Category: Media

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have vast audiences — 2 billion people worldwide use them. Online advertising of all sorts continues to grow. It has reached $ 20 billion in 2015. Advertisers prefer social media platforms as these gather data on each user’s age, consumption patterns, interests and so on. It makes accurate targeting possible. The distinction between advertising and e-commerce ( or selling ) becomes blurred. ‘ Buy now ‘ buttons allow the user to complete the sale on the spot. In future, the social platforms can be paid for such instant shopping services.

Message development now has changed from a single brand brush message across the media to many variations on a theme so as to match  the segment of consumers most likely to be responsive to it. Digital marketing is thus iterative, and that entails more work for the ad agencies and PR firms.

Some traditional media feel the pinch from the loss of ad revenue to digital rivals. However, TV holds on, and its advertising has kept growing. In future TV audiences may decline. Some may shift to Netflix — a service that do not have ads.

The messaging applications such as Snapchat, WeChat and Kik are the latest platforms. Yes, there is a limit as to how much advertising can shift to these platforms. TV ads with simple messages have a great reach. Print ads are more credible. What is required is a balanced media mix.

Netflix network of online TV is expanding by leaps and bounds. In the last five years, it has entered Australia, Canada, Europe and Latin America. It is a streaming service. Its 65 per cent subscribers are in the US. Another 19 per cent subscribers are from Brazil, Canada and the UK. It would like to cover another 150 countries across America, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East by 2016. It intends to enter Japan in September, 2015. Japan is a challenging market. It has broadband access and people routinely watch videos on their mobile phones. Yes, they have different tastes than the rest of the world. Let us see how Netflix here as online TV.

Out-of-home ( OOH ) is no longer just a complementary medium. It has moved to the centre of all advertising. Some outdoor messages go viral on social media. That shows its effectiveness. There are more people on the go . The rest of the media has fragmented. That makes outdoor important. The size of the OOH business world wide is $ 45 billion. Kinetic Worldwide is an OOH company under WPP umbrella. It has 10 per cent share in the worldwide out-of-home business. New things are coming in OOH. There is drone advertising, and Drone Cast, a Philadelphia-based company, specializes in it. Billboards images make sounds, and music comes through your phone. In air ports, there is dynamic placing by combining the ad with aviation data. If the flight is coming from China, the ads are in Chinese. There is going to be an explosion in digital OOH. Digital agencies can partner with real estate agencies to monetize a place.

Smartphone has redefined the news industry. First, news is consumed differently. Secondly, news is reported differently. Thirdly, the existing models of news are being challenged. There has to be an up to a minute news. WhatsApp and WeChat do require content that appeals to audiences on these platforms. The audience is curating their own news and in some instances actually reporting it. Younger audiences are turning towards mobile, online video and new visual formats. Older people and rural population will continue to read the paper or watch TV. News consumption is now in terms of bite size chunks — there is less text — there is less text and more video. Though the numbers of news providers have increased, audiences rely on a few trusted ones Journalists use their phones to film, edit and file from the field. A new golden age of news has dawned.

Since TV is too expensive, cluttered and fragmented, print seems to be having a revival. Print has geographic selectivity. It is cheaper and faster to produce and place ads in print. Though FMCG are yet to embrace print wholeheartedly, it is mainly durables who rely on print. There is media multiplier effect — the impact is greater when both press and TV are used.

There was a time when there was no shortage of copywriters who were willing to write print copy of 250 words. Print ads have now lost their bite. They simply look like bad posters. In a visually driven world, copywriting is a casualty. It has become almost inevitable that when an advertiser’s budget grows beyond a certain level, it triggers an automatic switch from print to TV. But the written word is still very powerful. Print will get back its glory if colleges begin producing copywriters again. It is not that the consumers have lost their ability to read, it is the industry that has lost its ability to write.

