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. Building on the social behaviour of the Tamilians who are emotional and extremely passionate about their community and cinema, Netflix involved some of the best Tamil content creators and literally mapped their emotions while watching the 9 films with a special EEG brainwave sensing headset. Through this unique review, Netflix wanted to reach a wider audience, generating maximum 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)

9 Stories. 9 Emotions. 9 Films. One Heart. Netflix decided to amp up the regular review format to do the World’s First Emotional Review for Navarasa. While the series started as well as ended on an emotional high, the viewers felt a range of emotions throughout the films. What was better than validating those emotions one experienced? Netflix roped in some of the best Tamil content creators including Alexander Babu, Mervyn Rozz, Jagan Krishnan and Kishen Das. A bunch of comics and actors, immensely loved and followed by Tamilians in the region and across the globe, came together to discuss the actual emotions they experienced while watching the films, using a brainwave sensing headset. This review was done to celebrate the cinematic marvel that Navarasa truly is and how Tamil Cinema, a matter of pride for Tamilians, uses the 9 emotions beautifully as the very foundation of an industry.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The EEG headset mapped the alpha, beta and gamma brainwaves of the viewer in real time. The data collected was used to measure the emotional connect of the viewer on 2 parameters: Feelings Film – The films they emotionally connected with the most Feelings Moment – The moments in a film where their emotions spiked. Involving Tamil Comics and Actors and roping in Alexander Babu, popular in the Tamil content space, to host the show, Netflix wanted to engage the young Tamil audience on social media. Tamil influencers love to have an opinion on every piece of Tamil content. A standard review was anyway expected from them, but Netflix decided to take that a notch above. While the influencers did not have the access to the data, Netflix tried to create a fun banter where the creators tried to guess and talk about the films in the process.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The video to the first of its kind Emotional Review for Navarasa was released shortly after the release of the 9-part anthology. The video was released on YouTube to reach out to a diverse audience, which following these passionate content creators. Each of the Tamil influencers put out teasers to the review in order to create a buzz amongst a highly engaged young Tamil crowd, which loves to promote Tamil content.

List the results (30% of vote)

The teasers put out by the influencers garnered over 80,000 views in less than a day and the talk show was viewed over 65.7 thousand times organically over the next few days with thousands of users engaging with the content. Navarasa also trended No. 1 in Netflix’s watchlist in India for over a week. And while the influencers were overwhelmed with different emotions, the audience experienced the same.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

Tamilians have a lot of pride for the Tamil film industry and the Tamil Cinema. They have a strong sense of community and the Navarasa is a part of not just the film industry of the region but also a part of their culture. Tamilians tend to share the Tamil content they are proud of and don’t hesitate to give a shoutout to it or share an opinion. They aggressively follow Tamil content creators and love to share their content within and outside their community. Building on this insight, the emotional review looped in some of the most famous influencers amongst Tamilians. To garner a very focused and highly engaged set of audience, the first of its kind emotional review leveraged the popularity of the actors and the comics to generate maximum chatter.