Why this #Kolaveri di! Social Media Sensation Movie
Marketing Case Study I am writing this article on day 2 of the #kolaveri trending on twitter! This is one of the smartest word of mouth marketing strategies adapted by movies I have seen by far after Paranormal Activity. In less than a week Why this Kolaveri Di a popular song sung by Dhanush for his movie 3 directed by his wife Aishwarya starring himself and Shruthi Hassan became sensational, conversational track on Twitter, Facebook, Traditional Media and beyond. The statistics (As of 22nd November 2011, 6:00 PM) below shows its success: The song has got about 56,65,817 views, more than 67,740 likes, around 27523 comments on YouTube (As of 26/11/2011, 11 AM) The song is trending on Twitter in India from past 3 days with hash tag: #Kolaveri The song was shared by 1 Crore, 97 Lakh 1 thousand 637 people on Facebook (as of 26/11/2011, 11:10 AM)
As per Youtubes Trend Dash Board Kolaveri song is trending in the top 10 is US today and number 1 in India past five days. This song was played in almost all the Radio Stations of Mumbai today. This would be the first tamil song to be aired on MTV tomorrow (As said by the Music Director) On November 22 nd , 2011 on the basis of the last 1,000 tweets 8,36,069 impressions were generated, reaching an audience of 709,636 followers within the past 24 hours. Of the 1000 tweets 576 were original tweets, 302 were retweets and 122 were the @mentions. On November 23rd, 2011 on the basis of the last 1000 tweets at 5:45 PM. 1,000 tweets generated 727,204 impressions, reaching an audience of 616,932 followers within the past 24 hours. Some of the celebrities or popular channels who added value to the song promotion making it to reach their thousands of followers: Amitabh Bacchan, Anand Mahindra, NDTV, Singer Shreya Ghoshal, Actor Vivek (Comedian), Madhavan, Trisha and more.
The song was released on 16 th of November 2011 on hearing it first I felt this number would be a TamilNadu sensation but it went beyond what I predicted and is now becoming a national sensation by becoming a twitter trend for 2 consecutive days.
Reasons for National Sensation: The song definitely is catchy and makes you addicted, especially the foot tapping beats that makes you shake your head (at- least). The lyrics of the song is in English (mostly) sung in tamil style thus making this understandable worldwide, glad they have added the subtitle bringing to it a karaoke approach. The video of the song is very personalized depicting the recent national best actor award winner singing the song (showcasing his singing talents), his expressions and smile that shows soulful singing, presence of Shruti Hassan and Aishwarya at the studio that indicates involvement of the entire crew to make this song and lastly direction of Aniruddh a 21 year of young music director who has made this possible. The sequence of shoot is wise, basically hero should have been depicted in a pub with a glass of whisky in hand (typical bollywood style), the choice of shooting it in a studio is wise and very personalized. The movie marketing is well strategized with involvement of Social Media from day 1. The recording of the video at the studio with natural movements and expressions itself for the sake of promoting it on YouTube proves the efforts. Its a smart choice to make the National Award Winner actor winner Dhanush sing this song as his fan base is huge and I the initial spark on Social Media started from them. The song is sensation in US, Australia, India and many other countries love the way the movie is promoted, a song can speak more than a trailer and thanks to Social Media for making this possible.
2. Top 4 Facebook Apps by Brands For Marketing Technical Applications on Facebook enhances brand value as it adds value to the users experience at the same time it supports the paradigm of innovative marketing practiced by brands. I had always been curios to check and test applications made by several brands. I was researching on Indian brand pages on Facebook last week and out of various applications tested I truly admire the below mentioned applications out of the various observed. 1. HTSE Watches by Titan Application HTSE watch application is not a contest based application unlike others that I had observed, yet it is very innovative, interactive and contains element of thought leadership. HTSE watches by Titan runs on light and to see how the watch works one need to power it up by pointing a light source to the webcam (mobile display / flash torch / night lamp / bulb etc.) As soon as the app is powered the screen gets bright and the battery cell shown next becomes green. Once you have powered the app, you get to see all the latest models and descriptions of the HTSE watches. Select the one which you like and you are given two options TRY NOW and KNOW MORE. TRY NOW feature uses Augmented Reality that brings your chosen HTSE watch in front of your webcam display and you can place your wrist and take a picture of it (refer the image below). Similarly there is a app that supports lightening up your profile image which is the same concept as mentioned above.
My Verdict on HTSE Applications: Though not a contest based, it is yet a very innovative concept that can go viral because of availing a unique experience to its customers. Allowing customers to try the watch on wrist on the basis of augmented reality concept and clicking a pic with it is a highly interactive concept as customer tends to spend a lot of time with the digital elements of the brand. My experience with the application has made me believe that the HTSE watch is really unique and is powered in the presence of light. For me this is the ;application of the year that is interestingly interactive, clean as there is no contest business, and customers who are brand loyal would be happy to share the watch on their wrist pics. 2. Kurkure Guess the Ingredients Contest
A neatly designed interactive application built in with Facebook API on the Kurkure page. Encourages people to engage with brand and identify the ingredients of Kurkures new flavors: South Indian Spicy | Mumbai Special | Bengal Special etc. With the choice of various ingredients, you can scoop in and drop the right set of spices, cereals. 3 wrong choices you make you are out of the contest. Once you identify ingredients of all the Kurkure flavors in different levels, you can share the results with your friends to make entry in to the contest, to increase the chances of winning you can encourage few friends to play the contest. My Verdict on Kurkure App Educating about the new product in the market is a challenge and creating such contests can make the product familiar to the participant. Since the contest is knowledge based, it encourages participant to spend time with the brand (ex: chances of participant buying the product is high, to identify the right ingredient to enter the contest). I like the way it is thought processed and designed. I am in support for contests that educates participants about the brand or its products / services. Good Job Kurkure! 3. Airtel Road to Vegas
Continuing the popularity of its advertisement Kyunki har ek friend zaroori hota hai, Airtel brings the innovation to facebook too. The app is integrated with Facebook API, connects with the song in the ad. Participants need to select a friend according to the types: Kanjoos friend, joke friend, poke friend, SMS friend, MMS friend etc. Once you select your friends, you can tag them. As you tag them the post reaches on your wall and theirs and thus the concept goes viral encouraging more people to participate in the contest. As per the contest if your friend type is more popular, you enter a chance to win the trip to Vegas along with your friends, if you tag the most of friends you may also win a Samsung Galaxy on daily basis. My Verdict on Airtel Contest: Contest is smartly integrated with the overall integrated marketing campaign of the brand. Since the Target Audience is youth, contest is a great way to encourage youth to spend time with brand + spread the word about their participation. Contest also delivers free access to Facebook via their Airtel Connection upon registration, which stuffs participants with something for sure A trip to Vegas is definitely greedy enough for youth to participate & spread the word. 4. Fastrack How Small is Yours
Well, if you look at this contest you might think it is definitely Fishy! After all it shows a half naked men, looking exactly down (at the place where genitals are ) with question that can make you curious How small is yours? The contest is apt for the urban target audience on Facebook, as this is funky enough to encourage them to participate. On clicking the home page, you are not asked to mention the size (as per what I initially perceived), you are rather asked to choose who amongst the four might have the small one (Refer to the image below) Contest surely confuses you as it is not too evident what does the brand mean by the small one. There are 2 boys and 2 girls and you need to click on the person who has the small one. The brand is relating the small one to the miniator shades which is owned by one of the four there and you need to identify one to submit entry for the contest.
My Verdict on Fastrack App: The application is well designed and the choice of colors is brilliant. I like the way they have related this thing to human body and sex, as sex really sells especially when it is youth targeted. Contest is simple and doesnt require much time or intellect of participant. It definitely introduces Miniator shades to the participant. Smart thought!
