A Dissertation On
A STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS A STRATEFY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of BA Journalism & Mass Communication program of Navrachana University, during the year 2017-2020
By
DRASHTI ANIL SHAH Semester - VI 17165033
Under the guidance of
PROF. BHARGAV PANCHOLI
NAVRACHANA UNIVERSITY Vasna - Bhayli Main Rd, Bhayli, Vadodara, Gujarat 391410
i
NAVRACHANA UNIVERSITY Vasna - Bhayli Main Rd, Bhayli, Vadodara, Gujarat 391410
Certificate
Awarded To
DRASHTI ANIL SHAH
This is to certify that the dissertation titled
“A STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT” has been submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirement of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication program of Navrachana University.
ii
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation titled,
“A STUDY ON EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS A
STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT”
prepared and submitted by
DRASHTI ANIL SHAH
of Navrachana University, Vadodara
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor
of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication program is hereby accepted.
Place: Vadodara Date: 15-05-2020
Prof. Bhargav Pancholi Dr. Robi Augustin Dissertation Guide Program Chair
Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication.
iii EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the dissertation titled “A study on effectiveness of viral challenge as a strategy for brand engagement” is an original work prepared and written by me, under the
guidance of Mr. Bhargav Pancholi, Assistant Professor, Journalism and Mass Communication program, Navrachana University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication.
This thesis or any other part of it has not been submitted to any other University for the award of other degree or diploma.
Date: 15.05. 2020
Place: Vadodara DRASHTI ANIL SHAH
iv EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I express my gratitude, heartful thanks and acknowledge the support given by Dr. Robi Augustin Program Chair, Journalism and Mass Communication Navrachana University.
I am also extremely thankful to my mentor Prof. Bhargav Pancholi and all the faculty members of Journalism and Mass Communication program.
I whole heartedly dedicate this work to my friends, family and my guide.
Drashti Anil Shah
v EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT
I whole heartedly dedicate this
work to
My friends, family and my guide.
vi EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGE AS STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT
ABSTRACT
A study on effectiveness of viral challenge as a strategy for brand
engagement
Digitalization has not spared advertising and marketing industry. With the increase in usage of smartphones, mobile marketing, specifically, social media marketing has become inevitable. Amongst the various social media strategies, viral challenges and trends have been on the rise especially after witnessing the successful response towards Ice bucket challenge. Now, with companies and brands plunging onto this band-wagon, it was necessary to find out if this strategy is effective to fulfil the objective of brand engagement. Thus, this study was conducted by adopting the quantitative approach and an online questionnaire was sent to the population of 135 people spread across various demographics and geographies. The major findings were that the majority of the participants were aware about the challenge but very few had actually tried and shared these challenges. The recommendations for making this strategy work better for future use is also given in the study.
Keywords: Advertising and marketing sector, Brand engagement, Mobile marketing, Social media marketing, Viral challenges.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No.
Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………….01
1.0 Digitization ...... 01
1.1 Mobile Marketing ………….………………………………………… 02
1.2 Social Media Marketing ...... 03
1.2.1Viral Marketing…………………………………………………. 03
1.2.1.1 Difference between Viral Marketing & word of mouth………..…… ….05
1.2.1.2 Characteristics of Viral Marketing campaigns………………… ……….06
1.2.1.3 Viral Challenges………………………….…………………….....….. 08
1.2.1.4 Reasons behind challenges going viral ...... 09
1.3 Significance of the study………..…………………………………. 10
1.4 Objectives …………………….…… 10
1.5 Hypothesis……………………….……………….………. ...… 10
8
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 9
Chapter 2: Review of Literature ………………………………… 11
2.0. Introduction ………………………………………………………………... 11
2.1. Study on Digital marketing………………………………………………... 11
2.2. Study on social media marketing …………………………………………...12
2.3. Web 2.0 concept …………………………………………………………... 12
2.4. Is social media marketing for everyone? …………………………………...13
2.5. Introduction to brand engagement………………………………………... 13
2.6. Understanding brand engagement ……………………………………... 14
2.8. Importance of brand engagement…………………………………………... 14
2.9. Social media as medium for brand engagement ..………………………... 15
2.10. Establishing customer relationship ……………………………………... 16
2.11. Benefits of customer relationship ……………………………………... 17
2.12 Study on success of ALS Ice bucket challenge…………………………… 17
2.13 Study on success of ALS Ice bucket challenge……………………………17
2.14 Content is the king…………………………………………………………18
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2.15 The type of content that goes viral…………………………………………18
2.16 Mediums to use for sharing such content……..……………………………19
2.17 Importance of customer participation………………………………………20
2.18 Popular Viral challenges……………………………………………………20
2.19 Few more examples of viral challenge……….…………………………… .21
2.20 Latest viral challenge of 2020………………………………………………21
2.21 Brands’ perception on these viral challenges….……………………………21
2.22 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..22
Chapter 3: Methodology …………………………….……………. 15
3.0 Introduction…………………………………………………….…..……..… 15
3.1 Research Plan……………………………………………………………….. 15
3.2 Validation of the tool ……………………………………………….………. 15
3.3 Process of Data collection…………………………………………………… 15
3.4 Limitations……………………...…………………………………………… 16
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Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Interpretation ...... 25
4.0 Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 25
4.1 Age factor……………………………………………………………….. 25
4.2 Gender…………………………………………………………………… 26
4.3 Purpose behind using social media ...... 27
4.4 Most used social media platform.…...... 28
4.5 Following on social media……………….……………………………...... 29
4.6 Knowledge about challenges ...... 30
4.7 Trial of challenges ………………………………………………………… 31
4.8 Source of challenges ...... 32
4.9 Brand Recall…………………………………………………………………..33
Chapter 5: Findings and Conclusion …………………………… 34
5.0 Introduction ……………………………………………………………….. 34
5.1 Findings…………………………………………………………………34
5.5 Restatement of Hypotheses………………………………………………... 35
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5.6 Theories Proved …………………………………………………………... 35
5.7 Limitation of the Study …………………………………………………… 36
5.8 Recommendation …………………………………………………………. 37
5.9 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….. 38
References …………………………………………………………………... 34
Appendix……………………………………………………………………. 39
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Digitization
The emergence of Internet has brought about some considerable changes in the habits of today’s generation. An article titled, Indian smartphone users consume maximum data in the world at 9.8 GB per month: Ericsson states that as per a Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2019 edition, a Swedish telecom equipment maker, Indians consume maximum data per month as compared to the rest of the world at an average of 9.8GB per month, which is set to twofold to 18
GB by 2024 promoted by rich video content.
