Exclusive | Engaging consumers on a continuous basis, Bedraj Tripathy

In today’s digital era, it comes as no surprise that social media platforms play a vital role in amplifying any campaign, initiative or activity but what makes a difference is how one uses their respective platforms to engage their existing fans. Digital platforms help personalize connections with their consumers and create great opportunities for participation too. Every brand’s focus is to recognize the desired target audience and acknowledge them in the most appreciative way.

Godrej Interio had carried out several digital activities and campaigns through 2014-2015 which includes popular ones like #SelfieWithMom, #Dadsays, Gang Up & Save and Upload & Transform, etc. These campaigns have not only generated consumer participation but also worked on personalizing the experience for their consumers.

To know more Adgully caught up with Bedraj Tripathy, AVP - Integrated Marketing, Godrej Interio who shared insights about their recent campaigns, consumer responses and much more.

Campaign insights:

He mentioned that their focus is to engage customers with what they want to do and not with what they want to sell. Their campaigns are conceptualized on three concepts:
Firstly, they look at connecting with users on a personal front, to understand the lifestyle of the consumers. “Apart from multiple engagement campaigns, campaign such as #Dadsays a user generated contest wherein we shared 450 memes with our fans, worked very well for us. While contests like #SelfieWithmom or a chat with a design expert was a hit amongst our fans, over 5000 fans engaged and a reach of 5 lakh each was achieved through these topical campaigns,” Tripathy added.

Secondly the focus is to understand the needs of consumers and then deliver accordingly, basis this concept, Upload and Transform campaign was designed. “We asked our followers to share with us pictures of their home and what transformation they are looking at and as per their requirement, we transformed their homes. We have received a good response so far. We have transformed 152 homes in three seasons. Interestingly, we had a few celebrities this year, Actor Sonu Sood, TV Actor Aishwaraya Sukhija, RJ Malishka and Kerala’s music director Mr.Alphons. This gave a tremendous push to the brand,” he adds. 

Lastly they look at integrating the digital world with the real world wherein they invited their digital fans in their showrooms for various recreational workshops like Stand-up comedy, dance and live band performances through #MyBreak campaign so that people can take a break from their chores and reconcile with their passion. This campaign resulted in 300 walk-ins in stores, over 500 people engaged on digital space while we reached upto 10L audience on social media.

As it is quite visible that social media has now become a marketer’s essential tool for consumer engagement for brands globally. When asked to share his view point on the same, Tripathy said, “Social media as a medium generates real time conversations with fluidity of language and interaction, leading to higher engagement.  It has a scope of higher reach than compared to traditional marketing platforms. It is one of the best medium, for experiential marketing. Hence, it is a tool that very few marketers would not want to tap, particularly, when you can see it is delivering strong ROI.”

Response Received:

Tripathy said, “The response received is quite encouraging and there are many brand based response that can be directly attributed to social campaigns. These campaigns have increased the lead conversation growth from 38% in stores to 71% further leading to increase in our ATV by 62%. Net promoter score is increased by 28% and the brand preference amongst our consumers has increased by 21%.”

Each campaign generated the defined results mapped as per the objectives; comparing them and picking one will be unfair. However on a broader perspective, Upload and Transform did very well for them and hence they rolled three seasons and the property is still a hit! “With 152 Homes transformed, with over 300 design stories created from over 1000 insights of users. This campaign broke all pre-defined results and went way ahead of our expectations,” he added.

Focus Areas:

When asked Tripathy, while conceptualizing a digital campaign what are the things that they keep in mind, he said, “We keep it real! We focus on two areas; Understanding our users and Generating footfalls to our stores. Both are achieved by focusing on high levels of engagement and taking the brand closer to the users.”

The brief to the agencies is also very simple that is to engage consumers on a continuous basis, upgrading them from contestants to browsers, from browsers to buyers, and from buyers to recommenders.  

Though he feels that it is too early to predict the next year in a digital economy but they will continue to engage with users and give them an experience that will help them identify with the brand.
When asked about the campaigns scheduled for the year, he said, “This year we are going ahead with the campaigns that will engage our users. Further, you have to watch us by liking our page on Facebook - facebook.com/godrejinterio, follow us @GodrejInterio4U on twitter and subscribe us on Youtube - youtube.com/godrejinterio.”

Trends: 

According to Tripathy, the digital trend that brands will have to look forward to is to be HUMAN, customers are following you on social media so that they can talk to you…it can be a complaint, a feedback, an enquiry anything for that matter. Engagement is the key and will remain so. However, a key aspect will be to combine the virtual world to the real world.