Edenred scores Rs 12 mn worth display through online cricket game

Advertising on digital has to be about finding innovative ways to speak to the consumer, and by doing so, companies can hope for greater virality and better content. With the right idea, a company can reach a far greater audience for far less spending than they would if they stuck to traditional marketing methods.

For Edenred, a company specialising in the employee and public benefit market, with the main focus being ticket restaurants, online marketing using a cricket based game seems like a stretch at first. Suraj Singhal, Head - Marketing and Products, Edenred India, however, feels that as a business, Edenred provides “an easier life”, and with the three minute online game, is offering people a quick stress buster so they can work, take a break, get refreshed, and become more productive.

The brand needed to reach out to an audience which is mostly to be found in offices, and so decided that the online medium would be the most targeted approach, but instead of going with display advertising on websites which might be frequented by their TG, Edenred chose to innovate and collaborated with StickGames, the company behind the 2006 breakout free online game, Stick Cricket.

The result was Ticket Cricket, a free website where people can come and play cricket, while competing with their Facebook friends, and supporting their favourite teams, and the interaction has been incentivized with prizes related to gaming, like a Sony PSP or to cricket, with the grand prize being tickets to watch the IPL finals in Chennai.

For Edenred, the ad impressions delivered would have been worth Rs 12 million if they had invested in traditional display advertising. Because the brand was willing to innovate, they ended up spending a fraction of this, and the resultant RoI on their advertising is significantly higher than it would have been.

Singhal said, “The game is an online format, so it's easier to each out to the wide spread of our target group, which is made up of employed professionals, who also lead stressful lives. Ticket Cricket is an ongoing initiative and sychronises very well with the brand. In 30 days, the site has seen 150,000 visitors, with 220,000 page views. The game was only promoted on Facebook and 4000 people liked it, close to 80 per cent have shared the game to their friends as well. Based on last year, we will see it pick up more in the last fortnight of the IPL.”

He added, “We had seen 300,000 visitors last year, and similar engagement. The engagement is improving and next year we’re going to try and promote this on the ground as well. We’re also looking at mobile, for the next IPL season.”