Happy New Year everyone. It is the new year already and the last year, at least the last quarter whizzed past like a whirlwind. If I were to draw a line graph of the emotional ups and downs in the quarter, it would be a bloody jagged line. But one thing is for certain. The trend line was always on the up and up. Which is hardly surprising if you ask me because that is how it has always been. Neither time nor tide have been ever able to daunt the spirit that is the true Networkplay spirit.

A quick recap of the last quarter is in order. Obviously, we grew over the previous quarters as we have QoQ since inception but we also breached a huge mark. We crossed a million USD in revenues for the second time in a row after JAS as a Quarter outside of our events business, which is as big :-). A million dollars! That is the stuff dreams are made of, really!

And if there is one person who has made it possible, it is…wait a minute! The credit for this huge achievement goes to the entire company. Not one person can be singled out with 100 percent certainty for the whole deal. It is the joint effort of every spoke in the wheel. Every creak, every whirr, every small noise good or bad led to the making of this million-dollar symphony.

Notable mentions:
1) On the DTH front, we finally seem to have come of age. We really, really (and I am not given to using the same adverb twice in a sentence but I am making an exception here) outdid ourselves and that by a long margin. Saurabh, the man behind it all did a fantastic job of seeing the other side of the 8 digit number.
2) On the Web – Impact side, we again did a never done before kind of number. I will, of course not be giving out numbers here but suffice to say Hitesh and team rocked it.
3) Jignesh, who I have known for almost 5 years now (longer than anyone else who has known him in this company), is still a mystery to me. He rocks it when least expected (and while this is an all-praises blog, I would also like to mention that he has not done so well at times when he is expected to and hence he is a mystery). But all said and done, under his guidance and steering, the Results team notched a hitherto unachieved number as well. And from the looks of it, he is poised to outdo himself by huge margins quarter after quarter going forward too.
4) I can’t also believe how many fights, disagreements and arguments we keep having with the Ops team, led by Viren and Distribution team led by Ampreet. What however stands out is how each person in these teams is also collectively working for the company’s growth.
5) The Events Sales team (Isha and Namita) also did a kickass job of clocking in revenues for ad tech along with Jaswant’s team.

I am not taking names but everybody I have mentioned above and everybody I have missed contributed to the best of their abilities to ensure that we rock this quarter. And we did.

Hurrah! To many more such quarters.

Till last year India’s digital fraternity used to attend ad:tech a global digital marketing event away from India. It is a place for the digital marketing professionals to get a sense of what is happening and how technology is changing and the way brands are positioning themselves with an increasing digital mass audience, but this changed with the 1st edition in New Delhi last April. The event is a brand in itself with a decade of keeping abreast of the changes happening in the technology side of business and marketing and has been in the forefront leading the challenge in the internet and digital industry.

At the inaugural Indian edition, we saw some of the best technology in practice being displayed and some of the innovations showcased on internet and mobile and digital as a whole. India with its ever increasing internet population which at presently an estimated 120 Million active users and is fast growing into the largest medium where advertisers can target their marketing communication. The challenge it proposes is the interactivity and the closeness, in social media front has been a steep learning curve. Brands will have to go social and be in the midst of the mind space with more time spent on the Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. The content has become the king and for brands the first time it has given them an opportunity to own the content as media itself.

The event also brought into light how technologists are turning creative directors with creative and engaging mobile applications and augmented reality making its presence in the traditional domain. A great amount of exposure and learning is in store at ad:tech New Delhi where the best of technology brands and marketing case studies are shared with the audience. Thus making it possible for others in the digital space to embrace the technical knowhow and exploit it to engage with the consumer, be it on social, search or mobile.

It’s a new era where marketing meets technology is the buzzword and ad:tech is poised to take it to the next level in India. Mobile with its penetration and mass reach will also be a challenge for brands to engage effectively. The smart phones which are growing fast with the prices going south and features being loaded by the minute will soon become the most important medium. Mobile applications fondly called apps are changing the way people use their phones from being a simple communication device to an engaging branding console. Getting to make the best use of the technology and the latest in location based services which is making a lot of advancement in making a connect to the user at a particular location making him glocally available for brands to communicate.

So the game is on the most empowered consumer today because of his being connected and internet being available on multiple platforms the desktop, his laptop, the mobile and the all new internet powered TV. Following him wherever he goes and that too without being seen as intrusive, a marketing miracle which will be a success to replicate.

So, while the reach of the digital has removed the concept of “distance” with a keystroke or a touch, it’s never been more important to physically connect with friends, colleagues, business associates, trade journalists and the growing base of marketing experts that have come to represent ad:tech’s expanding network.

With such a background, ad:tech New Delhi’s 2nd edition in February 2012 will be a platform for all stakeholders to get updated, share, network and do business.

R Senthilkumar

2011 has been a funny year for our industry. While on one hand, it has taken away some of the star-studded personalities from different creative fields; on the other we have seen some great valuations for a few online brands, money pouring into ecommerce, some big brands getting listed on Nasdaq, deal sites getting a reality check and of course, Anna Hazare teaching us what social media could do as a revolution.

Let’s take each of the above one by one and rewind 2011.

Star-Studded Personalities:

The big one was Steve Jobs - a man who has been an epitome of creativity in the field of art and science. This genius really got into the groove at a time when the world was looking at technology in awe. Typewriters were the norm and the Chairman of IBM, Thomas J Watson Sr. in 1943 is known to have famously said, “I think there is a world market for about 5 computers.” From there to where we are today, it is indeed one of the most innovative stories that Apple has created and the spectrum of touch points across ages is unbelievable. From Lisa to Mac to Pixar’s Cars to iPad, the journey is something even the neighbours won’t envy because such is the genius of one man that everyone stands up, takes notice, and just salutes!

We will all miss Steve jobs but the legacy continues through his Apple.

