Displaying items by tag: online marketing

For a creative person, the last thing you would expect is your work being ripped off without being given proper credit. And for a brand the last thing it would expect is having to save its reputation on a lazy Saturday as another social media disaster of 2013 has been thwarted successfully. Pepsi India deserves a pat on its back since not only did it act swiftly but also saved its reputation before it could be butchered by the social media ninjas.

The creative person who was the victim in the entire episode is Akshar Pathak. If you love minimalistic designs and are active on Facebook then you would have hardly missed out the brilliant art work being created at Minimal Bollywood Posters. The fan page that has kicked up to have more than 30K fans on Facebook, has been possible due to the sheer word of mouth and classic content.

Akshar, who had previously interacted with me while I was interviewing him about his work, had shared that social media has been a boon. Indeed you never know what can go viral but that also means that it becomes easy for someone to right click, download, put a whacky statement, share and drive clicks to their page. Exactly that is what Pepsi India did on a Friday with Akshar’s original art work. Pepsi India posted a content on a Friday asking fans about their weekend plans, but little it did know that it’s own weekend was about to fall flat. In a world where we are rampantly posting content without considering to give credit to the creator, Pepsi India did a grave mistake by taking original content from a person who is quite popular on social media.

Akshar, who was disgusted by this act from a reputed brand like Pepsi India, had no choice but to go and ask answers on social media. The below screen grab gives a clear picture how Pepsi India stole Akshar’s work.

Akshar posted the content on Facebook and Twitter as well and left the people to decide. And in no time, the Facebook post got more than 50 shares, more than 150 likes and 20 people joined in conversations on the content.

However, Pepsi India jumped into action without wasting any time. The brand deleted the content and got in touch with Akshar personally and wrote an apology too. The entire thing happened in just one hour and showed the intent to resolve the matter as soon as possible. The proceedings by the brand to resolve the matter was posted by Akshar himself, who updated his Facebook page and was pretty impressed that Pepsi India takes copyright infringement very seriously.

A crisis well-handled and on-time

This won’t be the last social media goof up that we would be seeing but what was impressive was the intent to resolve the issue from the brand. In today’s age when it takes seconds to rip off online images, Pepsi India made sure that not only it resolved the matter but acted really swift.

Situations like this are delicate but can be handled really well if the people behind the logo are ready to accept the mistakes, show the intent and move on. Not only a brand can save itself but it can add some extra brownie points by being genuine, accepting the fault and showing what it really takes to be a true social media brand. Volkswagen India and Starbucks India, both the brands lacked it and hence they were ripped off on social media. Volkswagen India went on to delete a sexist tweet and later on expressed that their account was compromised. And Starbucks India deleted a negative Facebook post after it went viral, gave an apology after few days but denied having deleted the Facebook post.

Your social media strategies are tested to the maximum when you have a crisis like this and Pepsi India did manage to close the chapter without much damage. I hope Akshar is a happy man now but not sure if this gesture would make him change his drink. Maybe Pepsi India can send him some free cans to chill out.

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

Towards the last few months of 2012, there were a couple of interesting blogs on HBR by Jeff Stibelwhich strongly recommends those who have failed. In Why I Hire People Who Fail and For President, I Want the Guy Who’s Failed Jeff wants us to change our outlook on failure and think of it as a very desirable trait. Are those building teams and recruiting hearing this? Should we top our LinkedIn profiles with “my top 10 experiments that failed”? Has the brave new world set in yet? Are we ready to let Frankenstein back into the genetic engineering lab?

The beauty of Frankenstein as a work of literature lay in the myriad failures it pointed at (If you haven’t read it yet, read it!). The abundant flaws in all of its characters were laden with learnings for readers. Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the ‘monster’, is so disillusioned by the ugliness of his creature, that he falls severely ill. And later while creating a female mate for his creature, Victor realizes the risk of unleashing a race of 8-foot tall and savage giants on mankind. When Victor finally dies on the ship, the creature laments the fall of his creator and lists the latter in his long list of victims. The fallacies of the creator, the creature and those that abhorred the creature based on his looks forms the back­bone of this book, which was itself an experiment and widely regarded as the first work of science fiction. The book, a master­piece in several ways, was initially received with much disdain by critics and even led its authoress Mary Shelly to say “How I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?”

