Authors

The internet makes it impossible to hide negative responses to your brand. For brands, social media is an opportunity to convert negative into positive, but a carefully thought out approach is called for.

Gopal Sathe Jun 14, 2011 8:39 AM

Social media companies are getting astronomical valuations – but are we headed towards a bubble and a bust like the 90s?

Gopal Sathe Jun 9, 2011 9:41 AM

For brands, marketing efforts around online cricket games have paid off well during the IPL, even while the tournament had a lukewarm response on television this year.

Gopal Sathe Jun 8, 2011 12:25 PM

Free app platform Mobango has crossed one million daily downloads, across Android, Java and Symbian phones, with 25 per cent of those downloads taking place in India. But does this mean that building an app is a necessity for brands to reach out to consumers effectively?

Gopal Sathe Jun 6, 2011 8:42 AM

Search marketing firm Communicate 2 forays into social media marketing, launches Facebook campaign for Casino Royale Goa. 

Gopal Sathe Jun 3, 2011 2:49 PM

SMS Gupshup reportedly crossing 45 million users shows that SMS is still a viable tool for brands looking to reach a large audience.

Gopal Sathe Jun 1, 2011 8:06 AM

ApnaCircle founder Yogesh Bansal talks about how the company has invested heavily in marketing to help it take on market leader LinkedIn.

Gopal Sathe May 31, 2011 9:13 AM

UTV Interactive’s Sameer Pitalwalla talks to exchange4media about the way UTV Interactive is engaging with digital media...

Gopal Sathe May 31, 2011 9:02 AM

Tata Elxsi has created an ‘ePuppet’ technology that allows them to carry out real time 3D animation, thus enabling companies to have animated brand mascots talking to a live audience.

Gopal Sathe May 31, 2011 8:58 AM

Apparel maker Blackberrys says that while digital is a good tool for building a long term relationship with clients, it still lacks the power that television and OOH provide for building a larger than life brand.

Gopal Sathe May 30, 2011 8:14 AM

Browser maker Opera has a vision of the future when every device in the household is a ‘smart device’.

Gopal Sathe May 26, 2011 4:36 PM

Kiran Mani, Head of Sales, Google India is deeply involved with YouTube, and shares his views with exchange4media…

Gopal Sathe May 26, 2011 8:26 AM

Leading Tamil and Malayalam regional players Maalaimalar and Malayala Manorama already run regional language news apps on the iPad, which are a fresh revenue stream for the organisations as they attract separate advertising. But is there actual demand for such products?

Gopal Sathe May 25, 2011 12:16 PM

Does social media have a role to play in Public Affairs? Yes, says James Ward of Incanus. In conversation with e4m, Ward talked about the ways in which Incanus has been able to use networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Gopal Sathe May 24, 2011 8:22 AM

Digital is a very powerful medium which can change the way businesses are run, if it is tapped properly, says Harish Bahl, founder of Smile Group. Here, he shares his mantra of leveraging the digital media effectively...

Gopal Sathe May 24, 2011 8:17 AM

For Cheil Worldwide’s Naresh Gupta, today, the challenge was figuring the right kind of engagement that was possible with social media. He shares with e4m how Samsung has been using social media to its advantage...

Gopal Sathe May 24, 2011 8:10 AM

While the online retailer is investing in SEM and banner ads, Manmohan Agarwal, Co-Founder of Yebhi.com, insists that the best results come from word of mouth of happy buyers.

Gopal Sathe May 23, 2011 8:20 AM

MTS has increased its spending on digital to 15 per cent and plans to continue to raise this if it continues to yield results. The telecom firm has also launched new campaign on TV, print, radio, OOH and digital.

Gopal Sathe May 20, 2011 12:44 PM

Rishad Tobaccowalla, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, VivaKi, had a long conversation with exchange4media where he shared his views about the future of the medium, and what the big obstacles are that we need to get past now.

Gopal Sathe May 19, 2011 8:53 AM

 Innovation and creativity guide Coca Cola’s digital campaigns, be it the ‘Shadow’ commercial or ‘embedding’ reporters with IPL teams. As Coke’s digital spends increase progressively, Wasim Basir, Director – IMC, Coca Cola India, highlights some of the company’s digital initiatives.

Gopal Sathe May 17, 2011 9:39 AM

Are brands really engaging with social media, or are they just spending money to build up likes and fans, which don’t translate into any actual benefit to the company’s bottom line?

