For the urban youth, digital platforms are not just media — it is their second home where they interact with each other as well as with brands. Marketers have smelt the brand connect opportunity here and are beginning to understand that the online population could be converted into early adopters of new products and services, if they can be “involved”, not “informed”.
Brands including LG, Maruti A-Star, Tata Sky, Godrej, Fastrack, Idea and Airtel have gone online with innovative concepts. “Scan my bag”, an online campaign by Fastrack, attracted over half a million visitors. It educated them about the new range of Fastrack bags. Users spent over three minutes (average) on the site, Fastrack claims.
“Engage the user and generate buzz — these were the two broad objectives of the campaign. We had to ensure that we gave users a solution that was simple, engaging and effortlessly cool,” said Vineet Gupta, managing partner, 22 Feet Communications, the agency that ideated and executed the campaign.
According to Ashesh Jani, leader - media, Deloitte, “The interactive nature of internet marketing, in terms of surveys or responses, is providing the unique results and qualities that the medium has to offer. But the size of the entire digital market cannot be known easily as a majority of digital media companies are in the private sector.” The rough estimate about the growth of the medium could be anywhere between 10 and 20 per cent.
During the current festive season, LG Electronics introduced an online ‘Light a Diya’ campaign, where a visitor could light up a virtual diya, send sweets and greetings and download rangoli. “In two days, more than 5,000 people lit the diya. This helps us to create emotional as well as cultural connect with the visitor, which in turn makes him feel connected to the brand. Next time when he goes to make a purchase, we would be on his preference list,” said LK Gupta, CMO, LG India. LG spends around Rs 20 crore on digital media and expects to raise this by 50 per cent next year.
{{/usCountry}}During the current festive season, LG Electronics introduced an online ‘Light a Diya’ campaign, where a visitor could light up a virtual diya, send sweets and greetings and download rangoli. “In two days, more than 5,000 people lit the diya. This helps us to create emotional as well as cultural connect with the visitor, which in turn makes him feel connected to the brand. Next time when he goes to make a purchase, we would be on his preference list,” said LK Gupta, CMO, LG India. LG spends around Rs 20 crore on digital media and expects to raise this by 50 per cent next year.
{{/usCountry}}Airtel’s online initiative, “Airtel Real Fans”, received half a million views, with over 2,400 video uploads. “India’s teeming 550 million-plus youth population makes digital marketing an appropriate youth medium,” said Mohit Beotra, head - brand and media, Bharti Airtel.
Online innovation requires a risk appetite, said Gupta, hoping that more marketers would shed their apprehensions about the highly engaging online medium quickly.