While the world of digital marketing (mostly) does not deal with the hideous, it can sometimes be plagued with errors of judgement or attention. So what is it that we learnt from some of these mistakes we made in the last year and how is it that we can avoid them? While some of the references are obvious, I have tried to not use any brand names (Jeff might want them though!).

Social media goof up of the year would be a twitter campaign that goes by the hash­tag #<brand name>Stories. Before I went up to speak at the inter-school debates, my team would always warn me against throw­ing vague and open ended-questions at the audience like “what are you thinking today”. I was told this greatly reduces the chances of public humiliation. Now with hashtags that are expected to generate brand stories are we inviting the devil in to the buffet dinner? Is it safer to experiment with low-risk and more specific hashtags, especially if you are not in the business of saving puppies? There were several other social media campaigns that also thought us not to use natural disasters or mass movements for campaigns e.g. “This storm blows but free shipping doesn’t  or “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard about our new spring collection”.

The world of blogging saw one of the world’s largest PR firms offer an apology for running a pro-retail outlet brand blog by making it appear like an independent review of a happy couple on the move in their RV. Be honest about where you push your marketing and PR spend so readers know the extent of your influence in the digital space. A great example would be Ray Gallon’s full disclosure paragraph at the bottom of his review of Adobe TechComm Suite 4.

Though it didn’t technically happen in 2012 (but in December 2011) the email marketing mistake of an employee of America’s largest local metropolitan newspaper saw an email meant for 300 people who ended their subscription being sent to its 8 million subscribers instead. Many of the 8 million subscribers were hurt they were not offered a similar subscription! An unfortunate human error did you say?  Could it perhaps have been averted by tool intervention?

The SEO industry was abuzz with Google introducing many changes to tighten the screws on black-hat techniques and several businesses burnt their fingers in terms of faulty link-building and keyword stuffing. What new changes will Google make this year and are marketers still aware of their possibly black-hat search marketing techniques? And now with the launch of Face­book Graph Search, experts seem to differ on its potential for marketers.

In Mary Shelly’s book, Victor Frankenstein warns Robert Walton, “learn from my miseries, and do not seek to increase your own.” With more avenues for digital marketing investments, will we also have newer avenues for future disasters or have we learnt enough from the past? Will there be a 2013 list of top 10 digital marketing disasters?

About the Author: Parth Mukherjee is a global product marketing manager for Adobe’s technical communication portfolio of products. Parth loves technology and also the use of technology in digital marketing. On this blog, he shares his trials, tribulations, successes, and what he reads, hears or experiences in the world of digital marketing. (Spolier alert: Parth uses the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite and loves it.)

Reproduced with permission from his blog

There is no running away from the fact that Social Media has become one of the critical and key focus areas in the overall Marketing ecosystem. Corporates have started using Facebook, Google plus, Linkedin and Twitter to get a pulse of their existing customers as well as potential - prospective customers.

Twitter handle has become a unique way to connect and interact with the target and potential audience. Indian organizations are still warming up to the whole idea of social media and trying to figure how to go about it. We at Paul Writer spoke to few industry players to understand how this medium especially Twitter is being handled by Indian organizations. 

Rajesh Iyer, Chief Marketing Officer, Pepperfry.com

India is one of the fastest growing digital markets in the world and social networking is the top most activity that Indian netizens do today on the web. For most new age businesses that target these customers having a high social media quotient as part of their day-to-day business operations becomes imperative. India currently ranks 6^th in the number of Twitter Accounts, says a study by Semiocast and Indian organizations are beginning to take notice of the Indian Twitterati.

Though there is no established science on the best practices to manage this channel effectively businesses mostly use it for corporate announcements, interactive contests, social initiatives or merely engaging with their followers. ‘Brevity’ is the key with Twitter, and it has made organisations realise that ‘less is more’. Though outsourcing seems a simpler choice to managing this community - today businesses are investing in hiring in-house resources to actively champion their social interactions.  At Pepperfry, we manage an active presence on Twitter, taking note of customer feedback and interacting about the products available on Pepperfry. The Twitter denizens are individualistic and more intellectually driven as compared to those on Facebook, which is community oriented.