Gopal Sathe May 12, 2011 9:30 AM

Telecom major Aircel is in the process of reviewing its creative business. The presentations will begin mid-May 2011.

Gopal Sathe May 11, 2011 9:46 AM

After print and TV, Beetel dabbles in digital media. Company CEO Vinod Sawhny speaks to exchange4media.

Gopal Sathe May 10, 2011 8:57 AM

Just creating a Facebook page and setting up the ‘like’ button is only the first step; there are three very important things that all fashion brands have to take into account when planning their presence on Facebook...

Gopal Sathe May 9, 2011 1:05 PM

How can brands use the digital medium to effectively move the needle on their profits? According to Elisa Steele, CMO Yahoo, we need to go beyond this question, and look beyond RoI to make the most out of digital, and paradoxically, get a better RoI.

Gopal Sathe May 9, 2011 8:43 AM

Business support services provider EdenRed has created a free cricket game to align with the brand proposition of making life easier as a stress buster offering. With this, the company got online impressions worth a spend of Rs 12 million, but for only a fraction of the cost.

Gopal Sathe May 6, 2011 1:02 PM

The way that we plan marketing on the Internet needs to change, argues Savio Fernandes, Chief Sales Officer, Rediff, and adds, we need to start looking at it as a reach medium, one which will match television over the next five years.

Gopal Sathe May 6, 2011 12:49 PM

With Indiatimes and Rediff entering the daily deals business and Info Edge investing in MyDala, while GroupOn looking to invest strategically in their India office, what’s the deal with the daily deals businesses?

Gopal Sathe May 6, 2011 8:19 AM

The growth of digital can only continue at its present rate, feels the top management of Digitas in London and in India. There is a strong appetite for new and innovative advertising in the country, and the spending proves this.

Gopal Sathe May 5, 2011 8:35 AM

Sprite and Sapient Nitro have launched a Twitter campaign around cricket to engage with fans. Sapient Nitro Country Manager Ramswaroop Gopalan talks to exchange4media about the genesis and early reaction to the campaign.

Gopal Sathe May 4, 2011 12:19 PM

Gaming is fast becoming the new ‘new media’ as the audience profile diversifies and expands. And for brands that want to be seen as innovative and fun, it’s a natural fit, but there are still problems preventing this from happening in India. A look at the challenges...

Gopal Sathe May 4, 2011 9:09 AM

Digital companies often get the short shrift for using traditional advertising. But Kartik Jain, Head of Marketing for ICICI Lombard, feels brands must go wherever the customer is, and feedback made possible through digital allows them to make informed choices about this...

Gopal Sathe Apr 28, 2011 8:52 AM

Mobile advertising is growing fast and will be critical for brands to reach out to people in a personal way. Here we look at the top tips that all marketers must keep in mind for the medium and the mistakes to avoid…

Gopal Sathe Apr 27, 2011 8:34 AM

Video ads on the Internet are now the norm, coming in a variety of formats, but there are some pitfalls to avoid, which marketers need to be aware of. Here we list the three most common ones…

Gopal Sathe Apr 25, 2011 8:31 AM

The better the results from organic search, the less you need to spend online in other mediums. So, what are the most important things to keep in mind?

Gopal Sathe Apr 13, 2011 8:46 AM

Getting on to social is a must today, but not everyone knows how to use it well. exchange4media talks to industry experts to find out where brands go wrong on Facebook today.

Gopal Sathe Apr 8, 2011 9:09 AM

Only a small percentage of the firms that generate transactional messages take advantages of new technology that allows custom, contextualised communication of marketing with each individual.

Gopal Sathe Apr 4, 2011 9:23 AM

To stand out and do something different, online offers a unique channel to the sports brands. For brands like Adidas and Puma, going online for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 was a big hit.

Gopal Sathe Apr 4, 2011 9:08 AM

Digital has changed the way brands engage with customers. The exceptional growth of digital advertising last year was not a one-off thing, and the medium will continue to attract brands and marketers, says Neil Hudspeth, Regional Digital Director - Asia Pacific, Leo Burnett.

Gopal Sathe Mar 31, 2011 12:42 PM

Facebook has rolled out a new Questions feature, which lets people set up multiple choice questions easily without any third party application.

Gopal Sathe Mar 31, 2011 8:59 AM

Started by two IIT-IIM alums, Brand and Me hopes to become the latest brand engagement platform, by bundling together quizzing, social connect and brand engagement into one package. Founder Surjendu Kuila talked to exchange4media to explain how it all will come together.

