A picture is worth 1000000000 words...
Labels: Fun
Interpreting the dreamworld I believe to be 'Real'
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Google Online Marketing Challenge
Registration for the 2009 Online Marketing Challenge is now open. More details Here
This year we would love to have you and your students participate.
This is how it works - Teams of 3-6 students receive US$200 of online advertising with Google AdWords and then source local candidate businesses to work with to devise effective online marketing campaigns. Teams outline a strategy, run their campaign, assess the results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing. Teams submit their reports and are judged by a panel of independent academics from all over the world.
The challenge is a great opportunity for students to gain practical, real world experience. Students also get the excitement of competing on a global level for a chance to visit the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. In addition, regional winners and their professor will receive a trip to their local Google office.
This is designed to be a flexible competition and the amount of time and effort you dedicate is up to you. If you choose, this will only require a minimal time commitment. For more information you can review the Academic Guide at http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/academic_guide.pdf . This includes everything you will need to know to decide if the Challenge is right for you and your students.
Do you think this is something that would be of interest? If so, please register on our website at www.google.com/onlinechallenge.
Dates:
I wanted to let you know about Google's academic initiative to help students develop their online marketing knowledge. It's called the Google Online Marketing Challenge and has been developed by academics across the world in collaboration with us. It launched for the first time last year and received rave reviews from students and professors alike. Here is some of the feedback we received;
- 85% of professors and 87% of students believed they were more deeply engaged with the Challenge compared to other teaching tools (simulations, case studies, class projects for local businesses, etc.).
- 96% of professors want to participate in the Challenge again next year and 85% of students would recommend participating in the Challenge to friends.
This year we would love to have you and your students participate.
This is how it works - Teams of 3-6 students receive US$200 of online advertising with Google AdWords and then source local candidate businesses to work with to devise effective online marketing campaigns. Teams outline a strategy, run their campaign, assess the results and provide the business with recommendations to further develop their online marketing. Teams submit their reports and are judged by a panel of independent academics from all over the world.
The challenge is a great opportunity for students to gain practical, real world experience. Students also get the excitement of competing on a global level for a chance to visit the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. In addition, regional winners and their professor will receive a trip to their local Google office.
This is designed to be a flexible competition and the amount of time and effort you dedicate is up to you. If you choose, this will only require a minimal time commitment. For more information you can review the Academic Guide at http://www.google.com/
Do you think this is something that would be of interest? If so, please register on our website at www.google.com/onlinechallenge.
Dates:
- Registrations are open until January 23rd,
- Competition will run between January 26th until May 22nd 2009.
- Winners will be announced in July.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Social Networking User Base - Millions of Dollars on Table
If you are wondering, how big this Social Networking is in terms of its user base and the business scope, the stats are here:
Social Networking User Base
I was thrilled by the enormity of this user base and added to my thrill, the recently released IDC report on U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey Results Part III (IDC #214899). This report examines Social Networking Sites (SNS) audience reach compared to mainstream services, such as Google and Yahoo!, the demographics of SNS users, and consumer tolerance for SNS advertising compared to online advertising in general.
However, taking a deep dive into this business model of Online Advertising to this SNS segment, the results are not pretty encouraging, unless there comes an innovative way of capturing the target set.
The Myth: "Several companies are thinking that the popularity of SNS will attract a big audience and generate a lot of traffic, which in turn will produce enormous amounts of user-generated content (UGC) and therefore advertising inventory, without any expenses for editorial staff or content distribution deals”.
Consumers are spending ever-greater amounts of time on SNS, a fact that has advertisers drooling over the opportunity represented by SNS; however the biggest challenge is to hard sell the advertising space (inventory). Advertising does not factor into consumer motivations. In fact, users are less tolerant of SNA advertising than the best tolerated forms of online advertising.
Some Important Facts:
However, that idea is stillborn!!!!
Source & Credits: IDC report on U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey
Social Networking User Base
I was thrilled by the enormity of this user base and added to my thrill, the recently released IDC report on U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey Results Part III (IDC #214899). This report examines Social Networking Sites (SNS) audience reach compared to mainstream services, such as Google and Yahoo!, the demographics of SNS users, and consumer tolerance for SNS advertising compared to online advertising in general.
However, taking a deep dive into this business model of Online Advertising to this SNS segment, the results are not pretty encouraging, unless there comes an innovative way of capturing the target set.
