Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Perfect Social Media Marketing Job Description
Recently I was going through one of India's online digital news content sites where I stumbleupon this. Below is the job content of a "Social Media Marketing Evangelist". Why this interested me if you ask, then my answer is clear one- I never thought that India has yet grown into a Social Media Marketing bedrock where EVANGELISTS are required. But it seemed like I was wrong to some extent. Even though we have not reached the critical mass of using SMM in our communication strategy but surely it has gained some amount of traction.
Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
What's your Tweet Worth?
This is a perfect "lazy sunday" post. This post will provide some juice on Twitter and the state of things. For almost a year now, Twitter has been the poster child for everyone who has been chasing Bright & Shiny Objects in the Web.
Now a new service called Twittad is launched which wants to monetize the Twitter background real estate. The company is allowing Twitter users to make their page backgrounds available to the highest 
bidder. Each listing includes the number of followers, the duration, and the price. Advertisers can then purchase the spots, with Twitter ad collecting a 5% commission on the transaction. So far there aren’t enough transactions completed to estimate the average value of a Twitter follower over a given time period, but this example of a recently sold ad spot for an account with 250 followers went for $5 for one month.
Now the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets are worth based on how many followers you have.
But there are inherent problems with this new business model:
1. Page backgrounds are not clickable (See here) and there is no easy way for a third-party service to track any meaningful metrics other than impressions.
2. With so much activity taking place on your friend timeline in the Web Interface or in a third-party apps, profile pages are not necessarily valuable estate.
3. Lastly, one most imminent problem is that I rarely go to my friend's Twitter profile since their tweets are visible on my twitter profile or third-party apps. So its like pushing ads to myself only at the end of it all.
Few possible solutions:
1. Try working out these ads in a blended format with the tweet stream (though it may prove out to be annoying).
2. Forget about trying to sell ads on Twitter pages, and put ads on WhatsYourTweetWorth instead.
3. These ads can at the best work out as pure brand advertisements for clients who just want to push in their messages in the twitter profiles.
Despite the inherent problems in Twittad’s model, there are a number of other companies attempting to monetize web page backgrounds, including AdCamo, who is providing a platform to both publishers and ad networks.
Courtesy: TechCrunch & Mashable
bidder. Each listing includes the number of followers, the duration, and the price. Advertisers can then purchase the spots, with Twitter ad collecting a 5% commission on the transaction. So far there aren’t enough transactions completed to estimate the average value of a Twitter follower over a given time period, but this example of a recently sold ad spot for an account with 250 followers went for $5 for one month.Now the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets are worth based on how many followers you have.
But there are inherent problems with this new business model:
1. Page backgrounds are not clickable (See here) and there is no easy way for a third-party service to track any meaningful metrics other than impressions.
2. With so much activity taking place on your friend timeline in the Web Interface or in a third-party apps, profile pages are not necessarily valuable estate.
3. Lastly, one most imminent problem is that I rarely go to my friend's Twitter profile since their tweets are visible on my twitter profile or third-party apps. So its like pushing ads to myself only at the end of it all.
Few possible solutions:
1. Try working out these ads in a blended format with the tweet stream (though it may prove out to be annoying).
2. Forget about trying to sell ads on Twitter pages, and put ads on WhatsYourTweetWorth instead.
3. These ads can at the best work out as pure brand advertisements for clients who just want to push in their messages in the twitter profiles.
Despite the inherent problems in Twittad’s model, there are a number of other companies attempting to monetize web page backgrounds, including AdCamo, who is providing a platform to both publishers and ad networks.
Courtesy: TechCrunch & Mashable
Friday, October 03, 2008
Top 10 Predictions on Social Networking
In my last post on Indian Social Networking Trends, I drew analogy between one of Dina's post and beta launch of Yahoo's SpotM. So this time around, I took the liberty to go much beyond trending and give much more concrete and holistic view of how Social Networking space will shape up for the future.
Though I wrote about it here, here & here, so this time around I will try to provide some more juice on social networks. Here are some of my top 10 social networking prediction are:
1. Mobile Networking will catch up mainstream: Interaction in social networks happens most often through messages which is the most common feature. Some call it wall posts, other as scraps etc. It is most frequent among younger generation who wants to be connected 24*7. Mobile devices will become a savior since its the only device which is ubiquitous and its reach is wide. But certain hindrances are still to be overcome like the browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. So once someone utilizes this potential to create an application that has enough traction to catch the attention and remove the tech limitations of browser apps compatibility with mobile devices and stuff like service providers blockades, then connectivity isn't a issue.
2. "Content is King" will be the buzzword: Yes, the content is the buzzword. Some may find it difficult to fathom it but it's true. The content of the network, we all will be in is going to be the single most factor which could win over the Social Networks battle.
3. The "longish" long tail will prevail: Over the past year, its unimaginable to find that there are scores of social networks on the fringes - social networks for babies, mothers, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning and many more unique yet prevalent social networks. So power of the longish long tail will prevail in Social Networking.
4. Interactive Apps will augment social networks: Sandeep has an interesting take on this one - The new interactive mechanisms for many social sites may be backed by artificial intelligence. This will bring spice to the entire model. For instance, your social network or online group will show itself to be angry, happy, sad, etc., all on its own, as a result of its members' input. These small and unique interactive developments will engage the users to a great extent.
5. Content Creation & Consumption will happen at the source: Social networks won't just be a platform to feed & share your personal life with friends & family. It will become our megaphone to voice about anything & everything around us. Though first round initiatives have been taken - Thanks to Google.
6. Changes in "Content Delivery" of Social Networks: Content delivery via social networks will change over time. Social networks will act also as an entertainment cum information window for users in world wide web viz. ChillX.
7. Monetization of actionable content in Social Networks: Monetization has been a problem for social networks (read here, here & here too). But once social networks are able to position themselves as branded content providers like MySpace have done then monetization won't be pain. But for this enough critical mass is needed for which social networks have to duly rely on other distributive mediums like progressive mobile networks etc to spread their content.
8. Medium will become the message in Social Networks: Since we are talking about social networks which provides vast information pool at free cost for end users, so medium itself is easy to spread and theme based social networks will definitely plug in more users who will in turn out to be evangelists to spread the message. One of the networks which I know is working towards it is ChillX which wants to attract Indian Gen X & Y to form a community of users who share & spread.
9. The power of community will prevail: Social networks are typically measured in terms of registered users, unique users and engagement (in terms of time spent, page views per unique user etc. This will be on the rise once social networks are able to draw users into community. This will be on the rise in the near future.
10. Geographically & Culturally focused Social Networks: The popularity of social networks varies by region. In the U.S., Myspace and Facebook are most popular; in India and Brazil, Orkut rules; China has QQ; Europe has Hi5. So we will see more & more of geographically & culturally focused social networks like Viacom's Flux which will stress on “Personal community”. (Read more on this here).
So these are Top 10 Social Networking predictions that will prevail in the near future. I'll do a series of such posts in the future too as on when it happens.
Though I wrote about it here, here & here, so this time around I will try to provide some more juice on social networks. Here are some of my top 10 social networking prediction are:
1. Mobile Networking will catch up mainstream: Interaction in social networks happens most often through messages which is the most common feature. Some call it wall posts, other as scraps etc. It is most frequent among younger generation who wants to be connected 24*7. Mobile devices will become a savior since its the only device which is ubiquitous and its reach is wide. But certain hindrances are still to be overcome like the browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. So once someone utilizes this potential to create an application that has enough traction to catch the attention and remove the tech limitations of browser apps compatibility with mobile devices and stuff like service providers blockades, then connectivity isn't a issue.
2. "Content is King" will be the buzzword: Yes, the content is the buzzword. Some may find it difficult to fathom it but it's true. The content of the network, we all will be in is going to be the single most factor which could win over the Social Networks battle.
3. The "longish" long tail will prevail: Over the past year, its unimaginable to find that there are scores of social networks on the fringes - social networks for babies, mothers, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning and many more unique yet prevalent social networks. So power of the longish long tail will prevail in Social Networking.
4. Interactive Apps will augment social networks: Sandeep has an interesting take on this one - The new interactive mechanisms for many social sites may be backed by artificial intelligence. This will bring spice to the entire model. For instance, your social network or online group will show itself to be angry, happy, sad, etc., all on its own, as a result of its members' input. These small and unique interactive developments will engage the users to a great extent.
5. Content Creation & Consumption will happen at the source: Social networks won't just be a platform to feed & share your personal life with friends & family. It will become our megaphone to voice about anything & everything around us. Though first round initiatives have been taken - Thanks to Google.
6. Changes in "Content Delivery" of Social Networks: Content delivery via social networks will change over time. Social networks will act also as an entertainment cum information window for users in world wide web viz. ChillX.
7. Monetization of actionable content in Social Networks: Monetization has been a problem for social networks (read here, here & here too). But once social networks are able to position themselves as branded content providers like MySpace have done then monetization won't be pain. But for this enough critical mass is needed for which social networks have to duly rely on other distributive mediums like progressive mobile networks etc to spread their content.
8. Medium will become the message in Social Networks: Since we are talking about social networks which provides vast information pool at free cost for end users, so medium itself is easy to spread and theme based social networks will definitely plug in more users who will in turn out to be evangelists to spread the message. One of the networks which I know is working towards it is ChillX which wants to attract Indian Gen X & Y to form a community of users who share & spread.
9. The power of community will prevail: Social networks are typically measured in terms of registered users, unique users and engagement (in terms of time spent, page views per unique user etc. This will be on the rise once social networks are able to draw users into community. This will be on the rise in the near future.
10. Geographically & Culturally focused Social Networks: The popularity of social networks varies by region. In the U.S., Myspace and Facebook are most popular; in India and Brazil, Orkut rules; China has QQ; Europe has Hi5. So we will see more & more of geographically & culturally focused social networks like Viacom's Flux which will stress on “Personal community”. (Read more on this here).
So these are Top 10 Social Networking predictions that will prevail in the near future. I'll do a series of such posts in the future too as on when it happens.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Excuse me Mr. Marketer...
...if this is the state of Marketing then "Sex Sells, not Marketing". Or this is the reason that marketing jargon like Market Penetration, Below the Line, Positioning etc seems to be derived straight from it.Whatever the case is, Marketers, please use this as an example of over-the-top, gratuitous use of sex to sell...(Picture Courtesy: From 5 Blogs Before Lunch)
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference (Bangalore,2008): Key Insights on the Intersection of Man, Technology & Culture
This post talks about 3rd IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference held at Bangalore. I'll post about the broad implications later in the subsequent post of course but for now enjoy the ride through a list of tweets (Courtesy WatBlog). In between, you will find certain discussions marked green. These are the pointers which I feel makes this blog post's title apt: Key Insights on the Intersection of Man, Technology & Culture. And as usual if you feel like you've anything to say, please comment in the section below to have a discussion.
(I)“ANALOG VS DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW AND WHY”
2. LIVE from #IAMAI: Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach - Chetan Marwah , Partner & Chief Executive Officer, ISHIR Digital (Tweet)
3. LIVE from #IAMAI: Move from cost per click (CPC) to cost per impact (CPI) to get better deals (Tweet)
4. LIVE from #IAMAI: Jet airways spend 50% of their digital budget in international markets whereas only 10% in India (Tweet)
5. LIVE from #IAMAI: Prediction -TV is going to be primarily digital & we are goin to see the marketer going to ask why was his ad not seen there - Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
(II) NEW MEDIA TOOLS
7. LIVE from #IAMAI : Video impressions going to surpass search in Q1, 2009 in North America – ComScore (Tweet)
8. LIVE from #IAMAI : Bandwidth barrier in india is surpassed by users by downloading in office and background buffering – Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
9. LIVE from #IAMAI: In 2005 blogs as a search category overtook magazines - Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
10. LIVE from #IAMAI : Customer doesn’t click on online ads as they dont want to move away from page. Try using gadgets to initiate conversation – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
11. LIVE #IAMAI : Social Networks should be used to create brand evangelists and not primarily ads placement – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google. (Tweet)
12. LIVE from #IAMAI : In India, Leads from Mobile Search Ads is 3 times better & purer than desktop search leads – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
13. LIVE from #IAMAI: 71% of those who consume mobile internet ads say there perception of brand and recall has increased – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
14. LIVE from #IAMAI : For Google, mobile search queries in India is 10% of desktop queries (Tweet)
15. LIVE from #IAMAI : In US iPhone alone generates 2x the search queries of all other smart phones put together (Tweet)
16. LIVE from #IAMAI : Mobile UI is key to growth of it evolving as a medium – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
17. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Traditionally online treated as bleeding edge and therefore Marketers are wary (Tweet)
18. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Our Facebook game statistics: 16000 played, 500 per day talking about it online (Tweet)
(III)“HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”
20. LIVE from #IAMAI : Namrata Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy - Most ads with high decibel on web have less than 1% click through rate (CTR)! We say "No wonder twitter has no ads" (Tweet)
21. LIVE from #IAMAI : Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors asks how many brick & mortar are here? Just couples of hands show up in audience! Web Wary are we? (Tweet)
22. LIVE from #IAMAI : General Motors’ 2.5% of all sales in India is through digital channel without any other channel involved for GM. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors - (Tweet)
(IV) THE BLENDED SEARCH REVOLUTION
24. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search engines are valued high because they are content finders in context across mediums - Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2 (Tweet)
25. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search has not yet evolved - Narasimha Jayakumar, Business Head – Travel & Local, Google India (Tweet)
(V) TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE AND CONVERSIONS
26. LIVE from #IAMAI - 'Use of good tracking & analytics software should be a core of ROI. Don’t just use freeware' - Anurag Gupta, Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing.
