Traditional media companies trying to stem the flow of advertising dollars to Google and other large Internet companies are increasingly building ad networks of their own, anchored by their brands.
The latest, Forbes Inc., announced that it will soon start selling ads for about 400 financial blogs. In recent months, Conde Nast, Viacom Inc., CBS Corp. and other major media companies have unveiled topic-specific ad networks to lure advertisers that want to buy more ads than any single site can sell.
If newspapers, magazines and broadcasters cannot expand online ad inventory, they are “under threat of becoming less and less relevant to the advertiser,” said Russ Fradin, chief executive of Adify Corp., whose technology runs ad networks for Forbes and others.
But these media networks, some linking fewer than a dozen hand-picked Web sites may have a tough time competing with the larger networks of thousands assembled by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL.
Those companies have been expanding, too, spending at least $11 billion collectively to buy smaller ad networks and technologies and in Microsoft’s case, also bidding more than $40 billion for Yahoo.
“As our technology has continued to advance, we’ve gotten better and better,” said Lynda Clarizio, president of AOL’s emerging Platform A advertising unit. “We can handle a lot of demand from advertisers.”
Advertisers prefer dealing with networks rather than individual web sites
The expansion drive by both sides comes as Internet users increasingly divide their time across scores of sites large and small. Advertisers would rather not deal with thousands of individual Web sites. Media companies and Internet portals alike are promoting networks as a way to reach larger audiences with “one-stop” ad buys.
So far, portal ad networks have largely succeeded in selling their affiliates’ leftover ad inventory at discounted rates and sharing revenue. By employing targeting techniques like matching ads to visitors’ surfing habits, those large networks are stepping up bids for higher-value ads , ones that have traditionally gone to sites run by media companies.
Small networks under pressure to sell to larger networks
Accustomed to selling ads on their own in offline channels, many traditional media companies have been resisting overtures to join larger networks.
“One of the big ones said to us, ‘You guys are really good at creating content and we are really good at selling advertising. It would be perfect,”’ said Sarah Chubb, president of Conde Nast’s online division, CondeNet, which has signed up a handful of blogs on fashion and technology. “We’re pretty good at selling advertising, too.”
Smaller networks can offer advertisers a consistent audience on pre-approved sites, while giving those sites individualized attention.
“Forbes understood our business,” said Steve Woit, publisher of Xconomy, a blog joining the Forbes network. “A larger network, whether it’s Google or others, has to deal with every industry and large consumer sites.”
Rather than join large networks, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. figures it is better off recruiting one or two dozen leading lifestyles sites that meet its editorial standards and selling higher-priced ads to Macy’s, Ace Hardware and other brands. Martha’s Circle launched in November.
Ad partnerships with indepdendent parenting sites
Viacom’s MTV and Nickelodeon have ad partnerships with independent parenting sites and are launching groups this spring around music and men’s lifestyles. CBS announced last week several local ad networks around CBS-owned stations.
Other media companies are forming networks among themselves. In February, Gannett Co. and Tribune Co., the two largest US newspaper publishers, joined Hearst Corp. and New York Times Co. to form QuadrantOne to collectively sell online ads. On Thursday, QuadrantOne said another 26 newspaper companies have joined.
Operators of the larger networks, however, say smaller networks can never produce on the scale advertisers are seeking. Todd Teresi, a Yahoo senior vice president, said the media companies’ efforts are a “valid path to go, a first step.”
Bunch of blogs too cannot compete with large internet companies
But even if a media company can assemble 10 or 20 like-minded blogs, he said, overall traffic wouldn’t be growing as much compared with what a large Internet company can offer.
Forbes is initially looking to increase business by just 10-15%, even with hundreds of bloggers. In mid-March, Washington Post Co. ended its 16-month-old ad network because many advertisers had cheaper options through the large portals and blog-specific networks like Blogads.
“We were holding out for value but there was too much inventory,” said Jeff Burkett, director of ad innovation with the Post’s interactive unit.
Instead, the Post hopes to increase ad opportunities by boosting traffic. For starters, it plans to start carrying items from the PaidContent blog and will likely share ad revenue.
Yet media companies are finding their own networks hard to resist, even if they join the larger efforts. MSNBC.com, a joint venture between General Electric Co.’s NBC and Microsoft, uses Microsoft’s ad technology and sales teams but also recently formed networks around politics and the female-heavy “Today” show.
“We can’t match what Microsoft does, ... but they represent a lot of different products,” said Kyoo Kim, vice president of sales with MSNBC.com. “We want to make sure we protect our brand and be in charge of our own destiny as well.”
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
In-game advertising has become more popular
While football videogames have long featured ads on billboards around the perimeter of the pitch, now targeted ads can be served. These can be tailored by a user’s geographic location and demographic profile, offering advertisers the chance to access a unique target audience.
Jean-Paul Edwards, head of OMD Media Futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD, says it is not hard to see why brands like in-game advertising. ‘What is interesting is that it demands the consumer’s attention, because if they are not concentrating on the game, they will die, crash, lose or whatever. In this media-fragmented world, where it is hard to capture people’s attention, that is not something that is easily sniffed at,’ he says.
However, while there is no doubt that in-game advertising has become more sophisticated, many believe the techniques employed to measure its effectiveness have failed to keep pace. The sector still does not have an independent, thirdparty auditing system in place.
IGA was one of the first companies to see the potential of dynamic in-game advertising. The company currently has more than 15m unique users in its network, and, according to Ed Bartlett, cofounder and vice president, publisher relations, this number is growing rapidly.
He agrees that the sector is now mature enough for independent auditing, but rejects any suggestions that dynamic in-game advertising is not accountable enough to justify the hype surrounding it. ‘The measurement that clients get from us is a lot more robust than they receive from a lot of above-theline media,’ says Bartlett. ‘It offers something with levels of accountability similar to those of below-the line activity.’
IGA’s system measures the time, size and angle of exposure to in-game advertising. Users have to see ads at a given size and angle for 10 seconds for it to register an impression. Ads are then billed on a CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) basis. Other ingame ad specialists, including Double Fusion and Microsoft’s Massive, take a different approach.
They also require a user to have seen an ad for 10 seconds, but allow this period to be made up of half-second units, meaning that an impression can be registered when a gamer sees an ad on one occasion for 10 seconds, or glimpses it on 20 occasions for only half a second each time.
‘Research confirms that to read and recognise a billboard or a texture usually takes a third of a second , so we have set it at half a second to allow plenty of time,’ says Frank Sagnier, Double Fusion’s senior vice president, business development.
According to Sagnier, interest in dynamic ingame advertising has grown significantly over the past two years. ‘We are seeing a number of global brands adopting it and investing more in it,’ he says, adding that sports, automotive, lifestyle and entertainment brands are particularly enthusiastic.
As brands increase their investment, accountability will become more of an issue, but the technology to measure click-through is already there. ‘The issue is that most publishers would be reluctant to let people click away from the game and disrupt the experience,’ says Sagnier. ‘Perhaps it would work for causal games, but not for something like Grand Theft Auto.’
Meanwhile, Bartlett claims that in-game ad networks already have a huge volume of research at their disposal from the games publishers themselves. ‘When a publisher is spending £10m on a game, it collects a wealth of data on the users, so it can say to advertisers, “These are the types of people we are targeting and here are the impressions we deliver” .’
According to Dave Hompe, group media director at digital network Isobar, the issue with in-game ad measurement is the same one that affects all online advertising. ‘In the TV market, everything is compared to the relevant impact of a 30-second spot. We do not have those multipliers for impressions, either for gaming or for standard online advertising. That kind of insight just isn’t available,’ he says.
