Featuring filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and percussionist Sivamani, ‘Where is My Channel’ encourages viewers to inform their cable operators about their choice of channels.

The latest campaign from ZEE’s English cluster titled #WhereIsMyChannel encourages the viewers to choose their preferred channels and inform their cable operators. While the consumers are involved in their content choices, they often tend to postpone communicating with their cable operators. The digital campaign prompts for this necessary action, at a time when TRAI’s deadline for the implementation of MRP regime is just around the corner.

Insight behind #WhereIsMyChannel

The Zee English cluster has a portfolio of brands like Zee Café, &flix and &PrivéHD. The channels’ approach for the campaign #WhereIsMyChannel was to encourage consumers to ask their cable operator for their favorite channels. The underlying insight was that, while the English audience is highly involved in their content choices, they were not used to making the purchase decision. Typically, the more affluent households would buy subscription annually, while some are uninvolved in the purchase. “Through our communication, we needed a strong trigger to nudge our consumers into action, to call the cable operator and ask for their preference as ‘The Cable Operator May Not Really Know You,” shared Prathyusha Agarwal, CMO, ZEEL.

The BRIEF

While consumers were aware of the change in the environment, they were not really involved in the purchase decision. ZEEL’s brief to the creative agency was to nudge consumers to actively pick Zee channels.

“The Zee English Cluster team had given us a very clear objective and that made things clearer from the word go. We started by asking ourselves what would drive us, as consumers, to action? Tearing apart the cable guys wasn’t the answer. They are, in fact, a part of the solution because all it takes is one call to them and they will give you your channels,” shared Jigar Fernandes, Founder, tiqui-taka, the agency behind the campaign and also director of the &flix film.

Otherwise, how will they ever know what channels you might like? The last line led the team to a hilarious situation where a cable guy judges a celeb because of the way he looks. He added, “There on, it was just about getting the cast right. Anurag Kashyap was the funniest choice. And something told us he would be cool with some self-deprecating humor.”

Also Read: Our TV shows and huge movie library remains a huge draw across markets: Archana Anand, Zee5 Global

The Viewers’ Response

The broadcaster claims that the campaign has been successful in driving salience and consideration for the English channels amongst the target audience. Within two weeks, it has delivered over 25 million sharp targeted video views with strong engagement rates. The campaign has reached to about 58 million on digital and 41.53 million on TV, for the two ad films. In a competitive category with several brands, #WhereIsMyChannel has delivered over 70% ad cut-through. The ad campaign is being promoted across Zee Network’s social handles and the TV channels on air.

The digital video with RJ Balaji, Mallika Dua, and Varun Thakur are also a success indicator for the original films which have become a reference point for other unbranded original renditions to be created.
Agarwal added, “Varun and Mallika have both pointed out their fears of getting stereotyped to certain kind of content and if they can be wrongly judged, so can be anyone. Hence, the two influencers have stressed on the need to speak to the cable operator and inform them of the choice of channels. The RJ Balaji film is shot in Tamil.”

The ‘Kashyap’ Factor

“All our campaigns are rooted in consumer insight, conceptualized keeping the consumer at the center. We wanted to bring alive our insight that the “Cable Operator May Not Really Know You” and hence inform him of your pack choice. To bring this thought to life, we needed to cast experts and not just celebrities,” informed Agarwal. The aim was to convey that if a well-known expert’s content choice can be misjudged by the cable operator, then it can happen to everybody. Hence, the underlying thought was to put the impetus on informing the cable operator of consumers’ choices.

While sharing his experience working with actors during the campaign execution, Fernandes exclaimed, “It was a lot of fun directing the trio. While Anurag and Abhishek are at the center of the film, we wanted to give the liftman importance too. From that line of thought came the idea of making him a wannabe Nawaz (Nawazuddin).” That not only added to the humor but also helped raise Anurag’s stature and his self-worth at the beginning itself. It was more fun for him when he got what he got in the end. The lift was chosen as the location because it was fun to box Anurag in like that with two people from his native place, who are in awe of him and respect him.

Taking the ‘awareness’ beyond digital campaign

To simplify the complex structural change coming their way, ZEEL built on the topicality of elections through “Channels Ka Chunaav”. It also leads it’s popular protagonists to educate consumers in buying bouquet packs as they delivered greater value and were a smarter choice to buying channels on an a la carte basis.

Through the home visits of most popular lead protagonists and the workshops with LCOs and MSOs, ZEEL’s endeavor is to try every bit to guide the viewers through this transition. Agarwal noted, “The digital arms of all our channels have also activated an extensive push that helps the consumers in this transition, through easy-to-understand infographics about the new MRP regime and the choice of packs they can opt for from the ZEE set of channels.

Tedious TRAI regime- A reason to shift from TV to Digital?

While many haven’t subscribed to the new regime dictated by TRAI and are yet to own their choice-based channel packs, it stands to be seen that the much called tedious TRAI diktat will make consumers shift to the digital verse and what challenges will it pose to the brands to market their offerings?

In last three years, the viewership on English GEC genre has grown by almost 2.5 times from close to 400 Impressions (’000s) in Week 1 of 2016 to about 1000 Impressions (’000s) in the last week of 2018, as per BARC data. The English movie genre has witnessed a 26% growth in viewership and 28% growth in reach, over the same period of time. Looking at the growth numbers, we have not noticed any disinterest on TV

ZEEL- Conducting Consumer Education

Online reports claim that 60% of consumers haven’t yet subscribed to their choice-based data packs or have either informed their cable operators owing to the confusing process. When asked how ZEE as a broadcaster is heading towards making consumers aware, Agarwal replied saying, “Educating consumers is the most important piece of our communication. There is currently close to 90% of awareness level about the MRP regime which is more at a primary level.”

“Through our consumer interaction and understanding, we have identified three levels of awareness amongst the audience: MRP regime change level awareness, wherein the consumers are aware of the change in the ecosystem.” The second level was the bouquet and pack level awareness where the consumer understands the need of making the choice between broadcaster packs, operator packs, a-la-carte, and bouquet packs. The final and most critical level of awareness is to take action and inform the cable operator about your choices.

As a part of pushing the awareness and purchase decisions and facilitating the behavior change, ZEEL’s distribution teams are actively engaging with service providers and partners in running familiarization workshops for the MSOs and LCOs, collaborating to further educate the end consumers.

The post #WhereIsMyChannel is a strong trigger to nudge our consumers into action: Prathyusha Agarwal, ZEEL appeared first on Social Samosa.

KEI Industries Ltd., in the 12th edition of Indian Premier League, joined hands with Rajasthan Royals for a second consecutive year as the exclusive partner.

Marking the association, the brand launched it’s IPL themed campaign Tension free ya Tension Spree Campaign to carry forward and push it’s new communication ‘Har Tension Sahe, Chalti Rahe’.  Featuring Ajinkya Rahane, Jaydev Unadkat and Jos Buttler, the film depicts the hardships and strenuous training the cricketers go through before the IPL matches to make them strong enough to face any challenges that may come their way. The whole idea revolved around the concept that there’s a captive audience that’s thinking cricket, cricket and only cricket all the time

Meanwhile, the campaign strategy was to optimize the captive audience that was already engaging with the brand as their attention was being captured with interactive digital contests run across their official handle on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. ‘Guess the Player’, ‘Guess the playing Pair’ and ‘Guess to Win’ saw active participation from over 60k users, claimed the brand.  The company optimized this captive audience by challenging them to various games and engaging conversations on social media regarding cricket to generate positive sentiment for the brand.

