Posts
Thursday 30 July, 2009
And so the Marathon begins...
Wednesday 29 July, 2009
Schumacher returns!
Yes, it is true!
The Champ is here! He is making a return to the world of F1 to fill the seat vacated by the gravely injured FM. He will drive for the Italian team at the European GP in Valencia on 23rd August. He said that he will be driving for 'team loyalty reasons' at this unfortunate time. MS last drove an F1 car in April 2008 and with the ban on in-season testing, he will not do so till 21st August for the Friday practice session.Let us see what the greatest F1 driver of all time can do to this season's championship. :)Schumacher returns!
Would you show a customer choosing another product in your ad?
I am sure about 90% of you would answer no to the above question. Even I would.
But the Bajaj XCD ad shown below, proves to be an exception to the rule and does it quite well. I like this extremely risky idea of showing a customer choosing a different product. The ad in point however, makes it a point to show that the customer who is choosing something else, does not deserve the Bajaj anyways. They show the person choosing an average home and an average woman, so it goes without saying that he deserves an average bike as well. However, the execution of this idea is brilliant. They show him recollecting the old XCD ad which is a glossy, slick, upmarket, young, pacy ad of a biker riding with a girl who just won a fight with her twin to sit on the bike (I do like the earlier ad also, but more on that later). He then goes for the cheaper bike, satisfied with his choice.
It is a brilliant idea to create a position in the mind of the customer and at the same time an extremely risky ploy at these times, especially from Bajaj, which is known to give cheaper and more value for money kind of bikes.
What say?
Tuesday 28 July, 2009
Multiple positioning of brand Dove
Dove has always been a brand that has been associated with something special. It signifies treating your skin to a better product which everyone cannot afford. Dove has always maintained this positioning strategy (which makes sense as Dove is more expensive than other soaps too and not everyone can afford it). However, recently after the launch of their range of other Dove products they have changed the positioning of the original Dove product.
The recent TV ads for Dove talks about the benefits of Dove and shows a girl in her early twenties as a user as against their usual use of an educated english speaking, working woman. This strategy has shifted now to the hair products. The new ads for their hair care range has women talking in english (one with an accent even) about how they have stopped hair fall by using the Dove products. So they are now saying, that Dove soaps are not really that aspirational any more. Even though it is the same product and costs the same amount if not more expensive, more people can afford it and it would be better to show the benefits for everyone rather than show 'very well to do accented english speaking middle aged women'. So, the product I guess has moved on to the next stage of the PLC.
BCG Matrix anyone?
Monday 27 July, 2009
Airtel follows Vodafone
Not only have they used the two most effective elements, but they have used the two elements extremely effectively. Combined with a catchy jingle, it has traversed every customer segment and managed to create an unparalleled recall value.
Telecom ads have always tried to create an emotional connect and never speak about the service itself. This of course is an exception with the Vodafone value adds and the CDMA networks. The big three, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have all had memorable jingles which have created the recall value they now have. Airtel has normally used the jingle as the focal point of all their campaigns. However, now Airtel seems to be trying to taking a page out of Vodafone's book. Their new campaign about 'Airtel 5' uses 5 extremely cute kids. Not that the kids are ever going to use the mobile phones, but it is kind of similar to the Vodafone ads. Airtel has used kids earlier too, the one with two kids playing football at the border and the one with the kid who calls his dad on his toy phone after being scolded by the mom.
Look at the pictures below. The first two are the obvious Vodafone ads, the third one is the Airtel football ad and the last one is Airtel or Vodafone?
Is the new campaign with kids too similar to the Vodafone ads? Is the use of too many different themes by Airtel creating confusion in the minds of the consumer? After all, Idea and Vodafone have pretty consistent themes.
Sunday 26 July, 2009
India launches nuclear submarine
Dr. Singh said this is not mean to be any indication of aggression on any country. However, the sea is becoming an integral part of India's strategy. India till now had only capabilities to launch missiles from land or air; this will change once the INS Arihant becomes fully operational in about two years time.
China has recently expanded its position in the sea by helping the Sri Lankan government fight the LTTE. In return, they have got a strategic location in the island country, which is bound to play an important role in the Indian Ocean. This new Indian foray will not only add a new aspect to Indian defence, but also act as a warning to the increasing Chinese naval presence.
