Displaying items by tag: Marketing

Leaders in the use of marketing technology are different than the rest of us. As last month’s post showed, they accumulate a different mix of skills – one focused on data, analytics, and software as much as or more than, legacy marketing skills.

But they also differ in other ways. They create formal plans. They’re all about process. They invest heavily not only in technology, but also in training and adoption. And they collaborate closely with IT. 

Who the frontrunners are

Who are these marketing technology frontrunners? We can’t tell you their names; our surveys are carried out under strict anonymity rules. But we can tell you the characteristics they share:

• The frontrunners tend to come from smaller companies or divisions within larger ones.
• They’re more likely to come from software companies, or software driven companies. 
• The marketers best at extracting business value from technology are more likely to have narrow and well-defined responsibilities.

So it’s not just a matter of what you do differently. It’s also the environment in which you operate. The more complex the organization and its products, and less clarity about marketing’s mandate, the harder it is to use technology to scale up and generate more awareness, interest, and ultimately sales.

What the frontrunners do

Our study found that marketing technology frontrunners do six things differently. Two were covered last month: focus on data and analytics as much as, or more than, marketing’s legacy skills, and accumulate a richer skills portfolio weighted towards technology competencies. Here are the other four things that frontrunners do (and that followers frequently don’t).

They create formal plans. Seven out of ten have a marketing technology strategy, plan, and budget. Among followers, only 19% do. The followers know what they need to do: 62% are at least part of the way there, either in the planning stages (18%) or the part of the way into implementation (44%). But they’re late to the game. And while they’re dithering, they’re also hoping that their competitors are not among the frontrunners.

They’re all about process. The number one challenge in implementing marketing technology – tied with insufficient budget – is inefficient processes. Every company has processes, but only the frontrunners collaborate with sales, IT and operations to document formal processes. If you don’t know what your processes are, they can’t be refined, optimized, and automated. Frontrunners know precisely how their processes work – and they make sure that everyone else does, too.

They invest heavily in training and adoption. A term of derision for business software is “bright, shiny toy” – bought on impulse, played with briefly, and abandoned quickly. The most impactful marketing technology is disruptive: even as you pursue the same objectives (leads, churn, revenue), it disrupts the way you operate. Changing behavior requires investment. Not only in the software – in training, in support, and in time. Frontrunners make that investment.

They collaborate closely with IT. Seven out of ten frontrunners say that their relationship with IT is excellent or good. Among followers, it’s only half. IT is a steward of technology infrastructure just as marketing is a steward of brand and reputation. But while IT values stability and security, marketing values interaction and responsiveness. There’s not necessarily a contradiction between the two, but the two groups often talk past each other. Marketers who count themselves as technology frontrunners have the ability to stand in IT’s shoes and take IT’s concerns seriously. They also make an effort to benefit from IT’s experience in such areas as integration and interoperability.

Bottom line, marketing technology frontrunners are better marketers. They excel at targeting customers, generating leads, contributing to revenue growth, and measuring and achieving ROI. As with all things in life, becoming a frontrunner depends partly on circumstances and partly on action. Technology offers the most help when the goals are clear, the products relatively homogeneous, and the scope of the problem is well defined. But success also depends on what you do – and imitating successful peers is often a good way to start.

This article follows the article written by Dave Munn on What Are The Marketing Technology Skills That Frontrunners Have?

Dave Munn is the President and CEO, ITSMA, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Article image: google 

This Mother’s Day, OLX.in - the C2C marketplace for used goods, has initiated a thought provoking and socially relevant campaign called “Every Mother Counts” across the key markets of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. The campaign has been designed by Value 360 Communications, a fast growing brand communications agency. It is an initiative aspiring to bring smiles on the faces of thousands of impoverished mothers in India.  

OLX.in has been leading the online classifieds space for with its clutter-breaking integrated marketing communication and activations conducted over the last couple of years. The next step for OLX was to further make way into the hearts of its patrons by urging them towards a humanitarian endeavor. The Mother’s Day campaign has been conceived in order to position OLX.in as a socially responsible brand. With “Every Mother Counts”, OLX.in encourages its users to donate goods enabling underprivileged kids of India to celebrate Mother’s Day with their wonderful Moms.

Going beyond its way, OLX urges its patrons through this campaign to experience the joy of giving by donating their personal belongings and items they don’t require to mothers from the financially needy section of society. The campaign reaches out to such kids and arouses their desire to celebrate this Mother's Day with their wonderful Moms.