Devatanu Banerjee, Vice President - Retail, IT & New Media, DYWorks

While Twitter is the 11th most popular website visited in India, it is clear that most organizations have not been able to gain traction from their Twitter pages. Twitter users in India are themselves coming to terms with how to optimize their Twitter usage. 2013, that is being touted, as the year of "unfriending" is also a time when Twitter users prune their friends and followers lists. For organizations, this means even lower engagement from erstwhile fans.

At DY Works, we strongly believe with the exception of a few companies, most brand owners are using their Twitter pages as their websites i.e. to push information one way. Since organizations today are not geared to generating content for online consumption it is but natural that Twitter pages will dwindle in engagement. Beyond a product launch or two, Twitter seems to remain ineffective. However, it is not the Twitter platform that is on test; it is the brand owners who are. Until companies start instigating dialogue, incorporate trending hashtags in their tweets and really give users content that is relevant to them, the organizations Twitter page is doomed to oblivion, The phrase that captures the spirit of this conversation is "stop doing social ... BE social". We, as corporate India, need to start opening up our inner workings are put out engaging and relevant content, else no platform, including Twitter, will be able to help us cross the digital divide.

 Abhishek Singh Jadon Senior Business Partner - Digital Marketing, SuperValu 

Twitter started as a platform for people to express their opinions but soon also extended for people to share their locations, activities, check-in and in some cases food pictures (before Instagram). Indian cosmopolitan consumer has very gracefully adopted Twitter and its etiquette and that’s exactly what Indian companies and brands are chasing after. In my opinion twitter is “one to many” when you share something relevant with the world and its “one to one” when there is a dialogue between two.  In either case it is about the relevant relationship.

Indian companies/brands have been rushing to get # of followers high, trying hard to get trending in particular city/country for no matter what amount of time. In fact, we can even question the relevance, as in some cases the trending topics are not at all related to the Brand’s promise.

I feel that’s the missing link, the push to create the sizzle on Twitter through campaigns/hash tags only results in short term awareness but no meaningful relations are formed.  No matter what social platform we look at, the foundation of it has always been about connecting common node people or brands through relationships.  We have seen great case studies of “Best buy” or ”Southwest Airlines” or “Old Spice” successful on Twitter because they focused on RELATIONSHIPS. 

Twitter being a public platform compared to Facebook/Google+ provides a unique opportunity for brands/companies to be more “PROACTIVE” compared to just being “REACTIVE” for purposes of Customer service.  We need to see Indian brands become more proactive through active listening and connect with its target audience not just to get a follow or re-tweet but forming RELATIONSHIP."

To conclude

It might be prudent to play a wait and watch game in this space where - listening skills- patience is required - so that an organisation can understand the real pulse, need and aspirations of its audience and then plan towards positioning its image and probably even fine tune its brand image in the conventional Media as well. 

Another important point which can add more value to the overall online strategy is to use relevant keywords in the Twitter messages - that are being used for Search Engine Optimisation activities - this would also ensure that organic ranking and SEO activities will result in much more fruitful outcomes.

We’ve a number of rules pinned to the fridge in the Barbour house. Friends often suggest that Rule #2 “Talk like big girl” is actually directed at me.

However, there’s no mistaking Rule #1 “Be Respectful – Kind Words, Kind Hands”

As important as that mantra is for our darling 7 and 4-year old to internalize, it is becoming ever more important for organizations to act in a similar fashion if they want to build successful business’ in a socially-connected and socially-minded world.

The toughest struggle, friends within the cause marketing arena tell me, is drawing the straight line between time invested in social causes and direct shareholder benefit and good ol’ ROI.

Thankfully new data might assist in convincing those ROI-obsessed executives.

This month’s HBR shows the first (in my reading) empirical signs that cause related goals can lead to financial success. In fairness the authors concede that the direct correlation is zero BUT it does highlight 5 high-performing organization’s whose strategic commitment to social issues did translate into richer performance.

So with correlation between investment and bottomline still so tenuous, why do companies continue to invest?

Competitive advantage – HBR’s data highlights Danone and adidas as two companies showing strong correlations. Considering the spotty environmental and labour track record of competitors Nestle and Nike, you can appreciate how this investment may further differentiate these brands.

