2015

An EMPIRICAL STUDY

| NIDHI AGARWAL | AVINASH AYYAGARI

 |  

Contents

PROPOSAL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................... 2

LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................................... 4

PROPOSED METHOD......................................................................................................................... 20

Sample Questions.............................................................................................................................. 22

DISCCUSION - CAMPAIGNS SELECTED & DETAILED ANALYSIS...........................................23

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................................................... 49

REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................ 53

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PROPOSAL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The popularity of social media platforms, and the opportunities they represent are expanding at a

very exciting pace in India today. Consumers are now exposed not just to what the brand is

communicating about themselves, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., over the

world are saying as well. There are numerous examples of extremely successful digital campaigns

executed in the West, which have managed to generate enough customer engagement to enable

significant enhancement of their brand equity. Our empirical study examines the premise that do

these numbers actually help a brand in increasing effective consumer engagement and

channelizing a consumer perception about the brand?

Right now, in India, the social penetration of brands in India is a micro-version of that in the West.

The digital medium has been tagged as the future for the coming years. Through the course of our

literature review, in which we looked at various Western and Indian digital campaigns, we

observed that while some brands create a special identity for themselves through social media

forums, others post on these forums just for the sake of registering presence. That is to say, that

though they register their presence online, there is no effective customer engagement resulting

from this presence, and thus no significant addition to the brand equity.

Through the course of the research we have observed campaigns that have helped:

The positioning of a brand

The branding objective for a company

Genuine engagement with the brand

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We have selected these campaigns based on :

Recency

Their success on social platforms in terms of engagement.

This research had aided us in observing how digital campaigns are helping a brand engage and

converse with its consumers, adjudge what kind of campaigns create share value and word of

mouth marketing for a brand. We wish to see if just a high number of likes and comments are

successful in creating a brand image in the mind of the consumers.

Juxtaposing these observations with the ever-expanding scope of digital marketing in India, we

ultimately aim to chalk out the right social media marketing/digital strategies a brand can follow to

generate actual additional brand equity

Should this study get published, it could result in the following implications for the following

stakeholders:

Brands, could use the presented analysis to understand which factors attract consumers to a

brand, and compel them to engage in active communication with the brand.

Brands could also use the data and suggestions given to design relevant and effective social media

strategies and campaigns.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Our research directly pertains to digital branding helping a brand grow. While numbers are one

way of looking at it, the message communicated to the consumers and users happens to be the

other critical aspect.

During our research, we looked at an exhaustive list of digital media campaigns executed in the

west and handpicked a few that according to us have set a premise for us to proceed with our

research.

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KEY INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNS:

THE DOVE REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES CAMPAIGN

It was certainly one of most talked about campaigns on 2013. The content was pushed to

advertisements, videos, workshops as well as a publication of a book and a production of a play; it

was of the most shared videos on the Internet. It generated over 114 million views and was the 3rd

most shared ad of all time. The campaign invited 1800+ blog posts written about it.The video

featured actual women in along with pictures that the forensic artist drew; all content primed to

share.

Differentiating element: The brand could identify the need of the audience i.e. the need to feel

beautiful and accepted. While the fashion industry was still considering that a size-8 model was

“plus size,” Dove definitely stood apart from its competition by featuring models of all sizes, boldly

asserting that ultrathin is not a requirement for beauty. Dove created a community that was based

on acceptance and appreciation of beauty in all its shapes and sizes. Research from Harvard

psychologist Nancy Etcoff examining the campaign then and now finds more women today define

beauty on a wider array of qualities beyond looks, such as confidence. In an age where women

were constantly searching for terms like "Plastic surgery”, "I hate my body”,"diet" and "gym”, the

marketers rightly tapped on the message and delivered a campaign anchored to break away from

he stigma.

While in India campaigns are in a race for likes , comments and shares ; we observed a few

international campaigns targeting a smaller yet more engaged audience when it came to niche

products .

GREY POUPON’s FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN

Grey Poupon is a high-end mustard brand that strictly focused of quality over quantity .Its probably

one of the few brands that actually turned away fans from its Facebook page. Knowing that all the

likes wouldn't convert into brand favorability and loyalty given their product positioning, they

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started something unique. They began to screen fans who attempted to like the page to see if they

have good enough taste to become one of the company's Facebook fans ". Fans of the brand were

asked to apply for membership to the Society on the Grey Poupon Facebook page, where an

algorithm then determined whether or not they 'cut the mustard’. The algorithm "would search

and judge users' profiles based on their proper use of grammar, art taste, restaurant check-ins,

books read and movie selections, to name a few. “We want to differentiate the brand and

reinforce that when it comes to Dijon mustard that Grey Poupon is the leader in ‘taste,’ ” said Sara

Braun, marketing director at Kraft Foods, which owns the brand. She believes that Grey Poupon's

Facebook page may just end up having more engaged fans than some of these other brands

because their fans "had to earn that position."

OREO ON INSTA: COOKIE vs CRÈME CAMPAIGN

Brand campaigns via Instagram in the Indian market are more or less restricted to re-posts , tags

and captions . Oreo launched the "whisper fight" campaign by asking fans to submit a picture that

they loved with a hashtag of either #cookiethis or #cremethis on Insgtagram via a superbowl ad.

The campaign was able to increase its Instagram fan base from 2200 to 20000 within a span of 2

months. The brand took the participation forward by reimagining user submitted photos with

either actual “creme” or “cookies” in beautiful works of art in less than four hours. “We knew we

wanted to kick off the next 100 years for OREO in a big way, and what better way than by bringing

the long-standing disagreement of cookie versus creme announced at the Super Bowl, said Lisa

Mann, Vice President, Cookies, Mondelēz International. “We were asked to come up with a

campaign that would take the cookie vs. creme debate to the big stage and appeal to a younger

demographic,” said the creator of the campaign. We wanted to communicate with them in the

places that they were hanging out, so that’s kind of where Instagram came into play”, said the

creator of the campaign.

STARBUCKS: TWEET A COFFEE CAMPAIGN

“Does direct marketing work in the case of social media?” a question that has intrigued many

investors, CMOs, brands and digital critiques.

Starbucks launched a campaign that led consumers buy coffee for friends on Twitter, prompting

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about $180,000 in purchases within a fortnight. Tweet-a-Coffee let you give a $5 gift card to a

friend by putting both "@tweetacoffee" and the friend's handle in a tweet. Recipients could then

open the link on their phones on their next visit to Starbucks and just show the screen and have

the bar code scanned. $180,000 was a respectable return on investment since the program

probably required a low investment. Results declared that 27,000 fans used the program and some

34% of users bought multiple gift cards and 32% of the purchases occurred on the first day.

CROWDSOURCING: “My Starbucks Idea” CAMPAIGN

What if you were to decide how your favorite brand could improvise? “My Starbucks idea" was

one of the most talked about campaigns by the Brand. The microsite site invited suggestions to

be voted on by Starbucks consumers, and the most popular suggestions were highlighted and

reviewed. Starbucks then took it a step further and added an "Ideas in Action" blog that gave

updates on the status of changes suggested. Later on this website started to work as a community

for Starbucks customers and they started enjoying their time around there. It was a brand that was

successful in creating a community out of its fan base.

THE FOURSQUARE WAY : STELLA’s LE BAR GUIDE

ABIn Bev is amongst the largest alcoholic beverage brands in the world and one of their biggest

brands is Stella Artois. A key challenge for the brand is to maintain their leading position, whilst

simultaneously pushing the boundaries. The beer brand used a different platform Foursquare to

attract mindshare.Le Bar Guide servedas a premium service to help consumers find the perfect bar

environment for the perfect night out, and is a natural next step in crafting the perfect experience

for discerning drinkers. The application-included features such as user generated content,

augmented reality, social networking links and one of the biggest databases of bars in the world.

Users are able to view bars in their local area in standard view (3G) or in augmented reality view

(3GS). They could select a bar by distance or ratings and reviews, then share the information

with friends, as well as upload their own ratings and reviews for a bar of their choice. Bars could

also be sorted through other criteria including price, proximity and rating.

CANON : THE CHINESE FOREST GUMP CAMPAIGN

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To promote Canon's fourth year of sponsoring the 30th Beijing International Marathon, Canon

came up with the concept of a real-life version of Forrest Gump who invites people on the street to

take a run with him. The Chinese runner ran non-stop during the day used Weibo, a Chinese

Twitter-style platform, to post his location and other updates. His messages became so popular

that Canon created an official account to handle the overflow and communicate with people who

replied to his posts and asked questions generating 6877 followers within 3 weeks. The campaign

was designed to embody Canon China's slogan -- which translates to "Delighting You Always." By

joining technology to real-life events, the campaign used social media in a relevant way that was

clearly successful -- all over Beijing's streets.

PINTEREST AS A MEIDUM : The Jetsetter Curator

As experts have it, user generated content has been trending the charts globally when it comes to

social media campaigns. Jetsetter focuses on inspiring vacation ideas and providing travel deals for

the immediate future. Pinterest helps users put all of their travel fantasies on one canvas. Since its

launch in 2009, Jetsetter had fielded many an inquiry from customers who were curious about

becoming a Jetsetter curator. So Jetsetter made it happen. For its Jetsetter Curator Pinterest

contest, Jetsetter asked pinners to create "the ultimate destination pinboard" for a fortnight. Using

content on Jetsetter and around the web, Jetsetter members pinned photos in four categories:

escape, adventure, style and cosmopolitan.Winning boards were selected by Jetsetter editorial

staff and a panel of judges, including Arianna Huffington and the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar.

The winner in each category won a three-night stay at a Jetsetter destination pertaining to that

category.The most followed Jetsetter Curator board won its owner $1,000 in Jetsetter credit, a

reward that incentivized pinners to share their boards and pins with friends. More than 1,100

users vied for a free trip, with an average of 40 images per board, totaling nearly 50,000 pins.

Throughout the contest, referral traffic from Pinterest to Jetsetter.com increased 100% and page

views increased 150%. Not only were more people coming to Jetsetter.com, but they were also

sticking around longer — the bounce rate decreased by 10 to 15% during the promotion. On

Pinterest, the promotion helped Jetsetter jump from 2,000 to 5,300 followers. Another reason why

the contest was a win is that, aside from the prizes, Jetsetter Curator was a free activation — all of

the content was user-generated. This bootstrapped approach is promising for small businesses,

which seek to innovate and engage without breaking the bank. The overall goal of our Jetsetter

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Curator contest was branding, quality content generation and engagement with members. They

wanted to build engaged community of travel curators on Pinterest.

VOLKSWAGEN POLOWERS CAMPAIGN

When it came to the Automobile sector, we observed a couple of campaigns by Volkswagen

executed on digital platforms. Volkswagen Spain and DDB came up with the POLOWERS Grand

Prix.They integrated the Twitter API into the Polowers microsite and asked users to become

followers to participate in the race. Every time a participant tweeted using the #polowers hashtag,

a virtual Polo on the microsite would advance a few metres. The person to send the last tweet

before the Polo crossed the virtual finish line, would win the car.The campaign resulted in over

150,000 tweets in just 8 hours reaching 10% of Spain’s total Twitter audience. The Polo section on

Volkswagen Spain’s website received a record number of visits.

THE BURGER KING WHOPPER SACRIFICE CAMPAIGN

The Whopper Sacrifice campaign by Burger King used Facebook to promise a coupon for a free

hamburger if participants deleted 10 people from their friends list. It was a wild success: the

Facebook application was installed 60,000 times in a matter of days, 20,000 Whopper coupons

were sent out, and over 200,000 Facebook friends were deleted. But Facebook disabled the

campaign within ten days, claiming that it was a violation of user privacy because Whopper

Sacrifice notified friends if they had been deleted. The brand tapped into the essence of how social

networks have changed our ideas of what “friendship” means. "It was also said that the campaign

was a little too brutal because it did send notifications. But many of those coupon-bearing

customers would have been people who typically don’t shop there, thus bringing in new

customers. For Burger King, this resulted in a spike in the number of customers and sales, as well

as publicity, both good and bad, before ending the campaign 2-3 weeks after launching.

THE INDIA STORY :

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While Indian brands are trying hard to innovate and differentiate their brand conversations via

social forums, the Internet speed and penetration in India is one of the biggest challenges when it

comes to reach.

INTERNET PENETRATION AND USAGE PATTERN IN INDIA

Internet Penetration in the country may not have crossed 16% of the population yet, but in

obsolete numbers, this percentage is nearly ten times the population of Australia. The IMAI reports

that the nation had crossed the two hundred million mark by October 2013 The report from IMAI

and IMRB estimates 243 million internet users in India by June 2014, overtaking the US as the

world’s second largest internet base after China. The 205 million Internet users that the IMAI

reports for India are all not active users, i.e. they us Internet at least once a month. While Indians

primarily use the Internet for communication, largely in the form of email, social media is also an

important driver of Internet use in India. This fact from the IMAI report can be conformed with

data from other sources such as Facebook, according to which India had about 82 million monthly

active users by June 30, 2013, which is the second largest geographical region for Facebook alone

after the US and Canada as Facebook does not operate in China.

Internet penetration in India is driven largely by mobile phones, with even some of the cheapest

and most basic handsets today offering access to the Internet. India has about 110 million mobile

Internet users of which 25 million are in rural India. But at the same time, the price points of

internet and accessibility of data services pose a challenge for brands to put out social media

campaigns for the masses College-goers remain the largest users of the internet in India, followed

by young men.

While the IMAI report paints an optimistic picture of Internet use in the country, another report by

the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, ranked India 145 of around 200 countries for

the percentage of individuals using the Internet. However, the Internet’s role in communication,

social networking, and informing and influencing India’s consumers in categories such as apparel,

books, financial services, and travel is already comparable with that of developed countries.

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The report goes onto say that India is likely to have the second-largest user base in the world, and

the largest in terms of incremental growth, with 330 million to 370 million Internet users in 2015.

Given current downward trends in the costs of Internet access and mobile devices, India is on the

verge of an Internet boom. In an evolution pattern unique to India, users who access the Internet

only through a mobile or tablet device will constitute around 75 percent of new users and

55 percent of the aggregate user base in 2015, leading to increasing demand for content that is

optimized for a small screen.

India has the potential to double its economic contribution from the Internet in the next

three years, from 1.6 percent of GDP at present to 2.8 to 3.3 percent by 2015. Despite the large

current base of users, the Internet currently contributes to a modest 1.6 percent to India’s GDP, in

line with most aspiring countries.

While India scores well on the availability of human and financial capital, it rates poorly on Internet

infrastructure, Internet engagement, the e-commerce platform, the ease of Internet

entrepreneurship, and the impact of e-governance. On most indicators of the strength of the

Internet ecosystem, India ranks in the bottom quartile of our comparison set of 57 countries.

Although the Internet ecosystem is becoming more vibrant, the benefits have been relatively

concentrated. India’s Internet start-ups are scaling up through creative adaptations to overcome

infrastructural and systemic bottlenecks. Yet, while large enterprises have gained from their early

adoption of the Internet, there is scope among individual consumers, SMEs and the government

sector to significantly increase engagement. Today, India’s measurable consumer surplus from the

Internet is estimated at $9 per user per month, at the low end of the range for aspiring countries

($9 to $26) and well below the range for developed countries ($18 to $28). Even by 2015, with

overall Internet penetration likely to reach 28 percent, rural penetration is likely to be just

9 percent.

Concerted actions by policy makers and businesses in five areas can help India achieve an inclusive

Internet transformation: reduce the cost of Internet access across devices, content and

applications; increase access to low-cost, high-speed connectivity in rural and semi-urban India

beyond the top cities; promote widespread digital literacy through the introduction of devices and

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content tailored to the local context; devise Internet applications in new areas such as agriculture,

health care, education, energy, utilities, and public information; and create a more favorable

business environment for Internet entrepreneurs to support rapid innovation

According to ‘The Mobile Internet Consumer: India 2013 survey conducted by the MMA; Mobile

Marketing Association and VSERV.mobi

More than half of all the mobile internet users in India belong to the age group of 18-24 years.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Less than 18 yrs18-2425-35more than 35

9 out of 10 mobile Internet users in India are men.

MenWomen

Of these users, almost half of them in India are highly educated.

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Graduate/PG

Diploma/UG

Schooling upto 12 yrs

Uneducated

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Occupation wise, 2/3rd of the mobile internet user base in India belongs to the earning class.

Besides browsing, email and chat, Game Apps are the most downloaded type of mobile content.

Mobile Internet Users

enjoy getting content

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and deals through mobile ads. Brands leveraging this consumption behavior drive higher

engagement and recall.

Download Mobile Content

Find good deal on something

Learn about a brand

Locate something nearby

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

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REVIEW OF INDIAN CAMPAIGNS (2013-2014)

L’OREAL’s ‘STAY ROOTED’ CAMPAIGN

Using a very smart connotation, L’Oreal India launched the ‘Stay Rooted’ campaign. The campaign

had a double aim of not only targeting stronger hair but also of encouraging consumers to take

time out to appreciate people, things, places, moments from their past that have made them the

individuals they are today. L'Oreal released a video in which they captured people from across

different sections of society telling us about that one special person who they’d like to go back in

time and thank.

For this particular campaign, L’Oreal employed the hash tag #KeepsMeRooted on Facebook.

Bikram K. Singh, while analyzing L’Oreal Paris India’s social Media strategy, says that the use of

Facebook hashtags has resulted in increasing page engagement. The brand relies heavily on

symbols of popular culture like Bollywood styles, celebrity’s makeup secrets, weddings, etc.,

generating praise-worthy engagement. L’Oreal Paris India has done a remarkable job in using

Facebook and Twitter independently for different purposes. But the effort is not flawless, as the

amount of likes are significantly higher than comments and shares.

The social media team of L’Oreal Paris India need to find a way to form a loop to drive fans from one

platform to another and eventually help the brand to maximize the reach of their promotions,

contests, and engagement efforts.

ONLINE PROMOTION OF THE MOVIE ‘BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG’

The makers of the 2013 movie ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, took to social media to run an integrated

campaign 7-8 months prior to the release of the movie. These activities focused majorly on

Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.

Sufiyan Khan from Ignitee, says “The social media properties were active but there was no actual

movie content available as the full fledged campaign began in May 2013. To continue the fan

engagement, we used content that is close to the movie - ‘INSPIRATION & MOTIVATION”.

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Various Facebook apps were created for songs along with lyrics and videos. In another unique

move, the agency launched an app that would provide exclusive movie content to the fans –

The First Look Club - exclusive content 6-8 hours before it was shared on public platforms.

The idea - Go deeper, engage fans on micro level with specific mailers, a new area for moviemakers.

Chase Your Dreams – Fans asked to share a realistic personal dream. The output of this app was a

customized cover photo with your name and dream.

The idea - Fans to let the Milkha in them out.

Milkha Fan Art tab – Aimed at creating lots of user generated content (UGC)

.

Apart from this, a microsite was launched and Google Plus was used to conduct a Hangout with

Farhan Akhtar and Rakyesh Mehra, and 9 lucky fans, a first of its kind in the industry. The Twitter

handle stayed away from senseless hashtag promotions, concentrating more on spreading less

known facts about Milkha.

GARNIER’S ‘POWERLIGHT A VILLAGE’ CAMPAIGN

During November 2013, men’s skin care brand Garnier Men launched a CSR initiative, aiming to

light up rural households in India, which are currently devoid of electricity. The main premise of

the ‘PowerLight A Village’ initiative is that every action made online on social media platforms –

every like, share and comment – is translated into actual energy donation on-ground.

Vinaya Naidu of Lighthouse Insights says the initiative drove the social media masses to join the

cause with a number of exciting and engaging activities weaved around storytelling. Roping in the

community to contribute with their social interactions was a cool idea for a rural CSR campaign

Leveraging the power of storytelling on social media has also worked in the brand’s favour. The use

of both Facebook and Twitter to reach out to the community and rewarding them with exciting

incentives for their contributions make for a memorable campaign on social media.”In conclusion,

‘Powerlight a Village’ was one CSR campaign that got its social media right.

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PIZZA HUT’s ‘CHOMP-A-THON CAMPAIGN

In August 2014, Pizza Hut came up with the super-sized Pan Pizza, and ran a campaign around the

theme ‘Size Matters’. The campaign began as a TV Commercial and then extended onto social

media.

The extension of the cool commercial onto social was really done well, with specific and relevant

engagement strategies employed for different platforms. Twitter was rightly used as the buzz-

generation network, by creating conversations around the theme, which helped build a positive

brand recall. Apart from this, reaching out through Twitter influencers – who are also youth icons –

has helped the brand spread the word to the target group, and also maximize visibility.

The use of the Facebook app ‘Chomp-a-thon’, based on an augmented reality concept, requires the

webcam to be switched on and was quite a cool app. It was perhaps the first time that one does not

have to use arrow keys on the keyboard or click a mouse, and instead has to chomp away at a

virtual pizza.

BISLERI’s REAL TIME COUNTDOWN FACEBOOK COVER PHOTO

In May 2013, Bisleri in association with its digital agency, Flying Cursor, ran a unique digital

campaign, a first of its kind in India. Their page was approaching the 1 lakh fans milestone. They

thus created India’s first real time countdown Facebook cover photo, that changed in real time to

reflect the final countdown towards the 1 lakh goal.

According to Vinaya Naidu of Lighthouse Insights, “While there are various ways to thank your fans

like co-creating a community song or thank you video, giving away gifts, crowdsourcing ideas for

celebrating the occasion, here’s an innovative and smart way to mark the 1 lakh milestone on

Facebook. And celebrating fan milestones serves as a good occasion to build engagement and show

gratitude.”

“POCKETS by ICICI BANK”

ICICI Bank, India’s second largest bank, made its foray into social media by joining Facebook in

January 2012, by means of an app called ‘Pockets by ICICI Bank’, aimed towards a social way of

banking. Designed as a complete website, the informative app had many social features including

the ability to make transactions.

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According to Rahul Dubey of Social Samosa, the app, begin convenient and user friendly, was also a

unique technological innovation by ICICI Bank. He considers this an integrated effort by the brand to

take its core message of ‘Khayaal Aapka’ out to social media. The campaign facilitated sensible

applications, discussions, actions and transactions. And unlike online banking, the app offered social

activities for friends and families such as planning outings and films with friends on Facebook.

Also, there was great emphasis on various safety features like secure browsing, two layer secure

access etc.

HINDUSTAN TIMES’ HT NO TV DAY TREASURE HUNT

In a very different kind of a campaign, Hindustan Times organised the ‘HT No TV Day Treasure Hunt’,

encouraging Mumbaiites to switch off the TV and enjoy time with near and dear ones exploring the

sight and sounds of Mumbai city. The Treasure Hunt was hosted on a dedicated Facebook app and

had 8 levels, each of which tested your knowledge about Mumbai.

According to an article by Mariam Noronha, “For a print media publication, Hindustan Times has

done well in terms of using social media as opposed to its counterparts. Tying offline activities like

helicopter rides, science workshops even Shiamak Davar’s Dance workshops with an online

engagement initiative on Facebook is a different yet cool move . If you want to create buzz and build

a long term relationship then this initiative uses the right approach.”

She goes on to say “The campaign is being promoted very well, online as well as offline with enough

buzz on Facebook and Twitter. For every 10 Tweets, with #HTGoGreen, Hindustan Times will plan

one Sapling in Mumbai. The Twitter page augments the Facebook action and keeps the Twitterati

informed and engaged about the Treasure Hunt and No TV day.”

PARLE G’s “THE FUTURE GENIUS ACTIVATION’ CAMPAIGN

Parle G, in an attempt to reach out to parents and kids and engage them in an online activity to

reinstate their brand philosophy, launched the ‘The Future Genius Activation’ campaign on social

media. The campaign was intended an opportunity to interact with the core target group to build a

strong relationship between the brand and them.

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Parle G launched a microsite thefuturegenius.com and roped in Ruskin Bond, to blog for the

purpose. The micro site contains a couple of sections namely Genius Gyaan, Parents Quotient and

Diary of a Genius.

According to Apeksha Harihar of Social Samosa, “Branded content on Facebook is attracting a lot of

engagement on the posts. Each post is well designed and is complemented with effective content.

The application on Facebook has Fan gate. This is important since it offers exclusive content for their

fans. User generated content (parents’ blog entries as well as videos in the genius hub) is a great

way to engage users.”

The article also talks about how Ruskin Bond was the perfect person to represent the platform with

since he strikes an instant chord with kids and is extremely popular among them.

TRESEMME’s INDIA’s ‘RAMP-READY HAIR CAMPAIGN’

With the aim of furthering its position in the premium hair care segment, TRESemmé India has been

reaching out across all mediums talking about giving the consumer an experience of ‘ramp ready

hair’. The brand launched an interactive salon in March 2013, through its YouTube channel hosted

by actress and brand ambassador Diana Penty with DIY videos that take a step-by-step approach for

the featured ramp ready hairstyles. The brand also invited bloggers to check out the

interactive YouTube channel, pick a hairstyle they like, try it and blog about their experiences.

According to an article by Vinaya Naidu, “The concept is a winner – on the one side, it gives

consumers valuable information with do it yourself video tutorials and on the other it talks about

the brand, associating it with the much desirable ‘ramp ready hair’.”

She also talks about how the brand has also integrated all its social media networks to spread the

message, and that it is especially noteworthy. In her words, “All this coupled with promotions on

other mediums, ensures that TRESemmé has it all covered.”

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PROPOSED METHOD

Quantitative Research Methodology

The ROI measure of online campaigns has always been a challenge. While the data-base approach

can get overwhelming, we cannot turn away from critical data. There is a need to be more judicious

about what data-point one has to seek. Online effectiveness tracking has traditionally been framed

in terms of impressions, click-through rates, and the resultant direct-response actions (registration,

purchase). These metrics, while important, only tell a small part of the effectiveness story.

What online campaigns can possibly do is:

People view an ad, click on it, and buy the product from the website itself.

People view an ad, don't click on it and perhaps look to buy the product or recommend the product

the next time they see it around in a store.

While the first option is easy to measure using sales data, the other metric would translate into the

branding part of a brand's advertising. This would include brand awareness, message association,

brand favourability and purchase intent. These are attitudinal in nature and measure people's minds

through their attitudes.

Brand equity is a direct result on consumer experiences and perceptions, which in turn allows a

brand to earn greater volumes or margins that it couldn't do without the brand name.

Thus ,its important for marketeers to look beyond short term click based metrics and observe if the

campaigns are affecting their brands positively in the long run.We have selected the AdIndex

method by Millward Brown for evaluating the effectiveness of our Digital Campaigns. A campaign

in the social space has a variety of outcomes : it can change people perceptions and opinions about

the brand offering , drive search and site visits , drive engagement and ultimately drive sales .

AdIndex uses a survey-based approach making use of a control and exposed methodology . It

quantifies the difference in attitude between two groups of respondents. In our case , these groups

are the Digitally aware set who use Social Platforms like Facebook , Twitter , Youtube etc for

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interacting with friends and family and following brands and their updates ; and the digitally

unaware set who typically use social platforms to just interact with their friends and family . Under

this method ,the impact of a campaign is isolated from other potential variables through placing a

sample of consumers into one of two groups; exposed to the campaign or not exposed to the

campaign. Both take a survey with questions regarding the test brand and differences between the

two samples are tested for statistical significance and attributed to ad exposure. A rigorous

weighting method is then applied to ensure the accuracy in the comparisons made on the two sets.

Metrics examined:

1. Unaided Brand Awareness

2. Aided Brand Awareness

3. Online Brand Awareness

4. Message Association

5. Brand Favourability

6. Purchase Intent

Under the first two metrics we measured the level of familiarity respondents have with the brand,

aided and unaided. Next we measured the extent to which respondents can match the messages

or the concepts in the campaign to the brand. We then moved on the persuasion bit where we

measure Brand Favorability i.e the extent to which respondents had a positive or favorable

opinion about the brand. Lastly we looked at the Purchase Intent or the likelihood of the

respondents to purchase or recommend the brand in the future.

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Sample Questions

Brand Awareness

Un- Aided

When thinking of “X” Brands, which brand first comes to your mind?

Aided

Have you heard of the following Brands?

Message Association

Do you remember seeing any advertising on the Internet in the past 6 months for any of the

following Brands? If yes, which one?

Which of the following sites uses "x" in their advertising?

Brand Favourability

How would you describe your overall opinion about each of the following Brands?

Purchase Intent:

How likely are you to use/recommend the services of the following Brands in the future?

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DISCCUSION - CAMPAIGNS SELECTED & DETAILED ANALYSIS

Campaign 1: Coke’s Friendly Twist Campaign

Start Date: May 27th, 2014 (Worldwide)

Youtube Views: 77,81,932 views on the official Coke handle

Reason for selecting the campaign:

What sets Coke’s campaigns apart from most brands it that it hardly ever concentrates on the

product? It always tries to bring up issues and evoke various emotions in people, and then associate

this to emotions that their product brings out in people. This ad taps into the psyche of the college-

goers and portrays it beautifully. The slight hesitation and nervous jitters one has on the first day of

college, where everyone is new, and conversations are rare. People are choosy about whom to make

their first companion. This is a feeling, which every one of us who is currently in college or has passed

that age will remember and identify with. The concept of the bottle with a twist acts as perfect

icebreaker and sets conversations – and Coke – flowing. In reality, this experiment might’ve been

carried out in a small location with just a few people – but the simplicity and beauty with which Coke

has managed to depict it – delivers a very powerful message and there is an instant connection in

people’s hearts and we find ourselves smiling.

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Questionnaire:

While evaluating the effects of this campaign, we chose the brands Pepsi and Thumbs Up for

comparison. All these three brands have always been very popular in their advertising campaigns.

But after all, at the end of the day, we all know Coca Cola is the king of all brands, and Coke as the

soda of the century. For a brand like this, it is completely unnecessary to go so far, spend so much

money on designing something new, all for one single day and a few teenagers. But, when done

right, the effects and results are measurable and awesome. Like every outreach program of theirs,

Coke outdoes itself. The very fact that these campaigns are not really publicity gimmicks – they all

seem to have one common thread – that of spreading Happiness!

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Results and Analysis:

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Our TOMA results clearly indicate the immense popularity Coke as a Brand enjoys. The recall figures

make sense because the soft drink market is pretty cluttered, and all said and done, Coke is NOT the

market leader in India, Thumbs Up is. In spite of this, the unaided recall enjoyed by Thumbs up is

abysmally low at 10%. Pepsi fares slightly better at 17%.

Going by the 7% difference in the TOMA figures of the digitally aware and the digitally unaware sets,

it can be inferred that Coke’s digital presence and its strong digital campaigns have indeed made a

mark in the average digital data consumer’s mind.

The online brand awareness figures of the three brands clearly indicate that Coke’s digital

campaigns have clearly made a more lasting impact, as it posted a significantly higher average

online brand awareness of 84%, when compared to 56% for Pepsi and a still lower score of 34% for

Thumbs Up.

Out of the set that remembered seeing online campaigns for Coke, about 13% could correctly

recall the most recent one, i.e. the Friendly Twist Campaign. This low figure can perhaps be

attributed to the fact that Coke keeps coming up with memorable campaigns every few months.

What was interesting to note was that the correct campaign recall was much higher in males,

when compared to females.

An interesting observation was that quite a few respondents mentioned the ‘Haan haan Main

Crazy Hoon’ campaign, which was launched almost over a year back. This just shows the

memorability of Coke’s campaigns and how these ads still resonate with the public, long after their

release.

We also decided to test our respondents on whether they could identify this particular campaign

to the right brand i.e. Coke, in order to find out the strength of message association. The

respondents did quite well, with the digitally aware having an average score of 90% and the

digitally unaware category having an average score of 89%. This is not really a surprise, given the

constant thematic campaigns of Coke, centered on happiness, friendliness etc.

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Any campaign, whatever the medium be, can be deemed truly successful only if its popularity and

impact percolates deeper, i.e. is reflected in the brand favorability and purchase intent. The brand

favorability figures for Coke were quite high in both sets, with the digitally unaware set having an

average score of 84.5% and the digitally aware set, a slightly higher score of 87%. We can thus

infer that this slight increase is a direct result of the online campaigns by Coke.

The purchase intent again was quite high, with a marginal difference in the scores of both the

categories. These figures were higher than those obtained for Pepsi and Thumbs Up. This shows

that for a brand that is not the market leader in India, higher purchase intent than the market

leaders is a great sign and its constant online efforts can be deemed to have played their part in

furthering this goal

Campaign 2 :British Airways “Go Further to Get Close”

Start Date: February 14th, 2014

Youtube Views: 22,88,089 on the official British Airways handle

Reasons for selecting the campaign:

The campaign is a one time act depicted in the form of a story strategically launched by British

Airways on Valentines day. It depicts the story of a marriage couple of three years showing how

British Airways helped the husband surprise his wife by giving them an opportunity to escape from

the daily intrusions and get closer to each other. It is based on the insight that young couples today

have made work their top priority in life. This mindset is taking a toll on their personal relationships

as they are unable to spend enough quality time with their partners. The video focuses on spending

quality time with your partner and strengthening the love bond whilst discovering a new place and

enjoying your traveling experience with British Airways. The campaign has a beautiful and emotional

narrative making a direct connect with the consumers exhibiting the fact that British Airways

engages with its community .Through the course of our study we’d like to test if the campaign has

had an impact in the way consumers perceive British Airways and if there is a strong brand connect

with the message being transmitted through the campaign.

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Questionnaire:

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Results and Analysis:

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For

the

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purpose of this survey, we had chosen 5 international airline having their operations in India: British

Airways, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic. None of the airlines

scored too high, which can be attributed to the fact that the international airline market is indeed

very cluttered. Of those that did choose one of the five airlines under study here, Emirates had the

best recall of about 30% by the female category followed by British Airways at 29%, again by

females.

It can be seen that the TOMA figures for British Airways for the digitally aware (28 %) and unaware

set (13%) are in stark contrast. It can thus be interpreted that the online marketing efforts of British

Airways have made an impact on the brand recall.

The aided brand awareness has a perfect 100% for the digitally aware set and 84% for the digitally

unaware set, again emphasizing the difference made by its online campaigns. British Airways fared

better than the other four brands in question here, both in the digitally aware and digitally unaware

categories.

Emirates fared slightly better than British Airways in terms of online brand awareness. About 64% of

the respondents remembered seeing some online advertising for Emirates, whereas for British

Airways, that number was 60%.

Of the ones that had seen online campaigns of British Airways, about 11% could recall the right

campaign i.e. ‘Go Further to Get Close”.

Any campaign, whatever the medium be, can be deemed truly successful only if its popularity and

impact percolates deeper, i.e. is reflected in the brand favorability and purchase/usage intent. In

the case of British Airways, the higher brand favorability for the digitally aware set (81%) as

compared to the unaware set (78 %) indicates that the online campaign did have an impact on

improving the favorability and hence contributed significantly to an end.

A larger difference was seen in the purchase intent figures. The purchase intent for the digitally

unaware set was an average of 71%, whereas for the digitally aware set was about 81%. This is clear

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indication that the digital efforts of British Airways, aside from grabbing eyeballs, have also

contributed towards increasing revenues, i.e. the ultimate aim of any brand.

