August 2008

Mandi
The marketplace

An IIM Indore students initiative

Readers,
Thanks for your wonderful response to the last months edition. This
month we have tried to incorporate all your feedback and suggestions
in coming up with this edition on the theme of : Breakthrough Avenues
in Advertising. In this age of millions of media messages bombarding
you every minute, how do companies break through the clutter? We
have tried to identify and analyse some such ideas in this edition.
Our Heartfelt thanks to our guest authors:
Gaurav Aggarwal, FMS, Delhi
Manas Vijh, IIM Ahmedabad
Parul Khurana, BBS, CBS, Delhi
Chandrashekar M, SPJain ,Dubai
The Mandi Team: Srikumar S, Rishabh Sachdeva, Tejas Bhat, Gokul Kandhi

We look forward to your continued support and participation.

The Six
Degrees of
Minting
S Srikumar
Vikrant had just finished scrapping Disha who was in
Texas A&M. He had asked some queries regarding
admissions procedures at TAMU for his Masters
Program. And back on the home page of his Orkut
profile there appeared an advert on TAMU programs
and financial assistance. Intrigued, he clicked on it.
The Origin of Social Networks
Social Networking sites have taken off from the concept
of Six Degrees of Separation: Every person is separated
with any other by a maximum of six people. Though it
also depends on getting the right six people. From
Murdoch (MySpace) to Anil Ambani (BigAdda),
everyone has bought into the phenomenon. Up from
relative obscurity in the late 90s, Social Networking
sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, Orkut and Hi5 feature

high on the top 20 most visited websites list on

Alexa.com. From Advogato to Zude, the count has
topped 200.
While the more common uses of the concept are
flooded with options, some others are trying to create a
niche within the space. Ever since the controversial Will
Smith starrer Six Degrees of Separation popularized
the phenomenon, various takes have sprung up on the
internet. A trivia game, The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,
is based on the concept that any Hollywood actor can
be connected to Kevin Bacon through his or her film
roles. Bacon himself started a charitable organization,
SixDegrees.com based on the same small world
concept. A nerdier format would be the Erdos number,
based on the collaborative distance (co-authors of math
papers) between the Hungarian mathematician and any
other author.
Another application was utilized by LinkedIn, to build
up a Reputation system for Business contacts. The
visible relationships aids in building trust for recruiters
and contractors.
The Changing face of Advertising
By 2011, Internet Ad spends would cross $60 billion.
Global Internet Ad spends increased by over 28%, as
compared to 3% in traditional media. At the start of the
next decade, the Internet would replace Print as second
choice after TV on the advertisers list. The Future of
advertising has long shifted. But how does it work?
When Vikrant clicks on the TAMU ad, it would send the
Try this: Researchers are building an algorithm
that would read a standard photograph of users for
facial patterns, and try to identify the people that
look most similar. But security concerns and abuse
by authorities are stalling any widespread social
networking applications.
huge money bell inside the Google servers ringing.
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Much like its breakthrough AdSense program for its

search results page, Google is actively looking to break
even on its investment in Social Networking. And since
most users are not yet ready for pay to use Social
Networking sites, the way forward would be through
targeted advertising. Googles servers determine the
most relevant advertising based on a set of cached high
value key words. And the rate for the advertiser is
based on a Cost for Thousand Impressions
(advertisements displayed) or per thousand clicks.
The first concern raised with such acute targeted
advertising is that there is fear on account of loss of
privacy. Since most users share personal data on their
profile pages, there is scope for misuse. Highly targeted
individual information may be more useful for service
providers such as Insurance companies, which might
vary premiums on user habits that they generally do
not mention on their filings. Even though the scale of
information may be large, companies might be able to
purchase less specific information from service
providers. For example, Orkut may sell information that
Mumbaikars frequent Leopold Cafs online community
just before their actual visits. Leopold Caf may in turn
advertise on its own Orkut community, where they can
order T-Shirts and collect it when they visit Leopold.
Imagine
Advertising on profile pages is just the beginning.
Second Life?
SecondLife (SecondLife.com) is a virtual world created
by its residents. From the moment you enter
SecondLife you'll discover a vast digital continent,
teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and
opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, you can build
your house or business, like a strategy game but much
more than that. Everything from virtual land to cars is
available for purchase. And a million residents, waiting
to be unleashed with brands of the real world. Wont
any brand be missing out if not here?

The Power Ladder in Social Networks

When Microsoft picked up a minor stake in FaceBook,
its valuations soared to over $15 billion. And when
FaceBook launched its own targeted advertising
platform, there were jitters in the Google office. For as
many as 50% of the 14-24 segment in the US, their
profile pages on Facebook or MySpace are their
homepages. MySpace rings in by far as the largest site
with individual page views in the SN domain. That
means more people spend time inside these closed
networks which crawlers like Google cannot access.
And for Internet behemoths like Google and Yahoo, the
time spent on their websites inadvertently converts to
revenues in multiple streams. To mitigate this, Google
had its own Social Networking tool in Orkut.
But Orkut never took off in its own shores. Immensely
popular in Brazil and India, at one time it commanded
25 million unique visitors and 6th in terms of worldwide
page views. But Google could never convert it into a
revenue stream for it missed the most lucrative market,
the US. Advertisers in Brazil and India arent looking
targeted advertising yet in the same scale.
Meanwhile, FaceBook expanded its range of advertising
options. It knows your preferences, your friends
preferences and so on. Recommendations and referrals
are easier. Wouldnt you rather buy tickets for the same
movie that youre Friend just bought?
The birth of OpenSocial
And Googles answer was typical. It launched
OpenSocial. OpenSocial is a set of common interfaces
for social networks. And these applications would work
across all Social Networks. Seven of the top 10 Social
Networks, including MySpace have already joined the
bandwagon. What does Google gain out of this?

The fastest online brands of the season? The top

three are all SN brands. Facebook rose more than a
1000% in 2007. The fasted brand though is
RockYou!, a widget provider for social networking
applications.
For one, AdSense may be redeveloped around as a
Social Networking application (Or a widget). And it can
be seamlessly implemented in one step across all Social
Networks. In one go, Google again has access to the
huge user base that MySpace, Hi5, Bebo and other
networks have. And for all we know, soon you might be
able to migrate from your Orkut profile to your friends
MySpace profile through another widget! Google no
longer even needs a Social Networking tool. All it needs
is for AdSense to be placed on the profile pages, and
voila, they are back on track.

