ashes2brands

Home Work before you take an email service provider

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:08:00 +0000

The questions the Marketing head or, the manager need to ask himself.

1. What does email marketing mean to your organisation?
2. What are you trying to achieve from your email marketing campaign (retention, loyalty, brand
awareness, new leads, sales etc)?
3. How will email marketing compliment your existing marketing strategy?
4. Do you currently communicate with your clients/customers on a regular basis and if so how?
5. How many emails will you be sending each year and how often?
6. Are you looking for different email designs for each send-out or one consistent template?
7. Who from your organisation needs to be involved in the decision-making process (IT, legal etc)
8. Who will be using the system within your organisation?
9. What budget do you have?
10. When are you hoping to launch the programme?
11. Where will you be getting the email addresses and permissions from, e.g. own customers, address
generation campaigns, website?

Opportunities for Email Marketing Business in India

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:47:00 +0000

Tremendous opportunity exists for a really focused and experienced email marketing solution and service provider in India to assist Indian Companies to utilize the high RoI channel as an effective marketing mix.

The opportunity for email marketing business in India is primarily because email still is the number one media that provide a higher return on marketing investment. Also because of the economic slowdown, a lot of companies have a constrained budget and are looking at optimally utilizing it for more direct, cost-effective and highly measurable email marketing option. Moreover growing usage and adoption of email by Indian internet users provides a compelling reason for companies to best use this channel as a must have and an effective marketing mix.

The volume of the emails sent by Indian companies is just 1 billion a month in contrast to 45 billion a month by US Marketers generating $1.6 billion business a year – shows how advanced markets are using the high RoI channel effectively. Despite the global economic slowdown, worldwide use of the internet continues to grow, and by 2013, there will be 2.2 billion internet users in the world.

With this large base of internet consumers, advertisers are realizing the power of drip marketing for their customers, prospects, and leads database. There is a range of mailing solutions from in-house, hosted bulk mailing solutions (provided by Indian Application Services Providers) to Global Email Marketing Service Providers.

Indian companies are still in need of a Email Marketing Service Provider, who can provide end to end solution from email blasting to delivery of email into inbox and feedback report on emails delivered to inbox, blockages by ISPs (Internet Service Providers synonymous with yahoo, gmail, rediff, aol, etc. who also provide email accounts), spam traps, spam complaints, reputation etc. Marketers also need a fully functional and all inclusive featured Email marketing solution that provides a high data security (ask for certifications), high performance email delivery throughput, more robust, high availability and rich reporting and a highly experienced support team.

Raising to the genuine needs of the Indian Companies and Marketers, few companies are beginning to emerge in the Indian scene, with local presence and strong email marketing domain and technology expertise.

This initially got published on Pluggd.in

A Look at Email Marketing Business in India [Opportunities]

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Email Marketing is one of the most powerful and effective forms of marketing today. It has emerged as a cost-effective, efficient, real time marketing channel defiantly challenging the traditional methods of customer contact. No other medium – offline or online – provides marketers with such a direct, personal, interactive and measurable customer communication capability and marketersare increasingly demanding e-execution capability within their marketing toolkit. The Direct Marketing Association has consistently reported that email garners the highest ROI among all direct response methods.
A recent study shows email marketing’s average ROI to be $45.06 for every dollar spent, more than double internet marketing ROI of $19.94 for every dollar spent.

It is a tragedy that email marketing is not being recognized and is given its fair share of marketing budget by Indian Marketers. The online ad spends in India represent just 3% of total media spend compared to 8 to 20% in developed markets. It is ironical that most of the online ad spend by Indian Marketers is spent on Display/Banner Ads and Searches, when more than 50% of the Indian online population is spending time on email compared to 18% to 25% of the time they spend on searching for information.

The above chart is a very nice presentation of the online consumer behaviour in India.

One of the reasons why India has not been able to realise this simple fact, is because of its lack of marketing legacy. We are a country where people could wait for a Maruti car for 6 months to be delivered. And right now when there is suddenly so much of competition among brands the old marketer is not able to understand the how to go about things. Moreover companies sold brands to masses rather to individuals.

In the US where the market is matured they understand how important it is to be constantly in touch with their customers, address their individual needs and gain their loyalty.

Eg: Virgin Atlantic immediately gratifies the passenger with $10+ worth food coupons or vouchers for giving their email ids. The marketing manager of Virgin Atlantic understands that if he is able to get his customers email id, how valuable the acquisition is for the airlines.

The growing online population and the increasing demand from consumers for more personalized needs, requires marketers to address these requirements quickly. Mostly email ids in India remain constant for a really long while in comparison with mobile phone numbers. And it is the only channel where the advertiser can have the most personalised and complete communication with the consumer.

The technology solutions and best practices for email marketing are available today in India for Marketers to jump and realize its potential to the fullest extent. Well, one has to watch and see the action. India has always been able to pull its socks quickly when it comes to absorption of technology and best practices, when it can provide higher returns!

What’s your opinion?

Note: The post was originally put on Pluggd.in

What is better- spend less and send the email to junk or, a bit extra to land it in the Inbox?

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:21:00 +0000

People who have been following my Gtalk status message and Facebook are quite aware how Sprinklr is doing :).

We have signed up 20+ clients till now and the number is rising every week with 2 to 3 new clients.
However if I have to share my experience there are quite funny reactions from my prospects that I could mention.

