Category: Promotion

E-tailing sites attract traffic in very large numbers of the shoppers. These shoppers are either in the purchase mode or the search mode. This traffic could be monetised. Brands can be promoted by properly targeted and relevant ads on these sites. App-based taxi operators put ads on e-commerce sites. Apart from Facebook and Google, this is another medium to reach out to people. The brand advertiser and the site both gain in terms of awareness and business. In future, the e-tailing sites will form an important component of the media mix for the brand marketers.This media will grow bigger. It is akin to point-of-sale advertising in a modern retail outlet. Flipkart and Snapdeal have already started accepting online ads, and others may follow suit.

Internationally, organisations spend around $140 billion on digital advertising ( 2014 ). Ad tech firms contribute a great deal to generate these dollars. Ad tech firms basically help the targeting — targeting the ads to the right consumers. It is a major shift — marketing is becoming personal once more. Facebook and Google are the lead players who are known to do the targeting with precision and metrics to measure. The other ad tech firms compete with theses two lead firms. However, there are opportunities to collaborate with them too.

Ad tech firms, whether small or big, have started changing the rules of the advertising profession. The online canpaigns are created and priced differently. The goals set are precise. To illustrate, an advertiser may want to target a Japanese youth between the ages 15 –35 with a taste for Indian food. The budget can be specified, say $ 50,000. Once the campaign is run, the ad tech firm submits the measurable results and any remaining dollars.

Search targeting is the simplest, say track what a customer searches. The ads correspond to the searches being made. However, a person searching hamburgers in Pune may not be interested in the hamburgers being delivered in Chicago. Here the geographical targeting comes in. Demographic targeting is based on demographic data such as your age, sex, education etc. These are conventional methods of targeting. But today a combined multi-level targeting is possible — all possible data signals are factored in.

If against ad spending of Rs. 5000, you want 50 pizza to be delivered, these results can be obtained by ad tech firm by targeting the ads to the suitable audience.

Ad buyers such as eBay put several million of such ad bids, and all these cannot be handled manually. They use a bid management system. The ad impression and the appropriate ad are dynamically put together, and it takes 100-150 milliseconds. The tools enabling this are provided by the ad tech firm.

Ad tech firms are evolving in sophistication. Some of them are targeting the ads on cell phones and desk top.They are doing proprietary data work. There are so many different types of ad tech firms. The key is optimisation of the various parts of the business.

E – commerce sites have the data of the shopping behaviour of millions of people. They have billions of page views. They require the context of some level such as Facebook and Google.They also need teams to build their own ad propositions to the customers.

In the final analysis, there are two types of ad tech firms — those which capture the intent of the user, e.g. Google and those who can present ads after knowing the users e.g. Facebook. There are many possibilites in-between. Smaller firms build capabilities in which these larger firms are interested. The cell phone is the next avenue of advertising, since the user location and behaviour can be predicted. The prediction could identify the anatomical position of the consumer — whether siting or standing. It is a complex thing, but full of opportunities. Wearable technology could take ad tech firms to an altogther now level.

InMobi connects the space sellers such as content sites, apps and game developers with the advertisers wishing to use the mobile platform. Technologically they serve the right ad to the right people. InMobi can do apprographic targeting — targeting based on users’ app preferences.

When the user engages with the ad by clicking on it, InMobi gets paid. There are metrics such as cost per click (CTC) or cost per mille (CPM). The other payment metrics are — number of downloas for a game, queries of test drive for a car.

InMobi improves engagement by innovating on how the ad is delivered. The ad could just look like the content.It is an example of one such innovation.

Komli Media and Media.net are the other ad tech firms operating here.

The largest marketers in the US are cutting their ad bugets as they shift a larger portion of their spending to digital platforms. In digital, there are cost efficiencies and one can buy more for less.A large portion goes to segments such as video and mobile.Online display ads had the same flat spending. TV and cable TV ad spend increased, and has suffered on the margins.In print the ad expenditure continued to plunge. Radio ad spending declined.

I wrote Advertising, Sales and Promotion Management book for the first time in 2001.Since then it has been revised five times and has seen eleven reprints.I am revising it for the 6th time. It cocers the entire communication mix a company uses — advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, PR. It also details the various media used in advertising. It covers face-to-face personal selling and sales management. It is a popular book and is available on all e coomerce sites in India and abroad and is available at all important book stores.

