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Tag: IAMAI

  • Yatra.com launches ‘light weight app’ Yatra Mini

    Yatra.com launches ‘light weight app’ Yatra Mini

    MUMBAI: Yatra.com has launched a new mobile application, Yatra Mini, targetting value seeking travellers featuring bus, train and budget hotel bookings. The key feature of the app is that it is extremely lightweight at only approx. 4.5 MB and is fast loading even in poor network areas.

    The app is built to cater even to lower end android phones and is supported by Android 4 & above. The other features include multi-lingual travel app in Hindi & English with more regional languages such as Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu being added very soon to cater to the non-English audiences across the country.

    As per a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India has 402 million Internet users as of December 2015, thereby overtaking the US in total Internet users. A lot of this growth has come from rural India which has witnessed a 99 percent surge in mobile internet users and now has over 80 million users. the most exciting news in this rural India growth story is the demography: 75 percent of Internet users from rural India are in the age group of 18-30 years and Yatra.com is looking to catch them early in their journey of online travel bookings with the Yatra Mini application.

    Yatra.com president Sharat Dhall said, “Yatra is very focused on the needs of the Indian traveller and in this case, we have identified a clear gap in the market with no one catering to a very large and rapidly growing segment of mobile users, who access the internet using their entry level smartphones, and are seeking an app that enables them to make their bookings speedily and does not occupy much memory space. By offering this app in regional languages, we are also tapping into the non-English traveller who is looking to shift to the convenience of online booking. We also researched the needs of this traveller and based on the findings, limited the product offerings to bus, train and budget hotel bookings so that the app is sharply focused on the needs of this segment.”

    While India is witnessing a massive rise in smartphone user base, connectivity continues to be a serious limitation for easy usage of internet services. Keeping that in mind Yatra.com claims to have designed the Yatra Mini to work well in poor network and use very little data. It comprises of easy to configure components and can be changed/modified without an app release thus further reducing the data usage.

    To make the app user friendly, Yatra Mini offers help to travellers to view their upcoming, completed and cancelled trips .All details of trips will be available like journey date, passenger details, bus operator details, boarding point details, cancellation policy, fare & payment details etc. The app provides flexible cancellation options for bus and train tickets. There are ooptions to resend e-tickets on email and SMS and options to contact the Yatra Helpdesk as well.

    Apart from all the above features, Yatra is launching the app with lucrative loyalty offers like option to use earned eCash on trains and bus bookings.

     For Train Bookings eCash redemption is 10 percent of booking value

     For Bus Bookings eCash redemption is 5 percent of booking value

    Also to enable users to share the app with their friends and motivate them to use the app, Yatra is offering ‘refer and earn’ options wherein users can refer their friends and earn 1000 eCash. The friend being referred will also earn 1500 eCash to use on their bookings.

  • Yatra.com launches ‘light weight app’ Yatra Mini

    Yatra.com launches ‘light weight app’ Yatra Mini

    MUMBAI: Yatra.com has launched a new mobile application, Yatra Mini, targetting value seeking travellers featuring bus, train and budget hotel bookings. The key feature of the app is that it is extremely lightweight at only approx. 4.5 MB and is fast loading even in poor network areas.

    The app is built to cater even to lower end android phones and is supported by Android 4 & above. The other features include multi-lingual travel app in Hindi & English with more regional languages such as Tamil, Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu being added very soon to cater to the non-English audiences across the country.

    As per a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), India has 402 million Internet users as of December 2015, thereby overtaking the US in total Internet users. A lot of this growth has come from rural India which has witnessed a 99 percent surge in mobile internet users and now has over 80 million users. the most exciting news in this rural India growth story is the demography: 75 percent of Internet users from rural India are in the age group of 18-30 years and Yatra.com is looking to catch them early in their journey of online travel bookings with the Yatra Mini application.

    Yatra.com president Sharat Dhall said, “Yatra is very focused on the needs of the Indian traveller and in this case, we have identified a clear gap in the market with no one catering to a very large and rapidly growing segment of mobile users, who access the internet using their entry level smartphones, and are seeking an app that enables them to make their bookings speedily and does not occupy much memory space. By offering this app in regional languages, we are also tapping into the non-English traveller who is looking to shift to the convenience of online booking. We also researched the needs of this traveller and based on the findings, limited the product offerings to bus, train and budget hotel bookings so that the app is sharply focused on the needs of this segment.”

    While India is witnessing a massive rise in smartphone user base, connectivity continues to be a serious limitation for easy usage of internet services. Keeping that in mind Yatra.com claims to have designed the Yatra Mini to work well in poor network and use very little data. It comprises of easy to configure components and can be changed/modified without an app release thus further reducing the data usage.