Jacob : How many emails are you doing in a Month?
Client : I am doing 4 to 5 million emails :).
Jacob : Wow thats really nice. However I notice most of your emails going into spam and usually the email reaches my Junk Folder after the offer is over- basically late.

Client: Yeah I know that is the pain and my CEO is also concerned about it, as its affecting the business.

Jacob : I completely understand the pain. Well, to start with Sprinklr assures you a delivery of 95% of the emails into the Inbox and can send out emails at the rate of 4 millions/hr.

Client : OMG! really ?

Jacob : Yup (Smiling ).

Client : When can I see the Demo?

Jacob : How about tomorrow 2.30 PM ? Shall we do a "Gotomeeting" ?

Client : Yes, let me coordinate with my marketing guys and my tech team.

Jacob : Cool!

-------------------------------------The Next Day-------------------------------

The Client is very impressed with Demo and is already speaking very high about it.

Client : Wow the platform is fantastic and seriously I had no idea that so much goes in it.

Jacob: Which part of the demo did you like the most?

Client : I like the place where you showed me "How the ISPs (gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail etc)
react to my creatives".

Jacob : Yes it is very powerful.

Client : What is the cost ie; involved ?

Jacob : Let me put you through to Saurav he will be the right guy for it.

Client : Ok.

Saurav : Hi Mr. Client, how are you doing today?

Client : I am doing good Saurav, I wanted to take things forward and start off immediately.

Saurav: Sure, looking at your volumes. We will be able to give you at Rs. 0.0x/email.

Client : Wow did not see that coming. Hey Saurav You are expensive.

Saurav : Well Mr. Client, how much are you spending right now?

Client : I am spending Rs. 0.0y/email.

Saurav : Thats nice, but sir I am only dy more than what you are spending currently.

Client : No No Saurav I want it in Rs. 0.0y. See I am comparing Apples to Apples.

Saurav : Mr. Client How can you say that the comparison is between Apples to Apples.

You are sending emails to the Spam Folder with a Red color warning label which says that you are fake and the rrecipient should not open the email as it could contain a virus.

Client : Well you know Saurav that is the cost that I want to spend.

Saurav : No problem sir, then I would suggest you that you send lesser amount of emails, but at least make the exercise productive.

Client : No Saurav I cannot reduce it its very important for my business.

Saurav : Well sir I could go down a bit more but I will not be able to match your cost completely.

Client : Then I am sorry Saurav. I think I will stick to my system for sending out my emails.

The Client hangs up the call.
In the room - Me, Jacob and Manju get into a huge silence.............

I would really appreciate if anyone has any comments or, any suggestions on how to handle such clients.

Time to be a busines owner - Sprinklr takes birth

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Hi Guys,

I know its been long that I have put some thing new on my blog. Well this time its big and its about me. I started of my own company and it will be called - Sprinklr.

I am making something that will be used by a person exactly like me or, some one more intelligent.
Sprinklr is a large marketing platform in the making and its first offering is the world class email marketing platform e-Messenger from eCircle. We are the exclusive partners of the platform in India and near by countries. It is the only platform which qualifies to be in the tier 1 category and assures you 100% data security, deliverability into the Inbox, transparency and super high end analytics which the Indian marketeer has not seen- Some have, but they have paid a lot for it :).

One of the best features of the platform is the visual reporting for the email campaigns, you will exactly be able to see where all the recipient has clicked on the email inside his Inbox- perfect for some one who has multiple offers like an e commerce player or a travel portal guy.
The second one is that it can throw 4 million emails in an hour, I will definitely be interested if any one else in the Indian market comes close to that.

Well to begin with I have already signed up i Mint for their regular email services and Indian express for their complete emailing needs :). This is a big step for my company and it idefinitely promises that there are interesting times to come for me and my team(My new family).

MyBand Nights - The Best Thing to Happen to Indian Music Bands

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:08:00 +0000

MyBand.co.in - India's largest portal for independent Music Bands have tied up with leading venues across the country to launch MyBand Nights to promote music bands. The first event kicks off at Rattle and Hum in Hyderabad where MyBand will present Cheese the Band from Calcutta for live Rock performance.
This is a kind of unique happening in India's music scene. Apart from being a portal with just a web presence, MyBand team has traveled across all the major cities to meet up with bands and artists to understand their needs and requirement. This is really an unique event as Bands are selected based on rating and ranking on a website for live ground performance.
Speaking on the occasion, Debashis Dey from MyBand said "we have interacted with over 200 bands from different parts of the country across different genres and have identified the true need of these bands- all they need is a proper platform and exposure to showcase their creative talents."
MyBand was launched only in Feb 2009 and in a short span of time has become the topmost destination for Indian Music Bands. The portal incorporates high-end intelligent technology which automatically converts uploaded songs into low bit-rate streams for easy listening by millions of fans and visitors. This helps a lot as most for the students and majority of the visitors access the internet from dial-up connections which never allow proper listening from a majority of music and media sites.
MyBand Nights will mostly happen on weekends at the most happening venues and youth hangouts. We are trying to select venues which are not too high end as they become unaffordable for the youth - our target audience. Bands are also selected from the rating process and charts on the website from a diverse genre like rock, metal, hip-hop, blues, fusion, jazz etc.
MyBand also has a Facebook MyBand Fanpage with over 17000 active members with constant interaction. "Our motto is to help artists in any way possible - be it connecting a vocalist, a guitarist a drummer with a group or be it a copyright issue or presentation to a label. A dedicated team is always at work on the fanpage to address questions" Debashis said.
Cheese the Band will will be doing the opening act for MyBand Nights at Rattle and Hum which opened recently on Februray 2009 at Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad. Aditya is the lead vocalist while Arjun (Jojo) plays the guitar, Jonathon (Jon) on keyboards and Samrat on drums. The Band was formed in 1997 at Kolkata by Arjun and Samrat and have a release to their credit -the album Josh.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) ;)

