RSS
Email
SMS
@IAMAI Digital Marketing: How to Fight Web Wariness? - Can a billion Indians get connected digitally?
(Rate this article)
Loading ...Email It!
After the first two installments yesterday of the IAMAI Digital Marketing Conference (Bangalore) here is the third panel discussion on “HOW TO FIGHT WEB-WARINESS AND EMERGE AS A WINNER”.
The moderator for this session was V Ramani, Vice Chairman, Connecturf Worldwide who started the session asking everyone about their experience with different clients and his approach to dealing with them:
These were the answers:
V Ramani, Vice Chairman, Connecturf Worldwide stated that the low tech client had to be made to commit to his decision to invest in the digital space or else its a minefield out there and getting a commitment upfront is always a good way to deal with clients.
But he felt that the things were better than before and there is a silver lining among all the web wariness that there is among clients. He felt the real breakthrough is the fact that the best traditional agency talent is now looking at online as a career option.
Rohini Rewari - Head of Online South Asia - Intel India said that customers today are online which has enabled majority of buying decisions now being made online. She stated the case study of their own 450 partners across south asia which were channel partners for the Intel inside program who were approached to know about online as a medium for leads and the first response was madam we hardly get any leads from online but now 50% of partners are succesful in getting involved in online marketing.
She felt the way to fight web wariness of clients is to focus on:
- Engaging key audience
- Marketing to youth
- Rise of social networking
She gave an example of a game via facebook app which was played by 16000 and there were 500 per day talking about it.
She stated that online is still treated as bleeding edge and pointed out that the best way to fight web wariness is numbers. She raised the question.. Can a billion Indians get connected digitally?
Tushar Vyas, Chief Marketing Officer, Sure Waves stated the following mantra on how to fight web wariness:
He said a digital marketer should answer the following questions for a client:
- Relevance of medium to target audience /source of business
- Relevance with respect to brand priority and activation
- Role of medium in brand engagement/return of investment
Once a digital marketer can convince the client on these aspects its very likely that the client would not be web wary.
Namrita Sehgal, Senior Manager, Trilogy felt that in the consumer landscape web wariness was increasing.
Here were her observations:
- If price is primary driver then engagement with brand is lost with customer
- In ur face advising is a big turnoff and an irritant
- Share of voice not equal between advertiser and consumer.
- Poor undifferntiated post clickassurance also wrong expectation and promises made by agencies.
- Negative experiences of peers magnify wariness.
- Hyperbole leads to expectation which creates a reality hole where clients fall
Gaurav Gupta, Regional Manager Asia Pacific- Retail Operations, General Motors stated that their faith in the digital medium increased after their experience with their brands spark and captiva.
Based on that experience he outlined 3 pillars of digital marketing:
- Integariton & innovation
- Strategy & Partnerships
- Sustenance & Continuity
He pointed out that Captiva outsells every other car in segment be it Honda CRV or Ford Endevour despite of having no traditional media except two hoardings!
GM uses the following tools to engage a digital audience
- SMS2.0 from Affle
- Actively engages in online brand mangement by scanning all blogs etc for any negative comments and redress grieveances in 24hrs
- Involve seniror management, dealers and front end sales team and field staff in the online strategy.
There was also a healthy discussion at the QnA Session post the panel. Here are excerpts from the QnA Session.
Q) According to the recent IAMAI IMRB Report on Banner Ads a sizeable 58% said that they ignore online ads and 47% said that they feel online ads have misleading information? How do you expect the traditional guys not to be Web Wary in such a scenario?
A) It is not fair to judge the online medium on these numbers. If one did a comparison even television, print and OOH will have similar statistics on who ignore ads and find them misleading.
Q) Is the digital media in its current state more effective for SME’s? Due to its narrow casting and targetting ability?
A) 400-500 big clients are web savvy in india hence its not the size of the company but the person in the company that will be responsible for going in digital. The individuals who handle digital in these companies and their approach is which helps in leveraging all digital channels available.
Though one has to admit that it is cheaper for SME’s and a easier medium for them drive mileage.
Thats it.. Stay tuned for the 4th and 5th Panels.
(We would like to thank Deva our guest blogger in bangalore for the coverage)
Loading ...
Leave a Comment and Follow the replies through Post Comment Feed