The report 'Digital India - Technology to Transform a Connection Nation' by McKinsey
Global Institute said the country is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets for digital consumers, with 560 million internet subscribers in 2018, succeeding China. Their analysis of 17 mature and emerging economies found that India is digitising faster than any other country in the study, (except Indonesia) and there is plenty of scope for growth with just over 40 per cent of the populace has an internet subscription (The Economic Times, 2019).
According to McKinsey, India's internet user base has grown rapidly in recent years, propelled by the decreasing cost and increasing availability of smartphones and high-speed connectivity, and is now one of the largest in the world. “India will increase the number of internet users by about 40 per cent to between 750 million and 800 million and double the number of smartphones to between 650 million and 700 million by 2023"(The Economic Times, 2019, p.1).
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1.1 Mobile Marketing
This shift towards increasing smartphone usage means that advertisers and marketers will have to direct their strategies and campaigns compatible for mobile.
Hence, mobile marketing comes into the picture. “Mobile ads can be defined as text- and graphics- based commercial messages that are sent to consumers via mobile devices, including cellular phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants. Moreover, there are different types of mobile ads, like Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) (e.g., multimedia messages that include images, audio, and/or video) etc. These different types of mobile advertisements assist marketers to deliver advertising messages to potential consumers via mobile devices” (Yu, 2013, p.5). Mobile marketing can provide customers with time and position sensitivity, personalized information that endorses goods, services, appointment reminders and ideas (Johnson, 2020).
An important point for marketers and advertisers to implement mobile marketing is that smartphones not only receive information but also transmit them. Smartphones have become an enormous depository of information about individual tastes and preferences. This means that advertisers and marketers have the competence to be much more precise in their ad and marketing campaigns, and capable to offer more pertinent messages to different types of groups or individuals. While this means that consumers are now expecting this amplified relevance from brand advertising, it also conveys that consumers expect relevance when and where it is needed.
We all know the fact that mobile screens are captivating yet some facts to throw light upon it-
• International Data Corporation (IDC) research shows a staggering 79% of mobile
users have their phone on or near them each hour of the waking day
• People spend an average of 195 minutes per day using their smartphone.
These simple facts, can help put the brand in the face of smartphone users all day long. People use their devices 24/7, so it’s vital that brands keep up with consumers during their phone usage
(Johnson, 2020).
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1.2 Social media marketing
The term social marketing was first mentioned by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman in
1971. They realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to sell ideas, attitudes, and behaviours. Kotler and Andreasen explained the difference in the objective of social marketing with other areas of marketing by saying that social marketer seeks to influence social behaviours not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the society in general. Marketing has been successful in encouraging people to buy products and use services. In the same way marketing can also encourage people to adopt behaviours that will enhance their own and others’ lives (Nanda, 2015, p.697).
Social media marketing can be defined as the utilization of social media channels to promote a company and its products. This kind of marketing can be considered as a subpart of online marketing activities (Barefoot & Szabo 2010).
Social media marketing can be considered as the most inexpensive and economical tool for marketing. Nevertheless, any tool is useless if you don’t know how to use it and where to use it. Therefore, generally social media marketing campaigns are strategized to fulfil the desired objectives.
Some of the many objectives are mentioned below (Anderson, 2017)
• Increasing brand awareness
Brand awareness is a marketing term that describes the degree of consumer recognition of
a product by its name. Creating brand awareness is an important step in endorsing a new
product or recuperating an older brand. Preferably, brand awareness may include the traits
that discerns the product from its competition. (Kopp, 2006)
• Drive traffic to your website
Website traffic means the number of visitors and visits a website receives.
• Generate new leads
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Lead generation is the process of creating consumer interest for a product or service with
the aim of converting that interest into a sale.
• Grow revenue
Typically, online marketing involves collecting a visitor’s contact information (called a
“lead”) via a web form. This data further helps in increasing sign-ups or sales.
• Boost brand engagement
Brand engagement is a relationship between a brand and its consumers, and that relationship is
driven by interactions. The final word—interaction—is the critical part. When you promote
engagement—motivating action and brand participation in your customers—the brand
relationship becomes more powerful and henceforth more profitable.(Carper, 2018
• Increase mentions in the press
Press mention basically means mention of your company in press may it be newspapers or
online.
Now, if a campaign does really good on internet, it sure gets mentioned in the press about its virality. Hence comes viral marketing.
