With the IPL now in full swing, brands across the country are pulling out all the stops in terms of marketing ideation and strategy. Leveraging sports is a fun and interactive way to connect with audiences. When exploring the realm of sports, there are ‘5Cs’ that marketers must keep in mind to maximize the impact and reach of campaigns -

• Celebrity
• Content
• Conversation
• Context
• Consumer

Below we will have a look at how each of these elements has been explored by different brands while ideating marketing campaigns revolving around the IPL -

The Power of Celebrity

Celebrity endorsements and collaboration across social media, as well as traditional advertising, is a sure-shot way of propelling your brand in the limelight. The IPL has staggering viewership rates across the country, which is why advertising your brand with the right collaborations is the way to go. Indian Fintech startup, Khatabook roped in easily one of the most iconic faces in world cricket - M.S Dhoni - for a remarkable ad. Dhoni pulls off various characters such as ‘Sharmile Sharmaji’ and ‘Techno Tawde’ - each aiming to exhibit a key feature of the brand’s offering. By leveraging a ‘story-telling’ strategy along with the ever-present MSD, Khatabook has driven brand recognition at an unprecedented rate.

The Power of Content

Virgin Mobile’s ‘Indian Panga League’ is a great depiction of leveraging digital platforms for the right mix of entertainment and fun this cricketing season. The campaign featured over 105 unique short clips - each depicting an entertaining banter-filled telephone conversation between different IPL team fans. This campaign was aimed at promoting their STD value propositions of 20p/min. By utilizing features of video content, regional connectivity, and an association with cricket, it became one of the most talked-about campaigns. It garnered over 1.5M views on Youtube and 60K mentions on Twitter.

The Power of Conversation

Bajaj Finserv launched a new #EMINetworkPowerplay campaign - an engaging and stimulating campaign offering users exciting cricket-themed contests. Prizes included electronics and Amazon vouchers.  Participants could earn more points by sharing these contest details with their friends. This referral system increased brand conversation and engagement across social media platforms as well. Conceptualized here at ARM Worldwide, the #EMINetworkPowerplay included strategies like real-time marketing and gamification. These IPL-inspired features added some thrill to Bajaj Finserv’s marketing objectives.

The Power of Context

Cricket is a key feature of nearly every Indian household. Whether it's the World Cup, IPL, or a simple bilateral India-Australia series, everyone holds fond memories of the sport in some way or the other. This is precisely why it is so easy to capture audiences using cricket as a connecting factor between brand and user. Using cricket as a contextual point facilitates brands in setting the tone of messaging and eventually delivering the right content at the right time. Based on the life of a cricketer, Paytm’s ‘Make the Right Choice’ campaign aims to inspire millions of fellow citizens to follow their dreams. The campaign also displays the company’s goal of promoting fantasy sports in the country and inspires budding players to explore the brand’s games. Dream11 hit the jackpot a few months back after securing title sponsor rights for this year’s edition after the Vivo fiasco, however, that was just the start. The #YehApnaGameHai ad campaign stars icons of Indian cricket such as MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Shikhar Dhawan, amongst others. These icons are seen enjoying ‘gully’ cricket - a street adaptation of the sport many of us ourselves indulged in during our youth. This ad depicts these stars as ordinary youngsters just having fun, which leaves a lasting impact on viewers.

The Power of Consumer Insights

With the help of new-age data processing and analytic features, studying consumer insights is a must. In campaigns which encourage participation and interaction, it is vital to know the results of your efforts. Analyzing consumer behavior helps you set the tone and messaging of your communication & enables you to deliver your message at the right place and at the right time. Data-driven insights also align audience perceptions with your goals, using behavioral data to communicate the brand’s message. This cricketing season is a great time to explore these innovative tools and platforms to help drive ROI and efficiency. Running a digital campaign is just the first step, the major work comes after that with analyzing the impact of your activity. With consumer insights, marketers can mathematically evaluate the most profitable platforms to allocate marketing budgets. This will help in refining a company’s target audience to groups of consumers statistically more likely to make a purchase. With such laser-like precision, marketing professionals raise the ROI for a business, by both lowering digital ad spends and elevating the success of digital marketing efforts. There are typically 4 key elements to have in place in terms of consumer insights -

• Full access to reliable & complete data
• The right tools to analyze the data
• The skills to understand and interpret results
• The ability to act on the insights

Customer insight is vital for the optimization of customer experiences and to understand their behaviour. Therefore, it is imperative for marketers to not only generate insights but to turn it into readable and accessible intelligence to make data-driven decisions. This cricketing season is the ideal platform to drive real-time, contextual, and engaging marketing campaigns. By leveraging a combination of any of these 5Cs, you can surely elevate brand presence with the help of sports. Download the PDF version

The COVID-19 pandemic brought along a variety of different obstacles and barriers to us as an organization. Beyond the effects of a traditional economic downturn, COVID-19 has presented additional challenges — fear from the virus itself, wide-spread grief, and lastly, prolonged physical distancing and associated social isolation. This World Mental Health Day, let’s have a look at the importance and value of a positive & vibrant sense of well-being to allow individuals to truly flourish on a personal and professional level. At ARM Worldwide, workplace culture & environment was a key feature of our workdays. However, with remote working processes well in place now, sustaining the positive ambience of our physical workspace was always going to be a tough task. On the surface level, virtual communication & collaboration seems to be quicker and more efficient, but this should not lead us to ignore key elements of interaction such as compassion, empathy, bonding, and at base, real communication! To facilitate a sense of belongingness, positivity, and bonding, we’ve devised a variety of activities and sessions since the initial phases of the lockdown -

• All individuals have been advised to keep webcams ON during all interactions - with the sole purpose of feeling a sense of real communication and interaction as opposed to the monotonous and dull interaction over a voice call.
• Starting a new job from a remote setting can be quite a daunting task which is why there are informal induction sessions organised for all new joinees.
• A practice that existed well before the pandemic - Fantastic Friday - is still in full swing. Each Friday morning, we invite a skilled professional to interact with us and give us something new to ponder over. In fact, in May, Mimansa Singh Talwar - a leading expert from Fortis Healthcare - held a session on the impact of the pandemic on our mental well-being.
• Individuals work at their best when they feel valued or appreciated. Amid the whole virtual working phenomena, appraisal & praise can often be missed out without the lack of human body language and attitude. At ARM Worldwide, all achievements and results are celebrated and praised, no matter how big or small. Informal sessions are also held to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries.
• The HR team and department leaders have incorporated more autonomy and fluidity in job roles and responsibilities. Each unique member of the organisation may work in different ways being at home, and they’re encouraged to do so as long as it does not hinder productivity.

