Day 2 of IAMAI - Digital Summit 2006 in Mumbai

After a well spent day with Internet and Mobile luminaries on Day 1 of IAMAI - Digital Summit, Day 2 too was packed with exciting speakers with exciting content.

Following were the key highlights of Day 2

Session 1: Integrating Online into the Traditional Media Mix:

Online marketing has evolved in the US, which earns 50 percent of its revenue from online advertisements and sales. India, in comparison is yet to tap the opportunities available on online advertising and marketing. India is a very young country, and the marketers will have to tap the youth market to promote online advertising. There is a need for adequate broadband to help the online advertising industry grow, panelists of this session unanimously felt.

As president of IAMAI Preeti Desai put it, "The revenue earned from online advertisements in India is less than one percent. There is a classified market of 1,800 crores here, we will just have to search it."

Digital ads are interactive, enable meeting of minds, enable immediate feedback (through reply e-mails, smses) and offer an opportunity for interaction. Says, Rohit Mull, V.P. Marketing, Tata AIG, "We have to extend the benefits of online medium to the traditional media. But at the same time, is there enough integration between mobile and net plans?"

Penetration of digital products is the highest amongst youth. 61.2% Indians are below 30 years and 50 percent are below 25 years. 22 percent of the advertisement products cater to the youth and 59 percent of the advertisements are youth oriented. Said Raj Gupta, President, Insight, "We need to have media for youth and develop a youth culture as the youth spends maximum time surfing the net. Although, reaching the youth is 26 percent more expensive." Focusing on the need to integrate online with the traditional, he said that 70 percent TV viewing population avoid ads. The avoidance is less online and much lowers on the SMS.

Pearl Uppal, Director Sales, Yahoo India, says, "The web is penetrating the social and business fabric of our lives. It has made brand management and brand engagement possible. Also, sales conversions and people to people interactions are easy to measure".

Highlighting the glaring difference between online and traditional media was the chief executive of NDTV Media Limited, Raj Nayak. He pointed out people find online media more complicated. "There is a lot of mystery behind the internet. The herd mentality of on-line advertisers need to be changed," he said. Drawing comparison between ad revenues earned by the traditional media and the online medium, he said, "Though 3.8 crore people surf the net, online media has been able to attract only 100 advertisers and generate ad revue estimated at Rs 120 crore. TV, on the other hand has 5,000 advertisers."

Session 2: Myths of Mobile Marketing—Is mobile marketing really effective?

Marketing the online or via mobile phones is the basic component to develop a personal relation between the target group (TG) and the brand. This session presided by Sandy Agarwal, Managing Director - Asia Pacific, Enpocket and Krishna Durbha, Head Business & Marketing VAS, Reliance Infocom Ltd focused on the growing opportunity of Mobile Marketing in India and how leading companies across all sectors are adopting this medium that has the lowest ad spends with a greater reach and better effectiveness. Mr. Agarwal said that online marketing has the fastest growth than any other medium. Krishna Durbha suggested that users should be engaged by constant innovations in the services. Product launches, advertorials, opinion polls have gained tremendous response via these media, he said.

Session 3: Delivering Digitally

How feasible is the digital media for the marketers and how responsive is the audience to the ads displayed on the net, or flashed through the SMS? This session delved on the issue and discussions were held from the nature of content to the advantages of using the digital media, to the leads to be provided, objectives to be set, etc. One of the major challenges in this category according to Mr. Sudhir Nair, associate vice president, Grey Interactive is that the marketers and the advertisers have set very high standards for themselves. He rationalized the issue saying, "For different categories, there are different benchmarks."
Lloyd Mathias, Marketing Director, Motorola, felt that the digital medium should not be used as a built up to the traditional medium. He said, "As the reach of the digital media spreads, marketers will have to wake upto the reality and invest more on talent that will think online."
One of the methods to keep a consumer hooked to the product online as suggested by Naren Chandra, Head of Marketing, International Banking, ICICI was to constantly change the display and content of the product advertised. He said, "People get bored seeing online ads."
Samsung CDMA, marketing head, Dinesh Sharma, opined that dealers and distributors should be involved in the process. A positive of using the digital media was driven home with an example. Mr. Sharma informed, "A company can give its potential customer a virtual experience of using the product, before the s/he actually buys it."
Kedar Sohoni, Director, Cross-tab focused on the need to encourage online research in India, as he pointed out that 50 percent of quantitative research in the US is done online.

Session 4: Future of Search Experience

Search Engines are constantly making advances to understand and deliver, credible and relevant matches to what the user wants. Talking about the future of search experience, Dr Ram Prasad, CTO, Yahoo India said, "Deep content with structure mining, efficient updates, social networking and a through understanding of the user behavior, will aid in overcoming the challenges."

Session 5: Why is Search so Hot?

Search allows a company to locate its customer. 1.1billion people search information on the net per month. India is the world center for search after the U.S. and the U.K. A search allows an individual to decide whether a venture is worth taking off or not. COO, Mediaturf.com, Ratish Nair, puts it, "Search provides best ROI on media, spent across a number of categories, because it is performance based. A customer decides how much he wants to pay for the product and also the cost conversion is better than banner conversion here."

Session 6: The long Term Market: Impact of the Echo Generation

Generation next will determine the future of the online market in India. It is these young men and women who surf the net regularly, flash swanky mobile phones and are more knowledgeable about the use of these gadgets and their applications then what their parents know. The challenge faced by online marketers is to invite and retain the young customers; offering them a bouquet of options to chose from.
Amitabh Srivastava, CEO, GroupM South Asia said that with the evolution of multi channels, concept stores are designed in such a manner so as to invite consumers to have a virtual experience of the product they are buy and then shop online."

The youth is well connected, well aware and because of inter connectivity is relatively influenced by its community and society. The youth is a part of the social fabric and has to be dealth with delicately and carefully. The new generation is connected in a different way-by-way of wireless and broadband. "The youth will control and determine what they want, and it should be hot, happening and big," said Mr Srivastava.

Session 7: Online Strategies for Customer Acquisition

Online experience, value proposition, delivery and retention are significant roles for customer acquisition. Follow-ups on applications, quick services, infrastructure to meet the requirements of the growing demands of the industry, information, innovative technology and quick delivery of the products ordered on line, are the key areas to acquire customer confidence. The synopsis of the session also included making a customer feel like a king.
Harsh Roongta, Founder and CEO Apnaloan.com said, "Online companies should be able to offer a customer delight programme. A customer should be kept informed of the status of his deal/application."
Times Internet Ltd., Sharat Dhall, Business head, Ecommerce, added, "We have to arouse the interest of the customer and hand hold new users. A customer should have easy navigability and the companies should offer address security concerns. The basic of any transaction is to keep things simple."
Mr Anaggh Desai, CEO, D'damas Jewellery (I) Pvt. Ltd. focused on the need to offer a feel good product to the customers.

For those interested detailed presentations are available on the IAMAI website