As the profusion of social media starts to gain momentum in India, a whole host of companies are rolling their sleeves up and getting ready to ride this bandwagon.

Drizzlin Media is one such company. It was conceptualised by Deepak Goel and Robin Jacob Abraham in late 2008. Goel, a 31-year old comes with a background that involves a mixture of educational disciplines. He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Delhi University and an MSc in International Management from University of Strathclyde.

Abraham, the other founder, prior to becoming the co-founder, has had stints with Oracle and Webchutney. Initially, the company partnered with Webchutney but in October 2009 decided to be on its own. Goel explains the rationale of starting up this venture. “Having had an exposure in the social media domain nationally and abroad, I knew that there is an immense opportunity in this domain.” The opportunity that Drizzlin sees involves a combination of several factors- a 200 million Internet user base, a 750 million cellphone user base and a youth population that is increasingly discarding traditional media for newer ones such as Facebook or Twitter that puts the Internet at the heart of every communication.

Growth opportunity Companies like Drizzlin see opportunities beyond Facebook or Twitter in India, which, is expected to reach Rs 2,000 crore by the end of 2013. “Today the need to be present and seen there has increased. Companies are sensitive towards what has been said and written about the company on social media,” says Goel. Hence the urgent need for companies like us, to help them reach out to their consumers, cater to their needs, which eventually results in reputation building of the company. So, what is it that this company does? Drizzlin utilises social media deeply and uses it for business change. What can it do to your business? How can it change your strategy? How can you connect with your consumers better?

In other words, companies like these are locking horns with big consulting companies like Mckinsey and ad agencies (though almost all ad agencies have independent social media groups). The company specialises in two areas – consumer insights and customer engagement. Goel explains. “We track online user generated content and observe public sentiments around brands, social issues and anything that might matter to them. Unlike traditional market research our ‘observational research’ solutions source only from unsolicited user generated conversations on the web.” Similarly, with the insights from the consumers, Drizzlin then utilise the customer understanding to develop deeper relationship between the brand and its consumer. “We do not restrict ourselves to the consumers only. Our three pillars of engagements are customer, employees and community,” says Abraham.

We analyse what kind of content works for a brand and what doesn’t, who are the brand ambassadors across platforms, what are the best practices and measure campaign effectiveness, explains Goel. The company also offers employer branding solutions. This solution explores the ecosystem of the new voice employees have to talk in the social web. Does it inhibit them or encourage them? Do companies create policies to channelise this energy and how can our employees turn out to be our brand advocates are some of the questions it asks.

Client base As more corporates begin to get marketing-savvy, opportunities for companies like Drizzlin media opens up. But like all startups, the initial part was a struggle. The company battled low awareness of the concept of digital marketing, poor investment climate for service businesses and a battle for talent. Over time, the company has bagged clients like Lenovo, Max Life Insurance, KFC, Airtel, Bajaj Alliance in the last couple of years. It recently signed up Dalmia Continental as social communications partner for its Hudson Canola Oil brand. The companies’ mandate includes setting up the brand’s presence on the web with an objective to drive strong awareness around the category and the brand. The primary target audience is health-conscious individuals, who can easily make the switch to a healthier lifestyle by simply changing the oil they use in their kitchens.

The company has growth ambitions but faces a whole lot of challenges. As a business, digital marketing has a very low barrier to entry- some contacts and a collection of people who monitor social media sites and analyse the chatter around them. This involves sustained investment- in terms of talent and technology. The company has not raised any funding but it seems to have been internally funded. While Goel says that he is looking for funding as it would enable the company to do more research and in other areas such as infrastructure and people. Looking at another set of numbers, companies like Drizzlin may be looking at a very small piece of the pie. India still has around 300 million illiterates and several millions unable to speak the English language fluently. So, that effectively rules them out to embark on the social media space for a few years. Warren Buffet once famously said that only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked. India’s digital marketing companies may well heed that.

>venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in

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