FLASH MOB MARKETING

A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized viatelecommunications, social media, or viral emails.The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms or as publicity stunts.

This form of marketing has been successfully used in the past in the US mainly & has of recent taken an entry into India. A most recent example was one where Apparel Brand, Allen Solly employed 100 models dressed in their latest casual collection to move around our very own TGIP Mall (The Great India Palace, Noida) & they all froze together at different spots for 7 minutes. This really took the shoppers & all out their by surprise given that there was a quite a crowd gathered at the Mall give that it was a pleasant Friday evening on the 30th of October. The passers- by started prodding these people & stopped only when they saw the Allen Solly tags on their grab. The Brand definitely made quite an impression on a focused group of people & at a low cost too.

This is one amongst some of the recent attempts at cashing in on flash mob marketing, the other being Colors promoting Big Boss 3 or Channel V or 7Up engaging troop dancers to promote their new look. However, a Flashmob comes with its own liabilities. So long as its done in malls, it free from any legal policing, however, if it needs to be taken to streets, it must be done in a very calculated manner so as to not to disrupt any traffic or the normal rhythm. One wrong step can get you fined or slapped with a case under Sec. 37(1) in India.

Despite these hurdles, there is no doubt that the venture is novel and saves the much needed marketing expenditure during a recession (rather hopefully speaking in the post recession phase). A lot of companies are in fact allocating a handsome part of the promotion budget for BTL (below the line) promotion which previously stood at a meager ratio of 1:9 Vs ATL.But then, just like the guerrilla marketing tactics, it needs to be seen that this form of promotion is not over used, lest it looses its luster.