So Much For Organic Growth, Internet Portal TV Spends Up 190 Percent
One of our readers VAS-Guy asked a pertinent question in the comments to this post - about how many users/downloads STAR India has managed with all it’s advertising for the application. Sure enough, PLUS is in the top ten “new websites” advertised on TV as per a TAM Media Research report, details of which are available here at Indiantelevision. (Note: the report mentions the site as www.plusmobile.net)
The jump in TV advertising by portals, by a massive 190 percent in January-August 2007, when compared to the same time period in 2006, is probably an indication of the money available for these portals; the launch of new ventures like Zapak, BigAdda, BharatStudent and Homeshop18 has fueled this surge: average advertisements per day by Internet portals increased by 2.4 times, with shopping portals advertising 209 times a day on an average. Homeshop18 topped that list with 23 percent of the advertising by Internet portals on TV, but this was probably using unused internal TV18 inventory. Travel portals, apart from Yatra, appear to have been particularly low key. The Times Group also appears to have upped the ante with Indiatimes email, Times Jobs, Magic Bricks and SimplyMarry.
Is there a co-relation between TV advertising and website usage? While I don’t necessarily endorse Alexa (has it’s own limitations), one has observed an jump in traffic for startups once they advertise on TV. Consider below, the jump in traffic for Reliance’s social networking site BigAdda, and the jump in traffic starting August:
So is it worth the user acquisition cost? The TAM Media Research report, with more details available here.
Posted In: Research & Metrics
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Comments (3)
Oct 5, 2007 3:47 AM
check out alexa rank for desimartini-the peak during good old days of tv ads-so will be the case of bigadda-
Oct 5, 2007 4:30 AM
dimtim: I think an even more pertinent case is the comparison of desimartini’s TV and radio campaign, as opposed to it’s viral campaign. Take a look at the following graph:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1399/1488050327_b1e130d2df.jpg?v=0
The surge in blue begins when the TV advertising starts, and there’s a spurt when their viral Makkadman.com was launched. The viral appears to had a much shorter lifespan, and it’s contribution to traffic declined pretty fast.
a disclaimer due here: I’m related to Vivek Pahwa, founder of Desimartini.
Oct 5, 2007 8:37 AM
Hi,
Well the case here is very clear with and more Indian player jumpin on the scene - the only way to get some unique users quickly is TV ads and that straightaway jack ups the price of acquiring a new unique user…if you can look at the comscore data - alomost everyone who has advertised on TV has seen a jump in unique users but one look at their - the page views and time spent tells them the real story…no stickiness in the offering..