1. Digital MarketingTrendsinIndia: A Recap Of 2014 [Fearof Panda,Local AndASO]
A yearis a longtime inthe parlance of online world.Anotheractionpackedyearwhere the digital
marketingeffortswentall gunsblazingacrossindustries.Digital footprintexpandedexponentiallyin
Indiaand the evidence isthere forall of usto see.Fromthe oldtime shopkeeperscomingupwitha
website tothe streetsmartbusinessmensellingstuff onwhatsapp,we saw the rootsof digital
marketinggoingdeeperandstronger.
2014 was a yearwhere we sawdigital marketingtake acoasterride.It wasa game changingyear
withfacebookstampingitsfootdownasa major advertisingplayer.Retargeting,LocationSpecific
Ads,Real Time Bidding,Display,VideoAds –everythingsaw theirshare of changescomparedto
2013 and triggeredanignitionforchangesexpectedin2015.
Here is a quickrecap foryou of highimpactchangesin digital marketingforthe year2014 specificto
Indiaand itsinfluenceonbusinesses.
Offline still onthe High
Offline marketingcontinuedtorule the roostinthe IndianMarketingscenarioinspite of fastmobile
and internetpenetration.Thisisexpectedinacountrywhere the internetpenetrationisstill atonly
19.19% (source:Internetlivestats) andthe majorityof the audience are still offline.While the digital
advertisingspendwasable toreachapprox $1 billion,traditional advertisingspendwasstill a
humongous$5 billionindustry.(Source:statistica)
It’sa provenchannel fromwhatwe hadseenfromthe major giantswhohad penetratedthe market
withTV like makemytrip,jabong,flipkartandin2014 brandscontinuedtoinvestalotin offline
branding.Hike,WeChat,Bluestone,Lenskart,Yepme,Pepperfry,Zivame,Freecharge etcand many
more enteredTV & publishingmedia.Digital Marketing
ThinkGlobal,Serve Local andAct Mobile
Mobile Advertisingsawarocketgrowthlast year.Withover1 Billioninpopulationand65% of
populationunder35years,Indiahas unrivalleddemographyfor Smartphone manufacturers.The
stats fromIDC suggeststhatthe smartphone vsfeature phone ratiogrew at a rapidscale increasing
the data accessibilityonmobile.About67% of the urbaninternetusershadaccessto net onmobile
while about40% of the rural internetusershadaccessto neton mobile.Focusonmobile stayedasa
keymarketingstrategytocoverthe widthand depthof the market.
Contentmarketing–a shiftincustomeracquisitiontactics
Contentmarketingwasabuzzwordfor2013. Indiastill lagsbehindthe adoptionbutin2014 we saw
the industryslowlyembracingcontentmarketing.Buyingandresearchbehaviorof customers
changed.It became veryimportanttoeducate the customersaboutthe value of whattheypurchase
owingtothe everincreasingsmartnessof online customerandthe flexibilityof the mediumtoallow
thoroughresearchbefore purchase.
For manybrands contentmarketingwasnolongeranaccessorybut occupiedtheircore of branding
and customeracquisitionefforts.Thinkof the electioncampaignsof 2014, Urbanladder,

2. Thrillophillia,GoogleSearch[Betthe videoadisstill vividinmemory].Mostof the brandsexpanded
theircontentmarketingstrategiesthroughSocial platforms,videos,pics,infographicsandblogs.
Social forbusinessisemerging
2014 was the yearthat provedthe influenceof Social Mediainbusiness.ManyIndianbrands
employedin-house social mediateamswhichmanage branding,online reputationmanagement,
marketingcampaignsandconstantuserengagement.
The constant reductionof organicreachon Facebookmade theirprioritiesveryclear.One caneasily
see the shiftof organicto advertisementsonFacebook,social forbusinessbecameveryimportant
for anybusiness.Facebook’sannouncementof “Facebookforwork”launchand“product catalogue”
advertisementshadmajorinfluenceinthe online advertisingindustry.
EventhoughFacebookwasstill the mostdominantSocial Mediachannel,we saw increasing
influenceof Twitter,Quora,Instagram,Google+,LinkedInon businessthroughoutthe year.
Twitteradoptionamongstuserswasunderparin India,resultingintwitteradvertisementitself not
takingoff,howeverbrandscontinuetokeeptheirhandlesactive andare notignoringit.
