In today's competitive digital space, Social Beat and Murugappa are proud to have bagged four prestigious awards at MADDYS 2018 - a flagship event hosted by the Advertising Club Madras. MADDYS identifies and appreciates creative brilliance and industry benchmarks in media agencies from across the nation in more than 30 creative and media-oriented categories. 2018 witnessed the 37th edition of the MADDYS which was indeed a special one for us! We won 4 MADDYS in the following categories:
These awards were presented to us for our ground-breaking work on the Netizen campaign. Read on to know more.
Have you ever heard of the saying “If it is not on Social Media, it’s like it never happened”? Most of us are so addicted to social sharing platforms that the moment we spot something even remotely cute or unusual, our first instinct is to capture and share it. How would you feel if someone kept telling you what their day is looking like?
There is no doubt that social media has taken over our lives and has become an alternate universe that showcases the supernatural life we love to portray. However, in this quest to show the world how perfect we are, we tend to go overboard and become bad netizens. Addressing this issue, the Murugappa Group has come up with a series of funny yet thought-provoking videos that remind us how we are unintentionally causing havoc in the online space. They also create awareness on the right usage of social media. From snippets targeting the over-sharers in Social Media to the those who constantly update their feed with outdated posts, each video has a clerly cut-out target group with the common aspect of relatability.
With a total of over 14 million views on Facebook, almost 2 million on Youtube and 1.5 lakh shares across social media, it is safe to say that the "Good netizen good citizen" campaign has broken the internet. One of the the most popular videos is Update Azhagi.
As the name suggests, Update Azhagi is a shout-out to all the obsessive sharers in the digital world. These people love to share every instant of their day with the rest of the world, not realizing that their followers also include mere acquaintances and borderline strangers who really do not need to know every detail. If this post reminds you of an Update Azhagi in your life, tag them and let them know how you feel about it. After all, sharing is caring!
This video currently has reached more than 6 million people with 70,000 shares and is almost touching 5 million views. Since this video was conceptualised in Tamil, it was well accepted by the Tamil speaking community, proving that multilingual marketing can be a great approach.
Watch this space for more humorous videos with strong messages to ensure we all strive to be good netizens.
Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited (Chola), is the financial services arm of the Murugappa Group, providing a variety of loan options to its customers. The vision of Chola is to enable its growing clientele of over 8 lakh customers to enter a better life. Since Chola is a small loans provider, most of its consumer base consists of middle-class Indians, especially from tier 2 and tier 3 towns. This is why it was crucial that our communication and design strategy appealed to this audience segment in order to create maximum engagement. The core objective of our redesign strategy for Chola was to break away from previous design formats and offer a fresh new look.
The Target Audience that we were dealing with is the middle-class section of the Indian society. The visual appeal of both the design and the copy has to go hand in hand for the TA to be able to relate to it. The campaigns were tailor-made for the TA to ensure maximum shareability. The ideation for the campaigns primarily involved topics trending with socio-economic groups we were targeting. The TA had to be able to identify with these topics in order to feel compelled to share the posts.
Throughout a number of brainstorming and ideation sessions keeping the target audience and their interests in mind, the team explored various approaches and ideas. During this process, we decided that the best approach would be to understand the feelings of the TA. By putting ourselves in their shoes, we would be better able to understand the kind of content our target audience would find engaging. This was one of the best ways to gain traction as viewers can relate best when they see their life stories projected creatively on their screens. All of our campaigns for Chola mainly focused on trending topics of that period to maximize the shareability of the posts.
With our campaigns for Chola, we decided to try out something new in terms of design style. Having utilized a vectorized design style over the past campaigns, we decided to give the new campaigns a fresh new look. Instead of vector designs, we used detailed, sketched, hand-drawn line illustrations to retain the sophisticated nature of the brand in a creative way. We also utilized the latest super tools in design gadgets.
The design process began with ideation of themes, conceptualization of scenarios based on the content and visualizing people, actions, costumes, spaces and objects to portray in the designs. The next step involved collecting and documenting relevant imagery on the basis of the ideation. Followed by this was the creation process of digitally hand-drawing sketches and creating customised vectors with reference to the collected imagery. Once this process was completed, the colour palette, font styles and the layout were structured and executed.
Our campaigns for Chola usually revolve around a central theme. They include a series of creative images which relate to the theme and tell a compelling story. Here are a few of the design campaigns we created for Chola which performed very well on social media.
Children’s Day was around the corner and so we conceptualized an interesting campaign for the same. There has been a drastic change in the lifestyles of children today compared to children 10-20 years back. The central theme of this campaign was to portray how children from the previous generation led such different lives as compared to children today. We tried bringing in various aspects of childhood like pocket money, holidays, summertime and weekends as themes to compare children then and children now.
A detailed line drawing sketches were made to portray different scenarios. Only the images of the children had colours added to ensure that the emphasis was solely on them. The layout was kept very simple using minimal colours as the drawings were intricate.
Goals and Dreams are different yet interrelated. We created a metaphoric representation of this concept for the #DreamsToGoals campaign. The basic story of this campaign centred on an entrepreneur who strives to cross a cliff. Using a story-based design representation, the concept made it easier to understand and more relatable.
The design attributes followed in this campaign were meaningful illustrations designed with a minimalist aesthetic. A fresh and bright colour palette was used to break the monotony of past designs in the finance industry and create a new visual language. A clean typography, layout and illustration style was implemented throughout the series to express the sophisticated nature of the company.
This campaign shines the spotlight on the untold success stories of small business owners who have made it big. Throughout our design process, we focused on portraying the achievements of these small business owners in a captivating, original manner. A clever collage representation of the content was executed by overlapping images over illustrations. We also added minimalistic movements to the design elements to make it more compelling. The colour palette used in this campaign was a combination of gradients in relevance to the businesses. A clean decorative placement of the copy added to the visual element to the designs.
These campaigns performed very well on social media, garnering a high number of reactions, comments and shares. These numbers proved that creative and thoughtfully designed posts can engage with customers, contribute towards a positive brand image and increase brand awareness. You can also read our blog on What Brands Can do to Engage With India’s Next Billion Users to find more ways to capture the attention of your consumers.
There is no doubt that reaching your target audience through vernacular content is one of the biggest trends of digital marketing. Though the early internet users in the nation are predominantly fluent in English, marketers have noticed that the current crop of digital-savvy individuals find multilingual content much more engaging and relatable. Keeping a tab on this trend, many brands have leveraged the reach of vernacular content to engage with India’s next billion internet users.
We, at Social Beat, took advantage of the reach of vernacular content and the engagement of video content to come up with a ground-breaking social media campaign for our client Cholamandalam Finance. Since the brand mostly caters to small-business owners and entrepreneurs from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, we targeted their audience with an animated video featuring the life lessons we can learn from an ant. The video was initially made in English and gained a traction reach of 409,609 with 3k shares. Seeing these numbers, we released the same video in Hindi which went viral.
The Hindi video currently has reached 2.2 million views with 94% of it being organic. Furthermore, 2 million of these views are unique. The post has reached 7 million users through 79k shares and 50k reactions. These stats are a testimony to the fact that the digital space is evolving and adapting itself to the needs and preferences of its new breed of internet users.
Need more convincing that vernacular is the need of the hour? Follow our Hindi YouTube channel Paisa Pujari for financial tips for individuals from all walks of life. Here's a video to get you started:
Casagrand is one of India’s fastest growing real estate companies and committed to building aspirations and delivering value. It offers superior homes in premium locations of Southern India. To date, the developer has delivered dream homes across 68 landmark properties to over 4,000 happy families.
We are delighted to announce that Facebook has published a case study on Casagrand’s meteoric success using Facebook marketing solutions. This is an important example of how no brand can risk ignoring the power of social media in today’s digital landscape. In the last financial year, Casagrand, a real estate company based out of Chennai has generated an incredible 190 crore in revenue using Facebook marketing solutions and at a 60% lower cost per lead compared to other digital channels. Find out about how we helped our real estate client grow with real estate digital marketing for Facebook marketing solutions.
