Amazon v/s Flipkart: The battle of online sales...

Amazon India Great Indian Festival social media strategy & Flipkart Big Billion Days social media strategy, both go all out. Who wins?

Great Indian Festival & Big Billion Day both ran on the same dates, fighting for attention on every platform possible. Each of the brands relied heavily on one hero element to reach out to the masses. A look at the Amazon India Great Indian Festival social media strategy & Flipkart Big Billion Days social media strategy further helps understand how Amazon India & Flipkart leveraged various platforms and concepts for one common goal.

Amazon India Great Indian Festival Social Media Strategy

Replicating
what has worked for them in the past, Amazon has attempted to cover every touch-point
through influencers & content. Across their social media handles, Amazon
India, worked to keep the conversation alive and consumers engaged; the talk
points consisted of products, offers/deals, contests, and influencer shout
outs.

While
most of their content is platform agnostic, each platform leads one strategy
clearly. For instance, Twitter acted as the contest hub throughout the span of
the sale, while Instagram was a pictorial compilation of the Festive Yatra and
the influencer outreach.

As
a pre-buzz to the main festival, Amazon India released a launch campaign. After
Apni Dukaan, this year’s campaign focuses on the core proposition of the sale –
buying a lot at lesser prices. Though most of their video assets focus on the
family buying proposition.  

On Facebook & Instagram, efforts were made to keep the consumers aware of the products and exclusive deals and offers. The e-commerce giant also attempted to stay topical, with every important occasion (such as karwachauth) marked through a creative.

The entirety of their social media content, especially on Instagram is driven by offers across categories. Pushing this further, they also roped in category wise influencers to keep enthusiasts of that industry looped in the conversation.

Amazon Festive Yatra

One
of the stand-out marketing elements was the Amazon Festive Yatra, a house on
wheels concept that took a multi-city tour, to highlight the e-commerce brand’s
offerings, especially the home-based and local products.

The
offline tour was captured online, with testimonials, influencer efforts, and
daily updates. Capturing the perspective of the entire spectrum, Amazon India
featured consumers, sellers, and influencers engaging with the Yatra in their
own capacity.

Consumer Testimonial – Chennai

Seller Testimonial

Further, city-wise influencers were also roped in to create a buzz in the places the Festive Yatra will be arriving.

Influencer Testimonial – Ahmadabad

Completing the circle, Amazon India also shared team testimonials, giving a view of the euphoria and behind the scenes madness of the sale.

Gopal Pillai, Vice President,
Seller Services, Amazon India

Instagram handle, Amazon News reported the entire yatra in real-time, creating a road-trip effect on Instagram. From their arrival to a new city, to aerial shots, tourist spots, and the people – the Festive Yatra plays a travel influencer to the tee.

One of the major driving forces of the Amazon’s festival content plan were contests. Most of them were shaped to highlight the deals, urging consumers to spot and claim offers. There was also, an Ad Hunt contest.

Strong Contest Game

The
contests ran across social media platforms, with focus on Twitter and a number
of nano-influencers appear to have participated in them.

#AmazonDealsKaFeels

#CatchTheAmazonDeal

#AmazonRocketDeals

#AmazonAdHunt

#AmazonFerrisDeal

Also Read: India Inc to create digital heavy plans this festive season

Flipkart Big Billion Days Social Media Strategy

Flipkart’s Big Billion Day social media marketing strategy is massively celebrity-driven blended with essentials such as product and deals updates, behind the scenes drama, and contests. Celebrities here not only added the glam factor but also played the role of influencers with periodic posts on their timeline.

A
standout in the Big Billion Day strategy would be the Big B Bot on WhatsApp. Built
within the WhatsApp UI, the bot engaged with consumers through emoji, throwing
fun questions and challenges at them. With a game-show effect in place, the bot
managed to create an inclusive avenue for engagement.

Pre Buzz

In
addition to #BigBillionDays, #BigDiwaliSale was a consistent hashtag across
platforms. The homegrown ecommerce brand had an active pre-buzz strategy. From daily
updates and celebrity shout-outs to partner testimonials, Flipkart created a
vibe of being well prepared for the biggest sale of the year.

Alia Bhatt

Virat Kohli

Anushka Sharma

Kent RO Varun Gupta

Flipkart also created a number of video assets, all featuring celebrities, ahead of the sale. From Dhoni, Chris Gayle, to Amitabh Bachchan – all featured on Flipkart’s social media handles.

Chris Gayle

M S Dhoni

Ahead of the sale, Flipkart initiated the #AajKiRaat contest wherein consumers had to guess the product through a series of emojis and stand a chance to win prizes.

Brand partners also tweeted ahead of the sale, making their fans and followers aware of the offers/deals.

ASUS India

Gionee India

Emphasis on Team Flipkart

Leveraging their homegrown image and highlighting the team efforts, Team Flipkart finds a consistent presence in the Flipkart Big Billion Days Social Media Strategy. Most of it is reflected on an individual handle, Flipkart Stories and Work at Flipkart.

#HumansOfBBD,
as the hashtag suggests shared stories about the people involved in Big Billion
Days and how it contributes to their life.

Life at Flipkart

Amazon v/s Flipkart

With
Diwali sale being one of the biggest events of the year, in addition to the
obvious factors such as monies and brand value at stake, both Amazon India
& Flipkart also compete on the marketing front. Always going neck to neck,
both, Amazon India & Flipkart, look at an extensive budget and have a more
or less similar base. The stand out factors would be – celebrity factor for
Flipkart and Festive Yatra for Amazon India.

Social Samosa in association with Talkwalker takes a look at who won the number game on social media.

Mentions

• Amazon: 283.2k 
• Flipkart: 381.5k

Engagement

Posts
with most engagement for Amazon – Comments: 71.4k, Reach: 102k

Posts with most engagement for Flipkart – Comments: 47.1k, Reach: 37.2M

Hashtags

• #AmazonGreatIndianShoppingFestival has 75.1k mentions
• #TheBigBillionDays has 77.5k mentions while #AajkiRaat related to Flipkart has 49k mentions

Emojis

• Both Amazon India & Flipkar have the heart emoji as the most used emoji.
• More cell phones are sold on Flipkart since it is one of the top emojis for the ecommerce site with 3.1k mentions. For Amazon India it's only 1.1k.
• For the camera emoji with 3.7k mentions for Amazon India leads v/s 1.1k mentions for Flipkart

Demographics

Both brands have similar demographics

Influencers

Flipkart
has a sweeping majority of influencers since most of the top 10 influencers are
talking about both brands or just Flipkart. The most active account for
Flipkart is Realme, followed by Manu Kumar Jain - this explains why the phone
emoji is so predominantly featured for Flipkart.

For Amazon India, the most active influencer is Manu Kumar Jain as well and RedMi India, but both accounts also talk about Flipkart.

Conclusion

Flipkart relies on the celebrity factor for sure shot reach which is then backed up with engagement avenues such as a bot & contests, humanizing the brand with stories, and validating their efforts with testimonials.

For Amazon India, the hero of the campaign is the Festive Yatra which is supported by influencer outreach, testimonials, and consistent push of offers going the good old hard-sell way.

In
terms of numbers too, both lead in different capacities. While picking one
winner would be difficult, it will be interesting to see for how long can
ecommerce brands sustain with extensive marketing budgets.