Go shopping with friends, even on the Intenet- Shopcon.in

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:06:00 +0000

Well this the face for the new shopping web site shopcorn.in. Its quite interesting to see how a shopping website is trying to relate itself with an a brand ambassador which is a good looking young lady. This reminds me of the character from Ask.com. This kind a strategy has worked for a lot of businesses and has helped them to connect with people in an efficient manner. The best thing is that you are not dependent on someone like a celebrity or, some1 in real. Its a character which is immortal and thats what it does to the brand as well.

But, once you have established the reach of the character it becomes really important that you keep people's interest in the character. One needs to constantly evolve and need to bring changes around the character.
Ideally for this kind of a scenario the shopping website should have new images every week which makes the visitor absorbed by the character.

If I were the site owner, I would introduce another thing- Sophie's Mood.
As the character is young and interesting, she should be doing stuff. She could promote things with her mood swings. Some thing like "Today Sophie is in a mood to dance", so the character is shown in a fantastic mood and she is all pepped up to hit the party. She will be endorsing party gears like shoes,cloths, make-up etc.
This will create a good amount of curiosity in the visitor to check back what Sophie's mood today and will also get him aware of the product line gradually. This will basically encourage revisits to the website and will help in getting more popularity. Basically making shopping on shopcorn an experience.

Any which way I like the whole concept of Social Shopping Community being introduced . I wish all the best to the people promoting it. I hope that they remain Peppy just like their character "Sophie" and hope to see Sirindia as the next merchant on board too :).

P.S. I also got introduced to the Photon and seriously 3.1 Mbs on your data card. Phew!

New look for Rediff

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:56:00 +0000

Just happen to come across the new international Rediff. I must that i really like the way they have shown the transformation and also liked the music- its pretty subtle and it becomes very relaxing watching the whole thing take shape.

I hope you enjoy it too.

I need a Channel Sales Account Manager for Tell-a-Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:42:00 +0000

The Channel Sales Account manager will be responsible for building and growing all aspects of channel relationships related to the Tell-a-Friend, including selection and recruitment of channel partners, training and enablement, account planning, day to day management, revenue and product forecasting, and related responsibilities. This position has direct revenue responsibility and the qualified candidate must possess a track record. The overarching goal is to expand and extend our organization’s channel to deliver world-class solutions to our mutual clients. The selected candidate will need to proactively work with partners to create a leadership position for our company as the biggest Word Of Mouth Marketing enabler. This is a visible and key position who needs to contribute tactically and strategically.
Key Responsibilities:-
• Identify and close key channel partners (interactive agencies, media houses, designing firms) in target markets.
• Develop winning strategies with each partner that results in new opportunities, sales execution, and incremental revenue.
• Collaborate internally with marketing, business development, product management and other organizations to ensure success with partners in the field.
• Bring Consultative approach to uncovering and expanding partner and customer business issues.
• Execute and support the company go-to-market strategy.
• Ability to comprehend Tell-a-Friend’s product line and associate each product line with the appropriate channel partner(s).
• Domain expertise in the digital agency interaction.
• Hands-on approach to building a business around commercial channel partners.
Qualifications:
• Bachelors of Arts / Bachelors of Science (or equivalent)
• MBA would be an advantage.
• Positive attitude, self managed, decisive, and accountable.
• 2 - 3+ years experience building profitable partner networks
• Proven track record of over achieving product revenue quota.

Interested candidates can bug my HR Manager at Sriidhar@Pramati.com

Sanjay(s) makes everyones jaw drop!

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Continuation to my last post...

As the title suggests, I am sure you can anticipate what coming in the next few lines :). Sanjay finally makes up his mind and takes up Microsoft Corporation, where he would be heading the portal MSN and would be reporting to Microsoft MD Hemant Sachdev(via e4m).

There have been a lot of other movements as well in this week. An other important movement- Sanjay Modi appointed as managing director Monster for India, Middle East and South-East Asia. Prior to this assignment, Modi was head of sales at Monster India.

So all in all both the Sanjays get the greener pasture :)

I wish all the best to both the top guns in their fields to excel in their new positions.

Sanjay Trehan quits NDTV Convergence

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:19:00 +0000

A move that not many of us would have anticipated.
It was just yesterday Sanjay put his papers. In his 2 years stint Sanjay changed a lot of things about the company and even while leaving he managed to give NDTV a new look- which is being talked about. He also launched Tubaah.com and the hindi portal Ndtvkhabar.com.

This news has been covered at a lot of places and I notice a people making comments left right and center. I am just wondering "Is it the Indian mentality to of criticizing or, is it some thing else". Sanjay has done a lot for the company in terms of starting things from complete scratch to establishing itself as a prominent Internet player of the country.

Anyway thats just my opinion. I would just like to say "Best of Luck Sanjay, there are a lot of people who are proud of you and wish the very best for your future ventures".

Cheers!