Talent attraction & retention – Talent is the battleground of this millennium. Global companies are justifiably concerned about how they attract and retain the best and the brightest. As social commitment becomes a yardstick for whether talent joins or stays at your company, you can understand the imperative to show that your organization is socially-aware and socially-committed to the markets in which it profits.

Topicality – Transparency is the societal buzzword of the day. Understandably so. Organizations with questionable practices are being held accountable in ways un-imagined before social media. Many are responding admirably. Here at home, McDonald’s Canada is doing an admirable job opening up the corporate kimono and being transparent.

It’s no longer a 1^st World “trend” – Anyone watching the unfolding gender crisis in India realizes that globally social systems are coming unstuck at an increasing rate. Global agency Edelman’s superlative 2012 goodpurpose report highlights that social participation and cause-related initiatives rank higher for consumers in developing vs developed nations. Those looking to make the BRIC nations their next market would be wise to read that report.

I’ve long-admired organizations like Ben&Jerry’s, Patagonia – and Canadian examples like lululemon and BCHydro – who intuitively understand that smart social practices generate goodwill, loyalty and even love amongst their customers.

So the data linking cause-related investment and ROI remains spotty…but I’d argue its even harder to put a price on customer goodwill.

What say you? Should ROI determine the level of cause-related activity a company does? Is goodwill and employee engagement enough of a yardstick?

Web Site: http://www.hiltonbarbour.com

About the Author: An insatiable curiosity is my defining characteristic. Which is probably why I got into advertising over 14 years ago. I know it ain’t a real job in comparison to say, a fireman or a nuclear physicist but hey. Anyway, along the way I've developed an opinion on a coupla things. This blog allows me to air a few of those opinions and thoughts. I thank you for your visit and welcome your feedback.

Reproduced with permission from his blog

Here, we look at the online buzz creation for the first biography on Actor Rajinikanth slated for a launch on his birthday – 12.12.12.

Awarded as Entertainer of the Decade by NDTV in 2011, Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth embodies all that is heroic and impossible for ordinary mortals to achieve. Stunts defying gravity coupled with the Superstar’s charisma won him much acclaim, giving rise to a new genre of facts, popularly called ‘Rajnikanth Facts’. This 12^th December, the Thalaivar celebrates his 62th birthday, which is also the day when the most anticipated film book of the year, “Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography” by Naman Ramachandran is slated to be launched.

In keeping with the Rajinikanth flavour, the  publishers ‘Penguin Books India’ have created an interesting social media campaign using Facebook and Twitter, along with  other forms of planned promotions, including retail tie-ups in the later phases. The publishing brand has created a dedicated Facebook page called ‘Find Rajinikanth’ but what is even more interesting is the Facebook game of the same name ‘Find Rajinikanth’. The Facebook game will test the biggest fans of the Thalaivar and help everyone discover fun and engaging facts about Rajinikanth — which the forthcoming biography is full of.

The ‘Find Rajinikanth’ game

The game that is hosted on a Facebook app, operates on the premise that the evil Joker Ravanan has kidnapped the Superstar, and only Rajinikanth’s legion of fans can save him!

This is a case study illustrating the India launch of UK based youth apparel brand, Superdry that employs a microsite along with Twitter to create a unique campaign wherein tweets convert into virtual fuel for a specially designed ‘Superdry Morgan 3 Wheeler’. 

The Objective

UK based youth apparel brand Superdry launched their presence in India with a set of street drive events. To extend this idea online and connect with the younger demographics on Twitter, the brand partnered with digital agency Brandmovers India to conceptualize a unique Twitter campaign called ‘Superdry Tweet Fuel’. The campaign virtually simulates the brand’s entry into India through a microsite where the drive is fuelled by user tweets.

The Execution

The ‘Superdry Tweet Fuel’ Twitter campaign challenged users to express themselves through tweets and help bring the iconic Superdry Morgan 3 Wheeler roadster to India, by converting their tweets to fuel for the car. The campaign had been hosted on a dedicated microsite that depicts the epic journey of the Morgan 3 Wheeler Roadster from London to Mumbai. The contest was simple – users had to follow the Superdry India Twitter account and tweet about where they would go for a #SuperDrive if they had a Morgan 3 Wheeler, and their tweets will get converted into fuel for the car.

