Mandi_Vol2_August08.pdf

8/19/2019 Mandi_Vol2_August08.pdf

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MandThe marketpl

n IIM Indore students initiative

ugust 2008


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eaders,

anks for your wonderful response to the last month’s edition. This

onth we have tried to incorporate all your feedback and suggestionscoming up with this edition on the theme of : Breakthrough Avenues

Advertising. In this age of millions of media messages bombarding

u every minute, how do companies break through the clutter? We

ve tried to identify and analyse some such ideas in this edition.

ur Heartfelt thanks to our guest authors:

aurav Aggarwal, FMS, Delhi

anas Vijh, IIM Ahmedabad

rul Khurana, BBS, CBS, Delhi

andrashekar M, SPJain ,Dubai

e look forward to your continued support and participation.

The Mandi Team: Srikumar S, Rishabh Sachdeva, Tejas Bhat, Gokul Kand


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Try this: Researchers are building an algorithm

that would read a standard photograph of users for

facial patterns, and try to identify the people that

look most similar. But security concerns and abuse

by authorities are stalling any widespread social

networking applications.

The SixDegrees of

Minting

S SrikumarVikrant had just finished scrapping Disha who was in

Texas A&M. He had asked some queries regarding

admissions procedures at TAMU for his Masters

Program. And back on the home page of his Orkut

profile there appeared an advert on TAMU programs

and financial assistance. Intrigued, he clicked on it.

The Origin of Social Networks

Social Networking sites have taken off from the conceptof Six Degrees of Separation: Every person is separated

with any other by a maximum of six people. Though it

also depends on getting the right six people. From

Murdoch (MySpace) to Anil Ambani (BigAdda),

everyone has bought into the phenomenon. Up from

relative obscurity in the late 90’s, Social Networking

sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, Orkut and Hi5 feature

high on the top 20 most visited websites list on

Alexa.com. From Advogato to Zude, the count has

topped 200.

While the more common uses of the concept areflooded with options, some others are trying to create a

niche within the space. Ever since the controversial Wil

Smith starrer “Six Degrees of Separation” popularized

the phenomenon, various takes have sprung up on the

internet. A trivia game, The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

is based on the concept that any Hollywood actor can

be connected to Kevin Bacon through his or her film

roles. Bacon himself started a charitable organization

SixDegrees.com based on the same small world

concept. A nerdier format would be the Erdos number

based on the collaborative distance (co-authors of math

papers) between the Hungarian mathematician and any

other author.

Another application was utilized by LinkedIn, to build

up a Reputation system for Business contacts. The

visible relationships aids in building trust for recruiters

and contractors.

The Changing face of Advertising

By 2011, Internet Ad spends would cross $60 billion

Global Internet Ad spends increased by over 28%, as

compared to 3% in traditional media. At the start of the

next decade, the Internet would replace Print as second

choice after TV on the advertisers list. The Future o

advertising has long shifted. But how does it work?

When Vikrant clicks on the TAMU ad, it would send the

huge money bell inside the Google servers ringing


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Much like its breakthrough AdSense program for its

search results page, Google is actively looking to break

even on its investment in Social Networking. And since

most users are not yet ready for pay to use SocialNetworking sites, the way forward would be through

targeted advertising. Google’s servers determine the

most relevant advertising based on a set of cached high

value ‘key words’. And the rate for the advertiser is

based on a Cost for Thousand Impressions

(advertisements displayed) or per thousand clicks.

The first concern raised with such acute targeted

advertising is that there is fear on account of loss of

privacy. Since most users share personal data on their

profile pages, there is scope for misuse. Highly targeted

individual information may be more useful for service

providers such as Insurance companies, which might

vary premiums on user habits that they generally do

not mention on their filings. Even though the scale of

information may be large, companies might be able to

purchase less specific information from service

providers. For example, Orkut may sell information that

Mumbaikars frequent Leopold Café’s online community

just before their actual visits. Leopold Café may in turn

advertise on its own Orkut community, where they can

order T-Shirts and collect it when they visit Leopold.

Imagine

Advertising on profile pages is just the beginning.

Second Life?

SecondLife (SecondLife.com) is a virtual world created

by its residents. From the moment you enter

SecondLife you'll discover a vast digital continent,teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and

opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, you can build

your house or business, like a strategy game but much

more than that. Everything from virtual land to cars is

available for purchase. And a million residents, waiting

to be unleashed with brands of the real world. Won’t

any brand be missing out if not here?

The Power Ladder in Social Networks

When Microsoft picked up a minor stake in FaceBook

its valuations soared to over $15 billion. And when

FaceBook launched its own targeted advertisingplatform, there were jitters in the Google office. For as

many as 50% of the 14-24 segment in the US, their

profile pages on Facebook or MySpace are their

homepages. MySpace rings in by far as the largest site

with individual page views in the SN domain. That

means more people spend time inside these closed

networks which crawlers like Google cannot access

And for Internet behemoths like Google and Yahoo, the

time spent on their websites inadvertently converts to

revenues in multiple streams. To mitigate this, Google

had its own Social Networking tool in Orkut.

But Orkut never took off in its own shores. Immensely

popular in Brazil and India, at one time it commanded

25 million unique visitors and 6th in terms of worldwide

page views. But Google could never convert it into a

revenue stream for it missed the most lucrative market

the US. Advertisers in Brazil and India aren’t looking

targeted advertising yet in the same scale.

Meanwhile, FaceBook expanded its range of advertising

options. It knows your preferences, your friend’s

preferences and so on. Recommendations and referrals

are easier. Wouldn’t you rather buy tickets for the same

movie that you’re Friend just bought?

The birth of OpenSocial

And Google’s answer was typical. It launched

OpenSocial. OpenSocial is a set of common interfacesfor social networks. And these applications would work

across all Social Networks. Seven of the top 10 Social

Networks, including MySpace have already joined the

bandwagon. What does Google gain out of this?


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The fastest online brands of the season? The top

three are all SN brands. Facebook rose more than a

1000% in 2007. The fasted brand though is

RockYou!, a widget provider for social networking

For one, AdSense may be redeveloped around as a

Social Networking application (Or a widget). And it can

be seamlessly implemented in one step across all Social

Networks. In one go, Google again has access to the

huge user base that MySpace, Hi5, Bebo and other

networks have. And for all we know, soon you might be

able to migrate from your Orkut profile to your friends

MySpace profile through another widget! Google no

longer even needs a Social Networking tool. All it needs

is for AdSense to be placed on the profile pages, and

voila, they are back on track.