Hompe adds that a lot of brands and companies are starting to see this as a challenge. ‘The first stage is when clients say, “Let’s assess relative efficiency for $1 invested in TV versus online versus in-game advertising.” This is the ultimate prize. We are probably not at the point yet where can make that assessment, but we can see there is an absolute value in using multiple channels for campaigns. The tricky part is finding the right balance,’ he says.
As levels of broadband penetration and connection speeds increase, and tech-savvy kids grow into tech-savvy young adults, it is hard to see online gaming’s fortunes going any way but up. Provided the market research industry, games publishers and in-game advertising networks can work together to develop the channel, it seems the in-game medium
is destined to follow suit.
Paul Milsom, new media analyst at British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), believes that for brands to invest in in-game advertising, games publishers and networks should provide three broad types of research information . They should offer a count of unique users, which is likely to be provided by web-based metrics similar to ABC Electronic’s unique-user measure for website traffic.
Demographic profiling of the game’s audience will also be essential for the advertiser to incorporate interactive entertainment into a campaign. Decision-making on any media channel , including online games, must also be enhanced with the addition of lifestyle information. ‘It remains to be seen how this type of information will be delivered, but it could be provided by a global audience panel, or by survey research,’ says Milsom.
Impact on brand perceptions
Researchers examined three in-game campaigns, for Nike 6.0, Samsung Mobile and Sure for Men. ‘We carried out pre- and post-evaluation as we would on other platforms,’ says Griffiths. ‘Brand awareness had not risen in the post-campaign analysis, but we did see changes in the perception of the brands, indicating that the in-game platform works well when coupled with existing campaigns.’
Griffiths believes the study marks the beginning of research in this field. ‘I don’t believe there are many agencies in the world that are any further down the line with this, because until now the industry has not been ready. The time is now right for the market- research world to pay attention to this medium and start looking at innovative ways in which we can track it.’
TNS believes that when analysis of players’ activity within a game is combined with external research on media consumption, attitude to the brand, propensity to purchase and actual purchasing behaviour data, the research industry will be able to prove the effectiveness of the advertising.
Jean-Paul Edwards, head of OMD Media Futures at Manning Gottlieb OMD, says it is not hard to see why brands like in-game advertising. ‘What is interesting is that it demands the consumer’s attention, because if they are not concentrating on the game, they will die, crash, lose or whatever. In this media-fragmented world, where it is hard to capture people’s attention, that is not something that is easily sniffed at,’ he says.
However, while there is no doubt that in-game advertising has become more sophisticated, many believe the techniques employed to measure its effectiveness have failed to keep pace. The sector still does not have an independent, thirdparty auditing system in place.
IGA was one of the first companies to see the potential of dynamic in-game advertising. The company currently has more than 15m unique users in its network, and, according to Ed Bartlett, cofounder and vice president, publisher relations, this number is growing rapidly.
He agrees that the sector is now mature enough for independent auditing, but rejects any suggestions that dynamic in-game advertising is not accountable enough to justify the hype surrounding it. ‘The measurement that clients get from us is a lot more robust than they receive from a lot of above-theline media,’ says Bartlett. ‘It offers something with levels of accountability similar to those of below-the line activity.’
IGA’s system measures the time, size and angle of exposure to in-game advertising. Users have to see ads at a given size and angle for 10 seconds for it to register an impression. Ads are then billed on a CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) basis. Other ingame ad specialists, including Double Fusion and Microsoft’s Massive, take a different approach.
They also require a user to have seen an ad for 10 seconds, but allow this period to be made up of half-second units, meaning that an impression can be registered when a gamer sees an ad on one occasion for 10 seconds, or glimpses it on 20 occasions for only half a second each time.
‘Research confirms that to read and recognise a billboard or a texture usually takes a third of a second , so we have set it at half a second to allow plenty of time,’ says Frank Sagnier, Double Fusion’s senior vice president, business development.
According to Sagnier, interest in dynamic ingame advertising has grown significantly over the past two years. ‘We are seeing a number of global brands adopting it and investing more in it,’ he says, adding that sports, automotive, lifestyle and entertainment brands are particularly enthusiastic.
As brands increase their investment, accountability will become more of an issue, but the technology to measure click-through is already there. ‘The issue is that most publishers would be reluctant to let people click away from the game and disrupt the experience,’ says Sagnier. ‘Perhaps it would work for causal games, but not for something like Grand Theft Auto.’
Meanwhile, Bartlett claims that in-game ad networks already have a huge volume of research at their disposal from the games publishers themselves. ‘When a publisher is spending £10m on a game, it collects a wealth of data on the users, so it can say to advertisers, “These are the types of people we are targeting and here are the impressions we deliver” .’
According to Dave Hompe, group media director at digital network Isobar, the issue with in-game ad measurement is the same one that affects all online advertising. ‘In the TV market, everything is compared to the relevant impact of a 30-second spot. We do not have those multipliers for impressions, either for gaming or for standard online advertising. That kind of insight just isn’t available,’ he says.
Hompe adds that a lot of brands and companies are starting to see this as a challenge. ‘The first stage is when clients say, “Let’s assess relative efficiency for $1 invested in TV versus online versus in-game advertising.” This is the ultimate prize. We are probably not at the point yet where can make that assessment, but we can see there is an absolute value in using multiple channels for campaigns. The tricky part is finding the right balance,’ he says.
As levels of broadband penetration and connection speeds increase, and tech-savvy kids grow into tech-savvy young adults, it is hard to see online gaming’s fortunes going any way but up. Provided the market research industry, games publishers and in-game advertising networks can work together to develop the channel, it seems the in-game medium
is destined to follow suit.
Paul Milsom, new media analyst at British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), believes that for brands to invest in in-game advertising, games publishers and networks should provide three broad types of research information . They should offer a count of unique users, which is likely to be provided by web-based metrics similar to ABC Electronic’s unique-user measure for website traffic.
Demographic profiling of the game’s audience will also be essential for the advertiser to incorporate interactive entertainment into a campaign. Decision-making on any media channel , including online games, must also be enhanced with the addition of lifestyle information. ‘It remains to be seen how this type of information will be delivered, but it could be provided by a global audience panel, or by survey research,’ says Milsom.
Impact on brand perceptions
Researchers examined three in-game campaigns, for Nike 6.0, Samsung Mobile and Sure for Men. ‘We carried out pre- and post-evaluation as we would on other platforms,’ says Griffiths. ‘Brand awareness had not risen in the post-campaign analysis, but we did see changes in the perception of the brands, indicating that the in-game platform works well when coupled with existing campaigns.’
Griffiths believes the study marks the beginning of research in this field. ‘I don’t believe there are many agencies in the world that are any further down the line with this, because until now the industry has not been ready. The time is now right for the market- research world to pay attention to this medium and start looking at innovative ways in which we can track it.’
TNS believes that when analysis of players’ activity within a game is combined with external research on media consumption, attitude to the brand, propensity to purchase and actual purchasing behaviour data, the research industry will be able to prove the effectiveness of the advertising.
What Gandhi can teach us about advertising
Most people picture Mahatma Gandhi as some gentle, fragile man who people followed because he was just so peaceful. Gandhi wasn'''t an idle peacenik; he was a perceptive communicator who would have been right at home in today's ad industry.
But the truth is he wasn’t just some sappy dude who sat around all day smiling. He was a sharp lawyer who had a mind for smart communication. He was non-violent, but not passive. He devastated an empire by taking residence in people’s minds. He knew how the media worked and how to get attention. He spread his message by causing peaceful civil disobedience that got talked about in international press and word of mouth. That’s the power of a story worth discussing.