LH wins with KR second
Finally we got a result from yore!
A McLaren in first place and a Ferrai in Second. MW however takes third place with a brilliant NR in fourth.
So the final classification is:
- LH
- KR
- MW
- NR
- HK
- TG
- JB
- JT
- KN
- RB
- NH
- NP
- RK
- GF
- JA
- SB
SV, FA and AS did not finish the race.
It is the first time that a KERS car has won a GP. Not only that, the second place car was also a KERS powered Ferrari. A good race for Ferrari after the horrific crash of FM yesterday in qualifying.
A great race!
Pit Lane Poker!
LH still in the lead comfortably.
JB just pit in from 2nd place.
KR now in 3rd place with JT still to pit in 2nd place.
And will somebody tell me what happened to the Hungaroring? There are more overtaking maneuvers here than ever before! And this is just lap 25!
LH takes the race lead, FA has a disastrous pit stop
FA pit in lap 12 as expected, but unexpectedly had a disastrous pit stop as he lost his right front wheel half way around the track. It seems the wheel was not fixed properly in the pits resulting in him crawling back to the pits. This is effectively race over for FA as he comes out a lap down on the race leaders.
Hero to Zero in 12 laps!
Formation set to change as FA light on fuel
Not only is FA light on fuel, due to which he got the Pole position, he also seems to have some issue with his fuel pump and his right rear tyre. LH is closing in on him in 2nd place and as a result pulling away MW and KR in 3rd and 4th.
Meanwhile AS has retired from the race.
Alonso keeps the lead at the start
After the first lap, FA keeps the lead, with MW second and LH up to third with KR behind him followed by SV in fifth.
A major incident avoided as KR came in between the Red Bulls of MW and SV touching SV's front wheel forcing SV to back up and settle for fifth after the first corner. Yes, all this was in the first corner. Great starts by the McLarens and the Ferrari. Also, AS of Force India has to pit to repair some damage. That is effectively race over for him as he will have to work really hard to get anywhere.
Felipe Massa fractures skull
Massa was then taken to the hospital where it was confirmed that he has fractured his skull. Inspite of the latest carbon fiber helmet and the HANS (Head & Neck Support) device, which had come to a lot of criticism by drivers a few years ago, he has suffered quite an impact on his head. It is quite scary to imagine what would have happened had he not braked hard enough or was at a higher speed. RB, one of his closest friend and fellow Brazilian, felt really sad that the cause of FM's accident came from his car. Ross Brawn said it can only be described as a 'freak accident'.
Confused in translation
Everyone who lives in Mumbai is by now used to seeing thousands of hoardings all over the place. It is everywhere! The moment you raise your vision by 30 degrees vertically, you will spot atleast 2 hoardings no matter where you are. This, at the same time of course, is also true for any metropolis anywhere in the world.
No, I have nothing against these hoardings. Actually I do, but that is not what I am pointing at. If you have paid attention to most of these hoardings, the product they are trying to advertise are mass market products, given the reach that these hoardings can achieve. If these products are mass market, the obvious language that they need to communicate in, is Hindi. However, all of these hoardings are in english. Atleast they are written in english. What I mean is, even though they are written in the english language, they are actually Hindi words! Now, why would anybody do that?
I have been seeing this trend for a couple of years now and I am still confused about what the possible reason could be. For example, just two days back I saw a Castrol Activ hoarding. This one was a compliment to the new TV ad campaign with the two Sardars on the bike where the dad is teaching the son to ride a bike. The hoarding has the same picture of the father and son on the bike and next to them is written, 'Stop - Go Traffic Mein All-Round Protection'. 'Mein' here is a Hindi word which means 'in'. So, not only is there a Hindi word in the midst, the sentence itself is supposed to be in Hindi. Of course it makes sense to keep a Hindi sentence as all the TV ads are also in Hindi and this is a product for the masses. However, if a person cannot read english, how will he understand it in the first place? And this is true for hundreds of such ads for products, services and the ones that use this the most, Hindi General Entertainment Channels! I mean, ALL their shows are in Hindi! Most of their audiences are non english speaking women! How can you do this to them?