3. Category: Best Strategic programme Title: adidas cricket SHARE A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION/ BRAND Isobar is a communications agency network, made up of a committed and diverse group of over 2,200 people in 32 markets. Weve brought together the finest pioneers with traditional marketing talent. This combination is reflected in what we do and how we do it. We work hand-in-hand with our clients, through a culture that cant be faked. Open, honest and collaborative. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cricket is like a religion in India and in order to connect to the target audience on the online space, they had to engage the audience for a longer term and build a momentum so that by the time of world cup, adidas would by synonymous with cricket with a wider platform for the audience to engage with. In order to achieve just that, the adidas cricket campaign on Facebook proved to be the best platform for engagement and spreading the WOM. Just from zero to more than a Million Fans, adidas cricket has become synonymous with cricket for the target audience online and helped adidas achieve their marketing objectives for the long term. NATURE OF THE PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN Business to Consumer DURATION OF THE SAID PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN. START DATE-END DATE April 2010 till date. BACKGROUND
AMONG THE I NDI AN YOUTH, ADI DAS HAS BEEN PERCEI VED AS A GLOBAL SPORTS BRAND WI TH A HI GH AWARENESS QUOTI ENT. UNTI L RECENTLY, THEY HAVE NOT BEEN ACTI VELY ASSOCI ATED WI TH CRI CKET WHI CH WAS LI KE A RELI GI ON AS FAR AS I NDI A I S CONCERNED. SO, I N ORDER TO CONNECT WI TH THEI R AUDI ENCE, ADI DAS HAD TO POSI TI ON THEMSELVES AS A SERI OUS CRI CKET BRAND I N I NDI A. THUS, THE KEY ENDEAVOR OFADI DAS WAS TO STRENGTHEN THEI R ASSOCI ATI ON WI TH CRI CKET.
OBJECTIVES The key endeavor of the campaign was to strengthen the association ofadidas with cricket levareging social media in order to achieve Interaction Engagement Word of Mouth Buzz STRATEGY AND PLANNING Sustained interaction and engagement were the key for building brand affinity among the target audience. We had to create a platform where the cricket fans come, discuss, consume content and spread word of mouth among their peers so that it snowballs into a movement and by the start of world cup, it becomes the one platform where the real cricket fans can identify with. STAKEHOLDERS The primary target audience for adidas was in the age group of 14 19 years extended to 25. This audience had a huge affinity towards digital media. Their digital footprints cover social networking, mobile, entertainment, sports, online videos etc. CHOICE OF CHANNEL/S Created the platform on Facebook which became the central point for the long term digital strategy. Invited the users on the Facebook page to share their love and passion for cricket with the objective of make the platform synonymous with cricket by the time the Cricket World Cup. The key platform for the activity was taken as Facebook because it had the highest affinity among the target audience. Thus,facebook.com/adidascricket was created. To extend the digital touch points in order to provide overall social experience, also developed pages at YouTube.com/adidascricketiin and twitter.com/adidascricket. IMPLEMENTATION For sustained engagement, encouraged the users to share their views through constant cricket related conversations besides other activities like Games, Trivia and long term games like Fantasy cricket which generated phenomenal responses on all the engagement parameters. Sneak previews and premiering of the new campaign TVCs are released first on Facebook before they are taken live on TV which has also increased the excitement manifold. In less than a year, the page has grown to more than 1.1 million members and still growing at a feverish pace. As per allfacebook.com, around 94k users fanned the adidas cricket fan page during the first week of January 2011 making it one of the most explosive fan pages globally. The 60 sec Directors cut of the TVC for the pure cricket campaign was exclusively unveiled on Facebook during the IND AUS series in Oct. Despite a small build up period the event page received a large number of attendees to view the launch of the commercial. The daily interaction on the page has also been constantly on the rise month on month. On an average each post gets a feedback rate of above 0.30%. The page has received a total of 95,947 likes and 36,200 comments on the posts on the page till date. For further engagement and to bring competitive edge to the page, created a long term fantasy cricket game based on the real cricket series happening. Tremendous response on the game right from the day 1 and has since been growing. The adidas fantasy cricket has more than 50 thousand registered teams With the rise in the total strength of the fan page the number of registrations for the fantasy cricket have also seen an exponential rise with IPL and world cup. This was a gratification led activity. Did Immortal words where we released some campaign images and invited the users to write an inspiring line as per the image. there was a tremendous response. Photos were the most highly consumed form of media on the fan page. Users are constantly sharing their photos on the page to display their love for the brand. The video plays shot up with the launch of the directors cut TVC on the page. It has been a story of 24/7 engagement since the beginning and still going strong. There were many other activities which happened on a daily basis to make sure that the excitement never stopped: PREDICT AND WIN (run 11 times) Simple yet engaging contest which saw participating in droves. The competition was run on the discussions board. Total responses were 1,571 over a period of time RAPIDFIRE CONTEST (run 6 times) This was a quick quiz contest where we were giving gratification to the first few entries. Prizes was the major attraction towards Rapid fire contests where users participated in huge numbers. Close to 4,000 entries SPOT THE BALL CONTEST (run 9 times) Spot the ball continues to attract users. With user attention span being really low, Spot the Ball is the perfect engagement tool to drive Likes & Comments. More than 3,000 responses IMMORTAL WORDS CONTEST Immortal Words is the premier campaign on adidas Cricket attracting users to etch their names on billboards across the country. Nearly 22 different images were shared on the fan page asking for the users to caption each of these. Unprecedented response with more than 6,000 entries Overall, the whole activity has been hugely successful and instrumental and achieving the overall marketing objectives. IMPACT AND OUTCOME As a result of the overall activity, the adidas cricket community has grown to more than 1 Million fans and still going strong. On the YouTube page, total video views for the channel are more than 5 Lac and more than 300 followers on Twitter. According to allfacebook.com, the adidas cricket page has been one of the more explosive Facebook pages globally. The campaign has delivered tremendous earned media on the social front. According to the ACNeilsen report, adidas was one of the most talked about brand on the social media even ahead of brand which were officially associated with ICC World Cup including competition like Nike. LEARNINGS Social media as a platform has been a great turning point for the digital campaigns. The days for the microsite are long gone where the visitors would consume content and drop out. Social media provides the stickiness and long term attachment which keeps the audience hooked on to the Brand and help develop affinity with the brand. WHAT NEXT
THE GAME I S ONLY GOI NG TO BE MORE I NTENSE WI TH MORE ENGAGEMENT HOOKS AND EXCI TI NG CONTENT ON FACEBOOK. MORE RELEASES, CONTESTS, SOCI AL GAMES , AUGMENTED REALI TY, MORE CRI CKET CONTENT AND CRI CKET FOR THE ADI DAS CRI CKET FANS TO MAKE I T A NEVER BEFORE EXPERI ENCE ON ORDER TO MAKE ADI DAS CRI CKET THE ULTI MATE DESTI NATI ON FOR A REAL CRI CKET FAN ON FACEBOOK.
TESTIMONIALS Cricket is an extremely popular sport in the country with a huge fan following. Social media, on the other hand, is fast becoming a platform where every individual has a presence. We believe social media platforms offer unique and exciting ways to engage our consumers. Given the immense popularity of Facebook, we created the adidascricket fan page, where our fans have access to exclusive content on adidas and our athletes Sachin, Sehwag and Raina. We have received a tremendous response so far.
