Date: Launched on 15th May 2009 Brand: Maruti Suzuki GOAL
- To make the launch of RITZ 360 degree digital by making information available to the user no matter where they were.
- To promote Test Drive.

MECHANICS
www.marutisuzukiritz.com WAP site was developed with oracle 8i database.

Key features: - Downloads: This section has Mobile wallpapers and Ringtones.
Models and Pricing: Enables the user to know the Models available in a particular city and its price.
Colors: Color range available.
Dealer Locator: Enables the user to know the dealers in their city.
Contact Us: For a free test drive.

MECHANICS
www.marutisuzukiritz.com WAP site was developed with oracle 8i database.

Key features: - Downloads: This section has Mobile wallpapers and Ringtones.
Models and Pricing: Enables the user to know the Models available in a particular city and its price.
Colors: Color range available.
Dealer Locator: Enables the user to know the dealers in their city.
Contact Us: For a free test drive.

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Date: Launched on 18th April 2009 Brand: Kings XI Punjab (IPL team) GOAL
Mobile site to allow fans to access the site, no matter where they were.

MECHANICS
www.kxip.in WAP site is WAP 2.0 compliant & is compatible with almost all mobile phones capable of accessing the Internet.

Key features: - Downloads: This section has Mobile wallpapers, Videos, Ringtones, Anthem and a Book Cricket Game which enables the user to play for the highest score among their friends and choose which KXIP player they want to pose as.
Themes: BlackBerry users have a KXIP theme to download for free.
News: Fans got the latest team news and updates.
Register for alerts: Regular email updates on new features on the site + contest reminders.
Order / Purchase Merchandise: Mobile site has a tie up with mobile eBay, giving fans the opportunity to buy King’s XI Punjab merchandise directly through their mobile phones.
KXIP Fan Club: A portable portal for the fans allowing them to connect with their favourite team, from wherever they were.

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Royal Chill Maadis Bangalore v Chennai Super Muthus is actually a very tempting name to make anyone check out how the spoof might have panned out. Of course, no particular introduction maybe needed on what the spoof is about though. The news that’s been passed around a few times now is Virgin Mobile’s caricature of the Indian Premier League with its Indian Hatke League. The website offers a wide range of interactive content and is primarily banking on a online fantasy cricket game for engagemen - which in fact is the IHL.

The Indian Hatke League

As expected the game is all about playing as any of the 8 participating teams in the IPL, of course with IHL’s own brand of hatke names. However, unlike other online games, IHL follows a tournament strcuture scheduled on the same lines as the IPL and a winner among the participants will be announced right at the end of the league. The prizes includes virgin mobile handsets, Hyundai i10 and Sony PSPs (maybe I should have written them in another order). India server reports that Virgin was in fact planning on sponsoring the Delhi Daredevils team in fact before pulling out of it because the venue shifted to South Africa.

Another interesting factor in my opinion is the level of experiences that happens on the site. There is a daily hatke news, there is a gaszone and many other interactive zones on the website besides the game. And the site is filled with cliche but yet interesting cricket characters. Take Ziddu for instance. The wallpapers, the screensavers (like the slap Sreesanth screensaver) all do add a lot of value to the site. The site has been developed by Culture Mafia and it defintiely bears a lot of Web Chutney trademarks. The product essentially is good.

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This online destination will engage Indian youth with its masala mix of cricket and excitement as well as a bunch of incentives including a Hyundai i20 for the Man of the Series! Indian Hatke League is scheduled to go live on April 17th, 2009 with the finals on May 24th, 2009. A total of eight teams with 11 players each will play 20 over matches in this day and night tournament.

Distinctly Virgin Mobile, even the teams have been impishly christened - Deccan ChilliEaters, Kolkata Tram Riders, Chennai Super Muthus, Kakke’s XI Punjab, Mumbai Manoos, Delhi Dhinchaks, Rajasthan Muchhads and Royal ChillMaadis Bangalore! The website is peppered with characters modeled on famous cricket personalities and youth icons. Ziddu with his wise cracks and Inzoo with his guru gyaan certainly add to the colour of this online cricket experience.

