Author

Kanupriya Sindhu

Why marketers should use Twitter?

May 28, 2009

Update on 30th May’09: ssp

I had personally joined twitter more than a year & half back but was not an active user of the account then. Initially, I just used to read updates from the people whom I was following & then slowly got into posting my updates too. In fact I became totally active (rather addictive ;)) almost after six months of opening my account & the more involved I got into this the more I realized the power of it. Very soon I opened an account on behalf of the company where I work & started tweeting about the updates of my company. Well, what started just as an update mechanics is now converted into a full-fledged customer interaction medium. I’m totally amazed at the viral effect & the potential of this medium from promotion & customer engagement point of view. I occasionally keep on reading about twitter & it’s phenomenal growth etc., but based on my personal experience with twitter I think I have come to a conclusion that this medium is definitely a must for every new age marketer who wants to be in touch with his net savvy (or shall I say tweet-savvy) customers. Here is why:

  • Creating & Tracking Brand Buzz: I have found twitter to be one of the best mediums for being updated with what people are writing about your brand. I’ve used  other popular alert services including the ones for twitter too but I find the “search” option on twitter to be really a smart way of being updated about “at the moment” buzz of your brand. It surely gives a real time insight into your customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction, needs & gaps of your service.
  • Word Of Mouth (Or Tweet of mouth :-)) : While a negative tweet definitely harms your image but a positive tweet followed by different retweets surely leads to excellent word of mouth marketing. There is this one guy who was having problems with our service, I read his negative tweet which he had written just 2 minutes ago, I immediately escalated it to our internal service delivery head & in next 5 minutes the guy got a call from our service head. The guy got so impressed that he immediately tweeted about the power of twitter w.r.to. customer service. In next 15 minutes when his problem was solved he ensured to mention the prompt action taken by our company in so many tweets of his and was all gaga about the service attitude & brand promise of our company. Thanks to all his retweets which gave us a positive boost to our brand that day. After that my SD head ensures to search for keywords related to our service every 2 hours 🙂
  • Competition Tracking: If your competitor is also active on twitter, then toh wah bhai wah! Isko kehte hai chandi ho jana! Easiest & fastest way to be abreast with what competitors are doing as well as how many customers are dissatisfied by your competitors is to search your competitor related keyword in twitter. I’m telling you it’s a very effective medium for competitive taka-jhaki 😛
  • Customer Feedback / Suggestions: It’s definitely a very quick medium to seek feedback before any new launch or for announcing any new update / feature / product etc. And thanx to tweet-savvy customers they give you some very genuine feedback immediately.
  • Potential Targetting: Highly effective medium to reach out to potential customers too, check out who is looking out for your kind of service & reach the potential TG in a smart way.

Serious word of caution: When I say it’s an effective medium for marketers to promote & engage, this does not mean it should be used as a free tool for SPAMMING. Beauty of twitter is that twitter users till date DETEST spamming a lot. So, don’t go ahead posting only URLs or your service related promotions. You’ll only lose the interest of your followers & it just takes a few micro seconds to “unfollow” your brand. If it is fast method to engage, it is equally fast to un-engage. So, think again before you start abusing this medium. Key is to interact, talk, engage personally & tweet something which your followers can look forward too :). If you’ve captured the attention, you can definitely promote your brand in a more involved way.

Kingfisher Holidays – IPL promotion

May 25, 2009

It was the last commercial break during IPL last night & guess the 1st ad being aired in that break??? Well, it was for a holiday site asking to book tickets for South Africa to catch live IPL match! :O – yea that was my first reaction esp. because it was from brand none other than Kingfisher who was promoting kingfisherholidays.com with call for action to book tickets NOW to catch live IPL (don’t remember the exact text, else would have loved to post the same here J)!!! LOL, book tickets at the time when the finals of IPL was hardly 5 minutes away :D, wondering were they offering some “reach SA on a blink” kinda service or what! Curious enough I landed on their website today only to find their IPL banner running on the home page till now. Looks like the group is too busy grieving over the loss of RCB to change the communication till now. If it was at one place it could have been understood as mistake or oversight but if their home page is having the promo banner (scrn shot taken on 25th May’09 at 7:15 pm) saying this, they what can I say? Wake up guys, wake up!