The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only

a noveltya fad. Investment Adviser for H. Fords
Lawyer.
No one can predict the power of Social Networking in
the decades to come. It might replace the Internet with
individual islands that people find everything they ever
need in. They might also equate nations to these
islands, bringing on user developed applications that
try to better every other network. But there is the
audience to capture. And so the advertisers will be
drawn.
But for realities sake, lets scale our focus to the
immediate future. Honda and Motorola may develop
interesting themes for your Orkut profile that they are
charged on a per-user basis. Updates on your cars
service may be available in a small window right on
your profile page. Your movie preferences can be
analyzed and PVR may insert links to buy tickets for
your favorite movies. The opportunities endless. And so
are the choices.

Advert Oreal!
Tejas Bhat
It took me a whole 2 page article in a reputed magazine
to realize that I was actually reading a cosmetically
modified version of the good old advertisement for a
car manufacturer. Turns out, advertorials are a rage
this season and more and more publishing houses are
resorting to them to bring in the extra moolah. For the
uninitiated, making an advertorial is really simple. Take
a fresh advertisement, peel it thoroughly of all catchy
phrases, add two cupful of words, a couple of matter-offact pictures and an article-type heading. Add a pinch
of positive statistics, and Voila! You have got an

advertorial! If this was a touch too dramatic for your

tastes, an advertorial, in simple terms is an
advertisement designed to look like an editorial or a
news/magazine article. These are less obvious, but
highly effective form of advertising, with quite a few
companies paying big bucks to place their advertorials
in reputed publications.
Advertorials allows the advertiser to tailor their
message to the magazine in which they appear. This
allows them to blend in seamlessly into the magazine
content and thus achieve a perceived endorsement
from the magazine. Unlike traditional advertisements,
they are not designed to hard-sell brands. These days,
they make advertorials so well, you cant tell an
advertorial from the editorial! The purpose of an
advertorial must not be to fool the reader into believing
that they are editorials. For, if the reader finds out the
truth, he might not take kindly to the fact that he was
being taken for a ride! The essence is to communicate
to him that it is an advertiser placed content which
4

offers extra value as compared to a regular ad in terms

of entertainment or information. As the fast
dissemination of the internet is redefining advertising
strategies, websites and blogs are jumping into the
advertorial bandwagon too. In short, the best thing
about an advertorial is its believability.

Advertorials can come in various shapes and sizes.

They can vary from a very no nonsense kind of
advertorial, such as those in journals targeting doctors,
to a glossy spread in a mens magazine complete with
fashion photo shoots. In its July 2003 issue, Maxim
men's magazine, well known for its obsession with
jokes, booze and scantily dressed babes, brought
together all three in a special section called ''Bite the
Big Apple'' in which a boring business trip became
something else once the subjects of the story opened a
few bottles of Miller Lite Beer. The section was
produced by Maxim's editors.
Advertorials generally work well for products and
services where information sells better than images.
Products and services frequently featured in
advertorial form include nutritional supplements,

cosmetic procedures, pharmaceuticals etc. In a study

conducted by AHMD (Association of Healthcare Media
Directors, USA), one of six pieces of creative (three
branded ads and three advertorials) and a
questionnaire were mailed to a group of 300 primary
care physicians. The results show that, in message
credibility, advertorials were equally as effective as
branded ads. However, advertorials were shown to be
more effective than branded ads in terms of generating
interest, providing valuable information, and provoking
follow-up discussions
There, however exists a dark side to the advertorial
scene. Approximately 8 out of a sample of 40 are able to
distinguish between an advertorial and a regular
feature. Advertorials are a common feature in most
reputed magazines in India. India Today, Outlook and
Week all run advertorial sections. But most of the times,
advertorials do not mention that they are paid for
advertisements or inconspicuously do so. A deeper
shade of dark is evident in the beauty and fashion
magazine industry. Beauty product manufacturers who
do not advertise in a magazine gradually realize that
their products are featured less and less in regular
features and may actually get negative publicity.
Although these are rare instances, it is almost
impossible to monitor the content and style of
advertorials.
To cut a long chase short, advertorials have the effect of
subtly grabbing the attention of the reader and making
them believe that instead of being blatantly sold a
product, they are being provided valuable information
that would guide them in making the right buying
decision. Advertorials, if rightly used, can be considered
as an effective part of the integrated promotional mix,
particularly as a way of complementing hard selling
branded advertisements with educational or
entertaining topics.

Game On!!!
U Gokul Kandhi
An advertisers utopia would be a completely alert ,
wholly dedicated and emotionally involved consumer.
Utopia now is about to be realized. Enter
Advergaming. Advertising in games can be split into
two categories in-game advertising and advergaming.
In-game advertising is the older of the two and the
most elementary. It deals with advertising during a
game is on, advertising during game breaks, placing bill
boards and sponsoring kits and apparel of
sportspersons. Advergaming is the consummate
version of the two. It is an inherent part of the game,
with tactically placed ads and brand promos as a part of
the game, wholly interacting with the player when he is
most receptive and emotionally involved. It is a custom
made game specifically designed around a product to
create awareness and associations about the product or
the brand in the users mind.
This concept of advergaming is not essentially a new
one. It has been in vogue since 1980s with the Atari
games from Kool-Aid and Pepsi. However they did not