The pandemic has brought along a period that has demanded resilience, empathy, and strength. These are some small steps we have taken towards eradicating the stigma surrounding mental health, along with actively offering support and guidance to those in need in these tough times. Mental health issues can hit anyone at any time and in order to find a solution - keeping core human values intact is vital. Working in collaboration as an accepting society is just the first step towards helping the ones that really need help.

The strongest brands create emotional bonds with their users. Sport is one such avenue that has unique emotional power. In no other walk of life do our hearts and brains become so invested in the activities of people we do not personally know, but who we admire with a burning passion. Not many things can engage, entertain, and captivate large audiences like a sport. From a marketer’s perspective - sports for the longest time simply meant big-name sponsorship deals and maybe television sports ads. However, in recent times, with the proliferation of new channels, fresh opportunities are arising for brands to cultivate deeper relationships with their audiences. The annual cricket festival of India - the IPL - has already dawned upon us. If you throw in the festive season as well, brands surely must be licking their lips at the myriad of marketing opportunities up for grabs. On that note, let’s have a look at how brands across the globe have leveraged sports marketing campaigns to connect with audiences with

Ready For Sport

The pandemic has brought a huge amount of disruptions to all facets of life, including sports. All major competitions across all sports were put on hold, leaving athletes in the dark about the way forward. The ‘Ready For Sport’ campaign by Adidas aimed at inspiring both professional and amateur athletes for whenever they returned to the field. Starring over 2,500 Adidas athletes such as Lionel Messi, James Harden, and Rohit Sharma - it aimed to unify the spirit of sport to motivate the world. This campaign connected the sporting world and spurred emotions of belief and positivity amid the tough times when all sports were halted. In the pandemic world, multiple brands have edged towards empathetic and emotionally-touching communication in order to leave lasting impressions on their audiences.

Made For Football Watching

On a similar note, Pepsi too strived to throw light on the plights faced by the sporting world as the pandemic rocked our lives. While Adidas’s target audience was professional and budding athletes, Pepsi’s campaign catered to the next most important segment of sport - the audience. This campaign celebrates and elevates the weekly ritual of tuning into games from the comfort of your homes. The campaign had various elements including social media shoutouts, regional initiatives and activities for fans across 16 partner NFL teams, as well as gift hampers.

Touching campaigns like these leave a positive impact on audiences and promote positivity and a sense of belonging.

You Can’t Stop Us While Adidas launched an emotional and inspiring campaign, Nike too would have something up its sleeve. The ad debuted during the NBA’s return in Orlando, Florida, and has garnered over 20 million views on Twitter and Facebook since. The kinetic, blink-and-you-miss compilation features 50+ Nike-sponsored athletes from 24 sports such as global superstars LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rafael Nadal, and even the Indian women’s cricket team. Keeping with the theme of society and shared commonalities, the video is a nod to professionals, amateurs, and ordinary sport-lovers. Unconventional sports such as surfing, skateboarding and BMX are also included. The prominent themes include athletes’ relationship with social justice, specifically the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the long shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This campaign goes on to show how brands can drive powerful social statements for the betterment of society.

ZPL (Zomato Premier League)

Everyone’s favourite app got even more exciting during last year's IPL, and after a roaring success, ZPL is back this year for more fun. Banking big on in-app gamification, ZPL’s fundamental focus is satisfying users with the one thing they crave the most along with their food - a discount. ZPL, along with offering an eye-catching discount on prominent restaurants, also allows consumers to predict who will win the matches allocated for the given day. If the prediction is right, users can avail an additional discount on their upcoming orders, making the cycle of ordering food nearly impossible to break. Not only does this increase the number of orders during the duration of the IPL, but it also adds some spice and intrigue to the ordering process. It also increases brand recall and identity since users’ predictions are always in the back of their mind while the game is on.

Stevenage Challenge

Back in 2019, Burger King caused waves with a marketing campaign which made use of a popular football video game - FIFA 20. While we all know of Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool, not many were aware of ‘Stevenage’ - a lower league club sponsored by Burger King. Burger King began sponsoring the fourth-tier team as the 2019/20 season kicked off. In a bid to raise the awareness and popularity of Stevenage,  the fast-food giants challenged FIFA players around the world to select them when playing online or in Career Mode. Once they had done so, they were motivated to share video clips of their goals online and in return, receive rewards from Burger King. As per a video posted online revealing statistics of the campaign, more than 25,000 goals scored with Stevenage were posted online, and as a result of the campaign, the club sold out their home shirt for the first time in its history. Below is a visual representation of the different strategies used by these brands - There are countless more examples to prove how sports can be leveraged as the ideal way to build connections with your audience by driving engagement or making powerful statements. As the IPL progresses, we are sure to see more innovative campaigns and activities carried out by prominent brands in the coming few weeks - stay tuned here for all the hottest shots! Download the PDF version

As per a few recently released advertising guidelines, non-legible disclaimers, and information in ads will be viewed as false advertising. The owners of such ads can be penalized or imprisoned as per the procedures put in place by the consumer affairs ministry. These ads will also be put out in the public domain to be subjected to comments from respective stakeholders. Moreover, it has also been made mandatory for celebrity endorsements through personal blogs, tweets, and other testifying means to be based on appropriate information or experience.  Until now, abiding by the ASCI code was voluntary, but these guidelines enforce that code and make it mandatory for advertisers to follow this code of conduct. Let’s discuss these guidelines in detail. 

Consumer stats

A code to regulate advertising is necessary, especially considering the general sentiment of consumers around advertising. The following stats show consumers have little to no trust in the claims made in advertising. These regulations of advertising might act as the required turning point to enable consumers to believe the messaging presented in ads. 

• Only 28 percent of consumers trust the claims made in ad campaigns.
• 23 percent of consumers have zero trust in advertisements.
• 15 percent of consumers feel ads for food products & supplements are misleading.
• 76 percent of consumers want restrictions on surrogate advertising.
• Only 3 percent of consumers have a high level of trust in print, TV, digital & other media forms.
• 25 percent of consumers have an average level of trust in ads.
• 48 percent of consumers have a low level of trust in ads.

