Friday, September 23, 2011
ONLINE CAMPAIGNING - Recognizing firms tapping social media's potential
ONLINE CAMPAIGNING - Recognizing firms tapping social media's potential
B Y ABHILASHA O JHA &
abhilasha.o@livemint.com
A number of Indian companies are moving beyond merely leveraging social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reach their target audiences. Companies are adopting business models around social media, using these platforms to market events, generate sales, intro- duce innovative concepts and even create a new market for their brands online.
To recognize such innova- tion, IndiaSocial--described on its website as a “social me- dia community“ to bring to- gether stakeholders in the “In- dian digital eco-system for en- gagement, sharing, learning and collaboration“--an- nounced the second edition of the IndiaSocial Case Chal- lenge, which awarded compa- nies integrating social media intelligently.
It received 105 submissions in three categories--best stra- tegic programme, best short- term campaign and best use of platform. Finally, nine case studies by Reebok, MTV, Channel [V], ArtistAloud.com, Kaya Skin Clinic, Max New York Life, Bookmyshow.com, Fastrack and Idea Cellular Ltd made the cut.
INNOVATION IN USE OF TECHNOLOGY To popularize Indiafest--a college fest featuring 11,000 students from 1,200 colleges-- Channel [V], Star India Pvt.
Ltd's music channel, roped in Mumbai-based E-Phoria Technologies Pvt. Ltd to offer radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for the event. The technology uses electronic tags attached to an object to transfer data.
With a budget of around `10 lakh, Channel [V] imported 15,000 RFID wristbands from
Though the budget was low, the online impressions, which had audiences swiping these wristbands at especially creat- ed Facebook booths at the ven- ue, were massive. At least, 6,000 people swiped their RFID wristbands to create more than 12 million impres- sions on Facebook in barely 48 hours. “We wanted to engage the youth all over
Up next: Importing 30,000 RFID wristbands for next year's fest and introducing the technology at [V] Spot, a cafe chain the channel opened a few months ago.
Like Channel [V], telecom company Idea Cellular, which has been associated for four years with popular reality TV show the Roadies, flagship pro- gramme of Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd's music channel MTV, decided to evolve a compre- hensive social media cam- paign to reach out to the youth.
To popularize Idea Roadies VAS packs, especially designed value-added services for mo- bile phones priced at `49 each, Idea started a campaign on so- cial networking sites. With a tiny budget, Idea Cellular clocked a revenue of `19 lakh from the campaign in two- three months. Its target was `4.9 lakh. “The programme has been a huge success, and, through this campaign, we have realized the value of earned media,“ said Sashi Shankar, chief marketing offi- cer, Idea Cellular.
WHEN ONLINE PRESENCE GIVES RETURNON INVESTMENT Fastrack, the lifestyle brand of Tata group's Titan Indus- tries Ltd, wanted to translate its online presence into busi- ness on a thin media budget. It also wanted space on its shelves for new stock, so sell- ing its older products became vital. Fastrack announced on Facebook a day-long 50% sale at its outlets. The result: sales of `2.75 crore in a single day.
Komal Jyoti, brand manager for Fastrack, said it was a gam- ble to run a campaign only on the Internet. The gamble paid off and some stores stocked out in seven hours. Fastrack has added one million fans on Facebook since and plans more such sales.
Similarly, Reebok saw sales of its EasyTone shoes surge through advertising largely done on Facebook. Sajid Shamim, brand director, Ree- bok India Pvt. Ltd, said the online campaign targeting a niche audience (women in the 18-24 age group) was a “risk“ but was paid off well. The cam- paign was named The Butt Revolution, an interactive page where certified Reebok train- ers answered fitness queries.
Shamim added that after the initial communication using the traditional media, there was a need to keep the propo- sition alive. So the company launched a campaign on social media.
CREATING A NEW MARKET If Idea, Reebok and Channel [V] used the social media to in- crease sales and create a fol- lowing, ArtistAloud.com and Bookmyshow.com used these platforms to create online markets for their products.
