Posted by Adheeth On March - 28 - 2011ADD COMMENTS
A consortium of Times Internet Limited (TIL) and Nimbus Communication Limited (Nimbus)has acquired the Indian Premier League global Internet, mobile and audio rights, along with television rights in specific territories outside India for the next 4 years. The consortium bagged the rights on Sunday at the bidding venue at Chennai after submitting a winning bid of Rs.261.6 crores.
The acquisition of digital rights by TIL will take IPL viewing to Level 2 by offering interactive TV-like experience on the net.
Posted by Adheeth On March - 28 - 2011ADD COMMENTS
Anil Ambani led Reliance Broadcast Network (RBNL) announced its foray into the regional television space with the launch of its Hindi entertainment channel Big Magic. Official Launch of Big Magic TV will take place on April 4th.
Big Magic, which will feature locally relevant entertainment around humour, music and Bollywood. RBNL already runs two English entertainment channels — Big CBS Prime and Big CBS Love.
The Hindi heartland comprises of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar which accounts for 13% of the national advertising spend (which is Rs 23,000 crore) and represents 30% of India’s population.The TV spend attributable to the region (UP, MP and Bihar) is Rs 1,200 crore, with national TV channels currently garnering around Rs 1,050 crore of this amount, the statement said.
Big Magic will be distributed across all cable operators across these states. The channel will be supported with a high decibel marketing plan including outdoor, mall activation, play-out seeding in malls, radio, print and local cable, it added.
Posted by Adheeth On March - 24 - 2011ADD COMMENTS
The Indian government now has the super power to switch off internet. They have the power to switch off during times of national emergency to
Protect Sovereignty and Integrity
Defense
Security of its States
For Public Order
This has been incorporated as a provision in the IT Act of 2008. India presently has 70 million internet users and it’s growing at the rate of 25% per year (read Mobile only internet in India).
It’s good to have a provision like this in the IT Act, as now with millions of internet users and user generated news from social media websites like twitter spreading rumors ( Abdul Kalam Death Rumour in Twitter) creating panic, confusion and tension, during times of emergency a switch off is definitely necessary. The only thing is the respective Political Parties in Power should not misuse this provision to stop the free flow of information against corrupt governments and other protests which are democratic in nature. I do not support a complete shutdown, ppl still should be given access to necessary internet services like newspaper websites, mail etc. There should be provision to stop sending bulk emails and SMS.
You can also see a Infographic here as to how the Egypt Government Killed the Internet during the People Uprising which ulimately led to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak
Posted by Adheeth On March - 17 - 2011ADD COMMENTS
Mobile Internet users in India is increasing everyday. Opera Software and On Device Research recently conducted a device agnostic survey to find out the pattern of mobile internet usage/reasons in India and the Online survey automatically identifies device and carrier.
Top Findings of th Survey
The respondents was asked the questions why do you use mobile internet instead of PC internet. 41% of the respondents mobile phone was the only way to access the internet. It’s not clear exactly these users are urban or rural or the profession of the respondents. Its a clear indication that the websites now should develop mobile version of it in order to cater to a large market of Mobile Internet users.
The Primary activity the mobile internet generation in India engage in are for Social Networking, Checking emails and for searching. Phone loaded with applications for Facebook, twitter etc may be the reason for the increase in usage of the mobile internet as respondents mentioned that its easier to use than a computer. Indian internet users are also sensitive to pricing.
Demographics of Mobile Internet Users in India
Indian mobile users are young and is heavily male dominated. 77% of the respondents where less than 35 years of age.
The Survey undertaken by Trust Research Advisory (TRA), titled The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2011 has put Nokia has the most trusted brand in India. It is followed by Tata.
The survey that also included personalities as brands and it puts Sachin Tendulkar at 59th position ahead of Mahatma Gandhi.
Top 5 trusted Brands in India
Nokia
Tata
Sony
LG
Samsung
Intersting personalities in the list are Aamir Khan at 242. Cola Giants Pepsi is at 36th position while Coke is at 60th position.The survey is based on responses and views on 16,000 brands from 2,310 participants across nine top cities in India.
