ITV

Tag: Digital Quotient

  • 2014 – The Year of the Mobile

    2014 – The Year of the Mobile

    2014 was a new era in the rise of mobile, content marketing and big data for many businesses. Right in its embryonic stage, mobile has irrevocably transformed digital marketing. It’s been an eventful year for marketers with the rise of omni-channel, mobile-first marketing, and a rapid growth in geo-tagging management – to name, but a few. The digital marketing industry will evolve even further in 2015, bringing a new set of marketing strategies and opportunities to look forward to. Here are some recent trends marketers should be attentive to for the year ahead.

    We have already heard a lot about the mobile craze everywhere but 2014 bucked that trend. We are now going to witness major consumer transactions happening via mobile driven by mobile payment options such as paytm and freecharge. There is a perfect atmosphere of strong consumer evolution to mobility for every aspect of their lives, as well as enterprises treating mobility as a strategic advantage. We also saw mobile usage of social media overtake desktop usage. The mobile-centric Instagram, grew to over 300 million active users. There are more mobile phones (7.2 billion) on planet than number of people (7.16 billion).

    It happens very rarely that a prediction in digital industry comes true. There were a lot of talks about 2014 being a year of mobile and that statement has come true, with 2014 witnessing an enormous growth in smartphones and so will 2015. Mobile presents a huge opportunity for marketers to reach their target audiences. Google research shows that 7 per cent of mobile searches led to a purchase within 24 hours, rising to 18 per cent for local searches. Smartphones are also changing communication habits – particularly for younger generations – with 94 per cent of communication time for 12 to 15 year olds spent on text-based activities such as instant messaging and social media, and only 3 per cent spent on voice calls.

    In 2015, we will see the widely discussed mobile-first marketing approach finally develop to take advantage of these high consumption levels. Retailers will push more high-volume, low-cost products through their mobile commerce platform, to gain enhanced data on consumer behaviour, locality, adaptation, and ROI.

    In the 2014 elections, we saw most politicians using social media for campaigning. Not only Indian politicians used social media but during the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012 president Barack Obama’s team most effectively used social media campaigns. In India, we saw the Modi selfie on voting day, live rally broadcasts on mobiles, AAP using it for driving new member joinees and for getting citizen participation in its initiatives.

    Global revenue from app stores is expected to rise 62 per cent this year to $25 billion. From ecommerce companies to travel outfits to government departments, everyone is launching mobile apps and driving significant sales and user engagement through same such as paytm, free charge and other mobile centric means for micro small payments. It’s almost like a DoTcom evolution of 15 years ago – no one wants to miss the bus. The same followed by a rise in the mobile handsets sales, led by newer and fancier smartphones is a major catalyst in making 2014 an era of the mobile and paving way for the coming year. India is already the 3rd largest market for smartphones and will overtake USA shortly.

     Telecom operators have finally started to see a lot of data usage from their customers and their 3G infrastructure investments have started to show financial results. Consumers are in a happy mode with lot of choices – lot of people have more than one handset and kids and teenagers are not the only one using them for social media.

    India has emerged as the strongest market for digital companies who see a huge growth opportunity here. For Facebook, Whatsapp, Google – India is one of their top markets. Regardless of where an Internet company is launched today, India very quickly becomes a large user base for it.

    Rural India is also not untouched from this craze and has started seeing relevant information and entertainment services readily available to them via mobile. Venture capitalists and investors are willing to bet long term on sustainability of mobile led digital evolution and are pumping in millions of dollars.

    So what does all this mean as a marketer?

    1- Jump on mobile bandwagon quickly, else you will lag behind

    2- Gear Up for Big Data & analytics to play a bigger role in next phase of mobile evolution

    3- Gut based decisions will start getting replaced by more number driven decisions

    4- 3Ms need to be central to your marketing plans –i.e., Millions of people engaging with Multiple offerings on their Mobile devices.

