The selfie is too 2014, meet the ‘velfie’
Video selfies, popularly known as ‘velfies‘, are the next big thing with brands, films and celebrities increasingly taking to them to promote themselves or their message.
Two Indian mobile apps—Frankly and Velfie—are tapping the potential of this platform and offering it to firms for use in job interviews, to political leaders to touch base with voters, and to brands and films for advertising and promotion.
To be sure, velfies may not entirely be a new phenomenon as global apps such as Dubsmash and Vine have been in this space for a while. However, the two new Indian apps offer more features—if the Velfie app offers live broadcasting, Frankly provides multiple dashboards that make the question and answer format feasible.
Dubsmash only provides users with the option of lip-synching to different sounds, while Vine is limited to six-second-long videos which need not necessarily be velfies.
The success of a velfie-driven campaign can be seen in Snapdeal’s ongoing #Snapdealvelfie challenge, which has already received 12,461 velfies on the Snapdeal sound board. Launched on 16 June 2015, the campaign requires users to download the Velfie app and record a velfie using any song from the Snapdeal sound board and share it on social media. Two winners will be gifted the Google Nexus 5 phone at the end of the campaign.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures. It is easier to build relationships with consumers by interacting with them on social media, and velfies are emerging as a good way for customers to engage with the brand,” said Idi Srinivas Murthy, senior vice-president, marketing, Snapdeal, the online marketplace.
“With regard to advertising, video gives a better opportunity for brands to engage with their consumers. It is much better than just showcasing a pre-roll or a post-roll ad format as the brand uses the platform and makes it its own,” said Rammohan Sundaram, co-founder of Mobi First Media Pvt. Ltd, the company which owns Velfie.
