Decoding: OYO India Social Media Strategy

Social Samosa takes a look at how OYO India uses social media to promote its couple-friendly offerings and other comforts.

One of the first things that come to the mind when one hears the word OYO is couple-friendly hotels. It then extends to cheap short-stay accommodations. This is sync with their brand positioning, which is enforced every time one spots a red-hued board on a hotel in a city.

On social media, OYO promotes itself as a brand that offers two categories of services: Promoting tourist spaces and the idea to have a safe space to spend time with your loved ones, or even alone, in your own city.

"Our social media strategy at OYO has always been to own any and every reason to take a break, thereby showcasing our quality offerings for everyone. Therefore, many of our posts circle the theme of a holiday, vacation or simply, destinations," said an OYO spokesperson.

The spokesperson added, "We believe that there is an OYO that enables everyone's purpose of living the good life and that in a nutshell is what we are increasingly looking to put out there, through our social media efforts.”

Overview

Efforts are put in to create content around festivals and events happening across India. It helps develop the category with the CTA: If you are going for the experience, stay at an OYO.

Newer services in the brand's portfolio — OYO Townhouse, OYO Silverkey, and OYO Home form a good chunk of their social media content. OYO Rooms, the primary offering, however, takes the cake. Almost all the content put forth is topped in generous helpings of wit, humour, and fun.

There is quite a significant amount of content duplication across platforms. It helps in optimised amplification of the brand's message. An interesting aspect of OYO on social media is how they are pretty selective about the trending formats they create content on.

Giving insight into the strategy, the spokesperson said, "At present, we have an ongoing video campaign on YouTube, which is a big part of our social and digital strategy that streams these use cases, capturing snippets of these moments across various languages."

"We are adopting a similar strategy on other social platforms with our work on contextual topics like Women's Day, examinations, pop culture as well as to showcase data-backed trends in a quirky manner. We also use social media to showcase the inspirational stories of our asset owners across the globe," the spokesperson added.

Social Media Footprint

Facebook: 1.1M likes
Twitter: 57.1K followers
Instagram: 149K followers
YouTube: 59.6K subscribers

On Facebook, audience activity peaked during Valentine's Week this year. When measured against owner activity, the audience activity was consistently higher throughout the week. There is a significant difference between the number of likes and shares on the page with likes soaring much higher.

Talkwalker data suggests that OYO mostly puts up images on Facebook and these seem to be working well for then.

On Twitter, OYO India's content appreciation saw a peak around Valentine's Week this year and so did the activity numbers. In terms of engagement, the peak was observed in the week before Valentine's.

They seem to gain the most number of followers on Monday and Thursday. The brand mostly tweets pictures as well as gets most engagement on images, suggested Talkwalker data.

Romance & Privacy

The need for romance and privacy is a central theme in OYO's social media communication, with #CheckInForLove being a commonly used hashtag. The brand has put forth multiple creatives and video assets to promote these offerings as their USP.

This Valentine's Day, they also included an aspect of influencer marketing and branded comedy gigs in the mix. With these assets, the brand is trying to normalise the need for safe spaces to spend time in, with a focus on unmarried couples.

Influencer marketing

OYO often works with influencers, especially the ones that create content around travel. This is either done via posts or re-posts. These posts are almost never about the stay. It's about the experience these influencers have during their various domestic and international vacations. OYO as a brand is plugged in subtly because you will need a space to stay when you go holidaying, right? This is the core idea of the brand's influencer marketing leg.

Also Read: Decoding: The Subway India Social Media Strategy

Collabs & Rewards

Like any e-commerce business, deals and rewards are key to OYO India's business. They help get more people in. During Valentine's week this year, such offers were prominent on OYO, tying back to their brand positioning of being couple-friendly. These were a part of the bigger narrative that included topical content and influencer marketing. The CTA of all such posts is almost always to book a room.

Instagram Highlights

An interesting detail about OYO Room's Instagram presence is how they use the highlights feature to showcase their geographical presence and capabilities. These are a mix of domestic and international options. It can be likened to the brand's website drop-down menu. Potential, as well as existing customers, can use the option to know more about the brand.

Given the ease of use when it comes to Instagram highlights and their continuous nature, users are likely to engage more, for a longer time if they feel hooked to the content, like what they see. Brands colours help make it engaging and relevant.

Twitter for News

Though OYO shares media coverage on all platforms as and when possible, the frequency of such instances is the highest on Twitter. They tweet as well as retweet such informative content. Most of it features their senior leadership. These include links, newspaper clippings, and statistics. It helps add credibility to the brand in a way that may not seem as obviously relevant to users but are definitely important from a business point of view.

UGC & Testimonials

For any business, testimonials are key. They help build brand value with the help of real experiences by real people. It can probably beat any kind of advertising a brand can indulge in. To get people to create content is another unique feat for a brand.

OYO has used both ways to build its brand online. The testimonials put forth are shot with high production quality. These videos can be found on their YouTube page, packaged in a professional-looking minimalistic theme.

OYO India has been able to leverage social media to build its brand narrative and communicate it effectively. It is important for their business as couples do find it difficult to explicitly search for rooms. This USP helps them create a niche for themselves in terms of brand identity.