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WATBlog Exclusive: Surf Excel Launches Surf Excel.in
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Last night, 1 am to be precise, Surf Excel launched SurfExcel.in. Lintas who is in charge of Surf Excel’s creative and media duties has designed this microsite. I call it a microsite (it’s a bit like a corporate website for Surf Excel), the site however claims to be ‘interactive’. It has a Children’s Club.
While designed extremely well, the site probably is one of the worst I have seen in a long time in terms of functionality with respect to ‘community building’. The website has 4 main sections. 2 of those revolve around ‘latest offers’ and the ‘product range’. Talk about being discreet and selling an experience.
There is one section on Stain Tips which is probably the most useful section on the website (and the only one worth visiting). It gives users tips on how to eradicate specific stains and also the precautions they must take. A feature that definitely builds a brand connect. The Stain Tips section also allows users to upload pictures & videos (Stain Moments) and artwork Stain Art (Paintings etc.). I really like the way they have named these sections on the website. ‘Stain Art’ communicates very accurately that ‘Stains are Good’.
Now for the worst part of the website. The ‘Children’s Club’. I signed up on it to take a look. One of the first problems – during the sign up process, it asks me to list my address (its compulsory). It seems completely irrelevant. If they want to send personalised messages to me directing me to an event they can have subsections asking my city and subsequently my area. But my ADDRESS?? I would be sceptical to let a brand know it. Forget the fact that they have a ‘insert address option’ – I doubt there is any mechanism to check if the address is accurate or not (I put in an address that probably does not exist). So asking for an address is entirely pointless from a functionality perspective as well. And it might turn the user off.
Once I entered the ‘Children’s Club’ there was absolutely NOTHING I could do (except check out an upcoming event, which by the way is already a part of the homepage anyway). The entire club seems very ‘top down’. I can’t interact, communicate (beyind comments) or pursue ‘fun hobbies and dirt games’ as claimed on the home page. In effect the whole Children’s Club seems more like a decorated classroom (with a strict teacher in it) where you have to do only what you are told and go were you are directed. The community quotient is 0. In terms of usability, the whole website seems terribly outdated. A good 3 years behind its time.
At the end of 2007, we asked the question – Will Brand Communities Work? The general consensus was that social networks that are completely associated with brands will have to generalize content with respect to the product/ service category. “Engagement” and not “push” is the name of the game. Surf Excel has managed to generalize content with the stain art and stain moments and still maintain the brand connect and subsequently augment it (though it still plugs in ‘special offers’ and ‘product range’). It however fails to offer any engagement whatsoever.
The stain moments and stain art sections, despite being well designed are quite empty. They should have looked to seed the network before it went live. While there are 75 pictures on ‘Stain Moments’, the author is Surf Excel. It would have been better if ‘real people’ were used as authors. This brings out a better connect and gives the impression that a real ‘community’ exists. It also helps drive user behaviour a little more effectively.
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Cummon guys. You cant call this an exclusive now! Just because you publish the news first doesn’t make it exclusive. Ever thought that the others didnt blog because its an uninteresting piece of news?
Hey Ravi. In case you didn’t notice, WATBlog has a particular interest in social media branding and brand communities. We would’nt spend a good hour reviewing the site otherwise. The point is not to propel the story as ‘news’ - there are a few obvious mistakes that these guys have made. These are some of the things that we wanted to point out - so that other marketeers dont make them again. Incidentally this is the business that our sister concern engages itself in (among other things)
I whole Hearted agree with ravi !!!
sorry to say harshil…but u ppl should grow up in this area
fair enough
I love the fact that we have so many detractors.. Just goes to show that people expect a lot out of us.. and also that they do really read us.. and also that there might be competition out there which is more focussed on putting us down than rising themselves!!.. But to us its like having a bunch of advisors for free!! We love u guys.. keep it coming.. I might just launch a contest with freebies for encouraging critical feedback.. In short.. Trash us to Win Goodies
Aahh talking of critical feedback!Why dont u do any exclusive showcase of what you guys have done so far in social media? That should be a good start. A lot of us are actually fed up of reading the tagline after every analysis “Incidentally this is the business that our sister concern engages itself in (among other things)”
Hey Rajiv.. Thanks for the feedback again..
A couple of points here (ok.. I wrote a lot more than I intented to.. read on anyways..)
1)We have no ads on WATBlog so all the FREE Analysis whether good bad or ugly has no monetary backing but from our sister concern WATConsult. So if we actually use one out of every ten or twenty posts to drop a line on our consulting business just to make sure we dont have to SELL ourselves to a sponsor.. Dont you think thats fair?? What say??
2) You may question why havent we taken ads? well WATBlog has always been about taking a stand unlike other spineless blogs that publish press releases. Its been about sticking our necks out with what we believe is right and being battered for the same or being applauded for the same. Its about opinionated news.. So some times we come up with great analysis/views and opinions and sometimes we can go wrong. But you get a view point by the end of the article and NOT just a press release.. Atleast thats what we try our best to do.. And As we do this its very difficult to not be biased when your existence is dependent upon only advertisers. While saying that I would love to have advertisers who dont mind getting thrashed on WATBlog when we feel they deserve it! Find me some and Ill pay you!!
