Media Planning

Traditional media firms challenge reach of larger portals

2008-03-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

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.”

In-game advertising has become more popular

2008-03-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

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.

What Gandhi can teach us about advertising

2008-03-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Are films a safer bet for brand managers?

2007-05-24T23:58:00.001-07:00

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)

In Brand Advertising which should be emphasized - Reach or Frequency?

2007-05-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

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)

Admen debate next target of global conglomerates

2007-05-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

THE ECONOMIC TIMES
Irshad Daftari
MUMBAI

The US-based
Advertisement
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.”

Media and creative consolidation

2007-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

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

Advertisers rewrite rules for cricket pitches

2007-04-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

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)

Beaming ads to your cellphone

2007-03-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

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.

Read on the move

2007-02-28T00:23:00.000-08:00

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

'Let's admit it - SRK is good in KBC III '

2007-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

By A G Krishnamurthy (Brand Consultant, Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Mudra Communications)

Irrespective of the bias against the anchor in the market - the show rocks!

What I've liked

KBC-III. Much talked about, the series has been the focus of many columns, analysis and audience participation programmes of late.

But rather than comparing this series with its predecessors, I would like to assess the show on its own. This is a show that hinges around its anchor and I must admit that the present host, Shah Rukh Khan, is coming through as a commendable one.

The show, of course, has been engineered very effectively. Every aspect of it, the script, the promos, and the mood have all been re-crafted to echo the host's persona. In this case, youthful, charming, suave, urban and lighthearted.

Shah Rukh rises to the occasion flawlessly every single time, delivering his lines with characteristic charm and ease. A word here about his clothes - his wardrobe too seems to be very carefully put together, so much so he looks straight out of a fashion magazine. Every show has him in a tasteful, well-turned out ensemble.

I can't think of a single area where this show suffers from lack of detailing. From the moment the host steps on to the show till the credits roll on screen, he is able to carry the audience along. The much famed finger-biting suspense that the show is well-known for continues to be present even in this series quite admirably, I thought, despite the jocularity of the host. To have achieved that balance too is quite a feat.

So here's my take on KBC-III. It is a very good series. Regardless of its history, its scores on the ratings chart and so on…if assessed for what it is, the show's creators and its host couldn't have done a better job. Long may it reign.

What I've learned

Body talk

Experts have concluded that it takes only 90 seconds for a stranger to form an impression about you - especially in formal, business situations where an introduction invariably takes places in a highly charged and judgmental environment.

Everybody is sizing each other up and this is how the cookie crumbles: A huge 55 per cent of the first impression you make is formed by your body language, a non-committal 38 per cent is awarded to your articulation and a meagre 7 per cent to content! I went through most of my career blissfully unaware of the nitty-gritty behind a "Hello, I am so and so…" but looking back on all my first encounters with clients and colleagues, I realise that there is a lot of truth behind this analysis.

A lot of what went into my "gut' feeling about people lay in the volume of communication that preceded the actual conversation. Come to think of it, I would invariably make up my mind whether I liked, disliked, trusted or was suspicious of a person long before we actually had a conversation!

The rest was just a confirmation of my initial impression. Every single detail gives you away in an encounter - the firmness or the slackness of your handshake, the length of your gaze - stare too long and you will be considered rude and intrusive, too little and it means you are ignoring their presence. The ideal length of a look apparently is 10 seconds. Look away after that, else your intentions will be misconstrued!

The general impression is that most people react positively when you have pleasantness about your face all the time, if you know how to listen and then answer, rather than doing a "fastest finger first" and blurting out an opinion before you understand the context, much like youngsters are trained to do these days. "Know-it-alls" are persona non-grata and again, oddly, most newcomers seem to have the impression that expressing an opinion on everything is a good thing.

To sum up, even though the extent body language can impact your career can be frightening, the good news is that if you are a good person your personality will manifest itself in subtle ways to win the day, even when all else seems against you…

agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com

(source : Business standard)

More on multiplexes

2007-02-15T21:54:00.000-08:00

Sharmila and Sameer Shah no longer take their five-year-old to a movie he doesn’t want to watch. These days, the couple doesn’t feel guilty about watching a film without him in tow. Their plan B comprises of taking their son along to the neighbourhood multiplex and leaving him in the foyer where he is happy bungee jumping or riding the giant wheel.