The campaign has been integrated well using marketing communication tools like radio, Live Media, print ads, social media and public relations to create awareness on the inception of the social campaign. OLX.in has also partnered with CCDs and Big Bazaars to set in motion the Gift collection process.

To begin with, a separate URL called “Every Mother Counts / “Link to be inserted” has been created to activate the campaign in a full-fledged manner. People can either register themselves on the page to donate products or express interest to donate by sending a simple text on the number which is specific for the city:

For Bangalore                   : BIG<space>OLX to 55454

For Mumbai                      : RED<space>OLX to 58585

For Delhi                             : OLX to 54242

For Kolkata                        : OLXMOM to 5499974

To make it more handy, people on the go can even insert donation leaflets in drop boxes which are placed across CCD and Big Bazaar outlets across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. OLX representatives would be collecting these gifts from the patrons preferred location/ home in order to make this process more simple for the people. Once the gifts are collected, the final culmination of the activity i.e. the distribution of the gifts to the special mothers will be conducted throughout the Mother’s Day week starting from May 6^th to 12^th. People who have donated products can also join hands with OLX’s team to further the social activity.   

Talking about this initiative, Amarjit Batra, CEO, OLX.in, said, “Being a leader in the Online Classsifieds Space, OLX.in acts as an influencer and provokes every individual to share a human aspect. We want every kid to believe that his / her mom is a Super Mom and let mothers experience the joy of being a Mom by gifting them products which they would cherish forever. We further plan to come up with some more unique initiatives to strengthen the Mother - Kid relation in the lower strata of society.”

With EveryMotherCounts, OLX.in looks at itself as a brand that recreates magic for the destitute through second hand products. 

Dell has launched an integrated, India marketing campaign that focuses on real customer experiences, highlighting how Dell enables customers to ‘achieve’ their personal & professional passions. The 360⁰ brand and marketing campaign features themes of ‘Personal Achievement’ and ‘Business Achievement’ to connect with consumers & enterprise customers respectively. The campaign is an extension of our strategy to strengthen brand leadership in both the consumer and enterprise space.

 The Personal Achievement campaign featuring Dell Inspiron is about stories of inspiration, creativity and productivity and living out your passions. It is about how customers achieve more with our technology. Achievement in this context is not a measurable benchmark in that sense but a passionate pursuit of a personal goal, the eagerness to explore one’s capabilities and the desire to stay ahead. Our aim is to provide them with technology solutions that translate their passions into achievement. In all these stories of achievement, Dell Inspiron is an enabler partnering them in their pursuit.

Inspiron is one of the key brands in Dell India’s consumer products portfolio and it is targeted primarily at the youth. Being one of the most dynamic consumer segments, the very nature of audience is diverse.  Youth today have clarity of thought, intent and ambition. Their dreams are no longer merely monetary, and accomplishment is no longer defined only by professional success. Achievement for them increasingly means the realization of passion. And for this, they back themselves fearlessly.

The campaign is also supported by Print and Digital. The print campaign was launched last month and it showcases stories of achievement by profiling youth and their passions. The stories we chose to showcase were finalized keeping in mind the need for each story to be relatable. For the Print ads and on the digital front, we shared the stories of Priya’s passion for'Yoga' and Aditya’s 'Bike restoration' journey, where driven by passion that is powered by their Dell Inspiron, they have realised their true calling.

Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director, GREY said, “The youth are driven by various passions from social activism to music to other mainstream or offbeat pursuits. We’ve tried to capture this in the context of the brand being an enabler set to music and lyrics that are almost anthemic.”

Ritu Gupta, Director, Marketing, Dell India added, “Inspiring customers by providing them with technology that gives them “the power to do more” has always been one of Dell’s biggest goals. Building an emotional connection between our customers and technology is integral to Dell’s branding strategy. It’s our customers’ passions that inspire our technology and their stories of success through our technology are our own achievement stories. Our new ‘Personal Achievement’ campaign emphasizes our belief that technology can help anyone realize their dreams and the new TV commercial is a reflection of this belief.”

Web videos were created and seeded on the platform of ‘Personal Achievement’ showcasing multiple stories of achievement on a special interactive microsite that was created to enable our followers to share their stories of passion. In addition to this, through contextual targeting the brand is reaching out to forums, bloggers and influencer groups amongst youth across social media.