The distinct Virgin Mobile flavor can also be seen in the Indian Hatke League’s Team players such as Sachim Martodkar, Veeru Suhag, Mike Lassi, Hari Bhajji, Lakshmipatni Maalaji and Handdraw Shallowman. The spirit of the Indian Hatke League has also been captured in the design of the logo - a naughty ball knocking out the stumps!

They need to register themselves under a team of their choice, play the tournament representing that particular team, score individually and for the team during the game play. They can play as many times as they want and submit their best score for each match individually in the stipulated time for the game play. 

The users also have the option to practice anytime, choose the team they want to practice against to improve chances of winning during the scheduled matches on the indianhatkeleague.com. If the user’s team loses a match and does not qualify for next match, the user’s scores will still be retained. To continue playing, the user has to sign up for another team and play and the score history is carried forward.  

To spice it up there are lots of attractive prizes worth Rs. 10 Lakh to be won such as Man of the Series, Most obsessed User, Top 10 fastest Sixes, Sixer of the Series and a daily prize for Man of the Match. At the end of the series there are grand prizes to be won including a Hyundai i20. There are also points for recommending a friend to the website that can be redeemed against Virgin Mobile connections and exciting merchandize. Players on the website get special Online Retail offers on products purchased from Virgin Mobile India website.    

Commenting on the announcement of this innovative take on cricket, Mr. M A Madhusudan, CEO, Virgin Mobile India said, “The Indian Hatke League is all about interacting with the Indian youth and giving them a taste of some stimulating entertainment and sense of being part of a cricketing phenomenon in a HATKE way. For the Hatke champions, Virgin Mobile has some exciting prizes such as a Hyundai i20, Sony PSP and Virgin Mobile phones.”

Visitors to the website can also download exciting Indian Hatke League wallpapers, and interactive game based screen savers for free. The promotion of Indian Hatke League is also being done in a Hatke manner. Besides the offbeat marketing and advertising campaigns, community and fan pages will be created on social networking sites for the Indian Hatke League. These will individually include eight teams, their promoters along with 50 key team players’ profile and fan pages on popular social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook and more. You can also catch up with  Zidoo and Inzoo these portals.

The website has been designed and executed by Culture Mafia for Virgin Mobile.

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For anyone who was wondering whether this ‘full service mobile agency’ with the fancy, metaphysical name would find its feet in the big bad world of mobile marketing, may now rest their concerns. For, not only has this fledgling agency managed to attract significant interest from the industry (no wonder the meeting room on the ground floor has Swati as its permanent tenant), it has also managed to polish off significant deals with considerable elan.

One significant feather in its green cap is the recent sms campaign that we conducted on behalf of Eristoff vodka, a new launch from Bacardi. The sms targeted a pre-defined target audience in Chandigarh to arouse their interest for an event that would launch Eristoff vodka. The TA was sent an sms which asked them to download a video for which a WAP link was provided. After all the slick naach and gaana, the video ended with another link that allowed the person to register on the WAP site.

Out of all the people who registered with the WAP site, a small number of ‘lucky’ winners were chosen and were given free passes to the Eristoff event. The activity proved to be a resounding success as Swati, Director Ops and the main driving force behind the campaign received salutary calls from the client.

So, please do check out the video that has been uploaded here for your benefit and keep tuning in to this neck of the woods to learn more about Culturemafia’s little achievements.

For now, lick your lips knowing that we have also managed to bag Reebok’s mobile aspirations dring the IPL season. So, if you’re interested and would like to know more please feel free to saunter to the first floor and find Swati enthusiastically smiling her way to more such lucrative deals just beyond the partition that houses the Airtel team.

Cheers, for now.

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Emerging markets drive mobile communication.

Worldwide communication in the future will be done through mobile devices.

According to TNS Global, 74% of the world’s digital messages were sent through a mobile device in January 2009, a 15% increase over the previous year.

In emerging markets, the trend is even more dramatic; nine out of 10 messages are sent via mobile.

Some of the growth can be attributed to mobile instant messaging. Thirteen percent of all mobile subscribers used the feature, but 41% of smartphone users did so.