4. India Social Case Challenge- edition 2 Category: Best use of a Platform/ Channel Title: Axe SHARE A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION/ BRAND Zapak is a gaming destination and publishers for social games on social networks. We leveraged our learnings and experience, and produced some social-media led digital campaigns. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With the Axe Angles Club, we at Zapak were successfully able to use the internet as a viable medium to engage with the correct target group at the right moment for the right product. NATURE OF THE PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN Business to Consumer DURATION OF THE SAID PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN. START DATE-END DATE January 2011 till present BACKGROUND Axe enjoys a distinctive, masculine and exuberant brand personality. The proposition of Axe has always been the same Use the product in order to get an edge over others in the mating game. The communication is therefore consistently fun, cheeky, irreverent and full of unexpected surprises; and thats what makes it highly effective. Axe wanted to capitalize on the World Cup frenzy and launch a new product variant at the time. The target group for the same is best suited for engagement with Social Media Marketing. OBJECTIVES The idea was to retain the tonality of the brand and create buzz for the newly launched Axe Googly product while capitalizing on the World Cup excitement among fans. STRATEGY AND PLANNING This time our goal was to create awareness and interaction for Axes new limited edition variant Googly (associated to 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup), while being true to the brand tonality. STAKEHOLDERS No Response CHOICE OF CHANNEL/S Facebook IMPLEMENTATION We at Zapak handle the entire Social Media execution of the Axe Angle Club this includes a Facebook Page, a Twitter Account and a YouTubeChannel. During the course of the World Cup, the tonality of our updates across online properties was tongue-in-cheek while being in-line with what was happening on the field. IMPACT AND OUTCOME Results: 1.15 Monthly Active Users on Axe Highest Feedback rate seen was 15.69% Daily 5000+ new fans are added on to the page Recognition: ABBY Awards Goa Fest 2011: Axe Angels Club wins Silver for BEST USE OF INTERNET AND DIGITAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN INDIA DIGITAL MEDIA AWARDS 2011: Bronze Best Viral Marketing Axe Angels Club Exchange4media presents IDMA 2011: Silver Best Use of Social Networks Product/Service/Corporate Axe Angels Club
5. India Social Case Challenge- edition 2 Category: Best Short-term campaign Title: Tag a Friend Holi SHARE A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION/ BRAND Asian Paints is Asias third largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs 77.06 billion. The group operates around the world through its subsidiaries Berger International Limited, Apco Coatings, SCIB Paints and Taubmans. Indigo Consulting is a marketing and technology agency providing measurable, result- oriented website development and online marketing solutions. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Asian Paints were certain about strengthening their relationship with the online audience and hence required a social marketing campaign that would convey the core message of the Asian Paints brand, that of safe vibrant colours, and had the capacity to go viral. Their objective lay in creating a campaign that was self sustainable, viral and true to their brand persona of Asian Paints. Thus, Tag-A-Friend-Holi application was conceptualised. The application allowed users to play holi with other users across the globe with a chance to win an iPod nano and also conveyed an eco friendly message pertaining to water conservation. The application successfully linked Asian Paints with safe colourful fun and engaged users with the brand Asian Paints at every level. This creative strategy met the needs of creating a curiosity, engaging users in social interaction and maintaining an active buzz during the festive period of Holi. NATURE OF THE PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN All of the above DURATION OF THE SAID PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN. START DATE-END DATE Feb 2010 April 2010 BACKGROUND The client Asian Paints is Indias largest paints company, ranked among the top ten decorative coatings companies in the world, with an annual turnover of INR 66.80 billion. Asian Paints requested a social marketing campaign that would convey the core message of the Asian Paints brand, that of safe vibrant colours, and had the capacity to go viral. OBJECTIVES In order to increase brand awareness, Asian Paints were keen to take route of Social Media Marketing Background. With the then prevailing water crisis, we worked around the idea of a social media application that would engage users in a game of virtual Holi, thus saving gallons of water and still allowing them to celebrate with family and friends all over the globe. The aim was to create a campaign that was self-sustaining, viral, consistent and true to the brand promise of Safe, Vibrant Colours for your spaces STRATEGY AND PLANNING To take advantage of the festival of Holi, as it has traditionally been associated with colourful fun. This would make it an ideal occasion for people to connect the Asian Paints brand to wholesome fun and safe colours Imparting a message of deeper importance, conserving water at a time of a water shortage crisis, would associate Asian Paints with genuine concern for people and the environment We developed the Facebook application named Tag a friend Holi due to an increase in water crisis, we ensured that users had a fun, colourful Holi without wasting gallons of water The application allowed users to pick pictures of their friends and splash it with their favourite Holi colours that were mapped to selective Asian Paints colour palette and then publish the coloured picture on their friends wall An iPod Nano was offered to the user who tagged the most no. of friends The application was promoted on the Asian Paints website, mailers were sent out through afaqs database and a PPC campaign on Facebook was carried out. STAKEHOLDERS There were no particular stakeholders involved as the initiatives basic purpose was to create some awareness and brand presence on a social forum. In saying so, it was targeted at everyone and anyone who had a presence on Facebook. CHOICE OF CHANNEL/S We chose Facebook as the platform to run this viral campaign simply because of its reach to a large no of users who were not only suited as prospective customers but were also likely to engage in game applications on a social media forum. IMPLEMENTATION Tag-A-Friend Holi, an application on Facebook enabled users to play a virtual Holi. The application allowed participants to splash the profile pictures of their friends with a customizable tool of choice (pichkari, balloon or the hand) and a palette of colours provided by Asian Paints. Once the participant had finished splashing a friends picture, they had the option of saving and publishing the image to their profile and the victims wall and album. Since the medium used was a social networking site, the participants could aggressively wish a happy Holi to the dear and far they would never meet face-to- face during Holi. As an added incentive, the participant who played the most ie tag/colour the most number of friends, would win an iPod Nano. IMPACT AND OUTCOME The fun factor of the app was its biggest selling point, the participants promoted it themselves on Facebook, though Indigo Consulting did encourage more to participate through email. For 8 days from 26th February to 5th March, 2010 the application added - 16,755 monthly active Facebook users 924 Facebook fans 334-the highest number of victims by 1 person 23,819 times the app was successfully played 1,59,914 page views 67,434 unique page views The campaign met its objectives. Tag-A-Friend Holi beat competition from similar Holi themed applications on Facebook by over 10,000 monthly active users. The application went above and beyond the call to promote the Asian Paints brand thanks to its environmental message. It successfully linked Asian Paints with safe colourful fun. More importantly this virtual Holi helped conserve water and prevent the use of harmful dyes without ruining one of Indias most iconic festivals. Tag-A-Friend Holi also won the Social Network Standard of Excellence from the Web Marketing Associations Web Award competition in 2010 LEARNINGS The application met the need of users separated by distance to play holi with family and friends across the globe via the social network forum. Conveyed the message of the Asian Paints brand message of safe and vibrant colours. Brought to light the eco friendly message involving water conservation. The incentive to win an iPod nano encouraged greater user participation. What didnt work was the longevity of the application was restricted due to the duration of the festival of Holi. WHAT NEXT Following the success of Asian Paints Tag-A-Friend-Holi Facebook application in 2010, the following year in 2011, we revised social media strategy to seamlessly connect Asian Paints association with colours and one of Indias most popular festivals Holi, with the most anticipated sporting event of 2011, The Cricket World Cup tournament. The application garnered close to 35,000 page views with more than 10,000 monthly active users within the first week. The application was played extensively amongst users from India, USA and UK, with the most active users hailing from the cities of Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.
6. Kingfisher Beer #KFbeerup Social Media Case Study
Strategy: If you love drinking beer and are offered FREE unlimited with your friends what more will you ask for? Im sure you will glorify the various attributes of host for a long time to offer you that unlimited FREE beer experience with your friends. Kingfisher Beer a very popular brand known nationwide organizes something similar for the twitter community. Kingfisher announces a tweetup for beer lovers every week on Saturday that limits to Twitter Users only! In fact, this beer up is announced on Twitter and restricts to 50 -80 twitteratis registering first come first serve basis. Kingfisher promises #KFBeerup in a city one month in advance and if you have registered you can drink as much Kingfisher Premium Beer as you can. No conditions apply Outcome: From the time Kingfisher announces the #KfBeerup in a city with Invitation for registrations (on twitvite.com). The word starts spreading, twitter world starts buzzing with hash tag #Kfbeerup, people start tagging their friends on twitter to inform them about the #Kfbeerup and many make fake profiles of their friends for sake of registrations.