Simultaneously we created and finalised the concept for the TVC which celebrates the youth of today, their “Can do” attitude and the determination to achieve their dreams. Youth, that is driven by their unconventional dreams born out of passion and inspiration and the desire to turn these dreams into reality. The film also showcases how Dell Inspiron is an enabler for this, through the different features of the Inspiron like the Touchscreen, HD webcam, etc.

The Dell TVC highlighting personal achievements and triumphs has been conceptualised and developed by the Dell India team, working with Grey Worldwide. The vibrant mix of stories and individuals along with the magic of the visual landscape created by Koushik Sarkar (Director) and Carlos Catalan (DOP), weaves the multiple stories into one saga of dreams and energies.

The TVC itself aims to tell a story… about how the youth of today have dreams bigger than a canvas can hold. They know no boundaries; have no fears and dream big. The TVC captures this spirit of conquering the world and making the world their stage. With the theme “I can do kuchh bhi”, the campaign sets out to celebrate triumphant journeys of the creative, motivated, free spirited youth, who are confident of achieving anything with the guiding hand of technology.

The commercial was released on April 26^th on all leading Entertainment channels. Watch the TVC at the bottom of the article

The TVC first was previewed to customers on the Dell India Facebook and Twitter pages on April 25 and also be supported by a Twitter contest @Dell_IN. While the AchievewithDell micro-site is for users to share stories on how they have used technology to achieve their dreams, the Twitter contest will invite users to share tweets which tell the story of their inspirations (be it people or things) who embody the spirit of #icanDOkuchbhi and their achievements. The winner will receive a Dell Inspiron laptop.

ZOOP, the children’s brand of watches from Titan Industries Limited, has joined forces with the Marvel Comics Group, a prominent character-based entertainment companies. Through this association, ZOOP will launch the Iron Man 3 collection that is inspired by the popular character in the Marvel Studio feature, Iron Man 3.

Speaking about the association, Ajoy Chawla, Vice President – Titan & Retail, Titan Industries Limited, said, “To connect with kids it’s important to be a part of their world. ZOOP’s proposition ‘Be Cool’, its many exciting collections and this latest association with Marvel is an attempt to be true to this philosophy. This unique association with  global brands like Marvel will present to our little consumers a range of exciting products that are inspired by their favourite Superheroes.” He further added, “We are looking forward to launching the first of these products across India in May 2013.”

“Iron Man, one of Marvel's most iconic character resonates with families and the kids audiences alike. This year, to bring the theatrical experience alive, we have launched an exciting range of products inspired by Iron Man and giving the India fans an amazing opportunity to own products that features their favourite Super Hero”, said Roshini Bakshi, managing director, Consumer Products and Retail, Disney UTV.“We are extremely excited to announce our association with Titan for Marvel Super Heroes collection of watches for our fans in India”, she added

The collection comprises 8 special edition watches for young boys and girls, and is available at all World of Titan outlets, key multi-brand outlets and department stores across the country.

 As some of the best football teams in the world battle it out for the UEFA Champions League trophy, Heineken in India celebrated its association as global partner with the prestigious League, in the company of the Captain of the Indian Football team-Sunil Chhetri.

The occasion marked the announcement of the ‘Heineken Social Reporter’ –who will fly to London to enjoy the Heineken Experience and report on the UEFA Champions League Final for the Heineken Social media channels in India. The winner ­­­­­­‘Akhil Shah’ from Mumbai was selected from over 400 applicants received on the brand’s facebook app. Applicants went through a three-stage selection process both online and offline, that assessed their football knowledge and passion, apart from other softer attributes and personality traits.

Heineken also unveiled its plans for leveraging its global sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League, as it does so for the first time in India. As part of the Global Campaign titled The Road to the Final, Heineken in India is activating the campaign via digital and on-ground channels.

On Digital, the first initiative was The Candidate video which went viral and has received close to 4 million views worldwide. The Social Reporter campaign was, in fact, a follow up to this video campaign.  The brand also unveiled ‘The Road to the Final’ ad, which features a lucky football fan, who receives a ticket to the UEFA Champions League Final.  The only problem is that he is on the other side of the world and faces a race against the clock to get to the match. Through a combination of resourcefulness, imagination and inventiveness he manages to overcome every obstacle in his way – to be rewarded with the ultimate football experience – a pitch side seat at Wembley, arriving just before kick-off. This ad will be exposed via Digital channels and Social media in India, and can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/heineken.The brand’s Facebook fans can also play the highly addictive and social pinball game inspired by elements of the new ad.

