Xiaomi is a mobile internet company dedicated to creating an all aspect user experience. Founded in 2010, the company has fast become one of the leading tech firms in China. The company is currently valuated at over 10 billion USD; it is the world’s 3rd largest Smartphone distributor and has over 3000 employees.
Xiaomi’s main portfolio of products includes:
- Xiaomi Phones: High quality and performance Android devices.
- MIUI ROM: Highly customizable ROM that can be flashed across multiple Android devices.
- MiTalk: Excellent messaging application.
- MiBox: A smart set-top box enriches the TV experience.
This case study speaks about the social media campaigns used by “Xiaomi Mi India” which were designed for the promotions of their newly launched Smartphones in India. The brand made heavy use of networking sites like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. to gain attention of the audiences in India.
Objectives of the Campaign:
The social media campaign for the Mi Smartphones by the brand Xiaomi had following objectives:
- To promote their newly launched Smartphones like Mi3, Mi4, Redmi,Mi Pads, etc.
- To create a buzz in the market and engage the audience with the brand.
- To create/maintain the rapport with the brand; retain their customers and recruit new users for the Smartphones.
Strategies Used in the Campaign:
#MiIndia– A Social Media Campaign through Twitter by Mi India
With an objective of recruiting new buyers for Mi 3 (the newly launched Smartphone by Mi India in July 2014), the brand connected with people on Twitter using the hashtag #MiIndia. Users were asked to show their interest for the Smartphone and register themselves on the official website. One lucky winner would win a power bank from Mi India.
Keep the retweets coming in, the contest is still ongoing! #MiIndia
— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) July 15, 2014
Mi 3 for Rs13999, register now to buy – http://t.co/PfimEc2jUG RT & WIN Mi Power Bank, 1 lucky winner! #MiIndia
— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) July 15, 2014
#GuessTheCup – A Social Media Campaign through Facebook by Mi India
For the promotions of the Mi Bands, the brand connected with people across Facebook with a contest. The users were asked to guess the cup under which the band was present in a video uploaded. The lucky winners would get a chance to win bands from Mi India.
#CricketWithMi– A Social Media Campaign through Twitter by Mi India
For the promotions of the Mi4i Smartphone of the brand, Mi India connected with people on Twitter using the hashtag #CricketWthMi during the IPL cricket season. The users were asked to answer simple questions around the brand and cricket. To qualify for the contest, one was supposed to re tweet the post and follow the brand on Twitter. One lucky winner would win a brand new Mi4i.
Congrats @Official_Max11 @satheesh143 @ImKrish35 @ImAbhishekIyer @KhiladiVishal, Surprise gift winners of #CricketWithMi! You win a #MiBand!
— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) May 25, 2015
#CricketWithMi What tagline would you give #Mi4i? Come up with the most creative tagline!
— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) May 23, 2015
Redmi Note– A Social Media Campaign through Twitter by Mi India
To promote Redmi Note Smartphone, Mi India connected with people on Twitter and convinced them to participate in the contest. The users were asked to follow the brand and re-tweet the official launch tweet for Redmi Note. 10 lucky winners would win priority passes for the grand launch of the Smartphone.
https://twitter.com/MiIndiaOfficial/status/540888386605555712/photo/1
We are giving out 10 priority passes. RT our previous tweet, then tweet us why you want to buy your Redmi Note! Contest till end of Dec 5 =)
— Xiaomi India (@XiaomiIndia) December 4, 2014
Results Achieved:
The results of all the social media campaigns were:
- People engaged with the brand and participated in huge numbers as a consequence the brand was able to accomplish following things within a year’s time.
Twitter:
- A total of 33.2K followers were garnered on this social platform.
- Tweets per day chart from 3rd June 2015 to 3rd July 2015 which speaks about how much the people are engaged with the brand on daily basis.
Facebook:
- Facebook page – 405K likes and counting; 74k people talking about this brand.
- Average views of 2.5K on every video being posted on Facebook.
- Nearly 10 million Facebook users reached till date.
YouTube:
- A total of 19,976 subscribers & 2,116,327 viewers on their official YouTube channel.
Learnings:
Overall, the strategies used by Xiaomi Mi Smartphones have worked big time. The huge buzz generated on social media through the various campaigns has helped the brand build its image to a greater level in Indian market. Despite competing with the brands like Samsung, Micromax & Sony (who are well established in the Indian market), Xiaomi were able to capture their target audience by selling 1 million Smartphones in just a year, which is a phenomenal achievement.
Image Credits: Topsy
