Yogesh Babu

We all know that brands have - since forever - used all means necessary to spread a new idea or thought that would engage their target audience, sometimes by stating the obvious that we often take for granted. (Yes, P&G did a great job with the “mom campaign”.)

Talking about the obvious, who does not want to go back in time and do some of the more memorable things they did when they were younger? Who does not want return to their school to relive a little nostalgia? Who does not drive past the playground they used to frequent as kids and not think about the childhood games they played then?

You know that feeling? The one you are experiencing right now? That feeling where you want to go back in time and do something you used to do.

Nokia tapped into just that nostalgia with the re-launch of the iconic Nokia 3310. It raised the eyebrows of every 80’s kid because there was a...

Shyam G

In today’s world, where every field is a cyborg - a chunk of its working parts is replaced by technology. Customer support has joined the bandwagon of industries that have been bitten by the tech-bug. Recently, Facebook opened its doors to Chatbots developed by independent organizations that could become a part of its messenger app.

View David A. Marcus’s (Vice President -Messenger Applications, Facebook) take on Chatbots here.

This is the first step in taking artificial intelligence to the common user. As a person deeply involved with technology, watching AI evolve from Arnie movies to the smartphone is fulfilling, to say the least. Humans have always known (and dreaded) the day when AI would replace them at work. This is because AI is programmable, efficient, consistent, and obedient - contrary to what Hollywood tells you.

What is a Chatbot?

Chatbots are computer...

Rony Samuel

With the boom of the internet and arrival of smartphones, one of the many industries that was transformed is food and dining. The influx of food aggregators and delivery apps have created a disruption in the traditional market, drastically transforming the lifestyle of urban consumers.

Many players, many offers

My memory of the journey that food took on digital platforms is of Zomato, one of the early aggregators, which did a simple job of helping people find a restaurant, look at the menu, read and write reviews. Zomato still stands as one of the most popular platforms to this day. India has seen a boom in food start-ups in the last decade; many more players like Foodpanda and Swiggy have sprouted, challenging the marketplace with various value propositions like faster delivery, wider variety, and bigger discounts. Of all these concepts introduced, faster food...

Balaji W. Sundar

A brand’s name plays a significant role when it comes to brand perception. People associate emotions with brands and, a majority identify themselves with the brands they use. They judge the desirability of any brand in two ways:

• The inherent ease with which the brand-name can be stored and retrieved from memory
• The extent to which the brand name supports or enhances the strategic positioning of the product

Spelling and pronunciation

A widely used technique is foreign branding which refers to “the strategy of spelling or pronouncing a brand name in a foreign language". At times, even the diacritical marks, such as an umlaut or an accent aigu, used to add a foreign flavour to a brand could make a huge impact on determining the origin of the brand (e.g., Citroën, Jägermeister, L'Oréal).

Associations

Like other stereotypes, foreign names that are associated with a...

Shyam G

I’d always been on the heavier end of the scale and too lazy to care. Of late, reason caught up with me and I decided to make a healthy change in my lifestyle. Along the way, I needed some help. After considerable research and procrastination, I decided on the FitBit Blaze. (In the words of my boss, “You wear a sh***y watch anyway….”)

And so began my tryst with the amazing FitBit Blaze.

How it started!

To start things off, FitBit has a great website that all the information you need, when you need it. To choose the right device for me, all I had to do was visit their device comparison page. It was a simple and rather enjoyable experience to sit down and weigh the options before zeroing in on the Blaze.

My reasons for choosing the Blaze

1. Instead of being a fitness band that makes a meek attempt at being a watch, the Blaze is a rather sleek watch that makes a strong...

Shyam G

It’s a Native App… It’s a Website… It’s a Progressive Web App

[Image courtesy: Ionic.com Blog]

Custom dictates that any emerging business kickstarts their online presence through a website, followed by an Android App and iOS app - often in that order. The reason is simple - maximum outreach happens over the Internet. In other words, what happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. In the era of smartphones, the bone of contention has always been Web vs. Native. Google blurred this line.

“Why not both?”

A question developers at Google asked themselves, and the Progressive Web App was born. It looks like an app, it behaves like an app, it has all the functionalities of an app - but it runs over the internet (and therefore uses data) and takes up minimal storage space on your device.

To be honest, this is not an entirely new concept. Since 2011, browsers have had the...

Influx is a cornucopia of cool ideas – not only for its clientele but also when it comes to entertaining its employees. Last Friday was no exception. Everyone was working like usual, some a little stressed to finish the work on time and some waiting for inspiration to kick in, before the weekend. That’s when we were ushered to the sunlight area and we gladly embraced the break.

What caught our attention was a big colourful bowl, two cups, and plastic straws. We couldn’t make anything out of it until we saw thermocol balls in the bowl. As usual, our minds came up with weird ideas, but our HR’s voice stopped our train of thought…the props displayed were for a game.

The Game

Each player has to suck the thermocol balls with the help of straw and shift it to the empty container without dropping them.

The Players

Client Servicing: Sripriya
Creative: Arun
App: Selva Ganesh
Business...

Passport Seva Kendra is not known for being citizen-friendly. For the benefit of our fellow Influxians(and whoever else reads this post), Bhuvana Ashok took up the arduous task of compiling the steps in applying for a passport in India.

New User:

Step 1 : Register on this link:

http://www.passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/welcomeLink

Please fill the above details to get registered.

Step 2 : You will get a link to your registered email id to activate your account

Step 3 : Once activated, login to the account. Select Applicant Home Tab -> Apply for Fresh Passport/Re-issue of Passport

Step 4: Go for Alternative 2 : To fill the application form online

Step 5 : Fill present address details (State and District)

Step 6 : Passport type -

Apply for : Fresh Passport.
Type of Application : Normal
Type of Passport Booklet : 36 pages

Step 7 : Applicant details: Fill in your details

Instagram is the hottest new thing in the digital world of photo sharing. NOT! Prisma, the latest baby of your phone’s hardware and software superpowers, is.

If Instagram made your photos look super-awesome, Prisma goes a step further and converts your photos into slick-looking works of digital art, based on filters inspired by original works of famous artists. With over 10 filters at launch, there’s no dearth of options!

Unlike most other platforms that come to life with no real revenue strategy, Prisma seems to have thought that through, right at launch! The Palmolive filter looks like a placement that would’ve helped pay for some of the coffee (or Vodka) around their Moscow HQ.

At Influx, we couldn’t think of a better way to give the platform a spin than by applying a Prisma touch to our thalaivar (Superstar) Rajinikanth.
Take a look!

Thillu Mullu (1981)

Moondru Mugam (1982)...

by Priyanka S

Most of Chennai’s creative geniuses were found in and around Le Royal Meridien, on the night of 26th July, a Tuesday. Why? Adobe - the creative platform that designers swear by, was conducting a seminar on the latest innovations with Creative Cloud and Acrobat DC.

The exciting event saw many Business Owners, IT Heads, Creative Team Leads and Web and Graphic Designers attend the seminar. Amongst the lot were a few Influxians, namely, Karthik, Arun, Arnold, Srinivas, Gopinath and Binesh.

Baljeet Singh, the Adobe expert for the evening, gave a detailed account of the latest innovations in the creative process with visual demonstrations on Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

Points of discussion-
1) Font Matching Tool Tutorial.
2) Pdf Text Editing Tool Tutorial
3) Wrap (new addition for shake reduction)
4) Content Aware Move Tool
5) New Crop Tool Updates
6) Zoom...