On-ground, across bars and beer shops around the country, Heineken has introduced ‘The Road to the Final’ promotion – where consumers can win Heineken merchandize and yet another chance to win a ticket to the Big Final.

Samar Singh Sheikhawat, Senior Vice-President Marketing, United Breweries Limited said, “Heineken has been associated with the UEFA Champions League for seven years now. Given the growing fan following that European football now enjoys in India, we decided to leverage our global partnership in India for the first time this year with a multi-pronged activation program. We expect the campaign to make the brand more salient and desirable among young Indian consumers by leveraging a sport that they are increasingly relating to favourably.”

The newly appointed Social Reporter also had the enviable task of interviewing the captain of the Indian Football team Sunil Chhetri.  

Indian star striker Sunil Chhetri, Captain of the Indian Football Team said, “UEFA Champions League is gaining immense popularity in India. I am delighted to see brands like Heineken bring the sport closer to Indians and build excitement around it. The Heineken Social Reporter is a very interesting initiative. I wish the Social Reporter an eventful and an exciting journey to Wembley. Happy reporting!”

Like a number of you I purchased a Twine—the thing that provides new ways to sense and measure and understand the world around us. I’m a happy customer—they’ve done a good job in rallying a community, bringing it to market, and although I’ve never met the team I have a greater affinity for who they are (or who I perceive they are) and what they’re trying to do than most of my relationships as a consumer. But I’ve hardly used it.

Today I received an email nudge from them.

I just wanted to check in and see how things are going with you and your Twine.

…

We want you to enjoy owning Twine as much as we enjoyed designing it, so please let us know if you have any questions!

I assume this email is in response to how little I’ve been using Twine, the range of things that I tried using it for and how quickly I stopped experimenting with it—when the product is connected it’s easy data to pull up. The email is subtle enough to be read as something more generic and certainly doesn’t come across as big-brotherish. But it did trigger pangs of guilt.

Guilt that the blood, sweat and tears they put into bringing this to market; the environmental impact of manufacturing, shipping it to me; and in spending the time on support to set it up; all were not repaid through sustained use. And I know they know (and if they are reading this, they know I know they know). Hence the guilt. Which, in this slither of a discussion, is a good thing, because a better understanding of use can help me make smarter consumption decisions in the future. Or at least from today’s perspective, because new models of consumption, sale, support, ownership and use emerge – its not a static landscape. (I prefer to consider myself a consumer in the sense of appreciating consumption, use, rather than wanton consumption).

In a world where your new fridge, bicycle, camera lens, drill all inherently share back use, a few thoughts for today: 

-What are your moral/legal obligations for products you buy? Think: use, consumption, disposal.

-What is the disparity between intended use and actual use?

-When, and in what ways is it appropriate for companies to share back usage data?

-And what kind of behavioural change can it affect?

-What value added service opportunities for coaching use/setting up etc. can companies provide?

-I’m reminded that the most opportune time to sell insurance is just after a near-miss while the memory is hyper-fresh and the person is still in shock, what are these conducive moments for every kind of product/service?

-Which companies will trigger near-miss equivalents to trigger additional purchases or sell value added services?

-Which companies will base their entire business model off the the disparity between intended use at the time of purchase versus actual use? Amazon does this bait and switch with (“free”) Prime Instant Videos to pull customers into buying Prime but then offering a suboptimal experience in finding those films to assumedly reduce royalty fees and encourage paid purchases.

-How does this feedback loop shift the adoption curve? In particular how does use-transparency impact early adopters whose motivation is driven by experiencing something first?

-What kinds of secondary markets does this enable? Amazon’s email nudge for you to sell used books that you bought from them a few years ago is a good example: they know what you bought, where you live, what people like you put back onto the market, what that book is now worth and to whom (even better they probably make better margins off used books, since they only act as a broker, and don’t necessarily need to hold stock).

Ultimately I think this changes our sense of ownership and if you want to extrapolate a little, our need to track where the objects we own are. Not in the sense that we will know the discrete location of things (the mystical/bullshit stuff-finder concept/beast that does the rounds every now and then), but rather in the sense that objects will either have built in mechanisms/motivations to find their way back to us, or that someone else’s usage will benefit us.

