Humour has made a place for itself in India in varied ways. So much so that it has found its way into brand marketing. SHAlINI SAKSENA tell you more
A brand offers discount on its website to invite customers to shop. Of course, an obvious marketing strategy would be to advertise through the usual traditional methods — TV, pamphlets and newspapers. But given the penetration of the Internet in the country, seeing a new phase of digital transformation and people indulging in online content, Shahid Javed Ansari, founder-CEO and co-founders Harpreet Singh Bajwa and Ankit Mor of RVCJ Media, left their high profile jobs to build a space where humour could be used in marketing a brand and its products or services.
The latest manner in which companies are trying to reach the customers in online — Facebook, Instagram and Twitter being the most popular. Today, marketing on these platforms goes on these lines: A picture of Big Bazaar is put and a few lines are added. Mr X is very kanjoos. But here, he doesn't mind spending because of the ongoing discounts.
The result — this campaign makes people smile and be aware of the discounts on offer.
The journey for Ansari began in 2010 and then Mor joined in 2011. The two created a joke FB page —to entertain people. But it was only in 2014 when Bajwa joined that the idea to create a company came to offer something new to their followers which is quite a number —14 million Facebook followers, 1.5 million Instagram followers and 1.8 lakh Twitter followers.
Started as RajnikantVsCIDJokes on Facebook as a community with limited members, the company was established in 2010 when India was seeing a new phase of digital transformation and people were indulging in online content.
“The idea of creating an online platform for the audience came in 2014 with the formation of the RVCJ Media — an organisation that offers 360 degree marketing like listicles, memes, brand integrations, interviews, articles and videos to name some of the services that we offer. We don't have one platform but many; we into technology, we are into almost every social media platform," Mor explains.
The idea for this marketing strategy came when the three wanted to offer more than just make their followers laugh. They wanted to offer a more serious front to what they were doing.
“We decided to change the name so that people would take us seriously. We started doing videos so that we could attract brands. The mindset of what we were doing started to change and brands recognise us as a platform that offers a marketing strategy that the youth identifies with especially those on social media.” Mor says.
Humour marketing is different from traditional marketing in the sense that instead of simply saying go shop at X, one way of introducing the brand is to introduce a brand is by making people smile.
Such a concept comes with its share of challenges. “There are several challenges to be part of such a set-up. First, religious sentiments. There are more than 15 million followers. We want to create a community not hurt them as the aim is to add fun factor. Second, we have to constantly work on what is being liked and disliked. We want to see smiles not harm anybody,” Mor says and tells you that there are two people who go through every creative before it is uploaded. If any word does appear, it is deleted at this stage.
It is not just fun marketing that the company believes in. They also want their followers to know what is happening around the world. Hence, the creation of viral content.
“We are not just into marketing, we also are into disseminating news. Again, instead of the usual straight manner of informing the public of a particular new, we make a video that is on fun lines. Since these clippings are funny people love to watch them with whatever is happening around the globe when they log on to their social media account and visit our page,” Mor tells you. The idea is to not just be aware of the news, but also share it with family and friends who have probably not subscribed to their page. The company does not tweak every news and make it funny. Hardcore political news is put is out as it is. The aim is to have an adult discussion and not fight via comments.
What has helped is that humour in India has grown leaps and bound with so many TV comedy shows, stand-up shows and laughing clubs where the focus is to have fun.
“In the last four years, a lot has changed. Taking a cue from the US' BuzzFeed, an Indian counter- part was created and monetise it. It is all about smart marketing. Here, one has to first to the company page before he can even actually view meme-based marketing or any other marketing strategy,” Bajwa says.
Each company has a budget for various medium — Radio, TV and digital. In digital, there are five platforms — FB, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and finally the website.
“We design an entire campaign for a brand. If he is not on FB, there is Twitter, if he is not here then there is Instagram, next is YouTube. Regular visitors on FB usually subscribe to some pages. If they subscribe to RVCJ, the alerts of what is happening on our page goes to our followers who can then view the content,” Bajwa shares who opines that the real push in the digital space has come after the launch of Jio.
“People have now shifted to watching TV on their smartphones. With no crunch of data, it opens several possibilities for us where we approach the client with several options. Each digital platform has a different audience and the client needs to be apprised of it. For example, there are more girls on Instagram. If a brand with a woman-centric product comes to us we advise them to advertise on Instagram instead of FB. Or say a meme-based ad for Colgate that runs like this: A man tells a friend: ‘Bhai tere daant bahut peeley hain’. A tagline below — use Colgate,” Bajwa tells you.
For the brands, there are several motives for using digital platform - it can range from brand awareness to making people buy their product to just wanting registration on their website.