Group B6-Eagle- Source- Exchange4media.com 6th march,2013

Social media usage of brands gets more innovative & engaging

                                                                                                       Suhasini.Seshan

·         With smartphones and imported set top boxes getting costlier in budget 2013, media access will get costlier, it will also get costlier for media providers and marketers to use the platform.

·         Social media hardly existed 10 years ago. The digital presence was confined to a website ownership. The trend has changed though from emergence of niche platforms for people, brands and communities to interact on the web.

·          Rajiv Dingra, CEO and Founder, WATConsult says it no longer matters how many likes or fan following one has instead on the interaction platform they creat.

·         Parle launched a social media campaign for its flagship brand Parle G,the company released three teaser videos on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.Another hashtag that kept the users engaged was “BeCurious”, where Parle asked users to share curious questions often asked by kids  this campaign was a mega hit.

·         Domino’s came up with ‘Cheese crust ka rishta isse strong hain’ campaign on Twitter which generated an instant buzz encashing free media and pr space.

·         Pepsi recently came with a campaign called ‘Oh Yes Abhi’, hitting the impatient nerve of today’s youth. The video was posted on its Facebook and Twitter page along YouTube.It was a instant hit with the TG.

·         Mahindra Group posted a commercial titled ‘Live free, live young’ featuring its portfolio which grabbed many eye balls. Samsung Mobile USA got 21 million hits on YouTube featuring ‘the next big thing’ commercial.

·         The instant advantage of using social media is that instead of brands pushing their ad in between the content (like in conventional media), the user herself comes and watches the ad on the brand’s page. This offers far more credibility than the usual stuff,” said Danielle Tieddt, VP – Marketing, YouTube

·         When it comes to capitalising opportunities, our political brands are not far behind. Narendra Modi is a classic example. “Narendra Modi has laid out a very clever social media campaign. But you have to credit his team. His Twitter id, FB id are viral and his posts are shared by his fans, without his direct involvement, which in a way makes him one of the most viral Indian politicians on the internet

·         Sectors like manufacturing, capital goods, heavy industries still are not very active on social

                               

                              RedBus ropes in LG"S LK Gupta as CMO

                                                                                Abhishek Shetty

                    Pilani Soft Labs(PSL),the company behind RedBus bus ticketing service, has brought on board LK Gupta of LG Electronics as Chief Marketing Officer to chart out its next stage of growth enabled by consumer marketing. Gupta had setup and executed the digital marketing blueprint for LG in the last few years, besides brand campaigns, CRM and insight-based marketing initiatives. He said there is tremendous potential in the growing but otherwise unorganised bus ticketing market and RedBus is ideally poised to be the category defining brand.PSL has also brought in Aashu Calapa as the Chief HR Officer who has over 22 years of experience with companies like Wipro and then ICICI First Source.PSL currently boasts inventory of 1200 bus operators and the company claims to have sold more than 1 crore tickets since its inception six years ago, and currently sells six lakh tickets monthly.

                             Target Asia’ is the new global mantra

                                                                          Syed Mohammad Asghar Zaidi

·         Multi-national companies are now focussing on grabbing a pie of the Asian market. The reason is simple – the region accounts for more than 60 per cent of the world population with countries such as China and India constituting more than half of it.

·         Picture this, Manchester United has its fan following spread across the globe; Asia stands second in terms of fan following at 325 million fans; China leads this with 107.6 million fans, followed by India which is at 34.7 million fans. So how did the brand create a successful revolution especially in a cricket following nation like India?

·         Jamie Reigle, Managing Director, APAC, Manchester United said at the on-going Festival of Media Asia 2013 that local activation is the key with retail outlets, branded licensed products, football jerseys, basket value uplift, etc.

·         In Hong Kong, Manchester United developed football activities at grass root levels by tying up with the local schools and coaching classes.

·         Volkswagen, one of the first joint ventures to enter China in the year 1985, now enjoys being labeled ‘People’s Car’ for the region too. In 2012, the brand sold 13.5 million passenger cars. However, it was a massive challenge for Volkswagen to find any takers for their sports car – Scirocco. The brand has been organising Scirocco Race Cup for many years where approximately 170, 000 + spectators participate.

·         Racing is one of the key marketing components when you market a sports car. In China, the sports car marketing is interesting but not matured. When we used the racing track, it was a useful platform.”  Did Scirocco Race Cup do the trick? Looks like it did as the brand has sold 26485 Scirocco cars in the last four years.

                      Perfetti eyes BTL, experiential marketing for rural push

                                                                                                          Prachi Trehan

·         Going by their 19-year old success formula – laughter is the best medicine – confectionery major Perfetti Van Melle believes that a pinch of humour, along with a dose of entertainment is the right marketing mantra for the brand.

·         Commenting on the entertainment and humor quotient is involved by actress Kajol’s association with the brand, Nikhil Sharma, Director - Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India said.

·         Keeping in mind that a large part of the Indian population considers lollypop as a ‘kiddy thing’, the company has worked on changing this perception and will launch their next ‘Anti-boring’ campaign for Alpenliebe Pop.

·         Commenting on entertainment through social media, Sharma noted, “Social media has played a big role in creating an image for the brand, especially in case of Mentos’ ‘Dimaag ki Batti Jala De’ campaign, which has been an instant hit on Facebook and YouTube.”

·         Talking about their recent campaign, the Mentos Batti Jalao contest – Khuni Kaun Hai?, Sharma said, has already created a buzz about its cash prize of Rs. 25 lakhs.

·         Talking about their marketing strategy for rural areas, Sharma said, “We are going to focus more on BTL activities and experiential marketing this year for rural India.

·         The brand is also spreading health awareness by teaching rural consumers to buy branded products rather than the local unbranded ones available at market as they might not be good for health. Perfetti products are available at a 50 paise price point, making it affordable for rural consumers.”

                     Experiential multicultural marketing entity launched

                                                                                                           Gigitha Vadakoot

·         Ex Starcom MediaVest, National Director, Arnab Mitra; Zubin Nalawalla, RJ and Ex Business Head, Edelman Digital; Archit Gadiyar, Writer, Ex DDB Mudra; and Mayur Sethi, Ex Havas Digital and Founder, MP09Digital have launched LIQVD ASIA in Singapore and India.

·         This is Asia’s first experiential multicultural marketing entity to create meaningful connections for the world’s largest brands having three offices in Mumbai, Indore and Singapore.

·         Mr.Mitra said that this kind of marketing isn’t just a shift to digital. It’s a shift from broadcasting messages to focussing on creating elevated branded experiences that benefit both the client and the consumer.

·         The creation of LIQVD was spurred by the desire of the founding members of cross cultural backgrounds to build a truly integrated marketing company focussed on delivering ground-breaking experiential solutions backed by technological relevance with clear and highly measurable metrics. 

             

Google’s Nikhil Rungta joins Yebhi as Chief Business Officer

                                                                                           Jay Gandhi

Nikhil Rungta, former Country Marketing Head at Google India, has joined Yebhi as Chief Business Officer. In his new role, Rungta will be responsible for the strategy, planning and execution of the company’s sales, marketing and product development.

                    BCCL to buy 12% equity in Dalmia Continental

Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL) has taken options to buy up to 12 per cent equity in Dalmia Continental Pvt Ltd (DCPL), promoters of Leonardo Olive Oil and Hudson Canola Oil. 

Leonardo Olive Oil is leading olive oil brand in the nation and holds 30 per cent share in the olive oil market. Hudson Canola Oil is leading Canola oil imported from Canada, shared an official release.