Casagrand came to us with the objective of increasing their residential project sales through online enquiries and reducing their acquisition cost by 50%. To do this, we knew we had to devise a unique approach to Facebook marketing. We couldn’t afford to use Facebook as just a brand building tool, but also as a sales channel to boost residential sales. In all, we used 8 Facebook marketing tools to generate record sales for our client through online enquiries alone. Each of these tools was crucial in brand building and lead generation.
To help our client achieve their goals, the first thing we did was to run video ads on Facebook. Video is one of the key trends in social media to increase brand awareness and recall. Once we knew which of our target audience had viewed the videos, we were able to build a Custom Audience and target them again, using lead generation ads. These lead gen ads came with a pre-filled form with key information such as name, email and phone number so all the potential customers had to do was click on the ad and enquire. Additionally, the builder also created lookalike audience of these leads and targeted them as well. The sales team too was quick to follow up on these leads and convert them into buyers.
Using Facebook’s reach and frequency tool, Casagrand pushed a specific offer to potential buyers for five days. This method increased both brand awareness and leads. To expand the reach beyond Facebook, the builder also used the audience network and Instagram platform to reach their target audience.
Using a combination on lead ads, slideshow ads and Canvas ads, Casagrand was able to achieve their targets with real estate digital marketing using Facebook marketing solutions.
This case study is an important example of the power of social media marketing. With higher sales numbers and lower cost per lead, digital marketing has transformed the real estate industry. Don't forget to check out our comprehensive guide for digital marketing for real estate for a more in-depth analysis.
Social Beat is proud to be featured in the Social Samosa Yearbook 2017 for our spectacular campaign executed for our client, Notion Press. Our featured campaign is listed under the Media and Entertainment category. The objective of the campaign was to create a buzz about the launch of the book, The Great Indian Obsession by Adhitya Iyer. The book is an interesting read on how Indians are obsessed with Engineering with a twist of humour. The campaign too, was a reflection of the book, with a funny hand-drawn cartoon sketch. Titled as Bizzare Engineering Facts, it took a light-hearted approach in showcasing quotes from the book, throwing light on hypocrisy in education. The campaign was exclusively posted on Facebook and Twitter and clocked a reach of half a million, with 21k likes and 986 shares. Its relatable context made it an instant hit amongst the target audience and eventually landed us with a feature in the much-awaited Yearbook of Social Media Campaigns 2017.
The updated 2017 version of the book is packed from cover to cover with over 60 eye-catching social media campaigns which are guaranteed to inspire you. These campaigns have created a stir in the digital space and are the best performing campaigns of the year.
Apart from mind-blowing campaigns, the yearbook also features a foreword by Kunal Jeswani – CEO, Ogilvy India – and expert insights from social media biggies like Umang Bedi , Managing Director, Facebook India and South Asia, Taranjeet Singh, Country Director, Twitter India and Rajesh Ghatge, CEO, Indigo Consulting. Grab your copy today for an awe-inspiring read.
For every real estate developer, selling their property is the only focus. From offline to online advertising, brands are willing to try anything to generate leads and reach out to the potential buyers. In our experience, for most real estate developers, the digital medium works extremely well. We have seen that for some developers, over 1/3rd of their sales come from the digital medium.
Most developers, until recently have been using the offline medium for marketing. Developing from a large offline presence to online lead generation has its implications. Most real estate Developers do not know where to start the digital journey. Transitioning from generating sales via the traditional methods of cold calling to intensive integrated marketing campaigns, The Biggest Challenge Real Estate Developers’ Face in Mumbai is determining what Digital Business Strategy guarantees a boost in high ROI?
Another key challenge faced by many property developers is the fact that amid the fast-paced digital shift, how does one choose the right digital channels or Online Advertising Strategy to drive toward the best quality lead that contributes to increasing their sales?
The real estate industry is forming a shift in the space and like every other competitor most real estate players do not clearly define the boundaries of what makes a good marketing strategy.
In digital marketing, Real Estate in Digital Marketing terms means lead generation and this means implementing The Latest Digital Marketing Trends to capture that valuable lead that matters to your business. Effectively understanding which platform works to drive those very valuable leads is a strategic process which requires deep in-depth knowledge of gaining higher conversion rates that in turn Add Higher ROI to Your Business. This can vary right from understanding the campaigns to the various targeting options to driving the right audiences through a filtered lens to quantify which lead will ultimately have a higher impact to convertibility.