His famous salt march was done explicitly to get noticed. He made a small batch of salt, which was illegal for him to do under British rule. The salt he made wasn’t worth much, but the press couldn’t help but write about his defiance.
In less noble ways perhaps, advertising does the same thing for brands. It finds the inner story of the product and causes some civil disobedience (guerilla marketing, breakthrough thinking, press-worthy work), for the betterment of the brands. Calling out the tyranny of competitors and marking their own righteous deeds. Anything that gets people talking, the news writing or the schoolyard buzzing.
3M spent next to nothing installing a bus shelter with thousands of dollars locked under security glass, free to anyone who could get it. By inviting the public to attack the shelter they received incredible attention.
Most good advertisers know this. The advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky even writes ideas in the form of what the press release might say.
Others need to be reminded. If you don’t create a stir with your adverts, you’re not really doing much. And if clients aren’t prepared to be shocked on occasion, they’re setting themselves up to be overthrown by some small witty brand in modest cloth.
But the truth is he wasn’t just some sappy dude who sat around all day smiling. He was a sharp lawyer who had a mind for smart communication. He was non-violent, but not passive. He devastated an empire by taking residence in people’s minds. He knew how the media worked and how to get attention. He spread his message by causing peaceful civil disobedience that got talked about in international press and word of mouth. That’s the power of a story worth discussing.
His famous salt march was done explicitly to get noticed. He made a small batch of salt, which was illegal for him to do under British rule. The salt he made wasn’t worth much, but the press couldn’t help but write about his defiance.
In less noble ways perhaps, advertising does the same thing for brands. It finds the inner story of the product and causes some civil disobedience (guerilla marketing, breakthrough thinking, press-worthy work), for the betterment of the brands. Calling out the tyranny of competitors and marking their own righteous deeds. Anything that gets people talking, the news writing or the schoolyard buzzing.
3M spent next to nothing installing a bus shelter with thousands of dollars locked under security glass, free to anyone who could get it. By inviting the public to attack the shelter they received incredible attention.
Most good advertisers know this. The advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky even writes ideas in the form of what the press release might say.
Others need to be reminded. If you don’t create a stir with your adverts, you’re not really doing much. And if clients aren’t prepared to be shocked on occasion, they’re setting themselves up to be overthrown by some small witty brand in modest cloth.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Are films a safer bet for brand managers?
NAVIN SHAH
Much has been written about India’s early exit from the ICC World Cup 2007 and the disappointments faced by advertisers like Pepsi and LG Electronics that splurged Rs 75 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively in the showcase event along with other brands and advertisers, who had collectively invested more than Rs 500 crore in it.
No surprises that the advertising fraternity has started questioning the efficacy of cricket as a marketing medium. In fact, there are reports every day as to how the current Indo-Bangla series has been hit by the lack of viewer, advertiser and, therefore, broadcaster interest.
Recent trends show that brand managers and media buyers have realised hitching their marketing wagon on cricket is full of unglorious uncertainties, an expensive investment to stand out in the mad rush of brands.
Given that there is a growing number of brands that have started looking beyond cricket as a marketing and communication medium and are using films as a strong platform for reaching out their target audience.
Here are some interesting facts on how films score over cricket.
• Advertising and branding in films is more effective because of the repeat value and various mediums of re-runs compared with cricket which has a limited shelf life.
• Cricket hampers a brand’s visibility because of a high level of clutter. In other words, little registration and therefore diluted brand recall among the viewers. On the other hand, films offer brands a subtle, seamless and top of the mind communication option by enhancing the brand saliency.
• Brands face a high level of uncertainty when associating with cricket. Television rating points generated by cricket depends on individual scores and performances (as seen in this year’s World Cup tournament), whereas films have a captive, recurring and a growing audience base at all times.
• As we see it, cricket is a high risk, low return mode of marketing. There is a high level of interruption because of the large number of commercial breaks, whereas films allow brands to market themselves to its audience with minimum interruption—in other words, in an environment of high viewer attention.
On the other hand, here are some recent examples of how brands have successfully associated with movies.
• Krrish and Rangeela Acron: The idea was to establish Rangeela as a household name by using entertainment as a medium. Krrish was aptly selected as it was the most awaited movie of the year. The target audience comprised children and their mothers. Special Krrish-Rangeela packs were created; the added attraction for the kids was Hrithik ‘s autograph that was incorporated in every pack of Rangeela. The Krrish-Rangeela packs became an instant hit with kids. The unit sales of the product across markets increased tremendously. The production inventory of six months was exhausted in a month
• Baskin Robbins and Spider-Man 3: Spider-Man has a huge franchise—be it through movies, comics, merchandise or TV shows. Baskin Robbins has integrated the feel and look of Spider-Man 3 by adapting flavors that represent various characters from the movie including the eccentric villains. Its Super-Hero Flavours (Web Slinger, Sand Storm and Green Gobbler) are loosely based on the most recognised characters from the movie. The packaging and presentation of the ice creams are done so that they look like being part of the movie.
The company is giving away Marvel’s Super-Hero comics with every purchase of Super-Hero Flavours. A co-branded TVC is also part of the package. Since a large number of Baskin Robbins outlets are located in multiplexes, the promotion is held in theatres only through on-screen activation.
There are numerous other examples. But then we will run out of space.
(The author is CEO P9 Integrated, a film-marketing company from the Percept Holdings Group)
Much has been written about India’s early exit from the ICC World Cup 2007 and the disappointments faced by advertisers like Pepsi and LG Electronics that splurged Rs 75 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively in the showcase event along with other brands and advertisers, who had collectively invested more than Rs 500 crore in it.
No surprises that the advertising fraternity has started questioning the efficacy of cricket as a marketing medium. In fact, there are reports every day as to how the current Indo-Bangla series has been hit by the lack of viewer, advertiser and, therefore, broadcaster interest.
Recent trends show that brand managers and media buyers have realised hitching their marketing wagon on cricket is full of unglorious uncertainties, an expensive investment to stand out in the mad rush of brands.
Given that there is a growing number of brands that have started looking beyond cricket as a marketing and communication medium and are using films as a strong platform for reaching out their target audience.
Here are some interesting facts on how films score over cricket.
• Advertising and branding in films is more effective because of the repeat value and various mediums of re-runs compared with cricket which has a limited shelf life.
• Cricket hampers a brand’s visibility because of a high level of clutter. In other words, little registration and therefore diluted brand recall among the viewers. On the other hand, films offer brands a subtle, seamless and top of the mind communication option by enhancing the brand saliency.
• Brands face a high level of uncertainty when associating with cricket. Television rating points generated by cricket depends on individual scores and performances (as seen in this year’s World Cup tournament), whereas films have a captive, recurring and a growing audience base at all times.
• As we see it, cricket is a high risk, low return mode of marketing. There is a high level of interruption because of the large number of commercial breaks, whereas films allow brands to market themselves to its audience with minimum interruption—in other words, in an environment of high viewer attention.
On the other hand, here are some recent examples of how brands have successfully associated with movies.
• Krrish and Rangeela Acron: The idea was to establish Rangeela as a household name by using entertainment as a medium. Krrish was aptly selected as it was the most awaited movie of the year. The target audience comprised children and their mothers. Special Krrish-Rangeela packs were created; the added attraction for the kids was Hrithik ‘s autograph that was incorporated in every pack of Rangeela. The Krrish-Rangeela packs became an instant hit with kids. The unit sales of the product across markets increased tremendously. The production inventory of six months was exhausted in a month
• Baskin Robbins and Spider-Man 3: Spider-Man has a huge franchise—be it through movies, comics, merchandise or TV shows. Baskin Robbins has integrated the feel and look of Spider-Man 3 by adapting flavors that represent various characters from the movie including the eccentric villains. Its Super-Hero Flavours (Web Slinger, Sand Storm and Green Gobbler) are loosely based on the most recognised characters from the movie. The packaging and presentation of the ice creams are done so that they look like being part of the movie.
