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Amul indulges in Second Life Marketing
2008-06-05 09:03:00
Amul a brand of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd is one the few Indian brands to go to second life to take advantage of the much debated advergaming phenomenon. I haven't been able to figure out though as to what is the idea behind this strategy.Amul had earlier created a virtual parlor in secondlife but now Amul is planning to buy eight-10 islands, equal to 160 acres of virtual land, in Second Life to set up a simulation of its production and distribution facility. According to Amul the objective behind launching a virtual setup is to demonstrate its functioning to the consumers, and experiment with any change in the production or distribution system virtually before executing it in the real world. Now I could very well figure out the funda of setting up a virtual parlor but setting up a virtual factory really doesn't makes sense unless they want to hire employees which I don't think hang around in Second Life .Related ReadsWipro goes to second lifeBuzz: Advergaming

Mobile Marketing: Pepsi's Youngistaan
2008-06-03 09:41:00
Pepsi has used a complete 360 degree marketing approach for youngistaan and the latest of the spectrum is mobile marketing. Afaqs is reporting on how MindShare Pepsi's agency handled the mobile marketing campaign . It used Mobile services like SMS 2.0 from Affle and SMSGupshup.com (a free SMS service from Webaroo Technologies) . According to agency the campaign also consisted of a mobile portal from which around 6,000 items, including ringtones, wallpapers and videos, have been downloaded and Youngistaan callerback ringtone were also being offered to users which got nearly 40,000 subcribers.The Pepsi Youngistaan campaign on SMS 2.0 was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, which was carried out from February to March, there was pure advertising. Young subscribers of SMS 2.0 were served a banner ad asking them to write in their views or attitude statements on Youngistaan, rate others? views and check out Pepsi?s mobile portal.Views submitted on Youngistaan were shared with...
More About: Marketing , Mobile Marketing

Marketing Cartoons
2008-06-02 08:31:00
Tom Fishburne has on his blog created lots of cartoons which generally revolve on theme of workplace and marketing here are couple of them which I likedHow to come up with a product nameThe 8 types of brand managers
More About: Marketing , Cartoons

Best of Indian Blogosphere: Financial Aspects of IPL, Startup Kit and other
2008-05-30 11:48:00
Just experimenting with giving out a best of rapidly growing India n Blogosphere according to me every week. This weekUnofficial IPL blog analyzes the financial aspects of IPL and comes out with startling revelationsShahrukh Khan seems to have gotten the better of established businessmen like Mallya and Ambani over here. ... the KnightRiders look to have turned in a neat profit of Rs 11 Crores! And they didn?t even qualify for the semis! Even the low-cost Rajasthan Royals, who have the added benefit of having a winning streak are not going to make a profit!...Mallya has spent exorbitantly, with the cheerleaders and laser shows and what not, and has no sponsors or co-sponsors for the Royal Challengers team. That is going to mean a staggering loss of 43 crores this year!Rashmi Bansal talks about that rare species an IITian with a girlfriend in the post aptly titled five point girlfriend but don't miss the comments"Hmm... interesting. But what do these girls see in IITians?" I ask....
More About: Indian , Financial , Startup

Vodafone Chota Credit Ink Ad
2008-05-30 11:28:00
Well I was tired of all those pug ads from Vodafone and so this new ad has come as refreshing change and more so since this ad takes a very refreshing look at school and at fountain pens which makes me nostalgic. This ad create a wonderfully subtle message which really puts the point of chota (small) credit across. This is one the most original and creative ads that I have seen and I too love the way how natural both the guy and girl act and smile enjoy the videoRelated ReadsHutch is Vodafone AdVodafone Valentine Day Ad
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Sania Mirza promotes Air India
2008-05-30 09:44:00
Can you promote an ageing government owned airlines by using a young happening brand ambassador without improving on the core service offering and without caring for customers well it seems unlikely to me but Air India seems to think so. Just a fact check one of my acquaintance told me a story about how Air India has a flight to India from South East Asia which hasn't flown for 2 years but only shows a status of canceled but Air India not only keeps the flight, but also issue tickets and when customer shows up then transfer customer to another airlines so that they can keep the slot and not bother as to what customer has to go through. For the moment Enjoy Sania in this video of the ad
More About: Sania Mirza

BuzzWords: Social Media Explained
2008-05-30 08:22:00
Internet regularly seems to throw up buzzwords and ideas some of which catch on and the latest one around is social media. Social media describes the online tools, platforms and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs.There are bunch of people out here who try to portray how to utilize social media for marketing but the creative guys at creative craft have done a very good job by giving us this great video explaining Social Media in plain English using the example of Ice Creams.Whether you?re a big, established company or an individual with loyal fan or simply someone with ideas and opinions - social media means new opportunities to create and communicate with people that care.?If you like to use this video in your corporate presentation, for training or t...
More About: Buzzwords

