MxMIndia

Tag: Ravi Balakrishnan

  • What India's Etailers can Learn from Previous Disasters

    Will it B #Sale ya #Fail for Etailers?

     

    By Ravi Balakrishnan

     

    How brands and big box retailers prepare for festive seasons or sales is, by now, an oft-told tale: extra staff come on board for just a few days, months are spent negotiating exclusive deals, there’s a ‘no-holidays-during-the-holidays’ rule for regular store hands and the shifts stretch from 6 AM to midnight.

     

    But what of India’s leading ecommerce players? Apart from throwing in discounts every day, many of them are remarkably susceptible to isolating one day (or three) a year when they hope the largest chunk of money spent online by Indians will be on their sites or apps.

     

    Flipkart’s founders were preparing for a bigger, better ‘big billion day’ as far back as January this year. It wouldn’t surprise us if in the last three months of 2015, there’s a grand orgy of conspicuous consumption, complete with “never before” deals on the apps and sites of Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.

     

    Online sales have existed for a while: Citibank’s OMG Sale and the Google Online Shopping Festival, for instance. But the one that’s most recalled for reasons good and bad is Flipkart’s Big Billion Day sale last year. It was online Darwinism at its finest. Those with fast net connections, twitchy fingers and instincts honed by last minute bids on Ebay fared well. The ones who were disappointed — and it felt like there were at least a billion — fumed and fretted online till the Flipkart’s Bansals felt compelled to apologise. So, what are etailers to do as they prepare to serve another big billion?

     

    Be Ready For Literally A Billion Transactions

    Etailers cannot make grandiose claims of serving a billion and then not have the computing power to deal with even half that number. Whether online or offline, infrastructural readiness counts for a lot. Overseas, the main motivation for such sales is offloading stock.

     

    In India, it’s to get a larger number of people shopping online. Their first experience needs to be memorable. Error messages and products disappearing from shopping carts don’t make for great memories. Rajdeep Endow, MD, Sapient, observes, “No amount of advertising can bridge the gap in how long a product is available for. It’s better to have a live clock ticking, counting down the duration of the deal rather than people finding inventory is over.”

     

    Throw mobile-based apps into the mix and things get a lot more complex. On the one hand, there’s a walled garden of data to be mined. Observes Kumar Subramaniam, co-founder, Zero:Zero: “We know if the app’s been used to search for shoes, if the purchase was made, if there was an exchange, etc. The ecosystem is rich and etailers are just scratching the surface.” Which brings us to its biggest problem: complex user interfaces with lots of scope for unintended button mashing.

     

    Subramaniam admits, “Shoddy UX is a big issue that is unaddressed. I guess it’s more painstaking than splurging crores on an ad campaign.” While still on apps, Harshil Karia, MD, Schbang, believes there’s a case to be made for them using data optimally and “compression and resizing of images is a must.”

     

    Make Shopping Social

    Even online shopping is not a lonesome experience in India. There are phone calls made, links shared, and parallel teams of friends, family and colleagues tracking prices on other sites.

     

    Ajay Kelkar, co-founder and COO of Hansa Cequity suggests, “I don’t know how many of these sites rely on augmented reality or apps that allow you to share information or deals with friends and family.” He suggests using augmented reality to create a social sharing experience. For instance, trying out a muffler or scarf and buying it off the app instead of going to the store. He believes, “If tech platforms move from managing high volumes of transaction to better experience that would be a game changer.”

     

    Rely on Big Data. But Not Just On Big Data

    According to Karthik Nagarajan, national director – content and social media, GroupM, “Data influences almost 40% of orders received by the larger players.” While the most obvious use is recommendations, Endow says it’s globally harnessed to project demand and make sure etailers have the infrastructure to meet it, or to create or optimise real time campaigns. Throw in external data and it allows for a more compelling sales pitch. Kelkar observes, “For Ajay a Maharashtrian in Kolkata, Ganesh Chaturthi maybe more important than Durga Puja. It is a more personalised expression of an offer.”