Tweet Courtesy: http://twitter.com/watblog
(I)“ANALOG VS DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW AND WHY”
Discussions in this section revolved around: Sellers of traditional media tout that media such as broadcast TV allows advertisers unrivaled impact and reach, attributes that become even more valuable as media fragments. Sellers of digital media counter that pinpoint targeting and ever-improving analytics make spending more in digital the right choice. Below is the crux of the discussions:1. LIVE from #IAMAI: Goggle Ads click-through-rate (CTR) is 16% in India – Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
2. LIVE from #IAMAI: Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach - Chetan Marwah , Partner & Chief Executive Officer, ISHIR Digital (Tweet)
3. LIVE from #IAMAI: Move from cost per click (CPC) to cost per impact (CPI) to get better deals (Tweet)
4. LIVE from #IAMAI: Jet airways spend 50% of their digital budget in international markets whereas only 10% in India (Tweet)
5. LIVE from #IAMAI: Prediction -TV is going to be primarily digital & we are goin to see the marketer going to ask why was his ad not seen there - Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
(II) NEW MEDIA TOOLS
Discussions in this section revolved around: The Internet was just the beginning; these days media planners are faced with a plethora of new digitally-derived media forms from podcasts to blogs, social networking to SMS, all of which need to be evaluated to see if they might meet clients needs. But how to go about it? Our panelists will help you figure that out. Below is the crux of the discussions:6. LIVE from #IAMAI: In India, YouTube is the 6th most trafficked as per Alexa - Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
7. LIVE from #IAMAI : Video impressions going to surpass search in Q1, 2009 in North America – ComScore (Tweet)
8. LIVE from #IAMAI : Bandwidth barrier in india is surpassed by users by downloading in office and background buffering – Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
9. LIVE from #IAMAI: In 2005 blogs as a search category overtook magazines - Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
10. LIVE from #IAMAI : Customer doesn’t click on online ads as they dont want to move away from page. Try using gadgets to initiate conversation – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
11. LIVE #IAMAI : Social Networks should be used to create brand evangelists and not primarily ads placement – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google. (Tweet)
12. LIVE from #IAMAI : In India, Leads from Mobile Search Ads is 3 times better & purer than desktop search leads – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
13. LIVE from #IAMAI: 71% of those who consume mobile internet ads say there perception of brand and recall has increased – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
14. LIVE from #IAMAI : For Google, mobile search queries in India is 10% of desktop queries (Tweet)
15. LIVE from #IAMAI : In US iPhone alone generates 2x the search queries of all other smart phones put together (Tweet)
16. LIVE from #IAMAI : Mobile UI is key to growth of it evolving as a medium – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
17. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Traditionally online treated as bleeding edge and therefore Marketers are wary (Tweet)
18. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Our Facebook game statistics: 16000 played, 500 per day talking about it online (Tweet)
(III)“HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”
Discussions in this section revolved around: Convincing a company to spend more money in digital media is one challenge; to get it to use new media forms to break creative ground is an even bigger one. But there are those who have done it, and on this panel, we’ll hear from them-three gutsy clients who innovated not just in the media they’ve used, but in the work they’ve produced for them. Below is the crux of the discussions:19. LIVE from #IAMAI : Big TV (Reliance DTH service) generates 50,000 leads online in two days - Tushar Vyas, Chief Marketing Officer, Sure Waves (Tweet)
20. LIVE from #IAMAI : Namrata Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy - Most ads with high decibel on web have less than 1% click through rate (CTR)! We say "No wonder twitter has no ads" (Tweet)
21. LIVE from #IAMAI : Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors asks how many brick & mortar are here? Just couples of hands show up in audience! Web Wary are we? (Tweet)
22. LIVE from #IAMAI : General Motors’ 2.5% of all sales in India is through digital channel without any other channel involved for GM. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors - (Tweet)
(IV) THE BLENDED SEARCH REVOLUTION
Discussions in this section revolved around: The first generation of search engines ranked pages based on the content of those pages alone -- the words on the page. The second generation increased relevancy by analyzing links. The third generation, Search 3.0, is upon us now in full force. Today’s search engines automatically blending in results from specialized or "vertical" search engines such as video search or local search. This session looks at the revolutionary change happening with blended search and how search marketers can ride the wave to success. Below is the crux of the discussions:23. LIVE from #IAMAI : 31% images, 17% videos, 36% news - Clicking percentage on search results in a blended search - Milind Mody, CEO eBrandz (Tweet)
24. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search engines are valued high because they are content finders in context across mediums - Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2 (Tweet)
25. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search has not yet evolved - Narasimha Jayakumar, Business Head – Travel & Local, Google India (Tweet)
(V) TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE AND CONVERSIONS
Discussions in this section revolved around: In the beginning driving traffic was necessary and sufficient, now the dynamics of business has changed driving traffic is important but not sufficient, in the competitive environment with increasing cost per acquisition as marketers there is need for better understanding of website visitors and advertisers look for conversions. This session would look at the importance of digital marketing and maximum potential realization of digital marketing with relevant examples.
26. LIVE from #IAMAI - 'Use of good tracking & analytics software should be a core of ROI. Don’t just use freeware' - Anurag Gupta, Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing.
Tweet Courtesy: http://twitter.com/watblog
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
'Yours Truly' featured in AdAge Power 150
This is the 2nd in the 'Yours Truly' series in this blog. This time around, my blog featured in the ADAGE POWER 150 list which showcases the best that there is from the Marketing, Advertising & Media blogs and bloggers from around the world.From now on, I'll keep the Power 150 widget on the right bar of 'Networks & Affiliations' tab which will keep updating the rank status of this blog.
Apart from the usual excitement on being featured in the much elite list of bloggers, I'm quite aware that this levies more responsiblity on blogging front. Though for the past week or so, posting has reduced due some other engagements but it also shows that I'm quite aware of it. And whenever and wherever possible I'll keep blogging.
Till then, keep coming on if you've missed any previous posts and please comment/criticize/appreciate if you feel like you need to.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
India's Most Trusted Brands of 2008 (A Goofy Analysis)
The report is out. Economic Times' Brand Equity has published the list of India's Most Trusted Brands Survey.
The top ten brands are :-
So is there any correlation between ads slapped onto our face and brand recall. Now one suggestion would be please go back to their balance sheets and see how many of these brands are making profits to that extent since quantitatively speaking they should make huge profits since they are most trusted ones amongst consumers.
So last question is do they truly reflect our true trust on these brands remembering the fact that No.1 trusted brand Nokia was in middle of a much heated debate about "Overheating of Battery". So the old marketing adage "Under-promise & Over-Deliver" doesn't work in this context. What a co-incidence?
Anyway congrats from my part to figure in such a list (pun intended!).
The top ten brands are :-
- Nokia
- Colgate
- Tata Salt
- Pepsodent
- Ponds
- Lux
- Britannia
- Dettol
- Lifebuoy
- Vicks
- LIC
- Airtel
- State Bank of India
- Reliance Mobile
- BSNL
- Tata Indicom
- Indian Oil
- Hutch/Vodafone
- ICICI Bank
- Bank of India
So is there any correlation between ads slapped onto our face and brand recall. Now one suggestion would be please go back to their balance sheets and see how many of these brands are making profits to that extent since quantitatively speaking they should make huge profits since they are most trusted ones amongst consumers.
So last question is do they truly reflect our true trust on these brands remembering the fact that No.1 trusted brand Nokia was in middle of a much heated debate about "Overheating of Battery". So the old marketing adage "Under-promise & Over-Deliver" doesn't work in this context. What a co-incidence?
Anyway congrats from my part to figure in such a list (pun intended!).
Monday, May 19, 2008
Old Media vs Digital Media in hyperconnected world
While reading the article “The Hyperconnected vs. 84% of Everyone Else on Earth” by Steve Rubel it makes me wonder that what it means to New Media/Social Media enthusiast like me when he says that:
“…52% of the US online population as largely passive.
Net, this leaves me convinced that despite all of the buzz around the growth of new media and/or digital advertising, neither will replace existing modalities for some time to come...Digital media is going to be additive in the near to medium term. However, in a decade - perhaps sooner, perhaps later - it will be a different story.”
This is really interesting (Download the PDF). Even Robert Scoble has his own take too on this though in a different way conforming how Google news & Techmeme has little or no noise compared to Twitter or FriendFeed.
Given all these facts & figures together, we can't just write off old school media as yet but on the hindsight looking at the increasing online spending Y-o-Y compared to old media, we can say that old media is losing steam (PDF Link) whereas digital media is catching fire. Also, it won’t be wrong to say that companies find it more alluring to shift to digital media compared to older one because it gives more traction going forward especially in terms of connecting with their audience near & far. So the statistics shown in the chart doesn’t include the extent to which companies will allure it’s audience to world wide web (Remember 20 years back there was no market for purified mineral water but now billions of dollars flow in- How? Because companies have changed the audience’s viewpoint. So why not digital media then?)
Given all these facts & figures together, we can't just write off old school media as yet but on the hindsight looking at the increasing online spending Y-o-Y compared to old media, we can say that old media is losing steam (PDF Link) whereas digital media is catching fire. Also, it won’t be wrong to say that companies find it more alluring to shift to digital media compared to older one because it gives more traction going forward especially in terms of connecting with their audience near & far. So the statistics shown in the chart doesn’t include the extent to which companies will allure it’s audience to world wide web (Remember 20 years back there was no market for purified mineral water but now billions of dollars flow in- How? Because companies have changed the audience’s viewpoint. So why not digital media then?)
Yeah there will a lot of problems in terms of overcoming the digital divide across the world but things have started changing like decreasing communication cost, be it mobile or internet accessibility which is bridging the digital gap.
So will it take digital media so much time to change gears from being an additive one to complementary & then finally mainstream. What say Mr. Rubel?
So will it take digital media so much time to change gears from being an additive one to complementary & then finally mainstream. What say Mr. Rubel?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
How about this Marketing Idea?
Was going through Drew's Marketing Minute and stumbled upon this marketing idea. Though it's still a drawing board idea from South Korea but it sure opens up more than an oppurtunity in revolutionizing traffic lights. Read more about the "Virtual Wall" on Yanko Design.So all those creative and innovative marketers, does it ring a bell in your head about how this innovation can used to great PR and advertising oppurtunities.
Friday, May 02, 2008
5 key pointers towards Brand building
This morning started with a lot of questions in my head. First up is brand building and how it can make our brand a time tested one. Though branding activities depend on geographical to user base preferences & tastes, but still the basic morphology of building a successful brand remains the same over-time. I have tried to chalk out 5 most crucial questions that is to be asked before building a successful brand:
- Does your Marketing Strategy gel with the existing Promotional campaigns?
- Does it give you Traction in the marketplace in terms of Scalability?
- Is it Measurable to the extent of Flexibility?
- Does it build a "Brand of Value" or a "Brand of Convenience" for the consumers?
- Does it reflect in the Balance sheets (i.e. is it measurable & accountable)?
These 5 questions is in the heart of any branding activity since the market has become more dynamic than ever mainly because of Fragmented Media // More choices and less of time for consumers to choose // Traditional advertising is losing steam // And most importantly consumers are buying stuff more due to peer recommendation by factor "X" . So all these factors are affecting consumers to turn out to be into "Brand Sluts".
Related Posts:
Friday, April 25, 2008
193 Creative Marketing Ideas
Some crafty stuff by Sam Decker in pulling the list of 193 Creative Marketing Ideas ranging from Advertising, customer service, direct marketing, online Marketing etc...you just name it! Kudos to Sam for pulling this creative marketing stuff.
I'm sure you will find something interesting in Sam's lengthy list.
Courtesy: Brand Autopsy
I'm sure you will find something interesting in Sam's lengthy list.
Courtesy: Brand Autopsy
Monday, March 10, 2008
Demystifying Influencers: From Pyramid to Diamond Model
CNET Networks conducted a three-part study called "Understanding Influence, and making it work for you" (Download here). It explored the structure of social networks, methods of acquiring information and the motivations for giving/sharing/influencing others. Guy Kawasaki explains the basic tenets of the study in his blog post.
But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.
The study provides three key marketing takeaways:
So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.
This can only occur if you have a large number of highly connected individuals in a niche. Without highly connected individuals there would be no way to connect outside of the specific niche group with other groups.
I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibility within a group in order for a meme to spread (thanks to one of the commenter).
Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.
Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.
But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.
The study provides three key marketing takeaways:
-
Two unique characteristics of information that influencers value are that the information is unique and trusted.
-
Shape your marketing messages for the larger network of moderately connected users, not just the few highly connected individuals at the top.
-
Make content actionable for users.
So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.
Th
I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibilit
Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.
Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Product packaging telling a story
Here a small little story for all those marketers who believes that only spending millions on advertising does all the trick, which also helps them to rest their right side of the brain."...about a year ago, when Jamie Leventhal was trying to convince big chain stores to stock his new line of shaving gels for young men, a buyer from Target asked a crucial question: How much would he spend on advertising?
“I told him we would not spend a single dollar,” Mr. Leventhal said.
