unfortunately that
advertising as it stands today is broken
we are a dying breed of people because
the entire model of advertising is
headed towards destruction the problem
is that you know all of you are
regularly interrupted by the ads that we
make right and it was all well and good
back in the good old days of Mad Men and
we did interesting stuff but we killed
the goose that lays the golden eggs
right so eventually it became so so
monotonous and so in-your-face that
you’ve begun to face it outright so like
maybe five six years ago we had these
things on our phones and these things in
our browsers these pop-ups called you
know ad blockers ad blocker or your
phone ad blocker for this ad blocker for
that and those things no longer exist
and then that ad blocking mentality has
gone into our heads so now we have these
inbuilt ad blockers and we will gladly
ignore the Billboard will tune out the
radio ad and we will you know will hide
your Facebook story and we will do
everything in our power to actually
ignore it your message right so this
comes at a time where the advertising
world is spending more and more money to
create more and more beautiful perfect
you know really grand ads that you see
on TV or on Facebook or on YouTube
anyway right but at the same time
everybody is learning to ignore them we
hate them right so I have a kid who’s
two years old the first thing he learned
he doesn’t know anything else but he
knows how to skip an ad on YouTube he
knows he waits for those three seconds
and he skips it right so if it sits in
our it’s in our minds we’ve begun to do
that so this is a very strange junction
where ad whereby the advertising and the
brand industry is put pumping more and
more money to come in your face and sell
you their product and we are getting
better and better to ignore them so
multi-million dollar campaigns
so what I’ll ignore it right and this is
a problem for me because I’m gonna do
I’m stuck here this is my livelihood
right so I’ve come to understand that
perhaps we need to rethink the equation
and move it right so the point is that
in this day and age we are spending our
most valuable asset our time and our
attention elsewhere we’re not we’re not
going to give it to you no matter how
much money brands throw at us no matter
how perfect those ads may be we’re not
gonna let you take our attention right
we’re going to ignore you
whatever it takes what we’re doing
instead is we’re consuming content but
those content is not necessarily coming
from these big places right so so we’re
spending our attention looking at random
Facebook videos that someone has made or
these tweets or this or that or YouTube
whatever it is all this new form of
content that everyday people are making
no longer are there big studio houses
they’re no longer are those Brit
production teams there this just guy and
with a cellphone is making stuff up he’s
posting his life she’s posting her
videos and we’re lapping it up because
we feel that’s much more engaging that’s
something that we can relate to
something that we can identify it right
so these people as opposed to the macro
content creators like your production
offices or your TV studios like the big
boys
these people are smaller the micro
content creators right so they’re they
they don’t have much but they have your
attention right and these are
fascinating people have recently come
into contact with them and you see the
work in your news feeds and in your in
your Facebook’s and in your in your
everywhere around you right and they do
amazing stuff right so let me let me
give you an example right so there is a
girl from Tata who writes poetry and her
poetry is so good that it’s being
featured on instagrams own account right
there is a girl from Karachi who creates
these artworks and there
used in music videos for Coldplay and
cover arts for international replaces
right so there are these very
interesting people omits us especially
those in the younger demographic that
are doing what they want and creating
interesting content so there’s a very
infamous rule we live in the age on the
internet called the rule 34 I’m not
gonna go into it you guys can google it
later don’t Google right now they’ll
kick me out but I’m going to propose
another rule for you right so rule
number 36 something that I coined very
smartly is that whatever you can think
of anything at all there will be someone
on the internet who will be willing to
listen to your voice who will be willing
to listen to your opinion and consume
your content it can be something as
specific or as bizarre as for example
there is a guy called professor shoelace
he is the world’s most foremost
authority on shoelaces who would have
thought something as significant as a
shoelace could have a blog and a social
presence of millions of people right
there is a woman in South Korea who
makes millions of dollars and you know
what she does she posts videos of
herself eating food and not just not
fancy food not restaurant reviews she
sits in front of the camera and she eats
a bowl of noodles and she rakes in
viewers and people all people love to
watch her right there is this lady from
California who’s a certified
dermatologist by the way you know proper
medical practitioner but you know how
she is making money and what had claimed
to famous she’s called dr. pimple popper
her job is that she’s going to bench
when she gets someone with a pimple or a
black head when she extracts it when she
removes it she posted a video online
bizarres gets these millions of views
right so no matter how weird you think
