Online trends in India 2013


I’m not sure why am I even writing about this. It is mid-March and there would be 1000’s of articles forecasting what will happen this year. Do I need to add more pixels to the ones that are already there? Well, maybe...or maybe not.

Having worked in the digital marketing for so long, I’ve realized that we tend to forecast the same thing over and over again like - the mobile story, online video, the King content, etc - and guess what, most of the time this holds true - like statement written on stone :). The following are what I’d want to add on to what other Digital Marketing pundits have predicted:

  1. Digital story-retelling: For long brands in India have looked at online as a place to create and publish content. Most social media activities too are loosely based on content distribution and ‘engagement’ (from contests to customer service to games). The most popular stories are children’s story or mythology - and the reason for their popularity is that it is simple and easily re-told. It is time for brands to have a story that can be re-told again and again by different people. The recent example is of Harlem Shake... it is a story that has been re-told in various ways by various people... For brands, this means it is going to be the rise of memes and they need to be part of the story if not the orginator of the story
  2. Online sale to Offline experience: Seen the latest Yebhi Ad.. Or the Myntra ad? It talks about buying and trying out an apparel at home and if not satisfied return it back with no questions asked policy. This model of marrying online and offline features would be the way forward for most e-commerce companies. As product differentiation between e-com portals blur, the only differentiation would be experience. And especially in shopping, experience is not virtual (UI) but for real. Extreme steps would be setting up offline shops (In fact, Firstcry have already started their retail outlets).
  3. Brands to App the ante:  The newest man talk are - “Hey, Let me show you my new app”, “Have you heard or seen this app before?” “That’s an awesome app” It is App-arent that the today Apps are to men, what trading cards were to kids earlier. Brands have a huge opportunity in this space. From utility based apps, brands will evolve to create apps that will connect with their customers on a higher level. An interesting example is the Cleartrip - Passbook (http://blog.cleartrip.com/2013/01/10/cleartrip-for-passbook/ ). Brands will be getting innovative with work arounds and how they can simplify and strengthen brand connect. Brands might even explore the newer technology like 3D printing
  4. Big Data: Collating the data and building the big picture would be a key highlight for companies that are already active in the digital marketing space. Analysis, would come from not just single data source, but finding co-relation amongst various smaller data source, and then spotting the business trends and opportunities. For ad agencies specializing in digital marketing, having a research specialization would be critical for delivering client success
  5. Mergers & Acquisitions in Ecom space: This is already happening. Driven by common investors in various ecommerce companies, and to increase the scale (as the market is still driven by low margin and high volume) M&A in the ecom space is inevitable. Also, there would be a lot of players who will bail out by selling to bigger players, unable to sustain high overheads and low margins
  6. Performance marketing in a weak economy: Yes, sale does matter. This would mean that you’ll hear more about CPL deals. Hybrid affiliate marketing programs, responsive marketing, low ad inventory costs, more of search marketing, etc. 

Website refresh is something I feel that might happen. But, considering that this year the market would be tough, not sure of companies investing monies in redesigning their existing online presence to something more responsive and using bleeding technology.

Cheers,

Santosh

Links:
Image 1: http://www.nationalpositions.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/trends-2013.jpg
Image 2: http://i0.wp.com/www.datareign.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/online-shopping-trend-2013-google-report.jpg?resize=600%2C305 

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