How Viral Fission is empowering GenZ to become opinion leaders via branded opportunities

Started in the year 2020, Viral Fission is touted as the first platform in India that is helping to digitise the youth community campuses and networks. Today, the youth community platform has more than 50K selected youth ambassadors, who are spread across 1,000+ cities pan India, providing the platform access to 20 million+ youth audiences present across numerous social media platforms and giving it the ability to run several campaigns for brands.

Viral Fission makes it viable for brands to reach out to their audience in a more targeted and seamless manner. It is approached by brands to get access to the country’s youth for several objectives ranging from market analysis to customer acquisition. These objectives are converted to smart projects and internships for the community, thereby leading to the creation of a mutually beneficial synergy between the two stakeholders. The services provided by Viral Fission to brands range from digital amplification, market research, personalised conversations, brand building, content marketing, creating engagement, and helping to reach the maximum audience. The brand has been working with some of the leading brands in the market, which include Jio Saavn, Myntra, Pepsi, and One Plus, and has created successful marketing campaigns, largely benefiting brand growth and outreach.

Viral Fission was founded by Rishab Shetty and Shreyas Hegde, who believe that in this day and age, social media is on the rise and one of its major contributors is the Gen Z audience. It provides the opportunity for students to work with famous brands, form a network in the industry, and give them a glimpse of what the working world is like. Students who intern with Viral Fission get an opportunity to showcase and explore their creativity, thereby gaining a better understanding of the industry, while at the same time enjoying what they are doing. It enables the students to grow themselves professionally network with industry people, and help in securing their future. While simultaneously it helps brands in achieving their marketing objectives by utilising the skillsets of Gen Zs and helping them to grow as well.

In conversation with Adgully, Shreyas Hegde, Co-founder and CEO, Viral Fission, said, “One of the leading challenges faced by students today is their drive to work with bigger, better brands and their lack of accessibility to them. Youth today, aspires to work with brands they encounter daily.”

What is the brand vision of Viral Fission and what does it aim to solve? What are its IPs?

Our aim at Viral Fission is to establish a community-first platform that channelises the demands and energies of the youth community to create synergies across all our stakeholders. All our IPs, which range from recruitment under Placebud, shopping under Hopshop, AI-enabled resume builder under Cvi, and many more to come, are examples of seamless synergy creating opportunities at Viral Fission.

How can one be a Youth Ambassador at Viral Fission? How is it empowering the youth and helping to nurture the youth generation?

Any student can be eligible to become a youth ambassador at Viral Fission by applying online during the community intakes and going through the selection process. At Viral Fission, we consistently empower the youth by giving them access to brands and opportunities that up until now were either not available or extremely scarce. Further to being a platform for giving opportunities, we also train and upskill the community to become the best versions of themselves.

What are the challenges that the students face in finding the right opportunities currently, given the increasing competition in the job market?

One of the leading challenges faced by students today is their drive to work with bigger, better brands and their lack of accessibility to them. Youth today, aspires to work with brands they encounter daily. In addition to providing access to the right companies, it also provides access to the desired profiles, which is a challenge for both students as well as recruiters in the pursuit to find the best candidates.

What is Placebud? How is it helping students in finding the right opportunities?

Placebud is VF’s recruitment platform that offers a tech-enabled smooth hiring process to get quality applicants at scale. As a platform, it’s easy to use and understand for both parties.

What is the importance of students getting the right exposure and experience during their academic journey?

The right exposure and experience for a student can help him/ her learn and identify their strengths and weaknesses, further motivating them to become the decision-makers of their own lives. Viral Fission provides a platform to work on real-time brand campaigns, and along with the same, it even provides assistance to develop people skills, teamwork, and leadership skills.

How does Placebud streamline the process of connecting students and brands?

Placebud, through its tech-enabled features, is simplifying the hiring process for brands and creating an easy-to-use process for students to get placed. While brands reach out to different campuses for hiring purposes, VF gives them access to students from 5,000 different campuses across the country. The platform matches jobs listed on the platform to the right skills and profiles using the vast database and filters available on the platform. Brands can shortlist, interview, and hire talent all on their customised dashboards.

How will Gen Z benefit from this community’s first approach to Viral Fission in the long term?

Gen Z will be empowered to become the opinion leaders by being associated with VF. Through exposure, branded opportunities and other developmental experiences, Gen Z will stand apart from others.

What are the expansion plans and future vision of Viral Fission?

Having just launched Placebud, Campus ViFi, and Hopshop, our expansion plans will now be focused towards opening our community to a larger audience across the country.

What is the marketing strategy of Viral Fission? How is it leveraging digital media and AI? 

In today’s fiercely competitive marketing landscape, understanding the Gen Z audience is important while crafting successful brand campaigns for them. We collect and analyse user insights from data across various domains – including social media, entertainment, music, OTT, books, fashion, lifestyle, food, dining, sports, retail, and e-commerce – specifically focusing on Gen Z preferences. Invaluable insights are harnessed to curate highly engaging marketing activities and the data gleaned from various sources allow us to create personalised campaigns, stay attuned to the latest trends to ensure time and relevance, craft engaging content-driven activities that resonate with this tech-savvy and socially conscious audience, and connect with them across multiple social media touchpoints.

Along with this, we also use sentiment analysis on user-generated content to align brand messaging with their values and preferences. An open feedback loop with Gen Z users allows us to be dynamic and adapt our campaigns in real-time, helping us to build a stronger connection with the audience. With this, a set of clear metrics are established that help gauge the success of our campaigns among Gen Z, further allowing us to track engagement rates, conversions, and other relevant KPIs specific to this generation, ensuring that we continually refine and improve our strategies for maximum impact.

Integrating these detailed insights directly into our Viral Fission offerings goes beyond the mere provision of effective services; it is about crafting experiences that profoundly connect with this influential demographic. In doing so, we not only capture their attention, but also cultivate enduring relationships, ultimately propelling our clients toward sustained success within the Gen Z market.