1.2.1 Viral Marketing
The term viral marketing was first mentioned in 1996 by Rayport in his article,‘The virus of marketing’. When it comes to getting a message out with little time, minimal budgets, and maximum effect, nothing on earth beats a virus. Marketing messages just like viruses, spread epidemically, hence the term viral marketing is used. (Rayport, 1996)
Further he acknowledges that for most marketers, getting into the customer’s mind is the most difficult part, to which he often notices the usual response as being everywhere, just shouting. However, he thinks viruses are much smarter. They find a way into the host in the disguise of another, unrelated activity. Also, viruses are patient in their work. They stay inactive for years until its time. Those triggers could be some world event happening around. Now another interesting point of similarity drawn by the author is that viruses do not spread by chance but by
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 17
their (host’s) high-frequency daily chores like social interaction, e-mail, web surfing etc. Hence, he says that marketers should devise the messages in a way that target audience transmit them as a part of their daily chore. (Rayport, 1996)
Viral marketing can be defined as “any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message related to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence” (Wilson, 2018, p.1).
Viral marketing is also defined as “an electronic word-of-mouth whereby some form of marketing message related to a company, brand or product is transmitted in an exponentially growing way, often through the use of social media applications”. This definition constitutes of two major elements; first is a growth, reproduction or the rate at which each receiver passes the message to number of people. Second being the use of social media for the rapid spreading of messages. (Kalpan & Haenlein, 2011, p.255)
Now that we have viral marketing defined as electronic word-of-mouth, it becomes essential to throw light upon the line differentiating viral marketing from word of mouth.
1.2.1.1 Difference between Viral marketing and word-of-mouth.
Referring to another author, Suzanne Beckman and Simon Bell, the author points out the difference between word-of-mouth and viral marketing. (Rakic & Rakic, 2014, p.180)
• From the speed and coverage point of view, viral messages spread more quickly and
that too a wider audience compared to traditional word-of-mouth.
• In terms of stimuli, viral messages depend more on a mixture of visual and verbal
response than traditional word-of-mouth, relying mainly on face-to-face
communication.
• The control over the nature and content of the message is comparatively more and
easier in viral marketing than traditional word-of-mouth
Adding to this difference gives a figure explaining the relationship between word-of- mouth and viral marketing. (Kalpan & Haenlein, 2011, p.255)
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Figure showing relationship between word-of-mouth and viral marketing
Source: (Kalpan & Haenlein, 2011, p.254)
1.2.1.2 Characteristics of viral marketing campaigns
A published article discussed some of the common attributes of viral marketing campaign which are mentioned below (Reese, 2014).
(i) If we want to make people share the content, then the content should be share-worthy.
On social media, unless they feel that sharing a content can increase their worth, then and only then the content goes viral. Hence, for that content purpose, content needs to be unique. Your content needs to stand out if you want others to share it.
(ii) Viral content pleads to our emotions, particularly positive emotions like amusement, joy, hope, surprise, nostalgia, affection and excitement. Content that surprises, is predominantly successful, especially among millennials who are constantly overwhelmed with digital content and are harder to impress.
(iii) Another facet is target audience. Who is your target audience? What do they like and dislike? How do they already perceive your product? Find out and utilize that information to create content they’ll want to share.
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(iv) Now that you know your audience, start speaking. However, it’s not just what you say but also how you say it that matters. Are you creating content for Facebook or YouTube or
Instagram? Are you targeting middle-aged professionals or millennials, who prefers more engaging formats like videos and infographics? Also keep in mind, the time at which your target audience is most active on that particular social media platform.
(v) If you stumble upon a user generated content, try to mould it into the content for your viral marketing. In 2013, firefighter Cory Kalanick used a GoPro camera to record a video of himself saving a kitten from a fire. GoPro re-posted the video with its logo and quickly scored millions of views. Similarly, Coca-Cola took advantage of the viral Coke Zero and Mentos rocket car experiment video. Although the brand wasn’t exactly pleased about the publicity as they wished consumers to drink Coke rather than experiment with it but initially not thrilled about the publicity as they wanted consumers to drink Coke rather than experiment with it but in due course, they welcomed the success of the deal and traded a deal with its creators. Resultantly,
Coke-Mentos challenge racked up social media with lot of people taking up that challenge.
(vi) A content that involves participation from people, gets shared the most. For e.g. Lay’s
‘Do Us A Flavour’ contest wherein they invited customers to submit new potato chip flavours for the chance to win $1 million or 1% of the winning. Likewise, Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a coke’ campaign wherein Coke cans and bottles were made available with 20 special relationships printed on them, including Bae, Bro, Dude, BFF, Dad, Mom, Daughter, etc. The campaign did get lot of mentions both on social media and in press due to its exclusivity. The campaign was inspired from a similar concept adopted in U.S but when it comes to India, give a cultural twist to such creative ideas and witness it doing wonders (Journey Staff, 2018).
(vii) Never forget, no matter how creative a company is, the collective creativity of your audience will always surpass yours. The content that will be launched by you is just going to be a rock in the river, it’s bound to create ripples, meaning, your content will give rise to more contents generated by your audience, each adding his/her own touch to that campaign, thus
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making your campaign their own. You must have been a witness of the zillionth variations of
Kiki challenge.
(viii) As discussed above, social media marketing is a tool to achieve certain objectives and viral marketing is a strategy devised towards realising those goals. So successful viral marketing campaigns must have and achieve a set objective may it be increasing brand awareness, brand engagement or simply selling product. The viewers won’t share the content unless it touches them in some way.
