Brands Click In

Yippeee!!! I've been spammed

2011-05-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

Wonder if I should be happy for one of my blog posts received 40 spam comments. I mean I would have been spammed only if I have some importance to the spammers right. But I guess even they found out that no one even writes in this blog, forget about there being readers, so I guess that's why they stopped.

Any ways, for some exciting news about me - we have launched our very own URL shortening service - ait.sh. Its for private usage at present, and we plan to offer such private URL shortening services to all our clients.

A new beginning!

2010-08-21T03:28:00.000-07:00

So I've got my own domain, and I will be publishing on 'my own website' from now on... Wish me luck!

UK Internet ad spend overtakes TV for first time

2009-10-01T01:21:00.000-07:00

Party Time!

This was due to happen, and soon other countries will follow suit. Read the report: http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE58S4IL20090929

IAMAI Conference on Financial Inclusion & Digital Payments

2009-08-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

When my company nominated me to go to this event held today at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, I was slightly flummoxed. IAMAI is no doubt a bod we want to be affiliated with - we have been debating whether or not to get a membership for some time now. But this seemed to be a topic too far out from our line of work.

Nevertheless, I went, looking forward to meet a few new people rather than learn too much.

Meet a few people I did. But surprisingly, I found myself to be a very eager, intent and embarrassed listener throughout the day. What ever the speakers had to say, ultimately translated to the simple fact that, in India as elsewhere on the planet, the power of the now ubiquitous mobile device was undeniable.

On the one hand, it has the potential to bring under control the enormous cash economy that exists in India today, with even the smallest of transactions passing through recorded channels. At least in theory, in a 100% penetration situation, this could potentially wipe out the grey economy, kill monetary corruption, wipe out fake currency and significantly reduce money trafficking for illegitimate purposes. (And also probably put some mints and presses out of business)

On the other hand, it would also be a great benefit to the users of the system - both merchants and customers. Merchants would now no longer have to worry about any kinds of cash based losses - robbery & theft, fake & soiled currency - or spend time in cash management. Inward and outward credit would probably be better managed and better tracked. And of course, there would be hardly, if any, cost in setting up this 'new' payment system. For customers, again the issues of loss of cash through pickpocketing / misplacement or lack of change with the merchant would go out of the window. The better heeled would not have to worry any longer when they handed over their credit cards for payments of the restaurant bill. And the poor would now finally be able to have their money safe with a bank like service provider without having to go all the way to the bank to see the scowl on the face of the teller as he took their measly Rs 100 deposit for the month.

Wants & Needs

2009-08-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

I had read somewhere that marketing is about creating 'Wants' out of the basic 'Needs' of human beings... on the lines of I need to stay clothed to be counted amongst civilisation, but I want Ralph Lauren to show off my status (Deeeep sigh... when oh when will I be able to afford Ralph Lauren?!?!)

Today, while commuting to work, I saw such a blatant use of this principle. The interiors of Mumbai's local trains are plastered with posters selling all kinds of products, dreams, hopes and public awareness campaigns. One of them caught my attention. It was selling some EP3 formulation for men. The tag line being some thing like "Is liye nehi kyunki aapko iski zaroorat hain... is liye kyonki aapko yeh chahiye" or "Not because you need it, but because you want it"

I wonder if they were actually trying to tell a potential customer that he should buy it irrespective of whether he has the symptoms of "weakness" etc that these ads typically talk about. I mean maybe, in these times of economic recession, the market growth for the product was not too great, and hence they are trying to target not only the "kamzor" (weak) people, but also the hale and hearty folk.

On the other hand, it also gives the (ahem) "kamzor" people a good excuse to buy it... Now they would no longer have to suffer condescending glances from the pharmacist / shop keeper when they asked for the product.. after all, they would be buying it not because they needed it, but because they wanted it!

My verdict - not bad at all!

Measuring effectiveness of online campaigns

2009-06-23T04:42:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I learned about the great benefit of online media campaigns (as compared to traditional media campaigns) was that it was measurable like no other media. Apparently the adage about half the advertising money being wasted, and one not knowing which half that was, was to become a piece of folklore with the advent of Online media.

5 years of selling this medium and I am not too sure.

For starters, most of the time, we do not know what to measure - Pageviews? PageRank? Hits? Misses(Bad Requests)? Visitors? Visits? Repeat visits? Unique Visitors? Click Through Rates? Cost per Click? Cost per Milieu? Cost per Lead? Cost per Sale? Positive comments on the guest book? Average time spent on the website? Alexa rankings? Brand recall?

And then again - do we measure the effectiveness of the entire campaign, of particular channels, of the landing page / website or of individual creatives?

There are simply too many parameters. And it is made worse by the typical bane of Indian business managers - shifting goalposts. A simple caselet: At the time of setting deliverables, they may want a campaign that gives them a large number of leads at a relatively low cost. When it comes to paying, they will not be happy if the campaign gives them a very large number of leads along with high visibility, they will also ask
1. Why their site is not ranked #1 on Google (and the search engine just launched by their third cousin's sister's daughter-in-law's friend's tech start-up)
2. Why a site like carwale.com was used to generate leads for a BFSI product ("loss of branding on customers not looking for a house loan")
3. Why did we drop sites like Rediff & Indiatimes in favour of relatively unknown sites ("We would have got a lot of visibility"-"But you may not have got lea..."-"But our competitor just did that and they got very high sales in the last month"-"Was it measured as being a result of the online cam..."-"No point arguing now... just keep it in mind for the next campaign"

Over the past few years, portals have been shying away from giving CPM based or CPC based campaigns. The most famous case was probably that of MSN trying to sell space on a time band basis. Typically page captures are sold on a time-contract basis irrespective of the number of impressions or clicks. There are of course cases like Rediff.com offering mail open based campaigns, or Ad networks like Google, Komli, DGM and others offering the options of CPC or CPL or CPA campaigns exclusively.

Today I came across this story on Alootechie. Its regarding a study carried out by Komli for BIG TV in association with Vizu. The BIGgest takeaway from the study appears to be that CTR's and brand impact in case of an online campaign are poorly corelated.

According to me, it is wrong to generalise the metrics of success of any brand campaign, or any campaign for that matter. Various campaigns would have various objectives, while some may be looking for increase in brand awareness, others may be looking to drive traffic to a particular webpage while still others may be hooked onto sales.

I am not familiar with Ad Catalyst's capabilities, nor am I privy to the results of the survey other than what has been posted in the public domain, but if I assume that the survey has or Ad Catalyst is capable of telling planners which banner positions are best suited for brand awareness or clicks or driving registrations, then this would help planners tremendously to create plans focussed on the needs of the marketeer.

If there are multiple parameters that can be measured in case of online media, rest assured that each of them can be put to good use, we just need to keep in mind that not always is it feasible or correct to measure all the parameters together. Not everything will tango in sync. Some parameters will go up, while others will go down - its important to set objectives correctly and measure how these objectives are being met for the success of any brand in the online space.

2009-04-20T06:25:00.001-07:00

Snapshot Of Juxt Consult India Online 2009 Study

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