Indiatimes Weblog

Maharani Gayatri Devi, a name more or less synonymous with beauty, paused the world with her death. Beauty-elegance and what not-personified lady left the world silent with her death end by a prolonged illness. It is so unfortunate to lose such a magnanimous woman, unluckily; age was not on her side. Nevertheless, she had an exquisite life in this mighty world for 90 years.

The elegant Maharani was one such charismatic beauty who stunned the world whenever she appeared publicly. In fact, she figured in the famous Vogue magazine as one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world. Not only beauty that symbolised her, but also she was known for her political success and her pious soul. She was an active member of Swatantra Party started by C. Rajagopalachari, the former Governor General of India. She is a perfect personification of beauty with brain. Also, she proved that her beauty is not only skin-deep through her innumerable developmental works and intelligence. She justly reflected her royal blood.

As a responsible citizen of the nation, she promoted girl’s education by establishing two girl’s school in Rajasthan. Besides, she was a true lover of sports too such as Polo and Golf. She loved watching her favourite game, Polo. She developed this love as her husband Maharaja Sawai Man Singh were a religious player of it. She used to accompany him in Polo ground whenever he played. Meanwhile, the renowned actor, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan used to sneak into the ground when he was in Delhi University, only to have a glance of the Maharani! He revealed in his blog, “In her soft and pastel flowered chiffons, she used to be a picture of grace and beauty. I never imagined that one day I would get to meet this lady.”

Truly, Rajmata Gayatri Devi is a symbol of grace and beauty. She was western in mind but Indian in heart. Albeit, she used to stay in London yet she wanted to breathe her last in her own motherland. That shows how much she was in love with this nation. May God keep this marvellous lady’s soul rest in peace.

There’s no denying the robust growth internet as a medium is seeing in India, but despite that there are just about 47 million users with a very low penetration level of just about 4.2 per cent as compared to the large number of internet users in the western World. However, that doesn’t stop the marketers by whatsoever measure, who are willing to advertise on the medium given the numbers that throng and stay connected to the medium. If compared to the other mediums used for advertising, it is agreeable that the digital medium probably stands nowhere, but it all depends on the way marketers look at the medium at the end of the day.

In a attempt to understand how the Indian marketers are looking at the digital medium when it comes to their marketing plans, Web chutney has come up with the ‘Digital Media Outlook 2009’ which has studied the Indian Digital Marketing Scenario taking into consideration the top 500 marketers in the country who control about two-thirds of all advertising spends.

According to the report, in the Financial Year2008-09, it is seen that 82 percent of the top 500 marketers spent just five percent online. When we look at the Pie of the market share considering other mediums, the Internet medium is pegged at just 5.4 per cent while television still gets the highest share of 51.4 per cent. Print is the second largest with 27.4 per cent while Radio is the least with 0.9 per cent.

When looked at it by verticals, FMCG. Which have the highest Ad spends of 33 per cent takes up just six per cent of the Internet Ad spends. While Consumers Durables takes up 19 per cent of internet advertising, the IT/Online sector takes up 23 per cent of the total spends online among the top 500 marketers. BFSI is next with 17 per cent of IT as spends in internet advertising followed by consumer Services and utilities which is at 7 per cent. The findings also suggest the almost 60 percent of the advertisers mentioned ‘increasing awareness’ as the biggest objective followed by ‘increase lead/sales/market/share/consumer base’. Only 46 per cent mentioned ‘building brand image/differentiation as their   marketing/advertising objective.

Marketers across verticals explain that reaching the Target audience or building awareness is the biggest driver in allocating ad spends across mediums. This probably explains why the Internet account for just five per cent of their total spends considering that the internet as a medium in India cannot be compared to the other mediums in terms of reach. While 26 per cent of the marketers believe that Internet advertising is about increasing awareness/ visibility/ brand building, 43 per cent believe that it is all about lead generation / quick response/conversation. From this it is evident that the medium is popularly perceived and is being as a direct marketing communication.

