Business 2 Community » Vinaya Naidu

IPL Spot Fixing: WhatsApp Was Not Tracked. Delhi Police Chief Claims No Knowledge Of Tapping BBM

Vinaya Naidu — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:25:25 +0000

Following the arrest of three players of Rajasthan Royals for spot fixing during the ongoing IPL6, we had reported that mobile messaging services like WhatsApp and Blackberry had helped in the investigation, as per an article at Firstpost. But, in a later probe by Firstpost, it has been found that this is just a rumour and that tracking these messaging platforms is not possible.

Firstpost had cited TV news channel Times Now while stating that the Delhi Police had tracked these messaging services during their spot fixing probe that also had around 70 phones under surveillance. However, the business head at WhatsApp, Neeraj Arora dismissed these as rumours, since WhatsApp chat messages get saved on users’ devices.

Arora added that WhatsApp messages are encrypted and stored only until they are delivered; no chat history is stored on the servers. In fact, he also informed Firstpost that the Indian government or any Indian law enforcing agencies had not approached WhatsApp for any information regarding chat conversations.

Besides, a reporter from NDTV had also interviewed Delhi Police Chief Neeraj Kumar who then informed that they did not know to tap BBM messages as yet.

Just interviewed delhi police chief neeraj kumar who says they dont know how to tap bbm messages yet so- type away freely :)

— sunetra choudhury (@sunetrac) May 16, 2013

Mobile messaging services are always facing the brunt, whether it is a security threat or the need to censor private conversations, or even the spread of insider market tips. Last year, The Department of Telecom (DoT) had set a December 31 deadline for telecom companies to provide real time intercept facilities for Blackberry smartphones, citing Blackberry services as a security threat by agencies.

Following which the manufacturer, Research in Motion, came up with a solution that enables telecom operators to provide lawful access to its messaging services like Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) email. However, this was not extended to the Blackberry Enterprise Server.

This year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has found out that mobile messaging services like BBM and WhatsApp are being increasingly used to spread sensitive market related information to influence certain stocks. As much as it is difficult to intercept these messages in the encrypted form, the market regulator is finding ways to tackle it.

With the number of messaging apps on the rise, the ways in which these can be manipulated has also been growing. Keeping a track on encrypted messages during transmission seems a tough ask, at least for now.

Image courtesy: static.expressindia.com

JWT Crowdsources For Portfolio Nights. Converts Tweets Into Posters And Films

Vinaya Naidu — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:40:12 +0000

For advertising aspirants everywhere, here is something truly out-of-the-box for you. Portfolio Night Mumbai, hosted by JWT, is carrying out an array of activities on Facebook and Twitter around the theme this year ‘An Eye-Opener. The idea is to change everything you think about advertising and your portfolio. Follow their pages on the social platforms, contribute and see your ideas being made into posters and films.

The event to be held at JWT’s Mumbai office on the 22^nd of May 2013, will see the country’s top creative directors who will also choose the ‘All Star’ of the evening, after interacting with young creatives. The ‘Portfolio Night All-Star’ is an event where the most talented young creative from each Portfolio Night event is selected and flown to New York to compete at Portfolio Night All-Stars competition in New York City in August 2013. (News Source: BestMediaInfo).

JWT has embarked on a crowdsourcing journey for campaigning using social media along with print, radio, outdoor, etc. Advertising students were asked to share their thoughts on advertising using the hashtag #whatithinkaboutadvertising by the Twitter handle created for the event. The most creative of these were then turned into posters or films. This poster is a tweet sent in by a Twitter user.

This tweet-turned-video clip seeks to demystify the myth that advertising is quintessentially English. (It features the best in the industry – Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman & CEO at McCann Worldgroup India and President, South Asia)

There are many more posters and videos shared at the event’s Facebook page, trying to bust more advertising myths. Aspiring students have many misconceptions about the industry, hence resorting to social media as a platform to reach out to the youth is a cool approach for this campaign. But, the icing on the cake is the co-creation concept. Crowdsourcing from the community and then converting the best among them into posters and videos is a brilliant thing to do, what do you think?

The New Mumbai Logo Meets With Disapproval On Twitter

Vinaya Naidu — Fri, 17 May 2013 08:10:10 +0000

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic body that is responsible for the infrastructure and administration of the city of Mumbai, has embarked on a city branding journey with a brand new logo to signify the nurturing quality of Mumbai. But, the logo seems to have been trashed by a majority of Twitter users, citing reasons as a bad representation of the city and not being inclusive of all the citizens.

Designed by Mumbai-based branding agency Umbrella design, the logo has a symbol of a mother holding her child where the child is represented by a white flower and the mother with a blue head and arms. The icon is followed up with the text ‘Majhi Mumbai’ in a cool Marathi font.

Bhupal Ramnathkar from the agency explained that the blue colours represent the sea, and are meant to symbolise the many opportunities the city has to offer, while the colour orange denotes the rising sun and represents victory against all odds. With the brief given by BMC , the mother-child bond was the most ideal way to represent the city’s security, prosperity and happiness, added Bhupal. (News source: Exchange4Media)

But, the verdict is out on Twitter with most users not particularly ecstatic about the logo. In fact, Riteish Deshmukh, actor and son of Ex-CM the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, has voiced his disappointment and suggested for new options to be voted by the citizens.

#MumbaiLogo The logo says ‘Maajhi Mumbai’ in Marathi (My Mumbai) instead of ‘Aamchi Mumbai’ (Our Mumbai) #divisive #Fail

— James George (@jamesgeorge) May 15, 2013

#MumbaiLogo Put out the Options and let Mumbaikars vote for thier favourite one- #WeChooseOurMumbaiLogo

— RITEISH DESHMUKH (@Riteishd) May 15, 2013

They just unveiled #MumbaiLogo? :O Without telling anybody? Wasn’t there any crowdsourced contest like our INR logo? Damn, sad!

— ＪＭ！ (@holy_photon) May 15, 2013

Mother holding a child? Really? It’s nothing but a weird looking apostrophe. #MumbaiLogo

— Saumya Mehta (@SaumNo) May 15, 2013

Far from being a visual identity meant to be loved by the city dwellers, the new Mumbai logo has failed to evoke a feeling of ‘belongingness’ amongst them. As many put it rightly, a contemporary approach to crowdsource for logo ideas would have been amazing, especially in the age of social media.

It is sad that the financial capital of India with a rich cultural history has not yet adopted social media for its inclusive nature but is more keen on setting up a social media laboratory to facilitate better policing and intelligence gathering.

Image source: Indian Express

Uttar Pradesh Police PR Joins In The Social Media Brigade, Says “Tweet Complaints. Get Results”

Vinaya Naidu — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:15:57 +0000

In a mission to provide ‘better service’, the Uttar Pradesh Police Public Relations department has resorted to the use of social media armed with a brand new Facebook page created this March and a Twitter account too. (New source: Medianama) As given in the Facebook ‘About’ page, the page is managed by Deputy Director Information UP Govt Mr. Ashok Kumar Sharma in charge for Uttar Pradesh Police Public Relations. The page plans to provide ‘Instant Official Police updates, Reactions and Interactions from the largest State of India’. The Twitter bio takes the cake though with ‘Tweet complaints. Get results’!

In a state that is always in the news for its weak law and order system, this new social media stint hopes to build a stronger image of the UP police. The Twitter account that went official from the 1^st of April has 1K+ tweets to its credit and it also follows more than 600 people. One glance at the page and you see it is a ‘conversational’ handle, open for suggestions as well as criticism. Tweets are in English and Hindi just as the updates on its Facebook page.

While most tweets invite people to share their complaints, many are informing people where to go for help. In fact, there is a tweet to the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan requesting him to spread the word amongst his 5 million followers.

If you find any police person indulging into wrong practices, just intimate us with some proofs. We would fix them and declare results here.

