Live Business Media

The information superhighway –the internet media – is spreading its wings like never before. The medium offers a level of interactivity and consumer engagement that is incomparable in the industry.

The three live business media include: television, Radio and Internet. All the three have been redefining the world media space in a major way. However, one can’t deny the increasing clout of the internet medium. From being a fringe phenomenon, the internet media has grown into a major force in the recent years. Backed by constant innovations, the industry has been climbing the popularity charts with both big and small businesses zealously trying to climb the internet bandwagon.

When it comes to Radio and Television, their biggest drawback being their geographical restrictions. However, internet marketing medium involves flat marketing, transcending the barriers of location and time. Anyone and everyone running a business can bank on Internet to grow his business. But such is not the case even with Print India. Print media may have ruled the roost a decade back, but today, to put it crudely, newspapers are akin to house flies- here today, gone tomorrow. In fact over 80 percent of the people read it during the first half of the day and then eventually it makes its way to the store room. Magazines, for that matter, have a maximum life-expectancy of one month. Leave alone magazines and newspapers even yellow pages and white pages are considered to be a faded or fading medium.

On the other hand, Internet is being interpreted as hot n’ happening Gen Next medium. It has got all the trappings of a new age business promotional tool. Internet’s growing influence in India is unassailable. According to a recent survey, there are over 60 million net users in India and the count is growing. The most remarkable aspect being: 3 out of 4 internet users (70%) make use of internet on daily basis. The ‘active’ pool of internet users is 32.4 million strong. Another statistics suggest that of the 20 million who read in English, only 5 million are on the net. So there are 15 odd English speaking million Indians who still can be latched on to the internet bandwagon.

The most remarkable aspect being, the popularity of internet media is not confined to just the rich and uber –audience, but it has cut its way across the various socio-economic groups. In fact 55 percent of regular internet users are from the consuming class, 71 percent from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Almost 82 percent fall in the age group of 19-35 years.

Today, Internet is widely used in offices, schools and college. In fact offices today continue to be the single largest destination for accessing the internet, almost by 68 percent. Usage from home comes a close second at 50 percent, followed by cybercafés at 45 percent.

One of the most notable aspects being, home (37%) is the single most preferred place for surfing over and above office(30%) and cybercafé (15%). Another interesting statistics suggest that almost 89 percent of active on-line Indians look for products on-line. Yes, window shopping and internet means one and the same now. Furthermore, communication, social interaction and other leisure activities also form part of the popular online activities. Today, online shoppers in India are around 34.5 million, almost 6.5 million more than the last year’s figure. Google is being considered as the most popular site among online Indians with almost 35 percent of the Indians getting hooked to Google. Yahoo bags the second spot with 28%. Gmail, Orkut, Rediff rank 3rd, 4th and 5th among most used websites in India.

Internet Advertising

Today, Internet is an Rs.650 core industry In India. Banner ads are the most popular form of internet advertising. Initially video ads and high graphic pop ups were considered unviable because of the high bandwidth consumption – for the uninitiated, banner ads consume less bandwidth- nonetheless with broadband revolution picking up pace both in the Tier I and Tier II cities, the on-line marketing and advertising landscape is fast changing.

At present financial services consume the largest chunk of on-line advertising. Around 40-50 percent to be precise. One of the reasons cited being most of the financial services customers are office employees who have access to internet in the office.

Now even FMCG industry seems to be quite interested in climbing on to the internet bandwagon. Recent reports suggest that FMCG online advertising will increase by more than 300 percent in the impending year. Case in point being, Coco-Cola in August 2009, launched its new online brand sprite campaign as on on-line campaign even before its TV ads were released.

According to a recent survey conducted, the current online spends of the FMCG category stand at 160 million and is projected to grow exponentially by almost 720 million in 2009-10, a mind-blogging 353% jump.

Clearly, employing internet media is the best means to shore up the brand image in the minds of the consumers, at least in the current times.

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