Ok, we live in a digital world and that is a story that has been told many times before, but the technology is so dominant now that waving lighters during the ballades on concerts has been replaced with waving flashes on phones. People of the 21st century, popular Millennials, are known for their independence, impatience, constant “hunger” for new information and therefore they are early adopters of new technology.
Viber had all that in mind when created its own platform in late 2010 and fully adapted it for those who want a quick, easy and free communication with their friends, while providing them through Viber stickers.
Today, over 800 million users communicate via Viber, which makes it one of the most popular communication platform. Anyway, do you know someone in your community who isn’t on Viber? :)
The number of users is growing on a daily level, while the number of diverse sticker packages is growing simultaneously. Coincidence? Not really. Reason – companies became aware of Viber’s potentials for brand awareness. Let’s talk this through.
Don’t text me, give me a new sticker
Each pack of Viber stickers is a world for itself. They are created to raise brand awareness and to make a stronger connection between the user and the brand. The best of the stickers become viral very fast. It will not take long to conclude that the key factors contributing to virality of stickers are quality and fun. But if you opt for this type of brand promotion, it will take a lot more time to create and design just perfect content.
Viber sticker campaigns last for three months, after which it is possible to create a new one. The style and the tone of communication remain mainly the same, but the situation is what changes. A good example is Telenor’s campaign. The campaign kicked off with the Summer adventures of Čađo and Danilo, sticker pack launched in the summer last year, which was downloaded more than half a million times and sent over in 7 million messages within only a few months. Afterwards, the creative team of the company created a second stickers pack – Winter magic of Čađo and Danilo. This pack was downloaded 120 000 times in a month and few days. In February 2017, famous duo met their soulmates and decided to share their feelings with us the way they know the best – through new sticker pack called Čađo and Danilo fell in love. In this way, the connection with customers became even stronger, making followers impatient to see new adventures of these two heroes.
Sticker packs are available globally, each is adapted to the language and culture of the region for which it is created. Stickers are supported on multiple platforms – iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows and Mac OS, and there are several different types of sticker packs, so you can choose the one that is just for your needs:
- Free to download – a pack available for free download
- Free & Follow pack – available for free download, while a user who downloads it, automatically becomes a follower of the brand’s Public account
- Time to earn pack – available for free download when a user installs an application, answer the survey or does something else that is required
- Download & Visit pack – catchy thing for visiting mentioned URL address after free download.
When designing stickers, it is important to keep in mind that their goal is to enable creative ways of communication and expressing the emotions, no matter if we are speaking about stickers in form of a character, text, animation or a combination of all of this, because, let’s go back to the beginning – new generations like fast and entertaining communication and an interesting sticker will always be a good substitute for long text messages. :)
If one analyzes companies that have already chosen this kind of advertising, he or she may conclude that companies choose to create stickers which convey messages that are commonly used in communication, such as good morning, good night, see you, I love you, etc. while the rest of stickers are more personal, more directly emphasizing the brand itself. In both cases, it is necessary to have in mind that language, visuals, tone and emotion transmitted through stickers have to be reconciled with the brand identity and its target group.
Having in mind the importance of analytics, Viber allows you to track the performance of your adorable stickers with reports showing the daily performances of:
- Downloads – # of sticker pack downloads
- Sent 1on1 – # of any sticker from the pack sent in a 1 on 1 conversation
- Sent group – # of any sticker from the pack was sent in a group conversation
- 1on1 exposure – # of users who sent or received the sticker pack from a 1on1 conversation
- Group exposure – # of users who sent or received the sticker pack from a group conversation
- Public chat exposure – # of users who sent or viewed the sticker pack in a public chat
- Exposed users – # of users who sent or received the sticker pack in any of the Viber platforms.
Homework: write a sentence using the following words: Viber, bank, loan
In addition to stickers, Viber allows you to advertise through public accounts of particular brands. Public accounts are used for building a loyal community of dedicated followers and fans of your brand which will always be able to keep up with news. This is the place where you share information and communicate key messages in casual manner, but also provide your followers with much more than that.
Again, the example says more than a theoretical story and this time we will present you how Raiffeisen Bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina used Viber to promote its services.
With the service Raiffeisen Banking on Viber, followers of the public account have the option to make a payment to all of their Viber contacts who have opened a bank account in any bank in this country, received money in the selected account, and to get an overview of the status of all accounts opened in this bank and payments made through Viber application. In addition, followers can inform on bank products, see the status of the request, get service information and ask questions about loans, credit cards and a lot more. So, follower who wants to apply for credit can pick purpose of the loan, the amount, repayment period, the interest rates, ask to speak with the person in charge and, eventually, apply for a loan online in just a few steps. Having in mind customer who are not familiar with how Viber works, the Raiffeisen Bank created a manuals for Raiffeisen Viber Chat, Raiffeisen Banking on Viber and process of receiving and sending money. For all auditive types, the instructions are available in the official Youtube channel of the bank.
To make your public account more visible, but also your raise brand awareness generally, you can promote it through Viber Ads. You’ve probably noticed that after every free call, on your mobile or desktop device, an advertisement related to the new public accounts, stickers, certain websites or else appears. Following their trail, you discover the various novelties that you are more or less interest in. This content comes exactly to you based on your activities on Viber, the data you shared, the relationship with the advertised subject, and if you turned on your location, it will only make it easier for Viber to show more relevant ads to you.
Dilemma: Does it worth or Should I stay or should I go
What appears as controversial is the fact that a number of people stop following public accounts of after they’ve download stickers from free & follow category. One of the main reasons is the monotony of the placed content and lack of essential information. This leads to the understanding of Viber as a channel for distribution of content previously published on the website or other social networks. So, if you don’t want to be one of that kind of brands, we encourage you to be creative and not limit yourself – it’s totally ok to occasionally post a picture of your team in a relaxed atmosphere or a funny situation, to capture a creative chaos and moments “from idea to realization” and thus show that you are not robots that only deliver information. Not only you will become more interesting to your existing followers – they will simply adore you and recommend their friends to “follow that cool Viber account”.
So, as you continuously work on yourself, you should also work on improving your brand in the online and offline world in the same manner, and, as we said on the beginning, send good vibes only. ;)
