Of late, branded content as a part of an advertising strategy has begun to find its footing in India. As a result of “media proliferation” brands are making a conscious effort to move away from the traditional modes of advertising. Key drivers of this new change are:

1.With the wide variety of options that consumers have to consume content today, a brand that doesn't look at participating in the content creation process faces the risk of completely missing out on its target audience.

2.The gravitation of viewers from Television to the Internet, where avoiding ads is much easier, has also been a contributing factor. Thus branded content emerged as an alternate way to engage with consumers and provide content that is relevant and share worthy.

These factors have accelerated the growth of branded content. Growing share of branded content has also seen Digital campaigns with branded content as far more effective because they cost far less than a traditional ad campaign & see enhanced receptivity among consumers.

This was where our campaign triumphed. We empowered the brand towards digital interaction, to cement its positioning in an environment where a large chunk of our target audience spent their time.

Gum charades had all the ingredients of a youth endearing recipe wrapped in a consumer friendly interface. The key components included:

1.A popular game that the youth relate to since their childhood

2.Oodles of Bollywood content, also the leading consumer pursuit.

3. 3 Buddies/hosts for players to enjoy interacting with.

Some of the other key features meant to drive audience participation and engagement were:

?Overall contest as well as weekly gratification that helped built in participation

?Clues in the game that cultivated interest as well as involvement/ time-spent

The Effect:

The campaign successfully managed to merge popular Indian popular cultural references with an interactive game that was readily accepted by consumers. It helped Centerfresh improve brand saliency while elevating the brand proposition to newer heights.

The Results:

Gum Charades established a high benchmark for consumer interactive campaigns:

Total Web Mobile

Total Gameplays 11m 2.4m 8.7m

Total submissions 0.57m 0.45m 0.12m

The game scored high on engagement with an average time spent of ~ 4 Minutes, which is similar to top games played across the country. It had 15.5 % people returned back to the game over the activity period.

With budget similar to a regular sustenance campaign on TV, the brand achieved much more value.

- In post campaign research, Brand saliency scores (TOM - Unaided awareness) saw remarkable increase from 7% to 21% (Source: TNS).

- Key off-takes from consumer speak were “cool” & “stylish”, definitely an area the brand wanted to be present in.

- The campaign not just drove reach for the brand but also scored high on saliency

- It garnered positive response in terms of ‘Earned media’ via effective coverage across popular website and news broadcast channels.