CAMPAIGN 3: Airtel #4AMFriend

Start Date: May 27th,2014 (India)

Youtube Views: 3,01,951 views on the official Airtel handle

Reason for selecting the campaign:

Brands have increasingly started to invest in engaging video content via Youtube to share their

services, brand offerings and messages. Prank videos have been quite a trend internationally and in

2014 Airtel captured the trend and introduced the concept in India to promote its night calling

plans. The premise of the #4amFriends video by Airtel India is simple, yet interesting. A person

makes a call to his close friends at 4 AM and seeks their help after meeting an accident. As each of

his friends come to rescue him, they are put through a series of spooky experiences that scare them

to death. The quest for them is to find their friend and rescue him; but only one does. The video

ends with the revelation of prank followed by grand celebration. Airtel has made an interesting

attempt at the concept stretching forward their already existing communication around “Friends”.

While most brands in the domestic market are looking at Facebook and Twitter feeds and posts as

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a way to connect to their audience on the social media, some are looking to leverage the power of

Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram.

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Questionnaire:

Airtel is the market leader in terms of mobile service providers in India and has long been known for

its popular advertising campaigns starting from the Airtel-Rahman signature ringtone to the ones

with Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor in them. It came up with the Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota

Hai campaign in 2012 after its rebranding initiative. Airtel’s positioning has constantly been around

enabling relationships. An extension to such branding was their digital campaign around Airtel

#4AMFriend.We wanted to capture a campaign themed around video content on Youtube for a

mass brand through this campaign.

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Results & Analysis

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The

Top-

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of-the-mind Recall for AIRTEL shows an unaided recall of 48% amongst the Digitally Aware set and

40% for the digitally unaware set. Whereas the Vodafone with the 2nd largest market share holds

an unaided brand recall of 44% in the Digitally aware set and 49% for the Digitally Unaware set.

However, it can be inferred that the difference of 8% between the two set of audiences for Airtel

could be accredited to the series of digital campaigns launched by the brand but Vodafone has a

higher recall value amongst the digitally unaware set.This could probably be accredited to the

consistent thematic TV advertising by the brand around Zoo Zoos.

The online brand awareness for both Airtel and Vodafone stands at 69% for the aware set of

respondents, which is marginally above 63% and 61% for the Unaware for Airtel and Vodafone

respectively. The challenge for telecom providers is to capture a larger chunk of the mind-space

given that all telecom providers are heavy on digital advertising during the current era of

smartphone boom in India. Rather even Idea has a recall of 51% amongst the online brand

awareness domain, which goes onto the display the level of online advertising by telecom

providers in India. Digging deeper into the responses, most people recall the "Har Ek Friend

Zaroori Hota Hai" series of ads and videos and the "Modern Day Couple" campaign where the wife

was the boss. A few aware respondents recalled the 4Am ad before they were told about the

campaign in question. Also the "My Plan" ads did make it to the re-call list. When we looked

deeper into Vodafone's advertising, Zoo Zoos were the only ad-recall through the responses. Idea

had a clear connect to both its popular campaigns: "What an Idea Sirjee" and "No Ullu Banoing”.

Also a few respondents in our Digitally Unaware set still hold recall to the "Kar Lo Duniya Muthi

Mein" campaign and the "Rehman tune" advertisements which implies that catchy tunes and

taglines create the most prolonged recall value.

86% of our Digitally Aware respondents could righty identify "4AMFriend" with brand Airtel as

against 75% in the Digitally Unaware set.

When it came to the most critical aspect of our analysis, Advertising leading to Brand Favorability

for Airtel, the Digitally Aware set displayed 86% which is a little above the results of the Unaware

set (82). Surprisingly the results for Vodafone were exactly the same for both sets of respondents

which goes onto say that there isn't much differentiation in terms of brand favorability amongst

the two competitors.

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The purchase intention for both set of audiences were the same. Hence it can be inferred that the

campaign has not been able to create a strong stir in the market. Contrastingly, there was a

distinct difference in the purchase intention for Vodafone amongst the Digitally aware set and the

Digitally Unaware set i.e. 82% and 63%. Hence we can infer that Vodafone has a stronger presence

in terms of social media campaigns in the domain.

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Campaign 4:Trulymadly.com’s Breaking Stereotypes campaign

Start Date: April 9th,2014

Link:http://www.slideshare.net/thetrulymadly/breaking-‐ stereotypes-‐ppt

Reason for selecting the campaign: Social media presence for a start-up in a space full of

established brands

Trulymadly.com is a matrimony site that has differentiated itself on the premise that it makes

people meet prospective on the basis of a proprietary compatibility algorithm based on one’s social

personality and a stringent verification process. Their claim is that instead of traditional matches

based on caste or location or religion, TrulyMadly’s way of connecting people on the basis of who

they are, what they are looking is more successful in finding the right match. The brand wanted to

establish its launch in the market and did so by picking real‐time individuals to submit entries that

encourage breaking away from stereotypes. The campaign was aimed at connecting independent,

like-‐minded, individuals who are not ruled by stereotypes, from across India through social

networking channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The month long campaign

featured 10 photo stories per week, where one stereotype would be broken. Some really popular

ones turned out to be: ‘I am Hindu and I love Beef Burgers’, ‘I run an NGO but still love my H&M

blazer’, and ‘My best friend is a guy and I’m not sleeping with him’. The campaign was heavily

promoted on Facebook and Twitter and through their blog. Amongst the many positives of the

campaign, the brand has made effective use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to

capture the sentiments and mindset of urban daters. The tonality of the statements used is both

funny and uplifting and generates a very high recall value. Also the campaign was able to sustain

pace and quality throughout the month evoking a sense of empowerment all through their

communication. It was a rare case where a not-‐so-‐big brand was successful in making users to

upload these pictures from their own profiles, which talks about the fact that the TG was able to

connect with the campaign. Also getting real people to share content built a sense of credibility that

most matrimony sites lose out on.

The idea of taking this campaign is too see if a highly shared campaign can add value to a not-‐so-‐

known brand’s awareness, image and perception. Also where the campaign pictures were a huge

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success, our purpose is to adjudge if they could build a connect to the brand’s service in particular

and if the message that the brand was trying to convey was evident to the viewers.

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Questionnaire:

Trulymadly.com is a matrimony startup that kick started its operations in 2014 aiming to capture a

gap in the matrimony business.Shaadi.com and bharatmatrimony.com on the other hand are age-old

companies capturing a chunk of the market share, share of voice and mindshare.

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The founders claim that the portal is a first-of-its-kind matchmaking website 'rooted in generation NOW'.

Describing the portal as one for independent-minded singles, it promises to help find people their true match,

beyond the confines of mere caste and creed."People want to be in a relationship with someone they can get

along with. There needs to be an understanding in relationships - not a compromise. That's what we establish

through the compatibility tests. We match people based on their reactions to situations, everyday issues, as

well as their expectations. We spoke to over three thousand couples and two thousand singles, understood the

issues and developed a system to match two people. It is possible to find love online without getting stalked or

swindled and that is what we bring to the table."

Results & Analysis:

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Our TOMA results exemplified the same displaying unaided brand recall of 68% amongst the aware

set and 44% amongst the unaware set for shaadi.com.Our brand in question, TrulyMadly.com had

an unaided recall for 3%.

Given that the campaign was an astounding success in the sphere of social media campaigns, we

wanted to check the aided awareness levels for trulymadly.com against its competitors .The results

were discouraging where people who are socially aware displayed a recall value of 21% and the

unaware ones displayed a recall value of 13%.