Benefits: This is what I call as complete experiential marketing or giving it a other name the innovation in marketing. Very few brands in the world believe that the usage of twitter is beyond Internet and when used they can create wonders. Below are some benefits that the brand avails by hosting #KfBeerup: 1. The event helps spreading the word of mouth about the brand when people talk about the registrations, live event activity and post event experience thus reaching thousands of people with #KfBeerup. 2. The event creates brand enthusiasm amongst the twitter community and the enthusiasm impacts the brand equity. 3. Brand is well aware that the twitter is the new trend in the country and going with the trend in a innovative way is the need of the hour and thus securing the future communication strategies + attracting the mainstream media to cover the innovation. 4. The aim of giving customers an experience definitely impacts the brand loyalty and thus anticipating sales in the future.
7. The Tweeting Newspaper Volkswagen India #anything4jetta Promoting Social Media initiatives via Traditional Media
Volkswagen did it again! It was talking newspaper in the past and its tweeting newspaper this time! Eeks, when I say Tweeting newspaper I literally dont mean the newspaper that tweets. for me a tweeting newspaper is an newspaper that hosts an advertisement that evokes, provokes, requests or makes you greedy enough to tweet with a particular purpose or hashtag. My first activity of the day is to look into social media first before reading the newspaper. Saw#anything4jetta trending on twitter, curious I clicked on the trend and realized people are going crazy to win something called jetta. I later switched over to my The Hindu newspaper and was amused to see the glossy first page with a large size image of Volkswagen. What will you do for all the new jetta? Was the question asked in the third page of the newspaper. To answer the same you need to Tweet away with the hashtag #anything4jetta. The wittiest and most popular tweet wins daily prizes and wins an entry to the grand prize The Jetta itself. Best part of the ad is: It is well explained, usage of the image supports the title, people are also encouraged to send in an audio tweet, a video tweet or a call in tweet. I have always supported the fact that Social Media initiatives have to be incorporated with traditional media initiatives. Integration supports and ease the Word of Mouth marketing process. Here are few examples of the crazy tweets made:
8. Listening on Social Media @Snapdeal.Com Case Study It was a usual evening and I was going through the my Facebook profile. Along with the news feed, its my regular practice to go through the targeted ads which gets displayed on the right hand side of my FB profile. It helps me observe how different brands advertise themselves via the top social network. Some of them could be utilized for my training workshops to tell my trainees about good way of advertising and the not-so-good way to do it. Many a times, I have got amused by the ads from Snapdeal as their ads are very captivating but doesnt deliver anything that is promised. Its just a pseudo presence and it doesnt mean to provide the end-user with offers as promised in the ad. One such example is here :
Very nicely worded, the ad tempted me to click and proceed to the landing page. Oops ! It just took my contact details and ended nowhere. OK ! Very cleverly framed ad, which I lost my contact details to. I just let it go and didnt care much as I had lot of other stuff to concentrate on. Yesterday, when I was facebooking, I again came across another ad by Snapdeal. I looked at it and smiled first, later I thought this is something that needs to get mass attention (especially by bloggers and tweeters) as this advertisement which said Hi Handsome was funny yet cheapest act by a popular brand Snapdeal. Once I tweeted about this act by Snapdeal few others re-tweeted and thus gathered a lot of attention with more than 200 views, opinions and buzz about @snapdeals cheap act. I was not alone. Ranjani a social media enthusiast blogged about @Snapdeals cheap advertising strategy in one of her blogs. This blog contained detailed information about the ads and got lot of views and added to the negativity that was spreading about the brand. After the negative buzz, Rohit Awasthi (Head User & Communities at snapdeal.com) replied back apologizing for such advertisement, in Ranjanis blog (Please read the complete blog post with comments in order to understand the conversations between brand and consumer better). Rohit has taken his time and efforts to explain me on phone what had probably went wrong and promised to clean up such ads. It was so positive from the brand, to admit the mistake that it has made and take immediate action towards rectification. This just proves me one thing.. If you are able to raise your voice against something which is misleading or inappropriate and get enough support from your social circle, any brand will definitely listen to it. Especially in the Social Web, the brands reaction would (should) be faster, if the concern proves to be very much negative and which has the potential to tear apart the reputation of the brand. Lesson for the day : To ERR IS HUMAN. But, how positive you (the brand / business) are to admit, accept and rectify it makes the big difference. Mature businesses will document it as a great learning to be avoided in future. On the other side @Snapdeal.com should consider changing its poor advertisement / communication tactics to attract healthy customers and avoid distracting the same.
9. Category: Long-term initiative
Title: Evalueserve Using LinkedIn for lead generation and brand building SHARE A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION Evalueserve provides knowledge services to a global client base, including Investment, Commercial and Retail Banks; Insurance Companies; Private Equity Firms; Corporates; Consulting and Research Firms; Law Firms; and Intellectual Property Firms. Evalueserves expertise covers areas, such as Financial and Investment Research, Business Research, Market Research, Intellectual Property, Data Analytics and Knowledge Technology Services. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The virtual nature of Evalueserves business model called for the use of web-based technologies to support our sales and marketing efforts across the globe. Using LinkedIn, a team member in India can initiate contact or create awareness about Evalueserve with prospective clients, adding comments to forums, asking or answering questions, etc. Clients also proactively approach us with queries, as they see our activities on the network. Viewing profiles of existing and potential clients helps in the client research process. LinkedIn helps the sales teams to identify key contacts and gauge their interests by viewing their forum posts or the events they attend. Most consumers realize that LinkedIn is their professional profile of record. The result is a notable increase of sales leads together with a better image of the brand and the individuals working at Evalueserve. BACKGROUND Evalueserve has a global Sales and Marketing team. Client Engagement Managers in client locations are supported by the Sales Support teams in our India, China, Chile and Romania centres. Identifying the key contacts at organisations for the initial contact and scheduling meetings with these contacts has been a challenge. Cold-calling without the right background information has not proven to be successful over the years. Reaching clients through traditional media (press releases, white papers, etc.) has been useful in general brand building, but to create greater impact for our present and prospective clients, and get them to recognise us as a large knowledge services firm we required a more direct approach, which LinkedIn provided. Evalueserve certainly is not the first company to use online networking for business development and marketing purposes. But as Evalueserve is a global company that works virtually in many ways, it is a good case of how modern business is developed and large networks are built without face-to-face meetings. APPROACH/STRATEGY Many of our Sales Support team members had started using LinkedIn in 2007 and many of Evalueserves Client Engagement Managers in Europe and the US had already been using LinkedIn For branding, the Marketing Communications (Marcom) team has been encouraging the controlled use of forums for the distribution of white papers, articles, etc. or for answering questions asked by members, researching events and more New white papers are systematically posted (excerpts or links) in relevant groups or forums. Selected professionals of Evalueserve regularly browse LinkedIn forums to post advice on queries The Marcom team also regularly checks forums and questions, and arranges answers/forum posts to be published. Guidelines for Social Media have been included in the global Media Communication manual. STAKEHOLDERS Sales team, Sales Support team and Marketing Communications team. PLANNING & OUTREACH The Sales team carries out classic research of profiles to identify key contacts within the client organisation or targeted organisations. Client information is also gathered from LinkedIn to prepare for meetings. InMails are sent or connections through groups or forums are established. For branding purposes, managers or subject-matter experts post or answer questions, or are active in LinkedIn groups. Groups and forums are used to post company links or excerpts of white papers/articles. IMPACT OUTCOME Lead generation: The Sales team gains direct access to C-Level people without having to go through numerous rounds of calls with secretaries. Using LinkedIn, one gets to know the focus of the profile being contacted and can customise the pitch accordingly to garner maximum interest. This helps us in reaching the right audience, saving a lot of time and improving our success rate. Brand building: By posting white papers on LinkedIn, we have received several requests from traditional media or blogs. Several Client Engagement Managers have also received messages through LinkedIn about their posts. We have also noticed the influx of external recommendations on LinkedIn. Using LinkedIn for marketing has helped us to improve our visibility and catch the attention of our target audience; traditional media is still used as a tool to reach out to a more general audience. The table below shows the percentage breakup on Lead generation and Brand building for 5 key target verticals from an India perspective.
