MxMIndia

Category: THE ANCHOR

  • The two-day INMA South Asia Conference for newspaper marketers starts in the Capital today

    I Venkat on 10 things to look forward to at the INMA conference

    By I Venkat

     

    1. The entire conference is built around the theme- current complexity and advantages. The treatment of this subject is the first for INMA hence makes it worth attending.

     

    2. Keynote address by Nandan Nilekani where he will talk about sustaining in the volatile market.

     

    3. Earl Wilkinson of INMA will focus on the key subject of new growth plan and how to get there.

     

    4. Discussion on the future of news

     

    5. Youngsters will be involved who will make a case for how they want their newspapers to be

     

    6. The concern area of ad-growth challenge will be another discussion that is worth attending

     

    7. Battle of the bulge will discuss the issue of cost depreciation and utopian expectation. The point being can you really reduce the cost?

     

    8. The burning issue of increase in circulation but decline is readership will also be discussed at length

     

    9. The ever-pressing matter of talent shortage and what one should do about it is another topic that will be brought to the fore.

     

    10. All the topics this year are very provocative that will encourage debate and discussion.

     

    I Venkat is the Director at Eenadu and Chairman of ASCI. He is also on the Board of INMA South Asia

     

  • Indians are seeking out solutions which can help them meet like-minded individuals, have fun experiences, and form real-life relationships, says Adam Sachs

    Anchor: 6 reasons why networking sites appeal to Indians

    By Adam Sachs

     

    1. India is a very young country. It has one of the youngest proportioned demographics in the world, even of the BRIC nations.

     

    2. There are over 500 million young people in India and all are looking at an opportunity to interact and know others.

     

    3. More Indian women are going to college and are more educated than ever before. The literacy rates have increased from less than 10 per cent to more than 50 per cent today. With education, comes freedom and the desire to make personal choices for themselves, one of these being who they are going to spend their time with.

     

    4. The Indian population is one of the fastest growing Internet populations in the world. According to Mckinsey, youngsters in aspiring countries drives the adoption of online services, and the level of their engagement with online activities such as social networking. In fact their online activities often exceed that of their developed country counterparts.

     

    5. The socio-cultural dynamics around relationships and marriage in India are changing very rapidly. This change is resulting in Indians seeking out solutions which can help them meet like-minded individuals, have fun experiences, and form real-life relationships. They are ready to experiment and meet prospective people outside their community and family circles

     

    6. Indians are getting married later. There are fewer arranged marriages and far more love marriages. Young adults in India are now interested in having relationships with multiple people before getting married. According to our survey, on average, Indian young adults have 5-6 relationships BEFORE getting married.

     

    Adam Sachs is CEO, Step Out

     

  • What e-commerce needs is logistic efficiency at industry level, not at the player level, says Ankur Warikoo

    The Anchor: 5 musts in e-commerce to get to the next level

    By Ankur Warikoo

     

    Cross-sharing of a Logistic Network

    From a back end operations or a logistic perspective every e-commerce company is trying to build its own logistic setup which is their own last mile delivery network. While that is a very good initiative, it is not scalable because what you are ultimately doing is creating a large setup without the economies of scale.  So what e-commerce needs is logistic efficiency at industry level, not at the player level.

     

    Payment Gateway Efficiency

    Industry still suffers from miserable payment gateways options. The failure rates on credit cards, debit cards even net banking are fairly high, much higher than what the west experiences and for no logical reasons. So, we do need someone coming in with innovative payment gateway solution which makes sure that the customers entering legitimate data is never failed. The industry suffers from almost 25 per cent failure rate, which is extremely high. So a payment gateway innovation is required to make sure that the failure rates are lower.

     

    Cash on Delivery Innovations

    This was introduced to bring in people who do not have credit cards or debit cards and are more comfortable with cash transactions. However what has happened is that now cash on delivery is beginning to be misused as people are now using it as an excuse to test what kind of product is coming to their door step and if they don’t like it, they just reject it and that’s not a healthy practice. There needs to be an innovation around this, which means that Cash on Delivery should be restricted to only people who cannot transact through prepaid mechanisms like credit card, debit cards etc. and steps should be taken to not allow cash on delivery to be misused.

