Last month two global fast food giants – McDonald’s and Domino’s – launched their TV Campaigns in India. Both of these campaigns can be best described as “digitally inclined” TV Campaigns. Why am I calling them “digitally inclined”? – Because the objective of both of these campaigns was to get users to order online. While McDonald’s promoted its mobile app, Domino’s chose to promote a relatively newer form of digital asset called Progressive Web App.
As a consumer, I loved the McDonald’s creative – emotional and tempting at the same time. However, as a digital marketer, if I were to objectively comment on the approach taken by the two companies towards encouraging online orders, my vote would definitely go to Domino’s.
Yes it’s true that India has a smartphone user base of over 300 million. But the fact still remains that 65% of this user base has less than 16GB of storage space on their mobiles. Majority of this storage space is consumed by social media apps (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, etc), so much so that it wouldn’t be wrong if I were to say that apps across industries, besides competing with apps within their own category, are competing with WhatsApp for space on their target user’s smartphone. All this means that businesses shouldn’t make apps a significant part of their digital strategy until they can drive the installers to use the app multiple times a week. App installs that are incentivized in any way will only lead to uninstalls later.
Does this mean that that businesses should stop investing in mobile assets? Obviously not! I would say, definitely invest in mobile assets but take the Domino’s route as opposed to taking the McDonald’s route. Domino’s TV ad does not ask people to download an app. Instead it asks the audience to order via mobile. To drive intent, the ad ensures that the offer is tempting enough – “FREE PIZZA” if the orders were to be placed through mobile. Now that is what I call a smart digital investment – both the asset and its promotion will reap results in the long term.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of iProspect as an organization.