LEARNINGS Lead generation: An effective keyword search can be used to reach out to the right people. A useful tip for lead generation is to check the list of people who have viewed our profile. This lets us know who is interested in the company, and the prospects thereafter are more than cold calls. Confidentiality: A key challenge was to ensure the confidentiality of our clients and project. Therefore, a Social Media section was added to the global Media Communication manual, and an e-learning module was developed to create greater awareness on the subject. WHAT NEXT LinkedIn is now an intrinsic part of Evalueserves sales and marketing strategy. In addition, we are also leveraging other social media networks in Germany/Europe like Xing. The Sales and Marketing teams use LinkedIn on a daily basis for business development and brand building. Our next step will be to increase the use of LinkedIn across the organisation and to add the use of online social and business networking tools to the tool kit of each employee and increase training and awareness (an update on the Media Communication manual and training is currently underway).
10. IndiaSocial Case Challenge edition 2 Category: Best Strategic Programme Winner of Position #2 Title MTV Roadies The most Explosive Youth Brand in the Country SHARE A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ORGANISATION Roadies started in 2003, first hosted by Cyrus Shukar. Season 2 Season 8 has been hosted by Rannvijay. Roadies has travel, adventure, drama, touch of voyeurism Raghu It is based on MTV reality show Road Rules which started in the year 1995 It is Indias most popular reality show with 8 successful seasons. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A 9 month trans-media campaign which resulted in establishing MTV Roadies as the most talked about brand in India. A campaign which made MTV Roadies the envy of the brand manager of every youth brand in the country. Not only did Roadies establish itself as a giant in the social media space in India but its also got India noticed in the International space (Its in the Top 10 most engaged Facebook pages of the whole world). It busted myths of TV content not being consumed online and also myths which assumed Roadies to be too niche for an evolved audience platform such as Twitter. A campaign which was completely for the users at every step and which helped tailor on-air content based on how the audience in the digital space was responding to previous content. A campaign which integrated TV, Outdoor, Mobile and Digital Media. A perfect example of how a campaign should use its website, WAP site and social presence. NATURE OF THE PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN Business to consumer DURATION OF THE SAID PROGRAMME/ ACTIVITY/ CAMPAIGN. START DATE-END DATE Online Campaign started with a Call for Entries for Season 8 back in September 2010. Campaign went through the audition phase in Jan Feb and the journey phase 5th March 18th May. Well now continue with Roadies Battle Ground on the website and Facebook fanpage and lead up to Season 9! BACKGROUND In the past 7 seasons of the popularity of Roadies has surged on TV & online. AIM: was to give the loyal fanbase quick and easy access to Roadies related content, attract new consumers and engage with them right through the season. Fans thronged Youtube to get the latest Roadies content. Hundreds of unofficial pages and websites catered to this audience. We wanted to draw all these fans FIRST to our digital platforms. OBJECTIVES To make Roadies the most talked about brand in the social space in India. To be Indias MOST engaged Facebook page. 2 Million Fans on Facebook, 10 Million visits to our Website, 5 Million video views onMTVIndia.com/roadies,1 Million + views on Roadies Channel on Youtube and be one of the top Channels. (We ended up achieving all that we set out to do.) STRATEGY AND PLANNING STRATEGY: Reach out to our viewers and enable them to influence their social circle about Roadies. CONTENT STRATEGY: Sneak peaks, full episodes, behind the scene pictures, gossip & leaks. Quick contests & gratification Simulcast on TV, Web & Mobile Long & short form Roadies content available on microsite, Facebook, YouTube and on mobile. Uncensored clips & full episodes! Live Chat with hosts & contestants. To ensure we reached out to our consumer multiple times on a daily basis. LISTENING STRATEGY: We were all ears on our MTV Roadies Facebook page On-Air Programming Content was edited according to the fans demands. FB-Meetups/Tweetups before airing of episodes. Regular polls & tweets to find out who is trending on the show INTERACTIVE STRATEGY: Live chat with Raghu, Rajiv, Rannvijay & contestants! Raghus blog on the website. Contests on Facebook & Twitter. We wanted to keep the consumer involved 24/7 right from the beginning of the show to the very end. STAKEHOLDERS Our primary stakeholders were our consumers and we did everything possible to engage with them on every platform possible. This included almost every digital platform where our users could possibly be found. We wanted to ensure that a one-time viewer would be digitally touched at one platform or the other and convert to an addicted week-on-week viewer. Raghu and Rannvijay were also integral to all our digital activation. CHOICE OF CHANNEL/S Website http://mtvindia.com/roadies Blogs Raghus exclusive blog giving fans insights into each episode. Youtube Roadies full episodes and uncut ones are massively popular on- Youtube. Facebook Ehcos the world is on Facebook! Twitter (@mtvindia handle) Live tweets during the show Fans tweeted during airing of the show Tweetups Inviting influential junta to screenings. IMPLEMENTATION Facebook We knew audition videos are hugely popular. And some of them had massive viral quotient. These are the videos shared on FB. Our conversations were around these. City comparison kept the heat alive. Youtube At the time when auditions went on air, Viacom and Youtube were in a legal tiff. So we used Youtube as a Roadies fan Someaudition videos have nearly 1M views each! Website Content is king all previous seasons of Roadies were uploaded. Official Tweet- up for the first journey episode at the MTV Parel office. Roadies was trending by the end of the tweet-up. Similarly one day before every journey episode aired on TV (i.e. on Friday) we would have a tweet-up in a major city and would air the episode to the fans! Facebook Regular posts with updates, sneak peeks & polls Full episodes, uncensored clips on the website, youtube, facebook & mobile wap site. Knowing what works Rannvijay posts on MTV Roadies have garnered record breaking numbers. The most favored Roadies also make the best posts Weve seen numbers on the Facebook fan page which havent been even heard of for an Indian brand! Screenshots in the PPT. Contests: Contests carried out on MTV Roadies hugely popular with more than 1000 entries for each contest. Contests / Quizzes also on the site for Dell, Snapdeal, Lava, Crusoe & Wildcraft Cross-Promotion: On-Air -> On-Line Astons to promote the website, youtube and facebook fanpage. On- ground -> On-Line All outdoor and on-ground creative carried the URL to the website. On-Line -> On-Air Episode alerts and reminders on the Facebook fanpage. Show timing / promos on the website / youtube. IMPACT AND OUTCOME MTV Roadies is 2 Million strong on Facebook It is the 5th largest in India in terms of sheer volume It is also the 6th most engaging pages on Facebook in the world& #1 Most Engaging in India . On Facebook: Monthly active users on MTV Roadies facebook is 1,574,139 (78% of total fan base) Total post views per day is 152,788,912 making it one of the most viewed posts among Indian brands Interactions 2-3x higher than the top brand pages in India get. (Graphs in the PPT) Analysing: We track all the posts which are made based on videos, photos, etc & based on what works, we schedule content. Benchmarks We are the most engaged page in India and #6 in the world. We aim at doing better every week. Weve got people in the team whove handled Axe Angels Club, Pepsi India pages. So that helped us benchmark against what numbers are achieved by other 1M pages in India. And our aims were to double each metric theyve achieved. Twitter: Live tweeting during the airing of show has helped us get Roadies to trend often. Its been surprising to see an apparently niche and evolved audience like Twitter to be home to die-hard fans of Roadies! On the day of the Finale Episode#roadies, MTV Roadies, Anchal, Aanchal, Suchit and Mohit all trended! We had 4 topics trending at the same time! Metrics and Tools: There was a simple metric which we had in place. Out perform the previous weeks reach, impressions and feedback rate. Some tools which weve used to help us with measurement: Buzzref, Pagelever, socialbrands.media2win.com compare tool etc. We use the Facebook Search API to track how many people share our posts. This in turn helps us to figure out what sort of content is shared by people on their walls. Website: 10 Million Visits, 16 Million Pageviews+ (Other website stats included in the ppt) Youtube: Total Upload views on the MTV Roadies channel are 1,567,195. The channel went live on April 18th. Weve consistently been in the Top 5 channels viewed in India. LEARNINGS Stuff which works: Rannvijay, Raw uncensored videos, behind the scene pics. Stuff which doesnt: Contests. Surprisingly contests dont work in getting you new fans. They just help in keeping a minority group happy and engaged. Establishing the Facebook page as a platform where Roadies fans could meet other people similar to them. We wanted to build this as a platform where other Roadies fans could consume, share and broadcast content. Which helped us reach out to their friends and increase the popularity of the show. Insights gained: Always think 360 degrees when it comes to a campaign. And think integration. Make everything as social and as easily accessible as possible. Integrate one media platform with the other. Short status updates work. (An internal study showed us that FB updates lesser than 120 characters get more likes than the ones longer than 120. Study done after studying 100 posts made by us) WHAT NEXT Roadies Season 8 ended on 18th June. Now well have: RBG Roadies Battle Ground. An online task based program to select the first Roadie for Season 9 of Roadies. Roadies specific content Over the next few months we are going to have content specific to the Roadies audience and work on improving the aspirational quotient of Roadies. And then well wait for Season 9! And the fun will start again! Call for entries, Auditions, Journey etc! TESTIMONIALS 6th most engaged page in the world. Higher TRPs and Record breaking GRPs as compared to last year. And the love of 2 Million Fans!
