MADHUMITA PRABHAKAR

Did you log in to an e-commerce site this week and browse for a king size beanbag? Well, don’t be surprised if you receive a mail from them soon, with a special offer on the product. It’s just marketers doing their job.

Today, in an attempt to get brands closer to the sales funnel, companies across the world are leveraging the power of big data and technology to identify and satisfy the needs of every customer, or, in other words, to crack a sale.

While opportunities in this space are endless, in this article, we explore the business models adopted by five Indian companies, in the television, online and mobile space, to aid marketers in promoting their brand. The supporting case studies elicit the strategy each company adopted, to implement a brand’s campaign and the resultant impact on its customers.

ADNEAR is a location-based mobile technology platform that combines context and behaviour, to drive targeted advertising across mobile platforms. The company was founded by Anil Mathews in 2008.

BEHIND THE SCENES

The company has captured the wireless network and cellular signals across geographies, and developed a hybrid geo-location platform, that is not dependant on operator assistance or GPS. It has also collated extensive data on its app user’s browsing and purchasing patterns. So, when a user opens the app, he is informed about relevant deals and discounts offered by retailers within the vicinity.

REVENUE MODEL

It works on a revenue sharing model with mobile app owners. Brands use its platform to reach a relevant audience and this revenue is further split with its partner apps.

EXPECTED TURNOVER

U.S $100 million in the next three years

PRESENCE

Singapore (Headquarters), India, Australia, other South East Asian countries.

CASE STUDY 

One of the world’s top five auto majors was entering the emerging markets and was ready to announce the launch of a mid-sized hatchback 

IMPLEMENTATION USING ADNEAR

• Increase sub-brand awareness
• Evangelise features
• Push test drives 

VDOPIA INC. is a digital video ad network and platform that partners with premium online and mobile publishers, to offer targeted and customised online and mobile advertising services to brands.  The company was founded by Srikanth Kakani, Chhavi Upadhyay and Saurabh Bhatia in 2007 and the APAC operations are managed by Preetesh Chouhan.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Vdopia identifies premium mobile and web publishers (such as NDTV, MSN and ESPNStar.com), who need to host and monetise their content. It integrates its platform with these publishers and represents their inventory in the market through advertisers. The advertisers in turn buy this inventory from Vdopia and relay their ad content through the publishers’ networks, to their target customers.

REVENUE MODEL

Vdopia has developed multiple models for revenue sharing between publishers and advertisers. The fee varies depending on the current market rates and is charged on pre-agreed terms.

EXPECTED GROWTH

40 per cent growth year-on-year

PRESENCE

India (Mumbai, Gurgaon, Delhi), the U.S., UK and Singapore

CASE STUDY

Office365, a cloud-based platform that enables companies to improve task efficiency, wanted to reach out to technology influencers and decision makers, to spread awareness about its cloud services. 

IMPLEMENTATION WITH VDOPIA INC

• Video on mobile: Create an interactive landing page
• Mobile TV 

CAMPAIGN IMPACT

• 6.3 lakh clicks (3.27 million unique),
• 5.08 per cent overall mobile CTR (Click-through rate)
• 1.85 lakh interactions on landing page

VIZURY INTERACTIVE, a digital marketing technology platform, re-targets users with advertisements online and on mobile, based on information about their browsing behavior. The company was founded by Chetan Kulkarni, Gourav Chindlur and Vikram Nayak in 2008.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Vizury Interactive has developed customised, re-targeting solutions for online and mobile (WebConvert, MobiConvert and AdProspet) and its results are primarily conversion-oriented. The company retains a strong focus on reach, programmatic buying of impressions, developing creative and dynamic banners with contextual messaging, and in constantly optimising campaign variables based on analysis of buying behaviour.

REVENUE MODEL

The company charges its customers when a user clicks on its offering, to make a purchase (or perform a desired action like registration) on the brand’s website.

TURNOVER

$ 20 million in FY13 (75 per cent generated from overseas)

PRESENCE

27 countries, including India, China, Brazil and UAE.

CASE STUDY 

HomeShop18 wanted to retarget website visitors, to increase conversion rates and market share, promote best selling products and categories and provide maximum reach. 

STRATEGY FOR VIZURY INTERACTIVE

• Real-time data collection on visitor behavior, product availability, category and offers
• Data driven bidding to monitor conversions from users across regions, product categories etc. 
• Developing customised messages in striking formats: Created a 6-product banner as products with more banner and higher click-through rate (CTR).
• Maximising marketing RoI: Continuous tweaking of bid rules, publishers, based on client’s goal of total sales volume. 

AMAGI MEDIA LABS is a media and technology platform that facilitates geographically targeted television advertising for brands. The company was founded by Baskar Subramanian, K.A. Srinivasan and Srividhya Srinivasan in 2008.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Amagi purchases ad space from national television channels, splits the inventory and provides regional ad inventories to advertisers. It adopts a cloud-based infrastructure and a barcode system to play customised ads in each region on the same airtime band. This way, the same ad spot gets multiple advertisers, thereby benefitting them since the spot is seen only in the region that they require it to be relayed.

REVENUE MODEL

Amagi generates revenues by buying ad slots in bulk on national channels and re-selling it as city specific slots, making a profit in the process.

TURNOVER

Grown by 4,500 per cent in the last four years

PRESENCE

Asia-Pacific, Europe, the U.S.

CASE STUDY 

MyDala, an online deal site, wanted to create higher brand visibility and awareness amongst its consumers, across metro cities spanning Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Kolkata. 

IMPLEMENTATION WITH  AMAGI MEDIA LABS

• To design a simple, yet catchy TVC spread across four months in all target cities
• To ensure spots are well placed and evenly spread to gain good reach 

CAMPAIGN OUTCOME

• Unique visits to the website shot up by 35 per cent
• Time spent by each visitor to the website increased by 40 per cent
• Conversions increased by 30 per cent

JADE MAGNET is a managed, online crowd-sourcing platform that facilitates new media advertising services to customers across the value chain. The company was founded by Manik Kinra and Sitashwa Srivastava in 2009.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Jade Magnet is similar to a traditional agency from the front end, with a client servicing and business development team and in-house creative directors. The differentiation in the model lies in the delivery. The company forms virtual teams of people from its group of over 15,000 designers, developers and brand strategists, and uses them to deliver the micro-tasks of each project.

REVENUE MODEL

It charges the customer based on engagement and pays the providers based on the tasks delivery. The delta is the money it earns.

TURNOVER

US $300,000 in FY13. Aims to reach the US $5 million mark in five years.

PRESENCE

India, Middle-East, Singapore, the U.S.

CASE STUDY 

Clarks, a global footwear brand, established its presence in India two years ago. Its on-ground marketing has gained a lot of momentum and it wanted to maintain its agility online. 

STRATEGY FOR JADE MAGNET

Search engine marketing, search engine optimisation and social media engagement

Create microsites and print collateral designs

Emailers and analytics