Rock Star Writer for Product Marketing- Socialtwist

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:11:00 +0000

This position is responsible for the quality and timely delivery of product marketing deliverables including data sheets, presentations, brochures, website content, product go-to-market collaterals and managing these deliverables to ensure that they deliver a single unified value proposition.

The candidate will require having a broad range of product marketing, customer engagement and product positioning experience in a dynamic on-line business. Key to success would be superior interpersonal and relationship building skills to deep analytical and critical thinking skills. Strong quantitative, writing and presentation skills are a must. The candidate should be self-motivated, persistent and comfortable working in a fast-paced, changing environment as well as being a good team player. The job requires working closely with sales, senior management, product management, development team leads, and user experience specialists.

Responsibilities:

Clearly understand and define the target audience, value proposition, and competitive positioning.
Assist in defining “go to market” strategy and market positioning by continually researching market and technology trends.
Drive messaging strategies that positively influence the product(s) positioning and sales within the market. Produce collateral, web page and blog content.
Responsible for updating all key marketing collateral for product upgrades and ensure delivery to customers through website updates, blogs, and email. Collect relevant data, and come up with starting ideas for layout/visuals for collaterals.
Work with Product Management to maintain and deliver on an as-needed basis, relevant competitor information
Supports sales with research & messaging, sales presentations, collateral, and competitive intelligence.

Eligibility:

Atleast 5+ years experience in an online product company or, product oriented digital marketing/advertising agency with deep understanding or responsibility covering business aspects of the organization
Exposure to communicating with US clients or employees or having lived in the US
Proven communication skills
MBA would be a plus

Please email Mr. Vivek Lakshman - vivekl@pramati.com

Star Player parks on Startv.in

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:45:00 +0000

From Saurav's Album

This post is the follow up on the story that I had written some time back.
Finally Startv parked this fantastic piece of work on Startv.in, however seems like a live testing phase for the website. The domain is short and very easy to remember and trust me the website is really addictive- yesterday I started with one episode of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and ended up watching 4 of them :).

The best part is that its very optimised and the videos load extremely fast.
The second feature I like is the "Watching now", its really very cute how you can easily navigate through the 3d tag cloud.
Though they have not included a lot of programs, but as they keep on adding new content(daily updates are happening it seems) it will become more and more interesting.
I did a tiny survey on my facebook account and it seems it was not just me but a lot of other people who were there who liked it.

Full marks to the development team and full marks to the creative minds behind the new Startv.in.

And oh yes how can I forget, they are using my product ;) for their WOMM- Some implementation improvements are required, so hopefully they contact me soon and I can assist them to get it perfect.

BC Webwise to focus on their new "Movie marketing division"

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:46:00 +0000

BCWEBWWISE announce their new division -focusing on just movie marketing.

In this time of recessions when everyone is confused about how and what needs to be done about the market condition, my Ex Boss makes a very smart move by announcing the new division.

Today when every digital agency is fighting for every kind of business they can lay their hands, and ending up as a perfect lost identity case. They are just making it more difficult for themselves to be chosen by any of their prospective clients.
Today the client wants a perfect strategy, a perfect execution and they are not ready to give any margins for error ie; its looking for specialists.

At this time "productisation" plays a very important role in deciding the future of any kind of a business - both product and services.
With this move, BC clearly states its competency in the movie business and demands attention from every Indian movie marketer.
Every one one likes exclusivity, and right now BC Webwise is open to do that if you are making a movie and you intend to market it online.

Keep it up Chaya!!

X-Files(Maybe....)

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:30:00 +0000

Few days back I attended the HYSEA Awards held in Hyderabad. A lot of startups and established players from Hyderabad showcased their products and services- Socialtwist was also there.

But there was this booth which is quite different from every one else.They call themselves the TruthLabs( First of its kind in India)

The services is divided into the following divisions:

Questioned Document Division
Fingerprint Division
Computer Crime Analysis Division
Psychological Evaluation Division
Failure Analysis Division

Few Salient Features:

Reports in 24 hours, in all deserving cases
Free service in case of poor and underprivileged people.
Examination of questioned documents in English, Hindi or any Indian Languages.
Professional Forensic advice, consultancy and re-examination for confirmatory opinions by professional experts having life time experience.
Personalized attention by trained and qualified experts in each and every case.
Exclusive facilities to deal with Finger Prints, Questioned Documents, Computer Crime, Psychological Evaluation and Failure Analysis.(picked from the website)

Great, is not it?

Though I would wonder how do they plan to market their proposition?

I saw them in a Technology event - I don't know how fruitful that would have been, it was so not the TG for it.
On the website, I was looking for their partners- expecting law firms for such a services. I did not find any.
I am sure they would be in a process to revamp their website completely as its really not up to the mark.
Looked for case studies- again did not find any. Though found a couple on a Google search which talked about "How Truthlabs helped a rich family to confirm the chastity of their newly wedded son's wife"( I don know if thats the kind of publicity they are looking for. )
Few of my colleagues were really impressed with the 24 hrs turn around proposition from them, but in case if they get them selves in to trouble would they be going to Truthlabs?

There are a lot of things that I could suggest, but think I will put it one by one in the comments section- Every one else is also welcome to put their 2 cents on this.

Check out Lifeblob: Internet's Timeline on $test

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Checkout Lifeblob: Internet's Timeline at lifeblob.

With lifeblob, you can put your life on a timeline in under a minute. You can link up your photos, videos and blogs from other services and view them on a beautiful timeline.

