Case Study: Reliance Mobile Ego Search

Wins Gold in 2012 EMVIES in "Best Media Innovation – Digital Social Media", GOLD in 2012 Indian Digital Media Awards
Leading up to the New Year, Reliance Mobile wanted to engage with their social media followers (Twitter/Facebook). With the hordes of New Year wishes the followers would anyway receive, how can a brand break out of this clutter? Read on for the insight-fuelled award-winning idea.

The situation analysis

Greeting methods like direct mailers, e-mailers, text messages, cards, etc. are passé and usually end up in the trash – either physical or digital. We wanted our New Year message to be unique and attention-grabbing.

Today, the Internet has something on everybody who’s socially active online. Their social media presence is turning people into mini online-celebrities. This is validated by the very strong correlation between social media activity and organic search results. Admit it or not, all of us have searched for our names on Google.

Welcome to the phenomenon of social narcissism. Welcome to ego searching. 

The media solution

Our communication strategy was simple. Leading up to New Year’s Day, we used ego-searching as a device to pleasantly surprise Reliance’s social media followers. We thought of using technology in a personalized way and thus, bringing smile to our social followers.

We bid for our social followers’ names as keywords and created a Google search campaign. These followers were asked (via Twitter & Facebook) to Google their name for a pleasant surprise. On doing so, followers saw a personalized Google ad wishing them a happy new year. This ad then led them to a personalized landing page with Anushka Sharma wishing them Happy New Year.

The scale of execution

We used Social media and Search as a winning combination to give this idea a new dimension. The followers shared this greeting on their social networks and made it viral.  As a result,  we continuously added names to our search campaign as our follower base kept increasing due to the powerful viral effect of the campaign. Considering the seasonal timing of the campaign, there was significant earned media with “#RelianceMobile” becoming a trending topic on Twitter in India.

How did the innovation deliver the goal?

More than 7000 users saw and interacted with the personalized ads with their name on Google

Reliance’s Twitter account added over 300 followers in a week (up by 3000% over the previous week)

“#RelianceMobile” became a trending topic on Twitter in India

What makes the innovation differentiated and unique?

Brands invest big monies in customer loyalty and to keep their marketing communication as personalized and intimate as possible. This activity was done with an investment of less than INR 200000.