N. Shatrujeet
News

Website to have a Net Effect on media planning

Web solutions company The Net Effect is set to launch emediaplan.com, a website that aims to provide media planning, costing and scheduling solutions.

Delhi-based web solutions company, The Net Effect, is all set to formally unveil its media planning-centric website, emediaplan.com, in the third week of July. "Although the site officially went online in the end of May 2000, it was more in the nature of a soft launch," says Proprietor of The Net Effect, Sushma Puri, in an exclusive interview to agencyfaqs!. "From July 23, it'll be a pay-to-view site."

The site, as the name suggests, is aimed at providing media planning solutions to advertising agencies, PR companies and corporates. The objective is to take the grind out of the non-value added aspects of media planning, costing and scheduling by providing software tools that enable end users to create watertight media plans - through a few clicks of the mouse.

To begin with, the website claims to offer media planners access to a database of approximately 900 Indian newspapers and periodicals. Apart from a general listing of publications with their addresses and contact information, the database consists of the rate cards of all the publications, the specifications of different papers and magazines, circulation figures and readership patterns in terms of demography.

One of the highlights of the database is that it is searchable on one or more parameters. "This multi-layered structure enables users to work out different permutations before settling for the optimal plan," says Puri. "Charting individual media plans will be that much easier."

The site plans to put up a similar database of TV channels - in about two months. "The logic is the same," says Puri. Also in the pipeline are databases on outdoor, radio and the Internet.

Apart from the Indian media, The Net Effect plans to simultaneously cover the UK, the Middle East and the US. In fact, the company is putting together the data of 102 national publications and 1,400 regional publications in the UK. The company plans to make this data available online in two-to-three weeks.

As far as revenues are concerned, the company has identified two streams. The first model is subscription driven. While individual users would have to pay Rs 5,000 for a quarter, Rs 9,000 for six months and Rs 15,000 for an year, companies and agencies would be charged Rs 20,000 for a quarter, Rs 36,000 for six months and Rs 60,000 for an year. The multiple user membership entails a maximum of 10 users per company. "We are not charging the publications or the channels who contribute to the database. It's the end user who benefits, so we charge him," explains Puri.

The second revenue stream is online media buying. The company hopes to flag off this service in four-to-six months, "once we've get our infrastructure and offices in place". Puri refuses to divulge anything more, terming it as "premature".

On how successful the venture would be, Puri says, "There's been no publicity apart from a limited mailing exercise. Yet, the response has been overwhelming, both from the publications and the agencies."

© 2000 agencyfaqs!

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