     

    Have a Good Explanation Ready For The Backlash

    The apology from Flipkart last year was heartfelt but it’s unlikely to have the same impact if used again. There’s always going to be backlash and etailers need to work out what they are going to say well in advance. Consider the number of attackers: Disgruntled customers frustrated by a slower than the norm delivery. Vigilant shoppers tracking whether an etailer inflates prices before discounts. Online smartasses who live for the chance to poke fun at etailers and their dodgy selections – run a search for Hilarious Reactions to the Amazon Prime Sale, if you don’t believe us. Also the parameters of success or failure need to be defined. If stock has sold out, it’s a success, in spite of what angry online critics may say

     

    Try To Do Things Differently

    At some point, etailers need to figure out if they are really building brands or just coming through as an undifferentiated mass of deal providers. Nagarajan admits, “I’m not sure how much unaided recall people have on one sale against the other since they all come at you via newspaper ads or TV commercials.” One way of making things memorable is by opting out of the big sale rat race. Kelkar suggests: “Like credit card companies give pre-approved offers what stops etailers from giving me preapproved sales rooms?” Given they are not as time bound as brick and mortar stores, it’s entirely possible to have a personalised sale for every customer, perhaps on their birthday. Kelkar says, “It allows people to experience the site in different ways at different times: to fragment the base, from all users coming at the same time for price-offs.” However this approach discounts a very critical aspect: Scoring a deal few others got, that many were in the running for. The bragging rights that accompany buying a Rs 40,000 camera for half the price are often a bigger draw for a consumer than a consummate love for photography.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

     

     

  • Always popular with the multinational FMCG companies, pretesting of ads is now in its Golden Age

    Is metric-driven advertising killing creativity?

    By Ravi Balakrishnan

     

    A car commercial prominently featuring a child hits the market in 2011 to a tepid response. Advertising industry sources believe the child was included purely because kids score well in ad pretesting. If the pretests were anything to go by, both client and agency believed they had a blockbuster on hand. However, a year later, the brand revamps its communication, featuring a youthful bunch of friends embarking on a spontaneous road trip.

     

    A prominent Indian FMCG receives ideas for commercials from competing agencies during a pitch. It then runs these through ad pretesting programmes. The enthusiasm with which the scripts are greeted is among the factors in deciding the agency partner it opts for.

     

     

    Beat the Test

     

    Let’s assume you’ve got a huge ad pretest coming up. It’s giving you the jitters you thought you’d left behind for good with the last college exam. Except several creatives in the know claim to have figured how to game the system at least some of the time and let a script sail through with minimal damage. The caveat being the jury is still out on this from a marketer and research agency point of view. Keep in mind there are no carved in stone rules or a 100% success rate, but here are some of general guidelines.

     

    1. It’s not too hard to find people in the industry who believe that the best TV script from a pretesting point of view will include all of the following: a celebrity, a child and a dog. While one cannot really recall an example which foists all three on a viewer, it’s no secret that children especially babies, pets and celebrities or judicious permutations and combinations of these do very well at pretests. So try to include a precocious tot chiming in with some bon mot, an áww’ inducing mutt (real or animated) or see if you can replace a generic model with a cricketer or Bollywood film sensation du jour.

     

    2. If the marketer has demanded script options, don’t fret. There are still ways of getting your favourite film made. A creative at one of India’s biggest agencies vividly recalls the time two of his scripts went in for test at the animatic (a roughly animated storyboard of the main film) stage. It was highly likely that the plain vanilla script would score better than the more radical idea. And so the creative claims he slipped in an Amitabh Bachchan clone doing the voiceover for the idea he preferred. Sure enough, it scored better at testing. Even if a celebrity is beyond your grasp or perhaps irrelevant to your script, their equity with the audience can still be leveraged.

     

    3. Sure, we said something very similar when we were telling you about the best ways to win an award. But given the multiple benefits it offers, try to make a friend of your client. Brand managers and CMOs even in notoriously process driven organisations have been known to flout company policy when it comes to ideas they are personally passionate about, signing off scripts that failed the pretest, or modifying the parameters it’s being evaluated against, so it does better. Just make sure that the film you create is worth the risk of bucking the system.

