The Marketing Campaign That Made India Welcome Its Dark Side

Asur The Marketing Campaign that made India welcome its Dark Side In March 2020, Voot, one of India's top OTT streaming platforms, launched its premium subscription service: Voot Select. And with Voot Select, came A unique mytho-thriller starring Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti. The show was about a murdering psychopath inspired by Hindu mythology, and the forensic team determined to stop him. The murderer had called himself "Asur", and was equally determined to prove that everybody has a dark side... even the 'good guys'. Background So what was our goal? Intrigue the audience & drive consumption on the Voot Select platform. Voot Select was a paid service: Which meant convincing people to spend money. But we had a Market clutter: The OTT market was already cluttered with few new webseries, and multiple competitors. challenges: Voot Select was NEW: While Voot was a known brand, the sub- platform of Voot Select was brand-new... and therefore unknown. So here's what we decided to do: Grab Attention with Key Art Build Recall with iconic music Bring the Asur's philosophy of a 'dark side' front and center Day One: Leverage the main Voot Instagram account and its captive audience of 400k+ followers* Asur hacked the Voot IG account. For 3 Days, Asur sent out cryptic messages, mythology-related artwork, and disclose sensitive content relating to crime scenes: telling everyone about the oncoming apocalypse. (Attached Reference Video) * March '20 On Day Three, Asur went quiet... because a huge press conference was thrown to announce the launch of Voot Select, and its first Original. So we suddenly had the nation's media helping us promote the show. Once the ball was rolling, we didn't stop. Day 4 brought on a press-ad with Arshad Warsi and Voot Select on the Times of India in key cities Followed by a high-decibel Outdoor campaign in cities like Mumbai & Delhi at sites like malls *this was pre COVID and busy highways and intersections. *this was pre COVID ...accompanied by the main trailer promoted across television channels and digital media. The trailer was cut to the iconic Asur soundtrack, so the theme music would be an inescapable earworm for the audience. (Trailer Attached For Reference) Meanwhile... social media didn't go quiet. The new Voot Select account had been in full force, with bespoke creatives and video edits promoting the show. But the real gem was the #YourDarkSide challenge across IG and TikTok. The cast uploaded upside down images of themselves on their social media handles, to represent that they each had a dark side too… Soon, major And eventually celebrities like thousands were Rannvijay and Neha participating! Dhupia joined in VViikkrraanntt MMaasssseeyy DDoollllyy SSiinngghh And finally... Key digital influencers were used to seal the deal and create FOMO TTeeddTThheeSSttoonneerr 1.5mn+ Followers RRVVCCJJ And an iconic 3.2mn+ Followers dialogue was amplified across social media, by key Indian meme networks SSccooooppWWhhoooopp Meanwhile, banners and ads took over the Indian internet CCrriiccbbuuzzzz across sites like Spotify, Scoopwhoop, TOI, and more - making sure Asur was almost inescapable. But let's get to the good stuff: What were the results? 27mn+ Views on the theatrical trailer Rivalling even the biggest music videos in India *Source: FB, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram Platform Analytics 164mn+ impressions on the campaign hashtag *Source: Simplify360 And a staggering count of 5mn+ users sampling Asur on Voot Select in the launch month of Asur! *Source: MixPanel Asur remains amongst the top 5 top-of-mind recalled shows, and top 4 spontaneously recalled shows even in June ...compared to the likes of Mirzapur, Money Heist, Sacred Games and Game of Thrones. *Source: Kantar Brand Health Track Proving that the campaign might have ended, but in the hearts of the audience... Game bahut lamba jaayega, Lolark... bahut lamba..

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