NEW WIRE TOPICS:

WHY MORE EMPLOYEES ARE GOING BACK TO THEIR OLD JOBS

The so-called boomerang employeesworkers who return to a former employerare on
the rise
Gone are the days of a burned employer writing off an employee who decides to leave for
a different company. So-called boomerang employeesworkers who return to a former
employerare on the rise.
In a survey of more than 1,800 human resource professionals, managers, and employees
by Kronos and Workplace Trends, 76% said theyre more accepting of hiring former employees
than they were five years ago. Nearly two-thirds of managers agreed. Employees also reported
feeling less anxiety about returning to a company, with 40% of those surveyed saying they would
consider boomeranging.
Despite changing attitudes, the phenomenon is still relatively uncommon. Only 15% of
employees surveyed said they had returned to a former
employer.
What were seeing at the workplace level is a
fundamental shift in (the) employee-employer
relationship that is at the root of this, says Dan
Schawbel, the founder of WorkplaceTrends. It used to be
that the control was with the employer. You got to work
here, it was coveted. You were lucky to have a job, he
adds. I think that has changed quite a bit, driven by the
war for top talent in the marketplace.
Multiple surveys put retention as the top issue for human resources. Losing employees is
expensive, and finding replacements means time and money. Of course, for someone to
boomerang back to a company, he or she has to leave, which is exactly what HR departments
dont want. But volatility is the reality of todays workforce. Young workers job hop more than
older ones, moving an average of every three years.
The No. 1 benefit that boomerangs have is that theyre familiar with the organizations
culture, its easier to integrate them back to the culture, says David Almeda, the chief people
officer at Kronos. It costs less to recruit, hire, and train someone who has already worked in an
organization. When such employees come back, they also bring institutional knowledge from
competitors. And if that rehire is a high performer, it can boost company morale.
The reasons employees leave and return can vary. A 2013 study of 15,000 employees
found that 20% who returned to their old jobs had left to take a break, such as to have a baby or
to go to graduate school. Almeda confirms that he is seeing these life-situation things more
often in his research on boomerang employees. People will leave to spend time with their

families and come back once they feel more settled. He has also identified two other kinds of
returneespeople who left to get more skills and returned at a higher level, and those who had
been at a company for a long time and felt an itch to try something else.
A notable group not on that list? People who quit dramatically and then told HR how
much they hated their boss. Now that employers are softening their rehiring policies, consider
this a friendly reminder that its never smart to burn a bridge. Bloomberg

The textiles industry will need six crore skilled workforce by 2022, Union Minister Santosh
Gangwar said.
The textiles industry will need six crore skilled workforce by 2022, Union Minister
Santosh Gangwar said today.
Gangwar, who handles the Textiles Ministry, was addressing a national workshop on
Integrated Skill Development Scheme.
Expressing happiness at the employment of large number of women in textiles and allied
sectors, Gangwar hoped that the workshop would give a
new direction to the scheme.
Textiles Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda said the
youth can get a meaningful employment if the right type
of skill is provided. For this, he said, the skill imparted
has to be of good quality and as per industry needs.
As regards the organised textile sector, Panda said
that there is a need to scale up production and
employment, ensuring zero defect (in products) and zero
effect (on environment).
The Secretary said that for unorganised sector efforts are being taken to organize the
trainees into Self Help Groups (SHGs) on completion of training.
He said that Common Facility Centres are also being set up in order to provide the
requisite infrastructure, training and design support.
-

HOW TO REINSTALL WINDOWS

INDIAN RETAILER

The time has come when you need to wipe your machine and reinstall the operating
system so that it is like brand new. However, you don't know what to do and you don't know
where to turn. TechRadar has you covered. Although Windows 10 is alive and gaining
popularity, most of you are still on Windows 7, so we'll use that as the basis for this tutorial.
Now, if you're my father, you would delete everything and complain about stuff missing
later. In order to be smart about this procedure, it is very wise to do a backup of your computer
with all of your files. We have reviewed some great backup solutions from the Toshiba 3TB
Cavio, the Western Digital DL4100, to the SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive. You will want
to back up your files so that this process is easy.
Assuming that is all done, I am going to walk you through each step and what you need
to prep.
If your hard drive is not bad, most companies that
make laptops or workstations provide either a CD or a
bootable image that is off the hard drive. Assuming your
hard drive is not physically damaged or worn down, you
should be able to press a key at bootup (usually F2, F9,
or F11) but just look up that information on your
manufactures website.
If the aforementioned step to boot is not an
option, either obtain a CD from the manufacturer or to
purchase a Windows Disk from Microsoft Directly. Now, I am going to be reinstalling windows
using a Microsoft Windows 7 Disk that I had purchased a couple of years back.
Now, before we move forward I would like to note that the worst part about this situation
is that you will have to install drivers to make sure your hardware is working. What I do is I
download the network card and wifi drivers and save them onto a flash drive so when the
computer comes up I can manage the install that way. You can also prep all the drivers and
save them onto a flash drive.
If you want an easier way to restore your Windows machine, maybe taking a computer
image for restoration later might be the way to go, read our steps as to how, here.
Place Microsoft Windows Disk into your CD/DVD drive.
Reboot the machine and press (usually F2) for boot options. We are going to choose to
boot from the CD/DVD drive. Select it with the keyboard arrows and hit enter.
Upon start, click on the Install button.
Accept the License Agreement and click Next.
For a new installation on a hard drive, choose Custom Install and hit Next.
Select your hard drive. Now, if you have a new hard drive hit New (for new hard disk)
and click Apply. Once done, hit Format and Apply. If you are installing on a disk with data on it, I
would recommend deleting it (especially since you backed up the data). Why? Well, if you had a

