Business - IPTV provides advertising on demand

Seema Sindhu

The recently-launched IPTV is offering advertisers a unique advertising proposition, that of pull advertising or advertising on demand.

icontrol (AKSH IPTV), content service provider for the IPTV services of MTNL and BSNL, provides this feature called A-tube.

One can select a product category from the main menu, navigate to the brands and products, and obtain more information about the brand. The level of information provided is left to the brand. For instance, you want to buy a house, but have no time to go house-hunting.

Consider that you are looking to buy a house, but can’t go house hunting. You can simply navigate through the video clips of houses for sale and upload details on A-Tube. You can then list the houses

While it is true that advertising on A-tube reaches fewer viewers, because IPTV has around 12,000 subscribers compared to DTH’s 11 million), but the pull feature in A-tube does offer a filter to advertisers seeking better conversions from their ad spends. The conversion rate will be higher broadcast ads is expected to be higher, as the ad is being watched by a consumer seeking information to make a ‘buy’ decision. Also, it is easy to buy a product from A-tube as it requires the push of a button.

Ashok Kumar Wahi, head-strategic initiatives, AKSH, says: “It is every advertiser's dream to know how may people watched this advertisement and how many ultimately made the buying decision based on the ad. Conventional broadcast technology has never been able to provide this answer and therefore the concept of TRP ratings evolved. However, with the emergence of IPTV technology, advertisers can not only get actual viewership details for every program or advertisement rather than an averaged out number at the end of the period, he can get it instantaneously. He can also monitor how many of them resulted in an actual buying decision. Smart marketing personnel will even be able to change their advertising on the fly or move to one-on-one advertising in the future.”

Advertisers like Meridian, Zaika, Arabian Delights, Aggarwal Sweets, Recipes from Taste Of India, Travel Europe, Libas, Chabbra Sarees, GNIIT, Mothers Pride, Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Shiv Khera, MTNL, BSNL, among others, are among its clientele. A small advertiser can market his brands for Rs 20,000-30,000 for 10-15 second spots and big advertisers are paying up to Rs 100,000 for 3-4 minutes spots, for a a 3-month bouquet.

Amit Malhotra, head of corporate communications, Prithvee Realtors, says: “Since the economic downturn and the home loan crunch has dented realty sector profits, it makes sense to put money where the potential buyers are. With so many channels getting added, TV has become a very confusing medium. Outdoor media is very expensive. And in print, where a 10 cm, single column ad costs me Rs 15,000-20,000 (which appears only once), I am getting much value on IPTV for Rs 30,000 for 3 months. Since it's pull advertising, the conversion rate is very high. After advertising on IPTV, the numer of queries for us have increased by 30 per cent. Of these, 2-3 deals are almost in the closing stages.”

Yogesh Kumar, proprietor, Virat Marg (a retail garment chain in Delhi), says: “It's a very cost-effective medium. After advertising on A-Tube, we have been getting phone calls from people, enquiring about our showrooms.”

© 2008 Business Standard