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There are 7 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" @IAMAI Digital Marketing: Analog Vs Digital - Digital Media Budgets Are More of Experimentation Budgets For MarketersAs promised here is the first panel discussion review of what happened at the IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference today. The first panel was on ‘ANALOG VS. DIGITAL: WHERE TO SPEND MARKETING BUDGETS NOW, AND WHY‘ The moderator Manish Vij initiated the discussion around this and the panel tried to raise/answer the following questions:
Some interesting quotes and statistics by speakers which we also tweeted on twitter: Prediction- TV going to be primarily digital & We are going to see the marketer asking the question “Why was his ad seen not seen”- Mahesh Murthy, Founder Pinstorm “Consumer is the new muse for our brand, that should be the approach” - Chetan Marwah, CEO, Ishir Digital “Google Ad click through rate is 16% in India” - Mahesh Murty, Founder Pinstorm One of the audience members who belonged to the Virgin Mobile team said that as a roadmap they plan to more towards banner ads and widgets in promoting their brand building hinting at brighter days for branding oriented advertising in the digital space.
Stay tuned for the posts on other panels.. (We would like to thank Deva our guest blogger in bangalore for the coverage) Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult iPhone 3G Update: BSNL Plans December Launch, Airtel Introduces EMIWhether the Apple iPhone is really worth Rs. 31,000 and Rs. 36,100 is an argument that’s debatable for hours together, but it is now almost certain that iPhone has almost failed in India. There was a lot of hype generated a few months before its launch, but all that seems to have died down owing to its high price or lack of features compared to other phones available in the market. Both the official carriers in the country, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone have been trying all sorts of advertising techniques to woo new customers. Compared to Vodafone, Airtel has been a little more aggressive in their product promotion. They planned midnight launches across 3 cities in the country for the iPhone 3G, the first of its kind in India. The country’s largest carrier also has a series of Official Apple Ads for the iPhone 3G running on TV. Even then, the response from the Indian Public has been moderate to very little. No long have been seen outside the retails outlets, not that they were expected at all. I’d largely blame the outright payment that a customer needs to make in order to buy the iPhone. Almost all the potential buyers in India have it etched onto their minds that the phone is available in the US at an initial payment of around Rs. 8500. No wonder there was wide-spread disappointment among the masses when the carriers announced the prices of the phone in India. Hoping to attract customers who are interested to buy the phone, but have been staying away due to the high price, Airtel has entered into a partnership with a few banks to offer EMI options. These banks, in partnership with VISA will now offer easy financing options for buying the iPhone 3G. Customers who hold VISA cards from ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI or Citibank will be eligible for these EMI options. The duration of EMI ranges from 9 to 24 months. Mr Sanjay Gupta, CMO (Mobile Services) for Bharti Airtel said:
Even though the phone will be made available on monthly installments, it still does not give enough reasons to buy the Gadget of the Year. Most enthusiasts argue that the phone cannot be used to its fullest potential due to the lack of 3G services in India. For them, BSNL may just provide the breather they were looking for. The state-owned telecom operator, which covers the whole of India except for Mumbai and India, has already been granted the 3G spectrum along with MTNL and have already rolled out test services in Pune. How is this good news for the iPhone 3G enthusiasts? The financialexpress reports BSNL will introduce the Apple iPhone 3G by December this year, the same time it rolls out its 3G services. The government has already begun its process of auctioning the 3G spectrum to private operators on Monday. So hope is not lost for subscribers of the private carriers, although they may have to wait a little longer. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Jobsites On A Downward Slide? - Naukri CEO Says “I Feel There Will Be Slower Growth”Well economy recession in the US has had its impact on the IT industry in India with IT companies chilling out a bit on their hiring plans and also possibly hiving off people to cut corner and survive this downturn. But if they are cutting costs the direct impact of that is being felt by one of the high growth segments of the Internet space i.e. the Jobsite space.
