Brands go social to enhance capabilities, woo customers
It was a simple brief from the Swissheadquartered Nestle when it asked its digital agency to help build a digital culture in the organisation. The outcome has been the DAT (Digital Acceleration Team), established by Maxus at the multinational's corporate office in Gurgaon.
Reckitt Benckiser, to step up the focus on digital in India for it's key brands like Dettol and Durex, has set up a hub recently backed by sharp analytic tools to monitor conversations real-time and evaluate the sentiments around the brand on a daily basis, to feed into its content and communication pipeline.
Mindshare has The Loop; a data infused 'war room', first introduced in the US around the Super Bowl, followed up by its India launch this year. The USP of the Loop is to enable clients to take real time decisions using real time insights.
According to Ravi Rao, leader - South Asia, Mindshare, "Loop is an enabler to make individuals and teams actually scan what consumers are talking or commenting upon and consciously come out with some breakthroughs in either solving an issue, overcoming a barrier, creating an idea, developing a content strategy or real-time optimisation."
In India, PepsiCo has been an early user of the war-room for its key campaigns. Establishing physical centres like these helps companies attain the ambitious goal of an all-pervasive digital culture for real-time marketing. Says Nitish Kapoor, managing director - RB India, "Brands today need to create an environment and build capabilities of contextually engaging with consumers in real time."
Brands are harnessing the power of social to enhance their capabilities and crafting an ongoing engagement strategy. To capitalise on the impending wedding season, for example condom brand Durex has launched customised combo packs (packs of T-shirts, playing cards etc. along with Durex products) and the conversation around the products would be monitored at the data-centre and provide insights to the brand on the engagement strategy as also when to refresh the offering, amongst other crucial possibilities.
The marketing teams are realising that social can be used to do more than just manage complaints. It can form strategy and build real-time high engagement content. Says Tushar Vyas, managing partner, GroupM South Asia, "The high amount of conversations have made the medium a treasure trove of insights. To spot pop culture and consumer trends which might be forward looking and input to communication, product or even distribution."
Unilever recently conducted a real time exercise during Lakme Fashion Week, where teams from the creative, media agency and brand got together in one room and listened to online conversations about the brand on giant screens. It helped in driving better insights and interaction about Lakme consumers as well as drove earned media, says Avinash Jhangiani, managing director - digital and mobility, OMG.