The altering ads landscape

These advertising codes and guidelines seek to hold manufacturers, service providers, along with celebrity endorsers accountable for ads and stipulate hefty fines and imprisonment in case of misleading claims. Aside from traditional mediums like print radio and TV, these guidelines will also monitor digital platforms, including e-commerce websites. This means that digital advertisers can no longer get away with making false claims about their products and services, and this includes celebrities as well.  This move is being widely appreciated since consumers get heavily influenced by celebrities and are quick to trust the product or service endorsed by them. Making them liable will only make them and companies more accountable and watchful in their advertising.

Steps to follow

Considering the significance that is attached to these advertising codes and regulations, it is important for advertisers to be clear about the action points that need to be kept in mind while curating ads going forward. The guidelines bring forward some very straight points that will drive advertising.  The first thing that needs to be ensured is that if your ads need to bear a disclaimer, it should be clear, prominent, and legible. This means that the disclaimer needs to be printed in the same font size as the claim to prevent individuals from missing it while viewing the ad. Moreover, it should be in the same language as the advertisement’s claim to be easily understood by the audiences.  These guidelines also bring forward a framework for TV advertisement and other forms of video ads and state that if a claim is presented through voice over, the disclaimer needs to be displayed or played along with the VO. The guidelines mandate that the disclaimer should not conceal material information or, in any form, make the ad deceptive or hide its commercial intent. In addition, digital advertisers must also ensure that their ads follow general guidelines. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to confirm that all ads comply with applicable laws and regulations and fall under the advertising policies of the country and state where the ad will be served. For instance, obscene or pornographic material, adult material, adult services, nudity, excessive profanity are under no circumstances allowed in digital ads.

What’s next?

According to Manisha Kapoor,  secretary-general, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the frameworks and guidelines can be expected to witness further refinement as it is necessary that it sensitive and relevant to what is current. For example, there is an acute sensitivity to health claims in today’s situation, and the consumer mindset has shifted. What might have been considered acceptable earlier may not be so today. This is why advertisers need to keep up with the changing scenario in order to stay relevant.  ASCI has also stated that monitoring digital platforms will be practiced more extensively in addition to the already tracked print and television media. ASCI has recently added this under its National Advertising Monitoring Service (NAMS), and there can be a stronger framework put in place to enhance the credibility of digital ads soon. The idea is to identify potentially misleading advertisements on digital media and protect the audience from falling prey to these false claims. The next big step in advertising in terms of advertising code and guidance is that there can be a stronger bent towards driving and evolving the industry narrative on responsible advertising. As economies open up and consumerism increases, the relevance of a powerful regulatory framework becomes even more critical, giving rise to the evolution of more accountable advertising.  These guidelines will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the quality of information that is presented in advertising and will enable audiences to place greater trust in ads. This is surely welcome more for advertisers and consumers alike.  Download the PDF version

When it comes to building a loyal consumer base, the most significant thing to achieve is trust. This is one of the key elements that play a role in sustaining a successful business. This trust can be earned by being transparent in your approach and leveraging the same transparency in your marketing strategy as well. Brands need to present themselves as credible, real, and authentic in their digital strategy and the only way to do this is by leveraging transparency. Let’s dive deeper into this and explore the need for being transparent in digital marketing.

Impact on Business Growth

Transparent communication has a significant impact on business growth.  In fact, research shows that transparency can increase sales by 20%. This can be because people want to buy from people and not corporations and being transparent about your human side and being vulnerable about your imperfections can be a great way to appear like a human as opposed to a corporation. Moreover, this can also lead to an increase in your loyal follower base and nudge people to buy from your brand repeatedly. In other words, transparent communication can bolster profits and lead to economic stability & long-term sustainability through brand loyalty & repeat business from satisfied customers.

Consumer Expectations

Consumers have reasonable expectations from brands to be transparent in their communication. In fact, 81% of people believe that businesses have a responsibility to be transparent when posting on social media, and 85% of people say a history of being transparent makes them more likely to give the brand a second chance. This means that consumers expect brands to own up to blunders and are even willing to forgive them if need be. It has been said time and again that people want to see a more human side of brands and owning up to mistakes and presenting a transparent image is the way to do that. However, being transparent is not limited to owning up to mistakes. You also need to be transparent about day-to-day practices, especially when it comes to the usage of sensitive information and data. 84% of consumers have agreed that they will take their business elsewhere if they don't trust how a company is handling their data. This means that consumers are concerned about how their data is being utilized and there has to be clear communication when it comes to these sensitive aspects.

Why Transparency is Important in Business?

 Aside from fulfilling consumer expectations, transparent digital marketing practices also shed numerous benefits for the brands.  Perhaps the most significant one of these benefits is that brand transparency creates trust & loyalty amongst consumers, giving them the confidence to buy from brands without worries. Moreover, this can also have a direct impact on business growth by giving employees & partners reasons to feel engaged, committed & accountable to the company. Transparency as a core value is critical during difficult times, as it places total ownership & accountability in the hands of the business.

Transparency through communication

From the perspective of digital marketing, it can be alluring to capitalize on any new business prospects, however in some cases, this can lead to secrecy and deceit at the expense of the consumer and this needs to be avoided at all costs. The most effective way to do this is by ensuring that brand communication is honest, authentic & straightforward. Your communication should directly reach out to your consumers and share all that needs to be shared without any attempt of concealing or manipulating information. Aside from this, it is important for brands to be proactive on social media and talk to consumers, offering relevant information & responding to queries and feedback. This helps consumers realize that they are not all by themselves once they’ve made a purchase and strengthens the bond they share with the brand, ultimately making them a loyalist. Brands need to understand the value of raw, unfiltered feedback and provide the consumers with a platform to effectively share their feedback.