     

    Two films from an agency are up for research. The creative director who is present at the pretesting session is shocked to hear one of the scripts which features a scene in a restroom being referred to disparagingly as “the toilet film.” No consumer, he argues, will claim a preference for a film with such a descriptor.

     

    Almost every ad person with a few years (or maybe even months) in the business has some research related horror tale to narrate. Of late, a number of the stories are focussed around ad pretesting. It’s a process in which scripts in the form of animatics or in rarer cases, a rough cut of the film are presented to consumers for their feedback.

     

    Always popular with the multinational FMCG companies, pretesting is now in its Golden Age. “Its growth has been much higher than the overall growth of the market research industry,” admits Vivek Gupta, senior vice president of research firm IMRB. And it’s not just the usual suspects like FMCG, but telecom, automobiles, retail, clothing and financial service brands who’ve all been recent converts. Some of this has been a natural progression. Says Shubhranshu Das, executive director and head of Ipsos ASI, India “Previously you were talking to the consumer but now you need to build a dialogue. As brands extend their reach the nuances change.”

     

    The vast majority though just blame it on the recession. Among the largest gainers is Millward Brown whose Link is widely acknowledged as the most popular pretesting regimen. Says Muder Chiba, Millward Brown’s managing director – Mumbai and chief marketing officer, India region, “In a slowdown, people do not have enough money to throw around. Many marketers start focusing on getting a metric driven culture. The second reason is getting discipline in the fuzzy areas of branding and communication.” Adds Mr Gupta, “The need to monitor every rupee spent and being sure about airing the most effective campaign has led clients to be more favourable to pretesting rather than a post mortem (post launch) when the money is already spent on an ineffective campaign.”

     

    However the discipline has almost no fans in advertising. It’s successfully managed to infuriate both creative types who swear by instinct as well as planners and suits who see in pretesting a direct challenge to the rigour they apply to business. Says Ambi Parameswaran, executive director and CEO, Draftfcb + Ulka, “If this test is all it takes, why is there a need for anyone other than writer and research agency? Why go through three rounds of meetings with a client, arrive at a script that all of us love and then bury it, if it fails research? It’s effectively saying your judgement is worth nothing.” A small panel of 200 consumers in a single city is starting to wield a disproportionate amount of influence and often end up determining whether a film gets made or scrapped.

     

    Besides, some films just cannot be researched. Maverick director Michel Gondry is famously said to have walked into a pre production meeting with Smirnoff empty handed, claiming the film was all in his mind. What he went on to make, a melange of action sequences that all start with a view through a Smirnoff bottle went on to become one of the most iconic ads for the brand. Citing this tale, Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director at Ogilvy argues, “I believe if you ask the man on the street to name 10 commercials, 8 of those will be ones that have not been researched.” He believes that animatics and storyboards, the stock in trade of pretesting can never convey the scale and scope of a finished film. Nor can they be used for off kilter scripts like Vodafone’s Zoozoos.

     

    Chiming in is Sunil Kataria, EVP – marketing, Godrej Consumer Products Limited, “If you were to consider the Hrithik Roshan ad for Cinthol from 2008 versus 2012’s Alive is Awesome – the scale of visuals in the latter creates the cut through. No matter what you do in animatics, conveying that is impossible. Ads that are clearly about product led benefits are more researchable.”

     

    According to the ad men, a number of ads fail in spite of pretesting. They see in this evidence of some disturbing trends. The first is that a lot of advertising that passes muster is of the plain vanilla variety which makes no discernible impact on the consumer. The second is that pretesting is often done asking the wrong questions and for the wrong reasons. And the third is that it is a cynical exercise by some clients to not accept personal responsibility for a disastrous campaign, having ticked a box that exonerates them. Mr Avasthi says, “There are marketers who use it purely to save ass and there’s no hope for them. There are systems that reward taking risks and others that reward not failing. It depends on which system you are with. Only the really intelligent guys know what to filter.”

