BY SUBRATA PAL
Head of Domestic Business, Welspun Group
Growing up, I wasn’t exposed to so many special days. We had an anniversary, a birthday and the rare yet boisterous festivals that we celebrated. Since they were fewer, they were also larger than life in their own simple ways. We did more together than apart. Quality time was spent in person and not exactly on social media. But then again, back then, our definition of meaningful was a lot different than what it is today. In 2016, India has grown to embrace special days like Women’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Siblings Day and so many more! There are a lot more things to celebrate today, there are a lot many people to celebrate today and a lot many more ways to celebrate too! The gifting industry is at an all-time high and their offerings are tempting enough to convert a person who may have sworn not to succumb to the pressure of the ‘days’. That’s today and no, I’m not complaining. This is just the reality of the era we live in.
Recently, India celebrated Mother’s Day and every time I saw a message on social media, I was touched and every time a photo popped up on my feed, it struck an emotional chord with me. There is no part of Mother’s Day or any other day, for that matter, that I don’t enjoy and it’s great to see social media abuzz with so many wonderful thoughts on such days!
Well, there is no bound to the selfless love of the mother and in today’s competitive world marketers left no stone unturned to connect with their target audience in order to evoke their emotions on social media platforms. It was that time of the year when you see everyone on your timeline posting pictures with their mothers, celebrating that one person responsible for their existence.
While we all witnessed some of the finest brands going overboard with their marketing budget in launching an app, there were some playing the sentimental card embracing motherhood in the form of well-directed videos. For sure, it did shore up the fan base of these brands while winning our hearts! At SPACES Home & Beyond, we subtly led the Twitter bandwagon and it was successful in hitting the right chord with the consumer not once but twice in a very short span of time. Tasting success after celebrating Women’s Day, the brand trended on Mother’s Day for six hours.
Keeping it simple with #MakeHerSpace, the brand’s idea was to invite digital natives across India to salute their mothers for their unconditional love and care. The contest called out to people to send their favourite picture with their mothers and stand a chance to win a hamper. It was that simple, and yet that profound. With more than 1,600 entries, the brand nailed 77.2 million impressions and led over 8,000 conversations over two days, trending for more than 12 hours throughout the contest.
According to our analysis, the contest received 1.9% engagement rate on Twitter. The contest was run for two days and received 1.1K likes, 1.6K replies and 666 retweets. #MakeHerSpace was trending across the country including cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jaipur, Nagpur, Patna, Surat and Bhopal. On Facebook, the contest received more than 200 entries, 37,262 likes, comments & shares with a reach of nearly half a million.
Well, someone sure did enjoy Mother’s Day 2016!
@ FEEDBACK
subrata_pal@welspun.com