 Strike a Balance

It can be overwhelming to strike a balance between secrecy and oversharing. However, with the following few tips, brands can ensure that their digital marketing strategy is transparent enough and provides the consumers with the kind of assurance that keeps them coming back to the brand. The most significant thing to do here is to strike the right behavioral balance in your brand persona to build trust with the target market. This means that the communication should not just be authentic but also in line with the brand image so that it is in sync with the expectations of your target audience. Aside from this, brands also need to re-evaluate and structure the accessibility & connectedness of the brand to widen the scope of the communication. Another highly effective tip is to be sensitive towards the nature of the medium that is being utilized and understand the dynamics of different mediums. This might give rise to the need to tweak conversations between brand & customers to suit the nature of the platform. To conclude, a straightforward answer to the question of trust when it comes to consumers is to embed transparency into every part of your marketing and advertising ecosystem. After all, fraudulent ad placement or marketing tactics that don’t seem human won’t be impactful. Download the PDF version

India is currently battling a pandemic as, what some might call, the epicentre of the outbreak. However, this period also marks the beginning of the post-COVID or what has come to be known as the new normal. It has been established time and again that the new normal will witness a massive change in the way we deal with everyday life and give way to a changing landscape driven by digital transformation, across industries. In such a scenario, consumer behaviour is also bound to see a big change and marketers need to keep a check on these changing patterns and pivot their efforts accordingly. A report by Gartner indicates that consumers are now expecting increased mindfulness from brands in these testing times. They are expecting brands to address the larger issue instead of being opportunistic. At this time, it has become increasingly important to communicate around the brand’s purpose and values. Consumers would expect that instead of adopting product push strategies, brands will gravitate to empathetic communication to connect with consumers on a deeper level.  Let's look at a few factors that will drive this change and how marketers can step up to adjust to the changing consumer.

Customers prioritise trusted relationships

 Customers in the post-COVID world are willing to choose brands that are working towards the larger good instead of just propagating about their products or services. In fact, according to EY, close to 62% of consumers say they would prefer to buy products from companies, which are doing good for society – and 29% are even prepared to pay a premium for these brands. Brands need to make sure that these efforts are a part of their digital strategies as well. Digital strategies for brands should now focus on reflecting brand values and pay attention to representing social activism and outreach. Not only will this help brands gain consumer attention but also allow greater loyalty in the long run. Aside from this, it would also help in driving consideration, purchase, and feedback from consumers.

Spend on conversions and brand value

The changing consumer behaviour and their difficulty in trusting new brands have made it increasingly important for brands to strive to build this trust. They need to utilize a purpose-driven & human-centric approach to conquer new & loyal customers with the funnel dynamic. This is why your digital marketing strategy needs to  Spread awareness by building brand power, meaningfulness & value for money. Aside from that the strategy should also focus on driving consideration & maximise ROAS by utilizing innovative performance tactics to generate interest & connect with the consumer. Ultimately, it should accelerate conversion by focusing on innovative & personalized campaigns.

Go Phygital

 According to Forbes, Online sales have grown 43% between February and May 2020 and are accounting for 19.3% of all sales. This is just one of the examples that prove the importance of an online presence in the post-COVID world. The necessity of staying indoors has made consumers more open to online experiences. This has made it clear that brands now need to allocate a higher budget to digital marketing and go Phygital by adopting an omnichannel approach. Some new-age brands are also deploying virtual platforms to connect customers with real-life experts, places & events to create social trust and provide a familiar environment. Now brands need to reimagine virtual communications, commerce & brand experiences that leverage social, AR, VR, web platforms for engagement & delivery

Marketing localisation

 Marketing localisation will become increasingly important in the post-COVID world in light of the social distancing norms and travel restrictions. According to a report by Facebook and Boston Consulting Group, as consumers adjust to the “new normal,” businesses will require a hyper-focused market strategy to increase sales. For this, brands need to redirect budgets to digital channels to reach homebound consumers using marketing localization & increase consumer loyalty. Building a long-term digital strategy that is focussed on retention & audience engagement in a specific local area and focussing on local ratings & reviews is a vital step to scale-up your localized marketing strategy. You can leverage tools like Google My Business to update local listings with relevant information to save your consumers time & confusion. Brands also need to carve a niche for themselves by diving deeper by market and data into their operations

Boost customer engagement

The unprecedented times that we’ve found ourselves in has made it clear that we need to be incredibly agile in adapting to customer needs. Once brands have built the trust of their consumers, adopted an omnichannel strategy, and leveraged local marketing, brands also need to focus on driving more strengthened customer engagement. This is why brands need to conduct immediate social listening to assess consumer sentiment. Moreover, it is also important to accelerate customer segmentation, digital lead generation and nurturing to boost engagement. For this, you need to build a new communication plan to bring evolved brand vision & values to the market. Another great idea could be to Refresh loyalty programs to account for new digital & experiential means of engagement & new customers. Moreover, building a feedback capability to incorporate changes in customer behaviour & evolve to meet changing expectations across products & services can prove to be incredibly helpful. In order to be in sync with the changing consumer behaviour brands need to adopt policies that establish strong trust among employees, customers, partners and the community and need to reflect this in their digital efforts. This helps them ensure transparency & clearly communicate the information to various stakeholders for visibility into business practices. Download the PDF version

The last decade has witnessed a significant shift when it comes to brands’ social media presence. Now, brands no longer wish to present themselves as polished and formal on social media and are striving to attain a more human-like and personalised image. The objective now is to boost following by leveraging relatable and entertaining content that resonates with their audience. This has taken shape as a response to a very significant problem - how to showcase your products or services to the audience who gets repelled by ads? This relatable content with a subtle integration of the brand works well in this scenario and makes your content more shareable amongst your audience. This is why brands are understanding that memes are more than just topicality and making them a considerable part of their ongoing marketing budgets. One of the most effective ways to do this is through memes. Meme marketing is a subset of viral marketing and has evolved as one of the most successful modes of advertising, communication, and engaging with the target audiences without seeming salesy. Also, as we have seen in the past, memes drive everything that goes viral, be it the #IceBucketChallenge #TheSuccessKid, or the latest one to hop on to the bandwagon, #BINOD. Leveraging memes on social media has now become an integral part of marketing budgets for brands to appear relevant online. Brands are also using popular meme pages across social media platforms to garner a relevant audience.

Be Mem(e)orable

Memes have proven their effectiveness as a marketing tool by emerging as the most viral creative format. Millennials are somewhat averse to overtly promotional content and ads. Brands who are depending on these groups for the majority of their sales can find themselves at an impasse if they pursue the traditional forms of content marketing to try and appeal to this particular demographic. Memes, on the other hand, have carved a special place for themselves in the lives of millennials. In fact, an average millennial look and twenty to thirty memes in a day and also tends to share them with their friend groups. Another thing that makes memes an excellent marketing tool is a provision of leveraging meme pages and reaching out to a wider audience base. It’s not surprising that 38% of millennials  follow meme accounts on social media. After all, memes have become the catalyst for all the things that millennials stand for. Another advantage of using memes is that they are much more cost-effective than a variety of other means of advertising.  Meme marketing can be up to sixty percent cheaper than influencer marketing making them a high- ROI yielding option. Moreover, paid memes garner engagement rates of about 30% across Facebook and Instagram, far above the rates of 1%-15% seen for an influencer or branded content posts, making them a win-win choice.

Current meme trends

1. The 2020 Challenge, aka, Reese Witherspoon Challenge charts out the emotional journey over the past 8-9 months. 2. My Plans // 2020 highlights what you thought your year was going to be in a photo, followed by how it turned out. 3. Binod trend originated with a person named "Binod Thakur” commenting his name "Binod" under YouTube comments.

Brands riding the meme wave 

Many major brands have hopped on the bandwagon of meme marketing. To put this statement into context, here are three of the major propagators of meme marketing that have carried out this strategy in stride. 1. Netflix India turned a clip from their trending show Indian Matchmaking into a relatable meme. 2. Fevicol used subtle humour for creating a brand connect with a meme. 3. Prime Video promoted its show with a relatable meme on avoiding spoilers.

Get started with memes

The first step to getting started with meme marketing is identifying and analysing your target audience. Known for their catchy & self relatable humour, memes help establish emotional connection with the audience. Moreover, memes help in amplifying your message organically without force-feeding an advertisement to your target audience. However, to be able to do that, you need to be aware of the kind of content that sparks interest in your audience and identify the kind of memes that they’ll enjoy. One way to jump on board is through Memejacking. Memejacking refers to the practice of reusing or hijacking popular memes while integrating your brand message. However, this can be a tricky business and requires caution. To leverage an existing meme effectively, you need to keep an open eye to know what’s trending. This can incite shares, reach a wider audience, and help build advocacy for the brand. A few other effective options include starting a viral meme or reacting to ongoing moment trends and formats. Popularity for memes as a marketing tool goes up significantly ahead of festive seasons and other topical days making them an excellent tool for moment marketing. Another essential thing to note is that memes can have a limited lifespan. This is why it is important to stay updated with the latest trends and use trending hashtags to make the most of the limited life span of memes. Aside from this, it is advisable to utilise digital native lingo to make these memes more relatable to the younger audience who is more likely to interact with them.

Maintain brand connect

Having said this, one thing you must keep in mind while leveraging memes in your social marketing strategy is that no matter what, they should be in sync with your brand values, brand elements, and brand aura. While it is important to follow the trends while leveraging meme marketing, you must not deviate from the value your brand stands for. Needless to say, since these memes are reaching out to the audience your brand caters to, it is essential that the memes are constructed understanding the target audiences’ psyche, thought process & tolerance levels. This will help in creating memes that they will enjoy seeing. While adopting an already trending meme, it is not advisable to deviate much from the template aesthetics to ensure relatability. However, this should be done keeping the brand value system in mind.

Missteps to avoid

While memes are the current big thing in the digital marketing world, it can be very easy to go wrong with them. However, there are a few missteps that brands can steer clear off, to ensure smooth sailing for their meme marketing strategy. The first thing to ensure is that you’re creating memes in good taste by avoiding destructive criticism or below the belt digs, attacks on gender, or race. In other words, your strategy must be inclusive and considerate towards the sentiments of not just your audience but the larger community. Aside from this, you need to ensure that your memes aren’t overly promotional or contain ‘in-your-face’ branded communications. What makes memes unique and more effective than conventional ads is their very sharable nature. Making memes overly promotional will strip them off this very property. Meme wars have become incredibly popular in this day and age. While it can be harmless to indulge in a healthy meme war, brands must be careful not to hurt customer sentiments.

Effective Distribution

Effective and appropriate distribution is incredibly important for the success of your meme marketing strategy. The most popular and effective distribution channels these days are meme pages. These pages can be utilised to enhance the reach of your meme marketing campaign. They have a loyal and active audience that is ready to consume the kind of content that is produced by those pages. Having a subtle integration of your brand on the memes shared on these pages can significantly increase the reach of your campaign. Memes are also becoming a seamless part of influencer marketing and can be used to create the perfect social media cocktail & strengthen the influencer campaign. Aside from this, memes are also being used extensively in omnichannel marketing, making them popular amongst all demographics. They are also the go-to tool for viral marketing considering the humor and simplicity that encompasses memes. Memes have undoubtedly become an inseparable part of social media. With their sharable properties and simple yet humorous characteristics, memes have established a unique and indispensable space for themselves. By following the above-mentioned steps and leveraging these insights, brands can ideate, create, and distribute memes effectively and accelerate their social media efforts with the help of meme marketing. Download the PDF version

A $2 Billion industry, influencer marketing has undoubtedly changed the social media game for brands.  With the influencer landscape estimated to grow to a whopping $5-10 billion industry by the coming year, it’s undoubtedly a marketing force that isn’t expected to go anywhere. This growth is not at all shocking, considering the valuable benefits brands can yield with the help of influencer marketing.

One of the ways in which influencer marketing takes the lead over conventional advertising is that it helps brands reach out to their audience in a way that appears much more credible and authentic. Aside from this, influencers have a loyal follower base that shares many aspects of their lives with them and, this is why if an influencer recommends something, their followers tend to buy it. It is almost as if the recommendation is coming from their friends.

Here, we look at seven trends that brands must know in order to use influencer marketing in the best way possible in the post-pandemic world.

The Dawn of AI

AI is contributing to effective influencer marketing in a number of ways. AI has made the

process of identifying the right influencers much more convenient and time effective. Moreover, with the help of AI, it is possible to identify those influencers who garner better engagement and have fewer fake followers. This can positively impact your ROI.

Aside from this, with the help of AI it is possible to analyze a large number of image and video attributes, study comment sentiment to understand the kind of posts that resonate with your users, helping you to generate more relevant content.

