Apple iOS 9 Ad-Blocking: What it is and How will it affect Publishers?

Safari in iOS 9 will come with a content blocker, that can stop images, scripts and other content from loading in the devices. It will not only block advertisements, cookies and pop-ups but will also disable tracking scripts and malware domains. Acc. to September 2014 report from PageFair and Adobe - the number of ad-block users around 200 million worldwide. The increase is even more pronounced on the Mac, with the number of Safari users running ad blocking extensions rising 71 percent to 9 million.

There are a number of benefits for the user with content blocking:
a. User privacy protection, 
b. Reduce data usage
c. Preserve up to 20% of the battery life
d. Improves page load time. 
e. The new iOS 9 web view, which can be used in many third-party apps, like Twitter and Facebook, would make external links faster to load. 

NOTE: Safari in iOS 9 will, however include a feature that lets you long-press on the reload button to load the site again without the content blocker running.

Reports say - The change will costs publishers more than $20 billion per year. Content blocking in iOS 9 is going to screw up way more than just ads. These new applications, which are mostly used to block ads, block JavaScript code from loading on websites based on a list that specifies which sources are disallowed. Advertisers may not be able to use tools such Google Analytics (for website analytics), Optimizely (A/B Testing tool for websites), Remarketing advertisements etc. to their fullest potential.

The publishers will likely lean toward different types of advertisements that aren’t as easily stopped – like native ads, IP based targeting ads etc. 

Publishers will also be driven to Apple’s forthcoming News app arriving in iOS 9, where Apple can generate revenue via its own advertising system, iAd.  

A Nieman Lab report noted that Apple’s News app will rely on iAd, an OS-level ad platform that can’t be vanquished or bypassed with ad-block software. Publishers who see declining mobile ad revenue might be persuaded to sign on with News, where Apple reportedly could take a 30 percent cut of ads that iAd sells on behalf of the publisher.

(the views are crowd-sourced from various websites and is solely for information purpose only)

TEDx | Vineet Nayar | Employees First, Customers Second

Employees First, Customers second. Really?

What do you first make out from this headline? Isn't it insane? Well it's not. 

For those who are aware of this phrase would instantly think of "Vineet Nayar" ex-CEO of HCL Technologies. 

Vineet Nayar always advocate businesses to put Employees first. The rationale is simple, if you put your employees first, employees would by default put "Customer first". A simple philosophy yet most powerful for businesses around the world.

The philosophy not only transformed HCL by tripling its revenue to $4.2 Billion dollars in 5 years but also motivated many like me.

Employees First, Customers Second case study was taught at Harvards. You can buy the case study here. You can also buy the book here.

I watched his recent thoughtful, inspiring and motivating speech at TEDx Aix.

You must definitely spare your 18 minutes, it will provide you learning of lifetime. Watch the man in action here:

An Introduction to Search Engine Marketing

Search engines are widely used these days. Marketers, hence have found a new love in 'Search engine marketing'. They track & target the target audience by employing techniques like text ads, display ads, video advertising, social ads, remarketing, etc. 

The presentation below talks about how can one enable these ads using google adwords platform. 

Here goes the presentation, hope you will like it: 

An Introduction to Search Engine Marketing from Maneesh Choudhary

The Power of Follow Ups

If you're a sales person, you would know how powerful follow ups are. But, if you're on the other side you would know how irritating they can be. We, human beings are designed in such a way that we conveniently ignore things that are of least importance to us. Most of times, we tend to assume that if some one is not responding that means they are ignoring us. This may or may not be correct.

Follow Ups are POWERFUL!

Let me give you an example, consider yourself being a part of a marketing department & you did a marketing campaign generated X number of leads for your business. You shared them with your sales team & sales team grabbed them with both hands & you thought the job is done. Actually, its NOT !! How are you going to justify the money spent in your campaigns unless you know how much revenue they generated? To calculate return on ad spend (ROAS) you need to follow up with sales to record the revenue outcome of your efforts. So, if you invested $500 in your campaign/ event but generated only $100 in return that means it wasn't a successful one. You either need to optimize your campaign or switch investing in profitable ones.

Remember, you took this business decision only when you followed up with sales. Usually large organizations have a marketing automation tool that can automate the process but in follow ups you always need that flexibility that a tool may not provide. The sales process is too complex (esp. in a B2B context) that you would always feel the need to speak to your sales directly to know the outcome of leads rather that relaying solely on your marketing automation tools.

Lets take another example: Lets say you did a cold call to customers, unless you've a strategic follow up plan you would find it challenging to convert those prospective customer into your clients. Please note that i am not suggesting to spam your customers by sending them too many emails & calling them on every alternate day. There need to be a proper, well defined lead nurturing plan in order to convert more & more customers into your clients & you MUST have an efficient follow up strategy in your lead nurturing plan. In case of email nurturing programs after sending a welcome email, you might want to send a follow up email describing the services/ product features in detail (within a fortnight after sending welcome email). Even for customers who have purchased from you, you might want to cross-sell after a month.

Don't be cruel in your follow up plans, be sensitive and practical while following up. Annoying your customers with your continuous follow ups (calls, emails, newsletters, remarketing etc.) would be the last thing you would want. Having said that, you also can not afford to NOT have a follow up strategy. It's that fine balance that you need to maintain while creating a follow up strategy. 

One type of follow up strategy could be:
a. Marketing following up with sales: 1st follow up - Next day; 2nd follow up - After 3 days; 3rd follow up - Either on the basis of response from sales or after a week. There may or not be subsequent follow ups and it becomes highly subjective at this point.

b. Sales following up with prospect: Following up with the prospects must have a flexible strategy. The first meeting decides the buying stage the prospect is in and defines how aggressive follow up strategy could be. If the customer is at Awareness stage yet, you might want to nurture them by sending monthly newsletters.

Please do not take this post too seriously if you plan to devise a follow up strategy with your friends :-) 

A tactful persuasion, polite content and flexible approach is all what is required.

Digital Transformation

This is a nice read.

The author - Ashley Friedlein, CEO, Econsultancy has very neatly described how brands can benefit from incorporating digital strategy in their businesses & why "Digital Transformation" is essential for any business.

Keep learning !

An Introduction to Google Analytics

I was given this task at my job to take a Google analytics session for my entire brand team colleagues. I've been using this application for quite some time now & i totally love it.

Being a google analytics certified professional, i was entrusted with this task & hence, i prepared few slides for introductory session which was then followed by demo of the google analytics wherein i showed key aspects of google analytics & how my colleagues can use it to measure their online campaign effectiveness.

Google analytics is free to use & i certainly recommend this to every website owner.

Here goes the presentation:

Coolest Interview Ever

It's time to bid adieu to those boring, nervous, behind closed rooms interviews.

It's time for 'Coolest Interview Ever'.

The campaign is all about hiring that ONE special candidate from a series on interviews conducted solely on Twitter. Yes, you heard it right - Twitter is our battleground & the one who chooses his/her characters wisely, one who has the expertise, skills & required knowledge will move away with the prize money - which is a HELL LOT OF MONEY !!!!!

Enjoy our teasers:

Enjoy ! Like ! Share ! 
For more, click - 'Coolest Interview Ever'.  

Oops, missed mentioning about the campaigns creatives. Check out for yourselves:

Tweet tweet tweet tweet !