Tejas Bhat

Clockwise from Left Top: Axe Pick Up Game , Chrysler, Indiana

Jones, Mc Donald and our Indian super hero Krrish

get the necessary traction due to lack of varied media

that are prevalent today like internet and handhelds. In
1998, Blockdot( earlier NVision Design ) needed to
build company recognition, so they created a game they
called "Good Willie Hunting," a parody of Whack-a-Mole
that made fun of President Clinton's extramarital
escapades. The game was a huge success and brought
more attention to this new promotional method. The
term "advergames" was coined in Wired magazine's
"Jargon Watch" column in 2001 . The jargon caught on
beautifully and so did the medium and has never
looked back since. Combining ads, entertainment and
interactivity in a single channel, advergaming is
considered the most stickiest form of advertising now.
Whodunnit
From FMCG companies to Automobiles to sports events
to movies , the whole business world is looking to jump
into the bandwagon. The most popular advergames in
the recent times are Pepsiman from Pepsi, the Coke
Zero Game from the Coca Cola, the continuous array of
hot stuff from AXE stable etc.
Not far behind are the ones from McDonald targeting
the entire family and the Chrysler Golf Challenge
6

targeting just the right population. The Lego-Indian

Jones game was a big hit with the fans and helped
generate promotions for the movie. Bollywood has also
joined the wagon with its super hero Krishh game and
Bunty Aur Babli being huge hits. Burger King went one
step ahead and launched three advergames with Xbox.
Not to be left out , the US Army sponsored an extremely
successful game called Americas Army in an effort to
increase recruitment.
The extent of the impact of this media on the
advertising industry got a decisive boost when Nielsen
announced its launching of Game Play Metrics.
Nielsen's measurement service provides advertisers,
agencies, hardware manufacturers and game
developers with independent, high-quality, quantitative
demographic data for negotiating the buying and selling
of in-game and around-game advertising. This unified
data source increases the precision of advertisers'
target marketing, and enables them to allocate their ad
dollars in a more efficient manner.

How it Works
To understand how an advergame works, lets have a
look at both regular ad media and advergames through
the Experience Realms model. The model talks about
four quadrants of consumer states- Entertainment,
educational, esthetic and escapist. Entertainment is the
most passive form of exposure with absorption of facts,
knowledge and awareness. Education is all this
combined with increased knowledge and feel of the
brand involved due to interaction of the participant
with the medium. Here is where the simple flash based
advergames, most of them played online, come into
play. They create awareness about the product with
banners and ads placed in the game. A bit higher up will
be instances where the utility of the brand is reinforced.
This is done by having demo versions of products and
avenues where people can operate and feel the Look
and Feel of the product. Mobile phones and other
personal consumer electronics have started using this
medium for the same.

Esthetics have a high degree of immersion while

participating to a minimum. In-game ads during breaks
of real or virtual games fall in this category. They enjoy
high attention and involvement of viewers. Escapist is
the highest and most consummate audience possible.
With a high degree of user interaction and also
immersion, they offer best avenues for creating brand
associations and building loyalty. Higher the degree of
immersion, greater is the ability to experience the
brand. A simple example would be a game protagonist
having Kellogs cornflakes to boost his energy to destroy
his opponents. Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Games are the best examples of this form.
Looking at the model, an audience in the escapist state
would be the ideal viewer and one in the entertainment
state would be the least favored. However, it is not
entirely the case. In high involvement purchases it is
the immersion factor that counts to bring sales as
association and loyalty are the prime factors. Hence you
have Chrysler having golf games where users are highly
involved and play for a long time. However in low
involvement purchases
like FMCG
products,
entertainment would be the most important factor to
create recall. That is the reason why, all snacks and
beverage companies have flooded the internet with
simple, easy to play advergames.
Target Market
With such a tech savvy medium, the initial impulse
would be to brand it as a channel to reach teenagers
and gaming youth. But research proves otherwise.
According to New York-based Nielsen NetRatings, its
not just a bunch of teenagers that are playing the video
games these days. Its research shows that 30.5 percent
of the online games audience is between 35 and 49
years of age, compared with 16.6 percent between 25
and 34, and 14.3 percent between 12 and 17, according
to February 2004 measurements. And, more women
are participating than you might think -- many of them

professionals. Numbers, also from Nielsen//NetRatings,

show that 41 percent of players at online game sites
like GameSpot, Candystand, and Pogo are
women.[Source: howstuffworks.com]

The Numbers
Game development costs anything between INR 10000
to INR10-16 lakhs for mobile and online games and as
high as $200,000 for console games. An equal
proportion , if not more , is spent on making the games
available at the right places. The Center for Media
Research has the following statistics on advergaming
and its impact. Advergaming spends are expected to
reach $2 Bn by 2012. Projections for increased
8

revenues could be well justified based on the results

from a recently released study conducted by Nielsen
Entertainment on behalf of Microsoft-owned in-game
advertising pecialist Massive Inc.. The research showed
that:
Average brand familiarity increased by 64%
due to in-game ads on Massive's network.
Average brand rating increased by 37%,
Average purchase consideration increased
by 41%,
Average ad recall increased by 41% and
Average ad rating increased by 69%
The Pitfalls
As with every next best thing, this one too has its
pitfalls . The pitfalls exist all along the value chain.
Before going for placing a banner or a product
placement in a game , the company should take care
that the feel of the game and timing of product
exposure is positive on the user. Further, the game
should provide an equal mix of entertainment and skill
test. A low skill requiring game might pass on a below
par image of the product while a high skilled game

would keep away users. And finally, the purpose of

advertising is to bring in sales and visibility and an
advertising exercise should have sufficient trackers to
monitor performance. In this segment however,
tracking tools are few and not fully comprehensive.
Roadmap
The advergaming industry started with simple games
developed in Flash. It has evolved now and moved over
to complex multi player games on console, handheld
and even online. In this age of bombarding messages
from all angles , such a clutter breaking model is the
next big thing in this age of infinite brands to get
maximum mindshare. With explosive broadband
growth , double digit mobile penetration, advergaming
is the best way to generate maximum recall and create
best brand associations in the minds of the user. Such a
media also gives the chance for smaller players avenues
to reach maximum audience with an optimum budget.
Some day, you can use an advergame to show why you
are such a great groom on shaadi.com.

