Analyzing The Advertisement Spend Of The Upcoming IPL 2020
Due to the COVID widespread, the Indian Premier League is all set to take place in Dubai. The teams have arrived, the practice session has begun, and the schedule for the matches has gone public.
However, this year the matches will be played in empty stadiums. Also, this IPL season has seen several turnarounds related to the sponsorships. Finally, everything is settled, and the matches are going to start on September 19, 2020.
It is the first world series that is happening in 2020. Even the Olympics, scheduled to be played in Tokyo, Japan this year has been postponed, till the year 2021. IPL is a series filled with excitement and enthusiasm. People who are locked down in their houses will finally have some in-house entertainment.
Though, what is there for the advertisers? How stadiums with no audience will affect the overall earnings and viewership of this premier league?
According to research conducted by Duff and Phelp, there is going to be an approximate increase of 13.5% INR in terms of value.
Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network says:
“Sport used to be largely male-dominated in viewership but IPL managed to change that. The tournament made its viewership a lot more family inclusive. I can not think of any other Indian TV property which is so universal and cuts across age groups, genders, and geographies.”
However, IPL has always been a great success. In the year of 2019, the Indian premier league was worth 47,500 crores (the US $6.8 billion). Value of IPL in 2018 was 41,800 crores (the US $ 6.3 billion). Therefore, if compared in terms of evaluation, it has shown an appreciable increase in the consecutive years.
Expenditure On Advertisement: Projected value and Profit Generators (Investors)
In 2019, it was reported that the official broadcaster of IPL Star India generated an approximate worth of 2,000 crores which was somewhere equivalent to the amount fetched in the year 2018(18,000-20,000 crore). However, according to Mohit Joshi, Managing Director at Havas Media Group, Star India is going to see an increase of at least 20%(29,000 – 3,000 crore). One of the major reasons for this would be the increase in the in-house viewership leading to an increase in the TRP of the channel.
In the year 2019, Advertising agencies have seen a bad phase. The reasons being the slowdown in the economy, and the introduction of New Tariff order by TRAI. Therefore, the Indian Premier League season 2020 is looking promising.
“I estimate the growth of IPL to be around 10-12% this year,” Ashish Bhasin.
Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India shared her views and provided a breakdown of expenditure on advertisement in digital media and TV during this IPL season 2020. According to the breakdown provided by her, there will be an overall amount spent on the advertisement will be 3,000 – 3,300 crores.
- TV – 2,300 – 2,500 core.
- Digital – 800 – 1000 crore.
According to the calculations by Rebecca Noronha, Senior Manager – Media, Gozoop and Rikki Agrawal, Co-founder, Chief Business & Operating Officer at Blink Digital the advertisement expenditure is going to rise on an approximate 30-40% during this IPL season.
Sujay Kar– Group Director and Lead – Commerce, VMLY&R SEA, and India are placing his bets on digital media platforms. According to him, “Digital is expected to see the highest growth as the top Media platform, as Mobile content consumption for Sports and Entertainment is on a rise”.
The Duff and Phelps report has listed IPL among the world top ten sports leagues. Numerous brands are trying to associate themselves with the Indian Premier League, either they want to be on the Jersey of the players by providing sponsorship or sponsor a team.
There is a big list of spenders for this year’s IPL season. Some of the players listed below:
- FMCG
- BFSI
- Fantasy Cricket
- Telecom
- Mobile Handset manufacturers
- Automobile
- E-commerce
- Food Delivery apps.
Even some of the biggest brands do not want to miss this golden opportunity. These brands include:
- Oppo
- PhonePe
- Coca Cola
- Amazon
- Flipkart
- Samsung
- Vivo
- Dream 11
- Byju’s
Even the new automobile industry names like Kia and MG Motors are determined to enter the race of sponsors.
The Media Carriers
According to the reports shared by BARC India, In the year 2019, Star India viewership reached 462 mn, during the IPL season. There was an approximate 12% increase in the viewership since the year 2018. The Star India aired the Indian Premier League, in eight different languages and 24 channels were on display.
Hotstar recorded a record-breaking reach of 300 mn views. The highest one-day viewership record on the platform was 18.6 mn, on the final day ( Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians).
According to Bhasin, the medium of viewing will not matter, and both digital and TV will get an equal response. He also stated: “For those 40 days, it is hard for any other programming to compete with at the same time slot as the IPL because of its impact. It has almost become a part of our culture.”
Bhasin further says, “ground activities and OOH are equally important at times like this. Depending upon the product and the category, using various media and giving a consistent message across them is going to be fruitful for brands”.
According to Mr Joshi, there is always more viewership and reach related to the television. Therefore it is best for massive brands. However, the brands with a particular niche, digital/OTT platforms like Hotstar are the best.
Noronho explains “Surprisingly, this year, new emerging ad channels like ShareChat (the Indic language-based social network) have released a Cricket-special brand integration. Advertisers who have their audience present in Tier II and Tier III cities would consider leveraging this medium.”
Upcoming Trends/Innovation in IPL 2020
IPL has always been a trendsetter for the market, generating new ideas for advertisement and providing creative content for the content creators.
This year “Star Sports has launched a regional sports channel to give regional flavour to local audiences, innovation in terms of match scheduling strategy – big matches on weekends. Super Sunday matches will be telecasted on movie channels and other regional channels to reach a mass audience” an observation by Joshi.
Some of the interesting ways of advertising your products could be mini-games, Social feeds, distribution of coupons, Watch and win can provide a successful engagement ratio with the audience.
Advice From The Experts
- Schedule your campaigns with perfection and according to the current trends.
- Don’t spend all your money on targeting the audience. Try to put your money on different parts of a campaign, this will generate more results. Play smart!
- Mobile phones are the best option for Leverage Section Targeting.
- Make sure that your advertisement covers regional ads. Understanding the customer’s geography is an important step in digital marketing strategy.
