Contagion - CaseStudy Deck

The Digital Infection

Amish Tripathi is the author of Shiva Trilogy novels - The Immortals of Meluha (Feb 2010), The Secret of the Nagas (Aug 2011) and The Oath of the Vayuputras (Feb 2013). The trilogy is a fantasy re-imagining of the Indian deity Shiva's life and adventures.

Amish TripathiShiva Trilogy

Shiva Trilogy | Amish Tripathi

TASK

Maximize viral reach through the ‘cult’ base of fans on the social assets

Amplify the ‘Big Idea’ as well as the launch of the book to create a big enough buzz online which would ‘spill-over’ offline too.

Cement Amish as the bigger brand in the long run encouraging more traffic inflow to the author’s digital assets

SOLUTION

After the success of the first two books we knew that the author’s fan base was thirsty for teasers to his next book. We used this fact to keep our audience excited with exclusive content which of course, went viral.

• We took this a step further with a Shiva Trilogy avatar application which allowed fans to customize their profiles with Shiva Trilogy messages


SOLUTION

• In the second phase of the campaign we focused on the upcoming music video. We started by releasing exclusive visuals of select characters from the new book. We followed this up with an exclusive online release of the music video


SOLUTION


The Video release (3 days post the final poster reveal)

SOLUTION

• In the final phase of the campaign, our aim was to turn the launch of the book into a mega event and bring in throngs of fans to the event. A live stream was planned along with a LIVE tweetboard giving added impetus to those on twitter to share their thoughts as the event progressed


SOLUTION

• A new website under the domain name authoramish.com replaced the earlier shivatrilogy.com

• The main objective of constructing a new website was to establish a brand name for Amish Tripathi as an author

• The new design of the website was also a lot different from shivatrilogy.com. A lot of thought was put behind the design of the website so as to suit the brand image of Amish.

• While shivatrilogy.com had an all out ‘Indian fantasy fiction’ feel to it, the author website needed a more contemporary design while retaining elements of the earlier website.


SOLUTION


Landing page of shivatrilogy.com

Landing page of authoramish.com

SOLUTION


Homepage for authoramish.com

• The event trended in multiple cities all around India on twitter.

• The urge to be seen/heard encouraged many users at the event to login and get tweeting while at the event causing a wave of crowd sourced event coverage on twitter in just 3 hours.

• Combined efforts have seen the book go into a second print run within a week of its release. The first print run itself ran into 5 lakh copies.

RESULT

Shiva Trilogy Amish Tripathi

Digital Statistics on the Launch Day

Number of conversations: 1297

Number of unique users who participated in the activity: approx. 500

Users reached: 7,52,864

Impressions generated: 23,03,636 All this in just under 3 hours!

Amish's Twitter handle (@AmishT) grew by 3000 followers within a month from the launch, organically.

RESULT

Shiva Trilogy Amish Tripathi

Chef Ritu Dalmia is a restaurateur with a penchant for Italian food. A chef and owner of five Italian fine dine outlets in the NCR region aside, Ritu is also the author of 2 gourmet books – Travelling Diva & Italian Khana

TravellingDivaChef Ritu Dalmia

Travelling Diva | Chef Ritu Dalmia

Ritu Dalmia already had the title of celebrity chef specializing in foreign cuisine. She had her own television show on NDTV GoodTimes and a book. Despite her celebrity, she had ‘virtually’ no online presence apart from a website for her Diva Italian Restaurants which put a two-fold task before us:

• Building a strong online presence for Ritu Dalmia, celebrity chef, by bringing her vibrant and lovable personality to the digital space to create an interest in her second cookbook – Travelling Diva as well as her other brand extensions (TV Show, Diva Restaurants, etc. )

• Engaging a relevant audience who were already familiar with Ritu as well as a new demographic through engaging content on Social Networks, contests and search marketing

TASK

We wanted Ritu Dalmia to stand out in the digital space as she does on television so we branded all her social properties as ‘Chef Ritu Dalmia’

• While our primary aim was to promote Ritu’s new cookbook ‘Travelling Diva’ , we also knew that the first season of Ritu’s new travel cooking show of the same name was being aired on NDTV GoodTimes during our promotion

• We used this to our advantage to take Ritu to a new audience by portraying her as an accessible online food guru

• Most of the branding on social assets used the ‘Travelling Diva’ as a visual reference to establish a connection through all properties

SOLUTION


• A personal blog integrated into the website and shared through a custom Tab on Facebook allowed fans to post their food queries to be answered by Ritu in a few simple clicks directly on Facebook. We then shared Ritu’s responses as ‘Cooking aid tips’ on Facebook

