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Despite the recent slip up by one of its celebrity endorser Sourav Ganguly’s team on social media which ended up prematurely revealing Meesho’s massive campaign, the team is all set to capture user attention this festive season.

The internet commerce company has mounted a massive festive sale campaign much ahead of its competition to capture user attention across Bharat. The celebrity-led campaign features nine celebrities including Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Rohit Sharma, Rashmika Mandanna, Kapil Sharma, Trisha Krishnan, Karthi Sivakumar, Ram Charan and Sourav Ganguly.

<strong>Addressing the faux pas</strong> 

In an exclusive conversation with Storyboard18, Megha Agarwal, CXO User Growth, says that the company is deploying a social media strategy to break festive advertising clutter.

One of the first strategies was to release a Blockbuster poster with celebrities to create intrigue and speculation whether it is a movie or ad campaign which led to conversation and buzz. Of course, until the Sourav Ganguly tweet mishap happened which the company handled in a smart tongue-and-cheek fashion.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When Dada hits, it&#39;s a 6. <br><br>When Dada mishits, it&#39;s still a 6. <a href="https://twitter.com/SGanguly99?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SGanguly99</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MegaBlockbuster?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MegaBlockbuster</a> <a href="https://t.co/JPHtvjpYYm">pic.twitter.com/JPHtvjpYYm</a></p>&mdash; Meesho (@Meesho_Official) <a href="https://twitter.com/Meesho_Official/status/1565703298254241792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I’m not going to reveal whether it was a goof-up or not. I love the conversations that are happening in social media. Our objective was to create a lot of conversations around this campaign and I feel the outcome is exactly where we wanted it to be,” says Agarwal.

<strong>About the campaign</strong> 

Created by advertising agency Sideways, the two television spots announce the annual festive Mega Blockbuster Sale: ‘Saal ke Sabse Kam Daam’ from September 23 to 27. The campaign aims to position Meesho as a local marketplace where users can access a variety of products from across the country. The idea was to create a visual world representing celebrities as sellers of various categories, spreading awareness about the company’s unique value proposition of quality products at lowest prices.

Agarwal says the idea of the campaign came from their mission statement which is to democratise internet commerce both from suppliers and users perspective.

“There are 85 percent of people who consume an assortment (of products) from unbranded or unorganised sectors. That is what Meesho is bringing with a price that users really want. In our campaign, we have tried to bring the local market feel where users can buy the width and depth of the category at the right price point. For suppliers as well, Meesho is getting complete MSME online helping them sell online and that’s also reflected in our campaign. We are using celebrities for the first time in a very unique way as suppliers showcasing the depth and width of the campaign,” she says.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YS_pMC6Khbk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<strong>Going deeper and more regional</strong> 

Meesho plans to leverage regional celebrities to target markets across the country. With a total of 12 films, each master is shot in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and further amplified in other regional languages like Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati. The campaign will be promoted across TV, digital, social, WhatsApp and print platforms.

Agarwal says the intent behind hiring a good mix of national and regional celebrities is to have a pan-India presence.

“We are penetrating deep in the tier II, III and IV towns of India. For that, it is important that while we cover national television or media we also go deep regionally. That’s why we have a good mix of celebrities from Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone to Rashmika, Ram Charan, Trisha and Sourav Ganguly,” she adds.

Meesho, recently strengthened its regional foothold by adding eight new languages on the app - Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia.

With approximately 68 million active product listings across 30 categories, Meesho says that while fashion will remain its mainstay, the company is expecting a strong surge in home & kitchen, furnishings, consumer electronics and accessories during the festive season.

Apart from mass media, there will be a strong influencer marketing leg as well which involves multiple micro and nano influencers who will increase the consideration set of the platform.

Meesho says that it currently has over seven lakh active sellers and it expects seller base to increase by 4X this festive season.

"This will translate into a deeper assortment on the platform. This will also lead to good discounts from these suppliers. We are hoping for a very strong festive season supplied from the inputs from suppliers,” notes Agarwal.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E-S9W5mBe3g" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<strong>Agency Speak</strong> 

On the objective of the campaign, Abhijit Avasthi, Founder, Sideways says that the campaign has been devised to address the key barrier in the adoption of e-commerce by mass India - a sense of distance and 'not-for-me' feeling.

“Hence, the campaign exhibits the feel of a local market. The look, feel, flavour builds affinity and familiarity. I believe using India's biggest celebrities as sellers who welcome customers to Meesho's 'Mega Blockbuster Sale' will help break clutter as it has not been done before, and makes them endearing too,” he says.

Festive season is a massive opportunity for e-commerce players that hinge on aggressive discounts and interesting advertising to capture consumer attention.

In 2021, e-commerce players clocked a gross merchandise value of $9.2 billion, an increase of 23 percent compared to 2020, according to data released by research firm RedSeer.

While Amazon and Flipkart continue to be the big players in the festive sale, more companies such as Meesho, and Tata Cliq are also actively taking a greater part in the sales.


Exclusive: Meesho mounts first massive celebrity-led festive campaign

The marketing spend by esports and gaming companies on IPL 2022 could be to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore. Starting from grand prize pools to star-studded IPL-focused ad campaigns, these new-age companies are making huge strategic investments into the fifteenth edition of the T20 cricket league. These companies expect the marketing spend to push their user base by at least 20-30 percent by the end of the league.