The buyer was stunned until Mr. Leventhal pulled a prototype out of his briefcase. The product, called NXT (pronounced NEXT), is sold in an arresting triangular container that lights up from the bottom, illuminating air bubbles suspended in the clear gel. The plastic is tinted blue, and when the AAA batteries in its base are lighted, the whole thing looks like a miniature lava lamp or a tiny fishless aquarium." (Courtesy NYT)
I don't know about you, but surely it would have caught my attention; if not making me buy it. The story I will be telling myself will both be contextual (in terms of it's social appeal) as well as object desirability. Now did a traditional advertising miss both? I believe it does most of the times. When brands get creative with packaging, the work of the marketer becomes much more easier as customers do the rest by passing or spreading the story which we told to ourselves. Now that's what I call putting the thinking hats on.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Top 5 Marketing Predictions for 2008
This month, I have seen many trends being talked about from media, marketing, internet, technology, innovation or what not (Posted earlier) all across the internet. Some are big while some are just micro (in real sense). Some will be hit or hot for year 2008 while some will just fizz away with WTF* statement!!Still I wanted to share something which I have been seeing for quite sometime now in the business circuit, especially in the marketing arena for that matter. So here are my trends for year 2008:-
- Branding Shift: Branding will move from traditional way to more nicher media with the advent of newer technologies. Usage of internet as a branding medium will catch on the fire, even in India.
- Total Brand Experience: Advertisements in the form of televison, outdoors, billboards etc will bring customers close to the brands to complete that “Total Brand Experience” i.e. TBE. Even the engagement of these interactions between customers & brands will increase next year.
- Social Media Fire: Countries like India where mass marketing is the bread & butter for most marketers, social media will catch the fire as marketers will realize the potentiality of social media. Companies will start using SN and Twitter to understand their customers in a better way. Social Media will be more prominent in western countries with importance on more customer interactivity.
- Search Engine Optimization: Companies will move away slowly but steadily from Google as advertisement repository to more nicher areas like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us etc (Social Bookmarking sites). The reason is relevant search results for end users. Year 2008 will start the beginning of the importance of Semantic Web until Google starts thinking hard to tackle it. I'm sure they will with Knol etc.
- More disruptive Innovations: Companies like Apple, Google, MSFT and not forgetting Facebook alikes will come with more innovations (mostly disruptive which will set the industry standards). We will see many new products as well great new services.
So lastly Happy New Year to all of you and have a great time ahead. Cheers!
Friday, December 21, 2007
*Christvertising*:God & Branding
In the process of discovering insightful as well as weird sites, I stumbled upon this one. It's up to you guys to decide whether this is hilarious, insightful or sheer blasphemous. After seeing this, one thing becomes very clear i.e. US people take their Christian Belief very seriously. According to their Website (link) i.e. "Christvertising", they proclaim that through their BTP (Brand Targeted Prayers), millions of ardent Christian believers will pray for your brands. So all in all, here's "Christvertising" as well as me wishing you merry Christmas and Happy 2008.
Sources: Adverblog
Sources: Adverblog
Monday, December 03, 2007
Advertising: Do you know the truth?
Ever wondered about why your customers are getting weary about your ad messages day by day. Now Nielsen did a global survey<download pdf> about which advertising platforms in use today is most effective in terms of generating "Trust" from consumers.What emerged from this survey is quite interesting. I won't go much into the details (you better download the article) but one thing is of prime importance than everything else- Word of Mouth.
Meanwhile, I will give some of the most important and revealing truths about traditional media. Check it out for yourself; then you can decide whether your last advertising budget should have gone to better places.
- 18%: Proportion of TV advertising campaigns generating positive ROI
- 54 cents: Average return in sales for every $1 spent on advertising
- 256%: The increase in TV advertising costs (CPM) in the past decade
- 84%: Proportion of B2B marketing campaigns resulting in falling sales
- 100%: The increase needed in advertising spend to add 1-2% in sales
- 14%: Proportion of people who trust advertising information
- 90%: Proportion of people who can skip TV ads who do skip TV ads
- 80%: Market share of video recorders with ad skipping technology in 2008
- 95%: The failure rate for new product introductions
- 117: The number of prime time TV spots in 2002 needed to reach 80% of adult population – up from just 3 in 1965
- 3000: Number of advertising messages people are exposed to per day
- 56%: Proportion of people who avoid buying products from companies who they think advertise too much
- 65%: Proportion of people who believe that they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising
- 69%: Proportion of people interested in technology or devices that enable them to skip or block advertising
So based on these hard data, everything boils down to two important questions:
- How are you going to engage your customers?
- How are you going to deliver good customer experiences consistently?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Eureka Bar: Brand me and a little bit more..!!
We all love Time & again, countries (sometimes cities too like “I love NY” campaign have tried to indulge their audience with them. So why should the companies forget this little idea of communicating their companies’ messages amongst their target audience. More often than not, we have seen companies fancying into sophomoric promotion/marketing through distributing tees to their employees. Now get out and spread the message to the larger mass alike.
Some of the reasons why I think that it will work:
- Long term benefits in terms of brand recall.
- At the end of it all, you are creating audiences who are inspired by the authenticity & transparency of the company’s story.
- Don’t forget the WOMM for this sort of communication which has become the lingua franca for neo emergent companies.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Marketer's dilemma - "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder"
Advertising has gone to places where no one could ever think off (starting from television-outdoor-internet...). You see them everywhere, I mean every-damn-where. Some time back, in a very bold move, Sao Paulo's mayor banned all sorts of outdoor/billboard advertising campaigns as a part of the "Clean City" law. That of course puts a lot of pressure for those hard nosed marketers as they are trying to cope up with the situation (Thanks to Geeta Saini & Jinal Shah of Influential Marketing Blog fame and photographer & typographer Tony de Marco for this piece of info).
So we have a situation in hand. Most of the developed nations including US in some states has banned billboards as part of saving the natural beauty as it causes a lot of "Visual Pollution". Think about it a bit?
What if one fine morning your country or your state comes up with some law like this? Then is it that most outdoor advertisers/marketers will be out of their job? No I don't think so. Obviously they will come up with some new way of promotion, but the questions remains that is it possible that a complete harmony or coherence can be developed between these two sects of people - one of course the environmentalists & the other being evangelist marketers!!
Some of the strategies which neo marketers/advertising whiz's can put to use are-
What if one fine morning your country or your state comes up with some law like this? Then is it that most outdoor advertisers/marketers will be out of their job? No I don't think so. Obviously they will come up with some new way of promotion, but the questions remains that is it possible that a complete harmony or coherence can be developed between these two sects of people - one of course the environmentalists & the other being evangelist marketers!!
Some of the strategies which neo marketers/advertising whiz's can put to use are-
- Mobile billboard advertising (Thanks Abhishek) - Yeah, it's moving, dynamic ads - by & large ads to your doorsteps. Also in these sorts of ads, creativity is often appreciated. So WOMM is inevitable (though caution is necessary as it often may lead to commoditized ad campaign).
Here are some of the few chosen alternate advertising campaigns. Have a look at the pictures.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A cue to the future for the marketers
Some time back, I stumbled upon a news report of MSNBC saying that many Europeans are choosing internet over TV. And by and large, the same trend follows across the world. It’s as if we are bored of that stupid idiot box. Actually it doesn’t bring dynamism to our thinking anymore (Crap basically). So most of us are turning towards digital media via internet.
But one question lurks in my mind seeing the news which obviously pertains to our marketing brotherhood. What has this news to do with marketers, you may ask. I believe it has!!
The word for it is Advertising. Now that’s not the only story. Companies, time and again have had engaged, delighted, excited their customers (mostly targeted ones) in different segments, be it product or services alike through this medium.
Now the customers range from toddlers to “Silver surfers”. Now that’s what I call reach or aptly call it the “Power of e”.
Now, I will leave you with three most interesting sites for this week as you guys are smart enough to understand where we all are heading.
- Themallplus : An interesting online retailing site which can keep you on your toes and you may end up buying something.
- Thepoint : The Point is a social platform for people to solve problems which they can’t solve alone. Bye-bye NGO’s.
- Indeed : A job search engine with a twist. Fiddle around a bit and you will know the difference.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
*Handvertising*- Yet another brick in the advertisment wall
Advertising has gone beyond television,print, internet or even those crazy ways how companies promote their products or service. Now how about this new innovative way. Do you remember the last time you entered a club and someone stamped your hands. So how about companies stamping their logos or promotional message on your hand. (As if I have been Apple'd or Microsoft'ied.)Actually this new practice is being done. It's the brainchild of Handvertising, USA. Though it's patent is still pending, still ingenuity is overwhelming.
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Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Perfect Social Media Marketing Job Description
Recently I was going through one of India's online digital news content sites where I stumbleupon this. Below is the job content of a "Social Media Marketing Evangelist". Why this interested me if you ask, then my answer is clear one- I never thought that India has yet grown into a Social Media Marketing bedrock where EVANGELISTS are required. But it seemed like I was wrong to some extent. Even though we have not reached the critical mass of using SMM in our communication strategy but surely it has gained some amount of traction.
Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
What's your Tweet Worth?
This is a perfect "lazy sunday" post. This post will provide some juice on Twitter and the state of things. For almost a year now, Twitter has been the poster child for everyone who has been chasing Bright & Shiny Objects in the Web.
Now a new service called Twittad is launched which wants to monetize the Twitter background real estate. The company is allowing Twitter users to make their page backgrounds available to the highest bidder. Each listing includes the number of followers, the duration, and the price. Advertisers can then purchase the spots, with Twitter ad collecting a 5% commission on the transaction. So far there aren’t enough transactions completed to estimate the average value of a Twitter follower over a given time period, but this example of a recently sold ad spot for an account with 250 followers went for $5 for one month.
Now the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets are worth based on how many followers you have.
But there are inherent problems with this new business model:
1. Page backgrounds are not clickable (See here) and there is no easy way for a third-party service to track any meaningful metrics other than impressions.
2. With so much activity taking place on your friend timeline in the Web Interface or in a third-party apps, profile pages are not necessarily valuable estate.
3. Lastly, one most imminent problem is that I rarely go to my friend's Twitter profile since their tweets are visible on my twitter profile or third-party apps. So its like pushing ads to myself only at the end of it all.
Few possible solutions:
1. Try working out these ads in a blended format with the tweet stream (though it may prove out to be annoying).
2. Forget about trying to sell ads on Twitter pages, and put ads on WhatsYourTweetWorth instead.
3. These ads can at the best work out as pure brand advertisements for clients who just want to push in their messages in the twitter profiles.
Despite the inherent problems in Twittad’s model, there are a number of other companies attempting to monetize web page backgrounds, including AdCamo, who is providing a platform to both publishers and ad networks.
Courtesy: TechCrunch & Mashable
bidder. Each listing includes the number of followers, the duration, and the price. Advertisers can then purchase the spots, with Twitter ad collecting a 5% commission on the transaction. So far there aren’t enough transactions completed to estimate the average value of a Twitter follower over a given time period, but this example of a recently sold ad spot for an account with 250 followers went for $5 for one month.Now the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets are worth based on how many followers you have.
But there are inherent problems with this new business model:
1. Page backgrounds are not clickable (See here) and there is no easy way for a third-party service to track any meaningful metrics other than impressions.
2. With so much activity taking place on your friend timeline in the Web Interface or in a third-party apps, profile pages are not necessarily valuable estate.
3. Lastly, one most imminent problem is that I rarely go to my friend's Twitter profile since their tweets are visible on my twitter profile or third-party apps. So its like pushing ads to myself only at the end of it all.
Few possible solutions:
1. Try working out these ads in a blended format with the tweet stream (though it may prove out to be annoying).
2. Forget about trying to sell ads on Twitter pages, and put ads on WhatsYourTweetWorth instead.
3. These ads can at the best work out as pure brand advertisements for clients who just want to push in their messages in the twitter profiles.
Despite the inherent problems in Twittad’s model, there are a number of other companies attempting to monetize web page backgrounds, including AdCamo, who is providing a platform to both publishers and ad networks.
Courtesy: TechCrunch & Mashable
Friday, October 03, 2008
Top 10 Predictions on Social Networking
In my last post on Indian Social Networking Trends, I drew analogy between one of Dina's post and beta launch of Yahoo's SpotM. So this time around, I took the liberty to go much beyond trending and give much more concrete and holistic view of how Social Networking space will shape up for the future.
Though I wrote about it here, here & here, so this time around I will try to provide some more juice on social networks. Here are some of my top 10 social networking prediction are:
1. Mobile Networking will catch up mainstream: Interaction in social networks happens most often through messages which is the most common feature. Some call it wall posts, other as scraps etc. It is most frequent among younger generation who wants to be connected 24*7. Mobile devices will become a savior since its the only device which is ubiquitous and its reach is wide. But certain hindrances are still to be overcome like the browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. So once someone utilizes this potential to create an application that has enough traction to catch the attention and remove the tech limitations of browser apps compatibility with mobile devices and stuff like service providers blockades, then connectivity isn't a issue.
2. "Content is King" will be the buzzword: Yes, the content is the buzzword. Some may find it difficult to fathom it but it's true. The content of the network, we all will be in is going to be the single most factor which could win over the Social Networks battle.
3. The "longish" long tail will prevail: Over the past year, its unimaginable to find that there are scores of social networks on the fringes - social networks for babies, mothers, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning and many more unique yet prevalent social networks. So power of the longish long tail will prevail in Social Networking.
