Lenovo, TataSky, Cornetto, Happydent turn to viral ads
Webchutney, Media2win and Virtual Marketing are shifting focus to create online ad campaigns around animated viral videos. Advertisers go gaga over tattoos
By Mahima Puri, TNN |
AHMEDABAD: It’s a viral attack that makes you laugh and the advertisers smile. A two-minute animated spoof that appears in your mailbox comes as a much-needed comic relief during work hours, but in the end, a small tagline reveals the purpose, product advertisement.
Interactive advertising agencies like Webchutney, Media2win and Virtual Marketing are shifting focus to create online ad campaigns around animated viral videos. The good news is that major brands are falling for it.
Big names like Lenovo, TataSky, Cornetto and Happydent are exploring online marketing beyond placing banner ads on various sites or pasting text on social networking sites. They are eyeing potential customers, essentially through animated viral videos, to create brand equity, eventually targeting an increase in sales.
Interactive advertising agencies like Webchutney, Media2win and Virtual Marketing are shifting focus to create online ad campaigns around animated viral videos. The good news is that major brands are falling for it.
Big names like Lenovo, TataSky, Cornetto and Happydent are exploring online marketing beyond placing banner ads on various sites or pasting text on social networking sites. They are eyeing potential customers, essentially through animated viral videos, to create brand equity, eventually targeting an increase in sales.
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Viral videos need an initial push which happens by seeding it to an existing brand database of their consumers, additionally making the viral available on video sharing sites and sharing it with our own contacts. If the idea is good, it will circulate by itself,” says Media2win CEO Krishna Kumar.
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Brands that have adopted animated virals early are those willing to experiment, spread across various mediums such as DTH (Tata Sky), computers (Lenovo), mobile (Samsung), finance (Tata SBI cards) and dotcoms (MSN/ Hotmail, Makemytrip). These brands primarily target the age group of 18-30. “Animated viral renders the fun element which the Indian audience is able to relate to. Also, it is something one would like to forward to family, friends and colleagues and also has a higher recall value. By using animation as a tool, we get the freedom to create favourable situations which may not be the case with film videos,” says Webchutney creative director Prabhat Bhatnagar.
“We were the first ones to use animated virals to promote our brand. Its like interacting with your customer, sharing a joke with him and eventually selling the product. Our hotel booking online transactions doubled in the fourth quarter of last year as compared to the third quarter. One of the key factors was the series of amusing animated viral floating across, which leads to more people visiting the site and availing of our services,” says TataSky national manager, brand marketing, Vikrant Mudaliar.
Agrees Lenovo’s deputy general manager, interactive, Hemant Soreng: “We started with a viral called Aaj Vasanti Nachegi to promote our laptop’s feature. It received immense success and we are now planning to come up a few more similar virals to further establish a market for the brand and trigger sales.”
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Another determinant worth noting is that an animated viral can cost Rs 50,000 to Rs 8 lakh. Since there is only one-time cost of producing the video and the distribution cost is nil, virals are increasingly being preferred as a medium of online marketing. “We launched animated virals along with the TataSky ‘jingalala’ campaign. The purpose is to invite more people to be a part of the TataSky family and our animated virals have helped to reach across a number of target customers,” adds Mr Mudaliar.
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Moving one step ahead are brands like Pepsi and NGOs like CRY, who create online games to ensure interaction with the target audience and engaging themselves in such activities. Animated virals not only register forwards from anywhere between 50,000 and 5 lakh, the ad spend turns out to be cheaper too, making it a favourite in interactive advertising. Daddu Ki Amanat, a viral created by Webchutney for Perfetti Protex Happydent chewing gum, saw almost 3 lakh views. Similarly, Chidiya Udi for Makemytrip and Thakur ka Inteqam for Orbit chewing gum were also circulated in lakhs.
“Apart from the usual TV and print campaigns, brands earmark an online ad spend too, which is pretty nominal. If your viral is good and becomes a hit, people will themselves circulate it, resulting in zero distribution cost and reduced ad spend. Animation here ensures that the edgy or quirky factor is added so that it achieves the desired result,” adds Mr Soreng.
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