Head on over to lifeblob. Check out Lifeblob: Internet's Timeline and also create an account if you have not done so already!

Greenpeace fights against Coal!

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:05:00 +0000

The campaign has a very definitive goal in terms of its communication. Interestingly it has, also set a target to reach 100,000 people(quite liked this aspect).

Along with the entertaining video the website(Coalfinger) is quite informative and some of the facts are quite astonishing too. Though I have not seen it getting much hits on youtube, may be because its a bit long close to 6 mins. However I would insist one to watch it and seriously do some thing about the Global worming situation.

Cheers!!!!!!

Porn on Gaadi.com - Where is the Moderator gone?

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:40:00 +0000

I am really clue less about what to comment on some thing like this. Few days back we saw an terrorist school Ad on the Google Adwords and we asked questions.

So what would you say to this?

A place where people from all the age groups visit to know more about cars.

See some thing like the above and below in the discussion forum.
I would agree that its a user generated platform where every one has the liberty of self expression, but should it not be moderated? Isn't the moderator suppose to take care of such a thing?
I was very surprised as the page was there for more than an hour- there was no action taken on it.
Adding on to this, the section where it was submitted was "Advice and Recommendations"(No comments again).

Simple question: Where was the moderator gone?

All I can advice: Similar property owners like Gaadi.com go get a Community Manager, who would be responsible for avoiding such things in the future and will be able to monitor the reputation of the respective brand over the Internet. Please for heaven sake take this medium seriously. Just because things can be taken off air, it doesn't mean that we take things for granted.

I would definitely like to know what is Junta's opinion on this?

Cool Gmail becomes Gfail

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:21:00 +0000

Gmail service was reportedly disrupted for an estimated 113 million users in Europe, Asia, the United States and elsewhere.
The service was offline for a good two and half hours starting from approximately 0930 GMT.

Interestingly every one got on to twitter to investigate about this mishap- every second there were at least a thousand twits for Gmail. It was a complete panic situation and every one seemed worried about their data which is stored on the Gmail server for years now.

Below is the Quote from Google:

"We're actively investigating the source of the issue and will share more information with our users as soon as we have it," said Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs.

Well every thing said done, but seriously it does freak me - I know how those two and half hours were for me. I would have checked for the services at least every 5 mins and the same goes for my friends, who are Gmail addicts.

A tiny piece of advice- Please download all your emails on your desktop every 15 days from here on and give a chance to other email players to make some money- you can try other services matching Gmail and to name few aaaaaahhh hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and some more thinking, any way I mean you can try new things :).

India's hulu.com - Star Player Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Finally, my mom will find the Internet useful!

The Hulu.com of India is here to stay- Star Player

It is the definitive site to watch the most popular and talked about videos across the Star network. Star player aims to serve you high quality videos across all the popular shows on Star. The player has some extra cool features like -

Lights Off/On,
Adjustable picture settings,
Adjustable video size.

And it looks stunningly sleek to enhance one's video watching experience. The full screen mode can get you confused with a real TV quality picture.

However few recommendations:

Please get yourself a new URL, dont make is a sub domain. This deserves a new brand identity.
And obviously have a good sharing widget like Tell-a-Friend :) , I think you should go for a custom button, along with other customizations.
Please remove those comments from the comments section saying "Testing testing testing" lolz.
It definitely needs profiling- should take registrations and learn what the particular user wants to see and would they like to track.
It could also look at some kind of a collaboration with properties like burrp Tv- so in case some one has missed a star program, burrp will suggest its user to catch up on the program on Star player- the proposition is obvious.
Would also suggest a Desktop version of this player- which updates the user with latest stuff that has gone live on the site etc- I hope the mobile version also should follow.
And finally, you need a forum, all the people coming on to this would definitely like to talk about the particular episodes or, the cast and etc.

Overall a great initiative. I am sure a lot of people would soon follow!

Best of luck Star.

Google Chrome introduced in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Well As my friend said it takes time for information to travel from Japan to India(stupid inside joke).

Anyway, fantastic job done. Lovely animation and must say its quite inspiring as well. I would not know how much does it cost to make some thing of this sort, but if it gives you half a million views in just 10 days of launch- its all worth it.

Enjoy the video!!

Kaamsutra Vs Adultdost......lolz

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:03:00 +0000

I am sure many of you liked the earlier campaign mentioned on a2b with a similar fashion.
Here is another which will definitely get you excited, however will send you to a job site called the Sutrajobs.com owned by Mr. Waqar Azmi.

Asking to to look for job positions instead of pondering upon sexual positions.

This campaign was covered by Ashis from Pluggd.in.

And the best part of the post were the comments:

Prashant Singh wrote on 6 February, 2009, 16:42
Funny ! but hardly the first .. haven’t they heard of desi*.* websites since the start of internet

[Reply]

Rizwan wrote on 6 February, 2009, 16:43
Thanks for covring this…:) just added this to delicious

[Reply]

Ekalavya wrote on 6 February, 2009, 17:32
Totally inspired by AdultDost.com

[Reply]
Kartik Dua 's reply:on February 6th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
@Ekalavya, Google Search was on the lines of Yahoo search and Ask..

[Reply]

Ekalavya wrote on 6 February, 2009, 17:57
@ Kartik: Oh is that so? But you would agree that Google Search is ‘better’ right?
Or am i being too subjective?