4. Interactive Apps will augment social networks: Sandeep has an interesting take on this one - The new interactive mechanisms for many social sites may be backed by artificial intelligence. This will bring spice to the entire model. For instance, your social network or online group will show itself to be angry, happy, sad, etc., all on its own, as a result of its members' input. These small and unique interactive developments will engage the users to a great extent.
5. Content Creation & Consumption will happen at the source: Social networks won't just be a platform to feed & share your personal life with friends & family. It will become our megaphone to voice about anything & everything around us. Though first round initiatives have been taken - Thanks to Google.
6. Changes in "Content Delivery" of Social Networks: Content delivery via social networks will change over time. Social networks will act also as an entertainment cum information window for users in world wide web viz. ChillX.
7. Monetization of actionable content in Social Networks: Monetization has been a problem for social networks (read here, here & here too). But once social networks are able to position themselves as branded content providers like MySpace have done then monetization won't be pain. But for this enough critical mass is needed for which social networks have to duly rely on other distributive mediums like progressive mobile networks etc to spread their content.
8. Medium will become the message in Social Networks: Since we are talking about social networks which provides vast information pool at free cost for end users, so medium itself is easy to spread and theme based social networks will definitely plug in more users who will in turn out to be evangelists to spread the message. One of the networks which I know is working towards it is ChillX which wants to attract Indian Gen X & Y to form a community of users who share & spread.
9. The power of community will prevail: Social networks are typically measured in terms of registered users, unique users and engagement (in terms of time spent, page views per unique user etc. This will be on the rise once social networks are able to draw users into community. This will be on the rise in the near future.
10. Geographically & Culturally focused Social Networks: The popularity of social networks varies by region. In the U.S., Myspace and Facebook are most popular; in India and Brazil, Orkut rules; China has QQ; Europe has Hi5. So we will see more & more of geographically & culturally focused social networks like Viacom's Flux which will stress on “Personal community”. (Read more on this here).
So these are Top 10 Social Networking predictions that will prevail in the near future. I'll do a series of such posts in the future too as on when it happens.
Though I wrote about it here, here & here, so this time around I will try to provide some more juice on social networks. Here are some of my top 10 social networking prediction are:
1. Mobile Networking will catch up mainstream: Interaction in social networks happens most often through messages which is the most common feature. Some call it wall posts, other as scraps etc. It is most frequent among younger generation who wants to be connected 24*7. Mobile devices will become a savior since its the only device which is ubiquitous and its reach is wide. But certain hindrances are still to be overcome like the browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. So once someone utilizes this potential to create an application that has enough traction to catch the attention and remove the tech limitations of browser apps compatibility with mobile devices and stuff like service providers blockades, then connectivity isn't a issue.
2. "Content is King" will be the buzzword: Yes, the content is the buzzword. Some may find it difficult to fathom it but it's true. The content of the network, we all will be in is going to be the single most factor which could win over the Social Networks battle.
3. The "longish" long tail will prevail: Over the past year, its unimaginable to find that there are scores of social networks on the fringes - social networks for babies, mothers, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning and many more unique yet prevalent social networks. So power of the longish long tail will prevail in Social Networking.
4. Interactive Apps will augment social networks: Sandeep has an interesting take on this one - The new interactive mechanisms for many social sites may be backed by artificial intelligence. This will bring spice to the entire model. For instance, your social network or online group will show itself to be angry, happy, sad, etc., all on its own, as a result of its members' input. These small and unique interactive developments will engage the users to a great extent.
5. Content Creation & Consumption will happen at the source: Social networks won't just be a platform to feed & share your personal life with friends & family. It will become our megaphone to voice about anything & everything around us. Though first round initiatives have been taken - Thanks to Google.
6. Changes in "Content Delivery" of Social Networks: Content delivery via social networks will change over time. Social networks will act also as an entertainment cum information window for users in world wide web viz. ChillX.
7. Monetization of actionable content in Social Networks: Monetization has been a problem for social networks (read here, here & here too). But once social networks are able to position themselves as branded content providers like MySpace have done then monetization won't be pain. But for this enough critical mass is needed for which social networks have to duly rely on other distributive mediums like progressive mobile networks etc to spread their content.
8. Medium will become the message in Social Networks: Since we are talking about social networks which provides vast information pool at free cost for end users, so medium itself is easy to spread and theme based social networks will definitely plug in more users who will in turn out to be evangelists to spread the message. One of the networks which I know is working towards it is ChillX which wants to attract Indian Gen X & Y to form a community of users who share & spread.
9. The power of community will prevail: Social networks are typically measured in terms of registered users, unique users and engagement (in terms of time spent, page views per unique user etc. This will be on the rise once social networks are able to draw users into community. This will be on the rise in the near future.
10. Geographically & Culturally focused Social Networks: The popularity of social networks varies by region. In the U.S., Myspace and Facebook are most popular; in India and Brazil, Orkut rules; China has QQ; Europe has Hi5. So we will see more & more of geographically & culturally focused social networks like Viacom's Flux which will stress on “Personal community”. (Read more on this here).
So these are Top 10 Social Networking predictions that will prevail in the near future. I'll do a series of such posts in the future too as on when it happens.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Excuse me Mr. Marketer...
...if this is the state of Marketing then "Sex Sells, not Marketing". Or this is the reason that marketing jargon like Market Penetration, Below the Line, Positioning etc seems to be derived straight from it.Whatever the case is, Marketers, please use this as an example of over-the-top, gratuitous use of sex to sell...(Picture Courtesy: From 5 Blogs Before Lunch)
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference (Bangalore,2008): Key Insights on the Intersection of Man, Technology & Culture
This post talks about 3rd IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference held at Bangalore. I'll post about the broad implications later in the subsequent post of course but for now enjoy the ride through a list of tweets (Courtesy WatBlog). In between, you will find certain discussions marked green. These are the pointers which I feel makes this blog post's title apt: Key Insights on the Intersection of Man, Technology & Culture. And as usual if you feel like you've anything to say, please comment in the section below to have a discussion.
(I)“ANALOG VS DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW AND WHY”
2. LIVE from #IAMAI: Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach - Chetan Marwah , Partner & Chief Executive Officer, ISHIR Digital (Tweet)
3. LIVE from #IAMAI: Move from cost per click (CPC) to cost per impact (CPI) to get better deals (Tweet)
4. LIVE from #IAMAI: Jet airways spend 50% of their digital budget in international markets whereas only 10% in India (Tweet)
5. LIVE from #IAMAI: Prediction -TV is going to be primarily digital & we are goin to see the marketer going to ask why was his ad not seen there - Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
(II) NEW MEDIA TOOLS
7. LIVE from #IAMAI : Video impressions going to surpass search in Q1, 2009 in North America – ComScore (Tweet)
8. LIVE from #IAMAI : Bandwidth barrier in india is surpassed by users by downloading in office and background buffering – Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
9. LIVE from #IAMAI: In 2005 blogs as a search category overtook magazines - Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
10. LIVE from #IAMAI : Customer doesn’t click on online ads as they dont want to move away from page. Try using gadgets to initiate conversation – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
11. LIVE #IAMAI : Social Networks should be used to create brand evangelists and not primarily ads placement – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google. (Tweet)
12. LIVE from #IAMAI : In India, Leads from Mobile Search Ads is 3 times better & purer than desktop search leads – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
13. LIVE from #IAMAI: 71% of those who consume mobile internet ads say there perception of brand and recall has increased – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
14. LIVE from #IAMAI : For Google, mobile search queries in India is 10% of desktop queries (Tweet)
15. LIVE from #IAMAI : In US iPhone alone generates 2x the search queries of all other smart phones put together (Tweet)
16. LIVE from #IAMAI : Mobile UI is key to growth of it evolving as a medium – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
17. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Traditionally online treated as bleeding edge and therefore Marketers are wary (Tweet)
18. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Our Facebook game statistics: 16000 played, 500 per day talking about it online (Tweet)
(III)“HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”
20. LIVE from #IAMAI : Namrata Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy - Most ads with high decibel on web have less than 1% click through rate (CTR)! We say "No wonder twitter has no ads" (Tweet)
21. LIVE from #IAMAI : Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors asks how many brick & mortar are here? Just couples of hands show up in audience! Web Wary are we? (Tweet)
22. LIVE from #IAMAI : General Motors’ 2.5% of all sales in India is through digital channel without any other channel involved for GM. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors - (Tweet)
(IV) THE BLENDED SEARCH REVOLUTION
24. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search engines are valued high because they are content finders in context across mediums - Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2 (Tweet)
25. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search has not yet evolved - Narasimha Jayakumar, Business Head – Travel & Local, Google India (Tweet)
(V) TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE AND CONVERSIONS
26. LIVE from #IAMAI - 'Use of good tracking & analytics software should be a core of ROI. Don’t just use freeware' - Anurag Gupta, Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing.
Tweet Courtesy: http://twitter.com/watblog
(I)“ANALOG VS DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW AND WHY”
Discussions in this section revolved around: Sellers of traditional media tout that media such as broadcast TV allows advertisers unrivaled impact and reach, attributes that become even more valuable as media fragments. Sellers of digital media counter that pinpoint targeting and ever-improving analytics make spending more in digital the right choice. Below is the crux of the discussions:1. LIVE from #IAMAI: Goggle Ads click-through-rate (CTR) is 16% in India – Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
2. LIVE from #IAMAI: Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach - Chetan Marwah , Partner & Chief Executive Officer, ISHIR Digital (Tweet)
3. LIVE from #IAMAI: Move from cost per click (CPC) to cost per impact (CPI) to get better deals (Tweet)
4. LIVE from #IAMAI: Jet airways spend 50% of their digital budget in international markets whereas only 10% in India (Tweet)
5. LIVE from #IAMAI: Prediction -TV is going to be primarily digital & we are goin to see the marketer going to ask why was his ad not seen there - Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
(II) NEW MEDIA TOOLS
Discussions in this section revolved around: The Internet was just the beginning; these days media planners are faced with a plethora of new digitally-derived media forms from podcasts to blogs, social networking to SMS, all of which need to be evaluated to see if they might meet clients needs. But how to go about it? Our panelists will help you figure that out. Below is the crux of the discussions:6. LIVE from #IAMAI: In India, YouTube is the 6th most trafficked as per Alexa - Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
7. LIVE from #IAMAI : Video impressions going to surpass search in Q1, 2009 in North America – ComScore (Tweet)
8. LIVE from #IAMAI : Bandwidth barrier in india is surpassed by users by downloading in office and background buffering – Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
9. LIVE from #IAMAI: In 2005 blogs as a search category overtook magazines - Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
10. LIVE from #IAMAI : Customer doesn’t click on online ads as they dont want to move away from page. Try using gadgets to initiate conversation – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
11. LIVE #IAMAI : Social Networks should be used to create brand evangelists and not primarily ads placement – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google. (Tweet)
12. LIVE from #IAMAI : In India, Leads from Mobile Search Ads is 3 times better & purer than desktop search leads – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
13. LIVE from #IAMAI: 71% of those who consume mobile internet ads say there perception of brand and recall has increased – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
14. LIVE from #IAMAI : For Google, mobile search queries in India is 10% of desktop queries (Tweet)
15. LIVE from #IAMAI : In US iPhone alone generates 2x the search queries of all other smart phones put together (Tweet)
16. LIVE from #IAMAI : Mobile UI is key to growth of it evolving as a medium – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
17. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Traditionally online treated as bleeding edge and therefore Marketers are wary (Tweet)
18. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Our Facebook game statistics: 16000 played, 500 per day talking about it online (Tweet)
(III)“HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”
Discussions in this section revolved around: Convincing a company to spend more money in digital media is one challenge; to get it to use new media forms to break creative ground is an even bigger one. But there are those who have done it, and on this panel, we’ll hear from them-three gutsy clients who innovated not just in the media they’ve used, but in the work they’ve produced for them. Below is the crux of the discussions:19. LIVE from #IAMAI : Big TV (Reliance DTH service) generates 50,000 leads online in two days - Tushar Vyas, Chief Marketing Officer, Sure Waves (Tweet)
20. LIVE from #IAMAI : Namrata Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy - Most ads with high decibel on web have less than 1% click through rate (CTR)! We say "No wonder twitter has no ads" (Tweet)
21. LIVE from #IAMAI : Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors asks how many brick & mortar are here? Just couples of hands show up in audience! Web Wary are we? (Tweet)
22. LIVE from #IAMAI : General Motors’ 2.5% of all sales in India is through digital channel without any other channel involved for GM. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors - (Tweet)
(IV) THE BLENDED SEARCH REVOLUTION
Discussions in this section revolved around: The first generation of search engines ranked pages based on the content of those pages alone -- the words on the page. The second generation increased relevancy by analyzing links. The third generation, Search 3.0, is upon us now in full force. Today’s search engines automatically blending in results from specialized or "vertical" search engines such as video search or local search. This session looks at the revolutionary change happening with blended search and how search marketers can ride the wave to success. Below is the crux of the discussions:23. LIVE from #IAMAI : 31% images, 17% videos, 36% news - Clicking percentage on search results in a blended search - Milind Mody, CEO eBrandz (Tweet)
24. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search engines are valued high because they are content finders in context across mediums - Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2 (Tweet)
25. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search has not yet evolved - Narasimha Jayakumar, Business Head – Travel & Local, Google India (Tweet)
(V) TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE AND CONVERSIONS
Discussions in this section revolved around: In the beginning driving traffic was necessary and sufficient, now the dynamics of business has changed driving traffic is important but not sufficient, in the competitive environment with increasing cost per acquisition as marketers there is need for better understanding of website visitors and advertisers look for conversions. This session would look at the importance of digital marketing and maximum potential realization of digital marketing with relevant examples.