     

    Ad agencies claim to welcome pretesting geared at fine tuning commercials and alerting them to cultural nuances. Some marketers like Godrej claim to be more creative friendly and don’t do the “go /no go” research as a matter of policy. However given that marketers are backing pretesting all the way through, it looks like advertising agencies have little choice in the matter. Both independent studies by brand owners and of course by research agencies themselves indicate that pretesting has the desired results. If a film that emerges from this process is almost never a clutter busting, Cannes Lion sweeping masterpiece, it’s not something that bothers either client or researcher. Says Nilanjan Mukherjee, head – marketing, personal care products, ITC “We engage extensively in pretesting. It has helped uncover significant insights in brand communication such as identifying high points of interest, effective product demonstrations and the role of celebrities and children in delivering higher interest and persuasion.”

     

    If there’s anything to be optimistic about, it’s the fact that research driven companies like P&G and Unilever are also starting to be counted among the most creative. A spokesperson for P&G says, “We believe research encourages creativity. It gives us that deep, strong insight into our consumers’ everyday life which enables our teams – both at P&G and our agency partners – to come up with breakthrough innovation. Strong business results reinforce this.” Research for instance helped P&G determine that its communication on Project Shiksha, an education driven initiative needed to change. Consumers wanted to know the real impact of their contributions, rather than be reminded about how they could contribute. Says the spokesperson, “Pretesting is an opportunity to stop, introspect and make modifications to strengthen our communication.”

     

    However with several marketers including the ones new to the process still using it as a final arbiter on the life and death of a script, frustrated creative people are starting to create ads exclusively meant to score well at pretests. A grim Mr Parameswaran says, “Scams are a by-product of a system where a creative guy feels he cannot get an interesting ad through.”

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • As marketers take the digital route, it's appears to be the best of times for digital agencies

    @dvantage Digital

     

    By Ravi Balakrishnan

     

    Never mind the famous introduction to Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities; digital agencies today can afford to stop at ‘It was the best of times.’ Because, there has been no better time to be in this space. For one, marketers no longer need to be coaxed into going the digital route. Also unlike mainstream advertising, almost every new campaign or assignment has the scope for interesting, maybe even ground-breaking work; considering best practices are yet to be carved in stone. And finally it makes a lot of business sense. Through 2012, independents in this space both in India and overseas are being picked at a rapid clip and the people doing the picking are some of the biggest names in the marketing communications industry.

     

    The one player that’s yet to announce a key purchase so far, Omnicom, is said to be keenly watching the Indian market, with a representative visiting practically every month. An industry insider is confident of at least three more acquisitions being announced before the year is through.

     

    Amar Deep Singh

    Not bad at all considering that many of today’s hottest targets started life a little over a decade ago, as a ragtag bunch of entrepreneur driven specialist shops. Many of them began either before, during or immediately after the great dotcom bust of 2000. It seemed a quixotic endeavour. Through the early years, most mainstream advertising and media agencies opted to ignore the space entirely. Says Amar Deep Singh, CEO, Interactive Avenues, “Traditional agencies missed the bus while advertisers saw value in using digital media. They now find it easier to buy than to build. It’s a win-win for both, because it gives traditional agencies digital expertise and it helps digital agencies get scale.”

     

    Today, even as ‘old’ shops like Indigo Consulting and Hungama Digital Services get picked up by the likes of Leo Burnett and JWT, agencies and their holding companies are casting the net wider. While Ignitee which has survived two name changes and 12 years in the business is an obvious choice, even the three and a half year old 22 Feet which has worked on Titan Fastrack, Kingfisher and Lenovo is being approached. Brijesh Jacob, founder and director of 22 Feet, admits, “Every offer is tempting because it’s either an agency you adored growing up or someone that’s done awesome work.”

     

    CVL Srinivas

    In the fray are creative and media agencies, larger digital shops, holding companies and even IT firms. But among the first two, there’s a rivalry that’s as old as the days of unbundling. They have squabbled over who gets more face time with marketers and more recently over credits at award shows. And now, many senior practitioners on both sides are convinced that their firms are quite literally the best support system for a digital shop.