Getting the Placements Right

Rishabh Sachdeva
We live in a world infested by excesses. Sub prime
loans, oil prices, greenhouse gases, terrorists,
terrorised american presidents and congressmen,
chinese exports, indian geeks, japanese cars, cricket,
reality shows, mythological dramasThe list goes on.
And on. Theres just too much out there to be able to
keep a tab on anymore. The ever exploding quanitites
of information at our disposal today is unparalleled by
any other point in time. We are afterall in what for sure
has come to be known as the Information Ageand its
crazy.
To be a brand and remain relevant today, companies
have to not only offer great products and services but
also have to be seen, heard and experienced more often
than ever before. The big idea in marketing has always
been to become an integral part of conversations,
lifestyles, associations that define targeted consumer
groups. The biggest challenge today is definitely the

clutter of messages being communicated. Forget

competitors..now its just about anybody trying to sell
something whos stealing your thunder. Television,
Radio, Print and the Internet are packed with so many
advertisements and channels, it becomes substantially
difficult for consumers to retain all of it. Either you are
lucky enough to have an ad that works or you are
forgotten. Luck, however cant just be what you ride
your business on and marketers have thus found non
traditional marketing approaches to tackle some
shortcomings of traditional media. An interesting
choice being Product Placments or Branded
Entertainment.
Beginnings
The first recorded instance of product placement can be
traced back to Wings, 1927, the first movie to win an
Academy Award for Best Film. There is Hersheys spot
10

featured in the movie. Other early birds include

Mildred Pierce, 1945 (Jack Daniels) and Its a
Wonderful Life, 1946 (National Geographic).
Branded Entertainment??
Product Placement or Branded Entertainment is
basically a form of advertising in which branded goods
or services are integrated into contexts like Movies, TV
programs, News telecasts, Online content and games
which otherwise are meant to be devoid of ad content.
The placements usually dont find direct mention but
form part of the picture in more subtle ways.
Whats the problem with just ads??
The clutter mostly. There are over 400 cable TV
channels in the US today and back here in India, we are
far removed from Doordarshans monopoly days which
has resulted in there being a plethora of cable channel
offerings available. At a time when the average time a
person spends watching TV is decreasing world over
and gadgets like the TiVo making it possible for viewers
to watch ad free telecasts, what does one have to do to
get noticed?
The problems extend to print and other forms of media
as well, with the 21st century consumer running ever
short of patience and time.
How?
There are essentially three levels at which placements
can be carried out. First and most basic of these are ad
placements in the beginning,middle and end of TV
telecasts, movies and webcasts. YouTube is
Placement Involvement Hierarchy
possibly the biggest channel in the world today. Users
are going to upload video worth 600 years of your time
on the website this year alone. Experimenting with ad
formats, YouTube realised that users moved on 70% of
the time in case of pre roll ads and that meant

ineffectual adspends for its big ticket clients. With

aggressive revenue targets in mind the website
undertook a massive tracking and research study
where in it realised that rollover banner ads in the
course of the telecast were the most effective. Viewers
dint want to move to another video and even chances of
them actually clicking on the banner improved by
massive margins. The trend can be spotted in TV
programming also, especially during sports telecasts
which were possibly the first platform to use the
concept anyway.
Second, and a more involved placement method would
be what can be called Peripheral Placement. Here,
brands become part of the fabric of storylines. So,
essentially you can have a background display of a
billboard ad or at a more involved level, airtime for and
the use of branded products by protagonists. What is
critical here is that here the product or service is
always at a background level and never very critical to
the story telling expeience. Its subtle. Most product
placements are of this nature. The use of Cadillacs and
Ducatis in the Matrix Series, Ericcson phones by James
Bond, Nissans in Desperate Housewives, Fords in the XFiles. Marlboro paid for its cigarretes to be used by a
films characters in many movies. Brands like ICICI
Bank, Coca Cola, Caf Coffee Day, Pepsi, MTV, Zee TV,
NDTV, Aaj Tak and others have been been placed
regularly in Bollywood. The most interesting kind of
placements has been the placement of destinations.
Kaho Na Pyaar Hecreated such a buzz around New
Zealand that there were almost 200,000 Indian tourists
headed for the island that year. Many countries offer
11

special discounted packages to Indian moviemakers to

come and shoot.
In television the trend has also been strong. In Indian
television the concept could be best explained from the
multiple product placements visible on Kaun Banega
Crorepati. In other instances, channels could use one
program to advertise for another. So, you could have a
family from one Sas Bahu serial going to another for a
marriage. Movies are also sometimes advertised in
serials in a similar vein.
On American television a look at the number of product
placements in American Idol would give you a
perspective. In the last season there were 4,349
occurences of placements on the Idol, and in the first
three months (half season) of the 2008 season the
number was 3,291 as reported by Nielsen. Coca Cola
and AT&T were prime spenders. Coca Cola alone had

some 2000 occurences credited for in the last season.

Lastly, Integrated Placements are the highest involved
examples of placements. BMW and Aston Martin Cars in
James Bond. The BMW short film series starring Clive
Owen, produced especially for the internet are fine
examples. A TBS 20 episode 2-minute series revolving
around 4 women travelling on the metro to and fro
from office everyday involves Revlon and Match.com as
an integral part of conversations amongst the 4 women.
A Sex and The City episode revolves almost wholly
around Absolut Vodka. Harold and Kumar Go To White

Castle , 2004, is a movie that has a real burger chain as

very much its central theme. The brands become part of
the storylines here and are essential to what is being
expressed.
The Market
Global paid product placement grew 37.2% to $3.36
billion in 2006 and were forecasted to grow 30.3% to
$4.38 billion in 2007, driven by relaxed European
regulations, emerging Asian markets and shifting
American models, according to research released by PQ
Media, the world's leading provider of alternative
media econometrics.
TV placements are dominant, accounting for 71.4% of
global spending in 2006 at $2.40 billion, with projected
growth of 33.9% in 2007. Film placements comprised
26.4%, or $885.1 million, of global spending in 2006
with forecasted growth of 20.5%. About 2% of spend
was on other media like games and online content, with
growth projected to be more than 30% for the next few
years.
The overall value of the global product placement
market, including the exposure value of non-paid
placements, grew 24.2% to $7.76 billion in 2006 and
was projected to increase 20.3% to $9.33 billion in
2007.
Controversies and Growth
Consumer Activists around the world have voiced there
concern over the impact of placements, especially on
children. The European Union had strict guidelines
regarding such telecasts till recently and only now has
started to relax them.
The growth potential overall is extremely strong.
Clutter, relaxed laws, new markets, consumer
disillusion with traditional media and development of
specialists in the field will all contribute to the multifold
increase in placements as a concept
12

According to the advertising industry, consumers are

nothing but ad-avoiders and the advertising fraternity
is continuously searching for new avenues and methods
to reach out to their target consumers.

