HT Brunch Sunday Debate: Dravid’s gunda avatar

In the race for “organic” paid posts, are celebs losing love? A recent viral ad featuring the former cricketer raises the question

“Rahul Dravid is not on Twitter. So they got Virat Kohli to share it”

Stills from the Rahul Dravid ad that went viral after Virat Kohli first tweeted about it

By Abhishek Ponia

Abhishek says that by not mentioning the brand in the tweet, you compel people to watch the video, guaranteeing views

My instinctive reaction when I watched Rahul Dravid losing his cool in the new Cred ad shared by Virat Kohli on Twitter, was that it’s a collaboration. I wanted to weigh in on the debate in a structured manner, with concrete evidence. So, here’s my take:

1. The ad didn’t exist on the Internet before Virat posted it. Cred’s own Twitter handle didn’t post it. So how did Virat find the ad? Definitely not organic.

2. If it was a paid tweet, why didn’t they ask him to mention the brand in it? It’s a genius, smart and output-oriented move as branded posts get less engagement. By not mentioning the brand, they got guaranteed views.

3. Virat rarely tweets on match days, except about match prep, usually after the game. Why did he decide to do something different? Because he was asked to.

4. We know Cred spends heavily on cricket. It can’t be coincidence that the post happened the day the IPL 2021 started, with Virat playing the first game.

5. Can you name one brand whose ad was so good that a cricketer tweeted about it, without being associated with it? Even a Ranji player will think twice before sharing anything brand related if he wasn’t paid for it!

6. Rahul Dravid is not on social media. So how do you amplify this content on social? Get the biggest cricketer, contextualise and share in a seemingly organic way!

Abhishek Ponia, 34, is a Hyderabad-based marketing consultant with a keen interest in cricket. He has played professional under-19 cricket.

“It’s disappointing that so many posts are commercial ventures!”

By Rahul Bhatnagar

Rahul says that Virat Kohli should have declared his tweet as a paid partnership as it did trick people to believe otherwise

It was a fantastic ad to watch because we saw a completely different side of the calm and cool Rahul Dravid. So, I thought Virat Kohli’s tweet was genuine. But it was a little surprising to see it first on Virat’s Twitter. I understood then that it wasn’t possible for the ad to be organic because if it had been released, it would have gone viral online.

Being a sports fan, I follow Virat and in the last two months his tweets are either a day before a match or after it, usually a picture with the team after a victory. But a greater percentage of his tweets are commercial, which is why this ad didn’t seem organic when I thought about it.

As a fan, I love these cricketers so it would be great to see them putting up more organic posts. It’s slightly disappointing that almost everything is a commercial venture. But then again, it’s because Virat has so many fans that he gets these ads that pay a lot!

Kohli’s seemingly organic tweet on match day

Virat should have declared it as a paid partnership because it did trick people into believing the content was organic. It is disappointing as it would have been more genuine if he had stated it clearly. But it’s cleverly done, you can’t deny that.

Though I usually don’t watch branded content, I would have watched this ad because it also spread through word of mouth, with so many just texting, ‘have you seen the Rahul Dravid ad?’

Rahul Bhatnagar, 30, is a Delhi-based travel and sports enthusiast and writer, whose travels are often planned around cricket matches.

From HT Brunch, April 18, 2021

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