26. LIVE from #IAMAI - 'Use of good tracking & analytics software should be a core of ROI. Don’t just use freeware' - Anurag Gupta, Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing.
Tweet Courtesy: http://twitter.com/watblog
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
'Yours Truly' featured in AdAge Power 150
This is the 2nd in the 'Yours Truly' series in this blog. This time around, my blog featured in the ADAGE POWER 150 list which showcases the best that there is from the Marketing, Advertising & Media blogs and bloggers from around the world.From now on, I'll keep the Power 150 widget on the right bar of 'Networks & Affiliations' tab which will keep updating the rank status of this blog.
Apart from the usual excitement on being featured in the much elite list of bloggers, I'm quite aware that this levies more responsiblity on blogging front. Though for the past week or so, posting has reduced due some other engagements but it also shows that I'm quite aware of it. And whenever and wherever possible I'll keep blogging.
Till then, keep coming on if you've missed any previous posts and please comment/criticize/appreciate if you feel like you need to.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
India's Most Trusted Brands of 2008 (A Goofy Analysis)
The report is out. Economic Times' Brand Equity has published the list of India's Most Trusted Brands Survey.
The top ten brands are :-
So is there any correlation between ads slapped onto our face and brand recall. Now one suggestion would be please go back to their balance sheets and see how many of these brands are making profits to that extent since quantitatively speaking they should make huge profits since they are most trusted ones amongst consumers.
So last question is do they truly reflect our true trust on these brands remembering the fact that No.1 trusted brand Nokia was in middle of a much heated debate about "Overheating of Battery". So the old marketing adage "Under-promise & Over-Deliver" doesn't work in this context. What a co-incidence?
Anyway congrats from my part to figure in such a list (pun intended!).
The top ten brands are :-
- Nokia
- Colgate
- Tata Salt
- Pepsodent
- Ponds
- Lux
- Britannia
- Dettol
- Lifebuoy
- Vicks
- LIC
- Airtel
- State Bank of India
- Reliance Mobile
- BSNL
- Tata Indicom
- Indian Oil
- Hutch/Vodafone
- ICICI Bank
- Bank of India
So is there any correlation between ads slapped onto our face and brand recall. Now one suggestion would be please go back to their balance sheets and see how many of these brands are making profits to that extent since quantitatively speaking they should make huge profits since they are most trusted ones amongst consumers.
So last question is do they truly reflect our true trust on these brands remembering the fact that No.1 trusted brand Nokia was in middle of a much heated debate about "Overheating of Battery". So the old marketing adage "Under-promise & Over-Deliver" doesn't work in this context. What a co-incidence?
Anyway congrats from my part to figure in such a list (pun intended!).
Monday, May 19, 2008
Old Media vs Digital Media in hyperconnected world
While reading the article “The Hyperconnected vs. 84% of Everyone Else on Earth” by Steve Rubel it makes me wonder that what it means to New Media/Social Media enthusiast like me when he says that:
“…52% of the US online population as largely passive.
Net, this leaves me convinced that despite all of the buzz around the growth of new media and/or digital advertising, neither will replace existing modalities for some time to come...Digital media is going to be additive in the near to medium term. However, in a decade - perhaps sooner, perhaps later - it will be a different story.”
This is really interesting (Download the PDF). Even Robert Scoble has his own take too on this though in a different way conforming how Google news & Techmeme has little or no noise compared to Twitter or FriendFeed.
Given all these facts & figures together, we can't just write off old school media as yet but on the hindsight looking at the increasing online spending Y-o-Y compared to old media, we can say that old media is losing steam (PDF Link) whereas digital media is catching fire. Also, it won’t be wrong to say that companies find it more alluring to shift to digital media compared to older one because it gives more traction going forward especially in terms of connecting with their audience near & far. So the statistics shown in the chart doesn’t include the extent to which companies will allure it’s audience to world wide web (Remember 20 years back there was no market for purified mineral water but now billions of dollars flow in- How? Because companies have changed the audience’s viewpoint. So why not digital media then?)
Given all these facts & figures together, we can't just write off old school media as yet but on the hindsight looking at the increasing online spending Y-o-Y compared to old media, we can say that old media is losing steam (PDF Link) whereas digital media is catching fire. Also, it won’t be wrong to say that companies find it more alluring to shift to digital media compared to older one because it gives more traction going forward especially in terms of connecting with their audience near & far. So the statistics shown in the chart doesn’t include the extent to which companies will allure it’s audience to world wide web (Remember 20 years back there was no market for purified mineral water but now billions of dollars flow in- How? Because companies have changed the audience’s viewpoint. So why not digital media then?)
Yeah there will a lot of problems in terms of overcoming the digital divide across the world but things have started changing like decreasing communication cost, be it mobile or internet accessibility which is bridging the digital gap.
So will it take digital media so much time to change gears from being an additive one to complementary & then finally mainstream. What say Mr. Rubel?
So will it take digital media so much time to change gears from being an additive one to complementary & then finally mainstream. What say Mr. Rubel?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
How about this Marketing Idea?
Was going through Drew's Marketing Minute and stumbled upon this marketing idea. Though it's still a drawing board idea from South Korea but it sure opens up more than an oppurtunity in revolutionizing traffic lights. Read more about the "Virtual Wall" on Yanko Design.So all those creative and innovative marketers, does it ring a bell in your head about how this innovation can used to great PR and advertising oppurtunities.
Friday, May 02, 2008
5 key pointers towards Brand building
This morning started with a lot of questions in my head. First up is brand building and how it can make our brand a time tested one. Though branding activities depend on geographical to user base preferences & tastes, but still the basic morphology of building a successful brand remains the same over-time. I have tried to chalk out 5 most crucial questions that is to be asked before building a successful brand:
- Does your Marketing Strategy gel with the existing Promotional campaigns?
- Does it give you Traction in the marketplace in terms of Scalability?
- Is it Measurable to the extent of Flexibility?
- Does it build a "Brand of Value" or a "Brand of Convenience" for the consumers?
- Does it reflect in the Balance sheets (i.e. is it measurable & accountable)?
These 5 questions is in the heart of any branding activity since the market has become more dynamic than ever mainly because of Fragmented Media // More choices and less of time for consumers to choose // Traditional advertising is losing steam // And most importantly consumers are buying stuff more due to peer recommendation by factor "X" . So all these factors are affecting consumers to turn out to be into "Brand Sluts".
Related Posts:
Friday, April 25, 2008
193 Creative Marketing Ideas
Some crafty stuff by Sam Decker in pulling the list of 193 Creative Marketing Ideas ranging from Advertising, customer service, direct marketing, online Marketing etc...you just name it! Kudos to Sam for pulling this creative marketing stuff.
I'm sure you will find something interesting in Sam's lengthy list.
Courtesy: Brand Autopsy
I'm sure you will find something interesting in Sam's lengthy list.
Courtesy: Brand Autopsy
Monday, March 10, 2008
Demystifying Influencers: From Pyramid to Diamond Model
CNET Networks conducted a three-part study called "Understanding Influence, and making it work for you" (Download here). It explored the structure of social networks, methods of acquiring information and the motivations for giving/sharing/influencing others. Guy Kawasaki explains the basic tenets of the study in his blog post.
But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.
The study provides three key marketing takeaways:
So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.
This can only occur if you have a large number of highly connected individuals in a niche. Without highly connected individuals there would be no way to connect outside of the specific niche group with other groups.
I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibility within a group in order for a meme to spread (thanks to one of the commenter).
Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.
Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.
But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.
The study provides three key marketing takeaways:
-
Two unique characteristics of information that influencers value are that the information is unique and trusted.
-
Shape your marketing messages for the larger network of moderately connected users, not just the few highly connected individuals at the top.
-
Make content actionable for users.
So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.
Th
I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibilit
Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.
Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Product packaging telling a story
Here a small little story for all those marketers who believes that only spending millions on advertising does all the trick, which also helps them to rest their right side of the brain."...about a year ago, when Jamie Leventhal was trying to convince big chain stores to stock his new line of shaving gels for young men, a buyer from Target asked a crucial question: How much would he spend on advertising?
“I told him we would not spend a single dollar,” Mr. Leventhal said.
The buyer was stunned until Mr. Leventhal pulled a prototype out of his briefcase. The product, called NXT (pronounced NEXT), is sold in an arresting triangular container that lights up from the bottom, illuminating air bubbles suspended in the clear gel. The plastic is tinted blue, and when the AAA batteries in its base are lighted, the whole thing looks like a miniature lava lamp or a tiny fishless aquarium." (Courtesy NYT)
I don't know about you, but surely it would have caught my attention; if not making me buy it. The story I will be telling myself will both be contextual (in terms of it's social appeal) as well as object desirability. Now did a traditional advertising miss both? I believe it does most of the times. When brands get creative with packaging, the work of the marketer becomes much more easier as customers do the rest by passing or spreading the story which we told to ourselves. Now that's what I call putting the thinking hats on.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Top 5 Marketing Predictions for 2008
This month, I have seen many trends being talked about from media, marketing, internet, technology, innovation or what not (Posted earlier) all across the internet. Some are big while some are just micro (in real sense). Some will be hit or hot for year 2008 while some will just fizz away with WTF* statement!!Still I wanted to share something which I have been seeing for quite sometime now in the business circuit, especially in the marketing arena for that matter. So here are my trends for year 2008:-
- Branding Shift: Branding will move from traditional way to more nicher media with the advent of newer technologies. Usage of internet as a branding medium will catch on the fire, even in India.
- Total Brand Experience: Advertisements in the form of televison, outdoors, billboards etc will bring customers close to the brands to complete that “Total Brand Experience” i.e. TBE. Even the engagement of these interactions between customers & brands will increase next year.
- Social Media Fire: Countries like India where mass marketing is the bread & butter for most marketers, social media will catch the fire as marketers will realize the potentiality of social media. Companies will start using SN and Twitter to understand their customers in a better way. Social Media will be more prominent in western countries with importance on more customer interactivity.
- Search Engine Optimization: Companies will move away slowly but steadily from Google as advertisement repository to more nicher areas like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us etc (Social Bookmarking sites). The reason is relevant search results for end users. Year 2008 will start the beginning of the importance of Semantic Web until Google starts thinking hard to tackle it. I'm sure they will with Knol etc.
- More disruptive Innovations: Companies like Apple, Google, MSFT and not forgetting Facebook alikes will come with more innovations (mostly disruptive which will set the industry standards). We will see many new products as well great new services.
So lastly Happy New Year to all of you and have a great time ahead. Cheers!
Friday, December 21, 2007
*Christvertising*:God & Branding
In the process of discovering insightful as well as weird sites, I stumbled upon this one. It's up to you guys to decide whether this is hilarious, insightful or sheer blasphemous. After seeing this, one thing becomes very clear i.e. US people take their Christian Belief very seriously. According to their Website (link) i.e. "Christvertising", they proclaim that through their BTP (Brand Targeted Prayers), millions of ardent Christian believers will pray for your brands. So all in all, here's "Christvertising" as well as me wishing you merry Christmas and Happy 2008.
Sources: Adverblog
Sources: Adverblog
Monday, December 03, 2007
Advertising: Do you know the truth?
Ever wondered about why your customers are getting weary about your ad messages day by day. Now Nielsen did a global survey<download pdf> about which advertising platforms in use today is most effective in terms of generating "Trust" from consumers.What emerged from this survey is quite interesting. I won't go much into the details (you better download the article) but one thing is of prime importance than everything else- Word of Mouth.
Meanwhile, I will give some of the most important and revealing truths about traditional media. Check it out for yourself; then you can decide whether your last advertising budget should have gone to better places.
- 18%: Proportion of TV advertising campaigns generating positive ROI
- 54 cents: Average return in sales for every $1 spent on advertising
- 256%: The increase in TV advertising costs (CPM) in the past decade
- 84%: Proportion of B2B marketing campaigns resulting in falling sales
- 100%: The increase needed in advertising spend to add 1-2% in sales
- 14%: Proportion of people who trust advertising information
- 90%: Proportion of people who can skip TV ads who do skip TV ads
- 80%: Market share of video recorders with ad skipping technology in 2008
- 95%: The failure rate for new product introductions
- 117: The number of prime time TV spots in 2002 needed to reach 80% of adult population – up from just 3 in 1965
- 3000: Number of advertising messages people are exposed to per day
- 56%: Proportion of people who avoid buying products from companies who they think advertise too much
- 65%: Proportion of people who believe that they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising
- 69%: Proportion of people interested in technology or devices that enable them to skip or block advertising
So based on these hard data, everything boils down to two important questions:
- How are you going to engage your customers?
- How are you going to deliver good customer experiences consistently?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Eureka Bar: Brand me and a little bit more..!!
We all love Time & again, countries (sometimes cities too like “I love NY” campaign have tried to indulge their audience with them. So why should the companies forget this little idea of communicating their companies’ messages amongst their target audience. More often than not, we have seen companies fancying into sophomoric promotion/marketing through distributing tees to their employees. Now get out and spread the message to the larger mass alike.
Some of the reasons why I think that it will work:
- Long term benefits in terms of brand recall.
