Digitalization is growing rapidly in India. There are close to 81 million active Internet users and 548.7 million mobile phone users in the county. Shemaroo plans to take advantage of this factor coupled with the vast literate youth population of the country.

‘Super K’ as the new film is called, is the story of a superhero character who has to defeat evil forces in order to protect a planet called Dreamland. The film is targeted towards kids and young adults. Super K will launch on different online platforms in the month of November, 2011.

Talking about the movie, Smita Maroo, the producer of the film said,

“The online release of ‘Super K’ is the first-of-its-kind in the Indian entertainment business and a breakaway concept away from the confines of theatrical releases. Children’s films are rare in themselves but empowering and allowing parents and kids to watch ‘Super K’ in the comfort of their homes or anywhere anytime at their convenience will bring entertainment to peoples’ doorsteps. ‘Super K’ will open up new avenues in Indian entertainment and also set up new standards in providing entertainment in online digital media.”

This is not Shemaroo’s first venture into the animation film genre. Before this, they had created movies like Bal Ganesh, Bal Ganesh 2, and also a film called as Ghatothkach which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. But this is the first time an Indian production house has gone for an online release of an animation film.

Shemaroo plans to continue to explore the digital media and animation film market in the future as well.

“We understand animation creation marketing and distribution. As far as India is concerned, there is so much demand for good content. The storytelling ability and international quality production capabilities exist. The challenge is only to bridge the distribution gaps to reach the target animation consuming audience, the kids and families. Once that happens, you will get to see many more good films. In line with this strategy, we have ventured into creation of live-action and animation among other content. We look to bring unique entertainment genres across the various platforms that audience will love to consume.”,

Smita Maroo said regarding future plans.

Shemaroo plans to promote the movie heavily on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

The production house has also created a website and a Facebook page for the promotion of the movie.

With this new move, Shemaroo has managed to start a unique trend that might change the way we watch movies forever.

Volkswagen has been investing a lot of money into digital media promotion lately. Currently, online social media comprises of 9% of the auto mobile

makers total marketing budget as compared to 3% last year.

The new online campaign will be called as Planet Volkswagen and the company intends to enhance interactivity with its current and potential customers with the new portal.

Lutz Kothe, Head of PR and Marketing at Volkswagen said,

“We want to make Volkswagen the most interactive auto company in India – that’s not something we can do with a corporate Web site alone. With PlanetVolkswagen, we have a portal dedicated to all auto enthusiasts. It is also a clear CRM tool; and when people are really interested in the brand, it will serve as a lead generation mechanism”

In order to increase awareness about the portal, an advertising campaign including print and digital media is to start from the 17th of October, the date on which the portal launches.

Online social media campaigns are being carried out by many firms as part of their overall marketing activities and it seems now a new brand has joined the Band ‘Wagen’

YouTube has been an active means of promotion for several movies in the past. However, this time the Baadshah of Bollywood has made a custom built channel for his home production venture possible.

The YouTube channel will feature eye-catching content like Interviews, behind the scenes, Trailers, Music videos and other promotional matter.

Ra.One is a superhero-based fiction movie and the costliest produced by Red Chillies Entertainment.

“This concept goes well with my ‘Ra.One’ as the film is about digital world…computer and all. So (I) launched it on a digital platform like YouTube. Besides, it will help me take the film to more people. I am thrilled and excited about it. YouTube has been an integral platform for movie promotions in Hollywood. Since I wanted to do something that has never been done for any Indian film…so for ‘Ra.One’ I leveraged upon this potential of digital media”

, Shah Rukh Khan said in a press conference.

The channel will also have special clips from the film’s London premiere next month. Apart from there, several live streams and other forms of Interaction have been added to the Ra.One Channel.

If this new endeavour by Ra.One is successful, it will not be long before other Indian film makers see the potential YouTube has to offer as a marketing platform.

Ra.One releases in cinemas this Diwali on 26.10.2011 and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta and Boman Irani. Catch the official trailer below.

‘Tweetwalk’ as the campaign is called, is the first of its kind where Burberry will put up content like backstage photos on Twitter. Apart from this, every new look will be shared on the social network even before the models hit the ramp.

In order to ensure the rapid streaming of content on Twitter,  photographer Mike Kis will share his snaps via Instagram, a live photo sharing software.

Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative Officer at Burberry said,

“Twitter is instantaneous and I love the idea that streaming a show can be in many different forms. This collection is all about the most detailed hand crafted pieces and fabric innovation, creating a beautiful physical experience that is communicated digitally in dynamic and diverse ways and I love balancing those two worlds”

Twitter is not the only social network that Burberry will be using. A live stream of the event will also be shown on Facebook. Certain interviews will be shown on Youtube via a live broadcast as well.

Burberry’s campaign seems to have given Social Media a new, more fashionable use.

The webcast, which was held on LG India‘s ‘Life’s Good’ page broke away from average one-sided monologues and introduced a concept of prompting users to comment on their  fan page to help progress the campaign.

As part of this live webcast, a box covered with Post-It notes containing questions and riddles was displayed to the viewers. They were then required to reply to these notes in the form of comments on the page. The Post-It notes were gradually removed once correct replies came in and thus led to the official unveiling of the LG Optimus 3D smartphone.

This interactive campaign attracted a lot of followers with over 750 comments before the product was revealed to users who had participated in the webcast.

Optimus 3D is the latest offering by LG in the smartphone market. The phone has exquisite features such as 3D photo capturing and video recording. In addition to this, games designed in 3D can also be played on the phone.

