Trust in Social Media...

To some extent we all wish to know, "how much do consumers trust in social media?" Here are the findings:

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Online Video Reviews are Taking News Highs..

The unpacking of Velbon CX440. Can any ad be more effective than this??


Enjoy the Video...

Facebook: The Future God of Internet?

Imagine if you had a superpower that would allow you to peer into the future of the Internet? It's a pretty nerdy power compared to Spider-Man's web-slinging, but you could use this superhuman ability to see what would be popular soon, and in some instances, change the future.

Facebook actually has this power. Because it connects Facebook users to more than 9 million apps and services through Facebook Connect, the Open Graph developer platform, and the hundreds of millions of like buttons that perforate Web pages across the Internet, the company can see what people are using. Facebook is more tapped into the pulse of people online than any company on the planet.

As a result, Facebook has the inside track to what is becoming more popular in a way that its many competitors do not.

A person close to Facebook, speaking on the condition of anonymity because this is a delicate subject as the company prepares for its initial stock offering, explained that "Facebook is now understanding the type of information it has about what is successful online, or what is a potential threat to Facebook."

For example, the person said a number of the connections that occur through Facebook Connect, which allows people to port their identity from one service to another, allows Facebook to see the speed with which people are signing up for a new service. The same monitoring is applied to the type of content that is being sent to Facebook from other apps or sites.

When the company saw a staggering spike of Instagram photos flowing into Facebook, it knew it had to act quickly. It bought the photo service for $1 billion before Twitter or Google could make a move.

Facebook can also use its superpower to experiment with who wins and who loses online. This was evident on April 24 when Facebook started highlighting a number of apps, including Socialcam and Viddy, both new video-sharing services that had been growing modestly. Each had a few million users. Just one week after Facebook began highlighting these apps, Viddy and Socialcam had close to 20 million active users.

Michael Seibel, chief executive of Socialcam, said the Facebook changes had catapulted his company to one of the top 100 sites on the Internet. "Since then we've seen 10 times growth."

"Facebook has so much power online that they have the ability to buy something at a low price and then make it go high by directing traffic accordingly," said Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and a co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. "Sociologically, this is called the Matthew effect, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." (He notes that the term comes from a line in the Gospel of Matthew.) In other words, Facebook can create its future.

In a statement, the company said: "The popularity of videos and other user-generated content on Facebook is not new, so it's no surprise that social video apps are growing as friends share with each other and as more developers experiment with this type of content on Facebook."

Facebook may need to worry that competitors don't see evidence that it uses its power unfairly. Eric Talley, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said that although Facebook could be accused of market manipulation or anti-competitive practices, the company could defend itself by saying that others monitored the same data and that Facebook simply did the job better.

He said that Facebook might also have to worry that if it highlights content from companies it owns, it could face antitrust claims with the Doctrine of Tying. The federal government used this legal concept when it went after Microsoft for forcing its Web browser on customers who bought the Windows operating system.

One thing is certain. As Facebook grows more powerful, it will be reminded of the advice given to Spider-Man: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Courtesy: New York Times May 14, 2012

TRAI Slaps Tighter Rules for TVCs

Television channels will not be able to show advertisements for more than twelve minutes in an hour as per the latest regulations issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India today. 

In a statement, TRAI said as per the Standards of Quality of Service Regulations 2012, "The duration of advertisements in the TV channels is to be limited to 12 minutes per clock hour."

Any shortfall of advertisement duration in any clock hour cannot be carried over, the telecom regulator said.

TRAI has also specified in its statement that the minimum time gap between any two consecutive advertisement breaks should not be less than 15 minutes while in case of movies, this time gap should be a minimum of 30 minutes.

The conditions shall not apply in case of live broadcast of a sporting event, it said.

"The advertisements during live broadcast of a sporting event should be only during the breaks in the sporting action," the TRAI statement said.

To make the viewer's TV watching experience better TRAI has also specified that advertisements should be only full screen.

"Part-screen and drop-down advertisements would not be permitted," the statement said.

To remove the possibility of an advertiser trying to use a higher sound level to grab attention, TRAI has incorporated another prohibitory regulation.

"The audio level of the advertisements carried in TV channels not to be higher than the audio level of the programmes being broadcast in the channel," the statement said

ET, 14 MAY, 2012

Google Adds More Horsepower to Online Advertising Analytics

 

Wow, Google takes a further leap in online advertising analytics by adding new features like Google's Active View (tells whether if the ad is seen by the user, what percentage is viewed, and for how much time) and Active GRP (tells reach and frequency for a particular ad campaign, similar to television media.)  Not only this, the new feature which has made advertising more measurable will prove more rewarding for the advertisers. Google promises that it will bill the ads only when ad is at least 50 percent visible on the website and present at least for one second.

