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.