     

    Media agency heads often argue that considering digital is a measurable, accountable, result driven medium, what better partner than a business that concerns itself daily with these very issues? Says CVL Srinivas, chairman, SMG, “Media agencies are ahead of the curve when it comes to digital. We hear this from clients and not just agencies.” Sudha Natrajan, founder of media consultancy, TMC and a veteran of Lintas Initiative Media believes, “The lines between creative and content, and analytics to chase, understand and convert consumers, do not exist. The talent and understanding in a media agency is more apt to capitalise on this, rather than a creative agency. Creative agencies have stopped understanding media a while ago; some are making a feeble attempt to understand the digital medium, but are failing.”

     

    Sudha Natrajan

    The creative agencies on the other hand argue that in the absence of ideas and content, there’s unlikely to be any consumer response worth measuring. Says Arvind Sharma, chairman and CEO, India subcontinent, Leo Burnett, “Agencies produce TV commercials and hand these over to media agencies who release them. But if you need to manage content on a live basis, just handing it over is not the future.” He believes media agencies can possibly work only in the short run and on specific clients where the communication is less dynamic.

     

    Mr Sharma counters the media agency claim about being result driven with, “Human beings are persuaded by content. In a simple thing like door-to-door retail, change the message and the productivity levels are up from 20% to 80%. Around the world, who are the bigger winners of Effies, creative or media?” Madhukar Kamath, group CEO and managing director, DDB Mudra says a tad philosophically, “I disagree with the point of view saying either digital or activation should rest with a creative or media agency. It resides with whoever thinks like a full service agency; addressing brand issues.”

     

    Arvind Sharma

    While pretty much everyone is speaking (or has spoken to) everyone else, a pattern is emerging where the more content and social media driven digital agencies find a space within a creative network and the more result and search engine optimisation focused shops opt for media companies.

     

    It’s an arrangement that Atul Hegde, CEO, Ignitee finds essentially flawed: “They should be doing the opposite. Why shouldn’t a media agency acquire a strong creatively led agency? It will bring completely varied skill sets.” Some digital heads claim they don’t have a dog in the fight between creative and media. This is especially true since it’s quite impossible to go in for unbundling in digital. Says Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer, founder and managing director, BC Webwise, “It will have to be pure play; agencies are okay either continuing independently or merging with an existing digital arm.”

     

    Atul Hegde

    The agencies themselves have earned the right to be spoken to on their own terms. The offers are a lot less diffused than they used to be. While previous conversations were primarily about money, these days, companies attempt with varying degrees of success to draw a roadmap. And given how digital firms have grown in size and scale and the frequent inability of the acquirers getting richer, the founders can take pride in their creations continuing to exist as standalone brands for the foreseeable future.

     

    Says Vikas Tandon, CEO of Indigo Consulting, “Being part of Leo Burnett gives us a chance to be at the table when a strategy is formulated at the top management level.” And yet he argues, “It would be foolish to not leverage the equity of Indigo.”

     

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer

    Gulrez Alam, COO, Resultrix says “We are the leading buyer of Google in India and Performics is the biggest buyer of Google worldwide. We will be representing Performics in India.” However the name remains unchanged even post merger with the Publicis Groupe firm – Alam says the only addition will be the line ‘a Performics company.’

     

    There are others who have been in conversations for years and are yet to hear anything they really like. Mr Hegde admits, “There have been no compelling offers; no network that can add value to our growth plans. Being independent is our strength today, allowing us to work across agencies and brands. One of the biggest things about acquisitions is someone comes to you for what you are. Once they acquire you, they try to make you who they are.”

     

    Vikas Tandon

    Besides, there’s a bit of scepticism about what value an acquisition really brings to the table. An industry insider believes Webchutney is pretty much unchanged and the same applies to Quasar. For the moment though, it sure feels good to be wanted. And digital agencies with their PC, Mac and Tab saturated offices, internet meme based humour and boisterous geeky staff are the unlikely belles of the ball.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved