About Gaadi.com
About Gaadi.comGaadi.com came into picture in 2008, when Umang Kumar while working in Ananda Bazaar Patrika(ABP) group realized the need for online car classifications, which existed in developed nations for a long time but were non existent in India. He came to a conclusion that a lot can be done in this space and that’s how the idea seed was sown. The site began as a content site for auto lovers, where buyers can look forward to real usable auto experience before making a purchase and within six months introduced car classifications into the business.
Gaadi.com’s Business Objectives
Gaadi.com had a huge number of fans on Facebook, approximately six lakh but the engagement levels were quite low. It’s organic reach was negligible. On Twitter, the visibility of the brand among the audience was modest.
Approach Adopted by Gaadi.com
Facebook: Facebook audience was studied and analyzed and divided into categories such as males, decision makers of car purchasing and people who like going out on their vehicles. As people were not interested in Gaadi.com’s Facebook page, a strategy to instantly garner eyeballs was inculcated and what better than Bollywood in India. Thus, a mixture of Gaadi.com and Bollywood called Gaadiwood was introduced wherein famous movie posters were taken and ‘Heros’ were replaced with cars and scooters.To give an example, the poster of Salman Khan starer Kick was completely transformed to include a scooter, which is daily kicked by its rider; and Shah Rukh Khan starer Om Shanti Om was used in background to show the reincarnation of a car from old to new. These innovative posters as were expected became the first push of engagement from the audience. Genuine auto lovers got attracted and entered the scene. Conversations started picking up.
Twitter: Twitter campaign was designed to engage with users on the platform using themes that go well with Gaadi.com’s reputation as well as with its audience. Thus, it came up with #MeriPehliGaadi for a simple reason that everyone have some memories with buying their first car and hence, sought to explore this emotional area with its users. Conversations were sought here again with questions like:
- When you get your first car, you also get_______________. Complete the sentence.
- What was your reaction when you saw the first scratch on your pehli gaadi?
- You are hell bent on getting your first car. What excuses did you make or will make for your pehali gaadi?
Some of the witty responses were made into posters and shared on Gaadi.com’s social platforms. A YouTube video was created to encourage people to share their paheli gaadi experience.
#Gaddishutterbug: “Cars and cameras are the two things I let myself materialist about, I don’t care about other stuff” a famous quote by Hollywood comedian was the basis of this contest. People who are passionate about clicking photographs of their most loved four wheels were encouraged to share their photographs, which otherwise would remain within their hard drives. Selected photographs were shared with all Facebook fans.
Results Achieved by Gaadi.com
- Comments on Gaadi.com’s Facebook posts witnessed an increase of 600% approximately in July- Sept, 2014 as compared to data from April- June, 2014.
- Organic reach of posts saw an increase of 400% approximately in July-Sept, 2014 as compared to data from April-June, 2014.
- On Twitter, Gaadi.com gathered a humongous 87.80.913 impacts and a reach of more than 500,242 along with 7190 tweets with an average of 14.81 tweets per contributor.
- With the #Gaadishutterbug contest, Gaadi.com earned 230 entries within a month, some of which were shared with six lakh plus fans on Facebook.
Learning
Gaadi.com already had six lakh plus likes on Facebook page when the campaigns were introduced. But the real problem was lack of engagement with target audience. Now, what is important to understand is why is engagement needed with audience in the first place. These days plethora of social networks, blogs, offline activities are out there in the market. An individual is thus, far bombarded with information. After all, we all are living in information age unlike our previous generations and therefore, what is important is to be on the top of the mind of target customers at the point of their purchase, which is the sole purpose of the whole exercise.
Another objective which is implicit in these campaigns is to get the customer accustomed to the Gaadi.com experience and to keep checking on Gaadi.com about vehicles a natural habit to its users. For achieving such a relationship with its customers, it needed conversations and engagement with them. You constantly water the relationship with care and trust. This very same logic applies in online world as well, simply for the fact that we are after all dealing with humans and its just that, the space is different. So, we have campaigns where companies like Gaadi.com ask people to share their first experience of buying a car, the emotions attached to it, and what happens when it gets its first scratch in the bustling city, etc.
Even some auto enthusiasts are into the habit of clicking their favorite cars. The campaign brought out the inner feelings of all auto lovers and gave the platform to express themselves and therefore, was an instant hit with them. Another point to take note of it is that people on social media are there to share their experiences, advise, interact and so any platform that gives them this opportunity in a constructive manner is highly valued. The conversation campaigns are successful because of its innovative approach, creative mindset and above all originality.
