With TV ad rates soaring, it becomes almost impossible for start ups or other SME’s with minimal ad budgets to advertise on television and really leverage contextual views. Thus, for companies who have an audience online, social media can be effectively used to reach out to individuals and target them with brand messages that both – generate traffic and build a brand image. 2 brands that i think are doing really well with respect to Social Media Marketing are Zapak and c2w.com (Contests2Win).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3TS3wUWk40[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=f0Y4FHTTHDU[/youtube]
Both have taken quite different routes with respect to communication structure and traffic generation and both have achieved pretty good results.
If one looks at both the communication messages, one will realize that Zapak’s message is more brand centric and ‘push’ while C2W’s message is more issue centric and the brand comes in subliminally. Both have their pros and cons:
Zapak’s message, according to comments is not exactly hitting it off with audiences. Around 50% of comments (out of 16) are not too pleased with the quality of the Viral and refer to it as ‘cheap’, ‘utter crap’, or ‘sick. The positive however is that all the comments revolve around the ad or around Zapak.
With respect to C2W, the ad has received a lot more responses in terms of comments (269) but notice the conversations that are being exchanged in the comments – not too many of them revolve around C2W.
Thus, even though the viral has generated quite a few views, its not exactly clear whether the brand has been remembered or not. Over time however, i think C2W’s branding message, if consistent, will stand out.
The other difference to note between the 2 virals is the difference in distribution. C2W’s video is a lot more ‘viral’ (even though it has received fewer views than Zapak) because a lot more views have come in from various other blogs and bookmarking websites.
Zapak on the Other hand has not utilized the rest of Social Media effectively and has been more successful with generating direct traffic (very successful however, one must note because they have been able to generate 39, 000 views in about 2 weeks!). Most of their links are coming through Orkut (and these are not bulk views).
Both the virals are extremely successful and effective especially because they have low costs of creation and low costs of distribution (especially keeping in mind escalating costs of television advertising). The medium should thus be considered by other advertisers who have audiences online. It would not be smart for many FMCG companies to do this simply because their audiences are not online – but there are a host of other companies who would have target audiences online. [WATConsult, our sister concern would be more than happy to help 
]
Both the virals present different routes towards distribution and show specific, measurable results. What is also interesting to note is the fact that neither Zapak, nor Contests2Win have used the services of WebChutney - which has viral marketing as one of its specialization’s.
Thanks for the mention Harshil.
In fact we uploaded this video in 2 places on youtube and we noticed that 2 other users had also liked it and uploaded it.
In all we got around 50,000 views of the video from Youtube. This was out just a day after the Sydney test umpiring fiasco.
This video even managed to get around 20,000 views on Rediff iShare. It was the featured video on the rediff homepage for a day too.
Thanks for the comment Eklavya – yea i think your comment again goes to show how the internet can be leveraged to achieve a viral impact. It also shows how a compilation of sources can achieve fantastic results. And yes you have also shown how topical issues gather a lot of momentum. I remember this ‘i hate ponting’ group got great numbers on facebook at the height of the controversy.
We saw an increase in Australian traffic ever since this viral
Virals i think is a great way to reach an international audience.
BetaNo1.com became a true viral success and even there we’ve seen a lot of international viewers…but in that case they’ll mostly be NRI’s.
Lots more to come soon…
hey im a fan of zapak games and I think you missed this funny video – not sure if zapak did it or by one in our gamers community
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXyXa62OOgk
cheers
Ramz !!
Our latest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-jhgobx9Cs
Thanks for the updates Eka and ramz.. Eka it seems like C2W is fast becoming the prime viral company! And Im sure you have a lot to do with that
Rajiv you may have ur personal views abt this – But I’m happy as a diehard fan of zapak which y/s (14th Feb)received the Newest Buzz award from agencyfaqs! for creating so much excitement around online gaming within just a year of its launch. also it got strong support from surfers who placed it at No. 8, a rank ahead of even Google in buzz terms.
SO this very much sums-up this thread
Cheers
Ramz.
PS For more info-http://www.agencyfaqs.com/main1.htm.
Ramz i think we need to consider money spent as well – i doubt c2w spent much. Zapak spent a bomb on TV – so i think that would have helped their no. 8 rank on search. They spent huge sums on hoarding as well – so it doesnt really sum up the thread
I think theyve done a great job but i think C2W is also super street smart in this case. People who dont have much money to spend – C2W shows the way. Wouldnt you agree?
What disgusting crap in the name of virals is featured here ? If all the self congratulation is over then may i take some time to comment on the pedestrian humor and quality of ideas.pakistani punjabis have already done a better job of funny dubbings on youtube.WAT guys , thot of doig a comparison of numbers with webchutney virals which i feel are in a very very different league compared to the shit we got to see here , WAT is a good effort but you guys should not forget how you are kids and refrain from casting opinions on which you are not qualified to comment
Adnan – keeping in mind the costs and the ROI with respect to the input, both the virals are pretty good. No doubt the quality of the zapak viral is questionable – but who cares, you and i do but the rest of the world thats actually watching and distributing some of this stuff doesnt care. Web Chutney has always done a good job but i think we need to keep in mind that the market is the ultimate judge of everything.
On your comment about kids – i suggest you take a look at most of the successful web 2.0 enterprises of today. Not saying that WAT is anywhere close to them but just rephrase your thoughts (if you must) :p
Harshil, i would like to add that “all are born as a child/kid only… no one comes out as a 6 feet tall from the mother’s womb…!!”
I don’t know why Zapak resorted to dubbing over the original scene. This makes it look cheap. As Adnan pointed out a lot of this stuff is there already on Youtube. Yes, if they could ave animated the whole stuff, it COULD have been some effort at least. I would not even think of the Zapak ad (if, at all we can call it one) as a genuine Viral ad.
@Adnan
Hi. Thank you for taking some time out and commenting on WATBlog.Don’t you think everybody has the right to express themselves? We write what we analyze here at WAT. And thats about it. If you have a different opinion, you can express it here. We will be more than happy to publish a relevant post by anyone.As far as being “kid” is considered, let me inform you about WATConsult, our sister concern. We specialize in internet consulting and online brand management. And one look at the client list should tell you enough about the depth of our knowledge in this domain. And ya, ALL of the people we deal with in our business were born many years before we were, but they still turn to us for consulting on the Internet, blogs and Digital Marketing related strategies.So, I guess, it’s OK to be a kid [:D]
Well said ankit
@ Ankit – true there is a lot of this stuff already circulating around the web but zapak has an interesting strategy where they have multiple virals – all of the deewar kind .. most of them corny and they look like they have genuinely been created by fans so theres another strategy right there – one where costs can be kept down and multiple audiences can be reached through a variety of virals that are strategically located. True it does not resonate brand values too well but remember zapak has engaged in mass media advertising as well. Moreover the market is not too crowded and competitive. So it helps if the user has a generic association of zapak with gaming through how many ever means possible. Once the market becomes more mature, the emphasis on quality of virals and what they say non verbally about brands becomes much more important.
well….I love the Zapak’s ad(I am a die hard Mr. Bachchan fan)…hehe….keeping that aside Zapak’s ad as said by Harshil himself is more brand centric,and in my view its a better approach then the approach followed by CTW….