Social Media Strategy Review: Videocon D2H

This review is a part of our ‘Social Media Strategy Review’ series where we do a 360 degree analysis of a brand’s entire social media activity. You can read the reviews of more brands here.

Videocon, a brand which was once known for consumer electronics, had moved into DTH services with two objectives: to cash on whatever is left of the brand equity it enjoyed by extending the brand into a comparatively less-competitive sector , and to keep the mint spewing money to keep the brand's bottom-line from bleeding red. Videocon D2H is one of the few players in the industry, which is led by Tata Sky and Dish TV.

In the 2009 Brand Derby survey carried out by Business Standard, the DTH brand was ranked as the 4th most successful brand in the year, and it also became the first DTH service provider in India to ship A 3D-ready Set Top Box. Its satellite DVD won product of the year award in 2010. These recognitions and awards had been the result of some real hard work.

In this article I am going to analyze if Videocon D2H has carried the same hard work forward on to the social media or not. We will see how well it has used the new media to connect, interact, and engage its audience.

Audience Analysis of Videocon D2H

DTH, as a category, appeals to everyone in a family across age and gender divide. The category is geared more towards the quality of services offered and less towards any specific age-group or gender, so it should be expected that the brand will have fans and followers from all age groups, as is the case represented by the following image.

Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

The product (and services) offered by Videocon D2H is such that there is some strong opinions about the brand in social media, with only a handful of people taking the neutral ground. But one should study such data with a little bit of caution as the negative sentiment expressed in the following two graphs may not be always related to poor engagement on social media, or bad services in totality.

It could also because of episodic lapse in customer services by friendly but not-so-informed customer services executives. It is only in the details that the real meaning of these graphs can be understood.

Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

Overall Strategy

Creating a social media strategy map for a DTH provider is a tricky job and any clarity on how a DTH service provider should use social media has not been achieved. This could, probably, be the reason why the leading providers like Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV are not present on social media in any big way.

Videocon D2H has taken a less-travelled path by being present on social media. But that does not pass for a strategy. Apart from announcing entertainment and sports news with some other news dotted once in a long while, there appears to be very little in the DTH provider's social media plan. It has used twitter, to some extent, to solve customers' problem, about which I'll talk below.

Videocon D2H on Facebook

On Facebook, the DTH services provider has more than 815,000 fans, which makes it the most followed page in its category in India. One of the reasons behind its success can be attributed to the fact that the brand is there on Facebook, as there is nothing stellar about the content it posts.

The posts like the one below could have been a crowd-puller, but uninspired writing, and a lack of brand correlation has deprived the studied brand from the mileage it could have garnered.

For a DTH brand, posting things related to cricket and movies (two drugs that people here are hooked to) is not a bad move. In fact, when used appropriately, they could be vehicles for the brand to piggyback on, but here again, Videocon fell short of expectation.

For example, in the post below, the D2H provider could have added some details like which channel on the Set Top Box the users should tune to watch the event they missed. The brand could have also promoted its digital recording Set Top Box in the same vein targeting busy people.

Videocon D2H should also have used the platform to make people aware of its various packages, services, ways to contact customer care, on-demand videos that it is offering, etc.The platform could have been used to address some common questions that its customer service team faces.

The DTH company has, though, included a customer support form in a tab on Facebook, which has been made prominent on the page. This is a wise move and promoting it in various posts should have made this effort even more fruitful.

Despite all the things that the DTH service provider is not doing, it has succeeded in creating some decent per-post engagement, as you can see in the following image. The brand should have gained more if it had executed a proper social media plan. One of the elements of which should have been a series of recurring posts spread across timeline talking about various aspects of its services, and answering common questions.

Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

Currently, Videocon D2H is running a contest as well to boost engagement, but the prize appears to misaligned with the intent of the participants. I do not see many people craving for a suit worn by Abhishek Bachchan in the brand's ad campaigns.

The campaign had created a success story if the suit belonged to Shahrukh Khan (or any other khans) or Senior Bachchan. A worn suit is as it is not much of a "grand prize" which the contest promises to give to the winner(s).

Videocon D2H on Twitter

On Twitter, the studied brand has a little less than 3,100 fans And following the path set on Facebook, when it create proactive tweets it talks primarily about Bollywood and sports.

The tweets are, to a large extent, miniature copies of Facebook posts. The lack of a proper plan is evident from the tweets, which are conspicuously devoid of hashtags.

Kareena is now officially Kareena Kapoor Khan after her marriage to Saif. Will appear as that in Satyagraha credits.

— Videocon d2h (@Videocon_d2h) August 29, 2013

 

With the success as a producer, like Vicky Donor and Madras Café, which John Abraham would you #demand2have? Producer or actor?

— Videocon d2h (@Videocon_d2h) August 27, 2013

But it is refreshing to see some serious effort being put into addressing customer queries on twitter, which appears to satisfy customers (see the third tweet).

@Tushar_rai Please share with us your Customer ID with you correct address, so we can assist you further.

— Videocon d2h (@Videocon_d2h) August 30, 2013

 

@ketan83 We have forwarded your query to our concerned department and will get it resolved at the earliest.

— Videocon d2h (@Videocon_d2h) August 28, 2013

 

@Videocon_d2h Thanks for your quick support.. Based on my experience, @Videocon_d2h provides the best customer support :-)

— Sibi (@sibikaran) August 26, 2013

 

Comparison with competitor

Dish TV is one of the closest competitors of Videocon D2H, and like other players in the category, it is also endorsed by a Bollywood star, in this case Shahrukh Khan – probably the most recognizable face in Bollywood today, after Amitabh Bachchan.

Dish TV has created some interesting pieces of content (like the one below) and matched it to the occasion, but despite such efforts it only has succeeded in making its fan-base barely half as big as that of Videocon D2H (see the second image), even its per-post engagement is lower than that of the studied brand.

Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

Source: Simplify360 – A Social Media Analytics Tool

Although the per-post engagement is lower than Videocon's, it has secured more comments on its posts, on an average. Posts on Dish TV page is shared and commented upon more than that on Videocon D2H's page – they are almost double, in percentage term (see the image below). You can notice that in the above image.

Content on the Facebook page of Dish TV is richer than that on the page of the studied brand. It has also tried to boost engagement by taking a curious stance on entertainment tax, which apolitical (and anti-political class) Indian middleclass will intuitively support.

Despite sharing many shortcomings with the studied brand and a much smaller fan base, Dish TV has done a superior job in social media than Videocon D2H.

Conclusion

Videocon D2H, indeed, has the largest fan base in its category, but there is a long road ahead for the brand. The DTH service provider needs to formulate a proper plan for social media participation, an absence of which is evident in the posts it has made. Videocon D2H needs to improve on the work it has been doing in social media.

EXPERT VIEW:

Videocon D2H seems to be carrying out its social media activities thinking lets put any generic content that gets us likes or shares. They are doing this without thinking about the outcome for its brand or even strategy towards improving its brand voice on social.

Clearly the social piece is low priority for people at Videocon D2H or else they would have done more than just have a generic content strategy for its brand. A DTH provider can do some much more with its social presence. It can be real-time with its updates taking about what to watch on TV. Playing up from its TV campaign of TV pe pollution nahin and so on.

Clearly lot to think about for Videocon D2H when it comes to its social presence.

Expert View by Rajiv Dingra Founder & CEO of WATConsult – An Award Winning Social Media Agency.

 Analytics support courtesy: Simplify360

What do you think about Videocon's social media strategy? Share your suggestions in the comments below or drop us a mail. We'd love to hear what you think.