Quick Bytes: I’m back and with a ‘bharat bandh special offer’ :-)

I’m back and this time after a really looooong break from this blog. Phew five months into Mommydom already and it seems just like yesterday. Oh yes, in case you don’t know, then let me announce it here as well that I’m actually Mommy Kanupriya now :-). It’s my new phase of life that has been keeping me busy and away from many things including my love for blogging. But I ain’t complaining. Like most new moms say, this phase of life is indeed the most special one, something which I can’t put in words ever and all the changes or adjustments are actually worth it. With things settling down a bit, I’m now looking forward to revive this blog again. Though have been somewhat active on my personal blog but was not able to manage sufficient time at a stretch to concentrate and write any post suitable for Marketing Chit-Chat.

Thanks to those who dropped me an email asking about my whereabouts and reasons for this blog being inactive. I have lot to share and lot to learn from all of you, so look forward to posts and comments exchange once again in this space. For today just a “Quick Byte” – how many of you received this email from Indiaplaza today?

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I did and for a moment I couldn’t believe it. “Bharat Bandh Special Offer” – are you serious? In the name of this Bandh, while some were busy burning buses and some ranting about it on social media, here came a gem of a communication from a brand like Indiaplaza from whom I didn’t expect something like this. I mean what was that – a #WTH, a #Facepalm or a #Fail? Well, looks like the email communication guys seriously misunderstood the holiday on account of bandh to be a festival special holiday :-P, otherwise why on earth would you announce an offer especially for Bharat Bandh? You know as I always say a prompt “chance pe dance” marketing is smart but then you better know when and how to capitalize on the chance rightly. After seeing this I think even offers in name of potato/tomato days would have been ok but a bandh special promotion? What do you think?

Dettol goes SEM way!

Have been caught up in other things to update this blog, though have got many insights to share but due to paucity of time, I’ll stick to a short one; will be back with another post soon 🙂

First a small update: Few days back, one of my article came on pluggdin, check out: Twitter getting Twilmy: An opportunity for brands? @ http://www.pluggd.in/bollywood-celebrities-on-twitter-what-indian-brands-can-learn-from-twilmy-tweets-297/

Now coming down to this post, 2-3 days back while surfing for some content related to swine in Google, I glanced upon this:

SwineFlu_Dettol

This sponsored ad of Dettol was definitely not there two days back. Surprising to see Dettol using a digital route & that too by banking on swine flu!

Another case of Chance Pe Dance marketing but nevertheless a good initiative! Not only Dettol, there were few others also in the same search screen who were utilizing this buzz word for promotions, like alibaba or ebay doing SEM for swine flu prevention kits. Before this I had not observed Dettol going SEM way in India. The ad title read H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) & baseline read “Dettol kills 99.9% bacteria & Flu Viruses. Learn more now!” The ad led to Dettol website where there was a section on H1N1 virus & germ protection. Considering the rise in search for swine flu related key words this was definitely an interesting strategy to grab some eyeballs and promote products indirectly. Main route was educative one but the very facts that one need to wash hands frequently or sanitize his environment with a good disinfectant establishes a strong connect with the product proposition and leads to promotion in an implicit way. A smart campaign by Dettol in the right way at the right time and through the right medium, Swine Flu and related keywords are definitely the hot search words these days. Would be interesting to see any coverage for the aftereffect of this campaign both in terms of website hits or actual sales.