ibibo attempts to go viral with “balti” ads – Are you game?
ibibo, the company with deep pockets has been trying interesting ways to go viral. The first attempt was Rs. 1.5 crore blogging challenge, which was a major disaster and resulted in nothing more than spam (though ibibo got it’s seed user base from this campaign) .
Then, ibibo went ahead and bought tons of Google adwords and used cheesy advertising techniques, like ‘funny adult non-veg jokes’.
And now, the attempt is to attract the non-geeky users and seed viral adoption of the service with their newly launched “balti” TV commercials.
What has balti (i.e. bucket) to do with ibibo?
Typically, a person is usually labeled balti when he/she doesn’t respond to others and doesn’t have much to share (i.e. the boring/introvert ones). In short, balti is actually an anti-thesis of what ibibo is trying to promote, i.e. social networking.
Each ibibo TVC ends with “Kuch log balti hote hain, aur balti nahin bolti, bolta hai India ibibo.com par” punchline, i.e. if you wanna meet non-baltis, hop to ibibo!
Well, so far so good – but let me ask you – Did you know the balti funda prior to this ad? I didn’t and none of my friends (even the ones from North) were aware of this – which essentially means that the seed of this viral campaign has basic flaws.
I actually logged onto ibibo’s site to find out the idea behind “balti gyaan” (which probably means more ‘baltis’ like me will add to ibibo’s traffic, which anyway is heading south!!)
What’s your take on ibibo’s balti ads? Did you discuss the ad (whether it’s good/bad/ugly) with somebody else (i.e. added to the viral campaign)?
I’d love to know.
Watch the ads here.
Interestingly, website advertising on TV registered a growth of 190 per cent during January-August 2007 as compared to the same period in 2006, [source 1, 2] and ibibo will certainly lead the way in 2008!!
Recommended Read: Online advertising in India – Word of mouth works better than SEM | Social Networks and Human behavior – why few socionets are successful?
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
Even I didn’t understood the ads by ibibo & none of my frends.
But one of my frends is working in Ibibo.
Poor guy, he spent around 15 mins to explain the ads.
Even after listening his explanation, I never understood why the bomb squad need to login into ibibo to know his next step. Thank god, as a continuation, these people doesn’t show up the guy in bomb squad logged into ibibo immediately with laptop & successfully defused the bomb.
After watching their ads I decided to remain as Balti only in IBIBO’s view rather than becoming a balti blogger in my frend’s eyes.
Chandu – the “balti”ness behind bomb squad ad was to promote ibibo’s sawaal (QnA) – i.e. login to ibibo’s sawaal to get the qns answered.
But again, I had to scratch my head to understand this!!
“After watching their ads I decided to remain as Balti only in IBIBO’s view rather than becoming a balti blogger in my frend’s eyes.” – That’s the whole point. Their product doesn’t have enough spice for non-balti users
i am not sure if this kindof advertisement will help MIH . i am afraid it will do a lot of damage . they are doing a wild extrapolation here .. they are essentialy picking up a real world Face 2 Face Encounter where one party fail to communicate and concuding that this party is balti . and you will find talketive guys/gals at their portal.
HOGWASH !!!!
what they don’t understand is that “Balti” is a very context sensitive term . Commentator on Slashdot are most socially awkward people you will encounter . they are not able to communicate in any face2Face meeting or if someone talks to them in Train for that matter . but on Net they are compulsive talker. these kind of user fuels Soc Nw. Adaptation .
someone please tell them that Soc Nw. are simply Tech mediated platform to have conversation . if someone doesn’t need tech to start a conversation (ie who is not a balti ) why on earth he need a proxy in the form of ibibo or myspace or Facebook ??
One of the myspace founder’s once mentioned that they specifically targeted people who were less popular socially, possibly fat or introverted, thus they spent a lot more time online and built very strong profiles. ( ie the Real world “Balti”)
this advertisement will alienate them from their biggest potential userbase. First Paying money for Blogging, now this Ad ….its really interesting to see how many times MIH india can afford to shoot them self in foot before they can understand what they are doing . they are on their way to become india’s WebVan. enjoy the ride
Ashish … thanks for the explanation coz it was badly needed. I happened to watch the ad only yesterday and could not make any sense outta it.
All I understood was even after splurging so much, MIH India still has pockets deep enough to buy airtime on Star Cricket.
A wider audience is kinda guaranteed on TV but I still doubt the ROI ..
@Prashant: I agree that the ads do not make much sense …infact, most of us don’t know the idea behind "balti" and the ads need to be explained!! – which shows on the callibre of ad agency!
I, instead like the Reliance mobile blog ad – very well executed and no-nonsense stuff (infact a non-geeky friend asked me ‘what’s moblogging and how do go about it’? – which means ad made it’s first impressions.
Hey everyone
I just received an email from Ibibo, pasting it as it is below. Well I’ve never been even close to giving them my email, and I have no clue why they’ve signed me up. Look at the auto generated username in the query string to the activation URL – ILIKEBIKE !!
