Pop singer Paris Hilton promoted her new music album 'Paris' on YouTube. Fashion brands, such Ralph Lauren, Gap, Victoria's Secret, Calvin Klein, Adidas and more are on YouTube connecting with the community through videos, commercials, behind-the-scenes, footage and fashion shows.
India is beginning to witness a similar trend, though it is at a very rudimentary stage. Orkut, a more popular social networking site, is attracting the attention of marketers. Naturally, brand advertising potential is huge. And some are already on board.
Meow 104.8 FM, the exclusive women FM station, is present on Orkut. Anil Srivatsa, COO, Radio Today, who also hosts Between the Sheets on Meow, enters into a discussion with the community and regularly updates audiences regarding his shows through Orkut. "It is an opportunity to engage with audiences, create a viral effect and spread the word about the brand," says Srivatsa.
Besides Orkut provides the ideal environment to promote a channel such as Meow, since it is positioned as a "talk format" radio station.
Srivatsa says he has made 700 friends in 30 days, and through those 700, he now reaches 2000 people. "Being on Orkut creates a buzz." Srivatsa hopes to have a meaningful business partnership with Orkut in the near future and is in talks with prospective advertisers.
Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults, says that social networking websites such as Orkut, YouTube, Fropper and Facebook give marketers a well profiled target audience. This is a golden opportunity for marketers, since traditional media is mostly mass, and one never knows if the money spent is actually leading to conversions.
"Segmentation allows the marketers to get close to its consumers, and therefore, targeting them is easier," says Bijoor
Research findings from JuxtConsult show enthusiasm amongst surfers to network. According to JuxtConsult's India Online 2007 survey communication, online networking is a hot trend, be it social or professional. Mrutyunjay, Director, JuxtConsult, says the popularity of social networking sites such as Orkut, Friends, Tagged, Fropper and Hi5 is a positive sign for Indian marketers.
For one, social networking sites are great way for spreading the word says Sachin Bhatia, co founder and chief marketing officer, MakeMyTrip.com. The travel portal is also present on Orkut.
"Users of social networks are a close-knit community, where opinions are trusted, or at least considered," Bhatia says. In fact, social networking sites can serve as great opportunities for the socially ostracized products such as cigarettes and liquor points out Bijoor.
But despite the potential of the medium, Indian marketers are sitting on the wall observes Bijoor. One worry is tampering of the content. Once the content is online, the brand owner has little control over the matter and could make the brand vulnerable.
Though there are technologies to prevent such a situation, marketers are in no hurry it seems. Another reason for the marketer's lack of enthusiasm is the size of social networkers. "It is small; just 11 million of the total of 30.23 million urban Internet users," says Mrutyunjay.
"Once these sites have the critical mass, marketers will begin to show interest," points out Bhatia of MakeMyTrip.com. On the other hand, Bhatia says that this is the best time to acquaint oneself with the medium, in terms of how best to exploit it in the future. MakeMyTrip has a two-member social networking team in place.
While social networking sites are yet to catch the fancy of advertisers, online communities of different brands such as sunsilkgangofgirls.com, Whisper's BeingGirl.co.in, ITC's website for Bingo Chips or Oktatabyebye.com, continue to get popular.
Source:www.televisionpoint.com
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