Adding to that, KEI plans to launch an interesting ‘Live Tension Metre’, a social listening tool used to monitor positive and negative keywords within social conversations around cricket and IPL in general, thereby exhibiting if the fans are ‘TensionFree’ or on a ‘TensionSpree’. This initiative will amplify the messaging of KEI’s new positioning, Har tension sahe, chalti rahe.

Also Read: #IPLSpot: Myntra’s Unforgettables-True Colours seeks to celebrate the cricket crazy India

As a part of this partnership, the Rajasthan Royals team will proudly sport KEI branding logo on their jersey. The audience too will experience visibility of the brand at the stadium and on match tickets. In order to connect with the team supporters, present at the stadium, KEI has also set up a ‘Selfie Booth’ to boost and cheer their engagement during matches. KEI Industries’ first association with the team in 2018 had their social media campaign ‘Halla Bol!’

The post #IPLSpot: KEI Wires with Rajasthan Royals launches ‘Har Tension Sahe, Chalti Rahe’ appeared first on Social Samosa.

Starting next week, you can shop inspiring looks from the creators you love without leaving Instagram.

Instead of taking a screenshot or asking for product details in comments or Direct, you can simply tap to see exactly what your favorite creators are wearing and buy it on the spot.

From public figures and artists to entrepreneurs and publishers, creators are a cornerstone of the interest community on Instagram. They give you that spark of inspiration for a new skin care routine or that perfect denim jacket. And unlike seeing a jacket on a rack, it’s easier to relate when you see how it fits and moves on someone you admire.

Anyone in our global community will be able to shop from creators. We’ll begin testing this with a small group of creators next week.

Source

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People come to Instagram to be with their close friends. They stay to be inspired by art, fashion, sports, and entertainment — as well as the people behind those crafts.

Enabling expression and fostering those connections are at the heart of Instagram, and today Instagram has announced new ways to strengthen those connections with the people and things they love.

With more than 500M daily actives, Instagram Stories continues to grow as a home for expression and interaction between people and their passions.

Donation Sticker
Starting today in the US, users can raise money for a nonprofit organization they care about directly through Instagram Stories. They can now use the donation sticker to create a nonprofit fundraiser and mobilize your community around a cause you care about.

To use this new feature, open the camera, take or upload a photo, tap the sticker icon and select the donation sticker from the tray. Choose a nonprofit to support and customize your fundraiser using creative tools. Once it’s live, swipe up on your story to view the total amount raised. 100% of the money you raise on Instagram goes to the nonprofit you are supporting.

From helping more women of color learn to code to supporting teen mental health, you can build excitement and awareness with your friends around important causes that impact your community.

New Camera & Create Mode
Connection goes beyond sharing a photo or video — it’s also about sharing what you’re doing, thinking or feeling with the people who matter to you.

In the coming weeks, Instagram will introduce a new camera design including Create Mode, which gives you an easy way to share without a photo or video. This new camera will make it simpler to use popular creative tools like effects and interactive stickers, so you can express yourself more freely.

The new camera and Create Mode will be rolling out globally soon.

Source

The post #F8 Here is how to use Instagram’s new Stories Update appeared first on Social Samosa.

Ever wondered what goes in not only making a channel but sustaining it with relevant and contextual content? Sejal Kumar, a Fashion & Lifestyle creator might have a few insights.

What began as love for creating content without any restrictions led to creating a channel with over a million subscribers. The journey has been a memorable one.

From doing it all by herself to now having a team, Sejal Kumar shares her two cents! Read on.

Who are we?

I have a YouTube channel named Sejal Kumar.

Our journey

It all started in my second year of college when I found out about YouTube. The idea and liberty of making something that I like without any restriction really fascinated me. I always knew I love creating. So, one day I made my channel and uploaded a video that I made when I was in Turkey. It was a well thought decision and I am proud of it.

Our family

For the longest time, it was just me. I used to handle everything on my own with the help of my friends and family. As the channel grew, I needed more help. I have a full-timer with me now and I keep on working with freelance videographers.

What’s in the name?

It is my name and as a 21 year old I thought it would be a good idea to open a channel with the same name.

Our mission statement

We define our channel as “Not a category.” We aim on creating authentic content that can help out someone or can uplift someone.

We create content for?

We try to keep our channel as diverse as possible. Most of our audience are young girls of the demographic 18-24.

We work with…

We have worked with multiple brands in the past years and we keep on working with some of the big names. Some of the brands that we e have worked with are Benefit Cosmetics, Lakme, Bose, Amara. I even launched my own co branded fashion line with Stalk Buy Love, SejalXSBL.

Also Read:Interview: There is no room for being pretentious: Barkha Singh

We are proud of

The volume and variety of the content we have created over the years.

Your best content pieces and how they came into being

My most viewed video ‘College in Real Life’ was actually scripted by me and my best friend over a very casual lunch at social!

Our WTF moment

When a subscriber figured out which train and coach I was travelling in and came to meet me!

Any funny or freaky incident that happened and you lived to tell the tale

One of my music videos ‘Almost is never enough’ had a special appearance by poisonous snakes while filming!

Stay tuned for…

We are planning two big projects for this year. Both are in in pre production.

Are, you hiring?

Yes, We are. We are hiring for three positions.

1. Business Manager 2. Social Media Strategist 3. Full time videographer

The post Interview: We define our channel as “Not a category.”: Sejal Kumar, Content Creator appeared first on Social Samosa.

Experts analyze whether the theme campaigns of rivals – BJP and INC got the voter sentiment right in their communication on social media.

Looking at the current political scenario where the parties and the opposition are going headstrong with self-promotion, it might not be wrong to say that ‘Politics and Social Media’ is a match made in heaven. Many have termed Lok Sabha Elections 2019 as the biggest ‘Social Media Election’.

There are hundreds of tweets on Twitter, posts on Facebook, photos on Instagram being posted by the two major political parties of India – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi and Indian National Congress (INC) helmed by Rahul Gandhi. The two prime ministerial candidates are leaving no stone unturned in taking digs at each other and listing down all their flaws not only in speeches but also driving hatred towards each other through social media.

With only a few days left for the general elections to conclude, we take a look back at BJP and INC’s theme campaigns for this year and whose slogan resonates with the citizens of the biggest democracy in the world.

BJP’s #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar

It happened in 2014 and the history is speculated to be repeating itself this time as well. #AbKiBaarModiSarkar was no less than a rhythm that made a ‘chaiwala’ helm the Prime Minister chair of India. The message, back in 2014, was so strong that the slogan reached millions of Indian villages and houses.

#PhirEkBaarModiSarkar promises to be even better and grander. This particular campaign out of the many videos of BJP shows the promises fulfilled by PM Modi and attempts to prove that he is a decisive leader. While launching the campaign last month, BJP had shared that the theme is the culmination of five-year-long performance of the party. It partitioned the theme into three categories (Bade Faisle Lene Wali Sarkar, Kaam Karne Wali Sarkar, and Imandaar Sarkar) to show the people that Modi government took big steps in just five years.