- At the end of it all, you are creating audiences who are inspired by the authenticity & transparency of the company’s story.
- Don’t forget the WOMM for this sort of communication which has become the lingua franca for neo emergent companies.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Marketer's dilemma - "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder"
Advertising has gone to places where no one could ever think off (starting from television-outdoor-internet...). You see them everywhere, I mean every-damn-where. Some time back, in a very bold move, Sao Paulo's mayor banned all sorts of outdoor/billboard advertising campaigns as a part of the "Clean City" law. That of course puts a lot of pressure for those hard nosed marketers as they are trying to cope up with the situation (Thanks to Geeta Saini & Jinal Shah of Influential Marketing Blog fame and photographer & typographer Tony de Marco for this piece of info).
So we have a situation in hand. Most of the developed nations including US in some states has banned billboards as part of saving the natural beauty as it causes a lot of "Visual Pollution". Think about it a bit?
What if one fine morning your country or your state comes up with some law like this? Then is it that most outdoor advertisers/marketers will be out of their job? No I don't think so. Obviously they will come up with some new way of promotion, but the questions remains that is it possible that a complete harmony or coherence can be developed between these two sects of people - one of course the environmentalists & the other being evangelist marketers!!
Some of the strategies which neo marketers/advertising whiz's can put to use are-
What if one fine morning your country or your state comes up with some law like this? Then is it that most outdoor advertisers/marketers will be out of their job? No I don't think so. Obviously they will come up with some new way of promotion, but the questions remains that is it possible that a complete harmony or coherence can be developed between these two sects of people - one of course the environmentalists & the other being evangelist marketers!!
Some of the strategies which neo marketers/advertising whiz's can put to use are-
- Mobile billboard advertising (Thanks Abhishek) - Yeah, it's moving, dynamic ads - by & large ads to your doorsteps. Also in these sorts of ads, creativity is often appreciated. So WOMM is inevitable (though caution is necessary as it often may lead to commoditized ad campaign).Here are some of the few chosen alternate advertising campaigns. Have a look at the pictures.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A cue to the future for the marketers
Some time back, I stumbled upon a news report of MSNBC saying that many Europeans are choosing internet over TV. And by and large, the same trend follows across the world. It’s as if we are bored of that stupid idiot box. Actually it doesn’t bring dynamism to our thinking anymore (Crap basically). So most of us are turning towards digital media via internet.
But one question lurks in my mind seeing the news which obviously pertains to our marketing brotherhood. What has this news to do with marketers, you may ask. I believe it has!!
The word for it is Advertising. Now that’s not the only story. Companies, time and again have had engaged, delighted, excited their customers (mostly targeted ones) in different segments, be it product or services alike through this medium.
Now the customers range from toddlers to “Silver surfers”. Now that’s what I call reach or aptly call it the “Power of e”.
Now, I will leave you with three most interesting sites for this week as you guys are smart enough to understand where we all are heading.
- Themallplus : An interesting online retailing site which can keep you on your toes and you may end up buying something.
- Thepoint : The Point is a social platform for people to solve problems which they can’t solve alone. Bye-bye NGO’s.
- Indeed : A job search engine with a twist. Fiddle around a bit and you will know the difference.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
*Handvertising*- Yet another brick in the advertisment wall
Advertising has gone beyond television,print, internet or even those crazy ways how companies promote their products or service. Now how about this new innovative way. Do you remember the last time you entered a club and someone stamped your hands. So how about companies stamping their logos or promotional message on your hand. (As if I have been Apple'd or Microsoft'ied.)Actually this new practice is being done. It's the brainchild of Handvertising, USA. Though it's patent is still pending, still ingenuity is overwhelming.
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Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Perfect Social Media Marketing Job Description
Recently I was going through one of India's online digital news content sites where I stumbleupon this. Below is the job content of a "Social Media Marketing Evangelist". Why this interested me if you ask, then my answer is clear one- I never thought that India has yet grown into a Social Media Marketing bedrock where EVANGELISTS are required. But it seemed like I was wrong to some extent. Even though we have not reached the critical mass of using SMM in our communication strategy but surely it has gained some amount of traction.
Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Below is the job description of a Social Media Marketing Evangelist required by some Indian SMM company. What excited me is the last couple of lines on the experience column i.e. "Deep Passion for Social Media is MUST". I believe that "Passion" is one thing without which a Social Media Evangelist can't pull the rabbit out of the hat since the very crux of Social Media is formed to democratize the participation of customers. So passionate marketers can always create loyal evangelist customers since the birth of social media was due to the long list of unattended customers who were never heard or given any due attention in the old marketing communication process.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
What's your Tweet Worth?
This is a perfect "lazy sunday" post. This post will provide some juice on Twitter and the state of things. For almost a year now, Twitter has been the poster child for everyone who has been chasing Bright & Shiny Objects in the Web.
Now a new service called Twittad is launched which wants to monetize the Twitter background real estate. The company is allowing Twitter users to make their page backgrounds available to the highest bidder. Each listing includes the number of followers, the duration, and the price. Advertisers can then purchase the spots, with Twitter ad collecting a 5% commission on the transaction. So far there aren’t enough transactions completed to estimate the average value of a Twitter follower over a given time period, but this example of a recently sold ad spot for an account with 250 followers went for $5 for one month.
Now the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets are worth based on how many followers you have.
But there are inherent problems with this new business model:
1. Page backgrounds are not clickable (See here) and there is no easy way for a third-party service to track any meaningful metrics other than impressions.
2. With so much activity taking place on your friend timeline in the Web Interface or in a third-party apps, profile pages are not necessarily valuable estate.
3. Lastly, one most imminent problem is that I rarely go to my friend's Twitter profile since their tweets are visible on my twitter profile or third-party apps. So its like pushing ads to myself only at the end of it all.
Few possible solutions:
1. Try working out these ads in a blended format with the tweet stream (though it may prove out to be annoying).
2. Forget about trying to sell ads on Twitter pages, and put ads on WhatsYourTweetWorth instead.
3. These ads can at the best work out as pure brand advertisements for clients who just want to push in their messages in the twitter profiles.
Despite the inherent problems in Twittad’s model, there are a number of other companies attempting to monetize web page backgrounds, including AdCamo, who is providing a platform to both publishers and ad networks.
Courtesy: TechCrunch & Mashable
bidder. Each listing includes the number of followers, the duration, and the price. Advertisers can then purchase the spots, with Twitter ad collecting a 5% commission on the transaction. So far there aren’t enough transactions completed to estimate the average value of a Twitter follower over a given time period, but this example of a recently sold ad spot for an account with 250 followers went for $5 for one month.Now the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets are worth based on how many followers you have.
But there are inherent problems with this new business model:
1. Page backgrounds are not clickable (See here) and there is no easy way for a third-party service to track any meaningful metrics other than impressions.
2. With so much activity taking place on your friend timeline in the Web Interface or in a third-party apps, profile pages are not necessarily valuable estate.
3. Lastly, one most imminent problem is that I rarely go to my friend's Twitter profile since their tweets are visible on my twitter profile or third-party apps. So its like pushing ads to myself only at the end of it all.
Few possible solutions:
1. Try working out these ads in a blended format with the tweet stream (though it may prove out to be annoying).
2. Forget about trying to sell ads on Twitter pages, and put ads on WhatsYourTweetWorth instead.
3. These ads can at the best work out as pure brand advertisements for clients who just want to push in their messages in the twitter profiles.
Despite the inherent problems in Twittad’s model, there are a number of other companies attempting to monetize web page backgrounds, including AdCamo, who is providing a platform to both publishers and ad networks.
Courtesy: TechCrunch & Mashable
Friday, October 03, 2008
Top 10 Predictions on Social Networking
In my last post on Indian Social Networking Trends, I drew analogy between one of Dina's post and beta launch of Yahoo's SpotM. So this time around, I took the liberty to go much beyond trending and give much more concrete and holistic view of how Social Networking space will shape up for the future.
Though I wrote about it here, here & here, so this time around I will try to provide some more juice on social networks. Here are some of my top 10 social networking prediction are:
1. Mobile Networking will catch up mainstream: Interaction in social networks happens most often through messages which is the most common feature. Some call it wall posts, other as scraps etc. It is most frequent among younger generation who wants to be connected 24*7. Mobile devices will become a savior since its the only device which is ubiquitous and its reach is wide. But certain hindrances are still to be overcome like the browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. So once someone utilizes this potential to create an application that has enough traction to catch the attention and remove the tech limitations of browser apps compatibility with mobile devices and stuff like service providers blockades, then connectivity isn't a issue.
2. "Content is King" will be the buzzword: Yes, the content is the buzzword. Some may find it difficult to fathom it but it's true. The content of the network, we all will be in is going to be the single most factor which could win over the Social Networks battle.
3. The "longish" long tail will prevail: Over the past year, its unimaginable to find that there are scores of social networks on the fringes - social networks for babies, mothers, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning and many more unique yet prevalent social networks. So power of the longish long tail will prevail in Social Networking.
4. Interactive Apps will augment social networks: Sandeep has an interesting take on this one - The new interactive mechanisms for many social sites may be backed by artificial intelligence. This will bring spice to the entire model. For instance, your social network or online group will show itself to be angry, happy, sad, etc., all on its own, as a result of its members' input. These small and unique interactive developments will engage the users to a great extent.
5. Content Creation & Consumption will happen at the source: Social networks won't just be a platform to feed & share your personal life with friends & family. It will become our megaphone to voice about anything & everything around us. Though first round initiatives have been taken - Thanks to Google.
6. Changes in "Content Delivery" of Social Networks: Content delivery via social networks will change over time. Social networks will act also as an entertainment cum information window for users in world wide web viz. ChillX.
7. Monetization of actionable content in Social Networks: Monetization has been a problem for social networks (read here, here & here too). But once social networks are able to position themselves as branded content providers like MySpace have done then monetization won't be pain. But for this enough critical mass is needed for which social networks have to duly rely on other distributive mediums like progressive mobile networks etc to spread their content.
8. Medium will become the message in Social Networks: Since we are talking about social networks which provides vast information pool at free cost for end users, so medium itself is easy to spread and theme based social networks will definitely plug in more users who will in turn out to be evangelists to spread the message. One of the networks which I know is working towards it is ChillX which wants to attract Indian Gen X & Y to form a community of users who share & spread.
9. The power of community will prevail: Social networks are typically measured in terms of registered users, unique users and engagement (in terms of time spent, page views per unique user etc. This will be on the rise once social networks are able to draw users into community. This will be on the rise in the near future.
10. Geographically & Culturally focused Social Networks: The popularity of social networks varies by region. In the U.S., Myspace and Facebook are most popular; in India and Brazil, Orkut rules; China has QQ; Europe has Hi5. So we will see more & more of geographically & culturally focused social networks like Viacom's Flux which will stress on “Personal community”. (Read more on this here).
So these are Top 10 Social Networking predictions that will prevail in the near future. I'll do a series of such posts in the future too as on when it happens.
Though I wrote about it here, here & here, so this time around I will try to provide some more juice on social networks. Here are some of my top 10 social networking prediction are:
1. Mobile Networking will catch up mainstream: Interaction in social networks happens most often through messages which is the most common feature. Some call it wall posts, other as scraps etc. It is most frequent among younger generation who wants to be connected 24*7. Mobile devices will become a savior since its the only device which is ubiquitous and its reach is wide. But certain hindrances are still to be overcome like the browser based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. So once someone utilizes this potential to create an application that has enough traction to catch the attention and remove the tech limitations of browser apps compatibility with mobile devices and stuff like service providers blockades, then connectivity isn't a issue.
2. "Content is King" will be the buzzword: Yes, the content is the buzzword. Some may find it difficult to fathom it but it's true. The content of the network, we all will be in is going to be the single most factor which could win over the Social Networks battle.
3. The "longish" long tail will prevail: Over the past year, its unimaginable to find that there are scores of social networks on the fringes - social networks for babies, mothers, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning and many more unique yet prevalent social networks. So power of the longish long tail will prevail in Social Networking.
4. Interactive Apps will augment social networks: Sandeep has an interesting take on this one - The new interactive mechanisms for many social sites may be backed by artificial intelligence. This will bring spice to the entire model. For instance, your social network or online group will show itself to be angry, happy, sad, etc., all on its own, as a result of its members' input. These small and unique interactive developments will engage the users to a great extent.
5. Content Creation & Consumption will happen at the source: Social networks won't just be a platform to feed & share your personal life with friends & family. It will become our megaphone to voice about anything & everything around us. Though first round initiatives have been taken - Thanks to Google.
6. Changes in "Content Delivery" of Social Networks: Content delivery via social networks will change over time. Social networks will act also as an entertainment cum information window for users in world wide web viz. ChillX.
7. Monetization of actionable content in Social Networks: Monetization has been a problem for social networks (read here, here & here too). But once social networks are able to position themselves as branded content providers like MySpace have done then monetization won't be pain. But for this enough critical mass is needed for which social networks have to duly rely on other distributive mediums like progressive mobile networks etc to spread their content.
8. Medium will become the message in Social Networks: Since we are talking about social networks which provides vast information pool at free cost for end users, so medium itself is easy to spread and theme based social networks will definitely plug in more users who will in turn out to be evangelists to spread the message. One of the networks which I know is working towards it is ChillX which wants to attract Indian Gen X & Y to form a community of users who share & spread.