11. Social Media Case Study: Shari Academy of Photography Background Shari Academy is one out of only two Adobe certified photography schools in India and the first one to get the accreditation. Girish Mistry, the Dean, is highly admired and respected in the industry. Based in Mumbai, it conducts a variety of photography workshops and certificate courses for aspiring photographers. The problem No one seems to know how good Shari Academy is, till around 2 years back no one seemed to know of Shari Academy unless one ventured out to fiercely find a school to learn photography. The Agenda Shari Academy decided to explore the online medium given the huge number of photography enthusiasts on the web. Shari wanted its name to grow beyond the industry circles and showcase the quality of its faculty, but more importantly to get business rolling in by reaching out to and providing certificate programs to these photography enthusiasts. The Case For a relatively small company when compared with the behemoths otherwise the scope and scale are vastly different and presents problems that need unique thinking. Budget constraints meant a huge paid media campaign which generally settles the awareness and eyeballs issue was out of the question. It didnt have an email list and buying one off the market is never a perfect solution for anyone. Which left us with the then hot but relatively untested waters of social media were talking about 2009, times when having 1000 fans was considered excellent work and when advertising on Facebook hadnt gained steam. So we decided to use Facebook and a blog to achieve the twin objective of branding and business. The problem was how do you get traffic on the blog without advertising? Secondly perhaps more importantly how do you get people to become a fan of Shari Academy when the problem precisely is that no one knows the brand. Our Solution We proposed the idea of creating an unbranded community. If you take away contest baits, there are two reasons people like Fan pages on Facebook a deep loyalty to the brand, or because it makes them look cool. People might be vary of liking a Shari Academy (unless there was some prize waiting) but every wannabe photographer would have loved to showcase his passion and join a page called Photography Tips . And thats exactly what they did.
In an era of paid campaigns luring people with baits to join fan pages, Shari Academys Photography Tips in a period of a year organically built over 40,000 fans A classic case of online community building itself through references and engagement. We held mini contests on daily photography themes (without any gratifications) and asked users to upload photographs based on them which would then be reviewed by Sharis faculty. The winners would then be announced on our blog which meant that the traffic soared to nearly 500 visitors a day (close to 1000 today) without any advertising or publicity. All because Shari created a platform for photographers to come and connect. The Result Photography Tips now stands at over 1.3 lakh fans. It is the biggest community of photographers on Facebook. Shariblog gets nearly 30,000 visitors a month. Breaking Myths More importantly this project broke that standard myth about social media: ROI Social Media doesnt translate into business. Well.. it does! Shari Academy runs weekend workshops promoted primarily though the Photography Tips fan page and the blog. Its a packed house with people turning up from other cities sometimes to attend these paid workshops. Since the beginning of our efforts we have nearly doubled and at times almost tripled the strength of each workshop. This simple Facebook and Blogging campaign has been translating into money for the company, and not just indirect of intangible benefits. Enough for it to now run its own paid campaigns on Facebook after nearly 2 years of organic growth, a point unimaginable for the small business back when it started. Accolades: Must visit community for photographers: We didnt say that, these guys did Allfacebook.com Lightstalking.com Conclusion: What Smursh has shown through Shari Academy is the power of building an online community and investing into creating value for people. About going to people and enabling their efforts than to pursue ways to meet your own ends. It took us over a year to get into a position of influence and build an audience, but once we did the rise was rapid. The case is point that any social media practitioner would love to note when they argue the case about having a long term view and strategy on social media. Summary: A case study on the use of social media platforms namely Facebook Page and a Blog used to build an online community of photography enthusiasts by a Photography school.
12. India Social Case Challenge Edition 1 Category: Short-term Initiatives Title : Using Twitter to create buzz around the relaunch of Channel [v] in August 2009 Share a little about your organisation Channel [v] is a music and entertainment channel, and part of the Star group, owned by News Corp. Largely a television channel, in recent times, the engagement of the brand extends beyond, and to other platforms including the Internet, and specifically Social Media. Executive Summary Channel [v] was in a unique position in terms of having a focused target group, that was well aligned to the Social Media usage profile in India. With a clear objective of creating awareness about the new Bloody Cool Channel [v], the Social Media campaign identified and executed, especially via Twitter, worked to near perfection. In terms of meeting the desired objectives. Also in doing so, it got Channel [v] going into the active realm of Social Media, and engagement with its users. With the great start provided by this campaign, Channel [v] has not looked back since then, and has only gone from strength-to-strength, in the space.
