Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

Stories are recognizable patterns, and in those patterns, we find meaning. We use stories to make sense of the world and to share our understanding with others. They are the signal within the noise of the world. So powerful is our impulse to detect story patterns that we see them even when they’re not there. Using this human understanding, we leveraged India’s most powerful voices to create a never seen before storytelling experience for a live audience.

Background

Audible, Amazon’s spoken audio entertainment platform, after having run successfully in markets like US, UK, Japan was making its first entry into a developing country – India. It was competing with audio book brands like Storytel and Google Books that were already available to a niche audience, while the rest of the country remained unfamiliar to the concept of audio books. This formed the base of Audible’s herculean challenge while entering the market. India still thrives on consuming visual entertainment and audiences were immersing themselves in OTT platforms like Netflix even while television and radio continued to play a huge part in that consumption. With an over-cluttered entertainment market, how could we then break that clutter and create an impactful launch that would stay in the mind of the audience? Our objective was to spark the imagination of the audience and to cement Audible as the go-to platform for entertaining

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

‘Listening is Seeing’ India is a country that loves good stories and hence, we wanted to focus on fueling imagination through the power of listening. Keeping this in mind, we chose India’s most popular crime author, Hussain Zaidi’s most intriguing work, ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai,’ a captivating story that portrayed the lives of women of the underworld with Mumbai as a vivid backdrop. We chose three of Bollywood’s most powerful personalities who told powerful stories with their powerful voices to create a live storytelling experience.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

India has a strong tradition of storytelling and listening to these stories who have ignited imagination through time immoral. It was used historically to preserve the culture and beliefs of a tribe or community by passing them down from generation to generation. From grandmother’s lore’s to the launch of All India Radio in the 1950’s Audible was keen to tap into people who were nostalgic for these stories, nostalgic about introducing the next generation to a powerful tool that can spark imagination. Our audience was urban, niche, they were looking to consume novel and exciting content.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

To showcase ‘Listening is Seeing,’ we created intrigue by sending unbranded invites in the form of physical audio surveillance kits. Voices of the celebrities invited people to the event while we filled their feeds with a creative poster art, a visual trailer, track with a rap artist and behind the scenes recording of the celebrities. The content assets were strategically released on their social media to position this as a cinematic production. On 13th November, 200 guests- celebrities, media and digital influencers experienced the first ever narration of the novel at India’s only surviving opera house, The Royal Opera House. The event focused on Audible’s offerings- an imagination fueled experience, the vast library and even the accessibility of using the app on-the-go. Experiential zones around the event in the form of cozy listening nooks and pods ensured audiences could sit back and relax while flipping through the extensive library.

List the results (30% of vote)

• 350+ pieces of media coverage were achieved across print, online and social media for the launch of Audible • 280+ million in Reach across print, online and social • Top media outlets across entertainment, corporate and features carried the launch including Vogue, Mint, Business Standard, Economic Times, CNBC TV 18, Hindustan Times amongst others • Top headlines included, “Audible brings to life the power of listening" and “Making things so Audible” • 100% of the news articles had a positive tone and mentioned the brand name along with the audio book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai and the three celebrity narrators. These articles mentioned the launch of the audio book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai on Audible. • Mafia Queens of Mumbai launched on Audible.in a as bestseller with a rating of 4.4/5 and rave reviews • An AVE of 31+ Million was garnered • A 100% Earned and a 100% Unpaid