    To make the app user friendly, Yatra Mini offers help to travellers to view their upcoming, completed and cancelled trips .All details of trips will be available like journey date, passenger details, bus operator details, boarding point details, cancellation policy, fare & payment details etc. The app provides flexible cancellation options for bus and train tickets. There are ooptions to resend e-tickets on email and SMS and options to contact the Yatra Helpdesk as well.

    Apart from all the above features, Yatra is launching the app with lucrative loyalty offers like option to use earned eCash on trains and bus bookings.

     For Train Bookings eCash redemption is 10 percent of booking value

     For Bus Bookings eCash redemption is 5 percent of booking value

    Also to enable users to share the app with their friends and motivate them to use the app, Yatra is offering ‘refer and earn’ options wherein users can refer their friends and earn 1000 eCash. The friend being referred will also earn 1500 eCash to use on their bookings.

  • Measuring ROI is the biggest challenge: Digital Marketing Industry Report 2016

    Measuring ROI is the biggest challenge: Digital Marketing Industry Report 2016

    MUMBAI: According to the Digital Marketing Industry Report 2016 released by Social Beat, 87 per cent brands leverage digital and 38 per cent of them allocate a third of its budget to digital marketing. The reason why the later figure is low is probably due to inability of the medium to take accountability for the brands.

    Tracking Return on Investment (ROI) is the biggest challenge being faced by brands, closely followed by content creation, quality lead generation and attracting talent. Currently, CMOs are using Sales / Leads, Engagement, Brand Reach and Mentions as the metrics to track the effectiveness of their campaigns.

    The report is the result of a survey sampled across 376 CMOs and Marketing Heads in India. The companies that participated in the study were from various sectors and verticals including e-Commerce, FMCG, Media/Entertainment, healthcare, education, real estate, and travel.

    Most of the respondents said they focus on Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Content Marketing and Emailers for marketing their brand online. Not surprisingly, Facebook (89%) and Google (78%) have emerged as the most popular platforms followed by Twitter (56%) and LinkedIn (51%).

    Penetration of smartphones, faster internet connectivity and interesting video content have resulted in 51% brands targeting YouTube for marketing their brand. It would be interesting to track the growth of newer channels like Instagram and Snapchat in India for brand marketing in the near future.

    Speaking on the report, Social Beat Co-Founder Vikas Chawla said “The report highlights the rise of digital marketing, though brands continue to use television and print mediums to have a 360-degree approach. It was encouraging to see that 87% of the brands surveyed leverage digital marketing. While brand awareness and lead generation/sales seem to be the primary goals set by the CMOs, digital marketing is increasingly being leveraged for Customer Engagement (46%) and customer service (35) too.”

    The responses from the survey indicate that digital marketing spends are about one-third of the total marketing spends. The results here are considerably different from the IAMAI – IMRB International Report which pegs the digital spends at 12% of the total marketing spends.

    Speaking about the survey, Social Beat cofounder Suneil Chawla said, “Around 10% brands surveyed spend more than Rs. 1 crore annually on digital marketing while around 50% brands spend more than Rs. 6 Lakhs annually. Overall, 20% brands plan to increase their digital marketing spends by 25% in the next financial year. This is important in the context of growing internet and digital penetration in India – brands understand that digital is the way forward. With an expected 500 million internet users in India by 2017, brands understand the massive opportunity to reach out to their consumers.”

  • Measuring ROI is the biggest challenge: Digital Marketing Industry Report 2016

    Measuring ROI is the biggest challenge: Digital Marketing Industry Report 2016

    MUMBAI: According to the Digital Marketing Industry Report 2016 released by Social Beat, 87 per cent brands leverage digital and 38 per cent of them allocate a third of its budget to digital marketing. The reason why the later figure is low is probably due to inability of the medium to take accountability for the brands.

    Tracking Return on Investment (ROI) is the biggest challenge being faced by brands, closely followed by content creation, quality lead generation and attracting talent. Currently, CMOs are using Sales / Leads, Engagement, Brand Reach and Mentions as the metrics to track the effectiveness of their campaigns.

    The report is the result of a survey sampled across 376 CMOs and Marketing Heads in India. The companies that participated in the study were from various sectors and verticals including e-Commerce, FMCG, Media/Entertainment, healthcare, education, real estate, and travel.

    Most of the respondents said they focus on Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Content Marketing and Emailers for marketing their brand online. Not surprisingly, Facebook (89%) and Google (78%) have emerged as the most popular platforms followed by Twitter (56%) and LinkedIn (51%).

    Penetration of smartphones, faster internet connectivity and interesting video content have resulted in 51% brands targeting YouTube for marketing their brand. It would be interesting to track the growth of newer channels like Instagram and Snapchat in India for brand marketing in the near future.

    Speaking on the report, Social Beat Co-Founder Vikas Chawla said “The report highlights the rise of digital marketing, though brands continue to use television and print mediums to have a 360-degree approach. It was encouraging to see that 87% of the brands surveyed leverage digital marketing. While brand awareness and lead generation/sales seem to be the primary goals set by the CMOs, digital marketing is increasingly being leveraged for Customer Engagement (46%) and customer service (35) too.”