Now the answer to this conundrum might be in the following questions:
- Do they mean that only if someone can read english can they buy their product?
- Have they figured out that Indians living in Mumbai like believing that a hoarding in Hindi script is unattractive?
- Do Mumbaiites believe that Hindi script is LS?
- Do the television channels believe they have all the non english reading people wrapped up and all they need to attract are english reading folks who think in Hindi?
The answer might be, that even though people in Mumbai like reading stuff in english and find it more convenient, they still think in Hindi. All their thoughts are in Hindi. This is what makes it easier for them to relate to a hoarding or an ad and most of the people who are driving are anyways people who can read english faster than Hindi.
Ahaan! Maybe I should have blogged about this earlier, I would have found the answer faster!
You think this is the right answer?
Thursday 23 July, 2009
Welcome to island marketing
If you run a business on a small island, every interaction matters and every customer is precious.
There's a finite number of people you're going to be able to sell to, and every person you interact with knows everyone else, so you always have to be on your best behavior. You can't say, "tough" and then go on to the next person. You can't run ads that churn and burn through an endless supply of naive prospects. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and on the island, that impression matters.
Consider an airline in Chicago that can bully and bluster and greedify its way through an endless supply of business travelers, and compare them to a short hop carrier on Martha's Vineyard. The Vineyard airline knows that people can always switch to the other short hop airline or the ferry, and they also know that the folks they serve have power, because there aren't an endless supply.
As you've probably guessed, like most things in our ever shrinking world, all marketers are now on an island.
The island perspective is the Zappos model. Every interaction is both precious and an opportunity to delight. Marketers no longer have the money or the platform to harass and promote their way to success by burning through the market. Instead, we have to act like we're on an island earning and then nurturing a permission asset.
Through this lens, banner ads and various pop ups make even less sense than they used to. So does the insane act of outsourcing the random dialing of businesses to do telemarketing spam. We used up those resources a long time ago.
Sunday 19 July, 2009
Kurukshetra - The Mumbai Mahayudh
The saddest part for me is that I am not in this video. That is because I am the one with the camera!
Neither will I forget making this video nor will I ever forget the time we had making this event possible
To the batch of 2007!
Jai Hind BMS rocked!
I want to....
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I want to read a library
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I want to backpack across India
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I want to drive a Formula 1 car
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I want to take a lap of the Top Gear track
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I want to run the half-marathon at the Mumbai Marathon 2010
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I want to place 300 students this year
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I want to visit Italy
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I want to listen to music in the rain
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I want to not be taken for granted
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I want to run the Marathon
Saturday 18 July, 2009
I am on a spree, a reading spree.
All of a sudden, I have derived inspiration from I dont know where. I
have suddenly decided to read as many as 4 books every month! That is
a book every week! I myself cant believe that. But this is a
resolution. I already finished Kishore Biyani's It happened in India
last week. Now I am onto Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. Yes,
that is another thing. No more fiction for quite some time now. If you
look in my facebook profile, you will see that I have read a LOT of
fiction; and I want to lay off it for some time.
I want to see how much of this I can achieve. I would also require
your help to suggest me books on marketing, branding, advertising and
consumer behaviour.
P.S. I apologize to all or rather both of my readers as this spree
will give me lesser time to blog.
Friday 17 July, 2009
Ferrari might eventually contact Vettel
Stefano Domenicali has refused to rule out the possibility that Sebastian Vettel will one day reside in a Ferrari cockpit.
The widespread rumour of the moment is that Fernando Alonso is the closest outsider to a seat with the famous Italian team.
But when asked about 22-year-old Vettel, a two-time winner in 2009 for Red Bull Racing, Ferrari's team principal answered: "Never say never."
"I like him very much; his character is very positive and independent," Ferrari's team principal said of the German youngster.
"For his age he is far ahead both technically and mentally," Domenicali told Germany's Auto Bild.
The Italian acknowledged that Michael Schumacher, Ferrari's most successful driver in history and now an advisor to the Maranello team, holds his compatriot in high regard.
Hulkenberg set for F1 graduation
Nico Hulkenberg will make his Formula One debut for Williams next year if the British team activates a contract option, according to his manager.