INC’s ‘Ab Hoga Nyay’

In the same month, soon after BJP launched its slogan, Indian National Congress was not far behind in announcing the theme for the polls ‘Ab Hoga Nyay’ where it questioned the productivity of five years of Modi government. It further states that the experience of the last five years has been harsh. Whether it is for farmers, youth, women or businessmen, there is an environment of hopelessness.

The campaign places Congress chief Rahul Gandhi at its core and reflects his style, which is informal, real, and helps him connect easily and genuinely with people. The themes covered in the campaign include the ‘Nyay’ scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for youth, farmers, women’s reservation, simplified GST, universal healthcare, education, and startups, as promised in the manifesto titled ‘Congress will deliver’. The catchy background score is penned down by Javed Akhtar.

The Social Media War

Social Media has turned out to be the primary battleground for both the political parties – from making hashtags #MainBhiChowkidar and #ChowkidarChorHai trend almost everyday on Twitter to uploading their speeches and different phases of the campaign on YouTube and Facebook to urging to first time voters to cast their precious vote to the deserved governance to mocking each other with #MannKiBaat and #PunKiBaat through social media platforms, BJP and Congress are selling their promises in every way possible.

While BJP’s YouTube video of #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar has gained 5.2 million views, INC’s #AbHogaNyay stands at 16 million views in four weeks.

BJP’s Social MediaNama

Also Read: #ElectionTracker2019: BJP v/s Congress – The social media race

Congress on Digital

Power of Social Media is not news to anyone- we have seen how Trump triumphing back in the USA owing to his digital prowess and Modi’s social medianama in 2014 is proof for it’s worth.

Meanwhile, experts dissect the two campaigns and share their views on who outperformed the other.

Experts Take:

Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru &Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults iNc.

The Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar Campaign is a campaign of the incumbent. The tone, tenor and decibel of the campaign keeps this in mind. It is to an extent a documentary of all the things done. It is a reminder as well in a quick manner. It is documentation of good work in a quick documentary format.

The Ab Hoga Nyaya campaign is a campaign of the challenger. To that extent, the challenge is the tone, tenor and decibel of this campaign. That is what comes straight at you. It is rebellious in its approach.

In sheer terms of creative excellence, the BJP campaign stands out. in terms of strident appeal that is tactical, the Congress campaign is in the face and asks the questions it wants to ask. To that extent, the Congress campaign is full of questions, and the BJP campaign is full of answers.

BJP is batting very well on social media and is certainly way ahead of the Congress in social media terms.

Yash Chandiramani, Founder and Chief Strategist, Admatazz

I feel BJP’s campaign highlighting Narendra Modi has worked very well for them. Without commenting on their political strategy of highlighting one leader as the face I think the campaign song is spot on. It invokes the right kind of emotions they are looking for in the voter. The visuals, however, are a miss according to me. Narendra Modi is an outstanding orator and I wish they had used a few edits of his speeches to start or end the campaign videos. Also, by showing a man in a suit being dragged away by the police and cutting to an immediate visual of a poor farmer smiling, I think it makes the urban voter uncomfortable to see something like that. One thing they need to refrain from in their advertising is – The rich v/s poor – 70’s Bollywood type dramatization.

I hope this particular video and campaign by Congress was for a particular target audience because though I liked the song, not sure how the majority of the population would react to it.

They highlighted the pain points that according to the people face with the current government and showed a positive end to them. So I feel they did a good job with their visuals.

One place I feel they missed out is they could have used the video to talk a little more about their promises and what they plan on delivering. They could have also focussed a little more on the entire Congress leadership since they don’t have a one-man/face strategy.

The post Campaign Face Off: BJP’s #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar vs INC’s #AbHogaNyay appeared first on Social Samosa.

Cricket and the act of sewing are far from related but we spotted some Mumbai Indians team members assisting a few kids in their summer camp to weave creativity in a fun way.

Continuing its association with Mumbai Indians this IPL, Usha International launched a new sewing machine campaign aligned to the ‘Learn and Create’ tag line. The ad video highlights how easy it is to create using Usha sewing machines and asks to spell out your creativity with stitches, threads, and joy.

It’s the summer season and kids are Set in a ‘Learn and Create’ workshop with all the kids happily engaged in the activity, till they have unexpected visitors in the form of Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Kieron Pollard, players from the Mumbai Indians franchise. With glee writ all over their faces, the young ones gather around to join forces with Rohit and Bumrah and place their alphabets together to read ‘INDIA’, at which point Pollard joins in and adds ‘N’ and ‘S’ with a smile and an inclusive wave…the kids then add another word above it resulting in a display of beautiful colorful embroidered initials that reads MUMBAI INDIANS.

Also Read: #IPLSpot: KEI Wires with Rajasthan Royals launches ‘Har Tension Sahe, Chalti Rahe’

The video is backed by a positive narrative and full of happiness and aims to spread innocent joy all over with the kids enjoying the summer workshop.

Meanwhile, leveraging the cricket fever, the company has also kept it’s social media handles buzzing with content around the matches and rolling out some fun quizzes and contests for the IPL fans.

The post #IPLSpot: Usha International joins hands with Mumbai Indians to weave creativity appeared first on Social Samosa.

Although Vijay Mallya owned defunct Kingfisher Airlines’ comeback seems to be dubious, the company’s other verticals under UBL are living up to the trend. Recently, Kingfisher Packaged Drinking Water launched it’s Kingfisher Rap Anthem 2019 with the members of IPL teams. Take a look at the Kingfisher IPL 2019 campaign here…

Featuring the likes of Virat Kohli, Steve Smith, Yuvraj Singh hailing from different IPL teams, Kingfisher has jumped onto the rap fever this season and has also revamped its signature Oo La La La Le O by making the cricketers who are divided by teams, to tune themselves to the rapped signature jingle of Kingfisher together.

Celebrating the true spirit of cricket and Kingfisher, the cricketers can be seen jamming and dropping the mic in a never-seen-before avatar. Termed as the ‘motivational rap’, the campaign aims to spread the true message of Kingfisher – Divided by teams, United by Kingfisher. The rap anthem waxes off the concept of division but focuses on the good times by upholding the true spirit of cricket.

Also Read: #IPLSpot: Royal Challenge Sports Drink’s #ChallengeAccepted puts spotlight on equality in sports

Amalgamating the essence of rap, cricket and it’s tagline divided by team united by KF, Kingfisher is confident that the rap jingle will spread the good times during the most celebrated cricketing season of the country.

Social Media chatter

The campaign is by Wunderman Thompson and is heavily promoted across social media with Kingfisher ringing in the Good Times with a host of innovative activities for its fans. Kingfisher’s and the teams’ social media handles are also buzzing with hashtags #UnitedByGoodTimes #KFRapAnthem and posts around it.

For the 12th edition of IPL, Kingfisher has joined hands with five teams – Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab, and Rajasthan Royals.

The post #IPLSpot: Kingfisher raps to good times with IPL teams appeared first on Social Samosa.

Social Samosa converses with the minds behind the Flipkart General Election campaign titled, Equals Day – understanding how the campaign enhances the brand’s objective from digital marketing.

The one and a half minute film showcases people belonging to different religion and regions of India coming together to cast their vote – one at a time.