virus you would be keeping it on the system and installing Windows on top of it. I would select
the disk, delete the partition, hit New to create a new partition, and format. Once done, hit next.
This isn't really a step as this is when Microsoft is going to install Windows. Not much to
do and, depending on the specs of your computer, it might take some time. But, if you were to
go make a cup of coffee and a sandwich, I think it should be done by the time you get back. On
4GB of RAM it took my computer about 10 minutes to finish.
The following steps are for personalization, setting up the user name, password, etc.
The first option is to setup the Username. Type whatever you would like your username to be.
By Default, Windows will take whatever you input and add '-PC' at the end for the computer
name.
Setup a password and a password hint. I chose something challenging, but something I
can remember. The password hint cannot have the password in it - so you cannot set your
password to be your dog's name, Nina, and then make the hint Nina. But, your hint could be
"What is your dog's name?"
Automatic Updates. I hate them but I always enable them. I always select Use
Recommended Settings. I suggest that you do, as well.
Choose your Date/Time Zone. Hit the drop down menu and select your timezone. I'm in
New York City so the Eastern Time Zone is my choice.
Select your computer's location. This gives you the choices of "Pubic, Home, and Work."
These are merely for firewall and security rules but if this is your home choose Home.
Now, Windows will boot in and you are good to go. But, we do still have to install our
Windows drivers. Insert your Flash Drive and when it opens up select each driver. You will have
to install them manually. Most of the time a driver will come with an installer, so clicking the
Executable (.exe or .msi) should install the drivers for you.
- ECONOMIC TIMES

FACEBOOK STRUGGLES TO SELL ADVERTISING IN INDIA, TRIES

WITH FEATURES SUCH AS FREE EMAIL SUPPORT
Facebook is trying to lure skeptical advertisers in India with features such as free email
support for questions about advertising and advice on increasing sales in a bid to boost revenue
from its second biggest market.
Facebook has 132 million users in India, trailing only the 193 million in the United States,
according to the company, and the country is critical for the Menlo Park, California, social
network's global expansion.
But so far, the payoff has been small: Facebook earns 15 cents per user in India every
quarter, compared to the $7 to $8 it makes on each US user, according to analysts.

Facebook does not break out its revenues in India, but Neil Shah, an analyst at
Counterpoint Research, a Hong Kong-based technology consulting firm, estimates it brings in
$15 million a quarter, far behind the $350 million he
estimates Google earns there per quarter.
Google, which set up in India in 2004, has been in
the Indian market six years longer than Facebook, and its
search ads are more familiar to advertisers there than the
display ads Facebook offers.
The business-boosting features, described to
Reuters by company executives and Indian business
people, are aimed at advertisers such as Mohit Khattar,
managing director at online grocery company Godrej
Nature's Basket, one of the roughly 60 to 65 million small- and medium-sized businesses in the
country.
He said he began advertising on Facebook about two months ago as the company
ramped up its online presence. He found that advertising in-store events and sales helped
attract customers, but would not provide specific figures.
"Since our customers are on Facebook, we are on Facebook. It's that simple," Khattar
said.
Facebook declined to say how many staff members it has in India or how much it has
invested since it launched operations there in 2010.
But the world's largest social network says it has seen early signs its efforts are working.
The company unveiled a new type of ad designed specifically for India last year, called "click to
missed call."
Users click a button on an ad, which automatically calls an advertiser. The user hangs
up - to save them the charge for the call - and the advertiser calls back with a pre-recorded
message.
Garnier Men, a leading men's hair care company in India and a unit of beauty products
giant L'Oreal SA, saw online sales more than double by using click to missed call, according to
Facebook and the company.
TV ADS
But Indian advertisers still overwhelmingly flock to television ads and remain skeptical of
the value of advertising on social media, analysts and business executives said.
"Advertisers in India are not warmed enough to social media as a concept of marketing,"
said Shah, the Counterpoint analyst.
"We really need to help them see how Facebook pages and advertising will help grow
their businesses," said Andy Hwang, Facebook director of small- and medium-sized businesses
for Asia Pacific.