[Reply]
Kartik Dua 's reply:on February 6th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
@Ekalavya, I totally agree to that.. Google search came after Yahoo and was executed better…

[Reply]
Ashish 's reply:on February 6th, 2009 at 6:01 pm

@Kartik Dua, Ah! so are you saying you did it better than adultdost

[Reply]

Ekalavya wrote on 6 February, 2009, 18:05
@ Kartik: Should only copy when you know you can do better…
I think kaamsutra is lame. But then again thats just me. I’m sure you’ll find fans

[Reply]
Sameer 's reply:on February 6th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
@Ekalavya, I guess this was implemented a lot better than aduldost..i liked the overall name funda - of using ’sutra’ brand..good stuff guys..

[Reply]
Prashant Singh 's reply:on February 6th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
@Sameer,

“sutra” brand. ??
as in Sutra HR ??
just kidding .

[Reply]

Ankit wrote on 6 February, 2009, 18:17
its called copying the idea … comparing it with Google and yahoo is not even relevant… anyways I have seen both .. Adult dost is much better.

[Reply]

Clyde wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:17
brand? Sutra?
So let me get this straight, through a communication which is set around the premise of blindly taking an idea & modifying it through ‘not so well thought out or planned’ tweaks & via poorly executed force fits, you’re trying to say that this is what Sutra is all about. Which tells me that Sutra is all about shoddy execution, unethical practices AND being cheeky. I’m sorry folks, be it my advertising background, but this brand simply does not have the same appeal anymore. I think they’re losing out much more than what they stand to gain.

PS. Google v/s Yahoo being used here. Hilarious. That was a noob statement dude.

[Reply]

Nixon wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:20
I’ve seen both. I must say AdultDost is much better in execution. Kaamsutra seems like a cheap copy. Maybe its a hasty release but the AdultDost guys should take this as a compliment.

[Reply]
rajnish 's reply:on February 8th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
@Nixon, respect ur opinion, personally feel adultdost is the crappiest and most mindless campaign i have ever seen simply b’coz it doesn’t serve ne purpose. nobody looking for an adult dost wud get attracted to active darshan on tata sky so much so that he wud actually go ahead and buy tata sky to watch active darshan. any campaign viral or otherwise shud serve a purpose and in case of Sutra it works really well. as for the campaign, adult dost can be called inspired from NDTV imagine’s ads about a year ago. grt job sutra.

[Reply]

Rizwan wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:26
guys I think it is getting too personal….let me get a few things sorted out. Points we have grossly overlooked in the discusson:
* It is just another ad campaign, if you guys think that the idea is copied from adult dost, I can say the same about adult dost getting its inspiration from the numerous viral campaigns executed else where. Dude, there is no comparison in the idea, we had the idea since the inception of sutra and all our friends telling us about Kaam and Sutra.
* Please stop bickering your own industry. This is not plagiarized in any way…..I agree that the concepts might match but this was not supposed to be copied from Adult Dost (it being worthy is completely another discussion, for which we are not the right people)

We had an idea and we did it, I dont understand what is hurting you so much.

I dont want our team to be a part of this discussion - with Clyde hitting at the brand and you guys thinking it was a shoddy execution, I respect your views and accept it as a feedback.

Thank you

[Reply]

Rizwan wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:28
@Nixon if you guys think that KaamSutra is a copy, then you guys should be happy and boast about it. The very fact that you guys have been stirred shows hints of fury over another campaign

[Reply]

Clyde wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:47
ahem… lets all be happy. a toast!
no hard feelings Rizwan, the frat does take a few things to the hilt. Guess this was our turn.

[Reply]

Priyanka wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:53
Hilarious!! I love this!
Good work guys..
Interesting concept!!

[Reply]

Ashish wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:56

Guys
Lets not take away the fun out of this campaign..if this is a copy, so are bollywood movies/songs….its all about execution and as far as I am concerned, I liked the overall execution..

And please avoid any personal attacks - there are better places to do that.

[Reply]
Rizwan 's reply:on February 6th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
@Ashish cudnt have put it in a better way

[Reply]

Rizwan wrote on 6 February, 2009, 19:57
@clyde dude I understand, I just didn’t wanna compare campaigns and start throwing bricks at each other - I really respect what you guys did with AdultDost.com and I was one of the first to spread the word; its just we didnt design a Me2 campaign - and the remarks at the company and the brand just got a lil too fierce

[Reply]

shashi wrote on 6 February, 2009, 20:50
Excuse me adultdost guys - i do not understand your bitching (yes you guys are!) - isnt adultdost inspired by adultfriendfinder? (feel free to say ‘NO’)..u guys are behaving as if you created world’s first viral campaign,,

Grow up guys,

[Reply]
Clyde 's reply:on February 7th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
@shashi,
It ain’t ‘bitching’. A very mature term to use from such a ‘mature’ person like you, reps to you on that one.
I don’t want to get into the AdultDost ‘copied’ from AdultFriendFinder, because they’re 2 different things if you didn’t notice. One is a business, the other is a ’spoof’ customised to be a communication tool for a ‘brand’.

Really, the ‘world’ does not care what you care about or not, especially not after your ideas of a business model compared to a campaign. In your world, coke & domex are the same thing because they’re both liquid. Rizwan & I had some closure on this, an amicable one, but then you had to act like Kofi Anan on crack (very mature I must say) & ask us to grow up. Don’t consider this a retort. And yes, we DID create an awesome viral idea. IDEA… please look that word up.