- Make sure your content fits for all screen sizes, especially the small ones.
- Moment marketing is important. You have to stay updated with the recent trends, social media buzz, live commentary and all the other factors which can help you stay updated on and keep you creative. You have to increase your reach, reduce duplication, limit frequency, learn and optimize.
Mr. Bhasin still recalls his favorite IPL campaign to be “Har Ek friend zaroori hota hai.” The campaign helped in establishing a new market trend which made people realize the importance of telecom in bringing people together.
Further, Bhasin concludes, “Put a consistent message to the consumers, holistically. Don’t get tied up with one medium and make sure that you supplement your television and digital activity along with other activities.”
Walmart and Microsoft Join Hands To Bid For TikTok, Fighting Against A Common Enemy: Amazon.
On Thursday, Walmart confirmed, that it will be teaming up with Microsoft, to bid for the purchase of TikTok. The step they took, is considered as a move forward in the direction to tackle Amazon; Amazon being a competitor for both. In the field of Cloud, Microsoft faces stiff competition from Amazon, whereas, Amazon growing e-commerce market is a threat to Walmart.
It is interesting to know that Microsoft and Walmart are already partners. They have a five-year contract to strengthen their businesses in the fight against a common enemy; Amazon.
It will be a long fight against Amazon! However, if they will fight together, they might get an edge over Amazon. If they succeed in occupying TikTok, they will have access to one of the biggest user databases, consisting of billions of users.
Daniel Newman, Futurum Research analyst, in a statement to Business Insider, clarified the situation, stating:
“With the demographic that TikTok serves, the e-commerce play that can tie to the riches of data being created on the platform will have a greater means to directly monetize with Walmart’s expansive online commerce and logistics experience.”
Though, according to Newman, teaming-up to purchase TikTok, can not be seen as a direct take to fight against Amazon. It is more like a small part of a larger picture; the larger picture, is yet to be revealed.
He also added that if the deal between Walmart, Microsoft and TikTok goes through, Amazon could strengthen its ties with Facebook and Instagram. It will lead to a bigger social media e-commerce market.
A statement released by Walmart showed a clear sign of excitement by the company. Walmart is planning to use the audience database of TikTok for advertisement and increasing its reach to more audiences.
The statement says: ‘We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of U.S. TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of U.S. government regulators,’
No one can question the popularity of TikTok. In the U.S market, it has nearly 100 million users. However, the parent company ByteDance is under immense pressure by the government of the U.S. The U.S government is forcing ByteDance to either sell the company or quit business from the U.S, as it fears that the company is just a puppet for the Chinese government and it could be seen as a threat to the cybersecurity of the U.S.
It is not just Microsoft which is showing interest in TikTok. There are several other techs. Firms which are seeking to acquire the database of TikTok, Oracle is amongst one such big name.
The asking price for TikTok is yet not revealed by the parent firm ByteDance. However, it is reported by the Wall Street Journal that the value estimated is about $30 billion for the business of TikTok in the U.S.
Although, the bidders feel that TikTok is expecting too much for the business. Yet, no comments on this have been shared by the TikTok.
TikTok has always played smart and tried to portray a neutral outlook, hiding its roots which are in China. One such notable step was hiring Kevin Mayer as its American CEO for the business.
Unfortunately, Mayer did quit TikTok only completing just a few months of his service in the company. The reason given to the employees of the company was ‘political environment has sharply changed,’ which is indeed the truth.
ByteDance formed TikTok in 2017, they later bought Music.ly a video application which was very popular with kids in the US and Europe.
The U.S government fears that the Chinese application is sharing the data of its people with the Chinese government. However, the owners of the application deny any such claim.
With the U.S president determined to shut down the business of the Chinese application in the U.S. It would be impossible for TikTok to escape this without facing the damage.
The Chinese application has until September 15, either it can shut its business in the U.S or sell it to an American company.
President Trump has in a statement on August 18, stated that Oracle was ‘a great company’ that ‘could handle’ buying TikTok. However, he didn’t specifically comment on which one is the best (Microsoft or Oracle).
Apple In-app Purchase Policy – Understanding The Pros & Cons.
What is Apple’s new in-app purchase policy & how does it affect people from different areas?
In-app purchases are used to sell content in numerous categories. Available content ranges from services, new features, and even subscriptions. On an Apple store, a user is independent to make purchases on/for an iPad, iPhone, Apple watch, and Television.
The in-app purchase is divided further into four main categories:
- Consumable: An in-app consumable purchase could be anything that can be exhausted with time or usage. These mostly include subscriptions, purchases for games like coins or gems, or maybe progress in a particular game.
- Non-Consumable: Non-consumable items usually come with one-time purchase options. These items can include filters for a phone camera, business application with one-time purchase options e.t.c.
- Auto-Renewable section: These services come with a subscription that gets exhausted in a time frame. The consumer needs to refuel the quota to keep the service working. These services could be a subscription to a monthly magazine or a yearly purchase for an upgraded feature of an application.
- Non- Renewing Subscription: There are certain limited-time features or one time purchases bought from the app store. Due to their fewer availability, it is hard to renew their subscriptions. Therefore they remain as a non-renewing subscription due to their limited availability.
In the month of February, Apple made some crucial changes to its in-app purchase policies. However, Apple received criticism for these policies.
In a statement issued by Apple to the media, regarding the in-app purchase policy; “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the apps.”
The statement raised concerns, as the publishers/developers of these services had to pay a large chunk of their share to Apple. The calculated share was estimated to be 30% of their earning.
The implemented policy included all the products. These included magazines, newspapers, videos, movies etc. Even the high stake players like Hulu Plus, Netflix, Spotify, and Rhapsody did not get any flexible walk away.
The biggest challenge was the 30% revenue that these applications had to share with Apple.