something is there is an internet
community that is willing to talk to you
that it was willing to consumer content
willing to share it right so we need to
you know my message is that in this day
and age we
I used to have these great biopics right
so gandhi muhammad ali jinnah all these
people did it great things and somebody
went ahead and made this great movie
about them wrote this great book about
them but then this day and age V are the
authors of our own biographies right so
we have to create our own biopics and
and they’re real time and they’re
segmented it’s not it’s not going to be
a one great book it’s going to be
chapters that will come out post by post
it’s going to be videos that will come
out post by post and together when
someone looks at them in retrospect when
you become an internet celebrity you’ll
be will say you know what they had the
right idea super observed topic they had
the right idea right all you need and
the excuse that I give myself and I hear
from every oh we don’t we don’t have
time for that we don’t have fancy
production studio we didn’t do that
because all you need is a smartphone and
anybody who’s watching this video I’m
assuming you guys have a smartphone all
this audience also has a smartphone and
your own mind you can you can create
content around it right so what I’m
going to do is I’m going to give you
some concrete steps so that you can
encourage yourself and those around you
to become these content creators right
because as I just so rightly pointed out
that advertising in the world of
branding is no longer relevant
so all this brand money is going to flow
into these content creators these
everyday people that are taking up their
passion no matter how sick it is if
you’re passionate about education talk
about it create videos about it you know
post something about if you’re
passionate about sports if you’re
passionate about filmmaking passionate
if you’re a poet if you’re a musician if
you’re an illustrator if you’re a makeup
artist whatever you are start letting
the world know because you have that
technology that you can create that sort
of content and trust me in they will
after a little bit of time you will
begin to develop an audience right so
this is why it’s very necessary that if
you want to create become a content
creator you should do it on something
passionate about as the curator showed
you in the beginning of the presentation
for any venture that comes a dip right
so you will think you know what I love
books I’m going to talk about books and
you know everything about them and I’m
gonna pay create a little Instagram page
a little Facebook profile and I’m going
to talk about them every two days there
will be a time where you will see er
it’s been seven months I’m not getting
the likes I wanted now what should I
quit try something new but if you truly
pick your passion then you will not be
willing to give up because it’s fun for
you right so you need to dis find your
passion and distill your passion and
then you need to create a narrative
around it so for this presentation also
I came and I told you my context why am
i relevant to you why you should be
listening to my story
so here again whatever it is think of
what your profile will be called what’s
your backstory
what’s your origin story how are you
going to package it why should we care
about the stuff you’re making are you
that interested in shoelaces do you
think they can change the world whatever
it is you need to create an entire story
around it create an entire narrative
around it so that it benefits you in the
in the long run right and in the in this
age of social media we need to be able
to build meaningful relationships with
these people who are consuming our
content so whatever you’re passionate
about there is some someone who’s
looking at your content is also
passionate about it so you need to make
it a point to spend time from your day
spend time from your attention to
actually talk to them in an intelligible
way didn’t just go to someone’s profile
and say hey love it beautiful okay
smiley face no talk about the content
what do you find interesting in rapport
you disagree with what you don’t
disagree with and build these little
communities right build these
relationships so that you have a tribe
of your own and eventually and this is
from a marketeers point of view this is
the most important part you need to
monetize it so you are doing this for
your passion but trust me this can be
your bread and butter I know these
people that I myself am paying to be a
part of their messaging rights own
brands will soon be willing to pay by
the boatload
to get into your part of your story so
you need to keep that frame in mind that
eventually I don’t want to be a sellout
but eventually you know what if I’m
talking about shoelaces
there will be a time when Nike will come
and say you know what we want you to
feature us so I should be ready for that
day and I should create an opportunity
for that day so that I can capitalize on
it why not because I want to make money
because I want to be commissioned so
that I can continue pursuing my passion
right so the whole point of this entire
exercise is to a convince you that you
can by virtue of your mind and your
smartphone create your own following and
eventually it will be your bread and
butter but most importantly it’s not
just that you will earn money you will
be able to live life on your own terms
you will be able to talk about you will
be able to pursue something that you
care deeply about right so this is the
