"why this Kolaveri di" - a Social Media Marketing Bang

Hand la glass,  glass la scotch,  eyes-u full- of  tear-u , empty life-u,  girl-u come-u, 

life reverse gear-u. lovvu lovvu, oh my lovvu, u showed me bouv-u, cow-u cow-u holi cow u.

Above lines are the 'Tanglish' (Tamil-English) lyrics of a song from the movie '3' directed by Aishwarya Rajinikant Featuring Tamil hero Danush. This video was released digitally on November 16 by Sony Music, later made waves on the social media and spread like wild-fire all over the country in no-time.

The song Kolaveri di, appeared as the number one Indian trend on Twitter on November 21. first regional film song to be played by radio stations around the country, It became the most searched video on YouTube with 83000 views in 24 hrs (total of 5 crores ) & attracting more than 12000 likes in its official fan page on Facebook.

When i saw this song for the first time I enjoyed it I played it again and again. But I really started thinking of it when one of my friend raised a question, why such a hype being created around a normal song  ???  The answer is  simple SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (using social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, linkedin etc for Marketing communications). I'm unable to trace out if the film crew has appointed a Marketing agency to do all this. But the way this particular song penetrated through out the country, one has to doubt its strategy. Firstly the song was released in a social networking platform, after its rounds on the web most of the media houses let it it be in print media or electronic media started communicating the success of the song (it shows the strong PR this film unit have maintained). Kolaveri di goes viral says CNN-IBN. The Hindu says, why this 'why this Kolaveri di'


The song is just an example.Most of the business organisations across geographies are using Social media to Traditional media, to make use of ever increasing internet users. Few companies including social media along with their traditional marketing communications & few companies exclusively using social media depending upon their operations and the product nature.

One major advantage of Social Media Marketing is, it provides a hassle free two way communication unlike the traditional media. 79 per cent of the largest fortune 500 firms use social media platforms to communicate with customers & major stakeholders (Burson-Marsteller report). Many companies now have a Facebook fan page, tweets its updates on twitter, have a YouTube channel to show case their case studies or success stories & have a linkedin page for brand awareness among the customers.The reason is simple instead of reaching the target audience using a media find out a media most loved by the audience so that it can reach masses easily.

Finally, social media for some people a time killing drug & for other its a money churning machine in the ever changing marketing dynamics.

References  

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2650957.ece
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dhanush-overwhelmed-with-kolaveri-di-success/205088-8-68.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/1166750/1/.html