Shammi Kapoor was better known as Elvis Presley of India but that was something that he transformed himself to after a series of failures over years of struggle. His first hit came at an age when most actors think of giving up. At 30, Junglee got him into that big league though he had a couple of successes before that through Naseer Hussain’s banners. However, to carve a niche for himself, he had to literally choreograph his own steps that differentiated him from some of the biggest names in the industry including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar.

He was a fighter and even during the 3 days in hospital for dialysis, he was always available on Twitter and has several times responded to my best wishes even when I had never met him ever. Such was his humbleness. He was considered the most tech savvy of his generation.

RIP Shammi.

Then there was the sudden demise of our evergreen hero Dev Anand. I can’t believe he isn’t there anymore with us. For me he was one of those people who was born to live forever like Bhishma Pitama, someone whom I thought would live a 100 yrs old. His energy can beat Shah Rukh Khan who is supposed to be the most charged actors of our time.

However, what is important is to recognize a man who not only shaped musical careers of several artists, but also boldly introduced some of our modern day heroines including Zeenat. Dev Saab was producing, directing and acting in movies even when he was 85 years old.

My secret santa this year gifted me with his autobiography titled, “Romancing with life” – indeed he romanced with life to the fullest and left behind memories for us to cherish during our lifetime.

Valuations of online brands:

This is very close to my heart simply because it shows clearly a value proposition created by a couple of brands focusing on the consumer’s need and thanks to the belief that has increased in the online space, there is so much more shopping that happens online now. This is also a clear indicator that consumers have become comfortable using their credit cards online, and also states how the penetration of the internet has gone to the deepest pockets of India. Though the number is way too small (125M users) compared to the overall opportunity, this is only going to increase going forward.

Homeshop 18 is valued at 1B USD
Flipkart is valued at 1B USD
Fashionandyou is valued at 400M USD
Naaptol is valued at 250M USD
Snapdeal is valued at 250M USD
One 97 is valued at 250M USD
Komli is valued at 100M USD
Dealsandyou is valued between 85 – 100M USD
Mydala is valued at 50+M USD
Fetise is valued at 25M USD
Please note that the above has no source and is just my calculation keeping in mind the kind of money that has been raised by these respective companies over the last several rounds.

Most of the above businesses are a combination of Web, Mobile and TV; and they all have seen tremendous traction in their respective businesses. It is evident that the consumer today is looking at value, price, convenience, and quality which in short, is what defines as product and service for all the brands mentioned above. Since the consumer is happy with what is being delivered (though I am sure atleast 25% of customers are not fully happy but that’s the task which all of them I am sure will be focusing on), the sentiments have automatically increased at the investor’s level too.

There are atleast a dozen more brands in the shopping and mobile space focusing on both consumer business and on trade side of the ecosystem that I haven’t mentioned above. Clearly shows that maturity has arrived and some of the above will become huge successes.

VCs betting on Ecommerce:

I have always believed that VCs are like herds because no one wants to take that first big step due to various reasons. I am in no way suggesting that they are wrong in their judgment, however ,it needs that one VC to take that bold step and then a dozen start scouting for deals in the same space. I think Canaan Partners were the first one to take that bold step with Naaptol and bang followed a bunch of others, which is why I feel they have a herd mentality. And why not? It’s money after all and it is very difficult to be correct in ones judgment at times. With many bets they place just, a few succeed. So they are right in their way of thinking. But for entrepreneurs it gets difficult. Same category players with similar traction gets just 25% of its competitor on the single raise. Baffles me, however that is something that no one has an answer for till date. I mean, if a player A raised 25M with similar business traction on all parameters then player B should raise equivalent. To me that’s common sense but strangely player B raises just 5M, which makes it extremely difficult for the entrepreneur to compete, scale, and grow at the rate player A would do.

So we had some very big raises this year, starting with Flipkart to Fashionandyou to Fetise. All of them raised in the range of 5M USD to 150M USD. Incidentally, all brands starting with “F” seems to rule the roost in the commerce space. Kidding!

I was recently speaking to Manish Vij of VUN Network (Manish has a personal stake at Letsbuy.com funded by Tiger) and he was saying how in the last one and half years there has been investments of over a 1,000 crores in the space and now it is drying up. One wonders, why is this drying up? The reasons are clear, valuations are one story and ground realities are another and most of us know that some bets work and some won’t, which will be evident as we move forward.

Nasdaq/NYSE Listing:

It was indeed a proud moment for all of us when Rediff listed itself at Nasdaq way back in 2001. But not many knew the significance then since the maturity of the space in India took its time. Now we know what a significant effort that was.

We had our very own Makemytrip.com listed in August 2010 and has been doing phenomenally well.

Personally, I am waiting for Yatra.com, one of the other big success stories in the travel space to get listed, for they are valued at more than a billion dollars and will only grow as they near a listing.

LinkedIn’s much awaited IPO brought back the cheers in the community and it has only shown how a strong business model with great focus on product delivery along with steady stream of revenue showing tremendous growth trajectory can beat all odds and still manage to win its way even during the most turbulent times. LinkedIn was listed at NYSE in May this year and has brought back the confidence within the tech investor community and we will be seeing a series of listing including Groupon and Zynga in 2012.

Deal Sites:

I believe that deal sites with a niche model focusing on a few items can do well than the mass deals that one gets to see on various sites today. While I can call myself a fan of deals, I am certainly not a fan of the model online. As a consumer, I am a fan, I scout for deals; but as an entrepreneur I think if the scale isn’t big then at some stage the merchants will realize that their regular customers are the ones who are losing out on deals. Since it does not bring back a new customer acquired from a deal site again, it certainly means a clear loss in the revenue. They will end up being mailing lists someday if they don’t get the balance right. Discounting has always been the word for every shopper and bringing that alive on an ecommerce platform was a novel idea but that alone won’t solve the purpose. Most sites thrive on Spa deals, for instance numerous such spa offers flashes on each site in Gurgaon itself, it’s insane. However, many tables are filled by these deal sites at Punjabi By Nature in Gurgaon, which supposedly is a great restaurant for dine out. People who flock there, are loyal customers and they don’t need to be listed on a deal site to bring in more walk-ins.

Again, these are purely based on my observation and do not have data to back it up. However, I do speak to these owners whenever I go there and do get a grip on how things are moving for various retail outlets.

I spoke to Juxt Consult’s co-founder Mryuntunjay Mishra a few days ago who told me how difficult it is for a deal site to ensure they retail a customer. While acquisition is easy in the online space, it gets equally difficult to get them taste an offering and even if they do, they are not repeat customers. This clearly states challenges that exist for these businesses.

We all saw what happened to Groupon in the US, right from how they accounted for, to how they were valued at, and to how stupid of them to have not sold their business to Google; it all got them down to a 12B valuation from a 20B on their IPO when they were having aspirations of listing. That has now got pushed and hopefully will happen in 2012.

Anna Hazare:

What Indian youth does, this man, who won the CNN IBN Indian of The Year Award did at the age of 76. A Gandhian, who stood tall and focused on getting the Lokpal Bill passed caught the entire world by storm through Twitter, Facebook and every other possible social media that existed. During his 13+day fasting a couple of months ago, every 3rd Indian on social media platforms had atleast one interaction, comment, post, tweet or some form of engagement in the virtual world.

That was his power. His entire story on India Against Corruption is an epitome of success. Keeping in mind that every individual in his team was vocal, on twitter including, Kiran Bedi. She has been Anna’s voice online. If someone has leveraged social media to an extent where a revolution can take place then it’s Hazare.

I have been a big Anna Hazare fan myself and I just counted that till date on Anna Hazare I have posted over 85 tweets and since my accounts are all synched, the same number of posts appeared on my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts as well.

2012 – Predictions are something I normally love making and 70% of the times, most of my predictions have come true. 2012 will see buy outs, listings at Nasdaq, more start-ups, mobile story take off, closures of businesses and recession worldwide but India should be stable with no growth though on its GDP.

Buy Outs:

India will see a definite consolidation in the digital space. There will be a mushrooming of home grown advertising agencies that will be bought out, I am pretty certain on this bit. We have already seen an acquisition in the form of Quasar to WPP 3yrs ago, to me that was early but it surely did wonders for the Smile Group, today they are one of the leaders in the digital space.

I feel home grown agencies have the best talent in creative, which is why they have managed to do some wonderful work and given the right value and acquisition partners. They have been standalones in India and will witness them being approached for an outright buyout. To me by October 2012 atleast 3 agencies will be bought over by international biggies who would want to focus on clean growth markets such as India.

We already saw mobile agencies coming to India like D2C through Affle. Clearly, an indication that this is just a beginning.

Listings at Nasdaq:

This seems to be a no brainer but Zynga, Groupon and maybe our very own, Yatra may go Nasdaq and it will be a very proud moment for all of us if Yatra makes the cut in 2012.

More Start-ups:

I am very excited about this bit. Every day I see so many young talents who come up with some brilliant ideas and that is an indicator that someone will make a Valley out of nothing in India, in the digital space in particular.

I am told that there are atleast 8 new ideas that a VCs get every day and though a bunch of these are not even entertained it clearly shows that youth of India is wanting to go the entrepreneurial route and want to build atleast one Facebook kind of a success with a worldwide product appeal over the next 5 yrs. I can assure you that it will be the most exciting times of our life time for all my peers in the digital space. There are multiple reasons to this. To me the biggest reason is the price factor and with recession round the corner the only medium that will be looked upto for all cost saving purposes will be digital. Whether it is advertising, whether it is discounting or group buying, pricing will play a big role and that one reason will ensure that digital grows to the next level in India.

Further to that, with Reliance about to launch their 4G ready services, I am very convinced that data will be a driver for people across 6000 towns in India to embrace digital. India will be shining and like wow! and the core driver to this shine will be digital, life is going to get faster, simpler and more efficient.

Mobile Story:

I am eagerly looking forward to Reliance Industry’s launch of what would be a defining moment in our digital experiences. With the focus on data and 4G ready launch scheduled in May, they will surely turn the revolution on for India. The investments are huge close to 4B USD and we would be seeing data speeds that we have never experienced in the past. With just 3G I am so hooked onto my device, the aspect of 4G is just making me go more thirsty for data consumption.

Imagine 6000 towns of India being connected on data through a hand held device that will also carry voice over data. The benefits are unreal, below are few of my favourite picks:

First time internet users from tier 2 and 3 cities in India
First time internet users going online through a mobile device
Increase in user base
Massive growth in commerce
Great advertising opportunities
The above five pointers will take our industry to a 5B industry in the next 5yrs, are we going to embrace it well. We got to be ready and ensure we adapt ourselves to the changing need of the digital space.

InMobi, Vserve, One97, Admob Google are just a few names I am taking here but I know that the kind of work they are doing in the space is unbelievable, especially InMobi, they will absolutely rule the roost in Mobile Advertising with some of their brilliant ad-product offerings through HTML 5 that will get brands to plough in the requisite money during times of revolution such as this. InMobi’s 200M USD raise is focused on building products and services that is scalable worldwide, to an extent that this is the only company valued at over a billion dollars in the mobile advertising play worldwide. Mobile advertising will be massive starting mid of next year and will become bigger than the internet advertising market in just 1year to what internet has taken in a decade.

Closures of Business:

We already saw Taggle shut shop and I think it was a wise decision. However, there will be more such closures and though I can’t predict, which one of those will actually shut it is evident that VCs won’t let more money to be burnt if a business is not taking the shape it was envisaged to and that will bring some rationalization into the scheme of things on valuations and businesses alike. To get the dust settled, it would take a minimum of 14 months and any business that is launched during this time with clear differentiation will be a runaway success. While there will be shutters down, new ones will make an entry with the right kind of valuations and arrest all the mistakes committed by the ones that have shut down and bring back the glory. So entrepreneurs who are wishing to launch an ecommerce venture, the right time will be now. As long as you know how to sustain, build and be correct in your cash flow and expenditure, April 2013 – Sep 2013 will be a great time to raise big monies for building and scaling businesses.

Recession Worldwide:

Let’s be clear and face reality. Recession is in and there will be massive cuts on costs across board worldwide, India will feel the heat too, but with some robust policy changes and with a sound fundamental base, India will be looking good for sustaining 6% GDP growth in 2012-13.

This is absolutely not a good time for folks who are looking to change jobs, just stay put and continue doing a good job of what you have already been doing to ensure you make your earnings every month on time.

Europe is under siege except for Germany and this is one country that will be a huge driver and will propel growth for markets worldwide.

At NetworkPlay, we love recession. We launched NetworkPlay when the world markets first collapsed in September 2008 and we grew from strength to strength. We exactly know what is right and what is wrong to do during such times and we are poised well, thank God for that. But over all 2011 has been the best year of NetworkPlay’s 3.5yrs of existence. We have not only grown as an organization tremendously, we have also helped the eco-system grow through some of our innovative offerings across board on Web, DTH, Mobile and events. Some of our adventures have really paid off well and with ad:tech and iMedia Summits, the industry has just come together to ensure we deal with reality we are all about to face. With super exciting times ahead, it is also a tender time, we all have to be correct in what we do and be on top of what is going to be the biggest digital revolution that will take place starting 2012. With ad:tech, New Delhi scheduled in February and followed by iMedia Summits, we are doing our part and we thank everyone for having supported us. The big daddies are playing the big bets and we wish everyone in our eco-system the very best for 2012.

Peter Drucker once said, “There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer”

Let the revolution begin!

Belated Christmas Wishes and an advance New Year Wish to everyone who has read this long article.

As the head line suggests, I am going to hopefully be able to throw light on how a brand can benefit from social media.

This animal has taken the world by storm and we all know some of the key contributions for its growth. If you ask me, I would sum it up as, “Expression”. Every human being has the right to express and that single aspect has led to this massive explosion where people want to not just stay connected but also express every angle of a human psychology whether it is happiness, sorrow, information sharing, advice, network, do business, find jobs and several such attributes that any brand would want to take notice off and reach out to. Each of this attribute in a consumer has some strong foundation for a brand to target and that is why I feel that the power of this medium is still not gauged by many marketers.

Several marketers have some basic questions they want answered; through various researches that have been conducted to round table discussions that I have been part of marketers want to know this animal better so that they not only could harvest its vast potential but also meet a lot of their business objectives, which otherwise cannot be met in the real world and nor in the digital space. Some of the typical questions brands marketers today ask are as under:

1) Measurement – what is the metrics we need to follow to know that our investments are rightly addressed?

2) Engagement mechanisms – what are the various methodologies that are available to ensure that audiences stand engaged with any brand communication?

3) TG: where and how to I do find this core group specific to my business?

4) Platforms – Blog, Video, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare, Group Buying Sites – how do I integrate my efforts efficiently to commonly address my creative and business objective?

5) Sales – How do I make this a channel for my products and services?

Broadly this is the kind of typical dilemma that most marketers are in when they remotely even think of Social Media and trust me because they don’t get the requisite answers they don’t try leave alone start believing in it even though they very well know that digital is the future and social media will contribute to 40% of that.
So how do we build brands on social media?

Typically the pyramid by, which one would expect results in this medium or digital broadly, would be as under:

1) Exposure and reach
2) Therefore increase in traffic and maybe leads
3) Better output on organic search
4) Resulting in new business alliances
5) Reduces cost on marketing
6) Impact throughput positively

Building a marketing strategy can get tricky when one is trying to achieve sales and build a brand on social platforms and to me it is something that people shouldn’t involve themselves in simply because there are certain categories that will win and some that won’t. Take a look at what Coke or Starbucks has done in the US market; they have built massive communities that result in long term brand equity. Much before social platforms came into play these brands have created a bunch of attributes that resonate very well to positive feelings of a consumer and coke for one has this great equity with its loyalists over several years, which directly impacts in its sales however it is critical to address their loyalist in the social platform and they have a huge hub on Facebook that enables them to share all their feelings for the brand and helps them feel belonged to their favourite drink.
However, there have been brands with little or no budgets who have done campaigns on the social platform and literally doubled their sales, one such brand that comes to mind is Tipp-Ex, I think this one is the most wonderful examples of how to keep a user engaged and at the same time build loyalty, community, salience, equity and the works that then translate into sales. This entire brand was built through Youtube.

The one that comes to mind in the Indian context is Fashionandyou.com; this entire brand was built through various social platforms and today is one of the largest retail luxury stores online in the country.

So building a brand like coke that has active community on Facebook or for the matter Starbucks is very different to what Tipp-Ex or FnY has done, the latter two have not only built brands online but have also successfully used Social as a channel for sales, which is why I think certain categories work really well in the social space for both brand building and sales. In these categories are also brands whose budgets are just not there to build brand impact that translates to sales, which is where a strong creative idea and it’s Viral effect thereafter keeps the TOM Score high, something we learnt from Tipp-Ex.