To avoid any purchases outside the Apple environment, Apple does not allow any external purchase mechanism that can grant users a subscription in Apple. Hence, there was no backdoor entry for anyone. It was clear that if these companies wanted to serve their business to the audience of the Apple environment, they have to bow down to the laws laid by Apple.
Another restriction for the application is that they can not link themselves to the Amazon website.
After facing criticism from several competitors, publishers, developers, and even service providers, Apple made changes to its policies.
The new rules allow developers and publishers to set the price of their products and services according to their convenience. However, the restriction on linking external sources within the application is still prohibited.
Apple is not forcing Amazon to sell their books in the Apple store. If Amazon decides to do so, they are allowed to charge a premium amount from the customers. It will help Amazon compensate the amount to Apple.
Another reason for the change in policy could be the Financial Times application winning an award for the best web-based application. The application can bypass the Apple AppStore and can open in a browser.
However, Financial Times will continue to host their application on the Apple platform, but they aim to direct the audience on to their browser-based web-application.
Though the FT Times new web-based application created a polarity amongst the other publishers. They have to decide their future with Apple-store.
No Newsroom To return To, As Many Newspapers Retire During COVID
After a rough phase of destruction by the COVID pandemic, media companies are planning strategies to re-open their businesses. The bad news is that many of them don’t have an office to return.
The Tribune released a statement last week. They have decided to close their New York daily newspaper and several other offices at different locations. According to a statement provided by them to the New York Times, they would “reconsider their need for physical offices” as they are fighting the way through pandemic and “as needs change.”
According to Fran Wills, CEO of the Local Media Consortium, media houses aren’t just buildings; they are the landmarks, representing culture, heritage from centuries. Frank is an owner of around 4,000 memberships. These memberships include radio, newspaper, online-only news outlets, and TV. Frank added, “They are a big part of a lot of the downtowns in a lot of their communities.” The pandemic broke the backbone of the news industry.
Emily Bell, professor at Columbia Journalism School, tweeted last week, she stated that the closure “represents institutional weakening. The dilution of solidarity against power, the snuffing of a beacon,”
They are the much needed times for newsrooms and newspapers to action around the world, especially in the US. With an ongoing pandemic and rising anger of communities to end discrimination and upcoming elections in November, the US needs its media houses even more now, than ever.
However, media houses have lost the trust of their readers. A 2019-2020 Gallup and Knight Foundation poll of more than 20,000 Americans showed that the Americans no longer trust their media and have a negative viewpoint towards them. The numbers are even lower when compared to the poll conducted in 2017.
The summary of the report states, “Americans have not only lost confidence in the ideal of an objective media, they believe news organizations actively support the partisan divide.”
The biggest challenge faced by the industry is to maintain the real state that they have accommodated. With several heads to feed, it became difficult for the newspapers to sustain their accommodated newsroom, which was the finest venues, but mostly rented. Also, the decline of the trust of their audience has forced them to stay in low visibility. Now, they gradually try to step up on the ladder of consumer trust, to re-gain their reputation.
Although, the possibilities of media houses losing their trust with the audience even increase with them being in lower visibility. These times should be considered dangerous, the lower visibility might propagate a negative sentiment across the audience’s minds, as the industry work on its cost-cutting plans involving the evacuation of the real estate.
In 2017, The Dallas morning news downsized itself from the famous building “Rock of Truth”. However, they made a smaller iconic version of the monument. The new inscription on the glass states, “Build the news upon the rock of truth”. The new owner of the building states that they will preserve the exterior of “Rock of Truth”.
According to Wills from Local Media Consortium, “It would be beneficial for companies considering moving out of their offices to continue to have some sort of presence or some sort of way their landmarks can be preserved in their communities.”
Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York, thinks that this could be an opportunity for the newspapers to go back to their audiences. It will also promote cross-team collaboration and can be useful for sales teams which can spend more time with their audiences.
According to Jarvis, “Slack is a poor substitute for the sound of ringing typewriters, but you start to see the beginnings of that kind of office buzz being recreated.”
The factor of collaboration is not just limited to the sales teams and newsrooms. Even the local outlets are collaborating.
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, stated, “Collaborations among formerly competing papers and other news entities have taken off like a rocket over the last few years.”
As an example, Story share launched in February by the AP, a tool that allows more than two dozens of newspaper to share their content plans and also helps them to republish each other’s stories. Nearly, 18 news channels joined hands in Florida to cover the climate changes happening in the states. These included The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times.
However, journalism seems to be entangled in the cobwebs of old myths, and traits of the days of ink and paper. Journalism needs to break its chains and explore the possibilities of ideas and innovation.
Innovation In Google During The Tough Times Of COVID
While most of the brands are struggling to survive during the tough times of pandemic, Google has set its goals right for the whole year. It is innovating itself without any trouble. Every month Google targets to enhance itself, according to the growing demand of the society. Google makes sure, that it fulfills the need of its users by providing them with exactly what they desire.
Recently, Google introduced two new features for its search portals. One of the features is designed, and dedicated to the Black community. The feature will help in the upliftment of the community in society and will aim to end the injustice against them.
Due to the rise of anger in the community against the centuries-long injustice experienced by the community, several brands came forward to show their support towards the community. Google was amongst them.
#BlackLivesMatter!
To fulfill his promise, the CEO at Google, Sundar Pichai recently added a feature to the map and Google search listing.
This feature is launched to empower the Black community. The feature will highlight businesses owned by the Black community helping them grow. However, only those members can avail of the benefit whose business has verified profiles in the US. Also, the business must be owned by a member of the black community.
Those businesses highlighted under this feature will be marked by an image(as shown below). The symbol will signify that the business is owned by a member of the Black community.
It is said that the step was taken to provide a financial boost to the community. It is a foreseen step to finally end the orthodox discrimination towards the community. Google is also partnering with U.S. Black Chambers, inc. To provide better features like Analytics helping the businesses groom and blossom.
