A Brand Consultancy for this New Age of Brand-Consumer Interaction

From interest to conversion to cross selling to review and referrals - all via Twitter

Business Scenario/Challenge:

In a world where more and more consumers are talking on the open web, the idea was to tap into those conversations and deliver clear Business ROI.

Our Solution:For our client Sahara Star, we regularly monitor the Twitter-verse To do this we first understood the guest profile and created a demographic-psychographic profile from which we derived intelligent keywords. These help us look for potential customers or enhance the experience of our existing ones. In one such example we went from a lead to a conversion, to cross selling experiences at the hotel, to a brilliant Trip Advisor review and to finally the person referring us to her friends in New York and promising to return the next year; all via conversation on the open web.

Spreading Chi

Business Scenario/Challenge:Chi, a Pan-Asian cuisine restaurant in Delhi asked us to build their brand in a highly competitive, undifferentiated market which constantly attracts new players.

Our Solution:The name ‘Chi’ was something that stood out for us and we decided to bring it to life via #spreadingchi i.e. Spreading Happiness via Twitter. We monitored Twitter for any conversations with negative connotations in Delhi NCR and the idea was to connect with these people and as Chi bring a smile to their face. Whether it be by sharing great content, empathizing with them, giving them a brand experience at Chi; whatever it took to “Spread Chi”. Once the user was intrigued enough, we gave them coupons to be redeemed at the restaurant to bring more happiness to them and drive more business to our client’s establishment. Lot of influencers tweeted about Chi including one going on to say, “Chi Kitchen Bar is one of the few Indian brands on Twitter you see being managed well.”

A Real-time, Dynamic campaign involving prominent bloggers all aboard the Chennai Express

Business Scenario/Challenge:AndPictures, a Hindi movie channel, wanted to promote the TV Premiere of Chennai Express on 23rd Nov. A clear challenge, how to promote a movie for which there have been enough marketing campaigns and a lot of people have already watched it in cinemas as well as on other channels in the category.

Our Solution:The idea was conceived: #ChennaiExpressAndYou: The Train Journey. Four prominent Indibloggers were to relive the journey as in the movie Chennai Express, complete with the adventures and experiences which SRK & Deepika faced along the way. To make it interesting we crowd-sourced ideas for challenges to be performed by the bloggers en route. In the end, we reached 8,96,535 twitter handles and trended on Twitter twice on the day of the film’s premiere. But most of all, the channel And Pictures got some serious loving from Twitterati.

Witnessing the 2nd screen effect for a TV channel:

Business ScenarioWhen a person simultaneously uses two separate screens to interact with a single brand/service, it is known as the second screen effect. The idea was to get regular instances of this effects for And Pictures, a Hindi movie channel.

Our Solution: In this case, we kept conversing with people on Twitter about films airing in just a bit or #NowPlaying. This way we got talking to people who were 1. already tuned in to the feature 2. getting to know about the feature from Twitter and hence tuning in. Thereby getting a lot of personalized conversations going around the telecasts of the channel on Twitter in tandem with the telecast.

Dynamic Facebook Cover PhotoBusiness Scenario/Challenge:To celebrate the occasion of crossing one lakh fans on Facebook while continuing to drive increased ROI for Sahara Star via current guests/customers.

Our Solution:In the luxury segment the customer is the brand’s best ambassador; these days they leave their reviews on social media. So we designed a Facebook cover photo which got updated with a new review from across the web after every 100 likes. So, a user may tweet something on Twitter today about the brand and the people on the Facebook page see his/her experience in their newsfeed via a cover photo.Also a dynamic countdown on the cover photo with every new guest experience on the cover. We ran a contest on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook under the theme of ‘Star moments’ where the focus was on guests & building word of mouth through them. Sahara Star currently has 23,200 check-ins on Facebook. It is one of the highest in the 5 star category and derives a significance part of its revenue and custom interest from social media.

Building a brand for Real Girls via real world influencers

Business Scenario/Challenge:

Peperone, a newly established handbag brand which till now was selling only online, approached us to help build their brand at a minimal cost and connect with young college girls. This in a market which had either established peers like Hidesign and Baggit or brands with deep pockets like Lavie.

