IndiaMart appoints Quasar as its Digital Agency on Record
08 September, 2009
Online B2B marketplace IndiaMart.com has appointed Quasar Media as its digital agency on record. According to IndiaMart, Quasar will be responsible for its digital marketing campaigns, media planning and media buying.
“Quasar has shown sound understanding of our business and proposed scalable and performance driven solutions. Their proven expertise in the space will help us in reaching out to our target audience more comprehensively and effectively,” Dinesh Agarwal, founder and CEO, IndiaMart.com, has said.
According to Agarwal, IndiaMart has allocated a budget of about Rs 25-30 crore for advertising and marketing activities in the current fiscal year. And the company plans to route about 50 per cent of its total advertising and marketing budget to the digital medium. [Source: Afaqs]
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One can’t keep on doing the same stuff over and over again across all kinds of brands. Every brand has a unique feature and this needs to be attributed through innovative marketing initiatives. Unless the people working in this medium can innovate, spends will not grow on internet. "
Dont forget that Indiamart is the ONLY internet company in India that has been profitable all throughout its existence, which is 14 years. Now that is no mean feat, given the way Indiatimes has burnt Vineet Jain's pocket or how all other online ventures forever seem to be in the red. Whatever it may be, Indiamart reports a steady 40% YoY revenue growth, which by itself is commendable. Intel Capital didn't invest looking at Dinesh Agarwal's face for sure!
Guys
Why we are assuming that it will be all CPA only. It will be a mix of CPA/CPL/CPC/Search/Affiliate/Email/Social Media etc. and even CPM at some places if required. Plus, lot of efforts would be put on intrnational marketing which is a huge universe in itself and hence the budget is like that.
Given all this and the how the online ecosystems has evolved, the reach and scale it provides, we don't see spending this kind of budget will be a big challenege. In fact, this has to be the way forward because of nature of our business.
Hope it adds to your perspective.
Cheers
Arun Tyagi
IndiaMART.com
Hi Guest,
There are 2 diff issues. One is Indiamart's success story, which nobody is denying in this forum. Everyone here supports Indiamart's success.
But the 2nd issue (and the one we are discussing) is regarding the "ad budgets" mentioned and the % allocated to CPA.
CPA model is unsustainable and will only ruin India's internet ecosystem. So the larger the CPA budget, the more loss for hard working Publishers, who spend huge sums in building a loyal audience.
Advertisers need to realize that the CPA model will only kill the long / medium tail, and eventually, they will end up with an Oligopoly of 4-5 large publishers in India who will charge astronomical rates by forming a cartel & indulging in price-fixing
It is their own interest to buy on CPM with everyone and accept the actual value of Online advertising.
Squeeze the golden goose at your own peril.
Whats the point of allocating even 10000crores in advertising when it is CPA?
Anyone can allocate any amount in CPA budgets...its pointless.
Unless you are spending on brand advertising using CPM talking of ad budgets is a waste of time.
Comletely Agree.....its nothing but hype and the monies will be spent only on CPA....12 crore on internet for 1 year means 1 crore every month.....mazak hai kya ???
Quite ambitious, seems B2B space is hotting up. IndiaMART is already highly visible on internet and seems to be spending heavily on events and conferences. Seen their recent aggression across lot of events recently where they were the title sponsors. This is surely spark some excitement from other players. But then there are only few of them.
- Sumit
Logic hai boss !!!
looks like rs 25-30 crore figure is just to scare alibaba and the like. consider this. as indicated in afaqs, indiamart had so far not been very aggressive in advertising and marketing its services. then what changed now. it’s the funding by intel. early this year, intel capital invested 23 million usd in one97 communications, indiamart and global talent track. and vccircle reported that “though individual investment amounts were not disclosed, sources say that more than half of the $23 million investment has gone to one97 communications, followed by indiamart and global talent track, in that order.” so, the rough estimate would suggest that indiamart received $8 million or rs 39 crore. now, do you think intel would allow indiamart to spend rs 25 crore of 39 crore on advertising and marketing in the first year itself.
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