The company is giving away Marvel’s Super-Hero comics with every purchase of Super-Hero Flavours. A co-branded TVC is also part of the package. Since a large number of Baskin Robbins outlets are located in multiplexes, the promotion is held in theatres only through on-screen activation.
There are numerous other examples. But then we will run out of space.
(The author is CEO P9 Integrated, a film-marketing company from the Percept Holdings Group)
In Brand Advertising which should be emphasized - Reach or Frequency?
Many will say that it is more efficient to focus on reach (versus frequency) because there are diminishing returns with each new ad exposure. That is, the advertising response curve is usually concave. This is particularly true if your goal is to create an immediate sale of a ubiquitously purchased consumer product. In that situation, reach almost always delivers "more bang for your buck." However, if your funds are limited and your audience is highly targeted, you would do better to focus on a reach schedule of 3+, seeking out media with significant audience overlap.
For brand building purposes, I usually focus on advertising frequency targeted at those that are most likely to influence the remainder of the market: primary target opinion leaders and "hard core" users.
(Source : Brand Strategy Insider)
For brand building purposes, I usually focus on advertising frequency targeted at those that are most likely to influence the remainder of the market: primary target opinion leaders and "hard core" users.
(Source : Brand Strategy Insider)
Friday, May 18, 2007
Admen debate next target of global conglomerates
THE ECONOMIC TIMES
Irshad Daftari
MUMBAI
The US-based
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global ad agency conglomerate, the $6.2-billion Inter Public Group's (IPG) recent buy of Lintas' majority stake to gain full control of Lowe India, one of the country's biggest agencies, has reopened the independent-versus-conglomerate debate in the Rs 16,300-crore Indian ad industry. The question uppermost on everyone's mind, post this IPG buy, is who's next?
For the few remaining majority Indian-owned or with (still) substantial Indian equity advertising agencies - such as Mudra Communications, Redifussion DY&R, FCB-Ulka and Madison - the lure to sell out to one of the big four ad holding companies - UK-based WPP, Paris-based Publicis, and the two American groups, IPG and the world's biggest Omnicom - perhaps has never been greater.
The ad market is at its best in the past decade or so, clocking 24 % growth in 2006 on top of a healthy over 15 % in 2005. With this year also promising to deliver over 12-15% growth in revenues, little wonder valuations are getting steeper, and attractive for sellers.
IPG, which has made losses for three straight years, has finally come to life in India after it seemed for a while that Omnicom could have bought out the majority stake in Lowe India. It now completely owns two of India's best planner-led agencies, McCann Erickson and Lowe and has a majority stake in FCB Ulka.
But still, both IPG and Omnicom are leagues behind WPP in India. Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP, with global revenues of $10.9-billion, has the largest presence in India, owning five of the ten largest agencies (by people) in the country-Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, Rediffusion DY&R, Grey and Bates David Enterprise.
Group M, the consolidated media buying arm is, according to the industry, atleast twice the size of the nearest competitor, reckoned to be IPG's Initiative. WPP's The Kantar Group, which owns IMRB and Henley Centre, is well ahead of its peers in market research.
After the mop-up of Indian advertising by WPP, you can count the remaining independents on your fingertips. Mudra Communications, of which Omnicom-owned DDB has 10% stake (with a majority with Anil Ambani of ADAG), Rediffusion DY&R, in which the Indian owner-managers (Diwan Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan) own a majority share.
In FCB-Ulka, IPG's Foote, Cone & Belding control's 51 % with the rest 49 % with Redington, a Singapore-based supplier of computer peripherals. Madison Communications remains the only large integrated agency that still stands on its own.
There are smaller players, such as Triton Advertising, Network Advertising and Capital Advertising, all attractive targets for an international networks. Not everyone thinks that these independents can survive on their own for long. Says Arvind Sharma, chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett India, “Amongst the top 10 agencies in India, there isn't a single one without any multinational partner.”
So do Indian independents or near-independents have no choice but to be gobbled by the bigger, global agency, given the right price? Says Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison Communications, “My perspective doesn't change because of what's happening in the market.
We don't have any philosophical disagreement for taking over a global partner. It has to be in the interests of clients, employees, shareholders in that order.” Mr Balsara affirms that he has spoken to several leading global CEOs that have come and visited him, but he continues to operate on his own.
Madison has taken up negotiations with many global networks including the Publicis Groupe, but none of them have fructified. To be sure, it's just the right price that maybe holding back many a deal, and with IPG's Lintas' deal as a harbinger to global conglomerates' rising interest in India, don't be surprised if there is a run on the ad dealcounter soon.
The need, for these independents to bring in a strategic partner is matched equally with the need of big ad groups such as IPG and Omnicom to up their ante in a country which is dominated by WPP. Take the $11.4-billion Omnicom Group for instance.
Of Omnicom's creative agency brands, DDB (Mudra), TBWA and RK Swamy/BBDO, haven't been at the creative cutting edge as their international counterparts, and it has launched OMD, its media agency, only in February last. Says the head of a WPP-owned agency, “Omnicom never had options in India to begin with. That isn't going to change now.” He has a point here, but understanding it needs going back a decade or so.
WPP's global acquisition of JWT (1987), Ogilvy & Mather (1989), Young & Rubicam (2000) and Grey Global and Cordinant Communications in 2005, gave it an insurmountable lead in India. There is hardly any big agency, without any global agency alignment of some sort, to be picked up by competing networks such as IPG, Omnicom or Publicis.
Perhaps for this reason Japanese ad group, Dentsu, kicked off its India foray in 2005, in partnership with veteran ad man Sandeep Goyal, minus any acquisition, and choose a model to build its business ground-up in India by aligning the ad business of its core global clients, essentially Japanese companies with big presence in India, such as Honda and Toyota.
In India, mergers and acquisitions picked up in the early to mid-90s. Virtually every Indian agency was courted by an international agency or holding company. Once the buyout happened, the Indian name was dropped from the agency. So Chaitra became Publicis' Leo Burnett; Trikaya became Grey; Clarion became Bates, to name just a few. The entrepreneur eventually sold out to the international agency that it had tied up with.
“If an international holding company wants to buy out a local advertising firm it presents a great opportunity for local entrepreneurs to cash in on what they have built, provided the valuation is right,” says Madhukar Kamath, MD & CEO, Mudra Group.
Often, best practices are shared around the network, and if an Indian independent does get aligned to a global advertising agency they'll benefit from both the knowledge as well as the global clients that a network will bring.
But that's not as important a factor anymore today. Says Diwan Arun Nanda, CMD, Rediffusion DY&R, “Indian companies themselves are growing at a fast pace and newer sectors like insurance and retail are advertising more. Indian companies going abroad might also want to partner with Indian agencies.”
Perhaps of greater importance is that international holding companies have been focused more on marketing services globally, with more than 50% of their revenues coming in from mass media.
In India last year, the revenues from advertising stood at Rs 16,300-crore while the spends on everything that constitutes marketing services - direct marketing, PR, internet, events, promotions et al - was as much as Rs 13,000-crore according to an estimate by Ravi Kiran, CEO, Starcom, just a shade under the mass marketing spends.
