MxMIndia

Category: Digital

  • It's the biggest mobile tech show on the planet and Ganeshspeaks founder & MD Hemang Pandeet brings us his takeaways

    Takeaways from Mobile World Congress 2016

     

    It’s the biggest mobile tech show on the planet and Ganeshspeaks founder & MD Hemang Pandeet brings us his takeaways from the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain from February 22 to 25, 2016

     

    By Hemang Arunbhai Pandit

     

    This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), widely regarded as the largest mobile technologies show on the planet, was brilliantly boring. Mainly because everyone did all the brilliant stuff that they were expected to do, but there was no major disruption. Held from February 22 to 25 in Barcelona, Spain, the handset biggies launched great phones (without a better battery), the tablet was proclaimed dead (as we already know – and there were no launches or promotions, to underscore the point) and the wearables industry showed that it is struggling with a lack of mass adoption and fragmentation.

     

    The main actors of this show – the mobile operators – struggling with declining voice revenue and increasing data revenue, are hoping to lead a fightback against the OTT (over-the-top) industry, primarily because they do not want to be just a bit pipe. Everything that we, as consumers, might love, will now be launched in 5G, and it will take a few more years to happen. Still, there were three major takeaways from this red-letter event:

     

    1. Virtual Reality or VR is the new fad: With Samsung and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg coming together to launch the Gear VR along with Galaxy S7, VR seems to have taken centerstage and everyone is now looking at pushing its boundaries. An immersive experience is certainly enriching but currently, the side-effects of having it, are proving a bit too much for the average user. Nevertheless, we can expect a good amount of improvement, now that everyone wants a piece of it.

     

    2. Mobile Ad Blocking: This is something that has been worrying the media industry, and was also pretty important at the MWC this year. Funnily enough, there is an entire ecosystem around it. For example, there are startups focusing on bettering the technology; operators who are talking about network-level ad-blocking; device manufacturers who have already adopted this preemptively, and last but not the least, ad agencies who have now started saying that it’s fine, we will find some other way to engage the user and ensure that our top-and-bottomlines are not affected.

     

    3. Free Basics featured as well: This is something that Mark Zuckerberg loves, but India does not. We all know that both Zuckerberg and Facebook (FB) will not abandon this initiative, and that was confirmed at this event. Obviously for FB, taking the lead in providing a stripped-down version of its social networking site to people who have never been online, makes a lot of sense.

     

    There were many other highlights at this year’s MWC, like the fact that Nokia can legally start marketing phones starting this year but it has chosen to wait; like the fact that the Motorola brand will continue to live on; that the LG G5, a modular phone that can be customised like a PC, has been launched and that Sony has launched hands-free and eyes-free gadgets. And here’s saving the best for the last: LG has launched a rolling bot – a home butler targeted at the home-monitoring market.

     

    Hemang Arunbhai Pandit is Founder, MD & CEO, GaneshaSpeaks.com. This was the sixth consecutive MWC that he has attended. This article first appeared in dna of brands on March 7, 2016

     

  • Their current roster of clients in Sydney includes Citibank, AMP, BT Financial, and Adara Group

    Rage Communications awarded digital mandate of Unilever Food Solutions

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Sydney office of India headquartered, Rage Communications, a full service digital communications agency, has been awarded the digital marketing mandate for Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). The mandate involves the brands under the UFS umbrella including Knorr, Hellmann’s and Colman’s among others.

     

    Rage Communications won the account in a competitive pitch between four agencies. Speaking on the win, Rishi Sahgal, Digital and Trade Marketing Manager, Unilever Food Services said, “We were looking for an agency that had the breadth of capabilities to deliver innovative digital solutions across all our brands and help us make a step change in our ability to connect with foodservice operators. Rage Communications demonstrated that they were the right fit for UFS and we are confident they have the capability and passion to be our digital partners moving forward.”

     

    As the agency-of-record, Rage Communications will provide full-service digital marketing support for UFS, supporting their digital marketing programs and campaigns. Their current roster of clients in Sydney includes Citibank, AMP, BT Financial, and Adara Group.

     

    Commenting on the new win, Karthik Kumar, Director, Rage Communications said, “We are thrilled to be working with Unilever and look forward to delivering great campaigns for the brands under the UFS umbrella. We won this mandate on the back of our strong digital experience and our depth of expertise in developing robust digital solutions for marketing needs.”

