Background

•Romedy Now – an English Entertainment channel by Times Network is a long-standing advocate of the ideology ‘Love. Laugh. Live.’ •For Romedy Now, Valentine's Day is one of the biggest annual celebrations. In an endeavour to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the right spirit, the brand reinstated one of its core pillars "love," and devised an integrated brand activation campaign. •The objective was to go above and beyond the humdrum marketing efforts and leverage our social presence to engage with the existing followers and expand our net reach online by attracting followers of the romantic genre via a rewarding opportunity. •The realisation that everyone has a love story gave us an opportunity to collaborate with our audience and gave them an opportunity to share their mesmerising love stories with us on Valentine's Day!

Describe the strategy

For the first time, in the history of English Entertainment Channels in India, a brand stepped up to increase its advocacy via a social-led engagement campaign and gave over thousands of writers a chance to accomplish their life-long dream – to get their heartfelt love anecdotes published in a book!

Describe the execution

•Ahead of the campaign, we tested our audience's responsiveness through posts, where they had to suggest alternate endings to Hollywood's love stories. •Satisfied with the response, we started a Twitter conversation, which sprouted from Penguin India's official handle, worked its way through Ravinder Singh, and ended with us. •On Valentine's Day, novelist Ravinder Singh announced the contest through an Instagram takeover. •We conceptualised & circulated a TV promo to increase the reach. •We directed our audience to a #GetPublished landing page for registrations and submissions. •We created videos, trivia, mentoring tips & more with Ravinder Singh to help writers! •Another bestselling author, Durjoy Dutta participated as well. •While jurors sieved through the overwhelming volume of entries, we extended our plan due to pandemic. •To sustain the peak in conversation, topical conversations were directed back to #GetPublished using creative formats. •On World Book Day, the cover of our book was revealed!

List the results

•The contest was a huge collaborative success for all parties involved. •We received 1,512 love stories from 4 countries. •The campaign registered 6.8M+ in Reach and 9.9M+ in total Impressions. •This campaign earned media worth 54.1M and helped in gaining 2000+ new Instagram followers. •Our website traffic soared to 72,000+ active users with more than 1,16,000+ page views and 1.8M+ on-air viewers. •The campaign was featured by leading media & publication agencies online several times including Outlook India, DailyHunt, Indian Express et al. •Above all, we were inspired by the beautiful stories of love, while our writers - winners or not - were inspired to continue spreading the love. •To sum it up, love won... as always!