Bingo Godzilla Ad
2008-05-29 09:19:00
Enough has already been said about ITC and their strategy of producing wacky, weird and at times humorous ads which have always broken the clutter and caught attention of the people which has driven the growth of Bingo and now latest is another wacky ad for Bingo named Gorjira Directed by Ayappa, produced by Footcandles Film Pvt. Ltd.Enjoy the showRelated readsITC Bingo a Case studyViral Marketing Bingo
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Google CEO: Web 2.0 is overhyped and future lies in Mobile Web
2008-05-28 15:39:00
In a recent interview with FAZ a german site Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that according to him the next big wave in advertising is the mobile internet he also said that the web 2.0 architecture is not necessarily a revenue opportunity. Here are some excerpts from that long interviewWhere is the growth potential for Google? We have many more ideas about technology the most obvious large space of advertising is the mobile internet. Just take the success of the iPhone: It has the first really powerful web browser on a mobile device - and many more are still coming. Nokia has one coming, Blackberry has one and Motorola has one. They are all supposed to be released this year. By these products, the advertising gets more targeted because phones are personal. So targeted ads are possible. And that means the value of the ads will grow. The next big wave in advertising is the mobile internet.Video and display advertising? Eric Schmidt: A lot of opportunities are in video and display. But t...
More About: Marketing , Mobile , Future , Mobile Web

Buzz Marketing: Windows 7 next generation of Windows
2008-05-28 08:04:00
Microsoft has been so successful by constantly making its old product redundant but it has failed to do so with Windows Vista which has not been as successful in replacing a much more stable Windows XP. Now Microsoft has started creating buzz for its next product which is named so far as Windows 7 and is due for release in 2010 it seems to be inspired by the success of touchscreen based Apple Ipod and Iphones and they have revealed a multi touch interface.In Technology marketing there is always a scope for creating buzz by reaching out to early adopters and passionate tech users who can spread the word through word of mouth and Microsoft has done it quite well with releasing small videos and leaking pics of various interfaces well before the actual launch. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer revealed about Windows 7 at All Things Digital Conference and added to the buzz by revealing a small video.Microsoft however had to face the enormous expectations built up through this kind of buzz b...
More About: Marketing , Buzz

Online Advertising Research & Insights
2008-05-26 10:42:00
MarketingSherpa has come out with a Handbook and Benchmarks report on Online Marketing based on a survey of 577 advertisers and marketers. Pilgrim does a review and shares some of the insights from the report here are the key takeawaysIndustry statistics 47% of companies said their search marketing agency was ?absolutely worth every penny,? compared to just 15% who said the same of their ?media agency.?56% of companies plan to include A/B testing in 2008.A huge 28.6% of advertisers spending $100k to $1 million are not doing any kind of ad testing! Ad strategies According to MarketingSherpa?s eye-tracking studies, ads below the fold can actually out-perform those above the fold, if they have better horizontal positioning?that is, placed to the left.Want to increase brand awareness? Non-standard ads?such as the ?peel back? ad you see in the top right corner of this web site?lead the way with 41% effectiveness of all ads.Want to generate direct sales? Paid search ads are still the best...
More About: Research , Advertising , Online Advertising , Insights

Reliance owned BigFlix Launches an Ad campaign
2008-05-23 09:27:00
Lots of internet websites are using TV to generate brand recognition and create initial push and the latest in this field is Reliance ADAG owned BigFlix which has launched a well executed Ad campaign to promote itself. Bigflix is a take on the very successful Netflix in US but is targeted at Indian users in India via DVD rentals and NRI's through movie downloads and hopes to be the first professional movie renting service in India. For India its strategy consists of a mix of offline stores in 10 major Indian cities through which one can collect the DVD and from online medium through which one can get free home delivery of chosen DVD. It looks to be an interesting venture and worth a watch.The campaign is titled ?Ab Aam Zindagi Ban Jaye Filmy? and is a take on popular films such as Om Shanti Om, Saawariya and Matrix, with a promise to inspire and change people?s daily routine life. It uses a good combination of humor and parody scenes and will definitely create a brand recall Enjoy ...
More About: Campaign , Owned