    Mobile has started to impact almost every sector of our life – payments, healthcare, shopping, eating, travel, investments, and education etc. and it is important for marketers to understand the changing trends and design their marketing strategies accordingly. Mobiles provide a personal connect to user base and customers which helps impactful brand engagement with the audiences, which is all a brand campaign is about.  It’s an era of dialogue creation, with integrated campaigns across platforms made even more convenient via mobile. 2015 promises to ride this wave of momentum as smartphones will become more secure, more contextual, more location-aware, more targeted, and more integrated. We will witness the most engaging mobile experiences till date come to life in 2015. There will be an integration of Mobility, the cloud, and the Internet of Things creating significant opportunities for businesses to expand and for consumers to enjoy. But these opportunities will also come with newer challenges.

    (These are purely personal views of Digital Quotient chief operating officer Vinish Kathuria and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • YouTube is the platform to be on, says AIB’s Tanmay Bhat

    YouTube is the platform to be on, says AIB’s Tanmay Bhat

    MUMBAI: The 6th edition of MixRadio Music Connects provided a pivotal platform for the discussion of Indian multi channel networks (MCNs) and how YouTube has helped artists in building a strong viewership, new content and audiences.  When it comes to MCNs, India has a large digital video market and the younger audiences today are more likely to watch digital videos than television.

    Moderated by Music Matters president and Branded co founder and CEO Jasper Donat, the panelists included All India Bakchod (AIB) co founder Tanmay Bhat,  Qyuki Digital Media co founder and managing director Samir Bangara, Ping Network co-founder and director Rajeshree Naik,  Digital Quotient (HT Media) business head entertainment Parmeet Lamba and YouTube India head of content operations Satya Raghavan. The session discussed the advent of MCNs and the rising players who are creating content online.

    As the co-founder of one of India’s leading YouTube channels, Bhat spoke about how it all began for him. He said, “Well, we began as a comedy podcast and then sometime last year, we started doing sketch comedy on YouTube. Our YouTube channel became the fastest growing channels in India. We now also make content for brands”.   

    Raghavan expressed that he was delighted with the fresh content emerging on YouTube. He commented, “Earlier, I used to only watch YouTube for movie trailers but all of a sudden I am finding myself watching unique content on channels like AIB. It’s truly been a fascinating year for YouTube”.  

    Speaking of the business model of YouTube, Raghavan further elaborated, “YouTube is platform where you see online videos. Advertising is our primary source of revenue and we share more than half of that with the creators”.

     
    Bangara added on the role of MCN in today’s market, “We are like the new-age label. We do what record labels did for musicians in the traditional market. Today, you do not have to be in a bar to discover new music talent. YouTube does that for you”.

    Talking about the rise of MCNs, Donat pointed out, “This is an area where there is some serious money. Companies are being bought for hundreds of millions of dollars. One of the biggest MCN deals had Disney acquiring Maker Studios for $500 million plus $400 million earn out”.

    Bangara responded, “We are in the broadcast network creation space and monetization on that is two-fold. Ad monetisation on YouTube is not sufficient. As a MCN, we bring a lot of branded content to the table. We take talent, package them and promote them to brands. Our business model is a mix of brand monetization as well as CPM ad monetisation”.

    Naik agreed with Bangara and further added, “This business is eventually going to be based on relationships. The technology platform is YouTube but the MCN is purely a service business. It’s all about understanding the ecosystem and helping the artists benefit”.

    Parmeet Lamba commented, “It is also important that we help individual artistes in monetizing and distributing their content.  In the regional space, a lot of Punjabi music has been coming up. We build talent and they become popular. There are a lot of deals and collaborations happening in the market. A lot of brands are approaching us to feature their products for the artists’ next videos. The brands offer to sponsor these artists. And with the gained popularity, these performing artists get more live gigs”.

    Elaborating on how YouTube helped him in his popularity meter, Bhat said, “When we attended the YouTube fanfest this year, it was a very overwhelming experience. People were watching us on their phones. It was a different level of engagement altogether. YouTube is the platform to be on!”

    Adding on to that, Raghavan added, “There are a lot of cover singers who are becoming popular. We also get to see original content in the music space. Being on YouTube definitely gets you more gigs and it is an amazing platform for the common man to express himself. However, one needs to constantly put up content. Fans love to see the passion you have for your craft and the engagement level needs to be high. The creator needs to be disciplined and also focus on interacting with his or her fans. 2015 is going to be the year of music!”