In this article Naukri Founder and CEO and one of the leading pioneers of the jobsite space is India Sanjee Bikhchandani had this to say ’I feel there will be a period of slightly slower growth for the industry due to the softness in the economy. This could lead to a shakeout if the slowdown lasts for a year or two’ Bikhchandani also warned ‘All job sites other than the top three would be hit badly if economic slowdown stayed’ What are the signs of a downslide? Jobsites have been having a tough time and a good indication of that is that some are shutting shop and are being acquired by others. Also there are others who are searching for alternative business models other than job listings inorder to stay afloat in this competitive market and downslide. Is Social/Business Networking Killing Jobsites? With the web opening up and users posting their personal and professional profiles on the web and with more and more users/recruiters getting web savvy its only natural for them to use these free social networking sites both to scout hires and to find jobs as well. We had blogged about earlier and had given 5 reasons why we felt that networking sites were a threat to jobsites. Also as networking worked on a model of referral it wasn’t surprising to see a plethora of job refferal sites coming to the fore. Now if the slowdown does stay even refferal sites might get affected. What Should jobsites do to survive? Mr.Bikhchandani rightly mentions that the top 3 jobsites would make money and during a slowdown possibly only the top player would make money. So how can other jobsites survive the downturn? Well here what might work.. Increasing revenue via Ad revenue - Ads is a good way to monetize one’s traction. The advertising sales could be targetted to non recruitment oriented companies. For example virgin mobile could advertise as candidates are young and fall under their target audience. What jobsites need to work on is packaging their ad proposal in a way thats attractive to non recruitment centric advertisers. Educational institutes could be a big advertiser as well. Lowering Costs Via Social Media Marketing: The acquisition costs of resumes affects the profitability of Jobsites and the use of social networking sites which are free could help in reducing that cost and also getting relevant targetted audience viewing and applying to job posts. There are a bunch of social media marketing companies out there as well which could be of help. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Why Ovi Is Important To Nokia?When you have a 60% market share of a rapidly increasing mobile handset market in India, what else can you ask for? Well, more. And for Nokia that’s the Mobile VAS, another rapidly growing market. In India. It was almost one year back, when Nokia announced. Described as an integrated services platform Ovi was a platform to offer multimedia rich and other content to the mobile handsets. Contents ranged from video clips, to mobisodes, to short animations, ringtones, music and even Maps (Nokia Maps). One year later, Nokia is close to launching its Ovi platform. It has been working to integrate all of its Mobile VAS offering under the Ovi platform. So, Whats Happening ? Well, Nokia already had something called Nokia Downloads. Now Nokai is integrating the services under the Ovi brand name. Also, Nokia is now planning to offer mobisodes. They have partnered with Hungama for the same. They have planned to offer mobisodes in areas like children’s program, news, sports, music clips and other entertainment programmes like soaps, reality TV shows, etc. Nokia has tied up with Hungama Mobile to offer mobisodes of “Afterworld” and “Kahani Hamari Mahabharat Ki” Nokia director-regions (software & services, entertainment & communities) Shankar Meembat told ET “All our internet services will eventually be an integral part of the overall Ovi brand. Since there is a strong appeal for TV content in India, we are looking at mobisodes to present news and serial highlights for audience on the move,” Nokia Makes Phones, Right? Then Why This New Strategy? Nokia makes phones and a lot of them. It leads the mobile handset market share in India. Apart from numbers it also rules the people’s perception in India. Goto any second-hand mobile shop and try the prices of the Nokia handsets Vs. other brands. Nokia brand, in second hand market, commands the highest premium (Well yes, there is a concept of premium in the second hand market. At least a very strong one in India). But the market share has been declining year-on-year. With time , the mobile phones have been started to become the music player, the video player, the gaming console, the camera and what not. This was made possible due to a.) The advances made in electronics and b.) Rapidly increasing adoption of the mobile phones worldwide. This made sure that an increasingly large number of people are using mobile phones, that are capable of more than just making and receiving calls. Further, data shows that only 12% of the time was spent on talking while using a mobile phone. This meant more and more people were indulging in sharing music, clicking pictures, transferring video using their mobile phones. Personally, it became a common sight for me seeing two completely unknown people transferring ringtones and music files in public transport like local trains. The content producers like films and television production houses started deriving a chunk of their revenues through digital sale of its content. A very good example of this is the Indiatimes’ 58888 service. You don’t think twice before requesting a famous ringtone from 58888. Even when that 10-second-ringtone costs you Rs.6. The business grew to the extent that an ecosystem evolved around this. So, we now have Mobile Content Aggregators. These are the companies which aggregate the content, fit for mobile consumption, form the original content producers. Hungama, Mauj telecom are the common names in this. You might have noticed the names of these two companies credited as “Mobile Partners” in the beginning of many Bollywood movies. Needless to say, with the increasing number of people using more capable phones, this business is becoming big. What started happening worldwide is that People have started getting used to the integration of services. An excellent example of this is Apple. iPhone, comes preinstalled with a version of the OS X browser and can be activated using your iTunes software. iTunes can even sync with the iTunes.com music store that Apple operates and you can download music and other content directly to your iPhone. Apart from ease of use for the end user, it also generated additional revenue for the company (Apple), which can then be used to subsidize the price of the handset itself. Nokia saw this happening. And it saw the success of iPhone. Worldwide, Nokia is a big brand. But it lost to iPhone on many counts. The WoW factor that’s associated with Apple products was there in iPhone, primarily because it included many previous blockbuster services in the iPhone. iPod and iTunes being the two of them. Nokia had been losing some market share to the iPhone, worldwide. In India it didn’t