This morning, as I scanned my @mentions, I found this bizarre tweet from a handle called ‘classmatemanoft’! To put it mildly, it was…oh wait, before I get into rant mode, need to add a small real life story.
We have all been exposed to ‘newspaper inserts’ in India, right? You get your Times of India/Hindustan Times loaded with small, usually A4 or lesser sized notice/inserts. We, almost inevitably, don’t notice what is in them unless they happen to be extraordinarily colorful or interesting and chuck them soon after completing the newspaper reading session.
This newspaper insert is the responsibility of your area newspaper delivery guy – not the end-delivery boy, but his boss. So, if you jog/walk in the morning, you’d notice that the place this newspaper segregation happens, there is a huge pile of inserts waiting to be inserted. At times, there are more than what’s needed for that area and they are usually returned or just dumped on the roadside. What happens then is simply this – the brand that lovingly got those inserts printed finds itself being trampled by people on the road for the rest of the day.
End of story.
So, I got this tweet this morning. It was sent at about 5:10am and reads like this.
@beastoftraal Here is your chance to Meet #Yuvraj Singh, #cricket #superstar and also use amazing #stationary,visit http://lbz.me/?29B
I clicked on the link on my BlackBerry and landed in this link! (Click on the image for a larger view)
That’s strange! A Classmate promotion landing on something else?
And then, I had to check their entire stream of tweets. This is how it looks. (Click on the image for a larger view)
This is the digital equivalent of piling newspaper inserts in one location and shooting it off in all directions…only to be trampled digitally.
This is a terrible way to decimate a decent brand’s image online. I like Classmate’s products and even like their TVCs. I know for a fact that my son insists on their notebooks and recall having bought a lot of Classmate products when I was buying his school books/notes this academic year – they have a classy, polished look, compared to other brands.
Having said that, I have a couple of other problems too, with this largely silly ‘campaign’.
1. How did they assume that I like Yuvraj Singh? Now, obviously, they don’t know jack-**** about people liking or not liking Yuvraj Singh, if you go by the moronic spam machine that is picking a Twtter ID at random and sending them a tweet, like a drone. But, I recall having made fun of Yuraj and Revital, so selecting me for this campaign is wrong on multiple levels.
2. The link in the tweet sometimes goes to the Locobuzz page. And sometimes to Classmate’s page. Terribly sad.
3. One sentence in the ‘campaign’ microsite reads,
“Now, every time you purchase Classmate Stationery,and update your score.”
For Lord Manjutha Swamy’s sake, please, please get a decent copy editor! This is ITC’s Classmate brand talking to its end-consumer!
4. This campaign is obviously part of the Classmate-Pune Warriors sponsorship deal, if you notice the campaign microsite. So, why do this when the IPL is over this season? Wouldn’t it have more sense to do it during the IPL and gain better mileage?
5. Here is first-hand feedback from people who this Twitter handle has been spamming to.
…and my personal favorite!
This is all so massively embarrassing.