There is a famous saying in Advertising circles ‘Half of my ad dollars are wasted.. The problem is I dont know which half?”. Well if we take this statement to be true Yahoo’s You campaign is wasting about 50 million dollars given the fact that its a 100 million dollar campaign. Now before I start the analysis of why I think yahoo has lost its mojo by going all out on its new avatar Id like to state that Im not a big fan of ads for online portals and least of all ads on TV and above the line media.
I believe best products and content sites are those that spread via word of mouth. So Id much rather like people talking about Yahoo’s new look via blogs twitter updates etc rather than see ads on TV that say nothing much but irritate with a seriously elongated “youuu..”
So now that my bias is established Id like to go and an analyze a new advertising initiative in which Yahoo has tied up with Airtel DTH and announced India’s first skin integration innovation on its EPG screen. What happens here is the ‘Electronic Programming Guide’ screen on Airtel digital TV is now completely integrated with Yahoo India’s homepage. So TV customers find a ‘Fill your home page with all the things that make YOU’ when they log onto to the EPG screen. When they push the red button on their remote controls they are taken to an info page on Yahoo India’s new home page.
To get a sense of how this looks please have a look at the screenshot below:
This is being powered by Networkplay which recently got into DTH advertising by tying up Airtel DTH. So while Networkplay might be a doing a good job of ad sales for this platform question is does this really work and translate for any online views or branding for Yahoo?
TV To Web Impact?
This new form of advertising directly questions on the impact of TV to web. Would this be like TV ads? Or would this fall into a lower bracket?
Airtel has a reach of about 1.3 million households and thats a decent number but the question still remains how does one calculate ROI on these ads? Based on how many click the RED button on the remote? I guess so as thats the only action that confirms an action taken. It would be interesting to have access to statistics of this campaign as it would give insights to other advertisers as to how many people actually get curious and check out the information on the background.
Also once they check it out does it translate to any web centric views for Yahoo. After all if in online ads clicks are counted which go directly to the Yahoo page and earns yahoo ad dollars I dont see why one wouldn’t question a similar kind of impact from DTH. But as its difficult to track it wont be a metric. Another interesting statistic to know would be the per impression cost on DTH vs Web and also the per action cost i.e. Red button in this case while a click in the online case. A comparison would give us insights into the Web vs TV bias of advertisers even though the end result is the same.
I can see you have stressed a lot on action-based metric for advertisement. But then, there isn’t a single television, or radio, or ‘painting-on-the-moving-taxi’ that can come up with an action based metric, can they? The whole world lives on hope, here.
Of course, one of the ways one can gauge the popularity or success of such advertisements are when they are expensively spoken and written about, on magazines and newspapers (not mentioning the web here because that opens the Pandora’s box and also is a new phenomenon). And of course, there are advertisements that ask viewers to participate in a lucky draw, quiz, or contest. Otherwise, the world had only lived on hope.
On the contrary, since tracking had always been possible on the web, be it eyeballs, actions, conversations etc, such metrics have become a norm while looking for RoI on online campaigns.
The question I’d like to put up here is, “despite the web being able to deliver exact metrics and help determine RoI of campaigns, why are advertisers still spending heavily on television and print, and not on the Web?” The moment you mention Web, they want “blogs”, and “social media magic”, and no money other than a “online whizkids” salary!
Great points shayon – Cant help but agree with you!
Rajiv,
Given the “knowledge” of the so called Brand Managers and Marketing Heads , its relatively easier for Networkplay to sell this showing the TV screen than selling an online campaign.
Airtel/Networkplay will also be able to provide a copy of Market Research Report done by some research agency, so that the Marketing ungils can save their errr…if the campaign flops by saying “I took this call based on this IMRB/Neilson/E&Y/Forrester report/Data
Hi Rajiv,
There are couple of points I would want you to consider.
1) DTH as a platform is going to be the next big wave in the business with over 100M connections predicted globally in the next 3yrs, this growth is going to be primarily driven from India since other markets have been saturated for now keeping in mind different format offerings that exist in the western world.
, average in every household is 4 times and off-course the Red Button can get monitored.
2) We at NetworkPlay are looking at giving value to clients through different platforms in the digital space and every opportunity to reach different audience with minimal spill over in a intrusive environment and that too on TV will only add value to the brand since there are audiences outside of the 30 towns where Internet has maximum penetration. Airtel = 4800 Towns = New Audiences = Brand Impact.