It’s good to unravel a Twine.

Executive Creative Director of Global Insights Jan Chipchase oversees frog’s global user research practice, working with clients to turn insights into innovative solutions for business challenges. Jan joined frog from Nokia, where as a principal researcher he studied behavioral patterns that informed the development of new products based on emerging consumer trends. You can follow Jan on @janchip.

Published with permission from design mind.

Is your marketing technology quotient where it should be? In a data- and analytics-driven world, marketing is becoming as or more technology-enabled than finance, operations, logistics, and other parts of the corporation. Creative and messaging skills still matter. But they’re just one part of a marketing leader’s broader portfolio of capabilities, according to ITSMA’s soon-to-be-released study, Realizing the Promise of Marketing Technology.

In ITSMA’s 2013 survey of senior marketers at global B2B technology and professional services companies, respondents were divided up into two groups: those that get a high level of business value from their marketing technology initiatives (the frontrunners) and those that don’t (the followers). When we looked at how the two groups differed, a big distinction was the portfolio of skills available to leverage technology. The frontrunners had invested in human capital. They had a richer, deeper, and broader portfolio of skills to draw on.

Certain core skills virtually all companies have: web design, the creation of email templates, video production, and the programming of simple web forms and tools. There is another group of skills that technology frontrunners have and their less-advanced peers do not. These include advanced data analysis, the creation and maintenance of marketing metrics dashboards, and the management of data across myriad marketing applications.

These advanced skills enable marketers to integrate the results of multiple campaigns and improve results over time. Followers are perfectly capable of implementing point solutions; frontrunners have the skills to take a broader and more systematic approach. They can experiment, compare, discover what works best, and refine initiatives going forward.

And while there are also skills that neither frontrunners nor follower can easily find – mobile and social app developers, for instance, or marketing automation engineers – the frontrunners have adopted technology earlier and have been looking longer, so they have an edge in finding these skills.

Marketing executives have to broaden their knowledge and skills as well. Senior marketers are generalists managing specialists. But they can’t be complete generalists – not when they oversee investments in technology that weren’t even on marketing’s radar five years ago (marketing performance management and data analytics, for instance).

The fact is that top marketing managers need a deeper understanding of a broad range of specialties than ever before. They need the drive and passion of the salesperson, the customer focus of the delivery manager, the financial discipline of the CFO, the analytical brain of the statistician, and now the tech acumen of the IT geek. Digital natives may have an edge, but any marketer willing to listen, learn, and develop an understanding of technology’s new capabilities will have a good shot at adapting to this new era. 

Dave Munn is the President and CEO, ITSMA. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

A festival of colours and love – Holi is a festival that is not missed by most Indians. A celebration that is also not missed out by brands as it provides them the right occasion to strike an emotional chord with fans. So I did a quick search on Facebook to find out which brands are doing more than just posting status messages to wish on this occasion.

I have been able to pull out 8 such brands that have shown the intent to create fun and engagement on their respective Facebook pages, and these have been listed below in no ranking order.

1. Nerolac Paints India

Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd, the second largest coating company in India has been quite upbeat with the celebrations around Holi. The brand has been sharing some interesting content related to the festival of colours on its Facebook page. Furthermore, it has also created a Facebook app to up the ante.Nerolac Colour Splash, the Facebook app is an exclusive one created for its Facebook community of more than 423K fans.

If you want to greet your friends in a cool way on Facebook, then you will need to like the page before you can proceed. After the authentication process, you are requested to select your friend whom you would like to send a message to. Selecting friend becomes easy when you have too many friends on Facebook due to the efficient search. The next step is selecting a picture that you can do from your friend’s album or upload from your end. Finally you are provided with different options by which you can spread colours on the picture. You can splash some colours or burst colourful balloons as per your wish. Once you are done you can add a message and share it on your Facebook wall or on your friend’s Facebook wall.

The app does the job with interesting ways of splashing colors but you don’t have an edit option while you are playing with colors. Nevertheless, great way to greet your friend on Holi and if you are lucky you can grab gift hampers, courtesy Nerolac Paints.

2. Asian Paints

Asian Paints, India’s largest paint company has organized a Holi party for its 85K fans on Facebook. Holi On The House, a fun contest has been up for more than a week and will go on till the end of this month.

