Advertisers juggling between reach and cost figures may now have an innovative solution in Magnitube, a cost effective option from Starcom Digital.

Starcom Digital, the digital media division of TLG, has combined the two tubes - television and the ubiquitous PC, hitting out at the target audience on TV and luring him to the Net, helping the advertiser reap exponential benefits. Born out of the small budget advertiser's necessity for increased reach with a limited kitty, Magnitube offers a delectable advantage to the advertiser - that of tracking consumer interest through the internet page views.

For advertisers who have long been sceptical of spending on banner ads, while splurging on TV, Magnitube helps build a synergy between the two. And for those who have stayed away from TV due to the prohibitive costs involved, Magnitube claims to give the benefit of cross promotion and thus revenues, besides helping the cost effective index to soar at least 10 times. Television, says Starcom Digital head Madan Sanglikar, provides the reach while the Net allows interactivity and involvement with the brand.

Starcom tried out Magnitube on Chromozome, the international male innerwear from Huechem Textiles. The brand was advertised on the Laugh Out Loud segment of Zee English (which includes cult series like Friends and Full House). Apart from ads, promos guiding viewers to play contests based on the LOL series on the Contests2win site were also sun on the Zee network. Viewers logging on to the site could check out the various designs of the brand and also win prizes based on the answers. The scheme has apparently paid rich dividend.

The symbiotic deal apparently paid rich dividend for both C2W and Zee, allowing for cross promotions and increased revenue. "For Chromozome, the cost effectiveness index soars 10 times more than that, had this deal been structured in the conventional form," says Sanglikar.

Magnitube, he says, also has the scalability to benefit clients who are high spenders on TV but need targeting and accountability. The module is basically designed to target the SEC A + category, which embraces most of the Net users in the country. This segment is essentially the youth and office goers, and children and women to a lesser degree. Apart from FMCGs, financial products and services (who currently contribute 80 per cent of total advertising) could also use Magnitube to advantage, feels Sanglikar. The Net is also turning into the preferred medium for contests and quizzes, and several horizontal portals in the country offer themselves as ideal vehicles for the interactive advertising envisaged by Magnitube, he says.

Online advertising in India during 2001 was pegged at Rs 400 million, a fraction of the total adspend in the country. However, with the Internet as a niche medium growing fast in the urban sector, the advertising industry sees a growth of at least 15 per cent in the current year.

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