Idea wins my heart with their recent TVCs

Reading the title, I am sure lot of my readers would think I am a user of Idea network, I am Abhishek Bachchan fan or I am paid by Idea Cellular to write this post. But none of these are true. It is just that I am awed by their marketing and to be precise their TVCs off lately.

1. Their messaging has been so correct.  The latest ad when a child exchanges the mobile handset of his parent is an example how busy we have got in our lives to understand a relationship.



2. Honey bunny evolved nationally with the tune going viral and people singing or humming. Some were irritated some just loved it but all were hooked to it as it was always on TV. 

 
3. Even the Valentine ad was a perfect example. The way the old lady says ‘Ek flower 20Rs ka, isse achcha toh cauliflower le aate” with a message Idea can change your life. Though this ad made me think a lot about the amount of energy, time and money spent to create this TVC for playing it only for one day! However, I am sure that we admire their festive one day ads like Christmas, Diwali and Eid with a social message - Har tyohar manana chahiye!



4. Some of the Abhishek Bachchan ads with Social causes were also appreciated a lot. It had a humour with a strong message in them. They subtly promoted ‘What an Idea sir jee’. And those ads were Save Paper, Walk when you talk, over population and keep IPL clean.

I am a different network brand user and will remain till I am satisfied with their service. This blog is surely my appreciation of the strategist in their marketing department and off-course the creative agency. 

They have definitely shown how to capture minds of their audience. Now, the whole story is "How is this leading to their market share & business growth". I have my doubts because all the TVCs promote their brand tag line and not the feature, products or benefits, but I will let my doubts free for now..

How Business Pages on Facebook are getting affected with so many changes

Facebook was initially developed for connecting people on a social platform. Long time ago the CEO had said that they will not make it too commercial for businesses and appear like other portals. But that seems like a history now.  I feel Facebook has started monetizing its every branch. Not that I am anti-Fb (I very much like the way it has evolved over the years and built its own nation), but purely from a digital specialist of a brand point of view I have written my observations. Let us look how:

1. Earlier fan count meant that your brand is followed by those many people. So brands thought it was sensible to spend on Stamp ads to raise fan count. //Stamp ads was Monetization #1
2. Now since almost every Tom-Dick-Harry brand has a Facebook page and some good number of followers, Facebook revealed out that your post reaches out to only 16% of your total fans. What should the brands do now? Facebook then came out with three solutions:
• Target your posts – Organic method to reach out to fans by targeting them either by age or location or hobbies.
• Continue Stamp ads – More the fans, more the reach #Monetization #2
• Promote – Have you noticed this word on all the posts these days. It guarantees that your post will reach more people either amongst fans or friends of fans. Monetization #3
3. Suggested Page – One more feature which has been doing rounds is ‘Suggested Page’.  Suddenly a Brand’s page is thrown to me as a suggestion to like it. There has been targeting done by Facebook and I am the Brand’s TG. Brand is paying them to capture the TG. Monetization #4
4. Sponsored Story – My friend has liked the page and that is the reason I am given a suggestion thrown by Facebook to like the page.  Monetization #5
5. App creation will be monetized too. Reason 1 – App developers have taken too many advantages while building brand specific apps which Facebook wants to control now.  Reason 2 – Apps will have to be promoted like posts or page to achieve higher reach. Monetization #6. Reason 3 – Other brands will be free to advertise on Apps on impression basis. And it would be like advertising on Farmville or Criminal Case. Monetization #7.
6. Page Take Over Ads – Whenever I log-out of Facebook, I come across this huge banner ad. It is by a brand and the ad can either land on FB page or outside FB. But it gives lot of impressions/Likes to the brand #Monetization #8

While all these mechanics are pressurizing brands to do more and more FB advertising – to connect with more & ore people – to be social friendly brand – to engage the audience, in a way it is also beneficial for people. They get to participate in different contests, apps and win loads of goodies and have fun! Happy Facebook-ing.