Sony Music Entertainment: WHY THIS KOLAVERI DI

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Social Media

Advertiser: SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT INDIA

Product/Service: SONG PROMOTION

Agency: JACK IN THE BOX WORLDWIDE

Agency: SONY MUSIC DIGITAL MARKETING TEAM

Creative Strategist: Sreekanth Dass (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Business Manager: Narjes Golaftab (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Business Head: Prashanth Challapalli (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Creative Director: Samit Malkani (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Senior Editor: Varun Bhonsle (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Designer: Krishnaa Gada (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Managing Director: Roopak Saluja (Jack In The Box Worldwide)

Associate Director: Ashok Parwani (Sony Music Entertainment India)

Digital Operations: B. Kaushik (Sony Music Entertainment India)

Director of Marketing: Sanujeet Bhujabal (Sony Music Entertainment India)

General Manager of Media And Promotions: Rohan Jha (Sony Music Entertainment India)

Director General Manager of Communication: Poonam Nikam (Sony Music Entertainment India)

Managing Director of India and the Middle East: Shridhar Subramaniam (Sony Music Entertainment India)

Media placement: Digital - YouTube - 17 November 2011

Media placement: Social Media - Facebook - 17 November 2011

Media placement: Social Media - Twitter - 17 November 2011



Summary of the Campaign

The objective was to get a track from the Tamil movie ‘3’ heard, shared and downloaded by even the non-Tamil-speaking audience, pan India. The challenge was to generate a buzz across a country where umpteen different languages are spoken, while Tamil is spoken in just 1 state.



We used the insight that people, irrespective of language, love to crib on social media. So the plan was to take an unconventional PR route and reach out to the masses directly using social media platforms. Twitter was used to get people talking and Facebook for sharing the song that was uploaded on Youtube.



We started a hashtag, #WhyThisKolaveriDi, which is a line from the song that literally means 'Why this murderous rage?'. This hashtag could be used to express irritation. We tweeted with the hashtag about topical issues that irked people and attached the link to the song. Those who could relate to the topic of the tweet watched the video. They got hooked to the phrase #WhyThisKolaveriDi and vented using the hashtag. Thus a Tamil song broke all language barriers.



#Kolaveri was trending in India on Twitter within 5 days. More than 1m tweets and 3.6m+ Facebook shares, within a month. The video has more than 41m views across 220 countries and was declared the top song of the year by CNN. All this on-line buzz earned media worth INR67m(US$1.4m). The caller ring-back tones downloaded has exceeded 2m and still counting.



The Situation

Usually, the producers of Tamil films keep their music undercover to create curiosity and hype until the day of music launch and then use the music as a tool for marketing their film.



The song 'Why This Kolaveri Di', from the movie '3', is in Tanglish, a mixture of Tamil and English, and is about a man being tortured by his lover. Hence we recognised an audience beyond just the Tamil speaking people, especially men even remotely know about love.



The problem was how to get them interested in a song from a film industry that they don't care about.



The Goal

The objective was to make the song 'Why This Kolaveri Di' from movie '3' heard, shared and downloaded. Thus creating an enormous buzz.



The target audience was set through a much wider scope than ever before. We looked at reaching out to even non-Tamil-speaking people across a country where umpteen languages are spoken.



Hence the immediate goal was to create a hook that would break all language barriers and make the target audience hear the song at least once and then relate to it.



Research (comscore) was used in identifying the right digital platforms and its influencers.



The Strategy

The first step was to fix on how the song was to be presented to the audience: Just audio or have visuals to go with it? If we had visuals what should it be? The first cut of the movie trailer? Or was it too early to reveal visuals from the movie? Following this the monetisation plan was set for the clients to generate revenue if the video did go viral.



After analysing, we picked Youtube (consisting of 76% of India's unique visitors in the entertainment multimedia category) for hosting the video, and used Facebook, which has 80% of the country's internet users, for sharing the song. Twitter was used to initiate conversations and engage the target audience with the brand. Tweeters who were influencers on various topics were also identified.



Next step was creating a bank of posts and tweets that engaged the audiences while conveying the communication effectively.



Execution

We recreated the recording session, shot the video, and uploaded the song on Youtube (client's channel) in the early hours of 17th November 2011.



Following this, the first Facebook post was up and the #WhyThisKoloaveriDi was used on Twitter. We tweeted about topical issues that irked people and added the Youtube link along. Whoever could relate to that topic got curious if the video link had anything to do with it. They watched the video, and understood the usage of the hashtag.



By the end of the 3rd day the video had 300,000+ views. Many of those who watched the song either tweeted or shared it, including some celebrities. The #Kolaveri was trending on 20th, 21st and 22nd.



To heighten the engagement, a home video of sorts with our own people singing and enjoying the song was uploaded on Youtube to inspire fans to make their own version of the song.



Documented Results

The video has had more than 41m Youtube views across 220 countries. The song was heard and shared not just by our target audience within the country but across the globe.



More than 1m tweets and 3.6m+ Facebook shares, within a month. Engagement levels were really high, with fans putting up their own versions of the song and also fan-organised flash mobs.



All this on-line buzz earned media worth INR67m (1.4m USD). It was claimed to be the top song of the year by CNN. It was also featured in BBC, TIME, Pitchfork, Contagious magazine and Huffington Post, to name a few.



Adding the caller ring back tone codes of various telecom subscribers to the video made sure that the downloads exceeded 2m (and is still increasing). These downloads meant huge revenue for our client's even before the album of the movie 3 was launched.