Madison today has set up agencies catering to a variety of marketing services, including shopper marketing, retail design and rural marketing, which puts it in a position of strength when it wants to bargain. A senior executive from an IPG-owned agency says, “The independents can't continue to paint themselves in a corner. Tomorrow if Group M decides to flex its muscles, Madison might be forced to cut rates to retain its clients.”
Irshad Daftari
MUMBAI
The US-based
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global ad agency conglomerate, the $6.2-billion Inter Public Group's (IPG) recent buy of Lintas' majority stake to gain full control of Lowe India, one of the country's biggest agencies, has reopened the independent-versus-conglomerate debate in the Rs 16,300-crore Indian ad industry. The question uppermost on everyone's mind, post this IPG buy, is who's next?
For the few remaining majority Indian-owned or with (still) substantial Indian equity advertising agencies - such as Mudra Communications, Redifussion DY&R, FCB-Ulka and Madison - the lure to sell out to one of the big four ad holding companies - UK-based WPP, Paris-based Publicis, and the two American groups, IPG and the world's biggest Omnicom - perhaps has never been greater.
The ad market is at its best in the past decade or so, clocking 24 % growth in 2006 on top of a healthy over 15 % in 2005. With this year also promising to deliver over 12-15% growth in revenues, little wonder valuations are getting steeper, and attractive for sellers.
IPG, which has made losses for three straight years, has finally come to life in India after it seemed for a while that Omnicom could have bought out the majority stake in Lowe India. It now completely owns two of India's best planner-led agencies, McCann Erickson and Lowe and has a majority stake in FCB Ulka.
But still, both IPG and Omnicom are leagues behind WPP in India. Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP, with global revenues of $10.9-billion, has the largest presence in India, owning five of the ten largest agencies (by people) in the country-Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, Rediffusion DY&R, Grey and Bates David Enterprise.
Group M, the consolidated media buying arm is, according to the industry, atleast twice the size of the nearest competitor, reckoned to be IPG's Initiative. WPP's The Kantar Group, which owns IMRB and Henley Centre, is well ahead of its peers in market research.
After the mop-up of Indian advertising by WPP, you can count the remaining independents on your fingertips. Mudra Communications, of which Omnicom-owned DDB has 10% stake (with a majority with Anil Ambani of ADAG), Rediffusion DY&R, in which the Indian owner-managers (Diwan Arun Nanda and Ajit Balakrishnan) own a majority share.
In FCB-Ulka, IPG's Foote, Cone & Belding control's 51 % with the rest 49 % with Redington, a Singapore-based supplier of computer peripherals. Madison Communications remains the only large integrated agency that still stands on its own.
There are smaller players, such as Triton Advertising, Network Advertising and Capital Advertising, all attractive targets for an international networks. Not everyone thinks that these independents can survive on their own for long. Says Arvind Sharma, chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett India, “Amongst the top 10 agencies in India, there isn't a single one without any multinational partner.”
So do Indian independents or near-independents have no choice but to be gobbled by the bigger, global agency, given the right price? Says Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison Communications, “My perspective doesn't change because of what's happening in the market.
We don't have any philosophical disagreement for taking over a global partner. It has to be in the interests of clients, employees, shareholders in that order.” Mr Balsara affirms that he has spoken to several leading global CEOs that have come and visited him, but he continues to operate on his own.
Madison has taken up negotiations with many global networks including the Publicis Groupe, but none of them have fructified. To be sure, it's just the right price that maybe holding back many a deal, and with IPG's Lintas' deal as a harbinger to global conglomerates' rising interest in India, don't be surprised if there is a run on the ad dealcounter soon.
The need, for these independents to bring in a strategic partner is matched equally with the need of big ad groups such as IPG and Omnicom to up their ante in a country which is dominated by WPP. Take the $11.4-billion Omnicom Group for instance.
Of Omnicom's creative agency brands, DDB (Mudra), TBWA and RK Swamy/BBDO, haven't been at the creative cutting edge as their international counterparts, and it has launched OMD, its media agency, only in February last. Says the head of a WPP-owned agency, “Omnicom never had options in India to begin with. That isn't going to change now.” He has a point here, but understanding it needs going back a decade or so.
WPP's global acquisition of JWT (1987), Ogilvy & Mather (1989), Young & Rubicam (2000) and Grey Global and Cordinant Communications in 2005, gave it an insurmountable lead in India. There is hardly any big agency, without any global agency alignment of some sort, to be picked up by competing networks such as IPG, Omnicom or Publicis.
Perhaps for this reason Japanese ad group, Dentsu, kicked off its India foray in 2005, in partnership with veteran ad man Sandeep Goyal, minus any acquisition, and choose a model to build its business ground-up in India by aligning the ad business of its core global clients, essentially Japanese companies with big presence in India, such as Honda and Toyota.
In India, mergers and acquisitions picked up in the early to mid-90s. Virtually every Indian agency was courted by an international agency or holding company. Once the buyout happened, the Indian name was dropped from the agency. So Chaitra became Publicis' Leo Burnett; Trikaya became Grey; Clarion became Bates, to name just a few. The entrepreneur eventually sold out to the international agency that it had tied up with.
“If an international holding company wants to buy out a local advertising firm it presents a great opportunity for local entrepreneurs to cash in on what they have built, provided the valuation is right,” says Madhukar Kamath, MD & CEO, Mudra Group.
Often, best practices are shared around the network, and if an Indian independent does get aligned to a global advertising agency they'll benefit from both the knowledge as well as the global clients that a network will bring.
But that's not as important a factor anymore today. Says Diwan Arun Nanda, CMD, Rediffusion DY&R, “Indian companies themselves are growing at a fast pace and newer sectors like insurance and retail are advertising more. Indian companies going abroad might also want to partner with Indian agencies.”
Perhaps of greater importance is that international holding companies have been focused more on marketing services globally, with more than 50% of their revenues coming in from mass media.
In India last year, the revenues from advertising stood at Rs 16,300-crore while the spends on everything that constitutes marketing services - direct marketing, PR, internet, events, promotions et al - was as much as Rs 13,000-crore according to an estimate by Ravi Kiran, CEO, Starcom, just a shade under the mass marketing spends.
Madison today has set up agencies catering to a variety of marketing services, including shopper marketing, retail design and rural marketing, which puts it in a position of strength when it wants to bargain. A senior executive from an IPG-owned agency says, “The independents can't continue to paint themselves in a corner. Tomorrow if Group M decides to flex its muscles, Madison might be forced to cut rates to retain its clients.”
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Media and creative consolidation
LYNN DE SOUZA
It is said that an important indication of maturity and evolution, of an individual or community or society or process, is the ability to cross boundaries. To break down barriers that exist to protect and preserve so that newer territories, both physical and ideological, can open up to the brave and the enlightened, making way for further growth and development. Boundaries define, and therefore, they limit. Break them and a new world unfolds itself.
The best expression of this is the Internet, of course. And Google. And all things digital. These have broken down barriers surrounding the single most important element in all human relationships—communication. Physical, psychological, geographical and financial barriers have become a thing of the past today when a 12-year-old basketball player in Connecticut can so easily mete out some serious advice on pet therapy to an aging financial analyst in Sydney, both incognito, yet, very much cognito.
We, in media and marketing communication, are lucky to be sitting in the middle of all this. We can see all our carefully-built paradigms crumble before our eyes, and it looks scary, yes, but its full of opportunity too. Ten years ago, an advertiser and his agency made an ad, a newspaper had journalists who gathered news and commented on society, and consumers bought the papers, read the news, read the ads, bought the products and used them. Today, advertisers dabble with editorial, TV channels and radio stations make more ads than advertisers and their agencies, and consumers have begun to beat both journalists and advertisers at their game.