For instance, the company advises businesses to create interactive Facebook pages
and use Facebook Messenger to interact with customers as a way of increasing sales.
Technology companies have turned to India and other markets in Asia for growth
because the region contains two-thirds of the world's population. Asia is Facebook's fastestgrowing region, with 57 per cent year-over-year growth in monthly active users.
India alone has 1.3 billion people, second only to China, and Facebook increased the
number of users there by 22 per cent last year. On the other hand, only 252 million people in
India have Internet access.
Expansion in India is also important because of the "China factor." Facebook, like
Google Inc and Twitter Inc , is shut out of the biggest market of all due to the Communist
government's concerns over control of information. Other tech companies, such as eBay and
Yahoo, have struggled to crack the Chinese market.
Getting more Indian users "drives success, or at least the perception of success," said
Jaideep Mehta, vice president and general manager for International Data Corporation
Southeast Asia.
Facebook said it plans to use its strategy in India for other emerging markets such as
Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico, which are Facebook's third-, fourth- and fifth-largest markets by
users.
That makes success in India even more important for its global expansion. For the
second quarter of this year, 51.3 per cent of Facebook's $4 billion in revenue came from outside
the US and Canada.
In addition to efforts to attract more Indian advertisers, Facebook is working to make it
easier for users to get on the service.
More than 90 per cent of Facebook's Indian users access it through mobile phones, but
the Facebook app uses more data than most are able to pay for and Internet connections can
be patchy. So the social giant developed Facebook Lite, which uses less data, for India and
other emerging markets.
It has also rolled out its Internet.org initiative in India, a program started in August 2013
that aims to connect the two-thirds of the world without Internet access. Many of India's
advertising dollars are in rural and semi-urban cities, analysts said, where users do not have a
reliable Internet connection.
Facebook is also getting help from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
which uses Facebook to provide updates on the government's workings.
"It is undeniable that a pro-social media government is good for the industry," Mehta
said.
- ECONOMIC TIMES

HOW TO USE MOBILE DATA ETHICALLY AND EFFECTIVELY TO

IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Recent studies have stated that mobile devices are becoming an extension of the
consumers self, with more people using their mobiles to communicate. Since 2014, more people
surf on the internet via their mobile device rather than on their desktop, meaning consumers are
becoming more active on their smartphones. Marketers must therefore recognise the shift
towards mobile devices, and ensure that their platforms are fully optimised to reflect this in order
to enhance the experience their customer
receives.
Mobile intelligence is integral to
improving customer experience, as it allows
accurate data to be collected that can tell brands a
lot about their users behaviour and location. Its
important to recognise that this data is very
personal to the customer, and whilst this makes it
extremely valuable, it must be used carefully if it
is to enhance customer experience. If data is not used sensitively, businesses run the risk of
breaking down relationships, so its vital that customers are understood on a granular level in
order to achieve the best possible customer experience that meets their personal wishes.
There are a number of ways to be sensitive with data that benefits the customer, and gives
guidance in order to create an individualised customer experience. Apps are a great place to start;
mobile users who opt-in to push notifications and other messages are essentially welcoming
companies to communicate with them on a personal level.
Brands must recognise the market, however, which is extremely competitive (there are
more than two million apps available to download), and 70% of the people who download an app
either delete or stop using it within 30 days. The focus therefore should be on building a loyal
user base, and increasing engagement in order to ensure marketing budget isnt being wasted. A
lot of marketing budget is spent on user acquisition, but if 70% stop using apps within a month,
the focus should be on engaging app users and collecting data that optimises mobile platforms.
There are some relatively simple steps to take for app retention, which, if followed, are
extremely valuable when collecting data to improve customer experience:
1. Gather the data
By using mobile intelligence, brands are able to develop profiles of key user segments.
This will define how customers use the app, which will offer insight into what works well for
them on a personal level.
2. Map messages to the user lifecycle

Identify the key stages that a user goes through from downloading to the ongoing use of
the app. The lifecycle varies per industry. Think of the following steps as an example: download
register playing/using make a purchase ongoing use.
3. Activate new users and re-engage dormant users
Brands can activate, engage current active customers and re-engage with the users who
stopped using their app. As a rule of thumb for new users, send out messages after 3, 7 and 10
days since their last activation. Give them a bonus to get them triggered.
Brands need to have a different approach for re-engaging with dormant users. Send
messages after approximately 14 and 30 days with a shift in tone inviting users to re-visit the app
or offer them the opportunity to leave feedback.
4. Automate messaging
Automating push messages is actually the same as automating email campaigns. Set-up
pre-defined rules and triggers. Make sure the amount of effort required is minimised and the goal
is kept in mind (increase engagement and retention).
Once these steps are in place, brands are able to test and analyse their campaigns - this
will allow them to optimise performance, which is vital for every marketing channel. Once
theyve tested the response of their users, findings can be adjusted to get the best app
engagement and retention possible. If customer are engaged and regularly use the app, its a sign
that the customers experience is positive, which will enhance brands perception and influence
sales.
(Jon Williams is country manager UK & Ireland, at Teradata Marketing Applications.)
MY CUSTOMER

SALES ANALYTICS: WHAT SHOULD YOU MONITOR AND MEASURE?