Trend Analysis: Internet Market in India
2008-05-22 10:52:00
JuxtConsult an Online research firm is the latest to release a report about Internet in india. The report is titled "India Online 2008" and is based on an on-ground survey conducted in March in 12,500 households in 40 cities of all population sizes, and 4,000 households in 160 villages across all socioeconomic classes. The Internet usage, online behavior and site preferences were collated from 15,000 Internet users through an online survey conducted in April.Some of the things that caught my eye was that only 28% people prefer to read in English when online and 65% users use Google for local language searches which show that there is a scope for regional languages on the web. Another out of the way info was that Rediff was used by 19% users for renting a movie cd which surprised me that there was such a market in India. Just a disclaimer that with a sample size of 15000 it is very brave to make predictions about millions and so take the report with a pinch of salt but it can still h...
More About: Market , Analysis , Trend

The Art of Online Market Research
2008-05-22 07:53:00
Well if you are into market research then instead of traditional research (which is limited by number of people you can visit) you might be interested into reaching to a large number of peoples through lesser cost through Online Research Online Surveys - Like the traditional system surveys are and will most likely be the core of conducting research online for the foreseeable future. They are an efficient and cost effective manner for collecting quantifiable data and can be promoted either on the site itself or through banner advertising or some promotional campaigns.Blogs - For brands it is important to track what is being written about you in the blogosphere this helps in maintaining your online reputation and figure out need for improvements. If you setup your own blog on your website it acts as a perfect opportunity to initiate the conversation and start to gauge interest. Much of the data coming out of blog comments might not be relevant, but some of them will in the end help t...
More About: Market , Market research

Mobile advertising: Pizza Hut launch campaign
2008-05-21 14:08:00
There are lot of activities happening in India in mobile advertising space and now Pizza Hut has launched a mobile campaign in six cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. They claim that the WAP campaigns on mobiles are receiving click-through rates of about 3 per cent and Pizza Hut have received more than 300 memberships to our club per day. The campaign has been developed and executed by the mobile marketing agency, Mobile 2win, and includes promotions on both SMS and the mobile web (GPRS). Interestingly Pizza Hut is also giving out an offer on Youngistan microsite in association with Pepsi's youngistan online campaignThe objective of the campaign is to get people to register for the VIP Club, a virtual club, either on their mobiles or the WAP site created by the agency. The membership entitles members to free coupons and a chance to win prizes and discounts. They can download wallpapers, participate in contests and locate stores.Pizza Hut is promoting it...
More About: Advertising , Campaign , Launch

Top 10 Brands on Youtube
2008-05-20 04:35:00
Custom Communications out of the U.K. have put together a list regarding the top brands on YouTube.The list focuses on which videos related to a brand has the most video views and how the specific video could affect the brand, both positively or negatively. Their "impact on reputation" score for each video is worth a read. Here are the top 10 and their videos embedded: Nike - "Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold" - Viewed 22,581,372 timesPepsi - "PEPSI (Britney Spears, Beyonce, Pink - We Will Rock You)" - Viewed 14,050,586 timesMcDonalds - "Fast Food Freestyle" - Viewed 11,744,399 times Coca-Cola - "Diet Coke+Mentos=Human experiment: EXTREME GRAPHIC CONTENT" - Viewed 8,583,526 timesUnilever - "Dove Evolution" - Viewed 6,727,556 timesDisney - "Internet is for Porn" - Viewed 3,278,230 timesBudweiser - "Banned Super Bowl 2007 Bud commercial" - Viewed 2,149,516 times Microsoft - "Microsoft Surface Parody" - Viewed 2,068,861 times. 3,322 commentsIKEA - "Banned Commercial - Swedish Midsummer" - V...
More About: Youtube , Brands

Pepsi Sreesanth Ad
2008-05-19 05:20:00
After the successful Dhoni ad Pepsi is out again with Sreesanth Ad and riding high on IPL wave this ad is absolutely similar in concept and execution to the Dhoni ad but is not as funny.However this ad does what Pepsi wants to do capture attention and combining with sreesanth's rebel image which is hit with youngistan. This conveys that aggressive go-getter appeal of Pepsi which makes it a top cola drink in Indian marketRelated ReadsPepsi Dhoni adPepsi Spoofs Thums UpPepsi Youngistan Ad

Viral Marketing: Youtube India
2008-05-19 01:12:00
Create a video with people playing along with brand logo and post it on Youtube that is the traditional style of marketing at Google like they did with Gmail earlier and now they are doing it again with Youtube's India launch with this video titled get into Youtube India do take a look
More About: Marketing , Advertising , Viral