I would peg the 7 most aspiring ways to build brand on Social platform as under:

1) First clearly define what you want to achieve from your social efforts, once that is done focus on creating a strong community

2) For a community to have an enriching experience update content so that consumers have a reason to come back to your page:
a. This can be done through promotions
b. Allowing the TG to create. This could be interesting, you could have templates that could create designs, help in formation of a copy and the works thus by involving your consumer to being part of your brand strategy
c. User generated advertisements

3) Have your own Social Site. We all have websites, corporate websites but for brands it is important to have their own social websites apart from having their fan pages on various social media platforms

4) To have path breaking results you have to have path breaking ideas, so keep it simple and market all the above through various media platforms within the social space that would build continuous loyalty. (though path breaking ideas are always welcome)

5) Transparency is highly critical in the social space because it is two and therefore listen to conversations and act urgently, this is the only place where Bad PR can quickly be corrected to ensure strong commitment to consumers. So don’t lie or stay silent or have any hidden stories, just be real and honest!

6) Build loyalty, this is tough in an ever changing youth audience however try and keep the TG engaged and this can be achieved if you know your data well. It is important to use all tools that are made available like Argyle Social, Twenty Feet, Sysmos, Sales View to name a few on analytics and on the content side tools like Posterous, Storify and Formulists (especially for Twitter) are real agents that help you know the pulse of the consumer through their various behaviours in a social environment.

7) DO NOT SPAM.
With my little experience in the internet space, I believe the above would definitely help in building solid foundations for brands to capitalise on in the social space.

Hope you like this read and is of some help to you in your professional lives.

Networkplay turned three on the 15th. Three years! Full of life, enjoyment, happiness, friendships, parties, good work, good will on the one hand and also stress, tears, sweat and toil on the other. But three glorious years. Closer and closer to our target. Farther and farther away from the ‘startup’ status. Closer than ever before of becoming a force to reckon with in the industry.

There are so many firsts associated with Networkplay. Although most of that has been already discussed or is known, I’d still like to mention it here:
1. First company to successfully launch a Brand Ad Network in the country
2. The only company (in the face of stiff competition) to be able to get LinkedIn to India despite their stipulation of the company needing to be in existence for five years or more
3. The first company to identify the potential of the DTH medium as a revenue generating opportunity and establish a DTH vertical
4. The only company (again in the face of stiff competition) to be able to get ad:tech, the world’s largest technology and media exhibition to India
5. The only company to launch a platform to get head honchos of various brands and solution providers together under one roof with the iMedia Summit.

All this in a span of three years. And the hunger just doesn’t die. With a kickass bizdev team that is always out in the market to figure out who else we can nail. And a kickass Sales team to boot for doing justice to the market expectations from us.

Yes there are slips and there are disappointments but the spirit to excel is so strong in people that even in the worst of circumstances, Networkplayers shine more often than not.

On the occasion of its third anniversary, I thought I’d blog about what the number three means to people because it is quite amazing to note how different words mean different things to different people. The word ‘marijuana’, for example may evoke feelings of horror in a reformed addict, feelings of joy in someone who is a social user and feelings of aggression in a cop.

While marijuana is a fairly controversial word, and it is natural to have such a diversity of feelings for it, one wondered what a word like ‘three’ meant for people. So I asked around. And here’s what I got from people in office:

AAKANKSHA ZARIWALA: 3, Teen as we call it in Hindi reminds me of my teenage the most glorious part of my life and the most fun filled.
I get 3 most luscious toppings with a COCOBERRY which I absolutely adore.
Insaan ko life mein 3 hi cheezein chahiye hoti hain ROTI, KAPDA aur MAKAAN.
A genie always asks for only 3wishes.

ISHA SHAH: Although I’ve spent 2.4 months at networkplay it feels like 3 years to me! Love the company, people and its growth. 3 cheers for 3 super years and many more ahead!

MARIA LORETTA FERNANDO: After three shots of tequila,it doesn’t matter how many more you drink.

ANKUR DASGUPTA: 3 for me is Body, Mind & Soul.
Body- At times it really loves to be Naked
Mind- No one can take it but at times someone can roast & bake it
Soul- Futile to Fake it
And at Networkplay…stir it just once, but 3 times-Shake It.

SAURABH SANGAR: 3 means a lot specially if I compare NP’s success to Indian Cricket. These 3
years have been milestones and this is how see the biggest 3 years for NP

3 Milestones for Indian cricket

1. Winning the first ever World Cup in 1983 - first in itself
2. Winning the first ever 20:20 World Cup - first in itself
3. Winning the World Cup again in 2011 - repeating the history

3 Milestones for Networkplay

1. Launching the first ever Brand Ad Network in the country and proved
everybody wrong - first in itself
2. Brought Linkedin to India for the first time and rocked the show - first in itself
3. Created a bang in the event space by launching Ad Tech for the first time - first in itself and repeating the history that we continue to rock the digital Industry.

As NP grows it only makes us the happiest and proud members of the NP family.

HITESH TREHAN: 3 to me is 3 Crs. in 3 Months (OND). 3 reminds me of 3 things that I LOVE the most my family, my self and my friends. Taking me back in times, 3 to me is some the most beautiful times that I had spent during my graduation. 3 most beautiful years in Shimla.

I can get down and write a long one because lot of things around can have a connect with 3. But I am not…so take what I have

A few lines for NP turning 3

Ek vishwas…jisse hue aaj 3 saal…
Ek umeed…ek ehsaas jisse hue aaj 3 saal…
Bharosa…himmat…mehnaat…junoon ke 3 saal…
Bahuton ne kaha…kaise rah gaye tum yahan 3 saal…
Humne bhi haas ke kaha…kya baat kar rahe ho…ho gaye 3 saal
Main hara…main thaka…main ghabraya…main dara…socha bhag jayon…lekin ja na saka…aise the yeh 3 saal…

Chal bas…ab soch…kya hoga agle 3 saal

AMPREET SINGH: Means trio to me , ram , laxman and hanuman

VIREN ANAND: Low CPM se dharti fati. fati fatii… Lead Quality se aasmaan… late
payment se kaampi insaaniyat… Raaj kar rahe haivaan…Jinki hogi
technology apoorv …Jinka hoga Target Audience abhed…Jo
karenge inki demand poori…Woh
kehlaayenge… networkplay! networkplay!
networkplay!

