Sangeetha Aiyer, VP and Head-Marketing, A+E Networks|TV18 talks about how using influencers like Chetan Bhagat and Chef Vicky Ratnani as a part of their campaign to launch FYI TV18 worked wonders by building a unique connect with fans
BY SANGEETHA AIYER
VP and Head-Marketing, A+E Networks|TV18
While launching our latest offering, FYI TV18, we faced a tricky conundrum on our social platforms. We were launching a TV channel brand that was relatively unknown in India with one of India’s biggest influencers on social media - Chetan Bhagat. The challenge was to use Chetan’s social media persona of tonguein- cheek without necessarily using his social handles (which obviously was not in our control).
From our highly successful OMG! Yeh Mera India campaign for History TV18, we had realized that, with cheaper broadband rates and faster speeds, the Indian audience is consuming more and more video content online. But how do we get them to start watching our video content?
We decided to leverage Chetan’s popularity by simulating a typical Twitter experience live on video where folks can ask him anything. Just about anything. To make the experience lively, we brought in another celebrity with a mind of his own- Chef Vicky Ratnani. We called the initiative #KuchBhiPoochhofy. The “fy” at the end of the hashtag was to build up on the FY language and make it colloquial, for which we had already set the ball rolling through our brand campaign ‘Life Se Milofy’.
The #KuchBhiPoochhofy microsite allowed users to post their questions and they would receive a video that would show Chetan and Vicky pondering over the person’s photo and question before giving a unique, funny and often completely irrelevant answer. The videos had been shot in advance and coded to incorporate the person’s image and question inside the video in real time giving it a touch of personalization. The microsite back-end would identify the keywords and accordingly pick the appropriate response videos to show. Different questions generated different witty and sometimes outright hilarious responses including ones where the two of them sing or dance on the audience’s request.
But what about the trolls? Wasn’t there a risk that they could hijack the campaign with abusive questions? Well, there was a video just for that. Thanks to keyword optimization, each and every troll received a funny yet fitting response from Chetan and Vicky.
It would be an understatement to say the AMA was a runaway success. Once the microsite went live, within an hour, #KuchBhiPoochhofy started trending. Despite using the fastest available cloud servers, the sheer volume of videos being stitched real time nearly brought the server to a halt! The numbers will show why it was a big deal: Nationwide trending: over 5 hours; Campaign reach (7 days): 8.34 million; In seven days, microsite visitors: 127,863; Videos generated: 30,259; Total Video View Time (Secs)- 17,55,022, i.e., 487.5 hours, which translates to more than 20 days of content consumption.
But what was most interesting was the nature of questions. While Chetan is trolled regularly on Twitter, he was spared on the algorithm, with a paltry 5% people choosing to troll him. Probably trolling a bot is not so much fun! The most asked direct question was to see him dance which was perhaps a rub-off from the dance reality show he hosted a year or so back. A third of the questions were about his books, which goes to show that the core perception of people is still of Chetan Bhagat the author and not of the other hats he wears on TV or otherwise. Food for thought for us TV professionals!
You could check out the programme on the URL http:// bit.ly/Poochhofy
@ FEEDBACK
sangeetha.aiyer@network18online.com