• Taking our cue from Masterchef, we introduced the first ever internet cook-off in the form of an ‘Invention Test’. We gave users a timeframe within which to come up with a dish based on a special ingredient. The gratification – winning recipes would be featured at one of Ritu Dalmia’s restaurants as the ‘upcoming recipe of the month’

• We also used Twitter to bring Ritu a step closer to her fans. Ritu tweeted regularly through a personal Twitter handle and responded to fans who tweeted to her with questions

SOLUTION


SOLUTION


Travelling DivaChef Ritu Dalmia

• During the course of our campaign, Ritu Dalmia went from having no online presence to having a 5000+ fan strong community on Facebook and grew her twitter base by 400+ followers in just 3 months

• The fairly expensive cookbook (Rs. 650+) sold out in its initial print run

• The success of the book opened up two arms of business. Her restaurant chain which has now turned into a retainer account as well as a long term client in the form of hachette publishing.

RESULT

Ravi Subramanian’s 4th book – The Bankster, follows in the track of his last book ‘The Incredible Banker’. Set in 3 different story plots running parallel, the story explores the world of benami accounts, money laundering, international arms deals and international espionage influencing the country’s core energy developments.

The BanksterRavi Subramanian

After the success of ‘The Incredible Banker’ Ravi Subramanian approached us to design a campaign for the pre-launch buzz of ‘The Bankster’; that would go beyond the regular content updates (posts), contests, polls and topical conversation points that have become so hackneyed. A campaign that ensured stickiness right till the date of the book launch.

The Bankster | Ravi Subramanian

TASK

To ensure the longevity of the campaign, our plan was to create a single property, one that would extend until the launch of the book. We realized that the plot lent itself very well to a graphic novel treatment – a first of its kind in publishing

• We kicked off the campaign introducing 4 characters from the book which were shared extensively online. We followed this with illustrated chapters which followed the discontinuous style of storytelling that Ravi adopts with 2-3 parallel plot points.

• New characters were revealed as new plot points were disclosed which kept our readers on edge. New material was shared every 5 -7 days which made sure fans came back for more

SOLUTION


SOLUTION


• As an added bonus, we animated one of the chapters with voice overs for each character.

• We also developed a game allowing players to help a key character to play his role in the plot.

• All of this was rounded up with a Trailer to the book

Game created for Bankster

SOLUTION


Character Reveal

SOLUTION


Episodic Illustrations

The BanksterRavi Subramanian

• The character illustrations became so popular that the author featured one of them on the cover of the book

• Press articles covered the alternate style of execution because of the massive buzz generated through the campaign

• The book maintained its position of No. 1 on Crossword and Landmark’s bestsellers lists for three weeks in a row

RESULT

The Devotion of Suspect X is a 2005 novel by Keigo Higashino, the third in his Detective Galileo series and is his most acclaimed work thus far. The novel won him numerous awards, including the 134th Naoki Prize, which is a highly regarded award in Japan.

The Devotion ofSuspect XKeigo Higashino

To introduce a Japanese cult fiction author to Indian readers and increase sales through an online campaign for the best selling book – The Devotion of Suspect X

TASK

The Devotion of Suspect X | Keigo Higashino

Keigo Higashino already had a cult following outside of the Indian market and we decided to play on that success using the tagline – 2 million people cant be wrong!

• We kicked off the campaign by engaging bloggers through a blogging directory. The exercise populated the Indian blogosphere with a host of positive reviews reiterating the popularity of the book

• We hosted a Facebook contest asking readers to tell us in one line why ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ is a book worth reading

• On Twitter, we used Keigo Higashino’s celebrity and created a handle to serve as his official fan club to interact with fans of the book. A second Twitter handle served as the official handle for the book dishing out interesting content

SOLUTION

The Devotion of Suspect X | Keigo Higashino

The Devotion ofSuspect X Keigo Higashino

• The First print run of 25,000 copies sold out in India within 3 months of its launch

• The campaign took the book to a considerably new audience opening up the market for upcoming cult fiction

RESULT

Ashwin Sanghi is a thriller/fiction author who has written books with historical, theological and mythological themes. Some of his notable works include The Rozabel Line (2008), Chanakya's Chant (2010) & The Krishna Key (2012).

Chanakya'sChantAshwin Sanghi

Ashwin Sanghi was already one of Westland’s best-selling authors when he tasked us with creating a property which would extend the shelf life of the successfully launched – Chanakya’s Chant and build up to the release of his third book – The Krishna Key.