— UPPolicePR (@uppolicepr) May 11, 2013

If POLICE deny FIR anywhere in the State, FAX IT to 0522 2206120 addressing ADG L/O, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow giving details. Everyone Plz. RT

— UPPolicePR (@uppolicepr) May 10, 2013

@srbachchan Sir, Plz take time, we work to secure U.P. Citizens. Plz ask U.P. fans to follow us. Mary verify us atU.P. Police site also.

— UPPolicePR (@uppolicepr) May 10, 2013

Content shared on its Facebook page is more about the latest updates from the UP police website, and convincing excited fans not to start political discussions on the page but use it to strictly focus on issues in the city. Beginning this May 11, a status update even informed that the page will be monitored round the clock.

This is so good that it is almost unbelievable! A brilliant move by the young and social-savvy Akhilesh Yadav led UP government, which needs to be followed by other states too. Recently, we saw the Bangalore City Police that started its Facebook operations last year, nab eve teasers through a Facebook tip off and Delhi Traffic Police nab traffic violators through Facebook. We need Indian solutions to Indian problems and here we see instances how social media can be employed effectively.

IPL6 Sponsors Engaging Through Social Media. Bring Fans Closer To Their Teams

Vinaya Naidu — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:20:12 +0000

Its the season of cricket in India. Whether you play the game or not, almost all of us have to watch a game of cricket either on television or the local grounds. There is no escaping cricket, especially during IPL6. And, brands have been reaping in the eyeballs in all manner of promotions on the field and off it. With Pepsi being the title sponsors of IPL 6, we have seen a number of social media promotions by the beverage brand that have been both innovative and engaging for its community.

However, the official partners of IPL6 are also not behind in extending their partnership on social media channels. Here, we look at the variety in which IPL6 partners like Vodafone, Star Plus, Yes Bank, and the Umpire Sponsor, McDowell’s No.1 are engaging with their online community.

Guess the sign to be a part of McDowell’s No.1 XI team

The Umpires Partner in this season of IPL and the 2nd largest selling whiskey in the world, McDowell’s No.1 is the flagship brand of United Spirits Limited. The brand is offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for 11 cricket enthusiasts, through a Facebook quiz game called ‘Guess the sign‘. ‘Guess the sign’ is hosted on a Facebook app that is enabled after you ‘like ‘ the page. A multiple choice quiz with 3 questions on basic cricket rules needs to be answered correctly. And, 11 winners will be chosen from the correct answers to form the McDowell’s XI team to play an 8 over match against Royal Challengers XI.

Post the quiz, you need to enter name, email id, phone number, date of birth, city in the blank boxes provided and select your cricket skill along with citing a reason as to why you should be a part of the McDowell’s XI. Winners would be contacted through phone or email for a match that is scheduled at Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore in the third week of May. Besides, travel will be taken care of!

Be a Vodafone Superfan and appear live on TV

To be a Vodafone SuperFan, one needs to upload a picture of their cricket lucky charm on a specially designed microsite. The picture can be WhatsApp-ed to the given Vodafone number or it can be uploaded after registering with your name, email and mobile number. The Gallery section displays the lucky charms that have been uploaded while the Winners section displays all the past winners.

And what exactly does a Vodafone superfan get? He/she gets to watch a match from the Vodafone hospitality stand with a Vodafone kit in tow. But, best of all, the superfan gets to meet the winning captain and take home the autographed matchball, with live streaming on Television!

In addition, the telecom major has also partnered with Talenthouse India, a creative crowdsourcing platform to invite designs for jerseys and caps, that will be worn by 22 kids who will escort the two teams at the IPL finals in Kolkata. The winning design gets Rs. 1 lakh and two tickets to the finals!

Nayi soch award presented by Star Plus television stars

Hindi general entertainment channel, Star Plus has nothing much to offer its viewers this IPL. The channel has roped in its popular stars to present the ‘Nayi soch award’ to cricketers for their innovative cricket moments. On Facebook, the brand has been inviting fans to guess which star will present the award, after posting a jumbled up image of the star.

Yes Bank IPL quizzes on Facebook and Twitter

Yes Bank, India’s fourth largest private sector bank is the sponsor this IPL after Citibank discontinued its five-year partnership with IPL. The bank with 189 K fans on Facebook has launched two contests that give away IPL match tickets as prizes. The one called ‘Who Am I’ invites fans to guess the player based on three clues along with your personal details like name, age, email, phone and city. The other Facebook contest ‘Yes Bank Maximum‘ needs you to guess the player who will hit the maximum sixes in a match and win the Yes Bank Maximum Advantage award. The contest has been extended to Twitter too with the hashtag #YesBankMaximum and offers branded merchandise to winners.

Each sponsor is engaging differently but only Vodafone and McDowell’s are giving an opportunity to actually meet the players! I like their simple efforts to engage on social media, and get fans closer to cricketers. What about you?

Now You Can Trade On Geojit BNP Paribas Stock Trading Facebook App ‘Flip Social’

Vinaya Naidu — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:40:03 +0000

As was announced earlier, Retail brokerage Geojit BNP Paribas took the first spot in launching a stock trading app on Facebook called ‘Flip Social’. The app will allow clients to execute stock trades on the Bombay Stock Exchange within Facebook itself. Launched a week ago, the first trade order was placed by Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD and CEO at BSE, within the Facebook app. (News Source: Medianama)

The app includes investment tutorials, a stock market game that will give players a virtual real time experience of trading in the Indian stock markets and a trading application, as reported.

Flip Social Facebook app

When you visit the app, you are welcomed by two options: login to play with weekly prizes to be won and login to trade. At the top is a live stock market ticker with the latest stock prices from BSE and other global stock exchanges. Interestingly, you can pause the ticker or increase/decrease the speed of it.

The virtual game is accessible to all, you don’t have to be a client of the company to play the game. I signed up with my name, email id and phone number, and decided to give it a shot with the virtual money of Rs. 1 lakh that I received on signing up. With this cash, I could create an interesting portfolio with stocks bought from Dabur, Pidilite, Wipro and Videocon. One can only trade in BSE stocks during market hours and on days when the markets are working. Three winners will be announced every week at the end of the last trading day of that week.

The game menu displays winners, rules and T&C along with the option to open an account with Geojit. The YouTube link takes you to the company’s YouTube channel which does not host any videos to help in trading.

The ‘Login to trade’ option is the one for real trading and needs you to be a registered user. At the top left are icons to invite or send messages to your Facebook friends. There is also a ‘My Recommendations’ icon, which throws up an error at my end.

Targeting young investors

Facebook is undoubtedly the largest social network in India with 78 million monthly active users for Q1 2013. As per SocialBakers Facebook statistics report, the largest age group is currently 18-24, followed by the users in the age of 25-34. Developing a stock trading app on Facebook is a cool move by Geojit, one that will make it attractive and convenient to the young, social-savvy investors. However, it needs to educate on trading and its benefits as this is often the biggest hurdle for first time traders. I couldn’t find the investment tutorials within the app, as was reported.

Earlier this year, ICICI securities made financial planning a fun thing to learn through social media storytelling for its portal, ICICI Direct with two animated characters – Gyano, the magician and Mobo, the money boss. While one could hangout with the animated characters on YouTube, the brand integrated Facebook for further action like providing customised investment solutions or videos explaining financial jargon.

With the increasing use of social media in trading and the risks involved in disseminating information on the public platforms, market regulator SEBI has been cautious. The regulator plans to issue social media guidelines to companies on the use of Facebook and Twitter for sharing non-public information. As to how far would these guidelines apply to the newly launched Facebook apps is something to be seen.

Cadbury Dairy Milk India Scores With The Shubh Aarambh League This IPL6

Vinaya Naidu — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:39:25 +0000

Almost all brands with a decent social media presence have at some point leveraged the ongoing sixth season of the Indian Premiere League. While some being the sponsors have had to engage their online community, many others made good use of the season with a range of clever campaigns weaved around the IPL. But, this one by Cadbury Dairy Milk tops it all. In a cricket frenzied nation, the chocolate brand has managed to create a recall for ‘Shubh Aarambh’, the brand’s almost mnemonic catch phrase, suggesting consumers to have an ‘auspicious start’ with a Cadbury.

