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WATBlog Update There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

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Gitanjali Group Bullish On Online Retail Of Jewelry - Brings 25 Brands Online
Exclusive: Percept Knorigin takes on Bollywoodhungama with Cinecurry.com
Recap 2008: Online Jobsite/Recruitment Space
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There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Gitanjali Group Bullish On Online Retail Of Jewelry - Brings 25 Brands Online

One of the country's largest jewellery manufacturers, the Gitanjali group is taking all its 25 brands online in a bid to boost sales of jewelry in the face of the economic slowdown. The slowdown has impacted their business and sales are down by 30-35 per cent. The Gitanjali brand line up boasts of brands like Asmi, D'damas, Nakshatra, Gili, Diya, Sangini and others and all these brands would be sold online through their own portals.

This means that over year 2009 one can expect Gitanjali to spend marketing dollars on online advertising. We have been stating in our earlier posts on how the rise of ecommerce is connected to the rise of ad spend online and this example of gitanjali jewellers trying to experiment with getting all their brands online for online sales tells a story. Incase they don’t sell much automatically their online ad spends will drop.

While on the topic of ecommerce one has to consider that payment mechanisms play a vital role in the same. The timesofmoney group recently launched Direcpay a payment gateway with many banks enrolled as well as debit card and net banking provisions. What we need is India though is a paypal like system which is still not prevalent. Though timesofmoney did try to launch Wallet365 and the same was curbed by RBI. Gitanjali for its ecommerce presence has tied up with Visa and Mastercard and several major banks and jewelry ordered shall be shipped directly to the consumer and beginning January, the group plans to deliver the products free of charge.

Portals like rediff and indiatimes have their ecommerce channels through which various merchants can sell their stuff and Gitanjali already has stores at these portals as well as in newly launched shopping at in.com.

Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Jewellers was very upbeat about their prospects in the online space and said “We expect to capture 35 per cent of the total online jewellery sales in India by 2010." Also by 2010, the group targets 3-5 per cent of its total sales to come through e-commerce.

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Exclusive: Percept Knorigin takes on Bollywoodhungama with Cinecurry.com

You are reading it here first: Percept knorigin the digital agency arm of Percept group which also runs an ad network adchakra has ventured into the online entertainment content business by launching Cinecurry.com. There has been no official release on this portal though Percept’s latest movie Jumbo is hosted on the portal. We figured it was their portal as we got a seasons greetings from Percept Knorigin and a who.is look up on the domain confirmed our suspicion on the portal being backed by Percept Knorigin.

The portal is direct competition to the likes of bollywoodhungama.com (previously Indiafm.com) which is owned and run by Hungama.com. There is also Buzz18 by Web18 and Bombaybitch by Goose Fish Media Ventures which is catering to the same space.

What sets Percept Knorigin apart?

Percept which is Percept Knorigin’s parent company has a film making arm in Percept Pictures, an advertising arm in Percept H and it also has a celebrity management arm all of which give it unlimited and unadulterated access to the world of bollywood. It just makes finding/aggregating/creating exclusive content that much more easier. Also our sources inform us that this may not be the only online content portal that percept knorigin might be launching. We have news from reliable sources that more content verticals are in the pipeline from Percept’s stable and are to be launched in January 2009.

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Recap 2008: Online Jobsite/Recruitment Space

Starting today till the end of the year we are going to be posting vertical specific recap posts analysing the year 2008. We shall call these the Recap 2008 series. So stay tuned to WATBlog to recap and refresh WAT all happened in the WAT (Web, Advertising & Technology) Space..

Today we look at the online jobsite/recruitment space that primarily consists of major players like naukri.com, monster.com, jobstreet, yellojobs, shine.com, clickjobs and careerbuilderindia.

Starting with Jobs.. Jobs space which has created one of the biggest companies in the internet space in India i.e. Infoedge (Naukri.com) saw some interesting trends in the early part of the year. At the start of the year we saw a push towards online referral recruitment and players like yellojobs, reffster and earlier techtribe as well as the latest entrant iRefr.com all indicating towards a trend in referral recruitment. Yellojobs had broken ties with NDTV in 2007 and was was upbeat on recruitment space in the early part of the year but in the last three months the economic slowdown hit the world and recruitment as a space has completely slowed down.