“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only

a novelty—a fad.” – Investment Adviser for H. Ford’s

Lawyer.

No one can predict the power of Social Networking inthe decades to come. It might replace the Internet with

individual islands that people find everything they ever

need in. They might also equate nations to these

islands, bringing on user developed applications that

try to better every other network. But there is the

audience to capture. And so the advertisers will be

drawn.

But for realities sake, let’s scale our focus to the

immediate future. Honda and Motorola may develop

interesting themes for your Orkut profile that they are

charged on a per-user basis. Updates on your car’s

service may be available in a small window right on

your profile page. Your movie preferences can be

analyzed and PVR may insert links to buy tickets for

your favorite movies. The opportunities endless. And so

are the choices.


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Advert ‘Oreal! Tejas Bhat

It took me a whole 2 page article in a reputed magazine

to realize that I was actually reading a cosmetically

modified version of the good old advertisement for a

car manufacturer. Turns out, advertorials are a rage

this season and more and more publishing houses are

resorting to them to bring in the extra moolah. For the

uninitiated, making an advertorial is really simple. Take

a fresh advertisement, peel it thoroughly of all catchy

phrases, add two cupful of words, a couple of matter-of-

fact pictures and an “article-type” heading. Add a pinch

of positive statistics, and Voila! You have got an

advertorial! If this was a touch too dramatic for your

tastes, an advertorial, in simple terms is an

advertisement designed to look like an editorial or a

news/magazine article. These are less obvious, buthighly effective form of advertising, with quite a few

companies paying big bucks to place their advertorials

in reputed publications.

Advertorials allows the advertiser to tailor their

message to the magazine in which they appear. This

allows them to blend in seamlessly into the magazine

content and thus achieve a perceived endorsement

from the magazine. Unlike traditional advertisements

they are not designed to hard-sell brands. These days

they make advertorials so well, you can’t tell an

advertorial from the editorial! The purpose of an

advertorial must not be to fool the reader into believing

that they are editorials. For, if the reader finds out the

truth, he might not take kindly to the fact that he was

being taken for a ride! The essence is to communicate

to him that it is an advertiser placed content which


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offers extra value as compared to a regular ad in terms

of entertainment or information. As the fast

dissemination of the internet is redefining advertising

strategies, websites and blogs are jumping into the

advertorial bandwagon too. In short, the best thing

about an advertorial is its believability.

Advertorials can come in various shapes and sizes.

They can vary from a very no nonsense kind of

advertorial, such as those in journals targeting doctors,

to a glossy spread in a men’s magazine complete with

fashion photo shoots. In its July 2003 issue, Maxim

men's magazine, well known for its obsession with

jokes, booze and scantily dressed babes, brought

together all three in a special section called ''Bite the

Big Apple'' in which a boring business trip became

something else once the subjects of the story opened a

few bottles of Miller Lite Beer. The section was

produced by Maxim's editors.

Advertorials generally work well for products and

services where information sells better than images.

Products and services frequently featured in

advertorial form include nutritional supplements,

cosmetic procedures, pharmaceuticals etc. In a study

conducted by AHMD (Association of Healthcare Media

Directors, USA), one of six pieces of creative (three

branded ads and three advertorials) and a

questionnaire were mailed to a group of 300 primary

care physicians. The results show that, in message

credibility, advertorials were equally as effective as

branded ads. However, advertorials were shown to be

more effective than branded ads in terms of generating

interest, providing valuable information, and provoking

follow-up discussions

There, however exists a dark side to the advertoria

scene. Approximately 8 out of a sample of 40 are able to

distinguish between an advertorial and a regular

feature. Advertorials are a common feature in most

reputed magazines in India. India Today, Outlook and

Week all run advertorial sections. But most of the times

advertorials do not mention that they are paid for

advertisements or inconspicuously do so. A deeper

shade of dark is evident in the beauty and fashion

magazine industry. Beauty product manufacturers who

do not advertise in a magazine gradually realize that

their products are featured less and less in regular

features and may actually get negative publicity

Although these are rare instances, it is almost

impossible to monitor the content and style o

advertorials.

To cut a long chase short, advertorials have the effect o

subtly grabbing the attention of the reader and making

them believe that instead of being blatantly sold a

product, they are being provided valuable information

that would guide them in making the right buying

decision. Advertorials, if rightly used, can be considered

as an effective part of the integrated promotional mix

particularly as a way of complementing hard selling

branded advertisements with educational or

entertaining topics.


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Game On!!!U Gokul Kandhi

Clockwise from Left Top: Axe Pick Up Game , Chrysler, Indiana

Jones, Mc Donald and our Indian super hero Krrish

An advertiser’s utopia would be a completely alert ,

wholly dedicated and emotionally involved consumer.

Utopia now is about to be realized. Enter

Advergaming. Advertising in games can be split into

two categories in-game advertising and advergaming.

In-game advertising is the older of the two and the

most elementary. It deals with advertising during a

game is on, advertising during game breaks, placing bill

boards and sponsoring kits and apparel of

sportspersons. Advergaming is the consummate

version of the two. It is an inherent part of the game,

with tactically placed ads and brand promos as a part of

the game, wholly interacting with the player when he ismost receptive and emotionally involved. It is a custom

made game specifically designed around a product to

create awareness and associations about the product or

the brand in the user’s mind.

This concept of advergaming is not essentially a new

one. It has been in vogue since 1980s with the Atari

games from Kool-Aid and Pepsi. However they did not

get the necessary traction due to lack of varied media

that are prevalent today like internet and handhelds. In

1998, Blockdot( earlier NVision Design ) needed to

build company recognition, so they created a game they

called "Good Willie Hunting," a parody of Whack-a-Mole

that made fun of President Clinton's extramarita

escapades. The game was a huge success and brought

more attention to this new promotional method. Theterm "advergames" was coined in Wired magazine's

"Jargon Watch" column in 2001 . The jargon caught on

beautifully and so did the medium and has never

looked back since. Combining ads, entertainment and

interactivity in a single channel, advergaming is

considered the most stickiest form of advertising now.