This IPL, Cadbury Dairy Milk launched the #ShubhAarambh League with the message ‘T20 ka #ShubhAarambh’, which was promoted on the brand’s Facebook cover page in addition to print and TV.

The #ShubhAarambh League

The campaign executed by digital agency, Pinstorm had a team set up at work that only watched the IPL matches till past midnight, throughout the week. During a match, the team had to note down new beginnings worthy of a celebration and turn them into tweets. Simultaneously, graphics would be created for the brand’s Facebook page in real time. These were then posted on the respective social networks after Cadbury’s approval. (News Source: AFAQS)

The #ShubhAarambh initiative has also been spread to the community in the form of a fun, creative contest with gift hampers to be won and also a grand Championship winner. All you have to do is share Cadbury’s #ShubhAarambh related tweets on Twitter or share the same on your Facebook walls. You can also use the hashtag #ShubhAarambh to create your own interesting content.

The social reach and influence for each participant will be measured on a daily basis, through the ‘Social Quotient’ score. The score factors your social sharing i.e. the number of times you share, and the number of people your message reaches out to. It also takes into consideration the quality of content you create, which is judged by a brand team after every match. The highest ‘social quotient’ score at the end of the #ShubhAarambh league, will take home the Championship award.

A special jury of cricket evangelists like Harsha Bhogle and Ayaz Memon decide the daily prizes based on creativity. The campaign involves a microsite designed like a dashboard:

The left pane pulls up all the content from Facebook and Twitter related to #ShubhAarambh along with the total number of shares at the bottom. Right now, the shares are close to 90K. The middle pane displays a leaderboard featuring the top ten participants with the highest score. The right pane shows the jury awards throughout the campaign duration with the #ShubhAarambh virtual bat at the bottom along with the latest ad film videos created for Cadbury.

Interestingly, the virtual bat is made up of Cadbury dairy milk chocolates, where every 1000 tweets make up a bar. The bat has 90 chocolate bars at the moment!

#ShubhAarambh has been pushed in a number of creative ways t00, be it the one-word description contest or the moments spent with mom during Mother’s Day.

Hats off to @prasadrdesaiYou’ve won the Jury Award by @cricketwallah for one word descriptions ka #ShubhAarambh! twitter.com/DairyMilkIn/st…

— Cadbury Dairy Milk (@DairyMilkIn) May 8, 2013

How cool is the #ShubhAarambh league?

The campaign is a winner in terms of the concept and the timing. ‘Shubh Aarambh’ has been etched on our minds as something that brings an instant recall with Cadbury and new beginnings. Launching during the IPL, roping in cricket evangelists, connecting with social media influencers are some of the things that have helped to promote the campaign too, apart from the cool idea. The one thing I couldn’t find in the campaign is the prize for the Championship award – a chocolate trophy perhaps?

The significant touch created by the campaign can be attributed to its quality tweets or Facebook posts by being topical, witty and catching the pulse of the youth. As stated in the AFAQS article, the campaign would be extended beyond the IPL season, which would be exciting to watch. Besides, connecting with youth, the #ShubhAarambh league will go a long way in creating a relevant and engaged online community, what do you think?

Now You Can Send Postcards Through Facebook Courtesy The Backpacker Co

Vinaya Naidu — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:05:30 +0000

Remember the times when we received postcards in the good old days from dear relatives on a holiday? We loved receiving postcards when we were kids and most of us would often brag about them at school before actually keeping them safe in our collection of travel postcards. So, how would you like it if somebody were to send you a postcard in the same old fashioned way?

The Backpacker Co – India’s first backpacker company that specializes in taking travellers on informal, informative and extremely fun trips around the world – has sought to bring back the charm of a postcard through a Facebook application. In this age of emails and Facebook, the company seeks to connect with travel junkies by sending them postcards. The campaign has been executed on social media by digital agency ‘Digital Latte‘.

The postcard can be created through a simple Facebook app that only needs your basic details like name, email and postal address.

You can then also give email or postal address of five of your friends and the app would send them postcards too. At the end, it provides options to Send or Invite your Facebook friends and also a Tweet button to share the app with your Twitter followers.

The Backpacker Co has extended this postcard gesture for its more than 3K Twitter followers too. All they needed to do is tag their friends using the hashtag #Travel.

Receive & send beautiful travel postcards.. All you have to do is simply tag your buddies with hashtag #travel now!! twitter.com/thebackpackerc…

— The Backpacker Co(@thebackpackerco) May 7, 2013

For a company that seeks to give ‘real’ travel experiences to its travellers, sending postcards through Facebook is a clever idea. A simple, elegant design combined with a user friendly interface makes the Facebook app just perfect. But, the one thing that did not work for me is the share and invite buttons at the end.

Although this is at company discretion, but the Backpacker Co could have grown its Facebook community with this postcard app, by making it a ‘like’ one. Fans wouldn’t mind liking the page, if given a good incentive to do so, what do you think?

Maybelline New York India Launches India’s First Crowdsourced Kiss Song Featuring Alia Bhatt

Vinaya Naidu — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:35:00 +0000

Crowdsourcing via your community is possibly the best feature that social media has to offer. And, brands are getting increasingly crowdsourcing-savvy to help bond better with their fans. The latest endeavour in brand crowdsourcing was seen by cosmetics brand Maybelline New York India for its latest product – the Baby Lips lip balm.

Maybelline New York India crowdsourced kisses from its Facebook community to create the Baby Lips kiss song featuring Alia Bhatt, the new face of the brand. Millions of fans were invited to contribute to the Baby Lips song with their kisses, by uploading it through an app on the Maybelline India Facebook page. And, more than 6000 women actually sent in their kisses!

The campaign was conceptualized and executed by the brand’s digital agency, FoxyMoron. After a month-long effort on Facebook, the Baby Lips kiss song – also touted to be India’s first ever crowdsourced song – was released on the 2^nd of May, and the music video is now also being aired on music channels like MTV, ETC and Mix.

Pout, kiss and record on Facebook

An app was hosted on the Maybelline India Facebook page inviting its 2.1 million fans to pout, kiss and record their kiss, through the microphone. You could either upload or record your kiss. The app also featured a live counter to display the number of recorded kisses.

Beginning in the middle of March, fans were invited to record their kiss through a series of Facebook updates that started off by announcing the campaign as a surprise. And, then continued inviting fans to be a part of the Baby Lips anthem through a series of Facebook updates; nothing else was revealed.

Nearly a month later in April, Facebook updates began sharing a new surprise for the fans relating to the kisses they had sent earlier. Soon, the brand ambassador Alia Bhatt, made brief appearances in some of the updates, saying she had a surprise for the fans.

Eventually, the music video featuring Alia and the fans’ kisses was shared along with the pictures from the launch event. The launch event also invited popular beauty and fashion bloggers, whose reactions on the crowdsoruced song was then shared on Facebook.

Baby lips on Twitter

Along with Facebook to target the young crowd, Maybelline also carried out a few Twitter campaigns to spread the word and offered gift hampers in return. At the time of crowdsourcing, Twitter users were invited to tweet what they would do with their baby lips using #WithMyBabyLips.

Before unveiling the video, the Twitter hashtag #AliaLovesBabyLips did the rounds. Post launch, there was an interesting #KissSongQuiz that asked questions on the new lip balm.

A song for the fans, by the fans

Launching a new product amongst an array of similar products in the market requires a good amount of differentiation in its promotion. The Baby Lips kiss song does it perfectly for Maybelline’s new lip balm and thankfully stays away from creating another run-of-the-mill ‘viral’ video. Coupled with the crowdsourcing initiative on social media, ‘Baby Lips’ has created a strong recall value for the new product. And a sense of belongingness in the Maybelline community.