@Ashish.
Didn’t want to get personal. Rizwan I agree is professional, reps to you bruv. But it’s folks like Shashi & their late reactions to stir up calm waters that ticks me off. Think he needs to set his alarm straight. Over & Out. Reps to the Sutra team.

[Reply]
shashi 's reply:on February 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
@Clyde, so it hurts when somebody starts questioning your own campaign. Lessons learnt - respect others.
It’s not about closure..its about initiating such mindless debates,

god bless you and media2win team.

[Reply]
Clyde 's reply:on February 8th, 2009 at 1:30 am
@shashi,
bleh.
oh and yes, thank you for the bleh-sings.

[Reply]

Ashish wrote on 6 February, 2009, 20:54

Adultdost guys - Please respect others. Honestly, I didnt expect such an unprofessional behavior from you guys..(I agree with shashi’s comment on ‘originality of idea’)..

Do not unnecessarily spoil the fun..I don’t care whether there are 100 other virals speaking the same stuff (or copying same idea)..as long as they have the punch, we will publish them here..

[Reply]

roggie wrote on 7 February, 2009, 12:34
kaamsutra.info would have been a great job website - looking for the best “kaam” - or rather the ideal “position” - what a cool campaign that would be…

[Reply]

Ishu wrote on 7 February, 2009, 22:14
I personally really dont care whether the hen came first or the egg… All i really care is enjoying the viral.. and kaamsutra.info is pure fun…
Dont spoil the party if you can’t find your best position ;), Riz can help you find a better position.. :)…

Great Work Riz and sutra guys. This is pure art and creative thinking.

Thanks.

[Reply]
Clyde 's reply:on February 8th, 2009 at 1:31 am
@Ishu,
great, now the peons are in on this. this just gets better. call in the tea boys will ya.

[Reply]
Ishu 's reply:on February 8th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
@Clyde,
oh man.. atleast you should not tell it in open that all the guys that were commenting for you were your peons and tea boys… cmon dude… grow up… dont show the attitude… mother, mother that guy cheated me in the class…. :(… Enjoy the fun… the fun of web, the fun of creativity…
Chill down and find your kama postiion… htttp://www.kamasutra.info..

Thanks.

[Reply]

Lalit wrote on 8 February, 2009, 14:34
Thanks for all the entertainment in the comments, guys .. maan too bad it got over so soon.
This was funnier than the campaign .. BTW the campaign was great .. I forwarded it to all my friends looking for jobs to relieve them of their stress… good job !!

[Reply]

Rizwan wrote on 8 February, 2009, 16:06
Thanks guys for all the comments here….we respect all your views and will try to come up with even a better one next time….:)

All in all I would say it was nice campaign, though not very polished but manageable.
However thanks to the gentleman from M2W who had a very strong reaction over the matter and it seems he took it very personally and may be helped the campaign to go further viral lolz.....

I would agree that Adultdost was the one which came out first and did fairly well.

My dear friend from M2W the real purpose of a "viral potential campaign" is to provoke an extreme reaction from the audience and it could be any thing laugh, cry , angry etc. And in that case, kaamsutra would be categorized as a successful campaign as it was enough to get the extreme out of you and made you react and pass the information further to your friends and made me write this post as well :).

Well, congratulation Mr Rizwan you did a great job with your microsite!!!

Luck you Ashis :) :) :) :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All inclusive Air fare - Rs 883.00

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:16:00 +0000

Seriously can you beat this?

Kingfisher Airlines, the only airline that offers flights between Mumbai and Nasik now offers all inclusive fares starting at Rs. 885/- for travel from Nasik to Mumbai and Rs 883/- for travel from Mumbai to Nasik. Guests can now avail these "Value fares" by planning their travel in advance.

The Kingfisher Airlines' flight leaves Mumbai airport at 05:50 am and arrives at Nasik at 06:40 am. The return flight leaves Nasik at 4:30pm and arrives at Mumbai at 5:20pm. These convenient fight timings ensure that those who would like to return to Mumbai on the same day can make the best use of their time and the day, when they are at Nasik. Guests from Nasik can now get onward connections to Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and London from Mumbai and it is now possible for Mumbai based guests to visit Shirdi & return on the same day.

Mr. Siva Ramachandran - Vice President Global Sales, Kingfisher Airlines said, "Since the commencement of flights on the Mumbai-Nasik route Kingfisher Airlines has offered pilgrims, businessmen, traders, corporate executives and other guests a very cost-effective option to travel from Mumbai to Nasik and save time by choosing to fly instead of using surface transport, all for just a little more."

I know it all sounds really crazy!! Now you can sit in a Real Aeroplane for some thing less than Rs 1000. I still remember the campaign done by Deccan airlines about the zero air fare tickets where there was a tax factor of Rs 1000 and some change. This was a ground breaking stuff when they called in people to experiance the aeroplane for some thing slightly more that Rs 1000.

And now the company which bought Deccan just take the legacy further.

P.S. Would be really keen to see the promos of the proposition that Kingfisher has to offer!

World's Biggest Hotel Search Engine Launched by iXiGO.com

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:24:00 +0000

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Thursday, January 22, 2009 -- (BWI) iXiGO.com, India's largest travel search engine today announced the launch of the world's biggest hotel search engine, with easy to use and never seen before functionalities for its users. Now, travelers across the world can search for rates and availability, in real-time, across more than 220,000 hotels, hostels, heritage properties, serviced apartments, home-stays, guest houses and villas.