3) Measurement is pretty simple on these, the number of times someone switches on a TV, the EPG screen lights up
3) There are opportunities on Video and Pay Per View Movies too where Ad-Spots are sold like how it is on TV though the metrics is different.
4) Lets look at Tata Sky – what happens there? There are some 50 brands already working with them and their default screen when you switch on the TV is Video, there are multiple brands out there, whats the measurement there? There isnt any but the on off story. So like Shayon said, “not everything gets measured” and I would like to add to that statement, “not everything gets measured and not everything thats measurable has value”
5) So like many branding opportunities that exists here is a new platform thats growing and will make the difference in the coming years.
Maruti & Coke are also wasting money
There are more we would add into this list going forward. Kidding 
Finally Infosys already has a adserving technology for DTH players that is capable of delivering it in a network environment, and already serves a lot of players in the space in the US, there are mega metrics available but its nascent still in India, see what we do in the next couple of quarters in this space and you will know what I am talking about
@NetServesMeFood – I dont think you know how many advertisers are on board on the web with us. Anyway, your comments are yours and I would not want to react on that
If every advertiser spends a rupee every time this question is asked, the online industry in India would’ve reach a couple of billion dollars by now
Know many people have tried to answer, but my take on this:
1. Time spent online is marginal – Just a hunch, but I’d bet 70% of the 30- 80mn internet users spend 10x time on TV as compared to the net.
2. Non-sticky user behaviour / fragmented reach.
3. Even though clicks, sales, revenues can be tracked down to the sites, keywords, etc. – there is NO recognized and accepted metric to calculate/gauge brand impact.
~Pranav
I agree with you both of you Ram & Netservesmefood. Ram from the looks of it you will end up becoming a millionaire based on DTH revenues
And here we thought you were an online ad network :S
@ Rajiv – Dude, off course we are an online ad-network but we are clear on our initiatives. DTH to me is Digital. We would soon be launching Mobile too, so does that mean we are not an online ad-network?
Common dude, you know best
@Ram – Agree with you. And given the small pie and many players online has Id also recommend spreading ur services across emerging opportunities like DTH and mobile.
Thanks mate, thats the idea. Cheers!!!
Hello Rajiv,
I think Yahoo is just trying to catch up Google on its penetration trail. But Google is still a faster runner…
Google has gone everywhere from your web to SMS, so other player are also trying to find new avenues..
And Yes, Yahoo is not wasting money, from my point of view…
Regards,
Amit
@Rajiv
Yahoo has a new CEO in India and he is a number guy. He is experienced in raking in a lot revenue.
Now, in a market like India, its important to be on TV to create the “Big Picture” and “Big Brand” perception. If you do some analysis, you’d realise that its only the guys who’ve gone to TV have passed this 50 cr benchmark. While saying so, there are many case studies of guys who’ve miserably failed after hitting the TV. My take is that if you hit TV after acquiring a critical mass, you are very unlikely to fail.
Most of the large play Internet guys in the US hit TV. Monster and Careerbuilder are regulars in Super Bowl, which is perceived to be the most expensive media property in the US on TV.
Last but not the least, if you want to be part of the media plan, compiled by guys who have zero experience in the business side of Internet, you ought to reach these guys through TV or a hoarding in front of their office
In my opinion, Tadanki wouldn’t have signed the approval sheet, without doing his excel sheet
@Ram
All the best!
Hi Folks,
Firstly i think comparing Yahoo! to Google is a comparison of apples with mangoes, here is why:
Google is leader is search which only operates or consumes 3% of a consumers time online, the rest is spent on reading mails, news, chatting, social networking etc.
Google does not have a homepage where as Yahoo! not only has a homepage but a lot more than that.
Post the new It’s you campaign what Yahoo! is trying to say is Facebook, Gmail etc is not a competition, it is your world which you will visit any which way but we at Yahoo! are giving you an opportunity to access your world your Yahoo!’s new homepage.
As far as campaign is concerned, high time Yahoo! realised they need to strike a match with competition and gain back the market they have lost and become what they were in 1990′s.
Yahoo! in India is most visited homepage, as per ComScore 73% people visit Yahoo! homepage. It is no. 1 news, cricket, movies website in India, they are there but just pushing it deeper now.