--BY SANTOSH KUMAR DEVKOTA

Serving more advertisements than content on any digital platform is a direct loss to advertisers. Not only that, showing advertisements of competing brands on the same slot or page is also a big problem for online marketing in Nepal, and we know what the brand is expecting from the digital advertising platform.

The methods and findings outlined in this article are targeted at the Nepali digital market context, as well as for those countries with population and consumer behaviour, such as Nepal.

Traditional Pattern
Mainstream media is currently concerned with covering basic informative stories and updates of the corporate houses such as press releases, product launch events, and occasionally promotional events. Generally, content related to a corporate house or a brand is not explored and presented clearly or with priority. Therefore, there is less chance of such content creating a possible impact on the targeted mass. Similarly, the same advertisement space or areas of the display is used to present advertisements of multiple competitors who are offering similar things. Sometimes these types of advertisements can have an adverse effect on the brand. For example, a potential customer can easily compare services, products, and benefits being offered by multiple companies through such advertisements on a single page. In this scenario, a company is investing a substantial amount of money just to be compared with other competitors within a traditional platform who knows basically advertisement slots only.

Similarly, information released by corporate houses is limited to a certain group of readers only since it has been given less priority by media houses compared to generic news articles. It is also difficult for a reader to locate compiled contents of such advertisements or promoted content after a certain period of time due to a lack of an effective archive mechanism and visibility plan.

Time for Exclusivity, Visibility & One Brand Policy (EVBP)
Talking about the creative promotional style, digital platforms are still confusing because a large part of the promotion has been confined to product displays and product-related press releases.

There are plenty of digital partners associated with almost every brand or product which is the first obstacle or limitation of possible exposure. It doesn’t mean that brands don’t need better reach or mileage.        

Keeping in mind the digital user, EVBP will help in making the promotion of Nepali corporates and brands more effective, responsible, and dynamic.

How does the ‘EVBP’ Work?
Under EVBP plan, brands will be able to take their market promotion plans to a wide range of creative options. It is important to understand whether digital audiences are benefiting from the practice of brand awareness through press releases, or are press releases causing irritation. A press release is not a specific type of content that can attract the target audience. This is only an official notion and announcement which shows the presence of your brand or product in the market. So the content under EVBP will be served only after creativity which means attaching keywords, tags, and links, among others. This is the basic offer of EVBP.

Scientific Way of Effective Promotion
Under EVBP plan, a single service, package, or goods offered by a company are promoted at a time that allows having plenty of space, and coverage with better visibility and reach. Advertisement is much more than just displaying a logo or having a few slideshows of products. It can be effective through a detailed write-up, feature story and even showing a successful story.

Advertorials and More
Ideas, products, or services of clients can be displayed in a very systematic manner through advertorials. Advertorials can work if you get it right. It reflects customers, and their worlds, authentically in content. Advertorials are long-form paid advertisements, presented as informative articles. The term advertorial, therefore, is a blend of ‘advertising’  ‘editorial’.

Since advertorials are less intrusive than banner or display ads, consumers are more likely to interact with them. According to a study by IPG Media: advertorial/native received more visual focus and contributed to greater brand awareness than traditional display advertisements.

Similarly, in a report by Facebook: Advertorial/Native advertisements are responsible for 86% of impressions on the audience network and receive up to 60% more engagement than traditional display advertisements.

Further, a study done by Nielson suggests that native advertising can generate up to an 82% increase in “brand lift” - a positive shift in customer awareness of a brand.

Advertorials, if they’re compelling, also have the potential to earn organic shares via social media, something traditional advertisements never will. Advertorials are a PR play on steroids, smartly pitching your product or company to a content writer and getting a favourable write-up (but paying for the privilege).

Model of partnership with advertisers
It’s an exclusive partnership - One Product, One portal. No other similar or a competitor brand will be entertained within the contract period.

Under EVBP, the platform can offer a dedicated page/URL for clients. This allows clients to publish content in syndicated space using a subdomain having no listing of potential competitors. Visitors to the main site will have the opportunity to view the dedicated sub-portal where materials of only the EVBP clients are published.

Having no slides on the right and left of other similar companies creates trust among readers, eliminating confusion to choose the best services or products provided by the client. The dedicated sub-portal is designed and promoted for the client’s business and encompasses all kinds of audiovisual and text-based information about the client that will be archived in that sub portal which can be viewed and accessed all the time. This is like having the company’s own content-based promotion web portal offering access to limitless customers.

The dedicated URL will be full of plenty of promotional materials developed and archived after a certain period of time. Such collected materials will be used and promoted systematically among related stakeholders to build a better understanding among the client’s service recipients. These materials can also be freely accessed and used by the client at any time.

Any business house that is on board with us by the end of 2022 would be kept on the 'Priority Group' which will receive special coverage and catering as a pioneer business partner of Nepal Watch Multimedia Pvt. Ltd.

The EVBP plan is a creative approach. Which will help to keep you apart from the crowd of a copycat advertising plan and traditional promotional styles. EVBP will protect your regular and potential users from allergies caused by the bombardment of advertisements. EVBP is the next tool for the industry that advertisers are looking for.