Gauravonomics Blog

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Even as I study the role of citizen journalism in the 11/26 Mumabai terror attack (timeline, case study, screenshots, aftermath), I am being asked to comment on the online criticism of Indian news media’s coverage of the terror attack.

I’m sure that there is much anger in general against the Indian mainstream media both online and offline. Since mainstream media is unlikely to highlight such stories themselves, the anger is more visible online.

As I can see, there are three themes in the anger against Indian news media’s coverage of the 11/26 Mumbai terror attack –

1. Criticism for broadcasting sensitive information and sensationalizing the news coverage.

2. Criticism for giving more importance to the attacks on the Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels than the attack on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

3. Criticism (by Pakistani media) for not questioning the government’s version of the story.

In an earlier post I talked about why marketers should not approach digital media (online/ mobile/ DTH) with the ‘interruption’ marketing paradigm so prevalent in traditional media (TV/ print/ radio/ outdoors): because digital media is very good at engaging with a million customers one at a time, but very bad at reaching a million customers at one time. This is especially true for India, where mass media still hasn’t peaked in terms of either reach or credibility and digital media is still extremely niche and fragmented.

In another earlier post, I talked about how most marketers and agencies in India are still clueless about the basic principles of digital media. I’m sure that most Indian marketers are present on digital media on the basis of the 5% rule: during a campaign, 5% of the budget should be allocated to digital media. As a result, even when marketers flirt with the digital media, their digital media initiatives are almost always ad hoc, mostly ineffective and often quickly abandoned.

In my new ten-post series on how brick and mortar marketers in India should use digital media, I’ll describe ten small, but smart, tricks that you can rely on to fully leverage the potential of digital media -

Quick Summary: Read about how marketers in India are under-utilizing the power of digital media by relying on interruption marketing rather than permission marketing.

In the last few weeks, I have had some interesting debates with friends who work in the digital media space (online/ mobile/ DTH). While the specifics of the discussions have varied, the underlying theme has been the same.

My friend X wants me to include online/ mobile/ DTH in my regular media plan. X makes a pretty 100 page presentation to me on the different types of ads I can show on online/ mobile/ DTH. X points out that online/ mobile/ DTH is more measurable than TV/ press/ radio/ outdoors on which I spend a few crores without even thinking about it. X then very tentatively presents the budget slide and suggests that since I’m anyway spending a few crores on TV/ press/ radio/ outdoors, I shouldn’t hesitate in spending a few lakhs on online/ mobile/ DTH. At this point, I totally shock X by telling her that my budget for online/ mobile/ DTH is unlimited, but I’m not interested in doing any of the activities she has suggested to me.

I have been following the heated debate on whether newspapers are dead with much amusement because I haven’t read a newspaper for a few months now. I do all my reading online, via my four hundred feeds, because I like to be able to link to what I have read.

I also don’t watch TV anymore, and prefer to watch my favorite shows on YouTube.

I still read books offline, and watch movies on DVD, but with advances in e-book and streaming technology, I’m not sure how long that will last.

I’m not a techie myself and I’m sure that increasingly more people - especially in the same highly sought-after demographics as mine - are making similar choices.

On one hand, we have marketers who are increasingly more unhappy with the ability of traditional media to target specific segments. On the other hand, we have an increasingly popular, but under-used, medium that thrives on targeting segments of one. Unless newspapers and TV channels learn to deal with this new reality, they will see advertising budgets being re-allocated away from them.