Despite the campaign receiving a dramatic number shares, only 14.5% of the aware set of target

audience remembered seeing any advertising material for the campaign on the Internet. However

this figure was almost double than that of the unaware set.

Out of the set that had seen the campaign, about 41% of them could rightly identify the message

communicated by the brand.

Coming to the actual proof of the pudding, brand favorability, we saw that 62% of the aware

audience was willing to give a neutral rating to the brand i.e. 3/5 whereas only 37% of the audience

had favored the brand averaging up to a rating between strongly dislike and dislike.

Lastly, the usage / purchase intent or the willingness of our sample set to recommend it to their

peer circle totaled upto 51% for the aware set and 45% for the aware set. This clearly indicates that

while the people remember the campaign and the message being communicated to an extent, it

doesn't give them a reason to trust the website and use its services on a serious note.

Digging deeper into our research results, our audience had a different recall for unaided-matrimony

advertising, a couple of them remembered the Chetan Bhagat series for shaadi.com and the

working wife ad from Bharatmatrimony.com.With Trulymadly.com, one of our respondents from

the aware set clearly stated "I've seen all of their ads" indicating his preference towards the brand.

Logically this was the same person who put trulymadly.com in his unaided recall. Also two of our

aware clearly remarked about the breaking stereotypes campaign in their un-aided recall.

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Seeping through the unaware set , a couple of our respondents quoted :

"Hum unko milate hain"

"Find a person who cares"

"Meet someone new"

"Chetan Bhagat Series for shaadi.com"

"Lady with a homely face"

"Conversation between son and father"

Only 1 person our of the unaware set mentioned the "breaking stereotypes campaign" as a part of

their un-aided advertising recall.

Lastly we wanted to know the perception of the Breaking Stereotypes Campaign in the minds of

the TG.

Reference Question: What, according to you, is the message that trulymadly.com is / trying to

convey through "Breaking stereotypes campaign"

34.5% of the digitally aware audience believes that Trulymadly.com is a different concept/product

being offered by a matchmaking website and the campaign would motivate people to use their

services. This figure stands at 29% in the unaware set.

38% of our digitally aware set believes that its a good campaign but doesn’t create any motivation

to try the website/app. or recommend it to the relevant audience. Where as 22% of our digitally

unaware set believes so

13% of the aware set say thats its a good campaign but its not a match to the traditional match-

making websites holding a strong market in the space corresponding to a figure of 14% in the

aware set.

27% of the unaware respondents believe that it’s just a publicity gimmick done for creating some

brand differentiation whereas only 13% of the aware set believes so.

Also there is a difference of perception in the Male and Female audience of both sets. The aided

brand awareness for females is way more in the aware set as compared to the unaware set

resulting in an impact of 93%. Rather in the Online Brand Awareness for the campaign, we can see

an impact of 100% corresponding to figures on 12% amongst the unaware set and 24% in the aware

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set. Evidently, "Aware Females" prefer (62%) the brand much more as against the "Digitally

Unaware Females"(34%) resulting into an impact of close to 60%.

However when it comes to purchase intent, there isn't too much of a difference between the two

sets. This could be accredited to the category in question where the parents and the family play the

role of the decision maker.

Conclusion: Where a marginal part of the audience has seen the campaign, it does not connect it to

the brand/website Trulymadly.com. Even if they do, they aren’t able to understand what the

website actually does. All in all the audience connects to the message in the campaign but does not

engage with the brand.

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CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

From the analysis conducted by us for these four specific campaigns, some clear patterns have

emerged.

Three of the four brands we chose to study are iconic brands the world over, and specifically in

India. British Airways, if not iconic in India, can definitely be considered extremely popular amongst

international airlines in India. Thus, these brands scored quite well in most parameters part of the

study.

Coke, despite it not being the market leader in India (Thumbs Up is the market leader in the Indian

soft drink industry), has posted consistently better scores in all aspects when compared to its rivals.

In addition to this, when one takes into account the difference in scores of the digitally aware and

unaware set, it becomes clear that the digital campaigns have made that difference for Coke.

For Airtel, its primary rival Vodafone is almost neck-to-neck in most parameters. Given that both

these brands have had consistently successful and popular digital campaigns, if Airtel can manage

to give its digital efforts that extra push, it could be the factor that can help Airtel surpass Vodafone

in all possible respects.As the scores suggest, the digital campaigns are definitely having an effect.

From the analysis of Coke, Airtel and British Airways, we can infer that when these big and iconic

brands take to the digital medium, it is maintain their brand stature and loyalty and possibly push it

even higher from the current status. It is an added push to the already-existing stature and

favorability they command in the consumer market. In cases where the brand in question happens

to be part of a cluttered market, an added aim of going digital becomes to attain a higher share of

voice, or risk becoming slightly lost or less memorable in a sea of brands.

In stark contrast, when we consider digital campaigns by not-so-giant-like and upcoming

businesses, represented by Trulymadly.com on our study, we can see from the study results that

they can use digital almost as a primary medium to build brand recognition and interest from

scratch. Unlike the giants, this is not just one more channel of communication for them but one of

the most vital ones, and perhaps the only one they can use to make a mark in the market. The

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reason for this is for new brands, it is becoming essentially important to make a place for

themselves by some kind of differentiation – be it in their product offering, or catchy advertising or

a new communication channel, such as digital.

One might wonder why are some brands, (in our empirical test, Coke and British Airways) able to

be at once both at a global and local level, successfully seizing the energy of grassroots

movements, simultaneously leveraging corporate assets at a great scale — while others only come

off as artificial and pandering. If we look at a chunk of the Social Media campaigns by FMCG

brands or the BFSI sector in India, brands are fighting the lead for trending hashtags, freebie-

contests and gimmicky campaigns. In the digital environment today, brands are pushing

communication than evolving the brand story through social media channels.

The web, as we know it, did not invent community-driven brands. It has been existent since

marketing immemorial – think of Royal Enfield for example. But technology has definitely made

this strategy more popular and luring; because these days, it’s pretty easy to interact with your

consumers directly.

We’d say, don’t take it social media advertising as a boon just as yet. Quite often, when marketers

talk about social strategy, it means a digital marketing strategy implemented on various social

platforms available, rather than using social dynamics to benefit their businesses.

This is precisely why many a social initiative by brands that can afford massive spends fail miserably,

although social media, if used as a strategic tool requires far less budget allocations.

Consider Pepsi’s Refresh project launched in the United States of America in 2014, which sought to

replace $20 million in Super Bowl spending with a social platform that funded good work. While its

social media KPI’s climbed, its business suffered. Survey showed that Pepsi actually lost market

share and fell to number three in the cola wars for the first time in modern history.

One needs to understand that social initiatives are not a panacea. They can be a huge success and

they can also crash big and bad. For marketers to succeed in the social arena, strategies need to be

grounded in the science of network, not conjecture. More specifically, four elements need to be in

place.

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Win credibility, not by paying lip service to the concept of authenticity, but by truly earning our

mission. Pepsi Refresh failed because what Pepsi had done, has no relevance to the brand’s

operations or its heritage.

On the other hand, Business Innovation Factory (BIF) had a social initiative that was similar to that

of Pepsi. Its founder, Saul Kaplan has a lot of credibility, which he earned over years as someone

who loves encourages social initiatives. The contrast in both their campaigns is stark. While Pepsi

joined the conversation, Saul led the whole idea and still continues to do so.