Whodunnit

From FMCG companies to Automobiles to sports events

to movies , the whole business world is looking to jump

into the bandwagon. The most popular advergames in

the recent times are Pepsiman from Pepsi, the Coke

Zero Game from the Coca Cola, the continuous array of

hot stuff from AXE stable etc.

Not far behind are the ones from McDonald targeting

the entire family and the Chrysler Golf Challenge


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targeting just the right population. The Lego-Indian

Jones game was a big hit with the fans and helped

generate promotions for the movie. Bollywood has also

joined the wagon with its super hero Krishh game andBunty Aur Babli being huge hits. Burger King went one

step ahead and launched three advergames with Xbox.

Not to be left out , the US Army sponsored an extremely

successful game called “America’s Army” in an effort to

increase recruitment.

The extent of the impact of this media on the

advertising industry got a decisive boost when Nielsen

announced its launching of Game Play Metrics.

Nielsen's measurement service provides advertisers,

agencies, hardware manufacturers and game

developers with independent, high-quality, quantitative

demographic data for negotiating the buying and selling

of in-game and around-game advertising. This unified

data source increases the precision of advertisers'

target marketing, and enables them to allocate their ad

dollars in a more efficient manner.

How it Works

To understand how an advergame works, let’s have a

look at both regular ad media and advergames through

the Experience Realms model. The model talks aboutfour quadrants of consumer states- Entertainment

educational, esthetic and escapist. Entertainment is the

most passive form of exposure with absorption of facts

knowledge and awareness. Education is all this

combined with increased knowledge and feel of the

brand involved due to interaction of the participant

with the medium. Here is where the simple flash based

advergames, most of them played online, come into

play. They create awareness about the product with

banners and ads placed in the game. A bit higher up wil

be instances where the utility of the brand is reinforced

This is done by having demo versions of products and

avenues where people can operate and feel the Look

and Feel of the product. Mobile phones and other

personal consumer electronics have started using this

medium for the same.


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Esthetics have a high degree of immersion while

participating to a minimum. In-game ads during breaks

of real or virtual games fall in this category. They enjoy

high attention and involvement of viewers. Escapist isthe highest and most consummate audience possible.

With a high degree of user interaction and also

immersion, they offer best avenues for creating brand

associations and building loyalty. Higher the degree of

immersion, greater is the ability to experience the

brand. A simple example would be a game protagonist

having Kellogs cornflakes to boost his energy to destroy

his opponents. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing

Games are the best examples of this form.

Looking at the model, an audience in the escapist state

would be the ideal viewer and one in the entertainment

state would be the least favored. However, it is not

entirely the case. In high involvement purchases it is

the immersion factor that counts to bring sales as

association and loyalty are the prime factors. Hence you

have Chrysler having golf games where users are highly

involved and play for a long time. However in low

involvement purchases like FMCG products,

entertainment would be the most important factor to

create recall. That is the reason why, all snacks and

beverage companies have flooded the internet with

simple, easy to play advergames.

Target Market

With such a tech savvy medium, the initial impulse

would be to brand it as a channel to reach teenagers

and gaming youth. But research proves otherwise.

According to New York-based Nielsen NetRatings, it’snot just a bunch of teenagers that are playing the video

games these days. Its research shows that 30.5 percent

of the online games audience is between 35 and 49

years of age, compared with 16.6 percent between 25

and 34, and 14.3 percent between 12 and 17, according

to February 2004 measurements. And, more women

are participating than you might think -- many of them

professionals. Numbers, also from Nielsen//NetRatings

show that 41 percent of players at online game sites

like GameSpot, Candystand, and Pogo are

women.[Source: howstuffworks.com]

The Numbers

Game development costs anything between INR 10000

to INR10-16 lakhs for mobile and online games and as

high as $200,000 for console games. An equa

proportion , if not more , is spent on making the games

available at the right places. The Center for Media

Research has the following statistics on advergaming

and its impact. Advergaming spends are expected to

reach $2 Bn by 2012. Projections for increased


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revenues could be well justified based on the results

from a recently released study conducted by Nielsen

Entertainment on behalf of Microsoft-owned in-game

advertising pecialist Massive Inc.. The research showed

that:

Average brand familiarity increased by 64%

due to in-game ads on Massive's network.

Average brand rating increased by 37%,

Average purchase consideration increased

by 41%,

Average ad recall increased by 41% and

Average ad rating increased by 69%

The Pitfalls

As with every next best thing, this one too has its

pitfalls . The pitfalls exist all along the value chain.Before going for placing a banner or a product

placement in a game , the company should take care

that the feel of the game and timing of product

exposure is positive on the user. Further, the game

should provide an equal mix of entertainment and skill

test. A low skill requiring game might pass on a below

par image of the product while a high skilled game

would keep away users. And finally, the purpose o

advertising is to bring in sales and visibility and an

advertising exercise should have sufficient trackers to

monitor performance. In this segment however

tracking tools are few and not fully comprehensive.

Roadmap

The advergaming industry started with simple games

developed in Flash. It has evolved now and moved over

to complex multi player games on console, handheld

and even online. In this age of bombarding messages

from all angles , such a clutter breaking model is the

next big thing in this age of infinite brands to get

maximum mindshare. With explosive broadband

growth , double digit mobile penetration, advergaming

is the best way to generate maximum recall and createbest brand associations in the minds of the user. Such a

media also gives the chance for smaller players avenues

to reach maximum audience with an optimum budget

Some day, you can use an advergame to show why you

are such a great groom on shaadi.com.


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Getting the Placements RightRishabh Sachdeva

We live in a world infested by excesses. Sub prime

loans, oil prices, greenhouse gases, terrorists,terrorised american presidents and congressmen,

chinese exports, indian geeks, japanese cars, cricket,

reality shows, mythological dramas…The list goes on.

And on. There’s just too much out there to be able to

keep a tab on anymore. The ever exploding quanitites

of information at our disposal today is unparalleled by

any other point in time. We are afterall in what for sure

has come to be known as the ‘Information Age’…and its

crazy.

