Social Media Campaign Review: Rajdhani Slice the Mango Contest

Rajdhani, The Vegetarian Thali Restaurant which is the flagship brand of Mirah Hospitality with presence across major Indian cities has launched a Slice the Mango Contest on Facebook.  They are actively promoting it on Twittter as well.  Rajdhani, known as a "thali place" with 72 different rotating menus with 22,464 delicacies from Gujarat and Rajasthan is going all out to reach mango lovers in India this summer with this contest.

Objective:

With three lucky winners to be chosen every weekend, the Rajdhani Slice the Mango Contest aims at engaging fans on Facebook through the week to reach a crescendo at the end of the week.

Execution:

The contest is hosted through a Facebook app, but to play, you have to 'Like' the page first.  Next up, the app requests permission to access your public profile which might be a deterrent if you have privacy concerns.  The app also seeks permission to post to your friends; I skipped this step as I wasn’t sure if all my friends would like that!

Once you start playing, all you have to do is slice the mangos which appear on your screen to fill up the bowl of aamras and complete the thali in the picture.  I mango is equal to one bowl of aamras and five mangoes pop up on the screen in each round.  If you like you can keep playing so you can join the leader board.

Positives

The best thing about the contest is its timing and theme. With summer at its peak and mango being the flavour of the season, what better way to attract people than mangoes and aamras?

The Facebook app is well designed and challenging as I discovered it’s not easy to slice those mangoes which pop up on the screen.

The contest is also being actively promoted on Twitter so it is enjoying social media exposure on two very big platforms.

Scope for Improvement

I really think the possibility of winning just a thali voucher is not enticing enough to get me to spend time slicing mangoes on Facebook.  A meal for two perhaps might have been a better prize?

As mentioned earlier, those with privacy concerns might choose not to play the game and come to think of it just a voucher might not be motivating enough to sacrifice privacy concerns. This aspect needs looking in to.

An offline initiative to support the endeavour might have grabbed more eyeballs than just the virtual one currently in the public eye. Say something like thali vouchers for every 100^th customer at Rajdhani restaurants across India?

Conclusion

All in all, the concept has a great theme, good timing and well designed execution through the Facebook app. Throwing in some offline support might have made the campaign truly effective and complete. The Indian love for mango has been capitalized on and the aamras angle keeps it truly Indian in keeping with the essence of the Rajdhani brand.

Most Indian restaurant chains might want to take a leaf out of this endeavour and come up with an innovative way of engaging patrons on Facebook!