Powered by their tweets, the car travelled from London Superdry stores to Dover crossing through the English Channel to France, Germany, Belgium, Dubai and finally India. There were exciting prizes to be won in the campaign like Superdry apparel and an opportunity to drive the Morgan 3 Wheeler!

The different sets of prizes were unlocked at different levels of tweets at the microsite. The best tweets for each level were featured on the microsite under the contributors section and also qualified to win prizes.

The Results

• The campaign has generated 2600+ tweets and 5.4 million+ impressions reaching an audience of 1.5 million+ people in 5 days.
• On the day of the launch of Superdry stores in India (same day as the qualifying rounds for the Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix) the campaign trended in major Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad & Lucknow and UK & Brazil.
• On the launch day the campaign generated 1300+ tweets & 4.5 million+ impressions reaching an audience of 1 million+ people.
• Also, on the day of the launch the campaign hashtag ranked 393 globally reaching the peak of 35.
• Visitors to the microsite spend 3+ minutes on the website on average.

TweetFuel Microsite Analytics

 

This is another interesting ‘microsite powered by Twitter’ campaign by Brandmovers. Earlier, we had seen the India launch of 55DSL that was also targeted to the youth. While that one had a graffiti wall resemblance in the microsite where tweets were painted on the wall, this one features a car that moves ahead only when fuelled by tweets. With the rising number of youth on Twitter, such focussed campaigns make good business sense compared to creating a buzz via a hashtag.

In addition, the one thing that stands out in this campaign is the gratification provided to the community - apart from an opportunity to drive the Superdry Morgan 3 in Mumbai, there was the opportunity to be part of an amazing digital movement.

Please find below,  the video to Superdry Tweet Fuel case study:

About the Author: Co-Founder and Blogger at Lighthouse Insights. A student of life, art and building relationships. Love to read just about anything and strongly believe that books make a beautiful world.

Reproduced with permission from Lighthouse Insights

 

Last week (22 - 26 Oct, 2012) this humble digital marketing enthusiast packed his bags and went off to Germany to attend what the old world likes to call a “good ol’ tradeshow”. Even as I smiled, spoke, deliberated and massaged my tired feet, I spent much of my time wondering what learnings from the digital world I could infuse at our “booth” (love that word). Was it my inherent personality trait to think digital or was it the situation that was driving me bonkers? 

Several years ago, Phillip Zimbardo (psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University), faced with the same question, conducted the Stan­ford Prison Experiment. Even though in 1971 this was a study sponsored by the US Office of Naval Research, it now merits in a list of 3 Famous Psychology Studies That Would Be Illegal Today. Students who volunteered for this experiment were randomly assigned the role of prisoner / guard and subjected to a surprisingly real simulation environment. In only about 6 days the experiment had to be called off as some of the “guards” took their job rather seriously (was I sufficiently vague there?).

Well quibble-squabble aside, the conclusion suggests that situations rather than individual personalities, can impact behavior. Voila, that explains so much about life!

But com­ing back to the travails of a digital marketer at a tradeshow or any other form of a live event, there is much to be said. I list here the top 10 situations or thoughts that engross the wired (and possibly weird) brain of a digital marketer. These 10 points are in no particular order. Or are they?

1. You have to shave in the morning and completely give up the unkempt but treasured crop of facial hair. By the end of it you turn up at the event venue look­ing like a poodle just out of the bath. Stow away the denims and A&Fs. “Comb my coat well honey, it’s the annual summit.”
2. “Hello! I’m @parthsm from @Adobe.” When you meet people you still wonder about their Twitter profile. Didn’t the guy in the red tee shirt un-follow me recently? Are you @spottythesundancekid? “You look considerably thinner than your profile picture. Gosh, are you offended? It was a compliment!”
3. “I tagged you in a photo. Yes, I know you were scowling at the buffet. But you know what? Our logo behind you looks fantastic!” Before you are done stirring the day’s first coffee, cream and sugar, the social media paparazzi have you and your intimate moments captured and shared without fail. “Can you at least take it off LinkedIn?”