1.2.1.3 Viral challenges
It may seem like the word “viral” is a denomination of the digital age but cultural phenomena and trends have always been around. Before the internet, crazes were common in fashion, sports, film, music, and more. People have always leaned towards the sense of community that comes with these trends. And these trends are a big part of cultures. The internet has only made these trends travel faster and more ubiquitous. As digital communications have engineered their way into society, so too have a new type of viral trend. Creative videos, email chains, and forums all fuelled the rise of these viral challenges. Viral challenges are seldom about the challenge itself, and more about participating in the massive inside joke, or sometimes as part of a serious cause that people want to raise awareness of. Social media, online video, and the culture around digital have given rise to this new type of phenomena (Anderson, 2019).
Today, a greater margin of viral challenges originates from these social media platforms, with shared content, like buttons, and content feed algorithms aiding in spreading these challenges.
Smartphones give people greater access to photography and video and hence enable people to add their own attempts at the challenge, even if they don’t use the term “challenge.”
Online video has a double impact on the spread of viral content. It provides a platform for people to view the challenge while also allowing participants to show others their own attempt.
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1.2.1.4 Reasons behind challenges going viral
Viral marketing campaigns are a by-product of an interaction between the firm and the customers. The initiator, can therefore, be either a company or a group of consumers. He further asserts three essential criteria which must be met in order to make viral marketing work, which are, the right people must get the right message under the right circumstances (Kalpan &
Haenlein, 2011).
The most successful viral videos are a mix of funny, touching, surprising, engaging, and authentic, among other things. Otherwise, people won’t engage with the content, even if social media platforms put it in front of users (Anderson, 2019).
The author further in his article “Why and how viral challenges and trends catch on” suggests that algorithms also play a major part in what makes content viral because these viral challenges spread through social media platforms and it is the algorithm that ordains who gets to see the content. When something becomes truly viral, it isn’t just engagements that spread the content.
Platforms will often show the content to new users, like within Trending pages or in searches.
Even if something has the perfect setup to go viral, it needs to be put in front of the right users on these social media platforms. Celebrities and influencers play a pivotal role in the spreading of viral memes and trends. They have an appreciably larger audience, so when they partake in a challenge, they, indeed, subject even more people to it. In addition, the most influential influencers really can drive high volumes of people to take part in these challenges. Viral trends like the Ice Bucket Challenge gained so much popularity because of the absolute volume and influence of the celebrities and influencers that participated (Anderson, 2019).
1.3 Significance of the study
Viral content has a very substantial effect on both cultures and the way we market to audiences. From the way people act in their daily life to their purchasing decisions, viral challenges have a number of both conscious and unconscious impacts on us. Hence, it becomes
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pivotal to understand if these challenges are impactful enough to benefit the brand putting its bet on.
1.4 Objectives
1.4.1 To understand if challenge as a social media marketing strategy helps brands in fulfilling their objective of engaging with the audience
1.4.2 To find out if this marketing strategy is effective for the objective of brand recall
1.4.3 To find out which social media platform can become the main source for initiation of such challenges
1.5 Hypothesis
1.5.1 Viral challenge is the effective social media marketing strategy for customer engagement
1.5.2 These viral challenges can also help in achieving the objective of brand recall
1.5.3 Tiktok is the social media platform, which serves as the epicentre of such viral challenges
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction
On a day-to-day basis, may it be a person or company or brand, everyone is fighting to get the eyes of the customers stuck to them, to stand out from the clutter and hence are putting forward their best marketing move. With internet usage on rise, brands see this as an opportunity to build relationship with their customers and communicate with them. This review of literature follows a thematic sequence wherein there is literature about importance of customer engagement, digital marketing, social marketing, viral marketing, challenges are the new tool of viral marketing whose best example is ALS Ice bucket challenge, following which various other brands are leveraging this tool to reach wider audience i.e potential customers as well as existing ones.
2.1 Gaining a competitive advantage through social media marketing in B2C sales
Social media marketing review talks about digital marketing as to how digital marketing gives the opportunity to create a two-way conversation between the customers and the companies. The Internet being an interactive marketing medium makes real time communication possible. Customers can express their opinions about the product or service.
In mass media, messages sent to recipients are either not timely or are irrelevant to them due to the fact that often assumptions go wrong about the recipients such as age, gender, location and social status thus making the recipient passive. However, digital marketing is all about customers actively seeking the content provided by the marketer.
Social media marketing is an important sub category of digital marketing, which allows companies to create more traffic and visibility. Further, social media marketing means use of social media channels to promote companies and their products. She suggests that this
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should be a subset of online marketing activities, complementing traditional web-based promotional strategies like email newsletters and online advertising campaigns.
2.2 Friends with Benefits: A social media marketing handbook
Barefoot & Szabo state that social media marketing is about increased online visibility and electronic word of mouth. A strong web presence should be the key purpose of every social media marketing campaign. The marketer should be where the customers are.
The author states that more people are watching less television and are spending more time online. Therefore, more customers can be reached online. Offline advertising is expensive and difficult to measure. Instead, social media marketing is easy to measure due to the quantitative data available from web analytics programs such as Google analytics. The possibility to measure and make profiles of the potential customers from the data generated by these tools, makes social media marketing campaigns a science, not an art. The advertisement can be pointed to the right target group at the right time. Besides the subtlety of the measurability of social media, it has the possibility of wide reach.