Hulkenberg, 21, is managed by Willi Weber, who famously handled the ultra-successful career of Michael Schumacher.
The reigning F3 Euroseries champion currently contests GP2 with ART, the team run by former Ferrari boss Jean Todt's son Nicolas, and backed by traditional Schumacher sponsors including Dekra and Deutsche Vermogensberatung. Weber wants Hulkenberg to move into F1 next year. "I have not only held conversations with Williams," he told Sport Bild, "however if Williams takes up the option, we will drive there for certain."
Weber said he has had talks about Hulkenberg with every Formula One team ‘except Red Bull’.
Youngest F1 driver ever
Jaime Alguersuari will become the youngest Formula 1 driver in history when he makes his debut for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team as replacement for Sebastien Bourdais at the Hungarian Grand Prix, AUTOSPORT has learned.
Following a weekend of speculation about Bourdais' future, on the back of a disappointing first half to the campaign, Toro Rosso is expected to confirm within the next 48 hours that it has decided to part company with the Frenchman.
And although the team has decided that reigning British F3 champion Alguersuari will be slotted into the seat alongside Sebastien Buemi, an announcement confirming the plan is not expected until after the Spaniard has finished competing in this weekend's World Series by Renault race at Le Mans.
Toro Rosso has decided to give the youngster the race opportunity in spite of his lack of experience as it is the only way for him to gain experience in preparation for a full season in 2010, due to the in-season testing ban. The team has so far declined to comment on the situation.
There are also suggestions that Alguersuari's step up is being eased by Spanish oil company Repsol, who are personal backers of the youngster and are poised to tie-up a deal with Toro Rosso.
Alguersuari's step-up means he will make his debut at the age of 19 years and 125 days. It beats the previous record of 19 years and 182 days held by Mike Thackwell, who drove for Tyrrell in Canada 1980 - although was officially a non-starter after a first-lap red flag.
The Official Formula 1 Website
Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has confirmed he will stand for the presidency of the FIA, Formula One racing’s governing body, when the position comes up for election later this year.
Current President, Max Mosley, announced on Wednesday that he will stand down in October from the post he has held since 1993. Mosley has endorsed Todt’s candidacy.
Look out for more powerful men trying to take this coveted spot.
Todt for President
Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has confirmed he will stand for the presidency of the FIA, Formula One racing’s governing body, when the position comes up for election later this year.
Current President, Max Mosley, announced on Wednesday that he will stand down in October from the post he has held since 1993. Mosley has endorsed Todt’s candidacy.
Look out for more powerful men trying to take this coveted seat.
The Official Formula 1 Website
Former Ferrari boss Jean Todt has confirmed he will stand for the presidency of the FIA, Formula One racing’s governing body, when the position comes up for election later this year.
Current President, Max Mosley, announced on Wednesday that he will stand down in October from the post he has held since 1993. Mosley has endorsed Todt’s candidacy.
Look out for a lot of powerful men trying to win this coveted seat!
Youngest F1 driver ever
Jaime Alguersuari will become the youngest Formula 1 driver in history when he makes his debut for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team as replacement for Sebastien Bourdais at the Hungarian Grand Prix, AUTOSPORT has learned.
Following a weekend of speculation about Bourdais' future, on the back of a disappointing first half to the campaign, Toro Rosso is expected to confirm within the next 48 hours that it has decided to part company with the Frenchman.
And although the team has decided that reigning British F3 champion Alguersuari will be slotted into the seat alongside Sebastien Buemi, an announcement confirming the plan is not expected until after the Spaniard has finished competing in this weekend's World Series by Renault race at Le Mans.
Toro Rosso has decided to give the youngster the race opportunity in spite of his lack of experience as it is the only way for him to gain experience in preparation for a full season in 2010, due to the in-season testing ban. The team has so far declined to comment on the situation.
Birlliant AD by Trueroots
The brandname is perfect and so is the AD. It manages to create the perfect emotional connect with the NRIs. I don't know anything about the product or if it will succeed, but this concept is perfect to create that Indianness feeling.
The last frame with the name TATA in it seals the deal!
Wednesday 15 July, 2009
Saturday 11 July, 2009
Exciting qualifying session at the German GP
It was brilliant, with 5 people challenging for Pole in the last minute itself!