9. The power of community will prevail: Social networks are typically measured in terms of registered users, unique users and engagement (in terms of time spent, page views per unique user etc. This will be on the rise once social networks are able to draw users into community. This will be on the rise in the near future.
10. Geographically & Culturally focused Social Networks: The popularity of social networks varies by region. In the U.S., Myspace and Facebook are most popular; in India and Brazil, Orkut rules; China has QQ; Europe has Hi5. So we will see more & more of geographically & culturally focused social networks like Viacom's Flux which will stress on “Personal community”. (Read more on this here).
So these are Top 10 Social Networking predictions that will prevail in the near future. I'll do a series of such posts in the future too as on when it happens.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Excuse me Mr. Marketer...
...if this is the state of Marketing then "Sex Sells, not Marketing". Or this is the reason that marketing jargon like Market Penetration, Below the Line, Positioning etc seems to be derived straight from it.Whatever the case is, Marketers, please use this as an example of over-the-top, gratuitous use of sex to sell...(Picture Courtesy: From 5 Blogs Before Lunch)
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference (Bangalore,2008): Key Insights on the Intersection of Man, Technology & Culture
This post talks about 3rd IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference held at Bangalore. I'll post about the broad implications later in the subsequent post of course but for now enjoy the ride through a list of tweets (Courtesy WatBlog). In between, you will find certain discussions marked green. These are the pointers which I feel makes this blog post's title apt: Key Insights on the Intersection of Man, Technology & Culture. And as usual if you feel like you've anything to say, please comment in the section below to have a discussion.
(I)“ANALOG VS DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW AND WHY”
2. LIVE from #IAMAI: Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach - Chetan Marwah , Partner & Chief Executive Officer, ISHIR Digital (Tweet)
3. LIVE from #IAMAI: Move from cost per click (CPC) to cost per impact (CPI) to get better deals (Tweet)
4. LIVE from #IAMAI: Jet airways spend 50% of their digital budget in international markets whereas only 10% in India (Tweet)
5. LIVE from #IAMAI: Prediction -TV is going to be primarily digital & we are goin to see the marketer going to ask why was his ad not seen there - Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
(II) NEW MEDIA TOOLS
7. LIVE from #IAMAI : Video impressions going to surpass search in Q1, 2009 in North America – ComScore (Tweet)
8. LIVE from #IAMAI : Bandwidth barrier in india is surpassed by users by downloading in office and background buffering – Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
9. LIVE from #IAMAI: In 2005 blogs as a search category overtook magazines - Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
10. LIVE from #IAMAI : Customer doesn’t click on online ads as they dont want to move away from page. Try using gadgets to initiate conversation – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
11. LIVE #IAMAI : Social Networks should be used to create brand evangelists and not primarily ads placement – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google. (Tweet)
12. LIVE from #IAMAI : In India, Leads from Mobile Search Ads is 3 times better & purer than desktop search leads – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
13. LIVE from #IAMAI: 71% of those who consume mobile internet ads say there perception of brand and recall has increased – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
14. LIVE from #IAMAI : For Google, mobile search queries in India is 10% of desktop queries (Tweet)
15. LIVE from #IAMAI : In US iPhone alone generates 2x the search queries of all other smart phones put together (Tweet)
16. LIVE from #IAMAI : Mobile UI is key to growth of it evolving as a medium – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
17. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Traditionally online treated as bleeding edge and therefore Marketers are wary (Tweet)
18. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Our Facebook game statistics: 16000 played, 500 per day talking about it online (Tweet)
(III)“HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”
20. LIVE from #IAMAI : Namrata Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy - Most ads with high decibel on web have less than 1% click through rate (CTR)! We say "No wonder twitter has no ads" (Tweet)
21. LIVE from #IAMAI : Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors asks how many brick & mortar are here? Just couples of hands show up in audience! Web Wary are we? (Tweet)
22. LIVE from #IAMAI : General Motors’ 2.5% of all sales in India is through digital channel without any other channel involved for GM. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors - (Tweet)
(IV) THE BLENDED SEARCH REVOLUTION
24. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search engines are valued high because they are content finders in context across mediums - Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2 (Tweet)
25. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search has not yet evolved - Narasimha Jayakumar, Business Head – Travel & Local, Google India (Tweet)
(V) TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE AND CONVERSIONS
26. LIVE from #IAMAI - 'Use of good tracking & analytics software should be a core of ROI. Don’t just use freeware' - Anurag Gupta, Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing.
Tweet Courtesy: http://twitter.com/watblog
(I)“ANALOG VS DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW AND WHY”
Discussions in this section revolved around: Sellers of traditional media tout that media such as broadcast TV allows advertisers unrivaled impact and reach, attributes that become even more valuable as media fragments. Sellers of digital media counter that pinpoint targeting and ever-improving analytics make spending more in digital the right choice. Below is the crux of the discussions:1. LIVE from #IAMAI: Goggle Ads click-through-rate (CTR) is 16% in India – Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
2. LIVE from #IAMAI: Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach - Chetan Marwah , Partner & Chief Executive Officer, ISHIR Digital (Tweet)
3. LIVE from #IAMAI: Move from cost per click (CPC) to cost per impact (CPI) to get better deals (Tweet)
4. LIVE from #IAMAI: Jet airways spend 50% of their digital budget in international markets whereas only 10% in India (Tweet)
5. LIVE from #IAMAI: Prediction -TV is going to be primarily digital & we are goin to see the marketer going to ask why was his ad not seen there - Mahesh Murty, Managing Director, Pinstorm Technologies (Tweet)
(II) NEW MEDIA TOOLS
Discussions in this section revolved around: The Internet was just the beginning; these days media planners are faced with a plethora of new digitally-derived media forms from podcasts to blogs, social networking to SMS, all of which need to be evaluated to see if they might meet clients needs. But how to go about it? Our panelists will help you figure that out. Below is the crux of the discussions:6. LIVE from #IAMAI: In India, YouTube is the 6th most trafficked as per Alexa - Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
7. LIVE from #IAMAI : Video impressions going to surpass search in Q1, 2009 in North America – ComScore (Tweet)
8. LIVE from #IAMAI : Bandwidth barrier in india is surpassed by users by downloading in office and background buffering – Naren Nachiappan, MD, Jivox (Tweet)
9. LIVE from #IAMAI: In 2005 blogs as a search category overtook magazines - Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
10. LIVE from #IAMAI : Customer doesn’t click on online ads as they dont want to move away from page. Try using gadgets to initiate conversation – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google (Tweet)
11. LIVE #IAMAI : Social Networks should be used to create brand evangelists and not primarily ads placement – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google. (Tweet)
12. LIVE from #IAMAI : In India, Leads from Mobile Search Ads is 3 times better & purer than desktop search leads – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
13. LIVE from #IAMAI: 71% of those who consume mobile internet ads say there perception of brand and recall has increased – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
14. LIVE from #IAMAI : For Google, mobile search queries in India is 10% of desktop queries (Tweet)
15. LIVE from #IAMAI : In US iPhone alone generates 2x the search queries of all other smart phones put together (Tweet)
16. LIVE from #IAMAI : Mobile UI is key to growth of it evolving as a medium – Parminder Singh, Business Head - Technology & Media, Google, (Tweet)
17. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Traditionally online treated as bleeding edge and therefore Marketers are wary (Tweet)
18. LIVE from #IAMAI : Rohini (Citation reqd.) - Intel Online India - Our Facebook game statistics: 16000 played, 500 per day talking about it online (Tweet)
(III)“HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”
Discussions in this section revolved around: Convincing a company to spend more money in digital media is one challenge; to get it to use new media forms to break creative ground is an even bigger one. But there are those who have done it, and on this panel, we’ll hear from them-three gutsy clients who innovated not just in the media they’ve used, but in the work they’ve produced for them. Below is the crux of the discussions:19. LIVE from #IAMAI : Big TV (Reliance DTH service) generates 50,000 leads online in two days - Tushar Vyas, Chief Marketing Officer, Sure Waves (Tweet)
20. LIVE from #IAMAI : Namrata Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy - Most ads with high decibel on web have less than 1% click through rate (CTR)! We say "No wonder twitter has no ads" (Tweet)
21. LIVE from #IAMAI : Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors asks how many brick & mortar are here? Just couples of hands show up in audience! Web Wary are we? (Tweet)
22. LIVE from #IAMAI : General Motors’ 2.5% of all sales in India is through digital channel without any other channel involved for GM. Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors - (Tweet)
(IV) THE BLENDED SEARCH REVOLUTION
Discussions in this section revolved around: The first generation of search engines ranked pages based on the content of those pages alone -- the words on the page. The second generation increased relevancy by analyzing links. The third generation, Search 3.0, is upon us now in full force. Today’s search engines automatically blending in results from specialized or "vertical" search engines such as video search or local search. This session looks at the revolutionary change happening with blended search and how search marketers can ride the wave to success. Below is the crux of the discussions:23. LIVE from #IAMAI : 31% images, 17% videos, 36% news - Clicking percentage on search results in a blended search - Milind Mody, CEO eBrandz (Tweet)
24. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search engines are valued high because they are content finders in context across mediums - Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate2 (Tweet)
25. LIVE from #IAMAI : Search has not yet evolved - Narasimha Jayakumar, Business Head – Travel & Local, Google India (Tweet)
(V) TRAFFIC TO WEBSITE AND CONVERSIONS
Discussions in this section revolved around: In the beginning driving traffic was necessary and sufficient, now the dynamics of business has changed driving traffic is important but not sufficient, in the competitive environment with increasing cost per acquisition as marketers there is need for better understanding of website visitors and advertisers look for conversions. This session would look at the importance of digital marketing and maximum potential realization of digital marketing with relevant examples.
26. LIVE from #IAMAI - 'Use of good tracking & analytics software should be a core of ROI. Don’t just use freeware' - Anurag Gupta, Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing.
Tweet Courtesy: http://twitter.com/watblog
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
'Yours Truly' featured in AdAge Power 150
This is the 2nd in the 'Yours Truly' series in this blog. This time around, my blog featured in the ADAGE POWER 150 list which showcases the best that there is from the Marketing, Advertising & Media blogs and bloggers from around the world.From now on, I'll keep the Power 150 widget on the right bar of 'Networks & Affiliations' tab which will keep updating the rank status of this blog.
Apart from the usual excitement on being featured in the much elite list of bloggers, I'm quite aware that this levies more responsiblity on blogging front. Though for the past week or so, posting has reduced due some other engagements but it also shows that I'm quite aware of it. And whenever and wherever possible I'll keep blogging.
Till then, keep coming on if you've missed any previous posts and please comment/criticize/appreciate if you feel like you need to.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
India's Most Trusted Brands of 2008 (A Goofy Analysis)
The report is out. Economic Times' Brand Equity has published the list of India's Most Trusted Brands Survey.
The top ten brands are :-
So is there any correlation between ads slapped onto our face and brand recall. Now one suggestion would be please go back to their balance sheets and see how many of these brands are making profits to that extent since quantitatively speaking they should make huge profits since they are most trusted ones amongst consumers.
So last question is do they truly reflect our true trust on these brands remembering the fact that No.1 trusted brand Nokia was in middle of a much heated debate about "Overheating of Battery". So the old marketing adage "Under-promise & Over-Deliver" doesn't work in this context. What a co-incidence?
Anyway congrats from my part to figure in such a list (pun intended!).
The top ten brands are :-
- Nokia
- Colgate
- Tata Salt
- Pepsodent
- Ponds
- Lux
- Britannia
- Dettol
- Lifebuoy
- Vicks
- LIC
- Airtel
- State Bank of India
- Reliance Mobile
- BSNL
- Tata Indicom
- Indian Oil
- Hutch/Vodafone
- ICICI Bank
- Bank of India
So is there any correlation between ads slapped onto our face and brand recall. Now one suggestion would be please go back to their balance sheets and see how many of these brands are making profits to that extent since quantitatively speaking they should make huge profits since they are most trusted ones amongst consumers.
So last question is do they truly reflect our true trust on these brands remembering the fact that No.1 trusted brand Nokia was in middle of a much heated debate about "Overheating of Battery". So the old marketing adage "Under-promise & Over-Deliver" doesn't work in this context. What a co-incidence?
Anyway congrats from my part to figure in such a list (pun intended!).
Monday, May 19, 2008
Old Media vs Digital Media in hyperconnected world
While reading the article “The Hyperconnected vs. 84% of Everyone Else on Earth” by Steve Rubel it makes me wonder that what it means to New Media/Social Media enthusiast like me when he says that:
“…52% of the US online population as largely passive.
Net, this leaves me convinced that despite all of the buzz around the growth of new media and/or digital advertising, neither will replace existing modalities for some time to come...Digital media is going to be additive in the near to medium term. However, in a decade - perhaps sooner, perhaps later - it will be a different story.”
This is really interesting (Download the PDF). Even Robert Scoble has his own take too on this though in a different way conforming how Google news & Techmeme has little or no noise compared to Twitter or FriendFeed.
Given all these facts & figures together, we can't just write off old school media as yet but on the hindsight looking at the increasing online spending Y-o-Y compared to old media, we can say that old media is losing steam (PDF Link) whereas digital media is catching fire. Also, it won’t be wrong to say that companies find it more alluring to shift to digital media compared to older one because it gives more traction going forward especially in terms of connecting with their audience near & far. So the statistics shown in the chart doesn’t include the extent to which companies will allure it’s audience to world wide web (Remember 20 years back there was no market for purified mineral water but now billions of dollars flow in- How? Because companies have changed the audience’s viewpoint. So why not digital media then?)