crux of our message I understand that
this puts me in a tough spot I am an
advertiser afterall I make the same ads
I employ directors I talk to brands and
I make those same ads that you so
conveniently ignore even I ignore them I
haven’t had a TV in my ears for three in
my house for three years right so this
puts me in a very tough spot I need to
quickly evolve as well so that I am able
to work with these new age content
creators but still I throw the challenge
out to all of you and to those that will
watch this video put me out of business
let the world know that the traditional
stuff way the brands are forced in your
face is not going to cut it any more
right be a competition to ad agencies be
a competition to brands become brands in
yourself and maybe we can meet a net
again on another stage thank you so much
you
and as the so I’m going to do a little
bit of improv in this talk so there
might be a little arms and ass so let me
tell you a little bit about myself so
that you have some context to what I’m
going to base my talk around so unlike
other people who have come before me in
this stage and specifically for Ted
people who do these talks worldwide I am
NOT
I haven’t invented something that will
change the world
I am NOT a runaway success yet not
particularly good-looking my wife thinks
otherwise but but if you were to but but
I I have a certain idea that I want to
convey to you guys all of you were here
and to those who will be looking at this
video elsewhere an idea that can
potentially change your lives and the
lives of everybody in the world right so
it’s the age of the Internet and you
know so there was this something called
a resume a CV that we all have and we
all had but in this day and age perhaps
we need to change that format a little
bit right so a resume has all your
education your work accomplishments so
on so forth
but what if we sort of redesigned it so
that it has something a little bit about
your life as well right so what are your
hobbies what’s your family like what
drives you what motivates you this sort
of you know this sort of way all
encompassing sort of CV what would it
look like
so in this day and age my assertion is
that that would be something similar to
your Googler ability right so when you
put in and we’re all guilty of doing
this from time to time the narcissistic
ones at least that you put your name in
in Google and you see all that this
person has done and this is what it’s
like this is what he thinks these are
what his opinion says this is what he
tweets and you know his – so on so forth
so keeping that in mind I I don’t
a very impressive CV yet so I only have
582 followers on Instagram which kinda
sucks but then again this is who I am
right so but let me tell you about a
story about my story and then let me
convey this idea to you that I think
will impact everybody around us right so
so I am as inter said so I’m an AG man I
work in advertising but I wasn’t born
and bred to be an ad man I fell into
this industry purely by accident so I’m
some of very few of you will know that I
am an economics and political science
major what has that got to do with the
advertising I have no idea but you know
when I went to lungs everybody was doing
it and I was not smart enough to get the
proper economics degree so they said you
know what economics and political
science carlo and that’s fine for you so
I did that and when I when I was
graduating I was I’m really really bad
at math so I could not get into the
coveted FMC geez the Unilever’s the pngs
and so on so forth
and I found I did a couple of
internships at a few banks I found them
supremely boring to the extent that I
would take two hour long washroom breaks
find a nice spot and sleep there right
so I but you know if the fuckin I I
managed to email a couple of ad agencies
by in sheer desperation and one of them
seemed to respond to my email and they
gave me a job not very high paying job
but a job nonetheless and I began to be
interested in the world of advertising
right and and a year and a half later I
thought I was turning 25 at the time and
I was getting married so I thought you
know what this is the time to take a
risk otherwise I’ll be able to do it so
I quit that job and I started my own
agency and we’ve been doing that for
about seven years so why this is
necessary is because you have to
understand my context I am NOT
classically trained in advertising or
marketing I mean I’m an insider outsider
so while now I’ve learned through
experience what the ins and outs are I I
like the formal training right so
I can see it from both sides of the
equation and I’ve come to realize
fortunately or unfortunately that
advertising as it stands today is broken
we are a dying breed of people because
the entire model of advertising is
headed towards destruction the problem
is that you know all of you are
regularly interrupted by the ads that we
make right and it was all well and good
back in the good old days of Mad Men and
we did interesting stuff but we killed
the goose that lays the golden eggs
right so eventually it became so so
monotonous and so in-your-face that
you’ve begun to face it outright so like
maybe five six years ago we had these
things on our phones and these things in
our browsers these pop-ups called you
know ad blockers ad blocker or your
phone ad blocker for this ad blocker for
that and those things no longer exist
and then that ad blocking mentality has
gone into our heads so now we have these
inbuilt ad blockers and we will gladly
ignore the Billboard will tune out the