Another feature that deserves a mention is the dedicated approach towards social media along with other mediums of marketing. This endeavour will go a long way in building the brand’s online community. The product targeted to teenagers and above makes good use of Facebook and Twitter.

So while young women catch the baby lips song bug, I’m yet to come out of its catchy lyrics “Kiss kiss, pucker and pout, i love my baby lips, sexy they shout!” What do you think about this unique crowdsourcing campaign?

Play Flip Cricket To Join Muthoot Group’s CSR Initiative To Help Underprivileged Kids’ Education

Vinaya Naidu — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:37:07 +0000

This IPL 6, The Muthoot Group, one of the oldest and largest financial groups in India, has partnered with NGOs like Save The Children and Magic Bus to bring about a change in the lives of underprivileged children. For this, the brand has initiated several interesting activities both on the field and off it, enabling fans and Delhites to contribute to the cause.

In association with Delhi Daredevils, Muthoot group will donate Rs.4000 for every 4 and Rs.6000 for every 6 that is scored by the IPL team during their matches. In addition, the brand has created the ‘Wishing Ball’ and ‘Golden Bat’ to involve the citizens of Delhi too. Huge replicas of a cricket bat and ball have been travelling across Delhi while the citizens have been invited to spot them and write their best wishes for the Delhi Daredevils team on them. And for every message, Muthoot group would contribute towards the education of underprivileged children.

Along with Magic Bus, Muthoot also chose 10 kids or the ‘Dus ki toli‘ to be the ball boys of the Delhi Daredevils team.

Besides, the online community has also been roped in to be a part of the contribution through ‘Flip Cricket’ on Muthoot Group’s Facebook page. For every run scored on the fun app created for the game, there would be more contribution to the cause. While, top scorers of the game could win Delhi Daredevils match tickets or merchandise like Adidas Delhi Daredevils jerseys and caps, T-shirts from UCB and Provogue watches!

Muthoot Flip Cricket on Facebook

Flip cricket is the same as that book cricket game we played during our school days. Hosted on a neat Facebook app, you can only access the game after you ‘like’ the page. The home page welcomes you with all the information and incentives to be won while you contribute to the cause, along with the total donation amount made so far. Click on ‘Play now’ to be taken to an online diary. The left hand side talks about the CSR initiatives while the flips on the right hand side, as suggested by the names, are related to the game.

You need to click on the book so that the book starts flipping and stop flipping by clicking on the book again. But, do it within a period of 3 seconds or you stand to lose a wicket. You will either score runs or lose a wicket depending on the page that gets opened. The last digit of the page number denotes runs. 0 takes a wicket, 1-6 gives you runs, 7 is a dot ball, 8 is a wide ball and 9 is a no ball.

You will have 5 overs and 3 wickets to begin with. The app displays a live score board at the bottom as you play. After every match, you have the option to share on your wall, but this will happen only if you have allowed the app to post on your behalf during the app initialisation stage. You can continue with more matches and get details of where you stand with parameters like Matches played, Highest score and Overall score and rank. Keep playing or rather flipping till you make it to the leaderboard!

Cool and fun CSR initiative

With this CSR initiative, The Muthoot Group has definitely created some positive branding along with the Delhi Daredevils team. But, the significant aspect of the campaign is the opportunity for the online community to also contribute to the initiative. Re-creating a fun cricket game that most of us have played as kids, as an app on Facebook has worked to keep the community engaged. The game has relevant incentives and is quite addictive for a cricket fan. Moreover, the ‘like’ app also helps Muthoot build its Facebook community.

Besides, the app has been designed well along with smooth execution and navigation. I couldn’t find a single glitch in the game. The brand has also made good use of its social media platforms to promote the cause. A number of Twitter contests with match tickets to be won has been keeping the 1.6 K Twitter followers engaged. While Facebook has been actively inviting fans to play the flip cricket, most updates share about the progress of other initiatives as well.

What do you think about Muthoot’s CSR drive? Do give the game a flip as you would be contributing to a good cause.

Share My Dabba, A Unique Initiative By The Dabbawala Foundation

Vinaya Naidu — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:45:05 +0000

A lot can happen over a network. And, a lot more can happen over a network that has been six sigma certified. The Dabbawalas, the ones who travel many kilometres to deliver your tiffin box on time, come rain or sun by making it through bicycles and the local train, with only one mistake in every 6 million deliveries, are onto a very clever and kind initiative – Share My Dabba.

Share My Dabba seeks to make use of the left over food in your tiffins by giving them to the thousands of hungry street children, using the dabbawala network. The initiative is a non-profit collaboration between Happy Life Welfare Society and The Dabbawala Foundation.

All you have to do is mark your dabba with a ‘share’ sticker if there is food left in it. The dabbawalas would separate the ones marked with the sticker and leave it with volunteers while on their way back. The food is then shared with the hungry kids via the volunteers. Here’s a video on how it works:

‘Share My Dabba’ has a brand new Facebook page complete with a beautiful cover photo, a timeline with information about the initiative and boasts of more than 3K fans. As to how many of these fans actually make use of the Dabbawala services is not known, but the initiative needs to be spread across your networks. So that a lot of food is utilised in the right way.

This innovative ‘Share’ sticker can make a huge difference to a hungry child besides adding some positive branding to this 125-year old organisation that delivers nearly 200,000 dabbas every day in Mumbai through a network of 5000 dabbawalas armed on bicycles.

Drive With MTV Season 2 Decides The Route By Crowdsourcing Places On Twitter

Vinaya Naidu — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:40:39 +0000

The second season of ‘Drive with MTV’ is back after a successful stint in the first one and this time the social road trip is even more social – the trip routes are being crowdsourced through Twitter, bloggers can get exclusive wildcard entries and more. ‘Drive with MTV’ is India’s first social streaming show featuring 4 teams in their Tata Nanos on a road trip across the country in 21 days. The teams share their journey live everyday across social media platforms and make points on every like, comment, share, retweet, etc. The first season saw team Nano North win based on their social media clout and take home brand new Tata Nanos.

For the second season, MTV India launched a first-of-its-kind crowdsourcing initiative for the social road trip yesterday. Twitter users were invited to tweet their favourite travel destination using the hashtag #DriveWithMTV. These suggestions were then shortlisted to form the routes for this season of Drive with MTV. The chosen destinations won goodies and was simultaneously shared on the Facebook page of Drive with MTV. The final 20 locations have been decided after a day long tweeting drive.

For all you road trip junkies out there, the shortlisting process is on till the 20^th of May. 24 of these shortlisted people will be selected to form the final 12 with four teams of 3 people each. You need to register on this page with a fun video entry talking about a memorable trip that you had taken and why you love to travel.

Interestingly, Drive with MTV has also associated with BlogAdda, a bloggers community to offer 3 wildcard entries who will form the shortlisted 24. Bloggers need to share a memorable journey and give their reasons for the love of travel. Once in the shortlist, they have to send video entries as well and fight it out for the final team of 12.

The second season of Drive with MTV promises to be more exciting even before it has started. The teams travel across the length and breadth of the country and share their experiences on social media, along the routes that have been decided through social media!

Surf Excel Shows The Power Of 10 Hands Through An Interactive Microsite Resembling Your Facebook Profile Page

Vinaya Naidu — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:12:24 +0000

Detergent brand Surf Excel had created quite an impact when it came out with its new positioning of ‘Daag acche hain’ or ‘Stains are good’ eight years back. While all other detergent makers were fighting stains, Surf Excel was seen embracing them as a celebration of life’s experiences. Lately, the brand launched ‘Power of 10 hands’ campaign in a bid to convey the efficacy of the all new Surf Excel Easy Wash, designed to get rid of tough stains.

So, while a family is shown completely chilled out even when the youngest of them gets stained with boot polish while helping his grandfather, all thanks to the new detergent variant with the power of 10 hands, Surf Excel has successfully communicated that stains are good once again.

