Amazon Prime Video is one of India's leading OTT services. Its original show, The Family Man, amassed tremendous popularity during its first season and was all set to launch its second season.
While the characters of the much-loved and highly anticipated show entertained the "fan-ily" through the riveting new season, the campaigns and activations aimed to mirror the same experience to revive the positive sentiments that were stirred during Season 1. Specifically curated narratives were drawn to get the fans curious about the sequel, expand the fandom and keep the audience intrigued right up to the day of the launch.
Objective:
The second season of The Family Man was launching two years after the first, which posed a major challenge in terms of reviving the fandom, even though they have been loyal and patient. Additionally, considering the interesting and unique storyline of the show, the campaign around it had to be innovative as well.
These challenges were addressed with the help of strategically placed activations and campaigns, working cohesively to rebuild the connection between the show and the fans, increase character affinity, and drive active engagements across various social media platforms before the launch of the second season.
Target Audience:
The target audience for the campaign were people between the ages of 18 and 45, as they make up the primary viewership of Amazon Prime Video India. As the first season of The Family Man received tremendous popularity and positive response from the audience, these fans were also targeted for this campaign with the aim to re-ignite the love.
Creative Strategy:
By the very theme of the show, despite being a spy, Srikant Tiwari (show's protagonist) is an everyman, "the family man." This relatability strongly resonated with the audience during the first season of the series. In the audience's mind, Srikant was already more than just a character, bearing resemblance to real life people they know from a typical Indian middle-class household. So, the strategy was to creatively leverage this insight and home in on his mannerisms further.
There have been times when Suchi, Srikant's wife, hasn't been able to get a hold of him, which gave the idea of having the netizens find "Srikant Kaha Hai" (where is Srikant?). By populating the internet with photoshopped images of Srikant everywhere, and by giving the audience the option to call him through IVR technology, the company had everyone looking for him. And his response when finally found is true to form hilarious and sarcastic.
The insight for conducting a virtual job hunt for him was picked directly from the last season, which ended with Srikant quitting his job, and the trailer for season two shows where he's seen looking for a new one. Again, people delved into his personality traits to suggest the perfect job roles. When he finally got some interviews lined up, it was with real-life corporate leaders of popular brands, bringing Srikant further into the real world.
Further, it was observed that memes based on the show's content were the go-to way for the fans to express their love and engage on social media. So, Amazon strategized a meme-making UGC contest as it was the best way for the audience to express their love for the show and engage with the content.
Context:
The Family Man being one of the most loved shows on Amazon Prime Video India, it was imperative that the campaign for the launch of its second season remained true to its entertainment standard. The campaign delivered it in spades. Not only that, but it was also authentic in its use of the show's character and themes.
Moreover, it broke the fourth wall in advertising and had a first-ever job hunt for a fictional character. It employed the already popular meme marketing, and the already existing technology of IVR, in innovative and entertaining ways to best engage with the audiences.
Overall Campaign Execution:
The campaign around The Family Man season two innovatively leveraged several elements to create a cohesive narrative.
By populating the digital sphere with a series of photoshopped creatives of Srikant (the show's protagonist) being everywhere, without actually being anywhere, had everyone on the internet buzzing about his whereabouts. Integrating the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technology into the activity allowed active participation from the audience. A two-way communication with the fans calling with inquiries about Srikant and getting a response, welcomed them into the show's world and garnered a more loyal fanbase.
Never before had any campaign gotten industry leaders, CEOs, and company heads to act as influencers and this formed the central innovative concept. Names like Ankur Warikoo (Nearbuy), Kabeer Biswas (Dunzo), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO), and Manu Kumar Jain (Xiaomi) were handpicked for the collaboration considering their youth appeal and an active social media presence.
The amalgamation of reel and real also brought innovation to the project. The aforementioned real-life entrepreneurs of renowned corporations interviewed a fictional character, Srikant Tiwari (the show's protagonist), for a fictional corporate role. This helped the storyline to resonate with the audience. It built on the overall theme of the show as well, where, even though Srikant is a counter-terrorism Indian government official, he's also a "family man," dealing with regular day-to-day issues that Indian masses can relate to.
Talking about relatability, the format chosen for the video series was a Zoom interview, which, given the worldwide work from home (WFH) situation, was the new normal. The fact that most Indian audiences were experiencing WFH for the first time, it being replicated by one of their favorite shows built stronger affinity. The script also enhanced this sense of familiarity with deliberate yet organic instances, like family members in the background of your important Zoom call.
#MemeTheFamilyMan as a campaign was created by recognizing an organic trend around the show and actively employing it for higher engagement and increased overall impact. The show's fans have been known to use some key moments from the series and turn them into meme templates for hilarious effect. By basing a meme contest around the series gave fans the stage to express their love for The Family Man and flaunt their creative skills. Moreover, it induced a feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) among those who had not seen the content.
Mobile Execution:
All the individual campaign elements and the overall execution were strategized keeping the mobile audience in mind. Srikant Kahan Hai was a truly mobile execution. Instagram was leveraged to populate images of Srikant being everywhere hence driving real-time calls from the audience. Moreover, the IVR technology wasn't exactly new, but it was used in a rather entertaining manner, for an entertaining campaign.
Even though the job hunt video series consisted of long-form videos, it was humorous and relatable enough in its content and execution that it made for perfect "snackable" content for one's mobile devices. Further, #MemeTheFamilyMan was primarily an Instagram activity, leveraging the platform and its audience's love for memes and engaging trends. Moreover, the fans of the show had also previously exhibited their love towards the show on the platform.
As the pandemic pushed the audiences towards OTT industry, the last two years saw a huge rise in the need and demand of new content. This led to many new players entering the market, further leading to creating a plethora of content. Therefore, the challenge is to market these shows to create effective awareness amongst the audiences.
There has been an unending number of distinct marketing tactics used by players in the recent past to effectively advertise content on OTT platforms. And Amazon Prime Video being a leader in the OTT category, the brand has always had a huge fandom for its original and adapted shows. It has indeed always used some significant marketing strategies for all their titles. There is some sense of self goals to create something that hasn't been done before in the entertainment industry to promote a campaign.
The different campaigns collectively helped the show to become the most-watched show in 2021 on Amazon Prime Video India. The show's social media followers spiked by three times after the campaign. The editorials had garnered 7 million in engagement and Twitter saw 276,000 boost in engagement through the different legs of the campaign.
By engaging the audience in conversations around Srikant's job options on social media, The effort received more than 7.4 million views, over 142,000 engagement and 1,300 social mentions. Its zoom video approach was successful in establishing it as highly relatable, not only among the show's fans but to the industry at large, as seen in the over 114 organic news coverage it garnered. This built a strong recall for the campaign among the audience. #MemeTheFamilyMan trended as No. 5 on Twitter on the day of the launch and 21,000 entries were received.
After the campaign, hashtags like #ExcitedForFamilyMan2 and #WantFamilyManNow were trending on Twitter, clearly showcasing people's anticipation for the new season.
As a result of the campaign, The Family Man season two became the most watched show on Amazon Prime Video India in 2021. The show, in its entirety, built such a strong presence on social media that people picked up several moments from the show and populated the digital space with hilarious memes. These not only resonated within the show's fan community, but among the larger audience as well, since the show, and the resulting memes, channeled very relatable themes of corporate culture, among others.
Moreover, by engaging the audience in conversations around Srikant's job options on social media, The Family Man Job Hunt successfully reignited the fans' love for the show. Influencer collaborations with real-life corporate leaders and entrepreneurs helped the campaign transcend the barrier between fiction and reality and generate conversations that extended quite beyond the entrepreneurial & entertainment circles in India.
