Tata Docomo launched its DO Year Greetings contest online. See some of the rules for the contest.
“1.A participant must primarily be a fan/follower of the official TATA DOCOMO pages” / identities on Orkut, Facebook and Twitter. These identities are as follows:
1.Participants need to visit the Contest page ‘happydoyear.tatadocomo.com/do-greetings-contest.aspx’ links, as mentioned in point (1) and/or add TATA DOCOMO as a friend for the platform(s) they wish to participate from or start ‘following’ TATA DOCOMO (in case of Twitter only)
3.The participant must add an Official TATA DOCOMO fan page on at least one of the platforms (Orkut, Facebook or Twitter) if he wishes to start playing the contest.
4.Only participants who have successfully added official TATA DOCOMO fan page / identity, as mentioned above can participate in this contest.
7.To participate in the contest, a participant has to first become a fan/follower of the official TATA DOCOMO ID on Facebook, Orkut and Twitter and thereafter either:- ……”
Instead of repeating, add us as fan/become a follower, they could have very well announced, “This contest is applicable only to the fans of Tata Docomo in Facebook/ Orkut/ Twitter. Do you like Tata Docomo, but not a fan yet! Join us here in Orkut/ Facebook/ Twitter”.
Well this contest could have increased the fan base of Tata Docomo in the Social Networking sites. But are these fans genuinely interested in following Docomo or just added it only for this greeting contest!
Sometime back Vodafone India organized “Complete the Zoozoo story” contest where being a fan is not mandatory to participate in the contest.
Tata Docomo – “Do the New” and you’ll get true fans even without T-shirts or Greeting contests. What do you say?
I personally fell that online contest are not able to capture the rural market in India. Were as in India 1/3 of mobile usage in rural market. Many players already penetrate the urban market. Hence they can target & grow in the rural market
Do u think Tata Docomo by doing “Do the New” Promotion will be unsuccessful in India ?
Considering the fact that Tata Docomohas already added 20 million subscribers in just 6 motnhs (which is a record and that too by a huge margin), i think their strategy seems to have worked..what the author doesnt seem to understand is strategies such as these contests are awesome for brand positioning..and even if 5% of the participants are converted into Tata docomo users, its a big success..and considering the fact that in 6 months they’ve added 20 million users, their marketing strategy needs to be appluaded!
Satyajeet, I’m not talking about Tata Docomo’s marketing strategy in general, I’ve commented about this T-shirt contest only.