Cos log on to ad channels to woo women

BANGALORE: In a bid to woo niche customers on the Net, fast moving consumer brands are using a range of specialised tools such as dedicated advertising channels.

Companies such as Himalaya Drug and Hamdard Laboratories, jewellery maker Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri and global consumer products major 3M Corp are using dedicated channels on advertising networks such as the women’s advertisement channel to popularise their brands online.

It’s estimated that women account for over a fourth of the overall internet users in India—a factor that ad network Ozone Media Solutions is relying on to bring together women-centric brands with potential users online.
"The rupee investment gets stretched to the maximum with a women-centric channel,” said Kiran Dixit, head-advertising & marketing at Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ). The jewellery retailer allocates over a tenth of its advertising budget towards the internet and expects this to grow to 20% by next year.

Ozone Media puts together a collection of focused and niche sites around topics such as health, fashion and home products and offers this as a service to advertisers. For instance, Ozone placed ads for women-centric consumer brands on sites such as IndusLadies, IndiaParenting, SanjeevKapoor.com, Evesindia.com and About.com. The company’s dedicated womens ad channel, Eva, claims to reach 25 lakh women a month. While Himalaya advertised its e-commerce site and personal care products, 3M chose to push its flat mop.

Ad networks typically act as a go between linking brands with publisher sites. While brands themselves negotiate with sites where the internet traffic is high, they flock to ad networks to meet the remainder of their online ad budget.

"There are a lot of small sites which equally mould the opinions of women. They may not have sales representatives to reach agencies which is why it makes sense to turn to ad networks with specialised channels which consolidate unsold ad space even across the long tail," Atul Soni, media director-Delhi at Digital Direction, the digital arm of RK Swamy BBDO, representing Hamdard’s almond oil Rogan Badam Shirin said.