2.3 Digital marketing: strategy, implementation and practice
Chaffey explains that web 2.0 is a concept closely related to social media. Web 2.0 is a collection of web services that facilitate interaction of web users with sites to create user generated content and encourage behaviour such as community or social network participation. Web 2.0 is not a new web benchmark, but rather an advancement of technologies and communications approaches which have always been possible through the interactive nature of the web. At the beginning the most important role of the internet (web
1.0) was to connect individuals with information. Web 1.0 was deficient of the element of interactivity and hence it very much resonates of conventional media since in this model customers are only recipients. Web 2.0 has evolved to be more social and interactive direction. This development has caused that the role of the recipient, here a customer, is not only to receive information but also create content, edit it, and share it.
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2.4 Friends with Benefits: A social media marketing handbook
The authors Barefoot & Szabo puts forward a crucial question as to whether social media marketing is something that every company should be utilising. The answer subjective to the company, their marketing strategy and their existing market situation. Competition, target market and availability of resources are the factors to be considered. If the answer to below 3 questions turns out to be yes, then company/person/brand shouldn’t wait any longer.
• If the competitor is on social media, availing the advantage
• Check whether your target audience is online
• There is a need to monitor daily, participate in the ongoing discussions, give reply to
their questions etc.
2.5 Customer engagement practices in select fast moving consumer goods FMCG companies in India
Gogoi says that in today's competitive and technologically advanced marketing environment customers' retention and their commitment to the brand as well as the companies depends upon the level of engagement. Hence, a long-term strategic approach is beneficial and the companies and marketers should follow the same. In this context, citing from a secondary source, he refers to Customer engagement (CE) as the engagement of customers with one another, with a company or a brand. The initiative for engagement can be either consumer or company driven and the means of engagement can be on or offline.
2.6 The importance of customer engagement and social innovation in value co-creation
Raeisi & Lingjie in their article state that customer engagement is not an end state but a process which comprises of different behaviours and attitudes which eventually lead to customer loyalty. Customer engagement involves the severity of an individual’s participation and association with organization’s offering and activities kicked off by either the customer or the organization. Customer engagement is the interaction between customer and
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 26
organizational service provider in the varied levels of a service organization. This communication might be physical, emotional and cognitive. Some scholars emphasized on four essential components of customer engagement namely, vigour (customer’s mental resistance while interacting with a service provider), dedication (create a service of belonging and continuity for the customer), absorption (make the customer happy, focused and deeply engrossed) and interaction (communication between the customer and several parties).
2.7 Terms of Engagement: Measuring the Active Consumer
Ghuniem in his study state that engagement is important as it can direct to web traffic,
Customer Relationship Management, sales, and brand loyalty. These results can be directly linked to time spent and ensuing actions with a product's message, related media, and the
Web 2.0 applications in which they are communicated. The ability of marketing to engage and insinuate consumers will eventually determine whether a user digs deeper and/or engages with friends. The study further states that in order to measure these factors, it might be beneficial to begin with Web 2.0 services such as social networks and media sites. The capabilities of these applications are ideal for generating data enclosing engagement activity.
2.8 Suitably Social: How FMCG Brands can best use social media to engage with customers
Helms in his dissertation concluded that it is impossible for FMCG Brand to classify their social media audience in order to recognise their core customers. Instead, it was revealed that social media is an effective tool for engaging with a brand's existing customers, whether core or not, and there are a number of best practice principles that can be used to aid in achieving a brand's objective in the social space. The study further states that social media is more than just a marketing channel because it offers marketers a direct connection with their customer, and this relationship can be used an anchor for insights relevant to new product development and market research.
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2.9 Customer engagement: Exploring customer relationships beyond purchase
Vivek and Morgan while citing Fornell and Wernerfelt (1987, 1988) and, later,
Fornell (1992) suggested that marketing strategies can be classified as either offensive or defensive. Activities aimed at obtaining additional customers, encouraging brand substitution, and augmenting purchase frequency are offensive strategies, whereas those aimed at reducing customer exit and brand substitution are defensive marketing strategies.
Later the authors observed that in early conceptions of relationship management, researchers proposed that the field of research management is inclusive of both offensive as well as defensive marketing activities, directed at establishing, developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges. Despite that, consequent relationship management research has been largely limited to the study of defensive activities aimed at development and retaining of existing customers in buyer–seller relationships based on exchange. To validate this point, they searched relationship management articles published from 2006 to 2011 in 20 marketing journals, identified as top marketing journals, found that the focus of the research on defensive strategies has led to the neglect of the study and use of relationship management principles in offensive marketing strategies aimed at customer acquisition.
2.10 Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing
The approach of Vargo and Lusch in their research suggests that Relationship
Management research should address the experiences of both existing and potential customers, as well as the value formations deduced by these individuals and experiences.
Relationship management when integrated with customer engagement, emphasises on the interactions with and experiences of both existing and potential customers. \
This combination of customer engagement into the relationship management will motivate researchers to consider some of the following aspects that need greater research attention.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 28
• First, businesses employ billions of dollars on prospective customers, aimed at
increasing the value of their brand. For example, Microsoft and Apple provide
computers to schools, creating goodwill and positive brand reinforcement. Clinique
organizes makeup workshops, called “Attracted to Color,” twice a year to permit
anyone who wishes to have an opportunity for one-on-one consultation with its
makeup experts. These attempts intend to ascertain customer engagement with the
brand, whether or not a purchase is an immediate possibility.
• Second, many existing programs are not purchase focused and instead concentrate
utterly on achieving engagement with all interested parties. For example, American
Express, through the Members Project, advises card members to dream up, and
subsequently unite behind one amazing idea.