Many organisations, before they embark on their sales analytics journey, tend to focus on
tracking sales numbers rather than on truly understanding how they were achieved.
This means that they do not necessarily have much insight into the mechanics of how
they make money or what opportunities they might be missing. But if sales insight can be
combined with performance data, it becomes possible to obtain a rounded view of what is
working well or where possible problems are taking place.
This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) come in. They provide a standard way
of defining and measuring how well sales teams are doing in terms of achieving their sales goals
and can be tweaked to modify behaviour in line with strategy changes.

One of the chief reasons that sales analytics can

under-deliver, is the adoption of vague KPIs that are not
really measurable. The clearer you are on what you want
to measure, the more likely you are to achieve the results
you are looking for.
Here we provide a guide on just what KPIs
actually are and how to get them right:
What are key performance indicators?
KPIs are a set of quantifiable measures that assess the elements of organisational
performance considered most important to a firms current and future success. In other words,
they enable you to understand whether a company, business unit or individual employee are
performing in line with desired business outcomes.
As a result, says subject expert David Parmenter, these behavioural measures need to
demonstrate seven core characteristics in order to be effective. They should be:
o Non-financial no monetary value is assigned to them.
o Timely - they are measured frequently.
o CEO-focused the chief executive or other appropriate senior manager acts on them.
o Simple all employees understand what is being measured and what action needs to be taken
if they are not being achieved.
o Team-based responsibility for hitting them is assigned to an individual team or teams that
work closely together.
They should also have a:
o Significant impact this means they influence more than one of the organisations key
critical success factors.
o Limited dark side they are tested to ensure a positive impact on performance rather than
introducing unexpected perverse incentives.

In a sales context, KPIs are generally based on internal metrics such as sales conversion
rates or reps calling a given number of prospects per week. The aim is to make it clear where
they should focus their time and efforts in order to hit goals.
So for example, if your sales analytics data indicates that most of the team concentrates
on small-to-medium enterprises as the sales cycle is quicker and easier, even though there is

much more money to be made from large companies, your KPIs will need to reflect your
requirement for them to switch focus.
Why is it important to use KPIs?
By having pertinent KPIs in place, it becomes possible to modify the behaviour of your
sales staff to ensure it is aligned more effectively with the wider sales strategy.
This means that if you combine such measures with sales insights and performance data,
you can gain a more holistic view of what is working well or where possible problems are
occurring in a given sales campaign or wider sales process in order to take swift action. Such
action could involve either tweaking things to ensure you stay on track or even coming up with
an entirely new approach before any real damage is done.
So for example, if a given campaign isnt performing as well as hoped, spotting the
situation early is likely to make it easier to turn around. Possible action here might include
setting new KPIs to ensure that sales people personally call on up 10 customers a week to raise
awareness - or even pulling the campaign entirely before there are any negative financial
repercussions.
How do you go about defining KPIs?
The KPIs that you choose completely depend on your sales strategy and what it is you are
trying to achieve so there are no hard and fast rules. But examples can help to illustrate the point.
So for instance, your target as a manager might be to see sales increase by 10% over the
year ahead. But when you look at your customer data, it becomes clear that, while your team are
great at winning new customers, they are less successful in keeping them for any length of time
or in cross- or up-selling to them.
As a result, you set KPIs to ensure that your sales team spend 50% of their time each
week working with existing clients and making two new contacts there a week in order to build
on and develop the relationship.
But it is also worth bearing in mind that the more granular and specific a KPI is, the more
effective it tends to be too. So, for instance, asking reps to speak to five new prospects a week
will generate more positive results than just requesting that they talk to customers more.
Although getting such measures right takes experience and is an iterative process, by
tracking behaviour regularly, it becomes possible to see what works and what doesnt.
Where do people go wrong with KPIs?
A common pitfall is getting carried away and trying to measure too much. Generally up
to five KPIs is quite enough and less is generally more - particularly if sales staff are not used to
having their performance measured in this way.

Another mistake is simply pushing out KPIs without explaining properly to the team
what they mean or why they are being tracked in this way. Failure to educate people properly is
likely to see staff trying to find ways to pervert the process, which simply doesnt help anyone.
-