Other increases in mobile usage can be attributed to the abandonment of fixed-line telephones.

“As mobile devices slowly take away usage share from fixed services in developed markets, in emerging markets consumers are more likely to by-pass fixed communications altogether and go straight to mobiles,” said Sam Curtis of TNS.

As for developed countries, the PC e-mail remains the most popular message method, but its use is waning.

In Japan, 40 out of 100 e-mails sent are from a mobile device. In North America, 69% of those using e-mail on their mobile phone use it daily, high compared with 43% worldwide.

The trend will increase, TNS says, as smartphones such as the popular iPhone enter the marketplace and gain share.

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Interactive agency Webchutney has launched its mobile marketing arm, named Culture Mafia. The agency is equipped to develop branded games, applications, themes, wallpapers and ringtones. It will offer SMS, MMS and Bluetooth marketing, M-coupon, as well as opt-in database marketing options to clients.

Webchutney has already roped in Airtel, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Bacardi-Martini and Microsoft Windows Mobile. It is revamping Airtel’s mobile site and will carry out a mobile marketing campaign to build traffic on Airtel’s mobile portal.

In the case of HP, it is carrying out an SMS marketing campaign. It will build a mobile community or a mobile database for Bacardi-Martini, which will be aimed at informing community members about the events and parties hosted by Bacardi-Martini.

The mobile advertising market, which is currently worth Rs50 crore is expected to reach Rs100 crore by 2010-2011. There are more than 350 million mobile subscribers in India.

The agency is also scouting for partners, who can help to enhance its mobile marketing offerings to its clients.

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Early monday morning starts with usual gloom and doom since it’s just the end of yet another weekend and start of another busy week ahead. But few nuggets from Digital Marketing in India gave me smiles early in the morning.

First news came in where McCann’s MRM is going to acquire Indian firms for digital marketing (Afaqs reports).

MRM Worldwide, the digital arm of McCann Worldgroup is in an acquisition mode these days. To augment its interactive marketing capabilities in India, it plans to acquire stakes in small firms involved in digital marketing, including digital design studios, search marketing and mobile marketing entities. Mark Cripps, regional digital director, APAC, McCann Worldgroup, says “Apart from web based creative agencies, we have plans to acquire stakes in search marketing and mobile marketing firms in 2009. We may acquire many small companies instead of acquiring a few big ones”.

In another news, Webchutney ventured into mobile marketing by launching Culture Mafia (interesting name). Though the mobile marketing industry in India is still at its nascent stage with Rs. 50 Crore (i.e. US$ 10 million) relative to its western counterparts but its expected to reach Rs 100 crore (US$ 20 million) by 2010-201 i.e. double the growth in next 2 years.

So lots of movements in digital marketing industry. It wasn’t the case 2 years back but truly it puts a smile on my face seeing all this. Though worldwide, this industry had hit maturity but in India it’s still in the growth phase and I see no reason why it should stop in the near future. Though recession has hit marketing & ad dollars are plunging but surely companies in the thirst for buck-for-buck are slowly & steadily relying on neo medium.

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Webchutney, one of the top digital agencies in India, today announced the launch of its mobile marketing arm Culture Mafia. The firm will be a full service independent mobile agency, which will integrate mobile marketing, advertising, and mobile interest development.

The Indian mobile market’s growth is said to be 60% year over year, according to Manish Vij of Quasar. The market is thriving, even under these harsh economic conditions, adding an approximate 10 million subscribers per month. The latest report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India states that India has a teledensity of 33 percent and 347 million mobile subscribers as of December 2008. The market is expected to expand to 500 million subscribers by 2010.

This, on top of a new report from the UN on how the world’s poor drive growth in global cell use, may explain why Webchutney  and other marketing firms are leaping into the Indian mobile market.

By the end of last year there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said. Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace to 1.27 billion from about 1 billion over the same period.

Also announced today, MRM Worldwide, the digital arm of McCann Worldgroup,plans to acquire stakes in small firms involved in digital marketing, including digital design studios, search marketing and mobile marketing entities to concentrate on its interactive marketing capabilities in India.

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