Results and Effectiveness

37,000+ personalized videos were forwarded. The viral got an average of 5 forwards per user; 1 viral-video was forwarded every minute of campaign period! Supernatural result – 2,333 hours of user-engagement culminated in 100% increase in TVR (compared to season 1).

Creative Execution

From social media, Season 1 loyalists were lead to Heroesmindreader.com to play the prank on their friends. They entered the name and number of a friend to get a unique viral video. This was then forwarded to their friend. The viral video demonstrated the Mind reading Powers of “Matt Parkman”, a Heroes character. In the viral video, Matt mind-reads the video viewer’s personal details (the very details his friend had given) leaving the viewer thunderstruck. Initially the viral was seeded on Heroes discussion-forums, blogs and communities on social networks to reach existing loyalists who readily passed it on to friends. Web 2.0 users subsequently evangelized the viral. The surprise element and the desire to play same prank on others resulted in the viral snowballing.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Star-World, a leading English TV channel, was launching Season 2 of “HEROES”, a show about ordinary people with extraordinary powers. The challenge was to use Season 1’s loyal viewer base to popularize Season 2 by demonstrating the high engagement factor of “Heroes”. Three factors helped shape the media strategy. Research showed that the popularity of English shows depended heavily on word of mouth from like-minded friends. TG was urban Indians, 15-34 years, higher socio- economic strata, English TV viewers. The target group used internet heavily. Content/emails forwarded by friends have high open and subsequent forward rates. Combining all three insights led to building a viral video idea to demonstrate the superhuman-theme of “Heroes”. The viral idea had a mischievous twist of being a prank that you play on friends to ensure forwards. Since the exchange happened between friends, it was sure to be opened.