By Ananya Saha
Mahindra Reva recently integrated outdoor medium with social media around the e2o launch and ‘Ask’ movement in a marketing strategy that clubbed the digital platform and out-of-home media.
A select list of questions was displayed at regular intervals at Mumbai’s Mahim causeway, which is a busy arterial road. With every question being asked, the mnemonic of a hand goes up in the air, signifying the ‘Ask’ movement. The same mnemonic was being used to represent questions on the digital platform, press, TV and outdoor media. This integration of Social and Outdoor Media exemplifies the way both these communication channels can be innovatively used for marketing.
The creative agency for this innovation is Strawberry Frog and the media agency is Percept OOH.
Devendra Shinde, Head of Marketing & International Business, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles, stated the cause behind integrating the two mediums, “When one integrates digital media with other media, the effect gets amplified. Hence we have chosen to use more than one medium for this campaign.” Since the launch, the ‘Ask’ movement has gained momentum and Mahindra Reva has received more than 12,000 questions related to changes that people seek in their day-to-day life.
“Digital is integral to our everyday lives. It is current and absolutely relevant to everything we do. The ‘Ask’ campaign is linked to engagement and integration with the consumers. Digital is the only platform that allows for this. Therefore integrating the digital and outdoor medium, allowed us to capture consumer sentiment and display it for further participating and feedback. The cross pollination between platforms, gave the campaign twice the reach than would have been normally possible,” said Raj Kamble, MD, Strawberry Frog.
The brief to the agency was to amplify the campaign. The campaign was a ‘movement’ – created when people ask questions.
According to the brand and agency, the response to the campaign has hit several milestones on Facebook and YouTube. “There are several advantages of using this medium for the task at hand. Our TG is indeed the curious kind, we expect them to be early adopters of technology. Hence we feel that the digital space and medium are a good way to reach them. Also the engagement quotient of this medium is far higher than most regular media vehicles,” reasoned Mr Shinde.
According to Mr Kamble, the Ask campaign is linked to engagement and integration with the consumers. And integrating the digital and outdoor medium allowed them to capture consumer sentiment and display it for further participating and feedback. The cross-pollination between platforms, gave the campaign twice the reach than would have been normally possible. Since Mahindra is focussed on launching the e2o, electric car, a substantial chunk of brand investments has been done on this campaign. However, Mr Shinde did not divulge the figures.
Focusing on the challenges that this innovation posed, Mr Kamble said, “We were asking questions to India, because until you ask question you can’t bring positive change. This was the first time in India where real-time Twitter updates have been combined with the OOH format. The originality of the idea about integrating real-time data posed enormous technical and logistical difficulties. It involved coordination with the brand team, the digital team, the OOH team and the Strawberry Frog team to bring this idea to life.”
While there is a whole lot of work that has happened in the digital space for the Ask movement, Mr Shinde concluded, “You will soon see our TVC on air.” Till then, keep asking!
The start to the sixth edition of IPL couldn’t have been better. At 100 million, the week 1 numbers from the tournament has generally surpassed expectations. But the sentiment is not as cheerful for Neeraj Vyas, Business Head of SET Max. According to him, the viewership numbers could have been more than what was reported had the digitization exercise not been underway. Especially data being reported from LC1 towns, which is turning out to be problematic for broadcasters, according to Mr Vyas.
Nutrela Soya Food, from the house of Ruchi Soya Industries, has announced the launch of its new marketing campaign by launching a TVC. The objective of the TVC, conceptualized by Soho Square Mumbai, is to highlight the versatility of Nutrela Soya Food. The product is being promoted through a catchy tagline which is completely in sync with the brands positioning- ‘Roz Kuch Naya, Roz kuch Soya’.
I think people are going to realize that the implications of even genuine mistakes are going to become serious. We are living in a very connected world so it is very difficult to hope that you will get away with it. The mistake may be small or a large one but the fact is that one has to be doubly careful today. If you ask me whether do I believe that in today’s day and age people genuinely go out and copy something and will get away with it, I do not think so. The truth will eventually be out. But one also has to consider the fact that the number of entries that get submitted run into thousands…so sieving through all of this is tedious. I would rather believe that sometimes mistakes honestly happen but increasingly the cost of committing such mistakes is becoming high. All we have been hearing after coming from Goafest is one scam after the other but that will be taken care of sooner or later. Also, I think people will become more aware of what they do from now on; the thing is that you cannot mandate such issues, it cannot become a matter of law.
When the jury meets in a few days, we will look at the various issues that have been drawn up against a few ads. The meeting is being called to ascertain whether such allegations are true. If they are found to be true, we will further discuss what the next course of action should be.
The process of judging devised over the years by Ad club has been pretty much in place.
On a personal level I’d like to state that when one a scam ad is reported and proven the agency responsible should be debarred for at least one year. Also the people who are responsible should be penalised more or debarred for two years. The thing is that there are thousands of entries that get submitted and whether it is an Indian or international jury one can never really tell what is real and what is not. There is no foolproof system that can be developed; the only thing that can happen is if someone has seen something and reports it to the concerned authorities. Only if you impose strict penalties will people deter from such activities in the future.
There are a few categories where you see scams coming in and there are other categories which would be next to impossible to get a scam like Digital. In digital, you cannot go out of your way and scam out an entry. Also, it’s probably impossible to scam on television which therefore leaves you with two components, namely Press and Outdoor from where a bulk of scams get reported.