Interestingly, the brand has sought to bring this alive through a specially created interactive microsite that uses a Facebook login to recreate your personal Facebook page, with its new ad film running in the cover page area!

Once you login with your Facebook account, a page like the one below will be shown with the ad running in the cover page.

As the boy starts polishing his grandfather’s boots and gets boot polish all over him in the process, the page too gets blotted with stains, with the women of the family discussing on the extra chore needed to wash his stained clothes. The mother is too unconcerned as she relies completely on the new detergent.

The page then directs you to click on the Surf Excel Easy Wash Facebook ad simulated at the side.

This triggers 10 hands in blue who then wash the page clean!

You are finally shown a cover page with the options to invite, share or win a hamper. You can invite or share this with your Facebook friends, while winning a hamper would involve filling up your contact details.

Cool concept, good fun!

The idea of creating a page resembling a fan’s Facebook profile is not unique, though the animated interactivity does seem to be. When Park Avenue Grooming began promotions for its new beer shampoo, the personal care brand had created a Facebook app that resembled a Facebook profile page of the new shampoo complete with a set of links where fans can know more, play games, watch videos or buy the product.

Bringing on an emotional connect with the consumer, Surf Excel has strived long to build a strong message around the idea that stains are good. And, the latest promotional campaign ‘The power of 10 hands’ strengthens it only further.

BSE Brokers To Launch Facebook Apps To Enable Stock Trading. Is SEBI Prepared For This New Trend?

Vinaya Naidu — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:41:52 +0000

Imagine trading your stocks while you are on your favourite social network ‘Facebook.’ Well, that’s possible now since many Indian brokerage firms are now going to host stock trading apps on Facebook. As per a story at the Economic Times, many brokerage firms are in the process of launching Facebook apps that will allow clients to execute stock trades on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Retail brokerage Geojit BNP Paribas will be the first to launch a stock trading app later this week, followed by at least 10 more stock brokers.

With Facebook being the most familiar ground for the young investor, this decision comes across as a well-thought move by stock brokers in India. Facebook apps in the US are already offering real-time stock quotes, charts, discussions and trading. The MD of Geojit BNP Paribas stated that FB integration will give both amateur and expert traders similar ability to ‘like’ a stock and thereby stay tuned on its latest developments, in addition to seeing which stocks their friends ‘like’.

However, this is coming at a time when the use of social media as a mode of communication is under the scanner in all markets. When the CEO of Netflix shared the company’s latest achievement through his Facebook post, there was a sudden rise in its share prices last year. While this post triggered the rise, it also put all those unaware of this information, at a disadvantage. In a bid to tackle this, the American market regulator Securities Exchange Commission, has issued guidelines this April, wherein it states that social media platforms can be used for making announcements if all stakeholders are aware of it.

The other major concern involving the use of social media is the spread of sensitive information that could influence stocks. The Indian market regulator SEBI has found the medium is being increasingly used by unscrupulous parties to manipulate stocks. Last year, SEBI had hired special IT officers to keep an eye on blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, to track and identify the manipulators.

This April, following the SEC, SEBI has announced that it will soon establish guidelines to companies on the use of social media and platforms like Facebook and Twitter, for sharing non-public material information.

But, how safe are social networks?

The recent hack of the Associated Press Twitter account and the false tweet about explosions at the White House injuring Barack Obama, resulted in the Dow crashing by nearly 100 points.

As SEBI is yet to issue social media usage guidelines, the scenario gets even trickier. The regulator faces the toughest challenge from sensitive information being shared through Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and messaging apps like Whatsapp. While the regulator is finding ways to tackle this – which is a far tougher challenge compared to keeping a tab on social networks – the use of social media is on the rise when it comes to trading in the social media age.

As stock brokers launch their trading apps on Facebook, we do not know how manipulators look at this. If a Twitter account can be hacked, so can a Facebook app or an account, thus adding to SEBI’s woes and investor concerns.

Image source: The Hindu

Garnier Men India’s Google Plus Hangout Brings Fans Closer To IPL Cricketers

Vinaya Naidu — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:21:41 +0000

Google Plus Hangouts are the social media order this year. Ever since the top brass made good use of the medium to connect with their fans and followers, this free video chat service by Google has found greater adoption by others. Everybody from film stars to politicians and now IPL cricketers are waking up to the medium and connecting live with their fans.

As part of being the official grooming partner for the IPL teams of Rajasthan Royals and SunRisers Hyderabad, Garnier Men conducted a Google Plus Hangout with players from both the teams on the 26^th of April from 9 pm to 10 pm. While the Hangout was moderated by Chuck Gopal, it was joined by Rahul Dravid, the captain of Rajasthan Royals and Paddy Upton, the coach, along with Kumar Sangakkara, the captain of SunRisers Hyderabad accompanied by Kris Srikkanth and VVS Laxman, the two mentors of SunRisers Hyderabad.

While this maybe a unique Google Plus Hangout that brought both teams together, it was also quite successful in bringing fans, sports bloggers and cricketers together to discuss cricket and many other fun topics like grooming styles, mental and physical strength, etc. The main questions and discussions revolved around the IPL though.

Creating buzz for the Hangout

The Hangout was promoted well in advance on the social media platforms of Garnier Men, by Foxymoron, a social media marketing and digital solutions agency, in charge of the social media activities for the men’s grooming brand. A couple of days prior to the Hangout, the brand organized two contests on its Twitter page – #AskDravid and #AskSangakkara. The interactions were fruitful with Garnier garnering a range of fun questions from the fans, some of which were featured in the Hangout as well.

On the day of the Hangout, the event was promoted using the hashtag #GarnierMenHangout where the handle encouraged Twitter users to join the event livestream by sharing ongoing updates. Also, the best questions would get featured on the Hangout. This was also in synch with updates on the Facebook page of Garnier Men, encouraging fans to communicate through Twitter. The more than 1.9 million strong fan base was kept abreast of the latest developments on the Hangout through a cover page, images, Facebook Event and information about activities on Twitter.

The Hangout effects

Garnier received close to 200 interactions in total. Also, almost 20,000 people clicked on the link taking them to the live Hangout. To add to this, 65 new followers joined the Garnier Men Google Plus page while 356 people joined the event and 1,619 joined the event page on Facebook. The Hangout video has got almost 125 comments on it, most of them either being questions for the players or comments complimenting the event.

The Hangout seems to have been well promoted with a range of interesting contests for the fans and the chance to have their questions answered by the cricketers themselves, proved enough of a pull here. Promoting a Hangout on Google Plus using the existing fan base on popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, has done the trick for a successful Hangout bringing fans closer to their idols.

Besides, the Hangout has also helped promote the social initiative of lighting up powerless villages in rural India – ‘PowerLight a Village’ by Garnier Men India. The brand has been extensively spreading the word through a range of activities both online and offline, involving the social media community and with the help of the IPL cricketers.

Hangouts maybe an answer to connect with your community, but campaigns like this one show what goes behind hosting a successful one. What do you think?

SEBI Finding Ways To Check Manipulation Through Mobile Messaging Apps Like BBM, WhatsApp

Vinaya Naidu — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:25:45 +0000

There is a serious downside to the popular messaging apps and services in terms of empowering unscrupulous parties. As per this article at the Times of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has found out that mobile messaging services like Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and WhatsApp are being increasingly used to spread sensitive market related information to influence certain stocks. The market regulator is now planning on ways to tackle this problem.

However, keeping a tab on messaging apps is going to be difficult as these transmit messages in an encoded form that is difficult to decode for a third party. As per SEBI’s investigations into a number of insider trading and market manipulation cases, it was found that this feature of messaging apps has led manipulators to move on to them to continue spreading sensitive information.

SEBI has been catching up with the new modes of communication, in a bid to crack market manipulators. Last year, the regulator had hired special IT officers to keep an eye on blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, to track and identify the manipulators. It had recently announced that it would issue guidelines for sharing non-public material information on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, following the same by the Securities Exchange Commission.