Background Channel [v] was being relaunched in a new avatar, with significant changes in television programming, positioning, tag line, style, etc. Almost like a rebirth. This was in August 2009. The time was ripe then, to extend the engagement to the Social Media platform as well, as the core TG for the brand was very active on the space. A decision was taken then, to utilize Social Media along with other marketing initiatives, for this relaunch. More specifically, the new platform of Twitter was identified for these two specific campaign activities, as being the perfect platform for the impulsive and viral run, that could be obtained for these campaigns. Approach/ Strategy The most important communication that we needed to get out, was that Channel [v] was changing. So change was one of the key buzzwords. Beyond that it was important to communicate WHAT this change was about. In a simple quick communication, a different logo after many years, for a well recognised brand, serves the purpose of communicating that some change was afoot. It was important then, to see how we could get the logo in front of maximum number of people. Keeping these objectives in mind, the goal was identified as being able to reach out to maximum number of people with the communication of change and the visibility of a new logo of Channel [v]. The duration of this specific launch phase campaign was going to be about 1 month, from late July, till the launch date of August 22, 2009. We worked with limited budgets. We found a great Social Media agency in Social Wavelength, who were able to give us the right strategies and execution of those strategies, as a completely outsourced service, and that too, at very low budgets. The overall budget for this one month phase, including the fees paid to Social Wavelength, was around Rs. 2 lakhs. Stakeholders The primary stakeholders which we seeked to engage with, were the consumers and potential consumers, of the television channel. For a youth, music and entertainment channel like Channel [v], this meant the urban and semi-urban, educated youth, largely in the sub-25 age group, in India. As this demography fits in well with the Social Media user profile in India, the strategy to use Social Media seemed like a perfect fit. The initiative was received very well, by this group of stakeholders, at the time of its roll out in July-August 2009, and they continue to remain fiercely loyal and engaging, even today, many months after the launch of the initiatives on Social Media platforms. The secondary stakeholders to be engaged included the senior management within Channel [v] and that purpose was also served well, as the numbers that we achieved, impressed them. They have continued to support and encourage all plans for Social Media engagement, ever since. About the initiative Overall, during the lauch phase of the channel in July and August, all the popular Social Media platforms, viz. Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, YouTube etc. were used. However what we would like to highlight in this case study, are a specific couple of Twitter based initiatives that were employed. Activity 1 was called iSawTheChange. Use of Twitter We created a web page where we put a collage of our various popular characters and icons, from over the years. Over a period of 15 days, we would make one small change on this graphic everyday. The challenge to the users was to track the image daily and identify that one change. And once they did so, they had to convey their answer to us, via a very small form on that same page. Along with their answer, we asked for their Twitter credentials as well. And in doing so, we (after their permission) sent out a tweet on their behalf, that said, Hey @ChannelvIndia I saw the change on http://iSawTheChange.com . 10 Daily Prizes and 10 iPod Nanos to be won!. As this tweet reached the followers of the participant, more intrigue was created and others would click and reach the same URL and many of them participated too. This contest was played around a 1000 times, and the viral impact of the tweet stream enabled the brand to reach multi-fold number cumulatively. Activity 2 was called On Yours. In this case, an application was built, which allowed people to register, and then opt to swap their personal Twitter Display Pictures, with the new Channel [v] logo. The swap would work on a random basis for 50% of time. Or in other words, on a random basis, half the time, the users own personal DP was visible, and for the other half, the new Channel [v] logo was visible, as the users profile picture. The inducement for people to do this, was in terms of gratification. Any user who stayed registered for at least 5 days, was given a Channel [v] T-shirt (of course, with the messaging of the changed channel, and its new tag line, Bloody Cool). And for lucky few, there were bigger prizes involved. There was excellent adoption of this activity. We generated good participation. Impact Outcome We have to be honest. We went into these two activities on the urging on our agency, Social Wavelength, but we did not know what to expect. Our expectations in that sense, were limited. We had chosen to spend a small budget, and it was a trial of sorts. Our management team was even less engaged, in this initial activity. However the results surprised us pleasantly. The participants in both activities, and through their participation, the larger reach to a multiple number of people, was tremendous. While the activity of iSawTheChange would have been visible to more than 100,000 people, the changing logos at On Yours created a buzz equivalent to a large billboard campaign in the real world. We did measure the growth of Twitter followers, Facebook fans (as an accompanying by product), the conversations generated, the RTs that we got, the stats on the two web pages, etc. All in all, these numbers all represented results beyond our expectations. While we were trying to create communication that the TV channel, Channel [v] was changing for the better, we also achieved a great secondary objective. Learnings The key learnings on the positive front were: 1. Users will react to an interesing proposition. 2. Uniqueness creates more impact. People dont want more of the same thing. 3. Something new creates intrigue, and a mentality to try it out. That is good for the brand. 4. Users have to always hear whats in it for me. Once that is addressed clearly, the engagement can be achieved. 5. The medium is all about viral factor. If we make the application fundamentally tuned to be viral, we are giving ourselves the best opportunity to spread the fire. 6. Gratification is good. But it does not have to be very expensive. A simple T-shirt is enough to generate interest and excitement. 7. A little debate does not hurt. There were some who questioned the logic on the On Yours activity. Why do people trade in their DPs, for example. And why were they seeing channel v wherever they looked on Twitter. But while there was a sense of critical feedback here, it helped in keeping the interest and the buzz alive. 8. Good strategy well executed is magic potion. In terms of the challenges, these were: 1. Starting from a low base of users (followers), and without a media buy budget, there is challenge to generate large usage, even for a great idea. A media buy budget to create initial awareness, can help, in such cases. 2. The above referred negative feedback about On Yours was not anticipated. We would look to be better prepared to visualize different reactions, in future. What Next The launch phase itself, was a one-off effort. However it showed us the merits of interacting with our stakeholders on Social Media. Since that point in late August 2009, we have continued to engage our TG, and created several other specific efforts and many ongoing activities, on Social Media. We have used Facebook, Twitter and Orkut, to promote shows on air, call for entries to reality TV shows, and for completely independent Social Media specific activities as well. Reasoning We had a clear objective for our business requirement at that time, viz. to promote the new Channel [v], create awareness and buzz about the change, and in turn, start our serious presence on Social Media as well. The actual strategies and the roll out were a perfect fit to this goal. We achieved this at low cost. We used the elements of Social Media, in terms of engagement, conversations and the viral factor. It was one of the earliest focused effort by an Indian TV brand, and in fact, one of the earliest amongst Indian consumer brands. The strategies used were not oft-repeated rehashes, but completely fresh and original strategies thought out of the box, and used very creatively. And at the end of it, they also drove desired results. These factors, according to us, make for this initiative to be definitely a good case study, and perhaps a best practice case as well. Credits Strategy Social Wavelength, Mumbai, represented by Sanjay Mehta. In fact, the strategy was completely thought out by them, and we simply sanctioned the same! Credits Execution Social Wavelength, Mumbai, a team led by Mihir Karkare, handled the execution. Testimonials 1. On Aug 13th, 14th and 22nd, 2009, respectively, @ChannelVIndia was rated as 2nd, 4th and then The Most Popular Twitter user from India. Details in presentation referred above. 2. Medianamas coverage of the activity 3. Manuscrypt / Manu Prasads coverage of this activity
13. IPL multiplied by the power of social media For cricket enthusiasts or recent IPL converts, the latest season of the IPL has been a rollercoaster living up to the twists and turns and the instant exhilaration that the format promises. While the novelty of the IPL format is often spoken about in context of the growth in cricket viewership patterns it has contributed to, its also interesting to see how the adoption of social media tools has enabled the viewers/fans to extend their involvement beyond viewing and help the format gain a cult following. And the award for the most viewed TV channel goes toYouTube The recent study by CISCO (about India topping the list of nations with most restrictive policies towards social media tools usage among enterprises) notwithstanding, the success of IPL on YouTube has shown how consumption over internet is becoming mainstream. Watching the IPL through live streaming is also quite a departure from the days when one would go to Rediff/Yahoo to catch the latest scores. This story shares some whopping statistics about the number of subscribers/views of the IPL YouTube channel. Its also interesting to see this in context of the recent media reports about the IPL screenings on big screen not taking off. There may be a surge at the big screens during the finals but with fans and their peers present online for the most part, the internet now provides a unique community experience to these fans. Move beyond the post match mortem over the watercooler, its the age of Twittercooler One of the most favourite phrases that unites Indians in transit across class, caste, region, religion is Score kya hua hai (What is the score?) With Twitter, one no longer has to worry about being on top of the score, with friends sharing a ball-by-ball update. If radio commentary was 1.0 and sms alerts 2.0, then twitter is definitely is 3.0 for all those looking for updates. More importantly however, no longer does one need to wait for that session in college canteen the next day or by the office watercooler, Twitter gives the perfect opportunity to broadcast why Sachin Tendulkar is the best and how Kings XI could have stood a chance if Yuvraj would have focused more on his game. A recent study by Nielsen shows how Twitter is the third most popular platform for IPL related discussions on social media. The Cricket pitch comes to Facebook As this title of a recent post on Facebook blog shows, there is a whole new world that has opened up for IPL fans on Facebook. Most of the teams such as Deccan Chargers, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals have their own fan pages where fans can engage with other fans and get exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at your favorite teams and players. With IPL online games to live chats with team captains, the experience truly extends from a few hours of mere sport to an-all pervasive lifestyle. Here are some of the other interesting resources we came across about the IPL The State of Indian Premiere League (IPL 3) on Social Media in 2010 an interesting analysis around the growing IPL social media pie If IPL was played on the Web 2.0 a humorous take on a fantasy league on social media comprising FB Super Kings, LinkedIn Chargers, Knight Writers among others Do share in case you come across some interesting examples of social media fuelling the spirit of IPL, enabling fans to congregate not just within the vicinity of their living rooms, eating joints, pubs, friends dens but to collaborate with a much wider universe of people who share their passion for the phenomenon called IPL.