Chanakya's Chant | Ashwin Sanghi

TASK

Our first thought was to create a comic titled Chanakya’s Chant of the Week’ . Using Chanakya as the propeller for the series, the weekly strip featured witty observations on current affairs in the trademark sarcasm of the character

• We shared this comic on our social properties and on Ashwin’s blog on IBNLive

• Live Chats with the author and footage of his appearances kept the audience engaged through the year

• We gave fans even more incentive to review the book through a special review contest where the top 10 reviews were selected to be added to the next print run of the book

SOLUTION


The popular ‘Chant of the Week’ comic strip property that built up Ashwin as a personality and a brand beyond an author

SOLUTION


The Krishna Key:

• We kick started the campaign to promote The Krishna Key with a specially produced trailer which we promoted on all digital assets

• Custom Tabs on Ashwin’s blog homepage as well as Facebook conveyed relevant information about the book, links for purchase as well as free chapters

• A week prior to the launch, we shared a hand sketched ‘Krishna visual’ containing the 27 names of Lord Krishna, stating the upcoming release with subtlety. This went viral

• To round it all of, we live- streamed the launch event at Crosswords for the first time to all his fans merging the digital audiences with the ones at the event.

SOLUTION


SOLUTION


Chanakya’s ChantAshwin Sanghi

• Chanakya’s Chant turned into a brand of sorts reinforcing Ashwin as one of Westland’s leading authors alongside Amish Tripathi

• The Krishna Key stayed on the

bestseller bookshelf even 8 months after the book’s release

• At over 4 lakh followers (during the retainer period), Ashwin had one of the largest author fan bases in the country

RESULT

The Aryavarta Chronicles (Govinda), was Hachette’s biggest bet for 2012. Written by a debut author – Krishna Udayasankar, the book was touted the next big mythological fiction series in literary circles.

The AryavartaChroniclesKrishna Udayasankar

Since Krishna Udayasankar was already touted as the next big thing in literary circles, our task was to take her to a whole new audience and build a strong online presence for the author. We were also tasked with introducing the concept and developing intrigue for the multi-part book series.

TASK

The Aryavarta Chronicles | Krishna Udayasankar

We decided at the onset that building a strong online campaign meant creating separate properties for the author and the book both which would be used for cross promotions. A well targeted ad campaign ensured relevant audiences on both Facebook pages

• Our campaign focused on the series as a fictional historical thriller instead of focusing on the mythological plot. The attempt was to draw intrigue to the ‘era of the story’ as opposed to the plot which would narrow down the target audience.

• We did this through a series of mini campaigns depicting various aspects of the ‘aryavarta days’ thus introducing our audience to the era.

• Characters from the book were introduced noting interesting personality traits and verses from the book describing the characters.

SOLUTION


Characters from the book were introduced, noting interesting personality traits and verses from the book describing the characters

SOLUTION


#govindahours:

• We needed to expand the reach of our campaign so we took to Twitter by hosting a unique Twitter chat with Krishna while at the same time conducting a quiz based on the contents of the book

• Followers were asked to tweet using #govindahours

• Twitter Stats:

• During the activity Krishna gained over 100 followers and #govindahours trended over India.

SOLUTION


The Aryavarta ChroniclesKrishna Udayasankar

• The book sold out its initial print run of 20,000 copies within 4 months of the launch

• The campaign was all the more significant considering the lack of offline PR that was conducted for a book with high expectations due to budget restraints.

• The Author now has a significant online presence set up for the release of the second book

RESULT

Sheru Classic Production Pvt. Ltd. (SCP) is the brainchild of Asia’s second professional bodybuilder Mr. Sheru Harmeet Aangrish. The company set out to transform the bodybuilding industry and give a whole new meaning to health and fitness in India. Sheru Classic 2012 was an attempted to create Asia’s and possibly the world’s largest bodybuilding event after the success of the first installment in 2011.

Sheru ClassicSheru Harmeet Aangrish

Sheru Classic | Sheru Harmeet Aangrish

To re-position Sheru Classic, which had a niche brand identity, having previously catered to high profile clients, to appeal to larger mass of people by promoting health and fitness online

We needed to sell as many tickets as possible primarily through an online push alone, considering limited budgets for ATL/BTL spends

TASK

‘TRANSFORM-NATION’:

We initiated a campaign under the broad theme of ‘transform-nation’ to tap into the an increasingly health and fitness conscious Indian population

• The overall strategy was to build up Sheru Classic through ‘health and fitness based’ properties which would in turn build up to the eventual show, the pinnacle of fitness - The Sheru Classic Event and Expo!