Media first unbundled from the agency almost a decade ago. We now have separate firms for interactive, direct marketing and PR. All these functions unbundled from the agency compete with each other . There are conflicts among them. There is scope for pull in different directions. There is, however, one brand and brand communication must converge at the delivery end. There is absence of a single brand custodian, a role performed by client service director in a full-service agency. Marketers, therefore, have to perform the role of a brand communicator. There is a need for re-integration and different mechanisms for this are being tried. There should be some central team leader focussing on consumer and brand planning. Instead of direct reporting there should be a matrix covering horizontal and vertical functions. What we should ensure is that the consumer should have one voice instead of separate voices.

All of us have heard about Maggie’s 2-minute noodles, and Ujala, char boondoh wala. Numbers are being used as USP for a wide variety of products. There is a tea with paanch ayurvedic tatva, and a fridge with a ‘sixth sense’. There are pastes which can fight a certain number of problems, and pain balm that can act a certain number of ways. Numbers put forward a quantitative claim and lend credibility to advertising. All fairness creams make a difference in a week or a fortnight. Numbers communicate the strength of a product. Cosmetics stress a certain number of ingredients, each contributing to its overall efficacy. Though claims are made, these should be delivered too. There should not be too short or too long a duration for fairness cream to act. Too short, and it becomes miraculous and too long, and consumers tend to lose interest. Numbers should be put in context so as to make them symbolic and evocative. Britannia cheese says its one slice is equal to two glasses of milk. Personal care products become credible if numbers are used. However,as we have already observed, if product fails to deliver, you lose all the credibility. Using numbers is thus a double-edged sword.

Prop shops supply  the wherewithal for every creative idea. They offer everything from forks and spoons to antique furniture. They can make available mangoes in winter. The big three prop shops in Mumbai and Propability,  It Ads — a prop shop and Propaganda Co. Production houses prefer a small fee to rent props to buying them and later arrange for their storage. Props can be rented for as little as their cost price. Formerly, production houses carried an inventory of the usually required props, but later they were forced to dispose of the stock in the face of rising real estate costs. The ads shot today require a whole lot of contemporary props, very different from props used in the 1970s when ads carried only product-pack shots and demos. The props today should look realistic as well as aspirational. High-end props are requred these days in life-style ads and ads which use celebrity brand ambassadors. here the suppliers charge a high fee, and consider the item as sold if it is damaged.

Achyut started on a career in calligraphy from Shirodkar School, Parel, Mumbai where he was chosen to write on the board. He later joined J. J. School of Arts. He was mentored by R.K. Joshi. Ulka offered him a scholarship. He did research on the Modi script with the help of D.G. Godase and Ashok Kelkar. In one of the seminars at the IIT, the renowned calligrapher Snider spotted his talents and invited him to Germany. Achyut’s work was exhibited at Germany, London and Netherland. He started Achyut Palav School of Calligraphy. His works will have been exhibited in London between 28th May, 2011 and 5th June, 2011. He also held demostrations and  and workshop in London.

In a typical cost sheet, the expenses of the fees of the artists, cinematography, outdoor location and its recce, studio or bungalow hire charges, props, costumes and miscellaneous costs are shown. Cost of the prints too are factored in. Over and above this, the mark up of a production house and the fees of the director are the two major cost components.Some years back, a typical 60 second ad film used to cost on an average Rs 70 lacs. These days the budget has shot up to Rs 1.5 crore keeping pace with the inflation. A film made lavishly using outdoors will cost Rs 2.5 crore. And if a reputed filmmaker is used the budget may reach Rs 3.5 crore. If  you use a celebrity, on account of the fees charged by him/her, a film may cost between Rs 5 to Rs crore.

To break the clutter, advertisers can convert commercials into small stories to be told and shown in several episodes.Some years ago, HUL launched its White Beauty range in this fashion weaving the story around Saif, Neha Dhupia and Priyanka Chopra. Idea cell phones have gone on similar lines by telling the story of education in rural India through Abhishek Bachchan. The ad capsules take the message effectively to the audience. The story telling in phases is an exciting way to generate interest in the product. Staging the ad in several parts enhances the curiosity among the audience. It hooks the audience to the brand. It also provides an image to the brand.This is an episodic format of communication.