     

    Some of the critical work will include moving the website to a new platform, plan and deliver some specific digital marketing activities that aims at consolidating the digital business gains for UFS in ANZ.

     

    Rage Communications will closely work with UFS’ global partners to strengthen and stabilize its digital footprint in ANZ as it plans to make digital one of the core marketing platforms of its B2B business.

     

  • Does the downgrading of an e-commerce major have to do with a flawed business model and inflated expectations from the serviced audience, asks Jaisurya Das

    E-commerce: It’s time you get your Onions right!

     

    By Jaisurya Das

     

    It may just be a coincidence but just a few weeks after I questioned the future of online shopping ventures and their dangerous losses, Flipkart has been downgraded by Morgan Stanley.

     

    What is worrying is that, if this is how a key investor is reacting, it won’t be time before we see more toeing the line.

     

    I wonder if the exit of Mukesh Bansal created a void of sorts, or possibly fear of a possible mass attrition. Well, I am no expert in e-commerce but write I will, from my own perspective.

     

    Honestly I think it’s a lot to do with the model and the inflated expectations from the serviced audience. Let us examine a few of the premises used for loyalty prediction.

     

    Acquire a customer at any cost. Service is above all.

    Brilliant. I tested this with two separate ventures:

    Test #1.  Order : Buttered bun: 1, delivered in 1.5hours from well-known bun outlet : Prompt, courteous service , coupled with sms messages and mail confirmation, payment gateway etc. Transaction Value: Rs 25 .

     

    Test #2. Grocery and daily needs. Order: 6 eggs and 500ml of coke. Order placed, payment gateway confirmation (2 mails, 2 messages) received in few minutes. Order delivered in 2 hours. Transaction value: Rs 56.

     

    Our customers believe in repeat purchase.

    Not true. Customers browse like there is no tomorrow. Whoever attracts their carnal instinct, wins! The more you pop right in their face, the more chances are that you will get a clickthrough.

     

    The more the customers, the more the revenue.

    Rubbish. There are classic examples of huge companies who have the highest volume and value market shares and yet are unprofitable. Let’s take the classic example of the erstwhile music mammoth HMV or Bata (till very recently) for that matter.

     

    Remember, profitability is about managing overheads well and how much your yield is per transaction. Volumes bereft of sensible yield mean nothing more than a bunch of Excel sheets!

     

    Average transaction value per customer will be Rs 500/ 250 minimum.

    Test: Leading e-commerce venture:

    Order : One landline splitter. Ordered , 8 text messages, 6 emails , a well-wrapped parcel and a well-spoken delivery man all within 48 hours. 2 mails post delivery. Transaction value: Rs 32.

     

    If customers can buy at this cost, it is almost certain that the site will only end up fulfilling the necessity and immediate need of its audience. The “I must have this” segment will slowly move away to another shopping destination which is all about their persona and their exclusivity.

     

    The wider the range the higher the sale.

    In fact, today’s customer is highly impulsive and tends to take purchase decisions fast. Hence too wide a range can in fact be detrimental since the customer is forced to go through pages and pages of options before hitting the Buy button !

     

    The lower the price, the higher the sale.

    This is the famous belief that everything cheap sells. What wasn’t factored though is the propensity of our neural networks to reinvent themselves. Price is a deciding factor and yet not the critical ruling factor in a purchase decision.

     

    Brand familiarity, peer confidence, persona etc are all significant drivers of purchase. Indulgence is often way beyond price barriers. Its about carnal satisfaction. Its about fulfilling an immediate desire to own….

     

    No matter what, valuations will only go skyward.

    Well, I guess the proof of the pudding is in eating it.  As Isaac Newton discovered: “All things that go up will come down “. Tragically this seems to apply to even fictional valuations!! We just had one example to show things can go wrong…. No, this isn’t the bubble we saw years back. This is for real and this time with much, much more money!

     

    Unfortunately, even the mammoth Titanic sank…Was it an iceberg of overconfidence?

     

    Time will tell. This mystery will be unravelled for sure.

     

    The market is rocking. People buy any idea. We have it sealed!

    How I wish this were true. All of us would be millionaires by now. Yes, a lot of us have seemingly bright ideas yet, not all of them sell! I may think idlis and gun powder delivered in real-time worldwide is a bright idea but when it comes to the consumer, s/he may demand it hot and fresh from an outlet s/he is familiar with!