Gopal Sathe Mar 30, 2011 8:46 AM

Quality of service and dependability will be the major drivers of e-commerce, says Star CJ CEO Paritosh Joshi, adding, companies should focus on getting the basics right instead of looking at differentiation and segmentation.

Gopal Sathe Mar 29, 2011 9:44 AM

Experts say that the future of television lies in two stages of digital – first the proposed switch to a digital signal from analog, and then a switch to Internet-based delivery of content.

Gopal Sathe Mar 24, 2011 9:13 AM

CASBAA Deputy CEO John Medeiros talks to exchange4media about the changing nature of television in an increasingly digital age, and how developments like video on demand and digital video recorders are forcing people to rethink the business model for television.

Gopal Sathe Mar 24, 2011 9:13 AM

Yahoo has revealed several new ad formats, which the company hopes will bring new creative direction to display advertising. Nitin Mathur, Senior Director Marketing, Yahoo, speaks exclusively to e4m...

Gopal Sathe Mar 22, 2011 1:03 PM

E-commerce comes with unique issues of customer satisfaction. How do the companies keep on top of the problem and ensure that customers remain happy?

Gopal Sathe Mar 22, 2011 9:38 AM

Mobile social networks like RockeTalk and Mig33 have made great headways into smaller towns and cities, and boast active communities. How can brands effectively use this channel for marketing and advertising? e4m explores…

Gopal Sathe Mar 22, 2011 8:55 AM

Dr Pragnya Ram was conferred the Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural IPRCC Awards 2011. Hanmer MSL’s Sunil Gautam was declared PR Professional of the Year, Roma Balwani of Mahindra was adjudged Corporate Communication Professional of the Year. PR Agency of the Year was Blue Lotus PR.

Gopal Sathe Mar 17, 2011 5:06 PM

IMRB will be installing a toolbar in browsers to monitor Internet use. Will this new measure become the universal currency for digital? Experts are divided on this…

Gopal Sathe Mar 14, 2011 8:30 AM

How do we blend creativity with technology? The combination of these two factors is what will unlock the potential and earning capacity of advertising on the web. Gopal Sathe delves into it...

Gopal Sathe Mar 12, 2011 7:03 AM

comScore reports a 19 per cent shift away from email on the web, but email marketing firms say that this represents a shift to mobile… e4m finds out.

Gopal Sathe Mar 11, 2011 11:39 AM

Building a successful e-commerce company means focusing on the core competency. To bring this about, outsourcing functions like logistics is key.

Gopal Sathe Mar 11, 2011 8:33 AM

Snapdeal and dozens of other deal sites have flooded the market, but the detractors are already in place and new models are starting to come up. e4m delves into the space…

Gopal Sathe Mar 9, 2011 3:32 PM

Myntra.com CEO Mukesh Bansal speaks to e4m about the company’s tie-up with Nike and how they are investing in mass media to reach out to new audiences.

Gopal Sathe Mar 9, 2011 7:41 AM

Indiatimes Director - Telecom Ajay Vaishnavi reveals that millions of users have already subscribed to the company’s services as the World Cup journey begins.

Gopal Sathe Mar 7, 2011 7:33 AM

Social media can be a powerful tool for CSR outreach, as UNICEF has discovered with their ‘Awaaz Do’ campaign created by O&M, which seeks to spread awareness of the Right to Education.

Gopal Sathe Mar 5, 2011 7:27 AM

Nitin Mathur, Senior Director – Marketing, Yahoo!, talks to e4m about how their partnership with the ICC World Cup has exceeded expectations in traffic, and how the site has benefited from the tie-up.

Gopal Sathe Mar 3, 2011 7:30 AM

The FMCG sector is one where online participation, despite early enthusiasm, is still limited to brand advertising. However, marketing goes beyond just that, and Capital Foods shares their recipe for a strong online presence with exchange4media.

Gopal Sathe Mar 2, 2011 7:32 AM

Freemium models built around microtransactions have a lot of potential, and not just in games, but who’s on board?

Gopal Sathe Feb 28, 2011 1:03 PM

Fashion and You CEO Pearl Uppal talks to e4m about the tie-up with Lakme Fashion Week and how the company has been innovating to be one of the biggest brands in online apparel retail.

Gopal Sathe Feb 24, 2011 8:49 AM

Small ventures often find it hard to raise venture capital, but by raising funds through crowdsourcing websites, innovative ideas can gain traction.

Gopal Sathe Feb 23, 2011 8:32 AM

Unknown start-up Notion Ink has managed to sell its entire stock of Adam tablets globally without the accompanying buzz. A look at how it achieved this feat.

