<b>Campaign logic:</b> The trendsetter and the therapy master

A new campaign hopes to link the two platforms of AskMe.com and AskmeBazaar.com with one another, offering the consumer a seamless research-and-buy experience

Brand: AskMe.com, AskmeBazaar.com
Agency: JWT
Budget: Rs 20-25cr

Getit Infomedia, which owns consumer query platform www.askme.com and the online marketplace www.askmebazaar.com, has launched a new campaign that looks to assume an aspiration high ground for its two offerings. There are two sets of ads featuring actors Ranbir Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar that promote AskMe and AskmeBazaar as the go-to places for all consumer queries and hassle-free shopping, respectively. The idea is to convey the key brand attributes of convenience, assortment and ease of use.

The AskMe campaign consists of three television campaigns depicting a misguided Kapoor in multiple avatars, where he is seen making terrible choices on restaurants, fashion and entertainment hotspots. His friends and family intervene to save him and themselves from the plight of his ghastly choices and implore him not to reach out to wrong people for the latest trends; instead seek information from the bapp of all trends, the AskMe app.

AskMe, with Kapoor as its brand ambassador, had launched its first campaign in 2013-14, positioning the brand as baap of all apps. So, what is new in the latest campaign that pitches the brand as the baap of all trends?

According to Manav Sethi, group chief marketing officer, AskMe, "With the last campaign, AskMe had taken the position of baap of all apps because that was the first time you had an app that brought search, classified, delivery and e-commerce services on a single platform. This year, we have moved the needle upwards for the brand by saying that AskMe is baap of all trends."

Sethi claims that search has moved from pure-play content discovery to a place for aggregated opinion. For AskMe's target group, which comprises people in the 15 to 34-year age group, the constant dilemmas are what to eat, what to wear and where to go. "Trends are the guiding force in our lives. Therefore, in the campaign, Kapoor says do not trust or seek information from the wrong sources; if you are looking for trends come to AskMe."

The campaign has been conceptualised by J Walter Thompson (JWT). According to industry estimates, the total cost of the campaign is Rs 20-25 crore.

Providing insights into the creative thought behind the campaign, Sanjeev Bhargava, managing director, JWT Delhi, says, "We conceptualised the new campaign on the unique idea of an 'intervention'. An intervention is an established concept in the West and has been used extensively in American TV shows such as Friends and How I met Your Mother, where friends and loved ones intervene to set their misguided friends on the right path."

The commercials featuring Akhtar, who is the face of askmebazaar.com, shows the actor-director talking about stress and its side effects. Akhtar goes on to introduce a new therapy that can help address stress-related issues. The commercial concludes with Akhtar flashing a mobile phone with 'askmebazaar.com' running on it.

He introduces askmebazaar.com as the 'one-click therapy' and says, stress mein don't go bizarre, shop on AskmeBazaar.

  Getit Infomedia is banking on the star power of Kapoor and Akhtar to increase the number of searches, drive brand recall and consumer engagement and increase transactions for its two brands. Sethi claims that the campaign has led to a significant uptake and recall for one-click therapy. Within 30 days of the launch of the campaign, askmebazaar.com witnessed a 150 per cent uptake in sales. At present, AskmeBazaar is clocking a million orders a month; it has 750,000 stock keeping units and about 65,000 merchants on its store fronts online.

With two brands being highlighted concurrently, is there a risk that the consumer will get confused and may not be able to tell one from the other? Sethi doesn't agree with the assessment. He asserts the issue would be addressed by the use of multiple celebrities that help establish the distinct positions of the two different brands.

Competition from search giant Google, e-commerce platform Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and from the classified marketplace represented by players such as Olx or Quikr notwithstanding, Sethi says there is a strong business case for promoting AskMe and AskmeBazaar as two distinct properties.

According to Sethi, AskMe is synonymous with a one-stop information destination for small and medium enterprise discovery, deals and classifieds. At the same time, when a consumer comes looking for a particular product on AskMe and then wishes to buy it, AskmeBazaar can come into the picture. To that extent its offerings tie in perfectly with one another, giving the consumer a seamless research-and-buy experience.