Out is In!
Gaurav|Manas|Parul
Not so long ago, paper posters, in loud colours, pasted
on walls, seemed a feasible mode of advertising. Over
the years, technological innovations have leveraged the
quality of outdoor advertising, transforming dull
placards into digital screens and hoardings. And not
surprisingly, more and more advertisers are becoming
receptive to the concept of out-of-home advertising.
What is the buzz all about ?
Out-of-home advertising (also referred to as OOH) is
essentially all types of advertising that tries to reach the
consumer while he is "outside of the home". Be it while
travelling to reach office or while taking a coffee break.
OOH is ubiquitous; on or in bus, taxi, railway station,
airport, mall, retail store, road, club and scores of other
touch points. It is the medium that reaches active
consumers where they are most available to take notice
i.e. out of their homes.
Why OOH ?
Rajeev Chakrabarti, business head, FIRANGI, says, The
OOH pricing is much cheaper than radio, TV and print.
All in all, the medium is beneficial for advertisers as it is
clutter-free with highly efficient targeting and is costeffective compared with other traditional media.

Lowest cost per thousand impressions

Total reach: Exposed to everyone who goes out

to work, study or enjoy

24X7 brand exposure: Unmatched frequency

levels

Wide target potential: Mass audience & also

Specific Communities

Repeated Exposure: Leading to sustained

awareness

Motion Panel Technology

The leading platform for In-tunnel advertising medium,
it allows advertisers to reach target audiences as they
are being transported on subways and trains. As
viewers pass Panel installations, they are treated to 8
second or longer motion-picture advertisements.
Independent studies demonstrate that in-tunnel
subway advertising displays have the highest recall
rates of all transit advertising, with exceptional value in
branding.

Delhi Metro has experimented with this medium in one

of the stretches on the underground routes.
Washroom Advertising
It is a unique medium that allows you to attain
undivided audience attention for spans of up to five
minutes! They catch the person at an idle time when he
is literally craving for something to occupy him. It can
be used quite effectively at Airports / Hotels /
Restaurants / Health clubs / Cinemas / Malls.
13

Clutter free because of limited number of ads

around, therefore better recall

Better awareness due to riveted attention for 13 minutes

Can reach specific target audiences by choosing

the right location and type of restroom.

Walkways at the station

Elevator/Escalator Advertising
With new and newer malls, high-rise offices opening
their doors every day, elevators/escalators are
becoming an essential part of any buildings design
structure. This has given rise to an excellent
opportunity to advertisers to reach their customers for
at least 2-5 minutes in the elevator/escalator.

It can be a high-impact medium in malls captures

audience attention before entering points of purchase.
Metro Advertising
Metro advertising can reach all demographic
successfully and give an ad campaign the exposure it
requires. This medium provides exciting opportunities
because of idle time while walking in the station
premises, travelling or waiting at the platform

At the platform

LCD OOH
This medium is being used for displaying full motion
graphics, static or video advertisements. Images and
videos can be changed anytime electronically through
prior programming. This enables a very easy and fast
change of display to give the advertisers multiplicity of
messages as well and it can not only telecast TVCs but
also live news, cricket matches etc.
Some usage areas for an LCD screen can be the
following: Malls (Atrium, Pillars) / Coffee Shops /
Health Clubs / Cinemas (Waiting Area) / Office
buildings / Airports (Waiting Area) / Bars / Nightclubs

Mall

Health Club

Indian OOH Landscape

Rapid growth: According to a PwC-FICCI report,
outdoor media is pegged at Rs 1200 crore in 2008. OOH
media, radio and Internet advertising acquire relatively
14

smaller chunks of 7%, 3% and 1%, respectively. Being

the second-fastest growing medium after Internet, PwC
estimates this share to climb to about 10% by 2010. In
terms of regional spend, the metros dominate the
outdoor advertising market. GroupM observes that
although they account for only 12% of the total
population in India, the cities of Mumbai and Delhi
attract 40% of all OOH spend.
Entry of foreign players: Another factor of change is
the entry of global players in India: Clear Channel, JC
Decaux and News Outdoors (News Corp.) have all made
significant investments in India, and won contracts for
managing bus shelters in Delhi (JC Decaux) and
Bangalore (News Outdoor). Given the current
dynamism in this exciting space, an overview of the
major OOH players in India (Exhibit 2) is in order. It is
interesting to note that a number of companies in this
space are subsidiaries of large groups operating in
retail or media. The financial muscle and pan-India
presence of their parent companies are important
assets for these OOH players.
PE firms wooing OOH media players: Another trend
of note is the increasing interest amongst private equity
players in the OOH space (Exhibit 3). In a sector thats
largely unorganized and dominated by family-run set
ups, private equity and outdoor media owners are
becoming strange partners. Currently, most of the
funding is going into newer players with interests
beyond conventional media.
Factors driving growth of OOH Advertising in India:

Clutter on traditional media: Saturation of

advertisements on TV, Radio have led to
increasing demands for clutter-free advertising
from consumers.

Large working population commutes long

distances which makes transit advertising
attractive.

Applicability for Rural marketing: Low literacy

levels make print unviable while penetration of
mass media like TV is still relatively low
compared to urban areas.

Local advertising: Advertising targeted to local

tastes and needs of consumers is possible, thus
increasing effectiveness of OOH.