MY CUSTOMER

TV AD SPENDS INCREASE BY 21% IN JAN-JUNE 2015

Grab of a tv commercial featuring Yamini Gautam.
Acche din have finally arrived for the Indian television industry. Despite talks of a
sluggish economy and impending threat from digital media, ad spends on TV have witnessed a
steep increase of 21% during January-June, 2015. The high growth rate is likely to continue for
the rest of the year.
"Such a growth rate is unprecedented and has not been achieved in the last five years,"
says Sam Balsara, chairman and MD of Madison World. "A 21% growth coming on the back of a
14% growth in 2014 and without the elections is quite unprecedented and shows the optimistic
outlook of industry in Indian markets and the aggressive stance they are willing to take to protect
and grow their market share. The growth is also significant in the light of growing conversations
around digital."
Television ad spends have hit total revenues of Rs 8,200 crore in H1 2015 (January-June)
compared to Rs 6,800 crore in H1 2014. E-commerce, FMCG and auto companies have been the
biggest drivers behind the growth in TV ad spends this year, reveals Pitch-Madison Media
Advertising Outlook, a study that analyses trends in the Indian advertising industry. ICC Cricket
World Cup, IPL, Delhi state elections also contributed to the overall growth in H1 '15. "This is
one of the best times that the media has seen. Starting from e-commerce players, who are flush
with funds to new investors following PM's Make in India campaign, everybody wants to build
their brands. Hence, ad rates have also gone up. You can expect the growth rate to sustain itself
for more than a year from now," said a media planner from one of the country's biggest media
agencies.
Other categories that have contributed to the push
are consumer durables and banking and financial services.
Both increased their ad spends by more than 45%. FMCG
has been the largest contributor in absolute terms
contributing Rs 4,200 crore and accounts for 51% of the
total TV spends.
-

MOBILE AD SPENDS TO INCREASE BY 60% IN 2015

TOI

The mobile ecosystem has been the fastest growing advertising and marketing medium in
India and around the world. A survey carried out by exchange4media last year revealed that
mobile ad spends would grow by 43 per cent in 2014 to reach around Rs 450-475 crore with a
projected growth rate of 52 per cent for 2015.
Similarly, an eMarketer report released earlier this year said that mobile internet ad
spending (not including SMS, MMS and P2P messaging) is projected to grow at 120 per cent in
2015 and 100 per cent in 2016. Another IAMAI report released back in September 2014 also put
the annual growth rate of mobile advertising as 43 per cent.
Growth projection for mobile ad spends in India
On the occasion of exchange4medias inaugural Mobile Advertising Awards or The
Maddies 2015, we spoke with industry experts, which included marketers, head of ad tech
companies, mobile professionals and media planners, to get their thoughts on mobile ad spends
in India.
Mobile ad spends are expected to grow at
60 per cent in 2015. This would mean that, taking
the mobile ad spends as Rs 450 crore in 2014, ad
spends should be around Rs 720 crore in 2015.
Mobile ad spends are expected to continue
growing at the rate of 50-60 per cent in 2016
However, there were also those who
thought that ad spends would double YoY in India.
Most of the consumption of video gets clubbed
under digital whereas at least 90 per cent of the
video content, at least the short form video content,
is on mobile; so this number (mobile ad spend
projections) needs to be finetuned, explained Pancham Endlaw, Head (Advertising) for Opera
Mediaworks South Asia, when asked about his views.
Similarly, Dippak Khurana, Co-founder and CEO of Vserv opined that 2016 would be a
tipping point for mobile advertising. The mobile advertising industry has grown at 52% CAGR
over the last couple of years. In 2016, we expect to see phenomenal growth in this industry with
a 90% increase in mobile ad spends. This growth will be fuelled by the fact that India is one of
the worlds fastest growing smartphone markets with a growth rate of over 50%. The year 2016
will be the first year of market maturity for mobile advertising and this industry will see
accelerated participation from all segments.
Charulata Ravi Kumar, CEO of Razorfish India, was also of the opinion that in 2016
brands will take a mobile first approach. We expect to see nearly 30-35 per cent of the
marketing budget allocated to digital spends with about 50 per cent on mobile, she said.
Drivers of mobile spends

The increasing penetration of smartphones in the country is one of the chief drivers of
mobile ad spends in the country, opined industry experts we spoke with. This is also impacted
due to decreasing smartphone and data prices, which is further leading to increase in content
consumption.
Generally, we have seen in Western countries that when 30 per cent of phones become
smartphones then you reach that inflection point. I think this will happen in India in the next 1218 months. With 4G coming in and data prices falling, video content will be consumed more and
more and data usage will increase. Generally, mobile is going to become a key part of
communications for brands. The medium will also become more localized and customized. Both
agencies and clients have just scratched the tip of the iceberg, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO
(South Asia) Dentsu Aegis Network and Chairman of Posterscope and psLive (Asia Pacific).
With audiences nearly inseparable from their smartphones and feature phones, the
marketer, for perhaps the first time ever, has a device that allows it to be part of their consumers
life 24*7.
Explaining how the mobile has become such an important tool for marketers, Ketan Head
(Marketing, Corporate Communications and Sustainability) of Blue Dart Express said, There is
a new mass of a attention deficient audience, but, to our delight, glued to their mobile phones,
and these mobile first are a growing mass. This is a medium of advertising by which you can
get closest to them. With growth in interactive , rich media and native apps and more and more
advertisers learning to use the media it will be a important one going ahead attracting a lot of
advertising monies, it is alive and well but also fast becoming a key component to a growing
amount of successful digital media plans.
E-commerce continues to lead the way
E-commerce continues to remain the major sector driving ad spends on the mobile in
2015. Media planners we spoke with said that this would continue to remain the case for the next
couple of years.
For example, according to Opera Mediaworks Endlaw, categories like e-commerce,
support and affiliate services (Housing.com, etc.) and classifieds (OLX, Quikr, etc.) represent
more than 50 per cent of mobile ad spends in India (not including search).
Apart from e-commerce, mass consumer categories like FMCG, BFSI, telecom, etc. have
also been steadily increasing mobile ad spends though it is much more strategic. Most brick
and mortar businesses are now looking at the digital medium. With smartphone penetration set
to increase due to 4G, all kinds of businesses will be looking to explore at how they can use the
mobile to interact with audiences. The categories driving mobile advertising are mass consumer
categories like consumer durables, e-commerce, education, BFSI, etc.; so it is quite a varied list
of companies. Cross device targeting has also become something of an option. They have all
started experimenting for sure but the options are still not evolved, opined PM Balakrishna,
CEO of Allied Media Network and EVP of Percept Media.

