Fancy a Liquor Ticker on WhatsApp

As part of its brand revamp campaign, Delhi-NCR-based Cafe TC, along with Dentsu Webchutney, uses WhatsApp to reach out to its patrons.

Friends often make plans through WhatsApp to meet over drinks. There's nothing unusual about it. Taking a cue from this behavioural insight, the Delhi-NCR based Cafe TC (Turquoise Cottage) reached out to its patrons using WhatsApp in an innovative brand revamp campaign.

Along with its digital partner Denstu Webchutney, the cafe has created a Liquor Ticker on the popular messenger app. Executed by Dentsu Webchutney Innovation Lab, Liquor Ticker converts Cafe TC's status into a running ticker and the profile pics into ever-changing GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format: an image format which animates), to show a vast variety of content -- from its brand new logo, to the new menu and a host of offers. Users can send a screenshot of an offer they like to avail at the bar.

Gaurav Soral, founder, Cafe TC, says, "Our brief to the agency was clear. Promote our revamp in a way never done before, but of course, within a limited budget!" Soral admits he was a bit apprehensive when told that the popular chat app will be used for the campaign. "When the agency told me that they will use WhatsApp, I was a bit sceptical since WhatsApp doesn't offer any official ad space! And, we're not the kind of brand that would spam its users," says Soral.

"We were toying with this idea for quite some time, but were looking for that perfect match. With a little play of technology, read modifying, which was WhatsApp's API (Application Programme Interface), we created an ad space on a medium that doesn't have any. Liquor Ticker might just open the floodgates of advertising on WhatsApp," says Gurbaksh Singh, chief creative technologist, Dentsu Webchutney Innovation Lab.

The campaign created curiosity among consumers, which led to enquiries which the Cafe claims went up by 117 per cent, with a 28 per cent increase in sales.

Last year, Cafe TC, along with Dentsu Webchutney, came up with the award-winning Happy Hours Rewind where users could turn time back and extend the Happy Hours by tweeting more and more.