CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ON UNDERCOVER, STEALTH AND BUZZ MARKETING Undercover marketing is a subset of Guerrilla Marketing where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to. Undercover marketing strategies involve introducing a product to consumers in a way that does not seem like advertising. It is a strategy within the broader technique of stealth marketing, where agents pose as regular people and show products to others who are unaware of the marketing push. It is common for companies to employ people in positions of power or respect in their undercover campaigns.

1. BY:
SHREYA SOOD (13280)
SHRISHMA KUDADAH (13281)
SHWETA HANSDA (13289)
SIMRAN SONI (13292)
SUGANDHA PRIYA (13297)
SWATI KUMAWAT (13301)
VANDITA NIM (13311)
B.M.S - II

2. *Difference between Undercover, Stealth and Buzz Marketing
*Undercover Marketing
Introduction
Examples
* Stealth Marketing
Introduction
Examples
*Buzz Marketing
Introduction
Examples

6. SELLING AN EXPERIENCE

7. form of advocacy
getting the consumer to become an “advocate” for the brand or
cause
senior political leaders
approaching technology start-ups
remain in the spotlight
trying to pull their opponents off the pedestal.

8. to generate buzz is economical
network of referrals which
grows and grows
reach consumers isolated
consumers tend to trust it
Financial risk here is
relatively

10. A new, independently owned bike shop
to create a viral word-of-mouth effect
in its city
employ a few bike enthusiasts and
visit bike-related websites, go to biking
community events to talk about the
shop, through casual conversation with
the shop's target demographic.

11. A major shoe company
hires a few professional basketball
players
who wear a newly designed pair of
sneakers in public for several weeks
before the company begins
advertising the design.

17. music albums and videos
in a way which doesn’t look
like a marketing practice
Dabbang movie “Zandu
balm
“Munni badnam hui…”
in Dabbang 2 promoted
“Fevicol”

22. *Formed in October 2001 as a 50/50 joint venture
between Japan- based consumer electronics maker
Sony and Sweden-based Ericsson.
* Sony Ericsson (market a line of co-developed
cellular phones) = Sony’s expertise in developing
popular gadgets + Ericsson’s cellular technology

23. *60 actors took the streets of 10 cities.
*Focused on tourist attractions like The Empire State
Building in New York, the Space Needle in Seattle, etc.
*Supposed to say, “Excuse me, you mind taking a picture
of us?” asks one fake tourist, handing over the gadget to
the person. Later, responding to the favor in way like,
“Thanks a lot, man. It’s cool, right?”
*Then, explained some phone’s features.
*This operation – brainchild of John Maron, Sony
Ericsson’s Marketing Director.

24. *Sony Ericsson responds to
those who opposed the idea,
that most consumers won't be
offended. "How many times
do people that you don't know
come up to you and talk to
you?" asks John Maron.
*"It's very natural, especially in
a club or restaurant." He adds
that the actors will confess that
they work for the company if
they are asked directly.

25. *60 actresses and female models with extensive
training in the phone's features.
*Target: trendy lounges & bars.
*Got scripted scenarios like:
- phone rings & caller’s picture pops up on the
screen.
- 2 women sit at opposite ends of the bar playing an
interactive version of the Battleship game on their
phones.

26. *Due to technical difficulties in past, which led to
bad brand sentiment on their facebook page.
* To overcome this a live online experiment “
Xperia Social Xperiments” was created with
comedian; Tommy Little
*Locked in a room with just Xperia & a live video
link
*GOAL: Within 8 hrs, has to get maximum
possible people like him on FB, by doing
whatever he was asked to do.

27. *Challenges: rap, wax legs, etc.
*Sounds silly, but did gain
public attention.
*Received over 850 challenges
in a day, 1000s followed the
activity, gained 1500+ likes.
*Users were incentivized with
prizes.
*People engaged & had fun with
the brand. This was a well
executed campaign.

29. Microsoft, inc. is a multinational company that develops a
wide range of software products.
The most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows
operating system.
The company was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul
Allen.
Microsoft has been the largest software company in the world
for at least 8 years in a row.

30. *Xbox One is a video game console
developed and marketed by Microsoft.
*Announced on May 21, 2013, it is the
successor to the Xbox 360 and is the
third console in the Xbox family.
*It directly competes with Sony's
PlayStation 4.
*Xbox One was released across North
America, several European markets,
Australia, and New Zealand on
November 22, 2013, and is scheduled
for release in Japan and the remaining
European markets in 2014.

31. Microsoft is paying
bloggers on YouTube
gaming channel
Machinima for featuring
Xbox in their video
updates.
The video producers get
paid extra for including 30
seconds of Xbox One
game footage and
mentioning the Xbox One
with the tag “XB1M13”.

32. *Microsoft has signed a secret deal with the Machinima video games
network in which Microsoft will pay people an extra $3 per
thousand video views above Machinima's normal payments.
*Main part of the agreement :
1. "You may not say anything negative or disparaging about
Machinima, Xbox One or any of its Games in your Campaign
Video;
2. "You must feature at least thirty seconds (:30) of gameplay/footage
of any Xbox One game within the first 2 minutes of Campaign
Video
3. "You must verbally mention that you are playing the game shown
on the Xbox One console."

33. Though it’s a very unique strategy but in my view,
Microsoft is misleading the audience by purposely
making the bloggers post videos for the sake of the
monitory gain.
Microsoft's motive was to compete with Sony’s
PlayStation 4 by marketing and advertising the
Xbox One by the Undercover Marketing technique.

