Promoting Bollywood movies and their stars is an age old marketing technique by brands. The latest name to follow the bandwagon is WeChat India. The mobile social messaging communication service, WeChat developed by Tencent in China and promoted in India by the gaming site, Ibibo has launched a campaign for the upcoming Bollywood movie ‘Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (MBM)’.
The campaign that is being promoted on social networking channels of WeChat India gives you a chance to meet the leading pair of the movie i.e. Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma. So if you are crazy about these stars then you will have to log onto WeChat India Facebook page. Watch the video and answer a simple question that is being asked on the Facebook wall. 4 lucky winners get a chance to meet the stars but only when you send the answers to iammatru id on WeChat only.
The app is also running similar contests for the movie on Twitter where you could stand a chance for winning free movie tickets. In addition to this, the Twitter page is also promoting the Facebook. So you can follow the app on Twitter, RT and pray to be lucky to win movie tickets.
How cool is the move by WeChat India?
Tencent, which owns a 20 percent stake in Ibibo started pushing the app in India in the first half of 2012. Launching a campaign with a Bollywood movie is no surprise when the app is trying to create a strong presence in the already crowded market of mobile social messaging apps. The growing clout of WhatsApp in India, especially among the youth is no more a hidden secret. So launching such a campaign is a strategic move.
But the tricky part is just not promoting the movie but promoting the app. The real challenge for the app would be first to bring fans to the Facebook page to check the video then get them to send their answers to iammatru id on WeChat only. In other words, the app wants to increase its interaction by the existing users and from the new ones it expects them to download the app to be a part of the campaign. This whole process could be tricky since the incentive is only 4 fans stand a chance to meet the stars. The campaign could have been interesting had the app given some incentive to the new signups made during this campaign too.
Nevertheless, WeChat seems to be on desperate measures to make its presence felt in India especially among the youth, which is already hooked to other competitive apps. Wonder if WeChat India would release results of the number of signups that happened due to the MBM campaign!