Gopal Sathe Feb 22, 2011 7:22 AM

By creating a strong two-way interaction, STAR India’s English channels Star World and Star Movies not only gained new viewers, but also built up a relationship with the audience.

Gopal Sathe Feb 21, 2011 7:24 AM

The Video Wiki Viki brings regional content from around the world with subtitles to make it accessible to people anywhere, using ‘crowdsourcing’ to drive content growth.

Gopal Sathe Feb 19, 2011 7:02 AM

Building on the excitement for cricket, many games and apps are bringing the ICC World Cup 2011 to mobile devices.

Gopal Sathe Feb 17, 2011 11:22 AM

Online retail offers tremendous long tail opportunities and can more easily leverage social media to generate sales along with brand building, says Sundeep Malhotra, CEO, Homeshop18.

Gopal Sathe Feb 17, 2011 7:57 AM

Despite huge numbers, advertising on mobile remains poorly understood. What are the advantages of one medium over another, and what is the reach of each?

Gopal Sathe Feb 14, 2011 3:38 PM

Online marketing is built around gathering customer data and delivering sharply targetted advertising, but this is starting to have negative results in the US, through over-exposure.

Gopal Sathe Feb 14, 2011 7:35 AM

Set top boxes give advertisers two-way communication into the living rooms across the nation and people are starting to explore the nascent medium.

Gopal Sathe Feb 14, 2011 7:33 AM

Adepto Solutions has created Trol.ly for Facebook, which is hoped to revolutionise the use of social media for e-commerce. Games2Win’s Alok Kejriwal has joined the Board as advisor.

Gopal Sathe Feb 11, 2011 7:18 AM

Ad networks have seen a lot of change in the last five years, but despite great gains, still face significant challenges. Mobile presents great opportunity, however, efficiency and optimisation must be the order of the day.

Gopal Sathe Feb 9, 2011 7:18 AM

Hyundai, which has signed on as the official automotive partner for the ICC World Cup 2011, has big plans around the tournament. The carmaker has earmarked a budget of Rs 200 crore over the next five years.

Gopal Sathe Feb 9, 2011 7:05 AM

A traditionally offline business like Bajaj Allianz is showing the way to successfully straddle the digital medium with a well-thought out plan.

Gopal Sathe Feb 8, 2011 7:25 AM

Building a brand is not an event but a process, which sees a company’s message continuously evolving to match changing goals and audience expectations.

Gopal Sathe Feb 7, 2011 7:31 AM

Companies that go beyond buzzwords and really understand how to use digital stand to make huge gains...

Gopal Sathe Feb 5, 2011 7:10 AM

Mobile media and enterprise communications provider ValueFirst gains Rs 700 million in funding to push acquisitions before a planned 2012 IPO.

Gopal Sathe Feb 2, 2011 7:47 AM

While the retail sector in India takes its first steps towards becoming an organised area for commerce, digital retailers are coming in as well and seem to have found ways to make the channel work.

Gopal Sathe Jan 31, 2011 7:26 AM

Piracy has long been cited as the reason why international players are not keen to enter digital content into the Indian marketplace. But publishers and distributors are realising that e-commerce built around digital content can build new audiences and provide an alternative to piracy.

Gopal Sathe Jan 31, 2011 7:23 AM

Blyk India’s Antii Ohrling, Tribal DDB’s Max Hegerman, Lintas Media Group’s Sudha Natrajan and BCWebWise’s Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer deliberate on what the youth seek from brands while interacting through digital media.

Gopal Sathe Jan 31, 2011 7:21 AM

The new generation of consumers are tough to convince, as the demand for brands has shifted from aspiration to answering how the brand fits into the life of the Generation 3.0 or as Jeroen Boschma, Chairman, Gadfly calls it, the Einstein generation.

Gopal Sathe Jan 31, 2011 7:12 AM

BharatMatrimony has launched a new app for Facebook, which allows users to play matchmaker for their friends as well. CEO M Janakiraman shares with e4m how the company has been innovating online in the last two years…

Gopal Sathe Jan 28, 2011 7:44 AM

With the number of ad networks on the rise, e4m takes a look at some of the well-established ones and what they have to offer; why content providers and marketers both need to look at ad networks and what they can do for you.

Gopal Sathe Jan 27, 2011 8:10 AM

Email marketing is both one of the newer and also one of the longest running forms of digital marketing. Marketers need to effectively leverage the medium, instead of being seen as just spam.