Our Solution:Our communication strategy was based on connecting with real girls, not a brand endorsed by a celebrity but one that should sell because the savvy girls in their peer groups are buying it as well.

To do this we involved real world influencers from colleges and created an online/offline integrated campaign, with social media activations, photo shoots, and finally leading to an annual look-book, where the winners would be featured.

Building ROI for B2B segment via Personalized Lift Branding

Business Scenario/Challenge:

Office Yes wanted to reach out to admin, procurement and HR managers in big corporates, in a way that established credibility and emphasized their USP.

Our Solution:We identified Gurgaon Cybercity which has a lot of businesses, and thus a huge number of HR, Admin and Procurement managers and used Lift-branding since we wanted to target places where our target audience could be found. Also, in the B2B sector, since the salesperson is the company’s brand ambassador, we used them as models for the creatives. This established credibility and a sense of familiarity among new clients and some of their previous ones also when they called.We integrated mobile marketing thereby making it easier for HR admin to evaluate conversions from the leads in hand.

RC Cola - Direct Mailer – On-ground - Crowd-sourced t-shirt

Challenge:

Our client RC Cola approached us to do some collaterals for an event they were sponsoring for AIESEC. We wanted to double the impact with minimum incremental spend.

Our Solution:We created a campaign which involved crowd-sourced t-shirts, a direct mailer, mix of pre-event social media activities and posters at the event. Later we captured content at the event and spread it via social media.

For example the “RC Cola Born free” contest was created where we asked people to submit quotes telling us anything smart and awesome they had to say. The winning quotes were fused with RC Cola’s official artwork and printed on t-shirts.

Social Media delivering reach at around 9% of the cost and yet relevant

Business Scenario/Challenge:

To convince a client that was previously spending huge budgets on print ads (approx. 1.2 crore on jacket cover ads in TOI) to switch to social ads and get better reach at a fraction of the cost.

Our Solution:With a clever combination of copy, creatives and intelligent targeting we are able deliver exceptional reach via a far more targeted medium than print.For example, typically once a year, during the Glitterati event at Aamby Valley City, they would buy the jacket cover of TOI at Rs. 1.2 crore +. But we delivered the right message to the right audience and a lot of them (more than 5 million) at less than 10% the cost.

How using social ads we reached more than 65% of TOI’s readership across India. At around 9% of the cost

These posts reached out to 5 million targeted people

From ‘crappy sandwiches’ to a ‘happy customer’Business Scenario/Challenge:

Sahara Star wanted to promote an offer which has special charges for a 5-6 hour stay. This kind of an offer makes perfect sense for a person waiting at the airport because of a delayed flight, or has a connecting flight. The challenge here was how do you tap into the bubble of those people who are stuck at the airport “at the moment”; basically build in the time-contextual nature of the offer into the promotion idea.

Our Solution:As it is, there are very few opportunities to identify and target via airport branding, yet those aren’t cost effective. Instead, we used Twitter and Foursquare to monitor conversations - identified specific customer behavior. Then engaged in conversations with them, pitched our product, and eventually not just converted leads into real business but also got them to say something nice about the brand on a social platform.

Think Design - Music CD Cover With Illustration, Photography & QR Code

Business Scenario/Challenge:

Our client asked us to design the artwork for an album CD cover. We wanted to not just design it, but bring potential customers closer to the buying cycle.

Our Solution:People love browsing through music albums at the store. The concept involved combining the musicians picture (since we wanted to make him feel important too) with a hand made silhouette and a QR Code pointing to a SoundCloud page containing a preview of the artist’s tracks, more information about the artist and the option to share the music on social platforms as well.

Brand Building via Pinterest-Aamby Valley

Challenge:

We wanted actual customers who had visited the property to help us populate the Pinterest page, which is a very visual-driven medium.

Our Solution:Aamby Valley City has various visually appealing locations, properties like 19 Degree North and ISA, beautiful houses, celebrity presence and all the interesting content shared by our customers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Blogs. Thus we leveraged the love our actual customers have for the brand by sharing their pictures via our official Pinterest page. This helped us build a stronger bond with them, and even enticed potential customers looking to buy property within Aamby.

