Turning Cost to Revenue

TICKETS: It’s that one thing that you very carefully preserve till the end of your journey. Sometimes you preserve it, marking a memory. And sometimes it just pops out from the corner of your bag where it rested for weeks and maybe even months. Can tickets be a powerful and effective media for advertisement? Can tickets benefit your marketing mix?

They will preserve it as their own personal property. Advertising on the reverse of tickets ensures effective one on one communication with the consumer.

Is it Targeted?

You put the brand communication in the hands of the consumer. Just choose the right medium. Need I say more?

Is it Effective?

It’s a cost effective communication method beneficial to both the advertiser and the ticket company. The ticket for the issuing company is an additional cost, which can be covered through selling advertising space on tickets. For the advertising company, it is a cheap form of brochure/voucher, targeting almost every demographic sector, flexible and effective campaign management procedure.

Is it Accountable?

Ticket advertising is one of the most accountable and effective forms of advertising available to advertisers. A set number of tickets can be printed per campaign and issued to consumers over a set period. Each ticket can have a unique code and one can accurately keep a track of how many tickets are issued at any specific time. Reach and frequency figures can also be analyzed.

How can one advertise on tickets?

• Tickets can be issued as a voucher to redeem a scheme.
• Tickets can be bar coded which can be scanned at POP.
• Tickets can be used for awareness, store openings, events, etc.
• Tickets may also be used to award loyalty points.

Where it can be used?

• Transport tickets – Bus, Train, Tube, Air
• Car Parks
• Movie/Entertainment
• Or any Electronic Point of Sale

What is required?

• Artwork
• Print Technology
• And a simple calculation of rate/ticket

Innovations Unlimited!!!

Probably the first internet marketing campaign that I can recall is the Sunsilk Gang of Girls. It was when Sunsilk was sponsoring for the Miss India beauty pageant. Sunsilk decided to establish an online presence for its first time endeavour. It started with developing a portal for young girls which spawned with hair and beauty tips and featured Javed Habib as the hair care expert. The success of the campaign however moved further from connecting with consumers to product development with the launch of Sunsilk Naturals and an exclusive all girls’ online community called Gang of Girls.  It has always operated on a thorough understanding of its target with certain fundamental principle of self-expression, interactivity and what women love to do most i.e. hair & fashion content.

Another brand for the same product category of hair care used the internet for a marketing campaign as well. Dove was launching its hair-care product in India with an ambition to deliver the most beautiful hair. Yahoo created a space for like minded women who would create their own idea of beauty. The platform was Yahoo Answers with Dove branding. However the brand wanted to match the product with the brand communication and consumer mindset. Thus, came the idea of capturing the answers from relevant consumers on the street and a big innovation - Video Answers was born. The Product launch amplified on Internet by tapping the Beat on the Streets – Getting Video Answers on Yahoo! India Answers (first time in the world).

These campaigns had set a fine example of what Internet can deliver to the brand.

Gone with the wind (Some enjoyed the glory, some didn’t) PART III

Help.. Fire Fire!!.. Bring the Cease Fire

I had seen it around so much so that till late I used to think that Cease Fire is synonymous to a fire extinguisher. The brand ruled the market, and was the one to bring domestic fire extinguishers first in the market. And it moved on to offices, theatres, commercial centres etc. the product was well received in the market and it was advertised focussing on customer awareness about a fire mishap. A fire extinguisher is a product where customers are not unhappy if it is not being used. Hence the fear of fire, kept the sales up. Not for long however. the company diversified to Vaccumizer Cooking Appliance. Makes any sense? Not to me. The unsuccessful new product like vaccumizer and the alleged mismanagement failed the brand once gloried as a marketing success story. But surprisingly, no other brands have come forward to take that position. The potential is there as long as the fear is there.

Who the hell is RAGINI?

"Ragini ka MMS dekha kya?"

"Ragini yahan baithi thi"

All of the sudden it seemed all of Mumbai rickshawallaz were sporting the same stickers on their vehicles. Forgive my inquisitive nature, but one fine morning I googled the word even before I checked my mail. “Oh it’s a movie”. Hmm quite a catchy way of promoting a movie right before its release. I guess Transit media as they call it is moving faster now. Gone are the days of busses and trains. And it makes perfect sense. Millions of people spend hours simply travelling from one place to another. Stuck hours in traffic, eyes are bound to wonder and the catchy message will surely catch up. The movie is supposedly a low budget movie and might have come and gone without much buzz around it. The medium is super cheap and wide spread. But this definitely will enable the movie to gain popularity. Whether people go to watch it or not is another question, but will people be talk about it? Well they certainly are. How does one advertise on Auto rickshaw? Simply approach one auto driver and ask him to distribute to his group, or approach an auto rickshaw union. In a city like Mumbai, there are licensed to advertise on transit media agencies. Its not a new phenomenon. Remember "Capacity 3 Idiots"?.. surely u do.

By the way, I also read that the producer of the movie, Ekta Kapoor is also sporting the same stickers on her BMW and Jaguar!!!