Thanks to the mountain weather at Nurburg, we were witness to a very exciting qualifying session with Mark Webber finally ending up at Pole.
Hamilton (LH), Button (JB), Barrichello (RB), Vettel (SV) and Webber (MW) were all challenging for Pole with RB on Pole for the longest time. However, in the last minute MW went fastest with all the other drivers after him coming close but getting second position consecutively.
Earlier, Q2 was one of the most topsy-turvy sessions ever. RB, who called that session a 'nice one' was on Pole then. The session that JB called 'sheer madness' saw Sutil (AS), get into the Q3 due to very lucky timing. AS eventually got a very respectable sevent position behind the two McLarens and ahead of the two Ferraris!
Here is a rundown for tomorrow's German GP:
- MW
- RB
- JB
- SV
- LH
- HK
- AS
- FM
- KR
- NP
- NH
- FA
- KN
- JT
- NR
- RK
- SB (Buemi)
- GF
- TG
- SB (Bourdais)
A hell of a race awaited!
Force India finally in Q3!
Finally, we have a FI in the Q3. Adrian Sutil drove a cautious and lucky lap to be the third fastest in Q2.
I say he was lucky because the mountain weather at Nurburgring is really not helping anyone with the rain playing hide and seek.
Adrian Sutil picked the perfect window between two rain spells and stormed a lap on slicks which turned out to be third fastest.
Once the qualifying is over, I will update you on the full results. Hope it goes all well for the FI!
Monday 6 July, 2009
The Linker - Just a bridge?
massive achievement of engineering. A tribute to Indians.
Yes. I am still talking about The Linker aka Bandra Worli Sea Link.
Didnt matter that it took me twenty five minutes to get on it. What
mattered was that I got off it in the shortest fifteen minutes of my
life.
For those fifteen minutes I felt I was not in the real world. There
was something about this monstrosity that enchanted me and I couldnt
take my eyes off her. The glistening black road helped by the light
drizzle was a perfect contrast to the cables illuminated by brilliant
white lights. It transcended me into the surreal.
It was anticipation that took me till I reached the portion enforced
by the giant cables; and when I did reach them I could not stop
looking up. The cables looked like they were suspended in mid air with
the support of the bridge and not the other way round. I now can
totally understand everyone who took a U turn to go back on it just to
have another look.
It was midnight and this was already a local attraction. Dont know
what tourists will do. This is much more than a bridge linking two
destinations to reduce traffic. This is a symbol. A symbol that will
mean so many different things to so many different people. To me, it
reinforces what Dr. Manmohan Singh said (he was quoting Victor Hugo)
before presenting the 1991 budget, "No power on earth can stop an idea
whose time has come". Yes, I am in love with that idea.
That is what this bridge means to me.
Friday 3 July, 2009
The eleventh thing you can use The Linker for
How could I have missed this in my last post?
Lack of imagination? Or maybe out of touch with reality?
P.S. If someone is trying to be funny by just posing in this picture,
get a life!
Thursday 2 July, 2009
10 things the Bandra Worli Sea Link will be used for
euphoria has begun, let us take stock of this behemoth of a structure.
Here are my 10 things for the BWSL or what I call - 'The Linker'.
1. Mumbai Darshan. This ones an obvious one with the making sure this
is a tourist attraction thanks to it being a national landmark. Look
out when your cousins next come to town and ask you to show them The
Linker.
2. Political leverage. Well, we are already seeing parties having
issues with the name. Come on, get a life! But the Congress is lucky
to still be in term while The Linker was opened. No wonder with the
elections coming up they opened atleast half of it.
3. Posters. It is that pretty isnt it? The gorgeous Linker.
4. Drag races. Come on! This ones easy. Cant you see it? Its long,
straight, smooth, pretty and on the sea, what more does a racer need?
This one I would love to see.
5. Income for cops. Inspite of all the speed cameras and speed guns,
how can you not floor it beyond 50 (limit will change to 75 later)?
Its all green for cops.
6. Movies. This one you saw coming. Maybe a movie about drag races on
The Linker.
7. Ads. This ones easier. Look out for the next few car and bike ads.
They dont need to go abroad anymore.