Another great contribution of AI to influencer marketing is the onset of CGI influencers. Last year, India saw the first Indian CGI influencer, called Rajiv. These influencers are created by CGI or Computer Generated Imagery and learn to act like humans with the help of AI. Globally, CGI influencers have been regular at people’s instagram feeds. From Lil Micquela to Shudu, there are a number of AI powered influencers who are becoming immensely popular on social media.

No Visible Likes Would Mean New Metrics

Loyalty > Likes - The removal of likes will make it important for brands to see if an influencer has a loyal and trustworthy audience or not.

The quality of the content will take up greater significance. People are influenced by authentic and relatable content, and brands will have to identify influencers that produce this kind of content.

Comments will become significant as they showcase the conversations built up by influencers with their audience and help in tracking the engagement with them.Brands will need to work with influencers with a steady follower growth.

Insight on the increase in followers over a period of time can give a fair idea of how well the audience is willing to interact and engage with a particular influencer.

The Growth Of Nano Influencers

A nano influencer is an individual who has as few as 1,000 to 5000 followers.

While they might be ‘ordinary people,’ they have exceptional social media skills and a natural ability to influence.

Brands are now recognizing the close-knit and hence valuable bond nano influencers have with their audience. This can be incredibly powerful as opposed to micro and macro influencers who create content for large followings, but often little engagement.

Another benefit is that these influencers have a highly specific audience base and can be excellent for campaigns designed for a particular niche group. For instance, nano influencers are perfect for geolocated campaigns. Most of them have a strong follower base in their local area or region.

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to influencer marketing is we can never be certain about which influencer has bots for followers. However, nano influencers offer more credibility. More often than not, they are not driven by economic profit and have developed their following by sharing quality content.

Influencer Marketing is becoming an always on strategy

Influencer marketing is no longer a one-off strategy. In fact, researches suggest that marketers spend at least 25% of their digital marketing budget on influencer marketing because it is more authentic and has proven to generate better results. Moreover, influencers who regularly promote a particular product or brand appear to be more genuine and authentic This is why we are seeing brands collaborate with influencers on an ongoing basis, making them the ambassador of the brand.

In addition to this, an ‘always-on’ influencer marketing campaign helps brands build an extension to their in-house content marketing team and regularly highlight their own existing narrative in a new way, so as to reinforce the communication they want to convey to their audience.

Another excellent benefit of having an ‘always-on’ influencer campaign is that it helps you enhance your brand recall value. If a brand is visible on social feeds for a few weeks and then suddenly disappears it will have a hard time making a long lasting impression in the memory of the audience. With continuity, a brand builds a greater recall value in the minds of the audience - who will remember the brand because they are reminded of it constantly by their idol.

Data-Driven Influencer Campaigns

According to bigcommerce.com, 65% of brands are planning to increase their spending on influencer marketing. This has undoubtedly increased the need for a data-driven approach.

The purpose of a data-driven strategy is to evaluate and measure the performance of influencers and keep a check on how the campaign is going. These insights are used to increase the effectiveness of your campaign and in turn, lead to an increase in the ROI. In simple words, data-driven influencer marketing refers to estimating the ROI generated through the campaign based on the relevant statistics and data.

These data-driven campaigns work around a defined goal and are planned, keeping the precise outcome in mind. Based on these objectives, one can decide the platforms, influencers, and content. For instance, if the objective of the campaign is to increase brand awareness, it needs to drive brand mentions and product reviews. On the other hand, if the campaign objective is to generate more sales, a good idea could be to provide coupon codes and special discounts for influencers’ followers.

Aside from this, in order to optimize the marketing campaign, an excellent method is to bifurcate the project into parts and periodically measure the relevant metrics. One highly effective way to do this is through the AIDA sales funnel model. AIDA stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action, and proposes different metrics that need to be considered through every step of the funnel.

Video content and influencer marketing work hand in hand

There’s no doubt that video marketing and influencer marketing go hand in hand. This is highly beneficial for brands since 72% of customers have stated that they would prefer to learn about a product through a video.  Secondly, video content is also highly favored by the algorithm of most social platforms, making it possible for it to garner higher engagement levels.

Small, bite-sized videos with more collaborative and interactive content work better with the attention span of the current generation, and IGTV and Instagram Reels provide the best platform for this. Influencers are aggressively leveraging these platforms to create different kinds of video content, including branded videos. These videos are widely consumed by their audience owing to the absence of distractions such as ads.

Employees and Customers  Double Up As Influencers

A brand’s two largest groups of advocates are likely to be satisfied customers and employees. However, many brands often ignore the benefits that can be yielded by leveraging their online presence. In fact, according to research conducted by MSL Group, brand messages reached 561% further when shared by employees vs. when the same messages were shared via official brand social channels.

These loyal advocates—whether its employees or customers help formulate a community and attract like-minded people to buy into the ideology of the brand.

Businesses now need to recognize that although these people may not have large scale followings, their familiarity and knowledge about the company's products or services can more than makeup for their smaller reach.

Employee and customer posted content not only generates more reach and response, but it's also seen as more authentic, and therefore, more likely to inspire action.

There are advocacy platforms like SOCXO that enable brands to leverage their stakeholders and transform them into brand advocates. #ARM Worldwide specializes in these tools and can help brands spread the voice of their most loyal advocates and transform them into influencers.

So these were our picks for the best influencer marketing trends that are dominating the landscape in 2020. These trends are easy to accommodate in your influencer marketing campaign but can lead to impressive results.

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In the coming months, businesses are going to see an increased dependency on their digital strategy to make it through to the post-COVID era. The unprecedented decline of live events and conferences, and other related channels, along with enhanced barriers of face-to-face business, pose an enormous challenge that can only be resolved with the help of technology.  We currently live in a world where there is a technological aid available to make practically everything more effective, convenient, and accurate. Our digital marketing efforts are no exception to this. In addition to this, for a small business, where every penny counts, it is all the more important to leverage these technological aids to make their digital marketing strategy more profitable and cost-effective.  Here we have devised a digital marketing toolkit that is ideal for SMEs and can help device effective digital strategies that are time and cost-effective. 

Adopt an automated email marketing tool 

With an automated email marketing tool, you can build and nurture strategies to reach out to a large number of stakeholders. These automation tools can get linked to your website analytics and target consumers based on their past behaviors and consumer patterns. This can help in creating highly personalized messaging in your emails and increase the impact of your email marketing strategy.  Let’s look at a few more benefits of an automated email marketing tool. 

