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Guest column: Remarketing and its significance for brands

Published

8 years ago

March 24, 2018

MUMBAI: Remarketing is a smart marketing strategy that enables brands to identify and target those specific customers who have visited the brands’ website but may not have made an immediate inquiry or purchase. They do, however, present an opportunity for a possible conversion, as they have already shown interest in the products and services by visiting the website. Remarketing also includes reaching out to the existing customers and retaining them by promoting various offers. It is a widely used strategy and one of the most popular ones in e-commerce today.

For this, brands would have to place a remarketing tag on their website. Though it is possible to place these tags on each and every page of their website, it makes more sense to have these tags placed on certain specific pages to target a specific type of customers. For instance, the customers who have abandoned their carts, the ones who have saved the products for later or have had any sort of interaction with the website qualify better for retargeting, as compared to others. When the customers visit these pages, which have the remarketing tag, a cookie will be placed in their browser. This cookie will trigger the ads and display them on other sites where they browse.

Brands can go a step further by using techniques such as dynamic remarketing and dynamic creative optimisation (DCO). Dynamic remarketing lets them dynamically target the customers as they browse the internet. Dynamically retargeted ads show content based on a customer’s profile, such as the product that has been viewed or added to the cart.

DCO lets one dynamically change the elements of the ad creatives such as image, price, product description and call to action. It can also switch the ad copy that is being displayed. This increases the chances of customers zeroing in on that particular brand during the time of purchase, increasing the conversion rates.

In addition to dynamic retargeting and DCO, there are various other techniques for retargeting. One can use cross-device retargeting, which enables displaying the ads to a specific user across multiple digital devices such as mobiles, tablets, laptops and desktops. It enables brands to retarget an ad on one device, knowing that the customer has seen an ad or visited their site on another device. Multi-channel retargeting can also be used for displaying ads via different channels like banner, video or text.

Advertisers, however, have to be cautious. Retargeting involves the use of consumers’ data and, hence, advertisers have to consider the legal policies and data privacy regulations applicable in various regions across the globe. Thanks to recent developments, data privacy regulations are getting even more stringent in the European Union (EU) and this will affect the way and extent of retargeting that can be done in this region. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is all set to change the previous regulations and will impose more restrictions on companies for using the personal data without the consent of consumers residing in the EU. This can make the situation a bit tricky for advertisers. Brands will have to work their way around this cautiously.

Remarketing has multiple advantages which will help to boost up the marketing strategy. For instance, a majority of the website visitors leave without converting. But these are valuable customers for the business, and letting them go is a huge blunder. This is where remarketing comes in. It lets brands follow these potential customers on other sites and re-engage with them. Remarketing lets brands display highly relevant ads to an interested audience.

Instead of delivering ads to everyone, retargeting lets brands show ads only to the people for whom it is sensible. This actually helps to retain money in models like CPM, which are most commonly used. Also, remarketing is one of the best ways for customer retention. Acquiring new customers is always nice. But, it is important to bear in mind that it is also 7 times costlier than retaining the ones who are already aware of the brand.

Remarketing also helps to create a better brand awareness and brand recall. On an average, one only gets a fraction of a second of the customers’ attention span. It is difficult to make an impact on their minds in such a tiny sliver of time. Therefore, it is crucial that brands retarget them in order to create lasting impressions in their minds. This increases the chances of them coming back to them while actually making the purchase and directly reflects on the brands’ conversion rates. It increases the campaign effectiveness and can also improve the RoI.

Remarketing helps to target the visitors to a brand’s competitor sites as well. The ads are displayed when the customers are still in their search phase of the purchase cycle. The remarketing ads will be shown to the customers when they search a particular keyword. This also includes people who may visit a brand’s competitors’ websites that have returned results relevant to that brand’s products and services.

Retargeting is a largely beneficial marketing technique and it is highly recommended that brands employ this in order to obtain the array advantages it brings along. This is a simple technique but offers multi-fold returns.

The author of the article is founder and CEO of Vertoz. The views expressed here are strictly his own and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.

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Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

MAM

Washington Post CEO exits abruptly after newsroom cuts spark backlash

Leadership change follows layoffs, protests and a bruising battle over trust.

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the presses are rolling but patience runs out, even the editor’s chair isn’t safe. The Washington Post announced on Saturday that its chief executive and publisher Will Lewis is stepping down with immediate effect, bringing a sudden end to a turbulent two-year tenure marked by financial strain, newsroom unrest and public backlash.

Lewis’s exit comes just days after the Bezos-owned newspaper announced sweeping job cuts that triggered protests outside its Washington headquarters and a wave of anger from readers and staff. While newspapers across the US are grappling with shrinking revenues and digital disruption, Lewis’s leadership had increasingly come under fire for how those pressures were handled.

The Post confirmed that Jeff D’Onofrio, a former Tumblr CEO who joined the organisation last year as chief financial officer, has taken over as CEO and publisher, effective immediately. In an email to staff, later shared by reporters on social media, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

The leadership change follows the announcement of large-scale redundancies earlier this week. While the Post did not officially confirm numbers, The New York Times reported that around 300 of the paper’s roughly 800 journalists were laid off. Entire teams were dismantled, including the Post’s Middle East bureau and its Kyiv-based correspondent covering the war in Ukraine.

Sports, graphics and local reporting were sharply reduced, and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended. On Thursday, hundreds of journalists and supporters gathered outside the Post’s downtown office in protest, calling the cuts a blow to public-interest journalism.

Former executive editor Marty Baron described the moment as “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations.”

Lewis defended his record in his farewell note, saying “difficult decisions” were taken to secure the paper’s long-term future and protect its ability to publish “high-quality nonpartisan news”. But his tenure coincided with growing scrutiny of editorial independence at the Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos faced criticism for reining in the paper’s traditionally liberal editorial page and blocking an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 US election. The move was widely seen as breaking the long-standing firewall between ownership and editorial decision-making.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, around 250,000 digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after the paper declined to endorse Harris. The Post reportedly lost about $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues slid.

While the wider newspaper industry continues to battle declining print advertising and the pull of social media, some national titles have stabilised. Rivals such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have managed to build sustainable digital businesses, a turnaround that has so far eluded the Post despite its billionaire backing.

As Jeff D’Onofrio steps into the role, the challenge is stark, restore confidence inside the newsroom, win back readers who walked away, and prove that one of America’s most storied newspapers can still find its footing in a brutally competitive media landscape.