This latest offering from iXiGO.com, India's fastest growing travel site, empowers globetrotters to choose from a wide variety of accommodations from multiple hotel sites, all of which are bookable with instant confirmation on the respective hotel booking website. A sample search on iXiGO's hotel search engine for accommodation in London found over 850 hotels, with 20 properties within the city below US$20 (Rs. 1000) per room-night and for Paris, the search fetched more than 1380 properties with prices ranging from US$ 29 (Rs. 1400) to US$ 1000 (Rs. 49,000) per room-night. This included 600 properties in the budget category (less than US$ 100 /Rs. 5000 per room-night) and 33 five-star properties. A New Delhi search found over 250 hotels starting from US$7 (Rs 315) per room-night. Similar searches for cities all over the world, e.g. Nairobi (Kenya), Santiago (Chile), Reykjavik (Iceland) and Guangzhou (China), found numerous hotel deals with a large variety of choices for selection by location, prices and star-ratings. According to market research conducted by the company, no other travel site globally offers more hotel inventory with real-time search and booking.

Speaking on the occasion of the launch, Mr. Aloke Bajpai, Founder & CEO remarked - "With our ability to integrate niche hotel aggregators quickly, we have gone from being India's biggest, to being the world's biggest hotel search in just over eight months, now, aggregating nearly 50 hotel booking providers globally". Nitin Gurha, VP, Travel Partnerships added - "Now travelers have a uniquely comprehensive, unbiased and easy-to-use metasearch platform for narrowing down their choice of hotels based on their preferences of location, amenities, rates and hotel booking site. Hotel sellers worldwide get a neutral and unbiased 'hotel marketplace' that not only acts as a marketing medium, but also generates highly qualified online-leads for fulfillment. Our platform allows consumers to choose hotels based not only on price, but also on the unique value each and every property delivers".

iXiGO.com had launched its Indian hotel search engine in April, 2008 and has since established content partnerships with multiple hotel aggregators including HostelsClub, HotelsCombined, Travelguru, Inasra and Intech. These relationships allow travelers using iXiGO.com to search and compare prices across nearly 50 hotel booking websites worldwide and give consumers more than 6 million real time bookable hotel-rooms. In addition to descriptions and pictures of hotels, this launch also introduces some cutting-edge features and usability tools never seen before on hotel search sites, including city-maps with hotel markers, city-landmarks and pictures, search by distance from an address, location-based search, filters for amenities, property-types and hotel-chains, aggregation of travel reviews from multiple review sites and comparison of hotel room-rates for the exact same hotel-room from multiple hotel websites on a single page.

iXiGO.com has experienced phenomenal growth since its launch due to its customer friendliness, supplier-centric business model and a strong focus on product innovation. iXiGO allows consumers to search across all available travel inventory and book on travel sites directly by redirecting to their final booking page. Since it does not sell anything itself, iXiGO can aggregate flight, hotel and bus deals from multiple travel sites. Travelers view it as a comprehensive source of information for travel related products while travel suppliers find this a perfect marketing channel to showcase their key differentiators. iXiGO has been named among India's hottest startups by Wall Street Journal / Mint and BusinessToday.

Here is one startup that has completely depended on its product and its partnerships to get the attention it deserves. And must say that they are definitely doing a great job, since they have started. They always thought to of doing things in a different way and did not fear trying out new things which they thought would enhance the website. Best of Luck IXIGO on your new release!!!!!

Expectations from 2009: A Seriatim > Interactive Agencies (Part 2/5)- Alootechie

noreply@blogger.com (Web Satan) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:15:00 +0000

The original post had all of the top honchos of the Indian Digital Agencies talking about "What to expect in the new Year." A lot of them seemed way to optimistic and some have their lines prepared- they have the same thing to say to every question that is asked to them ;).

Any way what I felt is :

The recession has hit every one-from the BMWs to even the grocery store on the ground floor of my apartment. Even Google has stopped hiring and has closed a lot of its offices in the European region and APAC.

So its obvious that the marketing budgets have also become lesser than what they were last year. It would be completely foolish to sit around and expect the advertiser would come and knock your digital marketing store because the Internet allows things to be tracked. Well my dear friends now the advertiser will no longer just pay the digital agency to create a beautiful campaigns. They would not even listen to you unless you are able to give them a competitive ROI matrix of the campaign.

I would completely agree with Vivek Das's quote "The stress is on more efficient strategies and vehicles. A regular media plan with banners being bombarded all over the internet won't do any more."

Right now the advertiser is looking way beyond a general banner campaign in his media plan, he is looking at further cheap and effective options to reach that prospective consumer of its product from the 80 million Internet junta of the country. May be its time that even the digital agencies do some real time research in terms of understanding the consumer while designing a strategy for their clients and not just randomly pick up stuff from western world and present it in their template based ppt.

Dell made 1 million dollars out of twitter in a single day- when twitter itself is yet to launch its business plan by March this year.

So why can't my dear digital agencies in India looking beyond micro sites and some crap game oriented campaign. No offense but the agencies do have a lot to offer the clients, but are lacking vision right now. I get 15% of my traffic from twitter on a daily basis and another 10% from orkut which results in around 10% conversion. I am sure every one would have already raised their hands to ask me about the CPA of my activities- well lets say its the 10% of what my agency was trying to charge me.

So what I wish to say is please put some more thoughts and dont be afraid to explore the posibilities that the Social Media hold for you.