The exclusive Facebook app works once you have liked the page. The app loads and before you could join the party, you need to select a colour and a minimum of three friends from your Facebook.  The chosen colour will blink before you on a pixel page and you have to select. Be quick and select only your colour to win some exciting goodies. You can play again but remember every time you play you have to tag a set of three new friends.

The app is interesting and addictive too since it smartly displays how many gifts are still to be won. A clever way to attract fans to play more tagging a new set of friends and spreading it further. Additionally, with cool gifts Asian Paints has created a great Holi bash on the page.

3. Chevrolet India

General Motors that offers products under the Chevrolet brand has not missed out the occasion. The Chevrolet India Facebook page has created an app to celebrate the occasion with its more than 316K fans.

Chevrolet Rang De Facebook app is another exclusive app for its fans that gives you a chance to play Holi virtually with your friends. The app pulls out your friends and you will need to select them to apply colour on them. You have a set of options by which you can apply different colours. Once you are happy you can share the picture on your wall along with your friend.

The app is similar to the app created by Nerolac Paints India but the execution is better by Chevrolet. You have more options and you can edit it if you are not happy with the colours. A common way to celebrate Holi but fans wouldn’t mind playing some virtual Holi.

4. Max Life Insurance

Max Life Insurance, the largest non-bank private life insurer has not wasted this opportunity to connect with fans. The Facebook page that has a community of more than 286K fans, has created a Facebook app and is also conversing with its interesting content.

Khushiyon Ki Holi Facebook app is another app that lets you play virtual Holi with your friends. You need to select your friend, apply colours on the picture selected and share it. The app is similar to the ones created by Nerolac and Chevrolet. However, the execution of the app fails to impress as it goes into a never ending loop after selecting a friend.

5. Tata Capital

Tata Capital Limited, a customer centric one stop financial services provider, has not let the opportunity go from its hands. Seeing the festival as a great opportunity, the brand has spiked up its engagement on the Facebook page. The brand has not only driven some decent engagement with its content but has also created a Facebook app for its more than 191K fans.

Holi Dare Facebook app is a simple app where you have to describe in 300 words – why Holi is the most colourful festival in India. It can’t get simpler than this, write and stand a chance to win some goodies. However, it is not clear what are the goodies, how would it be judged, etc. since the T&C link in the app fails to work. Furthermore the page is also running another Holi contest – Splash Your Pals. The contest asks to upload your favourite Holi moments with your pals and you stand a chance to win some exciting gift vouchers too. This is an app that the brand had also executed last year for the same purpose. Wondering if the brand has run out of ideas for such occasions.

6. Dulux Paints

Another global paint brand that has not missed out this opportunity to play with colors with their fans and have fun. Dulux Paints, which has more than 410K fans on Facebook, has created an interesting app for this occasion.

Rang De Facebook app starts with a video message from the brand ambassador Farhan Akhtar. Farhan wishes all fans on the occasion and shares his childhood memories about Holi. The app then asks you to select a colour of your choice, give a wacky name to it and select a friend from Facebook.  Once you have done it, the app splashes colour automatically and shares on the wall. You can do it again or share with your friends on Facebook.

The app is designed well but could have given the choice of splashing colours to the fans. Nevertheless, the video message and the execution is cool. Additionally, make sure you name the colours wacky enough since you stand a chance to win goodies too.

7.  Renault India

The French automaker which has a legacy with the automotive industry made sure to join the celebrations. The Facebook page which is a platform for more than 294K fans, has created an interesting Facebook app on this occasion.

Renault Holify Facebook app starts with a video message embedded. The video shows a group of people playing Holi in a crazy manner. The brand asks fans if they can be crazier than this on Holi. If they can they need to upload the crazy snap along with a caption. If the snap is really crazy enough then you stand a chance to win gift hampers from the brand. The app also features the collection of snaps uploaded by fans and an invite button to invite your Facebook friends. The images are also powered by a like and share button to gain popularity.

The idea of sharing wacky Holi images with a caption is not a new idea but adding the video to the app is a cool move.

8.  Rooh Afza

The naturally refreshing drink didn’t miss out this opportunity of creating some fun on the page. The Facebook page that has more than 28K fans have been creating some interesting content related to Holi. In addition to this, the brand has launched a Facebook app on this occasion.

