The mainstreaming of social media in advertising is complete… sort of!

We had brands integrating the social property details in all print and TV ads. This has almost become a mandatory, besides a ‘call us’ or ‘get in touch with us’. I know because I have been tracking and cataloging this trend right from the beginning! Here’s proof:

1. Basics Life?s print ad with a Facebook community URL!
2. The Facebook URL: A misguided trend and a paradox
3. Mantri Square mall wants us to search for its Twitter and Facebook pages!
4. Website URL? Check. Facebook URL? Check. Twitter? Check. Why bother?
5. Dear readers?please search for our social properties, will you?

But what seems to be manifesting now is rather intriguing. Brands seem to be incorporating social media nuances in their scripts (TVCs) and print ads. An inherently-internet brand doing it may not seem out of the ordinary – for instance, an e-commerce brand doing it may seem mighty appropriate since the assumption is that the e-commerce consumer is adequately internet savvy and would be completely clued into social media.

What however seems out of the ordinary is the fact that non-internet brands using social media nuances in their advertising.

Sample these.

Kellogg’s Special K, using selfies and hashtags (though their hashtags have spaces in them, making them truncated, pointless hashtags!)

Vanish stain remover

Ford EcoSport

Turtle
turtle

100Pipers
100pipers

People
people1

people2

people3

peopl4

people5

The interesting connect between these brands is that they are not internet-dependent brands, like e-commerce, search or social media brands. They make offline, real products like cars, clothing, alcohol drinks and even boring products like stain removers!

But, they are all using one or more forms of social media nuance or action – likes, hashtags, blog followers (!), profile picture, selfies (that has become quite the trend already, in India) and so on. Note that I have not included brands that use social media actions as a call-to-action – share your selfie, join us on Facebook, comment via Twitter etc. Those have been happening already for some time.

This update is something even deeper – the assumption that these brands’ predominant target audience is social media savvy enough to understand and appreciate the social media actions that the script or story board of the communication contains. That the Facebook likes that Deepika is getting will motivate viewers to try the product and perhaps do the same and get a fraction of her likes? That people see value in having 4,000 blog followers and consider it as an achievement. That people are waiting to be tagged (by being dressed appropriately, that is).

Considering the internet penetration in India (and perhaps the rate of growth), this is fairly fast, in terms of evolution, particularly when they are being used in media vehicles that are not internet. So, a TVC, besides being watched on YouTube, is primarily seen on TV, that may reach a lot more people than the number who watch it on YouTube. A print ad reaches a hell of a lot of people with or without PC/internet access, in a static format, though the assumption would be that they all have mobile phones and access some kind of social network via that device.

I guess that truly completes the mainstreaming of social media in brand communication. That however doesn’t really mean we’ve explored all forms of social media integration in brand communication, of course – there’s so much more to explore and play with!

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