Category: Campaigns

A ‘social’ game on Queen’s Baton Relay for CWG?

Posted Jul.13, 2010 under Campaigns

Note: I have seen so many recently, that I think I might be soon forced to make a completely different category for these #epicfail campaigns.

Note 2: I just realised after finishing the post, I have been pretty sarcastic in my recent posts. On second thoughts, they were well fitting words.

Aaaaaaaaaaan. Not really. But I am really glad that IBNlive.com has taken the first baby (though faltering) steps towards a more social approach to marketing campaigns. There’s even a slightest hint of game mechanics. So let’s see. The micro-site allows users to ‘virtually’ be a part of the baton relay that will travel around India before coming back to Delhi.

When I heard the news, I was actually excited. Virtually being there meant some snazzy on the road camera angles and real time updates for me. But of course I over-estimated the digital media prowess of India media powerhouses. The website has a Google Map which lays down the route. It has an announcements section which is 2 days behind. And that’s it! This is how I am supposed to be virtually present at the relay.

Well, after I do login (thankfully using a simple FB connect) I can chose my city to run and the date. And voila! Nothing happens. #fail again for sure. But we must take some plus points (if you can afford to be very VERY optimistic about this site) from here, and those are the social features (unknowingly?) that have been inserted into the design:

  • A profile where I can see which cities have I applied for and what are the others doing there. Are any of them my friends? (automatically picked by FB cookies)
  • An activity stream turned into a game feature by a surprisingly clever process. Whoever has the last conversation has the baton and so to grab the baton you have to reply to the person below you! Ubercool I say. Ubercool. Simple and full of potential.

But it again falls short. There are no sharing options after I update my conversation reply. And why shouldn’t there be one? I would love to tell my friends on Twitter and Facebook about my virtual new cool identity. Hmmm… Well atleast they did something.

Once again, a good step towards more ‘social’ features in digital media campaigns. I am glad of the Indian industry all of a sudden. We are reaching there guys, we surely are!

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Are digital camapigns (finally) adopting social practices?

Posted Jun.08, 2010 under Campaigns, Social Psychology

I really liked the new Cornetto’s online campaign called ‘Love Ho Jaane De’ in association with MTV India. It’s in essence a user generated contest to leverage the on-ground activities happening via MTV India as the event manager. But I personally loved the portal for a variety of reasons:

  1. It’s not just a basic information portal but acts like a mini community of its own, which is not only scalable but dynamic too.
  2. Users can upload, share and vote on stuff. That’s almost the whole plethora of social interactions that are possible included here. User generated content can be pushed around in the community via a seamless commenting system.
  3. Activity streams for featuring new and featured content.
  4. Taking care of the database via Login / Register functionality, and of course has a Facebook Connect option too.

But there are still some areas where new stuff can be added to make sure user stickiness and brand influence increases. The website gives a chance for users to upload their content, yet does not give any functionalities for telling their stories. And human beings are suckers for telling stories, aren’t we? Check out Gauravonomics article on the importance of story-telling in Social Media Marketing and also Graham Brown’s research on why youth and new media is about giving the audience a chance to tell their story to the brand and other users. Some tips to scale up the engagement and passion at the Cornetto community:

  1. After I upload my content, I need a place to tell the story behind it? Maybe a status update or a detailed description.
  2. I want to connect to other users who share the same passion as me like acting, singing and movie-making. Why not give me a simple forum or discussions thread based activity stream?
  3. The campaign has a Twitter and Facebook presence (obviously), but frankly I don’t think it’s needed here. The Facebook fan page is flooded with content that should have been on this community. Or is either duplicate content.
  4. The app on the Facebook page, just redirects me to the site itself (WTF?)
  5. The Twitter handle again looks as if it’s being done for the sake of impressing the client and offering ’social media solutions’ .. plus the tonality doesn’t even sync in with the brand characteristics.

Update:

I went back to the handle after two days, and surprisingly all the conversations are gone! I guess someone became wiser, or the client didn’t like such a tactic. Sadly, they have just self promoting updates with links back to the site now.

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/luvhojaanede/status/11752838791"]

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