The online sale battle between the top e-commerce brands – Amazon and Flipkart

Amazon India Great Indian Festival social media strategy & Flipkart Big Billion Days social media strategy, both go all out. Great Indian Festival & Big Billion Day both ran on the same dates, fighting for attention on every platform possible. Each of the brands relied heavily on one hero element to reach out to the masses. A look at the Amazon India Great Indian Festival social media strategy & Flipkart Big Billion Days social media strategy further helps understand how Amazon India & Flipkart leveraged various platforms and concepts for one common goal.

Amazon India Great Indian Festival Social Media Strategy

Replicating what has worked for them in the past, Amazon has attempted to cover every touch-point through influencers & content. Across their social media handles, Amazon India, worked to keep the conversation alive and consumers engaged; the talk points consisted of products, offers/deals, contests, and influencer shout outs.

While most of their content is platform agnostic, each platform leads one strategy clearly. For instance, Twitter acted as the contest hub throughout the span of the sale, while Instagram was a pictorial compilation of the Festive Yatra and the influencer outreach.

As a pre-buzz to the main festival, Amazon India released a launch campaign. After Apni Dukaan, this year’s campaign focuses on the core proposition of the sale – buying a lot at lesser prices. Though most of their video assets focus on the family buying proposition.

On Facebook & Instagram, efforts were made to keep the consumers aware of the products and exclusive deals and offers. The e-commerce giant also attempted to stay topical, with every important occasion (such as karwachauth) marked through a creative.

The entirety of their social media content, especially on Instagram is driven by offers across categories. Pushing this further, they also roped in category wise influencers to keep enthusiasts of that industry looped in the conversation.

Amazon Festive Yatra

One of the stand-out marketing elements was the Amazon Festive Yatra, a house on wheels concept that took a multi-city tour, to highlight the e-commerce brand’s offerings, especially the home-based and local products.

The offline tour was captured online, with testimonials, influencer efforts, and daily updates. Capturing the perspective of the entire spectrum, Amazon India featured consumers, sellers, and influencers engaging with the Yatra in their own capacity.

Consumer Testimonial – Chennai

Seller Testimonial

Further, city-wise influencers were also roped in to create a buzz in the places the Festive Yatra will be arriving

Influencer Testimonial – Ahmedabad

Completing the circle, Amazon India also shared team testimonials, giving a view of the euphoria and behind the scenes madness of the sale.

Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services, Amazon India

One of the major driving forces of the Amazon’s festival content plan were contests. Most of them were shaped to highlight the deals, urging consumers to spot and claim offers. There was also an Ad Hunt contest.

Strong Contest Game

The contests ran across social media platforms, with focus on Twitter and a number of nano-influencers appear to have participated in them.

#AmazonDealsKaFeels

#CatchTheAmazonDeal

Flipkart Big Billion Days Social Media Strategy

Flipkart’s Big Billion Day social media marketing strategy is massively celebrity-driven blended with essentials such as product and deals updates, behind the scenes drama, and contests. Celebrities here not only added the glam factor but also played the role of influencers with periodic posts on their timeline.

A standout in the Big Billion Day strategy would be the Big B Bot on WhatsApp. Built within the WhatsApp UI, the bot engaged with consumers through emoji, throwing fun questions and challenges at them. With a game-show effect in place, the bot managed to create an inclusive avenue for engagement.

Pre Buzz

In addition to #BigBillionDays, #BigDiwaliSale was a consistent hashtag across platforms. The homegrown ecommerce brand had an active pre-buzz strategy. From daily updates and celebrity shout-outs to partner testimonials, Flipkart created a vibe of being well prepared for the biggest sale of the year.

Flipkart also created a number of video assets, all featuring celebrities, ahead of the sale. From Dhoni, Chris Gayle, to Amitabh Bachchan – all featured on Flipkart’s social media handles. Ahead of the sale, Flipkart initiated the #AajKiRaat contest wherein consumers had to guess the product through a series of emojis and stand a chance to win prizes.

Amazon v/s Flipkart

With Diwali sale being one of the biggest events of the year, in addition to the obvious factors such as money and brand value at stake, both Amazon India & Flipkart also compete on the marketing front. Always going neck to neck, both, Amazon India & Flipkart, look at an extensive budget and have a more or less similar base. The stand out factors would be – celebrity factor for Flipkart and Festive Yatra for Amazon India.

Flipkart relies on the celebrity factor for sure shot reach which is then backed up with engagement avenues such as bot & contests, humanizing the brand with stories, and validating their efforts with testimonials. For Amazon India, the hero of the campaign is the Festive Yatra which is supported by influencer outreach, testimonials, and consistent push of offers going the good old hard-sell way. In terms of numbers too, both lead in different capacities. While picking one winner would be difficult, it will be interesting to see for how long can ecommerce brands sustain with extensive marketing budgets.