I have recently been impressed by a spate of innovative advertising by global dotcoms seeking to make a presence in India. One such advertiser is OLX India. It has some really interesting ads that emphasize how buying and selling online is actually something that can be embedded into multiple daily activities.

Motivated by those ads, I decided to visit the site and found that indeed classified advertising in India seems to have come of age. OLX presents an interesting platform for buyers and sellers. The potential problem with any such platform tends to be that a critical mass of buyers and sellers is not reached. However, in the case of OLX, buyers and sellers seem to be thronging the marketplace. So that solves one of the trickiest pieces of the puzzle.

Coming back to how ecommerce ads are making inroads into Indian TV and the Indian psyche, take a look at the following piece about buying a baby cot.

I found it interesting that they decided to use regular looking youths in a commonplace situation in a family setting to show that OLX is really required in our daily lives.

I particularly enjoyed the humor in the ads. Once you see that ad, make sure to see some of their other ads, for instance the one in which the Dad goes wild when the kids recommend selling the desktop computer. But when the Dad finds out that he can get a great price of Rs. 7000 for his really old computer, he screams, “Sell It!”

This “Sell It!” is a repeated motif in all OLX ads in India. And I truly enjoy that. Using the medium of humor OLX has managed to get us to appreciate the basic message that the fundamentals of buying and selling are changing. Online marketplaces are making greater inroads into our lives. And OLX is leading that charge.