     

    Focus on Profitability and Sustainability

    All the companies now need to shift their focus towards profitability and sustainability. So far in the last 2.5 odd years the focus has been on top line growth, to get the customer in but, none of the players are closer to being profitable and definitely not sustainable. So, that needs to be a focus for e-commerce because if it is not profitable and sustainable then all customer pro initiatives could be taken away.

     

    Customer Relation Management

    CRM is missing from most e-commerce companies today. They are neither customer profiling to understand that there are different consumer behaviors and buying patterns. Understanding and treating your value propositions for each and every customer based on how they behave on your platform.

     

    Ankur Warikoo is the CEO of Crazeal

     

  • It's revenue loss for advertisers, information loss for subscribers, and is just throwing the baby out with the bath water

    The Anchor: Dr Subho Ray on why the clampdown on SMSes is not the best way to maintain law & order

    By Dr Subho Ray

     

    #1 Revenue loss for more than 100,000 enterprise customers who advertise through this cost-effective medium and depend heavily on SMS as one of the most important or only medium to reach their potential customers.

     

    #2 150+ million opt-in subscribers in India want to get the information pertaining to the services/ information/ offers they want and have subscribed to and paid for.

     

    #3 Members of the IAMAI are registered and responsible telemarketers fully recognised by the DoT / TRAI. We are willing to assure the government that we have a capability to screen content and ensure that no inflammatory message pass through our platform and if it at all does then it is very easy to catch hold of the culprit – the way we have been doing all this while for much less evils (example: promo messages through transactional connects)

     

    #4 The ban makes sense on P2P messages as the identity of 95 per cent of prepaid mobile subscribers in India is not certain. But P2P messages are the lifeline of the youth; also, P2P messages can be sent from non-operator networks, and mischief-makers can use these channels if they want to.

     

    #5 As responsible telemarketers, members of the IAMAI are willing to come forward to spread the message of peace.

     

    #6 Members of IAMAI are not unpatriotic or a greedy bunch of business owners, but want to contribute into the nation’s cause in the best possible manner, responsibly.

     

    Dr Subho Ray is President, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)

     

     

  • Digital is not a magic wand. Users don't close their browsers and run to the nearest store just because they saw a brand's digital marketing campaign.

    The Anchor: Yutaka Kamoshita’s 5 must-have digital strategies to improve brand ROI

    By Yutaka Kamoshita

     

    #1 Set clear agreement amongst stakeholders on what is ‘Return on Investment’

    This is where everything begins.

     

    Digital is not a magic wand. Users don’t close their browsers and run to the nearest store just because they saw a brand’s digital marketing campaign. But if a user comes across a brand hoarding and remembers that brand’s digital campaign which ran say, three months ago, then perhaps one can say that digital has worked to some extent. In case of this example, the brand stakeholders’ perspective would be “At this phase, our ROI should be evaluated by users’ content consumption behaviour and not yet by sales.”

     

    Unlike this example, ROI is clearer for web-service brands such as eCommerce. But still, is volume of sales the only critical KPI? Or is someone on the brand team looking at number of new user registrations as well? It is a marketer’s responsibility to define what the KPI really are. They need to identify the KPI and develop clear, concise agreement with stakeholders. These are time intensive and not easy, but inevitably, the best way forward.

     

    #2 Let users decide – not ‘gut-feel’

    Decision-making is a subjective action. If you are stumped between short-listing one main copy line from two other options, create three different versions and roll-out a quick test run on the web. It’s the user feedback and opinion and not gut-feel that is the best measure to prove what works. This works well after Step 1 as it helps brands identify what to evaluate from the result.