Insight behind ‘Equals Day’

‘Whoever you are, whatever you do, and however different your political beliefs are, the vote counts us as equals.’ The e-commerce giant is cross-promoting the campaign across every mass channel with hashtags. #EqualsDay #WeAreEqual #NayeIndiaKeSaath

As a homegrown company, Flipkart wanted to run a campaign around the elections, an occasion when every five years Indians come together to make their voices heard. “This is the world’s largest democratic event, so as a brand with progressive ideas at our core, we knew we wanted to engage with the country on this topic. We live in such a diverse and dynamic country, and the vote is a great unifier for us all,” shared Apuarv Sethi, Director of Brand Marketing, Flipkart.

At the same time, there tends to be a lot of brand activity around elections, so Flipkart was looking for a unique take to cut through and showcase the brand values. That’s when it settled on celebrating the equality brought about by Universal Adult Franchise (one person, one vote) and how it truly makes everyone equal at the ballot box.

‘Equality within Democracy’

The very basis of democracy is equality, and that is most clearly showcased in our right to vote. Considering the fact that India was one of the first nations to implement Universal Adult Franchise when we became independent, compared to other countries that rolled out the right to vote in a phased manner, that’s a powerful slice of history that could help people see how voting is a great equaliser. Flipkart realised this was the way we could make our message of equality and democracy heard in a cluttered election space. The #EqualsDay symbol is simple, effective and truly powerful in communicating that the ballot box sees us one.

The key differentiator for ‘Equals Day’

A lot has been done until now to make people aware of their right to vote, the power it has to bring forward the change. Sethi claimed that Flipkart’s approach is fresh to tell voters the idea of equality through voting, the one visualized by India as a republic. Rather than focusing on the popular message appealing people to go and vote, the brand decided to take a fresh perspective, to change the way people look at and value their vote. He added, “Our campaign is different because it’s not focused on only urging people to vote, but rather on the idea of equality and how the very concept of one person, one vote plays into that. We wanted everyone in India to realize how we are all truly equal at the ballot box because we all have the ability to make our voices heard through our vote.”

Flipkart wants the #EqualsDay symbol to travel and ignite the spirit of equality and democracy.

The brief

The brief was to come up with fresh, clutter-breaking communication that could champion the progressive ethos of our brand. The brand wanted to find a unique way to bring the spirit of equality alive and re-imagine the way we show we have cast our vote. The simple equal sign made with two people’s fingers was an interesting way to get people to participate & create a new symbolism associated with voting.

Creative Thoughtprocess

From India’s very first election, back in 1950, the right to vote was given to every adult, regardless of caste, color, religion or gender – known as the Universal Adult Franchise (UAF). Commenting on what went behind creating the campaign, P.G Aditya, Executive Creative Director, Dentsu Webchutney commented, “When we remember the vote counts because it counts all of us as one.. we realize it’s not just the means to an end… but an end in itself. A day where we’re all equal, stripped off our differences. As one vote and one vote only.”

The brand film captures the diversity of India and brings the symbolism and philosophy of Equals’ Day alive. Across the film, there are moments that pay homage to the history of the Indian Constitution and eagled-eyed viewers can uncover new Easter eggs with every watch.

Also Read: Samsonite’s #EkDinKiChutti gets a thumbs up from experts

The Voters’ Response

Sethi exclaimed that the key message has resonated with Indian voters. More than just good traction on digital platforms, Indians seem to be embracing the thought and concept behind our video, which is what we were looking for in terms of success for this campaign. “It was a point of pride for us that the Election Commission validated our thought process when they retweeted our video. Our message of a vibrant, equal democracy for India has been a popular one,” he added.

#EqualsDay- The Digital-only urge

As a digital-first and tech-driven company, Flipkart claims to have focused primarily on only digital platforms to share the video. This includes social media as well as content-driven websites, where people actively seek out and engage with election-related content. The company has found that it’s progressive message and brand ethos strongly resonates with internet users and so have chosen that route to amplify our campaign.

There is a lot of user-generated content and influencer marketing activity seen on social media where the ‘aam aadmi’ is seen boasting of their votes with equal pride on #EqualsDay

While Flipkart battles it out against inequality on various level and shows the world that how a nation becomes equal to vote for a progressive tomorrow, it remains to be seen how much of an impact it makes on ground in the country where inequality prevails and how.

The post #BehindTheScenes – The making of Flipkart’s General Election campaign, Equals Day appeared first on Social Samosa.

ESPNcricinfo’s ‘Bhoot Cricket Ka’ campaign aims to celebrate the ongoing cricket fever with IPL and ICC World Cup 2019.

While Mumbai Indian’s have finally lifted the much coveted IPL trophy, ICC World Cup 2019 is on its way to have us on the edge of our seats and proudly cheer for our national team. Amidst all the ongoing crazy IPL match sessions, ESPNcricinfo, the digital platform covering all that cricket has launched a 4-part film campaign to celebrate the fandom and craziness around the sport in a spooky way.

Titled ‘Bhoot Cricket Ka’, the campaign spells horror literally in the two spots which are running during the IPL days and the other two will release a few days ahead of the World Cup set to kickstart on May 30.

In the first film, three friends are scouting an auto rickshaw on a deserted street at night while discussing Mahendra Singh Dhoni aka Mahi’s performance referring to one of the matches. An auto stops and offers them life.

Also Read: #IPLSpot: Kingfisher raps to good times with IPL teams

The second film takes the spookiness to the next level and a doll is introduced while the match commentary plays in the background.

The campaign builds on the momentum from ESPNcricinfo’s previous campaign #CricketsBiggestFanclub, by taking ‘fan-dom’ to its next level: obsession bordering on the paranormal. Through the #BhootCricketKa campaign,  Gaurav Thakur, director of marketing and business development at ESPNcricinfo asserts that ESPNCricinfo invites all cricket lovers to the platform that truly understands cricket fever the best. While humour cuts across age groups, it strikes a stronger chord with the younger audience of 15-25-year-olds, the target audience for the campaign.

The company went for a fresh and zany take on cricket fever. While horror-comedy genre is a totally fresh style not just in the category but even in the country, ESPNcricinfo wanted this campaign to stand out of the clutter of all other sports campaigns while latching onto the not much explored genre.

The ad films manage to evoke fear and at the same time tickle our funny bones a bit. Horror and Cricket, therefore, make a strong concoction on and the off field. The ad films are been shared on all it’s social media channels with regular updates about the game.

The post ESPNcricinfo fuses horror with cricket for ‘Bhoot Cricket Ka’campaign appeared first on Social Samosa.

From breaking stereotypes to emulating the selfless motherly love, SBI Life Insurance and Reliance Mutual Fund’s Mother’s Day campaigns are full of love and warmth. In this Mother’s Day campaign face off, Experts share which narrative surpassed the cliche thought process.

Mothers have a Universal appeal. They are there- in our good and bad times, challenging and joyous times holding our hands and inspiring us at every step of the life ladder we aim to climb. On May 12, the whole world celebrated  Mother’s Day with great pride and cheery mood. Amidst the fun and jazz, the ad world was not behind in celebrating Motherhood the way it deserves.

Two BFSI brands, SBI Life Insurance and Reliance Mutual Funds joined the revelry by weaving two different narratives revolving mothers in their respective campaigns for the special occasion.

SBI Life Insurance’s #MummyKahanHain- A tribute to motherhood

In our life, the person we look up to the most is our mother. Whether it is a problem to solve or news to share, we invariably end up asking, ‘Mummy Kahan Hain’. Fortunate are those who have a loving mother to respond to their question, #MummyKahanHain. But there are some children who grow up without ever feeling a Mother’s love.

