Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

OTT Content is ever expanding— across genres, languages, audiences.By the time a creative strategy adapts to a popular title, a new one has already started trending. But MOODS are universal. We found a universal truth in a constantly changing category. Not just a creative idea, but a platform that will complement content from every genre, every title, for every audience in all their moods.

Background

2020 – The year Subscription VOD went mainstream! The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown forced India to spend more time at home, which led to an explosive growth of the Indian OTT category, with google searches up 3.5-4x (Google Trends, March 2020). This played a crucial role, successfully converting fence-sitters to subscribers and thoroughly redefining how entertainment and cinema were made accessible to people during a tough year. Healthy awareness, but negligible consideration- The situation led to an increased interest in Prime Video, resulting in strong awareness gains in March & April 2020. While total awareness scores for Prime Video were healthy, consideration was not still in line. Given that the average Indian’s hunger for good content was growing by the day with a proportionate interest in the OTT category, the objective was to build associations with Prime Video, drive consideration and seize the day in the current landscape.

The Interpretation of the Challenge (30% of vote)

Title Loyality, Not Platform Love: Prime Video has thus far driven acquisition on the back of title marketing. Be it originals or 3P movies. Consumer studies in India give Prime Video credit for its ‘Original & Award Winning Content’ & ‘New & Original content’ relative to competitors. The customer relationship with the PV Service as a result was transactional. This context provided the opportunity to build associations with the service, and drive consideration beyond titles and originals. Content is King - The more the merrier: To build consideration, it was essential to allow Prime Video’s Titles do the talking. The campaign kickstarted with two key messages: 1) Prime Video offers a wide range of titles 2) Subscribe with a free trial Target Market: The campaign spoke to Prime Video aware users who have not tried the service. Data suggested the awareness was highest in the Top 10 Cities.

The Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Category Insight – Large Selection was the foundation of choice A large scale drivers study (GBH Insights, 2019) covering both qualitative FGDs and a detailed quantitative study with more than 5,000 respondents uncovered that ‘Large selection’ is the foundation of all choice . We did ‘path modeling’ & ‘fair share’ analysis to arrive at the attribute of ‘Has video content for every mood’ (correlation of 0.65 correlation to establishing ‘Large Selection’). Consumer Insight – Content consumption is dictated by a multitude of need states (Content analysis led to 6; social lubricant, unwind&relax, uplift, expanding horizons, guilty pleasure & familiarity). Winning Formula - Mood = Need StatesXOccassions Running with this formula, mapped with PV’s range/depth of content, a plethora of vectors were revealed, which set the foundation of this multi creative strategy campaign.

The Creative Idea (20% of vote)

Moods – Our Uninvited Guest While vectors made for the structure for the campaign, the common hook that bound them all came from a very simple consumer truth. “Moods are like our uninvited guests. They are unpredictable and get activated without a heads up.” The creative execution addressed this insight by showcasing that however fickle one’s mood is, there is content on Prime Video for it. That a mood switch doesn’t mean switching content platforms and that Prime Video has all that one needs, whatever the need state, whichever occasion. Titles represented Need States : Each execution showcased an honest switch of emotions in the moment. The switch helped showcase 2 need states in each film. More so, each film’s narrative was nothing but content titles that were available on Prime Video.

The Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Since building consideration was the goal set, the campaign over delivered against its goals on Consideration T2B (+200bps goal) and TOM (+300bps goal), measured by a pre & post campaign tracker by Nielsen. The results have been staggering across cohorts, despite the baseline scores being high across metrics. All India TOM : +1900bps All India Consideration : +900bps AVOD Consideration: +1200bps 18-24 Consideration: + 800bps Related imagery association for Prime Video: • ‘Has content in my language of preference’ – Increase by over 2100 bps • ‘Has content people are talking about’ – Increase by over 1600 bps • ‘Has content that I like’ – Increase by over 1400 bps 61% of customers had seen at least 2 ads had better impact on the metrics, leading to the conclusion that multiple media strategy worked.