Welcome to a city where multiplexes are no longer about only watching movies. “We are constantly reinventing ourselves to provide entertainment options for the entire family,” says Devang Sampat, general manager, marketing, Cinemax. The Thane property of Cinemax has a gaming zone where kids can indulge in activities like bungee jumping or car racing while being supervised by a dozen or so attendants.

Meanwhile, Adlabs multiplexes are targeting not just parents with younger children but also older audiences. There are special shows specifically for these target groups, complete with facilities like nappy-changing corners and milk-warming stations. To ensure that the older patrons do not feel left out, there are special shows where escorts help the elderly to the restrooms or to the refreshment counters.

Besides, the lights do not go out completely at these screenings to ensure that the audience can move around safely.

“The idea is not just to enhance the movie-going experience but to also make it more of an outing for everyone in the family,” says Rishi Negi, who heads the food and beverage department at Fame Cinemas. The Fame chain of multiplexes offers themed birthday parties on their premises, complete with games, gifts, food and beverages.

For older customers there is a butler service which ensures additional comforts like being provided with blankets and pillows on recliner seats. And that is not all. Inox multiplex has ‘wine and cheese screenings’ while plans are afoot to give patrons a chance to enjoy movies over beer and popcorn. “We are constantly upping the bar by providing better services each time,” says Shrikant Hazare, vice president, marketing, Inox multiplexes.

Industry players point out that the additional facilities at multiplexes makes good business sense since they create a buzz without any additional cost to the managements. “We are trying to build brand loyalty through these services,” says Sampat while claiming that these initiatives are bringing in more and more customers every day.

PVR TG specific shows to attract Brand Sponserships

2007-02-13T00:58:00.000-08:00

PVR Cinema is planning to tie up with Austria-based energy drink maker Red Bull in order to woo working executives with special facilities, such as drink and snacks, at no extra cost.

"We would introduce one such show, specifically meeting the needs of the working executives, in the next six weeks and are already in talks with energy food and drink companies including Red Bull, Dabur and Revital for sponsorship," Mr Gautam Dutta, Chie f Marketing Officer, PVR Cinema said.

Mr Dutta, however, said things are not finalised and 'talks are in progress'. Executives would be allowed to take their laptops during these shows. "We would beef up the security to make it possible for executives to carry their belongings with them," he said.

The show is expected to ramp up the revenue earnings from the particular show by up to 12-15 per cent apart from earning more add revenue, the CMO said.

The main aim of the show is to catch the executives on their way back home from office and for this the company has decided to reserve the evening slot for these shows, Mr Dutta said.

The company would also launch similar shows for women and children. PVR already has special shows for senior citizens, which is sponsored by Airtel. - PTI

Is that your brand riding the rickshaw?

2007-01-31T22:31:00.000-08:00

Rickshaws advertising products of Coke, Bisleri, Dena Bank and Priya Gold? Yes. Sammaan, a Delhi-based organisation, has launched rickshaws that will do so.

These rickshaws are owned by the organisation but are driven by persons found eligible by Sammaan. Rickshaws have been given for free. The entire earning from the rides goes to the rickshaw driver while the profit from the sales of water, soft drinks, etc, gets shared between Sammaan and the driver.

The organisation gives the driver free uniform, identity card, bank accounts and an insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh. However, the driver needs to pay a maintenance fee of Rs 10 a day for the rickshaw. A passenger travelling in a cycle rickshaw can now have the luxury of sipping a Coke or Pepsi apart from listening to music via a headphone while he travels.

Moreover, he also gets an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh. In addition, these rickshaws are becoming an effective way of advertising and brand promotion for companies and are an emerging trend in outdoor media. The good news is that the fare charged for a ride in these rickshaws is the same as in a regular rickshaw.

"We are also in advanced talks with Zandu Pharmaceuticals, Coca Cola and Dabur, and are hopeful of getting advertising contracts from them," said Irfan Alam, director of Sammaan.

The organisation expects Rs 10,000-15,000 a year from a single rickshaw. It has signed a contract worth Rs 1.26 crore with Priya Gold to advertise its brands on 1,500 rickshaws for a period of one year.