     While speaking on the potential of YouTubers breaking into the mainstream music scene, Naik opined, “If you were a musician about 20 years ago, you would have sung for about 5 years and then made a video. Today if you want to be a musician, you need to begin with the video. Today, you have that platform that can help you get noticed. That pretty much sums up why digital videos are so important for musicians”.

     

  • Digital Quotient launches audience marketing platform – ‘arQ’

    Digital Quotient launches audience marketing platform – ‘arQ’

    MUMBAI: A data-driven social and mobile marketing firm, Digital Quotient, has launched arQ, a audience-marketing platform that analyses integrated data from various sources and creates real-time actionable – audience marketing intelligence.

    arQ’s audience marketing intelligence helps marketers to create customised digital user experiences. The marketing intelligence derived from arQ can be integrated across multiple mediums – social, mobile, web and video, ensuring maximum impact and ROI.

    The key differentiator for arQ is its holistic analysis and transformation of gathered data into real-time unique audience buckets. These buckets enable marketers to segregate the target audience and reach out to them with the right message at the right time. This approach eliminates all the guesswork and media spillover of the traditional digital marketing approach based on inventory. 

    “In a world where consumers are using multiple devices and are flooded with endless choices, it is not surprising to note increasing spends on digital advertising by brands. There is a paradigm shift occurring in the digital marketing world which now demands customised marketing experiences not functioning in silos but integrated across multiple platforms. At Digital Quotient, we are committed to improve the user-experience across multiple mediums by focusing on the audience rather than inventory. arQ promises to translate online user behaviour into actionable intelligence for marketers. Thus, helping marketers to make the most effective business decisions and strategies by incurring the minimum cost,” said Digital Quotient (DQ) COO Vinish Kathuria.

    arQ deep dives into the user’s digital journey and transforms heaps of complex data into valuable real-time marketing intelligence. This precision of marketing intelligence, we believe is a revolutionary step in the current scenario. The innovation team at DQ is always focused at solving the intricate issues of digital marketing, delivering the best results and ensuring high ROI,” he added.

    With the launch of arQ, Digital Quotient focuses on an audience-first approach in all marketing strategies. arQ aims at reducing the time and effort required by marketers to deliver impactful, functional and engaging user experience which converts a user into consumer. In a complex and crowded Digital ecosystem this turns out to be a rather pressing need for most CMOs and marketers. arQ not only provides to run cross channel campaigns,  but also enables real-time bidding and audience buckets from which a marketer can find its most relevant target audience and reach out to them bang on time.

    Digital Quotient says that in the current stage, the arQ platform will offer a reach of 50 million monthly unique users globally, with plans to expand  reach in coming months. Digital Quotient has been able to recruit top tier talent from IITs & other premier institutes for this initiative  who are focusing on Data Science, Machine Learning & Statistical modelling aspects. Company plans to scale up though build, partner and buy approach and is in active discussion with partners and investors.

     

  • Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    MUMBAI: When HUL’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ campaign came back home with a Gold Lion in the mobile category from Cannes this year, it took the whole industry by surprise.

     

    The campaign rolled out by the FMCG giant was an effort to reach out to the media dark areas. ‘The Kan Khajura Station’ a 15 minute free, on-demand, entertainment channel was a service where people could give a missed call and then get entertained for free.

     

    The brand created a new media through a rudimentary mobile phone that brought people out of media darkness and connected them with the world. According to the brand, the activity was done at a cost of Rs 6 per person. This campaign was executed in Bihar and Jharkhand.

     

    This is not the first time that the country’s largest consumer good company had executed a campaign for people with feature phones in the country. It can be recalled, couple of years back the company’s detergent brand Active Wheel had also used missed call as an advertising inventory to catch the attention of consumers in UP and Bihar.

     

    Further to this, the company is now collaborating with local grocery shops and is working on making custom-made caller tune as part of a new marketing initiative. This means that when a consumer calls up the shop to place an order he/she will be informed about various promotions and offers on the various brands from the house of HUL. According to economic times, HUL has piloted this initiated in Mumbai and Delhi.

     

    If studies by International Data Corporation (IDC) are to be believed feature phones still hold over 70 per cent of the Indian mobile market. Experts in the space are optimistic that the scenario will change the game. A recent IDC report mentions that India is the fastest-growing market in Asia-Pacific, with a year-on-year smartphone shipment growth of over 186 per cent in 1Q 2014.