To be a brand and remain relevant today, companies

have to not only offer great products and services but

also have to be seen, heard and experienced more often

than ever before. The big idea in marketing has always

been to become an integral part of conversations,

lifestyles, associations that define targeted consumer

groups. The biggest challenge today is definitely the

clutter of messages being communicated. Forget

competitors..now its just about anybody trying to selsomething who’s stealing your thunder. Television

Radio, Print and the Internet are packed with so many

advertisements and channels, it becomes substantially

difficult for consumers to retain all of it. Either you are

lucky enough to have an ad that works or you are

forgotten. Luck, however cant just be what you ride

your business on and marketers have thus found non

traditional marketing approaches to tackle some

shortcomings of traditional media. An interesting

choice being ‘Product Placments’ or ‘Branded

Entertainment’.

Beginnings

The first recorded instance of product placement can be

traced back to ‘Wings’, 1927, the first movie to win an

Academy Award for Best Film. There is Hershey’s spot


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featured in the movie. Other early birds include

‘Mildred Pierce’, 1945 (Jack Daniels) and ‘It’s a

Wonderful Life’, 1946 (National Geographic).

Branded Entertainment??

Product Placement or Branded Entertainment is

basically a form of advertising in which branded goods

or services are integrated into contexts like Movies, TV

programs, News telecasts, Online content and games

which otherwise are meant to be devoid of ad content.

The placements usually don’t find direct mention but

form part of the picture in more subtle ways.

Whats the problem with just ads??

The clutter mostly. There are over 400 cable TV

channels in the US today and back here in India, we are

far removed from Doordarshan’s monopoly days which

has resulted in there being a plethora of cable channel

offerings available. At a time when the average time a

person spends watching TV is decreasing world over

and gadgets like the TiVo making it possible for viewers

to watch ad free telecasts, what does one have to do to

get noticed?

The problems extend to print and other forms of media

as well, with the 21st century consumer running ever

short of patience and time.

How?

There are essentially three levels at which placements

can be carried out. First and most basic of these are ad

placements in the beginning,middle and end of TV

telecasts, movies and webcasts. YouTube is

Placement Involvement Hierarchy

possibly the biggest channel in the world today. Users

are going to upload video worth 600 years of your time

on the website this year alone. Experimenting with ad

formats, YouTube realised that users moved on 70% of

the time in case of pre roll ads and that meant

ineffectual adspends for its big ticket clients. With

aggressive revenue targets in mind the website

undertook a massive tracking and research study

where in it realised that rollover banner ads in the

course of the telecast were the most effective. Viewers

dint want to move to another video and even chances o

them actually clicking on the banner improved by

massive margins. The trend can be spotted in TV

programming also, especially during sports telecasts

which were possibly the first platform to use the

concept anyway.

Second, and a more involved placement method would

be what can be called Peripheral Placement. Here

brands become part of the fabric of storylines. So

essentially you can have a background display of a

billboard ad or at a more involved level, airtime for andthe use of branded products by protagonists. What is

critical here is that here the product or service is

always at a background level and never very critical to

the story telling expeience. Its subtle. Most product

placements are of this nature. The use of Cadillacs and

Ducatis in the Matrix Series, Ericcson phones by James

Bond, Nissans in Desperate Housewives, Fords in the X

Files. Marlboro paid for its cigarretes to be used by a

film’s characters in many movies. Brands like ICIC

Bank, Coca Cola, Café Coffee Day, Pepsi, MTV, Zee TV

NDTV, Aaj Tak and others have been been placed

regularly in Bollywood. The most interesting kind o

placements has been the placement of destinations

‘Kaho Na Pyaar He’created such a buzz around New

Zealand that there were almost 200,000 Indian tourists

headed for the island that year. Many countries offer


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special discounted packages to Indian moviemakers to

come and shoot.

In television the trend has also been strong. In Indian

television the concept could be best explained from themultiple product placements visible on Kaun Banega

Crorepati. In other instances, channels could use one

program to advertise for another. So, you could have a

family from one Sas – Bahu serial going to another for a

marriage. Movies are also sometimes advertised in

serials in a similar vein.

On American television a look at the number of product

placements in American Idol would give you a

perspective. In the last season there were 4,349

occurences of placements on the Idol, and in the first

three months (half season) of the 2008 season the

number was 3,291 as reported by Nielsen. Coca Cola

and AT&T were prime spenders. Coca Cola alone had

some 2000 occurences credited for in the last season.

Lastly, Integrated Placements are the highest involved

examples of placements. BMW and Aston Martin Cars in

James Bond. The BMW short film series starring Clive

Owen, produced especially for the internet are fineexamples. A TBS 20 episode 2-minute series revolving

around 4 women travelling on the metro to and fro

from office everyday involves Revlon and Match.com as

an integral part of conversations amongst the 4 women.

A ‘Sex and The City ’ episode revolves almost wholly

around Absolut Vodka. ‘Harold and Kumar Go To White

Castle’ , 2004, is a movie that has a real burger chain as

very much its central theme. The brands become part o

the storylines here and are essential to what is being

expressed.

The Market

Global paid product placement grew 37.2% to $3.36

billion in 2006 and were forecasted to grow 30.3% to

$4.38 billion in 2007, driven by relaxed European

regulations, emerging Asian markets and shifting

American models, according to research released by PQ

Media, the world's leading provider of alternative

media econometrics.

TV placements are dominant, accounting for 71.4% o

global spending in 2006 at $2.40 billion, with projected

growth of 33.9% in 2007. Film placements comprised

26.4%, or $885.1 million, of global spending in 2006

with forecasted growth of 20.5%. About 2% of spend

was on other media like games and online content, with

growth projected to be more than 30% for the next few

years.

The overall value of the global product placement

market, including the exposure value of non-paid

placements, grew 24.2% to $7.76 billion in 2006 and

was projected to increase 20.3% to $9.33 billion in

2007.

Controversies and Growth

Consumer Activists around the world have voiced there

concern over the impact of placements, especially on

children. The European Union had strict guidelines

regarding such telecasts till recently and only now hasstarted to relax them.