Sammaan currently has about 100 rickshaws running in Noida and Ghaziabad, and another 100 in Patna. By February, it will have rickshaws running in Agra, Meerut, Gurgaon and Chandigarh.

Sammaan also plans to install telephones in these rickshaws, which will add to the income of the driver as well as the organisation. It is also considering addition of value added services like payments of electricity and telephone bills through the rickshaw driver.

Interactive Searching - chacha.com

2007-01-16T04:34:00.000-08:00

How many times have you searched for anything and felt that there should be a person in the search engine who could actually understand your need and help you out by presenting search options and results that are most relevant. Scott Jones and Brad Bostic were not satisfied with the way today's search engines functioned so they devised Chacha.com a wholly new and innovative approach in search engine technology.

The approach of Chacha is that when you search, you search with a 'Search Guide' who will either be an expert in the area you are searching or at least an expert in Internet searching. The site is still a Beta test version and the number of guides seems to be increasing steadily. (It took us 4 different search queries to get hold of a guide.) The biggest advantage of Chacha is that you can actually phrase a proper question and because the 'search guide' is human, your question will be understood much better than by a conventional search engines. This also means that people can not search for anything illegal and if anyone uses profanity in the chat session, the person can get banned from Chacha. Chacha is also self improving because it indexes all questions and their accepted results.

At the end of the search session you are taken to a feedback form where you can rate the 'search guide' as per his performance. And if you want to become a guide you can apply online too.

http://underground.chacha.com/

become guide - http://www.chacha.com/info/guidesignup

dental insurance

2007-01-11T05:54:00.000-08:00

shoe shop

2007-01-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

ndtv real cverage

2007-01-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

E-Papers Launched For Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar And DNA

2007-01-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

The Bhaskar Group has launched e-papers for their newspapers - Dainik Bhaskar, Divya Bhaskar and Daily News and Analysis. For the advertisers, they’ll offer the opportunity to add audio-visual advertisements at a premium cost. However, the paper will be free for only the first two months. Unless they’re planning to provide additional content to subscribers, I don’t see many takers. The value-add will apparently be in the form of e-paper customizations, and the access to archives.

IAMAI-IMRB study: Value-added services on mobile phones to cross Rs 4,560 crore mark by year end

2007-01-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

According to Mobile Value Added Services Report, prepared jointly by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) industry, having a current worth of Rs 2,850 crore, could reach close to the figure of Rs 4,560 crore by the end of year 2007.

On fragmenting the current market size of Rs 2,850 crore, Person 2 Person text messaging (P2P SMS) dominate the industry with a share of Rs 1,140 crore. This is closely followed by ringtones, including Caller Ring Back Tones (CRBT) at Rs 1,026 crores. Then comes the Person to Application (P2A) and Application to Person (A2P) figuring at Rs 428 crores, Games and Data at Rs 171 crores and others including applications such as MMS at Rs 86 crore.

IPTV In India In 2006: Tested, Launched, But Not Marketed To Users

2007-01-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

Reliance Communications plans to launch IPTV in ten metro cities, including four metros, by the end of 2008, reports DNA. They’re targeting five million customers in 200 cities, adds DQ.

2006 was a year when IPTV and triple play were more reported about than actually seen. We were told that MTNL and Airtel were trying out IPTV services, and though MTNL eventually did launch the service there was never really any clarity on the regulations and the pricing. The websites still have limited information, and there has been little or no promotion to speak of, so far.

IPTV, because of a startling lack of opportunism on the service providers part and lack of decision-making (only statements, no policy) on the part of the government, has also missed an opportunity as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata have switched to the Conditional Access System as of today. DTH and CAS services have marketed aggressively, and are more likely to capture the market. It won’t be easy to make consumers switch from these alternatives to IPTV in 2008.

