It turns out that these days most of us are using social media in some way or another. Though it is not used by whole population but then too, the number of people using it are in large number.
The days are gone when people were only dependent upon sources like newspaper, radio, pamphlet, etc for getting information. Now people have moved towards new source i.e. social media.
Few years back, the only source of advertisement or promotion for any particular product /service were the conventional media like TV, Radio, Newspaper which provided the information to the mass. But it didn't allow the proper advertisement to specific target. But with the arrival of SMM, the advertisement strategy has become more convenient, cost effective & it also targets the niche market. With this, I don't want to say that SMM is the best way for advertisement rather I would like to say that if Traditional media marketing (TMM) gets merged with SMM, then it will prove beneficial for both the brand as well as consumer.
Lets evaluate this with Cadbury Campaign-
The Cadbury ad shows a giant head zooming round a town in Ghana, whilst the locals dance to a track being performed by local rapper Tinny (who appears out of a magic cocoa bean, obviously). The ad aims to promote Cadbury’s use of fair-trade cocoa beans and the song that soundtracks it is to be released on iTunes, with all proceeds going to charity. It will undoubtedly prove to be a social smash.
So, does this mean that Cadbury is the perfect example of a social media marketer, no longer beholden to old, interruptive forms of advertising? Well, not exactly.
Whilst Gorilla may have become a viral sensation, it was first aired during the finale of the eight series of Big Brother, at a time when the show could still command approximately 14% of the UK population. So much for long-tail seeding. A specially adapted version was also shown before the 2007 Rugby World Cup final between England & France – another program with a pretty sizable audience.
This shows that huge popularity of Gorilla ad was a blend of TMM & SMM. Gorilla ad was backed by high-impact TV slots, as well as a major digital campaign, including prominent campaigns with MSN & Photobox.
This isn’t to suggest that Cadbury’s success should, in any way, be lessened, or that they haven’t set out to create fantastic ads that act as entertainment content, perfect for social sharing. In fact, it shows that rather than a naive reliance on consumers spreading a message, Cadbury and their marketing partners, understand that in these days of SM, TM still has an important role to play.
Heena Lodha
The author is a business researcher with CheckBuzz, a social media monitoring company.
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