8. Artists. Paintings of The Linker against a setting sun anyone?
9. Suicides. This is the most common use that bridges the world over
have been put to. And dying on The Linker? B E A Utiful!
10. Wedding. Lets wait and watch how long this one actually takes. You
two will probably be alone and behind bars by the time you are in holy
matrimony.
So there you have it. 10 brilliant ideas if The Linker doesnt end up
easing traffic and as a result is refused to be used for its original
purpose.
P.S. This is another blog post from Powai :)
I have more than 2 readers!
Yes, I know all my regular readers. Both of them! But I found out that I have atleast 1 more person who has read atleast 1 of my articles!
How do I know that? This article of mine that I had written on Powai, got featured in the homepage of Yes! Powai. Thanks to Shishir from there.
Twitter rocks. Well, that is how he came to know of my article. Actually, Posterous rocks! If it wasn't for them, my articles won't get autoposted to Twitter and Facebook and my old blog! Actually, because I wrote the article, I rock! :P
Thanks guys!
Wednesday 1 July, 2009
The new Madridista :)
The Champ is finally here! Ricardo Izecson Dos Santos a.k.a. Kaka. The new number 8! I don't however like the fact that Gago gets 5 instead. Kaka should have got 5!
Anyways, look at the bloody crowd! And I love all the Champions League trophies kept on the stage :)
First of three presentations in a week. Albiol next and then on to the whiner!
Universities should go on the Cloud
A few days back when the Class XI forms were uploaded, it seemed like a great idea. Finally it was going online. I had stood in serpentine queues at 8 or 9 different colleges after my Class X results were declared. It took me two days to collect all forms and then a whole day getting them filled up and then two more days submitting them back in respective colleges. Not to forget the numerous photocopies and the various attested documents. It was a lot! I know of parents who took a week off to do this for their daughters and sons.
With all of this getting online, the pain is much lesser in the admission process.
However, inspite of doing a dry run of the website with close to 1,000 forms loaded, the site crashed on the first day itself. It just could not handle the load of thousands of students accessing the weak little defenseless webpage. You can't really help but sympathise with the webpage, the website, the webmaster and above the poor little servers. This overloading is however a normal phenomena across Universities and colleges. It affects the Board results, the admission results, the CAT results, the CET results and the list goes on. All we can do is blame the Universities.
It is not, however, the fault of the Universities. One can say that they can just buy the extra bandwidth and server space and computing power. But all of this is not exactly cheap. And they will need all of this only once a year! Quite a conundrum.
The solution according to me is Cloud Computing. Now, my regular readers (yes, all the two of you) must have already read about my summer project here and here. My project actually comprises of research on cloud computing; and that according to me is the perfect solution in this case.
To all the non technical people and IT engineers, cloud computing is nothing but a set of servers configured as a cloud, wherein the users can take the advantage of all these networked computers and use the infrastructure as they like. It is set up in a way that the users can scale up their requirements as and when they want, and the system automatically provisions all of it to them. So theoritically, you will never run out of bandwidth and storage space. This is perfect for all those people who have low requirements except for those few days when they experience a sudden spike difficult to deal with. It would be extremely expensive to provide for this spike and have the infrastructure be wasted the rest of the time.
This is exactly what our colleges need. I just checked out the google trends results for some of the common search parameters related to admissions and results and below are some of the findings:
1. The number of searches for "CAT Results" in January every year, is more than 20 times the searches throughout the year.
2. The searches for the word "IIM" in the months of December & January is close to 50 times the searches the rest of the year.
3. The number of searches for "SSC Results" in the months of April (the time of the exam) & June (the month of the result) is more than 25 times the searches the rest of the year.
You can do your own little analysis at http://google.com/trends.
Our colleges can have their minimum bandwidth requirements throughout the year, and during the one or two months during the results and admissions, when it peaks in terms of visitors, automatically scale up. They would not need to move a finger. The cloud will take care of it. All they have to do is pay for the services every month depending on their usage.
I hope they are listening and implement this. Not only is this lesser headaches for everyone involved, it is also cheaper compared to scaling up your own infrastructure trying to provision for the peaks.
Do you think this makes sense? And if it does, you think it will be implemented?