Adgully Exclusive | Young and mobile population of India is our target group: Nissan India's Dinesh Jain

With the Social Networking sites taking the world by storm, business is taking a new course and finding new ways to expand their reach to all the section of the society.

While the queue and all would be a thing of the past, ever heard of an online audition ' that too on Facebook?

Well Nissan has launched a one-of-it's-own kind initiative ' a unique talent hunt called the "New Star of India'.

The "New star of India' campaign is one of the world's largest online talent hunts, with fans uploading a short clip of them dancing for a chance to appear alongside Ranbir Kapoor and also a chance to win 100 Micra cars.

Adgully caught up with Dinesh Jain, CEO, Hover Automotive India (Nissan's sales/marketing/after-sales partner in India) who shared his thoughts on a campaign of this nature and some insight on this unique style of brand promotion.

Adgully (AG): The new campaign is 'The World's First Bollywood movie auditioned on Facebook'. Tell us about the concept behind this campaign.

Dinesh Jain (DJ): Nissan "New Star of India' (NSOI), online talent hunt is our first digital media initiative in India that we launched in last October 2011.

During the audition, Facebook Nissan India page received over 2300 short clips of people dancing for a chance to appear in the 4 minutes "New Star of India', first Bollywood movie auditioned online.

However, only 20 lucky will be Ranbir's co-stars, and they will help to produce the movie by shaping the plot, choosing the music, picking the wardrobe, designing the posters and naming the characters.

Renowned director Ahmed Khan of Tall fame directed the NSOI movie using 100 Micra cars for the shoot at the Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad. The movie has already started appearing at the dedicated Nissan India - New Star of India page on Facebook ­' www.facebook.com/nissanindia.

Such social media initiatives have helped Nissan in maximizing brand visibility.

AG: Tell us about the creative agency doing the process for the NSOI campaign.

DJ: Nissan conceptualized, designed and executed the NSOI campaign using various agencies covering design, creative, film production house and online marketing. In conceptualizing and developing the concept, London based AKQA agency played a crucial role.

AG: What is the target audience you are looking at through this campaign? Since it's a social media campaign, are you trying to cater to a younger consumer section?

DJ: Young and mobile population of India is our target group. This is since we found that the young and mobile population interacts more frequently using the digital media. We chose Facebook and Youtube to run our innovative Nissan New Star of India campaign. In addition, Nissan has used Twitter as well.

AG: Do you think, a social media campaign like this would add an edge in promoting/marketing the product and will reach to a larger audience base?

DJ: Definitely, and the results are there for all to see. Within a span of a few months, the campaign has gained more than 500,000 fans with thousands of Facebook audiences discussing about it on a daily basis. The sheer involvement of our current customers in this campaign is a pleasant surprise and we are extremely happy with the overall response.

We have used 360° approach through print, electronic, ATL, BTL and other initiatives. We have used radio, television, print, and online social media and shopping mall activation.

AG: Share with us your view on evolving marketing trends -- from e-commerce to f(Facebook)-commerce.

DJ: Today, it's the customer who is important and their expectations have undergone a drastic change. Earlier, there were limited options of communication. The mediums have increased today with larger number of options in the print/TV/digital /trade medium.

AG: What are the key objectives of the NSOI campaign? Do we see a 360 degree communication push here?

DJ: The objective behind New Star of India campaign was to convey two different aspects of our business ' Innovation and Excitement through a locally relevant, meaningful campaign. We wanted to take our customer engagement to a different level ' both for our current as well as prospective customers. Also, the thinking was how can we integrate the social media reach with our brands. The fact that this campaign has to be run on an online platform like Facebook made it's connect very well with the young and mobile population in India.

AG: Also, do you think that a digital/social media campaign can exists all by itself without assistance from any ATL or BTL activity and be equally effective?

DJ: Since Digital/social media users do not cover the entire population of India, it is important to have comprehensive and integrated marketing approach. It is important to tap all modes of ATL and BTL communications opportunities including various media of mass communications such as print, electronic, online, social media, outdoor and indoor opportunities.