In a statement regarding this following statement was issued by Google:
“As part of our $300 million commitment to support under-represented entrepreneurs, we’re integrating the attribute into the digital skills training programs we offer Black business owners through Grow with Google Digital Coaches. And through Google for Startups Accelerator for Black Founders, we’re starting our work with the first cohort of 12 startups.”
Google is keen to develop the feature even more and is seeking ideas internally. According to the management, they have already received more than 500 creative ideas to get this model to develop more brilliantly.
The company is also working on better and much strict “Policies against hate and harassment”
“About this ad”- More power to the user!
With a more transparent approach towards their users, Google has launched a new feature popularly known as “About this ad”.
To implement this feature Google will be launching new tools. It will help the users gain information about the advertisement they are receiving. It will help enhance security and will increase user privacy on the digital platform.
According to Google spokesperson, the vision is designed for a “thriving internet where people around the world can continue to access ad-supported content, while also feeling confident that their data is protected”.
“But in order to get there, we must increase transparency into how digital advertising works, offer users additional controls, and ensure that people’s choices about the use of their data are respected not worked around or ignored.”
Read More: Google Ends All Gossips: Revealed Fee Structure For Advertisement Tools
For a long time now, tech giants like Google are have faced a lot of criticism. Most of those were linked to their explicit behavior when it comes to money and user privacy. After being criticized and called upon several times by different government authorities for blind approach in the business during the usage of advertisers’ money, Google has finally decided to be more transparent with its business policies and proposals.
Therefore, Google shared a list of pricing for its tools used by advertisers for the advertisement. It was a huge step by Google, since before this release, advertisers were kept in the dark about the spent of their share of the money, and the profit earned by Google.
The tools for which Google revealed the prices include, DV360, Google Ads, ad manager, and its publisher tech.
The revealed prices are as follows:
These prices were revealed by Google in a series of articles and blog posts.
The prices are in the ratio of percentage for a $1 amount spent by an advertiser on an advertisement, divided between the publisher and Google.
- Google tech: Publishers – 69%, Google – 31%
- DV360: Publisher – 87%, Google – 13%
- Ad Manager: Publisher – 82%, Google – 18%
- Google Ads: Publisher – 86%, Google – 14%
- Ad sense by Google: 68% share taken by Google of the total spent by the advertiser.
Google has never been so transparent in regards to its prices, the sources say that this new transparent face of Google is due to the ongoing legal hearing conducted by the state attorney general and the Department of Justice.
Read More: Google Updated Its Demand-Side Platform With DV360!
Innovation has always been the motto of the company. To make sure that the advertisers at Google are equipped with the best tools available in the market, it recently launched its new self-service toolkit known as Display & Video 360.
The tool is launched to change the landscape of the advertisement. Display &Video 360 is a gift to its advertisers by Google.
Earlier, advertisers used the tools to make a hypothetical projection while running an online marketing campaign. The most crucial question that bothered the advertisers was the amount of audience that they will reach with the campaign. To make sure it’s no more a hit and try show for the advertisers, Google launched DV360.
With the DV360, the advertisers can now create a new campaign and check its reach to the audience as the tool provides a duplicate view of the campaign. The duplicate view will help the advertisers view the exact or say a more accurate number of audiences that they will reach with the campaign. Hence, no more blind bets!
The tool has better forecasting capabilities, giving the advertisers a glimpse of the future for their campaign. It is also a better solution for the media planners as it provides them with a large proportion of benefits as better access to the tool as they always have a larger role to play.
The most crucial answer answered with the tool is, “how many unique people can I expect to reach with my overall campaign across any open auction display and video inventory as well as YouTube?”
According to Anudeep Pedditi, Programmatic Manager, OMD NZ:
“Once we commit to a reach objective, neither underachieving nor overachieving is an option. Display & Video 360 gives media planners the accuracy they need to effectively plan across all our programmatic campaigns.”
The Tools main aim is to provide the following features to its advertisers:
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Focus
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Options For Buying
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Optimization And Reporting
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Security
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Conclusion
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Read More: How Google’s Page Experience Will Change the Face of SEO in 2021
Google will launch a new algorithm for its page experience and design. The new model will be based on user experience.
The new algorithm will surely affect SEO and web traffic. Therefore, to make sure that the advertisers are not affected by the changes, Google has announced that they will apply the changes in 2021. They have promised to inform upfront, at least six months beforehand.
An early reminder will help advertisers to prepare themselves for the changes.
However, Google made it clear that the new algorithm will be even stricter in ranking the web pages. If the user experience of a web-page is poor, Google will not rank the page on to the top list.
Google has also published a detailed document dedicated to the page experience criteria.
The new algorithm will consist of some core vital features. This feature includes the following:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the loading performance of your webpage.
- First Input Delay(FID): Measures the user interaction with the page.
- Cumulative layout Shift: Checks the stability factors of your webpage.
The Accelerated Mobile version (AMP) will also play a major role in the ranking of your page, as will be a metrics for the page experience.
Also, good content will always play a lead role in the page ranking.
As per a statement:
“While all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar.
A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”
Hence, entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses should be well prepared for the new changes.
Read More: Every 2020 Google SERP Feature Explained: A Visual Guide
Have you ever imagine the amount of traffic Google experience in a minute, month, or year?
Well, here are some fun facts, every second there is an approximate of 63,000 search queries entered on Google search.
Also, near to 2 trillion searches are conducted every year!
Isn’t it amazing? However, you might ask, why does it matter?
Let us understand!
Google holds an approximate 72% market share of search engines. To make sure that your webpage is listed on the top of the list of Google search results you must have an understanding of Google SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
What is SERP? And, what all it provides to the advertisers on Google?
The Search Engine Result Page of Google has gone through a lot of changes according to the user view. It has become much more dynamic, relevant, personalized, and helpful.