“In terms of pure media (ad) expenditure, the number till now is close to Rs 300 crore and this does not include digital expenditure, on-ground activities, brand ambassadors and a lot more. Add those in and it is a big share of the pie. It is not only significantly higher than last year but the trend looks like it will continue to increase in the foreseeable future,” says Skandaram Vasudevan, partner – strategy, Mudramax.

According to Vasudevan, customer acquisition being the primary goal for all of these companies, it only makes sense to be present on IPL considering the massive reach of the platform.

Most of the marketing blitzkrieg is coming from the fantasy space based entirely on real-life sports matches and users' virtual teams. As per a February 2022 Deloitte report, the Indian fantasy sports industry base alone grew by over 20 lakh users between May 2021v and June 2021, and this growth can be linked to Phase 1 of IPL that year.

With the league almost coming to a close, the online gaming companies are already recording growth in their user base. My11Circle, for instance, has clocked more than 21% gain since the beginning of the IPL this year.

What did they do to drive this growth? They went big on their TV and digital campaigns.

A week before the league took off, the company launched a 14-film ad campaign titled ‘India ka Sabse Bada 1st Prize’ featuring Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad. The campaign went live on Start Sports and Disney+ Hotstar along with digital roll outs on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

[caption id="attachment_1038" align="aligncenter" width="300"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-1038" src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/image-13-300x212.png" alt="Month In Focus" width="300" height="212" /> Month In Focus[/caption]

As per sources, upwards of Rs 50 crore is being spent by My11Circle on IPL this year.

In fact, My11Circle is not an isolated example.

<strong>Category Catch</strong>

Depending on the size of the company and their range of offerings, experts say each company is spending anywhere between Rs 5 crore and Rs 100 crore on IPL-focused marketing.

Coming back to the campaigns, like My11Circle, Dream11 also launched 17 new ad films as a part of what they are calling their largest campaign yet. As an extension to the IPL Campaign, Dream11 has also signed up Kartik Aaryan and Samantha Prabhu to promote an initiative around their mega contest for the start of Tata IPL 2022.

Explaining the celeb push of these campaigns, Vasudevan says that real money games and fantasy games are in that stage of development in the country where they have moved beyond convincing people about the validity of the product. Now, it is mainly about new customer acquisition and retaining existing customers – especially considering the number of players that have popped up on the market during the pandemic.

“The transient nature of the category means that consumers will jump ship to whichever platform that’s offering them the most attractive-seeming rewards. The platforms offering the best rewards will get more users and people will try to maximise their returns. This is also why these platforms are going aggressively after celebrities and influencers – to try to increase the credibility of the platform to get users on-board,” he says.

<strong>A league of their own</strong>

Brands in the category have also planned special modules under their umbrella of offerings for the season with the expectation of driving traffic. MPL launched the Great Indian Gaming League with a total prize pool value of Rs 2000 crore. Under the initiative they designed tournaments across all their offerings such as fantasy, casual games and esports, catering to all kinds of gamers in the country.

“We are expecting more than 7 million players to participate during this tournament and within just a month, we have seen an overwhelming response from users across India. We have not just seen a huge influx of new users who want to try their hand at digital skill games but also an increase in the number of games played by existing users,” says Manish Shrivastava, VP - Marketing, MPL.

While Shrivastava was unwilling to share details on their exact spends around IPL he mentioned a significant scale up in the company’s marketing outlay over last year.

The story of growth in the online gaming category during IPL doesn't however restrict itself to players operating in the cricket space. Turns out, the overall category is invested in the league.

Anurag Khurana, founder at Penta Esports says big ticket events like IPL have a lot of youth audiences who are gamers as well and given the large number of eyeballs these events reach out to, along with the consumer overlap, it makes perfect sense to advertise during these big ticket events.

“There are a large number of games to choose from and advertisements during events like these help a game to stand out of the crowd owing to the reach these big ticket events have,” he said.

After all it is all about getting noticed says Abhishek Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Trinity Gaming India.

“Brands look for various collaborations with the broadcaster and teams itself as there are various opportunities starting from team practice, main gear to multiple other aspects where they can associate to get visibility. Sports event always gets and provides better traction for the brand to reach out to their target audience,” he said

Similar hype is expected during other big events and tournaments as well lined up in this year including ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, FIFA World Cup and Asian Games where this time teams will compete for medals in the esports category.

<strong>Note to readers:</strong> <em>Storyboard18’s new Month In Focus initiative spotlights themes and topics that are pushing marketers to reshape and rethink how brands interact with today’s customers. Our first theme is Just Sports, a special spotlight on sports marketing, presented by Sports18. We bring to you stories of how marketers are harnessing the power of technology, innovation and creativity in sports to create powerful storytelling in campaigns that increase affinity and loyalty with audiences. From traditional sports platforms around cricket to emerging games and the rise of esports, we get leading voices from the marketing and sports worlds to give us sharp and fast insights into future-facing marketing practices. Also, tune in for analyses which will surface ideas and strategies that are helping brands to level up experiences and storytelling with authentic collaborations. So watch this space for Just Sports.</em>

SOURAV GANGULY