A well-timed voucher or coupon can sway the toughest cookie on earth… err heaven, according to a new campaign from daily deal website Snapdeal.
Daily deal websites are mushrooming in India with international players entering the fray with high hopes. With 100 million internet users in India, there is a lot of opportunity for any e-retailer. However, many of the daily deal sites have seen a drop in traffic in recent months. According to data available with Vizisense, Snapdeal saw a drop of 46 per cent in unique user traffic to 5.2 million in October 2011. A leader among daily deal sites, Snapdeal has decided to solve the problem with a wacky advertising campaign.
“We wanted a campaign which would talk about the products and services on offer and then talk about the functional benefits. It is not about creating awareness any more. It was more about telling consumers all that they can enjoy by being on Snapdeal,” points out Sandeep Komaravelly, head, marketing and alliances, Snapdeal.com. Snapdeal CEO, Kunal Bahl, feels that it was the temporary halt in all marketing activities during that period that led to the slowdown in traffic.
The brief given to its advertising agency, Draft FCBUlka, was simply to create a fun campaign while concentrating on the experiences one can expect on the site. The final campaign centres at Yum-Dude (playing on the idea of Yamaduta, a messenger of Yama, who conducts the spirits of the dead to Yama’s judgment-seat) who is out to bring his latest prey to hell. The man he identifies is one who is struggling to open his parachute while sky-diving. The potential victim doesn't want to waste some coupons he’s presumably picked up from Snapdeal. Yum-dude snaps them up, clearly forgetting what he was there for in the first place.
The follow-on campaigns are extensions of the first, focusing on the other attributes on offer — such as the ease of payment, the possibility of searching for nearby deals etc. The series always ends with the catchline, “You only live once.”
“The concept of Yamaduta comes from Indian mythology. We added a twist to it and came up with Yum-Dude. The campaign talks about how he enjoys the products and experiences provided by Snapdeal while on his visit to earth. It points out that not just ordinary mortals, but even Gods cannot resist great deals,” feels Shiveshwar Singh, creative director, Draft FCBUlka.
Snapdeal lets consumers purchase vouchers for a token amount against the products or experiences listed on the site. Till a minimum number of consumers purchase the vouchers, the deal does not go live. Once the deal is live each consumer receives a voucher which they can show at the shop, restaurant or movie theatre and enjoy the experience. The campaign has also been taken to the print medium, mobile hoardings and radio.
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Indeed, e-tailing companies have always played a big role in converting surfers to shoppers. The Indian e-commerce market is set to cross the Rs 46,000-crore mark at a 47 per cent growth rate in 2011, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, e-tailing or online retailing comes only second after online travel, with an 8 per cent market share (Rs 1,550 crore). Snapdeal was incidentally the first daily deal site to campaign aggressively on television and print after it launched in February 2010. The first set of TVCs focused on creating awareness about group buying sites with the protagonist enjoying an entire day with vouchers bought from Snapdeal. According to company estimates, by September 2010 the site was selling one voucher a minute. It is now the market leader in the daily deals category with a share of 70 per cent in the deals segment.
Snapdeal, which started by offering vouchers only for experiences such as dining and spas, diversified into travel deals in 2011. A few months back it decided to cash in on the festive season with the inclusion of products like cameras, mobile phones and apparel. Komaravelly hopes that the campaign will play out the benefits of Snapdeal against other daily deal sites such as Mydala, Koovs and Dealsandyou, not to mention the big daddies in the game such as Groupon (through its Indian arm, Sosasta) and Ebay.
Entering the product market also meant that it was competition not just with deal sites but also shopping cart websites such as Yebhi, flipkart.com. Both sites surpassed the traffic growth of Snapdeal in October with an increase of 55 and 67 per cent, respectively, thanks in part to their popular television campaigns.
But Snapdeal is hopeful thanks to some of its special features. The site’s unique ‘deals near me’ button lets one look out for deals in a particular area. With over 3,000 towns and cities Snapdeal ships products to, there are many options to chose from for any consumer. Snapdeal has expanded from just the metros to tier two and tier three cities and towns. The site has also launched a-Rs 0 deal where visitors can just book a deal without paying. Around 40 winners chosen by lucky draw will get to enjoy the deal free of cost. Free deals so far have included home theatre systems, designer perfumes, Sony Play Station 3 and LCD televisions among others.
With a million unique visitors to the site per day, Snapdeal hopes to cross the Rs 150- crore revenue target this financial year. Komaravelly adds that the campaign will gain traction only after the month ends by which time the television commercial would have been on air for a month.