The growth potential overall is extremely strong

Clutter, relaxed laws, new markets, consumer

disillusion with traditional media and development o

specialists in the field will all contribute to the multifold

increase in placements as a concept…


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Out is In!Gaurav|Manas|Parul

According to the advertising industry, consumers are

nothing but ad-avoiders and the advertising fraternity

is continuously searching for new avenues and methods

to reach out to their target consumers.

Not so long ago, paper posters, in loud colours, pasted

on walls, seemed a feasible mode of advertising. Overthe years, technological innovations have leveraged the

quality of outdoor advertising, transforming dull

placards into digital screens and hoardings. And not

surprisingly, more and more advertisers are becoming

receptive to the concept of out-of-home advertising.

What is the buzz all about ?

Out-of-home advertising (also referred to as OOH) is

essentially all types of advertising that tries to reach the

consumer while he is "outside of the home". Be it while

travelling to reach office or while taking a coffee break.

OOH is ubiquitous; on or in bus, taxi, railway station,

airport, mall, retail store, road, club and scores of other

touch points. It is the medium that reaches active

consumers where they are most available to take notice

i.e. out of their homes.

Why OOH ?

Rajeev Chakrabarti, business head, FIRANGI, says, “The

OOH pricing is much cheaper than radio, TV and print.

All in all, the medium is beneficial for advertisers as it is

clutter-free with highly efficient targeting and is cost-

effective compared with other traditional media.”

Lowest cost per thousand impressions

Total reach: Exposed to everyone who goes out

to work, study or enjoy

24X7 brand exposure: Unmatched frequency

levels

Wide target potential: Mass audience & also

Specific Communities

Repeated Exposure: Leading to sustained

awareness

Motion Panel Technology

The leading platform for In-tunnel advertising medium

it allows advertisers to reach target audiences as they

are being transported on subways and trains. Asviewers pass Panel installations, they are treated to 8

second or longer motion-picture advertisements

Independent studies demonstrate that in-tunne

subway advertising displays have the highest recal

rates of all transit advertising, with exceptional value in

branding.

Delhi Metro has experimented with this medium in one

of the stretches on the underground routes.

Washroom Advertising

It is a unique medium that allows you to attain

undivided audience attention for spans of up to five

minutes! They catch the person at an idle time when he

is literally craving for something to occupy him. It can

be used quite effectively at Airports / Hotels /

Restaurants / Health clubs / Cinemas / Malls.


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Clutter free because of limited number of ads

around, therefore better recall

Better awareness due to riveted attention for 1-

3 minutes

Can reach specific target audiences by choosing

the right location and type of restroom.

Elevator/Escalator Advertising

With new and newer malls, high-rise offices opening

their doors every day, elevators/escalators are

becoming an essential part of any building’s design

structure. This has given rise to an excellent

opportunity to advertisers to reach their customers for

at least 2-5 minutes in the elevator/escalator.

It can be a high-impact medium in malls – capturesaudience attention before entering points of purchase.

Metro Advertising

Metro advertising can reach all demographic

successfully and give an ad campaign the exposure it

requires. This medium provides exciting opportunities

because of idle time while walking in the station

premises, travelling or waiting at the platform

Walkways at the station At the platform

LCD OOH

This medium is being used for displaying full motion

graphics, static or video advertisements. Images and

videos can be changed anytime electronically through

prior programming. This enables a very easy and fast

change of display to give the advertisers multiplicity o

messages as well and it can not only telecast TVCs but

also live news, cricket matches etc.

Some usage areas for an LCD screen can be the

following: Malls (Atrium, Pillars) / Coffee Shops /

Health Clubs / Cinemas (Waiting Area) / Officebuildings / Airports (Waiting Area) / Bars / Nightclubs

Mall Health Club

Indian OOH Landscape

Rapid growth: According to a PwC-FICCI report

outdoor media is pegged at Rs 1200 crore in 2008. OOH

media, radio and Internet advertising acquire relatively


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smaller chunks of 7%, 3% and 1%, respectively. Being

the second-fastest growing medium after Internet, PwC

estimates this share to climb to about 10% by 2010. In

terms of regional spend, the metros dominate the

outdoor advertising market. GroupM observes that

although they account for only 12% of the total

population in India, the cities of Mumbai and Delhi

attract 40% of all OOH spend.

Entry of foreign players: Another factor of change is

the entry of global players in India: Clear Channel, JC

Decaux and News Outdoors (News Corp.) have all made

significant investments in India, and won contracts for

managing bus shelters in Delhi (JC Decaux) and

Bangalore (News Outdoor). Given the current

dynamism in this exciting space, an overview of the

major OOH players in India (Exhibit 2) is in order. It is

interesting to note that a number of companies in this

space are subsidiaries of large groups operating in

retail or media. The financial muscle and pan-India

presence of their parent companies are important

assets for these OOH players.

PE firms wooing OOH media players: Another trend

of note is the increasing interest amongst private equity

players in the OOH space (Exhibit 3). In a sector that’s

largely unorganized and dominated by family-run set

ups, private equity and outdoor media owners are

becoming strange partners. Currently, most of the

funding is going into newer players with interests

beyond conventional media.

Factors driving growth of OOH Advertising in India:

Clutter on traditional media: Saturation of

advertisements on TV, Radio have led to

increasing demands for clutter-free advertising

from consumers.

Large working population commutes long

distances which makes transit advertising

attractive.

Applicability for Rural marketing: Low literacy

levels make print unviable while penetration o

mass media like TV is still relatively low

compared to urban areas.

Local advertising: Advertising targeted to loca

tastes and needs of consumers is possible, thus

increasing effectiveness of OOH.

What next? New technologies like Motion Pane

Technology will make way for traditional means inorder to reduce clutter and move into new spaces

Interactive billboards and Bluetooth enabled OOH

Advertising are the way forward. Holistic approach

across OOH, traditional media – television, print and

radio, and new media – Internet and mobile, will also

become significant.

According to a PwC FICCI 2008 report, the out-of-home

media, currently over a Rs 1000 crore industry is

expected to be worth Rs 2000 crore by the year 2010 at

a CAGR of 17% (Exhibit 4). However, there are quite a

few challenges that plague the industry before it takes

the next leap.

Roadblocks for OOH: In developed markets, formats

are standardized and urban environs are regulated, but

in India neither is the case. Outdoor media placements

are haphazard and structures come up on pavements

and roads unilaterally, and hence parameters that

determine visibility for site overseas cannot be adoptedin-Toto.