Given that physical sales of non-film Indian music is al- most non-existent, ArtistA- loud.com was started last year as an online platform to allow musicians to release their con- tent online and connect direct- ly with fans.
Run by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt.
Ltd, ArtistAloud.com began “webcerts“ or online concerts that allowed people to watch, listen, download and buy un- released music from indepen- dent artists.
Indian rock band Parikra- ma's webcert, for example, took place at The Sports Bar, a pub in Gurgaon. ArtistA- loud.com booked the venue and sent a team of technicians who recorded the gig and up- loaded it on the website. Cor- porate sponsors such as Hin- dustan Unilever Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd have chipped in for webcerts in the past.
ArtistAloud.com uses fo- rums such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise its web- certs, directing a growing number of people to visit the website, download music and attend webcerts.
With 155 musicians, 33 gen- res and more than 500 songs, ArtistAloud.com ensures musi- cians retain the publishing rights for their compositions.
Singers such as Shaan, Kailash Kher and Sona Mohapatra have released albums first on ArtistAloud.com.
Bookmyshow.com, which has created its entire business model of selling tickets to movies, plays and other events online, introduced its mascot Bob on Facebook. With contin- uous updates on films, plays and other events, exclusive re- leases of movie trailers and contests offering cinema tickets and other goodies, Book- myshow.com attracted 350,000 fans on Facebook till June, compared with 12,000 fans in November.
“There's low cost but high visibility on social media plat- forms,“ said Ashish Hemrajani, founder and chief executive of Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, the parent company of Book- myshow.com.
LEVERAGING EXISTING PLATFORMS INTERESTINGLY With three million Facebook fans, the sixth most engaging Facebook page in the world, Roadies, the MTV show launched in 2003, is an online success story. No wonder then, MTV's overall digital market- ing budget to evolve innova- tive online media strategies has gone up significantly, from `1 crore four years ago to about `5 crore a year.
“Television ratings are im- portant, but a bulk of our view- ers are sampling us online,“ said Aditya Swamy, head, MTV.
The channel has evolved content, listening and interac- tive strategies to promote Roadies online. From an- nouncing entries to showing uncensored footage of the show online, MTV has ensured that audiences who get hooked online also watch the reality show on television.
The content was shown si- multaneously on television, Internet and mobile phones.
At times, select episodes were first aired online and later on television. To encourage par- ticipation, a lot of the show's online content was edited based on the suggestions of fans.
An in-house team of 10 peo- ple in their early twenties up- loads micro-posts on Twitter, replies to Facebook comments even past midnight and up- dates content through the day.
Given the phenomenal reach, Swamy said the digital media budget for Roadies was roughly 5% of the entire show's production cost. Typically, re- ality shows cost `25-35 lakh an episode. “The dependency on traditional print media for ad- vertisements has reduced be- cause my core target audience is on the Internet today,“ said Swamy.
Kaya Skin Clinic, a chain of premium skin care clinics owned by Marico Ltd, used Twitter to address the com- plaints of consumers. In a mar- keting campaign that began in August 2010 to promote its brand using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube, Kaya re- frained from hard-selling it- self. Instead, it reached out to the core audience group: women of 16-40 years, offering them advice and answering queries by Kaya-trained der- matologists.
Max New York Life Insur- ance Co. Ltd, the joint venture of Max India Ltd and New York Life International Llc, started igenius on Facebook and Twitter, aimed at encour- aging not just academics but also extra-curricular activities among children while award- ing scholarships of up to `10 lakh.
The insurance company cre- ated a parenting community on Facebook and Twitter with more than 90,000 fans. The challenge was to keep debates on parenting issues healthy, said Anisha Motwani, director and chief marketing officer, Max New York Life Insurance.
“Online social media, used regularly by consumers, can make or break a brand,“ she said. The company has a special online reputation manage- ment team to track consumer comments and deal with their concerns.
abhilasha.o@livemint.com
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