WTF is all I can think of. My guess is they’re sending emails to all permutations of first names and surnames. Ashish.. man you’ve got to do another post on this, please please don’t let these people get away with this
The email follows :
Hey animesh, Welcome to ibibo! You are now a member of India’s fastest growing community! Now ask & answer questions… share your opinions… write a blog… create polls… upload your photos and make new friends on ibibo.com or connect with your family and bring them closer together on onefamily.com! Please verify yourself by clicking on the link below: http://myaccount.ibibo.com/Auth/VerifyMe.aspx?username=ILIKEBIKE&vid=XxRSU3V5ly5NfWQGnYwdoogAxQU%2bniuOtmBQTfhNBCU%3d
(If clicking on the above link doesn’t work, copy it and paste it into your browser) In case you did not request an ibibo membership and are receiving this email in error, write to us at feedback@ibibogroup.com Regards, The ibibo team
http://www.ibibo.com To ensure that you receive future emails from ibibo, add ibiboalerts@ibibo.com to your address book or as an approved sender in your email settings. Please note: This is an automated email, do not reply to this message. For any inquiries or suggestions, email us at: feedback@ibibogroup.com
Privacy statement: ibibo.com takes your privacy seriously. We encourage you to read and understand the terms and conditions of our website.
ppl at soc n/w sites tend to be what they alws want themselvz to be… this is unreal.
well in that case… i accept myself to b a balti… in unreal world. m happy wid that.
so this is first impression that ad generated.
first i had to find out what this ad is all about.
and then it had a bad first impression.
tragically ridiculous is what is have to say about this ‘balti’ thing…..it’s just like one could have said anything else; don’t be a cup, be hiccup, go ibibo; don’t be a broom, give urself a room at ibibo; i think these are equally pathetic.
it’s just a whimsical fantasy of an ad-guru or someone high up in the mgmt because apart from this sole reason, i don’t see a single reason why this would have been encouraged and thought of as something ‘catchy’….are these guys kidding all of us, well their intentions might have well been to get themselves popular through whichever method possible – but this path, this is insane – i still can’t believe it that something as weird as this actually went on to become an ad and is constantly, yes constantly being shown on the TV….money sure can do anything… believe me i could have made a better ad, although i have never thought of making one and it would sure be a tasking task – but this result can be overpowered anyday anytime…
…the more i say, the less it is and this is probably what ibibo aimed at – getting the audience inquisitive/frustrated/querying/bad-mouthing….but i’m sure detesting, which has been the outcome with the people that i know, was not a part of their plans…
and it is not virally spread that this ad is pitiable, it is a common feel everybody gets – there is no ad sense [pun intended] in this….wouldn’t it have been much much better had ibibo displayed that they have a few features which others lack or something to that effect…
it is, hands-down, the biggest worst ad that is have seen…ibibo better hope that a worse ad comes up so that the nightmares [pun intended again] that this one gave are washed away…in fact i suggest ibibo make an ad for a competitor, that’s the best way it can market ibibo – mark my words ibibo – u have the ability, start making advertisements (not very different from the ‘balti’ kind of idea) for a close competitor of yours – that’s a sureshot victory path!
believe me ibibo had some respect as an enterprise, but that’s been washed away now – still can’t believe it – balti!
I believe ibibo is taking "mallika sherawat" route – i.e. if people don’t love you, they should hate you. Basically, only in either case junta will talk about you!
What do you guys think?
Exactly, never knew this Balti funda.. no where in India did you hear it.. I guess ibido was being over ambitious and was actually trying to create a funda here…they thought the ad would be so popular that poeple would start calling introverts as balti..whatever shit that means.. I don’t think the ad has any impact..
I think ibibo is trying to take potshots at photobucket.com (and therefore the "balti photos store nahin karte" line), which is another site that offers free online media storage. If that’s the case, I’m not sure why they chose photobucket of all sites – I’m not sure of how many Indian Internet users know of or actively use photobucket.com for their online photo storage as against, say. flickr.com or in the albums sections of their preferred social network.
Long shot, but that’s the only sense I could make of the ad.
Since I am currently not in India, I didnt have a chance to see these Balti ads on TV. To say the least, I was appalled by the senseless-ness of the entire concept.
@Prashant
You righted pointed out that such advertising will only distance them of their actual "market" which once made Social-networking what it is today.
@Ashish
Yes, Reliance Ads always strike a genuine chord with the end customer. Be it Reliance Mobile Blog Ad or few months old Bol India Bol campaign — they not only truely reflect the Indian consumer attitude but also at the same time arouse the curiosity of an an average customer to try out the new service.
A side note- I accidently bumped onto "Balti" ads when I wanted to register on Onefamily.com (another Web 2.0 venture targetting family social-networking from Ashish Kashyap, CEO of ibibo). However it turns out one NEEDs to have a unique Ibibo ID to join this new social network. Definitely not a clever move and wont be suprised if similar viral campaigns are soon aired for the same.
@Karn Chandra true for Reliance.. they definitely made headlines with the Sehwag ki Ma ad
I would prefer to remain a balti than join ibibo. Social networking sites like Orkut and good for me. All my friends are there. I am not going to join every social networking site that keeps popping up every now and then.
very miserable. when i could not understand the balti thing, i searched in google and found all people are in the same state of not understanding their Blati concept and further they loved to be Balti forever!!
Good. When few teen age guys get few crores of money from their reckless business parents they resort to this type of mindless “failure sure ” strategies Only.. Only pain to us is the compulsion of watching their meaningless ad in TV.
Ditto! Neither me nor any of my friends (who are from all over India) understood what batli meant. We had to go digging to understand the ads being shown.
That’s a lot of south african money down the hole.
Even I feel that the whole ‘balti’ concept was a take on photobucket. Their very first ad had a preview about photo storage. A very poor move when photobuckt hasn’t made a huge mark in India yet. Overall, a very poor concept, no research…a shot in the dark for sure. Like the others, I prefer to be smart and remain a ‘balti’.
Cheers!
Its a punchline against their major competitor, photobucket.