We bring for you, some of the features of MTNL’s subscription plans for IPTV, available only on phone in Delhi:

The Silver Plan has a security deposit of Rs.1500, refundable with interest after five years. There are fixed service charges of Rs.30, and multiple rental options – monthly, quarterly, annual and lifetime. However, there are only 30 free to air channels, at Rs.60 per month, and paid channels at Rs.5 per channel per month, though at present only channels from Star are available. There are multiple options for video on demand: from Rs.200 per movie to Rs.5 per movie. Timeshifting is available for Rs.30 a month. For Videocalling, charges are Rs.25 for fifteen minutes during peak time. And this information is available only on phone. In Delhi, it’s been implemented in a few exchanges, and only one or two customers are apparently booking connections every week. The Bronze plan doesn’t have videocalling. The tariff plan for Mumbai is available online, here (pdf).
The target of 200k subscribers seems to be a pipe-dream for MTNL, and while as a product, IPTV has a lot to offer, and I feel that there is still a market for it – the communication from and information dissemination on the same has been nothing short of disastrous because they’ve ignored the end-user so far.

But what about Bharti, which was also testing IPTV? Bharti began 2006, hiring honchos for its IPTV services. They tested the service out in Gurgaon. The commercial launch still hasn’t taken place, in spite of their stated plans.
BSNL also tested IPTV in Pune, and plans to launch early in 2007 - first in Chennai, then in Pune.

Meanwhile, the content providers and the technology partners have been far more active and aggressive, particularly IOL Broadband and TIME Broadband, with which MTNL has tie-ups.

IOL Broadband increased its share capital from Rs.50 crore to Rs.70 crore, and got investment from the Times Group (5 lakh shares at Rs.100.share) and Maula Trading (7 lakh shares at Rs.95/share). IOL has a content deal with Star, and claims to have 20,000 hours of content. I wonder if they’ve achieved even 10% of their target of 300,000 subscribers by end 2007. The IOL Broadband stock ended the year priced at Rs.252.05 on the BSE, with a 52 week low of Rs.41.05. It had begun 2006 at Rs.69.45, increasing by 275.63% in 2006.

IOL also tied up with Anytime, and we spoke to Anytime CEO Craig Zimbulis about the deal. A deal with Time Broadband, we’ve heard, is also on the cards for Anytime. We also spoke to Time Broadband co-founder Tushar Shah. Time Broadband had diluted Rs.25 crores for a 33% angel investment from UAE based Clarion Shipping. They have tie-ups with IMI, Time Media, Film Producers Guild, Globecast, and have signed MOU’s with several others. I also saw a demo of the service, and the stock ticker was pixelated.

Companies looking at content-tie ups and investment in India:
- Israel’s NDS group
- Shemaroo
- ITV’s Granada International

What should we expect on the IPTV front in 2007?
- Launch of IPTV/Triple Play services from Bharti Airtel and BSNL.
- Increased marketing activities from either the aggregators (TIME and IOL) or MTNL, BSNL and Airtel. Or both.
- A policy governing IPTV from the Department of Telecommunications. Or so we hope.
- Slow adoption, until the next phase of CAS implementation kicks in.

Hope you had a good 2006, and best wishes for 2007.

Year End Review by Lynn de Souza

2007-01-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

Business wise, 2006 has been a good year for advertising with both value (up 19 per cent) and volume increases. The total number of spots aired on television has shot up by 35 per cent from 10.3 million in 2005 to 13.9 million this year. For the month of September alone there was a 51 per cent increase. Plus, there was more branded content on all media including cinema than ever before.

However, was this also good for the lay consumer, the housewife in Amritsar, the executive in Bandra, and the schoolboy in Chhatisgarh?

Our lives have been swept up by the media. A good one third of the average Indian's waking hours is spent with the mass media in some form or other - all through the day. Our lifestyles, values and opinions are being shaped by what we see and hear on the mass media as never before. 2006 gave birth or renewed life to many news and children's tv channels, global magazine titles, regional language editions of newspapers, FM radio stations. So far all of these, without exception, are advertiser supported.

It has therefore become virtually impossible for the average consumer to find a free moment in space or time where he or she is not accosted by advertising - on the streets, in malls, in airplanes, on the cellphone, in coffee shops, hotels and health clubs, while surfing the internet - besides the expected fare on tv, radio, newspapers and magazines.

It should come as no surprise to us therefore that he or she has begun to get rather annoyed. Our latest estimate of active ad avoidance in this country has crossed 70 per cent for every medium, among heavy upmarket media consumers. Passive ad avoidance is not far behind. Avoidance of advertising among the rural rich is even higher. I therefore doff my hat at all of us who persist with our careers in advertising. This must be the only profession in the world in which the eventual consumer does his or her best to ignore and avoid and turn away from what we have to say.