     

    We can exit anytime and get our pound of flesh. From the day we take off, we are only valued higher and higher.

    How I wish entrepreneurship is as simple as jumping on a good horse and riding it into the horizon of success. No, you can’t exit anytime, nor can you expect valuations to soar. If you don’t have a winning product and later a brand to reckon with, it’s unlikely that you can exit with any wealth.

     

    Venture capitalists and angel investors are not as dumb as they may look. They know their onions well and monitor every rupee that they invest. Some give more rope but believe me, they know when you to tie that fateful knot!

     

    When the basic premise of a business and its success can be questioned (no matter how absurd the questions may be!) you can be sure that there is problem somewhere.

     

    Consumers aren’t idiots. They are human beings with a well-developed brain that can seamlessly skim through millions of data bytes to arrive at one quick answer;  Buy or Skip!

     

    Entrepreneurs and start-ups underestimate the consumers capacity to think and rationalise since all inferences are based on their own imagery of what is good and what isn’t.

     

    Today’s consumer isn’t a reflection of anyone. Each individual has a unique capacity to emote and connect, be it with a brand or a peer. This enables them to gather infinite pulses from the marketplace that most people cant imagine or decipher.

     

    What triggers purchase? What enables a decision? What prompts someone to leave one site and go browse through the other? What prompts a consumer to stop just before s/he hits the Buy button and abort the purchase ?

     

    This is just a glimpse of the unexplored terrain of the human brain. It takes much more than a great idea and an over enthusiastic bunch of youngsters to build a company and brands that will stand the test of time ….or the human brain!

     

    Today, if I may take the liberty of quoting Galileo…

     

    “ I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense , reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use ”

     

    Be sensible. Please do take instructions if you are in unfamiliar territory.

     

    Jaisurya Das, the maverick media-evangelist, eats, sleeps and romance’s brands. His cerebral consulting interventions are aimed at making brands powerful and sustainable. He is also the Contributing Editor of MxM India. The views expressed here are his own.

     

    The views expressed in this article are his own.

     

  • CA Media Digital has also recently introduced Wakau, a first of its kind celebrity video blogging app

    Vivek Jain joins CA Media as CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vivek Jain

    CA Media Digital has appointed Vivek Jain, former Vice President, Digital Media Products at Reliance Jio, as Chief Executive Officer. CA Media Digital is an operating business of CA Media LP, owned by The Chernin Group, KKR, and other investors. Jain will report to the board of directors of CA Media Digital.

     

    The appointment of Jain, positions CA Media Digital to continue to execute on its vision to provide both brands and consumers with innovative, celebrity-powered digital entertainment products and services, including Fluence and Wakau. Fluence, CA Media Digital’s first and principal venture, is India’s leading digital influencer network with the exclusive digital rights of over thirty leading Indian celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, and Ranveer Singh. CA Media Digital has also recently introduced Wakau, a first of its kind celebrity video blogging app.

     

    Vivek joins CA Media Digital after serving in a leadership position at Reliance Jio, a role that brought him back to India after being in the USA for 12 years, where he worked for Amazon, Google, Motorola and other companies. Along with managing CA Media Digital’s existing products Fluence and Wakau, Jain will expand the CA Media Digital portfolio through other incubation efforts. Jain has an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and a Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. “CA Media Digital, has in a short time, made great strides to be at the forefront of the digital entertainment curve. With Fluence and Wakau we have caught the attention of celebrities, brands, and audiences alike by creating innovative products and digital platforms. I look forward to further growing the existing business and establishing new ventures,” said Vivek Jain.

  • Kishore Biyani-led Future Group to bring out ads using word play to target Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon

    Flip the Cart, Snap the Deal and Amaz-Off. Future to tease ecom majors with ad offensive

     

    By Sagar Malviya & Pritha Mitra Dasgupta

     

    Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani, who’s never made a secret of his disdain for ecommerce rivals, plans to step up the offensive with a series of ads that use word play to target the three main marketplaces – Flip the Cart, Snap the Deal and Amaz-Off.

     

    This is probably the first time a brick-and-mortar retailer will engage in comparative advertising against online rivals, which have been grabbing share by discounting products.

     

    After nearly three years of deep discounting, most online sellers are now pulling back from this strategy in a desperate effort to shore up their finances, making them vulnerable on this front. Ecommerce discounts are now mostly limited to select brands such as online exclusives, old merchandise and own labels.

