There is this incredible joke going around on Raijnikanth: Ladies and Gentlemen the most coveted Rajnikanth Award goes to….
Oscars!!!
Ever since Enthiran/Robot has been released there has been an incredible amount of Rajini jokes that have been going around. On the web, on social networking sites, on sms, everywhere the current reigning topic is the latest Rajini joke. Rajini jokes are today the best conversation starters.
There is something very interesting about this whole Rajnikanth saga. Every single joke that is going around is complimentary towards Rajinikanth. They are funny, yes, they also eulogize him. It adds to the overall brand appeal of Rajinikanth. People take immense pride in sharing the latest Rajini jokes with each other. So every Rajini joke also adds to cool quotient of the narrator. In a society where jokes often tend to slip either into bathroom humor kind of category or into crassness, the positivity in the jokes is a remarkable phenomenon.
Possibly Rajnikanth today is a truly crowd sourced brand. Made by fans. To make more fans. If there was any way of quantifying than I am sure, Rajnikanth has more fans in 4 months, than any time ever before.
One of the reasons, why the tone of Rajinikanth jokes is complimentary towards him is because his fans truly idolize him. And they idolize not just his screen persona, but his real self. He is not mere Rajinikanth for them, he is Rajini Saar. Possibly this is because the real Rajinikanth is far more real and relatable than the on screen Rajnikanth and that immensely adds to the persona. The respect than gets translated into unabashed admiration for the man, that we are seeing across all the jokes that are going around.
There is a lot that Rajini Saar in his inimitable style can teach all of us in marketing and communication. Here are 5 possible reasons.
One: Crowd sourcing works, and how. Crowd sourcing does not destroy brand value, it does not diminish the brand equity. If you truly let the crowd control your brand, and if the crowd loves your brand they will make sure that the story of the brand is told well
Two: Like it or not, crowd sourcing will happen. It cannot be controlled; it currently is on its way to become mainstream culture. We as owners of brand will be better off acting as catalysts and not as inhibitors.
Three: crowd sourcing can actually improve your brand in ways you cannot imagine. There is a variety of inputs that comes from crowd, and if you as brand owners are willing to accept, filter and broadcast what is right for the brand, it will make the brand better.
Four: Crowd sourcing can revitalize your brand and fill it with new vitality. What crowd sourcing has done for Rajini brand can be done for any brand. It has made the brand Rajini one of the buzziest brand of our times. Agreed that the Rajini brand has enough in it to spark off the buzz, but than most brands do have enough in them to start a buzz.
Five: To make the entire crowd sourcing effort work, nurture the crowd. There would be times when the brand will not like what the crowd does. Chime in, have a dialogue and together fix the issue. Rajini brand managers could have killed the entire wave of jokes, or they could have curated them. Curating the crowd’s opinion always works better
So if Rajini can, why can’t we?