     

    #3 Let your content travel by itself

    Brand websites are just another set of html files on the world wide web. They are not a ‘physical property’ of a brand. Remember where Hotmail succeeded in their marketing in ’90s? Sometimes, it helps for marketers to loosen their emotional attachment with their own website just a little and try looking at it objectively. Content can travel anywhere in the internet. Content should be designed to make it as much accessible as possible. Users would love to spread brand messages to others for free. Copying, in other words ‘WOM’ or brand advocacy is the beauty of both digital and advertising. This works best after Step 2 so marketers get a sense on the potential of their message.

     

    #4 Think about the 99 percent

    Usually CTR of display ads is below 1 percent. Where does the other 99 percent go? Users don’t click display ads, because it is too much for brands to ask.

     

    What do TV commercials require viewers to do? Nothing but that they stay seated and wait for a few minutes till the commercial break is over. How about display ads? They compel users to stop what they are doing, move the cursor on a banner, click and go to another website which is a totally unknown environment for the user.

     

    Ninety nine percentile of human beings are very passive who don’t like taking risks. How can brands convert this 99 percent? Like you do for the 1 percent, solutions need to be implemented for the 99 percent! Services such as third party ad serving platforms or attribution tracking tools are available for evaluating the behaviour and usage/ consumption patterns of this 99 percentile.

     

    #5 Get out from your comfort zone

    Market saturation is inevitable. No demand means no business. If a marketer senses that something is stuck, then it may be the right time for him to extend his areas of consideration/ activity.

     

    SEM not performing as well as it used to? Before changing bidding price for keywords, isn’t there anything that can be done to create such demand? We don’t need search engines if we don’t have a specific demand in our minds. In general, activities to create demand end up with worse ROI, compared to activities to collect existing demand like SEM. But why compare two activities that have different purposes?

     

    Get out from what you have been doing before. Step out of your comfort zone and try something that had been avoided because of wrong expected ROI. This something could be viral video activities, advertorials with publishers, FB applications among several other options! It is advised to close Step 1 before this, so that all stakeholders are aware that CPA from a viral video is not being compared with CPA from SEM campaigns.

     

    Yutaka Kamoshita is Digital Strategist, Dentsu Digital

     

  • For big creative shops to get serious about digital, they need to modify their outlook and treatment of the medium

    The Anchor: Madan Sanglikar on 4 big changes needed in Indian digital advertising

    #1 Erase the traditional vs digital mindset:

    This mindset has created a silo where what the digital team does is not known by the traditional media team and vice versa, whether it be at a client level, at an agency level etc. There is no unified thinking and therefore if we want to believe in convergence then it needs to first change with the mindset, not just in the devices. If we can therefore rule out this digital versus traditional mindset, it will work far better.

     

    #2 Single unified data points:

    We have different data points for different set of consumers, a lot of countries today are moving towards unified data points. It is high time that we start getting single sourced data which allows us to capture data points for the same consumer across different medium. Right now there are four or five different companies providing different data points, and hence like most developed countries it is high time India also adopts single source data points for tracking consumer behaviour.

     

    #3 Big creative shops must get serious about digital:

    While the media side of the business has seen tremendous growth, the creative part of the business is still struggling. I would like to see a lot more traditional media creative guys jumping into the digital media creative bandwagon. Because what I see today is a clear gap in the way work is done; as a result a lot of small time creative shops have got an opportunity to pull this gap. The big creative shops therefore must get serious about digital, not just by acquisition or adding business but, by actually understanding the medium and getting their hands dirty rather than just acquiring business.

     

    #4 Political will to make India more digital-savvy:

    There seems to be a lack of strong political will where building good infrastructure facilities in order to make India a digital-savvy country is concerned. I would like to see a strong political will in improving the broadband infrastructure of the country because India is ready and looking forward to newer opportunities in this area but, sadly there are not enough opportunities available at the moment.