An indication of the slowdown was the Naukri Q2 results and even though Sanjeev Bikhchandani defended the results in another interview he also admitted slower future growth. Also its a no brainer to figure out that when more layoff news is coming through then hiring news it means the jobs space has to be hit. Amidst all this chao of layoffs naukri went mobile with a tie up with Mobisoc. There was also the entry of International Jobsite Careebuilder which went the tie up route first with Sulekha and then with NDTV to power their jobs section. There was also the entry of meta search player simply hired into the Indian market in the later part of the year as 25% job cuts were being expected in India.

The year has been a rather silent one for monster though in the early part of the year they did launch jobs search on mobile. The big news in the jobsite space this year has been the entry of Shine.com from eFirefly Ventures (The Venture arm of HTMedia). Shine did a lot of tv advertising as well during the year. Not sure how they are faring in the last 3-4 months with the slowdown though. By the end of the year Naukri announced an interesting foray into the fresher jobs market via Firstnaukri which we analysed in detail.

All in all the year 2008 was a depressing one for the Online recruitment space with the slowdown hitting the market hard by the end of the year. Most of these players would be looking at 2009 with nervousness and praying that people recruit more and layoff less.

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Thursday, December 25, 2008

WATBlog Update "WAT Wishes You A Merry Christmas! HO HO HO! :)" from "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

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"WAT Wishes You A Merry Christmas! HO HO HO! :)" from "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

WAT Wishes You A Merry Christmas! HO HO HO! :)

WAT Wishes You a Merry Christmas! Hope this christmas brings bundle of joy and lots of gifts to each one of you!

For those who are looking to get into the christmas mood virtually.. Below is an embedded game that should help! So play on and have loads of fun!

Hope you enjoy your christmas! Cheers! HO HO HO!

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

WATBlog Update There are 4 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

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Breaking: In.com Integrates Gmail, Windows Live Mail, Yahoo mail & Rediffmail Login - Also Integrates Burrp & Bookmyshow
A Look At Ghajini’s Online Marketing Strategies - And Those Benefitting From It!
Shilpa Shetty Launches Shilpa Channel - A Blog On Her Official Website
Microsite Story - Idea and Dell Set Up Online Campaigns Promoting Change and Enterprise
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There are 4 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Breaking: In.com Integrates Gmail, Windows Live Mail, Yahoo mail & Rediffmail Login - Also Integrates Burrp & Bookmyshow

In.com has done a bunch of feature and vertical addition to its horizontal portal. Recently we had blogged about all Web18 properties being brought under the in.com basket now it seems In.com is taking the concept of integration beyond Web18 properties. In.com has integrated mail logins for gmail, hotmail, yahoomail and rediffmail all together at In.com homepage. One can actually check the last 7 emails recieved right from In.com hompage for across gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail and rediff mail as well.

Have a look at the screenshot below:

The other new addition to the in.com homepage seems to be Events from burrp and Ticket Booking from bookmyshow.com.

Check screenshot below:

While bookmyshow is a Web18 initiative and hence the integration makes sense for Burrp this is probably their biggest tie up as being on the homepage of In.com (which is India’s no.2 portal already) is a big thrust to their traction. As most people know Network18 CEO Haresh Chawla has a personal investment in Burrp and from what I hear Burrp has shifted its office to the Web18 office in Mumbai now which kind of indicates a possible future investment by Network18/Capital18 in burrp going forward.

Besides for the above two features In.com has also added a new vertical that of Downloads where its providing downloads for software, wallpapers, ringtones and games. The software download should surely be a hit with techies looking for cool downloads.

All in all In.com seems to be constantly innovating and adding new features and while Rediff is looking to go regional and cater to the next 50 million I feel In.com seems to be fast heading towards becoming the no.1 portal for the first 50 million users in India with all the feature additions it has made lately.

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A Look At Ghajini’s Online Marketing Strategies - And Those Benefitting From It!

Aamir Khan is known for his use of the web and digital medium to create buzz and word of mouth for his movies. Right from his lagaan dvd selling days which prompted him to start his own website and blog. This preference for the digital medium has rubbed onto all the films he has been associated as well. So there was news that Ghajini would be heavily marketed on the web and so it has been. The makers of Ghajini have roped in Hungama to create maximum visibility for the film via the digital medium. Hungama has created multiple properties for Ghajini. Properties like www.rememberghajini.com, www.findghajini.com and www.wallofsuspects.com that drive the curiousity around the movie and provide an experience like the movie, over the Internet. Ghajini releases to a worldwide audience on Thursday, Dec. 25th 2008

Even AamirKhan’s personal blog dons the ghajini look. Check screenshot below:

The digital strategy has been aimed at maintaining the the suspense of this much awaited movie and hence the websites give very little on the story line of the movie. But instead the web is used to engage the user by driving curiosity around the movie via images and videos. Another unique aspect of the film that has been integrated into the website is that it refreshes itself every fifteen minutes. If one has seen the promo’s one would know that Aamir loses his memory every 15 minutes. So even on the website no matter which section the user is accessing, every fifteen minutes you are driven back to the homepage. To make sure that users get this there is a timer that runs at the bottom of each page.