Absence of data and measurement tools

OOH advertising can grow only if the advertiser feels

comfortable about its efficacy. For any advertiser, RO

(Return on Investment) is the key. Lack o

measurement in outdoor advertising poses problems


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pertaining to reach, impact and ROI. This has led to

potential advertisers shying away or allocating frugal

spends. This also encourages gut-feel and relationship-

based buying, and media owners are forced to cut

prices. Measurement tools give confidence to the

advertiser.

In the past, advertisers have often turned to surrogate,

but flawed, measurements like NRS and IRS. NRS-IRS

results come in once in six months, forcing media

owners to invest in independent research. Continuous

measurement coupled with recency of data is

important for advertisers and will help boost growth of

OOH.

Regulation: Billboards and hoardings in India have

been seen as a nuisance by the authorities. Hoardings

are banned in Delhi and Chennai, while in Mumbai,

their number is severely restricted. A new out-of-the-

blue notification has sent the outdoor media in the state

of UP into a tailspin. Proposals to hike the taxes from Rs

450 to Rs 4,500 per sq. m. would make it the costliest

state in India for OOH advertising. The multiplicity of

laws in the country and the disparity amongst states

make it difficult for advertisers to evolve a countrywide

strategy for OOH.

Lack of consolidation: Outdoor advertising has always

been perceived as a fragmented and a disorganized

industry. Today OOH in India is a Rs 1200 crore

industry that employs more than 3000 professionals

consisting of many big and medium sized media

companies. Signs of consolidation are howeverappearing with for example the creation of the Indian

Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), a common

platform for outdoor industry to take up issues at

various government & non-government forums.

Support medium: No matter how much the OOH

industry grows the fact remains that, as consumption

booms, brand marketers realize the need to be present

on every touch point. Given this, and the fact that OOH

has not yet proven its worthiness to be a sole viable

medium, it can only be used as a support medium to

other mass media only.

Conclusion

With more and more global OOH majors coming into

India, the outlook of the clients, the specialist agencies

and also the media owners will undergo a sea change

Technology, innovation and accountability with service

delivered to the “T” will be the benchmarks that

advertisers will use to judge OOH as a medium, and the

OOH players have to stand the test. OOH will certainly

evolve beyond its ‘static media’ heritage. Consolidation

will also play a key role in taking OOH to the next level

The booming retail sector will provide plenty of

opportunities to innovate and create exciting outdoor

advertising.

All that is needed to sustain is recognition of OOH as an

industry, regulation and some amount of research to

validate the ROI on ad spend by marketers on OOH

media.


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Back With a Band!

Chandrashekar M

So how where and when did this concept of silicone

wristbands start? The answer to this is the yellow

Livestrong silicone gel wristbands which were

launched in May 2004 by the Lance Armstrong

foundation. The foundation was founded by seven time

Tour de France Champion (1999 to 2005) and a cancer

survivor Lance Armstrong, as a fund-raising tool for

cancer patients. These yellow wristbands became such

a huge fashion fad that it has sold over 55 million. As

the fad was dying out market analyst found a

dichotomy in the silicone wristband industry. They

discovered an effective and inexpensive mainstay –

custom silicone wristbands. They showed that just like

coffee mugs, pens and t shirts aren’t considered a fad

and are a mainstay, customized wristbands are here to

stay too.

Traditional advertising Vs Silicone wristbandsThe contemporary business scenario is characterised

by tough competition, heavy marketing budgets,

innovative methods of marketing and a constant

demand for creativity that would help keep companies

an inch ahead of their competitors. As such marketers

are looking out for new methods to market their

products to reach customers at different level. Though

the traditional marketing mediums like television

advertising and newspaper advertising stil

overshadow other forms of advertising, smart

marketers look for novel ways of advertising their

products to get the competitive advantage.

Word-of-mouth marketing has been, and will be, the

most successful and cost effective way to reach the

mass. Word-of-mouth marketing emanates itself in

plethora of forms which could decide the fate of a

particular product or a brand. One of the most complex

things in this world is to tame the locus of word-of-

mouth epidemic; which by theory is the next thing to

impossible. Silicone wristbands can be used as form

word of mouth marketing as they convey the message

as effectively as traditional word of mouth does. If a

person is wearing a silicone wristband with a message

it means that the person is propagating the brand and

he/she certifies the brand.“Paul Revere’s ride is perhaps the most famous historica

example of a word-of-mouth epidemic. A piece of

extraordinary news travelled a long distance in a very

short time, mobilizing an entire region to arms. Not all of

word of mouth epidemics are sensational, of course. But

it is safe to say that word of mouth is – even in this age of

mass communications and multi-million dollar


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advertising campaigns- still the most important form of

human communication.” – from the “Tipping point” by

Malcolm Gladwell.

Silicone wristbands are instrumental in spreading

the word

One of the vicarious forms of word of mouth and viral

marketing is silicone wrist bands which have proved to

be an effective way to market products and create

trends that could trigger an epidemic as mentioned

above. For a decade, silicone wristbands have been

viewed as one of the biggest fundraising tools by

different organizations. But in the turn of new

millennium, the corporate world has discovered in it

great advertising potentials. They have realized that

custom made silicone wristbands can be used as an

efficient, inexpensive, unobtrusive and excellent

marketing tool due to their cost effectiveness, their easy

availability, and the ease of customization. Today

silicone wristbands are being viewed as Walking

Billboards.

Elaboration Likelihood model:

Marketing and Advertising using silicone wristbands

follow the peripheral route of persuasion under the

Elaboration Likelihood Model as given by Richard Petty

and John Cacioppo. Under this route the recipients rely

on a variety of cues to make quick buying decisions

Robert Cialdini has indentified six such cues

Reciprocation

Consistency

Social Proof

Liking

Authority

Scarcity

Using wristbands as a promotional product follows the

law of reciprocity which states that you give something

out in order to gain something back. And the law works

perfectly.