3) Finally WATBlog is not a place for showcasing WATConsults work and even if we do that it would be when we really do some work that can be marvelled at. At the moment I have no qualms in saying that we are at the learning curve as far as social media is concerned but rest assured we are learning fast! (Im hoping we keep learning always)
Also just coz our competition creates a group or a fan page for a client or creates a blog.. that doesnt make that person/company a social media guru/expert.. There is lot more to social media than meets the eye..
We feel india is in too nascent a stage to do the kind of quality and scale we aspire to achieve. So currently we are doing what we can get clients to agree to/and get the freedom to (and get paid well enough) to the best of our ability.
Its great work no doubt but still not a showcase worthy by the standards we aspire to be. On another note.. Find me one indian guy/company which knows it all in social media and Ill give up my business!
Incase you wanna know which kind of clients work with us you can check our clients page on watconsult.. (I wont link the page just coz u get pissed off by watconsult’s link. See I said I loved guys who gave critical feedback didn’t I.. And we learnt fast! Didn’t we! ;))
PS: In many cases clients don’t allow us to publish what work we did for them as the strategy, numbers etc are all under NDA. But incase you still wanna know drop me a line and I send you stuff which i can share..
Quite bad to read your such a frustrated reply to your reader. just think what basically they are trying to say, and if you dont care what ppl feel for your blog or work ‘fair enough’ both will die (Read: Lack of viewership)
rest about your social media and creating the biz model around it thing…maybe i never wanted to comment but after reading your words above i m a bit compelled to:
I dont know what kind of work you do at WATCONSULT but i dont think ANYONE knows social media completely…playing with social media is an experimentation in itself and it’ll continue always. whosoever learns abit bout it, basically learns from observation (Read: others failures, mistakes, success) and again same will continue to happen so basically there is nothing for you ppl to boast about…i think its absolutely fine with the ppl out there that you are doing something in social media and its fine everyone is doing something or the other whats the BIG DEAL.
and rest bout the client list you have..sorry to say nothing to boast about it again coz you have to understand like everyone else in the industry you ppl are getting business due to ignorance or maybe lack of knowledge of the bigger players in this space and market is TOO BIG to worry about..everyone will keep on getting business from social media (read: endless space for innovation)
and at last..its gud to know dat u ppl are learning fast..ohh c’monn now STOP BOASTING bout dat as well…others are not foools
if someone is not shouting “i m learning fast” dat doesn’t mean they are not learning
a word of advice: dont say that you ppl have a stand of not putting ads on watblog is something cool or in benefit of the community..u’re doing no good to the reader so its better stop telling them that.
@ Amit - ‘fair enough’actually means valid point. So accepted.
I’d like to add to your definition of learning wit respect to social media. Yes, noone knows it completely. And yes, whoever learns learns from observation (your definition is correct there) - and also from proactive innovation, hunting out tons of insights for models that are unused and unexplored. In a lot of cases, there definitely is ignorance. In those cases it becomes our responsibility to educate the respective party. A good enough social media agency should be able to work in the client’s interest and outline where something is not going to work. There is a lot to this business in terms of scaling up, putting in place the processes that are enough to work in an automated manner and also structured in such a way that they are geared for quick change. Its tough. With respect to competition in social media - there is some. We have a team that tracks the competition. Some of it is extremely impressive, but we know our work best, and we know where it stands. Having said that, you are never too far ahead of the competition. I’ll leave it at that lest it seem like boasting.
We are actually looking to monetize WATBlog soon. We just need to be completely sure about how we do it.It’s good to know that you think we are doing no good to the reader. Thats something that motivates us to do better. Some people like us, some people don’t. We never claim to have a holier than thou approach as you are suggesting - we only have a point of view. Something that’s beyond a release. As i said, guys like you are a part of the challenge. We’d hate to write for people who just consume everything we dish out at face value. More comments like these that push us and question us and our existence means that we are being read by smart people.
@harshil
Read my view point again, i never challenged watconsult’s work as i said i don’t know what u ppl do and how good u do it. (and i m not interested unless i need help in dat area)
neither i m against monetizing your blog but wut pissed me off was the way rajiv replied the readers (i hope rajiv listening) and thats not the first time..i have seen rajiv replying readers with straight in the face answers.
and well dats a news to me dat u ppl take the comments in a constructive way also because after reading your chief blogger’s replies i was about to suggest you ppl to TAKE OFF THE COMMENTS section from your blog as you dont have the maturity to consume them.
hope this series of comments go in betterment of watblog and consequently do good to readers.
PEACE !!!
it will. Hope to see more constructive well channeled criticism from you on the future posts!
Keep it coming.
hey amit.. We are surely listening or else your comments wouldnt have been published.. With regards to my in ur face replies well im sorry if they upset you but i dont mince words while speaking my mind.. But that in no ways means we arent making note and acting on all the feedback we get. If we were so averse to criticism we wouldnt even publish one negative comment. The best thing about watblog is that so many people contribute and to us our readers are our largest contributors through comments and no matter how critical we will always be grateful to the for talking straight like we do.