What next? New technologies like Motion Panel

Technology will make way for traditional means in
order to reduce clutter and move into new spaces.
Interactive billboards and Bluetooth enabled OOH
Advertising are the way forward. Holistic approach
across OOH, traditional media television, print and
radio, and new media Internet and mobile, will also
become significant.
According to a PwC FICCI 2008 report, the out-of-home
media, currently over a Rs 1000 crore industry is
expected to be worth Rs 2000 crore by the year 2010 at
a CAGR of 17% (Exhibit 4). However, there are quite a
few challenges that plague the industry before it takes
the next leap.
Roadblocks for OOH: In developed markets, formats
are standardized and urban environs are regulated, but
in India neither is the case. Outdoor media placements
are haphazard and structures come up on pavements
and roads unilaterally, and hence parameters that
determine visibility for site overseas cannot be adopted
in-Toto.
Absence of data and measurement tools
OOH advertising can grow only if the advertiser feels
comfortable about its efficacy. For any advertiser, ROI
(Return on Investment) is the key. Lack of
measurement in outdoor advertising poses problems
15

pertaining to reach, impact and ROI. This has led to

potential advertisers shying away or allocating frugal
spends. This also encourages gut-feel and relationshipbased buying, and media owners are forced to cut
prices. Measurement tools give confidence to the
advertiser.
In the past, advertisers have often turned to surrogate,
but flawed, measurements like NRS and IRS. NRS-IRS
results come in once in six months, forcing media
owners to invest in independent research. Continuous
measurement coupled with recency of data is
important for advertisers and will help boost growth of
OOH.
Regulation: Billboards and hoardings in India have
been seen as a nuisance by the authorities. Hoardings
are banned in Delhi and Chennai, while in Mumbai,
their number is severely restricted. A new out-of-theblue notification has sent the outdoor media in the state
of UP into a tailspin. Proposals to hike the taxes from Rs
450 to Rs 4,500 per sq. m. would make it the costliest
state in India for OOH advertising. The multiplicity of
laws in the country and the disparity amongst states
make it difficult for advertisers to evolve a countrywide
strategy for OOH.

booms, brand marketers realize the need to be present

on every touch point. Given this, and the fact that OOH
has not yet proven its worthiness to be a sole viable
medium, it can only be used as a support medium to
other mass media only.
Conclusion
With more and more global OOH majors coming into
India, the outlook of the clients, the specialist agencies
and also the media owners will undergo a sea change.
Technology, innovation and accountability with service
delivered to the T will be the benchmarks that
advertisers will use to judge OOH as a medium, and the
OOH players have to stand the test. OOH will certainly
evolve beyond its static media heritage. Consolidation
will also play a key role in taking OOH to the next level.
The booming retail sector will provide plenty of
opportunities to innovate and create exciting outdoor
advertising.
All that is needed to sustain is recognition of OOH as an
industry, regulation and some amount of research to
validate the ROI on ad spend by marketers on OOH
media.

Lack of consolidation: Outdoor advertising has always

been perceived as a fragmented and a disorganized
industry. Today OOH in India is a Rs 1200 crore
industry that employs more than 3000 professionals
consisting of many big and medium sized media
companies. Signs of consolidation are however
appearing with for example the creation of the Indian
Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), a common
platform for outdoor industry to take up issues at
various government & non-government forums.
Support medium: No matter how much the OOH
industry grows the fact remains that, as consumption
16

Back With a Band!

Chandrashekar M
So how where and when did this concept of silicone
wristbands start? The answer to this is the yellow
Livestrong silicone gel wristbands which were
launched in May 2004 by the Lance Armstrong
foundation. The foundation was founded by seven time
Tour de France Champion (1999 to 2005) and a cancer
survivor Lance Armstrong, as a fund-raising tool for
cancer patients. These yellow wristbands became such
a huge fashion fad that it has sold over 55 million. As
the fad was dying out market analyst found a
dichotomy in the silicone wristband industry. They
discovered an effective and inexpensive mainstay
custom silicone wristbands. They showed that just like
coffee mugs, pens and t shirts arent considered a fad
and are a mainstay, customized wristbands are here to
stay too.
Traditional advertising Vs Silicone wristbands
The contemporary business scenario is characterised
by tough competition, heavy marketing budgets,
innovative methods of marketing and a constant
demand for creativity that would help keep companies
an inch ahead of their competitors. As such marketers
are looking out for new methods to market their
products to reach customers at different level. Though

the traditional marketing mediums like television

advertising
and
newspaper
advertising
still
overshadow other forms of advertising, smart
marketers look for novel ways of advertising their
products to get the competitive advantage.
Word-of-mouth marketing has been, and will be, the
most successful and cost effective way to reach the
mass. Word-of-mouth marketing emanates itself in
plethora of forms which could decide the fate of a
particular product or a brand. One of the most complex
things in this world is to tame the locus of word-ofmouth epidemic; which by theory is the next thing to
impossible. Silicone wristbands can be used as form
word of mouth marketing as they convey the message
as effectively as traditional word of mouth does. If a
person is wearing a silicone wristband with a message,
it means that the person is propagating the brand and
he/she certifies the brand.
Paul Reveres ride is perhaps the most famous historical
example of a word-of-mouth epidemic. A piece of
extraordinary news travelled a long distance in a very
short time, mobilizing an entire region to arms. Not all of
word of mouth epidemics are sensational, of course. But
it is safe to say that word of mouth is even in this age of
mass communications and multi-million dollar
17

advertising campaigns- still the most important form of

human communication. from the Tipping point by
Malcolm Gladwell.

Silicone wristbands are instrumental in spreading

the word
One of the vicarious forms of word of mouth and viral
marketing is silicone wrist bands which have proved to
be an effective way to market products and create
trends that could trigger an epidemic as mentioned
above. For a decade, silicone wristbands have been
viewed as one of the biggest fundraising tools by
different organizations. But in the turn of new
millennium, the corporate world has discovered in it
great advertising potentials. They have realized that
custom made silicone wristbands can be used as an
efficient, inexpensive, unobtrusive and excellent
marketing tool due to their cost effectiveness, their easy
availability, and the ease of customization. Today
silicone wristbands are being viewed as Walking
Billboards.
Elaboration Likelihood model:
Marketing and Advertising using silicone wristbands
follow the peripheral route of persuasion under the
Elaboration Likelihood Model as given by Richard Petty
and John Cacioppo. Under this route the recipients rely

on a variety of cues to make quick buying decisions.