With today’s growing concern of abandoned children, SBI Life through their heart-warming video titled #MummyKahanHain has showcased one such Mother who has nurtured the lives of 22 such children. The campaign pays an ode to Mothers of ‘SOS Children’s Villages of India’ who are trained professionally to take care of abandoned and parentless children and raise them as their own. The two and a half minute film, executed by WATConsult,  takes the audience on the journey of one such SOS Mother and the impact she’s had on the lives of 22 children under her love and care.

Reliance Mutual Funds’ ‘Thank You Moms’

Reliance Mutual Fund’s ‘Thank You Moms’ celebrated Mothers as harbingers of the ‘Investing Habit’ in children this Mother’s Day. While typically, fathers are seen to be the repository of financial wisdom, this pathbreaking campaign shows a single mother inculcating the investing habit in her son right from his first salary.

DViO Digital conceptualized the entire campaign, pillared on the emerging trend of women being more and more aware and confident of taking charge of their financial destiny and also being at the forefront of inculcating the responsibility towards saving and investing in their children. The objective of this campaign is two-fold: the primary one is recognizing and celebrating the role being played by mothers in making children financially responsible and the secondary one is encouraging savings and investment amongst the current generations, so that they may not have to face financial hardships that their parents went through.

Social Media Buzz

While SBI Life Insurance’s #MummyKahanHai garnered 1 million views on the platform, Reliance Mutual Funds’ ‘Thank You Moms’ has 181k views.

SBI also created a contest for its consumers asking them to comment that one song that reminds them of a moment where the mother stood by them when they needed her the most.

Also Read: Campaign Face Off: BJP’s #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar vs INC’s #AbHogaNyay

Apart from the campaign, there was a an influencer marketing activity was also carried out by the company.

On the other hand, Reliance Mutual Funds limited itself to the ad film and promoted it through its social media handles.

Both the companies are catering to a similar set of target audience with campaigns spelling different stories. Experts dig out their favourite…

Experts Speak:

Sanjay Mehta, Joint CEO, Mirum

Both of the films, while touching the subject of the mother, operate at different levels.

While the SOS Mothers film from SBI Life is a purely human interest story and will touch people’s hearts more, there is no immediate connection with the offerings of the brand. So while the story is more endearing, for its substance (and indeed, it is based on facts!), the brand is clearly not looking to achieve any immediate impact for its offerings. It is a nice feel-good film.

The one from Reliance Mutual Fund is intended to bring the context of the product offerings, and indeed, the brand itself, in the story. While it touches the interesting angle of an investment-oriented single mother and perhaps serves the brand’s purpose, like storytelling, it is a little less convincing than the SOS Mothers’ one. The mother also looks a bit too young! But as the film is more direct in connecting to the product and the brand, it may deliver some real value in terms of results, for the brand. Unlike in the case of SBI Life.

Deep Mehta, Co-Founder, Digichefs

SBI Life Insurance’s campaign definitely rings a louder “Happy Mother’s Day”.

And of course, that’s because they choose a social awareness topic as compared to Reliance MF which chose product integration within the communication of the video.

By bringing the topic of SOS mothers, SBI definitely brings a fresh narrative in the social campaigns on mother’s day and a heartfelt admiration to these SOS mothers. The campaign points to the inexplicable emotion of a parent-less kid and the poetry stitches storyline of the visuals quite well.

On the other hand, the Reliance MF campaign looks artificial in the first look, a lengthy communication with unnecessary dramatic dialogues seem a bit pushy in the setting of the dinner table. A subtler product integration could have done the trick for Reliance MF campaign, given that the underlying context was an important one – a single mother encouraging early investments for her child for a safer settled future.

The post Campaign Face Off: Reliance Mutual Funds’ #ThankYouMoms’ v/s SBI Life Insurance’s #MummyKahanHain appeared first on Social Samosa.

It’s that time of the year where we watch out for humane brands who have aced the social media game to clinch the #SAMMIE Best Social Media Brands trophy. Nominations to close on June 16.

It might sound recurrent, but sans doubt, Social Media has taken the world by storm, quite literally. Further to its popularity and wide usage, social media marketing has also been bridging the brand-consumer divide with humane communications backed by the precision of data merged with creativity.

To acknowledge this concoction of best techniques and thoughtprocesses that surpass the creative benchmark each passing day, Social Samosa is proud to announce the third edition of SAMMIE Best Social Media Brands – a platform to celebrate the success of Brands who have contributed to the growth of this ecosystem.

Also Read: OLA wins big at SAMMIE – Best Social Media Brands

Conceptualized with the thought of promoting best practices benchmarking in the industry, Best Social Media Brands is an industry mandate to adjudge a brand’s performance amongst peers on a relative scale. Brands in each sector will have the opportunity to put their best foot forward. Each entry will be screened, scanned, and scrutinized by an esteemed jury panel and an automated tool which ranks brands as per a pre-defined algorithm.

Also Read: Flipkart bags three Gold SAMMIEs at Best Social Media Brands

The brands will be judged across 20 main categories, 15 special categories and 6 individual awards by an esteemed jury panel, who will evaluate each entry basis the work done by them from April 2018 to March 2019 against set parameters.

The nominations close on June 16 and we don’t you to miss this coveted opportunity. Nominate here.

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Facebook India today launched ‘Thumbstoppers’, an initiative to redefine short-form mobile video creativity in the country.

This initiative is in partnership with leaders from the advertising industry – Wunderman Thompson, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, McCann, and Mullen Lintas – to transform storytelling for mobile advertising.

Mobile has fundamentally reshaped consumer behaviour; people consume as well as recall content faster on mobile. With declining attention spans, one has just a few precious seconds to get the consumer’s attention as traditional advertising formats of 60 and 30 seconds don’t work well on mobile. As mobile becomes pervasive there has emerged an ardent need for marketers and creative agencies to create mobile-first ads. The industry needs to embrace the possibility that stories that stop thumbs from scrolling, evoke emotions, and change human behavior can be told in under ten seconds. That is the premise of ‘Thumbstoppers – Short stories move hearts.’

The initiative sees the participation of Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy India, Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer,Wunderman Thompson India, Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer at Leo Burnett India, Garima Khandelwal, Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas, and Ashish Chakravarty, Executive Director, and Head of Creative at McCann Worldgroup (India).

These key partners will spearhead change at their agencies, and eventually for the industry. In partnership with Facebook, they will support the skilling of their teams, helping them understand and think mobile-first, and execute short-form videos more seamlessly. Thumbstoppers will see experts from Facebook visiting top agency offices in the country to empower them with the required skills and education to create effective short-form video campaigns for their clients.

Also Read: Facebook Stories adds a new feature for birthday

Speaking at the launch of the Thumbstoppers campaign in Mumbai, Sandeep Bhushan, Director and Head of Global Marketing Solutions (GMS), at Facebook India, said, “Advertising on Facebook has driven significant business results for all our advertisers – large and small. The opportunity now is to drive the impact even harder with storytelling built for mobile. Facebook’s Thumbstoppers is our partnership with the creative agencies to inspire and showcase short stories that evoke emotions in under ten seconds”.