35. *The campaign may fall afoul of FTC guidelines designed to let people
know when endorsements are being paid for.
*Where the Microsoft campaign might fall into trouble is the section
regarding "Disclosure of material connections." (Part 255.5 of section
5 of the the FTC Act)
*That section says in part that “When there exists a connection between
the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might
materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement...such
connection must be fully disclosed.”
*The Microsoft deal seem to violate the FTC guidelines. Microsoft
denies any violation. But whether or not the agreement violates the
guidelines, it's still wrong.
*When people see YouTube content not associated with an advertiser,
they don't expect it to be influenced by an advertiser. Microsoft's
paying people to post videos of Xbox One games and not say anything
negative about the Xbox One is clearly undue influence.

46. Indian Railways is an Indian state-
owned enterprise, owned and operated by
the Government of India through the Ministry of
Railways.
It is one of the world's largest railway networks
comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over
a route of 65,000 km (40,000 mi) and 7,500
stations.
There are fourteen public undertakings under the
administrative control of the Ministry of Railways,
out of which, one is Indian Railway Catering
and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).

47. IRCTC was incorporated on 27th September,
1999 as an extended arm of the Indian
Railways to upgrade, professionalize and
manage the catering and hospitality services at
stations, on trains and other locations and to
promote domestic and international tourism
through development of budget hotels, special
tour packages, information & commercial
publicity and global reservation systems.

48. *Let’s take an example of a website that sells weight loss
pills.
*This site might create a few other sites such as discussion
boards about weight loss pills, a forum, a review site, a
comparison site, and a blog.
*These sites don’t say buy X product, but the way that the
content is formulated and structured will hint at which
pill is the most valuable and best to use.
*As long as it does not get spammy, this is a good way to
use stealth marketing on the internet.

55. *During the year 2008-09, the Corporation achieved a total
income of Rs. 618.77 Crores as compared to Rs. 527.66 Crores
in 2007-08 thereby registering a growth of 17.30 %. The
increase was achieved in spite of the fact that bed roll and
cleaning business has been transferred back to Railways. The
major increase in the income in the year 2008-09 over
previous year was achieved due to licensee catering (from Rs.
289.20 Crores to Rs. 341.02 Crores), quantum jump in internet
ticketing (from Rs. 39.18 Crores to Rs.74.81 Crores) and
tourism activities (from Rs. 9.72 Crores to Rs. 27.94 Crores).
*The income of licence catering increased on account of higher
number of units put on tender, efficient tendering system and
increase in licence fee from static units. Quantum jump in
internet ticketing was witnessed due to good marketing
efforts, upgraded infrastructure and improved customer care.
The growth in tourism business was achieved due to IRCTC's
foray into educational tour business, tour package business
take over of Bharat Darshan trains by IRCTC.

57. .

59. *.
*

60. “Ab tera kya hoga Kaliya?”
“Bade bade shehron mei aisi choti choti
baatein hoti rehti hain”
“Mere paas maa hai”

61. Cloverfield (2008)
The viral sites helped Cloverfield to a $40m
opening weekend and laid down the gauntlet for
future campaigns.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Knight’s inspired campaign cemented viral marketing
as a legitimate way of adding ticket sales.
Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Spielberg’s android epic took the viral phenomenon one step
further with the introduction of an ARG (alternate reality
game) nicknamed ‘The Beast. TV shows like Lost and Heroes
have since inspired effective ARGs; ;(while the movies
didn’t produce another real success until a certain ‘Why So
Serious' campaign).

62. CASE 4 :
ixigo.com

63. Introduction
 India’s leading online travel search and
planning website
 Based in Gurgaon, India
 Infomediary that aggregates travel websites
to compare information and deals
 Principal founders - Alok Bajpai and Rajnish
Kumar
 Started the company in June, 2007.

64. *Reach the rising Indian middle classes and global
travellers alike.
*Belief- if the product was good enough, it would
succeed and people would tell others about it and it
would start to take off.
*Put the product out there, introduced it to the market
and they just let people naturally talk about it.

65. *Within 6 months, visited by more than 105,000 unique visitors
*attract the quality target audience - those with money to spend on
travel excluding window shoppers
*Money that might have gone into conventional advertising instead
used for ixigo’s search engine technology
*Today customers arrive via buzz and social media marketing
(Facebook, Twitter etc.) rather than from traditional marketing
channels

66. OBJECTIVE
*Launched in November 2013 to highlight pitfalls of
blindfolded travelling.
*Used television, radio, outdoor and print mediums in
addition to social media
*Achieve substantial reach for ixigo.com

67. EXECUTION
*Answer the TVC related questions using the hashtag
#PattiBandhKe.
*The most number of right answers become the winner
*Followed by a contest where the users had to Tweet
about the #PattiBandhKeMoments, situations good or
bad, arising due to unplanned travel.

68. RESULT
*Big success attracting impressive traction
*Increased buzz around ixigo’s first television
commercial
*Gained meaningful interaction and followers.

70. They had to identify and get progressive farmers
and
opinion leaders to interact with the brand. So,
* created an event around the product that
encouraged interaction
* gave test rides and sold it to opinion leaders.
carried out in villages of Punjab, Haryana, and
Maharashtra in a very sustainable manner.
MAHINDRA TRACTORS

71. ASIAN PAINTS
*Participating in an ongoing activity
*Objective was to create ‘reference sites’
*Opted for high visibility spots such as the
village head’s home, the Panchayat office
etc.

72. October, 2003- Apna
Bazaar, chanted "Jassi,
Jassi, Jassi" and
dispersed-to promote
Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin.
[India's first flash mob
with a marketing
objective]

73. In Gurgaon -promotion of
Don 2 started with a group
of guys indulging in a fake
fight and asking each other
where is Don.
They then danced over
“Zara dil ko thaam lo” from
the film.

74. In December, 2011
-“Dance India
Dance” promoted the
third season in the
capital. Several mobs
were organised at the
popular marketplaces
of Delhi.