radio ad and we will you know will hide
your Facebook story and we will do
everything in our power to actually
ignore it your message right so this
comes at a time where the advertising
world is spending more and more money to
create more and more beautiful perfect
you know really grand ads that you see
on TV or on Facebook or on YouTube
anyway right but at the same time
everybody is learning to ignore them we
hate them right so I have a kid who’s
two years old the first thing he learned
he doesn’t know anything else but he
knows how to skip an ad on YouTube he
knows he waits for those three seconds
and he skips it right so if it sits in
our it’s in our minds we’ve begun to do
that so this is a very strange junction
where ad whereby the advertising and the
brand industry is put pumping more and
more money to come in your face and sell
you their product and we are getting
better and better to ignore them so
multi-million dollar campaigns
so what I’ll ignore it right and this is
a problem for me because I’m gonna do
I’m stuck here this is my livelihood
right so I’ve come to understand that
perhaps we need to rethink the equation
and move it right so the point is that
in this day and age we are spending our
most valuable asset our time and our
attention elsewhere we’re not we’re not
going to give it to you no matter how
much money brands throw at us no matter
how perfect those ads may be we’re not
gonna let you take our attention right
we’re going to ignore you
whatever it takes what we’re doing
instead is we’re consuming content but
those content is not necessarily coming
from these big places right so so we’re
spending our attention looking at random
Facebook videos that someone has made or
these tweets or this or that or YouTube
whatever it is all this new form of
content that everyday people are making
no longer are there big studio houses
they’re no longer are those Brit
production teams there this just guy and
with a cellphone is making stuff up he’s
posting his life she’s posting her
videos and we’re lapping it up because
we feel that’s much more engaging that’s
something that we can relate to
something that we can identify it right
so these people as opposed to the macro
content creators like your production
offices or your TV studios like the big
boys
these people are smaller the micro
content creators right so they’re they
they don’t have much but they have your
attention right and these are
fascinating people have recently come
into contact with them and you see the
work in your news feeds and in your in
your Facebook’s and in your in your
everywhere around you right and they do
amazing stuff right so let me let me
give you an example right so there is a
girl from Tata who writes poetry and her
poetry is so good that it’s being
featured on instagrams own account right
there is a girl from Karachi who creates
these artworks and there
used in music videos for Coldplay and
cover arts for international replaces
right so there are these very
interesting people omits us especially
those in the younger demographic that
are doing what they want and creating
interesting content so there’s a very
infamous rule we live in the age on the
internet called the rule 34 I’m not
gonna go into it you guys can google it
later don’t Google right now they’ll
kick me out but I’m going to propose
another rule for you right so rule
number 36 something that I coined very
smartly is that whatever you can think
of anything at all there will be someone
on the internet who will be willing to
listen to your voice who will be willing
to listen to your opinion and consume
your content it can be something as
specific or as bizarre as for example
there is a guy called professor shoelace
he is the world’s most foremost
authority on shoelaces who would have
thought something as significant as a
shoelace could have a blog and a social
presence of millions of people right
there is a woman in South Korea who
makes millions of dollars and you know
what she does she posts videos of
herself eating food and not just not
fancy food not restaurant reviews she
sits in front of the camera and she eats
a bowl of noodles and she rakes in
viewers and people all people love to
watch her right there is this lady from
California who’s a certified
dermatologist by the way you know proper
medical practitioner but you know how
she is making money and what had claimed
to famous she’s called dr. pimple popper
her job is that she’s going to bench
when she gets someone with a pimple or a
black head when she extracts it when she
removes it she posted a video online
bizarres gets these millions of views
right so no matter how weird you think
something is there is an internet
community that is willing to talk to you
that it was willing to consumer content
willing to share it right so we need to
you know my message is that in this day
and age we
I used to have these great biopics right
so gandhi muhammad ali jinnah all these
people did it great things and somebody
went ahead and made this great movie
about them wrote this great book about
them but then this day and age V are the
authors of our own biographies right so
we have to create our own biopics and
and they’re real time and they’re
segmented it’s not it’s not going to be
a one great book it’s going to be
chapters that will come out post by post
it’s going to be videos that will come
out post by post and together when
someone looks at them in retrospect when
you become an internet celebrity you’ll
be will say you know what they had the
