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Talking buckets!
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ibibo.com invites people with financial acumen
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Vivek Bahl
During the Australia-India Test series, the audience were in for a shock when every time during the break, an advertisement popped up with ‘balti’ (bucket) as the central character. The message of the ad said ‘some people are balti
and balti doesn’t answer’. The advertisement comes from ibibo.com, a social networking website, which is using a multimedia approach to create brand recall. ibibo is an abbreviation for ‘I build I bond’.
Vivek Bahl, the marketing head of the website, says, “The word balti is used to create curiosity and it has provided us an entry point among the masses. Generally people use dhakkan as slang for such people. We thought of creating a new word, and it seems it is working.”
Vivek says the site is different from other social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook. “At other sites you tend to meet only long lost friends. Here you can meet new people. And we don’t look at our site as something meant for a South Delhi or South Mumbai dude. Here, even the halwai next door is welcome, because his recipe could be of help to somebody.”
Another speciality that Vivek points out is recognition. To begin with, the site, in collaboration with Zee News, is launching a Public Ka Vittamantri contest. “With the budget round the corner, we are inviting entries on the site from people who have knowledge about finance and taxation. They have to answer certain questions, and those selected will participate in a contest on Zee News where former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha will grill them. On the basis of public vote and expert opinion, a Public Ka Vittamantri will be chosen.” Vivek also hints at starting something called ‘bloggers hall of fame’.
Secrecy maintained
Launched in January last year, the site, according to Vivek, has one million registered users. “The site is secure as we have taken measures whereby the user’s information will not be available to all unless he wants it. In case of an argument over a blog, we provide the option to the two users to talk over phone for free for 10 minutes, once a month.” Here too, he adds, “The phone numbers of both the persons will not be revealed.”
ANUJ KUMAR
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