The Myth: "Several companies are thinking that the popularity of SNS will attract a big audience and generate a lot of traffic, which in turn will produce enormous amounts of user-generated content (UGC) and therefore advertising inventory, without any expenses for editorial staff or content distribution deals”.
Consumers are spending ever-greater amounts of time on SNS, a fact that has advertisers drooling over the opportunity represented by SNS; however the biggest challenge is to hard sell the advertising space (inventory). Advertising does not factor into consumer motivations. In fact, users are less tolerant of SNA advertising than the best tolerated forms of online advertising.
Some Important Facts:
- > 50% of U.S. consumers with Internet access use social networking services (SNS), such as Facebook and MySpace, and penetration will continue to increase.
- Consumers who use SNS also tend to visit the services often and spend a lot of time per visit.
- >75% of SNS users visit at least once a week, and > 57% visit at least once a day.
- During each session:
- ~61% of SNS users spend at least 30 minutes on the respective site or stay logged in permanently
- ~38% spend at least one full hour per session (or stay logged in).
- To connect and communicate
- In response to peer-pressure
- For entertainment
- For work-related purposes
- Ads on SNS have lower click-through rates (CTR) than traditional online ads
- On an average Web Search, 79% of all users clicked on at least one ad in the past year, whereas only 57% of SNS users did
- Purchase: Web: 23%; SNS 11%
However, that idea is stillborn!!!!
Source & Credits: IDC report on U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Article on "How TV stars won the war"
Very interesting..... Couldn't stop posting...
Courtesy: DC, Dec 3rd.
Courtesy: DC, Dec 3rd.
ARTICLE BY SUPARNA SHARMA
NEW DELHI
Here's how the TRPs were garnered, shot by shot, starting around 10.30 pm on Wednesday, November 26:
¦ Close in on the woman in tears — show her from every possible angle and deliver a soul-wrenching commentary of what might be going through her mind.
¦ Repeatedly flash shots of the adorable, crying child. Shove your mike in his face. Oh! hasn't learnt to talk yet, not even Yiddish? Ask the woman carrying the child how she rescued him from the carnage. Not maudlin enough? Ask how many dead bodies she saw, get a blood question in. Ask if she was scared, ask what she was thinking while bullets were being sprayed around.
¦ Download all background scores of Ramsay and his brothers —especially Khooni Shikanja, Vehshi Aatma and Shaitan Khopri — and play it every time (that is at least 25 times a minute) pictures of the terrorists are flashed. ¦ Catch a victim. Chase him. If it's a "her", then your channel's reputation depends on getting an arousing account of how she felt — when she saw the bodies, the terrorists, when she heard the screams. Feelings. And get her to tell viewers what she was feeling when she saw her best friend's body.
Remember, all worldclass reportage always begins with that one question: "How are you feeling?" But it wasn't just on borrowed ideas that the news channels competed for TRPs. The skills these news channels have been honing for a long time came in handy too. In order of priority: ? Flash "exclusive" — even if the reporter is sending in reports from outside the Taj Mahal Hotel, where at least 400 reporters are stationed. And for viewers gone blind while watching blood-curdling reportage, scream "exclusive" after every nine words. ?
Forget that commandos are in the hotel trying to rescue innocent people. Scream into the mike and tell the world that you, and only you, have an "exclusive" bit of information from your source, now on the hotel's 19th floor. ? Get your reporters to lie down, ducking killer bullets, even as the cameraperson is standing next to him, recording histrionics. ? Ask anxious relatives if they think their friends and family members, who are still inside, will be able to walk out alive.
To finally clinch the TRP race, many top television editors were paradropped and the story was turned around. It became all about them and their trauma. Barkha Dutt took viewers on a tour of the Taj Mahal Hotel, choked up and emotional, gesturing violently, shrugging, crouching, hand on her aching heart. Rajdeep Sardesai rescued a foreigner from other reporters, to ask, "How are you feeling?" Arnab Goswami, of course, was kept in the studio. No one shouts "breaking news" louder than him.
When it was all over, after the commandos had gone home and the funerals had run their course, some passers-by were collected, handed candles, and in the glow of burning wax, victims were hugged, preferably Muslims, and asked again, for a final boost to TRPs: "How do you feel?"