Gopal Sathe Jan 27, 2011 7:33 AM

Bharat Matrimony has created a virtual wife, get to know her at biwihotohaisi.com. The website, developed in partnership with WebChutney, hopes to build brand engagement with prospective bridegrooms.

Gopal Sathe Jan 19, 2011 7:31 AM

Dow Jones has introduced J2ME, a WSJ India apps for Blackberry. The company plans to introduce more versions of the apps until the end result is platform agnostic, and tells us why they feel that the digital platform is due to grow rapidly over 2011.

Gopal Sathe Dec 20, 2010 7:36 AM

Bangalore-based startup Notion Ink finally puts the much delayed Adam tablet on sale. The device, which is priced a tad lower than the iPad, is a standout product from an Indian manufacturer, which aims to compete with Apple and Samsung not by offering a low price, but by providing a user experience and device engineering at a quality that matches the global leaders. The launch has not been without controversy, however, and CEO Rohan Shravan defends his company’s decision to keep things under wraps even as it starts to sell the tablet.

Gopal Sathe Dec 20, 2010 7:35 AM

Think Design, a young design startup, has been founded by three ex-NID students who saw the need for proper industrial design, UI design and mobile app design standards in the Indian market. The young company already has major clients like Microsoft, Whirlpool and Godrej under its belt, along with international clients from around the world.

Gopal Sathe Dec 17, 2010 8:41 AM

Dealivore is the latest entrant in the social buying market. The sector has been flooded by Groupon clones in the last one year, but Dealivore MD Satish Madhira talks about how they are trying to consciously adapt the business model to better suit Indian markets, and also the fast growth they have seen the viral effects of Facebook.

Gopal Sathe Dec 13, 2010 7:33 AM

HP has launched the DreamScreen in India, a budget touchscreen computer to enable everyone to access the Internet. Built around a variety of apps by various service providers, the company hopes the device will encourage adoption of PCs and increase the number of users actively on the Internet. Is Rs 20,000 a reasonable figure and can HP succeed where so many others have failed?

Gopal Sathe Dec 13, 2010 7:31 AM

A group of school students in Karnataka have started a website to share past test papers for free over the Internet. They are running the site to help other students like them who might have had difficulty in finding question papers for exams that they need to sit for. By providing a single database with papers from different exams around the country, they hope to help other students too.

Gopal Sathe Dec 10, 2010 9:11 AM

In Delhi to announce the launch of LinkedIn’s latest feature – company pages – in the second largest market for his company, LinkedIn VP - Marketing Solutions Steve Patrizi spoke to exchange4media about their latest innovation, about the remarkable growth of the network here, and why professional networking is important not just for professionals, but also for companies, big and small.

Gopal Sathe Dec 8, 2010 5:23 PM

India has fewer broadband Internet users than small countries like the UK or Italy, and does not even make up for 10 per cent of the number of users from China or the US. Rediff.com Chairman Ajit Balakrishnan takes us through the issues holding us back and charts a path to 100 million users.

Gopal Sathe Dec 8, 2010 8:01 AM

TRAI Chairman JS Sharma has said that the growth of broadband connections in India will help in the development of the economy and also in infrastructure such as education and healthcare. While he has not disclosed TRAI’s future broadband plans, he does mention that one part is to have a closer role in the functions of service providers to encourage value added services, while at the same time, connecting every gram panchayat in the country to a fiber optic network as early as 2012.

Gopal Sathe Dec 8, 2010 7:50 AM

Research data shows that Farmville maker Zynga is experiencing a huge decline in its userbase on Facebook, with a loss of almost one million users this month. On the other hand, newcomer Digital Chocolate has grown by 800,000 users in the same period.

Gopal Sathe Dec 7, 2010 7:48 AM

NDTV is expanding its reach from television sets and aiming for our computers and our cell phones. In a freewheeling conversation with exchange4media, Vikram Chandra, CEO, NDTV Convergence, reveals the plans that the news organisation has chalked out to take it ahead as we watch the advent of high speed, low cost, personal Internet on mobile phones and affordable computers.

Gopal Sathe Dec 7, 2010 7:46 AM

Microsoft is focusing on social networks over television to publicise its newest gaming product. The company feels that while they needed to run a major television campaign when they launched the Xbox 360 in India, today the market is more mature, and hence, it is more effective to let people get hands on time with the devices instead, and to build awareness online.

Gopal Sathe Dec 6, 2010 7:45 AM