Kingfisherholidays

Kingfisher Holidays had partnered with DLF IPL 2009 & were offering some exclusive tour packages for South Africa to all cricket fans. While the idea was good & I’m sure they would have gained good traction out of it but then while managing their communication I think they should have taken care of implementation bit more closely. If at all they wanted to utilize the last slot too to promote their holiday portal, maybe they could have done it in a better way like a general brand message thanking all who used the portal to travel to SA or a different call for action instead of this. Hmmm…execution guys, execution!

Zoozoos popular than celeb endorsers?

May 11, 2009

Well, it’s Zoozoos & only Zoozoos all over, be it any marketing meeting which I attend or a casual chat amongst group of friends, “zoozoos” is definitely one of the topics which has to crop up in any such marketing discussion these days. I don’t think I want to write any review on Zoozoos ads or my insight on these commercials, simply put this concept is outstanding & has become a phenomena in itself. If you want to read more about the birth of this idea you can read it here and success of this concept especially in digital media can be read here.

I think Zoozoos are the cutest characters ever created in the ad world and I have got so hooked on to this characters especially in online world that these days I log on to my facebook account to see updates from “Zoozoos”. Yeah that’s absolutely right; such is the impact of Zoozoos on consumers like me! As I am writing this post, official fan club of Zoozoo on facebook is having 143,777 fans. And this was 143,112 just when I started writing this post 3-4 mins back. I know of people who don’t miss commercial breaks between IPL matches to just catch up on Zoozoos & have joined twitter specifically to follow updates of Zoozoos. Their videos, ringtone, photos, quizzes, facebook app, sound bytes – everything is so cute but as per me cutest are their emoticons & wallpapers. My laptop currently is adorned with the following Zoozoo wallpaper :-).

Zoozoo

Now, as I was thinking of winding up this post I refreshed the facebook page again & Zoozoo fan club has reached 143,642 members already. Well, 530 new fans in just 15 minutes…need I say anything more? Hats off to the brains behind this campaign, truly a marvelous work. Zoozoos are the latest stars & definitely more popular as endorser than many bollywood & sports celebrities. 

Chance pe Dance marketing: Bhajji blog at BigAdda

April 20, 2009

Looks like BigAdda has got this special fascination for the letter “B”, that’s why all their blog promotion strategies revolve around the famous Bs. Earlier they created so much of hype by launching the blog  http://bigb.bigadda.com & now it is http://bhajji.bigadda.com/. In fact blog of Mr. Bachchan became such a craze that it broke all records of comments received on single posts in India. Not only it gathered enough media attention, it also led to some phenomenal increase in traffic & hits of the website. Well, nothing to ponder over or doubt on those jump in traffic, I mean what else do you need than to have Mr. Bachchan blogging on your portal himself. Trust Mr. Bachchan’s fan to leave everything else & spend their whole time on his blog! We know it was definitely one of the marketing gimmicks of BigAdda but nonetheless a successful gimmick, in fact so successful that celebrity blogging became a fad in Bollywood with so many other celebrities joining the blogosphere suddenly.

And they have done it yet again, that too at the perfect time. This time they launched a blog of cricketer Harbhajan Singh Bhajji on their portal. The blog’s page title as well some PR coverage read as “Bhajji blogs at BigAdda”. Well, impressive & definitely an attention grabber. With IPL fever running across the nation, cricket & cricketers are definitely THE buzzwords of the moment. Launching a blog of none other than Bhajji at this moment is no doubt a great promotion strategy & this is what I really call a chance pe dance marketing strategy. With bhajji blogging about all details of IPL, I’m sure BigAdda is going to see a surge in its traffic. Let’s wait to see the number of comments on his posts, I am quite curious to see if the interactivity level & statistics of this cricket icon’s blog will surpass the figures of bollywood shehenshah  or not 🙂.

Aside: My inquisitive mind wondering if Bhajji is really having time amidst all the matches to come & blog minute details about IPL 😛 😀 :O

Communicating or Spamming?

