Recently, IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) the premier management Education in India dedicated a session to Kolaveri Di as part of its course on Contemporary Film Industry: a business perspective. The IIMs have been treating the popular song “Kolaveri Di” as a classic example of viral marketing. ‘Kolaveri di’, which has become a rage online, attracting fans like Amitabh Bachchan. ‘Kolaveri’ appeared as the number one Indian trend on Twitter on November 21, It has already become a craze on internet with over 14 lakh views on YouTube. (The visual shows Dhanush , the son-in-law of superstar Rajinikanth, composer Anirudh Ravichander, director Aishwarya R Dhanush and co-star Shruti Hassan). Most IIMs have screened the song in class to discuss how the same strategy can be used by companies to leverage their marketing activities. Students have also carried out case studies on “Kolaveri Di.”
Some of the statistics quoted in the story say that any time, 16 million Indians — the entire population of Malaysia — are sitting in movie theatre and watching film. And that the growth rate of Indian entertainment sector is seen at 14 per cent annually.
Vital statistics about the Viral, Why this Kolaveri Di:
# Trending on Twitter with #Kolaveri
# Over2.5 million views on YouTube
# 1000s of posts shared and posted on Facebook
# More than 500 news articles written
#India’s most downloaded song on mobile phones (2,10,000downloads)
Let’s go VIRAL : (At least, after being part of IndiaSocial recently).
The term “viral marketing” has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth Marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing online combined with under market advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
My thoughts on this trend from the management perspective and also on how the concept of viral marketing is going to make a difference to the entertainment segment.
Use of Viral Marketing :
Viral marketing merits certainly merits inclusion as a valid marketing option, but doesn’t yet quite merit the power that is being accorded to it. Valid because it take place (primarily) on the net, and the net is where the world is at, so to speak. So how viral can you be in India, where more than 80% of the population is NOT connected to the net? So what is the reach and power of viral marketing if the entire marketable universe is just 20% of the entire population. Besides, viral in the purist sense is viral when it is not induced, and ‘marketing’ brings in the element of inducement. But there is enough reason to believe that a planned marketing effort, with going viral as a key part of the DNA of that marketing exercise, works …. depending on the metrics that you wish to be submitted to. Metrics per se is strangely one more thing that augurs well for marketing because here a lot more verifiable metrics are called into play: ‘number of views’, ‘number of hits’, number of clicks are all countable numbers. That in itself provides marketers with a lot more comfort space. So viral is here to stay and as the net penetrates deeper into the population there will be by default much more viral marketing.
Now the Million Dollar Question : Why, Why this Kolaveri Di turn out to be such a great hit ?? You want to see the Kolaveri Di again,( click the link), but ensure you share your thoughts.