     

    Madan Sanglikar is the Co-founder and CEO at AD2C

     

  • From the look of the website, to your knowledge of the market – it has to be up to scratch

    The Anchor: 5 ways to build trust among e-consumers

    By Prasad Shejale

     

    #1 Your Image – Your Website

    Your ecommerce website should contain quality content and images. It is best to offer relevant content and display minimum advertisements as far as possible. At the same time, company profile and ‘about us’ content on the website adds to the trust factor of the consumer. The entire look and feel of the website should reflect a high degree of genuineness which in turn builds up the trust of the consumers.

     

    #2 Service & Support

    Customer service and support are the vital keys to build up trust and support. With many customer support options available such as email, chat, and phone support expert advice, do offer as much of them live as possible. The idiom ‘Striking when the iron is hot’ stands true and definitely goes a long way in building up customer support and loyalty too!!

     

    #3 Fortifying Customer Relations

    Social media and consumer trust are directly proportionate to each other. Along with your social media presence, offering genuine and consumer friendly advice and tips through an article, Facebook post or a tweet is what really counts. These efforts generate a feeling of trust and reliability which can be ascertained when these blogs/articles/posts are further referred by customers.

     

    #4 Know Your Market’s Vibe

    Grasping the pulse of the market and being very dynamic to adapt to the latest market trends is essential. Offering just what the customer wishes to purchase is one of the most preferred trust building efforts you can undertake. Always remember ‘Customer is King’, and this mantra does hold true even today.

     

    #5 Respect Privacy

    Don’t spam your customer’s mailbox. Just because he has bought once doesn’t mean that he wants your mail every day. Give him an option to unsubscribe or at least decide on the frequency.

     

    Prasad Shejale is Co-Founder & CEO (India), Logicserve Group

     

  • Rather than worry about its viral impact, social media can be effectively employed to handle crises, writes Sanjay Mehta. Not just by brand heads, but governments too!

    Sanjay Mehta lists 8 ways how brands can handle real and false negativity on social media

    By Sanjay Mehta

     

    1. By setting up listening posts (“social media monitoring”) so they are not taken by surprise and can deal with issues proactively, once they discover them

     

    2. By having a well-defined protocol and a workflow to manage normal responses to negativity

     

    3. By also having a plan to handle and manage a potential PR crisis, while praying hard that such crisis actually do not happen at all!

     

    4. By ring-fencing the brand well to ensure that miscreant activity is curtailed and as and when it happens, it is dealt with, firmly

     

    5. In the event of false information that cannot be recognized easily by people, going out with the correct information, with proof, with details, with credibility, to give “their side of the story”

     

    6. By owning up to their own mistakes once in a while, being honest to admit those, not hesitating to say ‘sorry, we screwed up, but we are working to fix it’

     

    7. By creating their own content on social media, giving out interesting, lesser known information, so that consumers have a peak at the real story

     

    8. Most importantly though, by being out there, ‘talking’ to the consumers, engaging with them, establishing a dialogue with them, winning their confidence, in normal times, and not just when there is a crisis!

     

    PS: Governments also need to follow the same strategy. Yes, governments are no different to brand managers, in this respect. The earlier that they understand and accept this, the better it is for them.

     

    Sanjay Mehta is Joint CEO, Social Wavelength

     

  • To be in tune with the changing milieu it has become imperative for a brand to be present in the digital medium

    The Anchor: Carlton D’Silva on 5 reasons why marketers must take digital seriously

    By Carlton D’Silva

     

    #1 Keep up with the times. To be in tune with the changing milieu it has become imperative for a brand to be present in the digital medium. The brand else would look historic as digital presence is essential for any brand today. It is a way forward for the brands and a way to keep up with the new generation. In fact, the digital presence of a brand and its various innovations is what makes the brand different from the various traditional communication media.

     

    #2 Connect where its TG hangs around. If one is targeting youth, which most marketers today do, then digital cannot be ignored. Data shows that 70 percent of the Indian youth are today online hence it is ‘the’ medium where your TG is and definite should be high on the radar of any marketer who is focusing on this segment.

