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 »

Cerebrate - How it was born

Back in early February 2008, Me and my social media partner Kiruba were brainstorming about our next social media initiative. A lot of ideas and concepts were passed back and forth, but none seemed interesting, and most of them were clichés .

And then, it dawned on us, why don’t we have a forum where achievers convene and discuss on a variety of topics. Freewheeling intellectual conversations between individuals who have achieved something significant in their professional sphere, and share it with the rest of the group.

A forum where everyone speaks, everyone learns and everyone benefits. We however didn’t think it was a good idea to let it go the conventional route of a conference, and we felt that the event should be an unconference. Or briefly put, an unconference where achievers convene and discuss or ideate.

That done, the next step was to find an appropriate name for the event. One that had the right tone and meaning which conveyed the essence of the event. Two, the name of the event should have the .in domain name available.

After nearly an hour of shuffling between an array of names, we realized that the names fell short of one parameter or the other. And then in a moment of revelation, we came across the word “Cerebrate’, and we were unanimous in our consent. Fortunately enough us, the .in domain was also available, and as a bonus the name had a ring of “celebrate” to it, which made it the perfect choice. That done, it was now time to book the domain and select the appropriate audience/participants for the event. But thats a different episode in itself!

You may also want to read how the Cerebrate logo was designed. Next up : Learnings from the Cerebrate event and the Topics discussed.

Tags: 2008, Cerebrate

Posted in Blogging, Cerebrate, Internet, Opinions, Unconference | No Comments »

Fix the Youtube “Sort by View Count”

This post will show you to how work around the Youtube view count sorting option, which is mysteriously missing from the list of sort options. To me its a very important sorting option, because the results that appear on top by virtue of the view count is usually the one you are looking for.

Now to work around the problem, simply add video_view_count to the search_sort query string in the search URL.

For e.g. if you have searched for ”music”, the URL would appear as follows …
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=music&search_type=

To sort by “Video View Count” add the tag as mentioned earlier, and it should look as follows…

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=music&search_sort=video_view_count

Tags: Internet, Tips, Youtube

Posted in Internet, Search, Technology | No Comments »

Digital Advertising Agencies - The Woes and Ways ahead

Advertising on the Internet is almost a decade now, but its potential and benefit to marketers have only been realized fairly recently. The measurability, the innovativeness, the cost benefit and the unprecedented reach to a global audience has made marketing on the Internet a favourite amongst a growing number of marketers.

However, because this is a new medium, the number of online marketing agencies that can handle a client’s end-to-end internet marketing requirements are virtually non-existent. There are specialists in all kinds of areas - from SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), Blogging, Online Media Buying, Banner Creatives, Facebook applications, Virals etc.

The good part is that there are many good specialists in their area of expertise, the problem is that all these areas are relatively incoherent. You need someone to orchestrate your campaign, route it to all these specialist areas and bring it all together to make the campaign successful.

If you manage the online initiatives for your company, you will relate with it, especially if your company has a big budget in the online space.

There are many so called generalists who claim to provide end-to-end, seamless online marketing solutions. But dig the surface, and most of these agency claims are empty and fail to deliver on their promise.

Many of the traditional advertising agencies have forayed into the digital marketing space, and are attempting to fill the gap for their clients. Their “attempt” however leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the client servicing guys handle the Internet business with the legacy of traditional advertising, and handle this medium with the same gloves.

That said, some of the big agencies are also acquiring specialist digital agencies, in the hope of completing the spectrum. It will be interesting to watch, how these acquisitions pan out over the years.

Will good digital marketing agencies thrive on their own, or would they need to be part of a traditional agency needs to be seen. Whatever may be the case, marketers/clients need a single point interface and a partner to maximize the brand and revenue potential.

Tags: Advertising, Internet

Posted in Advertising, India, Internet, Marketing, Opinions, Sales | 4 Comments »