Robert Cialdini has indentified six such cues

Reciprocation

Consistency

Social Proof

Liking

Authority

Scarcity
Using wristbands as a promotional product follows the
law of reciprocity which states that you give something
out in order to gain something back. And the law works
perfectly.
Wristbands are attractive, lightweight, and portable,
and people love wearing them thus this encompasses
the cues related to consistency and liking.
The meanings attached to the wristbands have been
instrumental in enabling it to get social acceptance.
Each wristband has a significance attached to it and this
becomes a topic of discussion in social gatherings.
These wristbands are extremely popular among the
kids fraternity and the best way to spread a companys
message is to distribute these wristbands in places
where
kids
are
in
abundance.
Authority and scarcity do not apply to this concept and
hence can be ignored. We also know that repetition
increases the possibility of elaboration and thus by
making wristbands readily available, it is bound be a
sure shot success for the company using them as an
advertising tool.
The Appeal
What is so special about silicone wristbands that could
be used as an effective way to advertise a companys
product? The advertising potential of the silicone
wristbands lie in their stylish appeal to the young
generation. It has become a trend, not just among the
young populace but people of all ages, to collect stylish
silicone wristbands as a hobby.
18

What makes it even more interesting is the fact that

these silicone wristbands goes with any kind of attire,
be it sports gear or a work place dress, they dont look
out of place. Wide range of stylish wristbands that suit
a variety of occasions makes it more special and
attractive. These features allow a company to cover a
larger target area with immense visibility. Greater the
visibility the bigger is the publicity for your company.
To consummately conclude, perspicuously, there are
myriad of ways to use silicone wristbands as an
effective instrument to further your organizations
goals as there are people out there just waiting to help
you achieve them.

19

1. Vikrant According to the Golden Arches Theory,

no two countries that both had McDonald's had
fought a war against each other since each got
the McDonald's. In which book did this theory
appear?
2. Identify the Logo

6. Identify the auto brand

7. What are Heliostats?

3. Connect

8. Who propounded the N=1 and R=G?

9. If Paris' Avenue des Champs Elysees and Hong
Kong's Causeway Bay hold the third and second
spots in the list of world's most expensive
shopping streets, which is No. 1?

4. Identify the name of the book from the cover

image

10. A man (fired by National Cash Register in 1913)

took over control of a company named
Computer-Tabulation Recording Company.
What is the man's name? What is the company
name now?
Solutions in the September issue
Solutions to Metaquizzics- July issue

5. Which product came out with the line Ugly Is

Only skin deep

1. Harry Potter Stock Index 2.Virgin Mobile 3. M

S Dhoni 4.Seth Godin 5.His Masters Voice
6.Coca Cola Commercial 7.C K Prahalad
8.Sarbanes Oxley Act 9.UBS 10.Thamarai
11.Force India 12.MacBook 13.Coca Cola
14.Fear of being without mobile connectivity
15.Starbucks

20

Is Choice
Good?
Tejas Bhat
What prompted me to write this article was the
dilemma I faced when deciding on the electives for my
second year in management. Select 58 out of 70
electives and make sure you select the right ones cos a
wrong decision might result in hours and hours of
listening about things you didnt want to know about,
anytime in your life. And then it happened again. After
going through the stress of selecting my electives, I
thought that a nice cup of coffee would be a good idea
to soothe my nerves. I went to this coffee shop and a kid
comes to take my order. I say One coffee please. He
says Yeah, which one. I say Just plain good old
coffee. He looks at me like I just stepped out of a flying
saucer and says OK, a cappuccino it is then and walks
off to share a laugh with his colleagues. See what I
mean! What happened to the good old days when coffee
was just coffee and Sunday morning meant
Mahabharata on the telly, for everyone in India. Dont
get me wrong; I am all for choice. I would like to have a

variety of ice cream flavours to choose from. But what I

am trying to say is that after I buy the chocolate chip ice
cream, and after eating it, theres a nagging voice in my
head that keeps saying You should have bought the
Pistachio Almond, it would definitely have tasted
better and again You should have bought the
Pistachio Almond, it would definitely have tasted
better. Choice makes me nervous.
Now, Barry Schwartz would classify me as a
Maximiser. Who is this Barry guy? Well, honestly I
didnt know about him either until I started researching
(read Googling) to find out if there were other people
like me. Turned out he had writno da
ten a book in 2004 on this concept The Paradox of
Choice- Why More is Less. In the book he simply says
that providing choice to the consumer has greatly
increased their anxiety levels.
Barry Schwartz thinks there are two kinds of people in
the world, Maximisers and Satisficers. Quoting from
his book, Maximizers want the best. The problem that
needs to be solved is whats the best jeans, the best
restaurant, the best place to go on vacation, the best
marital partner - everything. Yet that requires a search
of all possibilities which isimpossible. And
Satisficers arent looking for the best, theyre looking
for good enough and good enough can be very good, it
doesnt mean people have no standards. But it means
they dont feel the need to do an exhaustive search.
21

They just keep looking until they find one thing that
meets their criteria and then they choose it.
This theory directly contradicts the long tail theory
which says that more choice leads to more satisfaction
to consumers since they can focus on the things they
actually want and not be forced to buy stuff. Makes
sense actually, but up to a point. I can deal with 3-4
choices when buying a pair of jeans, but beyond that,
making a choice becomes painful to the point that I may
decide not to buy it after all, for fear of making a wrong
decision.
One researcher from Columbia University, Sheena
Iyengar actually demonstrated the implication of the
paradox of too much choice by asking people to taste
jams in a grocery store. There were two booths, one
containing 6 flavors of jams to choose from and the
other, 24 flavors to choose from. After the tasting
session the people were asked to make a buying
decision on the jams. 30 % of the people visiting the 6
flavor booth actually bought jam, while from the 24
flavor booth, only 6% actually bought jam.