    The responses from the survey indicate that digital marketing spends are about one-third of the total marketing spends. The results here are considerably different from the IAMAI – IMRB International Report which pegs the digital spends at 12% of the total marketing spends.

    Speaking about the survey, Social Beat cofounder Suneil Chawla said, “Around 10% brands surveyed spend more than Rs. 1 crore annually on digital marketing while around 50% brands spend more than Rs. 6 Lakhs annually. Overall, 20% brands plan to increase their digital marketing spends by 25% in the next financial year. This is important in the context of growing internet and digital penetration in India – brands understand that digital is the way forward. With an expected 500 million internet users in India by 2017, brands understand the massive opportunity to reach out to their consumers.”

  • Indian digital ad spends to touch Rs 7,044 crore: IAMAI-IMRB report

    Indian digital ad spends to touch Rs 7,044 crore: IAMAI-IMRB report

    MUMBAI: Fuelled by the smartphone explosion and bandwidth growth to consume digital video content in the country, the digital advertising market in India is projected to reach Rs 7,044 crores by December 2016  growing at a CAGR of 35 percent as per the ‘Digital Advertising in India’ report, which is jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.  The digital advertising market was estimated at Rs 5,200 crores by the end of December 2015 according to earlier reports.

    The report finds that digital advertising spend is about 12 per cent of the total advertising spends in the country.  In terms of volume, e-Commerce palyers lead the digital ad spends with Rs 1,040 crores, followed by Telecom and BFSI. However, a comparison of these verticals in terms of share of spends on Traditional versus Digital show that BFSI organizations incurred the highest share on digital advertisement spends. 40 percent of their overall advertising spends was on Digital followed by e-Commerce, Telecom and Travel.

    In 2014, search ads constituted 30 per cent of the overall ad spends followed by Display ads at 23 per cent and Social Media at 18 per cent. The report finds that Search continued to lead in 2015 with spends close to Rs 1,488 crores. Social Media spend was close to Rs 940 crores. Spend on video ads such as YouTube also showed huge gains in 2015 and accounted for 17 percent of the overall ad spends in the digital space. This has been driven by higher Internet speeds available to the consumers coupled with an increase in mobile advertisements. As these trends continue, video advertisement is expected to gain further in 2016.

    It isn’t just IAMAI that has high hopes on the rapidly growing digital advertising spends in the Indian market. It must be noted that the earlier released FICCI KPMG report pegged Digital Advertising at Rs 8,110 crores by the end of 2016 growing at a CAGR of 33.5 per cent, the highest growing medium of all. The report also suggested that the evident shift would be towards mobile and video advertising backed by the opening up of bandwidth in the country by 2020. The report estimated that by 2020 digital advertising will touch Rs 255.2 billion (Rs 25,520 crore) and contribute 25.7 percent of the total advertising revenue.

  • Indian digital ad spends to touch Rs 7,044 crore: IAMAI-IMRB report

    Indian digital ad spends to touch Rs 7,044 crore: IAMAI-IMRB report

    MUMBAI: Fuelled by the smartphone explosion and bandwidth growth to consume digital video content in the country, the digital advertising market in India is projected to reach Rs 7,044 crores by December 2016  growing at a CAGR of 35 percent as per the ‘Digital Advertising in India’ report, which is jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International.  The digital advertising market was estimated at Rs 5,200 crores by the end of December 2015 according to earlier reports.

    The report finds that digital advertising spend is about 12 per cent of the total advertising spends in the country.  In terms of volume, e-Commerce palyers lead the digital ad spends with Rs 1,040 crores, followed by Telecom and BFSI. However, a comparison of these verticals in terms of share of spends on Traditional versus Digital show that BFSI organizations incurred the highest share on digital advertisement spends. 40 percent of their overall advertising spends was on Digital followed by e-Commerce, Telecom and Travel.

    In 2014, search ads constituted 30 per cent of the overall ad spends followed by Display ads at 23 per cent and Social Media at 18 per cent. The report finds that Search continued to lead in 2015 with spends close to Rs 1,488 crores. Social Media spend was close to Rs 940 crores. Spend on video ads such as YouTube also showed huge gains in 2015 and accounted for 17 percent of the overall ad spends in the digital space. This has been driven by higher Internet speeds available to the consumers coupled with an increase in mobile advertisements. As these trends continue, video advertisement is expected to gain further in 2016.

