Online Advertising In India - The MSN India And NDTV Media Tie-Up

On December 19, 2005, MSN India and NDTV Media (NDTV) announced a strategic partnership that was a novel initiative in the Indian online advertising space. As per the deal, NDTV would represent MSN India, to its advertisers, to advertise on the home page of MSN India (www.msn.co.in), MSN Search, MSN Hotmail, and other MSN properties.

This tie up, ranging anywhere between US$ 1 million and US$ 3.5 million, was considered as one of the biggest deals in marketing and advertising in India. Media experts opined that this was a novel initiative which had the potential to kickstart the nascent online advertising scene in India.

Rajnish, Head of Sales and Marketing, MSN India said, “MSN India has consciously decided to do away with pop-up ads and click-on advertising strategies that are tedious. The concept of desktop television is revolutionary.”^[1]

The rate card which MSN India introduced would allow advertisers to buy time on the net rather than space, just like the way they do in television. Advertisers could run their advertisements on the internet in the same way as they were run on television.

They could also choose how their ad would run, how many days it would run, and at what time of the day it would run. Internet users did not need any extra technology or software to avail this feature. The user could mute the audio of the commercial if he/she felt that it was disturbing.

The television commercials would run on the left-most corner of www.msn.co.in, the home page of MSN India. The rates of advertising on desktop television were lower than the rates for a 100 cc advertisement in a leading newspaper. The rates were fixed based on the time band of the advertisement.

For a 30 second advertisement, it was around INR 750^[2] , and the charges increased with increase in time duration of the advertisement. If it were displayed during prime time, the cost would be more. NDTV media would get a commission of 15% - 20% for selling space for MSN.

contd....

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^[1] “Desktops get an ad break,”
http://www.iamai.in/section.php3?secid=16&press_id=731&mon=12, December 23, 2005.

^[2] As on February 03, 2006, 1 USD = 44.24 INR.

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