Google has dominated the market and has been like no other when it comes to online search and advertising. The company earlier also provided host of advertising planning and targeting tools with number of features including demographic, behavioral and geographic targeting. However, I feel the industry still has not adapted the prowess which online advertising provides. It needs to augment its understanding and benefit more from internet as an advertisement medium. 


Google and Facebook are constantly upgrading the advertising platform and providing more and more robust metrics to deliver online ads more effectively. However, shallow understanding of online advertising among large number of clients and agencies, and fixated mindset in the favor of traditional media, has not given online advertising the justified penny share. Thus, this opens up new opportunities for the younger generation with jobs abound.  


All I would say is, world is changing unwaveringly, will we able to catch it? If yes, world is yours.

P.S. I will post more on this topic in the time to come, for the time being, below is a small promo video from Google Analytics and an article on this from Afaqs. 

Google announces new metrics for online advertising

The search biggie has announced new tools to measure the effectiveness of online ads in an effort to entice marketers to adopt the digital medium.

For long, brands and marketers have struggled to measure the success of their campaigns or initiatives on various media, and digital advertising has not been much different. Clicks and impressions have for years ruled the roost as far as measuring the impact and reach of an online campaign is concerned. Google recently announced the launch of new metrics, which the internet giant calls an effort to persuade marketers to pump in more money from traditional advertising methods to the online medium.

According to Google, the initiative, called 'Brand Activate', aims to re-imagine online measurement for brand marketers and will build useful brand metrics into the tools that advertisers are already using to manage their campaigns. The launch was announced on the company's official blog by Neal Mohan, vice-president, display advertising, Google. As part of the launch, two new tools have been introduced - Active View and Active GRP.

Google's Active View solution measures whether the ad is seen by the user, the percentage of the ad that is viewed, and the duration of ad exposure. Google will only count the ad as 'viewed' if the advertisement is 'at least 50 per cent viewable on the screen for at least one second.'

Active GRP solution is similar to the Gross Rating Point metric used predominantly in the television industry. Active GRP will allow advertisers to quickly measure the effectiveness of a campaign and adjust accordingly. It will focus on providing information related to the reach and frequency of the digital campaign.

This tool has two key features. First, it is built right into the ad serving tools that the publishers and marketers already use every day. It will enable real-time decision making, allowing advertisers to make adjustments to their campaigns at the speed of the web. Secondly, it has a robust methodology, as it is calculated by a statistical model that combines aggregated panel data and anonymous user data (either inferred or user-provided), and will work in conjunction with Active View to measure viewed impressions.

According to Google, this approach overcomes problems of potential panel skewing and reliance on a single data source. It also has the advantage of never using personally identifiable information, not sharing user data with third parties, and enabling users, through Google's Ads Preferences Manager, to opt-out.

Adoption of online medium

These tools have been launched by Google with the aim to drive the adoption of the online medium as the preferred choice for advertising by brands and marketers. According to many digital marketers and connoisseurs, the medium has always attracted a step-brotherly treatment as compared to traditional modes of advertising. The paltry marketing budget allotted to the medium is a reflection of the trust marketers have on the medium to spread the word about their brand, product or service.

Suvodeep Das, marketing head, Kaya Skin Clinic calls it a step in the right direction. "These new tools are a step in the right direction to simplify digital media buying and planning. Whether it will work or not, will depend how accurate these measurements turn out to be," he says.

But there are some who believe that adoption is going to be a tough ask. V Balasubramaniun, head, technology, Ozone Media, says, "The adoption will be tough as the industry is used to the way impressions are defined today. As an ad network, sometimes it is tough to explain geo-targeting to publishers as to why they won't get paid for a few impressions as they were served in geographies outside the ones defined by the agreement. Now, with the new standard, if we go back to our publishers and say that we won't be paying for a bunch of impressions as it was never viewed at all, there could be a lot of heartburn. Publishers should use this opportunity to redesign their pages, remove the clutter and have fewer placements that are visible."

Opportunities and challenges

This newly introduced business solution brings a ray of hope for brands. With specific targeting tools like Active View and Active GRP, businesses can now make strategies with the objective of gaining screen presence, brand recall, brand awareness and a positive online reputation, which all come together to convert into revenue.

Avijit Arya of Internet Moguls says, "If you can think outside complex calculations of cost and revenue and can measure success in terms building trust, confidence and a positive reputation, then we can surely see creative minds getting a foothold back in the ad world, with businesses finally realising the true potential of online marketing."