right idea super observed topic they had
the right idea right all you need and
the excuse that I give myself and I hear
from every oh we don’t we don’t have
time for that we don’t have fancy
production studio we didn’t do that
because all you need is a smartphone and
anybody who’s watching this video I’m
assuming you guys have a smartphone all
this audience also has a smartphone and
your own mind you can you can create
content around it right so what I’m
going to do is I’m going to give you
some concrete steps so that you can
encourage yourself and those around you
to become these content creators right
because as I just so rightly pointed out
that advertising in the world of
branding is no longer relevant
so all this brand money is going to flow
into these content creators these
everyday people that are taking up their
passion no matter how sick it is if
you’re passionate about education talk
about it create videos about it you know
post something about if you’re
passionate about sports if you’re
passionate about filmmaking passionate
if you’re a poet if you’re a musician if
you’re an illustrator if you’re a makeup
artist whatever you are start letting
the world know because you have that
technology that you can create that sort
of content and trust me in they will
after a little bit of time you will
begin to develop an audience right so
this is why it’s very necessary that if
you want to create become a content
creator you should do it on something
passionate about as the curator showed
you in the beginning of the presentation
for any venture that comes a dip right
so you will think you know what I love
books I’m going to talk about books and
you know everything about them and I’m
gonna pay create a little Instagram page
a little Facebook profile and I’m going
to talk about them every two days there
will be a time where you will see er
it’s been seven months I’m not getting
the likes I wanted now what should I
quit try something new but if you truly
pick your passion then you will not be
willing to give up because it’s fun for
you right so you need to dis find your
passion and distill your passion and
then you need to create a narrative
around it so for this presentation also
I came and I told you my context why am
i relevant to you why you should be
listening to my story
so here again whatever it is think of
what your profile will be called what’s
your backstory
what’s your origin story how are you
going to package it why should we care
about the stuff you’re making are you
that interested in shoelaces do you
think they can change the world whatever
it is you need to create an entire story
around it create an entire narrative
around it so that it benefits you in the
in the long run right and in the in this
age of social media we need to be able
to build meaningful relationships with
these people who are consuming our
content so whatever you’re passionate
about there is some someone who’s
looking at your content is also
passionate about it so you need to make
it a point to spend time from your day
spend time from your attention to
actually talk to them in an intelligible
way didn’t just go to someone’s profile
and say hey love it beautiful okay
smiley face no talk about the content
what do you find interesting in rapport
you disagree with what you don’t
disagree with and build these little
communities right build these
relationships so that you have a tribe
of your own and eventually and this is
from a marketeers point of view this is
the most important part you need to
monetize it so you are doing this for
your passion but trust me this can be
your bread and butter I know these
people that I myself am paying to be a
part of their messaging rights own
brands will soon be willing to pay by
the boatload
to get into your part of your story so
you need to keep that frame in mind that
eventually I don’t want to be a sellout
but eventually you know what if I’m
talking about shoelaces
there will be a time when Nike will come
and say you know what we want you to
feature us so I should be ready for that
day and I should create an opportunity
for that day so that I can capitalize on
it why not because I want to make money
because I want to be commissioned so
that I can continue pursuing my passion
right so the whole point of this entire
exercise is to a convince you that you
can by virtue of your mind and your
smartphone create your own following and
eventually it will be your bread and
butter but most importantly it’s not
just that you will earn money you will
be able to live life on your own terms
you will be able to talk about you will
be able to pursue something that you
care deeply about right so this is the
crux of our message I understand that
this puts me in a tough spot I am an
advertiser afterall I make the same ads
I employ directors I talk to brands and
I make those same ads that you so
conveniently ignore even I ignore them I
haven’t had a TV in my ears for three in
my house for three years right so this
puts me in a very tough spot I need to
quickly evolve as well so that I am able
to work with these new age content
creators but still I throw the challenge
out to all of you and to those that will
watch this video put me out of business
let the world know that the traditional
stuff way the brands are forced in your
face is not going to cut it any more
right be a competition to ad agencies be
a competition to brands become brands in
yourself and maybe we can meet a net
again on another stage thank you so much
you
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