VirginMobile Spoofs Indian Premiere League (IPL) To Indian Hatke League (IHL)
April 23, 2009 | Sidharth
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.
Virgin Mobile launches Indian Hatke League: India Infoline, 15 April 2009
April 16, 2009 | Sidharth
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.
Webchutney launches mobile arm, Culture Mafia: Exchange4Media, March 18 ‘09
March 17, 2009 | Sidharth
Webchutney has recently launched its mobile division called Culture Mafia. Culture Mafia is a full service independent mobile agency, which will integrate mobile marketing, advertising, and mobile Internet development supported with in-house media and technology capabilities.
With 300 million unique mobile phone users, the opportunity seems to be twice as large theoretically when compared to the television households in India. But ironically, the size of the pie for mobile advertising industry seems to be less than Rs 30 crore.
“We don’t think it’s only a function of the medium, being in early days, we do believe it has not been harnessed well enough. The medium is personal, immediate and addictive – within arms reach 80 per cent of the time in a day. For the advertiser, it is a direct marketing tool, which is localisable and interactive at a one-to-one level, thus creating unique and inimitable brand impact. And with 3G services expected to launch soon, ‘wireless web’ will offer ubiquity like never before,” said Sidharth Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Webchutney.
Culture Mafia aims to be an evangelist of a spiralling opportunity, offering to take the brand experience to a whole new level. The company is closely working with existing customers like Airtel, HP, Eristoff (Bacardi Martini India), among others, while building new prospects. Operations will ensue from offices spread across three locations – Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Culture Mafia will continue to make investments in the category, adding new people, services and partnerships that enhance the efficacy of the medium for its clients.
Webchutney launches mobile marketing arm: Domain-b, March 2, 2009
March 3, 2009 | Sidharth
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.
Thoughts on Digital Marketing Industry in India: Sampad Swain (sampadswain.com) March 3, 2009
March 3, 2009 | Sidharth
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.
Mobile Agencies- High Hopes in India: Mobile Marketing Watch, March 3, 2009
March 3, 2009 | Sidharth
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.
Webchutney ventures into mobile marketing: Afaqs, 2 March 2009
March 2, 2009 | Sidharth
The interactive agency, Webchutney has launched its mobile marketing arm, named Culture Mafia.
With the launch of Culture Mafia, the 10-year-old agency has stepped into the mobile advertising market, which is worth Rs 50 crore and is expected to reach Rs 100 crore by 2010-2011. There are more than 350 million mobile subscribers in India.
Speaking to afaqs! Sidharth Rao, chief executive officer, Webchutney, mentions, “We are expecting that 20 per cent of our total revenue will come from the mobile marketing arm in 2009-2010.”
Rao says, “We want to offer most of the mobile marketing solutions, ranging from advertising to marketing to mobile internet sites development. We are capable of carrying out both branding and lead-generation based campaigns and managing the mobile media planning and buying function for our clients.”
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. For 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 agency is also scouting for partners, who can help to enhance its mobile marketing offerings to its clients. “We are looking to partner with firms which deal with Bluetooth marketing, mobile analytics and voice advertising,” says Rao. It will also tie up with leading mobile ad networks in India to serve mobile ads.
Capital 18, the private equity arm of Network 18, had invested in Webchutney in 2007.
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