Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Bollywoodhungama: Facebook's dishum factory

Name of Business: Bollywoodhungama.com
Industry: Entertainment
Target Audience: Bollywood fans across demographics

Category of Business
The parent company, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, was incorporated in 1999, as an online promotions agency. In the short span of a little more than ten years the company is today a Digital Entertainment, Mobile Services and Promo Marketing firm. Hungama Digital Media Entertainment is headquartered in Mumbai.

Bollywoodhungama.com caters to fans of all things…well Bollywood. With the objective of ‘Bringing the fans closer to their Stars’, Bollywoodhungama.com has launched several initiatives, including live video and text chats with Bollywood personalities, India’s first ever Bollywood video quiz, exclusive production blogs of latest and upcoming films and movie reviews.

Marketing Efforts and Results
Bollywoodhungama.com launched its Facebook page in May 2010. It held a series of contests, giving away merchandise to the winners. Today, there is a roaring community of more than 232,000 fans, who look forward to information through posts and updates on the latest from Bollywood. The focus here is on interactivity, with fans being encouraged to contribute actively to discussions, posts, contests et al. For instance, the website has a weekly update called ‘Guess Who’ where they post an image of a celebrity with their back to the camera. Members are required to figure out who the celebrity is. This concept is replicated on Facebook and typically more than 500 answers are posted by fans. People not only look forward to these fun postings, but also keep coming back to know the correct answer. While the Facebook page is used as a marketing tool for content on the site, the page also features exclusive content not available on the site.

Bollywoodhungama.com has a strong Twitter presence as well, with more than 11,000 followers. The focus has been on keeping users updated on the latest on the website. Typically, a short description of the story, along with the link to the full story is put up as a tweet. YouTube has proved extremely effective as a social media channel. Users can view exclusive interviews with leading celebrities, video features and behind-the-scenes content, among other things. Since its launch, the YouTube channel has received more than 2,436,973 views.

One of the most powerful things that Bollywoodhungama.com has done is to integrate its social media efforts with its website. For instance, the video quiz - ‘Bollywood Ka Baap’ - has been integrated via applications on Orkut and Facebook.

“Since inception, Hungama has focussed on creating properties that help brands interact with their end consumers. Using internet, then and social media now, brands have the opportunity of interacting with their consumers, connect with them and create an ecosystem where the users and the brand can stay connected. As compared to traditional forms of communication, the social media environment allows us to create continuous brand recall by using user friendly messages. Today, a brand may not necessarily use strategic messaging, but use tactical communication methods to stay top of mind with the consumer,” says Siddhartha Roy, COO, Hungama Digital Media.

“For instance, when Bollywoodhungama.com interacts with its members on Facebook, it doesn’t say ‘Come visit my website for the latest in Bollywood news’. Instead the messaging could vary from ‘Hey guys, who is your favourite actor?’ to ‘Did you hear that XYZ celebrity has signed a new film?’ Reactions generated by communication of this nature create brand recall as the user is involved with your brand. Therefore, with social media, we have been able to create constant interaction with consumers which in turn helps us create evangelists which leads to better brand value,” Mr. Roy adds.

Marketing Investment
No direct investments in social media. However, social media has been integrated into every aspect of content and marketing delivery, so all team members contribute to the social media marketing effort.

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