Intellect, our research and technology unit, recently released 'Engross', a survey conducted last month among over 2000 upmarket Indians to measure ad avoidance, ad perception and media engagement. Since we expected to find high ad avoidance levels, even on the more personalized media like radio and internet, we further probed on the reasons, our suspicion being that perhaps consumers didn't like advertising at all. Indeed, the feedback was exactly the opposite. An overwhelmingly high cross section of consumers enjoy and appreciate advertising, and find it informative and helpful.

So why do they avoid something they like? Simply because there is just too much of it going around to stomach. The same ad over and over again. Too many ad breaks. Ads inside content. Ads on covers. For the smart consumer, it's really getting to be a bad mad ad world.

There is a lesson in this for both media owners and advertisers. The day is not far off when these consumers will pay extra for ad free content. The era of subscription rather than advertising supported media content is approaching us fairly quickly. As advertisers we have unfortunately been caught up in the whirlwind of downward spiralling media rates, and have helped compound the problem of over advertising. Every time we have insisted on a lower unit rate we have been given bonus time and space by the media owners, thus contributing to the overload. We have together written up a volume over value charter, and the consumer is now clearly saying to us, "I don't like this. I don't like being taken for granted."

I hope we will all listen to this voice in 2007. Engross gave us another important learning - for years, content has been informative and advertising has been entertaining. Now however, the consumer finds content, even on the so called information media, highly engaging and entertaining, and considers good advertising to be informative. We would therefore be quite foolish to demean the value of advertising in his or her mind through poorly judged placements.

To 2007, may our business continue to grow, and may our customers enjoy it too.

strechout....gym

2007-01-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

tobaco causes death.....

2007-01-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

2007-01-01T05:19:00.000-08:00

guerilla poster

2007-01-01T05:16:00.000-08:00

nasal balm

2007-01-01T05:05:00.000-08:00

greaaaaat

2007-01-01T04:56:00.000-08:00

mind blowing

2006-12-26T05:46:00.000-08:00

interactive media

2006-12-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

power of powerful headlite

2006-12-26T05:36:00.000-08:00

tangle free hair-----------------------rejoice

2006-12-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

anti rashes

2006-12-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

child adoption

2006-12-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

fevicol

2006-12-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

well thought

2006-12-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

2006-12-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

helping hand

2006-12-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

anti dandruff

2006-12-21T08:56:00.000-08:00

Ultra slim mindblowin

2006-12-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T08:50:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

amusement park

2006-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

Wildlife

2006-12-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

Kenwood

2006-12-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

knife-OOH

2006-12-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

sharper Razor

2006-11-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

herbal toothpast beautifully don

2006-11-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

Dura cell suits the media

2006-11-05T04:07:00.000-08:00

The Trojan Horse Effect

2006-10-27T01:59:00.000-07:00

Marketers in India spend crores of rupess to let customers know about their brands. An average Indian is subjected to over 500 advertising messages in a Day. You start your day when the alarm rings on your Nokia phone, the morning rituals expose you to colgate or close-up and your brand of bathing bar. If you are male then probably Gillette is what you also see. You browse through ads in the Times of India and have a good meal with Amul Butter and Nestle Milk. Hoardings, advertisements on radio, people wearing branded clothes, TV… the story continues and probably ends with you setting an alarm on your Nokia phone.

Advertisements are expensive and more loud you are with the media spread, more you get into the minds of customers. That’s what marketers around the world believe so. Even the not so known brands are hiring the best Marketing brains to replicate the phenomenon called advertising for their les known brands. Watch zee tv and you will know what we are talking about.

Are there any other mediums available to attract customers and make them buy your product? Yes the Trojan horse effect.

The Trojan Horse Effect is a simple technique of asking intention questions. The research states that a simple act of asking questions can leads to biased response of the part of the respondents. And not just a biased response from the respondent but eventually a change in the underlying behavior. The questions are not meant to actuate the behavior but do lead to action on part of the respondents. Like the fabled Trojan Horse, the questions are not perceived to be manipulative or to have persuasive intent but do the job effectively.