Hungama was recently voted as the 2nd top most digital agency after Webchutney and this initiative for Aamir’s most awaited movie yet should add another feather on their cap!

Well if Hungama is promoting Ghajini Webchutney is being street smart by riding on someone else effort and promoting its own client Oktatabyebye by launching a Ghajini spoof viral called Gajodhar. Have a look for yourself below:

This is what I call a case of riding the hype. Contest2win had followed a similar strategy for the bucknor incident in cricket. I guess benefits of great marketing are for all to reap from even your competitors. Im off to see Ghajini tomorrow who else is going for it?

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Shilpa Shetty Launches Shilpa Channel - A Blog On Her Official Website

Shilpa Shetty seems to be going the Aamir Khan way as far as digital savviness is concerned. She had recently launched her own website and also was in the news for her Yoga training videos being available on mobile phones as well. But not it seems she wants to build a direct connect with her fans and has recently launched Shilpa Channel which is a personal blog on her official website.

Celebrities taking to blogging is fast becoming a norm with Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and mandir bedi as well taking to blogging. It outlines the benefits of communication via blogging and the fast rising status of the web and blogging as a communication tool to position and brand oneself. Also it can act as an ecommerce platform. Like how aamir started a blog to sell lagaan dvd’s. Even Shilpa seems to be using her official site to sell here yoga dvds.

Aamir Khan has been amazingly successful in getting the offline media to talk about him in the press just by making comments on his blog.

As more and more celebrities take to blogging one wonders if a elite celebrity blogging platform is the need of the hour? Folks at Bollywoodhungama or Chakpak who run bollywood centric sites should think about (if they haven’t already) providing blogging tools to film star and tv stars. After all 25% of BigAdda’s traffic comes from Amitabh Bachchans blog!

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Microsite Story - Idea and Dell Set Up Online Campaigns Promoting Change and Enterprise

The definition of microsite is generally agreed to as an extension of a primary website. The main distinction of a microsite versus its parent site is its purpose and specific cohesiveness as compared to the microsite’s broader overall parent website (say thanks to Wikipedia).

Extending their individual, vastly different and yet very successful campaigns both Idea and Dell have launched microsites catering to their branding goals. For Idea it is taking online their successful TV campaigns, their recent one with the political plug to it has been taken online with Bythepeople.in. While Dell continues its renowned online campaigning with an Indian twist this time through takeyourownpath.com to foster entrepreneurship.

Bythepeople.in would seem like an attempt on the lines of the much talked about Jaago Re campaign by Tata. And the initiative is to build a discussion about Participative Democracy as showcased in the popular TV commercial. According to their release, this is just phase 1 of their online campaign and in future they plan to extend the debate into action by taking the opinions generated on the site to the government to intitiate the changes sought ‘by the people’. The site offers a quick view and exit and basically asks for a 10 word opinion on an issue that the user wants to discuss and debate.

Dell’s initiative - takeyourownpath.com on the other hand is to foster the entrepreneurial mindset among Indians through success stories of others. The site features rich media content of 5 successful Indian entrepreneurs who chose their own path and who tell their story themselves. And of course the essential part of how their dell represents their goals and how it helped achieve success. The content structure and display on the site is creative and crisp and is more interactive compared to Idea’s venture.

Both sites if I am not wrong plan to promote the sites through online advertising mainly led through banner advertising on popular portals. This to my mind (and for obvious reasons) could have been backed by socialising the content. Right now there are no social sharing tools on either of the sites and are possiblly losing out on a major viral channel which could have reduced their eventual cost per visitor. Perhaps the audience segment they are targeting isn’t quite the kind who would contribute to a viral channel especially social media, but something as basic as email promotion and invitation could have been pursued. Given the fact that these initiatives are conceptualised and executed by digital only agencies the lack of user generated/driven promotion surely is a let down.

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