However, it must be note that a sizable chunk of marketers are exploring most digital marketing executions. Out of the 82 per cent of the top 500 marketers who spend online, almost eight in ten have a brand specific website. Almost seven in ten have used or are using display ads and develop and maintain a promotional website with the claim of taking social media initiatives. While five in ten are experimenting with mobile advertising, only four in ten use viral ads.

It is interesting to see that 26 per cent of the current digital ad spends are used for the development and maintenance of the brand specific websites. About 34 per cent is spent on advertising through pure display ads, viral ads and ad networks while 13 per cent of the spends go into social media initiatives.

Lead generation being the focal point of marketing objectives, the measurements of online marketing campaign also close to the number of leads generated. Some of the other metrics noted are that of the number of impressions, the click rate, the conversations. From this it appears that measurement, which is the real advantage of the interner oer other mediums has been stretched to over-measuring, turning it into a disadvantage in the Indian context.

Even though marketers look at the Internet for lead generation, they feel that it is not as effective in generating leads as compared to conventional mediums. However, they do feel that it is equally adept as the other mediums to deliver brand awareness and consideration.

When we look at the satisfaction level of the various types of executions undertaken by the marketers it is seen that the lowest levels of satisfaction comes from the social media initiatives while the highest level of satisfaction comes from electronic direct mailers.

The future of the internet ad spends does not look grim at all. While the overall spends from the top 500 advertisers are likely to drop by ten per cent, the digital media spends are expected to grow by 44 per cent from the current Rs. 399 crore. And while the FMCG online spends is expected to grow by 353 per cent. Mobile on the other hand is expected to grow over 600 per cent, which means that the top 500 advertisers are exploring the mobile medium th include in their digital marketing strategy. The other promising area of digital spends may be Viral Ads, which is likely to grow by almost 90 per cent.

The internet provides an appropriate and effective platform for consumer marketing, communication and engagement and the fact that marketers are looking at increasing their digital marketing efforts spends out a good sign. What marketers need to do now is embrace the medium for its strengths and not the perceived weaknesses.

Source :CASSANDRA@exchange4media.com,vol-6-Issue 03,12 july 2009

The Times of India Online has emerged as the world’s No.1 English newspaper website in terms of page views. According to the latest figures from internet marketing research company ComScore, timesofindia.com with 159 million page views in May 2009 was way ahead of the New York Times, Sun, Washington Post, Daily Mail and USA Today websites. According to ComScore, which is considered the most trusted source of information on website performance, the Top 5 English newspaper websites in the world in May 2009 were timesofindia.com (159 million), the sun.co.uk (142 million), nytimes.com (124 million), dailymail.co.uk (73 million) and washingtonpost.com (61 million). It is indeed a happy coincidence that The Times of India relaunched its website on Sunday (July 11, 2009) to make to online readers a better browsing experience. The newlook website is uncluttered, easier to navigate, more youthful and more vibrant. It also loads faster. Commenting on the latest ComScore figures, Times Group managing director Vineet Jain said: “The news makes us happy, but there is much more to come. At present, internet penetration in India is only 5% and it’s growing at about 30% a year. As newer technologies are introduced and we further empower our readers, in the coming years we’ll see an exponential growth in our online readership. TOI will become a far bigger player on the global stage.” For many years The Times of India has been the world’s largest-selling English-language broadsheet newspaper. Now, it is also the world’s No.1 English newspaper across formats – broadsheet, compact, Berliner and online. With 65% of TOI Online’s readers coming from outside India, this truly establishes TOI as a global brand. The TOI website is No. 1 not only in terms of page views but it is also the most engaging of the leading newspaper websites. The time spent by readers per visit on the TOI site is greater than that for any of the top sites mentioned above. Whereas visitors to the NYT website spend an average of 2.8 minutes per visit, timesofindia.com readers spend 5.2 minutes per visit. In fact, the real number of page views for timesofindia.com would be higher than the ComScore figures because ComScore does not take into account the traffic from cybercafes, which according to estimates is about one third of the total traffic from India. In the internet world, where there are no geographical boundaries and competition is just a click away, only the best get the reader’s attention. Against this backdrop, we at The Times of India see it as yet another instance of our readers in India and the world reaffirming their overwhelming trust in us.