Now the search engine of Google is equipped with several enhancements that use structured data. The search page consists of visual enhancement, better index, and optimization for the website. You must be aware of all these changes if you are planning for a better organic ranking for your website.
Here is the new enhancement for the search page of Google:
- Direct answer Box
- Rich Snippet
- Rich cards
- Knowledge Graphs
- Knowledge Panels
- Local Pack
- People also ask
- Image Pack
- Site Links
- Newsbox
You must be equipped with the knowledge of these for better results in organic ranking.
Read More: Rejoice Small Retailers: Selling Products is Now Free On Google Shopping
MSME’s got adversely affected due to the widespread of COVID-19. Several small and medium scale businesses have lost their source of income due to the sudden breakthrough of this epidemic.
Therefore to make sure that these businesses sustain the effects of the crisis, Google is allowing small retailers to list their products for free on Google Shopping.
Explaining this decision, Bill Ready, President of Commerce at Google cites the fact that it is difficult for struggling businesses to pay for Google shopping listings at this time.
“And as consumers increasingly shop online, they’re searching not just for essentials but also things like toys, apparel, and home goods.
While this presents an opportunity for struggling businesses to reconnect with consumers, many cannot afford to do so at scale.”
Earlier, Google charged its customers as Pay per click (PPC). It can also be seen as a tactic by Google to compete with Amazon in the market of e-commerce.
Read More: Privacy Sandbox By Google Shows Backdoor To The Third-Party Cookies.
Two years ago, Google announced that it will discontinue the usage of third-party cookies in its browser, which is Google Chrome. Since the announcement, several speculations surfaced, to understand its effects on internet traffic and advertisement. However, Google seems determined about the elimination, and this year Google announced “Privacy Sandbox” a step towards the replacement of third-party cookies.
It is developed to provide a secure browsing experience to its user.
According to a spoke person from Google, “This is an early-stage concept, and we don’t have more details to share right now, We plan to publish updates and progress in GitHub as part of the process.”
The concept uses a new algorithm designed by performing “Bit Request Signal Experiment”.
Privacy Sandbox was launched in August. The idea was to innovate ad recurrence and behavioral advertising. It aimed to help them work on the web without using third-party cookies. A mega event was organized, 163 giant tech organizations like Apple, Facebook, Axel Springer, The Washington Post, Criteo, The Trade Desk, and even Google participated. All are requested to share their views via. World Wide Web Consortium or GitHub to help the project succeed.
However, according to the Google developers, it is still in its initial stage and there is a lot of work that is needed to be done in this field.
Read More: Google pledges $800 million to coronavirus relief, including Ad credits
Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained:
“As the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and communities. To help address some of these challenges, today we’re announcing a new $800+ million commitment to support small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), health organizations and governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic.”
The commitment includes:
- WHO and other health organizations will get $250 million for advertisement.
- MSME’s and NGO’s will get $200 million.
- An additional $15 million in cash will be granted by Google.org to non-profits to bridge the gap between SMB’s.
- Those small businesses that are already active for a year with Google advertisement will get the help of a total of $340 million in Google ad. They will receive the credit in their accounts and can spend it by the end of 2020.
- The academic and research institutions in the field of COVID research will get $20 million.
- Financial support will be provided to the organizations to increase the production capacity for life-saving equipment.
However, not everything went great for Google during this tough time of COVID:
Read More: Google Cuts Marketing Budgets by 50%, Freezes Hiring.
Key Points
- Budget cuts and hiring freezes across marketing and across Google.
- For the second half of 2020, Google is cutting its marketing budget to 50%.
- The cut is due to the reduced expenditure on advertisement by the brands during the time of the crisis.
- The development comes in less than a week from where Google is scheduled to discuss Q1 2020 results on 28th April.
According to a statement released by email:
“There are budget cuts and hiring freezes happening across marketing and across Google…We, along with the rest of marketing, have been asked to cut our budget by about half for H2.”
A company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CNBC,
“As we outlined last week, we are re-evaluating the pace of our investment plans for the remainder of 2020 and will focus on a select number of important marketing efforts….We continue to have a robust marketing budget, particularly in digital, in many business areas.”
…we continue to invest, but will be recalibrating the focus and pace of our investments in areas like data centers and machines, and non-business essential marketing and travel.”
Read More: Google Withhold Programmatic Data, Advertisers Pulls Back Ad Spend
As quoted by Digiday, the Head of Display at the U.S based retailer said,
“Google’s ad exchange didn’t make the list primarily because they’re not willing to give us any transparency or data around not only their take rates on our media sped but also anything we could already pull from our demand-side platform.”
“We’re seeing Google’s ad exchange become slightly less of the total pie,” said Jay Friedman, president at programmatic agency Goodway Group to DigiDay.
”I don’t have a percentage but it’s less but not significant.”, he further added.
The advertisers registered their doubts and raised concerns regarding the non-transparent behavior of Google. However, this must have been resolved after the release of the price list for its advertising tools by Google.
Google Is All Prepared To Compete with Amazon In E-commerce Market.
Google is all set to reveal its new initiative to fight the dominant Amazon in the e-commerce business.
After a series of serious attempts made by Google, to end the monopoly of Amazon in prior consecutive years, that is in 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2019. 2020 seems to be severely crucial as more customers are turning towards the online market every day, due to the COVID virus spread across the world.
Google announcement was a clear indication in the direction of its plans to spread its roots in the online market. Google has declared to charge lesser sales commission from the sellers on its platform and will also let third-party sellers like Shopify to use its platform.
Currently, the commission rates of Google’s online sales platform range from 5 percent to 15 percent depending on the category of the product.
Google might dominate the field of knowledge and information when trying to search for information. But, when it comes to searching and buying goods online, Amazon is the first choice of consumers. Due to consumers’ first choice as e-commerce, Amazon is spreading its wings in the advertisement market, which is a clear threat to Google’s core source of earning.