Wristbands are attractive, lightweight, and portable

and people love wearing them thus this encompasses

the cues related to consistency and liking

The meanings attached to the wristbands have been

instrumental in enabling it to get social acceptance

Each wristband has a significance attached to it and this

becomes a topic of discussion in social gatherings

These wristbands are extremely popular among the

kids fraternity and the best way to spread a company’s

message is to distribute these wristbands in placeswhere kids are in abundance

Authority and scarcity do not apply to this concept and

hence can be ignored. We also know that repetition

increases the possibility of elaboration and thus by

making wristbands readily available, it is bound be a

sure shot success for the company using them as an

advertising tool.

The Appeal

What is so special about silicone wristbands that could

be used as an effective way to advertise a company’s

product? The advertising potential of the silicone

wristbands lie in their stylish appeal to the young

generation. It has become a trend, not just among the

young populace but people of all ages, to collect stylish

silicone wristbands as a hobby.


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What makes it even more interesting is the fact that

these silicone wristbands goes with any kind of attire,

be it sports gear or a work place dress, they don’t look

out of place. Wide range of stylish wristbands that suit

a variety of occasions makes it more special and

attractive. These features allow a company to cover a

larger target area with immense visibility. Greater the

visibility the bigger is the publicity for your company.

To consummately conclude, perspicuously, there are

myriad of ways to use silicone wristbands as an

effective instrument to further your organization’s

goals as there are people out there just waiting to help

you achieve them.


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20

Solutions to Metaquizzics- July issue

1. Harry Potter Stock Index 2.Virgin Mobile 3. M

S Dhoni 4.Seth Godin 5.His Masters Voice6.Coca Cola Commercial 7.C K Prahalad

8.Sarbanes Oxley Act 9.UBS 10.Thamarai

11.Force India 12.MacBook 13.Coca Cola

14.Fear of being without mobile connectivity

15.Starbucks

1.

Vikrant According to the Golden Arches Theory,

no two countries that both had McDonald's had

fought a war against each other since each got

the McDonald's. In which book did this theory

appear?

2.

Identify the Logo

3.

Connect

4. Identify the name of the book from the cover

image

5. Which product came out with the line “ Ugly Is

Only skin deep”

6.

Identify the auto brand

7. What are Heliostats?

8.

Who propounded the N=1 and R=G?

9.

If Paris' Avenue des Champs Elysees and Hong

Kong's Causeway Bay hold the third and second

spots in the list of world's most expensive

shopping streets, which is No. 1?

10.

A man (fired by National Cash Register in 1913)

took over control of a company namedComputer-Tabulation Recording Company

What is the man's name? What is the company

name now?

Solutions in the September issue


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21

Is ChoiceGood?Tejas Bhat

What prompted me to write this article was the

dilemma I faced when deciding on the electives for my

second year in management. Select 58 out of 70electives and make sure you select the right ones cos’ a

wrong decision might result in hours and hours of

listening about things you didn’t want to know about,

anytime in your life. And then it happened again. After

going through the stress of selecting my electives, I

thought that a nice cup of coffee would be a good idea

to soothe my nerves. I went to this coffee shop and a kid

comes to take my order. I say “One coffee please”. He

says “Yeah, which one”. I say “Just plain good old

coffee”. He looks at me like I just stepped out of a flying

saucer and says “OK, a cappuccino it is then” and walks

off to share a laugh with his colleagues. See what I

mean! What happened to the good old days when coffee

was just coffee and Sunday morning meant

Mahabharata on the telly, for everyone in India. Don’t

get me wrong; I am all for choice. I would like to have a

variety of ice cream flavours to choose from. But what I

am trying to say is that after I buy the chocolate chip icecream, and after eating it, there’s a nagging voice in my

head that keeps saying “You should have bought the

Pistachio Almond, it would definitely have tasted

better” and again “You should have bought the

Pistachio Almond, it would definitely have tasted

better”. Choice makes me nervous.

Now, Barry Schwartz would classify me as a

“Maximiser”. Who is this Barry guy? Well, honestly I

didn’t know about him either until I started researching

(read Googling) to find out if there were other people

like me. Turned out he had writno da

ten a book in 2004 on this concept “The Paradox o

Choice- Why More is Less”. In the book he simply says

that providing choice to the consumer has greatly

increased their anxiety levels.

Barry Schwartz thinks there are two kinds of people in

the world, “Maximisers” and “Satisficers”. Quoting from

his book, “Maximizers want the best. The problem that

needs to be solved is what’s the best jeans, the besrestaurant, the best place to go on vacation, the best

marital partner - everything. Yet that requires a search

of all possibilities which is…impossible.” And

“Satisficers aren’t looking for the best, they’re looking

for good enough and good enough can be very good, it

doesn’t mean people have no standards. But it means

they don’t feel the need to do an exhaustive search


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Jam, anyone?

They just keep looking until they find one thing that

meets their criteria and then they choose it.”

This theory directly contradicts the long tail theory

which says that more choice leads to more satisfaction

to consumers since they can focus on the things they

actually want and not be forced to buy stuff. Makes

sense actually, but up to a point. I can deal with 3-4

choices when buying a pair of jeans, but beyond that,

making a choice becomes painful to the point that I may

decide not to buy it after all, for fear of making a wrong

decision.

One researcher from Columbia University, Sheena

Iyengar actually demonstrated the implication of the

paradox of too much choice by asking people to taste

jams in a grocery store. There were two booths, one

containing 6 flavors of jams to choose from and the

other, 24 flavors to choose from. After the tasting

session the people were asked to make a buying

decision on the jams. 30 % of the people visiting the 6

flavor booth actually bought jam, while from the 24

flavor booth, only 6% actually bought jam.

This study may provide proof to the hypothesis that the

amount of choice is negatively correlated with buying

decision.

What does this mean to you? A lot, if you are the owner

of a supermarket or maybe a website! Blackfriars has

suggested that companies must take responsibility for

making decisions on behalf of their customers, what is

called strategic clarity. For example, if you are

designing a website, give the user a clear choice, but do

not overwhelm him with clutter and unnecessary

information. If there is too much clutter or information

overload, it would ultimately lead to the prospective

customer abandoning the website in favor of a simpler

website which is easy on his decision making

mechanism. In case of a retail store, offering a tria

period before which he can return the good, i

unsatisfied/change of mind, will result in coercing the

customer to make a buying decision by eliminating the

risk of wrong choice. Maybe this argument holds only

for low-involvement purchases and assumes that the

buyer is not fully informed of the product. This can be a

reasonable assumption as only a minority of the buyers

have an in-depth knowledge of what they are buying

Most people do not base their buying decision on

cutting edge information. They would rather have

someone make a decision for them. The “someone” here

would be your marketing gimmick, sales promotion or

shelf placement.

