Ola is well known technology company that acts as an aggregator for transportation services. Started in Mumbai and now established in Bangalore, Ola was valued at $5 billion. But this journey from a start-up to a billion dollar company has never been easy. They have made some smart moves throughout their journey which have let them to this platform where no competitor seems getting close to this successful brand. They are not trying to be profitable but want to be a household name in taxi services in India.
Many referral programs and discount voucher techniques, aimed to expose the customers to a brand new taxi service in India at affordable cost. Sometimes they used digital campaigns like “Cashless chalega India,” or at times using social media as a weapon to get popularity and acquire valuable customers. Recently Ola’s Twitter account behaved differently when it said something like “ My dream is to drive, over the rainbow so highhhhh.” Most of the socially-active people thought, it was again a hack. As it was not a long time when the news of hacking of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account was heard. As Twitter users thought what’s wrong with Ola’s account, it started tweeting on different brands and celebrities like “Bro @onlybabasehgal, aaja meri gaadi mein baet ja, and then let’s go to the Gym!”. The mischievous account didn’t leave Zomato by “Hey @ZomatoIN YOUR CUTE.” After this playful game, some people thought it was work of an intern who probably over-drank on Christmas eve whereas some were seen talking about the social media manager, who was about to be fired for this blunder. But when it was revealed that the account wasn’t hacked and the intern didn’t drink too much that Eve and all these series of tweets were a part of the campaign that Ola played to create awareness among the youth against drunken drivers.
This was an example of the use of social media at its best and then using “the hack”, generated lots of buzzes. It requires real guts for trolling your 83,000 followers, but Ola hits hard this time. And the campaign was bang on target along with perfectly Ola’s core value proposition – cab aggregators are the best way to get home after a drunken night out this holiday season. Many start-ups must have learned a few things from this intense campaign by Ola. Not always playing a safe game, leads to success and one must learn to take risks in life because they are the ones that drive you up the stream.Not just taking risks, but also by taking calculated-risks shows the intelligence. There must be a strong reason behind every move on social media, either like Ola’s care value lesson or could be a funny act, but it should not hurt or oppose any community, religion or group. Lastly, there should be the total engagement of followers on social media, as their engagement leads to the success and popularity of the company and turns the start-up into a brand name in future.
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