In India one can clearly say that telecom players are the best friends of social network sites but make no mistake this friendship isn’t with Indian social networking sites. Well why do I say so? If one remembers Aircel which launched its marketing campaign on TV and spent crores of rupees on TV advertising was actually inturn marketing facebook. Don’t remember the ad? Check the Video below:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGmZfTcrfG8
As you can see facebook was the beneficiary of an Ad which had Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India’s most expensive cricket celebrity endorser) propagating its services!
Now it seems the time has come for Twitter to enjoy the same luxury in India i.e. get free TV advertising from its partner Airtel with whom they tied up for a measly 4 weeks as an exclusive deal. Check the twitter ads below (via labnol):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpbk7aTruXM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8j-3vtcSLQ
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-9WrjEwwb4
As you can see from above these ads will not only help airtel which they are intended for they would also help get twitter eyeballs and new users in India. This also points towards the real value of an organically viral brand. Orkut, Facebook and Twitter and examples for the entire Indian Digital Media community on how real organically scaled community driven brands need no advertising. I hope the Bigadda’s and the Ibibo’s of the world are listening! Infact this is where I also feel that Rediff and Yahoo would do better to focus on creating engagement oriented services than to roll out ads and print ad campaigns for their portals.
Whats your take? Do you think TV advertising helps an online product? Aren’t online product meant to grow the word of mouth way?