     

    The combined losses of the three leading online companies — Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal — ballooned to Rs 5,052 crore in FY15 from Rs 1,000 crore in the year before as they sought to build market share. At the same time, several brickand-mortar retailers clocked double-digit same-store sales growth last year, a reversal from the trend in 2014 when physical stores reported subdued demand as ecommerce players wooed away consumers.

     

    As part of the Future exercise, three newspaper jacket ads on Friday will direct shoppers to its Brand Factory discount outlet instead of hunting online for better prices in a manner reminiscent of the pot shots that Pepsi and Coca-Cola took against each other in the 1990s.

     

    The theme will be continued inside the stores, with staff and cashiers wearing T-shirts with messages such as ‘My deal got snapped’ and ‘My cart got flipped’. The 40 or so Brand Factory stores will also wear new facades and selfie zones with the same theme targeting Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.

     

    “We just want to prove the point that both our merchandise assortment and pricing are better compared to online companies. We need to make consumers aware of this fact,” said Biyani, adding that Brand Factory’s gross merchandise value (GMV) in the year to March 2016 was Rs 3,500 crore. Future is India’s biggest listed retailer.

     

    “While we use sales numbers to talk about performance, we are bigger than Myntra or Flipkart in terms of GMV,” he said. As part of its Great Offline Denim Festival, Brand Factory will sell nearly a dozen brands such as Levi’s, Benetton, Lee, Wrangler and Pepe jeans at a 50% discount for three days.

     

    Future has fired ad shots at ecommerce before. For instance, “You can’t take the nation for granted even for a day,” was aimed at Flipkart’s Big Billion Day sale in 2014.

     

    Snapdeal has taken digs at Flipkart and Amazon with its campaign tag line: ‘You don’t need a billion offers to amaze you. You just need to snap the best ones’. It also had about 100 billboards in 20 cities emblazoned with the phrase ‘Achha kiya bata diya, #YahanSeKharido’ aimed at Flipkart, which was running the ‘Nahin khareeda? #AchhaKiya’ campaign last year.

     

    “The intent of a campaign is really crucial,” said McCann India CEO Prasoon Joshi. “Whether the campaign is offensive or not will depend on the intent of the brand. If the intent is shallow fun then it is different. But I personally believe that taking creative potshots at competition cannot be a long-term strategy.”

     

    Brick-and-mortar retailers are also investing in omni-channel strategies and experimenting with global models such as flash sales, such as by offering a single product for sale for a period of 24 to 36 hours. “We are planning flash sales where consumers can get discounts, coupons and offers on several brands by using an app but buying at physical stores for certain hours or days,” said Rajiv Prakash, cofounder of Shouut, which is in talks with Shoppers Stop, Oberoi Mall, Decathlon and DLF Promenade for deal-of-the-day sales.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2016, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Campaign to play up the slice-of-life moments of the true Indian cricket fans

    Google launches new ad campaign by Lowe Lintas Delhi

    By A Correspondent

     

    With the excitement around the much anticipated ICC T20 World Cup, Google unveiled its latest Ad campaign highlighting a range of cricket Search features on its Google app.

     

    From a range of power packed features such as score updates to match schedules in English and Hindi these features offer a front row seat to all the games. The new Search experience also includes news articles related to games, teams and players, as well as score boxes with in-depth game stats.

     

    Further creating awareness around these new features, the two ad films highlight the benefits of the app. Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Delhi, the new campaign helps communicate that cricket lovers can easily get answers to any questions about cricket through the Google App from score updates  to schedules, from cricket gear to trivia.

     

    Commenting on the new campaign, Sapna Chadha, Head of Marketing, Google India, said: “Being away from the action can be frustrating, but from today you’ll never have to miss another moment with the launch of new cricket experiences on the Google app.”

     

    Sharing his views on the creative approach behind the campaign, Arun Iyer, Chief Creative officer, Lowe Lintas said, “Die-hard fans of cricket will stop at nothing to get the updates on scores or any information related to cricket. This element has been captured beautifully through the two films that goes on to show that no matter what you cannot take cricket out of a fan, and it’s only through relevant and timely information that you can go one-up with them.”

     

    Adding to this, Naveen Gaur, President, Lowe Lintas said, “Cricket is the biggest passion of this country where every Indian is a bigger cricket lover than the next one. And as one of the leader brands creating a digital world, it’s only natural that Google becomes the most preferred platform for any cricket related queries”.