We see mobile ad spends aligned to the overall digital ad spends in which e-commerce,
FMCG, telecom and auto would constitute the segments which serve as growth drivers. At
Vuclip, companies in the FMCG, consumer durable goods and auto sectors have been
contributing significantly to our growing ad revenues, informed Meera Chopra, VP & Global
Head of Advertising Sales at Vuclip.
However, as the medium matures and both brands and agencies develop a better
understanding of how to best use the inherent qualities of the mobile phone, we would see more
non-traditional sectors getting on to the mobile.
Mobile will continue to grow but the best way to grow advertising budget from
marketers today is if this could be integrated in the overall marketing mix. Its all about having
mobile integrated as part of the marketing mix rather than having a standalone mobile
advertising campaign, opined Vinod Thadani, Chief Digital Officer of Mindshare (South Asia).
Opportunities And Challenges
The potential and, in many ways, the challenge ahead for the mobile medium lies in the
twin issues of connectivity and speed. As Charulata Ravi Kumar, CEO of Razorfish India, puts it,
Connectivity and speed are the biggest concerns in India. We are one generation behind other
countries. The moment service providers are put under pressure to improve the connectivity, we
will see this change taking place.
The advent of 4G and reduction of access costs (data costs) will definitely play a big role
in how the medium shapes up in coming years. With video content slated to be the most
consumed form of content on digital, a strong network could be the difference between success
and failure.
Another major change would be in how brands and agencies design their
communications. Though display advertising currently accounts for nearly 60 per cent of ad
spends, there is a growing feeling that the industry needs a more engaging and non-intrusive
mode of advertising. With rich media and better targeted ads, some headway has been made in
this field. Native advertising is another option that is increasingly finding favour in India and the
world over. In a 2015 study, the IAB estimated that native ads made up nearly 21 per cent of total
digital ad spends in the first half of 2014.
We foresee native ads that are contextual and in line with the genre of the video being
selected to play would become the norm rather than the exception for mobile advertising in
2016, said Chopra.
Programmatic advertising is another development that endeavours to make mobile
advertising more contextual and efficient. However, for adoption to increase, there still remains a
lot of evangelism to be done. Were going through the chicken and egg conundrum here.
Publishers are not selling programmatically. Advertisers are not buying it because there is no one
selling programmatically. Who should start first? The problem is further amplified by lack of
data, lack of trained experts, and fear of the unknown. Programmatic hasnt made an impact yet,

and it will take another 2 years till it becomes a preferred buying model, stated Lavin Punjabi,
President at Affinity.
The opportunities for improving engagement also lie in other avenues like gamification;
something else that has yet to see widespread adoption in India. I see big opportunities in native
In-game-advertising where the brand can offer a relevant reward for their consumers to
advance in the game they are playing. Most of the games are free-to-play with in app
purchases and this has created opportunities advertisers to be as sponsors within the game for
their consumers, said Antti hrling, COO at Jolla.
Another avenue said experts is mobile payment. Most companies are not even looking at
the scope of business transactions. Two areas that are going to be key are social commerce and
m-commerce but we have not even taken off when it comes to social commerce. There are a few
companies doing it but the opportunity will come when more companies get into this space,
opined Ravi Kumar.
Encapsulating the opportunities lying ahead, Amar Thomas, Head (Marketing) of
Blackberry India was of the opinion that with most brands still in the discovery phase, the
growth of the medium would depend a lot on the approach of individual brands. While some
brands will fearlessly explore, others will want to follow existing rules and
conventions. However with India seeing a startup boom the young and restless will push the
boundaries of mobile marketing and newer and interesting case studies will emerge. Notable also
will be how brands reach the 800 million customers who still dont have smartphones. Brands
that get that formula right will find they can successfully reach a wider audience than those that
stick only to smartphone customers. HUL and Godrej, for instance, have demonstrated a
particularly innovative approach in reaching out to a non-smartphone audience successfully, he
said.
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EXCHANGE 4 MEDIA

HOW TO PLAN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS ACROSS MASS MEDIA TO