Enhance the customer retention rate 

It’s a known fact that reselling to an existing customer is much easier than selling to a completely new one. This makes customer retention incredibly important. Automated email marketing can make this task much easier and more effective.   With an automated emailing system, you can schedule your emails to reach your customer on a regular basis so that they don’t go too long without hearing from you.  Aside from this, you can even use the data devised from their buying or consuming patterns to identify their need gaps and craft copies that target these particular need gaps. 

Makes Your Email Marketing Strategy Scalable 

One of the biggest advantages of automating an email marketing strategy is that it can make the campaign significantly more scalable and reduce human effort.  Once the guidelines are set-up, you no longer need a resource to be aligned to set up an email each time someone signs up.  Some great email marketing tools that can help you leverage these benefits are - 

• SendInBlue 
• Drip
• ConvertKit
• Mailchimp

Elevate The Performance Of Your  Social Media Efforts 

Social Media is as close as brands can get to a direct face-to-face interaction. As the opportunity for direct communication is currently limited, small businesses should take to social media to reach their customers.  However, If you are serious about getting your social channels in shape in 2020, you seriously can’t ignore social media tools. Let’s discuss a few social media tools and why every small or medium business needs to have these in their arsenal. 

• Scheduling tools 

One of the biggest advantages of having a social media scheduling tool is that it can help save time. Every social marketer would agree that it can be incredibly taxing, juggling between every social media platform, multiply this by the number of posts you make in a day.  Scheduling tools can help track and manage each social media message across different platforms and save a considerable amount of time and effort. 

• Analytics Tools 

With the help of analytics tools, you can track the performance of all your social media properties in a single place. These tools also let you analyze and report the performance of your social media campaigns and identify what’s working and what’s not.  These tools provide actionable insights that can be very useful in enhancing your social presence. 

• Engagement Tools

Engagement tools can make it easier to engage with your audience in the most effective way. One of the biggest advantages of engagement tools is that it creates a singular inbox and helps you respond to communications across platforms. 

• Listening Tools

Listening tools can help analyze the general sentiment of social media users around a trending topic. In addition to this, listening tools can also help track trending formats in your industry before they become widespread.  Some excellent social media tools are - 

• Buffer 

• Buzzsumo

• Hootsuite

• Zapier

Technologically Enhanced Content Marketing 

We are in an age where information has become one of the most important commodities. This is why quality content always comes out a winner. Creating well-written content that is powered by SEO can be highly advantageous for your business.  However, one of the biggest mistakes brands can do in content marketing is not being strategic about it. As per a study conducted by Content Marketing Institute, a major factor that sets apart efficient content marketers from the less efficient ones is their content-tech proficiency.  Another research shows that a way in which efficient marketers garner high content marketing ROI is to use tools that automate or simplify content creation, curation, and distribution. These factors are not exactly shocking as content marketing tools can be exceptionally useful in getting the most out of your time and energy. Here are a few benefits of utilizing content marketing tools. 

Analyze and identify  trending topics 

These tools let you garner useful insights by giving you an accurate window into the type of content that was shared most across networks. 

Helps in mapping competition 

Content marketing tools help you analyze how the competition’s content is performing and compare the performance with your own content. 

Measure the success of your content strategy

Once you've created your content marketing strategy, these tools also analyze it in terms of sales and overall performance. A few must-have tools in every content marketer’s arsenal - 

• Hubspot 
• Contentools
• Google Keyword Planner
• Wordpress

Use Technology To Simplify Video Marketing

Video marketing has undoubtedly become one of the biggest components of digital marketing. It has become nearly imperative to have video content in your content strategy, and a number of video marketing tools make this a fairly simple task.  Video marketing tools can help you at every stage of the process and help you ideate, plan, produce, edit, & distribute videos effectively.  Some tools can also be used to create a scene by scene script and project it in a series of index cards, making it incredibly feasible to produce a video.  A few tools also let you embed videos to your websites and other marketing campaigns with just a few clicks. All you need to do is upload your video to these tools, and they’ll be ready and optimized for sharing.  Some good video marketing tools are - 

• Wideo
• Viewbix
• Slidely
• WeVideo

Collect Data To Identify What’s Working 

Data has always been a marketer’s best friend, and It has only taken a more significant role in the time of upheaval. As an SME you need to analyze this data to measure the success of your marketing campaigns.  Marketing analytics tools can aid SMEs to anticipate market patterns and respond in real-time.  These tools provide solutions that leverage data mining or other statistical processes that can enable businesses to analyze and monitor their performance and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Another exceptional benefit of using analytics tools is that they enable businesses to analyze how different segments of consumers behave differently. This can be incredibly beneficial to predict how they might respond to different offerings.   Some good analytics tools are - 

• Google Analytics 
• SEM Rush
• Zoho Social
• Google Search Console

So these were our picks of useful tools that should be a part of your digital marketing toolkit as a small or medium business owner. Not only will these tools be incredibly useful in saving time and effort, but will also help in increasing the ROI of your marketing strategy.  Download the PDF version

In God we trust, all others must bring data- William Edwards Deming.