Airtel targets lovebirds with Madhavan and Vidya Balan Ad
2008-05-16 08:11:00
Airtel recently slashed its roaming and std call rates based upon their analytics which told them that 70 per cent STD customers in India use less than 5 minutes a month on STD calls and 80 per cent mobile customers do not use their phones while roaming so they hoped that this rate cuts will drive growth and usage in the Indian telecom industry. To back this up they launched an ad campaign featuring south heartthrob Madhavan and Vidya Balan as lovers seperated by distance which is definitely going to appeal to young couples who are one of the largest users of mobile phones. Enjoy the ad
More About: Advertising , Airtel

Yahoo Search Marketing Launches in India
2008-05-16 07:17:00
Yahoo has finally woken upto search marketing in India but although Yahoo is a leader in display marketing its share of Indian searches is very low. India is Google country which holds 80% of Indian Search Market according to Comscore and as I had earlier stated Yahoo's India searches account for only 0.01% of global searches according to net applications. Other major players in Indian search market Google, Guruji and Rediff have their own pay per click ad platforms and yahoo is last to enter this market but better late then never. Yahoo doesn't even have Yahoo Publisher Network which is alternative to Google adsense in India which means search marketeers don't have a way to target blogs in India through Yahoo.For the uninitiated Search marketing works something like thisAdvertisers bid on keywords they predict their target market will use as search terms when they are looking for a product or service. When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, ...
More About: Marketing , Yahoo , Yahoo search

Buzz Targeting: Ads for Viral videos
2008-05-15 08:54:00
Google has been trying out various ways to increase revenues of Youtube and during a television interview last week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that Google will soon be launching a series of new products for YouTube, in an effort to make its video-sharing service profitable. Up until now, Google hasn?t been successful in generating income from the site, and getting the site to make money is the company?s top priority this year, the first effort in this direction is called Buzz targeting.Youtube has created an algorithm that determines which YouTube partner videos are quickly becoming popular on the site and about to go viral. The algorithm looks at several factors, such as acceleration of views, favorites, and ratings activity, and then allows advertisers to target their ads specifically to these videos on YouTube. With this youtube is trying to catch the marketeers dream of capitalizing on viral content Advertisers can capitalize on the momentum by choosing to run overlay ads...
More About: Videos , Marketing , Viral , Targeting

Shoppers Stop : Start Something New Campaign
2008-05-14 19:57:00
Fashion and lifestyle retail chain Shoppers Stop has undergone a rejuvenation: a new logo, a new base line, new uniforms for its staff, an anthem and a whole new philosophy.With the changed identity, Shoppers Stop has upgraded its positioning to a 'bridge to luxury' store a concept which I found hard to understand. They are probably trying to highlight the fact that luxury brands have a flaunt value that symbolizes ''having arrived" and they are the shop that provides a bridge to these brands.Shoppers Stop today have a lot of international premium brands like French Connection, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, CK Jeans, Gas, Lancome, MAC, Chanel etc which are meant to highlight this positioning.The company says its new logo's look and appeal is a reflection of Shoppers Stop brand's character of being a trusted and inspiring guide' in the world of fashion, and a progressive and dynamic brand.What I like about this campaign is the new baseline of the brand, 'Start Something New' it ...
More About: Campaign

Nokia Millan of the Villains Online campaign
2008-05-14 19:23:00
Nokia is the presenting sponsor of Shah Rukh Khan?s Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team and have realized rather late that if they have developed a contest for developing engagement with online viewers they should also promote it online and have now turned to online marketing on Rediff to increase visitors when the contest date is over. The campaign consisted of an innovative consumer contest titled ?Millan of the Villains ? and blog with Shahrukh. Through this contest they were asking for people?s help in helping players perform well together.? Aimed at creating platforms for consumers to ?connect? with the Kolkata Knight Riders team, the contest invites people to send in their ideas on how they would make the ?millan? of Shah Rukh's players possible.The winners were to get the chance to watch the Kolkata Knight Riders match in Eden Gardens, Kolkata on May 16, 2008 from the Nokia Pavilion, with Shah Rukh Khan himself and an opportunity to meet Shah Rukh and his team members at an exc...
More About: Nokia , Advertising , Campaign , Online

BrandTags: what is your real brand image
2008-05-14 03:25:00
What is the image portrayed of your brand in the minds of customer that is the question many brand managers have tried to figure out and now they have a new tool called Brand tags which takes a tags based approach to finding out what does a user thinks about a particular brand.Brandtags creates a tag cloud for brands based on a quiz of the first thing that pops into a visitor's mind after seeing the brand logo. Just visit the site, give a few one-word thoughts and see what people all over the world think about the brand. Here for example is what people think of Motorola with the words crap and hello motto being of higher font showing more people responding in that way. It is not be the kind of site that consumers regularly return to, but it's fun to try out once. Obviously it's something that brand managers would have a real interest in checking out, especially if it takes off.
More About: Real , Image