This is exactly what we do for our real estate clients:
The Results
What did we do that was different?
Yes, you heard that right! In real estate, having an effective landing page is the key that opens the door to a variety of potential leads.
Having a static landing page that captures the basic information like name, number and Email isn’t enough. Driving the leads to a call to action ensures that you grab their attention and ensure that the purpose of running all your ad campaigns is put to maximum use by getting them onto your landing page.
The landing page has to be highly optimized to ensure:
After all, optimizing the landing page is the only way to determine how those higher but better quality leads are driven!
What’s new?
Lighter Landing Pages
Less is indeed more! Having key information yet with a minimalistic approach works better. This version of landing pages downloads faster doesn’t have too many distractions and is to the point. In short, if you are trying to weave a story about your real estate project, then this landing page version is the moral of the story and that’s it!
With the rising growth of hundreds of various ad platforms, the digital marketing mix becomes even more complex with what metrics actually matter and how the importance of Tracking Your Advertising Campaign can drastically make or break the deal!
Tracking everything is an entire process which not only requires the metric objectives but becomes a game changer when you align those very metrics with the objectives of the brand strategy through the campaign.
So, one arises to the rock bottom question? What ads drive better conversions?
The infographic below summarizes every aspect of what one can expect from paid advertising including the pros and the cons:
What’s new?
Vernacular Ads
If the probability is that everyone is Clicking on the Ads, why not make the content appeal in all languages that reaches a wider mass market to catch the attention on a native level. According to research, regional content does better online than English.
Using vernacular content in your advertising strategy makes perfect sense to target a broader Pan- India audience, especially those in tier II and tier III cities.
The key takeaway is to resonate with the local market with a message or call-to-action that urges them to your landing page (which can be curated to the local language as well) to drive them from consideration to conversion!
The Philosophy of Lead Generation
Yes, everyone is doing many things across the known platforms such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Columbia but what next?
Investing in other unknown territories and trying out various tools only help drive conversions up to a certain point.
Instead of looking outward, why not focus on driving the main tool (The Landing Page) into a multi-channelled function that serves many purposes with a multi-project landing page!
It’s simple, cost-effective and solves the problem of repetition and monotony across landing pages.
(Sample Multi project Landing Page)
Having emerged from a generating leads for a stand-alone project to delivering results across multiple projects both on the domestic market and international market, we have successfully driven hundreds of sales spending vast amounts of money to churn around 10 times the growth revenue than any other digital agency can deliver attributing to only 1% of the sale value, the cost per leads has been crucially optimized to deliver better results than ever before!
Our approach to driving an Integrated Lead Generation Strategy is to constantly re-evaluate the ‘go-to-market’ strategy rebuilding the value proposition each time.
If you are looking for the best strategies for digital marketing, read our blog on the complete guide for digital marketing for real estate.
In 1639, a Nayak ruler handed over a small strip of land to the East India Company to build its trading warehouse. Little was known that it would lay the foundation for one of the historic cities of India in years to come.
22nd August, 2014 would mark the 375th anniversary of Chennai, earlier known as Madras. As part of the 375th anniversary celebrations, the Murugappa group has launched the #TheMadrasSong to celebrate the occasion & give a fitting tribute to the history, tradition, and culture of this city.
Check out the song that captures the soul of Madras:
In fact, the Murugappa group has planned a notable month-long campaign to celebrate the 375th year with already underway contests such as #FavMadrasMemory Map & photo contest, daily Madras trivia and the upcoming Murugappa Madras Quotient Quiz 4th edition on 6th September.
#FavMadrasMemory Map app that asks people to mark the spots that has given them their fondest Madras memory, has turned out to be very popular among the citizens here. It gives them a chance to reflect back to the memorable times spent in the city.
This is the time to be in Madras and enjoy the city at its best. Umpteen other events have been planned across the city such as quizzes, heritage walks, photo exhibitions, lectures, etc. Social Beat is proud to be associated with the #Madras375 Celebrations.