Indian Hotels Company alias TAJ Hotels and resorts has come up with a new brand Vivanta to fit in the upper upscale segment thus brining a multi brand portfolio. Vivanta has three new hotels in Bangalore, Goa and Maldives along with 16 old properties in India and Srilanka. Vivanta by TAJ would be 20 % cheaper than TAJ in the same city.
Vivanta’s main target would be young travellers and the sophisticated. It has also made its presence in Social Media with facebook and twitter accounts. It also has a youtube account with viral video of the Brand launch of Vivanta Whitefield Bangalore.
The Website of Vivanta by Taj : www.vivantabytaj.com
The Domain name has ensured that vivanta carry forward the TAJ brand image. All the social media handlers of vivanta are following this model by using taj along with Vivanta. It may be due to unavailability as vivanta.com is already taken in 2004 and is a parked domain. The name vivantabytaj would ensure that TAJ reserve all handlers and also get people aware that its a TAJ Brand which is positioned near to luxury. Vivantabytaj.com has a pretty appealing web design with ease of navigation. The reservation process is simple and easy and the site has social media buttons and also has included digital media campaign posters in the website.
Here is a Print media poster of Vivanta by TAJ
The Facebook Page of Vivanta by TAJ
Facebook Page has 3 status updates everyday. Status updates try to engage users but the interaction level is not high and the number of fans stand at 1098 (on 11/10/10). Vivanta has tried to increase interactions by offering a contest (facebook app) “A day in the life of” which lets users enter cocktail recipes, post photos or paintings.
The Twitter Page of Vivanta by TAJ
The twitter page has been designed considering the new twitter layout and they have around 82 followers and the brand is following around 154 people and has 145 tweets [as of 11/10/10].
Posted by Adheeth On September - 24 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Internet and Mobile association of India has released stats regarding the internet penetration in Rural India. From a Digital Marketers point of view there numbers come in handy as most of the brands are shifting their focus to rural india.
The research shows that there is high level of ignorance about internet in Rural India and the graph below shows the various reasons for not using the internet in rural india.
The rural India does not have gadgets to access internet and their main access points of internet being internet cafe’s, home, schools, colleges,offices, computer institutes and block tehsil offices. The Indian governments initiatives of $35 computer to school children and leasing computers for Rs 15/day to bring in lot of awareness and penetration of internet into rural India.
It is estimated that there would be 5.4 million Internet users in rural India by 2010.
Posted by Adheeth On September - 21 - 20101 COMMENT
Today(Sept 21st 2010) Times of India and Hindu Newspapers generated some fear, anxiety, amusement etc as People started opening their newspapers. A strange sound started coming, some people where searching for the source of the sound while others just got scared. Volkswagen India has started a new media innovation with Talking newspaper advertisements. The back page of the newspaper carried an advertisement of their new luxury sedan, Vento. The Back page ad on the side was fitted with a black box which when light falls on it starts speaking about the car.
The Black box was considered as ”BOMB” by some readers and they threw the paper out,while others just played around with the newspaper.
What would be the cost?
The estimated cost of this ad is around 6 Crore (source) considering that the black box costs around Rs 5 and the ad was targeted on 25 lakh readers of Times of India and Hindu put together. But a quick calculation says that it would be anywhere between 10 to 12 crores.
Agency: MediaCom
Its quite pretty unsure why Volkswagen wanted to do a mass marketing like this for a Luxury segment car.
Reasons can be
To create Brand Awareness and to enter into all segments in the coming years.
Mass Marketing, Even 1 % conversion would mean recovering the cost
Global Player – 6 crores is not big money!!
The Media hype this sort of advertisement would generate online and offline, the number of conversations online(blogs,tweets etc)
and finally here is the Advertisement and the videos of the newspaper. Watch the video of the newspaper here
Indian mobile users are young and is heavily male dominated. 77% of the respondents where less than 35 years of age.
