Indiantelevision.com Team

(28 April 2012 6:35 pm)

MUMBAI: Brands have to learn to be creative across all platforms so that they can engage today’s youth, the most important segment that marketers need to chase to successfully sell their products.

“You need to play the plot with creativity and remember to use all the screens. Today’s youth is a multi-tasker and to grab their attention you have to be present on all the screens they use. Each screen from the desktop to the iPhone have a unique technology that can be leveraged to engage the consumer,” said Rovio Asia SVP Henry Holm.

Speaking about the “O-O-O” theory, Holm said it is a different take on the 360 degree marketing strategy in that it shuffles between online presence, offline connect and back to online. This works well with brands which operate in the online space. While the digital space is where the product or service exists, the offline space is used to create touch and feel experiences which make an imprint on the consumer’s conscious and engage them. Once the offline exercise is carried out, the consumer may directly follow up by going online or the brand may provide an incentive to do so.

Apart from activiations, a brand may collaborate with other compatible brands or go the licensing and merchandising way. Many brands have taken the L&M route to increase consumer engagement and involvement. The trick is to find a way to harness fan value, mutual partner benefit and brand fit simultaneously, Holm elaborated while speaking at the MTV Youth Marketing Forum.

Rovio Entertainment, the developers of the Angry Birds game, has had a huge success ride in the past decade. Holm shared the brand’s experience with marketing for the youth along with their key learnings.

Though it may feel like the game has been around for quite some time, the journey started a mere two and a half years back. “Since the beginning our aim has been to concentrate on the characters and create a connect with the audiences through our online-offline-online strategy,” said Holm. “While exciting features may help grab eyeballs, unless a fan base is built, the success will be short-lived.”

Rovio carried out an activation in association with T mobile in Spain (Terrassa near Barcelona) where a real life Angry Birds stage was set up. Players could aim the birds on the evil pigs on the iPhone installed at the site and the bird’s trajectory would be simulated in real life on the stage.

The activation not only caught the fancy of the people on that day, but the videos of the event filmed by participants went viral and resulted in significant visibility for the brand. The players were stimulated by the game and went online to relive the experience in the digital space, Holm said.