Disqus - Latest Comments for Arjun_Basu

Re: Anu Apte-Elford | Owner, Rob Roy

Arjun_Basu — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:48:19 -0000

Whenever someone is going to Seattle I tell them to go to Rob Roy and order the Gunpowder Punch.

Re: Content Marketing Agencies: The Ultimate List

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 14:31:19 -0000

spafax

Re: Where Consumers Spend Their Time Is Where Advertisers Should Spend Their Money

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 16:31:19 -0000

Maybe ads don't work everywhere....

Re: The Internet Is Not Just Another Advertising Channel

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 13:46:39 -0000

I think the digital agencies have also said some really stupid things. Like their tendency to look down at other media (especially print). Like their tendency to believe they are "the future" while thinking as lazily as everyone else. Anyone can say, anything, of course, they just have to prove it. On this front, traditional media has a harder time, yes, but digital folk has so much data they can mask poor numbers and still say they are doing fine by their client. I love digital agencies that lie by omission. Yes, yes, numbers are meant to be manipulated and the onus, in the end, is on the client to ask the right questions. One of the things that's become obvious is that many clients don't know what the right questions are in digital - and digital agencies are in no rush to help them out.

Yes, breakfast soon.

Re: The Internet Is Not Just Another Advertising Channel

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 12:24:24 -0000

I have to say, with all due respect, my friend, that people like you are partially to blame. The digital space has been full of "cheerleaders" and "evangelists" and not enough people being critical of the space. I like to think we are the beginning of the end of the Era of Digital Hype, when we can take a step back and not talk so breathlessly about it and talk about it for what it is. Transformative? Absolutely. Misunderstand? Yes. But misunderstood by who? By which group? By a digital elite who can see everything (because they KNOW) or by the ignorant masses, who just "don't get it." If advertisers don't get it, the problem isn't them (and don't get me started on advertisers!) necessarily. Perhaps it's the messenger. Perhaps it's the industry itself. My guess is it is.

Re: New York Bagels Do Not Suck

Arjun_Basu — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 22:19:55 -0000

Montreal is an island. And the Montreal bagel started in the dusty alleys of The Main and Mile End, a neighbourhood of tenements and cold water flats. And your thing about not slicing a Montreal bagel?

Your arguments are made invalid by your ignorance. I guess ignorance really is bliss.

Re: 30 Years of the Coens: "Raising Arizona"

Arjun_Basu — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:22:34 -0000

The doctor told me her insides were a barren place where my seed could find no purchase.

- That's not just the best line in this movie, it's one of the best lines in every movie ever made.

Re: Red Bull and LEGO Get a Leg Up with Branded Entertainment

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 09:40:20 -0000

You guys (well, Robert) will be pleased to know that Ashley Brown from Coke is going to write a formal post (or rebuttal if you will) on Sparksheet. Soon.

Re: Has Content Marketing Hijacked Content Strategy?

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 10:14:05 -0000

It's like I always say: content without strategy is just stuff.

Re: 44 Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 16:31:31 -0000

Honoured to be on this list!

Re: Is Jon Bon Jovi going to buy and move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto?

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 22:16:31 -0000

I'm just saying all cities are parts of regions and are evaluated as such. If Toronto gets a team it's because of the size of the TV market, not the size of Toronto itself.

Re: Is Jon Bon Jovi going to buy and move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto?

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:05:19 -0000

For you, yes. Cities are defined by city limits. For sports leagues, they are defined by the size of the market, or region, or more specifically, the TV market.

Re: Is Jon Bon Jovi going to buy and move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto?

Arjun_Basu — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:06:39 -0000

Toronto is NOT the 3rd largest market in North America. Toronto: the city, is the third largest in North America. Toronto the market (ie: region) is the 7th or 8th, just after Houston. Still big, but not 3rd.

Re: Good to go from the PM: The Harper era’s decadent phase

Arjun_Basu — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:45:42 -0000

We are entering ShakespeareLand here. Or at least Marloweville.