     

    #3 Cross-function ability. I don’t think any other medium is so agile as digital, which has the ability to extract the good parts of other media and then take it forward. Like an on-ground activation can be recorded and put up on digital and it could go the viral route, thus the restriction of place that an on-ground activity provides can easily be overcome when the same can be viewed by people across. Digital helps in enhancing a traditional medium and can help it make a massive idea.

     

    #4 Quantifiable. No other medium can be tracked better than digital. It can help in specific targeting while being non-intrusive, unlike spillages that happen on traditional media. Also its ability to lead to immediate transactions, like seeing an offer online that leads to purchase there and then, makes it the best option for converting an ad into a sale immediately.

     

    #5 Last but probably the biggest reason why the marketers should adopt digital medium is that it facilitates conversation with consumers. The medium helps to connect instantly with the consumers and no other medium provides that. Also, if there is negative talk around the brand, the medium allows you to listen and then help in taking steps to amend the negatives.

     

    Carlton D’Silva is the Chief Creative Officer at Hungama Digital

     

  • In a market that moves as fast as its consumers do, some tips to keep online travel agents one step ahead

    The Anchor: 5 things that make OTAs tick among consumers

    By Rajiv Malhotra

     

    #1 Be ‘smart’.

    Having active apps on mobile platforms is an absolutely must for OTAs. Penetration of internet and mobile broadband services is on the rise in India, the number of smartphone users has increased exponentially and so has the usage of smart apps. Today there is an app for just about everything and the benefits of these apps are being experienced in various ways. Travel apps by OTAs help to connect with customers on an additional platform other than the web portal. They also provide convenience and enable travellers to make their booking while they are on the go or even at the last minute.

     

    #2 Be social.

    Social media, digital networking, YouTube are the buzzwords at the moment. Social media is an effective platform to connect and engage with the target audience. It is important for OTAs to monitor and participate in consumer conversations on social networking sites to manage and leverage their brand. Consumers read reviews, posts, recommendations, etc. shared on social websites which actually influence their buying decision. Also brands can engage with their audience through innovative and interesting activities on social media to create stronger recall for the brand. One example is Hotels.com’s recently-launched 2nd Xtreme Bookingvideo, which shows a person booking a hotel through the Hotels.com iPad app while running with the bulls in Pamplona.

     

    #3 Have an engaging website.

    It is important to have a website which is customer friendly and easy to browse. It should seem like a two way conversation wherein the customer has space to post his views or recommendations on the portal. The website should carry destination pictures, hotel views and a city map or similar information which make it easier for the consumer to take a decision. Also, there should be unbiased content on the website which will help travellers take an informed decision.

     

    #4 Offer multiple payment options.

    Consumers like to be spoilt for choice. Very often booking process comes to a startling halt due to lack of payment options. Providing multiple payment options gives travellers the freedom to choose the mode of payment they are most comfortable with. This also leads to more travellers making bookings through the website and helps expand the customer base.

     

    #5 Other ‘must-have’s.

    Having a loyalty programme helps to further connect with customers and encourage repeat bookings. Welcome Rewards, the loyalty programme by Hotels.com is an example of a simple and straightforward one. Additionally, OTAs must acknowledge that Indians still prefer phone interactions over the internet. Hence, adding that personal touch is necessary.

     

    Rajiv Malhotra is Head of Marketing, South East Asia, Hotels.com

     

  • It’s not just TVCs that the Boys are known for, but this list by A N Chorrea looks at the work that got them to be the most courted creative hotshop in the country.

