EC launched Mitsubishi Cedia Sports - The Great Driving Challenge on June 22, 2009. For the next 8 weeks, the online destination will invite driving enthusiasts (couples only) from around the country, to apply for an all-expenses paid drive-away, lasting 12 days. A grand Jury will shortlist the finalists, based on the quality of their application, enthusiasm they demonstrate online, the support they garner on their social networks, their passion for the road, and also their ability to narrate the live journey through blogs, photos, videos online.



Day 1 turned out to be a 'myth-buster' for EC team. Here are some of the lessons learnt.




Busted Myth #1: Print Medium does not work for Internet Campaigns.

The GDC campaign started with a mainline AD (print), which garnered over 5000 unique visitors within few hours. We held back on a simultaneous release of online campaign, just to gauge the reach, quality of traffic and effectiveness in terms of conversion - it was important for us as a Digital Agency in India, to measure the ROI on print.  While the traffic volume was in line with our expectations, what turned out to be surprise was the very high quality (inferred from the super-low bounce rate (<6%), and conversion ratio >25%) of traffic - far exceeding benchmarks for brand supported destinations, that we seen in our past projects.

Busted Myth #2: Social Media Content is primarily generated by youths.

We assume that social media content is mostly created by youth, and it would be a challenge to ignite interest in the more mature community (25 years+) to apply online (writing blogs, uploading photos etc), while busy with their work, family, jobs etc. "Who will have so much time to spend online, creating applications", speculated a team-member when the idea was first conceptualized.  Guess what?  We have seen some awesome applications from many couples all ranging from 25-60 years old. Average age of applicants is hovering around 31. One applicant in his sixties, appeals to all in his application, arguing that they are the best couple because.. “29 states, 13 countries, 15000 KM per year drive and 35 years of experience. Beat that! ”

Busted Myth #3: Deep engagement in online marketing campaigns is a challenge, since we are dealing with the impatient generation.


Over 2000 people signed up in a matter of hours and over 50% had already started a meaningful application within Hour 3. By end of day over 300 people had completed a meaningful application, uploaded photos, mashed up their flickr streams, annotated a google map, and were ready to reach out on their social graph for testimonials and votes.  The average stay time for people creating application was over an hour. Our jaws dropped! We were prepared for a long haul to entice applicants to fill up their forms (blogs), but the core of the community had formed rather quickly.

Our take-away from the campaign thus far:

(1) "Print media" works amazingly well for such campaigns, setting expectation for users, who navigate to the website with a clear intent to participate. The crisp design of the site is a bonus, capturing attention in precious few seconds, and persuades the user to engage by signing up in 2 clicks.

(2) Do not underestimate the power of user-generated-content (UGC) from the mature Indian Audience (aged 25-45). The quality of user generated content witnessed thus far, is proof positive of the rapid ascent of the indian internet audience on the Social Technographics ladder.The social computing behavior of indian professionals, weaned on Orkut & Facebook, demonstrates their rapid evolution from joiners/spectators to critics/creators.



(3) The Indian Internet Audience has many other faces than 'just' the youth on Orkut and Facebook caught up in their world of pokes, scraps, games, chat and flirt. The other half of the audience, who are professionals with a busy schedule, juggling jobs, family, trips etc , seem equally interested to participate in the social web, when presented with a compelling idea.