e Magus

Image source: Forbes.com Online advertising spends, including spends on Adwords have been coming under a lot of scrutiny and discussion. In a world of numerous options, the marketers are looking for the greatest ROMI (return on marketing investments) Traditionally, search marketing has been the most effective way to reach the target audience. Target audience defined here are the people who are in-market for a solution that pertains to the product or service offerings. However, with proliferation of different platforms, the way people discover and consume content too has changed. The beauty of Google was that it’s search results were the closest to what people actually wanted. ( While I have a different take on this, I’ll save it for a different post of a different date ). When the paid search was added to the search results, a clear demarkation with the paid content on the right and organic results on the left still kept the ‘territorial integrity’ in tact. Even when the ...

L ast week Adage ( www.adage.com ) came out with a news article stating that Coca-Cola Company study finds no sales impact (lift) from online chatter (For more details you could read the article here http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/coca-cola-sees-sales-impact-online-buzz-digital-display-effective-tv/240409/ The article goes on to detail the study and the client input that Online advertising do work, and that social media plays a crucial role...However, some interesting pointers from the article: Can you link sales objective (especially short term) with social media, especially when it comes to FMCG or CPG? I say, plain stupid to even try and spend time seeking such results. This can only be successful, if there is social media led tactical campaigns to drive sales... Overall sales depends on the time, distribution, space (shelf), competition activities, price, etc What should your social media objectives be? No silver bullet here. But for a FMCG or CPG brand; it should be m...

Ok. I know it is a very uncomfortable question, especially in emerging markets where Internet advertising is just about finding its place, and is also one of the fastest growing - in terms of advertising revenue growth. It becomes all the more uncomfortable when you are talking about it online :) Some weeks back, I overheard someone say that compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Online Advertising as a medium need not to be considered seriously (at-least for now). India, for example, still is a market driven by TVC and Print ads. True? True, but partially True, because most of the online advertising is limited to online banners (a replication of the mainline creative/message) with a campaign website that is informative in nature. True, because in most ad agencies, the creative think about the message in terms of TVC, Print, Radio, etc…. and then decide to do something ‘cool’ in the online space. “Let’s have something cool on Facebook” is the latest mantra. True again, be...

Imagine you own a popular coffee chain in Denver that you want to promote. On Monday afternoon, it’s warm and 80 degrees in the city. You run a display ad campaign online that offers Denverites a discount coupon for an iced cold latte, with a searchable map embedded in the ad to show local branches, and a real-time feed from people who have tweeted publicly about your newest flavor. That evening, a cold front rolls over the Rockies. Your ad automatically and dynamically adjusts to present a photo of a hot, steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of a warm fireplace, together with a home delivery number and an offer of free marshmallows. Creative? Absolutely. Impossible? Hardly. You can do this today using technology from Teracent that we’re working to roll out for our clients who advertise on the Google Content Network or who use DoubleClick Rich Media. There’s no doubt that advertisers today are increasingly seeking to run campaigns that are highly measurable and relevant to users. Tha...

Some forwarded me a link to join a new website www.yepme.com. They claim to be India's first recommendation Engine. The offer of sending invites and recommending places allows you to accumulate points and thus you are eligible to get your free Reebok shoes (the prime reason for me to click the link) It makes me wonder, why would someone listen to a recommendations of a complete stranger?? Can i really be an 'influencer' to promote some service or product, that will influence a person from Mumbai or Bangalore to try it. Sounds, far fetched. I never asked the person sitting on the neighboring table in a restaurant what he had ordered or how the food tasted. Neither do I ask someone at a retail outlet about a particular product. Then why would I go online, read a recommendation of some completely unknown, and the decide. And most cases, I go by the waiter/chef's recommendation or the salesman's advice...I am sure this will be true in most cases. This thought reflects i...

Strange.. Most of the Internet stats report from India claim that India has an internet user base of 30 Million to 38 Million. But to quote by Internet Governance Forum - India has been ranked fourth among the top ten nations in the world with 81 million internet users even as the world aggregate touched 134,85,72,040 by the end of 2007. For reading the entire article click economictimes.com I do not know the methodology which was followed and how the figures were arrived to.. But at 81 Million users, we can emphatically say that Internet in India is no longer a medium for niche audience, but is a 'mass' media. It is high time that we marketers recognize this and have a proper online marketing strategy - and not do online campaigns as an after thought. Cheers Santosh

It has been quite a while since I have written anything under the Management-Ally series. I had in my early days of blogging started the following series: 1. Management-Ally: Topics of interests that would give my perspective of Management related topics. 2. Manage-Mentally: The topics under this heading were usually humorous in nature. It gave my view of a specific management related topic in a lighter vein. I have decided to re-start writing articles under these headings. Under this Management-Ally series, I wanted to cover my thoughts on Online Behaviour – why people don’t behave the way they do in real life There is a vast difference in the behaviour of people when they are online or offline. We all have been conditioned to the fact that Internet enables an easy and convenient way of communicating with each other. But these online interactions are not necessarily, an extension of our real life behaviour but a medium for surfacing our deep rooted feelings/actions. A common example w...

Ok. You know it. But, I still will say – LinkedIn is great. In fact, it is one of the best things that has happened in the Networking sites So, I have a profile.. I have a large number of members in my network. But, what is it in for a marketer. As a marketing professional, how can I use LinkedIn to reach out to those grapes (read profiles) I see, but can’t reach. Most marketers use LinkedIn effectively for HR (It is a different story that my profile has not evinced any interest so far) What any advertiser is looking for medium and ways to reach to the target audience without much ‘disruption’. LinkedIn provides focused marketing based on member profile. Normal Advertising Options: LinkedIn advertising option offers the standard IAB Banner sizes (728x90, 160x600, 300x250) and text ads. These ads are displayed on the user profile pages – based on their designation, company size, location, roles, and industry. Also you can do the standard Frequency capping, IP target, time etc. If you ar...

