Dotcom Marketing in India
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EVOLUTION OF PORTALS contd...Some
advertisements had a packaged communication strategy, with a focus on brand
differentiation. For instance, a popular South Asian community portal,
chaitime.com launched a campaign named “chai peeke bol” (have tea and speak)
in May 1999. It was a 6 x 8 feet virtual wall, which allowed students from
six cities in India to flash their messages on chaitime.com.
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There was a grand prize for the college that flashed
the maximum number of messages, and customized T-shirts, free head
messages, tattoos etc, for all those who registered on the site.
Analysts felt that this was an event, which was difficult to manage.
However, Dr. Jayesh Vaidya, Managing Director, chaitime.com justified it
saying, “We do not offer any physical product.
This is the only way users can relate to us in the physical world.” In
metros like Delhi and Mumbai, outdoor advertising like banners, kiosks
and bill boards were used more widely. In Delhi, since billboards were
banned, the money was put on kiosks and bus shelters. |
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In Mumbai, dotcom companies'hoardings were more than
those put up by the brick and mortar companies. For every brick and mortar
hoarding, there were four to five hoardings from dotcom companies. Prior to
the mushrooming of dotcoms in India, this space was used by the FMCG
companies.
A senior executive at indya.com explained.” Outdoor advertising is cheaper
than conventional media and it has good reach because the billboard always
screams out.” For effective marketing, dotcoms adopted promotional
strategies of brick and mortar companies like conducting meals, etc.
Hungama.com an entertainment site established 560 cybercafes to promote
traffic to its site.
A placement site jobsahead.com held job meals in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi
where recruiters met potential employees. Baazee.com placed kiosks in high
traffic areas to educate markets and consumers. Jaspreet Bindra, chief
operating officer, baazee.com said, “Everything can't be done on the Web.
For some things, you need off line capability.”
Brainvisa.com, involved in career counseling to high school children
conducted aptitude tests online for which it charged Rs 500. Additionally,
it also conducted these tests in schools across the country. There were also
some dotcoms, which ignored traditional advertising and looked at innovative
ways of marketing – word of mouth, referrals etc. – to increase traffic.
For instance, hungama.com, completely ignored the expensive print and
television media and took up viral marketing. It identified 125 hungama
hangouts – pubs, clubs, and cinema halls – where it made its presence felt
through promotions, schemes, and onsite advertising. Neeraj Roy, CEO hungama,
said, “We wanted to be present at places where youngsters hang out.”
Similarly, bharatplanet.com, a gifting site, ran a referral program wherein
by introducing friends the visitors to this site earned points, which were
redeemable as shopping vouchers. Through referrals alone, the site got about
600 new users a week.
Word of mouth advertising, which resulted from a loyal customer base over a
period of time, was responsible for around 30% of new site traffic.
Hence, dotcoms had many cash and non-cash incentives for their loyal
customers. For instance, a consultancy company e-lab, gave cash incentives
to the user for references forwarded to its site, sawaal.com, a search
engine, gave free T-shirts to the users who sent information about the site
to 20 e-mail addresses.
The companies also used other established portals for advertising. Such
advertising was based on click-through rate; that is the dotcom had to pay
for the traffic that reached it after clicking on the advertisement. This
lowered the advertising costs and also ensured focused traffic. For
instance, many new dotcoms offering gift services to the NRIs used the
regional language newspaper sites like andhraprabha.com (Telugu), or
dinamani.com (Tamil).
Some dotcoms even reverted back to the barter system for their advertising
needs. Shares had become a new currency in the dotcom industry. Many dotcoms
signed agreements with popular media players to buy advertising space and
time through the issue and allotment of shares. For instance, Business
Standard, a financial daily, entered into a share-and-cash agreement with
Pugmarks.
Under the agreement, Business Standard was to use Pugmarks'services for
hosting and maintenance of the site in exchange for providing free
advertisement space and cash payments. A contests site, contests2win, also
entered into an agreement, to host the URL on the partners hoarding.
MARKETING OR PUBLICITY?
TABLE III - AD SPEND OF THE SURVIVORS IN 2000
EXHIBIT I - BUSINESS MODELS OF PORTALS
EXHIBIT II - IDEAS FOR MARKETING DIFFERENT TYPES OF SITES
EXHIBIT III - SOME OF THE SURVIVORS OF THE DOTCOM BUST
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