     

    The campaign will be aired during the upcoming T20 Cricket World Cup and also IPL 2016 and will span essential on and offline mediums.

     

  • Online video growth fuels boom in India’s YouTube creator community

    Culture Machine, OML, Qyuki and TVF announce new properties on YouTube

     

     

    On the eve of YouTube FanFest, YouTube announced that content partners Culture Machine, OML, Qyuki, and The Viral Fever (TVF) were set to launch four new original properties on YouTube.

     

    First out of the gate in April will be #LaughterGames, where nine comedy creators will launch their own comedy web series, featuring among others, YouTube comedians such as East India Comedy, Put Chutney and Kenny Sebastian, who are also starring in today’s YouTube FanFest. In the coming months, Culture Machine will be launching Beauty Hunt, a beauty/style-centric program, while OML will launch season 2 of its successful Comedy Hunt, the search for India’s next top comedy act. Qyuki will launch Jammin’, a show featuring Bollywood composers and YouTube music creators, while veteran web show creators TVF will be launching a search for the next generation of web series creators. In the South,  we will also see a Tamil Comedy Hunt with Vision Time, a Telugu Comedy Hunt with ETV, and Katha, a Tamil/Telugu web series property, later in the year.

     

    Satya Raghavan, Head of Entertainment Content at YouTube India, said, “India has undergone a content creator revolution. Over the last few years, Indian YouTube creators have gained millions of new subscribers and have taken over the imagination of the youth in India. In our view 2015 was a breakout year for the young industry and the ecosystem has really evolved in India, with mobile driving massive growth for online video consumption. Now, we’re seeing online creators break open the gates for a whole new kind of entertainment for Indians online, with advertisers looking to tap into this space in a meaningful way.”

     

  • Brand campaign currently live across multiple media touch points

    POV creates new brand campaign to launch OZEE

    By A Correspondent

     

    OZEE, the newly launched video-on-demand platform from ZEE Digital Convergence Ltd. (ZDCL) recently rolled out a campaign in its efforts to build awareness for the brand. Conceptualized by Point of View Brandcom India Pvt. Ltd. (POV), the brand campaign covers TVC, print, Out-of-Home, digital & social mediums.

     

    Built around the idea of ‘Entertainment Now’, the campaign captures the simple ethos that there is an entire generation of audiences that expects the world to revolve around their pace of life.

     

    Vishant Kotian

    Vishant Kotian, Founder & CEO, POV, said, “The Entertainment Now campaign is an over-the-top, comic take on what we are seeing all around us. A generation that has got used to doing things at their pace and everything else has to wait while they are doing their thing. The initial response to the campaign has been phenomenal, specially the ‘Not Now’ sound track. We’re confident this campaign will create a brand to watch out for in the category.”

     

    Bhushan Pandit

    Bhushan Pandit, Chief Creative Officer, POV, said, “This has been a fun campaign to do and execute. Between the client and us, we instantly recognized that we had a kick ass idea. Fortunately, the entire creative deck looks slick and has turned out the way we visualized it. More importantly, the idea has really come alive seamlessly across mediums, be it digital, the TVC, the design touch points, or others.”

     

    Karan Jaitapkar, Business Head, OZEE, said, “People are too busy living their lives to be tied down to appointment viewing. OZEE is built around this need and delivers superb video entertainment content to its audiences, anytime, anywhere. While the product is committed to keeping the simple yet astute “click to play” promise, the brand campaign also captures this ethos beautifully using a very simple, effective idea for its messaging.”

     

  • The findings is part of a regional audience segment research highlighting how brands can engage with the Mass Affluent online

    Twitter playing a crucial role among affluentials, notes IPSOS study

    By A Correspondent

     

    An audience highly sought-after by brands, the Mass Affluent, or Affluentials, have been challenging for marketers to reach and engage through traditional channels. New research from IPSOS shows that Twitter is increasingly adopted by the Mass Affluent across key markets in Asia. In India, (87 per cent) of the Mass Affluent surveyed use Twitter on a regular basis, with 72 per cent of existing users planning to use the platform more going forward.

     

    The study delves into the Affluentials’ world to to help marketers gain a better understanding of their personal values, attitudes, and outlook on life; as well as their digital and social media habits, and most importantly, why and what they spend their money on. The findings confirm that the product categories they buy depend on factors that go beyond their demographic profiles. In fact, as their incomes grow, so do their expectations of brands and their engagement on social media.

