Quikr goes all out with its communication strategy

In the last one month, Quikr has partnered with online comedy channel AIB and also created branded content for Star Plus, apart from launching three TVCs

Sarmistha Neogy | Mumbai | November 17, 2014

Popular online classifieds site Quikr has been experimenting with different marketing strategies in the past one month. Keeping in mind the tone and the brand's core proposition of 'selling', humour has been kept intact in all its latest communications. Recently, the portal tied up with popular podcast channel All India Bakchod (AIB) and released two online videos, apart from creating branded content for Star Plus and also launched TVCs under the new theme 'Buyer Aur Seller Ka Perfect Matchmaker'.

The TVCs highlight the importance of 'need' – the needs of both the buyer and seller – and how Quikr becomes the perfect matchmaker. The three commercials crafted by McCann Worldgroup, titled 'Sofa', 'Mobile' and 'Gym', communicate the message that an item which is useless to one, can actually be useful for someone else.

Going where the youth is

Vineet Sehgal

Garnering the youth's attention has been the company's primary focus. Vineet Sehgal, Chief Marketing Officer, Quikr, said, “Being an online classifieds site, our primary target group is youth. So, we realised that other than being present in the traditional advertising space, we also got to be where the youth is today. So, while creating the digital ads this time, we decided to make content which is different, and also with which the youth could easily relate to. Right through the history of Quikr ads, we have always maintained a quirky and humourous tone. So, associating with AIB, which is a fairly established channel, was a natural fit.”

Gursimran Khamba

Commenting on the campaign, Gursimran Khamba, Co-founder, AIB, said, “The brief which Quikr gave us was quite simple and straight forward. We were asked to convince people to actually sell their unused product. The only challenge in front of us was that our core team mainly comprises of four members and it is not as big as any digital agency. So, we choose projects which we feel we can do justice to and which are also close to us. For example, all four of us have used Quikr at some point of time and we love the product.”

The first online video 'Mobile Bechna Hain?' shows a customer who goes to a shop to sell his mobile phone, but gets harried by the shopkeeper who offers to pay him a meagre Rs 54 for his six-month old phone. It ends with the message 'Aise Logon ke muhh kyun lagna? Find your perfect buyer only on Quikr.' The video has clocked more than 3, 50,000 views on the brand's YouTube channel.

The second video, 'Quikr Date Film', opens at a restaurant, where a middle-class guy takes a girl out at an expensive restaurant. As the girl keeps selecting dishes and ordering them, the guy keeps on selling everything possible from his Quikr mobile app. In the end, when the girl decides to ditch him and still goes on to order desserts, he has no option left but to click his picture and put it up on Quikr with the message - 'For sale: Good Friend, Forever Alone'. The video ends with the message - 'The only place you'll never be undervalued'. This video has got more than four lakh views on YouTube.

Quikr's second experiment was integrating with the content on Star Plus and using the protagonists of serials in the brand commercials. “It was an experiment of a different level all together. We had launched these ads just before Diwali, with an aim to influence the household purchases of viewers and help in upgrading their items. We chose serials with fairly good TRPs like 'Veera', 'Nisha Aur Uske Cousins' and 'Saath Nibhaana Sathiya', and our challenge was to perfectly fit the brand in the storyline. It is true that each medium has its own reach and effectiveness. Television has the highest reach and creates the maximum buzz, digital creates engagement and also facilitates a two-way communication; outdoor on the other hand, acts as a reminder medium,” Sehgal explained.

While there are a lot of transactions happening in the classifieds category, what it lacks is the vital 'emotional connect', he observed.

Spot On?

BestMediaInfo.com spoke to brand and digital experts to understand how effective Quikr's new communication strategies are.

Anand Halve

Commenting on the online classifieds category, Anand Halve, Co-founder, Chlorophyll, said, “This category is a new one and there is enough room for growth. Lot of interesting things are happening because this space is entirely dependent on your mood. If you have the mood, you will sell an old unused item which has been lying in your house since long; similarly, the other person should also have a mood to buy your old product, only then the deal happens.”

According to him, both OLX and Quikr have been doing really interesting marketing. “Quikr has been using different mediums and I would ideally say that at this stage, you should try everything; in fact they should use the model which Yellow pages used in its early days,” he said.

Saurabh Dasgupta

Saurabh Dasgupta, Executive Creative Director, Innocean, said, “I simply loved the AIB videos, because not only are they hilarious, but also easily relatable. The TVCs showing split frames and the meeting of a buyer and seller concept is also interesting, but it is not creatively dazzling. The integration with Star Plus, on the other hand, is excellent, because planting a brand inside daily soaps is not an easy task and Quikr has done a brilliant job. The integration is a great way to reach that section of the audience, mainly the hardcore GEC viewers, for whom viral videos or the TVCs don't reach.”

Jitto George

Jitto George, Senior Account Manager, Gozoop, shared his view - “The digital route that Quikr has chosen is really nice and an effective one. For digital marketers like us, budgets are really a big constraint, so the moment you tie up with YouTube channels like AIB, the cost of production of videos immediately comes down. Plus the content which they produce is something which people can easily relate to, as communication is not made to just push the product. In fact, these days, we also suggest brands to tie up with these podcasts, because not only do you get to do great stuff at low cost, but these channels also enjoy good followers, which also benefit your brand. This kind of advertising is an off-shoot of in-movie promotions and it is really effective for an online brand like Quikr.”

However, he points to the flip side, saying that the moment another brand ties up with the same channels, the brand loses its uniqueness, and after sometime, people remember the ad, but not the brand, causing an identity crisis.

Saurabh Parmar

Saurabh Parmar, CEO and Founder, Brandlogist, finds Quikr's strategy interesting. He said, “Though the quality of the content could definitely have been improved, the product was well integrated. Another interesting thing was different taglines being used in different videos to showcase the different USPs of the brand. Usually, this can become confusing, but here the lines were clear in their communication.”

Digital:

TV ads: 

Star Plus Integration:

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com