Let’s see if this works. How likely are you to buy Coffee Today? Do let me know if any one of you reading this article finally went to barista to buy a café latte.

The technique is especially useful in activating the product category in the minds of respondents. Do you have a MP3 player? Which car are you likely to buy next? What music do you listen to?

All these questions can activate a category in your mind. The activation then spreads to the brands in the category, in proportion to the prior or existing cognition about the brands. So when people are asked about category purchase intention the brand with higher accessibility (read advertising/promotion) is likely to be activated. Thus its important to advertise no doubt, but actuating the customers to think about the category or brand is much more important. Marketers of new product categories should try this technique in advertising or at ground level. The brands that advertise the most should leverage their chance of being considered in the choice set by including this concept at the ground level.

We tried this principle in a Gurgaon Mall. Nestle’s share of coffee from the snacks counter of the movie halls in negligible. Coke and Pepsi have the meal combo coupons or offers which superficially subsidizes the popcorn. We posted bold stickers on the lift gate which read “How likely are you to buy Coffee Today?”. We tested this with two groups, one who were exposed to this message and one who were not. And the findings, 90% of those who were exposed to the message actually went ahead and bought coffee during the interval and paid 20 rupees extra for the total coffee and popcorn deal. Did Nestle subsidize the coffee or the pop corn? The answer my friend is no.

A similar question was asked to respondents while entering the mall. How likely are you to buy a pizza today?. In MGF mall there is only Pizza Hut and their sales actually grew by 15% for the days we put his concept to test. Many of them did eventually have a nice meal with their family at Pizza Hut.

The Trojan Horse effect can be used at the point of purchase or in the advertising message itself to activate a customers intention to try out a category and eventually buy your brand. The cost effective way of inducing someone to undertake a behavior is the challenge every Marketing or Brand Manager faces.

very nice, economical and effective media

2006-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

tee message

2006-10-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Dangers of speeding

2006-10-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

2006-10-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Sahara Filmy, the Hindi movie channel from the Sahara stable has launched a new game, Filmy Stock Exchange (FSE).

Based on the principles of a regular stock exchange, it will reflect the share price of a filmstar at any particular time.

FSE is available on the mobile and the internet. The user has to register in order to play the game. In the beginning of the game (on registration), the contestant will be given 1,000 Filmy Rupees - registration is free - to create a portfolio of his chosen celebrity. The stock prices change every hour on the basis of the trading trends - the actor's box office performance, industry news and gossip. The gamer can use the initial amount to buy or sell designated shares on the Exchange.

The game has a brand endorser in Arshad Warsi, who is in the news for his recent performance in Lage Raho Munnabhai. Warsi will introduce the game to viewers of Filmy. "Arshad's current standing at the box office makes him the right choice for FSE, because he is a star who is perceived to be young and successful at the same time," says Shailesh Kapoor, head, marketing & content, Filmy.

If the game will be promoted by the channel why has it been not introduced as a game show on the channel rather than being introduced on the internet and mobile? "The basic idea was that FSE can be played 24X7 any time from anywhere," explains Kapoor.

The channel will have constant updates on Filmy in the form of 30- or 60-second promos, which will keep the player updated on what's happening in the FSE. In addition to this, the promos will also give the players tips and tricks to play the game better.

Once the portfolio, created by the user, crosses 1,200 Filmy Rupees, the surplus amount can be redeemed for a prize. The prize list includes automobiles, bikes, television sets, watches and mobile phones. Filmy has partnered with MSN India for the game to be played on the Internet. On mobiles, the user can play it by messaging a short code to 9090.

Why was this game launched? Says Kapoor: "We wanted to extend the Filmy brand experience off-air - to other media like mobile and internet. In today's competitive environment it is important that the viewers can experience the brand in many different ways, and FSE is designed to achieve exactly that."

KitKat Ghost

2006-10-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

what does it really mean leave comment.

hi

2006-10-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

i really love media planning

Heineken

2006-10-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

A unique outdoor Media Innovation.

what an idea

2006-10-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

guerilla media

2006-10-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

great idea by some great people leave ur comment

india

2006-10-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

india

negativ advertising

2006-10-14T10:56:00.001-07:00

you can use negative approach when u want to create a category like in the beginning deo companies did so but in the existing category its not good