Google has taken several hits during these years while competing with Amazon. In a seven-year-long battle with Amazon, Google introduced several products to compete with Amazon. However, none of them succeeded. One such attempt at Google was Google Shopping Express! The service launched in 2013, offered one-day delivery for groceries. The users can take an annual membership for $95 and can avail of faster service. However, Google ended up shutting down the project.
After its failed attempts with Google Shopping Express, Google decided to convert it into Google online Mall. The Google online Mall included retailers like Best Buy and Target. In 2017, Google partnered with Walmart. This deal was supposed to bring many fortunes to the Google online market, but unfortunately, the partnership ended too soon.
However, never giving up Google, added a buy button to its search engine. The online-button allowed the users to directly purchase the search engine, with the help of their credit and debit cards.
For an effective competition strategy with Amazon, Google brought in Bill Ready. Bill Ready was a former executive at PayPal.
The announcement in April came as a piece of happy news for the retailers. Now, retailers can list their products for free on Google online market listing. However, early the sellers had to buy the ads to get their products listed with Google. By this step, Google is expecting to attract huge audiences!
Mr. Ready, in an interview, described the position of E-commerce across the world. According to him, there is a wide range of audiences who are shopping online for their needs. Although, there is just a handful of platforms entertaining all of them.
“We want to make sure selling online is easy and inexpensive,” said Mr Ready. Follow
According to Google spokesperson, the changes will be visible to the people in the USA. Those who are already listing products on Amazon can use the same listing on Google, that is, without making any changes to the format.
The aim of Google is to take over Amazon, or at least, for the time being, be the biggest competitor. However is a 20 minutes long conference, Mr. Reddy shy out to take the name of their competitor, even for once.
Even when asked the question to name the largest rain forest in South America, Mr. Ready decided to dodge the question.
Although, he stated:
“Consumers benefit from a diverse and thriving ecosystem of sellers.” Adding that, “There is no one player that can serve all the needs of consumers.”
Advertisers Lose An Approximate Of $130 Million In Fraud Dubbed As Hydra
In a revelation by Protected Media, a security firm based in Israel, advertisers lost an approximate of $130 million in an advertisement fraud. They have named the accused as Hydra, and there is an ongoing search operation target to find the accused.
However, Google and other advertisement tech firms are looking for the accused, but yet no one knows who is behind this million-dollar fraud.
Hydra!
The given name is perfect for a criminal community. Hollywood movies often have such names for their villains.
Although, it is indeed a villain in the real world which is responsible for fraudulent activities and stealing of $130 million; valuable hard-earned money of the advertisers.
The problem is, it still exists and has not been identified.
Rachel Nyswander Thomas, COO of TAG said, “Hydra is an accurate name because the impressions are being sold through many networks and being diluted — there are many heads to slay.”
The statement certainly raises concerns.
It is said to be creating fake app traffic. The traffic goes undetected by humans, ultimately costing them money for nothing.
Even though it was detected nearly a year ago by Asaf Greiner, CEO at Protected media, it is hard to catch the people behind the fraud scheme. These are clear signs that the fraud scheme is no ordinary fraud that advertisers or tech firms have faced in the past.
Reportedly, it portrays itself as mobile phones to create small amounts of traffic and then diverting the ad-traffic into the areas where enormous money is getting invested.
There is an ongoing search operation in progress; “Operation Abolish Hydra.”
However looking at the scenarios, it will take some outstanding measures to get to the root of such clever fraud techniques.
There is an ongoing fight against fraud, piracy, malware, and the absenteeism of transparency in the world of digital marketing.
To fight such malpractices, and eliminate the risk of fraud by these malpractices, American Affiliation of Promoting Companies (4A’s) and Affiliation for Nationwide Advertisers (ANA) and IAB created TAG. The leadership council of this community contains names like ad platforms, companies, and advertisers at the side of, Facebook, Google, NBCUniversal, GroupM, and Dr. Pepper Snapple Community.
Even when Google checked things with its Advert Traffic Quality team, it confirmed the fraud is costing people their money. Although, according to Google, it has only lost the least volume of marketing from the scam operation.
In the meantime, TAG launched the operation, “Operation Abolish Hydra.”
The operation allowed digital ad sellers to report any fraudulent activity to TAG. Therefore, ultimately helping in the detection and control of this fraud.
Rachel Nyswander Thomas, COO of TAG said, “What is more modern is the diploma to which or no longer it is specializing in in-app inventory and that or no longer it is hiding in more modern ways.”
In a statement Asaf Greiner, CEO at Protected media acknowledged:
“Promoting platforms are ashamed of being victimized and they’re threatened by it.”
Also, “They’ll compile true into an express where an advertiser asks them to pay them abet. Most CMOs need to specialize in their subsequent job. It would no longer find excellent on anybody’s resume.”
A Google spokesperson stated the following while addressing the issue:
“We commend Accurate Media for sharing facts on the Hydra ad fraud blueprint and participating with the broader exchange, which is distinguished to minimizing effect.”
He also acknowledged that “The largest takeaway from this case is the need for all mobile app developers to put into effect app-adverts.txt records data to mitigate app spoofing risks.”
A spokesperson from TAG said:
“It will lift time to construct a culture of possibility-sharing.”
Further stating that “We stamp original to this as an exchange. However other people are initiating to possess an extensive consciousness that or it is no longer almost about taking half in whack-a-mole yourself.”
TikTok Market Struggles In Midst Of Trade War Between USA and China!
The uprising trade war between the USA and China is not a new issue in the market. Everyone knows about the ongoing trade war between the two countries. Among these tense scenarios, TikTok is fighting hard, not to get trapped in between. However, it is hard to avoid the damages to the ship when you are in the sea and get dragged in a sea storm.