     

    Is there still a market for advertising on feature phones in country where smartphones are growing exponentially?

     

    Digital Quotient COO Vinish Kathuria believes there is a lot of scope of exploring this market. According to him, advertising opportunities on feature phones revolve around text and banner ads on WAP sites, IVR based outreach and SMS and missed call strategies which are being used interestingly even today by many big brands.

     

    Out these advertising options, missed call as tool looks to be promising to many other experts. In a recent development, Facebook announced that it has introduced missed call inventory to boost its advertising revenues in India that counts for the second largest user base for it.

     

    This advertising tool will allow mobile phone users to click a button that calls an advertiser, immediately hangs up and then receives a return call. The return call delivers pre-recorded audio messages about everything from sponsored cricket scores to information about shopping discounts, minimizing data charges for the user.

     

    The social networking site has partnered with ZipDial for this. In early tests of the missed call ads by L’Oreal-owned haircare product Garnier Men, the ads led to a 2.5 times year-on-year increase in online sales, according to Facebook.

     

    When asked how different is it to execute an advertising campaign on feature phone than on a smartphone, ZipDial founder and CEO Valerie R Wagoner mentions, “We don’t believe in thinking of it as advertising on feature phones but rather advertising to consumers who have feature phones.”

     

    Wagoner thinks media activations with these set of mobiles can deliver great results.  She is of the opinion that every media whether print, television, outdoor, or even digital ads should have a mobile call-to-action to make it interactive and to drive ongoing engagement with consumers in a targeted and personalised way.

     

    “While a QR Code is relevant to less than 1 per cent of mobile consumers in India, a missed call is the easiest thing that anyone could do from any phone,” adds Wagoner.

     

    She informs that ZipDial is collaborating with Unilever to work on expanding this success globally across emerging markets.

     

    Apart from this the cost is minimalistic. Running a campaign on feature phones might cost a brand anywhere between Rs 3 to 6 lakhs mentions a senior media planner.

     

    The Roadblocks

     

    Having said that, thought there is a huge opportunity in using mobile as a broadcast channel to directly reach consumers, it has to be done very carefully, especially for consumers on feature phones.

     

    “Advertising potential is significantly lower on feature phones because of two main reasons. One is the limited screen size and phone’s processing makes it harder to offer plethora of multi media advertising options. Two, availability of apps and usage of it are significantly lower. So, in-app advertising, one of the biggest mobile advertising categories, is almost non-existent,” says Kathuria.

     

    Brands should never spam users. Wagoner states, “Blasting SMS or voice calls can be extremely intrusive. However, SMS and voice Calls are a very powerful tool when you use them in combination with protecting consumer privacy. For example, standard industry response rates to generic push SMS blasts are around 0.1-0.2 per cent. However, response rates to SMS sent to ZipDial followers are between 9-56 per cent because users give permission and are in control of the content they receive.”

     

    It is extremely necessary to have personalised experience which targets the right message to the right consumer at the right time that will successfully lead to behavioural change, conversions and business impact across this segment.

     

    ”The difference is that there are thousands of companies designing for smartphones (especially companies in the West and developed markets), and there are very few innovative companies designing and building good advertising technology for emerging markets,” concludes Wagoner.

     

  • Pinterest’s new pitch to advertisers; impressive or run of the mill?

    Pinterest’s new pitch to advertisers; impressive or run of the mill?

    MUMBAI: Today, disruption is the operative word and brands of all hues are harnessing the digital medium to create cutting-edge communication. However, online audiences are very impatient and want things instantly – things that can sustain their interest, considering they have a short attention span to boot.

     

    An online platform that has endeavoured to help consumers curate and share things they love is Pinterest. Founded four years ago by Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp, Pinterest has caught the attention of marketers with the launch of its various ad inventories over the past six months.

     

    According to a report published in Reuters last month, Pinterest has raised a new $200 million round of funding that gives it a valuation of $5 billion. The company last raised money in October 2013 at $3.8 billion valuation in a round led by Fidelity Investments.

     

    The social media platform stated in the report that it would use the capital to invest in technology, develop its advertising program further, and expand internationally. Pinterest said it has raised a total of $764 million so far from the time of its inception.