After Obama it is the turn of LK Advani to use the power of Internet to market himself to the young netizens across the globe. Internet is turning out to be an important medium through which aspiring PMs and Presidents are interacting with not only the media but the young electorate. Can Corporates and Retailers, then continue to ignore this medium for reaching out to their customers and consumers any longer? IN fact Internet is the most efficient medium to reach out to the consumers and interact with them. Given the slowdown, this makes great business sense as well. Maximum bang for the bucks. With internet being the only medium which is increasing its spread around the world, this is the sector of the future as far as advertising is concerned. It is readily available to any consumer with a computer, and in this day and age, includes the majority of consumers throughout the world. As against the more costly print and broadcasting marketing, internet advertising allows advertisers to present their ideas to their customers in formats like banners or video ads or other interactive options like games and questionnaires. The new media’s promises the best of all worlds, cheaper reach, efficient targeting and a complete 360 degree experience with options to get instant feedback as well. The capability and skill-set of new media is immense and growing withe leap and bounds. Its a convergence medium of print and broadcast, yet far more interactive. There is a clutter in the market with an availability of many thousands of communication vehicles, significantly overlapping each other. This makes the marketer opt for the most efficient media vehicle and digital marketing to a large extent helping them. It reaches a larger customer base at a lower cost, is convenient for the shoppers and can have direct interaction with the customers. Consider for example how sucessfuly Channel 4 engaged youth online to popularise educational flash game Bow Street Runner in early 2008. It formed part of the organisation’s educational remit, and aimed to attract and engage a teenage audience aged 14-19. Digital agency iCrossing were charged with measuring whether the game successfully engaged its target audience online. The Bow Street Runner website gave the game the form of high-definition video mixed with animation, and was divided into five different stages. The release of each new stage of the game was also backed by an email sent to registered users providing a link to the Bow Street Runner website. Over 75% of traffic to Bow Street Runner was driven by the seeding network, either from sites officially seeded, or sites in the UK and abroad where the seeding was user-generated: Overall, the campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of online networks, and that the digital strategy offered an “agile planning capability” which could be modified as appropriate. This is argued to be one of the key advantages to using online to drive engagement, as has also been argued in the paper The essentials of planning, testing and distributing virals. The Indian scenario There is no doubt that new-media is in a nascent stage in India. With high penetration of Internet in Sec A and B in the 15-30 age groups it is the ideal medium to reach out to this segment as against other media. In fact, the medium is now growing very rapidly in the smaller metros and towns. It is also a very cost effective media to reach out to the NRI audiences spread across the globe. With government committing crores of rupees under its e-governance initiatives, more and more people are likely to start using it. The experience of railway e-tickets is a case point. Some of the other services that are now going the e-way are filing of income tax returns, application for birth/death certificates, digitization of land records, getting voter Id-cards etc. Internet is going to revolutionize the way masses interact with the government. The boundary between small towns and metros in terms of access to information, knowledge and services is getting blurred. The net’s reach and access is only widening. In a down-turn market where each penny spent upon marketing matters for its effectiveness and brand managers will be held accountable for the efficacy of their investment plans on media, new media is the only hope to bring accountability in the board room. Web engazed ‘Engagement’ is the new buzzword in the advertising industry. and is defined by the Advertising Research Foundation as “turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.” The number of “hits” a particular website has received, or the amount of time consumers’ spend on a specific website, is a traditional way of measuring online engagement. In a marketer’s perspective new media strategy always revolves around converting it to a viral marketing campaign. Buzz is very important. If you are creating a website and still you are unable to drive audience to it then probably the purpose is not solved. The evolution of new media has opened up new innovative platforms for communicating the brand message while engaging their target audience. They get an idea who are the real customers and how to spend most effectively.

