MUMBAI: The latest marketing initiative from Zodiac, a manufacturer of corporate and semi formal garments, shows that the Net can be an effective vehicle of catering to the upper scale.

The company is promoting ZOD! which represents its foray into trendy club wear through the net supported by offline promotions rather that the usual norm which is the print and the idiot box.

An official release informs that the decision was made keeping in mind the target audience which is the young, extrovert party going, and fun loving man. ZOD! claims to wear its daring attitude on its sleeve. There will be plenty of variations in the product line in terms of fabric used, palette of colours, the cuts.

The advertising strategy for ZOD! revolves around the theme Are you game? The media strategy required mapping the match between the target audience and the net and pushing the logic further mapping the match between the youth and online gaming. And therefore a creative strategy to exploit games/contest based on partying was arrived at.

FCB Ulka Interactive has devised the campaign strategy. The ad agency helped ZOD! to partner with Indiatimes, the country's premiere youth portal to launch its club wear which. It was the first time that Zodiac launched a brand by allying with an online entity to create adequate mind share, both online and offline for its clientele.

Zodiac business head, ZOD!, Imraan Surve was quoted as saying: " The target audience for ZOD! consumes a lot of computer time. In fact we believe them to be heavy users of the net. In addition the net allows you to actually fine tune and target your communication based on age; SEC and even gender."

"Moreover the cost efficiencies are unbeatable The return on the advertising rupee is great. The web / net is very effective if used sensibly and cautiously. We started in a small way, checked the response and then one thing led to another It will be our endeavor to provide our customers with wider range to choose from. For success, I feel it is imperative not only to have a quality product but also the right kind of marketing strategy. ”

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, FCB-Ulka senior consultant-Interactive division N Ram said that while it is difficult to give a figure in terms of the number of companies using the net in a major way to advertise their product there has been a 100 per cent increase over the last year.

Ram adds: "Companies like UTI, Tata Indica have become more receptive to the concept of hooking the computer user. However since the internet penetration is low in the country mass brands like Pepsi, LG, Samsung are very selective in their usage of the medium. Brands like mobile phones which believe that they can make an immediate connection with the audience through the net will go through this route. However in the near future I do not see ad budgets shifting from the television onto the internet. Radio since it is still new was never a big medium for us."

The micro-site http://zod.indiatimes.com depicts the flavour and attitude of ZOD! The portal hosted an interactive contest for users apart from showcasing the shirts on the site, which got an overwhelming response of over 2,000 contest entries. The micro-site covered all nuances related to dating, partying, fashion, dressing and gave netizens a chance to win prizes.

On Yahoo! the contest that revolved around rating the fashion quotient online was targetted at the male, 25+, SEC A, top 10 metros on Rediff the company did targetted e-mail shots using demographic filters to promote special offers and viral based activities. Through various online initiatives ZOD! claims to have captured a database of 30,000 email ids.