CRUNCH - All things crunched.

  THE NEW CODES OF INDIAN CRICKET  Has Indian cricket spotted the leader   Indian cricket has come a long way. From no style to its own style. A captain who fashioned hair and bikes. To another who batted with tattoos. There are few in between but ignore them as there is a new bruh with different brush. Hair, tattoos, cars, watches, controversies, he is into everything but not as much as he is into the game. A thinking player. A leader. An all-rounder.  The success of the national team and his franchise under him is no pushover. There is a no-nonsense approach to the game, but more importantly there are different approaches to wins, losses and players with egos. He seems to be looking for players with a big heart and has no time for prima-donnas. To many who don't know this individual personally, his approach may seem contradictory to his own personality and reputation. But this is a whole new era of team building and leadership. Watch this guy !    ...

So Bard is made available to simpletons. So I asked Bard to write a post on what happens if a smart person would use Linkedin and Airbnb as a merged platform ... draft 1 was crap ... here is draft 2 and draft 3 which were same as draft 1 LinkedIn and Airbnb are two of the most popular online platforms in the world. LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals, while Airbnb is a home-sharing platform. While these two platforms may seem unrelated at first, there are actually a number of ways that they can be combined to create new and innovative experiences. One way to combine LinkedIn and Airbnb is to use LinkedIn to find potential hosts for your Airbnb listing. When you're looking for a place to stay, it's always a good idea to choose a host who is trustworthy and reliable. LinkedIn can be a great way to vet potential hosts, as you can see their work history, education, and other professional information. This information can give you a good sense of who the host i...

The Truth About Sneakers  Right. The 'AIR' film is out. The verdict is cold.  Two friends came together and in true bonhomie decided to make a film about the most popular shoe in the world. They had fun. they built anticipation or should we use the word 'hype'. But.  The verdict is cold.      Critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes:  A fact-based drama that no one will dunk on.    What really happened ?  Nothing. Good film, Great shoe ... all AIR. So was that a film for sneaker heads or for basketball enthusiasts or Jordan fans.  Again. Good film, Great shoe ... all AIR.   The film has made one thing clear, sneakers and shoes are not the same.  The marketing maybe, the designing, the naming, the branding and the story-making is something else and someone else. when a shoe stands out beyond the marketing it becomes a sneaker. So the next time you see an  Air  Jordan 1  Retro  Low  OG SP...

  Three days into this world cup and it is turning out to be quite a unique one. From the stadias, to the weather and the tech being deployed during the matches the experience of consuming these games are truly unique. With sell out crowds and full-blown fan parks football is well and truly gaining the attention that the most popular sport in the world deserves.  Apart from the innovation,  there is an added extra sensationalism at play as well. Englands arm band, Germany's covered mouth, BBC's coverage of this world cup and then Saudi and Japan. Sport is powerful and athletes are adored but when players are forced to comply with social issues, the paradigm of hero worship shifts. Heroes fall and results gain precedence. Just because this world cup is being played in 2 spheres - the game and the game of the game, iconic players tend to lose fandom. Hence the fans who once waited for glimpse of Messi are now mocking with the line .... Where is messi ?  Bottom line don...

  Recently there is a new wave of realizations. Info-leaks, confessions, lay-offs, resignations, protests and disclosures are revealing the hidden workings of previously sacrosanct establishments. Notions once held  as privilege now seem less robust and more fragile. Powerhouses are being razed to ground by lesser popular Davids.  A new world order is emerging. From the field of sports to leading stock markets there is movement. The song 'winds of change' are blowing again. This time Asia is in focus. Asians are in focus. More so, the change is about Asians are dealing with reality and making the most of opportunity. On all fronts Asia is in the game and Asia is now taking the shots. In many areas Asia is calling the shots.  What does this mean for brands?  Now that the cages have been broken and the tigers are out, is it time to pursue humanistic ideals than historical ones. Do brands now have to reconfigure their world view around current affairs than history....

People love sports because they produce outcomes. Agree, the semifinal didn't follow the script most Indians wished to witness. As usual there is an outpouring of anger directed towards the players. This is a colossal disappointment, more so because it denies Indian crowds the mouth-watering prospect of witnessing another contest with the neighbors. There is an obvious outcry. Our neighbors are in the final and we are not. This is the gully cricket mentality that drives Indian viewers into a stadium. Obviously, the disappointment must be vented.   If not the players and who's to be blamed … is it the captain, coach, the wisdom of the selection committee or is it the system?  Over the years Indian cricket has assumed industrial proportions and the stakes have been raised by a few billion dollars. Indian cricket has seen capital inflow from all kinds of investors. From highly illegal to the blindly ambitious. Everyone from the biggest sports betting platforms to a humble...

  GenZ Vie. Monsters or Masters? Often in marketing, we experience a fear of unknown. GenZ is a bit of the unknown. Especially when it comes to personal choices. Topics like connection, relationships, dating, meeting up & hooking up. For millennial or boomer marketing professionals in Vietnam, it is often confounding to distinguish one from the other, hence we tend to perceive this target as a mystery. Some people so significantly divergent that it begins to attain monstrous proportions. GENZILLA is one such popular and oft repeated term in a multitude of insight reports trying to decode GenZ.  Terms like this tend to polarize our view and forces us to imagine them as a different species. It also fails us at an intellectual level and makes it difficult to fathom the human within this group of people. Often treating them as a bunch of colorful cohorts, dressed in monochromatic funk, sheltered under their bucket hats, floating whimsically in those baggy flannels – almost hal...