• Third, the current and future customers often communicate among themselves. This
communication strongly influences their purchase decisions, for the fact that other
customers may be more influential than company advertising. For example, future
customers often read online reviews from other customers and product review
websites
2.11 Co-opting customer competence
This Harvard business review by Prahalad & Ramaswamy, states that customer communities can exercise a powerful influence on the market. The power of such communities derives in large measure from the speed with which they can be mobilized.
Word spreads so fast on the Internet that people now refer to word of mouth as viral marketing. Social media marketing qualifies as a form of viral or word-of-mouth marketing.
Viral marketing depends on you telling your friends about media, products, or services. The important point of electronic word of mouth is that it travels a lot farther and a lot faster than traditional word of mouth (Barefoot & Szabo, 2010).
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 29
2.12 How does ALS Ice Bucket Challenge achieve its viral outcome through marketing via social media?
Phing & Yazdanifard throws light that in recent years, the range of viral marketing widens with the rising of social media because messages can be shared between not only family, close friends, and acquaintances, but also strangers.
In viral marketing, one of the manageable factors is the process of viral diffusion, which refers to “seeding strategy”. Seeding strategy includes the exercise of finding out the number and type of consumers (seeds) required to disseminate a viral message. This practice is important since seed consumers whose responsibility is to start spreading of the viral message to other consumers, can greatly affect the later stage of viral diffusion process. The advantages of viral marketing over traditional advertising are lower cost, speedy dissemination of message, ability to reach out to wider range of consumers and high reliability. The dispersion of the messages relies on consumers, thus viral marketing does not require high cost. The consumers themselves will spread the marketing messages and make sure that the right target market, who will value the recommended product, service or video clip, will be reached.
2.13 Co-opting customer competence
Prahalad & Ramaswamy says that in the past, companies pushed an image concept that was positioned through advertising, packaging, and so on, to individual consumers. But in the new market, positioning develops with consumers’ collective personalized experiences.
Smart companies are finding ways to organise customer communities. However, the method by which customers and companies communicate is a central part of creating an experience.
The more environments a company can provide, the richer its customers’ experiences are likely to be.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 30
2.14 How does ALS Ice Bucket Challenge achieve its viral outcome through marketing via social media?
The success of viral marketing is profoundly influenced by attributes of the message conveyed, characteristics of sender or receiver and features of social network. This is proven through the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
2.15 Gaining a competitive advantage through social media marketing in B2C sales
Maaki says that planning a social media campaign whether it is for short-term or a continuous e-communication activity involves various steps. Firstly, to guarantee the efficient delivery of the campaign message to the target group, it is pivotal to create suitable content.
Secondly, the design of the message is also helpful in delivering the message. For example, entertaining and carefree style of content are more successful and acceptable by people because it will be able to leave a deeper imprint as compared to serious style. Next, to lure the target group, the place to share the content should be a place that is frequently accessed by the target group. Lastly, establishing the correct partnership with the right people will help in the process of content creating and sharing.
2.16 Digital Marketing (ALS Ice Bucket Campaign)
Howera in the research throws light upon the functioning of the Ice bucket challenge idea which is a mix of both technology and innovation together, where the donator records a video of himself / herself while he / she is dumping a bucket of ice water on his/her head.
After that, he/she should post this video on a social media site (Facebook, Instagram or other sites), and finally the donator should challenge 3 of his/her friends to do the same within 24 hours (dump the ice bucket) or donate $100 to the ALS. Here, the activity was beyond any particular platform. The choice of medium to share was at the donor’s discretion and hence this challenge was a major success.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 31
2.17 How does ALS Ice Bucket Challenge achieve its viral outcome through marketing via social media?
In their research the authors, Phind & Yazdanifard explores the reasons behind the success of ice bucket challenge and he finds that users of social media are strongly encouraged to show participation in social media by posting or commenting about their thoughts in varied forms such as message, picture and video on their social media page in which their updates will also appear in their friends’ newsfeeds. For instance, Facebook has a
“like” button function which is the quickest way that can be used to share a content the user like to his or her social network. Besides, there is also the “share” button which a user can use to forward an interesting post so that it can be shared on his or her page. By posting or sharing any ALS Ice Bucket Challenge posts, it helps to spread awareness of ALS extensively among the network of social media users. Besides, people can communicate and interact with one another through the exchange of texts in the comment box. Nowadays, many social media sites such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are linked together whereby a person can post up an update or video about ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on many different platforms simultaneously. This update will then be published to a large group of people within his or her social circle.
Further, the study also states that by creating distinctive and fun content, social media marketing program aims to lure social media users so that they would share the content within their social network and the content may go viral. A campaign is able to achieve a favorable outcome by choosing an appropriate and correct social media platform as a vehicle to spread message; to launch appropriate and desirable message; and to draw reliable people to reach out to others, to spread the campaign’s message and significance. By having the right people to communicate the message of a particular campaign, helps in spreading the message extensively and produce word-of-mouth.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 32
Ice bucket challenge was just the beginning whose success paved way for many other brands to leverage these challenges for customer engagement.
2.18 Five Viral challenges in 2020 and how brands can capitalize on them
Hawley in his research elaborates on how Vans challenge went viral considering the virality of the water bottle flipping challenge. The challenge started when a customer found out that no matter how you flip the vans, they always land up right and she took this discovery to twitter and soon everyone jumped in to find out the hypothesis to be true. The online community deemed those sneakers that failed to land facing up fake.