In a first-of-its-kind strategic alliance Indiatimes Shopping, the country’s leading online shopping portal, has tied up with two Global Giants- American Express and Lufthansa Airlines.

Under this alliance Lufthansa Airline customers can redeem there “Miles and More” points anywhere on Indiatimes Shopping. Also the alliance allows, Lufthansa Airlines to leverage Indiatimes shopping’s ecommerce platform which provides a complete solution from redemption to logistics all on a single platform. Similarly, for the Amex card holders an exclusive website www.amex.shopping.indiatimes.com has been created which offers great deals especially for Amex customers across a wide range of product categories such as Apparels, Electronics & Gadgets, Jewellery, Household Items, Flowers, Perfumes, Toys etc

This alliance provides both the Global Giants a significant value-add to offer to its customers. For Indiatimes Shopping, the alliance offers an opportunity to tap into a large and fast growing population of online transaction savvy consumers.

Indiatimes Shopping is India’s leading online shopping destination with already over a million satisfied customers. It offers a large variety of products ranging from apparel, electronics, home appliances, computers, MP3 players etc to books, music, movies and gifts. Indiatimes Shopping is one of the key channels of Indiatimes.com, a brand owned by Times Internet Ltd., with a unique combination of content and commerce platforms on the Internet and Mobile (58888) interfaces.
The Miles & More programmes from Europe’s largest airline Lufthansa means members can now redeem accumulated miles for products on indiatimes.com. All that members need to do is log on to Indiatimes.com and go to the shopping section and choose from the myriad of products provided. At the time of payment, members just have to put in their Miles & More card number as well as a PIN number to redeem the points. The award redeemed against miles will then be sent by courier to the members address.

In a first-of-its-kind strategic alliance Indiatimes Shopping, the country’s leading online shopping portal, has tied up with two Global Giants-  American Express and Lufthansa Airlines.

Under this alliance Lufthansa Airline customers can redeem there “Miles and More” points anywhere on Indiatimes Shopping. Also the alliance allows, Lufthansa Airlines to leverage Indiatimes shopping’s ecommerce platform which provides a complete solution from redemption to logistics all on a single platform. Similarly, for the Amex card holders an exclusive website www.amex.shopping.indiatimes.com has been created which offers great deals especially for Amex customers across a wide range of product categories such as Apparels, Electronics & Gadgets, Jewellery, Household Items, Flowers, Perfumes, Toys etc

This alliance provides both the Global Giants a significant value-add to offer to its customers. For Indiatimes Shopping, the alliance offers an opportunity to tap into a large and fast growing population of online transaction savvy consumers. 

Indiatimes Shopping is India’s leading online shopping destination with already overa million satisfied customers.It offers a large variety of products ranging from apparel,electronics home appliances, computers MP3 players etc to books,music,movies & gifts.Indiatimes shopping is one of the key channels of Indiatimes.com,a brand owned by Times Internet Limited.,with a unique combination of content and commerce platforms on the Internet and mobile (58888) interfaces.

The Miles & More programmes from Europe’s largest airlines Lufthansa means members can now redeem accumulated miles for products on indiatimes.com. All that bmeans members need to do is log on to indiatimes.com. and go to the shopping section and choose from the myriad of products provided.At the time of payment,members just have to put in their Miles & More card number as well as PIN number to redeem the points.The award redeemed against miles will then be sent by courier to the members address

  http://www.shopping.indiatimes.com/?utm_source=PR_MKTG&utm_medium=Pres_Release&utm_campaign=American%2BExpress%2C%2BIndiatimes%2C%2BLufthansa%2C%2Bonline%2Bshopping

As the world’s largest democracy goes to the polls, get ready for Election Day with the Indiatimes 58888 advantage. The mobile subscription service is offering a first-of-its-kind election pack which will give the subscriber precise, updated election news via SMS so you’ll know who’s sweeping and who’s weeping before anyone else. And that too, sitting anywhere in the country. Get daily updates on election trends, party news, poll trivia, neta natter—in essence everything to do with our preternatural dance of democracy. 