     

    Pinterest also introduced a new advertising tool called ‘Promoted Pins’, in January this year. According to digital experts in India, the social media platform tested the inventory in multiple phases. It was just last month that the platform made a small roll out with a group of brands in the U.S. This comprised ABC Family, Banana Republic, Expedia.com, GAP, General Mills, Kraft, lululemon athletica, Nestle’s few products, Old Navy, Target, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and Ziploc.

     

    While on an average it takes around $30 to $40 to advertise on Pinterest, according to experts, with ‘Promoted Pins’, Pinterest aims to improve functionality, generate revenue and serve additional content around the pin. The company also aims at generating between $1 million and $2 million per campaign from its big advertising partners.

     

    To address the large chunk of small and medium-sized businesses Pinterest is going to take a different route and opening up ‘Promoted Pins’ to more businesses in a very Facebook-like advertising model. Instead of paying by impressions, like on Facebook, with Pinterest’s this inventory, brands only pay when people click through to their brand website.

     

    It is learnt that Pinterest is also prepping up to open a data firehose by the name Business Insights API. With this, companies will be able to customize their online campaigns based on user insights.

     

    Pinterest’s move is being likened to what Facebook initiated only to be taken over by Twitter later. Indiantelevision.com spoke to social media experts to understand what this means to an emerging market like India.

     

    Digital Quotient strategy and planning head Girish Mahajan opines that though Pinterest has gained a lot of momentum worldwide, in India, its power is yet to be fully realized. “This is mainly because Indians constitute only eight per cent of the entire Pinterest user base. But if your business is fashion, interiors, arts or F&B, Pinterest could be an interesting tool to make shopping easier and fun,” he says.

     

    “If a brand wants greater engagement of a particular target audience say women, in that case, Pinterest can prove to be tremendously influential. Visual is Pinterest’s strength, a very important factor for retailers. Also when compared to other social media tools, the amount of time required to run digital campaigns on Pinterest in less. Promoted Pins are available on an invite-only basis; it is essentially a CPM-based model. Pinterest is aiming for e-commerce bucks unlike Facebook and Twitter. The platform will evolve more into a second base for e-commerce sites other than FB or Twitter. At present in India, advertising options are not fully available but in the near future, we will witness people leveraging this tool better,” Mahajan added.

     

    According to RAPP India president Venkat Mallik ‘Promoted Pins’ will work well but only if brands handle them well. “If the promoted pins are overly ‘salesly’ they are likely to get rejected. The visual of promoted pins needs to look like content that is generally interesting to people with related interests and then have a sales message may be one layer down. There are a number of theories about the kind of pictures that get the largest amount of likes and repins and some of those could potentially serve as guidelines on how to make promoted pins work better as well,” mentioned Mallik.

     

    Facebook’s buying of Instagram last year added a lot of value especially in a market like India.  According to social baker Nike, MTV and Starbuck are the top brands in Indian on Instagram.  Ignitee social media head Nikhil Kharbanda says that many Indian brands prefer Instagram to Pinterest because of the former’s reach and subtle advertising option such as sponsored post/video. Though Instagram doesn’t release numbers according to many international news reports, the application has doubled its user base in the last one year.

     

    “The way ahead in creating effective communication on social media is to bet high on image marketing. It can be noted that currently, Indian brands are interestingly using Instagram in their digital media mix but I am positive that with platforms such as Pinterest introducing affordable advertising options, there will be much more action seen from brands in this space,” adds Kharbanda.

     

    Whether Pinterest will be able to make a dent on Instagram’s popularity with Indian brands, only time will tell…

  • “Use of social media is good when it adds value to communication strategy”

    “Use of social media is good when it adds value to communication strategy”

    MUMBAI: Social-mobile-video marketing is an area waiting to be explored, at least in the Indian context. However, players like Digital Quotient – which already has a presence in the field with over 70 staff across key locations in India – will continue to enjoy a first movers’ advantage over those who come after them.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Priyanka Nair got Digital Quotient COO Vinish Kathuria to speak at length about the changing digital ecosystem, social media and everything in between…

     

    How have the demands of marketers from the digital platform changed in recent years?