Click Karo Refresh Ho Jao Facebook app is a simple contest that believes – colourful moments could be made more refreshing.  To do so a fan needs to upload the cool Holi pictures and 10 most voted pictures would win a year’s supply of Rooh Afza. The app is a simple one which requires you to upload your image, once done get your friends to vote for your picture. The app also showcases images of fans uploaded and the ones that are winning at the moment.

Even though the contest idea is again a common one but the execution is good and the contest prize matches well with the brand.

Apart from Asian Paints and Dulux Paints, all other campaigns created for the Holi festival were not that exciting. Nevertheless, these 8 brands tried creating some sort of fun and engagement rather than just posting  ’ Happy Holi’ wishes on the Facebook page.

I am sure there might be some more brands who have tried to create some sort of creative engagement around this festival. So if you are aware of any such brand that is missing from our list then do share them in the comments.

Happy Holi!

Image courtesy: www.artschoolvets.com

Prasant Naidu is the Founder and Blogger at Lighthouse Insights. Loves to experiment in social media and believes social media is a game changer for SME's.

Article published with permission from Lighthouse Insights

People bet their bottom dollar on opinions from a trusted source. Word of mouth has a huge impact on purchasing decisions. As a result, businesses cannot ignore the presence of influencers on Social Media.

Influencers have the power to structure the talk of the town with conversions, reviews, recommendations and criticism. As a result, it becomes imperative for brands to identify their influencers and reach out to them.

Out of their total marketing budget, brands devote a meagre amount on influencers. However, the impact they create is huge. Influencers can add value to your brand as people usually take them at face value.

Who can influence my audience?

Social Media gives a voice to everyone who was previously muted. An influencer does not need to be the who’s who of the industry. It could be anyone from a reviewer to a blogger to a loyal fan. Identify who is relevant, who is most likely to spread the word about your brand.

How do I connect with these influencers?

Monitor conversations, search with keywords to identify your influencers. Reciprocate to spark conversations. Put in an extra effort only if he is equally passionate about your brand and build a strong relationship him/her.

Like in this case :

Chetan Bhagat and his new movie Kai po che promotional team ran a twitter contest for people to share their dreams and 3 lucky ones would win a Mercedes a weekend!

Tinu Cherian Abraham, an influencer in the social media sphere did dream of driving a merc for free on a weekend. He took a small dig on Chetan Bhagat just for fun but it was the top tweet on the trend.

Although he did not win the contest, he thought of asking other car companies like Audi India, just for fun!

Interestingly it had caught the attention of Mercedes India first instead of Audi.

Mercedes India contacted him and decided to send him a Mercedes SLK 350 ( 90+lakh worth model) all the way from Pune to Bangalore, for the entire weekend.

It did trigger some interesting conversations on twitter and soon became the talk of the town. Even Blogadda jumped in for a possible future partnership.

Key Takeaways :

1. For Mercedes India, one small pebble caused reverberating ripples. It was certainly worth the price.
2. 
   
3. The influencer that they relied upon was also passionate about the brand. Reaching out to someone irrelevant won’t do any good.
4. 
   
5. Encourage your influencers with incentives or exclusive information so that they volunteer to become your ambassadors. Make sure that your investment translates into influence that people rely upon and not just idle gossip.
6. 
   
7. On the other hand, it was not the first time, Audi India lagged behind in acting decisively. Just like Mercedes, BMW India too was fleet-footed in grabbing its stroke of luck! It rewarded Visha Gondal with a Mini Cooper as a comfort car for a few days. Read on:How an Online Influencer was Delighted by BMW Because of Audi
8. 
   
9. Brands should be agile on Social Media to reap benefits out of it. You cant afford to be sluggish in the digital world!
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11. Influence marketing allows you to reach out to umpteen number of people at the same time allocating barely anything and investing less time and effort than you would with other marketing strategies.
12. 
    
13. Your other marketing efforts are magnified and supplemented because of the credibility of the influencers that people swear by.
14. 
    
15. Influence not only drives awareness and appreciation but it also initiates action.
16. 
    

Nirali Hingwala is a Project manager at Just Another Show, Social Media enthusiast, creative visualizer and a BMM Advertising student who is eagerly hoping to jump into the realm of social media for marketing purposes.

Published with permission from Social Samosa

How do you build teams, especially in marketing, that kicks ass over long cycles? What rules of engagement would you follow if you are working with friends at office? Here is an officially leaked memo.