The 58888 Election Packs

The election pack will serve as a real-time newspaper on the mobile in the coming Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections, providing national and state-wise election updates. The service will through two daily packs, worth Rs 99 or Rs 30 a month. There will be 5 alerts daily on the Rs 99 Pack (on result days 7-8 SMS alerts) and 3 alerts daily on the Rs 30 pack (on result days 5-6 SMS alerts).

The Rs 99 Pack will have election result updates, election news, trivia and election schedules, whereas the Rs 30 pack will have election result updates and election news.

Activation will be a simple procedure. For the Rs 30 price point pack just SMS SUB ELET to 58888. For the Rs 99 price point, send SUB ELECT to 58888 for activation. A welcome message generated for the subscriber will confirm his/her subscription. Activation and election alerts will start immediately.

Poll Toll

The Indiatimes 58888 election pack will be all-encompassing. As poll season starts, subscribers will get election schedules, daily updates from the particular state, candidate information, constituency- and seat-wise updates plus the happening news on the day. Other than this, there will be lots of poll trivia everyday. On results day, party and seat-wise results, national and state results will all come to you. 

Don’t know the answer? Need another perspective? Just want to see what crops up? Well, at Indiatimes, you are the one with the question, and the whole world is ready with answers. Which is where our new beta launch ‘Questions and Answers’ website comes in (http://qna.indiatimes.com/). All you need to do is click in, create a profile and ask away. Anti-matter to matter? Sept 2 is Coconut Day? Indians or Red Indians? All your whys and wherefores get deliverance here. Of course, if you have a take on the queries featured, give in to your expert mind’s whims and answer away. We don’t mind, your take can be smart, ingenious or plain whacky. And all this comes with great power. You ask more, you answer more, you earn points and badges, you move up the ladder. More badges you earn, more you go up in the pecking order of things on QnA. At Indiatimes QnA, we give Respect. And do use genuine names and photos, you never know for someone from the higher reaches may be watching. The phone could start ringing.  It could all happen.

 So, Who Are The Why Gen?

Well, typically it will be the educated Net savvy male/female aged 15-35 yrs, who just can’t do without their daily internet fix. Needless to say, all those social networking, chatting fiends are de rigueur complicit.

Why QnA?

Well, because it’s a community-driven question-answer site with experts for specific modules and a massive knowledge bank with information from all aspects of life. And also because self-gratification is everything.  It’s the platform to seek expert/community opinion even as you share/show off your knowledge. The place to go to solve day-to-day queries with unknown/unseen friends. Last but not least, members know who and where they stand (and they have got the badges to prove it).

Certain features on Indiatimes QnA make it really unique like the way questions never become ‘dated’, which means your options are always open-ended. Which in turn means you are tuned into the latest responses, a crucial tool in an age where information–of the latest sort–is key? You also have the option of changing the ‘Best Answer’.  With more and more answers flowing in, you can pick and choose what you want to highlight as the ‘Best Answer’. And if promoting debate on said issue is the focus, you can ‘Argue Back’ in an answer. No answer is accepted without an argument. This minimalises chances for factually incorrect answers getting onboard, as community fight backs argue it out of the reckoning.

Zeroing In

Everyone knows it’s a jungle out there on the Net. Indiatimes QnA hopes to be the platform that bypasses this crowded wood and the trees and goes straight for the blooms– focused answers to queries. The expert query sites will share specialized knowhow irrespective of geographical boundaries. Also, rate/share queries and answers for the benefit of those who come behind. One of the best features, of course, is you get multiple opinions on a particular topic at the same point of reference.

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