Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

Navarasa was one of the most awaited launches for Netflix India, which was already on a mission to up its regional content game. The 9-part Tamil anthology, based on 9 different human emotions, involved big names from Tamil cinema. Since Tamilians are extremely passionate about their cinema, Netflix wanted to involve the entire community to join the celebration of the coming together of the entire Tamil film industry. Netflix made every fan the face of a Netflix film poster through The Navarasa Fan Poster, engaging the audience through an Instagram AR filter to drive user generated content and generate chatter.

Background

Amidst the pandemic, Navarasa came as a ray of hope for the talents in the Tamil film industry which was struggling with the lack of opportunities. As an emotionally stimulating anthology that it was, it also helped Netflix up their regional content game. Netflix wanted to showcase itself as home to the best of Tamil Content while celebrating the Tamil Film Industry and its foundation on the nine emotions. The objective of the campaign was to: Celebrate Tamil Cinema Reach a focused set of Tamil Audience Reach a wider audience who might be interested in the title Use innovation that gets the audience talking and feels excited

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

The Navarasa Fan Poster While Navarasa was Netflix’s flagship Tamil title with the who’s who of Tamil cinema, we wanted to drive conversations on social media amongst the highly engaged Tamil youth. Netflix wanted to make every fan the face of a Netflix film poster using an Instagram AR filter. So instead of just promoting our poster on social media, we made a personalized, memeable piece that fans loved to share. We decided to make it interactive by giving our audience the power to make their own version of the poster featuring themselves. We wanted to engage Tamil fans and make them feel as if they’re a part of Navarasa as much as the nine emotions laid the foundation of the Tamil culture. That feeling of belonging to the Tamil tribe would gather a high level of engagement from the Tamil audience.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Using a mobile-first approach, the filter captured the fans mindset as the they enacted the nine emotions. And as the user posed, the filter captured their reaction and created an exciting fan-generated poster for Navarasa We wanted to drive conversations on social media among the Tamil youth and engage them with the title to drive maximum chatter possible for the campaign. Netflix gave the Instagram native of today a chance to make their own version of the Navarasa poster featuring themselves, using an interactive Instagram AR Filter that triggered the content creator mindset of the fans.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The filter prompted the fans to enact the 9 emotions of Navarasa. As the user posed, the filter captured their expressions and voila! The output was the user’s own version of Navarasa poster’s key art featuring themselves. The filter went live on Netflix’s Instagram channel to drive user generated content for the title shortly after the release of the platform’s most awaited show. The activity aimed at reaching a diverse and wide set of audience through the campaign.

List the results (30% of vote)

The activity reached over 40 influencers across the Tamil speaking diaspora, who used the filter and posted their version of the Navarasa poster. The activity was followed by a frenzy of fans sharing their versions of the poster. Social media was flooded with conversations around Navarasa and the title stayed on No. 1 trending in India on Netflix for 4 straight weeks.