At the same time penetrationof internetandsmartphones made the real time reviewsaboutthe
brandsand productspossible.ReputationManagementwashighonthe social channels andhadan
impacton businessbothpositivelyandnegatively;case inpointwasFlipkart’s‘BillionDaySale’
Amplificationof PaidAds
Online spendingincreased;Facebook’simportance towardspaid,Twitter’smove towards“buyfrom
feed”(sponsoredtweet) andgrowthof shoppingadscomparedtosearch ads,was all butan
exercise inincreasingcustomeracquisition.
It’sespeciallyclearonFacebookwhereaverage organicreachforbusinesspage postsdroppedto
<6% from12% in2013. Thismade small business’sgrowthlimitedandforcedthemtoincrease paid
activities.Of course,the qualityof resultswere questionable.
fb ad revenue 1
AlthoughFacebookbecame extremelycritical forbusiness,Googlestillhadthe upperhandbya
huge margin.
Google’sfocusonIndiaincreased.Eventhough‘IndiaGetOnline’campaignof 2012 was a little too
early,businessestodayare widelyadoptingsearch&displayadsthroughGoogle Adwordsand
Google isrightwiththemwithfree supportandcampaignmanagement.
SEO – fearof Panda,Penguin,Pigeonandthe shiftedfocusonLocal & ASO
Indianusersstill don’tdistinguishbetweenpaid adsandorganicresultsas much.Adblockerswere a
fad onlywithtechaware audience.HoweverfocusonSEOas a producthack tookfocusinsteadof
age oldmethodsof justcontentandlinkswhichusedtobe an outstandingtrendinIndiayearsago.
Google continuedtocleanuplinknetworksandforgood,SEO got cleanerandbetterforuser.

3. Local SEO focuswhichstartedtowardsendof 2013, impactedlocationspecificbusinessesheavilyin
2014. It wasno longerimportanttorank up,but itwas all the more importanttorank up locally.
Mobile SEOwas importantalbeitwithlittle difference inrankingsbetweenDesktopandMobile
websites.Indianwebsiteswere primarilynonmobilefriendly.Inadditiontorankingsonmobile
browser,optimizingappstore rankingwascaptivatingmarketerswithitsgrowingimportance.
Ecommerce:Battle of Brands
Perhapsnootherindustrywitnessedthe dramaandactionthat E Commerce inIndiadid.Increased
investments,changingregulations,widenedcustomerbase,increased customerspend,
consolidationsthroughmergersandacquisitions;ECommerce inIndiasaw it all.
Andfor marketingitwasa goldentime asfundflow washumongousandscale wasall that
mattered!MarketingSpendsonDigital skyrocketedtoupwardsof 50 lakhsto 5 crores permonth
eveninmarketslike local transportation,recharge,niche retail[vertical based] andeducation.
Retail,Travel,Real Estate andFinance spentfew crorestotensof crores monthly. Thisshiftresulted
inheavypaidadvertising, lesserattemptsatcreative guerillamarketingandevenreducedfocuson
organictrafficfor the major brands.
All the majorbrands didexpandspendonPaidandSocial platforms.One stepahead,amazonhinted
startingitsown ad network(yetagain).
OtherNotable Trends
Programmaticbuyingdidnotsee as highan adoptionbymarketers,thoughaggregatorsandtools
are on the offer
AnalyticsforbigplayershasmovedawayfromGoogle Analyticstocustompaidtools
Newerretargetingnetworksacrossdisplayandsocial networkssee awide option –we have seen
adroll,criteo,bizobeingveryactive aboutEastAsianSalesandthere shouldbe more.
BingAds didnotsee much growthas comparedto adoptioninUS
Inventoryonad networksacrossmobile anddesktopis stilldispersedwithmanylocal adnetworks
but google continuestolead.
What to expectin2015?
Mobile,Social andContentare goingto be the focuspointsindigital marketing.MobileAppmarket
will dominate the onlineshoppingbehaviorof the customer
Local and Personalizedadvertisingtotake frontseatbothonline andoffline –we shouldsee these
throughTV withhighlytargetedadvertisingthroughsetupboxes.
Reputationbuildingandreal time reputationmanagementwill take higherimportance
Brands investmentsononlineadvertisingandSocial goingtobe high
Multi-channel advertisingandretargetingwillsee highercustomizations