Social efforts need to be guided by genome of shared values. Effective corporate genomes

perform the same function, establishing core principles that can adapt to local environments. For

example, McDonald’s has a great business in India, where beef is taboo and the company must

cater to strict vegetarian diets. Cosmopolitan magazine thrives even in Islamic countries, where

attitudes toward sex differ remarkably from the US. Yet in both cases, the brands remain faithful to

their core values, whether it’s fast and affordable food, or fun and femininity.

Balance cohesiveness with diversity. When a company or a brand finds a model that works, there

is a strong compulsion to try to replicate it at scale. While such orthodoxical methodologies can

instill discipline and obedience, it breaks the innovation spine and the ability to adapt to changing

contexts. Every community must find a healthy balance between cohesion and diversity.

Passionate platforms cannot be fabricated up out of thin air, but it must evolve over time . Like it

was previously mentioned, the science of networks tells us that the strength of a community is not

determined by its size, but by its density; brands must build in before they can build out.

Social media is a great way of attracting new clients or customers into ones businesses. The

simplicity of using the Internet is increasing day-by-day, with tablets and smart phones having

penetrated well into the urban market, which is why more and more people are turning to social

media for updates on products and services. The right kind of social media campaign can help raise

profits. On the other hand, social media platforms can fail to perform or live up to our

expectations. There are three major reasons we believe social media campaigns fail to yield results.

Inconsistency

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Many Social media sites largely fail due to inconsistency. A site needs to be updated regularly and

be constantly monitored in order to draw in customers. Ideally Social media should be update at

least daily with content information related to the business. The more updated and frequent the

site is; the bigger and better are the chances of people noticing the page or campaign while

browsing.

For a social media campaign, context is very important. If the campaign does not take into

considerations, the cultural diversity, people and their school of thoughts, the campaign might

just fail to deliver even the basic message it wishes to convey. Without cohesion, there is no

common purpose, but without diversity groupthink will set in and eventually that purpose will lose

relevance.

While we discuss what to do and what not to do in social media, brands must understand that

India is home to more heterogeneous communities than homogeneity like other places, which is

home to many such brands that are trying to get a taste of the Indian consumerism. Some failed

while few led the change. With a culture that diversifies every fifty kilometers, marketers must

focus in more and more localized content to strike the right chord with their target people.

In conclusion, from our study, we can say that brands in India have definitely started moving past

the gimmicky stage and started doing new and innovative campaigns. We had set out to examine

whether these efforts are making any sort of difference to the brand’s equity and we have arrived

at the conclusion that they are. However few in number such brands and campaigns in India today

might be, and however little the impact that they are currently making to brand equity might be,

it’s definitely a start. If other brands in India can learn from the success of these campaigns and also

from other advanced trends emerging in more evolved digital markets such as the USA, we can

definitely expect the digital scene in India to improve by leaps and bounds in the coming future.

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REFERENCES

References to International Campaigns mentioned in the Literature Review :

http://www.postano.com/blog/13-best-social-media-campaigns-of-2013

http://adage.com/article/news/ten-years-dove-s-real-beauty-aging/291216/

http://www.best-marketing.eu/dove-ad-makeover-case-study/

http://mashable.com/2012/09/13/grey-poupon-facebook-marketing-campaign/

http://blog.wk.com/2013/02/15/behind-the-scenes-of-the-oreo-instagram-super-bowl-

execution/

http://socialfresh.com/oreo-instagram-launch/

http://jonathannafarrete.com/oreo-wins-at-super-bowl-with-instagram-campaign/

http://new.soldsie.com/blog/starbucks-tweet-coffee-campaign-spurs-180k-sales-proves-roi-

social-commerce/

http://mashable.com/2013/12/05/starbuckss-tweet-a-coffee-180000/

http://new.soldsie.com/blog/starbucks-tweet-coffee-campaign-spurs-180k-sales-proves-roi-

social-commerce/

http://mashable.com/2013/12/05/starbuckss-tweet-a-coffee-180000/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stella-artois-introduces-le-bar-guide-20-mobile-

app-presents-nightlife-options-tailored-to-users-mood-224279551.html

www.imano.com

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http://mashable.com/2012/05/23/jetsetter-pinterest/

http://digitalsynopsis.com/advertising/volkswagen-polowers-twitter/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10211898-36.html

http://blog.anthonyp.me/roi-case-study-burger-king/

References to Indian Campaigns mentioned in the Literature Review :

http://lighthouseinsights.in/social-media-campaign-bollywood-movie-bhaag-milkha-bhaag.html

http://lighthouseinsights.in/pizza-hut-india-sizematters-social-media-campaign.html

http://lighthouseinsights.in/how-bisleri-created-indias-first-real-time-countdown-facebook-

cover-photo.html

http://lighthouseinsights.in/pockets-by-icici-bank-a-safe-and-social-way-of-banking-through-

facebook-needs-to-be-mobile-optimized-though.html

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2013/05/social-media-campaign-review-ht-no-tv-day-treasure-

hunt/

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2013/08/social-media-campaign-review-parle-g-the-future-

genius-activation/

http://lighthouseinsights.in/tresemme-leverages-social-media-to-give-you-ramp-ready-

hair.html

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2013/10/social-media-campaign-review-pockets-by-icici-bank/

Campaign Selection -

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Campaign: Airtel #4AmFriend Campaign:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxNlGjjnLYs

Case Study References:

http://lighthouseinsights.in/airtel-4amfriends-prank-video.html/

http://www.scoopwhoop.com/inothernews/airtel-friendship-test/

H1BMIBCoQ&bvm=bv.72185853,d.c2E

http://www.afaqs.com/advertising/creative_showcase/index.html?

id=47902&media=Digital&type=Indian&bvm=bv.72185853,d.c2E

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/05/airtel-4amfriend/

Campaign: Coke’s Friendly Twist Campaign:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9cmoT_wb0A

Case Study Reference:

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-coke-designs-friendly-bottle-can-

only-be-opened-another-bottle-157988

http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/41035_Viral-Now:-Cokes-Friendly-Twist

http://thesocialpeople.net/coca-cola-friendly-twist-campaign-review/

http://prexamples.com/2014/05/creative-co-operative-coke-campaign-helps-new-students-

break-the-ice/

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Campaign: British Airways Go Further to Get Close

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixbLMsVlpes

Case Study Reference:

http://lighthouseinsights.in/british-airways-brings-an-indian-married-couple-closer-boosts-

couple-flights-to-london.html/

Campaign : Trulymadly.com Breaking Stereotypes

http://www.socialsamosa.com/2014/05/social-media-campaign-review-trulymadly-

breakingstereotypes/

http://lighthouseinsights.in/trulymadly-breakingstereotypes-social-media-campaign.html/

http://blog.trulymadly.com/breaking-stereotypes/

Recommendations References:

https://hbr.org/2014/08/what-great-social-media-campaigns-get-right/

http://www.lotusmedia.in/reasons-why-social-media-campaigns-fail/

http://www.digitaltonto.com/2010/the-story-of-networks/

http://www.eclicksoftwares.com/blog/5-reasons-why-social-media-marketing-campaigns-fail/

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