Re: Malala Leaves Jon Stewart in Awe After Her ‘Daily Show’ Appearance

Arjun_Basu — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 15:45:39 -0000

This morning I heard her interview on the CBC in Canada and she spoke about listening to Justin Bieber. She's a teenage girl and when an interviewer can bring out that part of her, the rest of her story becomes all the more amazing.

Re: WRITING ON THE ETHER: Is Publishing’s Star System Cuckoo?

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 09:49:14 -0000

Sadly, this just makes publishing more like every other entertainment business. Or at least it confirms it. Music. Movies. We are all blinded by the light of the glow of the superstar...living in shadows.

Re: WRITING ON THE ETHER: Time for Literary Fiction To Come Out of the Cloisters?

Arjun_Basu — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 10:45:37 -0000

I wonder, Porter, if poets and "poetry" have long ago already achieved a kind of acceptance of the state of things. Is "literature" going the way of "poetry" - meaning is it a style (and not even a genre!) and, well, not a very big selling one at that....

(love that this conversation continues!)

Re: WRITING ON THE ETHER: Time for Literary Fiction To Come Out of the Cloisters?

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 15:15:19 -0000

The idea of authors as brands points to a convergence of two different things that happened at the same time. Well, three: publisher marketing budgets went down and unless you were an A LIst author you weren't going to get any serious support (though I doubt it was ever THAT different), the rise of digital and self-publishing and with it the rise of the author-entrepreneur, AND the advent of social media.

Re: WRITING ON THE ETHER: Time for Literary Fiction To Come Out of the Cloisters?

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:06:30 -0000

I think with Anastas, he approached Twitter for the absolute wrong reason - ie: doing something he normally hates doing and then having to do it in a space he wasn't comfortable in and well, two wrongs don't make a right.

I may be a cad but I'm more than happy to be a Poster Child as well. I don't have the reach or history or brand of more well established writers, for sure, but I have an odd hybrid thing happening and we'll see how that translates. I may also be that odd literary duck in that I see very well the value in PR (!!!) and am not afraid to exploit it. Or be exploited.

As long as everyone buys my books. I'm not literary, see. I'm just difficult.....

Re: WRITING ON THE ETHER: Time for Literary Fiction To Come Out of the Cloisters?

Arjun_Basu — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 09:42:42 -0000

I hate labels. But I also understand the need for them from a marketing point of view. So we live in a world with people who hate labels who need them. I guess life is complicated.

As for the "literary" thing, a large part of it has to do, of course, with the "artist's" aversion to commerce. If there's a pretention, it is that, and it's a big one. Let's see how "mysterious" I become when my novel is published in the spring. Because, for want of a better label, the damned thing is "literary."

Re: Everything You Wanted to Know About ‘The Internship’s Tiya Sircar (But Were Too Lazy To Google)

Arjun_Basu — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:49:37 -0000

Funny. A tweet from July 5th.

https://twitter.com/arjunba...

Re: The Andrea Bargnani trade is a typical New York move.

Arjun_Basu — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 14:45:09 -0000

In two years time the best pro team in New York City might be the Islanders.

Let that sink in.

Re: Our Top 10 Favorite Spelling Bee Tweets

Arjun_Basu — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:46:58 -0000

Along the same lines, I called the Spelling Bee the NBA for "brown people." It's really quite remarkable.

Re: Peering into the future and seeing more value in the Random Penguin merger

Arjun_Basu — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:20:57 -0000

Yes, i was speaking of author, not form(s) or distribution. Agree on two and three. Let's just admit that the big publishing houses used to make the big writing discoveries. Heck, they used to edit books. Remember that?

Re: Peering into the future and seeing more value in the Random Penguin merger

Arjun_Basu — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:59:10 -0000

More and more, the opportunity for the smaller publishers to push the culture (not necessarily the profits, mind you) is becoming apparent. The next great discovery will scarcely come from the Big 4 or 3 or 2 or 1. If they are risk adverse now (while admitting that the entire book publishing industry is about risk), they will be even more so in the near future.