     

    Affluentials also showcase four defining characteristics: Astute Influencers, Focused Achievers, Quality Evangelists, and Socially Conscious. The research found that Affluentials in India like to be better informed (83 per cent), want to help in the community (87 per cent), and believe that affluence has no value unless it improves the quality of life (78 per cent). Those who use Twitter are 1.6 times more likely to be the first to use new technology products, 1.4 times more likely to spend on luxury goods and are 1.4 times more likely to recommend new products.

     

    The research highlights that close to half of the respondents desire to stay updated with the brand and news of its products and services, 74per cent are looking for environmentally friendly products, and 71 per cent are tech-savvy, looking for mobile technology. 46 per cent Affluentials in India engage with brands for latest news about the company  and its products and services.

     

    Taranjeet Singh, Business Head, Twitter India said, “This new research focused on Mass Affluent highlights the motivations and preferences of this highly-coveted audience, with the majority on Twitter today, who appreciate higher quality and better customer service, and are willing to share their experiences with others. It’s great to see their confidence in our platform for their daily lives as well as in their purchase decisions. We are constantly looking for ways to help brands and marketers be more successful, connect and nurture their relationships with these Affluentials through real-time content that this audience values. With apparel, auto, home & interiors being the products of immediate relevance to affluents in India on Twitter, brands from the ecommerce, auto and real-estate sectors have a great opportunity to engage with users on a regular basis and make the most out of the platform.”

     

  • AR, VR and more… Srinivas Yelandur, Director – Advisory Services at EY India, presents seven trends set to happen

    7 trends in Mobile Advtg marketers must track

     

    By Srinivas Yelandur

     

    Mobile Video Experience through VR/Augmented Reality – Affordable, low-cost Virtual Reality (VR) gear will take the entire mobile video experience to a new level.  Content and apps for the augmented or VR environment will lead to a focussed approach for content and app ecosystems.  Advertisers will become more innovative and experimental with VR mobile video advertising. Here are seven trends that are likely to happen:
    1. Mobile Location-based Marketing – Location-based advertising has always remained a small segment in the overall budget of mobile advertising. It is a complex and challenging task to geo-fence the consumer in all his interactions, using the mobile as it is important to gather the right data or intelligence. New mobile marketing technology will make it more accurate in delivering services and targeting the customer.

    2, Mobile Multi-Screen In App Advertising – Video experience is changing the way content is being consumed. As consumers have moved from small screens to large screens, they are adopting multi-screens to drive the right content consumption experience, both in streaming content as well as gaming content. Advertisers now have the opportunity to target a single consumer on multiple screens with the right contextual content.

    3. Mobile Beacon-based Advertising – Advertisers will now change gears from targeting location-based strategies to advertising based on proximity signals — indicators of when users are closer to a beacon or a sensor – as they are more accurate than GPS. This, however, will not replace location-based marketing for mobile advertisers but will only add complementary force to help divert towards sensor-based data, yet.

    4. Mobile/ NFC-based Payments – This new form of device-based payments will continue to play an important role as a bridge between offline and online, which has largely gone under-appreciated, particularly when it comes to retail.  Marketers will now be keen to increasingly leverage mobile in advertising and promotions and provide incentives via digital content.

    5. Mobile Voice Search Engines – Search engines have gone mainstream but with mobile devices getting more sophisticated in voice technology, mobile vendors have invested heavily in technologies like Siri and Google Now. Amazon is using Echo to gather huge volumes of voice data for analysis and marketing more effectively in targeted environments creating a personal advertising strategy.

    6. Mobile Couponing – Mobile couponing will start taking off again. Forty-four per cent of consumers are interested in receiving coupons and deals on their mobile devices – all the more so if they were timely and relevant. Increased use of location targeting and greater dependence on automation platforms will enable brands to do just that.

    7. Mobile Wearables Advertising – Wearable computing is driving a new way of life and advertisers are gathering better insights into ‘self-data’ about individuals. Apps with wearable devices will provide the edge for targeted strategies in various device ecosystems – watches, health bands and activity trackers. Wearables, by their very nature, are more intimate and provide deeper data about consumers which are an advertiser’s delight.

