Warc, 2 May 2014
MUMBAI: Brands in India are looking to exploit the trend
towards "selfies" – pictures consumers take of themselves and share –
whether that is through contests, product placements or celebrity endorsements.
The selfie phenomenon, which really took off in marketing
circles following the Oscar awards in Hollywood when host Ellen de Generes
posted a picture of herself and other stars on Twitter, has spread around the
world and is already being successfully used by Indian brands.
At the recent Radio Mirchi Music Awards, for example,
several Bollywood celebrities snapped themselves on the red carpet and shared
the photographs using the #mirchiselfie hashtag; the station got huge exposure
in the digital world as a result.
"It worked very well," Rahul Balyan, head of
digital initiatives at Radio Mirchi, told Afaqs! "Celebrities have no
reason to tweet about any brand or engage with it without incentive," he
added, "but after they had clicked their own selfie, they had a stake in
its creation, and they pushed it out for us to their fans."
Brands are not just relying on celebrities, however, and
many are running contests in an attempt to crowd-source pictures from
consumers. MTV tied up with consumer electronics brand Philips to do this in a
promotion around Valentine's Day, offering prizes to couples sending in the
most stylish selfie.
Some brands have also encouraged fans to send in pictures of
themselves with the actual product. This was straightforward for Mahindra in a
category such as automotive, less so for Dove soap in toiletries. For the
latter it had to be what Nimesh Shah, head maven at Windchimes Communication,
described as "the larger thought" – in this case the idea that
selfies could redefine a woman's inner beauty.
Exchange4media thought that selfies were still little more
than an announcement tool, "though they have more potential than that for
brands to explore". It noted that Vodafone was planning to run a selfie
contest during the T20 cricket tournament, where interesting selfies would be
flashed on screens at the stadium.
But however selfies were used, most agreed that they were
likely to work based as part of a wider campaign. Or, as Sudip Ghose, vice
president, marketing at luggage maker VIP Industries, put it: "[The]
selfie is a tool or a weapon, but not the artillery."
Data sourced from Afaqs!, Exchange4media; additional content
by Warc staff
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