Online Advertising: Which kind of sites get Maximum Ad revenue
2008-05-12 20:36:00
If you are looking at internet for opening a startup then you really got to look at this chart which will tell you why all the internet majors spend so much time promoting their emails and this will also tell you where does ad revenue go on the internet and no its not all Google. This chart via emarketeer reports according to Nielsen Online that E-mail sites such as Hotmail and Gmail accounted for the largest share of ad revenue in USA and this was followed by General and national newspaper sites and then by large portals and search engines. while community websites and social networks are fifth in the online advertising race. Now these trends in online advertising are from USA but are quite relevant to project what future online advertising scene could be in India.Related ReadsOnline advertising what works the bestOnline Advertising Trends Behavorial Targeting
More About: Online Advertising , Sites , Revenue

Kotak Virtual NetCard Ad: Ecommerce Anyone??
2008-05-12 19:16:00
Of late there is a deluge of Advertising in banking industry with Citi going all out with its advertising and Kotak also out to showcase its features none of which are really great ads but this ad struck me for the potential it holds for e commerce in India. This ad is about a cool tool that makes disposable cards for shopping online and seems pretty nifty and can take the threat of getting the credit card number hacked which is the biggest hindrance to e commerce. There are some interesting features likeThe actual debit card number is never used in the online transactions. Therefore, there is no risk of the actual card number getting exposed during the online transaction on the merchant website. The card is created online in real time for an amount decided by you and valid for a limited period only ie: maximum 48 hrs. This is an online, single...
More About: Ecommerce , Virtual

Mobile Advertising: Coke and HUL launch Campaigns
2008-05-12 07:50:00
The current buzzword is 360 degree marketing making use of all possible media channels to send across your message. So despite spending nearly 80-90% of their marketing campaign money on traditional media like TV and print marketeers are backing up their campaigns by experimenting with digital media. Mobile advertising is on of the trends for 2008 that I mentioned in my earlier posts and it seems to be on the way up with marketeers more willing to experiment.Value-added service provider for mobiles Oxigen has recently orchestrated two mobile advertising campaigns one for HUL's Cornetto and other for Sprite and their success will determine future growth of mobile advertising in India. Interestingly both these brands are advertising using mobiles to target the youth since it has been found that the largest segment of mobile users in India are college students with pre-paid mobile connections and are the biggest consumers of mobile value added services. Here is what both the brands ar...
More About: Advertising , Launch , Coke , Campaigns

Yureekah: Competitive Intelligence for Online Brand Advertisers
2008-05-10 21:08:00
Currently in private alpha Yureekah has launched a free competitive intelligence tool that allows media planners to figure out where is competition advertising on the internet and allow them to plan their campaigns to counter them. For example this search of Chevrolet in the picture confirmed me that Chevrolet is advertising on Yahoo India however I have only an hour ago seen the Chevrolet ad on Rediff also which this tool missed which shows that Yureekah still needs to be ironed out.The site is limited to 4 countries India,USA,UAE,UK and only for display advertising which is the domain of big brand advertising and doesn't support contextual advertising. Yureekah is targeted at advertisers, media agencies, and small and medium sized business owners. The Monetization of Yureekah is to be done in future with the launch of more in depth services maybe.Devaraj Southworth, one of the creators of Yureekah said the idea stemmed from his own company's needs. He runs a small creative agen...
More About: Intelligence , Advertisers , Online , Brand , Competitive

Case Study:Google adwords versus Facebook advertising
2008-05-09 08:21:00
Search Advertising is something that has proven to be very successful especially for lead generation and e-retailers while advertising on Social Media is something that is still in its infancy and is still trying to catch its feet.While Advertising on Social Media Sites like Facebook you can go down to targeting users based on their age, location, education and various other demographic feature while when advertising on Search sites like Google you can target based on location and the keyword the users are looking for. Digital Inspiration has done a comparative study between Google adwords and Facebook advertising and found that Facebook can deliver tons of impressions for a small amount of money but the average cost of visitor acquisition (CPC) is higher for Facebook than for Google Adwords . Here is an excerptGoogle Adwords (Ads were shown on Google search and sites that use AdSense) Facebook Advertising (with a daily advertising budget of $5) Related Reads:Online Advertising T...
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Life = Risk
2008-05-09 08:15:00
This is a little offbeat but sometimes you really need inspiration and in such times I discovered this gem of a video which talks about persevering no matter how many times you have failed in life. Life = Risk and if you have never failed you haven't really lived enjoy this video called Famous FailuresRelated Reads:Amazing Indian InnovatorsSecrets of Success