At the launch, Facebook also released a few Thumbstopper films with an objective of inspiring the creative and marketing community, and to display that powerful storytelling is possible in less than ten seconds. The entire campaign is based on the brief of driving ‘behaviour change’, which is the purpose of all advertising. The films are created by Wunderman Thompson and cover a wide spectrum of human behaviour. These stories also showcase how mobile videos offer a diverse canvas by being distinct to other mediums – the importance of grabbing attention in the first few seconds, viewed on vertical often with sound-off, and a delight with sound-on. 

As a follow up to the campaign launch, Facebook is also throwing open a ‘Thumbstopper Challenge’ – an invitation to all creative minds to submit their short stories on the brief of driving behaviour change in less than ten seconds by 12th July. The winners of the Thumbstopper Challenge will be announced in August, and the top winners will get to travel to Cannes next year. Facebook will also produce the top 20 films. The key partners on this initiative will serve on the eminent jury for the challenge along with Gaurav Jeet Singh, General Manager, Media, South Asia at Unilever India, and Rashi Goel, VP Consumer Communications, Media, and CRM at Nestle.

Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman Thompson, said, “Short Stories Move Hearts – It takes only a few seconds to show support, break down barriers, display kindness, start a movement or express that love has no boundaries. Our campaign created to launch Facebook Thumbstoppers is a mobile kick-starter of sorts. The idea is to demonstrate that storytelling can happen in a short and sweet span of 10 seconds. Exploring this telegraphic short format in the mobile medium is important because of decreasing attention spans and growing impatience. Each of these films tells a story that has some underlying purpose or human truth in it. Much like advertising for brands, these films also use drama, emotion, suspense and humor to tug at your heart strings.”

Thumbstoppers is the first initiative to be rolled-out as part of Facebook Creative Playground, an industry-wide capability-enhancing program led by Facebook that is geared towards building the advertising ecosystem in India in partnership with leading creative agencies. Facebook will work closely with these partners to collaborate on a range of initiatives and skilling programs that will enable the agencies to explore a wide range of cutting-edge digital brand solutions. 

Last date of Thumbstopper Challenge submission: 12th July, 2019.

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The election tracker gives a view of Election 2019 social media data, shedding light on how both, BJP & Congress are fairing on the digital medium.

With elections going on in full swing, April 16 to April 30 marked an important phase of BJP and Congress on social media too. The passion of on-ground campaigning reflected on the digital battleground as hashtags such as #PhirEKBaarModiSarkar, #Vote4India, and #AbHogaNyay trended.

In terms of statistics, Congress occupied, 28.5 per cent share of voice on Facebook, while BJP held 71.5% share. On Twitter, both BJP & Congress relied on text content with 66.7k and 62.7k posts on Twitter.

Social Samosa in association with Talkwalker, presents the Election Tracker for April 16 – April 30. Take a look at the detailed data to understand the nitty gritty of how the election is panning out on the digital front.

Twitter Data

Twitter Followers

BJP # of followers: 11 Million

Congress # of followers: 5.1 million

Type of content posted by BJP and congress

New followers per weekday 

Share of voice – Twitter

Twitter activity – Tweets from audience and the official accounts

Facebook Data

Share of voice: BJP: 71.5%, Congress: 28.5%

Top hashtags on Facebook for BJP and Congress

The bigger the size of hashtag, the more number of times it has been used.

Follower growth: New Followers per weekday

Activity on Facebook: BJP and Congress

Instagram Data

Instagram Followers – BJP v/s Congress

BJP – 1.8 million
Congress – 439.5k

Potential reach for posts

New followers per week day

Instagram engagement

Data for the tracker has been shared by Talkwalker.

Disclaimer: 

Talkwalker is merely a social listening tool and has been used to measure the social accounts of the two political parties, all views expressed in the post are independent of Talkwalker.

This is a data backed article and Social Samosa doesn’t endorse any opinions or political parties whatsoever.

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Himalaya Men’s recent advertisement featuring Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant has come under the spotlight and is raking in negative reviews.

When we say today’s the age of social media, we are bound to agree that it comes with its share of pros and cons, where everyone is eligible to be judged. Recently the ad world has been feeling the heat of this very social media trait and how.

Where good-deed campaigns like P&G Shiksha’s #DontLetDreamsWait and Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad receive a thumbs up from the digital dwellers, there are campaigns like Gillette’s #MeToo razors ad on ‘toxic masculinity’ bashed back and forth. And falling prey to a certain kind of flak or disagreement today was Himalaya Men’s ‘Looking Good…And Loving It’ ad featuring crickets studs Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant.

The video showed Kohli and Pant rapping to a song that subtly had in it integrated a definition of good looks and a mantra to become a hero and be cool. Revealed by none other than cricket God and India’s favorite hero Kohli, the secret to becoming a hero is ‘a face sans pimple’. The ad is presumed to communicate that a man who ought to have a pimple (a natural occurrence), cannot step out of the house and be a cool dude.

As per an official press release by the company, with male grooming emerging as one of the fastest growing sectors in India’s Personal Care segment, Himalaya MEN will play an important role in the new trend of looking good. The concept of “Looking Good…And Loving It” brings to life a unique amalgamation of style as well as the brand vision of “Wellness in Every Home and Happiness in Every Heart”.

“Being role models, both Virat and Rishabh were our first choice. They perfectly symbolize the brand’s promise to make every young manlook good and feel confident,” said Rajesh Krishnamurthy, Business Head – Consumer Products Division, The Himalaya Drug Company.

The campaign has many discussing various aspects of the brand’s message. For one, implying that a man is not a hero and cool if he has pimples, creates self-doubt in the minds of many who follow these cricketing stars ardently. Further, showing captain cool as pimple-less and the junior as someone who is taking cool lessons on how to be cool, doesn’t appear as a responsible form of messaging.

The campaign has also posed various other questions like does it make sense to show sporting figures who represent India globally, dancing to such jingles?

Also Read: Experts decipher the effectiveness of Prega News’ #GoodNewsIsGenderFree

However, it could be that the brand had a certain TG in mind with whom this would work. Social Samosa has reached out to the brand to understand their point of view.

As this debate rages, it brings back the age-old thought that should celebrity endorsers be responsible for the communication they appear in? Or the brands need to be more responsible- because this is the age of opinions and opinions matter?

The post Industry disagrees with Virat Kohli’s definition of hero in this Himalaya Men’s ad appeared first on Social Samosa.

In an exclusive tete-a-tete with Social Samosa, Gordon Bowen, Founder, and Global Chairman, McGarryBowen talks about the cause marketing wave in the Ad-Verse, Indian creative Industry, and the future of independent agencies.

On the sideline for this year’s Goafest, Social Samosa caught up with Founder and Global Chairman and Global CCO, Dentsu Aegis Network, Gordon Bowen to know how does he see the Indian creative industry evolving. On which Bowen opined that by the nature of India itself its opportunities lie within the country and outside the country. The largest is the population as such,  the creative industry must increasingly flourish and grow as large companies to capture more of head and heart. He also felt that technology adoption is going to expand more exponentially then geometrically back home.

Watch the entire interview below:

Bowen also shared that clients in the United States seek to have inspiration from different parts of the world for their campaigns and therefore they go out of the boundaries of America. For eg: a package design for any Mondelez product can be inspired by India, China or France.

Further talking about the #MeToo movement and the cause marketing approach of marketers, Bowen thinks that the #MeToo movement has not helped but actually hurt young women.

