Indian Eye

Search for the right media mix (pun intended)

The Internet has transformed from a mere information resource, to an active ground for businesses looking for leads or sales. The inherent dynamism of the media, coupled with measurability is making it a favorite with advertisers. It is no surprise that more and more advertisers are visible online. For an advertiser, there is a bouquet of options, that include portals, search engines or even third party inventory aggregators.

But when it comes to cost or performance, search engine based advertising is the clear winner hands-down. This has historically been the case, and I can vouch from my experience managing a multitude of campaigns over the years. If an average banner ad campaign fetches you leads at Rs. X, a well managed search engine  sponsored ad can get you the same for 1/3rd the cost. And the same is for performance. The lead-sale conversion from a sponsored search ad-campaign is almost twice that of a regular campaign. And amongst search engines, Google has the edge in terms of the volumes (almost 90% of the leads) but Yahoo is at par or better than Google when it comes to conversions.

For conventional banner based advertising or variants, the only way to catch up is by introducing a dynamic, preemptive and context-intelligent ad delivery model. As for media aggregators or media-buyers, its in the interest of their consumers that they make course corrections in their campaign based on real-time monitoring, and campaign intelligence.

The demand for better performing ad-units is intense, and so is the competition amongst them. And competition is always a good thing to have.

Tags: Advertising, Internet

Posted in Advertising, Business, Google, Internet, Marketing, Search | No Comments »

Project Gutenberg - Bibliophiles, Rejoice!

If you are a bibliophile, you’ve probably read some classics along the way, and wished you’d read more. Growing up, I used to look forward to the vacations as that would mean going to the library or the neighborhood flea shop and hunt for books that looked “old“. Why old? There was a certain magic in the writings and the authors wrote because they were very good at it, not because they wanted to appear in the New York bestseller’s list.

That was then. I haven’t been scavenging for such books since I was 17, blame it on lack of time, or maybe I just grew out of it.

And then, I came across Project Gutenberg www.gutenberg.org. Here is what it’s wiki says

Project Gutenberg …is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works…Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any computer.

It means some of the best classical works of literature are now available for download for free! Yes, in an era where this is a price to everything, these valuable tomes of knowledge and fantasies are FREE!

So what did I find? Here is a sample list.

The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes
Around the World in 80 days - Jules Vernes
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
Moonstone - Wilkie Collins
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas

…I could just go on and on. One is spoiled for choice! Here is the URL again www.gutenberg.org, and happy reading and reminescing

PS: Johannes Gutenberg is credited with having invented printing using movable type in 1450 AD.

Tags: Books, Project Gutenberg

Posted in Books, History | No Comments »

Virals anyone?

If you are in the business of Online Marketing, a viral is probably one of the buzzwords you are surrounded with. I’ve seen a few interesting videos or animations that pose off as virals, are even funny, but it ends with that. To me, a good viral isn’t necessarily about itching to forward it to your friend. A good viral leaves an impression on the viewer long after you’ve seen it, probably even stays with you for a lifetime.

I came across a cleverly done viral made for Fevicol (which had a legacy of such ads).  

Tags: Fevicol, Online Marketing, Virals

Posted in Advertising, Inspirational, Marketing, Viral | No Comments »