14. India Social Case Challenge- edition 2 Category: Best Short-term campaign Title: 7 UP Lemon Patalum Challenge SHARE A LI TTLE ABOUT YOUR ORGANI SATI ON/ BRAND Hungama Digital, South Asias largest digital media and Entertainment Company, has won the award for Best Digital Agency in India, at the Brand Equity Agency Reckoner; the agency leads the rankings for the year 2011. The client list includes Videocon, Pepsico, Bajaj Auto, Tata Sky, Mitsubishi, Bacardi, ITC, LG to name a few, has done some breakthrough work over the last 12 months. With the 7 Up Dance with Allu campaign they are the first agency to create and execute an Augmented Reality promotion on mobile and the Internet. Over the years, Hungama has won over 80 awards across mobile and digital media, and promo marketing, raising the bar of advertising across all digital media. EXECUTI VE SUMMARY 7 UP Lemon Pattalam Online Championship was an interesting and unique cricket game which was made on the lines of the on-ground version of the championship. The innovative and exciting online cricket tournament, which has 7 players a side, 7 balls per over and 7 overs an innings saw an enthusiastic participation from Facebook fans. With a total number 10015 teams, total number of fans who joined the Facebookpage via the game: 61,760 a growth of 52% in just 45 days. NATURE OF THE PROGRAMME/ ACTI VI TY/ CAMPAI GN Business to Consumer DURATI ON OF THE SAI D PROGRAMME/ ACTI VI TY/ CAMPAI GN. START DATE END DATE Lemon Pattalam Game Start Date: 24th March 2011 Lemon Pattalam Game End Date: 10th May 2011 BACKGROUND 7UP Lemon Pattalam was on Facebook in the form of an interactive application based game. Fans can create or join a team and play the game wherein they have to score maximum runs in 7 overs. The winner will get the opportunity to meet the Chennai Super Kings. OBJ ECTI VES The prima objective was to increase the consumer engagement and interaction on the 7 UP Facebook page while acquiring new fans. The on-ground Lemon Pattalam Championship activity gave the perfect chance to leverage on the same through the social media channels. STRATEGY AND PLANNI NG The strategy was to combine the viral effect of a multiplayer game format with the online version of the Lemon Pattalam championship, an on-ground open format cricket championship. The online version of the project was to extend the exact replica of the format from the offline version giving it to the 7UPs Facebook page. This was to give it an instant connect with an activity the target audience was well aware of. STAKEHOLDERS The entire audience active on the social networking scene was targeted. Lemon Pattalam is a cricket tournament which was happening on-ground. We wanted to create an online version of the same and promote it onFacebook page of 7UP to increase engagement and also increase the number of fans. CHOI CE OF CHANNEL/ S Facebook was the channel of choice in this case as its the location which houses the maximum number of 7UP fans who are active online. IMPLEMENTATION The 7UP Lemon Pattalam game is an online application which was ported on Facebook. Here, the user needs to install the application and then log on, to play the game. The user can then either create his own team or join any other team (for which he needs to get invited) thats been already formed. However, if the user creates his own team, he is asked to invite 6 of his friends (from his list) to form a team and then give it a name as per his choice. The game was designed in such a way that of all the friends who will receive invitations in form of FEEDS on their profile, only the first-six friends who accept the invitation will be part of the team (first come first serve basis). Moreover, the users can also be a part of multiple teams at the same time giving then the opportunity to perform at various places and having their best score acknowledged. Since the entire campaign was built with the South Indian essence and zest for cricket, we added a tinge of South Indian flavor by having cheerleaders dressed in their regional garb, performing various jigs to cheer the player. Within the game play there was a 7UP Float designed to hang around the boundary region, which awarded 7 runs to the batsman if he managed to hit it with the ball. In-game branding was carried out by using 7UP Drinks Trolley which would appear at random intervals. Further, fun bonus factors like Double Up with 7up and Bonus Ball were added where runs scored in the last delivery would get doubled in the former case and in the later case the user would get a special Lemon Bonus Ball for scoring every multiple of 7. IMPACT AND OUTCOME The activity got an overwhelming response from the online audience who managed to form over 10015 teams within the span of time. Also, the game drew attention of 61,760 new prospects who joined the fan page through the game. This pronounced a growth of 52% of the fan base in just 45days. LEARNI NGS The very concept of cricket and the user getting to hit sixes and fours prompted the users to play again and again to score more for their team and get close to the winning prize: Meeting the CSK players. WHAT NEXT The game is right now in the sandbox mode and hence cannot be accessed. Lemon Pattalam is an annual program and we plan to replicate the same year next year as well.
15. How Indian Magazines are using Social Media? With the print media diminishing slowly, companies are using social media to engage its users to stay more informed and help magazines survive. This slowdown is due to the success of online digital media which a user can access for free. Companies are using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter etc. to increase their revenue by enhancing their magazine content. Facebook users can share the magazine links with their friends, groups etc. The simple reason behind publishing companies going online is that even though they have a large audience with the print editions, they cannot attract online participants. The power of social media has attracted people to get information on their fingertips within seconds. According to a research report conducted in 2010 by the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB, the total number of internet users in India is 71 million. Also, the amount of time that people spend online has increased from 9 hours to almost 16 hours a week. Some of the interesting aspects as to why magazines are using more of social media: Real time information 1. Magazines active on social media generally keep on posting real-time information to its users to keep them updated. 2. The readers dont have to wait for a daily, weekly or even monthly publication to find out what is going on. 3. Twitter is one of the platforms where magazines tend to be more active sharing link, updates and posting their content. 4. Outlook India and other news magazines, for example keep on updating real time news and articles on twitter. Open exchange of ideas & opinions 1. Social media has become the place for people to exchange their ideas and opinions not only with each other but also other stakeholders like the influencers. For example, Autocar Indias Facebook page provides a platform for its users to participate in various discussions. 2. Forbes Indias Facebook page updates users on its marketing campaigns and special events. They also monitor and reply to questions and feedback there.
Know their target audience better 1. Today, publishing companies are using social media to track peoples ideas and acting on the basis of the feedback provided. Magazines have always tried to understand what people like to read and now, are co- creating content with the readers. 2. Online discussions on Facebook, Blogs etc. help the publication know its readers much better and cater to their interest. 3. Vogue India, an Indian fashion magazine not only to caters to its readers by providing them the latest fashion tips and trends but has also a list of fashion bloggers contributing. Monetizing using social media 1. Publications are using social media platforms to generate revenues from advertisements and Apps. Adding a regular updated post, blog or a tweet to you online page in an inexpensive way to build and improve conversion rates. 2. Brands advertising on magazines Facebook page help the company improve on ratings and visits by fans too. 3. GQ India, for example, has a Facebook page and well as a GQ Blackberry App. Therefore, readers can access the magazine not only from their personal computers, but also via phones. Expanding Content 1. Apart from just publishing online articles, magazines are adding new contents like polls, games, events, real-time chats with celebrities etc. to attract users. 2. Overdrive, a magazine that brings the latest from the world of automobiles has options like polls, events on its Facebook Page. Another example is of GQ India wherein they had collaborated with Facebook for the Men of the Year Voting in India contest. As a part of this, GQ online readers could vote for the Most Stylish Man of the Year using their Facebook account. So, the idea of using social media and encouraging readers to access information online has fueled the overall user base. But, I think there is still a far way to go when we can say that old media has completely strained out, which means that the new media still needs the old media to survive. Print magazines and social media do work well together. Having a static product outside and incorporating the same online is surely a game winning strategy.
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