Why is this work relevant for Direct?

A series that explored the mad, bad world of advertising in India in the 90s pushed us to think out of box and explore a disruptive digital campaign that could potentially help break the highly cluttered OTT space, and make MX Player’s Thinkistan Season 2 a success story. The major theme of this season was ‘stealing of ideas’ in the advertising industry. So, we steered away from the traditional methods of advertising and decided to make the brand an “Idea Chor” (Idea Stealer) online - effectively using guerrilla marketing tactics and our social media platforms to promote the show.

Background

Marketing Challenge: - To successfully launch a new show in the cluttered Indian OTT space such that it grabs attention and gets new audiences to the platform at large. Brief: Entertain without becoming boring – Had to promote a show about advertising (Thinkistan) to those in the advertising industry in India, but also to ensure that the overall target audience of the platform takes interest in this show. Objective: Drive viewership for the 2nd season of Thinkistan on MX Player and increase brand love Budget: Nil, no budget in creating any asset apart from using show assets or trailers that were already available.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Idea Chor (Idea Thief) is a campaign conceptualized to promote the 2nd season of the original series Thinkistan by MX Player. It’s a fictional drama based in the world of Indian advertising and highlights various practices, good and bad, that define the lives of advertising professionals. To make our audience live the life of the show, we built the campaign by ‘stealing’ (i.e. re-creating) popular content from influential content creators and brands in an obvious manner. This stunt enabled chatter and recall for the core theme of the show i.e. stealing of ideas in advertising and therefore get a glimpse of what the show is all about.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Shock & Awe: THE SHOCK – Blatant copying (recreating) of identifiable and popular Instagram content from across the Indian social media landscape of brands and popular content creators. This generated immense chatter and interest not just in the target audience but also with competitors. THE AWE – The honest reveal with a cheeky apology. The reveal made the connection between the practise of unabashed plagiarism with the key theme of the show – i.e. stealing of ideas in the advertising industry. It immediately turned anger to acceptance and appreciation from the audience. We integrated the plot of the show into the show’s marketing strategy.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign was kicked off by copying Spotify’s communication and replacing it with Thinkistan’s online communication. We followed it up with the ‘borrowed’ versions of other brands’ posts (iconic brands of India and content creators – such as Amul, Zomato, Spotify, Croma, Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video India, Swiggy) The audience questioned this blatant act of plagiarism. The next 48 hours were full of hate comments and chastising blogs from big publications. We even trended organically on Twitter! Our silence spoke volumes and allowed the audiences to practically promote our show. We revealed our true intention behind this otherwise blasphemous act through a simple creative - giving everyone an idea of what our show characters felt when faced with plagiarism at the workplace. The campaign went on to spark a larger debate about ownership & stealing of content in the age of digital, especially without crediting the original creators.

List the results (30% of vote)

Thinkistan Season 2 viewership increased by 230% Our engagement increased by 225%. Earned media was worth 4.2 Million. Thinkistan’s ranking went from 5th to number 1 on MX Player!