Ufone & Zong engage in Viral Marketing
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Advertising campaigns by telecom companies are all the rage these days. It seems they are the only ones left with enough money to even buy media space anymore. Lately, they seem to be going after each other aggressively, especially after zong opened up operations in the country.
Recently, Zong set up an MNP campaign which aired all over the place. The campaign was centered around the following group of TVCs.
Now this ad may have been very informative to the customer on what MNP is all about (namely, you get to keep the complete number, including the network code when you switch) it wasn’t very pleasing to other operators seeing that their customers were being targeted.So Ufone came up with a campaign of it’s own. Only they didn’t release it to any of the traditional media streams, they kept it viral. It’s been making rounds on facebook, youtube and other sites and has been viewed more than 10,000 times on youtube only, facebook is another story.
The main theme of this ad was that the number with 0333 was attached to ufone because the customer wasn’t “pagal”. The ufone segment was the following:
Not be outdone, Zong created and released a viral video of it’s own with the line, “har pagal ye hee bolta hai kay mein pagal nahi hoon” (a crazy person always claims he’s not crazy). The ad was the following:
Now as a consumer, you may be shocked, delighted or whatever, but that’s besides the point. The point is, these two giants have broken into a whole new segment of advertising which was pretty much dormant in Pakistan, namely viral marketing. I don’t think many other advertising houses would steer clear of online or viral marketing now, given how successful these strategies have been to these two.
5:54 pm
hahah. that’s Creative Capitalism….
10:11 am
farrukh: you’re quite right
1:29 pm
Viral campaigns usually stay online and are contained in the interactive medium that they are launched in e.g. social networks, mobile communities etc. and are spread by word of mouth (like a virus). They are not shown on TV and other mainstream media as these were, so this is technically not the ‘first’ viral campaign in Pakistan.
4:22 pm
I agree with Shehryar to most extent. However campaign can be carried over TV, Radio or other lesser or non-interactive medias provided that they got “viral” nature in them. e.g. in earlier 90′s a TV show used to tell its viewers in the start to record the programme and give it to your friends.. thts pretty much viral concept..
11:57 am
This is a best way to students to check examples of viral marketing.They can also download them for prtesentations also.
11:59 am
Very useful 4 marketing students.They should visit this site.BZU swl campus talent is 4 u.