“That’s a very unfortunate outcome. And I suspect a change over time but that’s not what was intended by the #MeToo movement certainly. One of the things that happen in general is that many of these movements are driven by people on the edges. We sometimes have a tendency to overreact and overcompensate. So either agencies or clients pick some so conservative and fear-based insight rather than love based. We cannot show our love without passion”.

Also Read: #SamosaTalks: Any idea that takes too much explaining is not a great idea: Rajiv Dingra, WatConsult

He further exemplified his thoughts by saying that women should not be objectified, but they are essential, sexual and creative beings. And that there is a nuance how you present that. You could end up in a situation where it gets overtalked and suddenly the portrayal of women gets boiled down to being so stereotypical in another way because the clients are afraid of this and that.

“Pretty soon you end up in a situation where you are blind and don’t present the head and heart of what we are as human beings,” he added.

Bowen’s advice to the creative industry is that look at your consumer with love and not fear. We are heart and head driven as human beings and we need to remember that passion is the driver for any business.

When quizzed about the future of independent agencies in light of Droga5’s acquisition by Accenture and similar others, Bowen reminisced that just like Droga5, his company was also acquired.

He shared, “We were the fastest growing agency on Madison Avenue. We won agency of the year three times. But we were at the size where we could only do that in the offices we had in the US. We had to join a network so we could serve our clients globally like Intel or Mondelez.”

“It really depends on your aspirations. He who has the best idea wins,”- Gordon Bowen.

Watch the full video interview here:

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Take a look at the special categories of Best Social Media Brands 2019. Nominations open now!

In its third edition, Best Social Media Brands (BSMB) is all set to recognize and celebrate brands that have evolved with the evolving nature of social media as a medium. Brands that don the humane mask to become more approachable, interactive, and engaging – now is your time to shine.

As a part of Best Social Media Brands 2019, The Sammie will be given to 20 Main (Brand) categories, 15 Special (Campaign) Categories, and 6 Individual (Marketing Achievers) Category. Take a look at the special categories of BSMB 2019 and start nominating now!

Best Social Media Brand – Cause Marketing

A category dedicated to brand campaigns that not only aced cause marketing as a concept but also stood true to their words by championing for the cause offline.

Best use of social media to launch a product/service

This category is for brands that have managed to launch a product through social media channels.

Best use of social media platform for campaign – Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

Does your brand take pride in creating a path breaking campaign for any of the social media platforms? Now is the time to shine.

Best Use of Video Content

The success of video as a medium for marketing isn’t news anymore. If you have managed to create path breaking video content from a marketing perspective, this category is for you.

Best Use of Influencers – Facebook/Instagram/Twitter

Cracked an influencer marketing campaign successfully? Nominate now.

Also Read:Nominations for the 3rd edition of #SAMMIE Best Social Media Brands open now!

Best Use of Branded Content and Creators

The category is for brands that went beyond ordinary advertising through branded content on their channel or in association with creators.

Best UGC / Co Creation Strategy

User generated campaigns that leveraged content created by consumers as a part of the campaign.

Best Use of Social Media to generate leads or drive revenues

Social media is one of the strongest mediums for generating leads. If your brand has managed to generate considerable RoI from their social media marketing efforts or generate Leads through social media, nominate now.

Best Social Media Brand – Moment Marketing

Be it the egg that vent viral or GOT Finale – if your brand knows how to ignite a moment with the right marketing strategy and leverage it, you know what to do.

Best Social Media Brand – Occasional Marketing

Diwali, Holi, or Eid – occasions make for the best opportunities to interact and engage with you consumers. If a winning occasional marketing campaign is under your kitty, nominate now.

Best Use of Technology to create a seamless Brand Experience on Social Media

AI, VR, AR – if you have aced the use of technology for a seamlessly integrated campaign, this category is for you.

Most Conversational Brand on Social Media

Audiences no longer want to be a part of someone else’s story. They want to be a part of a conversation, be heard to, be spoken to. If you take pride in managing a brand that is conversational and engaging, apply now.

Best use of Memes

Memes have evolved as marketing vehicles in the last few years. This category is for campaigns that have leveraged memes to for a marketing objective.

Best Use of Content Marketing

The traditional definition of content marketing using content to market a product or service. However, with changing times this definition has changed. It is all about creating engaging content that conveys the message in an effective and unobtrusive manner. For great content marketing campaigns, nominate.

Best Use of Digital Data, Analytics and Listening

Data is a goldmine for it gives you detailed insights about who your consumer is, what they want when they want it, and how they want it. Using data right is half the battle won. If your brand has managed to leverage data truly and wholly, nominate under this category.

Nominations open till June 16! Don’t waste time. Nominate now.

The post All you need to know about Best Social Brands – Special Categories (Awards) appeared first on Social Samosa.

In what he likely called the next chapter of his life, AIB’s ex-founder Gursimran Khamba launched Light@27- a comedy consultancy offering content and strategy solutions across live and digital media.

Khamba took to his social media to announce the update and added, “My team and I have a host of exciting long-form content projects in the pipeline – details of which I will be sharing with you soon”.

The announcement comes close on the heels of All India Bakchod (AIB) confirming to stay away from the content creation space for at least a while now. Since their dysfunctioning last year after Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba were embroiled in the #MeToo controversy, all fans were waiting was for the channel to make a comeback. According to AIB’s official Instagram post, the company saw rock bottom due to the controversy and did not have any partners or revenue to stay afloat. It also further informed that Tanmay Bhat will no longer be holding the post of CEO, whereas Gursimran Khamba will be working independently from now on and will not be associated with the company. 

Also Read: Ex AIB Aakash Shah launches ‘One Hand Clap’. All you need to know…

The post also mentioned that Khamba withdrew himself from the investigation process and did not provide enough co-operation. To which, the comedian replied stating, “An allegation was made by someone with whom I shared a deep personal relationship. Since the allegation surfaced, an informal complaints committee was set up under the POSH ACT. Nevertheless, because I had nothing to hide, I voluntarily chose to participate and began by extending all possible cooperation to this committee.”

Further, he also shared that amidst all this he was able to find a silver lining to look up to. “Through all of this, I got a chance to reflect and think about what I am truly passionate about, who I want to work with and what I’d want the next chapter of my life to be. With that, I am thrilled to announce the launch of my new venture Light@27,” read his post.

On the rationale behind launching  Light@27, Khamba stated that when he started doing stand-up, he always did 30-minute sets. “And minute 27 was when I asked for the stage light to be shown – acting as a prompt for me to launch into my strongest act. It’s now time to launch into that act,” Khamba signed off.

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Experts discuss the role of General Elections 2019 social media marketing strategy and digital play, understanding the true power of the medium as a marketing vehicle.

Call it the Great Indian Elections or the longest election or the most important one – all the superlatives lead to an expensive affair with a magnetic momentum proffering engagement opportunities in the Ad World. Political parties thrived on it, brands latched on, and consumers, well they enjoyed all the attention.

The spends game – Is digital really winning?

What was probably made into a practice by Obama, became an oxygen tank during General Elections (globally and Indian) – digital media! All the memes, the trolling, the trending, and the campaigns and yet experts opine that digital media was grossly underused.

“While there was a speculation that there would be increased spending on digital media and the battle will be fought digitally this year , the real sense is that almost all parties have under spent in digital,” opines Gopa Kumar, Executive Vice President, Isobar India.

