Internet Planning – Insights

Ad Networks

In internet planning, it’s easy to reach ‘everyone’ – the generic user, one who checks his mail, chats, and surfs, by going onto India’s top sites.

But what happens when you want to reach a user with specialized tastes? For example - Architects. Fitness fanatics. Artists. Gamers. Auto enthusiasts. Students aspiring to go abroad. Heart patients. Music fans. Travellers. Fashion designers. Programmers and techies.

And what if the audience you are trying to reach is not in India? There’s only so much Indian sites can offer, and it falls short; the best of websites with specialized content may be outside India, in any one of a dozen countries. And the user who wants information, will not confine himself to his country; If he finds any website which has info relevant to him, he will take it from there, regardless of where it is located. The very nature of the internet allows and encourages that.

So how can you ensure that your brand is visible to him?

This is where a specialist group of media owners – Ad Networks – step in. These are global networks who purchase adspace on hundreds of thousands of websites all over the world, and keep records of each websites’ content, it’s traffic, the type of people who visit them, where they come from, etc.

An ad network can be briefed on your objectives, your TG can be defined. The ad network will look at it’s list of websites and select those fitting with your goals, and run your ads there. And don’t worry about wastage – you can ensure that your ad is shown only to visitors to that website from your target country alone, while still sitting here in India. You won’t be paying for the whole world seeing and ignoring your ad.

In fact, it gets even more interesting. Ad networks, because they can also track unique visitors – can also track the same user as he travels to other sites in the same network.

So? Imagine you are selling Product X. You can tell the same person “Buy my X!” on one site, then “Go ahead and compare – my product X is till better!” on the next (tech review site), and “Don’t waste money playing games here! Buy X and play to your heart’s content!” on the next (gaming site) to the same person. Each user is exposed to customized messages depending on where he surfs.

In short – Ad networks will allow you to have a presence on over several thousand websites, specifically tailored according to the kind of user you are trying to reach.

Some ad networks –
www.tribalfusion.com
www.advertising.com
www.valueclick.com
www.ozonemedia.com
www.indiaads.com

Wikipedia

If you ever run across a term you don’t understand in real life, you reach for the dictionary. On the net, it’s google – to the extent that the term has become a verb, “just google it.” But often Google, because of the sheer volume of results it shows, may not always be the best option, sometimes confusing, sometimes misleading.

A better option is wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) which is best understood as an online encyclopedia – bigger and more detailed than all others put together. A search on any subject will give you not only an understanding of the subject, but also it’s history, related articles, references and cross-references… the works. And since all the data is being constantly updated and manually verified, it’s pretty much the most accurate data source.

Meebo
www.meebo.com

This site is a godsend for all those who are in firewalled offices, where Instant Messengers like Yahoo!, Gtalk, or MSN are banned or don’t work. Just type in the URL, and you get an interface where you can log in with either your Yahoo, MSN or Gtalk ID. What you then get is a web-based interface that’s nearly as fast as your regular messenger application.

The real fun in meebo comes out when you register, though. It’s free, and you can create a single profile and password which will log on ALL your ID’s in one window. So your Gtalk, Yahoo and MSN buddy lists – including multiple ID’s – will get combined in one interface. And it’s accessible from anywhere, no need to install anything.

You can even add your AIM, ICQ or Jabber ID’s, if you use those.

For the tech-savvy, there’s more features – Meebo lets you design a widget, or a piece of code via a simple interface, that you can add to your blog or personal website and allow anyone seeing your site to chat with you.

Meebo has a very friendly, casual feel to it; this is best seen in a meebo blog window which keeps telling the users on the latest happenings inside meebo, and even involves them in some decisions- like the latest Meebo pet, a kitten, which was named by user poll.