April 7, 2009

Yes, I am liking this new media communication strategy of Indian Political parties this year esp. of BJP but think they are definitely going over-board now. Can somebody please tell BJP campaign management team that:

  • Over communication esp. through certain media can really KILL your campaign.
  • Bombarding consumers repeatedly with too many messages, promises & benefits of the same product can actually be treated as spamming and not marketing.

Here is what I mean by my above two statements. On a daily basis I am getting SMSes from “TA-BJP” on my both mobile phones. Some of those messages are:

  • BJP’s promise: Terror-free India, Hunger-free society, Debt-free kisan, Worry-free middle class. 3.5 crore families to benefit from income tax exemption for incomes up to Rs. 3 lakh p.a. Student loans at 4%. Advani for PM. www.lkadvani.in
  • Har school jaane wali balika ko lakhpati banane wali LADLI LAKSHMI YOJANA par karenge amal. Advaniji ki shapath. http://www.lkadvani.in
  • BJP’s JAI JAWAN JAI KISAN JAI VIGYAN promise. Longstanding demands of our brave Armed Forces to be met. Farm loans at 4%. Road and broadband connectivity to all villages. 1.2 crore IT-enabled jobs in rural areas. Advani for PM. www.lkadvani.in

Need I say more??? These are just few samples, I have definitely received a lot more messages to attain a reflex reaction of pressing the DELETE button as soon as I see the sender as “TA-BJP” now.

Suggestion: BJP campaign team, good to see your aggressive strategies but please introduce some section on your website for consumers to unsubscribe from receiving these messages. Permission is the KEY for certain medium! Also would be good if you can post some anecdotes on your website about execution of any of these promises. Will help in establishing some credibility towards your SMSes!

 

Political Advertising: Indian Politics Reaches Twitter

March 30, 2009

Whew! Indian Political parties are on twitter now… While I was already chating about change in campaign strategy of Indian politicians this time, here I observe some other interesting & noticeable updates:

  • BJP on Twitter: Yeah BJP has really gone ahead of Congress as far as online strategies are concerned, you go anywhere online & you just can’t ignore BJP’s ads or L.K.Advani messages. And now they are on the latest micro-blogging fad – Twitter too! Not only they are present but they are tweeting quite regularly both by posting their updates as well as interacting with followers. Have a look on some of their latest updates, updates do look promising enough.

bjp_twitter

 

  • Congress on Twitter: Till now I have not observed Indian Congress Party formally present on twitter, yes but SM Krishna (candidate from Bangalore) has definitely joined twitter now. He says he has done this to interact with net savvy Bangaloreans!

Well, all interactions & communications on internet with today’s generation are fine but I again wonder – do all these political parties really understand their image amongst Indian Youth? As mentioned in my previous post it’s a welcome change to see such aggressive new age political campaigning in India but don’t you think that these are simply marketing gimmicks? Will they really act on their promises or will these remain as just promises once the elections are over? How much can marketing help them when the core product itself is not good? Would be good to know it from the readers of this post – do you really believe in current communications sent out by any of these parties? Personally speaking as a marketer I like their campaign & appreciate their effort but as a consumer, these communications are not impacting me much as somehow don’t have that trust left on the product itself.

“Jai Ho” vs.” Bhay Ho”

March 29, 2009

While Congress was quick enough to take rights & create a video out of much acclaimed song “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire but quicker was the counter strategy from BJP to come out with another video based on the same song. And I must say I loved this video! Truly marvelous & strikes straight within! This video titled “Bhay Ho” speaks something like –  “Aaja aaja voter is jhanse ke tale, aaja jhote moote vaade ke tale, BHAY HO”.

What a competitive attack! Though BJP says that they have not officially released this video & it’s some party supporter who has sent this video to them but I think it’s one of the smartest counter campaigns against any competitor in Indian Politics. It’s surely an interesting case study for new age Indian Political Advertising & if it’s really done by a common man, then I think BJP should immediately look at hiring the man behind this video in their promotional team. Have a look on it, I definitely had a laugh watching this video.

