It did not have a star vouching for it nor did it tell a tale of a gorgeous girl with beautiful hair. But still it did what many big budget ads have not done. Thanks to the creative platform sunsilkgangofgirls.com, an online social networking website built around the leading beauty shampoo brand, Sunsilk. Gang of Girls is open only to girls and has various features including blogs, forums, expert advice on hair care, and fashion, in addition to a job site. Today, Gang of girls is the largest community for girls in India. The site logged over 5 lakh registered users in the first six months, 28,000 gangs, and an average of 28 minutes spent on the site by every visitor. Moreover, it transformed the brand from a middle-aged woman’s brand to that of young girls'.

The Advertising industry today is at an interesting crossroads. Though most of the money is still being spent on traditional advertising such as television, there is tremendous growth in online advertisements since it involves interacting and engaging the audience. With access to consumer information that is, in some ways, easier to collect over the Internet, and more sophisticated technology, companies are customizing their ads toward specific audiences, and even zapping ads to cell phones and palmtops. Web surfers can interact with ads in greater depth, and they can benefit directly from an ad's personalized message. Today the cyberspace, though a relatively new entrant into the advertising world, commands over 10 percent of the Indian advertising industry that is estimated at Rs. 20,000 crore. Analysts even predict that in future the Internet would lead the pack and the print media will remain a medium where companies announce their financial results and the government announce its welfare programs.

Reasons for Popularity
"The Internet has become more and more a part of the community life in India in the past seven to eight years, more specifically in the last three or four years," says Chaya Brian Carvelho, CEO and Managing Director of BC Webwise, the agency which created sunsilkgangofgirls.com. With the growing number of Internet users, which is pegged at 45.3 million by IAMAI, consumer dependency on the Internet is also increasing rapidly - be it for booking tickets online, shopping, gifting, finding a partner, or making a career move, there is a great opportunity for much experimentation. "With the Indian online advertising industry looking up, customer engagement models in in the country have also evolved, moving from traditional modes of e-mail and Web banners to injecting more engagement in the offering," adds Chaya. Moreover, when it comes to the traditional media, clients are not always sure of the ad's performance. In the case of a television show one can never be sure whether the show is being watched or not and who is watching it. There's a lot of discomfort with what they're actually getting in terms of audience and even disagreement on how to measure that audience reaction and place a value on it. Thanks to the power of Internet, advertising is becoming less wasteful and more measurable.

Moreover, the traditional media lacks interactivity, which the consumers today look for. "People want to comment, they want to express opinion and share wisdom, which has limited scope in traditional media," says Sandeep Singh, cofounder of Quasar Media. "The advent of Web 2.0, concepts of blogging, wikis, social networking, folksonomies, and content aggregators have given a new definition to advertisement," he adds. All this has seen a mushrooming of digital agencies over the last few years.

Think Webchutney, BC Webwise, Interactive Avenues, Hungama, Ignitee (formerly Connecturf), Contests2win, and Quasar Media, and you're thinking of banner ads, rich media ads, viral marketing, microsites, social media apps, in-video ads, online communities, search engine optimization, and more.