Interestting, isn’t it? Three cheers!

It is with immense pleasure that I am writing this note.

We will be 3yrs old in about 9 days, 15th Oct 2008 we started NetworkPlay and today we are extremely proud to have been honored by Red Herring.

We are Red Herring Top 100 Asia Finalist, a feat we believe is something that makes every entrepreneur proud.

Everyone who has contributed in whichever way from the time we began till date, this recognition is yours too.

Thank you all!

Best
Ram

If someone ever told me no one can Edge God Out (EGO) I always agreed because there is no force in this world, which can defy certain logics and move beyond reality but Steve was one such god sent individual who god created to edge him out.

He seriously seemed to be a god’s child. He was born an illegitimate child and then given away for adoption at a tender age and then he had tough times growing up and by the time he reached college he knew he wasn’t getting anywhere. So a drop out from college starts a company with his friend out of his parent’s garage and named that company Apple. Little did he knew he would be a 100M USD cash company owner at the age of 25 but that was not what he wanted or desired; he clearly wanted to create a difference in this world and for mankind.

Someone long back said there is no more invention left in this world and there is only innovations and innovators who will add value to our daily lives. I now look back and think how true that statement was. Steve is a perfect example of being an innovator. He took products that existed and flipped them around with his genius of usability, design and perfection. He always followed his dreams and was ever hungry.

“Consumers dont know what they want, we have to create products that they would want” is an iconic statement of his and he ensured every product he created was just around that statement. Imagine from creating the first PC for hobbyist in 1976 to bringing the LISA, which bombed to Mac which changed the way world started using a PC to iMac in 1998 to iPod in 2001 to iTunes in 2003 to iPhone in 2007 to iPad in 2010 - all the products came out of something that existed but became iconic brands in their own right because it made the consumer know what they should want

Professor Ram of IIM Bangalore once said, “You should know who your competitors are ahead in time and know where they are going to come from” - Think about it, did Kodak knew that Nokia would kill it? Kodak is a camera company and Nokia is a telecom brand but it was the phone that killed the camera. But to that example of Prof Ram, no brands till date even comes close to any of the innovations that Steve has delivered to us.

I am just in awe with this man like several others across the world. I just cant imagine some of his bold moves; who would ever imagine he would come with iTunes? It changed the entire piracy market world wide and every music label was excited with what it got and the iPod was the enabler. He just came in and said 99Cents and just launched it with a bunch of partners but in a week the world had changed, 1Million downloads had happened and every label associated itself with Apple and iTunes automatically and today iTunes delivers so many services through its Apps, Music, Video, Gaming and I dont know how many other stores and it not only opened up an economy but made a few millionaires around the world who run their businesses on iTunes. And trust me if you asked Steve what the logic behind 99Cents was, he would be blank but the truth is that his bold move changed the entire way of an industry that was reeling with Napsters etc making a killing on free downloads.

Everything about Steve has been arrogant, when ousted by his own hire John Sculley whom he got from Pepsi, he resigned from his own company and went to launch Next Computers and though it was a powerful machine it wasn’t such a commercial success but PIXAR changed the way we thought multimedia and animation will change our entertainment consumption and it did, we all know Toy Story and my son’s favorite contents are churned out by PIXAR even today and he loves CARS, which kid doesn’t? He has touched every human being at some stage or the other. My son was 3.5yrs old when he was first exposed to Steve’s Genius. And off-course by the time he was 5.5 years old he had iPad so the pace at, which Steve was touching people’s life was incredible and across all ages. Ohh Ya, Pixar was bought by Disney for over 7B USD in a all stock deal with Steve - FYI

Going back in time; Apple board had no choice but to get Steve back when the Mac went down and Apple was consistently losing several hundred million dollars.

We all know the rest, it was his sheer genius that brought back Apple to a market cap of over 300B USD today. Its unbelievable how one man can change the way the world consumes information and entertainment.

Rest In Peace Steve - We all love you!

iSad

It has been long since I last wrote a blog on our site I must tell you that I am feeling super writing this one after such a long time. I really want to thank you all for showing the continued support to what I believe is going to be a world class organisation in the next coming quarters and years.

So this blog to me is rejuvenating after what happened last quarter and I see loads of action happening at multiple fronts; my only issue has always been that while action seems to be happening at multiple fronts I don’t get to see my winning car at times. To me owning the Formula One Administration like Bernie Ecclestone is not as worthwhile than winning Grand Prix across the calendar so I rather be the Prancing Horse and win from the front than seeing a race track full of action

Currently the feeling is like Bernie Ecclestone and he uses his head well to be a billionaire and control the sport even at 82, I don’t want that, that is not glory! Glory is winning continuously because I am no administrator, I am a player and a NetworkPlay’er at that!

Anyway, trust me team the pleasure of seeing all the cylinders firing at one go is my biggest dream and I am hoping that under Sunil, Hitesh and Jignesh you guys will show me that glory because if we do fire as planned in OND we will set a new benchmark for the entire industry. We have a big task on hand and believe in me once conquered that will be the benchmark and it won’t be as sweating; you know as you move up it only gets cooler

So, bow down all for we have Chaitali Majithia who continues to be the prancing horse and she has been doing that ever consistently and I swear Chaitax you rock! I have never ever seen someone as consistent as you are in a long long time and trust me you are making into a solid professional and you will only grow upwards from here on. It is to me a delight to see you grow the way you have been and I have no doubts that you are made for larger things in life. Adversity brings the best out of people who have the will to succeed and Chaitali has just shown over the last 1.2yrs as to why she is the ROCKSTAR at NetworkPlay and that after running a sad portal for eight months before this, gosh don’t hit me now Chaitax because where you are now is envious and boy of boy have you proven your mettle or what. So I bow down to you Chaitax, you are the kind of people that make NetworkPlay what it is today!