But, tackling the problem with messaging applications will not be easy for SEBI without the help of telecom service providers. An official from SEBI stated that it is difficult to get any information shared from mobile messaging apps as well as Call Data Records. This decision to check manipulation via BBM and WhatsApp, is coming right after telecom service providers had agreed to provide the government with real time intercept facilities for Blackberry smartphones, meeting the December 31^st deadline set by the government last year.

Whether SEBI is mulling on such measures or not, the recent growth of messaging apps will also pose new challenges for the market regulator.

A Facebook Group Set Up To Save Pali After It Is Removed By The UPSC As A Main Examination Subject

Vinaya Naidu — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:50:41 +0000

Amidst all controversies and accusations, Facebook will continue its way ahead in empowering the common man. A recent Facebook group ‘Save Pali and Buddhist Studies in India’, an initiative by Siddharth Singh, Associate Professor, Pali and Buddhist studies at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), hopes to save Pali from extinction.

Recently, the Indian government decided to remove the ancient classical language of India as a subject from the main examination of the Civil Services examination of India conducted by UPSC (Union Public service Commission). Besides, Pali, which is said to be the dialect of the Buddha’s own teachings contained in Tipitaka, has also been removed from the list of classical languages of India.

Singh has raised his voice in an online petition addressed to the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, to mount pressure on the government to withdraw its decision. The goal is to garner a thousand signatures and the petition has already reached nearly a quarter of its goal, with signatures coming from all parts of the world including India.

The Facebook group is being used to create awareness and drive the signature campaign. The group which is an open one, has 773 members at the moment. Singh has been actively promoting the group among those who feel a need to preserve the ancient language of India, that has played a vital role in the propagation of Buddha’s teachings.

Image source: Brown University Library

Snapdeal Twitter Contest #SnapdealBestPrice Snaps Up. Raises Questions In ORM

Vinaya Naidu — Sat, 04 May 2013 22:35:00 +0000

Friday seems to be the designated day for Twitter contests and yesterday saw quite a lot of them vying for a spot on the Twitter trends list. One such contest was by the online marketplace, Snapdeal that offers cool deals by a variety of merchants across categories like mobiles, electronics, books, apparel and services likes restaurants, spas, etc.

In a bid to promote its best deals, the deals site launched a Twitter contest that required one to tweet a product from the Snapdeal website that they thought was the best deal not to be found elsewhere. The tweets needed to be hashtagged with #SnapdealBestPrice and also contain the link to the product.

Within no time, the contest soon found itself trending at third position in the top Twitter trends. The prizes on offer were pen drives and MP3 players for 10 participants who shared the best deals.

However, things went slightly wrong during the contest with a few angry sentiments being shared on the micro-blogging platform along with the contest hashtag. In fact, the top tweet in the contest hashtag #SnapdealBestPrice was by a Twitter user named Supriya Tyagi who claimed the deal site to be fake and that it delivered expired products and had bad after sales service.

#SnapdealBestPrice is fake. @snapdeal offer fake deals,cheat customers,deliver expired products and have bad after sales service.Don’t trust

— Supriya Tyagi (@SupriyaTyagi) May 3, 2013

The tweet has been retweeted 1388 times and favourited 1325 times, so one can imagine the reach and impressions it must have created. Surprisingly, the Snapdeal Twitter account has chosen to ignore this tweet, during the entire contest run. While other users talked to Tyagi about his claim, Snapdeal has kept mum. The deals site did not make any effort to find out what made Tyagi say so?!

For an ambitious and growing brand like Snapdeal which has been recently funded, this could mean a social media error on its part. Negative sentiments are known to spread quickly and Twitter marketing strategies often go wrong in the wake of Twitter users choosing to air their dissatisfaction with a brand at a time when their Twitter contest is trending. By choosing to remain ignorant of the top tweet, Snapdeal has lost out on an opportunity to connect with the aggrieved customer and address his concerns.

When other ecommerce brands are struggling to get a hold and with the challenges ahead for an online marketplace in India, Snapdeal will have to tune its social media marketing campaigns to include a workable online reputation management model too. What do you think?

Image source: Network2Media

Office 365 Aims To Dominate The Cloud ‘Like A Boss’ Through Social Media

Vinaya Naidu — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:40:18 +0000

Office 365, touted to be your complete office in the cloud, has been quite active on social media of late. The enhanced product from Microsoft gives you virtual access to the Microsoft Office tools you have been working with since long and that too from any device, making it easier to communicate and collaborate with others. So much so that Office 365 can empower you to work ‘like a boss’!

And for Office 365, Microsoft India is all set to embark on a social media route to tap the young professionals or small business owners that are active on social platforms these days.

Office 365 #SorryBoss on Twitter

A few days back, the technology major launched a generic Twitter contest from the Microsoft Office 365 India Twitter handle. Participants were invited to tweet the lamest excuses they’ve used around their workplace – whether it be for not showing up to work, or missing a deadline or skipping out on an important meeting. One had to follow the Office365 handle and also use the hashtag #SorryBoss to be eligible.

I caught a shatabdi instead a metro and now I am in chandigarh. #SorryBoss @office365india

— Psyhill (@hellomelloz) May 1, 2013

At the same time, the Twitter handle talked about product features and ‘did you know’ posts to overcome these excuses. The most retweeted excuse was gratified with a Windows Phone – Nokia 620. The 3-day Twitter campaign saw #SorryBoss trending in the top 10 Twitter trends list and also helped the Twitter handle grow its follower base by 100%. From 168 followers at the beginning, it jumped to 344 towards the end of the campaign!

Office 365 ‘Completely Boss’ on Facebook

The ‘Completely boss’ Facebook app uses story-telling to explain the benefits of using Office 365 in today’s fast paced world with its increasing demands. The graphics personify an employee, his boss, the boss’s wife, the employee’s air hostess girlfriend and a pilot, who are all connected to each other through their hectic lives. The interactive app lets the user select what choices should be made by each of the characters, while the narration is on.

The app takes permission to access your details and friends’ list and also whether to post on your behalf, at the time of initialisation. Once you give the permissions, you are welcomed to the story, with a male voice narrating the scenes. The app also pulls up your friends at random during the story. At the end of the story, you are enlightened by the features of Office 365 and how it helped the characters handle tough situations ‘like a boss’!

Office 365 blogger outreach

Last month, Microsoft India partnered with Indiblogger, an Indian bloggers community for an Office 365 blogger meet at New Delhi. A contest was also weaved in where bloggers could share their experience about the product and what they had learnt about it on their blogs. The first best blog post won a Microsoft Windows Phone – Nokia Lumia 920 and the second best blog post won a Microsoft Windows Phone – Nokia Lumia 800!

Bloggers had to use story-telling to talk about a business that they’d like to run and how’d they use Office 365 to transform their business. It could be a fashion store, a studio, a mobile apps company or just about anything that needed a transformation.

Office 365 has it all covered

With the increasing invasion in cloud based services, and small business owners quite satisfied with virtual anywhere access to their Google docs, the fight for more subscriptions on the cloud has risen. The social media efforts by Office 365 do make an impact in creating awareness, however the significance of that impact can only be aided through live product demos.

Office 365 has it all covered by engaging with different kinds of people across the range of popular social networks. It is refreshing to see a story-telling approach on social media as opposed to a content strategy that is full of tech jargon. Emphasising on the ‘work like a boss’, works like a charm in the entire communication campaign for Office 365. Moreover, the concept for every platform has varied as per its nature and scope. From #sorryboss on Twitter to ‘Completely Boss’ on Facebook and the meet with bloggers, Office 365 has managed to create a formidable and engaging presence on social media.

But, the one thing they could do as part of this campaign is to also grow their Facebook community just as the Twitter one, by letting fans to ‘like’ the ‘completely boss’ app on Facebook, before proceeding to interact with it.

Do the Office 365 social media efforts appeal to you? Don’t forget to share what you think about it.