1. The world’s my browser and my booth a website. “Why is the collateral stand here? Is it not more visible in the middle of the corridor?” Before you know it, you are trying to control the bounce rate and turning the booth into Azkaban. “No, you can’t leave right now!”
2. “Can you keep your response to 140 characters?” I often wished there were a way to browse from a person to another, stopping only long enough to hear the first 50 characters and ascertain interest. Also, I’d love a little hashtag hovering over your head to tell me if I should stop to say hello or just smile and wither away.
3. “All male visitors, 35 and above, please line up towards the right.” Segmentation would be such a lovely gift to have at an event. Tail him well, his product Interest = <competitor’s product>! Will the real return visitor please stand up?
4. I “Like” what you said. Oh wait, I can’t! There are no “Like” buttons in life (that is how my novel will start, if I ever write one). “I wish, oh I so wish, there were a way to share and spread your words of praise everywhere. Maybe make it viral! Oh no, don’t run away, I did not mean the flu!”
5. “Can you track Visiting Cards per Footfall?” That was the last time my friends from event management ever smiled at me. Even as they moved away to a distant and safer corner, they said “we know you like to measure and quantify every­thing, but there should be a limit to it don’t you think? Ever thought of measuring your bald spot to head ratio?”
6. Backdrop ideas? How about a giant QR code? Though I do not know why the creative agency thought I’d have anything valuable to add, but the truth is I did. I added a swath of black and white, the good old queaar code that would take the people I met in real life back to my comfort zone – the digital world. Since I was the customer, I was told that it was a great idea, but its absence from the eventual booth setup was testimony to this alleged greatness.I really only had nine points. But in the interest of ROI, let me use this digital real estate to tell you that Adobe now offers you the Marketing Cloud, tells you to believe in metrics, not myths and that my next blog is going to be about both of these new developments.

I will depart from the humorous tone of this blog to bring it to a more serious end. Tradeshows and events are an integral part of any organization’s marketing mix and in no way less important than digital media. The situation of having been at an event can often over­ride the personality of the digital marketer to great ends. There is much overlap between the digital and the “real” world and therein lies the magical future of marketing.

About the Author: Parth Mukherjee is a global product marketing manager for Adobe’s technical communication portfolio of products. Parth loves technology and also the use of technology in digital marketing. On this blog, he shares his trials, tribulations, successes, and what he reads, hears or experiences in the world of digital marketing. (Spolier alert: Parth uses the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite and loves it.)

Reproduced with permission from his blog

When Red Bull decided to sponsor Felix Baumgartner’s record attempt to jump from the edge of space, they probably had a good inclination that it would be a good PR stunt. A PR stunt it might have been, but it captured the imagination of people around the world – to the point where even other brands attempted to leverage the buzz. According to a report by the Telegraph, the stunt generated over $150M worth of publicity.

The story had all the right ingredients to get people talking. There was adventure, suspense, danger, technology, and of course the boundless romance of space – that final frontier as one TV show put it. The suspense built up as Felix geared up for the launch, only for the jump to be canceled at the last minute. It seemed like every media house around the world was following the story minute by minute – publicity that is hard to come by without very deep pockets. Finally, on October 14th, Felix ascended to the heavens in his specially made capsule and took one giant leap of faith.

Here’s What Happened Next

On Facebook, Red Bull has always done a brilliant job of engaging its fans. In fact, it’s currently the number one beverage on Facebook according to the Unmetric Score. However, the nature of the space jump gave them extra ammunition to reach even more people. See how the fan numbers and engaged fans jumped at the time of the launch.

Twitter was an invaluable tool for Red Bull to keep the media and waiting masses updated minute by minute. Was the jump going to go ahead? How high is Felix now? What altitude did he reach? Did he really just break the sound barrier? Every tweet was read by tens of thousands, retweeted by thousands, and picked up by the media. See the graph below to see how Red Bull’s follower growth jumped on October 13.

The space jump was a visual treat, from the futuristic capsule to the stunning panorama photos taken from the edge of space. Red Bull used YouTube to capture every moment and the final cut video has been one of the most watched videos on YouTube this month – check out the view growth rate; over 28M views and counting.

The event also had an impact on the number of subscribers to Red Bull’s page. They added over 150,000 new subscribers in just over 10 days. Most YouTube channels don’t have 150,000 subscribers in total with even heavyweight brands like Coca-Cola only tipping the scales at 85,000 subscribers.

The space jump was talked about by people, media, and brands alike. Kit Kat, whose branding is all about taking a break and finds innovative ways to take a break, opted for some event hijacking by posting this image on their Facebook page when the first jump was called off due to bad weather.