Till now, the success and failure of an ad campaign has been measured in number of clicks, traffic to the website, and online sales figures during the campaign duration. In such a scenario, it is normal for advertisers to lose focus and make wrong decisions like pushing an ad with a negative impact, while sidelining something with great brand strengthening ability. While Arya believes that businesses may take a while to understand the true potential of Active Views and Active GRP, online marketing agencies must be all smiles as selling the idea of online advertising has just been made all the more easier by Google.

He adds, "The only real challenge that I foresee is the ignorance of most businesses as they usually tend to give less than due credit to long term benefits and impress upon short term gains. Each penny spent on the internet is expected to convert into revenue, while millions are spent on TV ads just for brand awareness or brand recall."

Growing importance of metrics

Metrics for long has been a much debated subject. The lack of a singular currency to measure the effectiveness of a particular online campaign and the return on investments coming in from the campaign has kept the marketing clan away from investing heavily in the medium as they would do in a print, television or an outdoor campaign. The call for a singular certified unit to measure the effectiveness of a digital campaign has been growing louder with each passing day.

Debdutta Upadhayaya, vice-president, Vdopia Inc., says, "Any certified analytics, which gives a good idea about the performance of a campaign, will help the growth of the industry. The introduction of these metrics indicates their growing importance in the marketing function and will surely go a long way in driving the adoption of the digital medium."

Can Aamir bring back Sunday mornings of yesteryear back?

Coming this week, for many, Star Plus would be the main item of Sunday morning brunch. As "Satyamev Jayate" a program on social issues grappling India would be aired simultaneously on many channels of Star Network and Doordarshan. at 11 AM. But icing on the cake is the host of serial, the mass appealing Aamir Khan.

It is sure that Aamir effect along with both content and strategic timing (Sunday Mornings) gives a lot of leeway to the serial.and may add up some more TRPs. However, I still wonder, how such a serial would keep children hooked, the key contenders of TV remote controls at least on Sunday mornings. Also, the serious nature of the serial might not appeal to everyone as most of us wish at least Sunday mornings to be light, fun filled and dreamy, rather being serious.

However, what is inside the box is still not clear, as the complete format of the serial is still a suspense. The ad spots booked (Sponsorship) majorly belong to mass appeal brands like Airtel, Aqua Guard, Coca -Cola, J&J, Skoda, Axis Bank, Berger Paints and Dixcy Scott.

My gut feeling says, the program would not be able to gear up a TRP of more than 5-6 over a period of time. This is less than that for most of the seasons of KBC and many of the "latest" box office movies aired on TV.

The program has come up with an impressive "Theme Songs" which is bound to mesmerize the viewers and aggressive Television Campaign. 

   

What do you say?

 Below is an article on same from Business Standard:

If Big B won your hearts with Kaun Banega Crorepati, Salman Khan made you laugh with Bigg Boss and 10 ka Dam, and Akshay Kumar kept you on the edge of your seats with Khatron ke Khiladi, how could Aamir Khan be left behind in the race?

Even before hitting the small screen, Satyamev Jayate, with which Aamir Khan makes his television debut on May 5, is already making waves. To be telecast on Sundays at 11 am, the show will be reminiscent of Sunday morning family TV viewing — a common thing when serials like Ramayana and Mahabharat were on air.

Like his movies, Khan has kept the concept of the show a secret, but industry officials say it is a talk show where he will talk about social issues like child labour, health problems and other issues affecting the country.

“I am not attempting to change anybody’s life. When I speak about change, it’s about changing myself. I am not interested in changing the world. I only want to connect with them emotionally and empathise,” Aamir Khan said at the launch of the show’s theme song.

For the first time, a show will be aired simultaneously on two networks — STAR and Doordarshan. Even within STAR Network, it will have simulcast on Star Plus, Star Pravah, Star Jalsha, Star Utsav, Asianet and Star Vijay. In addition, the show is being dubbed in four southern languages — Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. “This show is being launched on a large scale. I had to make complete use of this medium. This is a baby step in that direction,” he said.

Airtel is the show’s presenting sponsor, while it is being co-sponsored by Aqua guard. Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Skoda, Axis Bank, Berger paints and Dixcy Scott have also been signed up as associate sponsors.

According to media sources, STAR will give exclusivity to sponsors. This means, there will be no competing brands on the show and the broadcaster will not sell spots to any competitor brand. The title sponsorship has been hawked at Rs 16-20 crore, while associate sponsors have paid Rs 6-7 crore.