Tagged By Titan Rewards You For Tagging Friends On Social Media

Vinaya Naidu — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:35:35 +0000

With social networking sites on the rise, commercials are getting increasingly targeted to the social media savvy youth. Things we do on social networks are being emulated into advertisements with the latest ad by Titan taking the feature of ‘tagging friends’ – a behaviour we exhibit so often on Facebook and Twitter – and bringing it literally to the real world. Incidentally, the ad is for the new watches collection by Titan called ‘Tagged’ which is made for the trendy youth.

The ad shows young people tagging their friends by hooking up their watches in a multitude of situations where they wish to convey a connection and a need for shared moments.

The campaign has been extending the concept of ‘tagged’ onto other online activities with a microsite having many exciting tagging contests, where you need to tag your friends on Facebook or upload special pictures of you that would go into a unique cover story.

‘Tagged by cricket’ gets you to cheer for your favourite IPL team this cricket season or lash out at the ones you hate. Login via Facebook or Twitter and select the team in the drop down list and type the message in the box below, which already has a pre-filled hashtag #Taggedbycricket. You win points with every message update.

The site displays the top rankings beside the contest and the posts made by others. 5 lucky winners get Tagged watches every week. Top 6 winners get invites to the grand Tagged party.

‘Tagged on the cover’ enables you to be a part of the greatest cover story on Facebook. You need to upload a photo that is uniquely you after logging in through Facebook. The app allows pictures to be selected from your Facebook album or from your computer. Give it a description as to why is it uniquely you. The app also needs the exact time at which the picture was taken. The pictures uploaded by others can be seen in a timeline format.

These images would be made into a unique cover page at the Facebook page!

‘Get tagged’ gets you to tag your friends on Facebook where the app displays your friends list beside a ‘tag’ button. Tags by others can be seen below the app. Titan gift cards worth Rs. 1000 can be won every week by the most tagged person!

A Social media effect

The concept is cool and understandably betting upon the tagging virality on social networks. It looks as if the product line was named ‘Tagged’ so it could be spread through a ‘tagging’ campaign on social media!

The Titan watches Facebook page is all about ‘Tagged’ ever since the launch of the new ad. The 1.1 million strong Facebook community has been kept entertained by a variety of content comprising like-minded friends being tagged by a common love. Besides, most of the content in between also encourages fans to participate in the contests hosted on the microsite. The Titan Twitter page is in sych with the Facebook updates and leads you to Facebook or microsite links, nothing phenomenal happening there.

The ‘tagging’ feature of Facebook was seen recently in a campaign for NGO ‘Once Again’ that tagged friends to donate things they had no use for. The initiative began with volunteers who tagged the things rather than faces on pictures shared by their friends, who in turn were led to the Once Again page that had the donate message. These friends then spread the message further in the network by tagging other friends. The virality here is due to a good cause as opposed to the Tagged campaign being executed by Titan.

What do you like about ‘Tagged’? Do share your views on the effectiveness of tagging campaigns.

Dixcy Scott’s Latest Panja Commercial Featuring Salman Khan Bets High On Social Media

Vinaya Naidu — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:50:43 +0000

Salman Khan, the most bankable Bollywood star at the box office is also an active social media buff. With a fan following of over 8.1 million on his Facebook page and another 3.8 million on his Twitter page, the star seldom needs any other mode for communication be it for his ‘Being human’ initiative or the many brand endorsements he has been signed up for. Though the most recent brand endorsement for Dixcy Scott, the fashionable innerwear brand for its new commercial, does not see him using his personal social media profiles. The brand has managed to reap his social media following nevertheless.

Creating buzz on Twitter

Beginning yesterday, Dixcy Scott has started a contest on its Twitter page to promote its latest commercial featuring Salman Khan as a star ‘Panja’ player. Salman is shown to lose deliberately to a weak opponent so that he (the opponent) could win the prize money for his disabled son’s operation. The commercial weighs upon its latest message ‘Jeeto. . .lekin dil’ that is neatly aligned with its tagline ‘The Ultimate Winner’. The contest winner gets an iPhone 5!

The Twitter contest hashtagged #DixcyPanja has been trending the whole of yesterday and even today as I write this. Fans of the star were invited to participate in the #DixcyPanja contest in four stages held across two days, to be able to win an iPhone5. Stage 1 needed them to follow the Dixcy Scott Twitter handle and retweet the contest tweet. Stage 2 asked them to tag a person they would lose a game of Panja to, and also give a reason for it. Stage 3 involved participants to upload a picture of them in a Panja match.

Stage 4 that is set for today, involves watching the new TVC featuring Salman Khan, very carefully. The final stage has ensured that participants stay glued to the ad film video. As I write this, the first of three questions on the TVC have been put up.

Earlier on the day of the ad release, the Twitter handle ran a contest around #ForSalmansDil, which required fans to share what they would do to win over Salman’s heart. There were goodies bags to be won here.

Promotions on Facebook

The Facebook page of Dixcy Scott had begun the promotions a little ahead of launching the new ad video. Beginning with sharing the ‘making of the ad’ video, the page admin then made fans to wait for the ad for a few days, eventually releasing the ad on the 26th of April. This was soon followed up by a Facebook contest ‘Khelo Dil Se’ hosted on a Facebook app that required one to watch the new TVC and play a mind game to win an iPhone 5.

One had to memorise the TVC and arrange the scenes in the correct sequence and in the quickest time possible. The app has a provision to invite friends too.

The updates following these are focused on spreading the word about the Twitter contest and the new TVC.

TVC launches aided through social media

This year, television commercials are being increasingly launched through a series of promotions on social media, specifically Twitter as it is easier to get people talking there. While some of them create a huge amount of spam, some others are endearing and can’t help flooding your timeline. The #DixcyPanja Twitter contest is one such contest that cannot have you complaining about spam. From an adorable ad to a positive message and simple, creative contests, the brand has ensured to create maximum buzz for it on the social media front, while also growing its Facebook and Twitter community.

The good part is synching the Facebook community of 230K fans with the 400+ Twitter followers for the ad promotion. Dixcy Scott seems to have achieved a fair amount of success riding on the popularity of Salman Khan and the iPhone5 incentive.

Recently, Frooti, the mango flavoured drink had launched its TVC featuring the King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, through a teaser campaign on Twitter. The ‘making of the ad’ video was shared before launching the ad, while fans were kept engaged with contests around why Shah Rukh loves Frooti. Prizes included Shah Rukh autographed jerseys, iPads and Frooti boxes.

What do you think about the Dixcy Scott TVC launch and other exclusive TVC launches through social media first?

OLX India Sets Up A Donation Drive With ‘Every Mother Counts’

Vinaya Naidu — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:34:03 +0000

There is no greater joy than the joy of giving. This Mother’s Day, OLX India, the free online classifieds platform that enables people to buy or sell items across a range of products and services, has launched a unique CSR initiative called ‘Every mother counts’. The campaign asks people to donate their personal items and belongings, which will then be given to needy mothers from shelter homes and slums in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. The donations are being accepted from the 27^th of April to the 5^th of May before donating them on the 6^th and 7^th of May.

All one has to do is register themselves on the website ‘Every mother counts’ through name, email and mobile number or send SMS to given codes for each of the cities. The team at OLX will collect these donations in kind from one’s home or preferred location and gift wrap these donations to distribute them into the hands of underprivileged mothers. In addition, people can also fill up donation leaflets and drop it at the available drop boxes in Big Bazaar and Cafe Coffee Day.

The initiative has been promoted on the social media channels of OLX India. The Facebook page with a 2.9 million strong fan base, along with the Twitter page with more than 5K followers, have been sharing about the initiative and also running interesting contests with premium t-shirts to be won. A Twitter contest invited users to follow the handle and tweet with #ThereIsNoGreaterJoyThan. Witty and creative tweets could win exclusive OLX dri-fit t-shirts.

Brands are speaking more through their social actions rather than promoting themselves, which is the future. It is good to see an online C2C marketplace start an initiative that also gels with its line of business.