Media professionals decide where, when and how the Rs 50000-odd crore worth of advertising money in this country is spent. Media has acquired a new status in the communications industry, and does no longer play a second fiddle to the creative and service people. Media was once a cost centre, today it has become a profit centre. Clients used to interact with media professionals just once a year. But now they prefer a close interaction with them on a continuous basis. Media plan requires constant monitoring and it incorporates charges as add when the dynamics of the environment demand it. Media has come to the forefront. We find individuals and agencies specialising in media. Media CEOs are young, dynamic and have capabilities to drive media as a business. Earstwhile media directors had strong technical knowledge, but they lacked business orientation. Media people also should have the ability to manage relationships as they deal with clients directly without using client services. Media people cannot afford to be back-benchers and introverts who are adept in number crunching. Managing client perception is as important as number crunching. Media job has become high-profile job with its own stress. Media professionals should form an industry-level body.

Programmatic buying is a new approach to digital advertising. It takes marketing from a fragmented campaign-to-campaign criteria to an always-on paradigm covering the entire customer like cycle. It is an automated technology driven method of buying or selling ad placements. There are two main sub-categories within programmatic — real time bidding ( RTB ) or programmatic direct.

RTB can do ad placement through a public auction using open exchanges like OpenX, DoubleClick, FBX. The process of open RTB through open exchange route does not guarantee media placement. Bidding can be done through a private marketplace.

Programmatic direct is followed in case the inventory is guaranteed.

In India, programmatic buying has not been widely adopted. One key reason is the data needed to define a consumer. To decide whether RTB is media efficient, one must have a full picture of the consumer who sees the ad. The data emanates from clicks, demographics, behavioural stream, first party and third party data. There are gaps here. These days mobiles are predominant. There are opportunities to match the app users to ideal consumer profiles. However, the absence of cookies create challenges.

On open exchanges, there is quality inventory from large publishers. Thus there is uncertainty of transparency in placement. Buyers feel comfortable in direct buy.

Besides, programmatic requires rich media which is scarce.

Programmatic buying is today confined to banner ads. Video and custom rich media ad units are still sold through direct sales channels. There is more programmatic buying for desktops. Brand campaigns have yet to adopt true RTB. Mobile ecosystem suits RTB.

RTB auction take place in less than 100 milliseconds. And there are opportunities galore. Marketers can use programmatic buying for a variety of marketing effort — new customer acquisition, loyalty marketing, branding conversions etc. If the campaign is aims at performance, it is easier to see the effectiveness of programmatic buying. There could be a group exposed to programmatic buying and one that is not so exposed. In real time, it can be shown what effect the brand marketing has on buying intention, or awareness, or favourable attitude.

Some brand safety measures  are necessary. There should be correct reporting. Each impression should be correct reporting. Each impression should be quality impression . It should be compliant. Ad should be served and displayed as intended. There should be correct geo-targetting. There should be correct placement. Brand marketers must have a list of black-listed sites to ensure that ads are not placed against inappropriare content/inventory.

Just as cadevers are important for the medical students, nude models are important for the art students. Such models are given a fee of Rs 1000 per day. Models are anytime better than photographs for study purposes for two reasons –muscular tension and emotions. In the USA, su,h models are gym trainers and ballet dancers. In India, they come from a poor background. As they have to sit for long hours, they suffer crom cramps and back-ache. When they are exhausted, they are given relaxing poses. Live portraits in Maharashtra are common since the days of the British regime. As there is stigma attached to this type of modling, students will have to paint soon from pbotographs. Male models are difficult to get. There is a fear that they may be a corrupting influencr on the female students. Many students and at times professors volunteer to double as male models.

News Papers

Britain :

Downmarket — The Sun

Upmarket — The Times

US :

Downmarket — New York Post

Upmarket — The Wall Street Journal

Australia :

Downmarket — The Daily Telegraph

Upmarket — The Australian

TV Channels

Britain : BskyB

US : Fox News, Fox Network

Asia : Star

Movies :

20th Century Fox — Producer of Avtaar and X-Men

Of all the innovations in the world, printing is the biggest. To begin with, printing was mechanical. Later, there was a shift to digital printing. Digital printing can be customised. Diet Coke bottles can have different patterns, no two alike. The changes can be made on the go. You can put a customer’s name on the each bottle.Traditional printing is okay for long print runs. When the print runs are small, the digital printing is the only option. It has immense power. You can print anything from wall paper to T-shirts and dresses. A bread company in the UK adds a headlines to their packs every morning. The other technologies take too much preparation time. They are not eco-friendly also.