Lil Nas X broke the internet when he dropped his Billboard hit single “Old Town
Road”, getting a huge thrust from the popular social media platform TikTok. The hybrid song that masterfully mixed elements of hip-hop and country music became the soundtrack for countless “Yee Yee Juice” and “Yee Haw” challenge videos where users transformed into modern-day cowboys and cowgirls. The song’s historic rise is largely due to its command on
TikTok. "TikTok helped me change my life," Lil Nas X said, in the release. "TikTok brought my song to several different audiences at once."
2.19 Going viral: Fun and fatal social media challenges
IANS’s study is about The Dele Alli hand challenge wherein English footballer Dele
Alli's hand-salute gesture left the social media users in a frenzy. His gesture covering his eye with a looped finger and odd twist of the wrist, created quite the talk of the town, with many trying different ways to successfully try it.
Kiki Challenge: This challenge saw people across the globe dancing on the hit song
"In My Feeling" from the album "Scorpion" by Canadian hip-hop superstar Drake. The challenge, which shook the internet, showed fans suddenly coming out of a moving car, leaving the door open and then dancing to the song besides the slow-moving vehicle on the road. This was risky too.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 33
2.20 Dolly patron challenge lights up the internet and our lives with every version of one’s best self
In this article, Hoffman sheds light upon the latest Dolly Parton Challenge as to how it came into existence. The challenge began when country singer Dolly Parton posted a collage of four pictures with the captions “LinkedIn”, “Facebook”, “Instagram” and “Tinder” on her Instagram page. For LinkedIn, she opted for a photo of herself in a buttoned-up blazer, while for Facebook she chose a picture of herself wearing a Christmas jumper. For
Instagram, the singer went for a popular black and white image in which she is propping against a wall with a guitar and, finally, for her Tinder picture, she chose a picture of herself in a Playboy bunny costume. The collage was followed with the caption, “Get you a woman who can do it all” with a winking emoji. The viral craze asked people to choose four photos of themselves, according to what would be considered apt for each online platform. For
LinkedIn, something professional. something fun and casual for facebook, cool and trendy for Instagram and something flirty for Tinder.
2.21 How brands are taking up social media challenges
Social media or digital platforms have always been the most sought-after anchor for marketers, brands and advertisers to engage with the consumers. When a doubt was raised as to if these opportunities can prove beneficial for a brand or an advertiser in the long run?
Prashant Puri, CEO and Co-founder, Adlift, said: “These challenges have become a quick means to gain user engagement. I don’t see these opportunities dying out anytime soon. In fact, new challenges will be created and leveraged by brands” (Exchange4media, 2019, p.1).
The Augmented Reality-powered FaceApp was launched in 2017 but wasn’t a hit until the FaceApp Challenge. It created a stir globally after the company worked on the technicalities, giving improved results of people augmenting their photos with the help of
Artificial Intelligence.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 34
FaceApp got instant results with over 10 million downloads. The #faceappchallenge has logged over 28.1k impressions on Twitter. The Prisma Challenge or #10-yearChallenge, have been examples of brands, marketers and advertisers proactively anchoring from the campaigns. Although short-lived, advertisers still utilise them as tools to capture the moment.
2.22 Conclusion
Hence, all these literatures prove that may it be personal branding, company branding, or product branding, viral challenge is proving to be a right medium or a tool for customer engagement. However, the effectiveness of this strategy for each is yet to be explored.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This research is being conducted to understand if challenge as a marketing tool helps brands in fulfilling their objective of engaging with the audience.
3.1 Research Plan
The study employs systematic and quantitative research technique using a structured questionnaire consisting of questions for finding based on evidences to meet the objectives and prove hypothetical statements. In contemporary method of research, both quantitative and qualitative research methods are equally important. Within this framework, few open- ended questions are added to provide qualitative data for better understanding.
3.2 Validation of the tool
The questionnaire tool used for the survey was validated by Dr. Robi Augustine, Head of the department (BA Journalism and Mass Communication), Navrachana University,
Bhayli, Vadodara.
3.3 Process of Data collection
We know that social media is used by anyone irrespective of whatsoever the age, however in this context, aligning with the objective of the undertaken study, only the users from the age group of 18-50 were accepted as sample. The sample was collected through an online medium called Google forms.
3.4 Limitations
Although the intention of the study was to include people from all age groups but as the study was conducted through an online platform and was distributed amongst the 35
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 36
researcher’s network of contacts, polarisation towards the age group of 18-27 could be observed. The researcher has mentioned some topics in brief despite the desire to discuss it in length but due to the limitation of time, couldn’t do so, however, hope, it doesn’t create much hindrance.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.0 Introduction
After having collected the data through google forms, the responses generated from the online survey are described in this section. The survey was spread across all age groups as age doesn’t debar anyone from using social media.
4.1 Age factor
Chart 4.1
The data collected shows that majority of the respondents (88.9%) were from the age group of 18-25 who are students followed by the age group of 26-33 i.e. apparently working class, constituted 5.2%.
37
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 38
4.2 Gender
Chart 4.2
The data collected shows that the almost 71 females participated in this research followed by 61 males and 3 from the LGBTQ+ community. Hence, the research has participants from all genders.
4.3 Purpose behind utility of social media
Chart 4.3
The data collected shows that 85.9% use it for networking with people. However what is surprising is that the figures of people using social media for killing time is only 38.5% while those using it to find funny and entertaining content constitutes up to 74.8%.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 39
4.4 Most used social media platform
Chart 4.4
Here, using the multiple-choice grid, population were asked to rate 1 to the platform they use the most and 5 to the one least used. Data collected shows that Tiktok and Instagram are almost at par in terms of their usability with Instagram having 54 users, immediately followed by Tiktok with 51 users.