     

    The Indian digital ecosystem is changing positively over the last decade. Marketers are trying their level best to catch up with consumers’ needs in the digital world. Today, digital is a must-have media vehicle. Gone are the days when we were asked, “What can be done on digital?” The need of the hour is how to take communication to the next level on digital. Tangible and controlled experiments are what brands expect from digital agencies today.

     

    With changing consumer demographics, it is necessary for digital agencies to have a clear idea of the business objectives of various brands. At Digital Quotient, we look at campaigning for a brand from a very strategic point of view. I think that should be the approach taken by agencies today.

     

    How is social media gaining importance in a marketer’s communication plans? Are the brands getting it right in terms of social media?

     

    It can be noted that every brand wants to have a social media presence. While some brands are getting it right in terms of social media, many others need to revise their approach. The first thing that brands should stop doing is racing towards fetching more likes. The question that brands which are looking for business should ask themselves more often is: “Does it add any value to the communication strategy?”

     

    Brands should understand that on social media, timeliness is of the utmost importance. A social media user has a different mindset. Brands should ensure a strategy whereby consumers are not left with stale or outdated content. Engagement mechanism is a must for social media branding. On the other hand, there are many brands which are using social media purely for post consumer service. This is an interesting move. Social media is now definitely a medium that cannot be ignored but it is up to brands how they shape up strategies that are worthy of attention.

     

    What are the key things that brands should keep in mind to build a healthy social media conversation? 

     

    It is just like any other marketing medium that needs to be accepted first. Though social media is largely technology-driven, it is emotional connect and remembrance that matters for consumers. It can be observed that content is taking different shifts over the years. From text-heavy content, brands are today looking at making a splash on social media through videos and pictures. Humanising content is what makes any social media conversation healthy.

     

    Mobile has still not been leveraged to the best of its capabilities by Indian brands. What is your observation on this?

     

    Earlier, conversations were very telephone-led but today, marketers are jumping into the mobile fray. It is for reach that marketers are looking at mobile as a communication platform. Brands need to take a cue from how global marketers are looking at social and mobile integration. There is much learning that comes from there, which is noteworthy. One thing is clear with the current numbers: India will soon lead the charts when it comes to mobile reach.

     

    Brands are betting big on video in digital campaigning. How can brands further optimise the use of video?

     

    There are many brands that roll out TVCs on social media. TVC is the easiest replication that a brand can do but clearly, it is not an ideal one. That is what brands are getting wrong when it comes to video. It is very important that brands create videos that are shareable. Brands need to start using different formats such as Vine or Instagram. Content curation is something that brands are leveraging on while creating videos.

     

    Do brands understand the power of big data?

     

    Understanding big data needs different skill sets. It is relatively new to decode for many professionals. Numbers driven from big data are fascinating and are like an asset that marketers can put to use. Time will help marketers discover the power of big data. 

  • Digital Quotient appoints new sales head

    Digital Quotient appoints new sales head

    MUMBAI: The data driven social & mobile marketing firm, Digital Quotient, has announced the addition of Bhaskar Singh to its team.

     

    The move is in line with Digital Quotient’s aggressive move into arena of data analytics and audience marketing to provide holistic solutions to its wide customer base. Singh joins the agency as sales head for their audience marketing platform.

     

    At his current role, Singh will be heading nationwide sales strategy and revenue generation for Digital Quotient with a focus on business development, establishing contacts and creating growth opportunities.

     

    Digital Quotient digital marketing head Santosh Kumar said, “We are committed to bringing the best practices and values from the industry through creativity, technology and analytics. Our Audience Marketing platform is a key division that helps our clients to reach right target audience by mapping intent, behavior and relevance and provide effective insights in digital media buying. Mr. Singh brings sound knowledge and experience of selling digital solutions to clients which will add more value to our vision and growth.”

     

    Prior to joining Digital Quotient, Singh worked with Tribal Fusion, now known as Exponential as the interim national sales director where he was responsible for heading & managing national advertising sales. He also handled online sales for leading regional news media group Malayala Manorama, and has also worked with Infomedia India.

     

     “I am looking forward to this great opportunity of working with Digital Quotient. The energy and passion of the team here is infectious and I confident that together we will be able to deliver the best solutions to clients nationwide,” commented Singh.”