Co-creation and user-generated content. These are two terms that are making media planners, copywriters and journalists spend sleepless nights. They represent loss of control, a reinvention of roles, a full-blown breakdown of boundaries once spelt out in stone. They also represent freedom of expression, and more important, freedom of impression. As a consumer, or user of media, I choose what I want to be impressed by, like never before.
Little wonder then that there is a blurring of roles between media and creative. Media agencies increasingly find themselves suggesting creative solutions, often content-led ones, to both advertisers and media houses. The term content itself has come to mean anything that is published or broadcast—not just editorial, but also quasi-editorial, informercial, interstitial, or blatantly promotional. Media planners get more jollies out of an ‘innovation’ that they have convinced a media owner to execute, usually one that flies in the face of conventional editorial policies and boundaries, than they do from intellectual ROI modeling.
“Everyone is creative”, “Creative is not the prerogative of the creative depart-ment”. These expressions have been bandied around for some time. The truth is these statements are true!
So where does this leave the original dyed-in-the-wool, hotshot, ad agency creative director, many of who are my close friends? Some of them have forayed into strategic planning, many of them have become creative directors at media houses, having loads of fun in programming and promotions. Some have turned into online communication whizkids. Those that have stayed on in advertising grow more defensive by the day. That’s sad.
This is the communication age. Progress, or the lack of it, is now being determined by the quality of communication present in a society—its speed, cost, richness, creativity, reach and impact. Anyone who does creative things for a living should exult. He or she can tap into facilities, features and media that his predecessors would give an arm and a leg for. Smart creative people thus appreciate the need to collaborate with those that provide these facilities and features, rather than complain that other people are treading on their space or crossing into their defined limits.
Having said that, I seriously don’t expect a creative guy to want to do a media plan. And yet, I think I would be happy if he did try to. The best creative directors I have worked with could write a better media strategy than I could on any given day, and have done so. They bring to the table their understanding of how consumers engage with content of any kind, from books and movies to art exhibitions and soap operas, to create communication that makes a difference. Balbir Pasha was not made from the IRS or the NRS. Neither, I daresay, was Google.
—The author is director, Lintas Media Group. She is a juror at the Goa Fest 2007 media awards, to be held later this month
It is said that an important indication of maturity and evolution, of an individual or community or society or process, is the ability to cross boundaries. To break down barriers that exist to protect and preserve so that newer territories, both physical and ideological, can open up to the brave and the enlightened, making way for further growth and development. Boundaries define, and therefore, they limit. Break them and a new world unfolds itself.
The best expression of this is the Internet, of course. And Google. And all things digital. These have broken down barriers surrounding the single most important element in all human relationships—communication. Physical, psychological, geographical and financial barriers have become a thing of the past today when a 12-year-old basketball player in Connecticut can so easily mete out some serious advice on pet therapy to an aging financial analyst in Sydney, both incognito, yet, very much cognito.
We, in media and marketing communication, are lucky to be sitting in the middle of all this. We can see all our carefully-built paradigms crumble before our eyes, and it looks scary, yes, but its full of opportunity too. Ten years ago, an advertiser and his agency made an ad, a newspaper had journalists who gathered news and commented on society, and consumers bought the papers, read the news, read the ads, bought the products and used them. Today, advertisers dabble with editorial, TV channels and radio stations make more ads than advertisers and their agencies, and consumers have begun to beat both journalists and advertisers at their game.
Co-creation and user-generated content. These are two terms that are making media planners, copywriters and journalists spend sleepless nights. They represent loss of control, a reinvention of roles, a full-blown breakdown of boundaries once spelt out in stone. They also represent freedom of expression, and more important, freedom of impression. As a consumer, or user of media, I choose what I want to be impressed by, like never before.
Little wonder then that there is a blurring of roles between media and creative. Media agencies increasingly find themselves suggesting creative solutions, often content-led ones, to both advertisers and media houses. The term content itself has come to mean anything that is published or broadcast—not just editorial, but also quasi-editorial, informercial, interstitial, or blatantly promotional. Media planners get more jollies out of an ‘innovation’ that they have convinced a media owner to execute, usually one that flies in the face of conventional editorial policies and boundaries, than they do from intellectual ROI modeling.
“Everyone is creative”, “Creative is not the prerogative of the creative depart-ment”. These expressions have been bandied around for some time. The truth is these statements are true!
So where does this leave the original dyed-in-the-wool, hotshot, ad agency creative director, many of who are my close friends? Some of them have forayed into strategic planning, many of them have become creative directors at media houses, having loads of fun in programming and promotions. Some have turned into online communication whizkids. Those that have stayed on in advertising grow more defensive by the day. That’s sad.
This is the communication age. Progress, or the lack of it, is now being determined by the quality of communication present in a society—its speed, cost, richness, creativity, reach and impact. Anyone who does creative things for a living should exult. He or she can tap into facilities, features and media that his predecessors would give an arm and a leg for. Smart creative people thus appreciate the need to collaborate with those that provide these facilities and features, rather than complain that other people are treading on their space or crossing into their defined limits.
Having said that, I seriously don’t expect a creative guy to want to do a media plan. And yet, I think I would be happy if he did try to. The best creative directors I have worked with could write a better media strategy than I could on any given day, and have done so. They bring to the table their understanding of how consumers engage with content of any kind, from books and movies to art exhibitions and soap operas, to create communication that makes a difference. Balbir Pasha was not made from the IRS or the NRS. Neither, I daresay, was Google.
—The author is director, Lintas Media Group. She is a juror at the Goa Fest 2007 media awards, to be held later this month
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Advertisers rewrite rules for cricket pitches
The business of cricket advertising is never going to be the same again. Not after India’s early exit from the World Cup, which left several big-ticket advertisers red-faced. Not after bidders for cricket rights in India have had to forcibly share broadcasts with Doordarshan. And certainly not after the Essel group of Subhash Chandra announced plans on Tuesday to challenge the cricketing monopoly of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by launching an Indian Cricket League, which will give advertisers new options in due course.
India’s ignominious exit from the World Cup has already led to bitter renegotiation of ad rates with the broadcaster Sony. Several ad campaigns involving the Indian team or players (Pepsi, Visa, Reebok) have been pulled out, and contracts with cricketers have been cancelled (Sansui dumped Rahul Dravid and Videocon MS Dhoni). According to the grapevine, heavyweight advertisers who had signed up for the World Cup at hefty premia of Rs 2.5-3 lakh per 10-second spot are now getting the same at 60-80% discounts, at Rs 50,000-Rs 1 lakh.
To avoid such heartburn in future, the big change that is now being discussed by advertisers and media buying agencies is to relate ad rates to actual viewership.
Media buyers, who buy TV and print ad space on behalf of advertisers, are planning to write foolproof, and purely performance-driven, ad contracts with cricket broadcasters, including ESPN, which has the rights to the next two World Cups.
Some media buyers are suggesting a clause whereby advertisers will pay ‘x’ ad rate if India plays, and a reduced `y’ rate if India doesn’t. Advertisers may continue to buy ad rights in bulk, but the ‘x’ and ‘y’ rates for India and non-India matches could come to stay.
Other media veterans are also advocating a TRP-led, post-paid model which is in vogue internationally - rates that will be pegged to the viewership a specific match gets. (TRP, or television rating points, is a system to calculate how many people may have viewed a programme).