“Satyamev Jayate focuses on social issues that hold back the nation’s progress. It taps into the latent desire of people to better their lives. Aamir Khan’s foray into television will ensure strong viewership for the show and will give Axis Bank the pan-Indian presence,” said Manisha Lath Gupta, chief marketing officer, Axis Bank.

Even the promotions of the show, with the budget of around Rs 6 crore, are touted to be the most expensive yet on the Indian television. For the first time ever, a TV show had road block across channels; and, it will be supported by a multimedia campaign as it moves closer to launch. Even for shows hosted by Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, the initial promotion costs have not exceeded Rs 2.5 crore.

“The big idea in the marketing campaign is summed up in one line “Jab dil ko lagegi, tabhi baat banegi” while the candid campaign is simple, yet revolutionary, as Aamir discusses the show with a team member and shares his thoughts in a conversational, reflective and passionate style,” said Gayatri Yadav, executive vice-president (marketing), STAR India.

The campaign is a series of about ten films, each delivering a message about the show — “entertainment ka matlab”, “dil se dekh kar dekho”, “sabka show”, “doodh ka doodh”, and more.

A source from Aamir Khan Productions said this was one of the company’s most ambitious projects. “It’s one of the biggest and most innovative projects we have worked on so far,” he added.

Most executives from rival channels said, though the show looked innovative, it had baffled everyone because Sunday mornings were chosen for telecast, and not prime-time slots available between 8 pm and 10 pm on weekends.

“STAR will have an advantage, as most channels do not have exclusive programming for Sunday mornings. If the show clicks, it might actually just revive that slot timing and change the current rules of TV viewing,” said the chief executive of a competing network on the condition of anonymity.

The industry says Khan’s marketing moves have hardly missed their aims. This time, STAR India would be hoping this one is no different.

Why youngsters at Bharti Airtel have been called upon to mentor their CXOs

Courtesy: Economic Times, March 31, 2012 

At Bharti Airtel, it's not uncommon to see a CXO sitting in the canteen, in avid conversation with a young executive many levels his junior. They're likely to have an intense look on their faces and every now and then, they might punch the keys on a PC open before them. Those who know about such things might guess this is some kind of mentoring relationship, with the CXO passing on his gyan to the wide-eyed junior. 

Why then is the younger person doing most of the talking and why on earth is the CXO nodding as if he's the one doing the learning? Over the past three years, Airtel has instituted a programme vide which every member of the management board has a young mentor. 

Inspired by Jack Welch, who introduced the idea in GEwhen he was its CEO, the programme is meant to give the company's old-gen practical insights into how technologies of the future are actually being used. Welch ordered 500 of GE's top level executives to reach out to younger people in the organisation in order to learn how use the internet. He himself roped in an employee in her 20s to teach him how to surf the Web. Decades later, the idea has evolved as a management practice and gained a name: reverse mentoring.

CASE STUDY: Google+ vs Facebook Engagement

It's January 2012. Facebook will have 1 Billion users in just a few months.  Google just zoomed by 90 Million of it's own.  Bloggers and writers are opining about Timeline, how to use G+ Hangouts, and trying to sort out what works and what doesn't for social business.

So, I decided to do a "test."

The purpose was simple: To compare the engagement levels by users on Google+ and Facebook. 

DISCLAIMER: I am not saying that Facebook is dead, that Google+ is a savior, or anything related. Some are convinced that Google+ is for technical people (snobs and elitist) and Facebook is for "real" people.  My goal is to just share what I have found.  I wish I had theAPI data (hint, hint Google) so that I could show you more complete data and analytics, but I think you'll find this intriguing. For the record, on my Facebook page I am maxed out at 5,000 friends and on Google+ 13,378 have me in circles.

So here we go.

I took into consideration the potential arguments that would arise based on the content and user base of each platform. I agree that Google+ appears to be more technical in nature and that Facebook seems to focus on more simple or personal topics. Therefore, I chose to post something that was a) not technology oriented, or that 'would be perceived to favor the Google+ audience', b) was not about my puppy, which could be equally argued to favor 'the Facebookers', c) With the interface of Facebook Timeline and Google+ in consideration then, I chose a single picture, and a simple question that would be used similarly on both platforms, posted at the same time I committed to interact with both sets of people as they engaged.  

Here are my findings - the numbers tell the story. (These snapshots were taken this morning, one right after the other)

First, engagement on Facebook was only 4% in relation to the engagement on Google+.  Even taking into consideration that I have over twice as many "followers" on Google+ than on Facebook, that would still mean that the numbers would 92% to 8%.  Advantage: Google+

Using Google+ Ripples, was helpful in analyzing 'how' the public posts migrate through the channel.  Here's a snapshot on this specific public Google+ post:

Notice Sandra Parlow, Arleen Boyd, Jed Kim and CathiBea Stevenson stand out as the key amplifiers...