I am immensely proud of what we do as a team and who we are as a team. We have grown 7X in 18 odd months as a team. We have turned a brand around, integrated an acquisition, added many millions in revenue in every market and we have built one of the best teams in the company. We have kicked ass and will continue to do so. And kicking ass over long periods of time is as much about kickass people as it is about shared beliefs.

As new people join and we chase new dreams, it is important that we have a shared understanding of what we thrive in, what we aspire to be and what we want to be every day. And as we do that, we have to understand this: We are friends. And we are also professional colleagues. Since most of us have insane work weeks and work within 5 inches of each other’s face, it is important that we balance and add the elements of being friends, being colleagues and being kickass.

So I thought of putting it down on paper. I have been short-listing, rewriting and rethinking this list for almost 6 months now. Here’s 10 ethos:

1. Be the brand: You are ‘marketing’. You are ‘how the market perceives us’. Do, write, talk, dress, sleep like the way you want the brand to be. Inspire and excite people to be like that. Be the brand you want it to be.
2. 
   
3. Be fearless : If you do something with enough assurance and confidence, you are allowed to do whatever you like. This, I learnt from Neil Gaiman. You will notice that 1> you can never learn all that is to be learnt in marketing and 2> everyone, including your postman already knows everything about marketing and will have an opinion on how marketing should be done. Accept both these axioms and kick ass nevertheless. Kicking ass is important. Postman’s opinions aren’t. Don’t let that bog you down. Learn to filter out BS, instead learn to care for people whose opinions and support really matter and focus on moon shots.
4. 
   
5. Be proud: Everything you do is a reflection of you, your past, your aspirations, your memories, your best and worst moments. Don’t short sell them by executing poorly and shoddily. It short sells everything that is nice about you. Be proud of what you ship. As the Japanese say, your history is watching over you, and your future will find you. (Ok I made that up. And I don’t understand Japanese.)
6. 
   
7. Velocity wins: We are in the business of out-thinking, outrunning and outdoing the market. Slow down and you will get trampled on or be asked to step on the pavement. Run hard and fast till miracles occur. And stay focused on the direction. Success is direction * speed * relentlessness. Of these, only speed can be scaled fast.
8. 
   
9. Give 110%: When someone gives 99%, the obvious response is ‘what happened to 1%’. Exceed your own expectation. That is the expectation. Give 99% consistently and you will be consistently under-performing against your own potential. Give 111% and you will visibly outdo everyone trying for 110%.
10. 
    
11. Tough love: Demand better of yourselves and everyone around in the company. Help them and then chase them and then chase them out if they do not measure up. Worship them, thank them, make them famous if they do. And let them know. Give unfiltered and well-structured feedback.
12. 
    
13. Fail often. Fail forward: Get uncomfortable. Fuck up. Get beaten. Then get up and repeat. No failure equals no risks and no tries. Cry out of agony and depression once in a while. It means you are trying and caring. Learn something from the pain and seek bigger pains, bigger fights.
14. 
    
15. Broaden peripheral vision: Marketing is about markets. And the market is filled with wonderful people, ideas, organizations. Read, participate. Understand our business, our customers, our competition; look inside and outside and all around. If you read too much, meet more people. If you party too often, read just as much. Get smarter by deliberately broadening your perceptions. Be relentlessly curious.
16. 
    
17. Work with the best people you can: Seek out the A players and work with them. If they are not around, hire them or go join them. Look for passion. Look for hunger. Look for raw smarts. Look for people with grand purpose. Look for interesting, quirky and successful people. Learn from them. Help them in their quest. You will feel less overwhelmed than you do today. And you will learn a lot. List out top people you want to work with and woo them – run a campaign, if you must.
18. 
    
19. Be better human beings: The purpose of marketing is to inspire people to be better than themselves. Kotler calls it ‘creating want’. Start with yourself. Be better human beings – smile more often, make deep friends, celebrate love, care, hang out with good people and learn from them, inspire someone. Everything else is available in the company’s balance sheet. This is the only thing that will stay with you long after this job becomes a bullet point.

I am not sure if there are any others. Not ones that matter as much.

I have 2 questions for you.  Which 3 of the above 10 values do you most deeply care for?

And, if you had all the resources and all the freedom in the world, how would you build a kickass marketing team? Let me know – I would love to learn how to make this better.

Sunny heads worldwide marketing and business development functions at Aditi Technologies. 

The article is taken with permission from http://blog.aditi.com/