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 »

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 »

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 »

Why Blog?

They say No man is an island and there couldn’t be a better way of saying it, even more in our times. Thanks to rapid evolution in communication means and mediums, most notably the Internet, anyone with even half a message can participate and be heard.

In the past, people formed groups and localized interest circles, where information and messages proliferated and their acceptance were governed by an authority or an expert. However, the acceptance was based on certain ideologies that formed the base of these groups and anything paradoxical was looked with skepticism. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Blogging, Communication, Information, Internet, New Age, Social Media, Why Blog

Posted in Blogging, Technology | No Comments »