 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0yL7Dv_keo]

Engagement is the KEY!

March 25, 2009

Hitesh shared this video at a very right time today…with so much of focus on customer engagement in my organization these days surely this video acts as yet another confirmation on the mantra – “It’s not about listening, it’s not about monitoring, it’s about ENGAGING”. Thanks Hitesh for sharing this.

More to follow on this mantra soon based on my experiences, as of now I just wanted to break the stagnation of this blog, have not updated it since 5th Feb’09 (that fateful day!). Till then have a look on this video!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HhWakaGvY4]

Advaniji goes further aggressive on digital medium!

February 5, 2009

I had earlier written about Advaniji getting net savvy and his portal www.lkadvani.in. But looks like humare neta, Advaniji toh internet space mein super aggressive ho rahe hai :D. Ah he is not leaving any stone unturned to reach out the online Indian citizens. Here are some developments which I observed recently from Advaniji and his campaign promotion teamJ

  • Blog: Like everybody and anybody on this earth, even L.K. Advani has decided to have his presence on blogosphere. His blog http://blog.lkadvani.in/ got launched in Jan’09 & supposedly Mr. Advani is blogging personally on this space. Well, posts are good but don’t think he is writing it himself. Fan following of his blog seems to be ok with each post having on an average 100+ comments. No, I don’t mean 100+ comments is less but kya karein, celebs like BigB and Aamir Khan have set a very high bench-mark for popular personality blogs with each of their posts receiving on an average 1000+ comments.
  • Online Advertisement / SEM: Oh this was truly a surprise for me, I noticed 2-3 sites as well as Google sponsored search displaying L.K.Advani portal ads. And yeah quite an extensive keyword listing they have done for these ads, you type any election related keyword & you get to see these ads. Impressive isn’t it?

lkadvani_website

  • Emailer campaigns: Personally I have not received this email but one of my associates was mentioning that after pre-recorded voices now people are doing email blasts as part of political advertising. He received an email with subject as invitation from L.K.Advani to visit his portal www.lkadvani.in

Well, I am neither a big supporter of BJP nor I am active into Indian Politics scenario. Most of the times I find it to be so dirty that I prefer to have my involvement limited to reading or watching just headlines and that too not because of any interest but only to be updated about the latest happenings. Having said that, I do find this initiative of BJP a good move and sort of positive change in Indian Politics. At least they are trying to connect to the newer generation; at least they are taking some effort to reach out to educated mass. Wondering if it is Obama effect or the Social media effect on his campaign management team but whatever it is, I must say it is a welcome change J.

Movie Marketing : Promotion “By Chance”

January 31, 2009

As I always say movie marketers are getting innovative day by day in India. Now here are some interesting marketing initiatives which have created quite some buzz esp. in Mumbai for the movie “Luck By Chance”. The production house has directly handled the marketing campaign of this movie and they have launched online as well as offline properties to create an overall impact.

·         Apart from regular reality show presence, production house has created an offline reality property known as “Auto By Chance”. They have branded auto rickshaws in Mumbai with “Luck By Chance” theme and anybody who spots any of these autos gets a free ride anywhere in Mumbai free of cost! Wow, so time for Mumbaikars to get lucky J. They have also branded some bus shelters as well as local trains in Mumbai with the movie theme. One lucky winner of “Auto by Chance” promotion will be interviewed live on Big FM. (Image Source: TOI)

TOI

·         The movie has also created good visibility in online space through different contests and promotions on many portals but what is again different is this online game property known as “Luck by Chance – Lucky Break” on zapak.com. You can choose your identity as any of the actors of the movie and play this luck game. Nice game it is from a promotion point of view and lucky winners get to win some prizes as well.

As per me, they have taken a good integrated marketing approach. Let’s see how lucky this movie gets at BO. Personally speaking I’ve been waiting for this movie for long esp. after watching Rock On and I would have anyways gone to see the movie in theater even if there was no promotion for this movie at all. Yeah, I think that’s the aftereffect of “Rock On” on me J. But from initial reactions it looks like Farhan Akhtar has gone second time lucky in his acting stint as movie has received positive response across theaters.