Jignesh Desai – kya baat hain! While many know that I am a nasty many know some hidden stories between me and Jiggy but before we decided to launch performance and put him at the helm I had this phone call that I knew will change the destiny of NP’s Results division. His big heartedness that he agreed without a wink when I called him to run this after being here for close to 2.5yrs and though we have a long way to go and I am sure he will not disappoint me because he have grown this baby called “Results” to an extraordinary position in just 2 Qs.

A special mention to Upasna because I know she has all the capability to do far better since she is a fighter of adversity herself so I am waiting to see the big one in OND

Isha and Namita pulled off the most sexiest event ever and I think I am blessed to have such performers in this team. Isha and Namita – superb work! Now ad:tech and then iMedia and then again another ad:tech so keep the energies high and lets rock!

Ankur, Senthil, Jagat, Aakanksha, Chandni have all done well so thank you all!

If not for Viren and his team (I am not taking names but everyone in the team) Jiggy wouldn’t be sitting on the glorious throne that he is currently sitting and so thank you Viren for always being there.

Abhi kya bolun mein? Jaswant & Ampreet – you have been a pillar of strength and Abhi and Sandy has been that for you. So three cheers you all!

So this is what happened last Q:

1) We became the largest Travel Category Specific ad-network reaching India’s most affluent with MMT, Yatra, Travelocity, Travelguru and several others.

2) Closed on a big high in the performance space.

3) We served over 500M impressions and crossed the 1M USD mark in our core line of business.

3) Executed iMedia Brand Summit flawlessly where 50 marketers and 50 sellers had the time of their life outside of work and still working

4) www.iMediaconnection.in has become a destination for the trade in just 3 months after it’s launch.

I am hopeful of announcing a big news in the first week of November, till then hold your breath

Team – let’s go!

iMedia Brand Summit Goa was one gathering none of the attendees would ever forget. Three days of power packed sessions, group discussions, fun, recreation activities & loads of NETWORKING.

The highlight of the summit was its uniqueness of it being the first closed door gathering for Senior professionals which had 50 buyers (Brand Marketers/CMOs) & 55 sellers (service providers, publishers, agencies) & spoke about one thing – Growth of Digital Media in India. And not to forget the whole point of taking people away from their schedules to a relaxing place like GOA. This 3 day summit was stationed at the Grand Hyatt, Goa near the Bambolim Beach & as a mandate – all delegates have to compulsorily reside in the same resort where the summit takes place.

Day 1 Wednesday 21st Sept 2011 began with all delegates flying in & reaching the resort, settling themselves to get all ready for the One Minute Match Up which began at 5:30 pm. A professional speed dating round which had the 50 buyers seated & the 55 sellers moved from one buyer to another clockwise introducing themselves in just a span of a minute - A chaotic hour which saw all delegates sharing their visiting cards & innovatively introducing each other. The tagline was ‘A Minute to Introduce & 3 days to Connect’. Post this, the delegates were seeing chatting with each other over an opening Cocktail Reception. To set the tone right for the next two days, an opening keynote panel was held which spoke about ‘The changing world of Media’ moderated by Rammohan Sundaram (CEO Networkplay & summit chairman) along with 4 other key panelists: Gaurav Seth of MAX, LK Gupta of LG India, Virginia Sharma of IBM India & Arun Tadanki of Yahoo. The clear dispute was on Internet Marketing which is extremely important for brands but why do they still spend huge bucks on TV advertising.

Day 2 Thursday 22nd Sept 2011 began with a Breakfast presentation jointly given by Upen Roop Rai & Sandeep Amar of Indiatimes followed by a classic opening keynote presentation by Haresh Khoobchandani, CMO – Consumer & Online, Asia pacific. The beauty about his keynote was his interaction with the audience that kept them so engaged in his content. Ramswaroop Gopalan of Sapient Nitro gave a fabulous 25 minutes snapshot presentation on how Technology drives Creativity by showcasing some excellent campaigns through videos that saw the audience innately glued to the screens. Day 1 also saw delegates being involved in a unique Roundtable Discussion which has all the delegates distributed on different tables manned by a moderator & a topic to debate on. Delegates had fun discussion within smaller groups as that kept them involved & active. Alan Shulman from U.Dig’s keynote was all about churning the creative juices in the audience’s brains & emphasized on how powerful messaging helps create wonderful Big Brand Ideas. The highlight of this day was the four hours spent in various recreational activities. Wine & Cheese Tasting saw all the delegates carefully listening to a session which showed them everything about wines & their making. Volleyball & cricket saw around 30 delegates ferociously teaming against each other & playing with the right spirits. Pool party which was sponsored by comScore saw music, beer, delegates swimming & playing water polo, a few of them singing with a Live guitarist, a few posers with funny props etc.

Day 3 Friday 23rd Sept began with a Breakfast presentation by Mahesh Narayanan of Google who stressed on the Mobile story in India & shed light on what Google’s contribution has been to this segment. Since measurability was such an important aspect for marketers, Joe Nguyen, VP – Southeast Asia, comScore keynoted on such data that had never been seen before & showed eye opening statistical infographics. The next two SnapShot presentations were by Adrian Terron of Nielsen who ignited a very important discussion on what data Brands need to aggregate to make their social media presence more healthy & apt followed by Atul Satija’s (VP & MD inMobi) presentation on the challenges the Mobile segment is going to face in the 12 months! Another USP about this summit is the Ten Minute Innovation Presentations which saw 10 presenters speaking about their company’s innovative & creative services or some who just about what innovation in Digital Media stands for!