Given all these facts & figures together, we can't just write off old school media as yet but on the hindsight looking at the increasing online spending Y-o-Y compared to old media, we can say that old media is losing steam (PDF Link) whereas digital media is catching fire. Also, it won’t be wrong to say that companies find it more alluring to shift to digital media compared to older one because it gives more traction going forward especially in terms of connecting with their audience near & far. So the statistics shown in the chart doesn’t include the extent to which companies will allure it’s audience to world wide web (Remember 20 years back there was no market for purified mineral water but now billions of dollars flow in- How? Because companies have changed the audience’s viewpoint. So why not digital media then?)
Yeah there will a lot of problems in terms of overcoming the digital divide across the world but things have started changing like decreasing communication cost, be it mobile or internet accessibility which is bridging the digital gap.
So will it take digital media so much time to change gears from being an additive one to complementary & then finally mainstream. What say Mr. Rubel?
So will it take digital media so much time to change gears from being an additive one to complementary & then finally mainstream. What say Mr. Rubel?
Thursday, May 15, 2008
How about this Marketing Idea?
Was going through Drew's Marketing Minute and stumbled upon this marketing idea. Though it's still a drawing board idea from South Korea but it sure opens up more than an oppurtunity in revolutionizing traffic lights. Read more about the "Virtual Wall" on Yanko Design.So all those creative and innovative marketers, does it ring a bell in your head about how this innovation can used to great PR and advertising oppurtunities.
Friday, May 02, 2008
5 key pointers towards Brand building
This morning started with a lot of questions in my head. First up is brand building and how it can make our brand a time tested one. Though branding activities depend on geographical to user base preferences & tastes, but still the basic morphology of building a successful brand remains the same over-time. I have tried to chalk out 5 most crucial questions that is to be asked before building a successful brand:
- Does your Marketing Strategy gel with the existing Promotional campaigns?
- Does it give you Traction in the marketplace in terms of Scalability?
- Is it Measurable to the extent of Flexibility?
- Does it build a "Brand of Value" or a "Brand of Convenience" for the consumers?
- Does it reflect in the Balance sheets (i.e. is it measurable & accountable)?
These 5 questions is in the heart of any branding activity since the market has become more dynamic than ever mainly because of Fragmented Media // More choices and less of time for consumers to choose // Traditional advertising is losing steam // And most importantly consumers are buying stuff more due to peer recommendation by factor "X" . So all these factors are affecting consumers to turn out to be into "Brand Sluts".
Related Posts:
Friday, April 25, 2008
193 Creative Marketing Ideas
Some crafty stuff by Sam Decker in pulling the list of 193 Creative Marketing Ideas ranging from Advertising, customer service, direct marketing, online Marketing etc...you just name it! Kudos to Sam for pulling this creative marketing stuff.
I'm sure you will find something interesting in Sam's lengthy list.
Courtesy: Brand Autopsy
I'm sure you will find something interesting in Sam's lengthy list.
Courtesy: Brand Autopsy
Monday, March 10, 2008
Demystifying Influencers: From Pyramid to Diamond Model
CNET Networks conducted a three-part study called "Understanding Influence, and making it work for you" (Download here). It explored the structure of social networks, methods of acquiring information and the motivations for giving/sharing/influencing others. Guy Kawasaki explains the basic tenets of the study in his blog post.
But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.
The study provides three key marketing takeaways:
So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.
This can only occur if you have a large number of highly connected individuals in a niche. Without highly connected individuals there would be no way to connect outside of the specific niche group with other groups.
I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibility within a group in order for a meme to spread (thanks to one of the commenter).
Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.
Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.
But what I was interested in is the marketing or advertising takeaways from the white paper.
The study provides three key marketing takeaways:
-
Two unique characteristics of information that influencers value are that the information is unique and trusted.
-
Shape your marketing messages for the larger network of moderately connected users, not just the few highly connected individuals at the top.
-
Make content actionable for users.
So in a niche group context, the meme will spread. If enough niche groups catch on and the meme has a wide enough appeal it is likely to take of on a grander scale.
Th
I would suggest that a highly connected individual must also be a highly active group member that also has a high degree of credibilit
Other than this in country like India, there is a high chance that this theory may not be put into practice as such since demographics is widely varied, so different customers will consume the same product in different ways.
Note: In case, the pdf downloading plays crazy with your mind, shoot me a mail at sampad.s@gmail.com. I will send a fresh copy of the white paper ASAP.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Product packaging telling a story
Here a small little story for all those marketers who believes that only spending millions on advertising does all the trick, which also helps them to rest their right side of the brain."...about a year ago, when Jamie Leventhal was trying to convince big chain stores to stock his new line of shaving gels for young men, a buyer from Target asked a crucial question: How much would he spend on advertising?
“I told him we would not spend a single dollar,” Mr. Leventhal said.
The buyer was stunned until Mr. Leventhal pulled a prototype out of his briefcase. The product, called NXT (pronounced NEXT), is sold in an arresting triangular container that lights up from the bottom, illuminating air bubbles suspended in the clear gel. The plastic is tinted blue, and when the AAA batteries in its base are lighted, the whole thing looks like a miniature lava lamp or a tiny fishless aquarium." (Courtesy NYT)
I don't know about you, but surely it would have caught my attention; if not making me buy it. The story I will be telling myself will both be contextual (in terms of it's social appeal) as well as object desirability. Now did a traditional advertising miss both? I believe it does most of the times. When brands get creative with packaging, the work of the marketer becomes much more easier as customers do the rest by passing or spreading the story which we told to ourselves. Now that's what I call putting the thinking hats on.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Top 5 Marketing Predictions for 2008
This month, I have seen many trends being talked about from media, marketing, internet, technology, innovation or what not (Posted earlier) all across the internet. Some are big while some are just micro (in real sense). Some will be hit or hot for year 2008 while some will just fizz away with WTF* statement!!Still I wanted to share something which I have been seeing for quite sometime now in the business circuit, especially in the marketing arena for that matter. So here are my trends for year 2008:-
- Branding Shift: Branding will move from traditional way to more nicher media with the advent of newer technologies. Usage of internet as a branding medium will catch on the fire, even in India.
- Total Brand Experience: Advertisements in the form of televison, outdoors, billboards etc will bring customers close to the brands to complete that “Total Brand Experience” i.e. TBE. Even the engagement of these interactions between customers & brands will increase next year.
- Social Media Fire: Countries like India where mass marketing is the bread & butter for most marketers, social media will catch the fire as marketers will realize the potentiality of social media. Companies will start using SN and Twitter to understand their customers in a better way. Social Media will be more prominent in western countries with importance on more customer interactivity.
- Search Engine Optimization: Companies will move away slowly but steadily from Google as advertisement repository to more nicher areas like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us etc (Social Bookmarking sites). The reason is relevant search results for end users. Year 2008 will start the beginning of the importance of Semantic Web until Google starts thinking hard to tackle it. I'm sure they will with Knol etc.
- More disruptive Innovations: Companies like Apple, Google, MSFT and not forgetting Facebook alikes will come with more innovations (mostly disruptive which will set the industry standards). We will see many new products as well great new services.
So lastly Happy New Year to all of you and have a great time ahead. Cheers!
Friday, December 21, 2007
*Christvertising*:God & Branding
In the process of discovering insightful as well as weird sites, I stumbled upon this one. It's up to you guys to decide whether this is hilarious, insightful or sheer blasphemous. After seeing this, one thing becomes very clear i.e. US people take their Christian Belief very seriously. According to their Website (link) i.e. "Christvertising", they proclaim that through their BTP (Brand Targeted Prayers), millions of ardent Christian believers will pray for your brands. So all in all, here's "Christvertising" as well as me wishing you merry Christmas and Happy 2008.
Sources: Adverblog
Sources: Adverblog
Monday, December 03, 2007
Advertising: Do you know the truth?
Ever wondered about why your customers are getting weary about your ad messages day by day. Now Nielsen did a global survey<download pdf> about which advertising platforms in use today is most effective in terms of generating "Trust" from consumers.What emerged from this survey is quite interesting. I won't go much into the details (you better download the article) but one thing is of prime importance than everything else- Word of Mouth.
Meanwhile, I will give some of the most important and revealing truths about traditional media. Check it out for yourself; then you can decide whether your last advertising budget should have gone to better places.
- 18%: Proportion of TV advertising campaigns generating positive ROI
- 54 cents: Average return in sales for every $1 spent on advertising
- 256%: The increase in TV advertising costs (CPM) in the past decade
- 84%: Proportion of B2B marketing campaigns resulting in falling sales
- 100%: The increase needed in advertising spend to add 1-2% in sales
- 14%: Proportion of people who trust advertising information
- 90%: Proportion of people who can skip TV ads who do skip TV ads
- 80%: Market share of video recorders with ad skipping technology in 2008
- 95%: The failure rate for new product introductions
- 117: The number of prime time TV spots in 2002 needed to reach 80% of adult population – up from just 3 in 1965
- 3000: Number of advertising messages people are exposed to per day
- 56%: Proportion of people who avoid buying products from companies who they think advertise too much
- 65%: Proportion of people who believe that they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising
- 69%: Proportion of people interested in technology or devices that enable them to skip or block advertising
So based on these hard data, everything boils down to two important questions:
- How are you going to engage your customers?
- How are you going to deliver good customer experiences consistently?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Eureka Bar: Brand me and a little bit more..!!
We all love Time & again, countries (sometimes cities too like “I love NY” campaign have tried to indulge their audience with them. So why should the companies forget this little idea of communicating their companies’ messages amongst their target audience. More often than not, we have seen companies fancying into sophomoric promotion/marketing through distributing tees to their employees. Now get out and spread the message to the larger mass alike.
Some of the reasons why I think that it will work:
- Long term benefits in terms of brand recall.
- At the end of it all, you are creating audiences who are inspired by the authenticity & transparency of the company’s story.
- Don’t forget the WOMM for this sort of communication which has become the lingua franca for neo emergent companies.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Marketer's dilemma - "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder"
Advertising has gone to places where no one could ever think off (starting from television-outdoor-internet...). You see them everywhere, I mean every-damn-where. Some time back, in a very bold move, Sao Paulo's mayor banned all sorts of outdoor/billboard advertising campaigns as a part of the "Clean City" law. That of course puts a lot of pressure for those hard nosed marketers as they are trying to cope up with the situation (Thanks to Geeta Saini & Jinal Shah of Influential Marketing Blog fame and photographer & typographer Tony de Marco for this piece of info).
So we have a situation in hand. Most of the developed nations including US in some states has banned billboards as part of saving the natural beauty as it causes a lot of "Visual Pollution". Think about it a bit?
What if one fine morning your country or your state comes up with some law like this? Then is it that most outdoor advertisers/marketers will be out of their job? No I don't think so. Obviously they will come up with some new way of promotion, but the questions remains that is it possible that a complete harmony or coherence can be developed between these two sects of people - one of course the environmentalists & the other being evangelist marketers!!
Some of the strategies which neo marketers/advertising whiz's can put to use are-
What if one fine morning your country or your state comes up with some law like this? Then is it that most outdoor advertisers/marketers will be out of their job? No I don't think so. Obviously they will come up with some new way of promotion, but the questions remains that is it possible that a complete harmony or coherence can be developed between these two sects of people - one of course the environmentalists & the other being evangelist marketers!!
Some of the strategies which neo marketers/advertising whiz's can put to use are-
- Mobile billboard advertising (Thanks Abhishek) - Yeah, it's moving, dynamic ads - by & large ads to your doorsteps. Also in these sorts of ads, creativity is often appreciated. So WOMM is inevitable (though caution is necessary as it often may lead to commoditized ad campaign).Here are some of the few chosen alternate advertising campaigns. Have a look at the pictures.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A cue to the future for the marketers
Some time back, I stumbled upon a news report of MSNBC saying that many Europeans are choosing internet over TV. And by and large, the same trend follows across the world. It’s as if we are bored of that stupid idiot box. Actually it doesn’t bring dynamism to our thinking anymore (Crap basically). So most of us are turning towards digital media via internet.
But one question lurks in my mind seeing the news which obviously pertains to our marketing brotherhood. What has this news to do with marketers, you may ask. I believe it has!!
The word for it is Advertising. Now that’s not the only story. Companies, time and again have had engaged, delighted, excited their customers (mostly targeted ones) in different segments, be it product or services alike through this medium.
Now the customers range from toddlers to “Silver surfers”. Now that’s what I call reach or aptly call it the “Power of e”.
Now, I will leave you with three most interesting sites for this week as you guys are smart enough to understand where we all are heading.
- Themallplus : An interesting online retailing site which can keep you on your toes and you may end up buying something.
- Thepoint : The Point is a social platform for people to solve problems which they can’t solve alone. Bye-bye NGO’s.
- Indeed : A job search engine with a twist. Fiddle around a bit and you will know the difference.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
*Handvertising*- Yet another brick in the advertisment wall
Advertising has gone beyond television,print, internet or even those crazy ways how companies promote their products or service. Now how about this new innovative way. Do you remember the last time you entered a club and someone stamped your hands. So how about companies stamping their logos or promotional message on your hand. (As if I have been Apple'd or Microsoft'ied.)Actually this new practice is being done. It's the brainchild of Handvertising, USA. Though it's patent is still pending, still ingenuity is overwhelming.
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