DRIVE BUSINESS GROWTH
It is never enough to advertise widely if one cannot advertise effectively. For every
startup, where the key to survival is gaining traction and growth, marketing plays a crucial role.
Initial traction for consumer startups gets driven by digital marketing, as its performance driven
and measurable. Having gained the initial base and equipped with a round of funding, startups
often turn to mass-media advertising across newspapers, TV and radio for growing reach.
Mass media, however, comes with its own set of challenges, be it being expensive, hard
to target or not being all that data friendly. The performance lens, which works beautifully for
digital, blurs when being applied towards mass media. Even leveraging traditional FMCG
insights acquired via consistent, long-term branding stand irrelevant when measured against

quarterly VC targets of app downloads and site visitors. Evidently, newspaper advertising in print
has evolved from consistent quarter-page branding ads to high-impact full-page jackets. Given
that the next set of customers that need to be reached exist offline, how do funded startups
leverage mass media for performance while still maintaining its reach? Having worked across
multiple clients to get mass-media advertising working for them, here are some key insights
wed like to share:

Targeting the right customer: Given the fact that

mass-media advertising is expensive, it is imperative
to understand key customer segments. For example,
your startup may be looking to target all internetsavvy individuals in India, between 18 and 34 years of
age. However, do you have data that covers: male vs
female, students vs working professionals, urban vs
regional, couples vs families? This is important as
each segment behaves differently, with regards to its media consumption. Wouldnt it, then,
be magical to get insight on individual population numbers and percentage share to better
target and plan for the right segment?
The panacea to these burning questions in todays marketers minds can simply be mining
user data available from LinkedIn and Facebook insights of over 130 million user accounts in
India. This data would prove far superior to any consensus report, readership survey or audience
measurement solution being used traditionally. Using this, one can specifically zero in on their
key target audience to plan media spends.

Discerning Media Preferences: How does one decide among more than 150 newspapers,
200 TV Channels and 15 radio stations? Traditionally, the media industry has offered thirdparty reporting, unique to each media such as ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) for
newspapers, TAM (Television Audience Measurement) for television and RAM (Radio
Audience Measurement) for radio. However, these reporting systems come with their own
sets of challenges, as theyve not really innovated since their launch over a decade ago.

TAM, for example, works on the principle of installing more than 10,000 people meters
across households in the country, on the basis of which they extrapolate TV viewing behaviour of
the entire nation (of over one billion people!). Even their classifications of audiences are divided
between age intervals of 10 years each (for example: 15-24, 25-34 etc), thereby clubbing
multiple segments of different people together. Thus, the 25- 34 year bracket includes work
professionals, couples and families even though each group has separate TV-viewing patterns.
Being spoilt with data for digital marketing, startups might often classify traditional media
reporting systems as broken. As all reporting parameters measure reach of potential media via
GRPs, readers, listeners, how do media planners effectively develop plans to optimise
performance (app downloads/ visitors) instead of just targetting reach?
The answer may lie in mining digital data for understanding customers offline behaviour.
One can analyse YouTube views of specific TV shows broken by audience demographics;
Facebook likes across pages of particular TV channels can be researched further to understand

the key audience demographics preferences of each. The million-plus likes for the channel Star
Plus page on Facebook, when analysed, would share far more data and insight as opposed to
what 10,000 TAM people meters can provide. Ideally, insight on consumers digital behaviour,
when applied on top of traditional reporting, paints a clearer picture for creating the right media
plan.

Leveraging Advertising Innovations: At releaseMyAd, we often treat media planning and

buying akin to picking financial stocks. It is important to recognise and leverage costeffective new-media options while the opportunity window remains open. Newspaper jacket
advertising, for example, was an innovation which got championed early-on by the ecommerce giants and is now considered a standard in any impact-heavy plan and offered as a
premium.

The key exists in leveraging an innovation when its novel and underpriced to drive value.
For example we currently suggest many startups to consider using a newspaper bookmark ad
a full-page ad which clearly juts out (by 3 cm) from the paper and therefore catches the eye,
costing a tenth of the money spent on a traditional jacket ad. Integrating advertising with content
across media is also important. Every radio plan should also consider including RJ mentions,
sponsorships and contests, in addition to leveraging plans for vanilla commercials. The
importance of leveraging native advertising stands powerful for offline media, mor so than it
does for digital.
As a startup, when youre out to achieve things that have never been accomplished
before, you have to dream things that have never been imagined either. Traditional media
agencies, having worked on FMCG campaigns over the decade, may falter when questioned on
performance metrics of app downloads/visitors and digital user data. When identifying the key
partner to help plan and buy your media campaign, ensure coherence in understanding the
marriage between the online-offline world and the ability to provide data-driven insight towards
identifying and reaching your target customer. In a world that is a global village, marketing can
never forego mass media. The ideal promise remains to marry the performance of digital with the
reach of mass media.
-

YOUR STOR

SEVEN BEST PRACTICES FOR BETTER SALES ANALYTICS

In days gone by, sales management was definitely more of an art than a science and one
centred very much on gut feel.
But a new generation of sales directors is now
starting to come through. They are keen to get their hands
on company data in order to help them make smarter
decisions and boost the performance of their sales teams
based on facts rather than feelings.