Kit Kat even proved to be dynamic enough to create their own space launch video by creating the first chocolate bar to be launched in to space. The video received attention from the mainstream media, but not on the scale of Felix’s space jump. That said, it was the most popular video Kit Kat have ever done on YouTube.

Space and human adventure still captivates the public imagination, and Red Bull scored a home run with their sponsorship of Felix Baumgartner’s record breaking jump. With everyone talking about Red Bull, who’s going to remember the other energy drinks?

Methodology

All data has been compiled and analyzed from the Unmetric application which tracks dozens of metrics to enable brands to benchmark themselves against competitors and their industry sector. Gain access to all this data by claiming a 10 day free trial.

About the Author: I'm a data junkie, social media addict and an all round Internet geek. I love researching and analysing social media data to discover trends and insights which I can then share with others. I head up the marketing operations for Unmetric, the social media benchmarking company which provides competitive intelligence for global brands and answers the question "is that good?". Originally from England, I have lived in Chennai for the last 4 years.

Reproduced with permission from the Unmetric Blog

The ITC Grand Chola, a 5-star luxury hotel built as a tribute to the Chola kings, is celebrating its launch by offering you the chance to experience the era of magnificence of the Chola dynasty, with a game called ‘Tweets for treats’.

The newly built palace hotel by ITC in the heart of Chennai, the ‘ITC Grand Chola’ reeks of magnificence and splendour, just as the temples in the Chola dynasty. One glance even at the pictures and you could be completely enamoured by its grandeur. Now imagine if you could experience a little of all this luxury.

The ITC Grand Chola, in celebration of the launch, has announced a game called ‘Tweets for treats’ where you need to click, share or tweet to win a treat. Treats could be gourmet experiences, spa sojourns or even surprises at this luxury hotel. All you need to do is access the specially created microsite to enter ‘Tweets for treats.

About Tweets for treats

‘Tweets for treats’ is a luck based game, so don’t bother to brush up your knowledge about anything. If you can only tweet, then you can experience life like a Chola king, so remember to get your tweeting skills right. The microsite that the game is hosted on, has been designed keeping a fine balance between fun and elegance. Once you click ‘enter’, you are welcomed to play. But, you can always explore more about the Grand Chola through the links at the bottom. The images are sure to take your breath away!

The game works like this: the center counter at 6850 (also known as glory points) keeps incrementing with every tweet by participants. This also means that 6850 tweets have been made until now. When you click on the ‘Treats’ button, you can find lovely treats waiting to be had when glory points reach 7000, 7500 and 8000 with 2 hidden treats in them as well. The next treat is displayed in the moving ticker box.  Newer treats keep getting added every day so the trick is to keep tweeting as often as you can, but the rules of the game restrict you to 20 tweets per day.

The Glory Board is like the leader board that keeps getting updated in real-time with the names of winners and the treat they have won. Click ‘Watch the video’ if you need to view ‘Tweets for treats’ visually.

The vertical ‘Tweet’ button greets you with a set of framed tweets that talk about the Grand Chola, which will be appended with the hashtag #TweetsforTreats at the end. Select one of these or put your own in the textbox. Similarly, you can also share ready-made posts on Facebook when you click the vertical ‘Share’ button.

How good is it?

Tweets for treats is a cool concept for a luxury hotel to indulge in. This must be a first in the hospitality industry when a luxury hotel celebrates its launch by offering lucky treats at the hotel. It might not translate into increased bookings but ‘Tweets for treats’ has indeed helped spread the word in the social media space. In terms of objective, it’s a winner.

However, the Twitter counter game is not unique. Retail major, Shoppers Stop did come out with a similar Twitter game for the first time in India this June, but we are yet to know the goal behind it as Shoppers Stop did not launch anything. All one had to do to participate was tweet with the hashtag #SSTweetStore with all the action being captured through a beautiful microsite. You could see the tweets rolling by at the bottom along with a live update of the counter as well.

When I compare the two, I find the fun quotient was high at the Shoppers Stop game and Facebook was not involved in it. SStweetstore was purely a Twitter game, whereas ‘Tweets for treats’ uses Facebook too. And, what I did not like about ‘Tweets for treats’ microsite is that it does not display the clicks, shares and tweets that are being updated in real time.