     

    Srinivas Yelandur is Director – Advisory Services, EY India. This article first appeared in dna of brands on March 21, 2016

     

  • The war of words between Flipkart & Snapdeal founders could see a change of equations. At least Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani thinks so

    Does tweet spat herald consolidation?

     

    By Sagar Malviya

     

    Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said the Twitter spat between India’s ecommerce poster boys Sachin Bansal and Kunal Bahl could indicate a consolidation wave triggered by Alibaba’s imminent entry into the space.

     

    Biyani, who runs the country’s largest brick-and-mortar retail company and is known to disparage ecommerce rivals, said social media had become the medium of engagement for many entrepreneurs. “Very often I see conversation as a precursor to hint something strategic or big. In this case, it could even be consolidation or something more,” he said.

     

    Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal vs Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl: Right guys stuck in a tough ecommerce battle

     

    By Biswarup Gooptu & Madhav Chanchani

     

    Three months into 2016 and the battle lines between India’s top two ecommerce companies are being drawn deeper. The exchange of barbs between Flipkart’s executive chairman Sachin Bansal and Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl on Twitter on Friday evening wasn’t merely a spillover of their rivalry but emblematic also of the significant pressure they are under with investors’ becoming tightfisted. It portends more ugly confrontations.

     

    “While in 2014 it looked like the game had consolidated between Flipkart and Amazon, the market suddenly opened with Snapdeal, Paytm and Shopclues jumping into the fray,” said Harminder Sahni, founder of retail consulting firm Wazir Advisors. “Now investors are evaluating (ecommerce firms) closely, so it becomes (important to establish) not only how good you are but also how bad the other players are.”

     

    This year is expected to be an inflection point for Flipkart and Snapdeal, which, along with Amazon, have dominated India’s $23-billion (Rs 1.5 lakh crore) market but are yet to show paths to profitability.

     

    Investors who have poured billions of dollars into Flipkart and Snapdeal are pressurising the firm’s managements to optimise their operations, curb discounts and focus on improving margins as they seek ways to sell their investments and maximise returns. Both Flipkart and Snapdeal are scouting for new investors to back them as they compete for top honours in India’s ecommerce industry while staving off the challenge from Amazon.

     

    Flipkart has been in the market awhile to raise $1.4 billion and, according to media reports, had approached Alibaba for funding, but investors have become fussy amid growing uncertainty.

     

    Snapdeal was able to raise $200 million in February in funding led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan at a valuation of about $6.5 billion. A lot of that money, though, went to existing investors selling their shares in the company. “The pressure is too much,” said Sahni. “I don’t think we have seen this kind of a public spat between people from the industry in the modern times.”

     

    India’s ecommerce industry, though, is not in a position of uncertainty. In February, Morgan Stanley raised its forecast for the gross merchandise value of Indian online retailers to $119 billion by 2020 from its earlier estimate of $102 billion, indicating that more consumers are buying online.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2016, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

    While the Chinese ecommerce giant is a fringe player in its core business-to-business online trade in India, it has an indirect presence in the country’s ecommerce segment. It invested more than $500 million for a 40 per cent stake in One97 Communications, which runs Paytm, a wallet and ecommerce company, while Snapdeal raised $500 million from a clutch of investors including Alibaba last year.

     

    Alibaba said recently it will make a direct entry into India’s online space and is said to be looking at several options. One could be increasing its stake in Paytm and spinning off its marketplace into a separate venture.

     

    It has also been reported that it (Alibaba) was talking to the Tatas for a broader strategic alliance besides deepening its relationship with Snapdeal.

     

    The consolidation buzz in the ecommerce space has been strengthened by talks swirling around Flipkart. The Economic Times (ET) had reported on failed talks between the company and Amazon. Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal denied this.

     

    ET and a few other newspapers have also reported that Flipkart was in funding talks with Alibaba. The founders of Flipkart and Snapdeal had lashed out at each other on Twitter Friday night over Alibaba’s entry plans.

     

    Bansal, executive chairman of Flipkart, indirectly criticised the companies in which Alibaba has invested. “Alibaba deciding to start operations directly shows how badly their Indian investments have done so far,” he tweeted.

     

    Bahl responded with. “Didn’t Morgan Stanley just flush $5 billion worth market cap in Flipkart down the toilet. Focus on ur business not commentary :)”

     

    The reference was to a mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley marking down the value of Flipkart’s shares by 27 per cent, signalling that global investors believe India’s largest Internet company may be overvalued. Flipkart had said in a press statement that it is valued at $15.2 billion. A 27 per cent drop would put this at $11 billion.