One of the most undesirable yet common scenarios in marketing is that brands invest their money and efforts in marketing but fail to get the desired results. When the question of where the money went is posed, most people are left with nothing but blank faces. However, as of right now, the scenario is finally changing since the digital space is offering us tools that can measure the impact of our PR efforts and avoid this situation. Every PR agency should adopt these metrics and use data to analyse their PR efforts. It is a better choice for not only them but also the brands they are working for, as they both can monitor the results of PR campaigns and move ahead with a clear picture in mind. We are living in a digital era, and as PR professionals, we need to understand how relevant data is in the contemporary world to get better and impactful results. No matter what you do – be it converting leads or improving your social media strategy – data holds the key. It is the insights that are derived from data that shape up the entire marketing scenario itself in today’s day and age. There are people in the industry who doubt the value of PR and consider it to be a waste of money and resources. To nullify that school of thought, PR needs to tap into the power of data and show more data-driven results. Results, when backed up with data, are more accessible and provide a clear direction on how to move ahead. Here, we list down three ways on how PR can explore the importance of data. Note: We should have limited expectations from PR, you can't measure the strength of media relation, you can't measure how positive journalist are for your brand, you can't directly measure the impact of media rounds but with the evolution of digital platforms you can map the results on organic growth of the business. #1 There is more to data than just coverage tracking When it comes to data, the number of impressions and the hits they have is not the only thing that matters. You should look beyond them from a bigger perspective. Analyse the news that interests the audience through the hits they get, then try and target this niche by publishing content and gauging the engagement. Figure out the news outlets that cover your content the most, along with the ones with whom you need to build better relationships. It will help you redefine your goals – after all, the ultimate aim of a PR professional is to create a landscape that helps them give their best. #2 Be more curious, ask more questions Have a 360-degree approach towards data. Apart from the media coverage you get, what else can you gain through data? What other aspects does a media coverage highlight? Think hard and look at the bigger perspective again; don’t just care about the number of hits, see the quality of hits as well. You should know what is essential. Continually asking questions about things around opens you to new ideas and better ways to engage in business. Analyse the data to understand the working trends in your industry. It can help you draw a better conclusion on the progress you are making against yourself and the competitors in the market. #3 Data validates your work Keep a record of your work in the form of data; The reach every article has, and the goals you achieved through every content piece. When you report to your clients, your data is your true friend. More than your words, your numbers will convince your client of the work you are doing. Today, data drives big decisions and statistics decide whether it will be a yes or no. People will always ask why you took a specific decision? For such questions, your data will be your way. Casestudy: Since last one year we are putting lot of efforts around PR and content marketing for Every time a brand or a business does a PR campaign, they invest a good amount of money and resources to make the PR campaign a huge success. It is necessary to understand how impactful the investment was and in what direction the efforts are going? To evaluate the PR efforts, there are majorly six metrics, and they are as follows:-

1. Audience engagement The objective of PR is not just about communicating a message instead it is also about engaging your audience in striking a communication with them. Initiating audience towards better engagement will help you gain better results in your PR efforts. Audience engagement goes beyond impressions and depends more on the number of clicks, likes, comments a post gets. It is not about getting a large number of followers on your social media handles instead of getting a relevant audience that engages with your posts. Interactions add more meaning to your campaigns, rather than constantly posting content, we need to stop a while and try to focus our efforts on creating engaging content. When I say engaging content, you need to educate your audience entertaining them in the process. The first step towards creating engaging content is to understand your audience, knowing them will help them serve better. The point is people can hack into and buy followers, but engagement is something that is genuine and cannot be hacked.
2. Social media reach In a world that is undergoing digitisation in almost every aspect, the influence of social media has proliferated in our lives. Understanding the social media reach of a campaign helps in understanding the context of the content written and the impact it can create on social media. It also helps in understanding the algorithm of social media platforms and create a campaign that is in sync with them. Calculating the social media reach also helps in understanding the audience and the rate at which they are growing.
3. Sales statistics When the budget dries up for online marketing, you won’t have the option for giving paid online ads but if you had a well-featured article that ran on a major publishing house, you continue to rake in the goodwill. PR may not be directly related to sales, but good PR leads to better brand building, better brand building, in turn, leads to good lead generation, and excellent lead generation, in turn, leads to better sales.  In fact, if a well-executed PR campaign shows zero impact on sales, you need to review your PR and marketing strategy and evaluate what went wrong. Two factors need to be considered when you evaluate sales for a PR campaign, and they are:- Timeframe - Mark a time frame during an ongoing PR campaign in your PR and content marketing calendar and calculate the number of sales that happened in that particular period.  You can break the time frame into days, weeks, and months.Sales channel - When it comes to measuring sales, the channel through which sales happen is of utmost importance. Though omnichannel is the new trend, there are still many brands which operate in multi-channel. Break down the data of every single sales channel, and you can check if the sales are happening more through online platforms or offline retail platforms.
4. Media impressions Media impressions is a common metric used by PR agencies to and measures the number of times people see your content or ad.  If a youtube video is watched more than three times by a particular person, the number of media impressions is three, similar is the case when it comes to a Facebook post or a tweet. The number of times a post is seen amount to the number of media impressions. The power of visibility can never be underestimated- Margaret Chu Media impressions help you in understanding the algorithm and working of a social media platform; it tells you the number of times your post could be seen on a social media platform. Though the general opinion is media impressions don’t make too much of an impact, but media impressions are quite useful when combined with other metrics and help in getting a clearer picture of the impact made through a particular PR campaign.
5. Brand mentions “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about” — Oscar Wilde When a PR campaign is executed well, it leads to a rise in the number of times a brand was mentioned on guest blogs as well as different social media handles. Though the major problem is more than 90% of the people who talk about brands don’t do it on the respective social media handles of the particular brand rather a lot of talks is done on personal social media handles and forums like Reddit and Quora. So, it becomes really essential for brands to monitor all these discussions to understand the opinion of people as well as know the indirect impact a PR campaign had on the visibility of their brand. Monitoring brand mentions on different forums help in finding digital ambassadors of your product or service who can be used to amplify the reach of a PR campaign. When you map the brand mentions you are getting from different social media handles, it helps you in building better relationships and in turn gives you a gateway to approach them every time you have a content piece that needs to be reached out to a maximum number of people.
6. Website traffic Website traffic is a significant metric to understand the impact of a PR campaign. Moreover, website traffic helps in evaluating various demographics of traffic, be it location, time, or age of the audience and these demographics in return help in assessing if the PR campaign is reaching its target audience or not. PR boosts web traffic through published media, and it has a significant impact on organic search rankings as well. Published media helps in earning brand mentions on social media, and if the publications have the link of your website, it automatically leads to visitors from the content source. When you track the traffic of your site, check the sources from where the traffic is being generated. It will give you a better understanding of publications that are generating better traffic for you.

These six metrics when analysed give us a clear picture of how relevant data is in determining the importance of PR. Data analysis is interesting, and the possibilities are many. For PR professionals, data is more than just the number of hits your content piece gets. Its importance goes beyond that. Data gives you the power of analysis and analysis gives you great insights. These insights help you come up with better ideas, leading to better campaigns. Digital era thrives on data, and it is high time PR professionals understand the importance of data.  Whatever a PR does, be it communicating or public relations, it is a data-driven job. And for a PR professional to be right in their field, they need to be good with numbers.