In terms of hard numbers, media reports suggest 139,000 poll ads were done on Facebook and Google. BJP obviously topped the charts with INR 17.11 Crores spent on Google alone. 62.5 per cent of the overall ad spends were raked from elections.

Similarly, on Facebook, BJP was the largest spender and it clearly reflected in their social media presence and dominance. Between April 16 to April 30, BJP held 71.5 per cent of the total share of voice on Facebook also leading in the trending hashtags chart with #PhirEkBaarModiSarkar and #NaMoAgain.

“Approximately 500 crore is said to have been spent this time on digital media, which is 70% more than the 2014 elections,” shares Akshay Gurnani, Co-Founder & CEO, Schbang.

The importance of phases in the General Elections reflected in the Ad Spends as well. According to a report by News18, political parties amped up spends before the third phase of elections. Reported, INR 7 crore was spent on running political ads on Facebook and Instagram in the first 20 days of April.

Bindu Balakrishnan, Country Head, DCMN India opines that there were more than 84 million new voters and 300 million voters of Facebook, so the tilt of spends had to be heavy on social because this set of audience spend a lot of time on social media. The increase in spends towards trolls and memes however is to be noted.

“One thing needs to be taken into account here is the amount of money spent on troll armies, WhatsApp groups and Social Media pages promoting different ideologies, leaders and parties. There were thousands of such groups collating information, creating memes across languages and circulating them across the country,” Balakrishnan expresses.

However, the spent on these activities cannot be calculated but they are way above than the accounted spends on the medium.

A definite part of the digital plan was also the well-articulated content strategy containing the movies and web series around political leaders. While they couldn’t release before the election results were announced, their released being postpone was newsy and engaging enough (of course going by the adage any publicity is good publicity).

Aanchal Arora, Founder 1702 Digital tells Social Samosa, “The crafty strategies employed by political parties in this general elections included investing in movie marketing followed by heavy spends on different digital platforms. Political parties spent a whopping Rs. 53 cr between February and May in promoting themselves in the digital sphere with BJP owning more than half of the share of that pie.”

Arora further shares that with spends more than INR 17 cr on Google and INR 8.23 cr on Facebook, BJP successfully used the different platforms and the fan pages set up to reach out to the Indian audience. In contrast, Congress did not go heavy on digital spends and focussed more on the tried and tested methods of fanning the ire of the common people against the ruling Government. At a time when no publicity is good publicity, the effect of this decision was disastrous.

Also Read:#TopicalSpot: Brands voting for Elections 2019 Campaigns

The Brand Angle

Given the sheer size of the momentum created by General Elections 2019, giving it a hard pass was definitely difficult for brands. Thus, the election season witnessed many neutral and responsible campaigns. The likes of Comedy Central and McDonald’s took to social media. The general messaging was around the responsibility of casting a vote and making the right decision.

“Most of the brands tend to keep away from elections as they would not want to get into any incessant controversy or tick someone in wrong way. The environment of brand and political point of view is still evolving in India and is in a very nascent stage,” Kumar comments. “Brands who do have some communication tend to be neutral and they tend to stick to asking people to come out and vote. I did not find any striking campaigns.”

Echoing a similar view, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder & Managing Director, Fulcro shares that brands tend to avoid controversies. And to a great extent brands need to avoid controversies, for the Ban XYZ brand and its ambassadors and anyone who was ever associated with it circus can be tedious and not something brands can afford.

“Most youth brands have taken advantage of this heightened interest on social media as well as news websites and apps. However, given recent controversies when brands got into trouble during Holi with their digital content, the number of brands who released election-related content has been unexpectedly low,” Mitter tells Social Samosa.

One of the most important General Elections for India has concluded and with it concluded a great marketing phase. As experts stay divided on the role of social media and digital on the results of elections, it brings us to a few questions – how do we define “low spends” when it comes to digital? Comparing it to Television & Prints numbers certainly wouldn’t be fair due to the medium’s mass appeal. Second, do spends impact the results? Had there been better results if the spends were North of where they’re now? Also, on the brand side – are brands shying away from digital due to the fear of controversies or menace for trolls?

Like any other campaign, it is difficult to calculate hard RoI on the election spends, but social media can definitely be termed the supporting actor for the party that ruled the socialverse also won the elections.

Feature Image Source

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Social Samosa creates a comprehensive list of all Cannes Lions 2019 India Entries – take a look at which campaigns represent the Indian ad world.

Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity extends for five days in June in exploration of creativity as communicated by brands worldwide.

Cannes Lions 2019 will commence on June 17 and revel until 21 June. The Jury Presidents have declared ‘bravery’, ‘boldness’ and ‘simplicity’ as key themes but more importantly content that reflects the shifting culture and public space.

Even this year some of India’s powerhouse agencies with their brilliant ideas driven by equally competent strategy – namely FCB India, WATConsult, Tonic Worldwide, Leo Burnett, Dentsu Impact, VMLY&R India, Isobar, Cheil India, Blink Digital, Geometry Encompass Havas India and Rage Communications – prepare to contend for the host of Lions.

While established brands raise the bar higher for commercial excellence, NGO’s bring revolutionised solutions for rural India. However, one binding factor has been the active inclusion of pressing issues India is grappling with, giving a new face to our communication industry.

Social Samosa creates a comprehensive list of all Cannes Lions 2019 India Entries – take a look at which campaigns represent the Indian ad world.

Havas and Rage Communications

Photo Ok Please: Tata Motors

Tonic Worldwide

MTV Woofer: MTV India

Liva Eco- The last mile of sustainability: Liva

The Responsible Smart Mirror: Liva

Power Pockets: Flying Machine

Kotak 811 #BenchOfUnity- India Invited: Kotak Mahindra Bank

Filmykaant: Sony Max

FCB India

Bhukkad: The Open Door Project

Stories of Strength: Horlicks

Horlicks: #FearlessKota #BottleOfLove and #FearlessSongs

Cheil India

Samsung Bixby Voice Forever: Samsung

The Real Kashmir: Adidas

Connected By Colors: Adidas

Also Read: Cannes 2018: 18 Indian entries get shortlisted across 5 categories

WATConsult

Kaala Teeka: Action Aid (NGO)

Raksha Ki Choodiyan: Anandi in association with Aakar (NGO)

Give Subtitles to Suicide: Suicide Prevention India Foundation

Beat the crave: Marico’s Saffola Active

Thanks a Dot: SBI in association with Women’s Cancer Initiative -Tata Memorial Hospital    

Kids Not For Sale: Snapdeal in association with Save the Children (NGO)

Powerless Queen: Nanhi Kali (NGO)

Mind your language: Racold

VMLY&R India

#IndiaDegaAashirvad: India Gate Foods

Leo Burnett

#JeepDemocracy: The Jeep

#VoteBecauseYouCan: MTV

Beat of a Billion: Spotify

There’s a Playlist for that: Spotify

#Backoff: Car Dekho

Blink Digital

Alexa, Play my song: Amazon Echo

Kentucky Flying Objects: KFC

Dentsu Impact

Wrong Pronunciation: ASTA Language School

Close open defecation: We are Water Foundation India

Catch it small: Max Healthcare

Voiceless Victims: Wildlife SOS

Fixed: Polyfix

Isobar

#HerCourageLessons: MySchoolReviews.com

Geometry Encompass

Beginning of Togetherness (Shree Ganesh Apnepan ka): Brooke Bond Red Label

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