Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

In support of the release of Netflix India's Bard of Blood, a series which sees a professor of Shakespearean literature reluctantly takes up his role of intelligence officer again, Tommy worked closely with the Netflix India team to concept and deliver an on-ground activation in one of the four key cities in India. The centerpiece of the campaign was the creation of a unique innovative OOH experience in Vasant Kunj Mall in Delhi where we gave fans a chance to live out their dreams as secret agents, alongside the Bard of Blood himself – Emraan Hashmi!

Background

Netflix saw an opportunity in capturing the greater audience by wooing them with elevating the most popular genre: action-thriller fiction in the Indian market, with the all-new Bard of Blood series. The creative ask lies in the 'How' - how do we create awareness and buzz around this new series in the way that our Millennial target audience attunes? The solution - curating a hyper-personalised on-ground experience which allowed mass-viewing in real-time as one major touchpoint for this project. Perfect for this crowd who not just love to be seen, but to be seen as someone unique. Other touchpoints include social activations and print assets. These assets are complementary to the on-ground experience, ensuring that the communications loop is not broken. Exposure to the series is bi-directional: Driving traffic from social/print touchpoints to the on-ground activation and vice versa when the audience wants to learn more about the show.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

We aimed to increase the brand resonance of Bard of Blood with the audience with every campaign touchpoint. On-Ground Activation We emulated the thrill of letting the audience go through the induction process of a secret agent. They would enter an interactive photo booth and secure their agent status with their very own ID Pass, complete with their agent pseudonym. The passes will be displayed real-time onto digital out-of-home screens. The digital outputs are also given to the participants to facilitate sharing on their social accounts. Print To pique interest amongst the target audience, Tommy worked with media to takeover the Times of India with the cover & back pages to thematically fit the events and visuals of Bard of Blood. Social Gamification We created gamified Instagram Stories, allowing users to immerse themselves into the story & live out their fantasy of being an undercover agent.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our core audience is Millennial males, aged from 25-40 who are fans of three main interest groups: Spy Thriller-Action genre, Readers of BOB and Emraan Hashmi (the male lead). The key markets identified within India are Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. "No one can know who you are, your life depends on it." We want to immerse this crowd by letting them be part of the storyline, done so through painting the narrative that secret agents have only existed in the covert world of espionage and hence the importance of protecting one's identity. Thus, the creative approach focused on carving an undercover agent identity by first creating unique agent pseudonyms largely shown through the on-ground activation. For post-launch, we ensured that the same narrative spills over seamlessly on the social space, giving our audience (people who were unable to make it for the launch activation) a chance to experience BOB.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

We worked with a tight timeline of having only 6 weeks for production, post project kick-off. The team delivered a slew of assets purposed for a multitude of platforms including Digital OOH, Traditional OOH (newspapers, billboards) on-ground activation and social. 1. Digital OOH We delivered a total of 60 deliverables. We have assets created for the various parts of exteriors of the mall, across corporate parks and buildings within the shopping compound. 2. Traditional OOH For print, we delivered a total of 2 assets for the front and back of the media buy for the national papers (Times of India). 3. On-ground Activation We delivered a total of 14 deliverables - including merchandise, panels, floor vinyls, ushers' T-shirts, lanyards, and queueing barriers. 4. Social We delivered 2x series of interactive Instagram Stories <What Would you Do Next> and <Mobile Mission> and 1x carousel asset <Social Birthday Game>.

List the results (30% of vote)

This recruitment exercise saw an addition of 1,300 secret agents over just a span of 4 days on launch weekend. On average, this activation garnered 500,000 impressions per day, which drove traffic not only to the on-ground activation itself in Ambience Vasant Kunj Mall in Delhi , but also driving traffic to Netflix's platform. Positive brand sentiments for the series have been captured on social sites and people were excited to watch Netflix's latest tentpole series.