Each of the Dinner Cocktail sessions ended in different properties within the Grand Hyatt which gave delegates even more time to enjoy & relax. Closing remarks from the brands who gave constructive feedback on their expectations for the next year’s iMedia Brand Summit was brief & to the point – more conventional agencies should attend, no sales pitches & lastly more attention on B2B brands. Most importantly, the format was a win-win & attracted their attention to the minute details that went into making this 3 day summit a super successful show.

These summits very clearly mark the beginning of what will unravel huger media spends on digital as & will see more connectivity through long term relations being built.

Networkplay has always been at the forefront of bringing to the market various clutter breaking and unique properties that lead to fuelling the growth of the Digital ecosystem. Change, which is one of the three terms that Networkplay uses as its tagline (Convergence, Continuum, Change) that signifies the ethos of the company is always sought after at Networkplay and change is what Networkplay would like to bring about in the way digital is looked at in the Indian market today. It is with this very thought in mind that Networkplay first brought LinkedIn to India, then launched the DTH platform with three partners (Airtel, Videocon and Sun) and then brought ad:tech to quench the Digital marketers’ thirst for meaningful conversations in the Digital space and to get a whole range of sellers and buyers together in a three day expo.

Not wanting to stop at that, Networkplay also entered into a JV with iMedia Communications, Inc., a sister concern of DMG World Media, (which gave us ad:tech) and launched www.iMediaConnection.in, a trade portal for connecting the marketing community and under the same banner concluded (successfully at that), India’s first iMedia Brand Summit in Goa.

Which is what this blog is all about – iMedia Brand Summit, Goa. The first of its kind in India, held in the scenic and the very beautiful Grand Hyatt, Goa between the 21st and 23rd of September, 2011.

Work began a few months in advance after Namita, Jaswant and I went to Bali to see how the event is conducted worldwide. We brought the same learning and format to India and work began in full swing for the same. We got an eminent board of advisors in place including luminaries like LK Gupta of LG, Virginia Sharma of IBM, Arun Sharma of Airtel and many other illustrious veterans from the industry. In a pre-event advisory board meeting, the content for the Summit was discussed and soon thereafter finalised with the help of Paul Beckley of DMG World Media.

To cut a long story short, within two months, we managed to piece together the event with superb contribution from Namita Ved, Jaswant Singh, Ampreet Singh, Isha Shah, Aakanksha Zariwala, Senthilkumar Rajappan, Ankur Dasgupta, and Chandni Mehta. The co-ordination with which the entire event was put together and executed left me awed with my jaw hanging.

Day One in Goa, which was the 20th of September was spent in going over last minute details to ensure that the team hadn’t overlooked anything.
Day Two in Goa, which was the 21st of September, was when the Summit began. Everyone was expectantly waiting for the delegates to arrive and getting jittery about meeting the numbers for the ice-breaker so when the first coach came in from the airport, it was like a wave of fresh air. And then when it rained, it poured. By the time the ice-breaker started, we had a good 80+ people in already.

One-Minute Match Up: This is what the ice-breaker was called. It, as we kept saying to everyone, is a professional version of speed dating. The one-minute match up is to speed dating what LinkedIn is to Facebook. As expected it was a buzzing session with sellers moving from one chair to the other and talking to new marketers all the time. Sure, we had to keep forcing people to move and sure people complained that one minute is too little but hey! That’s the format. And you know about it. Do make your pitches accordingly. All in all, it was a fantastic session appreciated by buyers and sellers alike.

Day one also had a keynote panel moderated by Ram, followed by networking dinner.

Then over the next two days we had some wonderful key notes by Haresh Khoobchandani, Joe Nguyen and Alan Schulman. We also two breakfast presentations by indiatimes.com and Google and we had a few snapshot presentations by various other people.

On Day Two, we also had the recreation session where we had the Wine and Cheese tasting session, Volleyball and the Pool Party. Volleyball and the pool party, which are the two that I attended were a complete riot. After an initial reluctance on part of people to go for Volleyball, when people did go, it was a huge success. Everyone was very participative and everyone had a lot of fun. And then after being there for a few rounds, we also went to attend the pool party. There were some people in the pool playing with a ball, there were some people who were getting pictures clicked using the various props (wigs, moustaches, glasses, eye patches, hats and caps) and there was a singer on the guitar. After a while, a couple of buyers joined in and we all started singing various songs. Notably, LK Gupta of LG and Ashish Sahni of Apollo Munich sang a few Kishore Kumar songs and livened up the atmosphere. Of course, I joined in too.

Again after the dinner on Day two, we assembled outside the bar where Krishnan Chatterjee of HCL got on the guitar, Ankur on the tabla and all of us singing. What a fun evening that was. It went on late into the night when the bar had a small space that worked as our dance floor and where everyone shook a leg.

Day three was of course a bit loaded with presentations including the 10 minute innovation presentations. IBIBO made a very interesting presentation and also got LK Gupta to sing again, which was fun. At one point, due to paucity of time, I almost didn’t get to make my presentation. But a bit of jugglery enabled that too and I got to showcase our DTH capability and also our Travel Vertical.

Day three also had a feedback session for buyers and the comments that we got for the session were overwhelming. Everyone was happy with the interactions, the people, the formats, everything. True, there was a small concern about some of the content which was a blatant sales pitch by some sponsors but oh well! You can’t win ‘em all. One small snag was the unavailability of Vodafone Network, which made tweeting difficult.

The day ended with a Hawaiian Theme party and once again there was an Emcee who made everyone play games and there were two exotic dancers who did the Samba, belly dancing, etc that was I am sure a treat for the men folk at least.

Goa being Goa, the food that we had there was awesome to say the least, particularly the sea food. On Saturday morning, which was time for us to leave the beautiful Grand Hyatt, with its oh-so comfortable rooms and the opulence, we didn’t want to. Such was the charm and the euphoria of the event. But we did return and here I am, trying to capture the essence in words. Till the next iMedia Summit, which I promise will be bigger and better.