Indian Eye

If only EFTs were more Effective

Recently I had to transfer a certain amount from my ICICI bank account to my Citibank one, and EFT (electronic fund transfer) is usually the more convenient mode, letting you transfer where-ever you have a stable Internet connection. But its still not real time, and you still have date and time constraints. EFT still take anywhere between 1-3 days. Why you ask? RBI rules, because at the operational level, its still a manual process. Imagine a scenario when you urgently wanted money to be transfered to an alternate account. One may argue that these checks are counterfeiting measures, but you can always use technology to your advantage. True EFT is when the inter-bank  transfers happen in real-time, until then I’ll play the waiting game the old way.

Tags: EFT, Internet Banking

Posted in Business, Internet, Technology | 2 Comments »

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 »

The Airbus Company - a snapshot of the consortium

Circa 2008, there are only two major commercial airplane manufacturers - Boeing and Airbus. Boeing is an American company and has been in existence since the early days of commercial aviation.

Airbus on the other hand is relatively new (formed in 1970), and began as a consortium of four European national aircraft corporations, represented by France, Germany, Spain and Britain. In 2001, three of the four partner merged into a unified commercial enterprise called the EADS (European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company). EADS is headquartered in the Netherlands in Schiphol-Rijk. After the merge, 80% of Airbus was owned by EADS and 20% by BAE Systems (British Aerospace).

In 2006, BAE Systems sold off its shares to EADS for $5.25 billion making Airbus an EADS company.

As of 3 July 2007 42% of EADS stock is publicly traded on European stock exchanges, while the remaining 58% is owned by a “Contractural Partnership”. The latter is owned by SOGEADE (27.38%), DaimlerChrysler AG (22.41%), SEPI (5.46%) and Dubai Holding (3.12%). SOGEADE is owned by the French State and Lagardère, while SEPI is a Spanish state holding company. France also owns 0.06% of publicly traded stock. (source Wikipedia)

Tags: Airbus, Aviation, Business Snapshot

Posted in Aviation, Business | No Comments »

Internet Ad Spend in India to overtake radio, outdoor and cinema by 2009

The growth in Internet advertising spend in India has reflected global trends, even as growth across traditional media (except television) has declined. According to a report by ZenithOptimedia, ad spend on the the Internet is expected to surpass radio, cinema and outdoor media by 2009.

Globally, the Internet ad spend has already overtaken these 3 media and for the first time will exceed 10 per cent of global ad investment. Advertising spending in newspapers and conventional classifieds is expected to continue to suffer, with the Internet already providing a greater value. The loss is already evident in large categories such as airlines, retail, travel.

In some places, the Internet already holds a bigger share of the overall ad spend pie. In Britain for instance, about 25% of the ad investments will go to the web this year. This will rival the leading the two traditional media formats, newspapers and television, which are expected to collect 27.2 and 25.9% of ad spending respectively.

The overall Indian Internet ad spend in 2007 (Rs. 450 crores or about $115 MN) has doubled that of the 2006 figures. By 2009 this figure may exceed Rs 2,500 crore, about 5 times the existing figure.

Tags: Ad Spend, Advertising, Internet

Posted in Business, Inspirational, Marketing | 3 Comments »

Sabsebolo.com - Sabeer Bhatia’s newest venture

After a couple of failed ventures, erstwhile IT poster boy, Hotmail Sabeer Bhatia is on to his latest venture, Sabsebolo.com. It claims to provide India’s first free and reservation-less conferencing facility. After sign-up users are provided with a conference id and PIN, which they can use by calling a toll -free number.

Revenue for this business would be generated through advertisements. According to Bhatia, before the conference begins there would be a five-second advertisement.

I hope though that the advertisements are not context sensitive, so if I say “I need money”, I hope an ICICI voice ad doesn’t interrupt the conversation

Tags: Sabeer Bhatia

Posted in Business, Conference, Internet, Technology | No Comments »