Drilling deeper, you'll see Sandra Parlow as the key amplifier, with 30,108 who have her in circles.  It makes sense that she would be number 1 since she enjoys such a large audience.  

One final statistic to note from my "test": Who were the most influential folks on Google+? Was it a bunch of technology chums of mine? Nope. Was it followers of CrushIQ? No. I was pleasantly surprised to see the engagers make up a very well rounded audience.  The overwhelming majority on Google+ just interacting and getting to know other people. Nice!

Question that I have unanswered: Why is this? Are Google+ users starved for humanity? Is this why photographs are so popular on Google+? Are Facebook users beginning to tune out?  Will this replicate?  I don't have the definitive answers, yet.  I am simply posting my findings and my genuine (knee jerk) response/surprise and leaving the interpretation and analysis to you. 

Courtesy: Time Moore 

http://timmooreonline.blogspot.in/2012/01/case-study-google-vs-facebook.html

Facebook Timeline will take time to entice brands

Source: afaqs!, Mumbai, February 17, 2012

Facebook now allows brands to chalk out their story in a more visually appealing manner; experts believe that it will take some time for one to get used to a brand's Timeline.Introducing plans to gradually roll out the Timeline format for brands,

Things are barely static in the social media space. And, it is just as well, with interfaces of social networking websites witnessing regular changes, some exciting the user, some not - but never lying dormant.

After incorporating several changes to the interface in the recent past, the Timeline format being one of the most notable ones, Facebook plans to extend Timeline to brands as well. It is understood that beginning later this month, Timeline will gradually be made available to brands, too.

Timeline was introduced by Facebook in 2011, only for users' profile pages and not brand pages. An image-heavy format, it allows the user to precisely categorise activities on his/her profile. Also, an added feature is the 'Cover Photo' option, a large picture displayed along with the profile picture at the top of the page.

Quite signature of Facebook, the format was gradually rolled out and it did take time before it found favour among users. Similarly, the new template for brands will begin with a few brands.

Timeline has faced resistance from users, as many still prefer the old format, which they believe is simpler to operate. As brands begin to embrace Timeline, experts are of the opinion that there may be the initial hesitance and it will need a bit of getting used to.

Advit Sahdev, founder, Odigma, says, "The Timeline definitely gives the page a better look and feel. Redesigning the page, a brand can talk a lot more about itself and offer historical information."

Yashraj Vakil, chief operating officer, Red Digital, too, thinks it will only change the look of a brand page drastically. "The page will look better. It will be structured better. And, there will be space for brands to do more," he says.

Doubts, however, remain if it will all be about visual appeal, with engagement levels going down. More so because Timeline, as we know it in its current avatar, focuses a lot more on images and interaction between users. Activity relating to applications, liking a page and others are allotted little space on the profile page, and appear only in the News Feed.

"The most difficult thing on Timeline is to find content. Wall posts are way lower than it used to be. How branded application will be represented on Timeline remains to be seen. In its current format, it seems to be a bit of a challenge," says Vakil.

According to Sahdev, communication and interaction will remain unaffected because the user will not be able to distinguish till he/she actually visits the brand's profile.

Sherry Thomas, general manager, digital, Madison is of the view that a brand's interaction with the consumer will not be affected much. "When it comes to engagement, I do not see it being affected much. A lot of brands on Facebook today are unfortunately about gratification. Wherever there is gratification, followers of the brand will take note. It is just a matter of getting used to it and users will eventually do that," explains Thomas.

She adds that the template will be more useful for brands that have a rich and strong history.

"The Timeline will help narrate a beautiful story for brands with a strong history such as a Cadbury or a Levi's. Users love knowing a brand's history. It will get harder and be more challenging for new brands with little to tell," says Thomas.

Brands, though, will want to wait and watch how the format works before embracing the same. Vibha Gosher, vice-president, digital, 9XMedia says that while everything faces resistance in its initial stage, people eventually come around to it.

She adds that Timeline may lead to lower engagement levels. Saying how 9XMedia handles multiple pages for its various channels, she adds that participation and engagement were observed to have dipped when users moved to the Timeline format.

The overall outlook seems to be that Timeline, even if it takes time to find acceptance, will also invite more innovative ideas to connect with the brand loyalist.

"Facebook is committed to the idea. The onus is on brands and agencies to make it work. This will lead to more room for innovation," says Vakil.

The views are endorsed by Thomas, too. "It just makes our life a little harder. But then that is what digital is all about - constantly evolving," she sums up.