• All content was seeded through this overlapping theme engaging audiences that went beyond pure body building fanatics

SOLUTION


Driving traffic through Transform-nation!

SOLUTION


Closer to the event, a brand new social website was designed and developed allowing a one stop information center for users needing a background on the event

• Newsletters, contests and regular engagement fare was heightened along with a virtual search for the best male physique amongst the audiences

• A severe push for online ticket sales was done through a clever embedding of a bookmyshow link through every post/update as the event neared

• We thought of taking the event LIVE even during the days of the final show. The entire event was streamed through live tweets and facebook updates ensuring that everyone at the event or at home was constantly kept abreast of the excitement at Sheru Classic 2012

SOLUTION


SOLUTION


Stats During The Event

Sheru ClasssicSheru Harmeet Aangrish

• The brand message of ‘Transform-nation’ appealed to the masses and Sheru Classic as a brand received a huge online following with 50,000+ fans on Facebook and 4,000+ followers on twitter in a short span of 5 months

• The event was a huge success. More than 15,000 tickets were sold online through bookmyshow and another 10,000 through various counters set up across Delhi, which were also pushed online

RESULT

• The live updates were well received by fitness enthusiasts who were unable to attend the event. Twitter was a huge success with 1,58,000 Impressions and the tweets reached 54000+ accounts in just 2 hours of the event on Day 1

• The aftermath of the event saw a loyal and engaged fan following with regular mentions of the event as well as the Facebook page being a pseudo forum for health and fitness enthusiasts across India to connect with others like themselves

RESULT

Sheru ClasssicSheru Harmeet Aangrish

IndiaFirst Life Insurance Co. Ltd. is a joint venture between Bank of Baroda, Andhra Bank and Legal and General (UK).

IndiaFirstLife Insurance

IndiaFirst Life Insurance

Amplify, IndiaFirst Life’s Happy Family Celebrations by actively engaging with the community on Facebook. The campaign was aligned with IndiaFirst’s core philosophy of Happiness = Health + Security + Savings + Wealth which the company strives to provide to it’s customers through its product offerings.

• This was also the first community engagement activity to be rolled out by IndiaFirst Life on social media & the task at hand was also to grow the user base on Facebook through this activity.

TASK

IndiaFirst Life Insurance

A Happy Family Photo contest was proposed to meet the campaign objectives

• Contest participants were expected to share a candid ‘Happy Family Moment’ using the app, which also featured a gallery (to display all the entries received) & a leader board

• To conclude, participants were also asked to answer a simple question based on the concept of Happy Family

• A series of teaser updates to encourage participation from the community and attract

• FB stamp ads were also rolled out to attract new fans onto the contest page

SOLUTION

IndiaFirst LifeInsurance

• The campaign was well received by fans on Facebook, the unique nature of the contest was much appreciated by fans on the page. The promoted posts rolled out to attract more users onto the contest tab also garnered good interaction from users.

• Overall, the campaign had a positive impact on the page. The VIRAL Reach of the page shot up from 1,377 people to 4,4145 users by the end of the campaign. The page’s Talking About metric increased from 75 people to 1,566 people by the end of the campaign.

RESULT

IndiaFirst LifeInsurance

• The page’s fan base grew from 1438 likes to 4032 likes by the end of the campaign.

Campaign Highlights

• Duration: 14 days (22 Feb – 07 Mar, 2013)

• Entries Received: 65

• New Fans Acquired on the page: 2594

RESULT

Beyond Pink is an initiative by author Sangeeta Mall and Westland Publications. She is the curator of Beyond Pink fiction and the brain behind the creation of this platform. Beyond Pink fiction is about real women doing real things, written for the contemporary Indian woman - the girl who has grown up.

Flight of theFlamingo &Beyond PinkSangeeta Mall

Flight of the Flamingo& Beyond Pink

Build a community of women who fall under the gamut of Beyond Pink, i.e. contemporary, urban, working class women.

Build up Beyond Pink as a Publishing platform & more for the contemporary Indian woman.

• Sustain engagement with this community through various online & offline events

• Launch ‘Flight of the Flamingo’ the first title in the Beyond Pink series through this platform

TASK

| Sangeeta Mall

Flight of the Flamingo& Beyond Pink | Sangeeta Mall

• To launch Sangeeta’s second offering ‘Flight of the Flamingo’ as an author & also the first title of the Beyond Pink series, an online chat show titled The Beyond Pink Chat Show was proposed. The chat show was rolled out (online) four week prior to the actual book launch.