Understanding this aspect of consumer behavior has

resulted in big bucks for certain companies. The

uncluttered, simple Google search website is worthy

of note here. Would Google have been as successful i

it had listed its search results under various sub

headings and allowed the surfer to make the choice

one can never tell!

The bottom line is that most people already have too

much stuff to worry about in their lives. Nobody

would want to turn a simple jam buying exercise into

a complicated internal battle of choice and will. Whenoverwhelmed with choice, consumers buy brands they

know and trust, or they don't buy anything at all

Decrease in choice level actually results in less anxiety

and more satisfaction. Would marriage be an apt

example here?


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Rajeshwar Tea Stall Rajeshwar Tea Stall (let’s just say chai wala, shall we...)

is an institution for our gang here at IIM I. For a decent

session of chai and smokes after class there’s almost no

place like Rajeshwar’s. Located pretty close to college

we have had time to know the people here and gotten

to like them and hopefully they have gotten to like us.

Usually it’s Chotu bhaiya (Rajeshwar’s Nick Name)

who’s manning the shop, but when we got there today,

it was his elder brother (who we have always called

Bade bhaiya) who we found there. And since we were

after all beating the street, we quizzed him a little on

the intricacies of the chai business…

Why do we go to a particular café? Ambience, quality

and price I fathom are important factors that help us

decide. Bade Bhaiya had the same thing to say about his

chai. The stress was on quality, especially because there

was a lot of competition around (there are at least 5

other chai walas in a 50 meter radius).

He sells about 50-75 cups of chai every day, selling

each cup for Rs. 3. He invests about Rs. 5000 in his raw

materials (Milk, Sugar, Tea Leaves, and Gas) every

month. Also, alongside chai, he sells cigarettes, puffs

namkeen, chips and soft drinks. Pays a rent of Rs.300

for the land every month and of course there are other

charges like electricity which add to his expenses. All in

all he estimates that in a month he makes about 3 – 4k.

The shop was set up a couple of years back, charged by

Chotu’s entrepreneurial spirit. He started with an initia

corpus of Rs.25, 000. 10k of his own money and

borrowed another 15 from a local money lender. We

were told that the lending rates were a ridiculous 5 –

10 % a month compounded (50 – 120% yearly Simple

Interest) in the area. Makes a strong case for

microfinance growth in this country really…

The shop supports about 10

family members. Chotu in

previous conversations had

often spoken about his dreams

of growing the business. As far as we know, the shop

started as a basic chai and packaged snack stall and

then went on and first added an oven (for puffs), then

an Airtel PCO, then a bigger gas cylinder for the

increased demand for chai and recently a fridge to be

able to stock soft drinks, water and at moreadventurous times – lemonade. The next stage o

expansion is going to see the introduction of a “Banjo”

(Bun - Omelet), hot dog and chaat counter. A failed

diversification project was the sale of pre-paid mobile

cards; as demand was extremely low.

They don’t buy from company salesmen who come to

the shop and instead prefer to go to a local wholesaler


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who allows them a 1 – 2 day credit period sometimes.

Bade Bhaiya said that even that can sometimes turn out

to be critical for business. They do not have too many

credit customers, just 10 -15 of them (We have a

sneaky feeling he’s trying to convey something to us

there…). The business does not see too much

seasonality, though Sundays are good days, as most

competitors are shut. So, basically the chai stall’s been

up and running for almost 2 years now without a single

day off.A big advantage that the tea stall has over its

competitors is the fact that it is located so close to the

railway crossing. So when the gates are closed, a miles

long traffic jam is a regular sight on the highway. Many

who are waiting like to come over for a quick chai,

smoke and snack. Lucky Rajeshwar and family.

Intelligent and hardworking mostly we believe. They

have worked with heart these few years and the growth

shows. We wish them the best for times to come…


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According to the advertising

industry, consumers are

nothing but ad-avoiders and

the advertising fraternity iscontinuously searching for

new avenues and methods

to reach out to their target

consumers. Lamborghini

Reventon – 650bhp,

215mph. Road going stealth bomber. Yes please!

Clive Christian’s No 1,

Imperial Majesty.

$215,000 a bottle with a

5 carat diamond stud.

Only 3 people ever knew

how heaven smells.

Civit : most expensive

coffee on earth but it’s

made from dung. That’s

right. An animal called

civit eats coffee beans

which, when released, is

gathered to create the

legendary brew.

Alienware Area-51 ALX –

Overclocked Core2 ExtremeProcessor. NVidia SLI

GeForce GTX– 4TB

warehouse and 4GB RAM -

SoundBlaster® X-Fi™

XtremeGamer Soundcard –

1200p HD with Blu-Ray.

Violent Gaming Nirvana.

We love Apple, and IPods. Bu

frankly, it’s getting boring that

now everyone sports the samedevices. Who else to go to bu

Sony. NW-E010 Stick type

Swarovski (yawn) embedded

Have millions in tax

havens? Van Cleef &

Arpels and Montblanc

could help you bring it

back in a pen. 840

diamonds, 20 carats of

gemstones. One ‘Mystery

Masterpiece’? $730,000.

Xtensor Gamer Hand exerciser

Biomechanically correct design to

relieve them after a night long

gaming marathon. And claims to

increase reaction times. Overkill.

The Dom Perignon of

Floorstanders. Klipsch

Palladium P-39F speakers. 3.5

way tapered array design,

three high output woofers,and minimal distortion.

$15,000.


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29/29

Dear Readers,

Heartfelt thanks for your readership and support.

We intend to make it a magazine that is as much

yours as ours. In this regard, we will be publishing

two articles from the readers every edition. The

article should be in line with the theme of the

edition.

The Theme for the Next Edition is:

Rural Marketing

Please send in your entries to

[email protected]

by 10 August 2008

Format: MS Word, Times New Roman, Font size 12,

Word Limit: 1500 words

Everybody is invited
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

Mandi_Vol2_August08.pdf