Google seems to be slowly rolling out new features into some of their services. Google, which originally began as a search engine, has now become a giant on the interwebs, trying its hand at every possible area. As of today, the giant has a 70% Market Share in the total search queries from the US. Google has now started indexing a select few of its videos hosted Google Videos using Speech Recognition Technology. This technology enables Google to transcribe the speech in the videos to text so that Google can Index it. Currently, only videos from the official politician channels are supported. Currently, a user has to rely only on the Video title, description of the video or the tags. The ‘related videos’ too are based on these matches only. Now, with the technology, whenever any user makes a search, Google looks up the word in its big book of indexes and returns the videos which have these words in them. As an added benefit, Google adds bubbles in the timeline along with the text that ...

By Kevin Lourens I have been following the series of Direct Marketing articles by Kieth Wiser published on Marketing Web with interest. I have noticed with particular interest, some defensive views from the Above The Line (ATL) crowd who are laying claim to the digital marketing crown. As an outsider to the both ATL and direct marketing, the argument is reminiscent of a biblical king and two mothers claiming a shiny new infant, with both parties arguing the merits of the happy homes they offer. Viewed from this perspective, both sides will argue strongly for the case of having the best home. Clients, swayed by mounting evidence of the cost efficiency, effectiveness, reach, interactivity and measurability of digital marketing are redirecting large chunks of budget to digital marketing. With digital budgets increasing swiftly, logic dictates people will follow the money, agency sustainability depends on it and the imperative to get involved is therefore fundamentally economically driven....

Based on my earlier blog (which was a copy-paste job:)) I thought about putting some India perspective to it.. By 2011, we can safely assume that 8% of the population (currently it is about 4%) would be online.. Which would mean that the Internet users in India would be around 100 Million mark. Now compare this with the universe of English Newspapers in India (21 Million readers in 2006)... with a safe assumption of 10% growth Y-on-Y they will be around 35 Million readers of English dails... Internet would be reaching out more than DOUBLE the reach of English dailies put together.. According to me 2011 will be the most crucial and the active year in the online space in India... Internet advertising would face a lot of challenges from within and from outside. From within the challenges would be will the normal display ads, search advertising and email campaigns as we see them today meet the new entrants like Web 2.0 stuff of community and sharing,widgets, mashups, local searchs and the ...

Hi, This is wonderful piece of article I saw about Internet Marketing written by David Bain. Well The video download (Appx 2.15 hrs) costs about $127... In case you have the inclination to know about Internet Marketing, and the monies, you could buy the same here . The 13 Pillars - A Summary The 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing gives you 2 ½ hours of video recorded live at a recent seminar in April 2007. It's jam packed with up-to-date information on how to run your own Internet marketing campaign as effectively as possible. But what exactly are the 13 Pillars? Pillar #1: Website Design • Simple coding you need to know • How to appeal to search engines • How to improve your search engine visitor click-through-rate • How to structure your website navigation links Pillar #2: Keyword Research • What keyword phrases are • How to research your keywords • Where to position your keywords • How to brainstorm 10 top keyword phrases for your business Pillar #3: Blog Technology • What a blog ...

The brilliance of online marketing is not the new technology developments that happens. It is the way you can go about doing the conventional things in a digital world. I mean look at all the marketing tools you had been using earlier... the same is adapted into the online sphere. A marketing catalog - it became a website; Mailers - EDMs Retail shop - Online store Display ads - banner ads Telecalling - online chat The best thing is the simplicity at which you can adapt it online. Who would have thought that Internet - what was considered a technology advancement would soon become a marketing advancement. Strange, but true. I was reading an interesting article on the mini series on MySpace in imediaconnection : "Roommates," an original web series designed to engage fans with the characters online and involve them in plot development, launches today on MySpaceTV, the video wing of the online community network. Ford Motor's 2008 Focus is sponsoring the content, which will r...

I was keenly waiting for the change of name advertising of Hutch to Vodafone. The Media and agency circles were abuzz with the media innovation of Roadblock on Star Network for 24 Hrs. Well, honestly, I did not find any media innovation, except for the fact that the media agency has picked up all the available ad inventories for one day. The creative was by any standard mediocre. Not an O&M ad...:( Well it has been a long journey for this telcom service provider in India... from Max-Orange-Hutch-Vodafone. I was disappointed. Hope they have some good digital innovation in terms of re-branding on the Internet and Mobile space Cheers Santosh

Advertising networks are ‘in’ thing. Everyone is talking about it. I have been reading news articles about Yahoo picking up stake in Tyroo. Komli starting a new ad network based on behavioral targeting. And Google ad network increasing its footprint in the Indian market. In India , like in many countries, it makes sense for the many small and medium publishers to be part of one or many ad networks, as it is an incremental revenue through banner advertising for them. I am told, that of the 250 crores of ad revenue, most of the revenue goes to the top 10 sites, and the remaining is split amongst the thousands of smaller sites. What is it in for the advertiser? A single window shop for him to reach out his target audience based on various select criterions. He can choose his ad display based on the type of website (Industry vertical), demographics, time of day and most importantly a single dashboard to check the campaign performance. Ad Network is basically an infomediary, which ser...