The webcast generated a lot of favorable response from the users. Radha Rajan, a Film maker who participated in the campaign said,

“It was an extremely Innovative Live Webcasting that I’ve never seen before. Can’t believe that LG Optimus 3D not only looks magnificent but is also bundled with these countless new features.”

Recently, DigiMouth included a feature on Live Streaming on Social Networks where the advantages of streaming as a marketing tool were displayed. LG’s new campaign, just like its name takes live webcasting to a New Dimension.

As part of the campaign, renowned football commentators Ray Stubbs and Kevin Keega will initiate debates and ask questions to fans while they are on air. Fans would be able to communicate with ESPN via social networking website, Twitter by using the hashtag #espnuk.

The questions as well as the comments by users will be screened across UK on the integrated digital campaign. Using WAP-enabled phones or other Internet communication devices, users can comment on the post while they are on the move. In order to make the advertisement more informative, live scores, match schedules, news feeds etc will be added on.

According to Mike McKibbin, Group Marketing Director, ESPN, sports fans are not passive users anymore and maintaining a constant interaction with them is essential.

As the campaign will be spread across many public places like metro stations; ESPN expects the campaign to gain some serious attention.

This approach by ESPN has raised the benchmark of digital advertising and over a period of time, this campaign is sure to start a trend that many marketeers will follow.

Motive –

‘The Great Spicy Speculation’ as the viral is known, is crystal clear. Its purpose is to announce the arrival of McDonald’s four exclusive dishes namely Big Spicy Paneer Wrap, McSpicy Chicken, McSpicy Paneer and Big Spicy Chicken Wrap to the menu, which is now available in outlets.

Execution –

The first thing that appealed to us is the manner in which they associated their products with social media. The McSpicy viral has smartly introduced food items from McDonald’s menu such as Maharaja Mac, McVeggie, Aloo Tikki, French Fries, Filet-O-Fish and Coke by posing them as characters. These characters are such that we can identify with in our day-to-day life. The fact that these characters correspond and converse with each other via various social media and messaging platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, only complements the motive of the viral. It sets a tone of colleagues at a particular workplace that communicate with one another around the topic of new entrants into the company. Humor is the main ingredient here and has been played to perfection.  They even extend the suspense with a tagline that leads to their microsite – ‘The story gets spicier at www.myspicy.in’.

DigiMouth Speaks –

We feel the entire merger of products in their menu and the social media platforms was brilliantly done. However, the other side to this coin that concerns us is the duration of the viral which is 3.39 min and probably too lengthy for the average user to be patient enough to view.

Will this digital initiative be effective in increasing the footfall for the McDonald’s various outlets? Leave a comment below to share your views on this.

Meanwhile, for those of you who haven’t yet caught McDonald’s McSpicy viral, here you go –

Through this venture BBC seeks to reach those masses who are not Internet Literate. On a surprising note the latter accounts for a significantly large number. In Britain alone, the figure is a staggering 9 million.

The campaign is inclusive of a year long organization of events across England revolving around the purpose. These events will witness various celebrities going on an online rampage to push people towards the aim.

BBC’s technology correspondent spoke of the company’s new advent saying, “The aim is to hammer home the message that the internet can save people money.”

Many people in Bridlington, Yorkshire have been identified as non Internet users. Hence the initial events will be held in these areas. The occasion will give people an opportunity to be trained in web usage for free. The organizing sponsors include big shots like Google and McDonalds.

Representing BBC as the web correspondent is Sir Terry Wogan who is slated to make an appearance in a forthcoming episode of the Archers playing the part of a character that learns the know-how’s of the Internet.

Throwing light on this Br@nd-new game, a recent news report by Writankar Mukherjee of The ET Bureau reveals how different corporate entities are nurturing online communities. LG, for instance, envisages one ‘to receive feedback from consumers and talk to them directly, thereby increasing their bonding with the brand.’

Samsung Mobile and Canon, among the earliest to have rolled out such communities in India, have reaped rich rewards. Canon Edge community 80,000 members. Many of their community members like serious photography, which translates into almost 100% growth in the company’s digital SLR camera business. Buoyed by the response, Canon India will soon unveil an online photo gallery.

Other brands like Tata Teleservices, Sony PlayStation, Samsung Mobile, Philips, Adidas and Canon are leveraging the reach and power of the medium to connect with consumers.
Tata Teleservices is employing online communities for tracking consumer behavior for its major brands, namely Tata Indicom, Tata Docomo and Photon. Its telco division’s CMO, Lloyd Mathias, has been quoted as saying, “In a category such as telecom, tariffs are changing everyday, and it helps us to hear the consumers’ inherent voice.”

Echoing his vies, LG Electronics (India) chief marketing officer L K Gupta quips
that the Internet is fast emerging as a potential media for interacting with consumers – prospective and existing – than merely informing them. For this purpose, online consumer communities offer a perfect platform.

In the new initiative Idea urges and invites Indians to proudly say “Jai Hind” and spare 2 minutes from their busy pseudo lifestyles and express their solidarity though the microsite  BythePeople.in/jaihind. Users need to submit their name and mobile to participate in the movement. On 31st August, the national Flag Day, Idea will call and play the soulful composition ‘Jai Hind’ featuring Indian legends like Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Zakir Hussain, Javed Akhtar, Yesu Das, Jagjit Singh, Alka Yagnik, Shankar Mahadevan and Sonu Nigam to name a few. Idea aims at uniting million proud Indians in a single voice of patriotism.

There are many online properties trying to create a revolution. But are these website /microsites getting the desired response? Are they creating a revolution? If you have the answers do leave a comment