After facing banishment from its largest user market, i.e. India, now TikTok is facing the threat of getting banned in the USA. Recently, Secretary of State in the US, Mike Pompeo announced, that the USA is in the process of banning the Chinese application TikTok, in the USA. This announcement came soon after India banished 59 Chinese apps from its market.
USA President, Donald Trump’s re-election campaigns clearly showed dissatisfaction with China. The campaign showed support to Pompeo’s statements, supporting the banishment. One of the campaign ad slogan used by the Trump campaign announced: “WARNING: China is spying on you.” This campaign was visible on Facebook and requested users to sign a petition in support of the banishment of TikTok.
However, in response to this, the TikTok spokesperson blamed Facebook. They said that Facebook is charging money for the campaign and defaming TikTok to uplift its product which is Instagram Reels.
Instagram recently launched this new feature on its platform. The feature also allows the users to create short videos, just like TikTok.
Although TikTok is among the less favorable advertising option among the advertisers. Even though TikTok has or say had 2 billion users, still due to the high price of advertisement advertisers less likely trusted TikTok for advertisement purposes. Therefore, not many advertisers are concerned about the war and banishment on the Chinese application. Most of the advertisers stated that the TikTok was still in an experimental phase of their advertisement strategy.
One of the main reasons for that could be the reason for TikTok being new in the market. It has been only a year since TikTok provided the option for advertisement on its platform. However, instead of being new TikTok received several positive responses from the advertisers. The brands were impressed with the growth and advertising solutions provided by TikTok. However, still, TikTok needs to climb multiple stairs to reach the moon it is dreaming, since the standards of the market are set quite high.
The most important factor related to TikTok is brand safety. Due to its origin from China, many brands are keeping their distance from the platform. They intend to maintain this distance even if TikTok moved its operations from China.
According to TikTok, they removed nearly 49.2 million videos from their platform. These videos did not follow their community guidelines. They did it between the time frame of 1st July and 31st December. They also claimed that nearly 89.4% of the removed content was never viewed by anyone on the platform, hence this content never received any reviews. However, around 5 million videos with exploited content, that did not follow the terms and services policies of the platform got viewed by people, raising another concern in the market.
To make sure that the company provides a safe-advertising solution to the advertisers, the company has decided to work with several different third-party clients like Openslate, Doubleverify, Integral Ad Science, and Moat.
A spokesperson from TikTok stated, “We’re in the early stages of working with these partners and will be able to provide more information at a later date, but we can say that advertisers are excited by these partnerships and the controls that we are seeking to provide for their campaigns.”
A survey found that the most downloaded users of TikTok are between 6-18 year old. This data is from the UK, from the year 2019. Also, during the period of lockdown, 14% of children between the age of 3- to 10 years downloaded TikTok, and 31% were between the age 13-18 years of age. The data was issued by the U.K communications regulator Ofcom.
According to an ad buyer, TikTok violated the policy of the Children Online Privacy Protection Act, when the application was known with the name of Music.ly. Later, TikTok paid $5.7 million to settle the Federal Trade Commission allegations. The allegations were made due to the collection of personal information from children, aged under 13-years. However, Musical.ly was ordered by the authorities, demanding the removal of videos uploaded by the children under the age of 13 years. As these videos were uploaded, without the concern of the child parents.
Brendan Gahan, partner and chief social officer at digital agency Mekanism, issued a statement stating, “that is a bad way to introduce yourself to a new market.”
When announced, Mekanism and its clientèle did a review of the details of the violation. The news regarding the violation stated: “planned activations under the microscope,” said Gahan. However, the Makanism discovered that the mistake was made by Music.ly.
To be clear, TikTok launched in 2016, and ByteDance purchased Musical.ly in 2017 and later in 2018 transferred its users to TikTok.
However, TikTok still faces a threat to COPPA. Federal Trade Commission and the USA. Department of Justice is looking into the claims filed that the short-video application is not deleting the videos of underage children on its platform. If these claims are found to be true and the commission and the Justice Department of the USA find any such content which includes children under age the age of 13 years, then TikTok will have to face severe challenges in the USA.
However, according to TikTok, it takes “safety seriously for all our users,” and also offers a “limited app experience” in the USA.
Hence, providing extra safety experience to the users in the USA. TikTok also has a 12+ ranking on the app store. Which means parents can block the application for their children, who are under the age of 13.
Reports suggest that the short video application is planning to generate a revenue of $500 million from the USA market. To achieve that TikTok has hired sales representatives. It has also launched its self-service advertisement tool. These tools will help advertisers to create a high-end graphic and advertising content with sound. Also, TikTok is now aiming for the SMEs, to make sure it attracts the small and medium enterprises TikTok has launched several luring plans for the business so that they can start advertising on its platform.
Also, advertisers who have boycotted Facebook are looking for a new platform to get started with their advertisement campaigns.
The increase in the audience on the platform is one of the greater factors that the short video platform is attracting an audience for the advertisement.
Apart from the condition of banishment on the application, all the other factors play in favor of the app.
According to Amy Luca, chief executive of influencer marketing platform theAmplify, “There’s a cautious tone but there’s not a big concern for brands right now.” If the application saves itself from the trade war between the US and China, “At the end of the day, advertisers will want to be where their audience is spending time and right now, if you are looking to engage a young audience, TikTok is a good strategy.”
TikTok Launches New Business Solutions To Help SMEs in MENA
The short-video application has recently launched a set of new advertising solutions. TikTok strongly feels that these solutions will help the small and medium enterprises in the Middle East region. By using TikTok for business, these SMEs can grow their market and brand value.
TikTok has made sure that the new tool is easy to use, and it can help advertisers reach global audiences with their products. Since the small and medium businesses are severely affected by the COVID crisis, the platform with the new feature will help them cope with the issue to some extent.
The Back-to-Business credit plan includes a $100 million advertisement credit reserve for SMEs. This credit is devoted to rebuilding small businesses and brands. The credit is available for worldwide markets, including the MENA region as well.
