What innovation in digital has excited you recently?

Campaign India asks some experts about ‘WORK” in the digital space that has cut the clutter and technology that gets their pulse racing!

CAMPAIGNS

 Ruchira Raina, MD, Dentsu Communications and national business head – Dentsu Media

GILLETTE INDIA’S “To shave or not”

I really believe that this whole idea of pushing ‘innovations’ in digital trivializes the power of the medium and the intent of the communication. We need to use digital for what it is! Consumer connect, consumer conversations, consumer feedback, consumer sharing, etc.

I have been very fascinated by the Gillette India’s: To Shave or Not, - a case study of using social media. It is now doing rounds on the international circuit, with it getting a big reception in the CM Summit. According to a presentation given by Lucas Watson, global team leader for Procter & Gamble’s digital business strategy, at the CM Summit in New York, the Cincinnati-based firm used a “mix of paid media, earned media and social elements all working together” to grow sales. The social angle was when the company created a Facebook page that allowed consumers to discuss these findings, based on the idea that to “debate, discuss and argue is in the blood of Indians.”

According to Watson it received a stupendous response and further reiterated that “it was adding the social mix that unlocked the value-adds.” Again the results were mighty impressive, after 10 years of stagnation; the campaign set all time sales records with a sales increase of 38%. Awareness doubled. Trials increased by 400% and Gillette market share increased by 35%.

 Rajat Gandhi, head, Zed Digital, ZenithOptimedia

PUMA’s IPL campaign

The recent campaign of Puma during the IPL in my opinion is extremely innovative in terms of creative execution, use of technology and the media used to promote it.

Puma was the official sponsor of Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers. A mobile cricket game was developed (by Phonevalley) involving the two teams. The users could download the game and play. The scores were submitted on real time basis. The game’s top scorers were rewarded with Puma Goodies. The game was promoted through Yahoo’s  WAP portal and Bluetooth hotspots.

The interesting point was to see how a mobile game was created with life like graphics and then promoted using the digital environment i.e. online websites and Bluetooth hotspots. The activity scored very well on the key aspects i.e. interactivity and stickiness. Post campaign studies showed that the users spent more than two hours playing the game on their phones!

 Manjiri Kamat, GM-Mumbai & Bangalore, Mediaedge:cia

HSBC’s Innovation for Wimbledon on Sify!

HSBC understood the benefit of a 360 degree integration of various medium in their campaigns and implemented it quite successfully during the Wimbledon season in 2008.

In a country that is totally cricket-crazy, HSBC's idea was to talk loud about its association with Wimbledon 2008. Riding on the fact that over 75% of the total Internet population was actively using e-mails every day, it decided to do a first-of-its kind takeover of Sify's e-mail section.

The banking giant used the idea of "disruption"  effectively by replacing the ‘reply’, ‘delete’, ‘spam’ buttons on a person's inbox with tennis jargons like ‘return’, ‘out’, ‘fault’, etc. So every time a person rolled his mouse over these routine buttons they would be replaced by a new set which carried these tennis terms. To reinforce the message about their association, “subject” line in one's inbox would read “Tennis fever in your mailbox, brought to you by HSBC, official banking partner of Wimbledon.”

For many who thought, advertising in one's mail-box never worked, this was a case in point.

 Yuzdi Badhniwalla, head, Starcom IP

AIRCEL’s launch campaign

Aircel’s launch campaign, I felt, was a good innovation, though not in the conventional sense of a portal breaking creative. The campaign broke in a short burst; but across a wide array of websites. This gave the users a feeling of Aircel being present “everywhere”. This was an important objective for a carrier that was launching nationally. By being universally present across digital websites, Aircel was able to convey the fact that they are present everywhere, without actually shouting that out. I thought this was a innovative way of conveying a national telecom brand’s launch.

TECHNOLOGY


 Unny Radhakrishnan, national director – Digital, Maxus

Location data points

The technology that capitalizes location data points! Trillions of data points are now available with the growth of positioning technologies like GPS, Wi-Fi, Celltower triangulation, etc.  Location data is expected to give marketers new insight and help to predict retail trends. It is not just marketing that is going to benefit from this. Understanding the movement of people within a city block or neighbourhood will help policy makers, provide early indicators of a disease outbreak or other public hazard. For instance, Nokia & University of California is reportedly working on a cell-phone-based traffic system to better understand commuting habits with the current traffic flows. Citysense is another application which users can download and see which blocks are busier, most popular destinations to go, etc.


 Viraj Malik, MD & CEO, Percept Knorigin

IPTV

The immense opportunities and benefits that IPTV can provide to consumers as well as advertisers is truly mind boggling. Consumers clearly desire choice, control and the ability to personalize their viewing experience—all of which are the key benefits of an IPTV service. I am truly impressed with its video-on-demand library that is interactive and has an inbuilt TVR feature. Once this technology, at the moment limited by availability, finds critical mass, only sky is the limit for advertisers and content generators.