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There are 5 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" Social Networks Bend Towards A Branding Strategy - Will It Rake In The Revenues?More and more social networks are announcing what I would call a social media branding bouquet of products for advertisers. Advertisers who have got used to using the digital medium as a lead and sometimes even a conversion generating medium are now being approached by leading social networks of India with a branding based model. So Which Networks Are Moving Into Social Media Branding? BigAdda.com - BigAdda stated in a report today said that it would be looking at making the BigAdda a branding centric platform. Mandar Natekar the newly appointed National Head of BigAdda.com said “We will position our platform as a branding solution provider and pitch advertisers to use BigAdda.com for brand building activities, rather than just carrying out lead generation and returns on investment (ROI) driven campaigns. We are targeting FMCG, telecom, lifestyle and automobile brands as advertisers on our site." Recently another blog reported that 25% of BigAdda’s traction comes from the BigB Blog who offlate has been in the middle a lot of controversy which has had a direct impact on his blog traffic. I would like to believe that the BigB blog is the hottest destination on BigAdda as on date and given that they haven’t still built engagement with users I think the same wouldn’t be as easy to build as well. Ibibo.com - Ibibo.com has already initiated a social media branding exercise on their website which is quite apparent from the way they have been showcasing brand. Check the screenshot below of the idea campaign integrated as a feature on Ibibo: And this feature for Nokia on profiles at Ibibo: Also they seem to be running a contest for TataSky on their video site here. Ibibo (MIH India) seems to have taken the branding route pretty seriously though they would need much more of this if they have to meet their losses that they seem to be incurring. Will It Rake in the Moolah? If Yes What Is Required To Make It Happen? Long Term Play - Branding is a long term strategy and its not something that will churn out the dollars on the first day itself. The Social Networking Platforms would have to create unique properties that allow ongoing brand engagement with users without making it too intrusive which may put them off. Also campaigns would need to be longterm in nature and this realization would have to be driven down marketers. Requires Offline Push - One needs to have good connections with the media planners and brands which are primarily offline advertisers or atleast are not the kinds which would look for ROI. For example FMCG and Clothing brands. User Engagement Key - Most sites even today judge their traffic by number of visitors and not by engagement centric metrics like apps interacted with or actions taken like groups joined, scraps sent, messages sent etc. These metric will become more and more important as time goes on and brands which will look to engage with these social networking platforms will look at such statistics. What do you think? Social Networks will earn enough revenue via branding? Related Posts Also check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult India Wakes Up To Securing the Wifi connections. Thank You, Mr. Terrorist ?So, all the recent terrorists have been tracked to Mumbai. Also, it was made clear than the terrorists were smarter than the average Indians. The terrorists used others Wi-Fi networks to carry out their communication. The terrorists were smart enough. The Indians were not. I cannot help but remember the tag line of the recent Hind film, “Phoonk”. It said - it’s superstition until it happens to you. Translated to this episode, it becomes “security is just a technical buzzword, unless you become the victim‘. Ok, now the news, ET reports that TRAI has taken it upon itself to make it mandatory for the ISPs to make sure that the customers secure their Wifi networks with passwords. The news says TRAI started studying Wi-Fi network after the Ahmedabad blasts and will soon come p with the guidelines for the ISPs. TRAI will be consulting with DoT and DIT for this. TRAI told DoT , “All ISPs may be instructed to ensure that their subscribers using wireless devices must use effective authentication mechanisms and permit access to internet to only authorized persons using wireless devices,” Interesting (and expectedly) ISPs say that it’s the customers who is to be blamed. Have a look at what Rajesh Chharia Internet Service Providers Association of India president have to say - “Internet service providers are taking steps on their own to secure WiFi connections. All ISPs are installing AAA servers and firewalls. But, if you look at the terror mails, they were sent from hacked or open WiFi accounts - there is nothing we can do about this. When people take a broadband connection and routers to make their homes and offices WiFi enabled and then leave it open when they are not in use, there is nothing ISPs can do about it” Wonderful, isn’t it ? Actually, why put the onus on anyone. We should be putting passwords to a Wifi network. The way we are afraid of people reading our emails and using the information to hurt our personal/professional interest, we should be afraid of our Wi-Fi being misused. And its much more than just our privacy that’s at stake this time. Any thoughts ? Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Telecom Italia bags 49% Stake in Unitech WirelessReal estate major Unitech’s telecom arm, Unitech Wireless has just sold a 49% minority stake in the company to Telecom Italia, Italy’s largest telecom company. Unitech Wireless has managed to win licenses to operate in all 22 circles in the country and were on the look out for partners. We’d reported about Norwegian telecom giant, Telenor, who was eyeing a 26% stake in the company for $500m. Today, ET reports that instead of Telenor, Telecom Italia has managed to grab a 49% stake in the company for $2bn. The two firms are close to reaching an agreement, whereby a new company will be formed for Unitech’s telecom business in which Telecom Italia will have a 49% stake while the rest will be held by Unitech. Back in the earlier report, the MD of Unitech, Mr. Sanjay Chandra had denied that a partner was finalized by his firm and that they were still negotiating with various parties. The deal would only be closed only after they analyzed all opportunities. It was also reported that the firm was eyeing for an evaluation of atleast $3bn As per Industry Sources, Unitech has been in talks with several foreign telcos for a partnership since the beginning of the year. While the firm has been valued currently at $2bn, the promoters are hoping for a valuation of at least $3bn and seeing that 49% was given away for $2bn, they pretty much hit the arrow on the target. Unitech, will play the role of contributing its pan-india license and initial groundwork. The company has already acquired spectrum in six of the 22 circles and is expected to launch it’s operations by April next year. On the other hand, Telecom Italia’s funds will be used for rolling out the network and operations. The company is also planning to bid for the 3G spectrum. The company is preparing in full force for the roll out, and has already employed a force of 250 people. The firm also plans to invest Rs. 20,000 crores over the next three years. Executives from both these firms are said to be in talks with equipment vendors, including Nokia and HP. It seems that the country is expected to see a party of launches next year, and Unitech is making sure it does not fall behind in the race. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Shoppers Stop Opens Up Online StoreShoppers Stop is going online, reports Afaqs. The idea is not to create an alternative revenue-source to the offline stores, but to develop an extension to the present business. On this, Vivek Mathur, customer care associate and vice-president, corporate planning and e-commerce, said, “We are not looking at the site as a separate business. It is an extension of our brand, which has a strong presence in the physical retail segment. We want to create the same experience for our customers online.” The focus will be more on the existing customers. As Vivek Mathur puts it, the idea is to create an experience for their customers. Indian customer already has a large number of online shopping stores. Indiaplaza.com, Futurebazaar.com are some prominent players in this space. Futurebazaar.com is owned by Pantaloons, the company that owns Big Bazaar. It recently got funded by Sherpalo Ventures and KPCB. The amount might be in the range of $20-30m. In that case, they will paying a good deal of attention to the various aspects of the business. Even a good number spent in marketing. The choice for the customer will be plenty. However, these two are positioned differently offline. Big Bazaar has always been about the daily need goods. Whereas, Shoppers Stop is more like a place which people go to on weekends, to have some good, expensive stuff (clothes etc.). They have stalls for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. I would expect a store like Shoppers Stop to have its online presence much before someone like Big Bazaar does that. However whether the online extensions reflect on the offline business positioning, completely, will be seen only once they have a sizeable number of people visiting their website and once they pay out their online strategies in the time to come. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Industry Movements: Mandar Natekar Joins BigAdda While Hemant Sachdev Heads To Microsoft (Via WATJob)Well shifting jobs seems to be the order of the day in the digital space. And there are two more people who seem to have quit their earlier jobs to find a new one. What’s heartening though is people are shifting from the TV medium to Online with their career moves. So here are the Industry Movements for today: Mandar Natekar Joins BigAdda.com as National Head Mandar Natekar who was previously with HBO as the North and West Regional Head has joined BigAdda as the National Head reports Alootechie. Mandar Natekar will be responsible for setting up the sales team and launching experiential and contextual advertising solutions for advertisers to use social networking as an effective medium for brand building. Hemant Sachdev Quits Bharti and Joins Microsoft Microsoft India has hired Hemant Sachdev as Joint Managing Director of Consumer and Online Business who was earlier with Bharti Airtel. He was a key member of the of Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal’s apex management team at a group level reports VCcircle. Sachdev would be heading a portfolio which includes consumer software, windows mobile, MSN and the online services and search businesses. (Via WATJob.com) Follow Industry movements and Job Openings On WATJob.com Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult More Recent Articles
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