Now, the TikTok business is equipped with self-service tools. These tools will help the advertisers in a step-by-step campaign creation process. As the application is known for its creative content by its users, the toolkit will help the advertisers to create unique advertising content.
Therefore, due to the extended reach to audiences, more brands realize the potential of advertising on this application platform. With the new toolkit in place, TikTok is going to attract more number of small and medium businesses.
“TikTok’s immersive, short-form videos give businesses a platform to participate and engage with a community known for its creativity, ingenuity, and joy,” said Blake Chandlee, Vice President, Global Business Solutions at TikTok.
Further, Blake stated, “As our marketing solutions scale and evolve, we’re continuously building for the future and aiming to meet the growing needs of our partners. We’re excited to continue supporting our community by providing the tools and resources for SMB owners to navigate these challenging times.”
In another statement issued by Shant Oknayan, General Manager of Global Business Solutions MENA:
“The MENA region is a big focus for TikTok’s efforts in the Small and Medium Businesses space. SMBs play a vital role in communities across the region, and we are working very hard to ensure that those businesses can leverage the power of the platform to further build brands in a new, authentic, and engaging way. Brands will also have the flexibility to expand their reach beyond the current media ecosystem and tap into those consumers and opinion leaders that cannot be reached on other platforms.”
The TikTok’s self-service toolkit is available globally:
With the help of a simple interface, the TikTok AdManager toolkit for business empowers all businesses including SMEs. However, creative tools make it even easier for advertisers.
Key features of the product include:
Creative tool: The creative toolkit helps the advertisers to unleash their skills. These tools help the advertisers match the innovative standards of the application and its users. With the help of TikTokAdStudio, brands can tell their stories and can portray the most authentic version of their brand to the audiences.
Flexibility in the budget: The budget flexibility helps different businesses set a budget for achieving different goals.
Performance targeting: The advertisers will be able to target their audiences smartly and effectively. The toolkit assures them of reaching the right audience.
Business accounts: Additive tools will be featured along with the business account. The toolkit will come handy with some additional customization features. These features will give the advertisers a glimpse of engagement with the audience and performance analysis.
Back-to-business program, available worldwide to the users.
The program will provide a $100 million advertising credit to small businesses. The small businesses are greatly affected during this epidemic lock-down. Therefore, the advertising fund will help the users to rebuild their market and get back on their feet in the business.
Small businesses are the backbone of every economy. The advertisement and marketing will help them to get back into the business.
Any small business can apply for this credit. The credit can be availed by applying on the website, under back to business.
India Shook China: Banned 59 Major Chinese Mobile Applications
In a recent decision taken by the Indian government, 59 Chinese mobile applications will be banned, in India. The list of 59 applications included some major, names from the market. TikTok, which had a higher share of its business in the Indian market, is included in this list.
It would be interesting to know that in 2019, when TikTok was briefly banned, in India, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok reportedly lost more than $500,000 daily. The User share of TikTok has increased tremendously since then in the Indian market. Therefore, the news must have come as a disaster for the company.
The Indian government took this decision after the Indian intelligence informed the government about the potential risk of security from these applications.
Since the brutal face-off between the Chinese and Indian army in the “Galwan Ghati“, a place in Ladakh, the air is stiff between both the countries.
In a press release following statement was issued by the government stating, “The Ministry of Information Technology, invoking its power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 59 apps since in view of the information available they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.
The press release further mentioned, “The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) has also received many representations from citizens regarding the security of data and breach of privacy impacting upon public order issues,”
It clearly stated that this move is to “safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users”.
Since the tension in Ladakh, the anger against TikTok and other Chinese application/equipment was seen, in the Indian market.
The rating of the application started falling continuously on the platform after the incident took place. On Apple store, the Chinese app used to rank in the top-5 free applications which later dropped down to 10th place in the ranking.
Similarly, TikTok saw a fall in ranking on the Google Play store and slipped from third to the fifth position in India, still managed to stay in the top 10 free applications.
It is not just the country of India, which banned the Chinese application!
Taiwan also banned a few Chinese applications due to security concern. However, in Germany, Zoom was restricted for the usage, Including other apps.
Robert O’Brian, the US national security advisor, has clearly stated that the Chinese applications are used as a weapon by the Communist Party of China(CPC) to spread its ideology across the globe.
The younger generation grew highly fond of this Chinese application. The application has this younger fan base not only in India but also in countries like the US and China.
TikTok, the highest downloaded app, had more than 2-billion users. India turned out to be the largest contributor in this success, contributing 611 million user downloads.
According to the report by sensor tower, the Chinese application grew in popularity during the lockdown phase in this epidemic.
The list of 59 Chinese mobile apps included:
- TikTok
- Shareit
- Kwai
- UC Browser
- Baidu map
- Shein
- Clash of Kings
- DU battery saver
- Helo
- Likee
- YouCam makeup
- Mi Community
- CM Browers
- Virus Cleaner
- APUS Browser
- ROMWE
- Club Factory
- Newsdog
- Beauty Plus
- UC News
- QQ Mail
- Xender
- QQ Music
- QQ Newsfeed
- Bigo Live
- SelfieCity
- Mail Master
- Parallel Space
- Mi Video Call Xiaomi
- WeSync
- ES File Explorer
- Viva Video QU Video Inc
- Meitu
- Vigo Video
- New Video Status
- DU Recorder
- Vault- Hide
- Cache Cleaner DU App studio
- DU Cleaner
- DU Browser
- Hago Play With New Friends
- Cam Scanner
- Clean Master Cheetah Mobile
- QQ Security Center
- Wonder Camera
- Photo Wonder
- QQ Player
- We Meet
- Sweet Selfie
- Baidu Translate
- QQ International
- Vmate
- QQ Launcher
- U Video
- V fly Status Video
- Mobile Legends
- DU Privacy