C3CUBE initiates touch-screen kiosk entertainment revolution in India

DDS Kiosk Saket

Dilli DIl Se Kiosk, DT Place, Saket

During this IPL season, if you had walked into any of the major outlets of McDonald’s or Nirulas, the DT Mall Food Courts or any of 27 prime retail locations across the Delhi NCR region, you would have seen a crowd of young people engrossed in a futuristic, interactive touch-screen kiosk. This was the Dilli Dil Se Network, part of the Coca-Cola Dilli Dil Se marketing program celebrating the Delhi Daredevils and India’s first ever network of multimedia, broadband-enabled entertainment kiosks.

The Dilli Dil Se kiosk network was conceived and developed by acclaimed multimedia producer Raja Choudhury and his digital agency, C3CUBE Multimedia for Coca-Cola India as part of its integrated marketing program to leverage its sponsorship of the Delhi Daredevils during the DLF IPL 2009. This program also included a website, www.DilliDilSe.com, designed by C3CUBE.

Traditionally, touch-screen kiosks are visible in banks, at airports, stations, museums aimed at facilitating customer transactions, information or ticketing. This is the first time a kiosk network has been created solely for the purpose of promoting a sporting event and providing entertainment in a safe, fun-filled environment. And the formula worked! During the DLF IPL 2009, over 20,000 enthusiastic users between the ages of 13 and 30 logged on to the Dilli Dil Se kiosk network to cheer and celebrate the Delhi Daredevils steady climb to the top of the league table, and into the semi-finals.

DDS kiosk home page

The cutting-edge kiosk network integrated a large 19 inch letterbox touch-screen interface and a 32 inch LCD TV and provided dynamic content such as a promotion, games, a private social network, video mail, SMS tweets, a juke box, Bluetooth 2.0 downloads, videos, ads, team player game cards, 3D virtual tours and much more.

“This is a first-of-its-kind entertainment kiosk network” says Raja Choudhury, who has been building award-winning kiosks, websites, videos and TV programs in the US, UK and Indian markets since 1993. “We believe such a network that integrates Web 2.0, flash games, a social network, Bluetooth, video mail, SMS and music over a 2 Mbps broadband connection, has not been deployed so far. Coca-Cola India believed in our vision and we were able to make this possible during the IPL.”

C3CUBE and Coca-Cola India were able to attract some key partners to this pioneering experiment during the DLF IPL event including McDonald’s, Nirulas, DLF DT Malls, Kwality Group, Pind Baluchis, Zenga Mobile Apps, Waves, INOX cinemas, Vikings Game Zone and Airtel Broadband.

DT Mega Mall Gurgaon

Dilli Dil Se Kiosk, DT Mega Mall Gurgaon

Mansoor Siddiqi, Director – Integrated Marketing Communications at Coca-Cola India said that “The Dilli Dil Se kiosk network was a fresh initiative in the marketing of a brand asset. It enabled local Delhi Daredevils fans to cheer their team on, in an involving and fun manner, and achieved engagement metrics beyond our expectations.”

C3CUBE Multimedia is a two-year old agency with offices in New Delhi and New York that has already notched up major interactive successes including 2 Webby Honoree Awards in 2008 for OurWeddingDay.com and CBCWorldwide.com as well as numerous awards for JadeNYC.com and the documentary film “Spirituality in the Modern World.” The company now plans to launch a series of public multimedia projects in the Indian market, including a new tourism, information and entertainment kiosk network for Delhi called the Delhi I-Zone in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

For further information contact Kritika Singh at Kritika@c3cube.com or call +91 989984749.

And the Oscar goes to….NOT INDIA

“Slumdog” was truly the star of the Oscars, sweeping 8 awards, Slum Dog Millionaire rewrote history for the Indian film industry – Not! Indian film industry! Slumdog, Danny Boyle, Oscars. What does it all fix, how does it all fit, What Indian film industry?

It is time we Indians woke up and realized how the world around us is cashing on Incredible India. While we sit, wait and watch, the world applauding the story of ghettos to glory.

After the super success of Slum Dog Millionaire it makes me wonder why we Indians never took note of the thousand gritty looking Jamal’s running around our streets, peering into our vehicles. Never thought that any such child had an untold story behind them, and a lesson to be learnt from their story. It took a Danny Boyle to tell a story of a simple slum boy roughing it out in the big bad world.

Not only Slum dog. Take for example the original novel which captured the true soul and spirit of Mumbai in its writings. A novel of love lost, battle, rage, humanity, and compromise, all of Mumbai’s characteristics wrapped into the one and only Shantaram. Once again from a population of 1 billion Indians, it was a David Mcgregory who got to tell the story of one of India’s most populous, hardworking, soulful and dynamic cities through teh script of Slum Dog.

The list does not end there. I have more.  The most accurate and gripping biographies of our legendary and colonial rulers being retold by none other than William Dalrymple and Sarah Mcdonald who tells the story of India’s over powering religious beliefs in her book, Holy Cow.

This list extends to lifestyle as well. Today the US has 15 million people practising yoga daily. While we Indians have discarded it as an ancient science left only to the mercy of the Ramdev followers.

We boast endlessly about our rich culture, heritage and ever encompassing traditions. Yet we miss out on the simplest stories, the transparent truth and the known facts.

Are we immune to sights of children begging, is it not important to tell the truth to the world even though it may be horrible and heart wrenching.  Has the time not come when we look beyond aping the west in terms of lifestyle and trends and inculcate their concept of respect for new ideas, creativity and original thoughts?

Is it not time we live up to the name of our blog and truly be “The Creative Indian”.

Live Edge: Win $100,000 and save the world…

If you are a designer, inventor or environmental genius and have never heard about the “Live Edge” award then it may just change your life. This competiion offers an award of $100,000 and “to enter, your design must be original and innovative, use electric and/or electronic components, and positively impact the environment, such as by increasing energy efficiency or reducing carbon emissions.” The submission for this year’s awards start on 1 October – to find out more visit Live Edge.