Customizing the guest experiences via Live Tweeting

Challenge:

In the luxury hospitality segment customizing guests’ experience according to their feedback is really valued and we wanted to use this to drive business.

Our Solution:While monitoring regular conversations about the brand, we identified conversations of people currently staying at the hotel. We responded with a fast turn around time. Using their inputs/feedback, we customized their experience and received positive feedback from them.For example, here the University of East London Cricket team stayed with us in the hotel and started tweeting about so we simply responded and got amazing feedback in return on a public social platform.

Pursuing customers unhappy with Competitors: Star, Chi

Challenge:

To deliver lower Cost Per Acquisition to clients by targeting the competitors’ service, their customers and their mind-frame to explore better options.

Our Solution:Using social monitoring tools and a consumer analysis team, we identified these low hanging fruits; engaged them in conversations and converted them. We tapped into such conversations and converted customers in the luxury segment like JW Marriott, influential customers and also people talking about the category.As can be seen, we engaged in conversations with people talking about giving up Chinese food and got them re-consider.

Blackberrys Sharp Nights

Challenge:

To launch a nation-wide digital campaign promoting a live fashion event and getting the urban Indian male audience to talk about it and participate.

Our Solution:This was done via a unique contest that involved its audience to guess the password to crack open a protected PDF document which had the instructions for the second stage in it.Also, targeted Facebook ads, YouTube ads and inorganic promotion by online influencers such as Miss Malini, Arjun Rampal, Ayushmaann, GQ India, etc. were used to reach out only to relevant people and not contest junkies.On Twitter we had 240+ conversations/ tweets in(including ORM, re-tweets, everyday posts) which yielded 900+ mentions most of which featured the hashtag #gosharp. During the period of the campaign more than 77,000 fans were added on Facebook and 240+ followers on Twitter.

Celebrating 50,000 fans on Facebook while delivering business ROI

Business Scenario/Challenge:

The biggest challenge for any luxury retail brand is that the people on their Facebook page may not be the same as their actual customers and vice-versa.

Our Solution:We studied the consumer journey, and connected with them across touch points.1. Welcome Tray – We designed the first Facebook cookie (an actual Facebook logo shaped cookie2. Key Cards – Customized key cards to connect with our customers and to make them aware of our online presence. 3. Wi-Fi Landing page – Customers accessing the hotel WiFi were offered a free upgrade for subscribing to our updates by just liking the page.

Creating an app for the universal emotion of cheer around Christmas, plugging service subtly

Business Scenario/Challenge:For Sahara Star’s Christmas Feast, our challenge was to involve people in the spirit of Christmas without focussing on giveaways or contests which most brand pages have become synonymous with, during the festive season. At the same time we wanted to connect with the festive activity at Sahara Star, making sure the user stays engaged all this while.

Our Solution:The concept of Santa Claus has always been linked with being NAUGHTY OR NICE - “So have you been Naughty or Nice this year?” Taking a cue from this we designed an app which analyses a person’s news-feed over the year and matches the words a user has used across their posts to our dictionary of good and bad words. The idea being that at the end of the day we are typically what we think and share. The app adds points for good words used and deducts them for bad words. We invited participants to tweet a good deed they did in 2013, and Santa would present them with invites for the grand Christmas Feast at Sahara Star. The app had a total reach of 2,35,168 with more than 15,000 published stories on Facebook timelines during the 1 week it ran.

Using the unconventional medium of poetry, to reach out to influencer bases on Valentine’s day

Business Scenario/Challenge:Valentine’s Day witnesses a rush of brands clamouring over each other for attention. Amidst this, how does a hospitality brand stand out? That too, a 5 Star Hotel.

Our Solution:We decided to stand out from the crowd, using that which is closest to romance and love; Poetry. We tweeted short poems, romantic quotes or lines from movies and books that influential people on Twitter would connect with. All accompanied with the #EvergreenLove hashtag. The same was done on the Facebook page using share-worthy creatives in posts, which were targeted especially towards couples in a serious relationship or those who were newly engaged, thanks to Facebook’s Ad targeting features. Results were pleasantly surprising: 112,000 Reach with 576 links clicked and an astounding total of 159,543 timeline deliveries.