Because the adoption of sales analytics tools - beyond the seemingly ubiquitous
spreadsheets - is still very much in its early days, however, here is some best practice guidance to
help steer you through some of the most common pitfalls.
1. Take your sales analytics initiative one step at a time
Sales analytics tools can help you track and understand the behaviour of your sales force
and also give you insights into why customers buy what they buy.
But there are four key types of tools on the market to help you did this and Gartner splits
them into four categories, each of which is on a continuum:
Descriptive What happened? For example, which key opportunities did we win or lose?
Diagnostic Why did it happen? For instance, we won or lost due to competitive pricing.
Predictive What will happen? For example, win rates are likely to improve next quarter.
Prescriptive How can we make it happen? For instance, we will improve win rates due to
more effective value selling.
This means that it is usual to start your project at the descriptive and diagnostic levels
and, once experience has been gained, to move onto the next stage.
2. Ensure your data is complete and accurate
Any sales analytics tool will only be as effective as the data entered into it from sales
force automation and/or enterprise resource planning systems. But many companies tend to
employ such tools in a rather undisciplined way, failing to provide sales staff with simple,
structured templates laying out the data they want to collect.
It is also worth focusing time and effort on ensuring that the quality of your data is high
by undertaking a data cleansing project on existing information and making certain that it as
complete and accurate as possible. Failure to do so could mean that answers to your questions
are not reliable.
As part of this process, also take the time to agree on standard, objective terminology.
The idea is to ensure that everyone understands what basic words and expressions such as
qualified leads mean in order to avoid misunderstandings later.
3. Understand what outputs will help you attain your objectives
All too many organisations go out and buy an expensive sales analytics tool and then sit
back and wait for the magic to happen. But in order to make the most of it, it is very important to
have a clear view of what you are trying to achieve so what are you using the tool for and to
what end.

To help things along here, consider which part of your sales process needs attention,
either because it is poorly-understood or broken. Then, come up with very specific questions
about that area in order to gain a clearer idea of what is going on. Such questions could include
how long it takes on average to close a deal and which customers buy what products where.
4. Ensure you have sales operations expertise in place
If a given sales manager does not have sales operations expertise, it may be helpful to
bring such skills in. Sales operations personnel are logistical, process-oriented people who
provide discipline and structure when working with sales analytics tools. Many are data
scientists, or are in the process of becoming one, and undertake activities such as preparing
reports, evaluating sales enablement tools and setting up systems.
5. Handle change management carefully
In order to get hold of the right data for analysis purposes, it is crucial to ensure that sales
staff keep their records updated with pre-defined information such as potential opportunities at
each stage of the sales cycle.
To encourage them to do so, make it clear that the organisation now relies on such
information, which means that it is considered a core responsibility to accurately record their
activities in order to ensure that the team, and the company itself, performs better as a whole.
Tied to this, however, is the need to prove these statements by being seen to act on the
data provided. For example, if an individual is found to have problems in converting leads into
sales, use the data as the basis for discussion and offer to send them on a training programme to
aid their professional development.
Also important in this context though is the sales leaders management style and
approach, which means that training may be required here too. If change management is not
handled sensitively and the team feels that data is being used against them in a Big Brother-ish
fashion, they will find ways to subvert the process or simply start sandbagging.
This means that helping personnel to understand how data can be used to their benefit is
crucial. One approach is to openly share dashboard information in your weekly catch-up
meetings rather than waiting for quarterly team meetings in order to keep people in the loop.
But bear in mind that using data to inform discussion can also change the nature of the
conversation too. So if someone is not hitting their sales targets, the focus no longer necessarily
has to be on asking why. Instead it can move on to offering possible solutions such as altering the
size of territories or focusing on repeat business.
6. Keep things simple and iterative
Large corporate sales analytics projects that are led by IT departments often fail because
they can become over-scoped and over-specified and just too complex. The problem is that,
rolling out functionality based on everyones pet features all at once can result in the initiative
simply collapsing under its own weight.

But keeping things simple and limiting the initial scope of initiatives generally works
well. The old adage deploy early and deploy often applies here, with each stage of the process
comprising activities that are linked to key deliverables, which are made available at the end of
each phase.
This means that new features are rolled out iteratively in chunks on a must-have basis,
which in turn enables you to understand what has been used and what works. Managing this
process is likely to require an experienced project manager or subject matter expert in order to
keep nice-to-haves to a minimum, however.
Over time, data from other departments such as marketing and customer service can also
be added in order to encompass the entire business, but the key lesson here is that it pays to start
small.
7. Remember it is the data that will give you sales insights, not the tool per se
Your sales analytics tool will show you patterns in data and answer your specific
questions, but it will not be able to interpret this information for you that is down to you. But it
is in interpreting and acting on the data provided that the real power lies as it will help to inform
your sales strategy.