    It isn’t just IAMAI that has high hopes on the rapidly growing digital advertising spends in the Indian market. It must be noted that the earlier released FICCI KPMG report pegged Digital Advertising at Rs 8,110 crores by the end of 2016 growing at a CAGR of 33.5 per cent, the highest growing medium of all. The report also suggested that the evident shift would be towards mobile and video advertising backed by the opening up of bandwidth in the country by 2020. The report estimated that by 2020 digital advertising will touch Rs 255.2 billion (Rs 25,520 crore) and contribute 25.7 percent of the total advertising revenue.

  • PepsiCo spends 15- 20% of its marketing budget on digital: D. Shivakumar

    PepsiCo spends 15- 20% of its marketing budget on digital: D. Shivakumar

    MUMBAI: Emphasizing on the importance of the digital medium, PepsiCo India  chairman and CEO D. Shivkumar said that 15 per cent to 20 per cent of all marketing spends of PepsiCo are on digital. He also added that RS 35 lakhs per month should be the bare minimum digital spend by a Pepsi brand while addressing a conference session at 12th Marketing Conclave, organized by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in Mumbai.

    Breaking the maths down further, Shivkumar explianed that if the marketing budget of a brand for the year is about Rs 10 crore then, the brand should spend Rs 35 lakh every month on digital which is about Rs 5 crore for the year.

    He also  added that if  one wants reach and result, then digital will give them the same provided brands are patient for the big return and not invest meagerly for short returns. 

    Reiterating the importance of mobile, Shivkumar added, “In a nation of 1.2 billion people, millions of people have smart phones and a lot of them have internet. Over 50 percent of search, shopping, travel and YouTube streaming happens on mobile. Not only that, e-commerce has seen the rise of categories which never could have reached the consumers without the online platform. Luxury brands, vegetables, innovators and a lot of categories today reach the consumer through online. “

    Advising  marketers to understand the pulse of the consumers of both the genders  Shivkumar said,“Today the consumer is King, Queen and has a voice.”

  • PepsiCo spends 15- 20% of its marketing budget on digital: D. Shivakumar

    PepsiCo spends 15- 20% of its marketing budget on digital: D. Shivakumar

    MUMBAI: Emphasizing on the importance of the digital medium, PepsiCo India  chairman and CEO D. Shivkumar said that 15 per cent to 20 per cent of all marketing spends of PepsiCo are on digital. He also added that RS 35 lakhs per month should be the bare minimum digital spend by a Pepsi brand while addressing a conference session at 12th Marketing Conclave, organized by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in Mumbai.

    Breaking the maths down further, Shivkumar explianed that if the marketing budget of a brand for the year is about Rs 10 crore then, the brand should spend Rs 35 lakh every month on digital which is about Rs 5 crore for the year.

    He also  added that if  one wants reach and result, then digital will give them the same provided brands are patient for the big return and not invest meagerly for short returns. 

    Reiterating the importance of mobile, Shivkumar added, “In a nation of 1.2 billion people, millions of people have smart phones and a lot of them have internet. Over 50 percent of search, shopping, travel and YouTube streaming happens on mobile. Not only that, e-commerce has seen the rise of categories which never could have reached the consumers without the online platform. Luxury brands, vegetables, innovators and a lot of categories today reach the consumer through online. “

    Advising  marketers to understand the pulse of the consumers of both the genders  Shivkumar said,“Today the consumer is King, Queen and has a voice.”

  • PayTM’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma to chair IAMAI Payments Banks Group

    PayTM’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma to chair IAMAI Payments Banks Group

    Mumbai: PayTM founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will chair the newly formed Payments Banks Group at the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) while Vodafone India business head (M-Pesa) Suresh Sethi will be the vice-chairman of the group.

    Commenting on the development, Sharma said, “Payments Banks is an innovative model of bringing unbanked population into the formal banking fold. PayTM along with other license holders, would make financial services accessible for every Indian through this innovative route.”

    Currently, 6 out of the 10 payments banks’ primary licensees are IAMAI members. According to President Subho Ray, “the other 4 primary licensees have in principal agreed to join when they are in operation.”

    In addition, IAMAI has more than 50 companies representing PPIs, Wallets, Aggregators, Business Correspondents, and PoS Operators among others as members.

     

  • PayTM’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma to chair IAMAI Payments Banks Group

    PayTM’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma to chair IAMAI Payments Banks Group

    Mumbai: PayTM founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will chair the newly formed Payments Banks Group at the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) while Vodafone India business head (M-Pesa) Suresh Sethi will be the vice-chairman of the group.

    Commenting on the development, Sharma said, “Payments Banks is an innovative model of bringing unbanked population into the formal banking fold. PayTM along with other license holders, would make financial services accessible for every Indian through this innovative route.”

    Currently, 6 out of the 10 payments banks’ primary licensees are IAMAI members. According to President Subho Ray, “the other 4 primary licensees have in principal agreed to join when they are in operation.”

    In addition, IAMAI has more than 50 companies representing PPIs, Wallets, Aggregators, Business Correspondents, and PoS Operators among others as members.