4.5 Following on social media
Chart 4.5
The question has an assumption that everybody follows their friends and meme pages.
Hence there were other options given, specially to understand if the users follow brands, personalities or companies etc. Turns out that 80% of the people follow personalities
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 40
followed with, 52.6% of people following brands and 51% of them following associations and organisations.
4.6 Knowledge about challenges
Chart 4.6
The data was collected with the objective of understanding the amount of awareness of some of the most viral challenges amongst the population. Numbers suggest that 10-year challenge was one of the most recognised challenge, followed by Kiki challenge (79.3%), Ice bucket challenge, FaceApp challenge and later Dolly Patron Challenge (18.5%).
4.7 Trial of challenges
Chart 4.7
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 41
Data collected suggests that majority of the population had neither tried nor shared such challenges that they came across. 17.2% tried but did not share while only 6% population had both tried and shared.
4.8 Source of these challenges
Chart 4.8
The participants were asked to identify the source of the viral challenges they came across, tried or shared. With 66.7%, Instagram was determined as the main source of such challenges and 25% considered Tiktok as another source of these challenges.
4.9 Brand recall
Chart 4.9
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 42
Through an open-ended question in the questionnaire, researcher derived that only
44.4% participants could remember the brand which initiated this challenge. Interestingly, there were 2 responses stating Thumbs-up. (It might be possible that they might have gotten confused as before Salman Khan was endorsing Thumbs-up and later Pepsi. Swag might have been connected with his song Swag se Swagata)
CHAPTER FIVE
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS
5.0 Introduction
This chapter deals with major findings identified by the researcher from the pile of data analysis done.
5.1 Findings
5.5.1 From the data collected on purpose behind utility of social media suggested that funny and entertainment content are now the most sought type of content.
5.2 Out of 135 participants, 75% of the participants are aware about the challenges, i.e, they know what it is but only 23% have tried these challenges and only 20% have shared these challenges further.
5.5.2 54 participants rated Instagram as the most used social media platform while 51 rated Tiktok as the most rated social media platform. Despite these facts, the data on identifying the social media platform that serves as the source of these challenges prove the hypothesis wrong as 66.7% people considered Instagram as the main source.
5.5.3 When it came down to analysing brand recall from this medium of challenges, this research suggests that only 44.4% people could recall the brand Pepsi who launched this challenge on TikTok as a part of its marketing strategy. However, according to exchange4media, this challenge did get over 5.4 billion views and over 1,00,000 user- generated videos over a four-day period
5.2 Restatement of the hypothesis
5.2.1 Viral challenge is the effective social media marketing strategy for customer engagement 43
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 44
5.2.2 These viral challenges can also help in achieving the objective of brand recall
5.2.3 Tiktok is the social media platform which serves as the epicentre of such viral challenges
5.3 Theories proved
Thus, results show that the statement 5.5.1 was proved right as almost 80% of the participants were aware about the famous viral challenges. However, the rate of accepting and sharing these challenges turned out to be quite low whose possible reasons could be the type of challenge (For e.g. Kiki challenge/Ice bucket challenge were appreciated but very few in India actually tried these challenges)
Statements 5.5.2 and 5.5.3, both were proved wrong. We saw that only 44.4% people could recall the brand pepsi from the challenge that they initiated. Like Pepsi, assuming that most of the brands prefer Tiktok for sourcing out these challenges, turns out 66.67% identified Instagram as the main source of such viral challenges and we saw how Instagram and Tiktok, both are most used social media platform.
5.4 Limitation of this study
The study was conducted under limited time frame and limited questions. Despite all the efforts, somehow, the participation was seen to be coming more from regions of Gujarat.
This study lacks a certain amount of depth which can be the picking up point for the future researcher’s study.
5.5 Research recommendation
The future researcher can conduct a detailed analysis of the challenges initiated on
Instagram and Tiktok to find out which platform should be used for what kind of challenge.
Also, the future researcher can dig deeper and extend this study by finding out the factors that can determine what kind of challenges are most likely to be accepted and shared the most with others.
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 45
5.6 Conclusion
Thus, the research concludes that viral challenge can become a great social media strategy if the content is generated good enough to compel users to ingest and share it further.
These viral challenges have lot of potential and can help in brand awareness, brand engagement and brand recall at quite a cheaper rate compared to other traditional mediums of advertising.
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APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
• Age *
18-25
26-33
34-41
42-49
50+
Other:
• Gender *
Male
Female
LGBTQ+
• Purpose of using social media *
Find funny/entertaining content
Killing time
stay connected with people and friends
Share photos, videos etc
Share my opinions
Product buying
Other
• The social media platform you use the most. (Rate 1 to the platform you use the
most) *
Tiktok
Snapchat 51
EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRAL CHALLENGES AS A STRATEGY FOR BRAND ENGAGEMENT 52
• Whom do you follow besides your friends and meme pages *
Personalities
Brands
Associations and organisations
Other:
• How many of these challenges you know about? *
FaceApp challenge
Kiki Challenge
Ice Bucket Challenge
10 year challenge
Dolly Patron Challenge
Other:
• I have *
tried such challenges but didn’t share
tried and shared them
not tried but shared them
neither tried nor shared
• Which are the main sources of these challenges *
Tiktok
• Name the brand that started the #SwagStepChallenge