CD Mitra, president, Optimum Media Solutions, a media buying agency, is not sure such a model would work in India since advertisers may be unwilling to fork out more for high-TRP games. But then, it’s always possible to have contracts where payments are capped beyond a certain level of targeted TRPs.
Meenakshi Madhvani, managing partner, Spatial Access, a media audit and consultancy company, says: “The money these advertisers put in is actually shareholders’ money. When they say that cricket is a game of chance, shareholders’ money is simply up for gambling. This attitude should change. The TRP-led, post-paid model should be brought in and advertisers should be willing to pay a premium for high-ticket cricket events instead of gambling with shareholders money.”
What remains to be seen is whether broadcasters will accept the new script being prepared by advertisers and media buyers. The heat will be faced by ESPN, which has promised a mind-numbing $1.2 billion to acquire the rights to International Cricket Council (ICC) matches for the next eight years (2007-2015), including the next two World Cups. Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), which won the rights for 2000-07 at $ 550 million, sold the India rights to Sony for roughly $250 million.
Meanwhile, cricket planners point out three measures that broadcasters might take to promote cricket advertising. One, they might sell combo-package deals to advertisers that will not only include cricket events but also some other sporting events whose telecast rights the channel possesses. Second, they can appoint a third party, who will buy the advertising inventories in bulk from broadcasters and sell it to advertisers. In the current World Cup, Sony’s decision to sell a significant portion of ad inventories to Dentsu drew a lot of flak from media buyers and broadcasters who felt they could be cut out of future deals.
Third, broadcasters themselves could launch promotional activities to create the hype around the matches and the tournaments.
(Source : DNA)
India’s ignominious exit from the World Cup has already led to bitter renegotiation of ad rates with the broadcaster Sony. Several ad campaigns involving the Indian team or players (Pepsi, Visa, Reebok) have been pulled out, and contracts with cricketers have been cancelled (Sansui dumped Rahul Dravid and Videocon MS Dhoni). According to the grapevine, heavyweight advertisers who had signed up for the World Cup at hefty premia of Rs 2.5-3 lakh per 10-second spot are now getting the same at 60-80% discounts, at Rs 50,000-Rs 1 lakh.
To avoid such heartburn in future, the big change that is now being discussed by advertisers and media buying agencies is to relate ad rates to actual viewership.
Media buyers, who buy TV and print ad space on behalf of advertisers, are planning to write foolproof, and purely performance-driven, ad contracts with cricket broadcasters, including ESPN, which has the rights to the next two World Cups.
Some media buyers are suggesting a clause whereby advertisers will pay ‘x’ ad rate if India plays, and a reduced `y’ rate if India doesn’t. Advertisers may continue to buy ad rights in bulk, but the ‘x’ and ‘y’ rates for India and non-India matches could come to stay.
Other media veterans are also advocating a TRP-led, post-paid model which is in vogue internationally - rates that will be pegged to the viewership a specific match gets. (TRP, or television rating points, is a system to calculate how many people may have viewed a programme).
CD Mitra, president, Optimum Media Solutions, a media buying agency, is not sure such a model would work in India since advertisers may be unwilling to fork out more for high-TRP games. But then, it’s always possible to have contracts where payments are capped beyond a certain level of targeted TRPs.
Meenakshi Madhvani, managing partner, Spatial Access, a media audit and consultancy company, says: “The money these advertisers put in is actually shareholders’ money. When they say that cricket is a game of chance, shareholders’ money is simply up for gambling. This attitude should change. The TRP-led, post-paid model should be brought in and advertisers should be willing to pay a premium for high-ticket cricket events instead of gambling with shareholders money.”
What remains to be seen is whether broadcasters will accept the new script being prepared by advertisers and media buyers. The heat will be faced by ESPN, which has promised a mind-numbing $1.2 billion to acquire the rights to International Cricket Council (ICC) matches for the next eight years (2007-2015), including the next two World Cups. Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), which won the rights for 2000-07 at $ 550 million, sold the India rights to Sony for roughly $250 million.
Meanwhile, cricket planners point out three measures that broadcasters might take to promote cricket advertising. One, they might sell combo-package deals to advertisers that will not only include cricket events but also some other sporting events whose telecast rights the channel possesses. Second, they can appoint a third party, who will buy the advertising inventories in bulk from broadcasters and sell it to advertisers. In the current World Cup, Sony’s decision to sell a significant portion of ad inventories to Dentsu drew a lot of flak from media buyers and broadcasters who felt they could be cut out of future deals.
Third, broadcasters themselves could launch promotional activities to create the hype around the matches and the tournaments.
(Source : DNA)
Monday, March 05, 2007
Beaming ads to your cellphone
Beaming ads to your cellphone
BUSINESS STANDARD
Sapna Agarwal
PUNE
Ignoring advertising will get increasingly difficult with billboards now being able to beam video advertisements directly to passing cellphones.
People walking past these billboards will receive a message on their phone asking them if they wish to accept the advert. If they say 'Yes', they can receive movies, animations, music or still images further promoting the advertised product.
For instance, at a recent Idea Cellular event with singer, Sunidhi Chauhan, in Pune, the telecom company used bluetooth technology to offer free downloading of content like song clips and pictures through the use of bluecasting technology as a part of its outdoor campaign to promote the event.
Idea had put up four Bluecast servers inside different malls and multiplexes in the city with posters asking the customers to switch on their bluetooth devices in the premises to receive free Sunidhi Chauhan memorabilia, thus creating a buzz for the upcoming event.
Another BlueCasting campaign in the past was done by Lee Jeans in Bangalore and Mumbai and was targeted at customers entering high-end malls. It received around 20,000 downloads in one month.
The conversion rate was good with over 28 per cent of people accepting the Lee content and interacting with the brand (either by downloading wallpaper, collection catalogue and TVC), according to Nilesh Kale, director of the Pune-based firm, One-to-One Technologies, which claims to be the sole provider for BlueCasting services on the French Kameleon MobiZone technology platform in India.
The company is in talks with various advertising agencies for a nationwide rollout of Bluecast servers behind billboards that would deliver personalised content to people.
"We are looking at volumes and expect to install close to 100 sites in the next 3 -6 months and up to 400 servers in the coming year, thus accounting for five per cent of the total out door media spend," says Kale.
With close to 160 million mobile handsets and nearly six million handsets being added every month, Bluetooth-enabled handsets account for 25-30 per cent or 45-50 million handsets.
R Lakshminarayanan, chief executive officer, Mudra Marketing Services says, "Outdoor advertising is a Rs 1,500-2,000 crore industry growing at 15-20 per cent per annum. In the next three years, new media will contribute 10-15 per cent of the total outdoor media spends."
A bigger question in all likelihood is how companies will persuade users to accept the adverts once the novelty has worn-off. "If we can provide exclusive or valuable content to consumers, they'll actively want to consume it," says Lakshminarayana while stressing the future of outdoor advertising is in conveying information and content that consumers would be seeking.
Besides unlike spam, these promotions will have something to offer, Kale claims, such as content or vouchers.
Kale is mulling on introducing more interactive retail and outdoor solutions involving, kiosks, convergence of 3D barcodes or Radio Frequecy Identification (RFID) with mobile phones and other such technologies.
It's only going to get more difficult to ignore adverts in the days to come and it might not be that bad considering they shift from push to pull.
BUSINESS STANDARD
Sapna Agarwal
PUNE
Ignoring advertising will get increasingly difficult with billboards now being able to beam video advertisements directly to passing cellphones.
People walking past these billboards will receive a message on their phone asking them if they wish to accept the advert. If they say 'Yes', they can receive movies, animations, music or still images further promoting the advertised product.
