2005 U.S. music market share - Nielsen SoundScan. Image source: Wikipedia
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Universal Music: In tune with the times?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Internet Startups to Watch
Interestingly, most of the business models are based on Advertising! Looks like Google will have a healthier balance sheet in the next financial year ;)
Cheers!
Anurag
Saturday, June 9, 2007
What's the deal with Large Deals?
The importance of these outsourcing advisories is more in case of companies going for outsourcing for the first time and in case of outsourcing of entire "Application, Development & Maintenance" work. An advisory, when contracted by companies intending to outsource analyze the client requirements and invite a selected list of vendors to take part in the bidding process. Therefore, it becomes really important to be in "Approved" vendors list of these advisories, particularly for the Indian Big Five (and even some of the mid-sized players) - because none of them really has a "real" differentiated offering. How to map these advisories? I found the following interesting answer posted by a gentleman called "Mark Wiggins" on LinkedIn answers:
If were an IT Services firm trying to capture influence, then I'd be looking at:
- Whether the parent companies of these firms publish related syndicated research - if so, you can bet that the subsidiary draws upon this as a knowledge resource when advising clients;
- Balanced scoreboard, Vendor Evaluation criteria, TCO and ROI analysis white papers etc - whether there is an opportunity for vendor neutral analysis from the consultants with IT Services companies to place this material on Orbys, TPI etc websites?;
- Conferences/Events - are these firms interested in showcasing their credentials at a vendor user conference or forum that that the IT Services companies are sponsoring? Conversely, what are the principal events where Orbys, TPI speak - network direct and engage with them at these events;
- Engage them as a client (if possible) on Win/Loss analysis, RFI/RFP rsponse preparation or bid situations where they are not involved on the client side?;
- Track down former employees of these firms via LinkedIn and put this question to them?;
- Find out what Industry Associations and neutral online networking educational forums their principals participate in and engage with them there?;
- Examine the next level of association of such firms - analyst firms (as mentioned above), journalists, freelance consultants, alumni, industry associations, business associations, Big 4 firms, vendors etc for common links.
Really interesting stuff, great job Mr. Wiggins.
Cheers!
Anurag
Sunday, May 20, 2007
The future of Advertising
- Brand Owners (companies like P&G, Nike etc. who want to advertise their brands)
- Ad Agencies (like O&M, JWT etc. who are responsible for creating, planning and handling advertising for Brand owners)
- Media Owners (like Rediff.com, BusinessWeek.com who own web properties and allow Brand owners / Ad agencies to place advertisements on their web properties for a price)
- Ratings Provider (like Webside story that specializes in Internet metrics and audience measurement technology)
While Google's self-service model was good for search advertising, it was not suitable for Display Advertising. Here, the Brand owners would want to serve ads across the Web to specific audiences (based on a particular segmentation criteria - demographic or psychographic) and for that they want television like reach numbers and ratings (e.g TRP ratings captured by TAM in India). Also, Google did not have particularly strong relationships with Ad agencies that was required for this. This is where DoubleClick was strong, they had good relationships with Ad Agencies and knew the business of Display Advertising. To capture better demographic information and surfing behaviour, Google quietly launched Web History - which would allow it to analyse user's surfing behaviour and build their profile.
Going forward, Google would build an Online Marketplace where Brand owners and Ad agencies will be able to completely plan and manage their Ad campaigns- not only the Online Ad campaigns but also their campaigns for television, radio, print, out of home and mobile as it would facilitate Media owners to auction available space to the Brand owners. This way, Brand owners will get accountability and their ads will be highly targeted. Media owners (or publishers) on the other hand will be able to charge premium on popular web properties and will be able to retain the visitors as the advertisement will be relevant for them.
Given all this, Google's Doubleclick acquisition makes a lot more sense and makes the competition look stupid - once again!
Cheers!
Anurag
(c) 2007. Copyright Anurag Saxena.