    The Anchor: 10 TAPROOT! TVCs that you want to watch over and over again

    By A N Chorrea

     

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIuGHTAwi1g[/youtube] Airtel: Jo Tera Hai Wo Mera Hai

     

    The new Airtel ad may seem a little inspired from the original and hence not as refreshing, but it has caught on with the youth, and guess that’s what matters.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIAKKtlyi6g[/youtube] Fox Movies: Subtitles

     

    Okay, it may take a second for you to get it, but when you do, you can’t help wanting to watch it over and over again.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2FviMZkX5s[/youtube] Nirma Ambulance (New)

     

    Woman power at its best… in fact it may want you to sock those men where it hurts most. (Pssst: now would you really do what the women did if you were in your finery?)
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeg27rv__04[/youtube] A Day in the Life of India – The Great Indian Circus (The Times of India)

     

    It’s part of the Day in the Life of India series… nicely crafted.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWq3101hotA[/youtube] Mountain Dew – Dam

     

    How did he do it!? We bet every time you saw it, you had a new theory on how the young man would’ve overcome fear.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVb01vfbVEw[/youtube] Mumbai Mirror

     

    Award-winning ad… need we say more.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxz4WvGG7uA[/youtube] TOI Chennai – Wake up to The Times of India

     

    This is the ad that woke up The Hindu… guess that’s what matters.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZIFj3VF9KU[/youtube] Pepsi World Cup Cricket 2011 promos

     

    These were fun, weren’t they… remember the Helicopter Shot?
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz6YylorUGM[/youtube] Aman Ki Asha

     

    Tears roll down our eyes every time we see this.
    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9BlCyTD-sw[/youtube] Airtel – Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai

     

    Huge hit. Earned cult status as you don’t mind seeing it over and over again.
  • What public sector broadcasters can do to stay ahead, and surge forward

    The Anchor: 5 musts that will give government-led channels an edge over commercial counterparts

    By Rajiv Mishra

     

    #1 Continue providing strong alternatives to commercial channels:

    Broadcasters funded out of the public purse have historically formed a vital component of the broadcasting sector in most countries. The rationale for these broadcasters, which can offer alternative programming to that provided by the commercial sector, remains strong. Some countries support public service broadcasting more enthusiastically where the public service broadcasters (PSBs) are seen as more informal, modern, and informative than before, without having lost their reputation for quality.

     

    #2 Encourage public sector broadcasting partnership with government funded telecom companies:

    Broadcasting is changing. Rarely a day goes by without more news of an innovative way to access audiovisual content over the internet, mobile phone networks, hand held devices or other new media. In television, meanwhile, we have moved rapidly from one network to hundreds of competing channels, and will soon move to a digital only television environment.  It is with the development of new media platforms that this conflict has deepened. We no longer have an environment with a small number of providers. The internet and digital television represent near limitless forums for broadcasting content, whether news, entertainment, sport, movie, music, live events or anything else, and competition for audiences is much more intense. The benefit to the public service broadcasting in India is that government funded telecom companies is having the pan India presence and PSB’s can join hand for seamless delivery of content in triple play environment as well.

     

    #3 Public sector broadcasters can experiment and provide alternate programming more often:

    The vast library and archival footage are also a major strength of PSB’s. Further the private companies face much tougher financial constraints. One may think, public service broadcasting has no role in the contemporary media and may argue that state funded broadcasters should not replicate services that the market can already provide. This weakness is actually the strength of the public service broadcasters as they can experiment and provide alternative programming frequently in very innovative manner.

     

    #4 Encourage private-public sector partnership in broadcasting:

    The private and public sector have co-existed peacefully since the emergence of modern broadcasting, even providing similar services. There seems no reason why this should not continue in an expanded media environment. One has to suspect that the repeated emphasis on the newness of the new media suggesting that wholly reformed approaches to content are needed is perhaps a little exaggerated.

     

    #5 Public sector broadcasting must develop a new relationship with the audience:

    The long-term future of public service broadcasting in the context of a rapidly changing media landscape and with intense competition between private players is to remain extremely focused on long term goal to strengthen our economy, our culture and our democracy. The public service broadcasting must in the future both retain its basic characteristics and change very significantly. Public service broadcasting can and should aim to develop a new relationship with their audiences, this will be vital as expectations as well as the technology are fundamentally changing.

     

    Rajiv Mishra is the CEO of Lok Sabha TV and anchors a weekly show – ‘Special Guest’