Jam, anyone?
This study may provide proof to the hypothesis that the
amount of choice is negatively correlated with buying
decision.
What does this mean to you? A lot, if you are the owner
of a supermarket or maybe a website! Blackfriars has
suggested that companies must take responsibility for
making decisions on behalf of their customers, what is

called strategic clarity. For example, if you are

designing a website, give the user a clear choice, but do
not overwhelm him with clutter and unnecessary
information. If there is too much clutter or information
overload, it would ultimately lead to the prospective
customer abandoning the website in favor of a simpler
website which is easy on his decision making
mechanism. In case of a retail store, offering a trial
period before which he can return the good, if
unsatisfied/change of mind, will result in coercing the
customer to make a buying decision by eliminating the
risk of wrong choice. Maybe this argument holds only
for low-involvement purchases and assumes that the
buyer is not fully informed of the product. This can be a
reasonable assumption as only a minority of the buyers
have an in-depth knowledge of what they are buying.
Most people do not base their buying decision on
cutting edge information. They would rather have
someone make a decision for them. The someone here
would be your marketing gimmick, sales promotion or
shelf placement.
Understanding this aspect of consumer behavior has
resulted in big bucks for certain companies. The
uncluttered, simple Google search website is worthy
of note here. Would Google have been as successful if
it had listed its search results under various subheadings and allowed the surfer to make the choice,
one can never tell!
The bottom line is that most people already have too
much stuff to worry about in their lives. Nobody
would want to turn a simple jam buying exercise into
a complicated internal battle of choice and will. When
overwhelmed with choice, consumers buy brands they
know and trust, or they don't buy anything at all.
Decrease in choice level actually results in less anxiety
and more satisfaction. Would marriage be an apt
example here?

22

Why do we go to a particular caf? Ambience, quality

and price I fathom are important factors that help us
decide. Bade Bhaiya had the same thing to say about his
chai. The stress was on quality, especially because there
was a lot of competition around (there are at least 5
other chai walas in a 50 meter radius).
He sells about 50-75 cups of chai every day, selling
each cup for Rs. 3. He invests about Rs. 5000 in his raw
materials (Milk, Sugar, Tea Leaves, and Gas) every
month. Also, alongside chai, he sells cigarettes, puffs,
namkeen, chips and soft drinks. Pays a rent of Rs.300
for the land every month and of course there are other
charges like electricity which add to his expenses. All in
all he estimates that in a month he makes about 3 4k.
The shop was set up a couple of years back, charged by
Chotus entrepreneurial spirit. He started with an initial
corpus of Rs.25, 000. 10k of his own money and
borrowed another 15 from a local money lender. We
were told that the lending rates were a ridiculous 5
10 % a month compounded (50 120% yearly Simple
Interest) in the area. Makes a strong case for
microfinance growth in this country really
The shop supports about 10
family members. Chotu in
previous conversations had
often spoken about his dreams
of growing the business. As far as we know, the shop
started as a basic chai and packaged snack stall and
then went on and first added an oven (for puffs), then
an Airtel PCO, then a bigger gas cylinder for the
increased demand for chai and recently a fridge to be
able to stock soft drinks, water and at more
adventurous times lemonade. The next stage of
expansion is going to see the introduction of a Banjo
(Bun - Omelet), hot dog and chaat counter. A failed
diversification project was the sale of pre-paid mobile
cards; as demand was extremely low.
They dont buy from company salesmen who come to
the shop and instead prefer to go to a local wholesaler,

Rajeshwar Tea Stall

Rajeshwar Tea Stall (lets just say chai wala, shall we...)
is an institution for our gang here at IIM I. For a decent
session of chai and smokes after class theres almost no
place like Rajeshwars. Located pretty close to college
we have had time to know the people here and gotten
to like them and hopefully they have gotten to like us.
Usually its Chotu bhaiya (Rajeshwars Nick Name)
whos manning the shop, but when we got there today,
it was his elder brother (who we have always called
Bade bhaiya) who we found there. And since we were
after all beating the street, we quizzed him a little on
the intricacies of the chai business

23

who allows them a 1 2 day credit period sometimes.

Bade Bhaiya said that even that can sometimes turn out
to be critical for business. They do not have too many
credit customers, just 10 -15 of them (We have a
sneaky feeling hes trying to convey something to us
there). The business does not see too much

seasonality, though Sundays are good days, as most

competitors are shut. So, basically the chai stalls been
up and running for almost 2 years now without a single
day off.
A big advantage that the tea stall has over its
competitors is the fact that it is located so close to the
railway crossing. So when the gates are closed, a miles
long traffic jam is a regular sight on the highway. Many
who are waiting like to come over for a quick chai,
smoke and snack. Lucky Rajeshwar and family.
Intelligent and hardworking mostly we believe. They
have worked with heart these few years and the growth
shows. We wish them the best for times to come

24

According to the advertising

industry, consumers are
nothing but ad-avoiders and
the advertising fraternity is
continuously searching for
new avenues and methods
to reach out to their target
consumers. Lamborghini
Reventon

650bhp,
215mph. Road going stealth bomber. Yes please!

Clive Christians No 1,
Imperial
Majesty.
$215,000 a bottle with a
5 carat diamond stud.
Only 3 people ever knew
how heaven smells.

Civit: most expensive

coffee on earth but its
made from dung. Thats
right. An animal called
civit eats coffee beans
which, when released, is
gathered to create the
legendary brew.

Alienware Area-51 ALX

Overclocked Core2 Extreme
Processor.
NVidia
SLI
GeForce
GTX
4TB
warehouse and 4GB RAM SoundBlaster
X-Fi
XtremeGamer Soundcard
1200p HD with Blu-Ray.
Violent Gaming Nirvana.

We love Apple, and IPods. But

frankly, its getting boring that
now everyone sports the same
devices. Who else to go to but
Sony. NW-E010 Stick type.
Swarovski (yawn) embedded.

Have millions in tax

havens? Van Cleef &
Arpels and Montblanc
could help you bring it
back in a pen. 840
diamonds, 20 carats of
gemstones. One Mystery
Masterpiece? $730,000.

Xtensor Gamer Hand exerciser.

Biomechanically correct design to
relieve them after a night long
gaming marathon. And claims to
increase reaction times. Overkill.

The
Dom
Perignon
of
Floorstanders.
Klipsch
Palladium P-39F speakers. 3.5
way tapered array design,
three high output woofers,
and
minimal
distortion.
$15,000.

25

26

Dear Readers,
Heartfelt thanks for your readership and support.
We intend to make it a magazine that is as much
yours as ours. In this regard, we will be publishing
two articles from the readers every edition. The
article should be in line with the theme of the
edition.

The Theme for the Next Edition is:

Rural Marketing
Please send in your entries to
mandi.iimi@gmail.com
by 10 August 2008
Format: MS Word, Times New Roman, Font size 12,
Word Limit: 1500 words

Everybody is invited