For instance, at a recent Idea Cellular event with singer, Sunidhi Chauhan, in Pune, the telecom company used bluetooth technology to offer free downloading of content like song clips and pictures through the use of bluecasting technology as a part of its outdoor campaign to promote the event.
Idea had put up four Bluecast servers inside different malls and multiplexes in the city with posters asking the customers to switch on their bluetooth devices in the premises to receive free Sunidhi Chauhan memorabilia, thus creating a buzz for the upcoming event.
Another BlueCasting campaign in the past was done by Lee Jeans in Bangalore and Mumbai and was targeted at customers entering high-end malls. It received around 20,000 downloads in one month.
The conversion rate was good with over 28 per cent of people accepting the Lee content and interacting with the brand (either by downloading wallpaper, collection catalogue and TVC), according to Nilesh Kale, director of the Pune-based firm, One-to-One Technologies, which claims to be the sole provider for BlueCasting services on the French Kameleon MobiZone technology platform in India.
The company is in talks with various advertising agencies for a nationwide rollout of Bluecast servers behind billboards that would deliver personalised content to people.
"We are looking at volumes and expect to install close to 100 sites in the next 3 -6 months and up to 400 servers in the coming year, thus accounting for five per cent of the total out door media spend," says Kale.
With close to 160 million mobile handsets and nearly six million handsets being added every month, Bluetooth-enabled handsets account for 25-30 per cent or 45-50 million handsets.
R Lakshminarayanan, chief executive officer, Mudra Marketing Services says, "Outdoor advertising is a Rs 1,500-2,000 crore industry growing at 15-20 per cent per annum. In the next three years, new media will contribute 10-15 per cent of the total outdoor media spends."
A bigger question in all likelihood is how companies will persuade users to accept the adverts once the novelty has worn-off. "If we can provide exclusive or valuable content to consumers, they'll actively want to consume it," says Lakshminarayana while stressing the future of outdoor advertising is in conveying information and content that consumers would be seeking.
Besides unlike spam, these promotions will have something to offer, Kale claims, such as content or vouchers.
Kale is mulling on introducing more interactive retail and outdoor solutions involving, kiosks, convergence of 3D barcodes or Radio Frequecy Identification (RFID) with mobile phones and other such technologies.
It's only going to get more difficult to ignore adverts in the days to come and it might not be that bad considering they shift from push to pull.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Read on the move
By Rachana Khanzode
Pressmart, an e-paper technology expert and IMImobile, an end-to-end voice application service enabler are putting news on the mobile.
The mPaper application will only be available on WAP-enabled mobile phones. Users will also have the option of searching and saving articles. Both post-paid and pre-paid customers from Hutch, Airtel and MTNL can avail of the facility.
The service is currently provided by GSM mobile operators and, in the near future, will be extended to CDMA. The service, free for a month for promotional reasons, will be made available at Rs 30 a month for each paper.
So how is the application made available on the mobile? Bibhu Kumar, vice president, sales and marketing, IMImobile, explains, "Before the newspaper goes to print, Pressmart gets a copy and digitises the data. IMImobile takes this feed and repurposes it and transcodes the feed according to different phone models."
Won't the small screen of the mobile hinder reading? Kumar dodges the question. He says, "Reading a newspaper on your mobile will be a different experience. The idea is to provide information."
Currently, Hindustan Times (Mumbai and Delhi editions), Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad and Chennai Editions), DNA, The Indian Express, The Asian Age, Financial Express, The New Indian Express, The Telegraph and The Pioneer have been brought on board. The mPaper is expected to be updated at 6 AM everyday.
IMIMobile and Pressmart have a revenue sharing agreement with the media houses - as well as amongst themselves.
What was the reason behind launching the mobile application? Sanjiv Gupta, CEO, Pressmart, says, "Today, the focus has shifted from print to mobile media. The ease and convenience of browsing news content on a hand-held device gives us the opportunity of reaching widely distributed mobile audiences."
Not to be left behind, the Times Group is also finalising the launch of its mobile paper TOI MOBILE and will bring this facility to its users through Times Internet. As of now, users can access the e-editions of The Times of India and The Economic Times on their mobiles, free. Why did The Times Group feel the need for a separate mobile application? Iqbal Singh, chief manager, strategic initiative group, The Times of India Brand, says, "Today, mobile screens are made for more text. The content on TOI MOBILE will have more text and be crisper, which will enable the users to download it easily."
But what advantage does a mobile paper have over an e-paper or the print copy of a newspaper, as far as brand value is concerned? R D Bhatnagar, vice president, projects & operations, DNA, says, "The e-edition or print copy of the newspaper is not as handy or convenient as a mobile edition. Moreover, the consumer can refer to it as often as he wants."
So, are mobile papers the next big thing in the news industry? Opinion seems divided. While Singh of TOI feels it is too early to comment, Bhatnagar sounds excited, but cautious. "We have the platform, but the key driver of the whole initiative will depend up
on how much business sense it makes for the media house."
rachana.khanzode@thebrandreporter.com
© The Brand Reporter
Pressmart, an e-paper technology expert and IMImobile, an end-to-end voice application service enabler are putting news on the mobile.
The mPaper application will only be available on WAP-enabled mobile phones. Users will also have the option of searching and saving articles. Both post-paid and pre-paid customers from Hutch, Airtel and MTNL can avail of the facility.
The service is currently provided by GSM mobile operators and, in the near future, will be extended to CDMA. The service, free for a month for promotional reasons, will be made available at Rs 30 a month for each paper.
So how is the application made available on the mobile? Bibhu Kumar, vice president, sales and marketing, IMImobile, explains, "Before the newspaper goes to print, Pressmart gets a copy and digitises the data. IMImobile takes this feed and repurposes it and transcodes the feed according to different phone models."
Won't the small screen of the mobile hinder reading? Kumar dodges the question. He says, "Reading a newspaper on your mobile will be a different experience. The idea is to provide information."
Currently, Hindustan Times (Mumbai and Delhi editions), Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad and Chennai Editions), DNA, The Indian Express, The Asian Age, Financial Express, The New Indian Express, The Telegraph and The Pioneer have been brought on board. The mPaper is expected to be updated at 6 AM everyday.
IMIMobile and Pressmart have a revenue sharing agreement with the media houses - as well as amongst themselves.
What was the reason behind launching the mobile application? Sanjiv Gupta, CEO, Pressmart, says, "Today, the focus has shifted from print to mobile media. The ease and convenience of browsing news content on a hand-held device gives us the opportunity of reaching widely distributed mobile audiences."
Not to be left behind, the Times Group is also finalising the launch of its mobile paper TOI MOBILE and will bring this facility to its users through Times Internet. As of now, users can access the e-editions of The Times of India and The Economic Times on their mobiles, free. Why did The Times Group feel the need for a separate mobile application? Iqbal Singh, chief manager, strategic initiative group, The Times of India Brand, says, "Today, mobile screens are made for more text. The content on TOI MOBILE will have more text and be crisper, which will enable the users to download it easily."
But what advantage does a mobile paper have over an e-paper or the print copy of a newspaper, as far as brand value is concerned? R D Bhatnagar, vice president, projects & operations, DNA, says, "The e-edition or print copy of the newspaper is not as handy or convenient as a mobile edition. Moreover, the consumer can refer to it as often as he wants."
So, are mobile papers the next big thing in the news industry? Opinion seems divided. While Singh of TOI feels it is too early to comment, Bhatnagar sounds excited, but cautious. "We have the platform, but the key driver of the whole initiative will depend up
on how much business sense it makes for the media house."
rachana.khanzode@thebrandreporter.com
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