     

    In comparison, stocks of Biyani-owned entities — Future Retail, Future Consumer and Future Lifestyle Fashions — have gained 14-80 per cent on the BSE and have a combined market capitalisation of $1.5 billion. Biyani had accused online retailers of adopting predatory pricing two years ago. Earlier this month, he released a series of ads targeted at the three main online marketplaces — Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal.

     

    Last month, investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said ecommerce companies were attracting too much investment without any meaningful retail disruption and was bearish on the business model. “I will consider buying Flipkart’s stake if it is valued at $100 million,” he had joked.

     

    The combined losses of the three leading online retailing platforms widened to Rs 5,052 crore in FY15 as they spent heavily on infrastructure and discounts to woo consumers.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2016, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Magzter targets $100 million in the next 3 years globally and $20 million (Rs. 120 crores) from India alone

    Magzter launches interactive ad network in digital mags

    By A Correspondent

     

    Magzter, the leading digital magazine newsstand has launched a new advertising platform in its iOS and Android mobile apps. Magzter has over 7,700 magazines and over 28.5 million users around the world.  Magzter now enables advertisers to reach out to millions of potential customers by showcasing interactive advertisements inside the most sought after digital magazines. Magzter also announced its strategic tie-up with SPH Magazines, Singapore for this advertising business. SPH Magazines, among world’s leading publishers and No. 1 in Singapore, will be representing Magzter for Singapore region. With over 1800 Indian publications from all leading publishing houses on Magzter, this would be a lucrative opportunity for publishing houses to monetise their online assets further. Globally, Magzter is targeting annual revenue of $100 million from advertising within next three years.

     

    Unlike normal banner advertisements that are displayed on websites, interactive advertisements can have audio-visual content in them and they can have many other interactions apart from taking the user to advertiser’s landing page. The ads are full page swipeable advertisements and non intrusive to users and continues to give best magazine reading experience. An interactive advertisement could range from playing a video to adding a floating element to it. Another important type is the ‘Subscription advertisement’, which helps to collect the user data instantly without moving away from the advertisement. Other exciting ways to create interactive advertisements include the usage of swipe interactions, event reminders and location pointers. Even mini games can be inserted as advertisements in between the pages of best-selling magazines. Currently, Magzter is offering full-page interactive HTML5 advertisements to ensure that the advertisements are responsive and automatically fit across all iOS and Android devices.

     

    “At Magzter, we are extremely happy to introduce interactive advertisements in our Apple and Android apps. This is the first time anywhere in the world such ads are being made available inside digital magazines. The digital advertising industry still has a lot of untapped potential and the arrival of immersive and contextual advertisements on Magzter inside digital magazines is a definitive step in raising the bar. We are hoping to receive tremendous response from advertisers all over the World” mentioned Girish Ramdas, CEO, Magzter Inc.

     

    “This will revolutionize the digital advertising industry soon.” says Vijay Radhakrishnan, Co-founder and President. Explaining further, he said, “As our interactive advertisements appear in between the pages of a magazine, readers are most likely to get influenced by them since the advertisements are carefully chosen based on the location of the user and the category of the magazine. For instance, when a young woman is reading a fashion magazine on Magzter and she comes across an interactive advertisement to purchase a product she likes from the magazine, she is expected to go for it. Click throughs of our ad inventory is anywhere between 15-30%. This is way high than standard CTR on the Web which would be less than 1%.”

     

    The advertisers can choose their preferred location, category and language to target their ads, so that they can extend their reach to the niche group of readers. This not only gives them the freedom to choose even a small region where they need more visibility, but also gives them the power to make a bigger impact within a controlled budget. With Magzter having magazines across over 30 categories in over 60 languages and users from over 175 countries, the advertisers can choose the magazines and locations that best suit their needs.

     

    Joseph Lee, Managing Director, SPH Magazines explained further, “Our advertising partnership with Magzter is a significant move for us as advertising revenue is a key driver for our growth. We are also excited to represent Magzter in Singapore region to get advertisers onboard. Magzter has developed an excellent advertising platform for digital magazines and we were privileged to use it for the last 3 months. The results are extremely encouraging and our advertisers are very excited to see their interactive ads on our magazines. We have many of our titles playing ads through Magzter’s ad system.”