• The Beyond Pink Chat show showcases interviews of urban Indian women who talk about their life journeys & the hairpin bends in their life.

• Through each episode of the chat show, viewers were given subtle hints about the upcoming book Flight of the Flamingo.

SOLUTION

Anuradha Sengupta, who was present at the book launch was interviewed by Sangeeta in the format of the Chat Show. This was captured on video and subsequently it became the fourth episode of the chat show.


A diverse set of individuals were chosen to represent the Beyond Pink women. The first four personalities to be featured on the Beyond Pink Chat show were

1. Gauri Shinde – Ad Film Maker / Film Director2. Priya Kumar – Motivational Speaker / Corporate Trainer3. Anita Dongre – Fashion Designer4. Anuradha Sengupta – Well known business journalist / TV Anchor

These well known public personas helped in attracting a significant amount of eyeballs for the chat show.

SOLUTION

Priya Kumar teaser update. These updates were created for each episode


• Each episode featured a ‘trick question’ that was asked to the person interviewed, this trick question was in turn posed as a contest question for the Beyond Pink community on FB

• Users who shared the best response were gratified with an autographed copy of the book – Flight of the Flamingo

SOLUTION

Trick question that was asked to the fans as a contest question.

Flight of the Flamingo& Beyond PinkSangeeta Mall

• Just three month post inception, the Beyond Pink community on Facebook was more than 3,500 users strong & growing.

• More than 94% of the community consists of women within the age bracket 18 – 55 years.

• Close to 45% of the 3,500 fans were acquired through FB ads, the rest of the growth has been purely organic.

RESULT

Flight of the Flamingo& Beyond PinkSangeeta Mall

• Each of the chat show episodes got more than 400 views (within first week of it’s release)

• The YouTube Channel, hosting chat show episodes have gathered more than 2,200 views only a month post launch of the show online.

• Upon it’s launch, Flight of the Flamingo was well received by critics and readers alike.

• The book has received positive reviews from the press & the blogging community.

RESULT

Ravinder Singh is one of Penguin’s best-selling authors in the romantic-fiction space. Having garnered a fanbase that has spread far and wide through his touching narrations – I too had a love story and Love can happen twice, his third book was an attempt to break away from the romance novel space by delving into a bit of nostalgia driven content.

Like ItHappenedYesterdayRavinder Singh

Like It Happened Yesterday | Ravinder Singh

TASK

Two Fold:

• Introduce his passionate fans to another side of the author’s writing. One that went beyond the ‘romance’ genre his fans had grown so accustomed to

• Create an engaging social media campaign that was innovative, endearing and viral in nature

Since the current fan base was already thirsty for Ravinder’s next offering, the campaign route adopted was to first digress from expectations of another love story and build anticipation with respect to the book’s content

SOLUTION


• This was done through a simple & perspective changing contest that asked user’s about Ravinder’s early childhood

• The contest seeded intrigue about the author’s early life and childhood and set the tone for the upcoming promotional content

• Over 4000 entries were received over a two week period, allowing one winner to be a special guest at the book launch when it did happen

We now had to build up the main phase of the campaign. This involved getting the message of the book release out in the public domain and viral

• A virtual ‘book cover reveal challenge’ sent the impending book release viral by allowing users to uncover the book collectively through a share application

• 2000 shares were achieved within 3 days unravelling the entire cover and exposing the campaign to over 4 lakh individuals on Facebook alone

• Encouraged, we added to the virality by taking users down memory lane encouraging a basic picbadge campaign along with teasing nostalgia based posts

• The content encouraged sharability and built up to the final bit of intrigue – An animated voiceover trailer that took users into what the book had to offer in a personal way

SOLUTION


SOLUTION


The Virtual Book Cover Reveal

SOLUTION


Seeding Nostalgia

SOLUTION


The pre-launch innovative book trailer. A talking point of the campaign. Approx 15k views within a month.

Post Launch, a Google Hangout was carried out to allow the author access to his online base. Around 500 users viewed the streaming live. Two lucky fans had a chance to participate in the hangout via a contest held earlier

Like It Happened YesterdayRavinder Singh

• Despite initial apprehensions regarding the niche genre that his previous books fell into, the book was well received

• The viral nature of the campaign ensured that the author built up an audience which went beyond the 18-24 age group that his previous books attracted

• The campaign a reached a larger than life number, due to the sheer engagement levels pre-launch

• A music album featuring star singer Shaan is now in production with Times Music, celebrating the concept of the book

RESULT

Business

Contagion - CaseStudy Deck