However, like I said ‘Tweets for treats’ has a great objective and relevant prizes. So, although it maybe low on fun, it is high on value addition for the brand. The treats give you a little taste of the luxury!

Have you tweeted for your treat yet? Do let me know what you think about ‘Tweets for treats’.

About the Author: Co-Founder and Blogger at Lighthouse Insights. A student of life, art and building relationships. Love to read just about anything and strongly believe that books make a beautiful world.

Reproduced with permission from the Blog

How Tata Safari is using social media for the launch of Tata Safari Storme.

The festival season is knocking on our doors. This also means businesses would expect Indians to swipe their credit card more often. Going by every year’s market trend, we are going to see new product launches, offers and more, all before Diwali. Tata Safari, the Indian auto giant, the pioneer in introducing SUV’s on the Indian roads, strikes gold with it’s much  awaited launch of Tata Safari Storme, the next generation of SUV’s. The car that has been designed and built for every age group, finally comes out after the Auto Expo preview that took place earlier in 2012.

Starting at a price tag of 9.95 lakh, the top-end variant made sure that the pre and post launch matched up to its class⁽1⁾. Social media grabbed a bigger pie in the product launch and possibly the only Tata car to do so. If the pre launch was not enough, the brand has made sure that the hype doesn’t set off early.

Pre Launch Buzz

Tata Safari has been symbolic to adventure and has breathed the same on Facebook too. The brand which has more than 631K fans on Facebook started the pre launch buzz a week ago. The brand used the cover page and treated it like a jigsaw puzzle. Every day it revealed a certain portion of a jigsaw by sharing a past milestone related to Tata Safari. One such content could be seen in the below screen grab.

Twitter was also simultaneously used to spread the word about the latest launch. The hashtag #TataSafariStorme was created prior to the launch to reach out to a maximum audience on Twitter.

Launch Day Buzz

The launch day was yesterday – 17.10.2012. The offline launch was in Delhi and simultaneously the brand made sure that fans don’t miss out the action. To make this happen,  the event was live streamed on its microsite designed for Storme, Facebook and on Twitter.

Later during the day, the Facebook page was also updated with a set of exclusive snaps live from the event. Now isn’t that a perfect example of bridging your offline and online event together!

Post Launch Day Buzz

If all this was not enough, the brand still continues to create some more storm on social media with post launch activities on the Microsite. The brand is running a contest on the micro site for which it’s driving traffic from LinkedIn and asking them to use Twitter as a platform for participating in the contest.

In other words, the brand is running #BraveTheStorme contest on the microsite for which it is running LinkedIn ads and to win the Storme, you will have to participate via Twitter. Integrated campaign at its best!

The contest that needs you to log in via Twitter asks you a very simple question – “There is a storm in everyone’s life. How do you brave yours”. The answers would have to be tweeted and every tweet that goes out on the network will earn points depending on the virality factors such as retweet sent, received, etc.  for that particular tweet.

The more viral is your content, the more points you earn. Depending on the numbers, you move from the top of the storm i.e. the Danger Zone to the Twilight Zone and finally to the Survivor Zone. If you stand tall for three consecutive days on top of the Survivor Zone then you can take home a brand new Storme.

However, the judgment for the grand prize winner only on the basis of retweets, etc. might involve a lot of malpractices that we are aware of on Twitter  Not sure if the brand is ready to tackle or ignore them?

How cool is the launch campaign?

The automotive industry is getting innovative day by day. Recently, we saw the Royal Enfield Thunderbird launch and in the past we had seen brands like Maruti Swift, Volkswgen India, Renault Duster, etc. doing extensive campaigns related to pre and post product launch campaigns. Tata Safari added itself to the same segment but has set a new benchmark for its industry on social media.

The planning for the launch, the integrated approach and the perfect incentive are some of the few ingredients of its perfect launch on social media. Targeting LinkedIn users for the contest and driving them to the site makes complete sense for a SUV that starts from 9.95 lakhs.

Tata has invested time and money for such land mark launches on social media. It has definitely raised the ante of the market in doing so. We are going to witness more of such integrated and well panned social media product launch campaigns in the coming days. And full marks to Tata Safari for creating a perfect ongoing Storme on social media!

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

Reproduced with permission from Lighthouse Insights