happen because of the exorbitant price that iPhone was placed at. And that was a mistake that iPhone did. India is a nation crazy about a.) Films and b.) Cricket. If priced at the right level, mobile downloads in India could have picked up like crazy. Needless, to say, the loss was all Apple’s. Nokia understand this very well and so, decided to offer contents to the Nokia handsets. With its own online stores, Nokia can better integrate services and offer them in a seamless manner to any Nokia handset. The upside of this is that you very well know the underlying hardware platform of the handset and the online platform can be better optimized for them. Again, once this picks up, Nokia will be able to offer discounts on its handsets, because a part of the revenues will be coming through Mobile Downloads. So, What’s Ahead? WATBlog Predicts - Thanks to Apple’s stupidity, Nokia’s loyal customer base in India is still Nokia’s. Nokia did the right thing by announcing Nokia N96 in India, one month before the world launch. It became as a viable alternative option to the iPhone. Once they launch Ovi, the promotional activity on TV and print will be making sure that every Indian knows about it. (Remember the Nokia Maps TV Ad ?). What I expect is a crazy rush to download music, clips and other content from the Ovi platform. I am sure Nokia will act smart and make the Ovi open to the developers. There are a far larger number of Nokia users worldwide than in India. An open platform for the developers can help spur innovation to the next level. Expect heavy promotional activities. Expect more content for your mobile phones. Expect more mobile-centric stuff like Akbar Birbal Remixed and Ram and Ria. Also, Nokia has features for business users as well, like the Files on Ovi feature that impressed Shayon. Will Nokia be able to attract enough users to make this launch as big as it sounds in news? Is Nokia right in diverting attention and resources in building a content based business? Is there any other company that offers competition> And above all, does Nokia + Ovi poses any threat to iPhone + iTunes ? Let us know what you think. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Virgin Mobile Goes Online In Search For Buyers..Virgin mobile which had launched with a bang and some controversy in the Indian market has now gone online to sell its phones and various talktime plans on their website virginmobile.in.
Speaking on the initiative, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile India, Mr M.A. Madhusudan, said “With 44 per cent of the total Internet population in India within the age group of 19-24 years, this medium has become an integral part of youth lifestyle. It is therefore logical for us to extend comfort of buying Virgin Mobile connection at the click of a button.” Also Virgin seems to be leaving no stone unturned to make sure that the users online experience is the best hence to attract the users they have initiated the ’Bak Bak’ offer which will provide online customers Rs. 100 worth of free talktime, 500 free SMSs, lifetime validity and a free prepaid connection on purchase of every handset.
Virgin will also deliver the phones ordered online in 24-48 hours and has tied up Blue Dart for delivery of handsets and with Billdesk for payment authorization. On the whole this move signifies a trend of the things to come. With retail outlet costs touching the roof as the online real estate market booms and salaries still at an alltime high in India low cost phone’s which Virgin is into have to look at more cost effective mode of distribution. This was the very reason travel, job classifieds and ecommerce for low cost electronic items has done well online. This move by virgin could start a trend for operators and handset manufacturers alike to sell packaged phones online. WIll have to wait and watch if this does snowball into an online competition between telecom players. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Historical Newspapers Go Digital, Thanks to GoogleGoogle, which recently turned 10, has been expanding itself in every direction possible. The search giant has been growing at an alarming scale and is valued around $150 billion in the market with over 20,000 employees under its roof. Google has established itself as the most powerful 10-year-old today. And it certainly has a long way to go. Who would’ve thought that what began as a college research project would become something so huge, powerful and successful. Today, there are millions and millions of web pages that contain information relevant to one or the other. This information is spread across numerous sites, servers and scattered across continents. Yet, almost all of this information is indexed by Google and its spiders. All this world’s information is neatly organized by the giant, giving you relevant data as you need it. But what about information that does not exist in the soft form? You see, long long ago, even before you or me were born, newspapers were the lone source of information for the masses. They carried information from far off places and there were various such newspapers available back then. Even today, newspapers are as popular as ever. However, once can hardly deny the fact that the future is all digital. Presently, there is no way to get your hands on these newspapers online. So all the vital information that these priced jewels carried it limited to their existence. Well, not anymore. Google is all set to digitize these historical publications.
The Official Google Blog says that Google has now launched an initiative that will scan these old newspapers and convert them to e-papers, which will then be accessible and searchable online. The giant is partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize these valuable news archives. These publications will be made available exactly the way they were printed, so you can browse through them as if you were actually reading one. Every page will carry the same content, same format, same ads. The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph is currently the oldest newspaper on board, publishing activity dating back more than 244 years. These publications are made available free of cost in the Google News Archive and Google will be adding more in the coming days. The interface is quite similar to the Google Book Search. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult WATBlog Live Tweeting the IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference (Bangalore).. Log On Now To Ask Questions..Dear All, WATBlog is Live Tweeting the Digital Marketing Conference (Bangalore) on twitter.com. So you can follow the updates by clicking here or by logging on to http://www.twitter.com/watblog We shall also be covering the discussions from all the panels here on WATBlog.com too so watch out for the complete coverage by today. Check the agenda below and comment on this post if you have any specific questions for speakers or panels. One can also send questions to us on twitter.com. We shall try and pose the same to the panelists.
Stay tuned! 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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