Go Goa Gone’s ‘Khoon Choos Le’ Popularised Through KhooniMonday

Vinaya Naidu — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:15:56 +0000

Sony Music India, the music partners for the upcoming film ‘Go Goa Gone’ – a comedy film about zombies starring Saif Ali Khan as the zombie hunter who protects the three characters played by Kunal Khemu, Vir Das and Anand Tiwary – is reaching out through social media to promote one of its songs called ‘Khooni Monday’.

Following the success of its first movie trailer release last month, with a million views on YouTube and a trending hashtag on Twitter, social media seems to be the chosen route for ‘Go Goa Gone’, also touted to be India’s first Zom-Com movie. The music company launched #KhooniMonday on Twitter on the Monday after it was released the previous day on the 14^th of April. This was a creative move to leverage upon the usual Monday rants so often shared by Twitter users. The video description too states that ‘If you hate Mondays, you will love this song!

The Sony Music India Twitter page has been promoting ‘Khooni Monday’ quite successfully every Monday, given the relatable Monday morning blues experienced by most Twitter users, and also the crazy lyrics of the number with ‘Khoon choos le’ leading the way. The #KhooniMonday hashtag has also been promoted by the movie’s Twitter handle (@GoGoaGoneMovie), the production house (@ErosNow) and each of the characters’ Twitter handles. Tweets invite followers and Twitter users to share how they handle bloody Mondays.

Hardik ke sukhoon ka shikaar hai SOMVAAR! AAPKE SUKOON KA KAUN HAI SHIKAAR? ? ow.ly/i/1U2Jm #KhooniMonday @kunalkemmu

— Go Goa Gone (@GoGoaGoneMovie) April 16, 2013

The promotions on Twitter were in synch with that on Facebook; Sony Music created a similar interaction with fans by associating Monday hatred with ‘Kooni Monday’.

This is a cool and creative approach to appealing to the youth rather than manufactured hashtags like ‘Replace movie names with ___’ that nobody cares about. And, Sony Music India has successfully attempted to promote a song without a contest!

Garnier Men Rope In IPL Cricketers To PowerLight Villages

Vinaya Naidu — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:55:20 +0000

The cities of Jaipur and Hyderabad were in for an electrifying weekend with Rajasthan Royals and SunRisers Hyderabad participating in ‘PowerLight a village’, the CSR initiative by Garnier Men. This year, Garnier Men India, the male grooming brand had joined hands with Project Chirag in a unique social campaign called ‘PowerLight a village’, wherein the brand leveraged its social media community to help them light up hundreds of villages in India that have no access to electricity.

Having its origins in the ‘Men who matter’ initiative, the social campaign of powerlighting a village uses a combination of social media activities and offline drives to generate watts for the campaign, which in turn would help in providing solar energy. The digital execution is being taken care by Foxymoron, a social media marketing and digital solutions agency.

The 1.9 million fans on Garnier Men’s Facebook page could contribute virtually to the electrification drive. Every like, share and comment, contributed a predetermined unit of energy. And this was coupled with on-ground activations where one could pedal bicycles which will be recording the energy generated. Eventually all this would be added up into actual energy donation through the solar equipment – one solar lamp that also has an in-built mobile charging unit, 1 solar tube light and 1 solar panel to charge their equipment.

Being the official grooming partner for Rajasthan Royals as well as SunRisers Hyderabad for this season of IPL, Garnier Men conducted a range of activities that could reach out to a bigger audience as Indians love cricket and its cricketers.

Players from Rajasthan Royals and SunRisers Hyderabad rode the PowerLight A Village bicycles in malls in Jaipur and Hyderabad to contribute towards this cause. This also gave a great opportunity for fans to meet the cricketers in person, get grooming tips from Garnier Men and contribute to a good cause at the same time. The mall activities saw India’s favourite players like Rahul Dravid along with Ajinkya Rahane and Sreesanth from Rajasthan Royals, joined by Cameron White, Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn from SunRisers Hyderabad, pedalling away to powerlight villages.

Pedal to powerlight on social media

The pedalling activity was also carried forward through social media engagement to bridge the online-offline gap. Fans were encouraged to visit the mall and pedal the bicycles at the given schedules in each of the cities. They had to upload pictures of them cycling on a specially designed Facebook app and gather votes. There were exciting Garnier Men prizes for the highest votes as well as the ones who voted for them.

The ‘Gallery’ displays the various pictures as per the city it has been uploaded from. One can also search through names on the search bar at the top, or go through by ‘Top rated’ or ‘Most recent’. Clicking on an image enlarges it and also allows one to vote for it. Additionally, one can contribute 1 watt of electricity by sharing on Facebook or Twitter.

Twitter was leveraged to drive traffic to the app, that in turn built more contributions for the campaign. Tweets shared were hashtagged with #PedalToPowerlight. Also, tweets shared could contribute 10 watts to the campaign.

In addition, the ‘powerlight’ message has been embedded into other pieces of communication with the fans, like asking them about who were the powerlight performers during the ongoing IPL matches.

Creative campaign extension

Like I have mentioned before, ‘PowerLight a Village’ goes far in strengthening ‘Take Care’, the Garnier Men tagline. Apart from positive branding, the CSR campaign has also managed to weave in the IPL fever by getting cricketers to contribute to the cause. The pedalling activities at malls, especially in the cities of Jaipur and Hyderabad to represent the two teams it has partnered with this season – Rajasthan Royals and SunRisers Hyderabad, is a cool idea. One that enabled fans to meet the cricketers who are playing for their cities in person and above all contribute to a good cause.

The integration of ‘Men who matter’ with the IPL teams, as part of their official grooming partners, works for both parties. It helps Garnier Men’s ‘PowerLight a Village’ reach out to a larger crowd in a cricket-crazy nation, as well as get the cricketers some positive branding.

Besides, the app has maintained the same look and feel as its earlier ‘powerlight a village’ one. Cool graphics, neat layout and smooth navigation make for a great user experience.

I like what’s being done here – a fun, CSR initiative that involves the social media community and gives them excellent perks in return for the participation. Do share your thoughts and also your experiences if you have pedalled to powerlight.

Dell India Celebrates The Passionate Youth With #ICanDoKuchBhi

Vinaya Naidu — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:54:11 +0000

The reigning trend to appeal to the youth today is catching up in all industry sectors. Be it banks, food & beverages, technology and others, every brand is making an effort to lure the young of India. Based on the belief that the youth today are more determined to give wings to their passion, rather than chase material gains, technology major, Dell India is out with its TVC that celebrates the youth of today, their “Can do” attitude and the determination to achieve their dreams. Titled as the ‘Dell achievement anthem – #icandokuchbhi’, it portrays youth being empowered by technology.

Technology, particularly Dell Inspiron, has been shown as an aid in achieving their dreams. The brand is leveraging this new message through a range of activities on digital and social media. Celebrating the passion for personal achievement, Dell India had created a dedicated site ‘Achieve with Dell’ last month that invited people to share their stories of passion enabled through technology.

Extending this further onto social media, a new Twitter contest has been launched today with the hashtag #icandokuchbhi. One needs to follow the Dell India Twitter handle to participate. Tweet about the passion that makes them say #icandokuchbhi using the aid of technology and stand a chance to win a Dell Inspiron laptop. The three-day contest will also choose 10 people with the most interesting tweets who would win a Dell branded t-shirt with their tweet printed on them!

The Facebook page with more than 5.4 million fans has been sharing the new brand message of ‘Can do anything’, with updates and the new TVC along with information about the Twitter contest.

The engagement drive on social media seems to be a little by little approach to bring home the message amongst the youth. #Icandokuchbhi might catch up better with an integrated approach that connects to the youth at all possible touch points, and I’m sure this is in the cards. Nonetheless, the promotions beginning with the user-generated stories on the website and this Twitter contest seem to be neatly weaved into the overall brand message.