IndiaFM launches viral marketing campaign for ‘Bluffmaster’

The banner campaign, which was available on the homepage of IndiaFM last week, had a slot machine which was made available for the users to play…

Media Release, December 21

MUMBAI

IndiaFM.com, the leading Bollywood portal unleashed a viral marketing campaign for Rohan Sippy’s Bluffmaster! starring Abhisheik Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Nana Patekar and Priyanka Chopra, which is releasing worldwide on 16th December 2005.

The banner campaign, which was available on the homepage of IndiaFM last week, had a slot machine which was made available for the users to play. On pulling the lever thrice, the surfer won and was informed of winning $100,000. All the surfer had to do was to give in some personal information. After that an email was sent from the server that it was just a bluff and a link was provided so that the surfer could find out who had played the bluff on him. Clicking on the link took the user to the Bluffmaster! page which had an option of playing this Bluff on his/her friends.

A total of 30,000 participants interacted with this campaign and sent it to another 78,000 people.

Viral marketing basically thrives on the theory of ‘word of mouth’ but on a digital platform. Here, it is the motivating software that makes the receiver into a sender, which in turn promotes and spreads your marketing message. Probably the greatest example of viral marketing was the case with Gmail - an email account started by Google was given only to a handful of “power users.” A lot of people desired to want one account and its demand increased.

Apart from the viral campaign, there is also a contest wherein surfers are asked to submit the biggest bluff they have carried out ever and the best one will be crowned Bluffmaster!

Suleman Mobhani, Co-founder and Director, IndiaFM, says, "Today’s advertising fatigue, media fragmentation, product convergence, online boom, brand clutter and unpredictability of consumers have made one thing certain. It is vital to make consumers talk about your products.

That’s why we create contagious products and campaigns and help Bollywood studios harness the power of word-of-mouth. The Bluffmaster! campaign offered an online experience that stood out from the norm. It began with planning and seeding of the campaign which involved a nucleus of users which later grew into a huge body”

IndiaFM has won the Abby Gold in 2003 for their viral marketing campaign for Yash Raj Film’s Mujhe Dosti Karoge starring Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee.